Jewish community saves Muslim restaurant targeted in far-Right attack in Germany
Justin Huggler
The Telegraph Fri, March 5, 2021, 10:38 AM
Ismet Tekin owner of the Turkish Bistro in Halle that was attacked in 2019
Ismet Tekin owner of the Turkish Bistro in Halle that was attacked in 2019
The German Jewish community has intervened to save a Muslim-owned kebab restaurant targeted in a far-Right terror attack from going out of business because of the coronavirus pandemic.
With its slowly rotating kebab spits and stainless steel salad counter, Kiez-Döner in the eastern city of Halle is typical of countless Turkish fast food joints scattered across Germany.
In 2019 it made headlines around the world after it was caught up in a far-Right terror attack that also targeted a synagogue packed with worshippers marking Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar.
A bloodbath was averted when the lone gunman couldn’t force his way into the synagogue, but he turned his gun on a woman in the street making his way to Kiez-Döner, where he murdered a customer. Since then, the restaurant has become something of a shrine to the two victims, Jana Lange and Kevin Schwarze.
But Kiez-Döner has fallen on hard times. With Germany in lockdown since November and restaurants only allowed to sell takeaways, it was facing bankruptcy when the Jewish community stepped in.
The German Jewish Student Union launched an international fundraising drive around the world that brought in more than €30,000 (£26,000) to save the restaurant.
And a local Jewish leader paid for €1,000 (£1,000) of kebabs in advance, handing out coupons for members of the community to collect them.
“It’s really amazing what they did,” says Ismet Tekin, the restaurant's Turkish-born owner. “They did it out of solidarity, to show that we are together, that we can get through these times when we stand together.”
Mr Tekin says he isn’t interested in historic tensions and distrust between Jews and Muslims in the Middle East. “For me there are no tensions,” he says. “Religion is a private thing. Everyone is entitled to his beliefs.”
Kiez-Döner didn’t have many Jewish customers before 2019, he says — the Jewish community in Halle is very small. But in the wake of the attack many of its members became regulars, and they were among the first to learn of the restaurant’s business woes.
“The community did this because the synagogue and Kiez-Döner were both targets of the attack,” says Igor Matviyets, a member of the local Jewish community and a candidate in elections to the regional parliament in June.
“It’s very clear from what the gunman said that he targeted the restaurant because it didn’t represent his idea of what should be in Germany, just as the synagogue didn’t.”
The gunman, Stephan Balliet, railed against Jews, Muslims, immigrants and women in an online live stream of the attack, and released a manifesto in which he expressed the same views.
Mr Tekin has lived in Germany 13 years. He says the attack has not dimmed his desire to remain. “Of course I’ll stay. This is my home.”
https://currently.att.yahoo.com/news/je ... 13747.html
JUDAISM
Passover 2021 begins at sundown on March 27 and ends Sunday evening, April 4. The first Passover seder is on the evening of March 27, and the second Passover seder takes place on the evening of March 28.
Passover is a festival of freedom.
It commemorates the Israelites’ Exodus from Egypt, and their transition from slavery to freedom. The main ritual of Passover is the seder, which occurs on the first two night (in Israel just the first night) of the holiday — a festive meal that involves the re-telling of the Exodus through stories and song and the consumption of ritual foods, including matzah and maror (bitter herbs). The seder’s rituals and other readings are outlined in the Haggadah — today, many different versions of this Passover guide are available in print and online, and you can also create your own.
What are some Passover practices?
The central Passover practice is a set of intense dietary changes, mainly the absence of hametz, or foods with leaven. (Ashkenazi Jews also avoid kitniyot, a category of food that includes legumes.) In recent years, many Jews have compensated for the lack of grain by cooking with quinoa, although not all recognize it as kosher for Passover. The ecstatic cycle of psalms called Hallel is recited both at night and day (during the seder and morning prayers). Additionally, Passover commences a 49-day period called the Omer, which recalls the count between offerings brought to the ancient Temple in Jerusalem. This count culminates in the holiday of Shavuot, the anniversary of the receiving of the Torah at Sinai.
Passover is a festival of freedom.
It commemorates the Israelites’ Exodus from Egypt, and their transition from slavery to freedom. The main ritual of Passover is the seder, which occurs on the first two night (in Israel just the first night) of the holiday — a festive meal that involves the re-telling of the Exodus through stories and song and the consumption of ritual foods, including matzah and maror (bitter herbs). The seder’s rituals and other readings are outlined in the Haggadah — today, many different versions of this Passover guide are available in print and online, and you can also create your own.
What are some Passover practices?
The central Passover practice is a set of intense dietary changes, mainly the absence of hametz, or foods with leaven. (Ashkenazi Jews also avoid kitniyot, a category of food that includes legumes.) In recent years, many Jews have compensated for the lack of grain by cooking with quinoa, although not all recognize it as kosher for Passover. The ecstatic cycle of psalms called Hallel is recited both at night and day (during the seder and morning prayers). Additionally, Passover commences a 49-day period called the Omer, which recalls the count between offerings brought to the ancient Temple in Jerusalem. This count culminates in the holiday of Shavuot, the anniversary of the receiving of the Torah at Sinai.
Israel Reveals Newly Discovered Fragments of Dead Sea Scrolls
The finds, ranging from just a few millimeters to a thumbnail in size, are the first to be unearthed in archaeological excavations in the Judean Desert in about 60 years.
Watch video at:
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/16/worl ... 778d3e6de3
JERUSALEM — Israeli researchers unveiled on Tuesday dozens of newly discovered Dead Sea Scroll fragments containing biblical texts dating back nearly 2,000 years, adding to the body of artifacts that have shed light on the history of Judaism, early Christian life and ancient humankind.
The parchment fragments, ranging from just a few millimeters to a thumbnail in size, are the first in about 60 years to have been unearthed in archaeological excavations in the Judean Desert. They were found as part of a four-year Israeli national project to prevent further looting of antiquities from the remote caves and crevices of the desert east and southeast of Jerusalem, which straddles the boundary of Israel and the occupied West Bank.
The project turned up many other rare and historic finds, including a large woven basket with a lid that has been dated to approximately 10,500 years ago and may be the oldest such intact basket in the world. The archaeologists also found a 6,000-year-old, partially mummified skeleton of a child buried in the fetal position and wrapped in a cloth.
“The desert team showed exceptional courage, dedication and devotion to purpose, rappelling down to caves located between heaven and earth,” said Israel Hasson, the departing director of the Israel Antiquities Authority, which is the custodian of some 15,000 fragments of the scrolls.
He added in a statement that their work in the caves involved “digging and sifting through them, enduring thick and suffocating dust, and returning with gifts of immeasurable worth for mankind.”
The Dead Sea Scrolls, mostly discovered during the last century, contain the earliest known copies of parts of almost every book of the Hebrew Bible, other than the Book of Esther, written on parchment and papyrus.
Dating from about the third century B.C. to the first century A.D., the biblical and apocryphal texts are widely considered to be among the most significant archaeological discoveries of the 20th century and remain the subject of heated academic debate around the world.
The arid conditions of the Judean Desert provided a unique environment for the natural preservation of artifacts and organic materials that would ordinarily not have withstood the test of time.
More..
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/16/worl ... 778d3e6de3
The finds, ranging from just a few millimeters to a thumbnail in size, are the first to be unearthed in archaeological excavations in the Judean Desert in about 60 years.
Watch video at:
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/16/worl ... 778d3e6de3
JERUSALEM — Israeli researchers unveiled on Tuesday dozens of newly discovered Dead Sea Scroll fragments containing biblical texts dating back nearly 2,000 years, adding to the body of artifacts that have shed light on the history of Judaism, early Christian life and ancient humankind.
The parchment fragments, ranging from just a few millimeters to a thumbnail in size, are the first in about 60 years to have been unearthed in archaeological excavations in the Judean Desert. They were found as part of a four-year Israeli national project to prevent further looting of antiquities from the remote caves and crevices of the desert east and southeast of Jerusalem, which straddles the boundary of Israel and the occupied West Bank.
The project turned up many other rare and historic finds, including a large woven basket with a lid that has been dated to approximately 10,500 years ago and may be the oldest such intact basket in the world. The archaeologists also found a 6,000-year-old, partially mummified skeleton of a child buried in the fetal position and wrapped in a cloth.
“The desert team showed exceptional courage, dedication and devotion to purpose, rappelling down to caves located between heaven and earth,” said Israel Hasson, the departing director of the Israel Antiquities Authority, which is the custodian of some 15,000 fragments of the scrolls.
He added in a statement that their work in the caves involved “digging and sifting through them, enduring thick and suffocating dust, and returning with gifts of immeasurable worth for mankind.”
The Dead Sea Scrolls, mostly discovered during the last century, contain the earliest known copies of parts of almost every book of the Hebrew Bible, other than the Book of Esther, written on parchment and papyrus.
Dating from about the third century B.C. to the first century A.D., the biblical and apocryphal texts are widely considered to be among the most significant archaeological discoveries of the 20th century and remain the subject of heated academic debate around the world.
The arid conditions of the Judean Desert provided a unique environment for the natural preservation of artifacts and organic materials that would ordinarily not have withstood the test of time.
More..
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/16/worl ... 778d3e6de3
Israel Dead Sea Scrolls
The Israel Antiquities Authority displays newly discovered Dead Sea Scroll fragments at the Dead Sea scrolls conservation lab in Jerusalem, Tuesday, March 16, 2021. Israeli archaeologists on Tuesday announced the discovery of dozens of new Dead Sea Scroll fragments bearing a biblical text found in a desert cave and believed hidden during a Jewish revolt against Rome nearly 1,900 years ago. (AP Photo/Sebastian Scheiner)
JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli archaeologists on Tuesday announced the discovery of dozens of Dead Sea Scroll fragments bearing a biblical text found in a desert cave and believed hidden during a Jewish revolt against Rome nearly 1,900 years ago.
The fragments of parchment bear lines of Greek text from the books of Zechariah and Nahum and have been dated around the first century based on the writing style, according to the Israel Antiquities Authority. They are the first new scrolls found in archaeological excavations in the desert south of Jerusalem in 60 years.
The Dead Sea Scrolls, a collection of Jewish texts found in desert caves in the West Bank near Qumran in the 1940s and 1950s, date from the third century B.C. to the first century A.D. They include the earliest known copies of biblical texts and documents outlining the beliefs of a little understood Jewish sect.
The roughly 80 new pieces are believed to belong to a set of parchment fragments found in a site in southern Israel known as the “Cave of Horror” — named for the 40 human skeletons found there during excavations in the 1960s — that also bear a Greek rendition of the Twelve Minor Prophets, a book in the Hebrew Bible. The cave is located in a remote canyon around 40 kilometers (25 miles) south of Jerusalem.
The artifacts were found during an operation in Israel and the occupied West Bank conducted by the Israel Antiquities Authority to find scrolls and other artifacts to prevent possible plundering. Israel captured the West Bank in the 1967 war, and international law prohibits the removal of cultural property from occupied territory. The authority held a news conference Tuesday to unveil the discovery.
The fragments are believed to have been part of a scroll stashed away in the cave during the Bar Kochba Revolt, an armed Jewish uprising against Rome during the reign of Emperor Hadrian, between 132 and 136. Coins struck by rebels and arrowheads found in other caves in the region also hail from that period.
“We found a textual difference that has no parallel with any other manuscript, either in Hebrew or in Greek,” said Oren Ableman, a Dead Sea Scroll researcher with the Israel Antiquities Authority. He referred to slight variations in the Greek rendering of the Hebrew original compared to the Septuagint — a translation of the Hebrew Bible to Greek made in Egypt in the third and second centuries B.C.
“When we think about the biblical text, we think about something very static. It wasn’t static. There are slight differences and some of those differences are important,” said Joe Uziel, head of the antiquities authority's Dead Sea Scrolls unit. “Every little piece of information that we can add, we can understand a little bit better” how the Biblical text came into its traditional Hebrew form.
Alongside the Roman-era artifacts, the exhibit included far older discoveries of no lesser importance found during its sweep of more than 500 caves in the desert: the 6,000-year-old mummified skeleton of a child, an immense, complete woven basket from the Neolithic period, estimated to be 10,500 years old, and scores of other delicate organic materials preserved in caves’ arid climate.
In 1961, Israeli archaeologist Yohanan Aharoni excavated the “Cave of Horror” and his team found nine parchment fragments belonging to a scroll with texts from the Twelve Minor Prophets in Greek, and a scrap of Greek papyrus.
Since then, no new texts have been found during archaeological excavations, but many have turned up on the black market, apparently plundered from caves.
For the past four years, Israeli archaeologists have launched a major campaign to scour caves nestled in the precipitous canyons of the Judean Desert in search of scrolls and other rare artifacts. The aim is to find them before plunderers disturb the remote sites, destroying archaeological strata and data in search of antiquities bound for the black market.
Until now the hunt had only found a handful of parchment scraps that bore no text.
Amir Ganor, head of the antiquities theft prevention unit, said that since the commencement of the operation in 2017 there has been virtually no antiquities plundering in the Judean Desert, calling the operation a success.
“For the first time in 70 years, we were able to preempt the plunderers,” he said.
https://currently.att.yahoo.com/news/is ... 23667.html
The Israel Antiquities Authority displays newly discovered Dead Sea Scroll fragments at the Dead Sea scrolls conservation lab in Jerusalem, Tuesday, March 16, 2021. Israeli archaeologists on Tuesday announced the discovery of dozens of new Dead Sea Scroll fragments bearing a biblical text found in a desert cave and believed hidden during a Jewish revolt against Rome nearly 1,900 years ago. (AP Photo/Sebastian Scheiner)
JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli archaeologists on Tuesday announced the discovery of dozens of Dead Sea Scroll fragments bearing a biblical text found in a desert cave and believed hidden during a Jewish revolt against Rome nearly 1,900 years ago.
The fragments of parchment bear lines of Greek text from the books of Zechariah and Nahum and have been dated around the first century based on the writing style, according to the Israel Antiquities Authority. They are the first new scrolls found in archaeological excavations in the desert south of Jerusalem in 60 years.
The Dead Sea Scrolls, a collection of Jewish texts found in desert caves in the West Bank near Qumran in the 1940s and 1950s, date from the third century B.C. to the first century A.D. They include the earliest known copies of biblical texts and documents outlining the beliefs of a little understood Jewish sect.
The roughly 80 new pieces are believed to belong to a set of parchment fragments found in a site in southern Israel known as the “Cave of Horror” — named for the 40 human skeletons found there during excavations in the 1960s — that also bear a Greek rendition of the Twelve Minor Prophets, a book in the Hebrew Bible. The cave is located in a remote canyon around 40 kilometers (25 miles) south of Jerusalem.
The artifacts were found during an operation in Israel and the occupied West Bank conducted by the Israel Antiquities Authority to find scrolls and other artifacts to prevent possible plundering. Israel captured the West Bank in the 1967 war, and international law prohibits the removal of cultural property from occupied territory. The authority held a news conference Tuesday to unveil the discovery.
The fragments are believed to have been part of a scroll stashed away in the cave during the Bar Kochba Revolt, an armed Jewish uprising against Rome during the reign of Emperor Hadrian, between 132 and 136. Coins struck by rebels and arrowheads found in other caves in the region also hail from that period.
“We found a textual difference that has no parallel with any other manuscript, either in Hebrew or in Greek,” said Oren Ableman, a Dead Sea Scroll researcher with the Israel Antiquities Authority. He referred to slight variations in the Greek rendering of the Hebrew original compared to the Septuagint — a translation of the Hebrew Bible to Greek made in Egypt in the third and second centuries B.C.
“When we think about the biblical text, we think about something very static. It wasn’t static. There are slight differences and some of those differences are important,” said Joe Uziel, head of the antiquities authority's Dead Sea Scrolls unit. “Every little piece of information that we can add, we can understand a little bit better” how the Biblical text came into its traditional Hebrew form.
Alongside the Roman-era artifacts, the exhibit included far older discoveries of no lesser importance found during its sweep of more than 500 caves in the desert: the 6,000-year-old mummified skeleton of a child, an immense, complete woven basket from the Neolithic period, estimated to be 10,500 years old, and scores of other delicate organic materials preserved in caves’ arid climate.
In 1961, Israeli archaeologist Yohanan Aharoni excavated the “Cave of Horror” and his team found nine parchment fragments belonging to a scroll with texts from the Twelve Minor Prophets in Greek, and a scrap of Greek papyrus.
Since then, no new texts have been found during archaeological excavations, but many have turned up on the black market, apparently plundered from caves.
For the past four years, Israeli archaeologists have launched a major campaign to scour caves nestled in the precipitous canyons of the Judean Desert in search of scrolls and other rare artifacts. The aim is to find them before plunderers disturb the remote sites, destroying archaeological strata and data in search of antiquities bound for the black market.
Until now the hunt had only found a handful of parchment scraps that bore no text.
Amir Ganor, head of the antiquities theft prevention unit, said that since the commencement of the operation in 2017 there has been virtually no antiquities plundering in the Judean Desert, calling the operation a success.
“For the first time in 70 years, we were able to preempt the plunderers,” he said.
https://currently.att.yahoo.com/news/is ... 23667.html
WHAT PASSOVER TAUGHT ME ABOUT BEING BLACK
As Passover approaches this weekend I often reminisce about how, as a young child, the highlight of my Easter weekend wasn’t watching the Greatest Story Ever Told, The Robe, or other classic Easter movies. For me, it was watching Cecil B. Demille’s The Ten Commandments, starring Charleston Heston and Yul Brenner. I relished each time Brenner’s Ramses scowled at his viziers and exclaimed, “So let it be written, so let it be done.” My admiration for this cinematic villain was rivaled only by my admiration for Darth Vader. The annual viewing of the Exodus story is what cemented my Easter experience.
However, as a Black teenager growing up in the 1990s my relationship to The Ten Commandments changed. In an era influenced by Afrocentricity and politically conscious hip hop, this straightforward morality tale about slavery and freedom became complicated. The Egyptians were Africans, as my deep dive into Afrocentric literature revealed. And weren’t the Hebrews just foreign invaders who sought to form alliances with the enemies of ancient Kemet (Egypt)? Couple this with the breaking of the détente in the “Black-Jewish” relationship as the Nation of Islam’s Minister Louis Farrakhan and members of the American Jewish community were in the midst a rhetorical war of words over the historical record regarding Jewish participation in the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade with the publication of the Secret Relationship Between Blacks and Jews. Now when I watched The Ten Commandments, I wasn’t so sure who was the hero and who was the villain.
Then something unexpected happened. I met a group of Hebrew Israelites from the Israeli School of Universal Practical Knowledge (ISUPK). To those unfamiliar—and even to those who are—the ISUPK are an enigmatic group. They believe that enslaved African and Indigenous populations of the western hemisphere are the genealogical descendants of the biblical Israelites. For the sake of space, I won’t go into all the particulars of their doctrine but suffice it to say that what drew me to this group was their iron-clad explanation for the existential and transgenerational suffering of Black and Indigenous people throughout the western hemisphere—or so I believed at the time.
Fast forward to the late 2000s and 2010s, with the advent of social media the beliefs of Hebrew Israelite groups such as the ISUPK have moved from public access TV stations to YouTube. Their teachings and beliefs have shifted from the margins of Black religious life to the mainstream. It’s not uncommon to hear an African American assert that “Black people are the true chosen people.” It’s become a regular occurrence for an African-American celebrity, entertainer, or athlete to post to their social media account that they’ve uncovered the “hidden truth” that Black people are “real Jews” to the chagrin of the mainstream media which, in a predictable knee jerk reaction, label them anti-Semites and hatemongers. Simply put, Hebrew Israelites are in style.
Within rabbinic Judaism, the High Holy Days (Rosh Hashanah to Yom Kippur) signify the most sacred period in the Jewish calendar. For Hebrew Israelites, however, Passover is the most symbolically important biblical holiday, as it’s the celebration of freedom over slavery. But more importantly it’s typological proof that the biblical God cares about Black people. For Hebrew Israelites, if God could hear the cries of their biblical ancestors then He will act again on behalf of their descendants in the urban centers of America, favelas of Brazil, shanties of Jamaica, and reservations of the American West.
For years, I would anticipate the arrival of spring and Passover season. Meticulously cleaning my house of leaven as I awaited this celebration of freedom. Now when I watched The Ten Commandments I was once again rooting for Moses (albeit a white one) and the Hebrews as they dueled with Ramses and the Egyptians.
But then something unexpected happened, I converted to rabbinic Judaism under the guidance of an African-American rabbi and within the context of a primarily African-American congregation. Observing the Passover seder communally with my congregation was exciting. As time progressed, however, Passover became further removed from my annual celebration of freedom from Egyptian slavery and the hope for the end of American bondage to debates over whether, as a non-Ashkenazi Jew, I should eat rice or not during the holiday and scavenger hunts for Kosher for Passover Coca-Cola. My conversion created a tension between my Black self and my Jewish self, and in the words of W.E.B. Du Bois, there were “two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings; two warring ideals in one dark body, whose dogged strength alone keeps it from being torn asunder.”
Although I do not think the sage of Great Barrington had me in mind when he penned those words in the Souls of Black Folk it was an apt description of the contested nature of my spiritual being. The more rabbinic I sought to become, the more Blackness was an issue in need of resolution.
The journey led me to leave my African-American congregation for a stint with Conservative Judaism and a flirtation with a local Chabad house to a trek to the North Side of Chicago to worship with Sephardic and Mizrahi Jews. Finally, I rounded out my trip with a brief fling with Reconstructionist Judaism, but the soul of my darker self became dimmer and dimmer with each stop—became almost unrecognizable to me. Eventually I abandoned the key tenet of Hebrew Israelite belief: that Black people in America were the lost tribes of Israel destined to languish and suffer in American captivity until God saw fit for our redemption.
Now I was Black and I was Jewish, but not a Black Jew—the two did not coexist together anymore. Jewishness could not explain my Blackness and vice versa. As a doctoral student in African-American Studies my research eventually led me to pose the previously unasked questions, Why was I Jewish? Did I need to be Jewish? If I was not Jewish because I was reclaiming my lost African ancestry, then why did I still need to be Jewish? While I loved Shabbat and Jewish holidays, keeping kosher, and living an overall observant lifestyle, the question remained: Why was I Jewish? The answer was equally unexpected: Passover had one final lesson to teach me.
Today I say that I transitioned from, rather than abandoned, Judaism. I learned that just as the Jewish people (which includes Africana Jews) throughout their history have created myths, rituals, and practices to survive and thrive through their persecutions, Black people in America have the same human right to create and tell sacred myths, develop rituals, and incorporate practices learned from others to ensure their survival.
I learned I need not be anybody else to be of spiritual worth. I learned I need not be “real,” “chosen,” or “lost”—that being Black is sufficient to be sacred. I learned that my prophets, sages, and saints could have names like Harriet, Martin, and Malcolm rather than just Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. I learned that Kwanzaa need not be from the distant African past to be of cultural and spiritual value. I came to value Juneteenth as a day of liberation that need not compete with or be a substitute for any other celebration of freedom.
Ultimately, from Passover I learned that every people should exercise the human right to tell their sacred story on their own terms, whether the rest of the world likes it or not. That is the meaning of freedom that I learned from Passover. “So let it be written, so let it be done!”
https://religiondispatches.org/what-pas ... eing-black
As Passover approaches this weekend I often reminisce about how, as a young child, the highlight of my Easter weekend wasn’t watching the Greatest Story Ever Told, The Robe, or other classic Easter movies. For me, it was watching Cecil B. Demille’s The Ten Commandments, starring Charleston Heston and Yul Brenner. I relished each time Brenner’s Ramses scowled at his viziers and exclaimed, “So let it be written, so let it be done.” My admiration for this cinematic villain was rivaled only by my admiration for Darth Vader. The annual viewing of the Exodus story is what cemented my Easter experience.
