Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By admin on May 1, 2020

Bruce Robbins, an English literature professor and political theorist at Columbia University, has long been active in the effort to bring democracy to Israel and Palestine. His latest effort is a documentary titled, What Kind of Jew Is Shlomo Sand? that he publishes today and that is embedded here.

Shlomo Sand is the Israeli author of groundbreaking works on the history of Zionism, notably The Invention of the Jewish People, in 2010; and The Invention of the Land of Israel, in 2012.

The documentary is colorful, wry, provocative and probing. What happened to the Jews of biblical times after the destruction of the temple? Why are there so many Jews in the world? Sand asks. Robbins is a former tutor of mine in college (and a friend of the site) and I thought to introduce his documentary with an interview. I began by asking him,

Why did you want to do a documentary about Shlomo Sand?

Bruce Robbins: He knocked my socks off when I read The Invention of the Jewish People, a year after it was translated. The first thing to hit me was that they lied to me in all those years of Hebrew school. Frankly the thing that I liked best about Hebrew school was Jewish history partly because it didnt mean actually learning Hebrew and partly because the stories were just amazing. The first day the history books were handed out I brought mine home and read the whole book. I like stories, and ended up making a life out of them. So the fact that the destruction of the second temple in 70 CE was followed by the exile of the Jews by the Romans I didnt remember much of that history, but I remembered that.

And it turns out that this seems to be made up! How is it possible that this could have gone unquestioned for so long? Shlomo Sand looked for the sources and tried to track them all down. It wasnt just that the exile is very very important to the fundamental Zionist narrative of exile and return; but also I had this personal feeling of having been lied to.

That isnt just: You should support Israel. They are not lying when they say that; thats their view. Im free to say I dont feel like it, Israel should behave better. But when they say the Romans exiled the Jews, it turns out this is a made up story, and I can suddenly see the logic of it. Because what did the Romans want out of the people of Palestine? They wanted people to tend the flocks and grow the grain and grow the grapes and they would take their percentage. They didnt move in Romans to do that work, wherever they went they got the local population to do it.

How could I have been so dumb as to not question this myself!

The second thing that grabbed me is when he said that the very likely origin of the Ashkenazis is this Khazar kingdom in the 800s. A Turkic people converted to Judaism at that moment when the peoples of the region were trying to decide which monotheism they were going to go with. There is no controversy about that; there are these letters in the Cairo Geniza in which the king of the Khazars says, OK, were Jews now, tell us what to do. Thats pretty well documented. Sand argues that these people who were located in what is now Russia are the fundamental source of the Ashkenazi people. I cant say that I had very strong feelings about this, but my wife loved it. The idea that she could suddenly see in my bone structure and eye shape, people riding across the steppes and shooting arrows and stuff like that she just found it really interesting. She suddenly could detect in me and my friends, a very different origin than she might have imagined before.

Youre a professor, why didnt you question the exile myth before?

Im not a scholar of Jewish history. From the time I went to university, its not something I ever studied. There are other things Im less dumb about. Ask me about Charles Dickens. But this was something that I was carrying forward from early life, that I had not studied, I really did not have any idea what the scholars said about itbut I had never asked myself.

Its not like you were a Zionist?

No, Sand didnt convert me at all. My political trajectory is longer. I had made a film some years earlier which is called Some of My Best Friends are Zionists. I got into making that film because in 2002 I participated in a campaign circulating an Open Letter of American Jews to our Government and raising money for a full page ad in the Times. It basically took a two-state position there are rights and wrongs on both sidesbut it concluded by saying that if Israel did not abide by the relevant UN resolutions and permit the creation of a Palestinian state along the 1967 borders, the US should cut off all aid. We got about 4500 signatures, and the letter got translated into a number of languages. Then I got invited on a political delegation in 2004 to the occupied territories. Sand didnt change my politics; it was more my sense of my own identity.

Many have made progress on this issue, over the years. Where were you on the anti-Zionist/non-Zionist Jewish arc when you read Sand?

He didnt change my feelings about Israel much. What I think and what I thought was pretty much in place. It was more things that had been said to me about who I was as a Jew. I got a certain amount of support from his sense of a kind of secular universalizing heritage, in his case a leftwing heritage, because his father was a communist.

One of the things I discovered when I was working on my first film is how many American Jews, both from Jewish orthodox backgrounds and from serious leftwing backgrounds, were never Zionists. They didnt have a conversion story to tell me (thats what I was looking for) because they had been raised in families that just werent Zionist at all. Thats not too far from Sands story. Of course his family went through hell in Europe, they were in a camp and so on, but he was raised in a leftwing family that was genuinely internationalist that didnt give itself over to what he would call tribalism. Maybe thats even the right word for it.

Tell me about your family.

I was raised conservative on Long Island, I was bar mitzvahd, my parents were not seriously religious in any way, wed go to the synagogue on the High Holy Days. I had the good luck to have a wonderful rabbi, who was giving sermons against the war in Vietnam really early on, like 63, 64, 65 when his congregation did not want to hear it. He gave me the example if you like of a sort of Jewish man of principle, who just said what he felt he had to say, what his conscience told him he had to say. I continued to go the synagogue to talk to him after the bar mitzvah. Samuel Chiel. He just died recently, he was very old. He was wonderful, and he was a very inspiring ethical presence, more than a spiritual presence.

Were often told to stay away from the Khazar theory, its crank territory. Whats your relationship to it?

I hold that thesis a little bit at arms length. Im not qualified intellectually to render judgment on it. I think theres probably some truth in it and I think theres probably some limits to it. Instinctively, it feels to me that if Yiddish has a lot more German in it than Russian, say, then probably there was a more complicated moving around, and it wasnt simple. Not that Sand simplifies totally. Theres a kind of scandal value in saying what he said. The part of it I think is probably right, is that if you were really to go genetic, probably a lot of the genetic material of the ancient Hebrews is in the present day Palestinians that is people who stayed and probably ended up Muslim. That strikes me as probably right and good to shove in the face of certain tribalists on one side.

But the value of what Shlomo Sand did for me doesnt depend on the Khazar thesis.

How did he strike you when you met him?

Its funny, but some part of me, never having seen the guy, would have preferred for him to be a little retired looking. Older and not in such good physical shape, and adorable in that more Central European way. I imagined him more hunched over like, I have spent my whole life in libraries. Something like that! In fact, he was cool. Clearly a strong public voice who was used to speaking on tv, hes an active presence in Israel, where hes a bestseller. The Invention of the Jewish people was on the bestseller list for 19 weeks in Hebrew.

Thats another thing that American Jews need to know. In Israel its possible to talk about these things in a much more straightforward way than it is in America. Obviously a lot of the people responded very well to him in Israel. The people who didnt respond well tended to be experts in the field. As I said in the film, they couldnt entirely say that what he said was wrong. Because they kept saying, We knew that already. And Sand said, I dont mind that you knew it already, that means its true.

Did you enjoy hanging out with him?

I loved it. It was slightly weird in the sense that I had spent much more time actually on the West Bank than I had ever spent in Israel. Though I do have some Israeli friends. And this was a very strong experience of a particular Israel. I really felt I was among friends, and people who thought much the same way I did. Including His wife Varda who is very impressive and whose family history he gives in the first book.

Who is Shlomo Sand?

Hes someone who cares a great deal about the history he feels hes part of, of the Jewish people, about the history of his family, but who also cares about the country he lives in right now in the present. And who doesnt want to let false ideas about the Jewish past interfere with the project of turning Israel into a democracy rather than a Jewish state.

Why are these ideas important now in the U.S.?

Obviously its possible to be a supporter as Israel as a Jewish state, that is to say as an undemocratic state, without accepting the full mythology of exile and return. I dont deny that thats possible, but I think many Americans have fallen in love with a story which is a story of exile and return. And a story of making the desert bloom and all that stuff which obviously has a lot or resonance for Americans because of the frontier myth and all that.

