Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By admin on May 19, 2020

US successfully launches unmanned reusable drone for secretive space mission

The US Air Force successfully launches its high-tech drone X-37B, placing the reusable vehicle into orbit for its sixth secretive mission in space.

The drone, which resembles a smaller version of the manned space shuttles retired by the US space program in 2011, was launched from Cape Canaveral in Florida, the Air Force says.

It will spend months in orbit, remotely conducting a series of experiments.

Congratulations on the 6th mission of the X-37B reusable spacecraft, Defense Secretary Mark Esper tweets shortly after the launch.

The huge Atlas V launch vehicle took off with an earth-shaking roar at 9:14 am (13H14 GMT) to loft the drone, also known as an Orbital Test Vehicle (OTV), into space.

The drone in turn will deploy a small research satellite dubbed FalconSat-8, to carry out additional experiments, Secretary of the Air Force Barbara Barrett explained earlier this month, elaborating on what up to now has been a highly secretive project.

This X-37B mission will host more experiments than any prior missions, said Barrett, who also heads the recently created US Space Force.

Among the experiments: testing the effect of radiation on seeds and other materials, and transforming solar power into radio-frequency microwave energy that could be transmitted to the ground.

The X-37B is 29 feet long (nine meters), with a wing span of 15 feet (4.5 meters).

The Pentagon has published photos of the drone, but up to now had revealed few details about its missions and capabilities.

On each of its successive flights the first took place in 2010 the solar-powered craft has remained in orbit for longer periods.

Its last flight ended in October 2019, after 780 days in orbit. That brought the crafts cumulative time in orbit to 2,865 days.

AFP

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Israel finally gets a gov't; Netanyahu promises to hand over power Nov. 17, 2021 - The Times of Israel

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Posted By admin on May 19, 2020

AMSTERDAM (JTA) Located in what used to be this Dutch citys Jewish neighborhood, its Jewish Cultural Quarter a group of museums and other institutions situated within a few blocks of each other packs centuries of European history into an area half the size of Times Square.

It includes the Jewish Historical Museum; a Jewish Children Museum, the first of its kind in Europe; the Portuguese Synagogue, a beautiful 17th-century building that still functions as a house of worship; the Ets Haim library, located underneath the Portuguese Synagogue; the Hollandse Schouwburg theater, which occupying Nazis used to round up Jews during the Holocaust; and other monuments. Theres also a $27 million national Holocaust museum that is being renovated and scheduled to reopen in 2022.

Before the coronavirus pandemic, the cultural quarter drew over 350,000 visitors each year, acting as a vibrant portal into Jewish life and culture for tourists and locals alike. The Childrens Jewish Museum had received thousands of visits by Dutch elementary school students for day trips. The main museum houses the worlds two priciest Hanukkah menorahs and is made up of what used to be four Ashkenazi synagogues used before the Holocaust.

Now theres a fear that when the cultural quarter reopens, it wont have the same impact in multiple ways.

The Jewish Cultural Quarter is scheduled to reopen on June 1, and its staff is figuring out the format. Ticket sales entry costs about $20 and is valid for all the institutions there will be done online exclusively and in advance, essentially ending walk-ins.

Whereas the area in the center of Amsterdam had about 360,000 visits in 2019, if we get 135,000 visits in 2020, then thats a good outcome, said Emile Schrijver, the director of the quarters umbrella organization that formed in 2012. Thats just being realistic.

Emile Schrijver, director of the Jewish Cultural Quarter, stands in the area located in the center of Amsterdam, May 4, 2020. (Cnaan Liphshiz)

The cultural quarters core interactive framework also stands to change. The Jewish Museum developed a philosophy called I ASK, which encourages visitors to start conversations with guides rather than act as passive onlookers. In 2015, the Dutch museology magazine Museumpeil profiled the pioneering method and argued that it should be copied.

Yet the model may need to be adapted for post-lockdown reality, Schrijver conceded.

Some areas within the cultural quarter, like the community treasures display at the Portuguese Synagogue, are too tight to allow for mandatory 5-foot social distancing. Beyond changes to tourist routes, visitors will be forced to wear face masks and avoid standing in gatherings.

I miss walking around, hearing people talking about what theyve seen in the cafeteria, praising it or complaining, whatever, Schrijver said. I miss the vitality and interaction of this place.