However, as a Black teenager growing up in the 1990s my relationship to The Ten Commandments changed. In an era influenced by Afrocentricity and politically conscious hip hop, this straightforward morality tale about slavery and freedom became complicated. The Egyptians were Africans, as my deep dive into Afrocentric literature revealed. And weren’t the Hebrews just foreign invaders who sought to form alliances with the enemies of ancient Kemet (Egypt)? Couple this with the breaking of the détente in the “Black-Jewish” relationship as the Nation of Islam’s Minister Louis Farrakhan and members of the American Jewish community were in the midst a rhetorical war of words over the historical record regarding Jewish participation in the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade with the publication of the Secret Relationship Between Blacks and Jews. Now when I watched The Ten Commandments, I wasn’t so sure who was the hero and who was the villain.
Then something unexpected happened. I met a group of Hebrew Israelites from the Israeli School of Universal Practical Knowledge (ISUPK). To those unfamiliar—and even to those who are—the ISUPK are an enigmatic group. They believe that enslaved African and Indigenous populations of the western hemisphere are the genealogical descendants of the biblical Israelites. For the sake of space, I won’t go into all the particulars of their doctrine but suffice it to say that what drew me to this group was their iron-clad explanation for the existential and transgenerational suffering of Black and Indigenous people throughout the western hemisphere—or so I believed at the time.
Fast forward to the late 2000s and 2010s, with the advent of social media the beliefs of Hebrew Israelite groups such as the ISUPK have moved from public access TV stations to YouTube. Their teachings and beliefs have shifted from the margins of Black religious life to the mainstream. It’s not uncommon to hear an African American assert that “Black people are the true chosen people.” It’s become a regular occurrence for an African-American celebrity, entertainer, or athlete to post to their social media account that they’ve uncovered the “hidden truth” that Black people are “real Jews” to the chagrin of the mainstream media which, in a predictable knee jerk reaction, label them anti-Semites and hatemongers. Simply put, Hebrew Israelites are in style.
Within rabbinic Judaism, the High Holy Days (Rosh Hashanah to Yom Kippur) signify the most sacred period in the Jewish calendar. For Hebrew Israelites, however, Passover is the most symbolically important biblical holiday, as it’s the celebration of freedom over slavery. But more importantly it’s typological proof that the biblical God cares about Black people. For Hebrew Israelites, if God could hear the cries of their biblical ancestors then He will act again on behalf of their descendants in the urban centers of America, favelas of Brazil, shanties of Jamaica, and reservations of the American West.
For years, I would anticipate the arrival of spring and Passover season. Meticulously cleaning my house of leaven as I awaited this celebration of freedom. Now when I watched The Ten Commandments I was once again rooting for Moses (albeit a white one) and the Hebrews as they dueled with Ramses and the Egyptians.
But then something unexpected happened, I converted to rabbinic Judaism under the guidance of an African-American rabbi and within the context of a primarily African-American congregation. Observing the Passover seder communally with my congregation was exciting. As time progressed, however, Passover became further removed from my annual celebration of freedom from Egyptian slavery and the hope for the end of American bondage to debates over whether, as a non-Ashkenazi Jew, I should eat rice or not during the holiday and scavenger hunts for Kosher for Passover Coca-Cola. My conversion created a tension between my Black self and my Jewish self, and in the words of W.E.B. Du Bois, there were “two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings; two warring ideals in one dark body, whose dogged strength alone keeps it from being torn asunder.”
Although I do not think the sage of Great Barrington had me in mind when he penned those words in the Souls of Black Folk it was an apt description of the contested nature of my spiritual being. The more rabbinic I sought to become, the more Blackness was an issue in need of resolution.
The journey led me to leave my African-American congregation for a stint with Conservative Judaism and a flirtation with a local Chabad house to a trek to the North Side of Chicago to worship with Sephardic and Mizrahi Jews. Finally, I rounded out my trip with a brief fling with Reconstructionist Judaism, but the soul of my darker self became dimmer and dimmer with each stop—became almost unrecognizable to me. Eventually I abandoned the key tenet of Hebrew Israelite belief: that Black people in America were the lost tribes of Israel destined to languish and suffer in American captivity until God saw fit for our redemption.
Now I was Black and I was Jewish, but not a Black Jew—the two did not coexist together anymore. Jewishness could not explain my Blackness and vice versa. As a doctoral student in African-American Studies my research eventually led me to pose the previously unasked questions, Why was I Jewish? Did I need to be Jewish? If I was not Jewish because I was reclaiming my lost African ancestry, then why did I still need to be Jewish? While I loved Shabbat and Jewish holidays, keeping kosher, and living an overall observant lifestyle, the question remained: Why was I Jewish? The answer was equally unexpected: Passover had one final lesson to teach me.
Today I say that I transitioned from, rather than abandoned, Judaism. I learned that just as the Jewish people (which includes Africana Jews) throughout their history have created myths, rituals, and practices to survive and thrive through their persecutions, Black people in America have the same human right to create and tell sacred myths, develop rituals, and incorporate practices learned from others to ensure their survival.
I learned I need not be anybody else to be of spiritual worth. I learned I need not be “real,” “chosen,” or “lost”—that being Black is sufficient to be sacred. I learned that my prophets, sages, and saints could have names like Harriet, Martin, and Malcolm rather than just Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. I learned that Kwanzaa need not be from the distant African past to be of cultural and spiritual value. I came to value Juneteenth as a day of liberation that need not compete with or be a substitute for any other celebration of freedom.
Ultimately, from Passover I learned that every people should exercise the human right to tell their sacred story on their own terms, whether the rest of the world likes it or not. That is the meaning of freedom that I learned from Passover. “So let it be written, so let it be done!”
https://religiondispatches.org/what-pas ... eing-black
My Son’s Yeshiva Is Breaking the Law
Ultra-Orthodox schools must provide a proper education, but politicians aren’t holding them accountable.
Watch video at:
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/07/opin ... 778d3e6de3
What do you want to be when you grow up? That’s not a common question for boys attending ultra-Orthodox yeshivas in New York. That’s because many of these schools focus on Judaic studies, preparing students for a life of religious scholarship — at the expense of basic reading, writing, math and science. New York State law mandates that private and religious schools provide a curriculum equivalent to that of public schools, and a 2019 report by New York City’s Department of Education found that only two of the 28 yeshivas it investigated met these requirements. This is especially problematic, considering that the city’s yeshivas receive over $100 million in state funds annually.
Authorities have failed to enforce the laws, allowing the community, which is a strong and unified voting bloc, to disregard secular education requirements. In the video above, a mother pleads with city and state officials to enforce the law so her son can receive one of the most basic rights: education.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/07/opin ... 778d3e6de3
Ultra-Orthodox schools must provide a proper education, but politicians aren’t holding them accountable.
Watch video at:
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/07/opin ... 778d3e6de3
What do you want to be when you grow up? That’s not a common question for boys attending ultra-Orthodox yeshivas in New York. That’s because many of these schools focus on Judaic studies, preparing students for a life of religious scholarship — at the expense of basic reading, writing, math and science. New York State law mandates that private and religious schools provide a curriculum equivalent to that of public schools, and a 2019 report by New York City’s Department of Education found that only two of the 28 yeshivas it investigated met these requirements. This is especially problematic, considering that the city’s yeshivas receive over $100 million in state funds annually.
Authorities have failed to enforce the laws, allowing the community, which is a strong and unified voting bloc, to disregard secular education requirements. In the video above, a mother pleads with city and state officials to enforce the law so her son can receive one of the most basic rights: education.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/07/opin ... 778d3e6de3
BATTLE OF ANTISEMITISM DEFINITIONS IS ACTUALLY A PROXY WAR FOR CRITICISM OF ISRAEL
Last month, a global consortium of leading scholars released the Jerusalem Declaration on Antisemitism (JDA), the product of a year-long labor to produce a new working definition of antisemitism that builds upon the widely-cited, but nearly as widely critiqued and abused, text of the International Holocaust Remembrance Association (IHRA). In the words of its authors, the JDA seeks “to provide a usable, concise, and historically-informed core definition of antisemitism with a set of guidelines.” In doing so, it aims to “strengthen the fight against antisemitism by clarifying what it is and how it is manifested,” while also protecting—and this is the key difference—“a space for an open debate about the vexed question of the future of Israel/Palestine.”
What exactly is at stake here? Everyone largely agrees on the nature of antisemitism. Scholars understand its core myths, pre-modern and modern, such as Jews constituting a single, global organism conspiring to conquer and destroy the world, led by a powerful “international Jew”—think Rothschild or George Soros—controlling vast populations and wealth.
The real debate is about criticizing Israel. Although IHRA notes the importance of context, in practice its vague language and large net has been misused to target pro-Palestinian advocacy on college campuses and in legislation. For example, IHRA’s concern about criticizing Israel by a “double standard” has often been interpreted to mean that anyone who protests Israeli human rights violations without equal attention to other countries has a “double standard” and is therefore presumed guilty of antisemitism. It opens up almost any criticism of Israel to that charge.
The JDA addresses this and other problems with specific examples of common anti-Israel rhetoric that crosses the line to antisemitism and specific examples of common rhetoric or actions (e.g. boycott) that do not. The list of signatures and subsequent endorsements is impressive, although there has been heated pushback by those who insist that the IHRA definition must be maintained. Indeed, one respondent—David Hirsh, author of Contemporary Leftwing Antisemitism (the focus of his activism)—accused the authors and supporters of the JDA of composing the definition not to fight antisemitism but to “fight efforts to fight antisemitism”; of standing with antisemites to protect them!
This is an outrageous attack against some of the most respected scholars and Jewish leaders in the world. In fact, the JDA is committed to fighting antisemitism while also preserving free discourse about Israel/Palestine, arguing that its clearer language accomplishes both more successfully. It lowers the ability of activists and lawmakers to silence political voices favoring Palestinian rights while also raising the ability of Jews to build critical alliances with other vulnerable minorities.
While advocates of the JDA hold a wide variety of beliefs about the future of Israel/Palestine—whether two states, a binational state, or some sort of confederation—all are committed to equality for everyone who currently lives “between the river and the sea.” This means that Jewish security cannot justify Jewish supremacy or Palestinian suffering, and that arguments against Jewish supremacy are certainly not antisemitic. Thus the debate ultimately hinges on whether or not calls for an end to Jewish supremacy—even while insisting that equality means Jewish equality as well—are antisemitic.
And this, in turn, reflects a fundamental transformation in American Judaism over the past half century.
In my youth, American Jews forged (in both senses of the word) a pluralist community through Holocaust commemoration and Israel celebration and worship. I don’t use that word worship lightly. Many of us were raised to worship Israel, and we manifested that devotion through innovative myths and rituals, from dance to liturgy and beyond. This was a core of the curriculum of the Jewish day school I attended for nine years, for example, far more than textual fluency or law. Jewish denominations struggled to respect each other as authentic or even legitimate, but with few exceptions they could commemorate the Holocaust and “walk with Israel” together, both literally and metaphorically.
Today, the Holocaust and Israel are precisely the wedges that most divide Jews, and their roles have grown clearer in the last few years as a result of the rise of global fascism (including Trumpism) and the move of Israel towards apartheid, with the entrenchment of the occupation and land appropriations, passage of legislation like the nation-state law, and the legitimization of open kahanists now entering knesset and possibly the government.
For some, the lesson of the Holocaust is “never again to us”; “never again” as Meir Kahane meant it when he popularized the phrase in the title of his famous book. It means a justification and even celebration of violence and oppression if deemed necessary tools in service of Jewish power. For others, the lesson is universal, “never again to anyone,” with a particularly keen awareness that Jews are no different than anyone else and are therefore just as likely to abuse their power in the name of nationalism and “self-defense” as anyone else.
This division has serious ramifications in terms of Jewish political choices. For the universalists, the key moral choice—and the choice that will best protect Jewish lives—is intersectional alliances with other minorities, since antisemitism exists as part of a worldview connected to defenses of hierarchy and oppression that affect us all, though some more than others. (American Jews are hardly as vulnerable to discrimination and violence as African Americans, for example, nor do they suffer from the legacy of four centuries of enslavement, expropriation and discrimination.) Political differences about Israel within this camp are far less important than the shared goal of defeating a worldview that seeks our joint oppression.
For those following Kahane’s meaning, the key alliance is with power, including (perhaps especially) authoritarian power that backs Jews, or at least pretends to do so. Of course, it’s not really backing all Jews. The key question is who or what it’s backing, which brings us back to the elephant in the discussion: Israel. Donald Trump, Victor Orban and the other despots with fascist tendencies aren’t backing Jews qua Jews. They’re backing Jewish supremacy in Israel/Palestine while stoking antisemitic mythology at home as part of a racist worldview.
This returns us to the division between these two definitions of antisemitism and the two competing paradigms in Jewish approaches to Israel. One is based on the fundamental assumption of the need to preserve Jewish supremacy. In this vision, the spectrum of “legitimate” (and thus “not antisemitic”) discourse on Israel runs from “two states someday” (i.e. de facto apartheid “for now,” but “someday,” based on Israeli standards, there can exist an eviscerated, non-sovereign Palestinian entity subject to Israeli incursion and rules) to Kahanism, whether implied in Netanyahu or explicit in his “Religious Zionist” allies, none of whom are even condemned anymore by mainstream American Jewish organizations, as they were two years ago.
The Israeli writer and public intellectual Yossi Klein Halevi made this clear to me in a recent interview, insisting that those like Naftali Bennett who advocate formal annexation without extending democracy (although he opposes them) constitute a legitimate part of the conversation, while Peter Beinart, who wrote a widely circulated article calling for a single bi-national state, does not. Other colleagues have said the same.
This is the division: equality vs. Jewish supremacy as the fundamental axiom of legitimacy.Advocating for the right of return for Palestinian refugees (even as something that must be negotiated), or even for Palestinian equality in all the land Israel now controls, is called “antisemitic,” “liquidationist” and is explicitly equated with the “call for Israel’s destruction” in this worldview. Only solutions that advocate Jewish supremacy are legitimate in this mindset. These are Orwellian distortions that obfuscate the distinction between a call for equality and the most extreme rhetoric of Hamas, and responds to any call for human rights with reference to security threats or whataboutisms—or they call themselves moderate because they lament Palestinian treatment and hope for two states “some day.”
A second approach to Israel is based on the fundamental right of equality. There are some in this camp who still advocate two states—two truly sovereign states based on a recognition of the extensive de facto annexation that’s already happened and must be reversed—though most tend to suggest some sort of confederation or binational entity is necessary. Others, like myself, avoid promoting any particular solution and simply want to describe the reality on the ground (i.e. de facto apartheid in a one-state reality) while pushing for true equality to replace Jewish supremacy as the fundamental value guiding future solutions.
This is the division: equality vs. Jewish supremacy as the fundamental axiom of legitimacy. And this is why Israel is not only the dividing point of Jews today, but also sits at the heart of conversations about antisemitism like IHRA and the JDA. The debate ultimately comes down to Israel and whether discourse that calls for an end to Jewish supremacy—even while insisting that equality means Jewish equality too—is antisemitic. IHRA can be easily used to make that case and the JDA cannot. Those in the camp of Jewish power must cling to the IHRA “working definition” as God’s final word on antisemitism in order to use the charge to suppress challenges to that power.
It’s heating up now not principally because antisemitism is getting worse, though it is, but because Israel is growing increasingly committed to its apartheid occupation of the West Bank and deepening discrimination against Palestinian citizens through legislation like the nation-state law. Israel’s choices—at the ballot box and beyond—are making the case for Israel harder to make.
Criticism of Israel and accusations of apartheid thus resonate more forcefully and, for some, more dangerously. This creates a state of anxiety whereby boundaries of critique must be limited, managed, even curtailed, and the accusation of ‘antisemitism’ is one way to do it. But this comes at a cost, not only the moral cost of using this charge to suppress legitimate political advocacy, but also at the practical cost of undermining the struggle against actual antisemitism by inflating its use and undermining vital alliances.
Correction: An earlier version of this essay noted that Yossi Klein Halevi recognized Itamar Ben Gvir in an interview as a legitimate part of the political conversation. In fact, he only mentioned annexationists generally and has on other occasions condemned Ben Gvir. The author regrets the error.
https://religiondispatches.org/battle-o ... -of-israel
Last month, a global consortium of leading scholars released the Jerusalem Declaration on Antisemitism (JDA), the product of a year-long labor to produce a new working definition of antisemitism that builds upon the widely-cited, but nearly as widely critiqued and abused, text of the International Holocaust Remembrance Association (IHRA). In the words of its authors, the JDA seeks “to provide a usable, concise, and historically-informed core definition of antisemitism with a set of guidelines.” In doing so, it aims to “strengthen the fight against antisemitism by clarifying what it is and how it is manifested,” while also protecting—and this is the key difference—“a space for an open debate about the vexed question of the future of Israel/Palestine.”
What exactly is at stake here? Everyone largely agrees on the nature of antisemitism. Scholars understand its core myths, pre-modern and modern, such as Jews constituting a single, global organism conspiring to conquer and destroy the world, led by a powerful “international Jew”—think Rothschild or George Soros—controlling vast populations and wealth.
The real debate is about criticizing Israel. Although IHRA notes the importance of context, in practice its vague language and large net has been misused to target pro-Palestinian advocacy on college campuses and in legislation. For example, IHRA’s concern about criticizing Israel by a “double standard” has often been interpreted to mean that anyone who protests Israeli human rights violations without equal attention to other countries has a “double standard” and is therefore presumed guilty of antisemitism. It opens up almost any criticism of Israel to that charge.
The JDA addresses this and other problems with specific examples of common anti-Israel rhetoric that crosses the line to antisemitism and specific examples of common rhetoric or actions (e.g. boycott) that do not. The list of signatures and subsequent endorsements is impressive, although there has been heated pushback by those who insist that the IHRA definition must be maintained. Indeed, one respondent—David Hirsh, author of Contemporary Leftwing Antisemitism (the focus of his activism)—accused the authors and supporters of the JDA of composing the definition not to fight antisemitism but to “fight efforts to fight antisemitism”; of standing with antisemites to protect them!
This is an outrageous attack against some of the most respected scholars and Jewish leaders in the world. In fact, the JDA is committed to fighting antisemitism while also preserving free discourse about Israel/Palestine, arguing that its clearer language accomplishes both more successfully. It lowers the ability of activists and lawmakers to silence political voices favoring Palestinian rights while also raising the ability of Jews to build critical alliances with other vulnerable minorities.
While advocates of the JDA hold a wide variety of beliefs about the future of Israel/Palestine—whether two states, a binational state, or some sort of confederation—all are committed to equality for everyone who currently lives “between the river and the sea.” This means that Jewish security cannot justify Jewish supremacy or Palestinian suffering, and that arguments against Jewish supremacy are certainly not antisemitic. Thus the debate ultimately hinges on whether or not calls for an end to Jewish supremacy—even while insisting that equality means Jewish equality as well—are antisemitic.
And this, in turn, reflects a fundamental transformation in American Judaism over the past half century.
In my youth, American Jews forged (in both senses of the word) a pluralist community through Holocaust commemoration and Israel celebration and worship. I don’t use that word worship lightly. Many of us were raised to worship Israel, and we manifested that devotion through innovative myths and rituals, from dance to liturgy and beyond. This was a core of the curriculum of the Jewish day school I attended for nine years, for example, far more than textual fluency or law. Jewish denominations struggled to respect each other as authentic or even legitimate, but with few exceptions they could commemorate the Holocaust and “walk with Israel” together, both literally and metaphorically.
Today, the Holocaust and Israel are precisely the wedges that most divide Jews, and their roles have grown clearer in the last few years as a result of the rise of global fascism (including Trumpism) and the move of Israel towards apartheid, with the entrenchment of the occupation and land appropriations, passage of legislation like the nation-state law, and the legitimization of open kahanists now entering knesset and possibly the government.
For some, the lesson of the Holocaust is “never again to us”; “never again” as Meir Kahane meant it when he popularized the phrase in the title of his famous book. It means a justification and even celebration of violence and oppression if deemed necessary tools in service of Jewish power. For others, the lesson is universal, “never again to anyone,” with a particularly keen awareness that Jews are no different than anyone else and are therefore just as likely to abuse their power in the name of nationalism and “self-defense” as anyone else.
This division has serious ramifications in terms of Jewish political choices. For the universalists, the key moral choice—and the choice that will best protect Jewish lives—is intersectional alliances with other minorities, since antisemitism exists as part of a worldview connected to defenses of hierarchy and oppression that affect us all, though some more than others. (American Jews are hardly as vulnerable to discrimination and violence as African Americans, for example, nor do they suffer from the legacy of four centuries of enslavement, expropriation and discrimination.) Political differences about Israel within this camp are far less important than the shared goal of defeating a worldview that seeks our joint oppression.
For those following Kahane’s meaning, the key alliance is with power, including (perhaps especially) authoritarian power that backs Jews, or at least pretends to do so. Of course, it’s not really backing all Jews. The key question is who or what it’s backing, which brings us back to the elephant in the discussion: Israel. Donald Trump, Victor Orban and the other despots with fascist tendencies aren’t backing Jews qua Jews. They’re backing Jewish supremacy in Israel/Palestine while stoking antisemitic mythology at home as part of a racist worldview.
This returns us to the division between these two definitions of antisemitism and the two competing paradigms in Jewish approaches to Israel. One is based on the fundamental assumption of the need to preserve Jewish supremacy. In this vision, the spectrum of “legitimate” (and thus “not antisemitic”) discourse on Israel runs from “two states someday” (i.e. de facto apartheid “for now,” but “someday,” based on Israeli standards, there can exist an eviscerated, non-sovereign Palestinian entity subject to Israeli incursion and rules) to Kahanism, whether implied in Netanyahu or explicit in his “Religious Zionist” allies, none of whom are even condemned anymore by mainstream American Jewish organizations, as they were two years ago.
The Israeli writer and public intellectual Yossi Klein Halevi made this clear to me in a recent interview, insisting that those like Naftali Bennett who advocate formal annexation without extending democracy (although he opposes them) constitute a legitimate part of the conversation, while Peter Beinart, who wrote a widely circulated article calling for a single bi-national state, does not. Other colleagues have said the same.
This is the division: equality vs. Jewish supremacy as the fundamental axiom of legitimacy.Advocating for the right of return for Palestinian refugees (even as something that must be negotiated), or even for Palestinian equality in all the land Israel now controls, is called “antisemitic,” “liquidationist” and is explicitly equated with the “call for Israel’s destruction” in this worldview. Only solutions that advocate Jewish supremacy are legitimate in this mindset. These are Orwellian distortions that obfuscate the distinction between a call for equality and the most extreme rhetoric of Hamas, and responds to any call for human rights with reference to security threats or whataboutisms—or they call themselves moderate because they lament Palestinian treatment and hope for two states “some day.”
A second approach to Israel is based on the fundamental right of equality. There are some in this camp who still advocate two states—two truly sovereign states based on a recognition of the extensive de facto annexation that’s already happened and must be reversed—though most tend to suggest some sort of confederation or binational entity is necessary. Others, like myself, avoid promoting any particular solution and simply want to describe the reality on the ground (i.e. de facto apartheid in a one-state reality) while pushing for true equality to replace Jewish supremacy as the fundamental value guiding future solutions.
This is the division: equality vs. Jewish supremacy as the fundamental axiom of legitimacy. And this is why Israel is not only the dividing point of Jews today, but also sits at the heart of conversations about antisemitism like IHRA and the JDA. The debate ultimately comes down to Israel and whether discourse that calls for an end to Jewish supremacy—even while insisting that equality means Jewish equality too—is antisemitic. IHRA can be easily used to make that case and the JDA cannot. Those in the camp of Jewish power must cling to the IHRA “working definition” as God’s final word on antisemitism in order to use the charge to suppress challenges to that power.
It’s heating up now not principally because antisemitism is getting worse, though it is, but because Israel is growing increasingly committed to its apartheid occupation of the West Bank and deepening discrimination against Palestinian citizens through legislation like the nation-state law. Israel’s choices—at the ballot box and beyond—are making the case for Israel harder to make.
