Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By admin on March 3, 2020

Crisco is Kosher, home economist Marion Harris Neil wrote more than 100 years ago in The Story of Crisco, a recipe book published by Procter & Gamble. Rabbi Moses S. Margolies of New York, the paragraph continued, said that the Hebrew Race had been waiting 4,000 years for Crisco.

Is Crisco a Jewish food, as Harris Neil seemed to suggest? And what makes a food Jewish anyway?

Interest in the question of what counts as Jewish food has expanded dramatically over the last decade, leading to an outpouring of writing about Jewish food history by scholars, journalists, cookbook authors and others.

One of the latest contributions to this conversation is Feasting and Fasting: The History and Ethics of Jewish Food, in which I have an essay on the history of Jews and Crisco. Im interested in Crisco because Im interested in the everyday, seemingly nonsectarian materials that Jews use to create their Jewish lives. And, frankly, its funny to think about hydrogenated cottonseed oil as a Jewish food.

But theres good reason to think about Crisco as Jewish food. Harris Neils Story of Crisco was part of a decades-long campaign by Procter & Gamble to convince American home cooks, including Ashkenazi Jews, to substitute Crisco for traditional animal fats. (A free Kindle version of the book is available from Amazon.)

In the early 20th century, P&G had cornered the market on cottonseed oil for use in its soap line. They decided to use the oil to create their first edible product, hydrogenating the liquid oil to make it resemble a solid fat at room temperature.

To persuade Americans that hydrogenated vegetable oil was a food they wanted, P&G launched a colossal advertising campaign for Crisco in 1911 and 1912, created by the J. Walter Thompson advertising agency, a pioneer of targeted marketing.

Among others, the targeted consumers were kosher-keeping Jews, especially the 2.5 million recent Ashkenazi immigrants from Central and Eastern Europe.

Around the world, Jews have cooked in ways similar to their non-Jewish neighbors, adapting local foodways to kosher requirements (such as separating foods made with meat and dairy products).

Ashkenazi Jews, like their non-Jewish neighbors in Europe and, later, the United States, tended to fry and bake with butter and animal fats. Where non-Jewish cooks used lard, Ashkenazi Jews used schmaltz, rendered poultry fat. However, Ashkenazi cooks who kept kosher could not make parve dishes neutral items that could be eaten alongside either meat or dairy, such as pies with the predominant fats of the time, butter and schmaltz.

JWTs advertisements in Yiddish-language newspapers included eye-catching illustrations that suggested ways that the Yiddish-speaking housewife could use Crisco: Feeding children and husbands by using Crisco as a shortening in cakes or frying turnips or herring in it (popular foods eaten by Yiddish-speaking Jews at that time).

Yes, Crisco, the all-purpose lubricant, would aid intergenerational Jewish relationships.

Other ads contained long explanations about how Crisco was truly clean and truly kosher, tying together scientific notions of food purity and cleanliness with keeping kosher (despite the fact that kosher regulations have nothing to do with health or cleanliness).

Although hechshers (kosher certification symbols) did not begin to appear on manufactured foods until 1923, P&G obtained rabbinic approval for their new product. It is extremely unlikely that Rabbi Margolies quipped the witty advertising line about Jews having waited 4,000 years to use Crisco. But P&G used his name to suggest that Crisco, as a parve cooking fat, was a solution to long-standing kosher rules of separating dairy and meat. Rabbinic approval, as well as clever advertising, taught Jews to learn to trust manufacturers.

After a hiatus of two decades, P&G returned to promoting Crisco to Jews in 1933, this time working with the influential Jewish advertiser Joseph Jacobs creator of the ubiquitous Maxwell House Haggadah to create the bilingual Yiddish-English cookbook Crisco Recipes for the Jewish Housewife.

Now the target Jewish consumers were not only Yiddish-speaking immigrant women but also their daughters, who primarily read and spoke English. This books English and Yiddish instructions and recipes were identical in order to enable two people to work together on any particular recipe (for example, a Yiddish-reading mother and her English-reading daughter). Yes, Crisco, the all-purpose lubricant, would aid intergenerational Jewish relationships.

P&G, JWT and Joseph Jacobs were wildly successful at convincing Jews that Crisco was a Jewish food.

Crisco became a staple in the American Jewish pantry, including but not only for frying Hanukkah latkes. Jewish community cookbooks created by synagogues and Jewish womens groups would include recipes with Crisco throughout the 20th century. By the early 21st century, recipes containing Crisco were being published as heritage recipes, passed down from earlier generations.

Nonetheless, by the early 21st century, Jews food preferences had shifted.

In the 1990s, scientists began to raise alarms about trans fat formed through hydrogenation, culminating in the FDAs restriction on trans fat in manufactured foods beginning in 2015.

Though a version of Crisco without trans fat has been sold since 2004, and no Crisco products have contained any trans fat since 2007, the public stigma of unhealthiness remains.

Some Jews have turned back to schmaltz, now a heritage food with older credentials than Crisco. They are guided by Jewish cultural trends, broader culinary trends away from big food and scientific health claims (just as in the turn to Crisco 100 years earlier).

Also, to those who wished to move away from processed foods, schmaltz offers access to an older, seemingly authentic culinary heritage of Jewish grandmotherly wisdom. Both Wise Sons Deli in San Francisco and Sauls Deli in Berkeley cook with schmaltz.

If Jews had waited 4,000 years to embrace Crisco as a Jewish food, they enthusiastically returned to schmaltz a century later.

Read more:

Crisco and Jews: A story 4000 years in the making - The Jewish News of Northern California

Category: Ashkenazi | Comments Off on Crisco and Jews: A story 4000 years in the making – The Jewish News of Northern California
Tags:

Posted By admin on March 3, 2020

Michelle Malkin is catching grief from conservatives over comments made at the American First Political Action Conference [AFPAC] last week in which she defended questions about the number of Holocaust victims from World War II.

Malkin is nothing if not a provocateur, and as such, her primary rhetorical goal often seems less about informing her audience, but instead provoking people into anger and animus, either in concert with her opinion or, in many cases, in disagreement with what shes said. As her influence has waned of late, her inflammatory rhetoric has only burned brighter and has included endorsing anti-Semitic trolls.

During the AFPAC speak, Malkin played the best defense is a good offense card by going through a litany of third-rail issues often criticized as anti-Semitic tropes, including dual loyalty and a clear dog-whistle for Holocaust deniers. Watch a portion of the speech here:

A transcript of her remarks:

Already right out of the gate, before I even knew who Nick Fuentes was, before I knew who Groypers were, I was being tarred as an anti-Semite. Its become a useless, meaningless term and everybody knows it. And thats why theyre so desperate to tar all of us as that.

Its anti-Semitic to mention George Soross billions. Its anti-Semitic to criticize the Anti-Defamation League. Its anti-Semitic to question whatever the precise number is of people who perished in World War II. It is anti-Semitic for me, being married to a 100% Ashkenazi Jew, to question dual loyalties of people who are working here as agents of a foreign country.

Oh, and it is an unacceptably anti-Semitic to point out the rank hypocrisy of people who are fiercely protective of an ethno-state and an immigration enforcement system that workswho turn around and call those of us who believe, whatever our backgrounds are, who only have one homeland that theyve ever known, to call us what is it now?white majoritarianism I believe is the term. Thats me. Thank you.

Questioning Holocaust victims has long been a trope for fringe white nationalist groups who believe the Holocaust was a hoax designed to give Jewish people some sort of global political advantage with which they could control non-Jewish people. The Dual loyalty trope was recently in the political sphere when Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) was criticized by numerous Republican officials for making a similar suggestion.

Of course, Malkin is not an elected official, but her influence as an (erstwhile) conservative thought-leader is undeniable. Or maybe its time to start to question just how influential she still is, as the bipartisan reaction to her comments are quite noteworthy.

Take for example David Harsanyi, writer for National Review and theNew York Post:

&

Young Americas Foundation, a conservative college outreach group that recently fired Malkin, released the following statement:

Have a tip we should know? [emailprotected]

Read the original post:

Conservatives Blast Michelle Malkins Anti-Semitic Questions: Once Admired Her. This is Disgusting. - Mediaite

Category: Ashkenazi | Comments Off on Conservatives Blast Michelle Malkins Anti-Semitic Questions: Once Admired Her. This is Disgusting. – Mediaite
Tags:

Posted By admin on March 3, 2020

Purim foods often symbolize the virtue of Esther, the downfall of Haman, the surprises of the Megillah and the sweetness of overcoming evil. This Purim (sunset March 9 to nightfall March 10), try two new recipes that draw on these traditions.