If everyone knew what Shlomo Sand has discovered about the construction of this story of exile and return, beautiful but false, they would be a little shaken, and I think that would be a good thing. It doesnt necessarily tell them exactly who they should support and what they should support. I of course hope that American Jews who tend to be liberal and I continue to believe that there is a kind of secular Jewish identity in America, as long as American Jews continue not voting for Donald Trumpwill transfer their democratic values, democratic values we believe in as Americans, will transfer them to Israel. Lets be democratic across the board. Democratic everywhere!

So you feel that youve made amends for having accepted the lies?

One of the things that I discovered first when I did this political campaign in 2002 and then when I made my first documentary is that there are after all a lot of people out there like me, like youconsider the fact that were having this conversation. I am connected as a Jew with other Jews in an emotionally very powerful and kind of satisfying way. It has made me think, There are lots of us and we are actually getting our opinions heard in a way that didnt use to exist, and throwing our weight around, and being heard by people who didnt want to listen to us not very long ago. Young people are being won over. Thats more than expiation!

Heres me being a cockeyed optimist. But I really see the views changing in a dramatic and positive way.

Be more concrete.

The fact that a Bernie Sanders could say the things he did about respect for Palestinian rights in 2016 and then again this year and that he could say them in Brooklyn, and the fact that there are lots and lots of peopleclearly not enough to make him a viable candidate but who were willing to listen. He didnt feel that this would disqualify him coming out of the gate, and its true, it didnt. And while they were still candidates, Buttigieg and Klobuchar saying they wouldnt accept the AIPAC invitation. Like, who ever would have imagined that?

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'What Kind of Jew Is Shlomo Sand?' Bruce Robbins asks - Mondoweiss

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Posted By admin on April 30, 2020

This story originally appeared on The Nosher and was distributed by JTA.

Youve tried coaxing a sourdough starter to life or braiding a challah, turned speckled bananas into muffins, maybe even churned out sheets of pasta. For those lucky enough to hunker down at home in good health during the coronavirus pandemic, experimenting in the kitchen can be a welcome escape.

But what about your produce drawer? If you cant get your hands on baking staples right now, or are looking for a stay-at-home food project thats a bit more nutritious, consider pickling and fermenting.

By making your own pickles or kraut, you can stretch the contents of your fridge, save wilted fruits and vegetables, and make something that lasts for months. Youll also be leaning into a long, rich tradition embraced by Jewish cultures all over the world, a tradition of preserving foods to last in times of scarcity and uncertainty.

Its more of a lifestyle than a recipe, says Jeffrey Yoskowitz, co-founder and chief pickler of The Gefilteria. Pickling and fermenting, says Yoskowitz, who also teaches Jewish food anthropology, is a way of making sure you dont waste, using resources to plan ahead, he says. If you are someone who does this at home, you always have something to add acidity, freshness, and essential nutrients to whatever youre eating.

Which is why, he explains, these methods were a bedrock of Eastern European Jewish cuisine for centuries. To survive the long, harsh winters of that region, preserving cabbage, beets, carrots, cucumbers and turnips was key to making it through to the spring.

In our current reality, who knows if and when you can go to the supermarket or what they may have, says Yoskowitz, co-author of The Gefilte Manifesto cookbook. Things are changing so rapidly, but if you pick up a bunch of green beans or turnips or beets or carrots, you can make them last and have more vegetables between crucial grocery outings.

These hearty vegetables were not preserved with vinegar, which many modern pickle lovers may find surprising. Vinegar was rare and expensive in that part of the world.

Instead, Ashkenazi Jews used salt in a process called lacto-fermentation, which just requires a brine made from salt and water. The process, an ancient technique discovered in China, came to Eastern Europe in the 16th century via nomadic Turks and Tatars, according to Gil Marks Encyclopedia of Jewish Food. It was embraced for its low cost, the sour, tangy flavor it created and its ability to keep these foods edible for months.

I like to think youre improving these foods.

Lacto-fermentation also ups nutritional value, creating good bacteria that studies have shown reduce inflammation, aid digestion and support the immune system. This was also important to staying healthy during those harsh winters.

I like to think youre improving these foods by fermenting them, Yoskowitz says, adding that this nutritional boon is especially valuable now, when processed foods and pantry staples may be in heavy rotation.

A note on the difference between pickling and fermentation:

Fermented pickles are made by submerging vegetables in that saltwater brine, causing naturally occurring good bacteria in the air to gradually turn the vegetables sugars into lactic acid. That process of creating acid lacto-fermentation is why foods fermented with just salt still taste sour. Traditional kosher dill pickles, for example, get their distinctive flavor this way.

Vinegar pickles, on the other hand, use, well, vinegar, and sometimes sugar and spices, and are not fermented. When stored in the fridge, they are called quick pickles or refrigerator pickles. What youll likely find at the grocery store, though, are vinegar pickles that have been canned in boiling water in order to be shelf-stable. Essentially, fermented pickles just use salt, spurring lacto-fermentation, while non-fermented pickles are made with vinegar. So not all pickles are fermented. And not all fermented foods are pickled think yogurt, wine, cheese, sourdough bread and more.

In a time before refrigeration, its hard to underestimate how revolutionary and critical techniques like lacto-fermentation were for survival, says Emily Paster, author of The Joys of Jewish Preserving.

Plus, to make sauerkraut and other simple fermented vegetables, if youve got clean glass jars, salt and a knife, youre ready to start, she says.

Paster points out that though pickling, fermenting, and preserving vegetables and fruit are more often associated with Ashkenazi Jews (like deli pickles, apple sauce and sauerkraut), whatever part of the Diaspora you come from, this tradition was there and it goes back centuries.

Sephardic and Mizrahi Jews, despite living in more temperate climates, made the bounty of the season stretch, too, she notes, from extending the short apricot season by floating excess fruits in sugar syrup to making sure citrus was on hand all year round by encasing whole lemons in salt to pickled vegetables like the pink turnips ubiquitous in falafel joints today.

The Talmud even mentions pickles, stating that one who is about to recite the blessing over bread must have salt and leaftan a word that comes from the word for turnip that means relish or pickles, Marks encyclopedia explains.

Of course, flavor also was a reason to preserve. While tangy sauerkraut and root veggies livened up an otherwise bland winter diet for Eastern Europeans, schug, a fiery fermented hot sauce, and amba, a condiment made from pickled mangoes, added heat and brightness to Middle Eastern and North African dishes, says Yoskowitz. They can do the same for rice, pasta and any other basics were relying on heavily during this crisis.

For Paster, these techniques are a reminder of how past generations thought about food: rarely was it wasted or taken for granted. In contrast, shopping and cooking for food right now is a massive wake-up call, she says, since were used to getting any ingredient we want, any time of the year, and making as many trips to the store as we need.

Yoskowitz agrees. Like much of Jewish food history, pickling and fermenting is about embracing restraint and restriction, he says, from Spanish Jews making sausage out of chicken instead of pork or German Jews making a version of challah with potato.

Embracing this creativity while creating something mouth puckering, delicious and nourishing in the process is inspiring, says Paster.

Its a connection to an earlier time, to our ancestors, she says. It makes you feel good and self-reliant.

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It's the perfect time to get into pickling - The Jewish News of Northern California

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Posted By admin on April 30, 2020

Edited by: JV Staff

The Museum of Jewish Heritage A Living Memorial to the Holocaust, continues to launch new, virtual programs and to provide an online curriculum for its audiences throughout April and into May. Programming in the month ahead includes a lecture about the creation of the acclaimed exhibit Auschwitz. Not long ago. Not far away. and a book launch and talk for two books focused on Holocaust history.

