Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By admin on May 31, 2020

It is ten years since a live broadcast from the Mediterranean on Aljazeera TV came to an abrupt end. On 31 May 2010 I was watching human rights activists on the MV Mavi Marmara laden with humanitarian supplies for the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip describing their fears as the Israeli navy circled the ship ordering its Captain to change course. Moments later, the transmission was ended. I feared the worst. With no news at all coming through I slept, unaware of the fate of the Mavi Marmara and the five other ships in the Gaza Freedom Flotilla.

I woke to the shocking news that the Israeli navy had not only hijacked the flotilla but also killed nine human rights activists in the process. A tenth person died from his wounds later. There were no Israeli commandos killed by the civilians on board the ships, although a small number were injured after they boarded the flotillas flagship.

As Palestinians, we are only too aware of Israeli brutality, but for nine humanitarians trying to deliver aid to needy people in Gaza to be killed for their endeavours was shocking. By all accounts, the Israeli navy attacked the flotilla in international waters piracy, surely demonstrating that Israel felt that it could act with impunity; it still does. It simply has to scream self-defence and security and the so-called international community that claims to uphold democratic values and human rights will do and say nothing, except to reaffirm the occupation states right to self-defence. The reality is that no state whose army is occupying neighbouring or other territory has a legal right to claim self-defence.

READ: Does the ICC decision about Israel-Palestine really mean a black day for truth and justice?

On board the Mavi Marmara was my friend and colleague Sarah Colborne, the then Director of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign in Britain. She was one of the last passengers on the ship to appeal to the world on Aljazeeras live broadcast. Her message to the Israeli navy was clear: Stop threatening us. It fell on deaf ears. Sarah later described the flotilla as a response to the UN call for ships to be sent with humanitarian aid to break the Israeli-led blockade on Gaza.

Israel imposed a cruel, immoral siege on the tiny enclave in 2007 after Hamas took control of Gaza months after forming the government following its Palestinian Legislative Council win in 2006 and the appointment of Ismail Haniyeh as Prime Minister. The Israelis had pulled their army and settlers out of the Gaza Strip unilaterally in 2005 but had maintained their occupation at arms-length by controlling Gazas border crossings, territorial waters and airspace. The only access to the world for the 1.8 million Palestinians living in the Strip was through the Rafah Crossing into Egypt, controlled by Cairo.

The first attempt to break the siege by sea took place in 2008. On 23 August, 44 ordinary folk from 17 different countries sailed from Cyprus to Gaza on two small wooden boats, the Free Gaza and the Liberty. After a rough 30-hour voyage from Cyprus, in which they were tracked by the Israeli navy, the boats made it to Gaza and were greeted by tens of thousands of Palestinians in the small port.

Palestinian Musheir El-Farra was on board; a human rights activist born and raised in Khan Younis he was living in Sheffield at the time. For the first time in my life, he wrote, I went to Gaza without being humiliated, without having to ask Israel for permission. We did it. We finally did it. And now others must join us and do it as well. Little did he know that a couple of years later, human rights activists trying to do exactly that would be killed for trying to replicate the peaceful endeavours of those on board the Free Gaza and the Liberty.

READ: Turkey seems torn between appeasing Israel and helping Palestine during this pandemic

Sarah Colborne told Guardian readers what happened on board the Mavi Marmara on that fateful night in 2010. It felt a bit surreal. I couldnt quite believe they were doing what they were doing. There was live ammunition flying around and I could hear the sounds of the bullets flying and the whirr of the helicopter blades as people were dropped down onto the roof. What I saw was guns being used by the Israelis on unarmed civilians.

The six ships were forced to change course and head for Ashdod. After returning to Britain, Colborne explained: We were kidnapped, we were deprived of our liberty and our belongings. People were illegally held against their will, taken to Israel from international waters. In terms of treatment, in terms of our basic rights they were completely and totally violated. She expressed her hope that the deaths, the horrific deaths, of the people will not be in vain.

My former colleague said something then that, ten years down the line, we say again: We cant sit by and watch Israel violate international law every day. We want the British government to take action, ensure there are no future attacks on humanitarian aid convoys.

However, not only have successive British governments not taken any action to sanction Israel for its crimes or insist that the siege on Gaza is lifted, but the rest of the world has also allowed Israel to get away, literally, with the murder of ten unarmed activists who were killed simply for trying to reach the Gaza Strip and deliver much-needed humanitarian aid.

READ: UK charity demands probe after Gaza-bound aid money seized

Turkey started the process of prosecuting and seeking life sentences for the alleged involvement of former Israel Defence Forces chief of staff Gabi Ashkenazi, former navy chief Eliezer Marom, former military intelligence head Amos Yadlin and former air force intelligence chief Avishai Levy, who were all put on trial in absentia in 2012. However, the charges were eventually dropped following diplomatic reconciliation between Turkey and Israel in 2016. Ashkenazi is now Israels Foreign Minister in the newly-formed government.

Israel continues to avoid being held to account thanks to the diplomatic, political and economic cover provided by its allies. And the killing of unarmed protesters and activists has continued.

In March 2018, Palestinians in the Gaza Strip established the weekly Great March of Return protests alongside the fence that separates more than 80 per cent of them from their original homes in what is now called Israel, demanding their legitimate right to return to their land. In response, Israeli snipers opened fire, as they have done ever since. To date, more than 200 Palestinian civilians have been killed by the Israeli soldiers, including journalists and medics; tens of thousands more have been wounded, many with life-changing injuries, Yet again, the west has stood with the aggressor, backing Israel against the victims of its brutal military occupation.

The cumulative impunity and lack of accountability that Israel enjoys did not start with the Mavi Marmara piracy, hijacking and killings, and has not ended with the Great March of Return shootings. The Palestinian people and their supporters continue to accumulate anniversaries to mark, very few of which they can mark with any degree of happiness. Whether it is the 1948 Nakba itself and the massacres that the Zionists and nascent Israeli state carried out then, including Deir Yassin; the 30 September 2000 killing of 12-year-old Muhammad Al-Durrah; or the killing of 21-year-old volunteer medic Razan Al-Najjar on 1 June 2018, it is inexplicable in a world which proclaims universal human rights that Israel has and continues to enjoy complete immunity from sanctions and prosecution.

READ: Biden urged to leverage US aid against Israels rogue behaviour

We must not allow the memory of the ten who lost their lives on the Mavi Marmara to fade, for they are symbolic of everyone else who has lost their life in the cause of Palestinian freedom. We should also thank and remember the many others who took part in the Freedom Flotilla and survived to keep their colleagues memories alive as they continue to support the Palestinian struggle.

Israels criminal actions in 2010, and those in the decades before and since must never be forgotten. We have a duty to keep them in the public domain so that those shameless individuals and governments which claim that Israel upholds western values of democracy and human rights see it for the rogue, pariah state that it truly is.

Let us, therefore, remember Ibrahim Bilgen, etin Topuolu, Furkan Doan, Cengiz Akyz, Ali Heyder Bengi, Cevdet Kllar, Cengiz Songr, Fahri Yaldz, Necdet Yldrm and Ugur Suleyman Soylemez. They paid the ultimate price trying to help a besieged people. We must neither forget them and their sacrifice, nor forgive those involved in bringing their lives to a premature and brutal end.

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.