Candied Carrot Hamantaschen are shaped like the evil viziers hat (or pocket) and celebrate the Jewish victory. The cookies filling is orange and cinnamon-flavored candied carrots, a twist on an old-fashioned Ashkenazi sweet.

Chickpeas are eaten in recognition of Esther having kept a vegetarian diet in the palace. Chickpea and Tortellini Saut combines them with the pasta, which with its hidden filling symbolizes the subterfuges of the Purim story.

Place carrots in saucepan with water just to cover. Stir in sugar, zest, salt and orange oil. Bring to simmer over medium heat, stirring often. Lower heat. Simmer uncovered 45-60 minutes, stirring occasionally, until carrots are very, very soft and most of the liquid is evaporated and what is left is syrupy. Remove from heat. Stir in cinnamon. Coarsely mash carrots.

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly flour work surface and rolling pin. Roll out dough -inch thick. Cut into 3- to 3-inch-diameter circles with cookie cutter or upside-down glass. Combine scraps into a ball and repeat as necessary. Place on ungreased baking sheet. Lightly brush the outer rim of the top of each circle with egg wash. Place Tbs. of filling in center of each. Push up 3 sides to form triangle, firmly pinching so cookies maintain their shape. Brush egg wash on outside of cookies, making sure to cover all pinched seams. Bake 22-25 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool on rack.

Hamantaschen Dough: Use your favorite recipe or try this one. Stir together 1 cup flour, 1 tsp. baking powder, 2 Tbs. sugar, and 1/8 tsp. salt. Cut 4 Tbs. room-temperature unsalted butter or stick margarine into small pieces. Use two forks to cut butter into flour until the bits of combined butter and flour are each about the size of a lentil. Mix in 1 large egg (beaten). Stir in 2 Tbs. of milk or nondairy milk until a rough dough forms. Hand knead until ball forms.

Notes: Substitute cup orange juice in carrot cooking liquid for orange oil or extract. Recipe doubles well.

Cook tortellini according to package directions until firm to the bite. (Do not overcook.) Drain, rinse in cold water and drain.

Heat 2 Tbs. oil in 12-inch fry pan over medium high heat. Saut onions until softened. Add garlic. Saut until golden. Stir in salt, black pepper and pepper flakes. Add carrots, saut until they soften and are almost cooked. Stir in chickpeas and kale. Saut until kale is cooked, drizzling in oil if needed. Taste. Adjust seasonings. Add sugar if too bitter. Gently stir in tortellini until warmed through. Stir in 1-2 Tbs. oil. Serve garnished with tomatoes and cheese.

Originally posted here:

Purim recipes: Sweet carrot hamantaschen and tortellini with chickpeas - The Jewish News of Northern California

Category: Ashkenazi | Comments Off on Purim recipes: Sweet carrot hamantaschen and tortellini with chickpeas – The Jewish News of Northern California
Tags:

Posted By admin on March 3, 2020

For two millennia, Cairo was home to a thriving Jewish community. For centuries, the citys Jewish neighborhood, or Harat al-Yahud, buzzed with thousands of people who belonged to one of the many synagogues in the area, including the famous Maimonides Synagogue, which was named after the renowned rabbi and physician when he moved to the city from Cordoba in the second half of the 12th century.It was probably not far from there that a little over a century before Maimonidess arrival, in the year 4788, or 1028 according to the Gregorian calendar, the scribe Zechariah Ben Anan completed a masterpiece that had required him years of work: a copy of the Ketuvim, or Writings, the third part of the Tanach.Almost a thousand years later, the superb manuscript might embody an unprecedented opportunity for the future of the Jewish heritage in Egypt, as Prof. Yoram Meital, a historian from the Department of Middle Eastern Studies at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, told The Jerusalem Post.Meital came across the manuscript wrapped in inexpensive white paper in 2017 during a study visit at the Moshe Deri Synagogue in Cairo. An expert on modern Egypt, the academic has paid Israels neighboring country frequent visits. In the past few years, however, a number of circumstances have made him confident in the existence of a real opportunity for the future of Egyptian Jewish culture.A page of the Zechariah Ben Anan manuscript dating back to 1028, rediscovered in Cairo by Ben-Gurion University Prof. Yoram Meital. (Credit: Courtesy of Yoram Meital)Over the last seven years a significant shift has been taking place in the perception of the Jewish communitys past within the public discourse in Egypt and in the stand of the Egyptian government, he explained.Moreover, about five years ago there was a change in what remains of the Jewish community in Egypt. Magda Haroun took the presidency of the community in Cairo and she came to the position with a vision that I completely identify with: safeguarding the local Jewish sites and artifacts and making part of them open and available for various usage including visits, cultural activities and studies, Meital continued.Since then, the BGU professor has been cooperating closely with Haroun and with the NGO Drop of Milk, led by Haroun and her deputy, Samy Ibrahim. Originally registered as a Jewish charitable organization in 1921, today Drop of Milk welcomes Egyptians of all religions supporting its mission of preserving the Jewish heritage and fostering interfaith dialogue and understanding.It was during a trip to study and document Cairos synagogues and their artifacts that Meital found Zechariah Ben Anans manuscript.The professor explained that a short text documenting its existence was first published in 1905 by Richard Gottheil, a scholar in Semitic studies, who was conducting some research in Egypt.He did not have the time to properly examine the manuscript, but he did publish a brief description about it in the very same journal where I chose to publish my own article, the professor told the Post, alluding to the English-language academic journal The Jewish Quarterly Review. Meital describes his conclusions about the document in the Winter 2020 issue.The Moshe Deri Synagogue, where the manuscript was uncovered, was not its original location. For centuries, the artifact was housed in the more ancient Dar Simha Synagogue belonging to the same community: the Karaites.Unlike Rabbinic Jews, who hold that the Mishna and the Talmud are an expression of a tradition dating back to Moses, the Karaite sect rejects the Oral Law in its entirety and only upholds biblical statutes.The group was founded in the 8th century and was especially numerous in Egypt.As explained in the article in The Jewish Quarterly Review, until the beginning of the 20th century Harat al-Yahud featured two Karaite synagogues, along with 10 Sephardi and one Ashkenazi houses of worship.Around that time, a growing number of Jewish families from all backgrounds chose to abandon its narrow alleys and busy streets in favor of a more modern residential neighborhood. Among them, many selected the Abbasiya neighborhood where the new Karaite synagogue, named after the medieval poet Moshe/Moussa Deri, was inaugurated in 1933.In 1935, the Karaite chief rabbi wrote down some notes about the manuscript, which were found among the pages.Three decades later, when most of the Jews had already fled Egypt after the growing antagonism of the population ignited by the establishment of the State of Israel and the 1956 Suez Crisis, a fire damaged the Dar Simha Synagogue. What was left of its valuable books, manuscripts and scrolls were transferred to the Moshe Deri Synagogue.In 1981, a small team from Jerusalems Institute of Microfilmed Hebrew Manuscripts was allowed to visit Cairo after the 1979 peace treaty between the countries, and microfilmed the manuscript, documenting its existence for the last time.Unfortunately the technology available then was much less advanced than today and the result very poor, Meital explained.To study the manuscript, the professor took a sabbatical from the Herbert Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies at the University of Pennsylvania.I focused on both the content and the form, including the corrections that were implemented on the biblical text, he told the Post. Moreover, the manuscript presents 12 extra pages with an index-like marking of the Massora [a collection of explanatory notes on the Bible], the names of the scribe and of the man who commissioned his work, something very rare.Meital highlighted that the rediscovery of the manuscript offers an important opportunity to shed light on the general project of restoring and bringing Jewish cultural heritage back to fruition, especially today when just a handful of Jews live in Cairo.Many ask us if it would not be better to transfer the artifacts from the country to another community. We respond that a cultural product should be preserved where it was created; acting otherwise would be immoral, besides illegal. We are already working to pursue our objective with the participation of Egyptians of all religions, he said.The professor acknowledged that not everyone in the country supports the project.We have two types of critics, Islamists who often hold antisemitic ideologies, and people who oppose our work in their struggle against the policy led by [Egyptian] President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, he said.However, Meital added that Sisi himself has demonstrated his support for the vision Haroun and Drop of Milk are carrying out.The Egyptian president mentioned protecting the cultural heritage of minorities, including the Jewish minority, on at least three occasions, which in my opinion is a very bold and unprecedented move. Moreover, nothing had ever been done in the past which has the scope of what has been going on in the past three years, with the renovation of synagogues, the cleaning of cemeteries and the opportunities for us to collect the Judaica, the expert pointed out.The goal now is to create a functioning Jewish library in Cairo, with more than 10,000 volumes from the citys synagogues. More than 5,000 have already been collected, cleaned and cataloged, and the location has already been selected: a building in the Shaar Hashamayim Synagogue compound, in the heart of Cairo.We have achieved all of this with almost no resources, if we had them, we could start tomorrow, he said.According to Meital, the ambition is to establish a functioning library open to scholars from all over the world and to all of those interested in Jewish culture and heritage, including the thousand or more students that every year choose to study Hebrew just in Cairo.The Zechariah Ben Anan manuscript, as well as many other priceless treasures documenting two millennia of Jewish history, will represent the crown jewel of the project.This artifact has been in the country for over a thousand years, generation after generation, surviving revolutions, violence, fires and much more. Why shouldnt it have a future here? the professor concluded.

