Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By admin on June 24, 2020

San Francisco Speaker Nancy Pelosi released the following statement in recognition of Jewish American Heritage Month:

During Jewish American Heritage Month, Americans of all backgrounds celebrate the vital role that the Jewish community has played in our history and our heritage. Whether as public servants, educators, entrepreneurs, scientists or artists, the contributions of Jewish Americans have greatly enriched the beautiful fabric of our nation and made America more American.

Since the earliest days of our nation, many Jewish families have fled persecution, violence and deep-seated anti-Semitism around the world to seek a life of freedom and opportunity for themselves and their children. In America, they found a nation founded on values that resonated for them equality, fairness and justice for all. Generations of Jewish Americans have embraced these bedrock ideals to strengthen our democracy and bring our nation closer to a more perfect union. Heartbreakingly, despite achieving extraordinary progress for all Americans, the Jewish community continues to face disturbing acts of anti-Semitism and hate. We must confront and condemn these heinous acts whenever and wherever they occur.

As we mark Jewish American Heritage Month during this unprecedented health and economic crisis, let us embrace the Jewish commitment to tikkun olam, to repair the world and advance the common good. Together, as we celebrate this important month, we must honor the beauty and diversity of our communities and build a brighter, healthier and more prosperous future for all Americans.

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Posted By admin on June 24, 2020

By Rabbi Dr. Tzvi Weinreb

Conflict resolution is one of the most important tasks in human relations. Open up any newspaper and you will read of schoolchildren bullying each other, of married couples who are in bitter conflict, of political parties enmeshed in verbal warfare, and of nations literally at war. What are some of the strategies available to foster conflict resolution?

One of the most interesting strategies can be found in an ancient endeavor known by the generic term of martial arts. I once watched a brief film on the subject in which I observed a fascinating technique. The participant in the battle was instructed not to fight his opponent head on, not to counter aggression with aggression. Rather, he was instructed to yield to the attack, to move paradoxically backwards as if to surrender, and not to move forward in the attack mode. In a sense, he was directed to surprise his opponent by reacting unpredictably. This strategy can be applied to many situations in life in which there is strife and discord.

In this weeks Torah parsha, Korach, we read of such discord as Korach and his cohorts rebel against Moses. Among this band are Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliav, who have long been thorns in Moses side. They challenge his authority and threaten outright revolt against his leadership. A civil war looms.

Moses initial response is not one of anger. He tries verbal persuasion, he calls for Divine intervention, and only then does he indignantly express his anger. But before he reaches that point, he tries something which goes almost unnoticed by most commentators.

He sends for them. He adopts a conciliatory attitude, and invites them into dialogue. He does not come out fighting, at least not until his invitation to discussion and perhaps even compromise is rebuffed.

Ihave been reading a biography of a great Hasidic leader in early 20th century Poland, Rabbi Israel Danziger, known today by the title of his book of inspirational homilies, Yismach Yisrael. He was heir to the leadership of the second largest Hasidic sect in pre-World War II Europe, a sect known by the name of the town near Lodz where he and his father before him held court. His father was Rabbi Yechiel Danziger, and the name of the town was Alexandrow.

The biography contains documentation of several talks Rabbi Israel gave describing many of the lessons he learned from his sainted father. In one of those talks, he tells of the time that he was sent with several of his fathers emissaries to visit the court of another Hasidic rebbe. He describes how that rebbes personal secretary made the delegation wait their turn on a long line.

He describes how when they finally got into the rebbes reception room, they were treated perfunctorily, if not coldly, and the request they were instructed to make of this rebbe was callously rejected by him. They returned to Alexandrow feeling chastised. Rabbi Israel, who led the delegation, reported back to his father and relayed to him every detail of his disappointing experience.

About a year later, the other Hasidic rebbe needed a great favor of Rabbi Yechiel. He sent a delegation to Alexandrow, headed by his own son.

The delegation arrived, and much to Rabbi Israels surprise, his father issued orders that they be welcomed warmly and be shown gracious hospitality. Rabbi Yechiel further instructed that the delegation be given an appointment during prime time and not be asked to wait on line at all. Rabbi Yechiel himself waited at his door for them, ushered them in to his private chambers, seated them comfortably, and personally served them refreshments. He listened to their request for a favor of him and granted it generously. Then, as Jewish tradition prescribes, he bid them farewell only after first escorting them part of the way along the route of their return journey.