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Ten years after Israel's hijacking of the Mavi Marmara, we cannot forget those who it killed - Middle East Monitor

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Posted By admin on May 31, 2020

Biryani (South Asia)

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Biryani is a beloved rice dish from South Asia made with layers of meat typically goat or chicken and basmati rice mixed with spices. This recipe for Hyderabadi biryani, a regional variety from Hyderabad, India, is best eaten with some raita, or yogurt chutney, on the side.

For the Hyderabadi Biryani recipe, click here.

Sushi (Japan)

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Cacio e pepe (Italy)

Jacqui Wedewer/The Daily Meal

Scones (England)

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Flan (Portugal, Spain, Latin America)

Bibimbap (Korea)

Jacqui Wedewer/The Daily Meal

Bibimbap is a quintessentially Korean dish. It features a bowl of rice with meat, cooked vegetables and sometimes fried egg. Regional variations exist, with different types of meats, vegetables and spices included, but this recipe calls for beef rib-eye, zucchini, mushrooms, bean sprouts, spinach, carrots and Japanese radish.

For the Korean Bibimbap recipe, click here.

Swedish meatballs (Sweden)

Jacqui Wedewer/The Daily Meal

Although Sweden officially admitted its iconic recipe originated in Turkey, the Scandinavian country made it its own by adding pork and milk. Swedish meatballs, or kttbullar as theyre called at home, are typically served with potatoes and lingonberries, and this recipe includes a veal cream sauce made with a touch of lingonberry jam.

For the Aquavits Swedish Meatballs recipe, click here.

Tagine (Northwest Africa)

Named for the earthenware pot in which it is traditionally cooked, tagine is a stew thats cooked at a slow simmer, typically with meat and sometimes with bits of fruit such as apricots, prunes or raisins. Native to the Maghreb region of Africa, it is found on tables in Morocco, Tunisia and Libya. Add it to your table with this beef tagine recipe.

For the Cinnamon Beef Tagine recipe, click here.

Lobster tikka masala (Scotland)

Although a menu staple of many Indian restaurants, chicken tikka masala is actually a fusion dish with its origins in the United Kingdom. Many restaurants have added their own twists, such as using seafood or lamb instead; try this recipe using lobster meat for an added New England flavor.

For the Lobster Tikka Masala recipe, click here.

Latke (Central and Eastern Europe)

Chicken adobo (Philippines)

Kolach (Czech lands, Slovakia)

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A beloved pastry of the Czech and Slovak peoples, kolaches also have a significant presence in traditional Texan cuisine. The kolach is a bun made out of a sweet, puffy dough thats traditionally been filled with fruit pulp or jam, but this recipe uses a delicious cream cheese filling.

For the Kolaches recipe, click here.

Chicken paprikash (Hungary)

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Dumplings (China)

Jacqui Wedewer/The Daily Meal

Shoyu chicken (Hawaii)

Courtesy of Sue Nakashima

Arroz con pollo (Spain, Latin America)

A simple dish thats a perfect way to use leftover chicken, arroz con pollo is a popular dish throughout Latin America and Spain. In Spanish, the self-explanatory term means chicken with rice, and it is typically flavored with saffron, but this recipe is seasoned with garlic, cilantro, brown sugar and lemon pepper.

For the Arroz con Pollo recipe, click here.

Butter chicken (India)

Jacqui Wedewer/The Daily Meal

Butter chicken is a North Indian curry dish made with chicken marinated in a tomato-based sauce that contains butter, yogurt, lemon juice and ginger-garlic paste. This recipe uses hung curd and traditional spices such as red chili powder, garam masala and cumin.

For the Baar Baar Butter Chicken recipe, click here.

Quiche (France)

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A savory tart made with a filling of custard and cheese, vegetables, meat or seafood in a pastry crust, the quiche originated in France. Popular fillings include cooked ham, spinach, mushrooms and cheddar cheese; use whatever fillings you like with this easy quiche recipe that uses biscuit mix for a shortcut.

For the Impossibly Easy Quiche recipe, click here.

Lasagna (Italy)

Courtesy of Happy Money Saver

French fries (Belgium, France)

Courtesy of Happy Money Saver

Hummus (Middle East)

Jacqui Wedewer/The Daily Meal

A popular appetizer at halal restaurants serving Middle Eastern food, hummus is a dish made with mashed chickpeas, olive oil, lemon juice and tahini. It is typically used as a dip for bread, but it can also be eaten as a spread or side for vegetables, chicken and falafel.

For the Easy Hummus Recipe, click here.

Kifli (Hungary, Austria)

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Princess cake (Sweden)

Photo by Signs Birck courtesy of Aquavit

Princess cake, or prinsesstrta as its called in Swedish, is an iconic dessert in Sweden. A layered, cream and marzipan sponge cake, its known for its characteristic green appearance, topped with a pink marzipan rose.

For the Aquavit Princess Cake recipe, click here.

Enchiladas (Mexico)

Jose Carlos Rojas Villarreal | Dreamstime.com

When tortillas are rolled around a filling and covered in a savory or spicy sauce, theyre known as enchiladas. The Mexican dish can have many different types of fillings, including meat, beans, cheese, potatoes and other vegetables and is often topped with more cheese. Queso fresco is used for this recipe.

For the Queso Fresco Enchiladas recipe, click here.

Irish soda bread (Ireland)

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Charoset (Central and Eastern Europe)

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Another traditional dish spread throughout the world by the Ashkenazi Jewish diaspora is charoset, also spelled haroseth. Traditionally eaten during Passover Seder, it is made by mixing apples, nuts, wine and cinnamon into a paste, symbolizing the clay that the enslaved Israelites of Ancient Egypt used to make bricks.

For the Ashkenazi Charoset recipe, click here.

Carbonara (Italy)

Jacqui Wedewer/The Daily Meal

Naan (Iran, South Asia)

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Apple pie (Netherlands, United States)

Ravioli (Italy)

Jacqui Wedewer/The Daily Meal

Waffles (Belgium, France)

Courtesy of Happy Money Saver

Kheer (South Asia)

Courtesy of Spice Cravings

Gelegtes kraut (Germany)

alpaksoy/iStock via Getty Images Plus

Jerk chicken (Jamaica)

Jacqui Wedewer/The Daily Meal

Avocado toast (Australia, California)

Peri-peri chicken (South Africa)

Eggs Benedict (United States)

BlueOrange Studio/Shutterstock

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Food From Around the World That You Can Make at Home - The Daily Meal

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Posted By admin on May 31, 2020

Most of todays Jewish and Arabic-speaking populations share a strong genetic link to the ancient Canaanites, a study by an international team of archaeologists and geneticists has found. These modern-day groups in Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, and parts of Syria share a large part of their ancestry, in most cases more than half, with the people who lived in the Levant during the Bronze Age more than 3,000 years ago, the study concludes.

The researchers also determined that the Canaanites who frequently appear in ancient sources, including the Bible descended from a mixture of an earlier Levantine population and migrants coming from the Caucasus region or northwestern Iran.

In the wide-ranging study published Thursday in the journal Cell, experts analyzed genetic material from dozens of skeletons found at Canaanite sites across Israel and neighboring countries, and compared it to the genomes of other ancient populations as well as to modern-day groups.