Criticism of Israel and accusations of apartheid thus resonate more forcefully and, for some, more dangerously. This creates a state of anxiety whereby boundaries of critique must be limited, managed, even curtailed, and the accusation of ‘antisemitism’ is one way to do it. But this comes at a cost, not only the moral cost of using this charge to suppress legitimate political advocacy, but also at the practical cost of undermining the struggle against actual antisemitism by inflating its use and undermining vital alliances.
Correction: An earlier version of this essay noted that Yossi Klein Halevi recognized Itamar Ben Gvir in an interview as a legitimate part of the political conversation. In fact, he only mentioned annexationists generally and has on other occasions condemned Ben Gvir. The author regrets the error.
https://religiondispatches.org/battle-o ... -of-israel
Hundreds of Jewish supremacists chant 'Death to Arabs' as tensions boil over in Jerusalem clashes
Erin Snodgrass
INSIDER Thu, April 22, 2021, 9:38 PM
A groupd of far-right Jewish extremists clashed with Arab crowds in Jerusalem Thursday night.
Members of the supremacist group, Lehava, chanted "death to Arabs" as they marched to the Old City.
Police were able to separate the two crowds, but The Jerusalem Post still reported incidents of violence and arrests.
Planned protests among far-right Jewish extremists and Arab crowds escalated in Jerusalem's Old City Thursday night and early Friday morning amid increasing tensions in the city.
The head of the Jewish supremacist group Lehava, announced Wednesday that its activists would march from Zion Square to Damascus Gate on Thursday in protest of recent violence toward Jews, including assaults that have been filmed and uploaded to TikTok, according to The Times of Israel.
Members of the group, which opposes the assimilation and coexistence of Jews and non-Jews, organized on the messaging app WhatsApp and planned to bring weapons, the outlet said. A report on the Mynet Jerusalem news site said Lehava members were told to attack as many Arabs as possible, according to The Times of Israel.
In addition to a rise in anti-Jewish violence, increasing attacks on Arabs have been reported in the city, including Jewish youth throwing rocks at vehicles while chanting "death to Arabs."
As Israeli police deployed Thursday night, attempting to keep Lehava demonstrators away from crowds of counter-protesters who had gathered at Damascus Gate, hundreds of Jewish extremists chanted "death to Arabs.," according to Haaretz.
Authorities were also working to prevent Lehava members from clashing with Israelis who came to protest the march, the outlet reported.
The Jerusalem Post reported that police had successfully diverted Lehava protesters and Arab crowds in different directions of the city, after a brief meeting between the two at Damascus Gate that resulted in incidents of dumpster fires, bottle-throwing, and rock-throwing.
According to the outlet, Arab youth lit fireworks near Damascus Gate, calling out "Allahu Akhbar," while Lehava members carried signs that read "Death to terrorists" and chanted "Death to Arabs" and "Revenge."
Officers reportedly used stun grenades to break up the violence and continued performing security checks in the area throughout the night.
Haaretz reported a variety of injuries and arrests, including a Palestinian woman who was reportedly maced in the face by a Jewish man and the arrest of four Palestinians accused of attacking a passerby.
The Palestinian Red Crescent, a humanitarian organization, has reported 25 injured so far, according to Haaretz.
The violence comes amid nightly clashes and fighting between Palestinians and Israelis during Ramadan in the city, Reuters reported. Palestinians have reportedly previously clashed with authorities over a dispute regarding evening gatherings at Damascus Gate following the breaking of the daily fast during the Muslim holy month.
https://currently.att.yahoo.com/news/hu ... 36161.html
Erin Snodgrass
INSIDER Thu, April 22, 2021, 9:38 PM
A groupd of far-right Jewish extremists clashed with Arab crowds in Jerusalem Thursday night.
Members of the supremacist group, Lehava, chanted "death to Arabs" as they marched to the Old City.
Police were able to separate the two crowds, but The Jerusalem Post still reported incidents of violence and arrests.
Planned protests among far-right Jewish extremists and Arab crowds escalated in Jerusalem's Old City Thursday night and early Friday morning amid increasing tensions in the city.
The head of the Jewish supremacist group Lehava, announced Wednesday that its activists would march from Zion Square to Damascus Gate on Thursday in protest of recent violence toward Jews, including assaults that have been filmed and uploaded to TikTok, according to The Times of Israel.
Members of the group, which opposes the assimilation and coexistence of Jews and non-Jews, organized on the messaging app WhatsApp and planned to bring weapons, the outlet said. A report on the Mynet Jerusalem news site said Lehava members were told to attack as many Arabs as possible, according to The Times of Israel.
In addition to a rise in anti-Jewish violence, increasing attacks on Arabs have been reported in the city, including Jewish youth throwing rocks at vehicles while chanting "death to Arabs."
As Israeli police deployed Thursday night, attempting to keep Lehava demonstrators away from crowds of counter-protesters who had gathered at Damascus Gate, hundreds of Jewish extremists chanted "death to Arabs.," according to Haaretz.
Authorities were also working to prevent Lehava members from clashing with Israelis who came to protest the march, the outlet reported.
The Jerusalem Post reported that police had successfully diverted Lehava protesters and Arab crowds in different directions of the city, after a brief meeting between the two at Damascus Gate that resulted in incidents of dumpster fires, bottle-throwing, and rock-throwing.
According to the outlet, Arab youth lit fireworks near Damascus Gate, calling out "Allahu Akhbar," while Lehava members carried signs that read "Death to terrorists" and chanted "Death to Arabs" and "Revenge."
Officers reportedly used stun grenades to break up the violence and continued performing security checks in the area throughout the night.
Haaretz reported a variety of injuries and arrests, including a Palestinian woman who was reportedly maced in the face by a Jewish man and the arrest of four Palestinians accused of attacking a passerby.
The Palestinian Red Crescent, a humanitarian organization, has reported 25 injured so far, according to Haaretz.
The violence comes amid nightly clashes and fighting between Palestinians and Israelis during Ramadan in the city, Reuters reported. Palestinians have reportedly previously clashed with authorities over a dispute regarding evening gatherings at Damascus Gate following the breaking of the daily fast during the Muslim holy month.
https://currently.att.yahoo.com/news/hu ... 36161.html
Famine in the Bible is more than a curse: It is a signal of change and a chance for a new beginning
Joel Baden, Professor of Hebrew Bible, Yale Divinity School
The Conversation Wed, April 21, 2021, 7:24 AM
As the coronavirus spread rapidly around the world last year, the United Nations warned that the economic disruption of the pandemic could result in famines of “biblical proportions.”
The choice of words conveys more than just scale. Biblical stories of devastating famines are familiar to many. As a scholar of the Hebrew Bible, I understand that famines in biblical times were interpreted as more than mere natural occurrences. The authors of the Hebrew Bible used famine as a mechanism of divine wrath and destruction – but also as a storytelling device, a way to move the narrative forward.
When the heavens don’t open
Underlying the texts about famine in the Hebrew Bible was the constant threat and recurring reality of famine in ancient Israel.
Israel occupied the rocky highlands of Canaan – the area of present-day Jerusalem and the hills to the north of it – rather than fertile coastal plains. Even in the best of years, it took enormous effort to coax sufficient sustenance out of the ground. The rainy seasons were brief; any precipitation less than normal could be devastating.
Across the ancient Near East, drought and famine were feared. In the 13th century B.C., nearly all of the Eastern Mediterranean civilizations collapsed because of a prolonged drought.
For the biblical authors, rain was a blessing and drought a curse – quite literally. In the book of Deuteronomy, the fifth book of the Hebrew Bible, God proclaims that if Israel obeys the laws, “the Lord will open for you his bounteous store, the heavens, to provide rain for your land in season.”
Disobedience, however, will have the opposite effect: “The skies above your head shall be copper and the earth under you iron. The Lord will make the rain of your land dust, and sand shall drop on you from the sky, until you are wiped out.”
To ancient Israelites there was no such thing as nature as we understand it today and no such thing as chance. If things were good, it was because God was happy. If things were going badly, it was because the deity was angry. For a national catastrophe like famine, the sin had to lie either with the entire people, or with the monarchs who represented them. And it was the task of prophets and oracles to determine the cause of the divine wrath.
Divine anger…and punishment
Famine was seen as both punishment and opportunity. Suffering opened the door for repentance and change. For example, when the famously wise King Solomon inaugurates the temple in Jerusalem, he prays that God will be forgiving when, in the future, a famine-stricken Israel turns toward the newly built temple for mercy.
The Bible’s association of famine and other natural disasters with divine anger and punishment paved the way for faith leaders throughout the ages to use their pulpits to cast blame on those they found morally wanting. Preachers during the Dust Bowl of 1920s and 1930s America held alcohol and immorality responsible for provoking God’s anger. In 2005, televangelist Pat Robertson blamed abortion for Hurricane Katrina. Today some religious leaders have even assigned responsibility for the coronavirus pandemic to LGBTQ people.
In the book of Samuel, we read that Israel endured a three-year famine in the time of David, considered Israel’s greatest king. When David inquires as to the cause of the famine, he is told that it is due to the sins of his predecessor and mortal enemy, Saul. The story illustrates how biblical authors, like modern moral crusaders, used the opportunity of famine to demonize their opponents.
For the biblical writers interested in legislating and prophesying about Israel’s behavior, famine was both an ending – the result of disobedience and sin – and also a beginning, a potential turning point toward a better, more faithful future.
Other biblical authors, however, focused less on how or why famines happened and more on the opportunities that famine provided for telling new stories.
Seeking refuge
Famine as a narrative device – rather than as a theological tool – is found regularly throughout the Bible. The writers of the Hebrew Bible used famine as the motivating factor for major changes in the lives of its characters – undoubtedly reflecting the reality of famine’s impact in the ancient world.
We see this numerous times in the book of Genesis. For example, famine drives the biblical characters of Abraham to Egypt, Isaac to the land of the Philistines and Jacob and his entire family to Egypt.
Similarly, the book of Ruth opens with a famine that forces Naomi, the mother-in-law of Ruth, and her family to move first to, and then away from, Moab.
An engraving depicts Naomi instructing her daughter-in-law Ruth to leave with Orpah, her other daughter-in-law, from the book of Ruth, in the Old Testament.
The story of Ruth depends on the initial famine; it ends with Ruth being the ancestor of King David. Neither the Exodus nor King David – the central story and the main character of the Hebrew Bible – would exist without famine.
All of these stories share a common feature: famine as an impetus for the movement of people. And with that movement, in the ancient world as today, comes vulnerability. Residing in a foreign land meant abandoning social protections: land and kin, and perhaps even deity. One was at the mercy of the local populace.
This is why Israel, at least, had a wide range of laws intended to protect the stranger. It was understood that famine, or plague, or war, was common enough that anyone might be forced to leave their land to seek refuge in another. The principle of hospitality, still common in the region, ensured that the displaced would be protected.
Famine was a constant threat and a very real part of life for the ancient Israelite world that produced the Hebrew Bible. The ways that the Bible understood and addressed famine, in turn, have had a lasting impact down to the present. Most people today may not see famine as a manifestation of divine wrath. But they might recognize in famine the same opportunities to consider how we treat the displaced, and to imagine a better future
https://currently.att.yahoo.com/news/fa ... 40333.html
Joel Baden, Professor of Hebrew Bible, Yale Divinity School
The Conversation Wed, April 21, 2021, 7:24 AM
As the coronavirus spread rapidly around the world last year, the United Nations warned that the economic disruption of the pandemic could result in famines of “biblical proportions.”
The choice of words conveys more than just scale. Biblical stories of devastating famines are familiar to many. As a scholar of the Hebrew Bible, I understand that famines in biblical times were interpreted as more than mere natural occurrences. The authors of the Hebrew Bible used famine as a mechanism of divine wrath and destruction – but also as a storytelling device, a way to move the narrative forward.
When the heavens don’t open
Underlying the texts about famine in the Hebrew Bible was the constant threat and recurring reality of famine in ancient Israel.
Israel occupied the rocky highlands of Canaan – the area of present-day Jerusalem and the hills to the north of it – rather than fertile coastal plains. Even in the best of years, it took enormous effort to coax sufficient sustenance out of the ground. The rainy seasons were brief; any precipitation less than normal could be devastating.
Across the ancient Near East, drought and famine were feared. In the 13th century B.C., nearly all of the Eastern Mediterranean civilizations collapsed because of a prolonged drought.
For the biblical authors, rain was a blessing and drought a curse – quite literally. In the book of Deuteronomy, the fifth book of the Hebrew Bible, God proclaims that if Israel obeys the laws, “the Lord will open for you his bounteous store, the heavens, to provide rain for your land in season.”
Disobedience, however, will have the opposite effect: “The skies above your head shall be copper and the earth under you iron. The Lord will make the rain of your land dust, and sand shall drop on you from the sky, until you are wiped out.”
To ancient Israelites there was no such thing as nature as we understand it today and no such thing as chance. If things were good, it was because God was happy. If things were going badly, it was because the deity was angry. For a national catastrophe like famine, the sin had to lie either with the entire people, or with the monarchs who represented them. And it was the task of prophets and oracles to determine the cause of the divine wrath.
Divine anger…and punishment
Famine was seen as both punishment and opportunity. Suffering opened the door for repentance and change. For example, when the famously wise King Solomon inaugurates the temple in Jerusalem, he prays that God will be forgiving when, in the future, a famine-stricken Israel turns toward the newly built temple for mercy.
The Bible’s association of famine and other natural disasters with divine anger and punishment paved the way for faith leaders throughout the ages to use their pulpits to cast blame on those they found morally wanting. Preachers during the Dust Bowl of 1920s and 1930s America held alcohol and immorality responsible for provoking God’s anger. In 2005, televangelist Pat Robertson blamed abortion for Hurricane Katrina. Today some religious leaders have even assigned responsibility for the coronavirus pandemic to LGBTQ people.
In the book of Samuel, we read that Israel endured a three-year famine in the time of David, considered Israel’s greatest king. When David inquires as to the cause of the famine, he is told that it is due to the sins of his predecessor and mortal enemy, Saul. The story illustrates how biblical authors, like modern moral crusaders, used the opportunity of famine to demonize their opponents.
For the biblical writers interested in legislating and prophesying about Israel’s behavior, famine was both an ending – the result of disobedience and sin – and also a beginning, a potential turning point toward a better, more faithful future.
Other biblical authors, however, focused less on how or why famines happened and more on the opportunities that famine provided for telling new stories.
Seeking refuge
Famine as a narrative device – rather than as a theological tool – is found regularly throughout the Bible. The writers of the Hebrew Bible used famine as the motivating factor for major changes in the lives of its characters – undoubtedly reflecting the reality of famine’s impact in the ancient world.
We see this numerous times in the book of Genesis. For example, famine drives the biblical characters of Abraham to Egypt, Isaac to the land of the Philistines and Jacob and his entire family to Egypt.
Similarly, the book of Ruth opens with a famine that forces Naomi, the mother-in-law of Ruth, and her family to move first to, and then away from, Moab.
An engraving depicts Naomi instructing her daughter-in-law Ruth to leave with Orpah, her other daughter-in-law, from the book of Ruth, in the Old Testament.
The story of Ruth depends on the initial famine; it ends with Ruth being the ancestor of King David. Neither the Exodus nor King David – the central story and the main character of the Hebrew Bible – would exist without famine.
All of these stories share a common feature: famine as an impetus for the movement of people. And with that movement, in the ancient world as today, comes vulnerability. Residing in a foreign land meant abandoning social protections: land and kin, and perhaps even deity. One was at the mercy of the local populace.
This is why Israel, at least, had a wide range of laws intended to protect the stranger. It was understood that famine, or plague, or war, was common enough that anyone might be forced to leave their land to seek refuge in another. The principle of hospitality, still common in the region, ensured that the displaced would be protected.
Famine was a constant threat and a very real part of life for the ancient Israelite world that produced the Hebrew Bible. The ways that the Bible understood and addressed famine, in turn, have had a lasting impact down to the present. Most people today may not see famine as a manifestation of divine wrath. But they might recognize in famine the same opportunities to consider how we treat the displaced, and to imagine a better future
https://currently.att.yahoo.com/news/fa ... 40333.html
Ultra-Orthodox Jewish women are bucking the patriarchal, authoritarian stereotype of their community
Michal Raucher, Assistant Professor of Jewish Studies, Rutgers University
Mon, May 17, 2021, 7:26 AM
Ultra-Orthodox women have become the primary breadwinners in their families. Menahem Kahana/AFP via Getty Images
Ultra-Orthodox Jews have been in the news a lot lately, partly due to their reactions to the COVID-19 pandemic.
With a few exceptions, the stories present ultra-Orthodox Jews as a patriarchal community that is authoritarian and resistant to public health measures, even during a global pandemic.
While this narrative has dominated coverage of this community for decades, it comes from a focus on ultra-Orthodox men. Male community leaders are quoted in the media, and men are more visible among the crowds that are resisting and protesting lockdown measures. This reinforces both outside views of women in the community as subservient and internal attempts to silence and exclude women.
But given the gender segregation in ultra-Orthodox communities, a complete picture of this society simply cannot be gleaned from men alone.
And when you look at ultra-Orthodox women, a picture of major societal change emerges. Women in the community are increasingly making reproductive decisions, working outside the home and resisting rabbis’ authority.
Reproductive decision-makers
As a religious studies scholar who focuses on gender and Jews, I spent two years from 2009 to 2011 interviewing ultra-Orthodox women in Jerusalem about their reproductive experiences. What I heard then I see reflected in the dynamics in ultra-Orthodox communities in Israel today.
We talked about their pregnancies – ultra-Orthodox women have about seven children on average – as well as their choice of contraception and prenatal tests.
What came out most prominently from our conversations and the many hours of observations I conducted in clinics and hospitals was that after several pregnancies, ultra-Orthodox women begin to take control over their reproductive decisions. This runs counter to what the rabbis expect of them.
Rabbis expect ultra-Orthodox men and women to come to them for guidance on and permission for medical care. Knowing this, both male and female doctors might ask a woman who requests hormonal birth control, “Has your rabbi approved of this?” This relationship cultivates mistrust among ultra-Orthodox women and leads them to distance themselves from both doctors and rabbis when it comes to reproductive care.
However, this rejection of external authority over pregnancy and birth is supported by the ultra-Orthodox belief that pregnancy is a time when women embody divine authority. Women’s reproductive authority, then, is not completely countercultural; it’s embedded in ultra-Orthodox theology.
Primary breadwinners
While gender segregation has long been a feature of ultra-Orthodox ritual life, men and women now lead very different lives.
In Israel, ultra-Orthodox men spend most of their days in a Kollel, or religious institute, studying sacred Jewish texts. This task earns them a modest stipend from the government.
While the community still valorizes poverty, ultra-Orthodox women have become the primary breadwinners. Over the past decade, they have increasingly attended college and graduate school in order to support their large families. In fact, they now enter the work force at a similar rate as their secular peers and are forging new careers in technology, music and politics, for example.
New cultural representations
Some recent TV shows depict this kind of nuanced understanding of gender and authority among ultra-Orthodox Jews. Take the last season of the Netflix series “Shtisel,” for instance.
In the TV show, Shira Levi, a young ultra-Orthodox woman from a Mizrahi background – which refers to Jews from the Middle East and North Africa – does scientific research. She enters into a relationship with one of the main Ashkenazi, or European Jewish, characters. Their ethnic differences end up being a bigger source of tension than Shira’s academic interests.
Another character, Tovi Shtisel, is a mother who works outside the home as a teacher. Despite objections from her husband, a Kollel student, she buys a car so she can get to work more efficiently.
And finally, Ruchami, who first appears as a teenager in season one, eagerly marries a Talmud scholar but struggles with a serious medical condition that makes pregnancy life-threatening. Despite her commitment to ultra-Orthodox life, she flouts rabbinic and medical rulings. After her rabbi’s ruling that she should not have another child due to her medical risks, Ruchami decides to get pregnant without anybody’s knowledge.
Today there is a proliferation of new formal and informal leaders, leading to a diffusion of authority. In addition to the many rabbis in ultra-Orthodox communities, their assistants or informal helpers, called askanim, operate pervasively. Ultra-Orthodox women also turn to theories that are repackaged in ultra-Orthodox language, like anti-vaccination campaigns. And finally, ultra-Orthodox Jews have created online groups that challenge the authority of leading rabbis.
Recognizing diversity
The dominance of one narrative about ultra-Orthodox Jews’ reactions to the COVID-19 pandemic ignores other reasons why the virus spread so rapidly and devastatingly in these communities.
Interviews with women would have revealed that poverty and cramped living spaces made social distancing almost impossible. These conversations would have also revealed that although some consider Rabbi Chaim Kaneivsky, a 93-year-old ultra-Orthodox rabbi who has cultivated a significant following, to be the “king of COVID” for rejecting public health measures, there is no single rabbi whom all Israeli ultra-Orthodox Jews follow. In fact, many ultra-Orthodox Jews in Israel have been following COVID-19 guidelines.
And furthermore, attention to women’s complicated experiences with the medical establishment would have highlighted the mistrust and doubt that permeates the ultra-Orthodox community’s relationship to public health measures.
During a public health crisis, it is easy to demonize those who might not follow medical guidelines. But ultra-Orthodox Jews are diverse, and I believe understanding their complexity would enable better medical information and care to reach these populations.
https://currently.att.yahoo.com/news/ul ... 22632306.h
Michal Raucher, Assistant Professor of Jewish Studies, Rutgers University
Mon, May 17, 2021, 7:26 AM
Ultra-Orthodox women have become the primary breadwinners in their families. Menahem Kahana/AFP via Getty Images
Ultra-Orthodox Jews have been in the news a lot lately, partly due to their reactions to the COVID-19 pandemic.
With a few exceptions, the stories present ultra-Orthodox Jews as a patriarchal community that is authoritarian and resistant to public health measures, even during a global pandemic.
While this narrative has dominated coverage of this community for decades, it comes from a focus on ultra-Orthodox men. Male community leaders are quoted in the media, and men are more visible among the crowds that are resisting and protesting lockdown measures. This reinforces both outside views of women in the community as subservient and internal attempts to silence and exclude women.
But given the gender segregation in ultra-Orthodox communities, a complete picture of this society simply cannot be gleaned from men alone.
And when you look at ultra-Orthodox women, a picture of major societal change emerges. Women in the community are increasingly making reproductive decisions, working outside the home and resisting rabbis’ authority.
Reproductive decision-makers
As a religious studies scholar who focuses on gender and Jews, I spent two years from 2009 to 2011 interviewing ultra-Orthodox women in Jerusalem about their reproductive experiences. What I heard then I see reflected in the dynamics in ultra-Orthodox communities in Israel today.
We talked about their pregnancies – ultra-Orthodox women have about seven children on average – as well as their choice of contraception and prenatal tests.
What came out most prominently from our conversations and the many hours of observations I conducted in clinics and hospitals was that after several pregnancies, ultra-Orthodox women begin to take control over their reproductive decisions. This runs counter to what the rabbis expect of them.
Rabbis expect ultra-Orthodox men and women to come to them for guidance on and permission for medical care. Knowing this, both male and female doctors might ask a woman who requests hormonal birth control, “Has your rabbi approved of this?” This relationship cultivates mistrust among ultra-Orthodox women and leads them to distance themselves from both doctors and rabbis when it comes to reproductive care.
However, this rejection of external authority over pregnancy and birth is supported by the ultra-Orthodox belief that pregnancy is a time when women embody divine authority. Women’s reproductive authority, then, is not completely countercultural; it’s embedded in ultra-Orthodox theology.
Primary breadwinners
While gender segregation has long been a feature of ultra-Orthodox ritual life, men and women now lead very different lives.
In Israel, ultra-Orthodox men spend most of their days in a Kollel, or religious institute, studying sacred Jewish texts. This task earns them a modest stipend from the government.
While the community still valorizes poverty, ultra-Orthodox women have become the primary breadwinners. Over the past decade, they have increasingly attended college and graduate school in order to support their large families. In fact, they now enter the work force at a similar rate as their secular peers and are forging new careers in technology, music and politics, for example.