More:

1,000-year-old Bible might pave way for future of Egypts Jewish heritage - The Jerusalem Post

Category: Ashkenazi | Comments Off on 1,000-year-old Bible might pave way for future of Egypts Jewish heritage – The Jerusalem Post
Tags:

Posted By admin on March 3, 2020

From Calgary Flames games to all-you-can-eat wings, theres plenty to check out around Calgary during this first full week of March!

What:Learn all about Dungeons & Dragons on the first Monday of the month at The Ship & Anchor.These nights are specifically designed for anyone who has no experience with the world of tabletop role-playing games such as D&D, Pathfinder, or any of the others out there. The evening will begin with a first-come-first-served selection of a character to play, followed by a quick Q&A, then diving right into the adventure.

When:The first Monday of every month March 2Time:5 to 10 pmWhere:Ship & Anchor Pub 534 17 Avenue SW, CalgarySign-up:email[emailprotected]

What:Get a quick spin in surrounded by greenery at Devonian Gardens!

When:Mondays to ThursdaysTime:11:30 am and 12:30 pmWhere:Devonian GardensCost:$9.25

Skating at Olympic Plaza (jesse.ell/Instagram)

What:Built in 1988 for the Olympic Winter Games, Olympic Plaza has the only refrigerated outdoor ice surface in the city. You canrent skatesdown at the plaza if you dont have a pair of your own. Helmets are strongly encouraged.

When:Open daily until mid-MarchTime:10 am to 9 pmWhere:Olympic Plaza 228 8th Avenue SE, CalgaryAdmission:Free. Skates are also available torent

What:Actually, written by Anna Ziegler and directed by Jenna Rodgers, examines the issue of consent while touching on sub-themes of race, gender, and privilege on a university campus. The award-winning play focuses on two characters and their respective points of view in the same situation. Amber comes from a comfortable, well-off Jewish family; Tom is a young African American man who was raised in poverty and is the first in his family to attend university.

When:Now until March 15, 2020Time:Showtimes start at either 2 or 7:30 pm based on dateWhere:Martha Cohen Theatre 215 8th Avenue SE, CalgaryTickets:Prices vary based on seat, availableonline

What:Check out the Eddys Spotlight this Monday featuring writer Kris Demeanor!

When:March 2Time:7 pmWhere:The King Eddy 438 9th Avenue SE

What: Taking groups of adventurers out into the cold via moonlight (and headlamps), the tour will show snowshoers a side of Kananaskis Country that they may have never seen before. Hiking through Kananaskis forest and under a star-filled sky, attendees will ultimately end up in an open meadow to enjoy the cosmos. Bringing a tripod and a camera is encouraged for anyone hoping to get that priceless photo, and anyone will be able to take a look through the supplied telescope to get a closer look at the twinkling lights.

When:Select days throughout the yearTime:From 7 to 9 pmWhere:Kananaskis Village Center 1 Mt. Sparrowhawk CresTickets:$75 for adults, $55 for youth aged 13 to 17. Availableonline

Penguin Walk (Lee Boyle/Calgary Zoo/Facebook)

What:2020 marks the eighth year of the Calgary Zoo Penguin Walk. The king penguin colony heads out on zoo grounds for a daily enrichment walk in the winter months and visitors get to experience the fun. This program allows visitors to get an up-close look at the group of King Penguins as they explore, exercise, and waddle their way through the zoo. This is a free-choice activity for the penguins and is subject to weather conditions.

When:Now to March 31, 2020 (weather permitting)Time:11 am dailyWhere:The Calgary Zoo 1300 Zoo Road NE, CalgaryMore Info:Online

What:Esker Foundation connects the public to contemporary art through relevant, accessible, and educational exhibitions, programs, and publications. The gallery reflects on current developments in local, regional, and international culture; creates opportunities for public dialogue; and supports the production of groundbreaking new work, ideas, and research.Admission isfree.

When:Open Tuesdays to Sundays. Closed MondaysTime:Various timesWhere:Esker Foundation 4th Floor 1011 9th Avenue SE, CalgaryAdmission:Free

What:Show off your moves at this Super Smash event cash prizes (and bragging rights) are up for grabs!

When:March 3, 2020Time: 6:30 to 9:30 pmWhere:Super Smash Cafe1240 16 Avenue NW, CalgaryTickets:Free, reserve space online

What:Show off your talent and enjoy seeing others at Mikeys on 12 every Tuesday.

When:TuesdaysTime:9 pmWhere:Mikeys on 12th Avenue 918 12th Avenue SWAdmission:Free, register online

What:Grab your weekly haul of delicious produce, eggs, baked goods, meats, preserves, florals, and more, all grown and produced on farms right here in Alberta. You can enjoy live entertainment and other fun activities happening at this quaint community farmers market. The market will go on rain or shine, so come prepared.

When:Every WednesdayTime:3 to 7 pmWhere:1320 5th Avenue NW, CalgaryAdmission:Free

What:Doc Soup Calgary is a monthly feature-length documentary series presented in partnership with the Calgary International Film Festival and Hot Docs.

When:March 4 and April 1, 2020Time:7 pmWhere:Cineplex Odeon Eau Claire Market Cinemas 200 Barclay Parade Southwest #200, CalgaryTickets:Online

What:Head over to Hexagon Board Game Cafe in Kensington on Wednesday nights for some drop in D&D fun!

When:Every WednesdayTime:D&D starts at 7 pm, though arrive closer to 6:30 pm to ensure a seat (as its first come first served)Where:Hexagon Board Game Cafe #200 1140 Kensington Road NWTickets:$6 to drop in and mandatory drink purchase

Image: Calgary Flames / Instagram

What:The Flames take on the Columbus Blue Jackets at the Saddledome on March 4.

When:March 4, 2020Time:6:30 pmWhere:Scotiabank Saddledome 555 Saddledome Rise SE, CalgaryTickets:Online

What:Curious Calgarians will have a chance to learn about the ghostly figures that haunt their city by taking a Heritage Park Ghost Tour this spring.Each tour is 90 minutes long and will take attendees through the alleyways and streets of the Historical Village and verse them in various spooky stories that will make their skin crawl. They depart from Gasoline Alley at 7 and 7:30 pm, though the truly terrified would be wise to choose the earlier, brighter tour.

When:March 4, March 11, March 18, March 25, April 1 and April 8 for the adult tours, and April 15 for the family toursTime:Tours begin at 7 and 7:30 pm for adults, 6:30 pm for familiesWhere:Gasoline Alley Lobby, Heritage Park1900 Heritage Drive SWAdmission:$19.95 for family tours, $23 for adult tours, available atheritagepark.caLength:Adult tours: three km in 90 minutes.Family tours: two km in 60 minutes

What:Explore the Glenbow Museum at your leisure for FREE on the first Thursday of every month.

When:March 5, 2020Time:5 pm to closeWhere:Glenbow Museum 130 9th Avenue SEAdmission:Free

Mystery Town Tours/Facebook

What:Mystery Town Toursoperates just like the escape rooms that we all know and love (though sometimes really, really hate), but the twist is that youre not actually trying to escape anything. Youll actually be following clues throughout the town, receiving information via phone, and replying with your answers to the mysteries presented throughout the day. And it could be a full day, at that, as tours can range from 90 minutes to a full afternoon of adventuring around the town.

When:Available for registration nowTime:Oneto five hoursWhere:Calgary,Canmore, Banff, Cochrane, Edmonton, and Fort McMurray in Alberta, and Vancouver and Victoria in BCTickets:Ranges from $49 to $99 per group, with groups ranging from two to four people

What:On this three-hour walking tour, you will eat your way through this inner-city village at some of the foodie hotspots while also learning about the charming history and architecture of the area.