This study suggests there is a deep genetic connection of many Jewish groups today across the Diaspora and many Arab groups to this part of the world thousands of years ago, says David Reich, a Harvard University geneticist and one of the worlds top experts in the study of ancient DNA.

Biblical hyperbole

The land of Canaan and its inhabitants are mentioned in documents from the 2nd millennium B.C.E., such as the Amarna letters, an archive of ancient Egyptian correspondence between the pharaohs and their colonial empire in the Levant. The Bible describes the Canaanites as the inhabitants of the Holy Land before the Israelites conquered it following their exodus from Egypt.

The holy text also claims that the arriving Israelites destroyed all that breathed (Joshua 10:40) and exterminated the Canaanites during the conquest of land.

This is not borne out by most archaeological and biblical scholarship over the last decades, which suggests that the story of the conquest, like most of the Bible, was written much later than the events it purports to relate.

As archaeologist Ann Killebrew wrote in her 2005 book, Biblical Peoples and Ethnicity: Almost without exception, scholars agree that the account in Joshua holds little historical value vis--vis early Israel.

Instead, it now seems more likely that between the end of the Bronze Age and the early Iron Age (that is, just over 3000 years ago), Canaanite culture slowly evolved and morphed into that of the various peoples that are familiar to any reader of the Bible: the Israelites, the Moabites, the Ammonites and so on. (One partial exception to this model would be the Philistines, who appear to have had at least some southern European ancestry.)

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The new genetic study provides powerful backing to this idea of continuity, though the researchers caution that we dont yet have enough ancient DNA samples from later eras, especially the Iron Age, to trace a direct line between the Canaanites and todays Middle Eastern populations. There may yet be another, unsampled population from the Levant that has a more direct link to Jews and Arabs today, qualifies Liran Carmel, a computational biologist from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and one of the lead authors of the study.

Canaanite descendants in Saudi Arabia and Iran

Still, the genetic commonalities between modern Levantine groups and their Canaanite predecessors are strong. During the course of the four-year-long study, the researchers analyzed the genome of 93 people who lived roughly between 2500 B.C.E. and 1000 B.C.E. and whose remains were uncovered in Israel, Lebanon and Jordan.

They then compared the genetic material to samples from 17 modern populations, including European or Ashkenazi Jews, Palestinians and other Middle Eastern groups.

In most of these, the percentage of ancestry matching that of the Bronze Age samples was above 50 percent.

Saudi Arabians, Bedouins and Iranian Jews had the highest ratio, hovering around 90 percent. These were followed by Palestinians, Jordanians and Syrians, with an 80 percent of ancestry shared with the ancient Levantines. Moroccan and Ashkenazi Jews had a roughly 70 and 60 percent contribution.

Somewhat unsurprisingly, most of the rest of the ancestry of Ashkenazi Jews comes from Europe. The lowest percentages of Middle Eastern ancestry were found in modern-day Moroccans (40 percent), and 20 percent for Ethiopian Jews, who have a strong contribution from Eastern African ancestry.

To varying degrees, all the groups displayed a strong connection to a common ancestor population in the Near East, while also showing that since the Bronze Age they have had contact with many other groups from different parts of the world, Carmel explains.

Most studies using ancient DNA to analyze demographic processes in this and other regions show the same thing everywhere, that the structure of human populations is very dynamic and populations mix with each other constantly, the researcher tells Haaretz.

The overarching goal of ancient DNA research is to trace the story of human dispersal, migration and admixture rather than highlight major genetic differences between human populations.

Most humans today share about 99.9 percent of their DNA with each other, but with 3.2 billion base pairs in the human genome there are still plenty of genetic sequences that can display variability, Carmel explains. Some of these sequences, often non-functional sections of our DNA, can be identified as typical of a certain area or group, particularly if the local population has been relatively isolated for a long time. Researchers can then use these telltale markers of origin to build statistical models that show how much of our ancestry comes from one comparison group or another.

This is what was done twofold in the case of the research published in Cell, not only by comparing the Canaanite DNA to that of modern Jews and Arabs, but also by trying to model the relationship between the Bronze Age inhabitants of the Holy Land and even older populations.

Whence the Canaanites?

Actually the main goal of this study, titled The Genomic History of the Bronze Age Southern Levant, was to determine the origins of the Canaanites and whether they could be described as a genetically coherent group, distinct from their neighbors, says Reich, the Harvard geneticist.

We know that the Canaanites were divided into various independent city states, many of them powerful in their own right, such as Megiddo, Hazor, Acre and so on. Plus, most of the texts about them come from outside or later sources. So there has been some question among researchers as to whether we should even be speaking about a Canaanite people and whether this nomenclature is not a later, artificial construct, Reich says.

The new study shows that genetically at least, the Canaanites did have a lot in common with each other. Most of the recovered genomes, from Sidon in Lebanon through Megiddo in the Jezreel Valley and down to Ashkelon in southern Israel, could be modeled as having a roughly 50/50 contribution of ancestry from local Neolithic inhabitants and from a group that hailed from the Caucasus or the Northwestern Zagros mountains, in todays Iran.

Researchers have known for a while that there were large influxes of people into the southern Levant over the last millennia of prehistory. For example, a previous ancient DNA study found that a Copper Age culture centered near the modern-day Galilean village of Pekiin emerged from the admixture of a local population with Anatolian and Iranian newcomers.

In the case of the Canaanites, it is more likely that the population influx came from the Caucasus, rather than Iran, because we do have evidence of a cultural link between the Caucasus and the southern Levant in the Bronze Age, says Israel Finkelstein, a Tel Aviv University archaeologist who took part in the study.

This connection is particularly clear at Khirbeth Kerak (Beit Yerah), a site on the southern shore of the Sea of Galilee dated to the first half of the 3rd millenium B.C.E. There, archaeologists found pottery vessels typified with the name Khirbeth Kerak Ware which bear strong similarities to the ceramics produced by the Kura-Araxes culture, a civilization that spanned the Caucasus region in the Early Bronze Age.

This type of pottery is very clearly influenced by this northern culture, and the question is whether the influence was by contact, such as trade or exchange of knowledge, or people moving, Finkelstein says. Now we have evidence that it was people moving.

Further bolstering the theory of Caucasian admixture, Finkelstein notes, is the fact that the names of some Canaanite rulers mentioned in the 14th century-B.C.E. Amarna documents from Egypt are not Semitic in origin but Hurrian, a language then spoken in northern Syria and eastern Anatolia.

Waves of migration

For the ancestry of the Canaanites to be split halfway between locals and newcomers there would have had to be an influx of a significant number of people; and a question that begs to be asked is whether this inflow was an invasion or a peaceful migration.

While we cannot be sure of its nature, it is likely that this phenomenon occurred over a long period of time, perhaps centuries, says Carmel, the bioinformatics expert. This is based on the fact that the percentage of Caucasian/Iranian descent tends to be lower in the older samples in the dataset and increases with time, he says.

I dont think we are dealing with an invasion, Finkelstein adds. We have no archaeological evidence of destruction or a major disruption in the Early Bronze Age.

There is evidence that the waves of migration continued for centuries, at least until the beginning of the Late Bronze Age. Three individuals unearthed at Megiddo and dated to the 16th-15th centuries B.C.E. were found to have a much larger percentage of Caucasian ancestry, with only around 20 percent of their genome deriving from the local Neolithic population. This means that these three were likely descendants of people who had arrived from the Caucasus relatively recently, just a few generations earlier.