His voice echoed in the now-empty museum in an interview earlier this month.

Weve done a lot online and will continue, but to me thats not the same, Schrijver said.

The cultural quarter was a way into Judaism for Anne-Maria van Hilst, a 32-year-old tourist guide from Amsterdam who converted over a decade ago to the religion. She said Judaisms tradition of asking questions appealed to her.

Concert-goers attend a performance at the Portuguese Synagogue, Aug. 17, 2017. (Cnaan Liphshiz)

Van Hilst began attending the synagogue of the Liberal Jewish Community here out of interest when she was 13, before her conversion. But the accessibility and diversity of the various institutions that make up the cultural quarter allowed her to develop her Jewish identity gradually, and in a way that felt comfortable, she said. It later even helped determine her career choices.

I started coming to the Childrens Jewish Museum as a teenager, she recalled. I liked how they always had staff there whose job it was to answer questions. It wasnt just a museum where you look at exhibits, it was a place of dialogue.

But, van Hilst added, she may have asked the staff too many questions.

Im not sure they liked me as much as I liked them, she said.

As she matured and her knowledge of Judaism deepened, van Hilst graduated to the main Jewish museum. It helped her decide to study Jewish history at the University of Amsterdam. During her studies, she gained access to Ets Haim, which is not open to the general public except for guided tours of very small groups every few weeks, as well as to scholars for research.

In many ways, its there that I found what it means to be Jewish, she said of the library.

Children learning about Judaism at the Childrens Jewish Museum in Amsterdam, Sept. 25, 2008. (Ruud van Zwet)

Last week, walking past the now-deserted cultural quarter, van Hilst lamented the need to keep it closed precisely at a time when she believes its particularly valuable.

Especially when anti-Semitism is rising, when conspiracy theories about the Jews and the virus are flourishing, the Jewish Cultural Quarter needs to open and tell Judaisms real story, she said.

The quarter has several dozen employees and an annual turnover of $10 million. Annual funding from the Dutch Education Ministry covers about half its budget. The rest comes from ticket sales, more than 200 events yearly, shops and the cafeteria, as well as donations and nongovernment subsidies, said Schrijver, whose father was Jewish.

The Anne Frank House, which is not part of the cultural quarter but received over a million visitors last year, is also dealing with a drastic reduction in visitors because of the virus.

A view outside the closed Anne Frank House Museum in Amsterdam, March 31, 2020. (Sjoerd van der Wal/Getty Images)

The museum, which was built where the murdered teenage diarists Jewish family hid for a time from the Nazis, is housed in a small annex with narrow doorways and cramped spaces. The architecture is part of the reason it has been so successful at conveying the feeling of confinement, but it also complicates keeping up the mandatory 5-foot social distancing rule, its director Ronald Leopold told AT5 last month.

The Anne Frank House dispensed with walk-ins years ago because of high demand, and ticket sales occur weeks in advance online. Before the pandemic, it allowed in 78 visitors every 15 minutes. But after June 1, the number of visitors who will be let in daily will be reduced by 80 percent, Leopold said.

Both the cultural quarter and the Anne Frank House have adapted to the online quarantine era. The Anne Frank House rolled out a series of vlog posts by an actress who looks like the diarist. The quarter has been giving virtual tours on social networks and livestreamed its annual Open Jewish Homes project in which people who live in Holocaust victims homes invite visitors to explore them and the former residents stories.

Other online tours have involved Dutch Jewrys golden age in the 17th century, when the Portuguese Synagogue was built, and a showcase of the colorful art of the Dutch-Jewish painter Eli Content.

A man walks by the offices of the Jewish Cultural Quarter, Sept. 25, 2008. (Marijke Volkers)

Van Hilst got to visit the Jewish Cultural Quarter earlier in the lockdown, when she was invited to give a virtual tour of the Portuguese Synagogue.

I didnt expect it, but it was a very special feeling to be there almost all alone its usually so full of people. Its even more majestic when its quiet, she recalled.

But it was also deeply melancholic, van Hilst said.

It brought home how people cant hear the story the Jewish Cultural Quarter has to tell, among many other things we cant do, she said. It breaks my heart.