NEW VIRTUAL PROGRAMS CALENDAR:

April 28 | 2 PM

At the Heart of the Matter: Creating Auschwitz. Not long ago. Not far away.

At the Heart of the Matter: Creating “Auschwitz. Not long ago. Not far away.”

A transport deposits prisoners on the Ramp. The railroad car (Deutsche ReichsbahnGerman State Railway is visible on its side) had no steps, so here we see older Jews being assisted in disembarking. Yad Vashem.

Auschwitz. Not long ago. Not far away. is the most comprehensive exhibition dedicated to the history of Auschwitz and its role in the Holocaust ever presented. In this virtual program, Luis Ferreiro, Director of Musealia and of the exhibition project, will share how the exhibition developed from an idea in 2009 to a reality almost ten years later, including the story of an unprecedented collaboration between Musealia and the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum and the exhibitions arrival in New York. Ferreiro will explore the complex emotional and logistical challenges that explain, at the heart of the matter, how the exhibition was created.

May 4 | 2 PM

Invisible Years: Opening the Holocaust Drawer Book Launch

“Invisible Years: Opening the Holocaust Drawer” Book Launch and Discussion

Daphne Geismar and scholar Robert Jan van Pelt will discuss her new book, Invisible Years: Opening the Holocaust Drawer, that explores her familys Holocaust history

Daphne Geismar and scholar Robert Jan van Pelt will discuss her new book, Invisible Years: Opening the Holocaust Drawer, that explores her familys Holocaust history. As the Nazis tightened their grip on the Jewish population in the Netherlands, Geismars family was slowly restricted from public life. Sensing the murderous consequences of deportation, they decided to separate and go into hiding. Through interwoven letters, diaries, and interviews, Geismar presents the story of nine family members in their own words, alongside a trove of photographs and artifacts.

May 14 | 2 PM

Citizen 865: The Hunt for Hitlers Hidden Soldiers in America Book Talk

“Citizen 865: The Hunt for Hitler’s Hidden Soldiers in America” Book Talk

Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter Debbie Cenziper will discuss her new book a powerful, character-driven story of the search for the SS trainees who helped murder 1.7 million Polish Jews, and later hid in plain sight in cities and suburbs across America. An audience Q&A will follow.

Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter Debbie Cenziper will discuss her new book a powerful, character-driven story of the search for the SS trainees who helped murder 1.7 million Polish Jews, and later hid in plain sight in cities and suburbs across America. An audience Q&A will follow.

Wednesdays, April 22June 3 | 4 PM

Members Learn: Understanding Auschwitz and Its Contexts with Robert Jan van Pelt

Members Learn: Understanding Auschwitz and Its Contexts with Robert Jan van Pelt

Entrance to Auschwitz II-Birkenau was through what prisoners called the Gate of Death. Auschwitz was a major railway huba convenient location for the Nazis to bring Jews from all over Europe.

Exclusive to Museum members is a behind-the-scenes online lecture series with Robert Jan van Pelt, world-renowned scholar and Chief Curator of the internationally acclaimed exhibition Auschwitz. Not long ago. Not far away. Auschwitz is the most significant site of Holocaust memory and a powerful entry point to understanding the broader history of the Holocaust. In this seven-week series on Wednesdays, members will have an exclusive opportunity to learn and discuss the latest scholarship with Dr. van Pelt. Join or renew your membership today to receive the Zoom information, plus an additional three months of membership.

YOUTUBE CHANNEL

https://www.youtube.com/MuseumJewishHeritage/

Adolf Hitler used direct, populist language and careful stagecraft to appeal to mass audiences. German Bundesarchiv.

The Museums YouTube channel includes survivor testimony and recordings from prior talks, lectures, and performances.

EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES FOR FAMILIES & TEACHERS

LEARNING ACTIVITIES BLOG:

Blog

For teachers and parents looking online for meaningful activities,resources, and learning materials, the Museum is posting a practical activity each day on itsblogthat is geared to a range of ages to help children explore heritage, history, and human connection while home-bound.The first activities in the series included Interview a family member and Explore family heirlooms and photographs.

CURRICULUM:

Holocaust Curriculum

Home

The artifacts on display are on loan from more than 20 institutions and private collections around the world. Photo Credit: Auschwitz.net

The Museum continues to provide online its renowned Holocaust curriculumof free, downloadable lesson plans that are flexible across grade level and subject area, along with links to artifacts, primary sources, videos, and book recommendations.

Coming of Age During the Holocaust

Coming of Age During the Holocaust

A visitor of the exhibit looking at mug shots of Auschwitz prisoners on display at Auschwitz: Not long ago. Not far away. Credit: Shiryn Ghermezian.

The Museums Coming of Age During the Holocaust, Coming of Age Now online curriculum is designed for students in middle grades and features the stories of thirteen young people who survived the Holocaust. Divided into chapters that cover life before, during, and after the war, each survivors story includes text, artifact images, photographs, and video testimony. An accompanying timeline allows students to see how each survivors life events line up with world events.

The Number on Great-Grandpas Arm

The Number on Great-Grandpa’s Arm

Barrack from Auschwitz III-Monowitz Labor Camp 1942-1944.

For younger children, the Emmy Award-winning HBO short film The Number on Great-Grandpas Arm introduces Holocaust history to a new generation. The film streams for free on the Museums site and there are accompanying activities for elementary and middle grades.

Exclusive to Museum members is a behind-the-scenes online lecture series with Robert Jan van Pelt, world-renowned scholar and Chief Curator of the internationally acclaimed exhibition Auschwitz. Not long ago. Not far away

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Museum of Jewish Heritage: New Virtual Programs and Events - The Jewish Voice

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Posted By admin on April 30, 2020

Before there was a lockdown, before the first cases of COVID-19 began appearing in Kentucky, the University of Louisville acted."Before any of us knew there was a pandemic coming, our infectious disease experts knew it was. They had ordered the coronavirus and had it already shipped into the regional biocontainment laboratory the university owns and began growing it up, so they could begin testing. And that is work that's still going on," Kevin Gardner, the executive vice president for the university's research and innovation, told WLKY.In fact, the University operates one of just twelve regional biocontainment laboratories in the entire nation, allowing the University of Louisville to play a crucial role in the fight against Covid19. "They were developed about 10 years ago in response to bioterrorism threats and things like that, so these laboratories are built and designed to work with the worst biological agents that exist and coronavirus is a pretty bad one, as we're finding out," Gardner said.According to Gardner, research teams at the university helped develop the COVID-19 testing later approved by the CDC. And later, a combined effort between the university's engineering and dental schools, using 3D technology, led to the creation of a swab for the COVID-19 testing kits. Now in clinical trials, it could help address the shortage of kits as early as next month.There's also the Co-Immunity project, focusing on testing antibodies and developing donor plasma resources. More recently, the university announced a breakthrough that could block COVID-19 from infecting human cells."I came up with an idea I knew about this drug and the protein that bound to it and I had an idea maybe it would stop the virus," said Paula Bates, a professor of medicine at the university and a researcher.Bates said the technology is based on a piece of synthetic DNA that targets and binds with a human protein. Bates and her team previously used the drug in trials for cancer patients, and it was found to be safe, which could fast track approval from the FDA. "We believe we can give this drug to patients. We can achieve a concentration that will not have any side effects but will be very effective at stopping the virus," Bates said.Bates is among the dozens of researchers working long hours and seven-day work weeks. Gardner said the success being achieved at the University of Louisville belongs to everyone."It's not just them, the researchers. We can't do that research if there's not a custodial staff there cleaning and disinfecting. We can't operate without them, everybody's part of that team."The University of Louisville is able to do research thanks to community and corporate partnerships, including a recent donation from the Jewish Heritage Fund. However, donations to continue their work are crucial and can be made here.