When:Every ThursdayTime:6 to 9 pmWhere:Meet at Brasserie Kensington 1131 Kensington Crescent NW, CalgaryTickets:Online

What:Explore over80 vendors supplying customers with fresh local produce, meat, poultry, international food, organic goods, jewellery, art, and more.Whether its the arrival of fresh produce or fun events, theres always something happening at the market.

When:Open year-round from Thursday to SundayTime:9 am to 5 pmAddress:510 77 Avenue SE, CalgaryAdmission:Free

What:Gorge yourself on all-you-can-eat wings and support a good cause at Cowboys. There will be over 25 different flavours from Calgarys top wing pubs and restaurants.

When:March 5, 2020Time:5:30 pmAddress:Cowboys Dance Hall 421 12th Avenue SEAdmission:Starts at $25, available online

Read more from the original source:
20 things to do in Calgary this week: March 2 to 5 | Listed - Daily Hive

Category: Jewish American Heritage Month | Comments Off on 20 things to do in Calgary this week: March 2 to 5 | Listed – Daily Hive
Tags:

Posted By admin on March 3, 2020

Joe's Pub - a program and venue of The Public Theater - brings the world to New York City this spring and summer. Audiences can skip the hassle and headaches of JFK, LaGuardia, and Newark to visit the Middle East (Tarek Yamani Trio, Divahn, Yemen Blues, and Shai Tsabari and the Middle East Groove Masters), Asia (Mai Khoi, AzN Pop!, and Akiko Yano Trio), Europe (Elina Duni, Pierce Turner, Germn Lpez, Sam Lee, and Daniel Norgren), Africa (Michael Olatuja, AJOYO, and AfrotoniX), India (Amaan & Ayaan Ali Bangash, Aditya Prakash Ensemble, Sunny Jain, and Kiran Ahluwalia), and the Americas (Jim Cuddy and Nation Beat). Joe's Pub asks its audiences to leave their passports behind, settle into seats with some of New York City's best views, and sail the skies with better inflight entertainment and food than they'll find on any commercial airline.

See the full schedule below!

Wednesday, March 4 at 7:00PM

$15 advance / $20 at the door

Born and raised in Beirut, Tarek Yamani is a Lebanese-American, New York-based pianist who taught himself jazz at the age of 19. He has been dedicated to exploring relationships between African-American Jazz and classical Arabic music which are most evident in his second album Lisan Al Tarab: Jazz Conceptions in Classical Arabic, and in Peninsular which fuses jazz with quarter-tones and the rhythms of the Arabian Peninsula.

A recipient of many prestigious awards such as the Thelonious Monk Jazz Composers Competition, the Baryshnikov Artist-in-Residence, the Huygens Scholarship, the Prins Bernhard Culture fund, and the Abu Dhabi Festival Commission, Tarek has been part of three editions of the International Jazz Day Global Concert and performed in venues such as the Smithsonian (DC), Barcelona Cathedral at La Merce (Spain), Atrium at Lincoln Center (NYC), Boulez Saal (Berlin), MuCEM (Marseille), the UN Assembly Hall (NYC), Melbourne Arts Center, Sejong Center for the Arts (Seoul), and Gran Teatro de la Habana (Cuba).

Tarek is also an educator, author of two self-published music books on rhythm and a film score composer of films screened in 100+ festivals around the world and broadcasted on AMC network, BBC and Sundance TV.

Thursday, March 5 at 7:00PM

$15

With a powerful voice that sings, speaks, and screams, and a style that defies genre, Vietnamese pop star-turned protest singer Mai Khoi performs her storytelling song cycle "Just Be Patient." In this performance, she tells her story about blazing trails as an artist-activist living under an authoritarian regime, and shares the risks and rewards of speaking truth to power through music. Drawing on a wide variety of influences, from traditional Vietnamese folk to blues, soul and rock, Mai Khoi has been compared to Pussy Riot and dubbed the Lady Gaga of Vietnam. Though she has had her concerts raided, faced retaliatory eviction from her home, and been detained and interrogated by the police, Mai Khoi continues to use her music and voice to fight censorship and advocate for human rights and freedom of expression in Vietnam and around the world. Songs are performed both in English and in Vietnamese with English translation.

Mai Khoi is the current musician in residence with the Safe Haven Incubator for Music NYC (SHIM:NYC), an artist-at-risk residency program recently launched by Artistic Freedom Initiative and Tamizdat.

Saturday, March 7 at 7:00PM

$20

Join us for Divahn's long-awaited new album release concert! Iranian-descended singer Galeet Dardashti leads the all-female power-house Middle Eastern Jewish ensemble, Divahn. The New York City-based group has gained an international following with its fresh and fiery renditions of traditional and original Sephardi/Mizrahi Jewish songs: lush string arrangements, eclectic Indian, Middle Eastern, and Latin percussion, and vocals spanning Hebrew, Judeo-Spanish, Persian, Arabic, and Aramaic. "Divahn," a word common to Hebrew, Persian, and Arabic, means a collection of songs or poetry. Through its music, Divahn underscores common ground between diverse Middle Eastern cultures and religions.

Saturday, March 7 at 11:30PM

$30

Shavua Tov. Come join the great Ravid Kahalani and Yemen Blues perform Yemenite chants with swirls of jazz and rock grooves at a special late night performance at Joe's Pub. Welcome the new week with the uplifting sounds of this amazing band.

with Rob Luft & Rod Youngs

Thursday, March 12 and Friday, March 13 at 7:00PM

$40 advance / $45 at the door

Albanian singer Elina Duni was born into a highly artistic family in Tirana in 1981 and first sang on stage at the age of five. In 1992 after the fall of the communist regime, she and her mother settled in Geneva. Soon after, she started classical piano lessons and discovered jazz, before going on to study singing and composition in the jazz department at the Hochschule der Knste Bern.

During this time she also developed the Elina Duni Quartet to explore her musical roots, a combination of Balkan folk songs and jazz. The quartet released its ECM debut, Matan Malit (Beyond the Mountain), a musical homage to Albania, in 2012.

In 2015 her quartet released its second album for ECM, Dallndyshe (The Swallow). Duni contrasted this with her first quartet recording thus: it has, she said, "a different groove, a different momentum. It's become more rhythmic. Sometimes it's almost a trance-like propulsion." The album received great critical acclaim: "a sheer delight," in the words of UK Vibe's Tim Stenhouse.

Duni has said of her work with the quartet: "We focus all the intensity that the poetry needs. We have tried to convey its essence through our musical interpretation. To me, all improvised music is a jazz state of mind. We feel no obligation to play a song the same way twice."

Her latest album Partir released in 2018 on ECM Records features Elina Duni as a soloist, accompanying herself on piano, acoustic guitar and percussion, marking her most ambitious and intimate work to date.

Tuesday, March 17 at 7:00PM

$25

Ireland's finest songwriter Pierce Turner, formerly voted Ireland's solo performer of the year, is planning on performing an array of his favorite classic Irish songs for the first time ever. Even though he has been lauded for his inventive contemporary compositions, his roots were actually sown in the soil of Irish folk songs and classical music as a boy soprano. Turner's monologues and storytelling are directly linkable to Ireland's history of yarning, mingling this with classic Irish folk songs will be a natural brew of potent joy, laughter and love. Turner who has performed with Philip Glass, Patty Smith, and Iggy Pop, is sure to delightfully push the envelope. This will be an opportunity to truly enjoy St Patrick's Day with great songs and wit, in the presence of the man the BBC referred to as "Joyce with a Voice."

featuring Israel Suarez "Piraa"

Sunday, March 22 at 7:00PM

$20

Germn Lpez returns to Joe's Pub, this time with an all-star ensemble, including Israel Suarez "Piraa", one of the most renowned cajn players in the flamenco world. Germn Lpez is the leading virtuoso of the Canary Island timple -- a five-stringed diminutive guitar, not unlike a ukelele or cavaquio. Germn Lpez performs original, instrumental music honoring Canary folk music traditions, embracing of Spanish Flamenco, West African rhythms, the flourishing spirit of jazz, and an innovative 21st century approach to creating "island music."

Wednesday, March 25 at 7:00PM

$15

AzN PoP! is the world's first Asian-American "pop group" from the USA! Join Baby Rice, Quirky Rice, Edgy Rice, and Brown Rice as they kick off their tour by dancing, singing, and rapping about boys, friendship, and systemic racism/oppression! CUTE!