In his narrative, Rabbi Israel expresses amazement at his fathers conduct. He describes how he approached his father and asked him directly, Why did you treat them so well? Did you not recall how that rebbe and his followers treated us not so long ago? Did you have to give them such an effusive welcome after they embarrassed us so much?

I found Rabbi Yechiels response, in Yiddish of course, so impressive that I committed it to memory verbatim. He said, Better that they learn from me how to be gute yidden and menschen, than I learn from them how to be boors and brutes!

The biography does not tell the rest of the story. But when I related the story to an audience of chassidim a short while ago, I heard part of the rest of the story. An elderly man in the audience approached me and said, I am a descendant of that other rebbe. And our family tradition has it that when his delegation returned with news of their special treatment and of the granted favor, the rebbe burst into tears and cried, He is a better Jew than I am. We must learn a musar haskel (a lesson in ethics) from him.

This is a lesson we can all benefit from as we attempt to resolve the conflicts we face, and as we strive to increase the numbers of gute yidden in our ranks and create more menschen in the world.

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'Better they learn from me' and do what's right - The Jewish Star

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Posted By admin on June 24, 2020

(JTA) In the world of Orthodox Judaism, men may run the synagogues but Lenora Garfinkel built them.

Garfinkel was one of the first women to study architecture at the prestigious Cooper Union College in New York and went on to build Jewish community buildings across the New York metropolitan area over the course of a career spanning more than six decades. Her designs included the massive Viznitz Hasidic synagogue in Kaser, the Atrium wedding venue in Monsey, and multiple schools and ritual bath houses.

There are very few frum [religious] architects with a sheitel [wig] with five kids that are specializing in frum buildings, said Garfinkels daughter Letitia Dahan Forspan. She was an expert in the halachot [Jewish laws] of building religious buildings, mikvehs and shuls based on halacha. Thats why they came to her. She sat with any rabbi making these plans like one of them.

Garfinkel died of COVID-19 on April 29 at the age of 89. Within a week, tragedy struck the family again, when Garfinkels son Efraim died of the disease on May 3, followed days later by his own son Doniel. Efraim Garfinkel was 66 when he died and Doniel Garfinkel was 46.

I went from one shiva to the next shiva, said Forspan, referring to the seven-day Jewish mourning period.

Lenora Garfinkel was born in the Bronx in 1930. After graduating high school, she wanted to attend Cooper Union but was told that the entrance exam was on Shabbat, when traditionally observant Jews are barred from writing. After attending Hunter College for a year, she reapplied and demanded a test on another day.

We all should be one tenth of what [my mother] was and emulate every part of her personality, Forspan said. She had 50 great-grandchildren and each was as if it was her own child. She was a powerhouse woman.

With three members of the same family all sick with COVID-19, much of the burden of care fell on Forspans son, Ariel Dahan.

The whole hospital experience was traumatic because we couldnt go in to see them, didnt know what was going on with them, said Dahan. They were on ventilators and the doctors would call you once a day if you were lucky.

Two of Garfinkels sons, Eliezer and Chaim, followed her footsteps and became architects.

The post Lenora Garfinkel, 89, noted orthodox architect who lost a son and grandson to COVID-19 appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.

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Lenora Garfinkel, 89, noted orthodox architect who lost a son and grandson to COVID-19 - Cleveland Jewish News

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Posted By admin on June 24, 2020

(JTA) This week, as he prepares to open Camp Modin and administer coronavirus tests to its hundreds of campers and staff, Howard Salzberg is still fielding 50 calls a day from parents who want to send their kids.

Thats because Modin, a small, unaffiliated Jewish camp in Maine, is one of the only Jewish overnight camps to open in the United States amid the coronavirus pandemic. So Salzberg and his wife, Lisa, who co-own and run the camp, must deal with a continuing deluge of interest from parents even as they prepare the camp for summer and install a range of structural changes because of COVID-19.

Modin usually relies on 300 kids from mostly the same set of families who have come summer after summer, generation after generation. This year, the camp received some 600 applications. Salzberg said the camp was nearly full just 10 days after announcing it would open.