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Amsterdam's Jewish quarter is getting ready to reopen, but some wonder if it will ever be the same - JTA News

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Posted By admin on May 19, 2020

(Boston)--The same genes that greatly increase the risk of breast cancer in U.S. white women, including women of Ashkenazi Jewish descent, also greatly increase breast cancer risk among African American women. These genes include the BRCA1, BRCA2 and PALB2 genes, each of which was associated with a more than seven-fold risk of breast cancer, as well as four other genes associated with a more moderate increase in risk. Previous studies of women of African ancestry were too small to assess genes other than BRCA1 and BRCA2.

"This means that the multi-gene panels that are currently available to test women diagnosed with breast cancer or women at high risk due to their family history will be useful for African American women," explained corresponding author Julie Palmer, ScD, director of BU's Slone Epidemiology Center and the Karin Grunebaum Professor in Cancer Research at Boston University School of Medicine.

Researchers at Boston University and the Mayo Clinic collaborated with members of the CARRIERS consortium to conduct sequencing of germline DNA from 5,054 African American women with breast cancer and 4,993 age-matched African American women without cancer for mutations in 23 cancer predisposition genes. They then estimated the risks of developing breast cancer associated with having a mutation in any of the genes.

More than seven percent of women with breast cancer had a mutation in one of the genes, as compared with two percent of the controls. Among women with breast cancers that lacked estrogen receptors, termed estrogen receptor negative breast cancer, more than 10 percent had a mutation, as compared with five percent in women with estrogen receptor positive breast cancer. "We also found that mutations in PALB2, RAD51C and RAD51D confer increased risks of estrogen receptor negative breast cancer in the African American population," said Fergus Couch, PhD, co-author of the study and the Zbigniew and Anna M. Scheller Professor of Medical Research at Mayo Clinic.

According to the researchers, testing for breast cancer predisposition genes can prevent breast cancer deaths, both in women who have never had breast cancer and in women with breast cancer. "Depending on results of the testing and an individual's own weighing of pros and cons, a woman with a mutation in any of these genes may choose more aggressive screening for cancer, and women with mutations in the high risk BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes may choose removal of her breasts and/or ovaries as a way to prevent initial breast cancer or recurrence," added Palmer who is also a professor of epidemiology at Boston University School of Public Health.

Currently, rates of breast cancer genetic testing are substantially lower in African American women with breast cancer than in white patients of the same ages. Differences in recommendations given to African American women has been identified as one of the drivers of this disparity. "To the extent that the differences in recommendations are the result of misconceptions among clinicians about the prevalence of genetic mutations and associated risks in African American women, awareness of our findings may serve to increase the proportion of African American women who are offered testing," added Palmer.

These findings appear online in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

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African-American and white women share genes that increase breast cancer risk - Science Codex

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Posted By admin on May 19, 2020

Benjamin Netanyahu-led government was sworn into office in Israel on May 17, 2020 ending almost a year and half of divisive politics that saw three deadlocked elections.

The oath-taking ceremony took place in Israels parliament, the Knesset, in accordance with coronavirus social distancing directives. This marks the beginning of Netanyahus fifth term in office, his fourth consecutive term.

Benjamin Netanyahu was flanked at his swearing-in ceremony by his rival-turned partner Benny Gantz, who took his oath of office as the alternate prime minister and future prime minister after Netanyahus swearing-in. The two leaders had announced last month that they will be putting aside their differences and join forces to steer the nation through coronavirus crisis and its resulting economic impact.

Benjamin Netanyahus new government received Knesset approval with it passing a vote of confidence in his favour, officially ending the over 500 days of political turmoil.

The Knesset voted the new coalition into office by a 73-46 margin, with one lawmaker skipping vote. The swearing-in comes after three deadlocked elections and a year and a half of political crisis and another three-day delay because of political infighting in Netanyahus Likud party.

Both Benjamin Netanyahu and Benny Gantz announced their appointments for the new government over the weekend. The new government is expected to have one of the largest-ever cabinets with 36 Cabinet ministers and 16 deputies.

Under Netanyahu and Gantz power-sharing deal, Netanyahu will serve as the Prime Minister for the first 18 months and will be replaced by Gantz for the next 18 months. Both the leaders will be having a similar number of ministers and mutual veto power for most major decisions.

Benny Gantz will initially serve as the defense minister and his party colleague Gabi Ashkenazi will serve as the foreign minister. The outgoing Foreign Minister Israel Katz will become the new finance minister and Yariv Levin, Netanyahu's closest ally, will become the new parliament speaker.