New cultural representations
Some recent TV shows depict this kind of nuanced understanding of gender and authority among ultra-Orthodox Jews. Take the last season of the Netflix series “Shtisel,” for instance.
In the TV show, Shira Levi, a young ultra-Orthodox woman from a Mizrahi background – which refers to Jews from the Middle East and North Africa – does scientific research. She enters into a relationship with one of the main Ashkenazi, or European Jewish, characters. Their ethnic differences end up being a bigger source of tension than Shira’s academic interests.
Another character, Tovi Shtisel, is a mother who works outside the home as a teacher. Despite objections from her husband, a Kollel student, she buys a car so she can get to work more efficiently.
And finally, Ruchami, who first appears as a teenager in season one, eagerly marries a Talmud scholar but struggles with a serious medical condition that makes pregnancy life-threatening. Despite her commitment to ultra-Orthodox life, she flouts rabbinic and medical rulings. After her rabbi’s ruling that she should not have another child due to her medical risks, Ruchami decides to get pregnant without anybody’s knowledge.
Today there is a proliferation of new formal and informal leaders, leading to a diffusion of authority. In addition to the many rabbis in ultra-Orthodox communities, their assistants or informal helpers, called askanim, operate pervasively. Ultra-Orthodox women also turn to theories that are repackaged in ultra-Orthodox language, like anti-vaccination campaigns. And finally, ultra-Orthodox Jews have created online groups that challenge the authority of leading rabbis.
Recognizing diversity
The dominance of one narrative about ultra-Orthodox Jews’ reactions to the COVID-19 pandemic ignores other reasons why the virus spread so rapidly and devastatingly in these communities.
Interviews with women would have revealed that poverty and cramped living spaces made social distancing almost impossible. These conversations would have also revealed that although some consider Rabbi Chaim Kaneivsky, a 93-year-old ultra-Orthodox rabbi who has cultivated a significant following, to be the “king of COVID” for rejecting public health measures, there is no single rabbi whom all Israeli ultra-Orthodox Jews follow. In fact, many ultra-Orthodox Jews in Israel have been following COVID-19 guidelines.
And furthermore, attention to women’s complicated experiences with the medical establishment would have highlighted the mistrust and doubt that permeates the ultra-Orthodox community’s relationship to public health measures.
During a public health crisis, it is easy to demonize those who might not follow medical guidelines. But ultra-Orthodox Jews are diverse, and I believe understanding their complexity would enable better medical information and care to reach these populations.
https://currently.att.yahoo.com/news/ul ... 22632306.h
Gaza Conflict Stokes ‘Identity Crisis’ for Young American Jews
A new generation is confronting the region’s longstanding conflict in a very different context, with very different pressures, from their parents’ and grandparents’ generations.
Dan Kleinman does not know quite how to feel.
As a child in Brooklyn he was taught to revere Israel as the protector of Jews everywhere, the “Jewish superman who would come out of the sky to save us” when things got bad, he said.
It was a refuge in his mind when white supremacists in Charlottesville, Va., chanted “Jews will not replace us,” or kids in college grabbed his shirt, mimicking a “South Park” episode to steal his “Jew gold.”
But his feelings have grown muddier as he has gotten older, especially now as he watches violence unfold in Israel and Gaza. His moral compass tells him to help the Palestinians, but he cannot shake an ingrained paranoia every time he hears someone make anti-Israel statements.
“It is an identity crisis,” Mr. Kleinman, 33, said. “Very small in comparison to what is happening in Gaza and the West Bank, but it is still something very strange and weird.”
As the violence escalates in the Middle East, turmoil of a different kind is growing across the Atlantic. Many young American Jews are confronting the region’s longstanding strife in a very different context, with very different pressures, from their parents’ and grandparents’ generations.
The Israel of their lifetime has been powerful, no longer appearing to some to be under constant existential threat. The violence comes after a year when mass protests across the United States have changed how many Americans see issues of racial and social justice. The pro-Palestinian position has become more common, with prominent progressive members of Congress offering impassioned speeches in defense of the Palestinians on the House floor. At the same time, reports of anti-Semitism are rising across the country.
Divides between some American Jews and Israel’s right-wing government have been growing for more than a decade, but under the Trump administration those fractures that many hoped would heal became a crevasse. Politics in Israel have also remained fraught, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s long-tenured government forged allegiances with Washington. For young people who came of age during the Trump years, political polarization over the issue only deepened.
Many Jews in America remain unreservedly supportive of Israel and its government. Still, the events of recent weeks have left some families struggling to navigate both the crisis abroad and the wide-ranging response from American Jews at home. What is at stake is not just geopolitical, but deeply personal. Fractures are intensifying along lines of age, observance and partisan affiliation.
More..
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/19/us/j ... 778d3e6de3
A new generation is confronting the region’s longstanding conflict in a very different context, with very different pressures, from their parents’ and grandparents’ generations.
Dan Kleinman does not know quite how to feel.
As a child in Brooklyn he was taught to revere Israel as the protector of Jews everywhere, the “Jewish superman who would come out of the sky to save us” when things got bad, he said.
It was a refuge in his mind when white supremacists in Charlottesville, Va., chanted “Jews will not replace us,” or kids in college grabbed his shirt, mimicking a “South Park” episode to steal his “Jew gold.”
But his feelings have grown muddier as he has gotten older, especially now as he watches violence unfold in Israel and Gaza. His moral compass tells him to help the Palestinians, but he cannot shake an ingrained paranoia every time he hears someone make anti-Israel statements.
“It is an identity crisis,” Mr. Kleinman, 33, said. “Very small in comparison to what is happening in Gaza and the West Bank, but it is still something very strange and weird.”
As the violence escalates in the Middle East, turmoil of a different kind is growing across the Atlantic. Many young American Jews are confronting the region’s longstanding strife in a very different context, with very different pressures, from their parents’ and grandparents’ generations.
The Israel of their lifetime has been powerful, no longer appearing to some to be under constant existential threat. The violence comes after a year when mass protests across the United States have changed how many Americans see issues of racial and social justice. The pro-Palestinian position has become more common, with prominent progressive members of Congress offering impassioned speeches in defense of the Palestinians on the House floor. At the same time, reports of anti-Semitism are rising across the country.
Divides between some American Jews and Israel’s right-wing government have been growing for more than a decade, but under the Trump administration those fractures that many hoped would heal became a crevasse. Politics in Israel have also remained fraught, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s long-tenured government forged allegiances with Washington. For young people who came of age during the Trump years, political polarization over the issue only deepened.
Many Jews in America remain unreservedly supportive of Israel and its government. Still, the events of recent weeks have left some families struggling to navigate both the crisis abroad and the wide-ranging response from American Jews at home. What is at stake is not just geopolitical, but deeply personal. Fractures are intensifying along lines of age, observance and partisan affiliation.
More..
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/19/us/j ... 778d3e6de3
Before Rage Flared, a Push to Make Israel’s Mixed Towns More Jewish
An eruption of Arab-Jewish violence inside Israeli cities has focused attention on a movement of religious nationalists seeking to strengthen the Jewish presence in areas with large Arab populations.
LOD, Israel — Years before the mixed Arab-Jewish city of Lod erupted in mob violence, a demographic shift had begun to take root: Hundreds of young Jews who support a religious, nationalist movement started to move into a mostly Arab neighborhood with the express aim of strengthening the Israeli city’s Jewish identity.
A similar change was playing out in other mixed Arab-Jewish cities inside Israel, such as nearby Ramla and Acre in the north — part of a loosely organized nationwide project known as Torah Nucleus. They say that their intention is to lift up poor and neglected areas on the margins of society, particularly in mixed cities, and to enrich Jewish life there. Its supporters have moved into dozens of Israeli cities and towns.
“Perhaps ours is a complex message,” said Avi Rokach, 43, chairman of the Torah Nucleus association in Lod. “Lod is a Jewish city. It is our agenda and our religious duty to look out for whoever lives here, be they Jewish, Muslim or Hindu.”
But in reality, the newcomers’ presence, at times, created tensions, which built up for years and erupted amid the latest outbreak of warfare between Israelis and Palestinians. Arab and Jewish mobs attacked each other in the worst violence within Israeli cities in decades, raising fears of a civil war. For many, the intensity of the animosity came as a shock.
More...
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/23/worl ... 778d3e6de3
An eruption of Arab-Jewish violence inside Israeli cities has focused attention on a movement of religious nationalists seeking to strengthen the Jewish presence in areas with large Arab populations.
LOD, Israel — Years before the mixed Arab-Jewish city of Lod erupted in mob violence, a demographic shift had begun to take root: Hundreds of young Jews who support a religious, nationalist movement started to move into a mostly Arab neighborhood with the express aim of strengthening the Israeli city’s Jewish identity.
A similar change was playing out in other mixed Arab-Jewish cities inside Israel, such as nearby Ramla and Acre in the north — part of a loosely organized nationwide project known as Torah Nucleus. They say that their intention is to lift up poor and neglected areas on the margins of society, particularly in mixed cities, and to enrich Jewish life there. Its supporters have moved into dozens of Israeli cities and towns.
“Perhaps ours is a complex message,” said Avi Rokach, 43, chairman of the Torah Nucleus association in Lod. “Lod is a Jewish city. It is our agenda and our religious duty to look out for whoever lives here, be they Jewish, Muslim or Hindu.”
But in reality, the newcomers’ presence, at times, created tensions, which built up for years and erupted amid the latest outbreak of warfare between Israelis and Palestinians. Arab and Jewish mobs attacked each other in the worst violence within Israeli cities in decades, raising fears of a civil war. For many, the intensity of the animosity came as a shock.
More...
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/23/worl ... 778d3e6de3
BREAKING: Activists Cover Israeli Consulate Steps in Toronto with River of “Blood”
Also watch the video at:
https://worldbeyondwar.org/israeli-consulate/
Toronto, Ontario — Today members of the Jewish community and allies delivered a clear message at the Israeli consulate in Toronto about bloodshed from Israel’s violence in Gaza and across historic Palestine.
Rabbi David Mivasair, a member of Independent Jewish Voices, said, “It can no longer be business as normal at Israel’s consulates in Canada. The death and destruction inflicted by Israel in Gaza, as well as the heightened violence by Israel across Palestine, cannot be washed away. This belligerence is the latest in an ongoing aggressive 73-year settler-colonization project by Israel across historic Palestine. The ceasefire doesn’t end the injustice and oppression.”
Since May 10, at least 232 Palestinians have been killed in the Israeli bombardment of Gaza, according to health authorities, including 65 children. Over 1900 people have been wounded.
Rachel Small, organizer with World BEYOND War, explained, “We are making the violence of Israel’s brutal occupation, military attacks, and ethnic cleansing visible right here on the consulate’s doorstep. We are making it impossible for anyone to enter and exit Israeli government offices here without directly confronting the violence and bloodshed they are complicit in.”
Rabbi Mivasair quoted the Book of Genesis saying, “‘The voice of your brother’s blood cries out to Me from the earth.’ Canadian Jews and others joined today to make sure that cry is heard even if the blood stops being spilled anew. Red paint streaming from the Israeli consulate onto the street in Toronto represents the blood of massacred innocent Palestinian civilians, the blood on Israel’s hands. As Canadians, we demand that our government holds Israel accountable for war crimes and stops the Canada-Israel arms trade.
“Jews in our communities in Canada are overcome with grief and anger. Many of us stand in solidarity with our Palestinian siblings. We say loud and clear, ‘not in our name.’ Israel can no longer continue to commit these atrocities in the name of the Jewish people.”
Since 2015, Canada has exported $57 million worth of weapons to Israel, including $16 million in bomb components. Canada recently signed a contract to purchase drones from Israel’s largest weapons maker, Elbit Systems, which supplies 85% of drones used by the Israeli military to monitor and attack Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza.
Across Canada, tens of thousands of people in dozens of cities have been on the streets denouncing Israel’s violent attacks. The Canadian government received at least 150,000 letters within days following the Israeli attacks on Al-Aqsa and Gaza. They call on Canada to hold Israel accountable for its violations of human rights and international law, and to place immediate sanctions on Israel.
John Philpot of Just Peace Advocates says, “The Israeli consulate in Toronto has advertised on several occasions an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) representative available for personal appointments for those wishing to join the IDF, not just those who are required to do mandatory service. The Canadian Foreign Enlistment Act makes it illegal to induce or recruit for a foreign military and Canada Revenue Agency guidelines state that ‘supporting the armed forces of another country is not a charitable activity.'”
Yves Engler from the Canadian Foreign Policy Institute indicates that “at the same time as Canadians are being recruited to join the IDF in violation of the Foreign Enlistment Act some registered Canadian charities support the Israeli military in probable contravention of Canada Revenue Agency regulations.”
A petition sponsored by NDP MP for Hamilton Centre, Matthew Green, calls upon Minister of Justice David Lametti to undertake a thorough investigation of those who have recruited or facilitated recruiting in Canada for the Israel Defense Forces, and, if warranted, lay charges against those involved. To date over 6,400 Canadians have signed this petition.
https://worldbeyondwar.org/israeli-consulate/
Also watch the video at:
https://worldbeyondwar.org/israeli-consulate/
Toronto, Ontario — Today members of the Jewish community and allies delivered a clear message at the Israeli consulate in Toronto about bloodshed from Israel’s violence in Gaza and across historic Palestine.
Rabbi David Mivasair, a member of Independent Jewish Voices, said, “It can no longer be business as normal at Israel’s consulates in Canada. The death and destruction inflicted by Israel in Gaza, as well as the heightened violence by Israel across Palestine, cannot be washed away. This belligerence is the latest in an ongoing aggressive 73-year settler-colonization project by Israel across historic Palestine. The ceasefire doesn’t end the injustice and oppression.”
Since May 10, at least 232 Palestinians have been killed in the Israeli bombardment of Gaza, according to health authorities, including 65 children. Over 1900 people have been wounded.
Rachel Small, organizer with World BEYOND War, explained, “We are making the violence of Israel’s brutal occupation, military attacks, and ethnic cleansing visible right here on the consulate’s doorstep. We are making it impossible for anyone to enter and exit Israeli government offices here without directly confronting the violence and bloodshed they are complicit in.”
Rabbi Mivasair quoted the Book of Genesis saying, “‘The voice of your brother’s blood cries out to Me from the earth.’ Canadian Jews and others joined today to make sure that cry is heard even if the blood stops being spilled anew. Red paint streaming from the Israeli consulate onto the street in Toronto represents the blood of massacred innocent Palestinian civilians, the blood on Israel’s hands. As Canadians, we demand that our government holds Israel accountable for war crimes and stops the Canada-Israel arms trade.
“Jews in our communities in Canada are overcome with grief and anger. Many of us stand in solidarity with our Palestinian siblings. We say loud and clear, ‘not in our name.’ Israel can no longer continue to commit these atrocities in the name of the Jewish people.”
Since 2015, Canada has exported $57 million worth of weapons to Israel, including $16 million in bomb components. Canada recently signed a contract to purchase drones from Israel’s largest weapons maker, Elbit Systems, which supplies 85% of drones used by the Israeli military to monitor and attack Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza.
Across Canada, tens of thousands of people in dozens of cities have been on the streets denouncing Israel’s violent attacks. The Canadian government received at least 150,000 letters within days following the Israeli attacks on Al-Aqsa and Gaza. They call on Canada to hold Israel accountable for its violations of human rights and international law, and to place immediate sanctions on Israel.
John Philpot of Just Peace Advocates says, “The Israeli consulate in Toronto has advertised on several occasions an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) representative available for personal appointments for those wishing to join the IDF, not just those who are required to do mandatory service. The Canadian Foreign Enlistment Act makes it illegal to induce or recruit for a foreign military and Canada Revenue Agency guidelines state that ‘supporting the armed forces of another country is not a charitable activity.'”
Yves Engler from the Canadian Foreign Policy Institute indicates that “at the same time as Canadians are being recruited to join the IDF in violation of the Foreign Enlistment Act some registered Canadian charities support the Israeli military in probable contravention of Canada Revenue Agency regulations.”
A petition sponsored by NDP MP for Hamilton Centre, Matthew Green, calls upon Minister of Justice David Lametti to undertake a thorough investigation of those who have recruited or facilitated recruiting in Canada for the Israel Defense Forces, and, if warranted, lay charges against those involved. To date over 6,400 Canadians have signed this petition.
https://worldbeyondwar.org/israeli-consulate/
Judaism and the afterlife: 'The truth has been hidden'
“The Torah says we’re not allowed to inquire of the dead."
‘NO, IN the Afterlife there are no halos or angels sitting on clouds playing a harp.’
Theories of reincarnation are found in many religions and cultures, ancient and modern. Close to home, the Druze believe in reincarnation, and that at the end of the cycle of rebirth, which is achieved through successive reincarnations, the soul is united with the Cosmic Mind.
In Judaism, there are no references to the idea in the Bible or the Talmud, and there is a prohibition on attempting to make contact with the dead – although King Saul does communicate with the Prophet Samuel after the latter’s death (1 Samuel: 28).
Earthquake NDE survivor Maayan Sabbag cited the extensive research by Dr. Brian Weiss, an American-Jewish psychiatrist who has sold millions of books on past-life regression and the survival of the soul after death.
“He relates that formal religion tried to block people from thinking about life after death because then they wouldn’t be obedient. Like, if there’s reincarnation, then why do I have to behave and be responsible in this life? In Judaism, the rabbis formed a unified front and stopped speaking about it.”
According to Brigitte Kashtan, the three monotheistic religions agree there is an afterlife, but it has been buried under centuries of prohibitions.
“In Judaism, the truth has been hidden and is forbidden to learn in order to better control the people,” she says.
According to the late British theologian Rabbi Louis Jacobs, the concept of reincarnation was unknown in Judaism until the eighth century, when it began to be adopted by the Karaites, a sectarian Jewish group.
“The kabbalists, on the other hand, do believe in reincarnation. The Zohar [the 13th-century kabbalistic text] refers to the doctrine in a number of passages,” he wrote in an article on MyJewishLearning.com.
There are instances in Judaism in which reincarnation has also been viewed as punishment for a sinner’s previous deeds.
“For example, a rich man who abused his power may come back as poor. Rabbi Haim Vital, a student of the Ari, has compiled a list of those reincarnated in Jewish history,” he wrote.
“Nahmanides, in his commentary to the Book of Job (Job 33:30), speaks of reincarnation as a great mystery and the key to an understanding of many biblical passages. The later Kabbalah is full of the belief in the transmigration of souls. Various sins are punished by particular transmigrations. For example, the soul of an excessively proud man may enter the body of a bee or a worm until atonement is attained.
“The heroes of the Bible and later Jewish histories are said to be the reincarnation of earlier heroes. Thus the soul of Cain (Genesis 4:1-16) entered the body of Jethro and the soul of Abel the body of Moses. The hassidim believe explicitly in the doctrine, and tales are told of hassidic masters who remembered their activities in a previous incarnation.”
According to Rabbi Barry Schlesinger of Masorti congregation Torat Hayyim in Herzliya, the issue of communing with the dead has become blurred in modern times.
“The Torah says we’re not allowed to inquire of the dead,” he notes. “It’s prohibited to go to a cemetery and speak to the deceased and ask them to intercede in a matter. The question is, how does that enter into the equation when you have half a million people going to Netivot to pray at the grave of Baba Sali?
“In the parsha of the spies, Calev left the group and went to Hebron to the Cave of the Patriarchs. Did he pray to communicate with them? No, he prayed that God gives him the strength to stand against the majority. You could say he went to inquire of the dead, but he didn’t go to speak to them, he went to inquire of God.”
When asked what he would advise a theoretical congregant who had suffered the loss of a loved one and wanted to make contact with them, Schlesinger says he would be supportive.
“As a congregational rabbi, I would do everything in my power not to call their quest into question. I wouldn’t want to offend them.
“I’m not sure I would address their question in one sitting. Are they asking a halachic question or a spiritual one? I would raise questions of how reliable the person they are relying on is. But I would give a shoulder to lean on and identify with their decision.”
https://www.jpost.com/judaism/judaism-a ... den-660300
“The Torah says we’re not allowed to inquire of the dead."
‘NO, IN the Afterlife there are no halos or angels sitting on clouds playing a harp.’
Theories of reincarnation are found in many religions and cultures, ancient and modern. Close to home, the Druze believe in reincarnation, and that at the end of the cycle of rebirth, which is achieved through successive reincarnations, the soul is united with the Cosmic Mind.
In Judaism, there are no references to the idea in the Bible or the Talmud, and there is a prohibition on attempting to make contact with the dead – although King Saul does communicate with the Prophet Samuel after the latter’s death (1 Samuel: 28).
Earthquake NDE survivor Maayan Sabbag cited the extensive research by Dr. Brian Weiss, an American-Jewish psychiatrist who has sold millions of books on past-life regression and the survival of the soul after death.
“He relates that formal religion tried to block people from thinking about life after death because then they wouldn’t be obedient. Like, if there’s reincarnation, then why do I have to behave and be responsible in this life? In Judaism, the rabbis formed a unified front and stopped speaking about it.”
According to Brigitte Kashtan, the three monotheistic religions agree there is an afterlife, but it has been buried under centuries of prohibitions.
“In Judaism, the truth has been hidden and is forbidden to learn in order to better control the people,” she says.
According to the late British theologian Rabbi Louis Jacobs, the concept of reincarnation was unknown in Judaism until the eighth century, when it began to be adopted by the Karaites, a sectarian Jewish group.
“The kabbalists, on the other hand, do believe in reincarnation. The Zohar [the 13th-century kabbalistic text] refers to the doctrine in a number of passages,” he wrote in an article on MyJewishLearning.com.
There are instances in Judaism in which reincarnation has also been viewed as punishment for a sinner’s previous deeds.
“For example, a rich man who abused his power may come back as poor. Rabbi Haim Vital, a student of the Ari, has compiled a list of those reincarnated in Jewish history,” he wrote.
“Nahmanides, in his commentary to the Book of Job (Job 33:30), speaks of reincarnation as a great mystery and the key to an understanding of many biblical passages. The later Kabbalah is full of the belief in the transmigration of souls. Various sins are punished by particular transmigrations. For example, the soul of an excessively proud man may enter the body of a bee or a worm until atonement is attained.
“The heroes of the Bible and later Jewish histories are said to be the reincarnation of earlier heroes. Thus the soul of Cain (Genesis 4:1-16) entered the body of Jethro and the soul of Abel the body of Moses. The hassidim believe explicitly in the doctrine, and tales are told of hassidic masters who remembered their activities in a previous incarnation.”
According to Rabbi Barry Schlesinger of Masorti congregation Torat Hayyim in Herzliya, the issue of communing with the dead has become blurred in modern times.
“The Torah says we’re not allowed to inquire of the dead,” he notes. “It’s prohibited to go to a cemetery and speak to the deceased and ask them to intercede in a matter. The question is, how does that enter into the equation when you have half a million people going to Netivot to pray at the grave of Baba Sali?
“In the parsha of the spies, Calev left the group and went to Hebron to the Cave of the Patriarchs. Did he pray to communicate with them? No, he prayed that God gives him the strength to stand against the majority. You could say he went to inquire of the dead, but he didn’t go to speak to them, he went to inquire of God.”
When asked what he would advise a theoretical congregant who had suffered the loss of a loved one and wanted to make contact with them, Schlesinger says he would be supportive.
“As a congregational rabbi, I would do everything in my power not to call their quest into question. I wouldn’t want to offend them.
“I’m not sure I would address their question in one sitting. Are they asking a halachic question or a spiritual one? I would raise questions of how reliable the person they are relying on is. But I would give a shoulder to lean on and identify with their decision.”
https://www.jpost.com/judaism/judaism-a ... den-660300
U.S. Faces Outbreak of Anti-Semitic Threats and Violence
In the wake of clashes in Israel and Gaza, synagogues have been vandalized and Jews have been threatened and attacked.