We have kept it small, he said. We chose not to max out. We chose to limit the size of the bunks as best we could because were limited on how much of our camp programming were going to do this summer.

As the pandemic stretches into the summer, and dozens of Jewish camps have announced their closures, camps that open are faced with a dual challenge: abiding by health regulations in a usually freewheeling atmosphere and dealing with parents clamoring to give their kids something approximating a normal summer.

Im working off the governments permission and recommendations, said Rabbi Shmuly Rothman, who will run a Chabad girls camp in Florida.

His camp, Tof Shin Peh, is new. Its name is Hebrew for 5780, this year on the Hebrew calendar, as if to emphasize that it was created to respond to the countrys predicament now.

People are healthy and moving around, and when I saw that there are camps closing elsewhere and the state is allowing for it, I said, lets see if its doable, Rothman said.

Rothman launched the camp less than a week ago and expects it to fill up quickly, well before the July 20 start date. Unlike other Chabad programs meant for a general Jewish population, this one is internal to the movement, so the campers will need to come from committed, observant Chabad Hasidic families. And because he only has 96 spots, Rothman said he can afford to be selective.

The camp is for girls in the Chabad community, so its attracting girls that want that atmosphere, he said. The camp website says the ideal camper is happy to be a Chossid and has high values for Torah and Mitzvos.

The dearth of open camps has also put families that do get spots in an enviable position. Modin gave priority to returning families, and did not admit any new campers above seventh grade. In the younger age groups, only 5% to 10% of campers will be new.

Everyone I know is super jealous, said Sara Forman, who will be sending her kids to Modin for the fifth straight summer. Theyre all like, its so unfair, I wish our camp was open.

Some of the Jewish camps that are opening, like Modin, are for-profit. But Salzberg said that the increased demand for camp wont mean a profit on the year because of all the precautions the camp has had to take due to the coronavirus from building a separate infirmary with 31 beds, in case theres an outbreak, to erecting a huge outdoor tent for distanced campwide gatherings to administering multiple COVID-19 tests for campers and staff.

Salzberg said the camp is spending an extra $250,000 on the COVID-19 prep while taking in far less revenue because its running a shortened schedule, thus will lose money. Had the camp taken a summer off, he said, it would have been able to manage despite the financial setback.

It doesnt mean anything financially one way or the other. We did not make this as a financial decision, he said. We looked at the numbers and said we can survive if we close and we can survive if we open. We may have less kids, were going to certainly have less revenue, and our expenses are certainly going to go up.

And its not the only for-profit thats running this summer. Two for-profit Orthodox camps, Lavi in Pennsylvania and Seneca Lake in New York, are running as well. Lavi did not respond to multiple requests for comment, but an email to parents placed restrictions on transportation, established protocols for testing before kids entered camp, and limited entering and exiting the campground.

Of course, many camps in areas that permit opening are still remaining closed. Camp Morasha, an Orthodox camp in the same Pennsylvania county as Camp Lavi, made the decision to close a month ago. The nonprofit was set to serve 1,200 kids. Morashas director, Jeremy Joszef, has committed to calling each of the 625 families individually and said several have opted instead for Lavi.

I did not get one complaint or one parent questioning our decision, Joszef said. If anything, we had an outpouring of support from our parents, a sense of pride in being associated with an institution that puts principle over profits.

Elsewhere, however, parents have tried to get their kids into camp not always with success.

One of my middle sons friends, they ended up being on a waitlist, Forman said. And then they were like, forget it, because no one is coming off the waitlist.

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For the few Jewish camps that are opening, finding willing families hasn't been hard - St. Louis Jewish Light

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Posted By admin on June 24, 2020

Is Chabad-Lubavitch, the ultra-Orthodox Hasidic outreach movement, returning to the political wars? Apparently so, in Israel at least. And its rabbis are doing so by promoting a "not one inch" approach to territorial concessions and identifying with the most fanatic elements of the settler population.

And if past experience is any guide, whileChabadattempts in the weeks ahead to influence the political process in Israel, it will conceal its involvement fromAmerican Jews.

Evidence of the new campaign is a lettersentby Rabbi Yitzchak Yehuda Yaroslavsky, seen by many as the senior Chabad rabbi in Israel, to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, urging himto rejectthe "deal of the century" the Trump administration peace plan. Here, Yaroslavsky is echoing the claims of the most radical settler leaders that annexation is unacceptable,because it lays the groundwork for a Palestinian state, no matter how tiny or how tenuous its borders.