Netanyahus swearing-in comes just as his trial is expected to begin on criminal charges filed against him. This is the first first time an Israeli leader indicted on criminal charges will formally lead the country. Netanyahu has been indicted on corruption charges and he faces a criminal trial starting next week.

Benny Gantz will be initially holding the post of alternate Prime Minister and later it would go to Netanyahu. The new position is expected to have all the priveledges that are provided to the Prime Minister including an official residence.

Disagreements within Likud senior members forced Netanyahu to delay his swearing-in ceremony, which was initially supposed to be conducted on May 14, 2020. Netanyahu then created a series of new ministries to pacify the senior Likud members such as community development, settlement affairs and higher education and water resources. Netanyahu's bloc includes several smaller parties so he had only a limited number of Cabinet ministries to hand out to the Likud rank and file.

This move has been faced with criticism as so many new cabinet posts have been created at a time when unemployment in Israel has risen to 25 percent due to coronavirus pandemic. Each ministry comes with its own expenses including payment for office space, staff and drivers.

Benjamin Netanyahu and Benny Gantzs coalition was formed after the nations Supreme Court ruled that it had no legal grounds to block it.Gantz and Netanyahu had fought against each other in three bitter and division election campaigns in the past year. In the most recent elections in March, Benny Gantz had looked to get enough support in the parliament to pass legislation that would have barred Netanyahu from continuing as prime minister.

However, to the surprise of many, Gantz agreed to enter into a partnership with his opposition. According to Gantz, teaming with Netanyahu offered the country its only way to end the prolonged political crisis and prevent a fourth election in just a year.Netanyahu also acknowledged that a fourth election would have been devastating. He stated that the public wanted a unity government and that is what it is getting.

Netanyahu has been indicted on charges of corruption, breach of trust, fraud and accepting bribes in a series of scandals. He has denied any wrongdoing and blamed the charges on a media-orchestrated plot to oust him from power.

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Benjamin Netanyahu-led coalition sworn in after three divisive elections, Gantz takes oath as alternate PM - Jagran Josh

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Posted By admin on May 19, 2020

TEHRAN In an interview with Mehr News agency, American thinker Alison Weir said that despite the US officials and nation will, the US was forced to assist in establishing Israel due to pressure of the Zionism lobby.

15th ofMay 'Nakba Day', meaning Day of the Catastrophe commemorates the displacement of 700,000 Palestinians forced to flee as a result of the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. The result of the war was land theft and the destruction and depopulation of hundreds of Palestinian towns and villages by the Zionists that have continued through today.

The refugees were forced to seek refuge in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip, often without citizenship being granted.

On the eve of the international Quds Day, to know more about the history of the establishment of the Zionist entity in the occupied lands we reached out to Alison Weir.

Alison Weir is executive director of If Americans Knew, president of the Council for the National Interest, and author of Against Our Better Judgment: The Hidden History of How the US Was Used to Create Israel.

Here is the full text of the interview:

Based on the available data on the US and Britains arms and financial support to the Israelis, how do you see the role of Washington and London in the formation and realization of the Zionist regime?

In the decades preceding the creation of Israel in 1948, the US establishment actually opposed supporting Zionism. There were numerous studies and memos by the State Department, intelligence agencies, and the Pentagon recommending against it.

In 1912, the Zionist Literary Society asked the government for an endorsement, but the Secretary of State turned them down flat, noting that problems of Zionism involve certain matters primarily related to the interests of countries other than our own.

In 1919 the director of the State Department office that covered Palestine opposed the Zionist position.

He wrote that [it] impinges upon the rights and the desires of most of the Arab population of Palestine.

Westermann and other US diplomats felt that the Arab position was much more in line with Wilsons principles of self-determination, and they circulated Arab material at the Paris Peace Talks after World War 1 when decisions about the lands under the defeated Ottoman Empire were being made.

President Wilson decided to send a commission to Palestine to investigate the situation.

After spending two months in the area, the commission, known as the King-Crane Commission, recommended against the Zionism.

The commissioners stated that the creation of a Jewish state in Palestine could be accomplished only with the gravest trespass upon the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, pointing out that to subject the Palestinians to steady financial and social pressure to surrender the land, would be a gross violation of the principle [of self-determination] and of the peoples rights

Zionists in the US, however, managed to bury this report and it had little impact.