The next step for researchers will be to continue modeling the ancient populations of the Levant, especially after the time of the Canaanites, Finkelstein says; It will be interesting to see what happened afterward, what was the genetic profile of the people of biblical Israel and Judah, how do they connect to us and to their predecessors, and what were the other contributions to the genetic pool along the way.

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Jews and Arabs share genetic link to ancient Canaanites, study finds - Haaretz

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Posted By admin on May 31, 2020

For years I felt rejected by my Hasidic neighbors. The pandemic changed all that.

I live on a Montreal block in Mile End, once the neighborhood of Mordecai Richler, which is now 50-per-cent Hasidic Jews an ultra-Orthodox sect that prays three times a day, and wears black hats imitating 18th-century Polish aristocracy.

While I live among them as a secular Jew, and have friendly relations with some neighbors, the Hasidim separate themselves from me and my social world. For many in the neighborhood, including me, social distance with our counterparts is nothing new.

But COVID-19 quarantine protocols, while physically distancing me from secular society, have brought me socially closer to my Hasidic neighbors. Morning and night, their voices sing out in prayer: ancient Middle Eastern melodies float through the pandemic-emptied street, bringing archaic echoes of spiritual yearning to the urban streetscape. Fathers, sons, grandfathers and grandsons its only ever men cluster together on front stoops, lean out from balconies, and dot the sidewalk. Melancholic songs ring up and down the street in passionate call and response, and passersby stare in wonder. After weeks of this outdoor synagogue, I see that the Hasidim have something to teach us seculars about what it means for a community to reconnect in a COVID-19 world.

My first response wasnt so romantic. Hearing noises coming from my balcony, I stepped outside and was surprised to see four Hasidic brothers praying on the adjacent balcony. I went downstairs to see that my neighbor's front stoop was the center of the service, and immediately worried that this religious ritual might increase my familys risk of infection.

Years ago, my neighbor put up a green plastic fence to separate our front stoops. I felt rejected. Since COVID-19, the same neighbor brings out a Torah scroll on a portable table, and I find the front of my house at the heart of their religious services. Because Orthodox Jews must pray communally in a minyan" of at least 10 men, the Hasidim were in a bind when the government shuttered all religious buildings and forbade religious services. Rabbis, in accordance with government directives, forbade having minyans in person. Improvising, as Jews have often done living under regimes that forbid Jewish practice, my Orthodox neighbors took to the streets so that, while remaining two meters apart, they could continue to pray together. Instead of hiding in caves and basements as Jews sometimes had to do in centuries past the new coronavirus has driven them outdoors.

One morning my curiosity overcame my fear and I walked out to the sidewalk when I heard them chanting. As much as I enjoy secular life, I found myself missing a sense of spiritual connection. It was cold, with a smattering of April snow on the ground. In addition to COVID-19, we have to survive what Montreal calls spring together.

My neighbor had started praying with his son, and he watched for others to emerge from their front doors. White tallit prayer shawls embroidered with silver and blue covered their heads. They wore tefillin: black leather boxes containing parchment inscribed with Hebrew verses, which are wrapped with leather straps onto the forehead and arm. My neighbor walked up and down the sidewalk looking to connect with other Hasidim as they came out across the street and down the block. Silent, so as not to interrupt the order of prayers, they made hand gestures to each other like third base coaches, holding up fingers to indicate how many were praying. My neighbor signaled to a man a few houses away who peeked into his neighbor's window: two fingers. When they identified a minyan of 10 they said Kaddish. The prayer is recited by mourners for 11 months after a close relative dies. In Judaism, one doesnt mourn alone but surrounded by community.

The first Montrealer to die of COVID-19 was a 67-year-old Hasid who went to a synagogue two blocks away from me. Online news articles about the community became a hotspot of anti-Semitic ranting. The Hasidim felt immediately targeted. The level of hatred, the level of focus, of scapegoating, has gone beyond anything we have seen before, said one Hasid. When a janitor was seen cleaning a synagogue, a neighbor called the police and eight cop cars showed up. There are reports of verbal attacks on the street, and Hasidim being told to stick with Jewish stores.

A few unfortunately timed weddings, big families and travel back and forth may explain why my co-religionists were initially hit harder than other communities. And as friends and I joked, after Justin Trudeau warned against speaking moistly, energetic schmoozing might have been a factor in the Jewish transmission rate (JR0).

Some argue that they have been socially irresponsible, but the Hasidim are not libertarian yahoos: It is their communal commitments that have made them and potentially my front yard more vulnerable to the coronavirus. We worshippers of the secular indulge in unnecessary COVID-19 risks, too. Some go for runs in busy parks. Others order delivery from Pizza Pizza. My COVID-19 vices are social: ringing a friends doorbell to sing happy birthday to their child, midnight scotch drinking with friends (at two meters) and visiting my girlfriend across town (at nowhere near two meters). The risks we take are based on what we value most.

The Hasidim pray together. And my neighbors, facing the green fence, sing loudly right onto my stoop, potentially increasing my viral exposure. The coronavirus highlights how permeable the borders are between our bodies, and how much our private choices affect everyone around us.

After stepping onto the sidewalk that morning, I strolled up and down the block, seeing a Hasid every three or four houses. The silver embroidery on their tallit flashed brightly in the sun, imparting a splendor one does not see indoors. One man shouted his prayer from out of his open window on the second floor. I didnt understand the words, and the singing wasnt classically beautiful like the choirs in more mainstream synagogues and churches. But his voice rang out with a pained yearning that resonates in this time of uncertainty. At various points congregants yelled, so that all can hear, Amen, pronounced Oh-MAIN, meaning so be it!

And then they all simultaneously went quiet. They prayed the Amidah, a prayer said silently on ones own. Closing their eyes they turned east in the direction of Jerusalem and began to bob up and down, swaying back and forth. Their fervor infected me, and I took a moment to stand, in the stillness of morning, feeling the weight and uncertainty of the pandemic that led to this outdoor synagogue. So many things seemed less important, and something although Im not sure what felt more important.

They know what theyre praying; I dont. They know what brings them together; we dont. To what will we seculars say Amen?

On Saturday morning, the Jewish Sabbath, I decided to join their minyan. I feared they wouldnt count me as a Jew, but I put on a tie, a black jacket and my yarmulke the religious head covering that, along with hijabs, Quebec has banned from public office. They saw me with surprised but welcoming eyes. My neighbor whisked a Torah out of his house, like it was a famous celebrity and he was a security detail. They signaled back and forth silently to determine who would read and sing which parts. I let go of my insecurity and joined the chorus shouting Amen!

After the service everyone met one anothers eyes to congratulate each other. They looked at me too, smiling, and said Good Shabbos! Infected by their communal warmth, I felt connected to these previously distant neighbors.

Later that afternoon, walking down the street I asked a Hasid about the Parsha HaShavua the section of the Torah they read that week. It addressed impurity: how to purify women who have given birth and men who have wasted an emission meaning an ejaculation that has not landed in the divinely sanctified receptacle. Then it addressed how to purify someone with leprosy after a seven-day quarantine. Just like now! the Hasid said enthusiastically: It was a disease that no one knew how to heal. If a leper gets better, but their house remains unclean, concludes the Torah portion, it must be rebuilt using new materials.