Yaroslavsky pointsout that Chabad had long opposed territorial concessions of any sort, and quotesthe late Lubavitcher rebbe, Menachem Mendel Schneerson, as saying that "giving away territory threatens the lives of Jews." "This plan, Yaroslavsky wrote, "will only bring the opposite of good and security for the Holy Land."

Kikar Hashabbat, a website that covers political and religious developments in the Haredi world,quoteda number of Chabad rabbis who expressed views either similar to or even farther right than those of Yaroslavsky.It notedthat the opposition of prominent Chabad figures was of special interest, given the close ties between Chabad in America and President Donald Trump and the fact that Jared Kushner and his familyattenda Chabad synagogue; the Kushner family aresubstantial donorsto the movement.

Rabbi Tovia Blau, also a senior Chabad figure in Israel, wrote that the Trump annexation plan represented an explicit willingness to relinquish parts of the territories and constituted a continuation of the process ofunfortunate concessionsbegun at Camp David.

The writings of the late Rabbi Schneerson often stressed the centrality of the interrelated concepts ofshleimut haam,shleimut haaretz, andshleimut hatorah(the wholeness of the people of Israel, the wholeness of the Land of Israel, and the wholeness of the Torah).

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According to Blau, commitment to the Land of Israel and the people of Israel followed directly from a commitment to the entirety of the Torah, and there could be no right-wing politics that was not completely faithful to Torah thus understood. Blau was stingingly critical of those who put loyalty to Prime Minister Netanyahu ahead of their devotion to Torah and the Land of Israel.

Rabbi Sholom Dov Ber Wolpe, also a Chabad rabbi, who is known for his extreme language and opinions, organized a group letter that was sent to PresidentDonaldTrump. The letter referred to those currently protesting the killing of George Floyd in the United States as "terrorists."

"We have no doubt," he wrote, "that what we have here is a reminder from the Holy One Blessed Be He, who is reminding our great friend in America of the delusion of making concessions to terrorists.And this is true whether we are speaking of the United States itself or of agreements that America is formulating for the Land of Israel." Kikar Hashabbat also mentioned other Chabad leaders, whose remarks were along these same lines.

Will President Trump see any of these letters or statements? Will the notoriously sensitive and criticism-averse President care? It is hard to tell, just as it is hard to tell how far Chabad will push its anti-Deal of the Century campaign.

Generally speaking, Chabad is exceedingly cautious about political involvements and is especially concerned about its image in America, where it raises much of its money. The last time that Chabad played a major role in the political process was in the 1980s and early 1990s, when the Rebbe was still alive and was the sole source of authority in the Lubavitch movement.

The Rebbes major focus at the time was his call to amend the Law of Return, which grants automatic citizenship to Jews who immigrate to Israel, including converts from all streams of Judaism. In a series of newspaper ads, lectures, and sermons, the Rebbe demanded that the law be amended so that the only converts considered Jewish were Orthodox converts. Non-Orthodox converts, he claimed, were not Jewish and were undermining the purity of the Jewish people and the principle ofshleimut haam.

Amending the law became a Chabad obsession. For example, in full page ads in the Israeli dailyMaariv,the Rebbe was quoted as calling for daily protests in the Knesset against the unamended Law of Return, and for the religious parties to withdraw from any government that did not promise to amend the law immediately.

Prior to the election of 1988, the Rebbe saw his chance. Chabad extracted a promise fromthe ultra-OrthodoxAgudat Yisraelpartyto amend the law if included in the coalition. Chabad then formally abandoned its non-partisan stance, and Chabad activists asked potential voters to commit themselves in writing to vote for the Agudah, in return for which they were promised a blessing from the Rebbe.

But despite the fact that more than 100,000 voters signed the forms, and Agudat Yisrael joined the government, the effort failed. AnenergizedAmerican Jewry opposed the suggested amendment, and Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamirs coalition was unable to pass it.

But religious issues were not the Rebbes only concern. When Shimon Peres attempted to becomeprimeminister in 1990 by getting Agudat Yisrael to switch sides and support him, the Rebbe played a major role in convincing the Agudahs Knesset members to change their minds and stick with Shamir. His reasoning was that only Shamir could be depended on to reject any and all territorial concessions.