The US State Department opposed this partition plan strenuously, considering Zionism contrary to both fundamental American principles and US interests.

For example, the director of the State Departments Office of Near Eastern and African Affairs, Loy Henderson, consistently recommended against supporting a Jewish state in Palestine. He warned that the creation of such a state would go against locals wishes, imperil US interests, and violate democratic principles.

Henderson emphasized that the US would lose moral standing in the world if it supported Zionism, writing:

At the present time, the United States has a moral prestige in the Near and Middle East unequaled by that of any other great power. We would lose that prestige and would be likely for many years to be considered as a betrayer of the high principles which we ourselves have enunciated during the period of the [second world] war.

When Zionists pushed the partition plan in the UN, Henderson recommended strongly against supporting their proposal, saying that such a partition would have to be implemented by force and was not based on any principle. He warned that partition would guarantee that the Palestine problem would be permanent and still more complicated in the future

There were many such reports.

However, the Zionist lobby was far stronger than these officials, and Harry Truman was more interested in getting Zionist support and winning the election than in taking actions in the US interest.

The Zionist lobby in the US had begun in the late 1800s and worked to manipulate the US government and American people, using both public and covert methods. This has continued through today.

One little-known example in the early years was a secret society called The Parushim. This society was first exposed by Israeli professor Sarah Schmidt in an article in the American Jewish Historical Quarterly and by long-time New York Times journalist Peter Gross.

The goal of this secret group was to promote the Zionist agenda throughout the United States. One of its leaders was Louis Brandeis, a Supreme Court Justice who was close to President Woodrow Wilson. (Another Supreme Justice also seems to have been a member.)

Zionists in Britain used Brandeis to obtain the Balfour Declaration. There was a gentlemans agreement between the British government and Zionists that Britain would assist the Zionist goal of establishing a Jewish homeland in Palestine in return for Zionists pushing the US to enter the great war (World War !) on Britains side.

At the time, the large majority of Americans opposed entering this unnecessary and tragic European war. However, after Zionists began to work to plunge the US into this war, the US did indeed enter it, helping Britain defeat the Ottoman Empire. This paved the way for Britain to be placed in charge of Palestine, and then to open it to Jewish colonization.

I have much more information about all of this in my book, Against Our Better Judgment: The Hidden History of How the U.S. Was Used to Create Israel. (All its information is cited; in fact, the book is half footnotes.)

There has been a great effort to suppress this information in the United States. Even some Jewish groups and individuals who say they support Palestinian rights have tried to block information about the book from reaching Americans.

Fortunately, despite these efforts, the book is doing extremely well and has sold over 30,000 copies. I believe it has been translated into Farsi.

The Israel lobby continues to be extremely powerful in the US and largely determines US Middle East policies. Campaign donors such as Sheldon Adelson (Republican), Haim Saban (Democrat), and numerous others pressure politicians to support Israel.

In addition, the Israel lobby is extremely influential in the US media. For example, CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer used to openly work for an Israel lobby organization. There are many such examples of Israel partisans enjoying powerful positions in US media, both print, and broadcast.

The US moved its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem al-Quds in 2017; how much did this measure favor the legalization process of the Zionist regime?

This greatly favored the Zionist agenda and went against the actions of all previous presidents, who knew it would cause extreme harm in Palestine and create enormous hostility to the US.

Currently, in the US there is a struggle between the hard-core Zionists, who wish to take over the West Bank and Gaza, and the more intelligent Zionists, who think such actions hurt Israel.

The powerful lobby group AIPAC, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, is an example of the former, and the much newer pro-Israel lobby group, J Street is an example of the latter. Both are working for what they perceive as Israeli interests.

For almost the first time in US politics, there is a somewhat significant difference between Republicans and Democrats on Israel.

Progressive Americans have finally begun to learn the real facts about Israel-Palestine, and large numbers now support Palestinian human rights. For that reason, Democratic politicians largely favor the J Street soft Zionist approach.

However, conservative Americans have received even more pro-Israel, anti-Muslim propaganda than before, and therefore Republican candidates largely favor the AIPAC version of Zionism. While in the past some Republican politicians like Paul Findley, Pete McCloskey, and Charles Person opposed the Israel lobby, today very few Republicans are daring enough to do so. (Although this could change as more and more evangelical Christians are starting to change their positions on Israel and their interpretation of the Bible.)