The Hasidim have already figured out how to reorganize themselves, during COVID-19, based on their deepest values. And we one of the most privileged societies in human history, who have known neither drought nor famine, war nor plague need to do the same. The Sabbath is the day when we pause all forms of labor; it provides an opportunity to reconnect to the deeper values guiding our work week. COVID-19 has provided us seculars with just such a pause. In this time of physical distance and suspended labor, we must reimagine how we will reorganize our society. How we will restructure our economy to come together, productively, without wasting emissions?

Given the plague of global warming, we cannot just return to business as usual: We need to discuss whether we must rebuild our house from scratch. We must rediscover the values that guide us. This is the conversation we need to have now: passionately, but not moistly.

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How Covid-19 Brought Me and My Hasidic Neighbors Together - Aish

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Posted By admin on May 31, 2020

Two historic Reform synagogues in New York announced Thursday that they are entering merger talks. One is embroiled in a financial crisis made more pressing by the pandemic; the other is growing, but faces a $2 million shortfall due to the economic impact of the coronavirus.

In email messages sent to their congregations Thursday afternoon, Congregation Beth Elohim the largest Reform temple in Brooklyn and Union Temple said that financial difficulties tied to the pandemic triggered the talks. Union, which has been facing a severe financial crisis for several years and told its membership a year ago it would soon run out of money, initiated them.

The announcement marks the first major potential merger in the Reform movement since the onset of the coronavirus, though experts say it heralds more. The pandemic has forced both synagogues and the support organizations that provide them with training and other services to cut staff and seek emergency funding.

Even the president of the movements umbrella organization, the Union for Reform Judaism, said that the organization and its counterparts in other egalitarian denominations might merge some operations during his tenure.

The CBE-Union talks began in early April, and have been held over Zoom. Leaders of the two congregations said that while the initial meetings were largely secret, they are announcing the talks now to allow for input from their congregations.

Were building a sacred process for our communities to work through these questions together, said Rabbi Stephanie Kolin, of Union Temple, in an email. We want the process to be productive, healing, and future-looking, so its essential we dont get out ahead of our communities.

The synagogues share a neighborhood and much history. Located a 10-minute walk from one another in the heart of Brooklyns brownstone belt, both anchor the area as a bastion of egalitarian Judaism and progressive ideals. The congregations leaders Kolin and Rabbi Rachel Timoner of CBE have built their careers around social justice work.

Indeed, these merger talks are not the first for the two communities: In 1926, Unions congregation voted down a proposed merger with CBE, then known as the Eighth Avenue Temple. In an article on the vote, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle said that the long agitated amalgamation would have melted two of the wealthiest and most influential Jewish congregations in this boro into one of the foremost religious powers in Greater New York.

These are two congregations that are in very different situations at the moment but with a shared set of values that draw us to one another, said Rob Raich, CBEs president.

Founded in 1861, CBE is the larger of the two, with pre-school and after-school programs and a community center with a gym and a pool frequented by many non-Jewish neighbors in Park Slope. It recently created what it called an emergency stabilization fund to offset more than $2 million in lost revenue from such programs over the last several months. Yet the synagogues membership has been growing for years, and Rob Raich, CBEs president, said earlier this month that the loss in revenue was not threatening the synagogues immediate operations.

We are not going to hit that existential wall, he said.

Union, founded in 1921, was financially fragile going into the pandemic, and is now more so. It counts 150 families as members, with others that enroll their children in the synagogues religious school. For over a year, it has been seeking a long-term loan to prevent its dissolution, though leaders said it has not been able to obtain one.Union is not big enough, strong enough, or well-resourced enough as a congregation to do what we dream of doing on our own, the synagogue leaders wrote in an email announcing the talks, sent Thursday to the congregation. We believe now that the most viable way forward is to engage with a strong partner who has the same dreams as we do.

In the letter the synagogue said that the federal grant it received will carry it through July.

Union is not alone among American synagogues that have seen declining enrollment for years, and are now facing even more significant financial stress tied to the current economic crisis. More than 200 Reform congregations out of 850 in North America asked for assistance from the movements umbrella organization, the Union for Reform Judaism, in obtaining federal emergency assistance, Rabbi Rick Jacobs, the URJs president, said earlier this month.

The scope of the crisis could deepen in late summer, when people typically renew or, as is possible this year, not renew their synagogue memberships, according to Steven Windmueller, a professor of Jewish communal studies at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in Los Angeles.

Long-established brick-and-mortar synagogues which have been losing membership for decades may also be in for a spate of mergers similar to what followed the 2008 financial crisis, Windmueller said.

I think that those synagogues without multiple funding sources will be in the most precarious shape, Windmueller said. Congregations with schools, camps, cemeteries, senior housing, and other potential income streams have somewhat more options.

Even with its financial stress, if the merger talks between the two congregations pan out, they will lead to the complicated process of unifying two unique communities. Though mergers are becoming more common, even across denominations, they are tricky.

The key to any successful synagogue merger is helping congregants from the two communities create relationships with one another, said Dr. Ron Wolfson, a professor of Jewish education at American Jewish University. That happens through open houses, coffee meet-ups and communal gatherings, he said.

There has to be that kind of relationship building that will smooth the opportunity for the communities to come together, not just financially, physically, organizationally, Wolfson said.

But there are also specific steps that can help make the physical merging easier as well, said Vicki Spira, co-president of the synagogue created by the last two large congregations to merge in the Reform movement, Temple Har Sinai and Congregation Oheb Shalom in Baltimore. The two synagogues have co-rabbis and co-presidents, and a board that is almost equally split between members from its two legacy shuls an arrangement they agreed would last for the first two years of the new synagogues life.

In that merger, Har Sinai played the role of Union, bringing fewer members to the table. But Spira, formerly the president of Oheb Shalom, said that its important for the two communities to look past numbers.

We didnt subsume Har Sinai, she said. Were becoming a new congregation together, with new practices, new government.

In CBEs letter to its congregation, the synagogues leaders said that Union had approached them about combining congregations to become a stronger CBE together.

Both communities are presenting the potential merger to the communities ahead of their respective annual meetings next week. They expect talks to take up to a year before any final vote.

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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Two marquee Reform synagogues are in merger talks - and they wont be the last - Forward

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Posted By admin on May 31, 2020

Employees of the The Basilica of Our Lady of San Juan del Valle cover the front doors to the basilica after graffiti was seen sprayed painted over night by vandals on Tuesday, May ,26, 2020 in San Juan. Photo by Delcia Lopez/The Monitor | dlopez@themonitor.com

McALLEN A woman has been taken into custody by McAllen police after three houses of worship in Hidalgo County were found vandalized Tuesday with several references of the occult and anti-Semitic imagery.

McAllen police have not yet released the identity of the woman, but Chief Victor Rodriguez confirmed her arrest has been tied to the three vandalism incidents reported Tuesday morning at the Basilica of Our Lady of San Juan del Valle, the Temple Emmanuel synagogue in McAllen, and the Shri Nanak Hindu Temple in Edinburg.

We have reason to believe that all incidents are related to each other, Rodriguez said. In other words, theyre all interconnected and that we have the same violator at each particular location.

The chief said the womans name is being withheld pending charges being formally laid against her. But what those charges will be remains unclear.