Before there was a lockdown, before the first cases of COVID-19 began appearing in Kentucky, the University of Louisville acted.

"Before any of us knew there was a pandemic coming, our infectious disease experts knew it was. They had ordered the coronavirus and had it already shipped into the regional biocontainment laboratory the university owns and began growing it up, so they could begin testing. And that is work that's still going on," Kevin Gardner, the executive vice president for the university's research and innovation, told WLKY.

In fact, the University operates one of just twelve regional biocontainment laboratories in the entire nation, allowing the University of Louisville to play a crucial role in the fight against Covid19.

"They were developed about 10 years ago in response to bioterrorism threats and things like that, so these laboratories are built and designed to work with the worst biological agents that exist and coronavirus is a pretty bad one, as we're finding out," Gardner said.

According to Gardner, research teams at the university helped develop the COVID-19 testing later approved by the CDC. And later, a combined effort between the university's engineering and dental schools, using 3D technology, led to the creation of a swab for the COVID-19 testing kits. Now in clinical trials, it could help address the shortage of kits as early as next month.

There's also the Co-Immunity project, focusing on testing antibodies and developing donor plasma resources.

More recently, the university announced a breakthrough that could block COVID-19 from infecting human cells.

"I came up with an idea I knew about this drug and the protein that bound to it and I had an idea maybe it would stop the virus," said Paula Bates, a professor of medicine at the university and a researcher.

Bates said the technology is based on a piece of synthetic DNA that targets and binds with a human protein. Bates and her team previously used the drug in trials for cancer patients, and it was found to be safe, which could fast track approval from the FDA.

"We believe we can give this drug to patients. We can achieve a concentration that will not have any side effects but will be very effective at stopping the virus," Bates said.

Bates is among the dozens of researchers working long hours and seven-day work weeks. Gardner said the success being achieved at the University of Louisville belongs to everyone.

"It's not just them, the researchers. We can't do that research if there's not a custodial staff there cleaning and disinfecting. We can't operate without them, everybody's part of that team."

The University of Louisville is able to do research thanks to community and corporate partnerships, including a recent donation from the Jewish Heritage Fund. However, donations to continue their work are crucial and can be made here.

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University of Louisville on the front lines of battling COVID-19 - WLKY Louisville

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Posted By admin on April 30, 2020

The Anti-Defamation League (originally "The Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith") was founded in 1913 in reaction to the crude and overt antisemitism of the period, specifically to the Leo *Frank case. The ADL's goal, as stated in the charter that established the League, is "to end the defamation of the Jewish people to secure justice and fair treatment for all citizens alike."

Originally headquartered in Chicago, the offices of the League are in New York City. The ADL works out of 31 regional offices located throughout the United States. The ADL has as well a cooperative relationship with the B'nai B'rith Canadian office, an office in Jerusalem, and representation in Rome and Moscow.

The ADL is governed by a National Commission of 700. Unlike the *American Jewish Congress , *American Jewish Committee , and other community relations organizations, the ADL is not a membership organization. It has evolved from being a commission of its parent body to an organization with independent board and fundraising structures, and in reality is fully autonomous. The ADL is staffed by career professionals who are specialists in various disciplines related to community relations: religions, law, communications, promotion, education, labor, foreign affairs (especially Israel and the Middle East), social sciences, politics (national and local), and government.

The ADL recognizes threats to Jewish security coming from an antisemitism that appears in new forms and guises, such as anti-Israel activity and radicalism of the right and left. The League views itself as being an "active" organization, responding in a timely manner to what are perceived to be threats to the rights and security of Jews. It sees itself as taking a pragmatic, rather than an ideological, approach to issues. The ADL, by virtue of its budget and its varied activity, is considered to be a significant voice among the community relations agencies.

The ADL's initial efforts focused on the blatant antisemitism of the pre- and post-World War I period, which included restricted neighborhoods and resorts, jobs, and schools that rejected Jews. (For example, model legislation drafted by the ADL helped unmask the Ku Klux Klan and drastically diminish its power.) The ADL's focus, however, in its early decades was not on legal remedies against discrimination but on countering defamation of Jews. For example, the League exposed the vicious antisemitism of the Dearborn Independent, which printed and circularized the infamous Protocols of Zion, and extracted an apology and retraction from its publisher, Henry Ford. Throughout the 1930s the League fought and exposed the many hate groups which sprang up during the Depression and the Hitler period, such as the Christian Front, the Silver Shirts, and the German-American Bund.

Particularly in the post-World War II period, the ADL was successful in advocating on behalf of legislation against such discrimination. It also dealt with vulgar stereotypes and caricatures of Jews on the stage and in communication media and with incidents of antisemitic vandalism, and played a role in strengthening interfaith and interracial relationships.

In the 1960s, the ADL played a role in the successful coalitional effort that resulted in the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and of subsequent fair-housing and voting-rights laws. The ADL's sponsorship of a comprehensive study of the roots of prejudice (the seven-volume University of California Five-Year Study of Antisemitism in the United States the "Berkeley Studies") helped create a new climate of interreligious understanding and ecumenism, and was a factor in the deliberations of Vatican II that led to the watershed document Nostra Aetate, which re-defined the Catholic Church's attitude toward Jews.

On the international scene, advocacy on behalf of the State of Israel and other involvement in Middle East issues became, especially after 1967, an ADL priority. The League carries out an education and action program to help mold public opinion and exposes and counteracts Arab propaganda; ADL led the effort which resulted in the passage of anti-boycott legislation and worked within the European Economic Community to counter the boycott. The League is also active in protecting and securing the rights of Jews wherever they are in danger, and played an important role in the Soviet Jewry movement. Interreligious activities as well have been an important part of the ADL agenda.

During the 1970s, in response to what it then characterized as "the new antisemitism," which derived less from overt expression and more from apathy and insensitivity to Jews and to Jewish concerns and problems, including Israel, the ADL re-contoured its approaches to antisemitism. A major prejudice-reduction program, "A World of Difference," has been an ADL centerpiece since the early 1990s, as has been Holocaust education. Convinced that preferential treatment will destroy equality of opportunity and selection based upon merit, the League's position on affirmative action is nuanced in terms of ADL's opposition to the re-emergence of quotas.

The ADL's traditional ideology was that aggressive use of litigation and other legal remedies to counter discrimination and church-state violations was too confrontational and would ultimately damage the constructive relationships that Jews had built up with other faith communities over the years. From its earliest years the ADL, unlike its sister "defense" agencies, rejected advocating on behalf of antidiscrimination legislation, and instead focused on combating prejudice and defamation. The League's national director until 1947, Richard E. Gustadt, articulated the view that held that intergroup negotiation and education programs emphasizing cultural pluralism offered the best chances to remedy societal abuses. Certain societal evils could not, in the view of the ADL, be eliminated, only tempered. This view (shared in large measure by the American Jewish Committee) marked a fundamental ideological difference with the American Jewish Congress, which believed in direct legal action.

From the late 1940s until the late 1970s the ADL was led by a tandem of Benjamin Epstein and Arnold Forster, who together began aggressively prosecuting a civil rights agenda for the League. Beginning in the early 1980s, however, with a marked shift in the national public policy agenda back to church-state and other First Amendment matters, there was again a shift in the priorities of the ADL. During the tenure of national director Nathan Perlmutter additional legal expertise and resources were added to the agency's staff (the ADL's litigation capacity dated back to the late 1940s and was a result of the decision by the American Jewish Congress to organize its Commission on Law and Social Action), and the League became an aggressive "player" in the church-state arena. During this period there was a certain degree of de-emphasis of the traditional civil rights agenda, resulting in large measure from antisemitism within some black civil rights groups.