Later, when Shamir began considering some form of autonomy for the Palestinians and agreed to President George H.W. Bushs demand to attend the Madrid Conference, the Rebbe was furious.

Moshe Katzav, then Shamirs transportation minister, was dispatched to the Rebbe to calm his concerns. Katzav promised that Shamirs actions, including any talk of autonomy, would never lead to concessions on territory.

But the Rebbes response, as noted inHaaretzon February 2, 1992, was unequivocal: "Even talk of an autonomy plan is achilul hashemand achilul hakodesh" (a desecration of Gods name and a desecration of the holy).

Shamir, the uncompromising nationalist, became an object of contempt for Chabad. And what was true for the Rebbe was true for other right-wing forces in Israels political system. Following Madrid, they withdrew from Shamirs government, leading to an election that he lost.

Two factors should be noted about Chabads political activism.

The first is that during a decade of intense political involvement, which included high-profile campaigns and a central role for the Rebbe himself through ads, pictures, and direct quotations in various publications and campaign literature, Chabad did not say a word in America about its political work in Israel.

In Israel, Chabad and the Rebbe aspired to be a major political force in promoting their political agenda. In America, they were intent on enjoying the image and support that came with being a non-partisan, non-political religious body, engaged in Jewish education and outreach.

The second is that after the Rebbes stroke in 1992, the political efforts more or less stopped. One assumes that, with their charismatic leader ill and severely disabled, and lacking an authoritative voice to give direction on sensitive and difficult political issues, Chabad quickly reverted to its more traditional role of Jewish outreach work.

And so the questions that now arise are: What is happening today? Why the flurry of statements by Chabads major leaders in Israel on annexation and territories? Do they signal a return to a more activist political role on issues of major consequence?

Perhaps. As the Chabad leaders have rightly noted, the Rebbes views opposing territorial concessions and a Palestinian state of any size or type are clear and consistent. What is being said in the Rebbes name is completely accurate. And the Rebbe, of course, remains admired and adored among the Chabad masses, the unchallenged Chabad authority on matters large and small.

Some in the Chabad leadership are undoubtedly thinking that with the Deal of the Century on the table, Israel faces an existential moment. For the first time since the Rebbes death, decisions are about to be made that will determine Israels territorial destiny, and therefore the fate of the Rebbes vision. As a result, they have no choice but to speak up, oppose the Trump plan, and fight a Palestinian state of any sort.

On the other hand, the 2020s are not the 1980s. It is not clear that absent the Rebbes voice, Chabad can mount any kind of systematic campaign, even if it attempts to do so. It is not clear that the Rebbes radical positions, extreme even for the Israeli right-wing, can ever win more than marginal support in Israel or the Diaspora.

And, especially important, it is completely clear that Chabads two-faced game of political radicalism in Israel and political neutrality in America is impossible in todays interconnected world of social media and instant communication.

I have my disagreements with Chabad, to be sure, but I also admire their sense of mission and their spirit of service to the Jewish people. If they are going to embrace the fanatic right on the Israeli political spectrum, American Jews will know and be appalled, and Chabads ability to do the good work that they do will be threatened in a significant way. This would be a calamitous error for Chabad, and a mistake, one hopes, that they will not make.

Eric H. Yoffie, a rabbi, writer and teacher in Westfield, New Jersey, is a former president of the Union for Reform Judaism. Twitter:@EricYoffie

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Is Chabad about to make the most calamitous mistake in its history? - Haaretz

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Posted By admin on June 24, 2020

Image by Facebook

A screenshot of a Facebook post on Donald Trumps account, linking Antifa to the upside-down red triangle.

In two Facebook posts, Donald Trumps reelection campaign tied the loose network of anti-fascist activists known as Antifa which he suggests naming a terrorist organization to an upside-down red triangle, a symbol strikingly similar to one used by Nazis in concentration camps to identify political prisoners and communists.

Dangerous MOBS of far-left groups are running through our streets and causing absolute mayhem, the post reads, citing no evidence for the claim. Please add your name IMMEDIATELY to stand with your President and his decision to declare ANTIFA a Terrorist Organization.