Trump entered office with statements indicating he might be somewhat reasonable on this issue. However, this changed when he came under the onslaught by the Democratic establishment that began even before he was inaugurated, and he has now moved over to the AIPAC hard Zionist approach.

If Trump is re-elected, US policies could grow even more misguided.

If Biden is elected, US policies would likely not be quite as bad. While Biden has called himself a Zionist and is greatly beholden to the Israel lobby, his base may decree that his policies be less blatantly counter to human rights.

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US forced by Zionism lobby to assist in establishing Israel despite its will - Tehran Times

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Posted By admin on May 19, 2020

The Governments Independent Adviser on Antisemitism has urged Labour leader Keir Starmer to outlaw the use of the words Zionist or Zionism as negative terms of abuse.

Lord Mann, who used to be an anti-Corbyn Labour MP, said: The thing Keir Starmer has to do is stick with the clear definition of antisemitism, and not waver from that.The second thing he should do if he wants to really imbed comprehensive anti-racism including antisemitism across the Labour Party then the use of the words Zionist or Zionism as a term of hatred, abuse, of contempt, as a negative term that should outlawed in the party.

He added: If he does that, it gives him the tools to clear out those who choose to be antisemitic, rather than those who do so purely through their ignorance as opposed to their calculated behaviour.

Zionismis the Jewish nationalistmovement that espouses the re-establishment of and support for aJewish statein the historicLand of Israel(roughly corresponding to the region ofPalestine).

The movement led to the creation of Israel in 1948 and the dispossession of the Palestinian people.

Palestinian activists have long used the terms Zionism/Zionist/Zio in a negative way to denote an Apartheid-like system or supporters of that system. But the Labour Party, as well as several other political parties and institutions, have now labelled the latter term (Zio) as antisemitic.

The former Labour MP said Starmer must also work closely with the pro-Israel Jewish Labour Movement. And headded that he was actually very encouraged by the start Sir Keir has made on the issue.

I think he is seeing tackling antisemitism as one of those things that will be shown to mark that he is a leader.If thats the case then all power to his elbow go and do it and hell have my backing if he does.

Since becoming Labour leader Keir Starmer has positioned his party closer to Israel in comparison with his predecessor Jeremy Corbyn.

Last monthparliamentarydatashowedthat he received a 50,000 donation from pro-Israel lobbyistTrevor Chinn, amemberof the executive committee of the Israel lobby group the British Israel Communications and Research Centre (BICOM).

During the Labour leadership campaign Starmer said:I support Zionism without qualification.

And in his victory speech in April he said: Anti-Semitism has been a stain on our party.I will tear out this poison by its roots and judge success by the return of our Jewish members and those who felt that they could no longer support us.

The very same day, Starmerwroteto the president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, an Israel lobby group which had been vehemently anti-Corbyn, repeating his apology.

He also reiterated anearlier commitmentto a list of demands by the Board of Deputies whichincluded the stipulation that training on antisemitism in the party be run only by theJewish Labour Movement.

In 2018 Labour announced it would fully adopt a definition of antisemitism promoted by the Israel lobby.

The International Holocaust Remembrance Alliances (IHRA)definitionof antisemitism conflates harsh criticism of Israel with antisemitism, meaning that many Palestinian activists would fall foul of it.

A party spokesperson said at the time that Labour had also adopteda statement which ensures this will not in any way undermine freedom of expression on Israel or the rights of Palestinians.

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Labour urged to ban 'Zionist' as term of abuse - 5Pillars

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Posted By admin on May 19, 2020

Satellite images show Iran building new weapons storehouse in Syria report

Iran is constructing a new underground weapons storage facility in eastern Syria at a military base under its control near the Iraqi border, Fox News reports, citing satellite images from an Israeli private intelligence firm.

According to the photographs from ImageSat International, a satellite imagery analysis company, an excavator and bulldozers have been seen operating within the Imam Ali military base in the al-Bukamal region of Syria, which is believed to be run by Iranian forces.

This photo released by ImageSat International on May 13, 2020, shows apparent construction on an underground weapons storage facility on a military base suspected of being controlled by Iran in eastern Syrias al-Bukamal region. (ImageSat International)

According to the company, work on the underground weapons storage facility appears to have started in March. This is the second such subterranean tunnel to be constructed at the base, which is located a few kilometers from the Iraqi border.