Even with a new emphasis placed on church-state separation and other legal matters, the ADL always viewed church-state concerns to be but one of several major civil rights and liberties issues on its organizational palette, which includes countering racial supremacist organizations, judicial remedies for "hate crimes," and discrimination and harassment. Changes within the organization arising out of exogenous factors did not mean that the ADL intended to abandon its charter purpose of public response to anti-Jewish defamation.

From the mid-1980s, under the stewardship of Abraham H. *Foxman , the ADL has become one of the most "visible" national Jewish organizations on the American and indeed international scene. Although viewed as increasingly conservative in some areas of activity, the reality is that the ADL has carved a highly nuanced political path, especially on Israel-related issues, threading its way skillfully between agencies such as the rightist Zionist Organization of America and Jewish groups of the left. This "centrist" approach has been evident in a range of domestic public affairs issues as well. Newer areas of activity for the ADL include threats of global antisemitism, "hate" activity on the Internet, working with law-enforcement agencies, a new generation of church-state situations, and balancing traditional civil liberties concerns with those of national and local security. The ADL has commissioned a series of public opinion surveys, both in the United States and in Europe, which have elicited valuable data on antisemitic attitudes and on attitudes toward Israel.

The core mission of the ADL to combat antisemitism remains as it has been. The related mission of the League working for justice for all has in the view of the ADL not only intrinsic value but instrumental value as well, as it assists in the ADL's core mission.

In terms of institutional considerations, until the early 1980s the leading "defense" agency, in terms of budget and stature, was the American Jewish Committee; the annual budgets of the two agencies were at approximate parity, at around $12 million. The ADL budget ($5.5 million in 1971) began increasing in the 1980s at approximately $3 million per year in that decade, and soon far outstripped the other "defense" agencies, reaching some $30 million by the early 1990s and approximately $60 million by 2005. The League's staff and programmatic initiatives have increased commensurately.

Also important in terms of institutional dynamics is the ADL's relationship with *B'nai B'rith . The ADL began life as a commission of B'nai B'rith, but tensions developed between the two agencies as B'nai B'rith was reshaping itself from being primarily a fraternal and service organization to one that addresses community relations issues. In the mid-to-late 1990s the issue with B'nai B'rith came to a head, with B'nai B'rith itself seeking finally to reshape its own identity asserted that its community relations and "defense" agenda would be pursued aggressively. The ADL, maintaining that it was B'nai B'rith's "defense" arm, in effect severed its ties with its erstwhile parent. (The ADL does retain a de jure legal connection with B'nai B'rith.)

N.C. Belth, A Promise to Keep: A Narrative of the American Encounter with Anti-Semitism (1979); J.A. Chanes, "The Voices of the American Jewish Community," in: Survey of Jewish Affairs 1991 (1991); A. Forster, Square One: The Memoirs of a True Freedom Fighter's Life-long Struggle against Anti-Semitism, Domestic and Foreign (1988); G. Ivers, To Build a Wall: American Jews and the Separation of Church and State (1995); S. Svonkin, Jews Against Prejudice: American Jews and the Fight for Civil Liberties (1997).

[Jerome Chanes (2nd ed.)]

Source: Encyclopaedia Judaica. 2008 The Gale Group. All Rights Reserved.

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Anti-Defamation League (ADL) - Jewish Virtual Library

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Posted By admin on April 30, 2020

Company Expands Board of Directors with Capital Markets Veteran Justin Borus

LOS ANGELES, April 30, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Barfresh Food Group, Inc. (BRFH), a manufacturer of frozen, ready-to-blend and ready-to-drink beverages, announced today that Justin Borus has been appointed to the Companys Board of Directors to fill the vacancy created by Alice Eliots resignation last year. The appointment of Mr. Borus brings the total number of Directors to seven.

Mr. Borus founded Ibex Investors, LLC, and has grown the firm to well over a half of a billion dollars in assets. With a career that includes approximately 20 years of capital markets expertise, Mr. Borus has been the Chief Investment Officer of Ibex, a firm focused on niche, differentiated strategies including microcap companies for over 10 years. Prior to joining Ibex, he worked in both the private equity and investment banking groups at Bear, Stearns & Co. Inc. in New York and London. Mr. Borus has served on the Board of Directors of several non-profits including the Anti-Defamation League and Colorado Public Radio.

Riccardo Delle Coste, the Companys Chief Executive Officer, commented, We are pleased to welcome Mr. Borus to our board, as his extensive and very successful 20 years of capital markets experience will be extremely beneficial in creating significant shareholder value for our Company. Ibex Investors was one of the first institutional investors in our Company over six years ago and Mr. Borus is highly respected in the investment community. We believe he will provide valuable insight as we continue to execute on our strategy and drive profitable growth for our Company and all of our stakeholders.

Mr. Borus, Founder of Ibex Investors, added, I am very pleased to join Barfreshs Board of Directors and firmly believe this company is at an exciting inflection point as evidenced by my large personal investment in March 2020. I believe with the right combination of business execution, investor relations and navigation of the capital markets, Barfresh is well positioned to create significant shareholder value and can become one of the most exciting public company growth stories in the United States. As one of the companys largest shareholders, Im completely aligned with shareholders and will use all the resources in my over 20 years of capital markets experience to make this happen.

About Barfresh Food Group

Barfresh Food Group, Inc. (BRFH) is a developer, manufacturer and distributor of ready-to-blend and ready-to-drink beverages, including smoothies, shakes and frappes, primarily for restaurant chains and the foodservice industry. The company's proprietary, patented system uses portion-controlled pre-packaged beverage ingredients that deliver freshly made frozen beverages that are quick, cost efficient, better for you and without waste. Barfresh has an exclusive distribution partnership with the leading food distributor in North America. For more information, please visit http://www.barfresh.com.

Forward Looking Statements

Except for historical information herein, matters set forth in this press release are forward-looking within the meaning of the "safe harbor" provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including statements about the Company's commercial progress and future financial performance. These forward-looking statements are identified by the use of words such as "grow", "expand", "anticipate", "intend", "estimate", "believe", "expect", "plan", "should", "hypothetical", "potential", "forecast" and "project", among others. All statements, other than statements of historical fact, included in the press release that address activities, events or developments that the Company believes or anticipates will or may occur in the future are forward-looking statements. These statements are based on certain assumptions made based on experience, expected future developments and other factors the Company believes are appropriate under the circumstances. Such statements are subject to a number of assumptions, risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond the control of the Company and may not materialize. Investors are cautioned that any such statements are not guarantees of future performance. The contents of this release should be considered in conjunction with the Company's recent filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including its Annual Report on Form 10-K, Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q and Current Report on Form 8-K, including any warnings, risk factors and cautionary statements contained therein. Furthermore, the Company does not intend, and is not obligated, to update publicly any forward-looking statements, except as required by law.

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Barfresh Announces the Appointment of New Board Member - Yahoo Finance

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Posted By admin on April 30, 2020

The recent vandalism of two synagogues in Huntsville is a timely reminder of the anti-Semitic violence that experts say is on the rise in America.

According to a January survey by the Anti-Defamation League, the number of Americans who hold intensely anti-Semitic feelings has held steady over the last several years. Associated violence, however, has spiked as people are more emboldened than in the past to act on their hate.

Among other things, the poll found that 19% of Americans feel Jews still talk too much about what happened to them in the Holocaust.

The spike in violence and the polls findings go hand in hand with the Holocaust message one rabbi planned to share at this years Remembrance Day event at Redstone Arsenal.

Chaplain Larry Bazer is the deputy director of the National Guard Bureau Office of the Joint Chaplain in Arlington, Virginia. He was scheduled to discuss the power of remembering at the April 25 event which was canceled amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

He was looking forward to sharing his message and returning to Huntsville.