Related story: Trump abbreviates Secret Service as S.S. although he knows the right way to do it

Facebook later deleted the ads, saying the ads went against the companys policy against organized hate.

Our policy prohibits using a banned hate groups symbol to identify political prisoners without the context that condemns or discusses the symbol, a spokesperson for Facebook said in a statement.

The triangle symbol does not appear to be widely used by people or groups aligned with Antifa, which is more commonly identified by a red and black flag logo. Some people aligned with Antifa, however, will carry a flag used by anarchist movements, which is solid red and black, bisected on the diagonal, creating one red and one black triangle. One Antifa Facebook page, based in Utrecht, in the Netherlands, has a red triangle in its logo.

Beginning in 1933, when Adolf Hitler came to power, Nazi-run concentration camps used a system of different colored triangles, sewn into their prison clothes, to mark prisoners, according to the Holocaust Encyclopedia. Political prisoners wore red, gypsies and vagrants wore black, queer people were given pink triangles and Jehovahs Witnesses purple. Jews wore the infamous yellow star, unless they were part of another group in the case of a Jewish communist, for example, the upside-down red triangle would be sewn over a yellow right-side up triangle.

The post drew condemnation on social media, including from Jewish figures and groups, like Bend the Arc.

Yet Rabbi Yaakov Menken, the managing director of the conservative Jewish group the Coalition for Jewish Values, said that he did not believe the ad represented an instance of anti-Semitism by Trump or his campaign, and instead suggested that it was Antifa that was at fault for unknowingly using a Nazi symbol.

Antifa has been and is very threatening to Jewish houses of worship and schools, et cetera, Menken said, citing reports mostly false and exaggerated that Antifa was targeting synagogues in some cities during the recent wave of protests. The fact that Trump is fighting so hard against Antifa is only to the benefit of the Jewish community.

Trump, and other Republican politicians, have seized on false reports of people aligned with Antifa inciting rioting in cities where thousands of people have participated in overwhelmingly peaceful protests against racism in policing. In one instance, a white nationalist group created a fake Twitter account under the name @ANTIFA_US, which tweeted calls for violence.

Ari Feldman is a staff writer at the Forward. Contact him at feldman@forward.com or follow him on Twitter @aefeldman

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Facebook removes Trump ad that identifies Antifa with red triangle similar to Nazi symbol - Forward

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Posted By admin on June 24, 2020

By Ben Sales, JTA

About 15 years ago, a large Reform synagogue in Northern California installed a set of windows in its religious school engraved with the names of some 175 prominent Jews, from biblical figures to famous actors.

One of them, sandwiched between Zionist leader Vladimir Jabotinsky and former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, was Judah Benjamin, the most prominent Jewish official in the Confederacy. Benjamin, who enslaved 140 people on a Louisiana sugar plantation, served variously as the Confederate attorney general, secretary of war and secretary of state.

The inclusion of Benjamins name on the wall didnt arouse much protest until 2013, about eight years after the installation at Peninsula Temple Sholom in Burlingame. That was when congregant Howard Wettan listened to a podcast about the Civil War and I connected the dots.

Benjamins name is now covered in tape and will be replaced, along with two other names, later this year.

Across the country, Confederate monuments have drawn challenges for years from people who say they glorify those who enslaved Black people and fought against the United States. Defenders of the monuments, including some white Southerners, have argued that the monuments are necessary to teach about a painful moment in American history.

But the statues that memorialize those leaders were largely erected long after the Confederacy was defeated, many in the 20th century in support of white supremacy at a time when Southern governments were fighting to maintain legal racial segregation.

Peninsula Temple Sholom did not put Benjamins name on the window to glorify white supremacy. The original intention was to create a wall that was somewhat educational, said Karen Wisialowski, the synagogues chief community officer. It hasnt really served that purpose.

Relatively few memorials to Benjamin exist as opposed to, say, the plethora of monuments to Jefferson Davis or Robert E. Lee. But Peninsula Temple Sholom was not alone in honoring the Confederacys most senior Jewish official.

In the late 19th and early 20th century, according to Jewish historian Shari Rabin, a general American tendency to paper over the worst aspects of the Confederacy coincided with a general interest in the war. Jews of that time, she said, celebrated Benjamin in that context, including by publishing a childrens book about him.