The tunnel is fit to be used as a shelter and storage for trucks and vehicles, including vehicles carrying advanced missile weapon systems, according to ImageSat.

This photo released by ImageSat International on May 13, 2020, shows apparent construction on an underground weapons storage facility on a military base suspected of being controlled by Iran in eastern Syrias al-Bukamal region. (ImageSat International)

The revelation of Irans alleged further entrenchment in Syria appears to contradict a claim made by a senior Israeli defense official earlier this month that Tehran was pulling its troops out of the country because of airstrikes attributed to Israel.

Judah Ari Gross

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Centrist MK: Annexation 'will undermine Zionist vision' - The Times of Israel

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Posted By admin on May 18, 2020

Dr. David Stern of Harvard University will discuss what hes learned about the Talmud a carefully curated collection of thousands of years worth of rabbinic commentaries on Jewish law and the Jewish Bible and its shifting form over time, based on research related to his recently published book, The Jewish Bible: A Material History, part of the University of Washington Presss Samuel and Althea Stroum Lectures in Jewish Studies series.

The layout of the Talmudic page, with its text in the center surrounded by a sea of commentaries, is the iconic page format of the Jewish book. Where does this page layout come from, and what is its history? What impact has it had on the reception of the Talmud, and the way the Talmud has been studied over the centuries?

In this special online presentation, Stern will reflect on what hes learned about the Talmud and its physical form in the years since his original Stroum Lecture in Jewish Studies in 1997 and will discuss how the physicality and formatting of books can profoundly impact the way we read and interpret them.

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RSVP and get Zoom link at https://jewishstudies.washington.edu/event/david-stern-history-talmud-as-physical-book/

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Thur. 5/21, 4 p.m.: Reflecting on the Talmud as a Physical Book - The Jewish Standard

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Posted By admin on May 18, 2020

How do we bear up to lifes most formidable challenges? What is our response to a crisis that affects us as individuals, as communities, as countries, and as a world?This week we celebrated Lag Baomer. During the Omer, we remember the tragedy of the plague that struck down 24,000 students of Rabbi Akiva, one of the greatest sages of the Talmud. Rabbi Akiva was already an old man, but he had the courage to start again from the beginning. Lag Baomer is the day he restarted his yeshiva with just five students, and it was those five students who rekindled the fire of Torah and restored it to the Jewish people.On Lag Baomer, the mourning of the Omer is put on hold as we celebrate Rabbi Akivas heroism, tenacity and strength in the face of adversity.This power to rebound from a setback is learned from God Himself. The Talmud teaches that the mitzvah to walk in the ways of God means to emulate Him, specifically in terms of His compassion and kindness. Rav Yosef Dov Soloveitchik says that this includes the mitzvah of creation itself. Just as God created the world, we are also called upon to create the world; to nurture flourishing families and societies, to build institutions and infrastructure and make medical and technological advances that move the world forward.Rav Soloveitchik refers to a Midrash which says that before this world was created, there were many other worlds that God created and subsequently destroyed, and then rebuilt again.From this Midrash, says Rav Soloveitchik, we learn that there is not only a mitzvah to create, but also a mitzvah to re-create after a period of destruction; to rebuild after setbacks. We do so on a personal level and we do so on a national level, drawing on Gods own example.It is this spirit of renewal and rededication that has animated so much of Jewish history. We have witnessed this particularly in the years since the Holocaust, through the miraculous creation of the State of Israel, and the rebuilding of the great yeshivot after they were all but blotted out, such that today there are more people learning Torah than at any other time in our history. Together, these developments have led to a rebirth of Jewish life worldwide.This is the message of Lag Baomer, of Rabbi Akiva who, against all odds, rebuilt Torah, and with it, the Jewish people. On this day, we celebrate the light of Torah, the sacred tradition and Divine values that give life to the Jewish people.There are times when the road ahead is unclear, when we start to lose our way, when the difficulties we face as individuals, as communities and as humanity seem insurmountable.Lag Baomer teaches us the great power we have to bounce back, to rebuild in the face of calamity, to create the world anew.Rabbi Akiva did it then. We can do it now.The writer is the chief rabbi of South Africa.