Nearly 30 years ago, a young Bazer was a student rabbi at Etz Chayim, one of the two local synagogues vandalized with hate slogans.Bazer said while some people would rather forget the brutality of the Holocaust, he urges active remembrance in order to help prevent such heinous acts from ever happening again.

He explained active remembrance as the conscious energy you put into remembering thinking, for example, what it would feel like to experience an event or identifying with survivors.

Its hard to imagine something so atrocious, but the Holocaust was the systematic murder of millions of Jews and other religious, cultural and ethnic groups by the Nazis during World War II. Their intent was to exterminate these groups from the entire face of the Earth, Bazer said.

As its outset, the Holocaust was so unimaginable, people could not believe it was happening, or that it simply would not continue.

But long before the Holocausts mass roundups and death camps, citizens stood idly by silent and afraid as synagogues were vandalized and the rights of Jews were slowly and systematically taken away.

Much like what can happen again today, it started out small, and no one took a stand against it, Bazer said. We must remain vigilant today and find the courage to call people out when we hear racial, ethnic or religious slurs.

If left unchecked, acts of hate like the recent vandalism in Huntsville can lead to bigoted violence and grow into more widespread extremism.

He urged community members to practice active remembrance, reflecting on the past, and asking themselves how they can be an agent for change. Speaking out against hatred, he said, is one of the simplest ways to make a difference.

By the numbers: Bias against Jews today

31% of American adults believe Jewish employers go out of their way to hire other Jews.

27% believe the Jews killed Jesus.

24% believe American Jews are more loyal to Israel than to the United States.

19% believe Jews still talk too much about what happened to them in the Holocaust.

From an Anti-Defamation League survey in January.

For the full report, visit http://www.adl.org/survey-of-american-attitudes-toward-jews.

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Speaking up is powerful weapon against bigotry, hate - Theredstonerocket

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Posted By admin on April 30, 2020

Lately, Craig Newmark has been watching The Plot Against America, David Simons new HBO miniseries, and feeling verklempt.

The show, based on the acclaimed novel by Philip Roth, presents a frightening alternate history in which the aviator Charles Lindbergh is elected president of the United States in 1940 on an openly antisemitic platform.

Its gotten me kind of upset, said Newmark, the 67-year-old founder of Craigslist, who now operates as a full-time philanthropist as he seeks to give away a sizable portion of his estimated $1.3 billion net worth.

As the coronavirus pandemic rages, Newmark is worried about, among other things, minority groups including Jewish and Asian Americans, who have been blamed for spreading the disease. Thats one reason he is set to announce a new, two-year grant of $1 million to support the Anti-Defamation League in an effort to help the organization expose online antisemitism and bigotry.

How do we better understand it and counter it? Newmark said in a recent Zoom call with Jewish Insider from his home in San Francisco, where he is self-isolating with his wife, Eileen Whelpley.

Newmark appears to be thriving in self-isolation, though the pandemic did take him by surprise. The only advance information I had on it was science fiction, he said. I am a 1950s-style nerd, so Ive been reading science fiction all my life.

While he hasnt been actively involved with Craigslist for 21 years, Newmark is still keeping plenty busy. The ADL donation is just one of Newmarks many recent charitable contributions all of which, he says, are informed by a sense of Jewish values and justice instilled in him since childhood. Two local educators in particular, Rafael and Rachel Levin, were influential to Newmark as a boy who spent his Sundays at the Morristown Jewish Center in North Jersey.

They taught me that you want to treat people like youd want to be treated, Newmark said. You want to know when enough is enough, which is why I didnt monetize Craigslist significantly. And theres this ninth commandment thing, which speaks directly to information warfare and disinformation in particular. Later on, they helped me understand something called tikkun olam.

Newmark has those lessons in mind as he works to help out the news industry. His support feels genuine, even as his website has been credited with upending the medias longstanding but now virtually obsolete business model by siphoning away what was once valuable classified advertising revenue an accusation that he regards as a spurious bit of misinformation.

Im worried about the news industry, he said.

He believes media is the pillar of democracy, and he believes passionately in democracy, Sylvia Paull, a tech and media strategist who has known Newmark for decades, told JI in an email. Craigslist epitomizes the democracy of the marketplace, which is why Craig started it, not to destroy media as some have claimed. However, Craigslist did cause media to change its revenue model, from relying on advertising to relying on subscriptions and philanthropy, so Craig is merely channeling his revenues from Craigslist to media.

I like to say a trustworthy press is the immune system of democracy, Newmark said.

Through his private foundation, Craig Newmark Philanthropies, he has made significant contributions to a wide variety of outlets and institutions. In perhaps his most high-profile donation, Newmark gave $20 million in 2018 to CUNYs Graduate School of Journalism, which now bears his name.

Sometimes something will be named after me, which makes the whole effort more effective, Newmark told JI in the wryly amused monotone that defines his conversational style. Theres the Craig Newmark Memorial Restroom No. 3 at Wikipedia headquarters. For me, the hilarious thing is that Wikipedia headquarters is literally around the block, a three-minute walk from Craigslist headquarters.

Had he used the bathroom? There was a pause. Maybe twice, he guessed.

There are smaller niche and community publications that have benefited from Newmarks largesse, too, such as The Forward, to which he gave $500,000, and J. The Jewish News of Northern California, which received a $100,000 donation from him earlier this month.

It really does give us the breathing room to be able to do our work, J. publisher Steve Gellman told JI of Newmarks contribution. And with advertising revenue down, community support has become absolutely essential to us.

Newmark is an avid reader of the Jewish press. It reminds me of who I am and what I should do, he said. It reminds me that in times of crisis, everyone of good conscience needs to stand up.

He has donated to several nonprofit newsrooms, such as ProPublica and The City, which covers New York, where Newmark recently bought an apartment in the West Village.

He clearly, on every level, understands how important local news is, said John Wotowicz, publisher of The City. He clearly understands the difference between casually reported local news and real reporting of local news.

At the local level, Newmark has also recently made donations outside the journalism world. He is worried, for example, about the fate of comedy clubs in New York, and told JI that he had made modest donations to some of their GoFundMe pages. Im in over my head there, he said, but I dont want them to go away.

A problem that I genuinely have, Newmark said, is that Im now doing so much that Ive lost track of when and where things are going to be announced.

Another announcement he shared with JI: Newmark recently donated around $170,000 to the American Press Institute, according to Tom Rosentsteil, the nonprofits executive director. The money allows API to produce a kind of digital dashboard that will help 60 news organizations analyze their election coverage so they can meaningfully identify gaps in reporting. The dashboard will be available in July.

Newmark has been making efforts to ensure that the news industry is well-equipped to report on the upcoming presidential election, which he worries will be clouded by disinformation, much like it was in 2016.

Its imperative that we have a broad array of trustworthy news institutions, especially with an election coming up, he said.

My focus is on listening to people who know the business, said Newmark, whose media diet consists of, among other things, a variety of morning newsletters, including those from Axios, Politico, Protocol and ahem Jewish Insider.

He is a big fan, in particular, of Gothamists work in vermin journalism, he quipped. Because Im a big supporter of pizza rat and Mandarin duck.

Recently, Newmark has gotten into birding. Normally my deal with the birds is that I put out food and water and they come in order to be watched by me, he said. That works. We now have a nice raven family hanging around. And twice this past week the wild parrots have shown up. Mostly they hang around and just mock my wife and myself.

To date, Newmark estimates that he has donated more than 50% of his fortune, though a lot of it is pending in his foundation and in donor-advised funds.

That isnt to say he lives a completely abstemious lifestyle. I do enjoy my little luxuries, he said, tongue slightly in cheek. For example, I buy all the books I want. I have a record-high incoming queue, about 15 books, that may last me into June.