In the decades after the Civil War, there was a general celebration of service, and Jews wanted to write themselves into that history, said Rabin, a professor of Jewish studies at Oberlin College.

Benjamins opponents tarred him for his Judaism, but he never embraced being a Jew, Rabin said. He married a Catholic woman, raised his kids Catholic and was not involved in Jewish institutions. He fled to the United Kingdom after the war.

By the time of the Civil War, he was pretty far removed from organized Jewish life or personal Jewish commitment, Rabin said. The people who were calling Benjamin a Jew were the people who didnt like him.

At first, Peninsula Temple Sholom responded to Wettans complaint by doubling down on the wall as a teaching tool.

There was a lot of concern about how weve got names literally etched in glass and someone who we think is perfectly fine on the list today we might not think is fine on the list tomorrow, Wisialowski said. Should we pull the whole wall down? Should we pull them down and recognize that we might need to make changes in the future as well, if issues come to light that are counter to our values as an organization?

In the end, the congregation opted to keep the wall but replace three windows bearing what they deemed to be problematic names at a cost of approximately $7,500. Along with Benjamin, the congregation is removing the names of Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach, who died in 1994, and the actor Dustin Hoffman. Both Hoffman and Carlebach have been accused of harassment and assault by several women, in Carlebachs case posthumously.

The congregation has taken the new windows as an opportunity to include more womens names. The names will be replaced by those of the biblical figure Deborah, the prominent Jewish musician Debbie Friedman and Regina Jonas, the first woman to be ordained as a rabbi.

Looking back, Wettan says the years-long process gave the congregation an opportunity to articulate its values and come to a deliberate decision. He said it also showed him how fraught it can be to deal with historical memory and an engraved memorial.

Its easy for someone in Northern California to look at the South and say thats them, not us, he said. Its hard to change. To change, you cant be afraid to acknowledge that maybe you didnt get something right the first time.

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Synagogue axes Judah Benjamin from window - The Jewish Star

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Posted By admin on June 24, 2020

A new IDF synagogue, the largest to date, is now open to the soldiers of Camp Ariel Sharon in southern Israel. The Or Olam Synagogue, located at the center of the base, was fitted with a new Torah scroll, about 350 seats, a study room for Torah lessons and special classes for soldiers undergoing conversion to Judaism. The donation was from the FIDF Western Region chapter.It will serve all the soldier deployed at the base. The inauguration of this new building took place on Tuesday, and was attended by FIDF Executive Director in Israel Brig. Gen. (Res.) Effi Idan, who represented the main benefactor for the synagogue.We are here today to congratulate and express gratitude to the IDF soldiers as this synagogue is for them," Idan said. "This is probably the most beautiful, and definitely the largest, synagogue I have seen in the IDF, and it could not be possible without the donation from Friends of the Israel Defense Forces (FIDF)."FIDF was established by a group of Holocaust survivors in 1981, as a not-for-profit organization with the mission of offering educational, cultural, recreational, social programs and facilities to provide hope, purpose and life-changing support for soldiers in Israel.FIDF builds, refurbishes, and maintains buildings for the well-being of IDF soldiers - among them sports centers, culture halls, synagogues, memorial rooms, swimming pools, sports facilities, and soldiers homes throughout Israel.

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Largest IDF synagogue opened in southern Israel - The Jerusalem Post

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Posted By admin on June 24, 2020

West London Synagogue has spent 138,000 in the wake of bullying allegations levelled against its co-senior rabbi, David Mitchell.

Of the total sum, which was spent on appointing professional advisers, 113,000 came from very generous benefactors, who were not named in a report published ahead of its annual general meeting last week.

The synagogue will only be required to bear 25,000 of these costs, the report says.

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Rabbi David Mitchell, who denies all the allegations against him, was accused of bullying and inappropriate behaviour by former members of staff.

He took up his senior role at the synagogue on 1 April after agreeing to take time away following the claims, which dated back to 2016.

Sir Michael Burton, a former High Court Judge and president of the Employment Appeal Tribunal, led an investigation which found no grounds to the claims.

West London Synagogue was contacted for comment.

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West London Synagogue spent 138000 in the wake of bullying allegations - Jewish News

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Posted By admin on June 24, 2020

A large contingent of youth from Temple Beth Abraham, a Conservative synagogue in Oakland, is urging the citys school board to pass a resolution that would eliminate the school districts police department.