The department has asked federal law enforcement to weigh in. We have at least destruction (of property) and criminal mischief, but do we have others? Rodriguez said.

Were conferring with our federal partners at FBI and those are evaluations that are going (on) today to decide the totality of charges we may look at or not, the chief said

The entrances of all three houses of worship were defaced with incomprehensible messages spray painted in large block letters and referencing killers, New York, Greek and Roman gods, Nazi symbols and other words.

Written across a set of double doors at the San Juan basilica were the words NEW YORK KILLER ZUES HADES and 2FACE WITCH (sic) in white spray paint. Another door was defaced with a swastika, and above it, the words TIGER BBY and RAPEST CULT.

In McAllen, members of the synagogue stared quietly at the gold letters scrawled across the temples doorway and surrounding walls as they awaited the arrival of additional police officers.

Here, too, a swastika had been painted on the wall, along with more mentions of RAPEST CULT and TIGERS BBY. At the bottom of the double doors were depicted two hearts with arrows through them.

Not far away at the Hindu temple secure behind a low concrete wall topped with ornate terracotta-colored scrollwork the building was spared the graffiti, but the wall was not.

HOLY SPIRIT FRIEND & NOT Death to the Wicked read the graffiti along one portion of wall in the temples driveway. On the opposite side was, Mason Jews Against Holy Spirit.

And as drivers whirred past along Trenton Road, they were greeted with the words Oilfield Killer and Judah H.E.B. KILLER.

As grounds crews at the basilica worked to cover the graffiti with black plastic sheeting Tuesday morning, clues were already beginning to emerge about who may have defaced the church.

The Rev. Jorge Gomez, rector of the basilica, said security video appeared to show a woman walking around the property early Tuesday morning. It was between 3 and 4 in the morning when the rain was pouring, Gomez said. So, it was in the midst of the storm when she came to do that.

At the synagogue, the graffiti was discovered when employees came to unlock the temple Tuesday morning, Temple Emmanuel President Aladar Deutsch said while standing outside the synagogue.

Its sad that this day and age, that theres still people that carry that kind of hatred, Deutsch said.

However, with anti-Semitic imagery also being discovered at the Catholic basilica, Deutsch surmised the person responsible may have been trying to make a statement about religion in general, and not just the Jewish people.

They put the same imagery on the basilica, so I dont think they were basically going against the Jewish people. I think theyre just doing something against religion as a whole, he said.

In Edinburg, the vandalism at the Hindu temple was discovered when worshippers began arriving for morning prayers, which had only recently started again in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. We were all shocked that something like that happened, said Parveen Jain, trustee and manager of the Shri Nanak Hindu Temple.

Jain said the house of worship has never been vandalized since its opening in 2010 by his parents, Harinder and Sudesh Jain. Some 400 families worship at the temple, Jain said.

It looks like something pretty hateful, but it didnt make much sense to us. We found out that the San Juan church got hit, and the Jewish temple got hit also. Its very sad, Jain said.

As the congregants of Temple Emmanuel begin the slow process of reopening their religious services to in-person worship again, Deutsch, too, remarked on the timing of the vandalism. Especially with all the hard times going on right now, this is pretty much the last thing we needed at this point, he said.

Rev. Gomez reflected on the moment as a call for the community to respect each other. I invite the community to respect all places of worship whether Catholic, non-Catholic, Jewish, Muslim. I think the foundation for peace is respecting of the holy places and the holy things for all the religions, Gomez said.

Monitor staff writers Naxiely Lopez-Puente and Francisco E. Jimnez contributed to this report.

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Woman in custody after houses of worship vandalized - Monitor

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Posted By admin on May 31, 2020

By Faygie Holt

(JNS) Police in Peoria, Ill., are investigating nine broken windows at a synagogue in the city.

Authorities believe the vandalism at Congregation Anshai Emeth, which houses the Hebrew Day School, occurred between Tuesday and Wednesday afternoon, when it was reported to law enforcement.

It is under investigation by a detective, and at this point, there is no suspect information, said Officer Amy Dotson, public-information officer for the Peoria Police Department. No entry was made, and nothing in the chapel appeared to be disturbed.

She said the windows were broken by either rocks or bricks, and among the rooms impacted were classrooms and a kitchen.

Dotson added that we do have issues with kids and vandalism. I wouldnt say its prevalent to houses of worship, but it isnt completely uncommon. It is typically a juvenile delinquent situation.

Synagogue president Steven Marx told a local television station, WMBD, that the vandal or vandals used bricks or rocks to break a lot of windows and tried to break one door. It just seems to be simple vandalism, but the target, of course, makes you wonder. He confirmed this on Friday with JNS, noting that estimates for the damage have not yet been made.

As of press time, no motive had been associated with the incident. Officials have said as of now there is no indication of anti-Semitism.

Indeed, following a post on Facebook about the incident in which some expressed concern that this was a hate act, someone using the synagogues Facebook account responded, Maybe they didnt target us as Jews.

On Thursday evening, the Anti-Defamation League Midwest indicated its awareness of the incident and planned to speak with both law enforcement and members of the congregation.

On his personal Twitter account, David Goldenberg, ADLs Midwest regional director, said: The investigation is underway and motives for this vandalism are unknown at the moment, but we know it occurs at a time when anti-Semitic incidents are up 340 percent in Illinois since 2016.

Main Photo: Nine windows were discovered broken at Congregation Anshai Emeth in Peoria, Ill., on May 20, 2020. (Credit: Congregation Anshai Emeth)

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Dozens of windows shattered at synagogue in Peoria, Ill. - Connecticut Jewish Ledger

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Posted By admin on May 31, 2020

Orthodox synagogues in Greater Cleveland were set to begin meeting on site, some as early as erev Shavuos, which began the evening of May 28.

The Vaad HaRabbonim of Greater Cleveland issued a May 19 statement giving autonomy to synagogues in making decisions about when and how to reopen in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

We have until now administered our guidance on a communal level, but at this time we have collectively deemed it appropriate, to move toward restoring the autonomy of our shuls, the Vaads statement to the community reads. We are blessed with many vibrant and responsible Kehillos within the greater Cleveland community, and beginning Shavuos, each Kehilla will be responsible for its own administration. Shuls will decide for themselves if to open, and the best way to open. A myriad of factors, including diverse constituencies and venue size, create different situations and call for different courses of action. It is in the interest of spirituality and safety that shuls tailor guidelines to meet their own complex needs.

Green Road Synagogue in Beachwood will open with an outdoor minyan on May 31.

The overarching principle is cautiously taking steps forward, Rabbi Benjamin Blau, spiritual leader of Green Road Synagogue, told the CJN.

People attending will need to sign up in advance, wear masks and bring their own siddurim and chairs, Blau said.

Blau said there will be limited seating, probably 15, in the first services, and his hope is to have space for both men and women at the first services.

Young Israel of Greater Cleveland in Beachwood will meet on site on May 28, with a minyan set up in an open-sided tent on the property, Rabbi Naphtali Burnstein said.

People intending to attend services on Shavuos at Young Israel were asked to sign up in advance, to bring their own prayer book, wear masks and maintain social distancing.

Were going to keep the services moving; yours truly is not planning on giving a sermon, said Burnstein, adding the tent arrangement is expected to last longer than Shavuos. G-d forbid theres a spike in things.