He reads everything on his phone. At the moment, he said, he is enjoying Active Measures: The Secret History of Disinformation and Political Warfare, a new book by Thomas Rid.

Newmark is perhaps more well-adjusted to self-isolation than others. Ive been working from home, increasingly, for 25 years, he said. Frankly, the birds showing up adds a little something.

His phone rang at a couple of points throughout the conversation. The ringtone was Let It Go, from Frozen. I have 22 nieces and nephews and they are fairly unanimous that I need to learn that song, he said.

Recently, he has been listening to Leonard Cohen, whom Newmark describes as his primary rabbi.He mentioned the haunting song You Want it Darker, released in 2016, the year Cohen died.

Theres a lot to unpack there, and my wisdom is very limited, Newmark said. There may be some, but its hard to find that is, hard to find my own.

Assessing his philanthropic work, Newmark was equally self-deprecating. Im punching far above my weight, he mused, and that means Im doing a great deal right now, because we do have a national crisis even before the pandemic and people have to stand up and do the tikkun olam thing.

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Craig Newmark of Craigslist fame is stepping up to the plate from self-isolation - Jewish Insider

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Posted By admin on April 30, 2020

7.49pm EDT19:49

The Guardians technology reporter Kari Paul writes from California:

Tesla founder Elon Musk went off script in the companys Q1 earnings call on Wednesday, calling San Franciscos shelter-in-place orders fascist as his frustration over the closure of his Bay Area factory continues.

We are a bit worried about not being able to resume production in the Bay Area, he began. The extension of shelter in place -- or as I would call it, forcibly imprisoning people in their homes, against all constitutional right - and in my opinion infringing on peoples freedoms in ways that are horrible and wrong, and not why people came to America or pulled this country - what the fuck? he trailed off.

He said shelter in place will cause great harm to companies. This comes after Musk sent a series of erratic tweets calling on the government to relax social distancing restrictions, sharing articles and praising examples of places relaxing their orders. FREE AMERICA NOW, one tweet read.

Tesla reported stronger than expected earnings for quarter one, despite disruptions from coronavirus. Shares of the company were up nearly 2% at $813.77 in extended trade.

7.25pm EDT19:25

Jessica Glenza

Online demand for the anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine surged by more than 1,000% after Donald Trump endorsed it as a potential treatment for Covid-19 without providing evidence it worked, a new study has found.

There are no proven prescription therapies to treat Covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus. Despite the lack of evidence, the presidential endorsement drove up online searches for buying hydroxychloroquine, and its chemical cousin chloroquine, by 1,389% and 442% respectively.

Internet searches remained high, researchers said, even after NBC News reported an American couple had accidentally poisoned themselves by taking a liquid containing chloroquine meant to treat parasites in fish tanks, following a Trump press briefing in which he promoted the drug.

We know that high-profile endorsements matter in advertising, so it stands to reason that these endorsements could spur people to seek out these medications, said Michael Liu, a graduate student at Oxford University and the studys first author, in a statement.

7.24pm EDT19:24

Want to catch up on coronavirus updates from around the world? Read The Guardians global coronavirus blog:

6.48pm EDT18:48

As Georgia governor Brian Kemp moves to reopen businesses in the state, against the advice of public health officials and the president, Black Georgians are disproportionately getting sick.

In a survey of eight Georgia hospitals, researchers found that out of 305 Covid-19 patients, 247 were Black. The results were released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention today.

African Americans, who make up 30% of Georgias population, overall account for 36% of confirmed cases, according to state data.

6.34pm EDT18:34

The Guardians Vivian Ho reports from California:

As coronavirus tore through jails and prisons across the United States, California reduced bail for most low-level offenses to $0, allowing thousands of defendants to wait out their court dates at home instead of in custody.

The response across the criminal justice system in the state has been disparate, echoing longstanding tensions about reform. Prosecutors in Tulare county have worked around the clock to oppose the early release of more than 1,000 defendants, according to the district attorney there. In Los Angeles, leaked emails showed the district attorneys office instructing prosecutors to seek a loophole in the new bail schedule for some cases. And police unions in cities across California have argued the emergency schedule will lead to an uptick in crime.

Hanging over the bail schedule debate is a referendum in November, when Californians will get to decide whether the state should eliminate its bail system moving forward. The success or failure of the emergency guideline, beyond the infection rate of the states inmate population, has the very real possibility of becoming a talking point in all future debates for bail reform for years to come, criminal justice reform advocates say.

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Updatedat 7.31pm EDT

6.28pm EDT18:28

Heres what you need to know about Justin Amash, the Michigan congressman who announced plans to jump into the presidential race as a Libertarian candidate, from the Guardians Daniel Strauss:

Who is Amash?

Amash, 40, is a lawyer by trade who first served in the Michigan statehouse before ascending to the US Congress in 2010 during the Tea Party wave. Amash, in his first campaign, benefited from support from major Tea Party groups.

In 2019 Amash left the Republican party in protest of its seemingly immovable support for Donald Trump. He decided to join the Libertarian party and has served as one of the few members of Congress not part of the Republican or Democratic party.

Could Amashs candidacy have an impact in the 2020 presidential election?

Its possible. Amash, a fiscal conservative, could siphon away right-leaning voters disinclined to vote for Trump from former vice-president Joe Biden. Or his candidacy could attract small-government Republicans away from Trump to the benefit of Biden.

His chances of winning the presidency are slim. Amash is getting into the race late and no presidential candidate running on the Libertarian party has ever actually been elected president. They usually perform poorly.

What is his relationship with Trump?

Contentious. Amash has been a vocal critic of the president and the feeling is mutual. When Amash announced he was leaving the Republican party, Trump tweeted: Great news for the Republican Party as one of the dumbest & most disloyal men in Congress is quitting the Party. No Collusion, No Obstruction! Knew he couldnt get the nomination to run again in the Great State of Michigan. Already being challenged for his seat. A total loser!

(Amash, at times, has been mentioned as a potential candidate for statewide office but has never actually run for Senate or governor.)

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Updatedat 7.30pm EDT

5.54pm EDT17:54

The White House meeting with business executives which in many ways resembled a coronavirus briefing just ended.

As hes done at briefings, Trump took questions from reporters, alongside Mike Pence and Steven Mnuchin, the Treasury secretary. The president made many of the same claims hes made at press briefings, blithely repeating that the pandemic will soon be gone, without explaining why.

But there were a few key differences between the press briefings and todays live-streamed meeting. Trumps public health advisers were absent. And notably, the camera was continuously focused on Trump there was no footage of the reporters in the room asking questions.

Updatedat 6.07pm EDT

5.37pm EDT17:37

Trump said hes planning a trip to Arizona next week, and Ohio soon.

Hopefully in the not too distant future well have some massive rallies and people will be sitting next to each other, Trump said. I cant imagine a rally where you have every fourth seat full, every six seats are empty for everyone you have full. That wouldnt look too good.

5.34pm EDT17:34

The president suggested that a vaccine may not be needed as part of a recovery from the pandemic. If you dont have a vaccine, if the virus is gone, youre like where we were before, he said.

At least 89 coronavirus vaccines are in development, according to the World Health Organization, but even the most promising options still need to undergo rigorous safety testing, which could take a year to 18 months.

But without a vaccine, why does Trump think the pandemic will just go away? He dodged the question.

Its gonna go, its gonna leave, Trump said, without explaining his thinking. Its gonna be eradicated.

5.25pm EDT17:25

The Guardians Sam Levine reports:

Daniel Kelly, the conservative Wisconsin supreme court justice who lost his re-election bid earlier this month, will participate in a controversial case before he leaves the court over whether more than 200,000 voters should be removed from the states voter rolls.

The Wisconsin supreme court is currently considering whether to hear the case, which was brought by the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty, a conservative legal group. The group wants to force the state to immediately remove voters it suspects have moved from the voter rolls. The state has refused to remove the voters, saying it is not confident enough the voters have moved and wants to give voters until after the 2020 election to confirm their voter registration.

Last year a circuit court judge ordered the state to remove the voters, but an appeals court reversed the ruling. The suit is being closely watched because it is believed to be an obvious effort to benefit Donald Trump, who won the state by just under 23,000 votes in 2016. Voters who lived in zip codes that were predominantly students or African Americans were more than twice as likely to be flagged for removal, a Guardian analysis found.

Kelly recused himself in November when the court considered a request to hear the case on an expedited basis. His recusal made a difference the court wound up deadlocking 3-3. Kelly lost his election to Jill Karofsky, a liberal challenger, by more than 163,000 votes. But now that the election had passed, Kelly said he saw no ethical obstacle preventing him from hearing the case. In light of the fact that this case cannot now affect any election in which I would be a candidate while the case is being decided, there is no ethical bar to my participation in the consideration of the petition for review or the merits of the case if the petition for review is granted, Kelly wrote in a Wednesday order. Karofskys 10-year term begins on 1 August, and she will narrow the conservative majority on the court from 5-2 to 4-3.

Stephen Gillers, a law professor at NYU and an expert on judicial ethics, said he did not see anything improper in Kellys decision. It is rare but not unheard of for a judge who recuses to unrecuse, he wrote in an email. Judge Kelly is still a judge and the matter is before his court. The reason for the prior recusal, which was correct at the time, is no longer present. So it is fine to reverse his position.

Updatedat 6.15pm EDT

5.21pm EDT17:21

I see the new normal being what it was three months ago, Trump said. I think we want to go back to where it was.

So far, his public health advisers have disagreed. The new normal, per Dr Anthony Fauci and Dr Deborah Birx, as well as the presidents own plan to reopen the economy, suggest that distancing will have to be scaled back slowly.

Nevertheless, Trump insisted, the target date to reopen is as soon as possible, Trump said. If I watch Alabama play LSU, I dont want to see 20,000 people instead of 120,000 people.

Updatedat 6.15pm EDT

5.15pm EDT17:15

Hi, its Maanvi Singh blogging from the west coast. The president is speaking at a White House with industry executives.

I dont see protecting cities and states if theyre going to be sanctuaries, Trump said. Municipalities that prevent their law enforcement from cooperating with immigration authorities shouldnt get federal coronavirus aid, he said.

Updatedat 6.15pm EDT

5.03pm EDT17:03

Thats it from me today. My west coast colleague, Maanvi Singh, will take over the blog for the next few hours.

Heres where the day stands so far:

Maanvi will have more coming up, so stay tuned.

4.54pm EDT16:54

Vice President Mike Pence said he expects the US to be conducting 2 million tests a week next month.

Were doing more than a million tests a week now, 5.8 million tests total, Pence said moments ago during a White House event with industry executives. We expect by next month very quickly to be at a capacity to do more than 2 million tests a week.

That would work out to about 285,000 tests being conducted every day, but some health experts have said the country will need to conduct millions of tests a day to effectively limit the spread of the virus.

4.36pm EDT16:36

The Guardians Kenya Evelyn reports:

New York Citys mayor, Bill de Blasio, personally oversaw the dispersal of a large, tightly packed Hasidic Jewish funeral on Wednesday, lashing out at the conduct of mourners, sparking angry counter-criticism from community leaders.

In a tweet, the mayor called the large processional absolutely unacceptable, and vowed to bring social gatherings such as that event to an end while movements are still restricted by coronavirus guidelines.

A follow-up tweet from the mayor drew criticism for singling out the Jewish community and generalizing about its members:

Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of the Anti-Defamation League, tweeted that generalizing New Yorks Jewish population is outrageous especially when so many are scapegoating Jews.

On Wednesday morning De Blasio apologized at a press event for a heavy-handed response, saying: If you saw anger and frustration, youre right. I spoke out of real distress. Peoples lives were in danger right before my eyes.

On the same day as the funeral, crowds gathered to watch a city flyover by the US navys Blue Angels and the air forces Thunderbirds planes in honor of healthcare workers.

Only bigots have a problem when a few 100 Hasidim do what thousands of people in the same city have done the same day: not social distance, the Orthodox Jewish Public Affairs Council tweeted.

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Trump says distancing guidelines will 'fade out' as US deaths pass 60,000 as it happened - The Guardian

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Posted By admin on April 29, 2020

Rabbi Eliyahu Bakshi-Doron, who served as Israels Sephardic Chief Rabbi (Rishon Letzion) between the years of 1993 and 2003, passed away on April 12, in the middle of Passover, as a result of the coronavirus (COVID-19). He was 79 years old.

Bakshi-Doron was born in Jerusalem in 1941. His father, Rabbi Benzion, was a native of the Holy City, and his mother, Tovah, was originally from Aleppo, Syria, then home to a thriving Jewish community.

From a young age, Eliyahu displayed a keen devotion to Torah study and developed a connection to many of the leading Torah sages in Israel, in both the Sephardic and Ashkenazic communities.

In 1970, shortly after marrying Esther Lopes, daughter of Akko Chief Rabbi Shalom Lopes, he was appointed as a neighborhood rabbi in Bat Yam, just south of Tel Aviv. Four years later, he was chosen to serve as the citys Sephardic chief rabbi. In 1975, he was selected to serve as Sephardic rabbi of Haifa, a position he would hold for the next 18 years.

In that position, he worked closely with Chabad-Lubavitch emissaries to the city and participated in many Chabad events. When they completed the first Unity Torah Scroll during the Lag BaOmer parade in 1982, he took a leading role in the celebration.

On one hand, Rabbi Bakshi-Doron was a great scholar, says Rabbi Leibel Schildkraut, longtime director of Chabad of Haifa. At the same time, he was an approachable and unassuming leader who connected with people on an individual level.

Schildkraut recalls serving as a go-between between the Bakshi-Dorons and the RebbeRabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, of righteous memory. The exchanges ranged from the communal to the personal, as when the rabbi went through great lengths to ensure that the Rebbe received a copy of Binyan Av, his compendium of responsa in Jewish law, to when his wife sought the Rebbes blessing for marriage proposals for their children, as well as other personal issues.

Rabbi Bakshi-Doron with Rabbi Yitzchak Meir Hertz, rosh yeshivah of the Yeshiva Gedola Lubavitch in London, England. (Photo: Yeshivah Gedolah Lubavitch)

From 1993 to 2003, Bakshi-Doron served as Chief Rabbi of Israel, alongside his Ashkenazi counterpart, Rabbi Israel Lau.

A hands-on leader, he worked tirelessly to elevate the spiritual lives of his constituents, giving countless Torah classes and lectures. His care, however, extended to many other areas as well. He served on the boards of a number of institutions, including Rambam Hospital in Haifa and Keren Lavi, a civilian charity that supports soldiers in the Israel Defense Forces.

Over the decades, he visited Chabad institutions and events all over the world, and would often speak of his admiration of the emissaries devotion and dedication to fostering Jewish life and community.

During his long and fruitful retirement, he founded and led the Jerusalem-based Binyan Av institute, a yeshivah that attracts young men from Sephardic communities worldwide.

Predeceased by his wife in 2005, he is survived by their 10 children, in addition to many grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

Rabbi Bakshi-Doron at the Chabad-Lubavitch yeshivah in Sydney, Australia.

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Rabbi Eliyahu Bakshi-Doron, 79, Former Chief Rabbi of Israel - Remembered as a wise scholar and 'man of the people' - Chabad.org

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