Friday, March 27 at 7:00PM

$15 advance / $20 at the door

With influences from around the world, Nigerian/British bassist and IMA Award Winner Michael Olatuja's music touches on each spot has lived in, including London, Lagos, Nigeria, and New York. He finds commonalities among the various genres that have shaped his artistry, including Afrobeat, Jazz, R&B/Soul, gospel, and more. His band, Lagos Pepper Soup has recorded a new cinematic-afrobeat album with special guests, Anglique Kidjo, Dianne Reeves, Joe Lovano, Laura Mvula, Regina Carter, Lionel Loueke, Becca Stevens, and many others. This epic album will be released in April 2020.

Wednesday, April 1 at 9:30PM

$20

Cultural and musical traditions give life and purpose to the work they bring to the stage. By asking audiences to listen from the heart, sarod virtuosos Amaan Ali Bangash and Ayaan Ali Bangash break through the troublesome polarities of continuity and change, tradition and innovation. In their sound we encounter technical assuredness bolstered by elegant lyricism and joy-filled dynamism. It is music forged from a unique artistic vision that rests upon a legacy seven generations deep and includes their revered father and grandfather, Maestro Amjad Ali Khan and Maestro Haafiz Ali Khan. Amaan Ali Bangash and Ayaan Ali Bangash represent the 7th generation of a musical lineage, as sons and disciples of the sarod icon, Amjad Ali Khan. With him they have performed across the globe, including Carnegie Hall, Kennedy Center, Smithsonian, and WOMAD festivals on many continents.

They have also collaborated with guitarist Derek Trucks, of the Allman Brothers Band, Chicago Philharmonic orchestra, Avignon symphony orchestra among others, and established themselves as a duo, carrying forward their musical legacy in sync with both tradition and contemporary times. They performed at the Nobel Peace Prize Concert 2014 in Oslo and recently won the Gold Medal at the Global Music Awards in LA for their new album Peace Worshippers. This year they perform with Moscow State Philharmonic Orchestra and Bronx Arts Ensemble.

with opener Nora Brown

Thursday, April 2 at 9:30PM

$15

Sam Lee plays a unique role in the British music scene-a highly inventive and original singer, folk song interpreter, a passionate conservationist, committed song collector, and a successful creator of live events. Alongside his organization The Nest Collective and fellow collaborators, Sam has shaken up the live music scene breaking the boundaries between folk and contemporary music and the assumed place and way folksong is heard. He's injected a renewed passion into this old material, helping to develop its ecosystem by not only inviting in a new listenership but also interrogating what the messages in these old songs hold for us today. With his forthcoming album, Old Wow, he's summonsed up a truly compelling and emotional album that takes his work to yet another level.

He may not intend to, but Sam Lee always surprises. When he released his first album, Ground Of Its Own, in 2012, he dared to dramatically re-work old songs by matching his direct and rich singing style against an extraordinary backdrop of sound, making use of anything from Jews harps, trumpets, fiddles, banjo, or the drone effects of an Indian Shruti box. This bravely original set made possible by a prestigious Arts Foundation award, set up to 'support artists at a breakthrough moment in their careers' made an immediate impact and the album was short-listed for a Mercury Music Prize. Three years later, Sam's second album The Fade In Time saw him break further new ground and receive accompanying accolades including a Songlines Award for artist of the year. This time the backing included cello, ukulele, Japanese koto, willow flute, and, most startling of all, an exquisite acapella treatment of "Lovely Molly" backed by the massed ranks of the Roundhouse Choir. This song received much attention being performed at the 2016 BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards at London's Royal Albert Hall winning Best Traditional Track and subsequently performed on BBC TV's 'Later with Jools', NPR's Tiny Desk sessions, and with the BBC Symphony Orchestra at the Proms where Sam hosted a Folk Prom alongside Julie Fowlis. But possibly the largest audience Sam found himself being heard by was when Guy Ritchie chose him to write the lead song for his epic Hollywood fantasy King Arthur: Legend of the Sword from which "The Devil and The Huntsman" was born receiving tens of millions of plays internationally.

Nora Brown started learning ukelele at age 6 from the late Shlomo Pestcoe. With a focus on old time music, he laid a foundation of love of music and the community it creates. He instilled in her the lesson that music is meant to be shared. Now 14 years old, Nora plays banjo and sings ballads - She plays solo and also with many of her mentors including her friend, fiddler Stephanie Coleman, as a duet under name Little Leatherwood. Today Nora is being mentored by many of her favorite old time musicians including Alice Gerrard, Lee Sexton, Anna Roberts-Gevalt, Sammy Lind, Mark Simos, KC Groves, Courtney Hartman, Mac Traynham, John Haywood, and Brett Ratliff. One of her most important mentors is the late John Cohen.

Nora has played the Floyd Radio Show in Floyd, VA., the Washington Square Park Folk Festival, Brooklyn Folk Festival, Brooklyn Americana Festival, Oldtone Roots Music Festival, both Summer and Winter Hoots at the Ashokan Center, NYC Trad Fest, and has had multiple month long residencies at famed Barbs in Brooklyn. On Oct 25, Nora released her first record of 11 traditional songs and tunes called Cinnamon Tree produced by Alice Gerrard. The Tribeca Film Festival funded a short documentary by Josh Weinstein about Nora called "Little Nora (the Banjo Prodigy)."

Sunday, April 5 at 9:30PM

$20

In 2010, Aditya Prakash founded the Aditya Prakash Ensemble. The roots of the Ensemble's unique collaboration began during the members' Ethnomusicology studies at UCLA, where horizons to cross-cultural musical interaction expanded vastly. The young, imaginative group of musicians, who while bridging seemingly disparate styles of music, create a boldly innovative and powerful mix of the deep-rooted tradition of Indian classical ragas, chants, and rhythms with the modern sounds of brass band arrangement, jazz harmony, and hip hop-infused rhythms. The Ensemble has created an outlet for the Indian classical and jazz aesthetic to shine forth in an accessible, modern, playful yet powerful and dynamic way Aditya Prakash Ensemble has recorded two albums-The Hidden (2012) and MARA (2016) and is in the process of releasing a new two-part album (part-sponsored by Herp Albert School of Music at UCLA), set to release in March 2020 under Ropeadope Records. The Ensemble has performed at notable venues across the globe such as Esplanade Theatres by the Bay, Singapore (2016 and 2018), The New Parks Festival (six-city India tour), The Dorothy Chandler Pavilion (LA), The Ford (Hollywood), The Getty Center, and Kennedy Center Millennium Stage to name a few.

Thursday, April 9 at 9:30PM

$15 advance / $20 at the door

2019 Joe's Pub Working Group member Yacine Boulares presents AJOYO's War Chant album release party. Hailed as "one of the most interesting new bands in the New York Afro-rooted world music scene" by Word Music Central, AJOYO is a mystic brew blending Jazz, African traditions and Soul. AJOYO features the voice of Sarah Elizabeth Charles and celebrates life, love, and justice through music: music for the heart, the mind and the body, the kind that is both soulful, sophisticated and makes crowds dancing.

Wednesday, April 22 at 9:30PM

$15 advance / $20 at the door

Sunny Jain's Wild Wild East encompasses myriad facets of Jain's identity both as a first-generation South Asian-American and as a global musician, from his own family's immigration story to his eclectic musical upbringing. In recasting the immigrant-steeped in the courage to leave a familiar homeland for a new beginning-as the modern-day cowboy and cowgirl, Jain sources musical inspiration from the scores of Bollywood classics and Spaghetti Westerns, Indian folk traditions, jazz improvisation, and rollicking psychedelic and surf guitar styles. Sunny Jain's Wild Wild East is rooted in the contemporary American soundscape, singing in a new voice, "I am large, I contain multitudes."

Saturday, April 25 at 7:00PM

$25

As one half of one of Blue Rodeo's songwriting partnership, Jim Cuddy has one of the most recognizable voices in Canadian music thanks to omnipresent hits such as "Try," "5 Days In May," and "Bad Timing." As a group Blue Rodeo has sold over 5 million records world-wide, won countless JUNO Awards, been inducted in to the Canadian Music Hall of Fame, received a star on Canada's Walk of Fame, and Jim (along with songwriting partner Greg Keelor) was invested as Officers of the Order of Canada.

Saturday, April 25 at 9:30PM

$20 advance / $25 at the door

Kiran Ahluwalia is a modern exponent of the vocal traditions of India and Pakistan, which she both honors and departs from in masterful, myriad ways. Her original compositions embody her Indian heritage, while embracing influences from West African blues, contemporary jazz, and more. Her discography, now seven albums deep, has established Ms. Ahluwalia as one of global music's most compelling adventures, and have featured striking collaborations with world renowned musicians from the Celtic and Fado traditions, as well as the legendary Malian group Tinariwen. Their video, reworking the classic Qawwali tune "Mustt Mustt," has garnered more than 2 million views online to date. And the inspiration that drove her to create it, continues to inform her music today.