A brick shattering a window of a kosher pizzeria on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. Jewish diners outside a sushi restaurant in Los Angeles attacked by men shouting anti-Semitic threats. Vandalism at synagogues in Arizona, Illinois and New York.
In Salt Lake City, a man scratched a swastika into the front door of an Orthodox synagogue in the early morning hours of May 16. “This was the kind of thing that would never happen in Salt Lake City,” said Rabbi Avremi Zippel, whose parents founded Chabad Lubavitch of Utah almost 30 years ago. “But it’s on the rise around the country.”
The synagogue has fortified its already substantial security measures in response. “It’s ridiculous, it’s insane that this is how we have to view houses of worship in the United States in 2021,” Rabbi Zippel said, describing fortified access points, visible guards and lighting and security camera systems. “But we will do it.”
The past several weeks have seen an outbreak of anti-Semitic threats and violence across the United States, stoking fear among Jews in small towns and major cities. During the two weeks of clashes in Israel and Gaza this month, the Anti-Defamation League collected 222 reports of anti-Semitic harassment, vandalism and violence in the United States, compared with 127 over the previous two weeks.
More...
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/26/us/a ... 778d3e6de3
In the wake of clashes in Israel and Gaza, synagogues have been vandalized and Jews have been threatened and attacked.
A brick shattering a window of a kosher pizzeria on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. Jewish diners outside a sushi restaurant in Los Angeles attacked by men shouting anti-Semitic threats. Vandalism at synagogues in Arizona, Illinois and New York.
In Salt Lake City, a man scratched a swastika into the front door of an Orthodox synagogue in the early morning hours of May 16. “This was the kind of thing that would never happen in Salt Lake City,” said Rabbi Avremi Zippel, whose parents founded Chabad Lubavitch of Utah almost 30 years ago. “But it’s on the rise around the country.”
The synagogue has fortified its already substantial security measures in response. “It’s ridiculous, it’s insane that this is how we have to view houses of worship in the United States in 2021,” Rabbi Zippel said, describing fortified access points, visible guards and lighting and security camera systems. “But we will do it.”
The past several weeks have seen an outbreak of anti-Semitic threats and violence across the United States, stoking fear among Jews in small towns and major cities. During the two weeks of clashes in Israel and Gaza this month, the Anti-Defamation League collected 222 reports of anti-Semitic harassment, vandalism and violence in the United States, compared with 127 over the previous two weeks.
More...
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/26/us/a ... 778d3e6de3
The Jewish History of Israel Is Over 3,000 Years Old. That’s Why It’s Complicated.
My first visit to Israel was when I was 12 years old. The group was led by my father, a rabbi from Philadelphia. We had been invited to participate in an archaeological dig near the city of Beit Shean, in the country’s north, near the Jordan River Valley. Soon after we arrived, one of my friends happened upon a pottery shard, really an ostracon, a fragment with writing on it. The archaeologist on site said something to him in Hebrew. My father translated: “He said you are the first person to hold that in over 2,000 years.”
Such shocks of antiquity are not rare in Israel. In 1880, archaeologists discovered a Hebrew text carved in stone in a tunnel under Jerusalem. It recounted how workers had chiseled from opposite ends of the ancient city; as they grew closer the sounds of stone cutting grew louder until they met in the middle. The tunnel is believed to be dated from the time of Hezekiah, a king who reigned 715-687 B.C., almost 3,000 years ago and 100 years before the Temple was razed, and Jews were sent into the Babylonian exile. Hezekiah ordered the tunnel’s construction to bring water from outside the city walls into the city. Jerusalem may be a city of sanctity and reverence, but its citizens needed water as much as they did God.
That intersection of the holy and mundane remains. Over the past month of crisis, turmoil, protest and death we have been inevitably captured by the situation of the present. But part of the intractability of the conflict in the Middle East is that the Jewish relationship to Israel did not begin in 1948. Our history here, of both pain and holiness, stretches back dozens of generations.
Our ancient historical markers, scattered throughout this land, are the tactile expression of Jewish memory, and an ancient spiritual yearning. For thousands of years, Jews in the Diaspora would leave a corner of their homes unpainted, to remind themselves that they were not home. They prayed in the direction of Jerusalem. They knew the geography of a land they would never see, often far better than the country in which they lived. They recited prayers for weather — in services during the winter, we yearn for rain or dew — not to help the harvests outside Vilnius or Paris or Fez, but for those in Israel, since we expected at any moment to return.
The Bible depicts an ideal land, one flowing with milk and honey. Yet Israel has always been one thing in dreams and another in the tumult of everyday life. When the five books of the Torah end, the Israelites are still in the wilderness and Moses, our leader out of Egypt, has been denied the promised land. The message is manifest: The perfect place does not yet exist, and you must enter a messy and contested land armed with the vision God has given you. Jews conclude the Passover Seder with “next year in Jerusalem.” Yet if one has the Seder in Jerusalem, the conclusion is not “next year here.” Rather, it is “next year in a rebuilt Jerusalem” — a city that reflects the ideals and aspirations of sages and prophets, one marked with piety and plenty.
For many Jews, that vision is as relevant today as it was in ancient Israel. That means the past, present and future of the land is not just an argument about settlements or structures alone, but also an ideal of a place of safety, a heavenly city on earth, one that we continue to strive and pray for, especially after the violence of these last few weeks.
Though we famously admonish ourselves to ever remember Jerusalem in Psalm 137, the sacred city of stone and tears is not the sole focus of Jewish yearning. Israel is haunted by historical memories. In the northern town of Tsfat, a pilgrim can wander among the graves of the Jewish mystics who re-established a community in that mountain town after the expulsion from Spain in 1492: Isaac Luria, who taught that God’s self-contraction made way for the world; Joseph Caro, author of the Shulchan Aruch, the authoritative code of Jewish law, who believed an angel dictated visions to him in the evening. They were joined there by Greek-born Solomon Alkabetz, who wrote the poem L’cha Dodi (Come to Me, Beloved), a lyrical love song to the Sabbath that is sung in synagogues all over the world each Friday night.
Despite the deep meditations on evil and afterlife in Jewish tradition, the concept of hell is not as developed in Judaism as in other traditions. However, there is a popular name for it: Gehenna. It derives from a place where children in antiquity were said to have been sacrificed to the pagan god Moloch.
In 1979, archaeologists began excavating in the area that is believed to be ancient Gehenna. Not far from the walls of the Old City of Jerusalem, they found what is considered to be one of the oldest bits of scripture that exists in the world, more than 400 years older than the Dead Sea Scrolls. It dates from the time just before the destruction of the First Temple, the Temple of Solomon, in 586 B.C. The scorched ground yielded two rolled-up silver amulets that are on display to this day in the Israel Museum. When painstakingly unfurled, the text was almost verbatim to the Bible verses:
“May God bless you and keep you.
May God’s face shine upon you and be gracious to you.
May God turn His face toward you and give you peace.” (Numbers 6:24-26)
This is the priestly blessing, one parents recite for their children each Friday night, a fervent prayer for the future. In other words, the oldest bit of scripture that exists in the world is a blessing of peace that was snatched from hell. In that beleaguered and beautiful land, the prayer endures.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/28/opin ... 778d3e6de3
My first visit to Israel was when I was 12 years old. The group was led by my father, a rabbi from Philadelphia. We had been invited to participate in an archaeological dig near the city of Beit Shean, in the country’s north, near the Jordan River Valley. Soon after we arrived, one of my friends happened upon a pottery shard, really an ostracon, a fragment with writing on it. The archaeologist on site said something to him in Hebrew. My father translated: “He said you are the first person to hold that in over 2,000 years.”
Such shocks of antiquity are not rare in Israel. In 1880, archaeologists discovered a Hebrew text carved in stone in a tunnel under Jerusalem. It recounted how workers had chiseled from opposite ends of the ancient city; as they grew closer the sounds of stone cutting grew louder until they met in the middle. The tunnel is believed to be dated from the time of Hezekiah, a king who reigned 715-687 B.C., almost 3,000 years ago and 100 years before the Temple was razed, and Jews were sent into the Babylonian exile. Hezekiah ordered the tunnel’s construction to bring water from outside the city walls into the city. Jerusalem may be a city of sanctity and reverence, but its citizens needed water as much as they did God.
That intersection of the holy and mundane remains. Over the past month of crisis, turmoil, protest and death we have been inevitably captured by the situation of the present. But part of the intractability of the conflict in the Middle East is that the Jewish relationship to Israel did not begin in 1948. Our history here, of both pain and holiness, stretches back dozens of generations.
Our ancient historical markers, scattered throughout this land, are the tactile expression of Jewish memory, and an ancient spiritual yearning. For thousands of years, Jews in the Diaspora would leave a corner of their homes unpainted, to remind themselves that they were not home. They prayed in the direction of Jerusalem. They knew the geography of a land they would never see, often far better than the country in which they lived. They recited prayers for weather — in services during the winter, we yearn for rain or dew — not to help the harvests outside Vilnius or Paris or Fez, but for those in Israel, since we expected at any moment to return.
The Bible depicts an ideal land, one flowing with milk and honey. Yet Israel has always been one thing in dreams and another in the tumult of everyday life. When the five books of the Torah end, the Israelites are still in the wilderness and Moses, our leader out of Egypt, has been denied the promised land. The message is manifest: The perfect place does not yet exist, and you must enter a messy and contested land armed with the vision God has given you. Jews conclude the Passover Seder with “next year in Jerusalem.” Yet if one has the Seder in Jerusalem, the conclusion is not “next year here.” Rather, it is “next year in a rebuilt Jerusalem” — a city that reflects the ideals and aspirations of sages and prophets, one marked with piety and plenty.
For many Jews, that vision is as relevant today as it was in ancient Israel. That means the past, present and future of the land is not just an argument about settlements or structures alone, but also an ideal of a place of safety, a heavenly city on earth, one that we continue to strive and pray for, especially after the violence of these last few weeks.
Though we famously admonish ourselves to ever remember Jerusalem in Psalm 137, the sacred city of stone and tears is not the sole focus of Jewish yearning. Israel is haunted by historical memories. In the northern town of Tsfat, a pilgrim can wander among the graves of the Jewish mystics who re-established a community in that mountain town after the expulsion from Spain in 1492: Isaac Luria, who taught that God’s self-contraction made way for the world; Joseph Caro, author of the Shulchan Aruch, the authoritative code of Jewish law, who believed an angel dictated visions to him in the evening. They were joined there by Greek-born Solomon Alkabetz, who wrote the poem L’cha Dodi (Come to Me, Beloved), a lyrical love song to the Sabbath that is sung in synagogues all over the world each Friday night.
Despite the deep meditations on evil and afterlife in Jewish tradition, the concept of hell is not as developed in Judaism as in other traditions. However, there is a popular name for it: Gehenna. It derives from a place where children in antiquity were said to have been sacrificed to the pagan god Moloch.
In 1979, archaeologists began excavating in the area that is believed to be ancient Gehenna. Not far from the walls of the Old City of Jerusalem, they found what is considered to be one of the oldest bits of scripture that exists in the world, more than 400 years older than the Dead Sea Scrolls. It dates from the time just before the destruction of the First Temple, the Temple of Solomon, in 586 B.C. The scorched ground yielded two rolled-up silver amulets that are on display to this day in the Israel Museum. When painstakingly unfurled, the text was almost verbatim to the Bible verses:
“May God bless you and keep you.
May God’s face shine upon you and be gracious to you.
May God turn His face toward you and give you peace.” (Numbers 6:24-26)
This is the priestly blessing, one parents recite for their children each Friday night, a fervent prayer for the future. In other words, the oldest bit of scripture that exists in the world is a blessing of peace that was snatched from hell. In that beleaguered and beautiful land, the prayer endures.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/28/opin ... 778d3e6de3
‘Fear and Vigilance’: Israel’s Ultra-Orthodox Face a Fall from Power
A new coalition that aims to remove Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from office could also usher in a more liberal civil rights agenda
JERUSALEM — Still reeling from bearing the brunt of Israel’s coronavirus pandemic, then a deadly stampede at a religious festival, Israel’s ultra-Orthodox Jews now face the prospect of losing the power they have wielded in government — a setback that could relax some of the strictures on life in Israel.
The heterogeneous coalition that is emerging to replace the 12-year rule of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spans the Israeli political spectrum from left to right, including secular parties, modern Orthodox politicians from the religious Zionist camp and even a small Arab, Islamist party.
Missing are the ultra-Orthodox, or Haredim, a Hebrew term for those who tremble before God. Their political representatives have sat in most, though not all, governments of Israel since the late 1970s, when the right-wing Likud party upended decades of political hegemony by the state’s socialist founders.
Over the years, the two main Haredi parties have forged a tight alliance with Mr. Netanyahu, the Likud leader, and leveraged their role as linchpins in a series of governing coalitions. There, they have wielded what many critics view as disproportionate power over state policy that became apparent as they successfully fought or, in the case of some sects, simply refused to follow pandemic restrictions.
The influence and official privileges of the ultra-Orthodox, who make up about 13 percent of the population, have created resentment among mainstream Israelis and alienated many Jews abroad who practice less stringent forms of Judaism. The ultra-Orthodox-run Chief Rabbinate, the state religious authority, dominates official Jewish marriage, divorce and religious conversions and does not recognize the legitimacy of Reform or Conservative rabbis.
Haredi politicians promote a conservative social agenda that opposes civil marriage, gay rights, and work or public transportation on the Sabbath, often blocking a civil rights agenda held dear by many members of the new coalition. They support an independent education system that focuses on religious studies and largely shuns secular education for boys.
The Haredi parties have also secured generous state funding for their people and institutions, enabling many to engage in extended Torah study and avoid the military service that is compulsory for others.
Now Haredi rabbis are sounding the alarm.
“Fear and vigilance among Haredi Jewry,” declared HaMevaser, a daily paper representing the Hasidic wing of one of the ultra-Orthodox parties, United Torah Judaism, in a red banner headline above this week’s news of the coalition deal.
More...
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/06/worl ... iversified
A new coalition that aims to remove Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from office could also usher in a more liberal civil rights agenda
JERUSALEM — Still reeling from bearing the brunt of Israel’s coronavirus pandemic, then a deadly stampede at a religious festival, Israel’s ultra-Orthodox Jews now face the prospect of losing the power they have wielded in government — a setback that could relax some of the strictures on life in Israel.
The heterogeneous coalition that is emerging to replace the 12-year rule of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spans the Israeli political spectrum from left to right, including secular parties, modern Orthodox politicians from the religious Zionist camp and even a small Arab, Islamist party.
Missing are the ultra-Orthodox, or Haredim, a Hebrew term for those who tremble before God. Their political representatives have sat in most, though not all, governments of Israel since the late 1970s, when the right-wing Likud party upended decades of political hegemony by the state’s socialist founders.
Over the years, the two main Haredi parties have forged a tight alliance with Mr. Netanyahu, the Likud leader, and leveraged their role as linchpins in a series of governing coalitions. There, they have wielded what many critics view as disproportionate power over state policy that became apparent as they successfully fought or, in the case of some sects, simply refused to follow pandemic restrictions.
The influence and official privileges of the ultra-Orthodox, who make up about 13 percent of the population, have created resentment among mainstream Israelis and alienated many Jews abroad who practice less stringent forms of Judaism. The ultra-Orthodox-run Chief Rabbinate, the state religious authority, dominates official Jewish marriage, divorce and religious conversions and does not recognize the legitimacy of Reform or Conservative rabbis.
Haredi politicians promote a conservative social agenda that opposes civil marriage, gay rights, and work or public transportation on the Sabbath, often blocking a civil rights agenda held dear by many members of the new coalition. They support an independent education system that focuses on religious studies and largely shuns secular education for boys.
The Haredi parties have also secured generous state funding for their people and institutions, enabling many to engage in extended Torah study and avoid the military service that is compulsory for others.
Now Haredi rabbis are sounding the alarm.
“Fear and vigilance among Haredi Jewry,” declared HaMevaser, a daily paper representing the Hasidic wing of one of the ultra-Orthodox parties, United Torah Judaism, in a red banner headline above this week’s news of the coalition deal.
More...
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/06/worl ... iversified
What Jewish Students Need From University Leaders Right Now
TEL AVIV — Variations of the phrase “Hitler was right,” appeared in more than 17,000 tweets from May 7 to May 14, according to the Anti-Defamation League. Jewish college students have been attacked and threatened on online forums for expressing their values. Student governments have posted one-sided statements placing full blame for the conflict in the Middle East on Israel and have shunned American Jews and Israelis on their campuses. Jewish students have been made to feel excluded in their own communities.
None of this is acceptable, though online hate — often protected by freedom of speech rules — may seem the least pernicious of these manifestations of anti-Semitism. It is not. College students learn, work and socialize online. With the physical isolation brought about by the pandemic, virtual life has become real life for many of them. In recent weeks, the spread of hate online has become an epidemic of its own that must be confronted immediately by university leaders.
The hatred being displayed online has been accompanied by hateful activity in the physical world. An identifiably Jewish student at Princeton was reportedly subject to verbal harassment over commencement weekend. A Jewish student at the University of New Mexico was beaten and subjected to anti-Semitic slurs while wearing a shirt that said “Just Jew It.”
At the University of Michigan, “[expletive] Israel” and red handprints were painted near the Hillel building. And 60 percent of Jews in America have witnessed, either online or off, behavior or comments they deem anti-Semitic since hostilities between Israel and Hamas reignited in May.
More...
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/24/opin ... 778d3e6de3
TEL AVIV — Variations of the phrase “Hitler was right,” appeared in more than 17,000 tweets from May 7 to May 14, according to the Anti-Defamation League. Jewish college students have been attacked and threatened on online forums for expressing their values. Student governments have posted one-sided statements placing full blame for the conflict in the Middle East on Israel and have shunned American Jews and Israelis on their campuses. Jewish students have been made to feel excluded in their own communities.
None of this is acceptable, though online hate — often protected by freedom of speech rules — may seem the least pernicious of these manifestations of anti-Semitism. It is not. College students learn, work and socialize online. With the physical isolation brought about by the pandemic, virtual life has become real life for many of them. In recent weeks, the spread of hate online has become an epidemic of its own that must be confronted immediately by university leaders.
The hatred being displayed online has been accompanied by hateful activity in the physical world. An identifiably Jewish student at Princeton was reportedly subject to verbal harassment over commencement weekend. A Jewish student at the University of New Mexico was beaten and subjected to anti-Semitic slurs while wearing a shirt that said “Just Jew It.”
At the University of Michigan, “[expletive] Israel” and red handprints were painted near the Hillel building. And 60 percent of Jews in America have witnessed, either online or off, behavior or comments they deem anti-Semitic since hostilities between Israel and Hamas reignited in May.
More...
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/24/opin ... 778d3e6de3
Ontario to invest $327,000 to address antisemitism in schools
The Ontario government is investing in two summer programs to help address antisemitism in schools.
Education Minister Stephen Lecce says the province will give $327,000 to the Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center for Holocaust Studies to support the courses.
One program will provide professional development sessions for educators aimed at dismantling antisemitism in various environments.
Another will help students learn about human rights and how to deal with injustice.
Lecce says the province wants to ensure Jewish students feel safe and supported in school.
Statistics Canada says there were 296 police-reported incidents targeting Jewish people in 2019.
https://www.680news.com/2021/07/05/onta ... n-schools/
The Ontario government is investing in two summer programs to help address antisemitism in schools.
Education Minister Stephen Lecce says the province will give $327,000 to the Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center for Holocaust Studies to support the courses.
One program will provide professional development sessions for educators aimed at dismantling antisemitism in various environments.
Another will help students learn about human rights and how to deal with injustice.
Lecce says the province wants to ensure Jewish students feel safe and supported in school.
Statistics Canada says there were 296 police-reported incidents targeting Jewish people in 2019.
https://www.680news.com/2021/07/05/onta ... n-schools/
Israeli club calls off match with Barcelona over Jerusalem
FILE - In this Dec. 27, 2020 file photo, Moshe Hogeg, the owner of Israel's Beitar soccer club, speaks in an interview at the team training ground in Jerusalem. Hogeg, said Thursday, July 15, 2021, that he has called off a friendly with Barcelona over its refusal to hold the match in contested Jerusalem. Israel captured east Jerusalem in the 1967 war, annexed it in a move not recognized internationally, and considers the entire city its capital. The Palestinians seek east Jerusalem as the capital of their future state, and the city's status is one of the thorniest issues in the decades-long conflict.
More
ILAN BEN ZION
Thu, July 15, 2021, 6:43 AM
JERUSALEM (AP) — The owner of Israel's Beitar Jerusalem soccer club said Thursday that he called off a friendly match with international powerhouse Barcelona over its refusal to hold the event in contested Jerusalem.
Israel captured east Jerusalem in the 1967 war, annexed it in a move not recognized internationally, and considers the entire city its capital. The Palestinians seek east Jerusalem as the capital of their future state, and the city's status is one of the thorniest issues in the decades-long conflict.
Beitar Jerusalem owner Moshe Hogeg said he was forced to cancel the planned Aug. 4 match “with great sadness” because he refused to give in to what he said was a “political” demand.
“After I received the contract to sign and discovered the unequivocal demand that the game not take place in the capital city, Jerusalem, and several other demands that I didn’t like, I slept with a heavy heart, thought a lot and decided that above all else I am a proud Jew and Israeli,” Hogeg wrote on Facebook. “I cannot betray Jerusalem."
Jerusalem Mayor Moshe Lion expressed support for the decision, saying teams that intend to “boycott” Jerusalem should be barred from Israel altogether.
“Jerusalem is the capital of the state of Israel and the decision to boycott it is not a professional, sporting or educational decision,” he said in a statement.
Barcelona said it never officially announced the match would take place.
Beitar Jerusalem is the only major Israeli soccer club to have never signed an Arab player, and its hard-core fans have a history of racist chants.
During the team’s 2013 season, a move to bring in two Muslim players from Chechnya badly misfired. Beitar’s fan group known as La Familia led a boycott that famously left the stadium empty during a home match, and several fans were charged with torching the team’s offices while the club was nearly relegated to the second division as its season fell apart.
Hogeg, who purchased the team in 2018, has vowed to combat racism and sideline the club's anti-Arab fans.
Earlier this month the Palestinian Football Association sent a letter of protest to Barcelona over the planned game in Jerusalem.
Sami Abou Shehadeh, a Balad party lawmaker in the Israeli parliament, had also petitioned Barcelona to cancel the game, saying Beitar “represents the most extremist, racist and fascist segments of Israeli society.” Palestinian soccer clubs had also written to Barcelona urging it not to play in Jerusalem.
Argentina canceled a World Cup warmup match with Israel in 2018 following pro-Palestinian protests. Some Israeli officials accused Lionel Messi and his teammates of caving to terrorism.
The international soccer federation later imposed a year-long ban on Jibril Rajoub, the head of Palestinian soccer, for allegedly inciting fans against Argentina. Rajoub called the ban biased and “absurd.”
FIFA said Rajoub had “incited hatred and violence” by calling on soccer fans to target the Argentinian Football Association and burn jerseys and pictures of Lionel Messi.
Argentina Foreign Minister Jorge Faurie said at the time players felt “totally attacked, violated” after images emerged of the team’s white and sky-blue striped jerseys stained with red paint resembling blood.
https://currently.att.yahoo.com/news/is ... 38464.html
FILE - In this Dec. 27, 2020 file photo, Moshe Hogeg, the owner of Israel's Beitar soccer club, speaks in an interview at the team training ground in Jerusalem. Hogeg, said Thursday, July 15, 2021, that he has called off a friendly with Barcelona over its refusal to hold the match in contested Jerusalem. Israel captured east Jerusalem in the 1967 war, annexed it in a move not recognized internationally, and considers the entire city its capital. The Palestinians seek east Jerusalem as the capital of their future state, and the city's status is one of the thorniest issues in the decades-long conflict.
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ILAN BEN ZION
Thu, July 15, 2021, 6:43 AM
JERUSALEM (AP) — The owner of Israel's Beitar Jerusalem soccer club said Thursday that he called off a friendly match with international powerhouse Barcelona over its refusal to hold the event in contested Jerusalem.
Israel captured east Jerusalem in the 1967 war, annexed it in a move not recognized internationally, and considers the entire city its capital. The Palestinians seek east Jerusalem as the capital of their future state, and the city's status is one of the thorniest issues in the decades-long conflict.
Beitar Jerusalem owner Moshe Hogeg said he was forced to cancel the planned Aug. 4 match “with great sadness” because he refused to give in to what he said was a “political” demand.
“After I received the contract to sign and discovered the unequivocal demand that the game not take place in the capital city, Jerusalem, and several other demands that I didn’t like, I slept with a heavy heart, thought a lot and decided that above all else I am a proud Jew and Israeli,” Hogeg wrote on Facebook. “I cannot betray Jerusalem."
Jerusalem Mayor Moshe Lion expressed support for the decision, saying teams that intend to “boycott” Jerusalem should be barred from Israel altogether.
“Jerusalem is the capital of the state of Israel and the decision to boycott it is not a professional, sporting or educational decision,” he said in a statement.
Barcelona said it never officially announced the match would take place.
Beitar Jerusalem is the only major Israeli soccer club to have never signed an Arab player, and its hard-core fans have a history of racist chants.
During the team’s 2013 season, a move to bring in two Muslim players from Chechnya badly misfired. Beitar’s fan group known as La Familia led a boycott that famously left the stadium empty during a home match, and several fans were charged with torching the team’s offices while the club was nearly relegated to the second division as its season fell apart.
Hogeg, who purchased the team in 2018, has vowed to combat racism and sideline the club's anti-Arab fans.
Earlier this month the Palestinian Football Association sent a letter of protest to Barcelona over the planned game in Jerusalem.
Sami Abou Shehadeh, a Balad party lawmaker in the Israeli parliament, had also petitioned Barcelona to cancel the game, saying Beitar “represents the most extremist, racist and fascist segments of Israeli society.” Palestinian soccer clubs had also written to Barcelona urging it not to play in Jerusalem.
Argentina canceled a World Cup warmup match with Israel in 2018 following pro-Palestinian protests. Some Israeli officials accused Lionel Messi and his teammates of caving to terrorism.
The international soccer federation later imposed a year-long ban on Jibril Rajoub, the head of Palestinian soccer, for allegedly inciting fans against Argentina. Rajoub called the ban biased and “absurd.”
FIFA said Rajoub had “incited hatred and violence” by calling on soccer fans to target the Argentinian Football Association and burn jerseys and pictures of Lionel Messi.
Argentina Foreign Minister Jorge Faurie said at the time players felt “totally attacked, violated” after images emerged of the team’s white and sky-blue striped jerseys stained with red paint resembling blood.
https://currently.att.yahoo.com/news/is ... 38464.html
A BRIEF HISTORY OF ‘ISRAEL’ AND ‘PALESTINE’
Daniel MillerPublished July 11, 2021
On May 21, the airstrikes ended, the rockets stopped and the street fighting between Jewish and Arab Israelis abated as Israel and the militant Islamist group Hamas agreed to a ceasefire, ending the fourth war between them since 2008.
The war and the actions that culminated in it have been discussed extensively. Both sides have, as always, laid the blame for the latest hostilities at the feet of the other.
Sadly, this war and the lead up to it are just the latest entries in a long ledger written in blood and tears.
“Israel.” “Palestine.” One land, two names. Those on each side claim the land as theirs, under their chosen name.
‘Israel’
“Israel” first appears near the end of the 13th century BC within the Egyptian Merneptah Stele, referring apparently to a people (rather than a place) inhabiting what was then “Canaan.” A few centuries later in that region, we find two sister kingdoms: Israel and Judah (the origin of the term “Jew”). According to the Bible, there had first been a monarchy comprising both, apparently also called “Israel.”
In about 722 BC, the kingdom of Israel was conquered by the Neo-Assyrian empire, centred in what’s now Iraq. As an ancient geographic term, “Israel” was no more.
Judah alone
Less than a century and half later, Judah was overthrown. Its capital Jerusalem was sacked, the Jewish Temple destroyed and many of Judah’s inhabitants were exiled to Babylonia.
Following the exile’s end a little under 50 years later, the territory of the former kingdom of Judah served as the heart of Judaism for almost seven centuries (although the rebuilt Temple was again destroyed in AD 70, by the Romans).
Both Jews and Arabs have a legitimate claim to the land with two names
‘Palestine’
In AD 135, following a failed Jewish revolt, Roman Emperor Hadrian expelled the Jews from Jerusalem and decreed that the city and surrounding territory be part of a larger entity called “Syria-Palestina”. “Palestina” took its name from the coastal territory of the ancient Philistines, enemies of the Israelites (ancestors of the Jews).
Subsequent to the Islamic conquest of the Middle East in the seventh century, Arab peoples began to settle in the former “Palestina.” Apart from about 90 years of Crusader domination, the land fell under Muslim control for just under 1,200 years. Although Jewish habitation never ceased, the population was overwhelmingly Arab.
Zionism and British control
In the second half of the 19th century, the longstanding yearning of Jews in the Diaspora to return to the territory of their ancestors culminated in the nationalistic movement called Zionism.
The Zionist cause was driven by steeply rising hatred toward Jews in Europe and Russia. Immigrating Jews encountered a predominantly Arab populace, who also considered it their ancestral homeland.
At that time, the land comprised three administrative regions of the Ottoman empire, none of which was called “Palestine”.
In 1917, the land came under British rule. In 1923, “Mandatory Palestine,” which also included the current state of Jordan, was created. Its Arab inhabitants saw themselves primarily not as “Palestinians” in the sense of a nation, but instead as Arabs living in Palestine (or rather, “Greater Syria”).
The State of Israel
Zionist leaders in Mandatory Palestine strove hard to increase Jewish numbers to solidify claims to statehood, but in 1939 the British strictly limited Jewish immigration.
Ultimately, the Zionist project succeeded because of global horror in response to the Holocaust.
In November 1947, the United Nations General Assembly passed Resolution 181, partitioning the land into “Independent Arab and Jewish States.” The resolution met immediate Arab rejection. Palestinian militias attacked Jewish settlements.
On May 14, 1948, the Zionist leadership declared the founding of the state of Israel.
‘The War of Independence’/Al-Nakba
The new Jewish state was immediately invaded by the armies of several Arab countries, alongside Palestinian militants. By the time the fighting ended the next year, the Palestinians had lost almost four-fifths of their United Nations allotment. Seven hundred thousand of them had been driven from their homes, with no right of return to the present day.
For Jewish Israelis, it’s known as the “War of Independence.” For Palestinians, it was al-Nakba — “the Catastrophe.”
Read: Palestinians use online tools to mark 1948 ‘Nakba’
On November 15, 1988, the Palestinian National Council issued a declaration of independence, recognized a month later by the UN General Assembly. Approximately three-quarters of the UN’s membership now accepts the statehood of Palestine, which has non-member observer status.
Diverging fortunes, constant hostilities
Despite multiple wars with Arab states and militant groups, Israel has flourished. Palestinians have struggled to establish functional governance and economic stability.
In the Six-Day War of June 1967, Israel repelled a true existential threat, routing a heavy Arab military force massed at its borders. Israel’s seizure of East Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza during the war has left Palestinians under various forms of painful Israeli occupation or control.
Throughout the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, many more Palestinians than Jewish Israelis have been killed and wounded, in part due to Israel’s advanced military capability but also to the well-documented Hamas strategy of situating command centres within civilian areas.
Jewish Israelis have experienced two violent Palestinian Intifadas (1987–1993; 2001–2005), the second of which saw a wave of deadly suicide bombings and ambushes.
In response, Israel erected its Security Barrier, which has essentially eliminated Palestinian terrorist attacks but added further to the pain of Palestinian civilians.
Since the 1990s, there have been several failed attempts to negotiate a two-state solution.
Under Israel’s longest-serving prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, Jewish settlement in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, viewed as illegal by much of the world, accelerated — making any future talks even more difficult.
Second-class citizens
About 20 percent of Israel’s citizenry is Arab. Unfortunately, Arab Israelis are largely treated as second-class citizens within the officially Jewish state.
The recent defeat of Netanyahu could help to address this — Israel now has a governing coalition that includes an Arab Israeli party.
Taking stock
By more than 1,000 years, “Israel” predates “Palestine”. The land then became home primarily to an Arab population, again for more than a millennium. Both Jews and Arabs thus have a legitimate claim to the land.
The Israeli-Palestinian conflict has seen myriad wrongs and brutalities on both sides. No act of vengeance, however extreme, could now allow one party to say that accounts had been settled on their side.
The only way forward is, somehow, to cease looking backwards.
In an inversion of the Nile’s transformation in the Bible, the rivers of blood spilled must become water under the bridge.
The writer is Associate Professor of Religion, Society and Culture, Bishop’s University
Republished from The Conversation
Published in Dawn, EOS, July 11th, 2021
https://www.dawn.com/news/1633998/a-bri ... -palestine
Daniel MillerPublished July 11, 2021
On May 21, the airstrikes ended, the rockets stopped and the street fighting between Jewish and Arab Israelis abated as Israel and the militant Islamist group Hamas agreed to a ceasefire, ending the fourth war between them since 2008.
The war and the actions that culminated in it have been discussed extensively. Both sides have, as always, laid the blame for the latest hostilities at the feet of the other.
Sadly, this war and the lead up to it are just the latest entries in a long ledger written in blood and tears.
“Israel.” “Palestine.” One land, two names. Those on each side claim the land as theirs, under their chosen name.
‘Israel’
“Israel” first appears near the end of the 13th century BC within the Egyptian Merneptah Stele, referring apparently to a people (rather than a place) inhabiting what was then “Canaan.” A few centuries later in that region, we find two sister kingdoms: Israel and Judah (the origin of the term “Jew”). According to the Bible, there had first been a monarchy comprising both, apparently also called “Israel.”
In about 722 BC, the kingdom of Israel was conquered by the Neo-Assyrian empire, centred in what’s now Iraq. As an ancient geographic term, “Israel” was no more.
Judah alone
Less than a century and half later, Judah was overthrown. Its capital Jerusalem was sacked, the Jewish Temple destroyed and many of Judah’s inhabitants were exiled to Babylonia.
Following the exile’s end a little under 50 years later, the territory of the former kingdom of Judah served as the heart of Judaism for almost seven centuries (although the rebuilt Temple was again destroyed in AD 70, by the Romans).
Both Jews and Arabs have a legitimate claim to the land with two names
‘Palestine’
In AD 135, following a failed Jewish revolt, Roman Emperor Hadrian expelled the Jews from Jerusalem and decreed that the city and surrounding territory be part of a larger entity called “Syria-Palestina”. “Palestina” took its name from the coastal territory of the ancient Philistines, enemies of the Israelites (ancestors of the Jews).
Subsequent to the Islamic conquest of the Middle East in the seventh century, Arab peoples began to settle in the former “Palestina.” Apart from about 90 years of Crusader domination, the land fell under Muslim control for just under 1,200 years. Although Jewish habitation never ceased, the population was overwhelmingly Arab.
Zionism and British control
In the second half of the 19th century, the longstanding yearning of Jews in the Diaspora to return to the territory of their ancestors culminated in the nationalistic movement called Zionism.
The Zionist cause was driven by steeply rising hatred toward Jews in Europe and Russia. Immigrating Jews encountered a predominantly Arab populace, who also considered it their ancestral homeland.
At that time, the land comprised three administrative regions of the Ottoman empire, none of which was called “Palestine”.
In 1917, the land came under British rule. In 1923, “Mandatory Palestine,” which also included the current state of Jordan, was created. Its Arab inhabitants saw themselves primarily not as “Palestinians” in the sense of a nation, but instead as Arabs living in Palestine (or rather, “Greater Syria”).
The State of Israel
Zionist leaders in Mandatory Palestine strove hard to increase Jewish numbers to solidify claims to statehood, but in 1939 the British strictly limited Jewish immigration.
Ultimately, the Zionist project succeeded because of global horror in response to the Holocaust.
In November 1947, the United Nations General Assembly passed Resolution 181, partitioning the land into “Independent Arab and Jewish States.” The resolution met immediate Arab rejection. Palestinian militias attacked Jewish settlements.
On May 14, 1948, the Zionist leadership declared the founding of the state of Israel.
‘The War of Independence’/Al-Nakba
The new Jewish state was immediately invaded by the armies of several Arab countries, alongside Palestinian militants. By the time the fighting ended the next year, the Palestinians had lost almost four-fifths of their United Nations allotment. Seven hundred thousand of them had been driven from their homes, with no right of return to the present day.
For Jewish Israelis, it’s known as the “War of Independence.” For Palestinians, it was al-Nakba — “the Catastrophe.”
Read: Palestinians use online tools to mark 1948 ‘Nakba’
On November 15, 1988, the Palestinian National Council issued a declaration of independence, recognized a month later by the UN General Assembly. Approximately three-quarters of the UN’s membership now accepts the statehood of Palestine, which has non-member observer status.
Diverging fortunes, constant hostilities
Despite multiple wars with Arab states and militant groups, Israel has flourished. Palestinians have struggled to establish functional governance and economic stability.
In the Six-Day War of June 1967, Israel repelled a true existential threat, routing a heavy Arab military force massed at its borders. Israel’s seizure of East Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza during the war has left Palestinians under various forms of painful Israeli occupation or control.
Throughout the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, many more Palestinians than Jewish Israelis have been killed and wounded, in part due to Israel’s advanced military capability but also to the well-documented Hamas strategy of situating command centres within civilian areas.
Jewish Israelis have experienced two violent Palestinian Intifadas (1987–1993; 2001–2005), the second of which saw a wave of deadly suicide bombings and ambushes.
In response, Israel erected its Security Barrier, which has essentially eliminated Palestinian terrorist attacks but added further to the pain of Palestinian civilians.
Since the 1990s, there have been several failed attempts to negotiate a two-state solution.
Under Israel’s longest-serving prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, Jewish settlement in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, viewed as illegal by much of the world, accelerated — making any future talks even more difficult.
Second-class citizens
About 20 percent of Israel’s citizenry is Arab. Unfortunately, Arab Israelis are largely treated as second-class citizens within the officially Jewish state.
The recent defeat of Netanyahu could help to address this — Israel now has a governing coalition that includes an Arab Israeli party.
Taking stock
By more than 1,000 years, “Israel” predates “Palestine”. The land then became home primarily to an Arab population, again for more than a millennium. Both Jews and Arabs thus have a legitimate claim to the land.
The Israeli-Palestinian conflict has seen myriad wrongs and brutalities on both sides. No act of vengeance, however extreme, could now allow one party to say that accounts had been settled on their side.
The only way forward is, somehow, to cease looking backwards.
In an inversion of the Nile’s transformation in the Bible, the rivers of blood spilled must become water under the bridge.
The writer is Associate Professor of Religion, Society and Culture, Bishop’s University
Republished from The Conversation
Published in Dawn, EOS, July 11th, 2021
https://www.dawn.com/news/1633998/a-bri ... -palestine
Associated Press
Hundreds of Jews visit contested holy site in Jerusalem
Israel Tisha B'Av
An Israeli police officer stands guard as Jewish men visit the Dome of the Rock Mosque in the Al Aqsa Mosque compound, during the annual mourning ritual of Tisha B'Av (the ninth of Av) -- a day of fasting and a memorial day, commemorating the destruction of ancient Jerusalem temples, in the Old City of Jerusalem, Sunday, July 18, 2021. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)
Sun, July 18, 2021, 2:31 PM
JERUSALEM (AP) — Hundreds of Jewish pilgrims visited a contested Jerusalem holy site under heavy police guard on Sunday, shortly after Muslim worshippers briefly clashed with Israeli security forces at the flashpoint shrine.
No injuries were reported, but the incident again raised tensions at the hilltop compound revered by Jews and Muslims. Heavy clashes at the site earlier this year helped spark an 11-day war between Israel and Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip.
Jews revere the site as the Temple Mount, where the biblical Temples once stood. It is the holiest site in Judaism. Today, it is home to the Al Aqsa Mosque, the third-holiest site in Islam. Tensions at the compound have frequently spilled over into violence over the years.
The Jews were visiting to mark Tisha B’Av, a day of mourning and repentance when Jews reflect on the destruction of the First and Second Temples, key events in Jewish history.
The Islamic Waqf, which administers the site, said that some 1,500 Jews entered the compound -- a number much higher than on typical days. It accused Israeli police of using heavy-handed tactics and said some visitors violated a long-standing status quo agreement barring Jews from praying at the site.
Ahead of the visit, Israeli police said a small group of Muslim youths threw rocks at security forces who quickly secured the area. Amateur video showed police firing what appeared to be rubber bullets, a common crowd-control tactic, and Muslim worshippers were barred from entering the compound for several hours.
In a statement, the Wafq, the Islamic body that administers the site, accused Israel of “violating the sanctity” of the mosque by allowing “Jewish extremists to storm the mosque, make provocative tours and perform public prayers and rituals.”
It said the area “is a purely Islamic mosque that will not accept division or partnership.”
The visit came days before Muslims celebrate the festival of Eid al-Àdha, or Feast of the Sacrifice.
Nabil Abu Rdeneh, spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, accused Israel of “dragging the region into a religious war.”
Jordan, which serves as the custodian over Muslim sites in Jerusalem, said it had sent a letter of protest to Israel and urged it to respect the status quo.
“The Israeli actions against the mosque are rejected and condemned,” said Daifallah al-Fayez, spokesman for Jordan’s Foreign Ministry.
Israel’s new prime minister, Naftali Bennett, praised police for their handling of the visit and vowed to protect “freedom of worship” for Jews and Muslims at the site.
His comments raised speculation that Israel might be trying to change the norms of the site to allow Jewish prayer.
But Public Security Minister Omer Bar-Lev told Channel 13 that Israel remains committed to the status quo and that Jewish prayer at the site is “against the law.”
https://currently.att.yahoo.com/news/hu ... 56987.html
Hundreds of Jews visit contested holy site in Jerusalem
Israel Tisha B'Av
An Israeli police officer stands guard as Jewish men visit the Dome of the Rock Mosque in the Al Aqsa Mosque compound, during the annual mourning ritual of Tisha B'Av (the ninth of Av) -- a day of fasting and a memorial day, commemorating the destruction of ancient Jerusalem temples, in the Old City of Jerusalem, Sunday, July 18, 2021. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)
Sun, July 18, 2021, 2:31 PM
JERUSALEM (AP) — Hundreds of Jewish pilgrims visited a contested Jerusalem holy site under heavy police guard on Sunday, shortly after Muslim worshippers briefly clashed with Israeli security forces at the flashpoint shrine.
No injuries were reported, but the incident again raised tensions at the hilltop compound revered by Jews and Muslims. Heavy clashes at the site earlier this year helped spark an 11-day war between Israel and Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip.
Jews revere the site as the Temple Mount, where the biblical Temples once stood. It is the holiest site in Judaism. Today, it is home to the Al Aqsa Mosque, the third-holiest site in Islam. Tensions at the compound have frequently spilled over into violence over the years.
The Jews were visiting to mark Tisha B’Av, a day of mourning and repentance when Jews reflect on the destruction of the First and Second Temples, key events in Jewish history.
The Islamic Waqf, which administers the site, said that some 1,500 Jews entered the compound -- a number much higher than on typical days. It accused Israeli police of using heavy-handed tactics and said some visitors violated a long-standing status quo agreement barring Jews from praying at the site.
Ahead of the visit, Israeli police said a small group of Muslim youths threw rocks at security forces who quickly secured the area. Amateur video showed police firing what appeared to be rubber bullets, a common crowd-control tactic, and Muslim worshippers were barred from entering the compound for several hours.
In a statement, the Wafq, the Islamic body that administers the site, accused Israel of “violating the sanctity” of the mosque by allowing “Jewish extremists to storm the mosque, make provocative tours and perform public prayers and rituals.”
It said the area “is a purely Islamic mosque that will not accept division or partnership.”
The visit came days before Muslims celebrate the festival of Eid al-Àdha, or Feast of the Sacrifice.
Nabil Abu Rdeneh, spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, accused Israel of “dragging the region into a religious war.”
Jordan, which serves as the custodian over Muslim sites in Jerusalem, said it had sent a letter of protest to Israel and urged it to respect the status quo.
“The Israeli actions against the mosque are rejected and condemned,” said Daifallah al-Fayez, spokesman for Jordan’s Foreign Ministry.
Israel’s new prime minister, Naftali Bennett, praised police for their handling of the visit and vowed to protect “freedom of worship” for Jews and Muslims at the site.
His comments raised speculation that Israel might be trying to change the norms of the site to allow Jewish prayer.
But Public Security Minister Omer Bar-Lev told Channel 13 that Israel remains committed to the status quo and that Jewish prayer at the site is “against the law.”
https://currently.att.yahoo.com/news/hu ... 56987.html
Trudeau participated in a national summit on antisemitism along with community leaders and cabinet ministers. 1:50
Watch video of his statement on antisemitism at:
https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/antise ... -1.6108509
Watch video of his statement on antisemitism at:
https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/antise ... -1.6108509
Israel launches maximum pressure campaign against Ben & Jerry's
Barak Ravid
Tue, July 27, 2021, 12:30 PM
The Israeli government has formed a special task force to pressure Ben & Jerry's ice cream and its parent company Unilever to reverse their decision to boycott Israeli settlements in the West Bank, Israeli officials tell me.
Why it matters: The Israeli government is concerned the move by Ben & Jerry's will encourage other international companies to take similar steps to differentiate between Israel and the West Bank settlements. A classified Foreign Ministry cable, seen by Axios, makes clear the government wants to send a message.
Get market news worthy of your time with Axios Markets. Subscribe for free.
Driving the news: Last week, Ben & Jerry's announced that from January 2023 they will no longer allow their Israeli franchisee to market their ice cream in the settlements, but will continue to sell it within Israel’s pre-1967 borders.
That decision from the company, which has taken political positions on a range of issues, came after almost a decade of pressure from pro-Palestinian activists. In the past, the Israeli government managed to convince Ben & Jerry's not to take such steps.
But after the recent fighting in Gaza, the pressure on the company increased. In the last two weeks, it became clear that a decision to boycott the settlements was imminent.
The Israeli government tried to press Unilever to stop Ben & Jerry's from making that decision, but Unilever said the company had the right to take such steps as part of its corporate responsibility and social justice policy.
Behind the scenes: On July 22, the Israeli Foreign Ministry sent a classified cable to all Israeli diplomatic missions in North America and Europe ordering them to start a pressure campaign against Ben & Jerry's and Unilever in order to convince them to negotiate.
Israeli diplomats were instructed to encourage Jewish organizations, pro-Israel advocacy groups and evangelical communities to organize demonstrations in front of Ben & Jerry's and Unilever offices and put pressure on investors and distributors for both companies.
The Foreign Ministry also asked the diplomats to push for public statements condemning the companies and to “encourage public protests in the media and directly with key executives in both companies." The diplomats were also instructed to echo those protests on social media for maximum visibility.
The Israeli Embassy in Washington and the Israeli Consulates around the U.S. were asked to push for the activation of anti-BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) legislation in several states and to engage with governors, mayors, members of Congress and state officials like attorneys general.
What they're saying: “We need to make use of the 18 months that are left until the decision comes into force and try to change it. We want to create long-term pressure on Unilever and Ben & Jerry's by consumers, politicians, and in the press and social media in order to lead to a dialogue with the companies," the cable said.
It added that Ben & Jerry's and Unilever “caved and cooperated with the BDS movement" which it claimed was partially "motivated by antisemitism." The cable also said the companies' decision was "hypocritical, goes against the values of corporate responsibility and smells like extreme cancel culture."
Worth noting: The statement from Ben & Jerry's didn't mention BDS, but said it was "inconsistent with our values" to sell ice cream in "Occupied Palestinian Territory."
What’s next: The Israeli Foreign Ministry instructed diplomats to immediately report any new information about efforts by BDS activists to press more companies to follow Ben & Jerry's.
https://currently.att.yahoo.com/news/is ... 14955.html
Barak Ravid
Tue, July 27, 2021, 12:30 PM
The Israeli government has formed a special task force to pressure Ben & Jerry's ice cream and its parent company Unilever to reverse their decision to boycott Israeli settlements in the West Bank, Israeli officials tell me.
Why it matters: The Israeli government is concerned the move by Ben & Jerry's will encourage other international companies to take similar steps to differentiate between Israel and the West Bank settlements. A classified Foreign Ministry cable, seen by Axios, makes clear the government wants to send a message.
Get market news worthy of your time with Axios Markets. Subscribe for free.
Driving the news: Last week, Ben & Jerry's announced that from January 2023 they will no longer allow their Israeli franchisee to market their ice cream in the settlements, but will continue to sell it within Israel’s pre-1967 borders.
That decision from the company, which has taken political positions on a range of issues, came after almost a decade of pressure from pro-Palestinian activists. In the past, the Israeli government managed to convince Ben & Jerry's not to take such steps.
But after the recent fighting in Gaza, the pressure on the company increased. In the last two weeks, it became clear that a decision to boycott the settlements was imminent.
The Israeli government tried to press Unilever to stop Ben & Jerry's from making that decision, but Unilever said the company had the right to take such steps as part of its corporate responsibility and social justice policy.
Behind the scenes: On July 22, the Israeli Foreign Ministry sent a classified cable to all Israeli diplomatic missions in North America and Europe ordering them to start a pressure campaign against Ben & Jerry's and Unilever in order to convince them to negotiate.
Israeli diplomats were instructed to encourage Jewish organizations, pro-Israel advocacy groups and evangelical communities to organize demonstrations in front of Ben & Jerry's and Unilever offices and put pressure on investors and distributors for both companies.
The Foreign Ministry also asked the diplomats to push for public statements condemning the companies and to “encourage public protests in the media and directly with key executives in both companies." The diplomats were also instructed to echo those protests on social media for maximum visibility.
The Israeli Embassy in Washington and the Israeli Consulates around the U.S. were asked to push for the activation of anti-BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) legislation in several states and to engage with governors, mayors, members of Congress and state officials like attorneys general.
What they're saying: “We need to make use of the 18 months that are left until the decision comes into force and try to change it. We want to create long-term pressure on Unilever and Ben & Jerry's by consumers, politicians, and in the press and social media in order to lead to a dialogue with the companies," the cable said.
It added that Ben & Jerry's and Unilever “caved and cooperated with the BDS movement" which it claimed was partially "motivated by antisemitism." The cable also said the companies' decision was "hypocritical, goes against the values of corporate responsibility and smells like extreme cancel culture."
Worth noting: The statement from Ben & Jerry's didn't mention BDS, but said it was "inconsistent with our values" to sell ice cream in "Occupied Palestinian Territory."
What’s next: The Israeli Foreign Ministry instructed diplomats to immediately report any new information about efforts by BDS activists to press more companies to follow Ben & Jerry's.
https://currently.att.yahoo.com/news/is ... 14955.html
An Iranian athlete left his country after being told to lose on purpose, won silver at the Olympics for Mongolia, and dedicated the medal to Israel
An Iranian athlete left his country after being told to lose on purpose, won silver at the Olympics for Mongolia, and dedicated the medal to Israel
Jackson Thompson
Wed, July 28, 2021, 10:12 AM
Iranian Judo athlete
Saeid Mollaei with his silver medal at the Tokyo Olympics. Harry How/Getty Images, Artur Widak/NurPhoto via Getty Images
Saeid Mollaei won a silver medal in judo at the Tokyo Olympics on Tuesday.
Mollaei, who is originally from Iran but is representing Mongolia, dedicated the medal to Israel.
Mollaei left Iran two years ago after he was told to lose on purpose to avoid an Israeli opponent.
Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.
Saeid Mollaei won silver in judo at the Tokyo Olympics on Tuesday, then used his victory to honor the enemy of his home country.
Mollaei, who is originally from Iran but is competing for Mongolia, dedicated his silver medal to Israel. Iran and Israel have been in a proxy conflict since 1985.
According to The Jerusalem Post, Mollaei told an Israeli sports channel, "Thank you to Israel for all the good energy." He added, "This medal is dedicated to you as well, and I hope Israelis is happy with this victory, todah," which means "thank you" in Hebrew.
Mollaei's abandonment of Iran stems from an incident at the 2019 World Judo Championships in Tokyo.
There, Mollaei represented Iran and advanced to the semifinal. He was looking to defend his championship after winning gold at the previous year's event in Azerbaijan. But Iranian authorities ordered him to intentionally lose the match to ensure he wouldn't have to face the Israeli champion Sagi Muki in the final, he said.
The International Judo Federation this year called Iran's tampering "a serious breach and gross violation of the statutes of the IJF, its legitimate interests, its principles and objectives" and suspended the country from the event for four years.
After exposing what Iranian authorities had forced him to do, Mollaei fled the country and went into hiding. He found asylum in Germany in August 2019 on a two-year visa, then became a citizen of Mongolia in December 2019.
Mollaei and Muki went on to develop a friendship - they each spent the next two years preparing for the Olympics and cheering each other on at various international competitions.
Muki lost in the Olympic quarterfinal earlier on Tuesday but said he was happy to see Mollaei win silver.
"I'm super happy for Saeid," Muki said, according to The Times of Israel. "I know what he's gone through, and how much he wanted it. He's a very close friend of mine, and I'm so happy that he succeeded in achieving his dream. He deserves it - his journey is incredibly inspiring."
When Mollaei competed at an international judo competition in Tel Aviv in February, he lauded the hospitality of the Israeli people.
Israelis "have been very good to me since I arrived," Mollaei said, according to CNN. "Today I have trained with the Israeli team and they have been very kind. That is something I will never forget."
Mollaei and Muki's friendship is even being adapted into a scripted TV series - they sold the rights to their story to MGM/UA Television and Israel's Tadmor Entertainment
https://currently.att.yahoo.com/news/ir ... 14644.html
An Iranian athlete left his country after being told to lose on purpose, won silver at the Olympics for Mongolia, and dedicated the medal to Israel
Jackson Thompson
Wed, July 28, 2021, 10:12 AM
Iranian Judo athlete
Saeid Mollaei with his silver medal at the Tokyo Olympics. Harry How/Getty Images, Artur Widak/NurPhoto via Getty Images
Saeid Mollaei won a silver medal in judo at the Tokyo Olympics on Tuesday.
Mollaei, who is originally from Iran but is representing Mongolia, dedicated the medal to Israel.
Mollaei left Iran two years ago after he was told to lose on purpose to avoid an Israeli opponent.
Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.
Saeid Mollaei won silver in judo at the Tokyo Olympics on Tuesday, then used his victory to honor the enemy of his home country.
Mollaei, who is originally from Iran but is competing for Mongolia, dedicated his silver medal to Israel. Iran and Israel have been in a proxy conflict since 1985.
According to The Jerusalem Post, Mollaei told an Israeli sports channel, "Thank you to Israel for all the good energy." He added, "This medal is dedicated to you as well, and I hope Israelis is happy with this victory, todah," which means "thank you" in Hebrew.
Mollaei's abandonment of Iran stems from an incident at the 2019 World Judo Championships in Tokyo.
There, Mollaei represented Iran and advanced to the semifinal. He was looking to defend his championship after winning gold at the previous year's event in Azerbaijan. But Iranian authorities ordered him to intentionally lose the match to ensure he wouldn't have to face the Israeli champion Sagi Muki in the final, he said.
The International Judo Federation this year called Iran's tampering "a serious breach and gross violation of the statutes of the IJF, its legitimate interests, its principles and objectives" and suspended the country from the event for four years.
After exposing what Iranian authorities had forced him to do, Mollaei fled the country and went into hiding. He found asylum in Germany in August 2019 on a two-year visa, then became a citizen of Mongolia in December 2019.
Mollaei and Muki went on to develop a friendship - they each spent the next two years preparing for the Olympics and cheering each other on at various international competitions.
Muki lost in the Olympic quarterfinal earlier on Tuesday but said he was happy to see Mollaei win silver.
"I'm super happy for Saeid," Muki said, according to The Times of Israel. "I know what he's gone through, and how much he wanted it. He's a very close friend of mine, and I'm so happy that he succeeded in achieving his dream. He deserves it - his journey is incredibly inspiring."
When Mollaei competed at an international judo competition in Tel Aviv in February, he lauded the hospitality of the Israeli people.
Israelis "have been very good to me since I arrived," Mollaei said, according to CNN. "Today I have trained with the Israeli team and they have been very kind. That is something I will never forget."
Mollaei and Muki's friendship is even being adapted into a scripted TV series - they sold the rights to their story to MGM/UA Television and Israel's Tadmor Entertainment
https://currently.att.yahoo.com/news/ir ... 14644.html
Associated Press
A birthday gift: Israeli woman donates kidney to Gaza boy
Idit Harel Segal, who donated a kidney to a Palestinian child from the Gaza Strip, poses for a portrait in her home in Eshhar, northern Israel, Tuesday, July 13, 2021. (AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo)
Idit Harel Segal, who donated a kidney to a Palestinian child from the Gaza Strip, holds with the letter she wrote to the boy, handwritten in Hebrew before giving him an Arabic translation, in her home in Eshhar, northern Israel, Tuesday, July 13, 2021. (AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo)
One Good Thing Israel Kidney Donor
LAURIE KELLMAN
Wed, July 28, 2021, 12:44 AM
ESHHAR, Israel (AP) — Idit Harel Segal was turning 50, and she had chosen a gift: She was going to give one of her own kidneys to a stranger.
The kindergarten teacher from northern Israel, a proud Israeli, hoped her choice would set an example of generosity in a land of perpetual conflict. She was spurred by memories of her late grandfather, a Holocaust survivor, who told her to live meaningfully, and by Jewish tradition, which holds that there’s no higher duty than saving a life.
So Segal contacted a group that links donors and recipients, launching a nine-month process to transfer her kidney to someone who needed one.
That someone turned out to be a 3-year-old Palestinian boy from the Gaza Strip.
“You don’t know me, but soon we’ll be very close because my kidney will be in your body,” Segal wrote in Hebrew to the boy, whose family asked not to be named due to the sensitivities over cooperating with Israelis. A friend translated the letter into Arabic so the family might understand. “I hope with all my heart that this surgery will succeed and you will live a long and healthy and meaningful life.”
Just after an 11-day war, “I threw away the anger and frustration and see only one thing. I see hope for peace and love,” she wrote. “And if there will be more like us, there won’t be anything to fight over.”
What unfolded over the months between Segal’s decision and the June 16 transplant caused deep rifts in the family. Her husband and the oldest of her three children, a son in his early 20s, opposed the plan. Her father stopped talking to her.
To them, Segal recalled, she was unnecessarily risking her life. The loss of three relatives in Palestinian attacks, including her father's parents, made it even more difficult.
“My family was really against it. Everyone was against it. My husband, my sister, her husband. And the one who supported me the least was my father,” Segal said during a recent interview in her mountaintop home in Eshhar. “They were afraid.”
When she learned the boy’s identity, she kept the details to herself for months.
“I told no one,” Segal recalled. “I told myself if the reaction to the kidney donation is so harsh, so obviously the fact that a Palestinian boy is getting it will make it even harsher.”
Israel has maintained a tight blockade over Gaza since Hamas, an Islamic militant group that opposes Israel’s existence, seized control of the area in 2007.
The bitter enemies have fought four wars since then, and few Gazans are allowed to enter Israel. With Gaza’s health care system ravaged by years of conflict and the blockade, Israel grants entry permits to small numbers of medical patients in need of serious treatments on humanitarian grounds.
Matnat Chaim, a nongovernmental organization in Jerusalem, coordinated the exchange, said the group’s chief executive, Sharona Sherman.
The case of the Gaza boy was complicated. To speed up the process, his father, who was not a match for his son, was told by the hospital that if he were to donate a kidney to an Israeli recipient, the boy would “immediately go to the top of the list,” Sherman said.
On the same day his son received a new kidney, the father donated one of his own — to a 25-year-old Israeli mother of two.
In some countries, reciprocity is not permitted because it raises the question of whether the donor has been coerced. The whole ethic of organ donation is based on the principle that the donors should give of their own free will and get nothing in return.
In Israel, the father’s donation is seen as an incentive to increase the pool of donors.
For Segal, the gift that had sparked such conflict in her family accomplished more than she hoped. Her kidney has helped save the boy’s life, generated a second donation and established new links between members of perpetually warring groups in one of the world’s most intractable conflicts. She said she visited the boy on the eve of his surgery and maintains contact with his parents.
Segal said she honored her grandfather in a way that helps her cope with the grief of his death five years ago. The donation was an act of autonomy, she said, and she never wavered. And eventually her family came around — a gift, perhaps, in itself.
She said her husband understands better now, as do her children. And on the eve of Segal’s surgery, her father called.
“I don’t remember what he said because he was crying,” Segal said. Then, she told him that her kidney was going to a Palestinian boy.
For a moment, there was silence. And then her father spoke.
“Well,” he said, “he needs life, also.”
https://currently.att.yahoo.com/news/bi ... 27159.html
A birthday gift: Israeli woman donates kidney to Gaza boy
Idit Harel Segal, who donated a kidney to a Palestinian child from the Gaza Strip, poses for a portrait in her home in Eshhar, northern Israel, Tuesday, July 13, 2021. (AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo)
Idit Harel Segal, who donated a kidney to a Palestinian child from the Gaza Strip, holds with the letter she wrote to the boy, handwritten in Hebrew before giving him an Arabic translation, in her home in Eshhar, northern Israel, Tuesday, July 13, 2021. (AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo)
One Good Thing Israel Kidney Donor
LAURIE KELLMAN
Wed, July 28, 2021, 12:44 AM
ESHHAR, Israel (AP) — Idit Harel Segal was turning 50, and she had chosen a gift: She was going to give one of her own kidneys to a stranger.
The kindergarten teacher from northern Israel, a proud Israeli, hoped her choice would set an example of generosity in a land of perpetual conflict. She was spurred by memories of her late grandfather, a Holocaust survivor, who told her to live meaningfully, and by Jewish tradition, which holds that there’s no higher duty than saving a life.
So Segal contacted a group that links donors and recipients, launching a nine-month process to transfer her kidney to someone who needed one.
That someone turned out to be a 3-year-old Palestinian boy from the Gaza Strip.
“You don’t know me, but soon we’ll be very close because my kidney will be in your body,” Segal wrote in Hebrew to the boy, whose family asked not to be named due to the sensitivities over cooperating with Israelis. A friend translated the letter into Arabic so the family might understand. “I hope with all my heart that this surgery will succeed and you will live a long and healthy and meaningful life.”
Just after an 11-day war, “I threw away the anger and frustration and see only one thing. I see hope for peace and love,” she wrote. “And if there will be more like us, there won’t be anything to fight over.”
What unfolded over the months between Segal’s decision and the June 16 transplant caused deep rifts in the family. Her husband and the oldest of her three children, a son in his early 20s, opposed the plan. Her father stopped talking to her.
To them, Segal recalled, she was unnecessarily risking her life. The loss of three relatives in Palestinian attacks, including her father's parents, made it even more difficult.
“My family was really against it. Everyone was against it. My husband, my sister, her husband. And the one who supported me the least was my father,” Segal said during a recent interview in her mountaintop home in Eshhar. “They were afraid.”
When she learned the boy’s identity, she kept the details to herself for months.
“I told no one,” Segal recalled. “I told myself if the reaction to the kidney donation is so harsh, so obviously the fact that a Palestinian boy is getting it will make it even harsher.”
Israel has maintained a tight blockade over Gaza since Hamas, an Islamic militant group that opposes Israel’s existence, seized control of the area in 2007.
The bitter enemies have fought four wars since then, and few Gazans are allowed to enter Israel. With Gaza’s health care system ravaged by years of conflict and the blockade, Israel grants entry permits to small numbers of medical patients in need of serious treatments on humanitarian grounds.
Matnat Chaim, a nongovernmental organization in Jerusalem, coordinated the exchange, said the group’s chief executive, Sharona Sherman.
The case of the Gaza boy was complicated. To speed up the process, his father, who was not a match for his son, was told by the hospital that if he were to donate a kidney to an Israeli recipient, the boy would “immediately go to the top of the list,” Sherman said.
On the same day his son received a new kidney, the father donated one of his own — to a 25-year-old Israeli mother of two.
In some countries, reciprocity is not permitted because it raises the question of whether the donor has been coerced. The whole ethic of organ donation is based on the principle that the donors should give of their own free will and get nothing in return.
In Israel, the father’s donation is seen as an incentive to increase the pool of donors.
For Segal, the gift that had sparked such conflict in her family accomplished more than she hoped. Her kidney has helped save the boy’s life, generated a second donation and established new links between members of perpetually warring groups in one of the world’s most intractable conflicts. She said she visited the boy on the eve of his surgery and maintains contact with his parents.
Segal said she honored her grandfather in a way that helps her cope with the grief of his death five years ago. The donation was an act of autonomy, she said, and she never wavered. And eventually her family came around — a gift, perhaps, in itself.
She said her husband understands better now, as do her children. And on the eve of Segal’s surgery, her father called.
“I don’t remember what he said because he was crying,” Segal said. Then, she told him that her kidney was going to a Palestinian boy.
For a moment, there was silence. And then her father spoke.
“Well,” he said, “he needs life, also.”
https://currently.att.yahoo.com/news/bi ... 27159.html
WAS ALEXANDER HAMILTON JEWISH? DOES IT MATTER?
For all the ink spilled on Alexander Hamilton by historians, and for all the buzz generated by the Hamilton musical, there’s a hidden history to this iconic founder that never made its way to the page or the stage: Hamilton was probably Jewish. His origins have long remained concealed behind a veil of unfounded assumptions. The work of debunking those myths reveals the very real possibility of Hamilton’s Jewish identity and gestures toward a new way of thinking about the American founding.
If Jewish identity begins with the mother, then so must this story. Hamilton’s mother, Rachel, was born a Gentile on the British Caribbean island of Nevis. When she was around sixteen, she moved to St. Croix in the Danish West Indies where she soon married a merchant named Johan Levine in 1745. The balance of evidence in the historical record suggests the following: Johan was Jewish, Rachel converted to Judaism to marry him, and she raised her son Alexander in her adopted faith.
Let us begin with Johan Levine. Hamilton scholars have long expressed skepticism that Levine had a Jewish identity on the grounds that the Danish records did not classify him as Jewish. But, as it turns out, those records almost uniformly failed to note religious identity for anyone, Jew or Gentile. What’s more, several other known details about Johan accord with the theory that he was a member of the Jewish people. Johan’s surname appears in certain variations—including “Lewin” and “Levin”—that match how Jews of Levitic descent spelled their last names. Johan’s work as a merchant was typical of contemporary Jews. What’s more, he had come to St. Croix from Nevis, where one-quarter of the free population was Jewish. And Hamilton’s own grandson would later describe Johan as a “rich Danish Jew.”
The year after their wedding, Rachel and Johan had a son, Peter. What little we know about Peter lends further credence to the notion that Johan was a Jew and that Rachel became one. As an adult, Peter would undertake an adult baptism to join the Anglican Church, a facet of the story that has left Hamilton biographers baffled. After all, if Peter was born Christian—as historians assume—then he would have already been baptized as an infant, with no conceivable need for an adult baptism. If, however, Johan was Jewish, and Rachel converted to Judaism to marry him, then the matrilineal nature of Jewish identity made Peter a Jew. An adult baptism would thus have been a necessary step in Peter’s conversion from Judaism to Christianity.
Rachel and Johan had a troubled marriage, and she was imprisoned in 1749 on account of her infidelity. When she was released from her incarceration in 1750, she absconded from St. Croix, leaving behind her vengeful husband and their young son. Rachel eventually made her way back to her native island of Nevis, where she bore Alexander out of wedlock to a Scottish colonist named James Hamilton. Although James was unquestionably a Gentile, there is substantial cause to think that Rachel retained a Jewish identity and passed it on to Alexander.
The baptismal records are fragmentary, but those that do survive show no entry for him. Even more compelling is the fact that Rachel enrolled Alexander in a Jewish school where he began rudimentary study of the Torah in the original Hebrew. “Rarely as he alluded to his personal history,” his son once recounted of Alexander, “he mentioned with a smile his having been taught to repeat the Decalogue [i.e. the Ten Commandments] in Hebrew, at the school of a Jewess, when so small that he was placed standing by her side upon a table.”
Hamilton biographers have long known that there’s no extant baptismal entry for him and that he had a Jewish education. They shrug off these curiosities, peddling a theory that Hamilton’s illegitimacy barred him from both baptism and church schooling. This tidy explanation, however, doesn’t withstand scrutiny. Both on Nevis and throughout the Caribbean, church records show instances of children who were “bastards” yet baptized. We have precious little grounds for assuming that Hamilton’s out-of-wedlock birth posed an obstacle to his acceptance into church life.
Moreover, scholars make a critical error in supposing that a Jewish school would have educated a child who was considered Christian. Jewish schools were religious instruments. Their core mission was to turn Jewish children into observant Jewish adults. And the Talmud prohibits the teaching of the Torah to Gentiles. For these reasons, the enrollment of any given child at a Jewish school in this era is a strong indicator that the child was a Jew in the eyes of the local community.
The fraught nature of Jewish-Christian relations in the West Indies raises further doubts about the conventional wisdom that the Jewish school would have taken in a student who was considered Christian. Jews on Nevis and other islands faced legal discrimination and cultural prejudice. Various forms of segregation between Jews and Gentiles were part of daily life on Nevis. Admitting a Christian student into the Jewish school would have prompted accusations that Jews were trying to Judaize the children of Christian families, precisely the kind of outcome that Jews sought to avoid. It strains believability to imagine that in a prejudicial climate like Nevis, local Jews would have hazarded that kind of risk.
Hamilton’s mother tragically passed away when he was only thirteen, and it appears that any Jewish affiliation he might have had died with her. He didn’t identify as Jewish in his American adulthood nor did he disclose to anyone a hint of his Jewish past. In fact, Hamilton largely remained silent about all aspects of his West Indian origins. And yet his early exposure to the people and faith of Judaism appears to have left an enduring mark: no other American founder cultivated closer ties to the Jewish community in America.
In the wake of the Revolution that Hamilton waged alongside fellow patriots—both Gentile and Jew—the new republic confronted a momentous question: Would the radical promise of equality enshrined in the Declaration of Independence now translate into democratic realities? A number of politicians sought to withhold the prerogatives of citizenship from Jews, from the courthouse to the ballot box. Against these forces of antisemitism, Alexander Hamilton sought to build an America where Jew and Gentile would stand as equals. He helped break barriers to Jews in academia, invigorated a marketplace that afforded Jews their greatest opportunities, and fulminated against antisemitism in the courts.
The question of Jewish belonging in America has resurfaced with disturbing vigor in recent years. Much of the animus toward Jews is premised on a mythic rendition of American history, one in which Gentiles were the original founders of the country and Jews are interlopers who somehow threaten the fundamental character of the nation. The story of Alexander Hamilton offers a surprising reminder that Jews have been a part of the American experiment since its very inception. If Jew-hatred in the United States is as old as the country itself, then so too is the fight to secure equality for the Jewish people.
https://religiondispatches.org/was-alex ... -it-matter
For all the ink spilled on Alexander Hamilton by historians, and for all the buzz generated by the Hamilton musical, there’s a hidden history to this iconic founder that never made its way to the page or the stage: Hamilton was probably Jewish. His origins have long remained concealed behind a veil of unfounded assumptions. The work of debunking those myths reveals the very real possibility of Hamilton’s Jewish identity and gestures toward a new way of thinking about the American founding.
If Jewish identity begins with the mother, then so must this story. Hamilton’s mother, Rachel, was born a Gentile on the British Caribbean island of Nevis. When she was around sixteen, she moved to St. Croix in the Danish West Indies where she soon married a merchant named Johan Levine in 1745. The balance of evidence in the historical record suggests the following: Johan was Jewish, Rachel converted to Judaism to marry him, and she raised her son Alexander in her adopted faith.
Let us begin with Johan Levine. Hamilton scholars have long expressed skepticism that Levine had a Jewish identity on the grounds that the Danish records did not classify him as Jewish. But, as it turns out, those records almost uniformly failed to note religious identity for anyone, Jew or Gentile. What’s more, several other known details about Johan accord with the theory that he was a member of the Jewish people. Johan’s surname appears in certain variations—including “Lewin” and “Levin”—that match how Jews of Levitic descent spelled their last names. Johan’s work as a merchant was typical of contemporary Jews. What’s more, he had come to St. Croix from Nevis, where one-quarter of the free population was Jewish. And Hamilton’s own grandson would later describe Johan as a “rich Danish Jew.”
The year after their wedding, Rachel and Johan had a son, Peter. What little we know about Peter lends further credence to the notion that Johan was a Jew and that Rachel became one. As an adult, Peter would undertake an adult baptism to join the Anglican Church, a facet of the story that has left Hamilton biographers baffled. After all, if Peter was born Christian—as historians assume—then he would have already been baptized as an infant, with no conceivable need for an adult baptism. If, however, Johan was Jewish, and Rachel converted to Judaism to marry him, then the matrilineal nature of Jewish identity made Peter a Jew. An adult baptism would thus have been a necessary step in Peter’s conversion from Judaism to Christianity.
Rachel and Johan had a troubled marriage, and she was imprisoned in 1749 on account of her infidelity. When she was released from her incarceration in 1750, she absconded from St. Croix, leaving behind her vengeful husband and their young son. Rachel eventually made her way back to her native island of Nevis, where she bore Alexander out of wedlock to a Scottish colonist named James Hamilton. Although James was unquestionably a Gentile, there is substantial cause to think that Rachel retained a Jewish identity and passed it on to Alexander.
The baptismal records are fragmentary, but those that do survive show no entry for him. Even more compelling is the fact that Rachel enrolled Alexander in a Jewish school where he began rudimentary study of the Torah in the original Hebrew. “Rarely as he alluded to his personal history,” his son once recounted of Alexander, “he mentioned with a smile his having been taught to repeat the Decalogue [i.e. the Ten Commandments] in Hebrew, at the school of a Jewess, when so small that he was placed standing by her side upon a table.”
Hamilton biographers have long known that there’s no extant baptismal entry for him and that he had a Jewish education. They shrug off these curiosities, peddling a theory that Hamilton’s illegitimacy barred him from both baptism and church schooling. This tidy explanation, however, doesn’t withstand scrutiny. Both on Nevis and throughout the Caribbean, church records show instances of children who were “bastards” yet baptized. We have precious little grounds for assuming that Hamilton’s out-of-wedlock birth posed an obstacle to his acceptance into church life.
Moreover, scholars make a critical error in supposing that a Jewish school would have educated a child who was considered Christian. Jewish schools were religious instruments. Their core mission was to turn Jewish children into observant Jewish adults. And the Talmud prohibits the teaching of the Torah to Gentiles. For these reasons, the enrollment of any given child at a Jewish school in this era is a strong indicator that the child was a Jew in the eyes of the local community.
The fraught nature of Jewish-Christian relations in the West Indies raises further doubts about the conventional wisdom that the Jewish school would have taken in a student who was considered Christian. Jews on Nevis and other islands faced legal discrimination and cultural prejudice. Various forms of segregation between Jews and Gentiles were part of daily life on Nevis. Admitting a Christian student into the Jewish school would have prompted accusations that Jews were trying to Judaize the children of Christian families, precisely the kind of outcome that Jews sought to avoid. It strains believability to imagine that in a prejudicial climate like Nevis, local Jews would have hazarded that kind of risk.
Hamilton’s mother tragically passed away when he was only thirteen, and it appears that any Jewish affiliation he might have had died with her. He didn’t identify as Jewish in his American adulthood nor did he disclose to anyone a hint of his Jewish past. In fact, Hamilton largely remained silent about all aspects of his West Indian origins. And yet his early exposure to the people and faith of Judaism appears to have left an enduring mark: no other American founder cultivated closer ties to the Jewish community in America.
In the wake of the Revolution that Hamilton waged alongside fellow patriots—both Gentile and Jew—the new republic confronted a momentous question: Would the radical promise of equality enshrined in the Declaration of Independence now translate into democratic realities? A number of politicians sought to withhold the prerogatives of citizenship from Jews, from the courthouse to the ballot box. Against these forces of antisemitism, Alexander Hamilton sought to build an America where Jew and Gentile would stand as equals. He helped break barriers to Jews in academia, invigorated a marketplace that afforded Jews their greatest opportunities, and fulminated against antisemitism in the courts.
The question of Jewish belonging in America has resurfaced with disturbing vigor in recent years. Much of the animus toward Jews is premised on a mythic rendition of American history, one in which Gentiles were the original founders of the country and Jews are interlopers who somehow threaten the fundamental character of the nation. The story of Alexander Hamilton offers a surprising reminder that Jews have been a part of the American experiment since its very inception. If Jew-hatred in the United States is as old as the country itself, then so too is the fight to secure equality for the Jewish people.
https://religiondispatches.org/was-alex ... -it-matter
JEWISH HOLIDAYS
Shabbat
The Jewish Sabbath—Shabbat in Hebrew, Shabbos in Yiddish—is observed every week beginning at sunset on Friday evening and ending after dark on Saturday evening. For religiously observant Jews, Shabbat is as important as any other holy day. Orthodox Jews do not work or travel on Shabbat. Consequently, Friday evening or Saturday classes or exams will generally pose a conflict for Orthodox Jewish students.
Rosh Hashanah
The Jewish New Year, the beginning of ten days of penitence or teshuvah culminating on Yom Kippur. Traditionally celebrated with sweet or round foods such as apples and honey, and the blowing of the shofar, a hollowed-out ram's horn, during religious services. A customary greeting is shanah tovah or "happy new year!"
Yom Kippur
The Day of Atonement; a very solemn day devoted to fasting, prayer, and repentance. Observant Jews do not eat, drink (including water), bathe, engage in sexual activity, or wear anything made of leather on this day of awe.
Etrog Sukkot
The week-long harvest festival of Sukkot, or "Feast of Tabernacles," commemorates the dwelling of the Israelites in temporary booths (sukkot in Hebrew) during their 40-year sojourn in the Sinai desert. Many families build their own sukkah in which it is customary to eat meals and sleep, and to shake the lulav, a palm frond bound together with myrtle and willow branches, and the etrog, a kind of citrus (pictured here, growing in the Smith College greenhouse, where it is identified as a "Moroccan citrus"). Photo of etrog by Larry Goldbaum.
​Learn more about Sukkot
Shemini Atzeret
Although technically a separate holiday, Shemini Atzeret (or the "Eighth Day of Assembly") is in effect the final day of Sukkot. The last portion of the Torah is read on this day. Observant Jews do not work or travel on this yom tov or "holy day."
Simchat Torah
Shemini Atzeret is immediately followed by the joyous holiday of Simchat Torah—or "rejoicing of the Law"—which is traditionally celebrated by dancing with Torah scrolls and singing hakafot, songs of praise and gratitude.
MenorahHanukkah
The eight-day festival of Hanukkah—or "Festival of Lights"—commemorates the miraculous victory of the Maccabees and rededication of the Temple in Jerusalem. Hanukkah is NOT the Jewish equivalent of Christmas!! In fact, it is a relatively minor Jewish holiday (in religious terms) which unlike most other Jewish holidays, has no restrictions whatsoever on work or travel—although many Jewish families and communities get together to celebrate this festive holiday. It is customary to eat fried foods such as potato latkes or jelly doughnuts. Photo of Hanukkah menorah (or 'chanukiah' in Hebrew) by Larry Goldbaum
Purim
This carnival-like holiday celebrates the defeat of a plot to destroy the Jews of Persia. It is customary to dress in costumes (similar to Halloween or Mardi Gras), and to give gifts of food to friends and the needy, particularly hamantashen, triangular pastries filled with fruit or poppy seeds.
Passover (or Pesach in Hebrew)
The week-long spring festival of Pesach commemorates the deliverance of the Jewish people from bondage in ancient Egypt. The Passover Seder on the first two nights—an elaborate and ritualized meal—recounts the story of Exodus using ritual foods, prayers, stories and songs. Only the first two and last two days of Passover are observed as full holy days, with restrictions on work and travel. However, many extended Jewish families gather for the holiday, and consequently some Jewish students may miss the entire week of classes. (In Israel, schools are always closed for Passover.)
Shavuot
Feast of Weeks; marks the giving of the Law (Torah) at Mt Sinai.
Shabbat
The Jewish Sabbath—Shabbat in Hebrew, Shabbos in Yiddish—is observed every week beginning at sunset on Friday evening and ending after dark on Saturday evening. For religiously observant Jews, Shabbat is as important as any other holy day. Orthodox Jews do not work or travel on Shabbat. Consequently, Friday evening or Saturday classes or exams will generally pose a conflict for Orthodox Jewish students.
Rosh Hashanah
The Jewish New Year, the beginning of ten days of penitence or teshuvah culminating on Yom Kippur. Traditionally celebrated with sweet or round foods such as apples and honey, and the blowing of the shofar, a hollowed-out ram's horn, during religious services. A customary greeting is shanah tovah or "happy new year!"
Yom Kippur
The Day of Atonement; a very solemn day devoted to fasting, prayer, and repentance. Observant Jews do not eat, drink (including water), bathe, engage in sexual activity, or wear anything made of leather on this day of awe.
Etrog Sukkot
The week-long harvest festival of Sukkot, or "Feast of Tabernacles," commemorates the dwelling of the Israelites in temporary booths (sukkot in Hebrew) during their 40-year sojourn in the Sinai desert. Many families build their own sukkah in which it is customary to eat meals and sleep, and to shake the lulav, a palm frond bound together with myrtle and willow branches, and the etrog, a kind of citrus (pictured here, growing in the Smith College greenhouse, where it is identified as a "Moroccan citrus"). Photo of etrog by Larry Goldbaum.
​Learn more about Sukkot
Shemini Atzeret
Although technically a separate holiday, Shemini Atzeret (or the "Eighth Day of Assembly") is in effect the final day of Sukkot. The last portion of the Torah is read on this day. Observant Jews do not work or travel on this yom tov or "holy day."
Simchat Torah
Shemini Atzeret is immediately followed by the joyous holiday of Simchat Torah—or "rejoicing of the Law"—which is traditionally celebrated by dancing with Torah scrolls and singing hakafot, songs of praise and gratitude.
MenorahHanukkah
The eight-day festival of Hanukkah—or "Festival of Lights"—commemorates the miraculous victory of the Maccabees and rededication of the Temple in Jerusalem. Hanukkah is NOT the Jewish equivalent of Christmas!! In fact, it is a relatively minor Jewish holiday (in religious terms) which unlike most other Jewish holidays, has no restrictions whatsoever on work or travel—although many Jewish families and communities get together to celebrate this festive holiday. It is customary to eat fried foods such as potato latkes or jelly doughnuts. Photo of Hanukkah menorah (or 'chanukiah' in Hebrew) by Larry Goldbaum
Purim
This carnival-like holiday celebrates the defeat of a plot to destroy the Jews of Persia. It is customary to dress in costumes (similar to Halloween or Mardi Gras), and to give gifts of food to friends and the needy, particularly hamantashen, triangular pastries filled with fruit or poppy seeds.
Passover (or Pesach in Hebrew)
The week-long spring festival of Pesach commemorates the deliverance of the Jewish people from bondage in ancient Egypt. The Passover Seder on the first two nights—an elaborate and ritualized meal—recounts the story of Exodus using ritual foods, prayers, stories and songs. Only the first two and last two days of Passover are observed as full holy days, with restrictions on work and travel. However, many extended Jewish families gather for the holiday, and consequently some Jewish students may miss the entire week of classes. (In Israel, schools are always closed for Passover.)
Shavuot
Feast of Weeks; marks the giving of the Law (Torah) at Mt Sinai.
I Never Used My Computer on the Sabbath — Until the Coronavirus
The pandemic is inspiring a rabbi to appreciate the Jewish practice of Shabbat in new ways.
Two Saturdays ago was the first time I used my computer on Shabbat in over 20 years. I was leading and participating in my congregation’s Zoom Minyan — our Cyber Shul.
Had you asked me a year ago whether logging on to my computer and participating in Saturday morning’s service would be breaking Shabbat, I would have answered, “yes.” But I found that doing so not only enhanced my Shabbat; it made my Shabbat.
I still wore a tie, feeling even more compelled to wear “bigdei Shabbat” (clothing special for Shabbat). I donned my Tallit and away we prayed.
A majority of those participating were from here in Minnesota, but we heard “amens” and harmonies from California, North Carolina, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Florida, Maryland, Washington, D.C., and even as far away as Chile
Seeing the smiles on the faces of children recognizing their classmates, seniors miraculously experiencing companionship in their solo-occupied homes, newly bereaved choking up at the opportunity to pray and mourn with community — it all brought tears to my eyes.
I was raised in a home that observed the Sabbath. I carried that practice into adulthood and professional life, including 15 years as a Conservative rabbi. Shabbat is about leaving the week behind — the toils, the trials, the anxiety, the heartbreak — all of it.
Once Shabbat sets in, everything is on pause. My shoulders relax, my breathing changes, and I enter into what I hope is a restorative period. That is the charge of Shabbat: the rest of the week is about creation, but Shabbat is about ceasing from creating. If we are in a perpetual creating mode, we burn out, the world burns out. Shabbat is the reset.
Further, the Torah charges us to rest because God rested. For us to suggest that we don’t need to disconnect and rest, especially when God did, is to suggest that we are more capable and able than God. There may not be a greater subtle display of arrogance than to suggest that we have a far superior stamina than the Divine.
To truly experience the restorative force of Shabbat, one needs this pausing to happen within community. Shabbat may be the gift God keeps in store for Israel, as described by the Talmud, but the way to truly delight in it is with other people.
Before the coronavirus pandemic, community on Shabbat centered around synagogue. Some people have relationships that exist only within the walls of their synagogue. Friends, for decades, sitting near or next to each other — because of Shabbat at synagogue.
The pandemic took that physical community away from us. But because of technology — once a distractor and now a savior — we are able to immerse in community despite our physical isolation.
Yes, there are traditional Jewish legal challenges about using a computer on the Sabbath. Many rabbis have written about this over the past several decades in support and against logging on. But the absence of community takes a person down a path of despair. It can lead to life-threatening depression. Building and engaging in community saves lives — and violating the Sabbath has always been acceptable in the name of saving a life, even if the danger was not imminent.
The pandemic has cut many of us off from our communities, and so we’ve forged new paths to connect. This is a good thing. And it extends beyond the Sabbath. Families will be joining together virtually for Seder on Passover — iPads and laptops, intentionally and strategically placed around the table. We will each be able to very obviously answer the question of how different this night is from all other nights (and years). The memorial service on the last day of Passover will be broadcast from each community into nursing homes and private residences alike. The smell of Pop-Pop’s matzo brei may not waft through the screen, but the smiles and laughter of the great-grandchildren as they connect over FaceTime may indeed be as soothing.
We will eventually keep this virus at bay and return to our “normal” daily life. But that normal really is no longer. We will be changed and the world will be changed.
We as a synagogue will have reached people we’ve never reached before. The collective world is finally realizing that this is the type of outreach and engagement we should have been doing all along. Meeting people where they are, bringing light into their dark corners — that is how you change and build a world.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/03/opin ... pe=Article
The pandemic is inspiring a rabbi to appreciate the Jewish practice of Shabbat in new ways.
Two Saturdays ago was the first time I used my computer on Shabbat in over 20 years. I was leading and participating in my congregation’s Zoom Minyan — our Cyber Shul.
Had you asked me a year ago whether logging on to my computer and participating in Saturday morning’s service would be breaking Shabbat, I would have answered, “yes.” But I found that doing so not only enhanced my Shabbat; it made my Shabbat.
I still wore a tie, feeling even more compelled to wear “bigdei Shabbat” (clothing special for Shabbat). I donned my Tallit and away we prayed.
A majority of those participating were from here in Minnesota, but we heard “amens” and harmonies from California, North Carolina, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Florida, Maryland, Washington, D.C., and even as far away as Chile
Seeing the smiles on the faces of children recognizing their classmates, seniors miraculously experiencing companionship in their solo-occupied homes, newly bereaved choking up at the opportunity to pray and mourn with community — it all brought tears to my eyes.
I was raised in a home that observed the Sabbath. I carried that practice into adulthood and professional life, including 15 years as a Conservative rabbi. Shabbat is about leaving the week behind — the toils, the trials, the anxiety, the heartbreak — all of it.
Once Shabbat sets in, everything is on pause. My shoulders relax, my breathing changes, and I enter into what I hope is a restorative period. That is the charge of Shabbat: the rest of the week is about creation, but Shabbat is about ceasing from creating. If we are in a perpetual creating mode, we burn out, the world burns out. Shabbat is the reset.
Further, the Torah charges us to rest because God rested. For us to suggest that we don’t need to disconnect and rest, especially when God did, is to suggest that we are more capable and able than God. There may not be a greater subtle display of arrogance than to suggest that we have a far superior stamina than the Divine.
To truly experience the restorative force of Shabbat, one needs this pausing to happen within community. Shabbat may be the gift God keeps in store for Israel, as described by the Talmud, but the way to truly delight in it is with other people.
Before the coronavirus pandemic, community on Shabbat centered around synagogue. Some people have relationships that exist only within the walls of their synagogue. Friends, for decades, sitting near or next to each other — because of Shabbat at synagogue.
The pandemic took that physical community away from us. But because of technology — once a distractor and now a savior — we are able to immerse in community despite our physical isolation.
Yes, there are traditional Jewish legal challenges about using a computer on the Sabbath. Many rabbis have written about this over the past several decades in support and against logging on. But the absence of community takes a person down a path of despair. It can lead to life-threatening depression. Building and engaging in community saves lives — and violating the Sabbath has always been acceptable in the name of saving a life, even if the danger was not imminent.
The pandemic has cut many of us off from our communities, and so we’ve forged new paths to connect. This is a good thing. And it extends beyond the Sabbath. Families will be joining together virtually for Seder on Passover — iPads and laptops, intentionally and strategically placed around the table. We will each be able to very obviously answer the question of how different this night is from all other nights (and years). The memorial service on the last day of Passover will be broadcast from each community into nursing homes and private residences alike. The smell of Pop-Pop’s matzo brei may not waft through the screen, but the smiles and laughter of the great-grandchildren as they connect over FaceTime may indeed be as soothing.
We will eventually keep this virus at bay and return to our “normal” daily life. But that normal really is no longer. We will be changed and the world will be changed.
We as a synagogue will have reached people we’ve never reached before. The collective world is finally realizing that this is the type of outreach and engagement we should have been doing all along. Meeting people where they are, bringing light into their dark corners — that is how you change and build a world.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/03/opin ... pe=Article
Netanyahu blasted for ‘desecrating’ Jewish traditions after ex-Israeli PM congratulates Olympic champ on Saturday
8 Aug, 2021 12:02
Israeli opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu was attacked by his own right-wing allies, who accused him of disrespecting the Shabbat tradition barring Jews from working on Saturday by greeting the country’s Olympic champion.
Rhythmic gymnast Linoy Ashram became just the third Olympic gold medal winner in Israel’s history, after beating Russia’s Dina Averina for the title in a controversial decision by the referees in Tokyo on Saturday. The Israeli dropped her ribbon, which is considered a grave mistake in the discipline, but was still placed first, to the shock of the Russian delegation, experts, and fans.
Netanyahu, who became the leader of the opposition in the Knesset after being removed from the prime minister’s post in June, saw the compatriot’s sporting success as his own PR opportunity. He called Ashram the same day to congratulate her, and posted the video of that conversation on social media a few hours later. Apparently, he wanted to do it ahead of his rival, the current PM, Naftali Bennett, who is known as a religious person and strictly follows the Shabbat.
But the move didn’t land well with the Orthodox Jewish parties in Netanyahu’s own opposition bloc. Their condemnations started pouring in as soon as the night descended upon Israel, as Shabbat ends with the appearance of the first stars in the skies.
Netanyahu “desecrated the Shabbat” by releasing his statement on Saturday, United Torah Judaism (UTJ) party chair Moshe Gafni said on Twitter.
He was echoed by the head of the Shas party, Aryeh Deri, who insisted Judaism’s day of rest was so sacred that one simply couldn’t ask for forgiveness after disrespecting it. The former PM “offended many Shabbat-observing Jews and offended his loyal partners, for whom the holy Sabbath is very dear to their hearts,” Deri said.
Even an Olympic gold medal isn’t a worthy enough reason to “desecrate the Sabbath,” Bezalel Smotrich, the chief of the far-right Religious Zionism party, pointed out.
Netanyahu accuses new govt of making Israel a US ‘protectorate,' says ‘no surprises’ policy could help Biden stop attack on Iran
Netanyahu’s Likud party later said on Twitter that it “always safeguarded and honored the Sabbath.” It apologized and tried blaming the poorly timed statement from its leader on a “technical error,” but the damage had already been done.
The right-wing MPs praised Bennett for upholding Jewish tradition – the prime minister told Ashram by telephone that he had learnt about her win only after the Shabbat had ended. “Mr. Netanyahu should’ve done the same,” Gafni said.
https://www.rt.com/news/531459-netanyah ... at-israel/
8 Aug, 2021 12:02
Israeli opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu was attacked by his own right-wing allies, who accused him of disrespecting the Shabbat tradition barring Jews from working on Saturday by greeting the country’s Olympic champion.
Rhythmic gymnast Linoy Ashram became just the third Olympic gold medal winner in Israel’s history, after beating Russia’s Dina Averina for the title in a controversial decision by the referees in Tokyo on Saturday. The Israeli dropped her ribbon, which is considered a grave mistake in the discipline, but was still placed first, to the shock of the Russian delegation, experts, and fans.
Netanyahu, who became the leader of the opposition in the Knesset after being removed from the prime minister’s post in June, saw the compatriot’s sporting success as his own PR opportunity. He called Ashram the same day to congratulate her, and posted the video of that conversation on social media a few hours later. Apparently, he wanted to do it ahead of his rival, the current PM, Naftali Bennett, who is known as a religious person and strictly follows the Shabbat.
But the move didn’t land well with the Orthodox Jewish parties in Netanyahu’s own opposition bloc. Their condemnations started pouring in as soon as the night descended upon Israel, as Shabbat ends with the appearance of the first stars in the skies.
Netanyahu “desecrated the Shabbat” by releasing his statement on Saturday, United Torah Judaism (UTJ) party chair Moshe Gafni said on Twitter.
He was echoed by the head of the Shas party, Aryeh Deri, who insisted Judaism’s day of rest was so sacred that one simply couldn’t ask for forgiveness after disrespecting it. The former PM “offended many Shabbat-observing Jews and offended his loyal partners, for whom the holy Sabbath is very dear to their hearts,” Deri said.
Even an Olympic gold medal isn’t a worthy enough reason to “desecrate the Sabbath,” Bezalel Smotrich, the chief of the far-right Religious Zionism party, pointed out.
Netanyahu accuses new govt of making Israel a US ‘protectorate,' says ‘no surprises’ policy could help Biden stop attack on Iran
Netanyahu’s Likud party later said on Twitter that it “always safeguarded and honored the Sabbath.” It apologized and tried blaming the poorly timed statement from its leader on a “technical error,” but the damage had already been done.
The right-wing MPs praised Bennett for upholding Jewish tradition – the prime minister told Ashram by telephone that he had learnt about her win only after the Shabbat had ended. “Mr. Netanyahu should’ve done the same,” Gafni said.
https://www.rt.com/news/531459-netanyah ... at-israel/