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The message of Lag Ba'omer is that we can recreate the world anew - The Jerusalem Post

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Posted By admin on May 18, 2020

This column is the 400th appearance of Ethics and Religion Talk in the Grand Rapids Press since we began on July 31, 2012, almost eight years ago. My initial vision, when creating the column, was to model a kind of respectful interfaith dialogue, in which we clearly articulate what defines us as unique religious traditions without disparaging each others faith traditions. The reader, over time, would also see the common threads running through our traditions. We may get to the same answers, in different ways; or we may use the same kind of reasoning, but arrive at very different answers.

My tradition is a textual tradition. I begin with words from Torah, from the Bible, read through the lens of principles found in Talmud or later Jewish writings. Youll find the same careful exegesis in the responses from the Reverend Ray Lanning, our Reformed Presbyterian colleague, and Father Kevin Niehoff, our Catholic colleague. Nonetheless, on matters of theology, I find myself generally in disagreement with them.

Fred Stella our Hindu respondent, and the Reverend Colleen Squires, responding from a Unitarian Universalist perspective, are less likely to rely on Scripture verses and more likely to appeal to principles of their faith. Even so, on matters of theology I often find that the three of us end up in the same place.

After 400 columns, though, I wonder what kind of difference weve made. In the years when Mlive published our column online and invited comments, the discussion was anything but respectful. In the almost three years since weve moved to theRapidian.org, the online discussion of the columns has diminished to almost nothing. I know our readership is fairly robust in numbers, but I hear only a handful, most of whom get it. I wonder about the rest. Id love to hear from more of you.

I begin this column around the same time as terrific Grand Rapids Press writer, Charlie Honey, was concluding a 20 year run as the Religion reporter and columnist. I told him that I would consider this a solid success when Id reached his mark of approximate 1000 weekly columns. I feel good about achieving 40% of my goal, but there is still a lot of work to do! Thank you to all the loyal readers. Keep reading and keep the questions coming.

The Reverend Colleen Squires, minister atAll Souls Community Church of West Michigan, a Unitarian Universalist Congregation, responds:

"I am very grateful Rabbi David Krishef created this column, that it continues to thrive and for his kind invitation to me to join the panel a few years ago. I so appreciate the opportunity to share our Unitarian Universalist beliefs and perspective in this way. There are many misunderstandings about our faith that I hope to clarify in my responses. I think I most enjoy the variety of answers. With many of my answers I initially think I will stand way off in left field and yet when I see the various responses, I often note a common thread or kernel across the replies. I learn so much from this column and I am grateful for the opportunities it has given me. What I love most of all is hearing feedback from our readers, I particularlylike when I walk my dog and my neighbors come out to to tell me their thoughts about my response!"

Fred Stella, the Pracharak (Outreach Minister) for the West Michigan Hindu Temple, responds:

"It has been an honor to be included with such a deeply passionate cohort of religious leaders in our community. I am always impressed with the thoughtfulness and intelligence displayed by the other panel members.

"It is interesting that Rabbi Krishef picked up on the differences in style among us. I will admit to being impressed by those who support their thoughts with scriptural reference so much more than I do. It is true that even though Hindus do have multiple holy texts, our teaching tradition does not rely very much on chapter-and-verse recitation. It does exist, just not as prevalent. And sometimes I just dont want to give up my allotted ink space to a phrase that might not mean much to most who are reading the column! But perhaps I should offer a few more examples of sacred writ in the future.

"Lets hope we can in some ways inspire other communities."

Rev. Ray Lanning, a retired minister of the Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America, responds:

"Rabbi Krishef has created a unique space in the landscape of religious journalism. Seldom do editors give such freedom to their contributors, allowing each one to speak his or her own mind, in terms of the tradition each one represents. He has resisted the temptation to relativize differences or reconcile conflicts by explaining them away. Readers must assess each contribution on its own merits, without coaching or prodding to reach a pre-determined conclusion. As the late Harry Golden might say, 'Only in America' does such freedom of speech or independence of judgment flourish. Long may it continue!"

This column answers questions of Ethics and Religion by submitting them to a multi-faith panel of spiritual leaders in the Grand Rapids area. Wed love to hear about the ordinary ethical questions that come up ina the course of your day as well as any questions of religion that youve wondered about. Tell us how you resolved an ethical dilemma and see how members of the Ethics and Religion Talk panel would have handled the same situation. Please send your questions to[emailprotected].

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Ethics and Religion Talk: Celebrating our 400th column! - The Rapidian

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