Together with her crack 6 piece band, led by artistic partner Rez Abbasi (whose accolades include multiple appearances in Downbeat Magazine critics' polls), Kiran creates an unforgettable and uniquely immersive live experience, filled with intricate grooves, precise harmonies and first and foremost, her stunning, soaring voice. Kiran has won two JUNO Awards (Canada's Grammys), two Canadian Folk Music Awards, and a Songlines Award in the UK. She has topped multiple World Music charts and garnered glowing praise from critics around the world: "Ahluwalia is busy honing a transnational sound as fresh as tomorrow," says the Seattle Times and fRoots Magazine proclaimed, "Hers is a voice destined to enchant more than one generation."

Always seeking new inspirations, Ahluwalia continues to move her art forward. Her latest album, 7 Billion, explores themes as wide as cultural intolerance, and as personal as the civil wars we fight within ourselves, and the struggle to fully embrace our desires by throwing away shame. By exploring her muse, regardless of where it might take her, she is truly an artist for our times.

Thursday, April 30 at 7:00PM

$25

Shai Tsabari is one of Israel's most loved and popular musicians and a sensational vocalist. He is renowned for his genre-defying music featuring a unique blend of Middle Eastern grooves and melodies, Klezmer elements, and psychedelic rock. Shai's uplifting performances break down the barrier between artist and audience and are bound to leave you on a high.

Thursday, April 30 at 9:30PM

$15

Award-winner producer, singer, and guitarist AfrotroniX was crowned Best Electronic Artist and Best African Act in the Diaspora and Best African DJ at the All African Music Awards.

AfrotroniX is a character that fuses African and Western cultures in a burst of dance and digital arts, fusing electronic music with African rhythms and Touareg blues into a futuristic visual world.

The AfrotroniX concept is incarnated on stage by the artist, wearing his Afro-futuristic helmet, and evolves to the rhythm of his creation that mixes electronic and DJing combined with live instruments and Afro-urban choreography in a futuristic visual Art universe.

Wednesday, May 13 at 9:30PM

$20

For many, Daniel Norgren is a once-a-generation songwriter. To others he might appear to be just another Swede from the country - his look is unique, his hat always stained, standing a full two meters tall on top of basic sneakers. He's likely wearing the same shirt as the last time you saw him. The thing that makes Daniel Norgren a significant messenger of our time is the conviction, soul, unwavering power, and unmatched presence when performing. The songs? Many are good, no, most are absolutely great. This is often the draw at first. Well that, and his voice - finding one song that stands out and quickly draws you near, then quickly discovering there are over seventy others patiently awaiting your time and attention.

Daniel Norgren is a patient man, let this be clear. He's waited more than a decade - after having already released seven albums and built a significant following throughout Europe - to finally make his way to North America. And now he's here, taking his time and doing this the only way that makes sense and is comfortably familiar - slowly and steadily. One song at a time, one show at a time, and always ready and willing to give it his all.

Performing solo in North America for the first time, Daniel Norgren brings his songs, voice, conviction, and powerful presence to the stage. This is an evening with, just Daniel and a piano, delivering more than a decade's worth of songs coming straight from the heart.

Wednesday, June 10 at 7:00PM

$35

A NYC resident, Japan's beloved pianist/composer/singer-songwriter Akiko Yano and her trio with her longtime musician-friends, Will Lee (bass & vocal) and Chris Parker (drums), are back. Since Akiko recorded her debut album, Japanese Girl (1976) with Lowell George and Little Feet in LA, her musicianship and originality have been acknowledged worldwide. Three albums were released on Nonesuch Records: AKIKO YANO, LOVE LIFE, and PIANO NIGHTLY. Her 27th original album akiko (2008) was produced by T Bone Burnett. Recently, the vinyl of TADAIMA (1981) was reissued on a French label Wewantsounds. The latest album, a collaboration with Japanese Tsugaru Shamisen player, Hiromitsu Agatsuma, will be out in spring 2020.

Friday, July 24 at 9:30PM

$15

Nation Beat harnesses the primal sounds of brass instruments mixed with drums and percussion, reinterpreting classics and presenting original songs for curious listeners who thrive on musical pluralism and surprises. Their original compositions blur the lines between genres and bridge the gap between traditional and contemporary music. It is a funky blend of the roots styles of New Orleans and Brazil. NOLA jazz slips and slides around Brazilian baio; insistent maracatu beats push a Second Line sway. It's Dr. John and the Preservation Hall Jazz Band meets Chico Science and Jackson do Pandeiro in New York City.

Nation Beat's live shows are joyous, rocking, affairs, lifting the feet - and the souls - of audiences with the group's singular musical mojo that calls across time and continents with the force that blew through Louis Armstrong and the power that gets Brazilians swinging in the streets for carnival. Forr, Funk, Brass 'n' Sass!

ONLINE joespub.com / PHONE 212-967-7555IN PERSON The Public Theater Box Office, 425 Lafayette Street, NYC

NOTE There is a $12 food / two (2) drink minimum per person per show, unless otherwise noted.

Read this article:
Music From All Over The Globe is Heading to Joe's Pub This Spring & Summer - Broadway World

Category: Jewish American Heritage Month | Comments Off on Music From All Over The Globe is Heading to Joe’s Pub This Spring & Summer – Broadway World
Tags:

Posted By admin on March 2, 2020

JEWISH 20th-century history is so often presented as one long justification for the project of Jewish national renewal, a narrative which today dominates mainstream Jewish community life and deeply influences political attitudes towards Israel by Western countries.

So it is curious to see Tom Stoppards new play Leopoldstadt, which chronicles three generations of mid-European Jewish history, leaving zionism offstage.

Stoppard discovered his own Jewish heritage late in life. His four grandparents were all murdered in the Holocaust and I expected to see zionism waiting in the wings as a potential redemptive finale or at the very least an answer to the human costs of being Jewish.

Instead, Stoppard chooses his own tragic reading of the Jewish predicament, keeping his characters locked within their own family tragedy.

Leopoldstadt, which Stoppard says may well be his last major stage play, is set in Vienna and follows the fortunes of a prosperous, highly assimilated and intermarried extended Jewish family from 1899 to 1955.

In the opening scene with the Merz and Jakobovicz clans, the children are dressing the family Christmas tree in an opulent apartment with servants on hand.

Its a perfect illustration of the religiously ambiguous, multi-dimensional identity thats been created in just a few decades following Jewish emancipation in the Austro-Hungarianempire.

The family is wealthy, privileged and highly cultured. My grandfather wore a caftan, my father went to the opera in a top hat and I have the singers to dinner, Hermann Mertz says.

He has married Gretl, a Catholic, and hes commissioned Gustav Klimt the real-life Viennese artist to paint her portrait. Meanwhile their son, Jacob, is both baptised and circumcised. We see him attempting to top the Christmas tree with a Star of David before having his mistake pointed out by his Jewish grandmother.

In was in this same cultural environment that Theodor Herzl published his zionist manifesto Der Judenstaat in 1896, and a copy is on hand in the Merz family apartment.

But Hermann describes it as idiocy and is literally putting his money on culture as the route to Jewish acceptance: When we make money, thats what the money is for, to put us at the beating heart of Viennese culture.

This is the Promised Land, and not because its some place where my ancestors came from. Were Austrians now. Austrians of Jewish descent!

Hermanns brother-in-law Ludwig is no zionist either, pointing out that its the antisemites of Vienna who are the most enthusiastic supporters of Herzls pamphlet. But he does recount a visit to his family in Galicia in Eastern Europe where, he derogatively observes, Herzels book was going around like an infection.

Its ordinary Jews, says Ludwig, that really understand what antisemitism means. Hermann remains unconvinced and doesnt buy the story of perennial Jewish catastrophe. The humbler and persecuted Jewish masses living in the east are never referred to again throughout the play.

As the story progresses and we see the children of 1899 grow to be adults, every possible Jewish route to integration, acceptance and respect is tried out apart from zionism. The Jewish nationalism proposed by Herzl finds no advocates or champions within the large family of grandparents, siblings and cousins across three generations.

Intermarriage, cultural patronage, Habsburg patriotism, psychoanalysis and socialism are all explored, along with their limited success or ultimate failure.