Dubbed the George Floyd Resolution, the proposition would get rid of the Oakland Unified School Districts police force and reallocate funds to provide social workers, psychologists, restorative justice practitioners and other mental or behavioral health professionals, as the budget supports, to meet the needs of students, the proposal reads.

A vote is expected to take place during todays virtual board meeting, scheduled to start at 4:30 p.m., according to KPIX-TV.

The resolution was created by the Black Organizing Project, an Oakland-based organization that has fought to reform the citys school district policies around policing. The group has been trying to eliminate the districts police force since 2011, but protests sparked by Floyds death while in police custody, and other black Americans at the hands of police officers, have injected new energy into the effort.

Several dozen teens and adults from Beth Abraham signed a June 14 letter to Jody London, a member of the synagogue and a longtime Oakland school district board member, requesting a meeting and urging her to vote yes on BOPs resolution.

When someone dies in the Jewish community, we say, May their memory be for a blessing, the letter reads. In this age of unrest following the murder of George Floyd and countless other Black people by the hands of police, there is heavy demand for not only holding cops accountable, but for defunding and divesting in policing as we know it today.

London, who is the school boards president, accepted the offer and met with the synagogues youth on Zoom a few days ago. A teen from Kehilla Community Synagogue in Piedmont, Satya Zamudio, 15, was also on the call.

We just tried to stress that [the resolution is] very well-researched and there is a plan in place that [BOP] has been trying to do for so long, said Zamudio, a rising sophomore at Oakland Technical High School. It was really important to have this conversation with Jody. To just urge her to stand in solidarity with people of color and to really stress the point that Jews should be on the side of racial justice in this moment.

Maera Klein, 16, a rising junior at Berkeley High School, said, I really wanted to bring it to London from a Jewish lens, from within her synagogue, to show her that people from her own Jewish community care a lot about this issue. I would be super proud if my congregation had an influence on passing such a powerful resolution that would really change peoples learning experiences for the better.

The Oakland Unified School District Police Services Department was created in the 1950s, and out of approximately 1,000 districts in the state, Oakland is one of 23 school districts that has its own police force. The department consists of 20 sworn personnel and 120 school site officers, according to OUSD.org.

While support has been mounting for the districts police force to be disbanded, there are concerns that it could lead to worse outcomes for students if future situations are dealt with by the Oakland Police Department.

I would be super proud if my congregation had an influence on passing such a powerful resolution that would really change peoples learning experiences for the better.

I think that it is disingenuous to sit here and think that OPD is going to show up with the same kind of compassion and the same kind of understanding about what is happening with our teachers and what is happening with our systems, Jumoke Hinton-Hodge, an OUSD board member, said during a March 4 meeting.

Hinton-Hodge also expressed concern that OPD officers dont go through the same 40-hour training that the school police personnel go through, according to an Oaklandside article.

I dont want OPD, untrained, not thinking about young people first, to be the first people I pick up the phone to call [in an emergency], Hinton-Hodge said at the March meeting.

In an interview with Oaklandside, OUSD police chief Jeff Godown said that his officers have developed relationships with students, teachers and staff, much more than any officer within the citys force. Moreover, if the OUSD police force is disbanded, schools will be calling on a city police department that itself is facing increased pressure to be defunded.

Londons position on the elimination of the school districts police force has changed over time.

In March, when the school board voted to make $18.8 million in budget cuts, London voted against cutting any positions from the school districts police force in a 4-3 decision. Two months after that, BOP members led protests in front of Londons home and those of other board members.

Shortly thereafter, London released a statement that she was planning to support the BOPs resolution.

It is critical that the $2.3 million budget of the [Oakland School Police Department] be strategically reinvested in support for the whole child and students with disabilities with an eye to supporting authentic students safety, she wrote.

She added that shed prefer a timeline to eliminate the police force by Dec. 31.

Support for the resolution has come from dozens of administrators in schools in the district and Oakland community organizations.

The resolutions origins, in part, come from data BOP has compiled over the last five years. One of the findings is that while black students make up 26 percent of OUSD enrollment, they represent 73 percent of the school police forces arrests, a phenomenon that has been documented similarly nationwide.

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Jewish youth urge Oakland school district to eliminate school police - The Jewish News of Northern California

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