Recently, the Cleveland Vaad allowed yard minyanim to take place during the shutdown of synagogues, which began in mid-March, provided certain guidelines were adhered to, including social distancing, limited capacity, the prohibition of having children under bar mitzvah age in attendance, and the mandatory wearing of masks.

Shawn Fink, producer of Shalom America, which is a radio partner of the CJN, said he and his wife were on a Shabbos walk on the afternoon of May 23 and observed a yard minyan that appeared to violate guidelines.

My wife and I counted close to 30 people in attendance when we lost count, said Fink, who lives in University Heights. There were children that were present and it was also very clear from the street that there were many people not wearing masks.

Fink said he found the behavior of concern, both because of the potential health implications and for its impact on the profile of the Orthodox community in the eyes of others.

It sends a very poor message when gatherings like this are still not really encouraged, Fink said. Theres so much we dont know about this virus at this time, that we have to take the advice of doctors and public health officials.

In response to the decision by the Cleveland Vaad to allow synagogues autonomy in opening, 31 doctors signed a statement that has circulated on social media under the heading Message to the Orthodox Jewish Community of Cleveland.

The number of cases has thankfully been low, and we hope that with the right precautions and adherence to local guidance it will remain that way, the statement opens. Despite this return of activity, the pandemic is far from over. It is still a time of high risk and uncertainty. In relation to outdoor gatherings, it is important to keep in mind that masks only offer protection if everyone is wearing one properly, covering both ones nose and mouth. However, wearing a mask does not alone provide adequate protection and a minimum 6-foot distance must be maintained at all times.

Dr. Daniel Fleksher, who practices internal medicine at University Hospitals in Cleveland and signed the letter, said the group showed a draft of the letter to the Cleveland Vaad prior to publicizing it.

Since it was being decentralized, we felt it was important to find a way to send a message to the community, he said. Theres no 100% safe way to move indoors and have minyanim.

Burnstein said he took part in a yard minyan at a neighbors house that adhered to the guidelines, and that he checked on one such minyan that was reported as being in violation of the guidelines. That host, he said, told him that people were masked and that he had masks that he was ready to offer to anyone needing one.

I really believe that the rules were mostly followed, said Burnstein, adding that in his experience, Its actually worked out very well.

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Cleveland Orthodox synagogues ready to open their (outside) doors - Cleveland Jewish News

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Posted By admin on May 31, 2020

For Orthodox synagogues, it was an easy choice: Pandemic or no, a Shabbat service cannot be streamed online. For many liberal synagogues, it was similarly easy: Meet the needs of the moment, and start streaming Shabbat services.

But for Conservative synagogues, it was a matter for serious deliberation: To stream or not to stream?

On May 13, the Conservative movements Committee on Jewish Law and Standards provided official guidance. Despite longstanding prohibitions against using electricity and computers on Shabbat and major Jewish holidays, prayer services could now be streamed on those days.

However, of the six Conservative synagogues J. spoke with about this matter, five had already begun streaming their Shabbat services before the teshuvah (legal decision) was issued. The sixth does not plan on streaming services.

The six rabbis varying approaches illustrate the complexity and seemingly contradictory nature of Conservative Judaisms approach to Jewish law today.

Rabbi Jaymee Alpert of Congregation Beth David in Saratoga is a member of the CJLS and part of the 19-3 vote in favor of the option to stream (there were also three abstentions).

Alpert said Beth David has been streaming services since almost the very beginning of shelter in place on March 17. It was really important to me to provide a sense of community as best I could, she said.

The teshuvah, authored by Rabbi Joshua Heller of Congregation Bnai Torah in Sandy Springs, Georgia, does not give carte blanche to stream by whatever means are most convenient. Rather, the 34-page document includes many stipulations, such as: Everything must be prearranged and scheduled before Shabbat begins, the streamed content may not be recorded and, if interaction with the technology facilitating the stream is absolutely necessary, it should be done by a non-Jew.

However, in Conservative halachah (Jewish law), the senior rabbi of any individual synagogue is the mara datra, an Aramaic term (literally, master of the house) that means they are the ultimate halachic authority in their community. In other words, each congregational rabbi may choose to follow or not follow CJLS decisions.

What I appreciate about this teshuvah is that it is giving rabbis and congregations an opportunity to adhere as closely to halachah on Shabbat as possible, Alpert said. For those of us who take a little bit more of a lenient view of Shabbat, we take as much care as we can.

It was already part of her practice to turn on a microphone before services. So streaming wasnt a big leap for us in terms of how we deal with technology [at Beth David], Alpert said.

Having Shabbat morning services together [online] has been really meaningful. People like to see each others faces and wish each other Shabbat Shalom, and have an approximation of what we have in person in the sanctuary.

A teshuvah to allow streaming of Shabbat services had already been in consideration by the committee for about a year, Alpert said. But the exigencies of the pandemic demanded some revisions and an expedited process.

At Congregation Kol Shofar in Tiburon, a working group of leaders had been discussing the streaming of services before the pandemic began. Kol Shofar, for example, looking primarily at the issue of accessibility for people who cant physically attend services.

So when Covid hit, we were poised to just accelerate the process, said Rabbi Susan Leider. Streaming services began on March 21.

Two days earlier, the working group met virtually. We wanted to evaluate where we [were at that] point, she said. It looked as if the stay-at-home order could last a while, and that has ramifications for the community.

Leider mentioned the halachic category shaat hadechak, essentially a moment of crisis, during which more lenient rules can be instituted. But she has begun to wonder about things. When you have a period of duress that extends, what does that mean? How do you define this period?

Peninsula Sinai Congregation in Foster City, the decision to stream had already been made before shelter in place. We were in the process of ordering the equipment when the pandemic began. So we made the decision to start doing it before the ruling, said Rabbi Corey Helfand.

Addressing a common misunderstanding about what the members of the CJLS intended, Helfand said, Its not that theyre deciding things after the fact, but theyre offering additional halachic framework for what people are already doing.

This teshuvah does a good job of keeping it as stringent as possible, while also making it possible to meet the needs of the moment.

Peninsula Sinai began streaming on Purim (when Shabbat-like restrictions such as use of electricity are not in effect) and continued with Shabbat services shortly after. Helfand said that the shul is being as strict about it as possible. Everything is set up in advance of Shabbat, for example, though Helfand said he still has to click the mouse a couple of times to get things started.

Rabbi Mark Bloom of Temple Beth Abraham in Oakland was frank about the matter: Were doing the whole thing, including Saturday morning, streaming everything, and were not completely following the Conservative [teshuvah], he said.

For him, it was a matter of balancing contradictory priorities. Basically, halachah is important to me, but so is keeping a community together. So I weighed two separate values: the strict observance of Shabbat and keeping the community together. Shabbat services are how we convene as a community, Bloom said.

I doubt Im the only one doing it the way Im doing it, not following all their requirements, he said, referring to the teshuvahs minutiae setting up the computer to start streaming at a certain time, etc. Who is going to do that? I would love to do it the way they suggest, but its just not reasonable right now.

Rabbi David Booth of Congregation Kol Emeth in Palo Alto is a member of the CJLS who opted to abstain from the May 13 vote, largely because he doesnt think synagogues will be able to follow the letter of the law.

I didnt want to vote no because its a really thoughtful paper with a good deal of depth to it for the immediate crisis, he said. But I couldnt vote yes because its very complex to do what [the teshuvah] said, to try to actually have a stream be Shabbat-appropriate. I wonder whether communities are going to be able to or willing to do that. It seems to me that during the crisis, theres reason to put some extra permissiveness into it, but when the crisis is over, we should really re-evaluate it.

Booth, Kol Emeths senior rabbi, is not leading or participating in streamed services on Shabbat; however, the congregations other rabbi, Rabbi Sarah Graff, is leading online services on Shabbat. I wanted to give Rabbi Graff the leeway to function that way. Its nice for us as a community to hold a little pluralism, Booth said.

At Congregation Beth Sholom in San Francisco, Rabbi Dan Ain has no plans to stream Shabbat services.

Instead, at 4 p.m. every Friday, dozens of his congregants get together online before Shabbat. There is a dvar Torah and guests, and Ain does a blessing for the sick and reads a list of yahrzeits. The guests have been interesting Louie Kemp recently talked about the religious journey of his old friend, Bob Dylan, for example and some people stick around to shmooze over virtual Kiddush.

But there is no service.

Its not Kabbalat Shabbat. Im not even attempting [that], Ain said. What Ive been telling people is this: The medium is the message, and the medium of Judaism is the minyan. Its very hard to transmit a prayer experience.

Due to popular demand, Beth Sholom has been streaming weekday morning minyans. I have been surprised how meaningful the virtual minyans have been, he said.

In the end, there are no easy answers for Ain and his colleagues.

Im at a loss for my elders and predecessors, he said. Theres no literature on this, no Jewish source to turn to here. Were hard-pressed.

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Conservative synagogues' dilemma: To stream or not to stream? - The Jewish News of Northern California

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Posted By admin on May 31, 2020

WASHINGTON U.S. President Donald Trump used Memorial Day weekend to attack state governors who have taken measures to stop the spread of the coronavirus, by proclaiming that he was ordering them to allow churches and synagogues to reopen and resume normal activities.

Trumps move garnered headlines and offered White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany a line of attack against journalists who asked questions on the subject. But at least as far as Americas Jewish community is concerned, it seems the presidents provocation didnt make much of an impression.

Rabbis and community leaders from across the country who spoke with Haaretz in recent days all said they were seeing no change in the pace of how Jewish institutions are planning to reopen their doors. Across the modern Orthodox, Conservative and Reform streams, there seems to be a consensus that Jewish institutions should return to physical activities based on their ability to do so safely, and not based on political or economic decisions.

The general attitude of synagogues in our area, regardless of denomination, is caution and responsibility, says Ron Halber, executive director of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington. Halber tells Haaretz, Our rabbis are not going to rush it because of something coming out of the White House. No one wants to put members of their own community at risk. Of course, people really want to reopen the synagogues and people miss going to shul. But what Im hearing from rabbis is that safety remains their top priority.

Steven Rosenberg, chief operating officer of the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia, has more than 90 synagogues in his area and says he is not aware of any of them currently speeding up plans for reopening. People are having discussions about it, and we at the federation are putting together a very detailed plan for how to do it which we already started working on five weeks ago. But the timeline is based on many considerations, including how the state of Pennsylvania views the situation.

Rosenberg adds that right now, Philadelphia is still defined as a red zone by the state, meaning that everything is shut down. We hope it will soon move to yellow and eventually green and were preparing for it but were not going to get ahead of the governor on this issue. And even when there will be a move to green, I dont think people will be in a rush to have hundreds of congregants inside the synagogue buildings.

Rosenberg says that in conversations his federation is regularly holding with local rabbis, he is sensing a very thoughtful approach. There is a serious conversation about getting back, but it will take more time before we get there.

Many questions

Union for Reform Judaism President Rabbi Rick Jacobs says Trumps attempt to declare houses of worship as essential made no difference to his movement, which is the largest Jewish denomination in North America. Weve always considered our synagogues to be essential, thats not news to anyone, Jacobs says. We long to return to in-person gathering because nothing can replace that, not even the best Zoom broadcast. But our movement puts a greater emphasis on the Jewish principle of pikuach nefesh [the preservation of human life above all]. We will continue to look to the medical experts for advice on when it is actually safe to gather in person.

Jacobs shares with Haaretz some of the many questions a potential reopening has triggered in internal deliberations. How do we clean the buildings to make sure theyre safe? How many people do we allow inside a room? What measures of social distancing do we insist on? And how do we enforce them?

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He brings up the theoretical scenario of a bat mitzvah ceremony where all the family gathers, but somebody takes peoples temperatures at the entrance and suddenly grandpa or grandma has a slight fever. Whose role is it to then tell them, Sorry, but you wont be able to attend your granddaughters celebration today?

Jacobs says that what we are hearing from synagogues across our movement is that theyre having their own independent discussions on these subjects, and at the same time many of them want some guidance from the movement. Were working on something like that, but we also know that, eventually, many will decide what to do based on the situation in their own state, city and neighborhood.

Rabbi Jill Crimmings of Bet Shalom Reform Congregation in Minnesota told NPR this week that the debate over when and how to reopen has nothing to do with politics. As rabbis, we do our best to step outside of that political conversation and speak from a space of values, she explained, adding that the main value taken into consideration in this case is saving lives.

Surprised

In Greater Boston, Rabbi Claudia Kreiman of the independent synagogue Temple Beth Zion told a local newspaper this week that despite the fact the Republican governor of Massachusetts, Charlie Baker, is allowing houses of worship to reopen, she wasnt sure the community was ready for such a step.

Many of us were surprised that houses of worship made it to Phase 1 [of the states reopening process], Kreiman told the Brookline TAB. We felt its not going to be responsible for us to open this early. There is a lot that we need to be thinking about.

She added: Its very hard, because [social distancing] is the opposite of the values that we hold so dear which is our doors are always open to everyone, and we would never say no to someone looking to come in.

Jeremy Burton, executive director of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Boston, tells Haaretz: We can choose as every Jewish denomination and nearly every synagogue in America has to see state and local directives as a baseline, not a ceiling, for the precautions we take in gathering and protecting all of us, especially the most vulnerable among us.

Burton says the leaders of most local Orthodox synagogues recently published a joint statement, saying they would wait at least two weeks after the local government gives permission to reopen religious institutions before going ahead and actually reopening.

This two-week wait period is in line with policy guidelines issued earlier this month by the Orthodox Union. The Conservative movements Rabbinical Assembly offered a similar message in a statement published earlier this month: Given all of the values, and despite the fact that it continues to challenge the finances of our institutions, in many locations our concern for health and safety should therefore make us among the last to return to physically proximate activity, rather than the first, it stated.

Rabbinical Assembly Chief Executive Rabbi Jacob Blumenthal says that reopening is a complicated term. Our congregations have remained open throughout. This is a question of returning to in-person activities. Congregations may slowly increase these kinds of activities first, small groups for prayer or life cycle events, with appropriate measures in place (distancing, masks, gloves, etc.), and with others present via Zoom or other streaming technologies.

One thing is clear from all the different conversations: The timing of when synagogues and Jewish institutions reopen will not be unduly influenced by President Trump.

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U.S. synagogues unimpressed by Trump's pressure to reopen - Haaretz

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