Whenever zionism crops up in conversation, its knocked back and mocked. In a scene set in 1924 Merz, now a wounded first world war veteran, chides his cousin Nellie for her socialist leanings and ironically recommends that she joins the Jewish foothold in Palestine: Given time, instead of having to join other peoples revolutions, you could rebel against your own ruling class.

Nellie responds that there are more important things now than being a Jew. But Jacob gets the last word and foretells the approaching darkness: You wave your flag, the Jews will get blamed anyway.

The play ends in 1955 as three surviving cousins meet in the old Merz home. Rosa is a Freudian analyst in New York, having left Austria in the 1920s, Auschwitz survivor Nathan has returned to Vienna to become a mathematics lecturer like his great uncle Ludwig and Leonard, son of the socialist Nellie, escaped to England just before the horror.

Part of a tour of humorists organised by the British government, he is perhaps the closest character we get to Stoppard himself.

Nathan makes the plays one last jibe at zionism as he recalls the Vienna he returned to in 1949. In the same breath, he couples the classic British film noir thriller The Third Man with the establishment of the state of Israel.

The father of modern zionism and the ruthless racketeer Harry Lime are sharing the same space in Nathans mind: Orson Welles was up on the Big Wheel. Theodor Herzls coffin was being dug up for reburial in Jerusalem.

So, right to the very end, there is no respectful presentation of zionism. Ten years after the war, with the Jewish state now established, theres still no suggestion that Jewish nationalism is, or could be, the only sane idea left to battle antisemitism after culture, intermarriage, patriotism and socialism have all failed.

Stoppard is a great artist, well used to dealing with big ideas and the intersection between the personal and political and I hope this isnt his last play or his last Jewish-themed work.

Jewish history does not stop at the Holocaust. Today zionism/Israel has created for Jews new ethical dilemmas, new ambiguities and new constructions of reality which may also prove to be false messiahs.

Thats got to be a Stoppard play worth writing.

Leopoldstadt runs at Wyndham's Theatre in London until June 30, box office: wyndhamstheatre.co.uk

See the article here:
OPINION Zionism conspicuous by its absence - Morning Star Online

Category: Zionism | Comments Off on OPINION Zionism conspicuous by its absence – Morning Star Online
Tags:

Posted By admin on March 2, 2020

Last October a well-known Holocaust denier, Nick Kollerstrom, managed to bring around the same table, quite a diverse bunch of people. There were Right-wing antisemites, such as the Holocaust denier Alison Chabloz and the conspiracy theorist Ian Fantom. And there were also Far Left anti-Zionists such as Miko Peled, a scion of a prestigious Zionist family who has recently become an advocate for civil rights for the Palestinians, which, in his case, means calling for the end of the State of Israel and attending the 2017 Labour Party conference to advocate (at a fringe event) freedom of speech for Holocaust deniers.

That October event is well known, and it has been exposed on these pages by the CST and the charity Hope not Hate.

It can be read as evidence of the horseshoe theory, or an example of how the far-left and the far-right are no longer opposite sides of a political spectrum, as they pretend to be. Rather than that, Far Right and Far Left share a conspiratorial worldview and the same totalitarian inclinations.

This is not exactly a surprise. On a regular day, a quick look at social media, via hashtags such as #Zionism or #Palestine provides much evidence in support of the horseshoe theory. Antisemitic rants that used to be part of the far-right repertoire, such as Zionist ran media or Jewish thirst for types of blood are now common on the timeline of your average far left radical. They also believe that the Zionists run the media and that the Jews, when they wear the uniform of the Israeli Army, are thirsty for the blood of children (of Palestinian children, to be exact)

The phenomenon is not new. For decades the far-right has been infiltrating the far-left, searching to build alliances in support of the Palestinian cause. The former Belgian SS, and National Bolshevik theorist, Jean-Franois Thiriart served as an adviser for the PLO in the 1970s. Franco Giorgio Freda, a publisher of Nazi propaganda and a prominent organiser of Far-Right terrorist networks, boasts to have organised the first pro-Palestinian demonstration in Italy in 1974. And the list goes on.

The far-right has never been interested in finding a solution to the conflict between Israel and the Arab countries. Their main goal has always been, and still is, to weaken the Jews (sorry: the Zionists) and to rally against the elites, the bankers, those who control the media. Which are expressions that we read today on social media timelines of both far-right and far-left militants.

Unfortunately, this kind of populism, which unifies left and right, seems to have some supporters even in the Jewish world. I am thinking of fringe groups such as Jewdas, Naamod, Jewish Voices for Labour, whose rhetoric against the democratically elected Jewish institution (obviously complicit in Israeli apartheid) resembles, very closely, the conspiratorial thinking (they want to silence us! they control the media!) that used to be part of the repertoire of the Far Right.

And now we find it on the opposite side.

Italian by birth, Israeli by choice, Rabbi of the largest synagogue in Sussex (UK). Uncompromising Zionist.

Go here to read the rest:
The Fascists are back (not where they used to be) - The Times of Israel

Category: Zionism | Comments Off on The Fascists are back (not where they used to be) – The Times of Israel
Tags:

Posted By admin on March 2, 2020

I used to joke that J Street was hated by the pro-Israel establishment not because the dovish lobby group criticized Israel, but because it criticized AIPAC.

For many supporters of the American-Israel Public Affairs Committee, the powerful pro-Israel lobby is integral to their Jewish and political identities. Groups that wanted to take sides in the various internal debates roiling Israel could have at it. But the American Jewish establishment couldnt allow AIPAC itself to be divided by arguments over the Palestinians, the settlements and the peace process.

Bernie Sanders has been a frequent critic of the Netanyahu government, calling himself pro-Israel but insisting that the Palestinians must be treated with dignity. He has said he would use the leverage of U.S. aid to pressure the Israeli government.

But its telling that almost nothing he has said on Israel has been as explosive as his announcement this week that he wouldnt attend AIPACs annual policy conference, explaining, The Israeli people have the right to live in peace and security. So do the Palestinian people. I remain concerned about the platform AIPAC provides for leaders who express bigotry and oppose basic Palestinian rights. For that reason I will not attend their conference.

Get Jewish Week's Newsletter by email and never miss our top stories Free Sign Up

AIPAC responded by calling Sanders remarks shameful, insulting and outrageous. In its statement it touted the widely diverse backgrounds of its delegates, including Democrats, Republicans, Christians and progressives.

By engaging in such an odious attack on this mainstream, bipartisan American political event, Senator Sanders is insulting his very own colleagues and the millions of Americans who stand with Israel, the statement said.

The clash, coming a day after Sanders scored his decisive victory in the Nevada caucuses, highlights mainstream anxiety over the Sanders campaign. Sanders not only has surrogates who support a boycott of Israel, but he now seems willing to drag his party out of the pro-Israel mainstream into uncharted waters on the left. Progressive Democrats have been leaning this way in recent years, showing up at J Street events, but few have severed ties with AIPAC and the mainstream American Jewish consensus it represents.

The dustup focuses like a laser on what AIPAC means to the American Jewish community on the right, center and center-left. In that sense, there are two AIPACs: First, there is the lobbying group that by temperament and design supports the sitting Israeli government. While it officially stands for a two-state solution, it has largely been in sync with the nationalist policies of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for these past 10 years, from Iran to settlements to anti-BDS laws.

Second, there is the policy conference itself, which has become a sort of Zionist pilgrimage holiday for Jews no matter their political beliefs. Many I know are invariably frustrated with AIPACs right-leaning policy-making, but attend nevertheless because they feel a strong showing is a necessary signal of unity and political strength.

Supporters of Sanders decision to skip the conference say the two perceptions of AIPAC cannot be separated. Were Sanders to show up and offer his own left-wing views on Israel, they argue, it would only give cover to lobbyists who pretend that the AIPAC tent is bigger than it is. When liberals speak at AIPAC, explains the progressive media strategist Mik Moore on Facebook, it allows AIPAC to tell a story that it is not only bi-partisan, but that it is a gathering place for pro-Israel Jews of all kinds. In fact, he writes, speakers who disagree with AIPAC have no effect whatsoever on its actual work.

The strongest counterargument is that progressives need to show up to be heard.

In disagreeing with Sanders, Jesse Olitzky, the popular young Conservative rabbi in South Orange, N.J., put it this way on Twitter: I do not always agree with AIPAC or with the speakers present & when I dont, I make it known. But you have to be in the room to make the changes that you seek.

Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum, of New Yorks Congregation Beit Simchat Torah, said she disagrees with Sanders decision to skip AIPAC precisely because she agrees with much of his statement. Had she not spoken before hostile audiences as an early advocate for LGBT rights in the Jewish community, there would have been no one to talk to and I would not have been able to influence, engage and hopefully change and persuade adversaries, she wrote on Facebook. We must engage with those with whom we disagree.

Sanders may have felt righteous in throwing a bone to the far left on Israel, but in doing so turned his back on liberal Zionists who support his progressive agenda and still work within the pro-Israel establishment. Worse, perhaps, is that he once again signaled that he is less interested in forging a wide and formidable coalition than in stoking his base. Sound familiar? This might be a good strategy for winning the primaries, but it doesnt bode well for Democrats chances in the fall. And it would make a Sanders presidency every bit as divisive as Trumps.

As David Leonhardt writes in The New York Times, if Sanders becomes the Democratic nominee and actually hopes to win the election, he will need to peel off middle-of-the-road, non-ideological voters. This isnt necessarily about tacking to the middle, but signaling respect to voters outside of his base and allowing the possibility of compromise on issues like fracking, immigration, health insurance (and, I would add, Israel).

[T]urning every compromise into an existential moral failing is not a smart way to practice politics, writes Leonhardt. It comforts the persuaded while alienating the persuadable.

Maybe you support groups like J Street and IfNotNow and are cheering Sanders attack on AIPAC. But the Jewish left that admires Sanders political purity on Israel might be wishing themselves into another four years under an emboldened and unfettered Donald Trump.

See the rest here:
Bernie's AIPAC Snub Throws Liberal Zionists Under the Bus - The Times of Israel

Category: Zionism | Comments Off on Bernie’s AIPAC Snub Throws Liberal Zionists Under the Bus – The Times of Israel
Tags:

Posted By admin on March 2, 2020

Photo Credit: Screenshot

{Originally posted to the JNS website}

The annual parade in Aalst, Belgium, last Sunday turned into a carnival of monstrous Jew-hatred. Participants portrayed Jews as insects topped with fur shtreimel hats and peyot (sidelocks).

Others were dressed in Nazi uniforms, among other vicious Jewish caricatures, libels and insults.

The mayor of Aalst defended the carnival on the basis that it mocked Christians and Asians, too. He thus showed no understanding of the difference between vulgar mockery and the murderously dehumanizing, historical phenomenon of anti-Semitism.

This was followed by a carnival parade in the Spanish village of Campo de Criptana. Supposedly intended to commemorate the Holocaust, it featured dancing Nazis, concentration-camp prisoners in sequined tights andIsraeli flags, and a gas chamber float with a giant Hebrew menorah between two chimneys.

On Monday, the European Jewish Association revealed the results of a survey of 16,000 Europeans from 16 countries. One-fifth of them believed that a secret network of Jews influences global political and economic affairs. The same number agreed that Jews exploit Holocaust victimhood for their own needs, and one-quarter agreed that Israels policies make them understand why some people hate Jews.

In the United States, more than 50 Jewish community centers in 23 states have received emailed bomb threats within the past week.

There have been repeated attacks on ultra-Orthodox Jews in Brooklyn. There have been synagogue murders in Pittsburgh and Poway, and widespread bullying of Jewish students on college campuses. Members of the Squad of freshman congresswomen have made venomously anti-Israel or anti-Jewish statements.

Bernie Sanders, who is currently the frontrunner to secure the Democratic presidential nomination, is purposely not attending next months AIPAC conference because he claims it provides a platform for leaders expressing bigotry and opposition to basic Palestinian rights.

In Britain, anti-Semitic incidents rose last year to an unprecedented high, marking the fourth successive year of record-breaking figures. In France, 12 Jews have been murdered since 2003 just because they were Jews, while anti-Semitic attacks soared by more than 75 percent last year and the year before. In Germany, anti-Semitic incidents are similarly rising with a murderous attack last Yom Kippur on the synagogue in Halle.

While anti-Jewish attacks are coming from the far-right, the left and the Muslim community, the greatest threat comes from the progressive side of politics.

This is because its worldview overwhelmingly dominates Western cultural and political institutions; it harbors profound anti-Jewish views within its own ranks; and its cultural reach means that its own anti-Jewish incitement legitimizes and encourages far-right anti-Semitic attitudes that were once treated as beyond the pale.

And this is all inextricably tied up with hatred of Israel, and the entirely false but widespread belief that the Jews have displaced the indigenous people of the land and behave illegally and with wanton cruelty towards the Palestinian remnant.

From these lies and libels flows the surreal irrationality of the anti-Israel discourse that has so shockingly become the signature cause of the Western progressive.

The obvious reasons for this include the takeover of progressivism by Marxism, the collapse of education into anti-Western propaganda, and the rise of identity politics and intersectionality. This has created an ignorant and brainwashed cohort of young people who have provided the groundswell for Sanders or Britains (now defeated) Jeremy Corbyn.

This week, the Jerusalem Centre for Public Affairs published a book of essays called Israelophobia and the West: the Hijacking of Civil Discourse on Israel and How to Rescue It. The book provides a thoughtful analysis of the nexus between anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism, where legitimate criticism of Israel stops and demonization starts, and the fundamental challenge to Israel from the left.

All this, though, has already been exhaustively discussed. Moreover, much of it merely produces the same old agonized discussion about how more effectively to challenge the lies and delegitimization. It thus assumes that the lies can and should be countered by a better application of reason.

This, though, misses the critical point: that both anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism constitute an irrational belief, akin to a cult, and are therefore impervious to facts and argument.

This is understood by French sociology professor Shmuel Trigano. In the most astute essay in the JCPAs book, he correctly says we are entering a new age of Jew-hatred, which cannot be argued with but must instead be fought.

The onslaught against Israel and Zionism, he points out, is part of the lefts broader reconfiguration of the West. Anti-Zionism, he says, is the creature of post-modernism and its satellite orthodoxies: post-colonialism, multiculturalism and gender doctrine, all of which are involved in deconstructing Western society.

As he writes, criminalizing the identity of the Jews as a people in the State of Israel is part of the European postmodernists war against their own cultures and nation-states.

But even that still doesnt explain this eruption of obsessive, primitive Jew-hatred.

For its not just that anti-Zionism is the contemporary mutation of anti-Semitism. The old, un-mutated anti-Semitism is still there: the open hatred of Jews as Jews. The question is why this has been allowed to roar once again into a cultural conflagration.

Contrary to what Harvard Law School professor emeritus Alan Dershowitz said in a discussion about the JCPA book on Wednesday evening, the cause is not the polarization into political extremism on both sides.

This eruption hasnt been created by Bernie Sanders or Jeremy Corbyn; nor, as some believe, by the populism of Donald Trump or Hungarys nationalist prime minister, Victor Orbn.

Populism is not in itself an extremist movement (although some bits undoubtedly are). It is rather a response to the extremism that has overtaken the entire progressive movement, and which represents the idea of the West as intrinsically evil and sinful.

Sanders and Corbyn, who are both undoubtedly extreme, are not the cause of the phenomenon, but the product of a broad cultural shift. When Bernie Sanders called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a reactionary racist in Tuesdays Democratic presidential candidates debate, the audience broke into applause.

The real cause of the descent into anti-Jewish and anti-Zionist hatred is secular liberalism, and the cultural fissure that has opened up along fault lines stretching back to the 18th-century Enlightenment.

This proclaimed the death of God and the enthronement instead of the autonomous individual freed from biblical moral codes. This led to the destruction of hierarchies of values without which there can be no morality, the replacement of duty by man-made and highly contingent human rights, and the collapse of truth and reason.

The result is the moral and philosophical carnage we see all around us. Theres the psycho-pathological unmooring of individuals caused by the undermining of the family. Theres the abolition of objectivity in the universities by moral and cultural relativism.

And theres the apocalyptic environmental movement, which mirrors the belief by medieval, Jew-massacring Christians that fallen humanity must be punished for its sins to bring about the perfection of the worldand which has sanctified as its prophet a psychologically damaged child.

Better advocacy for Israel, necessary as that is, will not address this anti-Jewish derangement. Thats because whats driving it is the repudiation of the Jewish precepts at the heart of the Christian West. And the problemand tragedyfor the Jewish people is that so many of those subscribing to this liberal onslaught are themselves Jews.

See the original post here:
Aalst to America: The post-Modern, anti-Jewish Reconfiguration of the West - The Jewish Press - JewishPress.com

Category: Zionism | Comments Off on Aalst to America: The post-Modern, anti-Jewish Reconfiguration of the West – The Jewish Press – JewishPress.com
Tags: