Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By admin on January 28, 2020

AN EXTRAORDINARY photography exhibition of a year in the life of Bradfords last synagogue opens this weekend.

The images, by a Muslim photographer, are going on display at Cartwright Hall along with artefacts from the 140-year-old Manningham synagogue.

The exhibition, called Kehillah, (congregation in Hebrew), captures modern and traditional elements of services at Bradford Tree of Life Synagogue, built in 1880 for German Jewish merchants and their families. The Grade II* listed building, which has a striking Moorish design, is Yorkshires oldest purpose-built synagogue. It was saved from closure in 2013 when the local Muslim community raised funds for roof repairs.

Photographer Nudrat Afza, who came to Bradford from Pakistan as a teenager in the 1960s, was inspired by the close links between the neighbouring Muslim and Jewish communities. A self-taught photographer, she spent a year documenting the Bowland Street synagogue. There are fewer and fewer Jewish people left in Bradford. Its this declining population and disappearing culture that I wanted to document, said Nudrat. Jewish people are such an important part of Bradfords history. Ive spent the past year with the congregation, gaining their trust as they try to keep their place of worship alive. Their commitment has inspired me, as has the coming together of different communities to raise funds for the upkeep of this extraordinary building. This place matters to us all.

The synagogue is the only one in the world with a Muslim on its committee. Its inter-faith work was praised by Prince Edward when he visited the synagogue last year.

Synagogue chairman Rudi Leavor, 93, who left Nazi Germany for Bradford aged 11 with his family in 1937, will be a special guest at the official launch of Kehillah on Sunday. He said: These remarkable photographs taken by an amateur with professional status show not only artistic merit, but also cement co-operation between two faiths which sometimes do not always agree with one another.

"In Bradford overt friendship between the leaders of the Jewish and Muslim communities, as with other local faith communities, is close and rests on excellent foundations.

Nudrat was granted permission by the Rabbi to take pictures before and after services. Her black and white images were taken on a camera given to her by Oscar-winning screenwriter Simon Beaufoy, who contacted Nudrat when she exhibited her photographs of female fans at Bradford City.

Councillor Sarah Ferriby, Bradford Councils Executive Member for Healthy People and Places, said: Were delighted to be hosting Nudrats exhibition at Cartwright Hall. Bradford has a long connection to German Jews in particular as from the 1830s onwards German Jews came to trade in the citys growing woollen industry. Little Germany was built in the 1870s and housed German and other merchants in the city. It was for these merchant families that the synagogue was built.

"The photographs and artefacts tell the story of the Jewish community in the last remaining synagogue in the city.

Artefacts on display include a Shofar, a rams horn blown on Rosh Hashana (New Year) and at the end of Yom Kippur to signify the end of the Fast Day; Megillah, a scroll on parchment; Yad, a silver pointer the end of which is shaped like a hand with extended index finger which the person reading from the Torah uses to indicate the words to be read; Chanukiah, eight-branched candle holders; Prophylacteries, a series of leather straps with a small box on each containing the first paragraph of the Shema, wound round the left arm (to be near the heart) and on the forehead (to be near the brain) of a man reciting his morning prayers; Torah, a scroll on which are written the Five Books of Moses; Kippah, specially created for Prince Edward's to the synagogue; and a prayerbook for weekdays and Sabbaths.

* Kehillah is at Cartwright Hall from February 1 to May 3.

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Posted By admin on January 28, 2020

Im a third generation English Liberal Jew. My earliest traceable ancestor arrived in England from Amsterdam in 1760, although my paternal great grandfather and my mothers parents hailed from the Polish part of the Austro-Hungarian empire, escaping poverty and antisemitism in the middle of the 19th and early 20th centuries.

Since birth I have, in truth, only known Liberal Judaism, and it is a way of life to which I have dedicated my professional undertakings, first as the congregational rabbi to Kingston Liberal Synagogue for the best part of two decades and, latterly, for 15 years as Liberal Judaisms head.

Liberal Judaism, as I understand it, seeks to bring the best of Jewish values and experience to the complications of contemporary living to enable Jews and others to respond to the challenges of modernity with a focus on what is ethical, logical and universal, but with a Jewish flavour.

I could cite many highlights of Liberal Judaisms radical campaigning in the past 15 years, but two in particular evoke in me pride. In partnership with Citizens UK, it was the pioneering voice seeking to offer refuge in the UK to those fleeing the Syrian civil war.

The simple symbol of my succah, erected outside the library in Windrush Square, Lambeth, and elsewhere, led indirectly to government initiatives and the community sponsorship scheme such that some 15,000 Syrian refugees have found a haven in the UK. These include a Muslim family now housed in a former caretakers flat within the premises of a Liberal synagogue in the south of England.

Liberal Judaism has long advocated the dignity and equality of each individual, and it still seems thrillingly remarkable to me that I was the only religious Jew who gave evidence to the Select Committee of Parliament in favour of legislation that was to lead to equal marriage for people of the same gender in England and Wales.

What any individual or group achieves is rarely done alone and, on my appointment, I was determined that Liberal Judaism should play as full a role as possible in the activities of the Jewish community, in the multi-faith religious world and, indeed, in our wider society.

Liberal Judaisms achievement as the first central religious body to introduce the Living Wage and its lead role in Caring for Carers, its participation in the National Council of Imams and Rabbis, and its partnerships with organisations such as the Jewish Council for Racial Equality and JAMI, are powerful examples of the co-operative and constructive partnerships which Liberal Judaism has been able to build without compromising its core values.

Rabbi Danny Rich (Jewish News)

While it is not possible to establish a Liberal Jewish community in every place where an individual might desire it, modern technology and the resourcing of small communities has enabled many people some Jewish, some Jew-ish and some with no Jewish background to become part of our inclusive, egalitarian movement. Not only does Liberal Judaism now include a community in Copenhagen, which joins those in Dublin and Edinburgh but, during my tenure, viable congregations have formed in York, Crouch End, Wessex and elsewhere.

As I reflect on 15 years as the Senior Rabbi and chief executive of Liberal Judaism, I am grateful for having had the privilege to lead such a group of principled and committed rabbinic and lay, professional and unpaid partners, and pledge to continue in a different guise to promulgate a value-led expression of Judaism that is conscious of its ancient and recent past, courageous in its present, and confident in its future.

Rabbi Danny Rich is the senior rabbi and chief executive of Liberal Judaism

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I'm stepping down proud of our past and confident about our future - Jewish News

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Posted By admin on January 28, 2020

A psychiatrist has foundthe man accused of stabbing five Jews in Monsey,N.Y., during a Hanukkah celebration last month too incompetent to stand trial, according to the man's lawyer.

In a statement toTheAssociated Press, Michael Sussman, the lawyer for Grafton Thomas, said he has asked a federal judge to hold a competency evaluation for his client.

The court gave the U.S. attorneys office two weeks to respond to the request, Sussman reportedly said.

The U.S. attorney's office did not comment to the media on Monday, according to AP.

Thomas was arrested after a stabbing on Dec. 28 in the Orthodox Jewish community outside of New York City. The stabbing wounded five Hasidic Jews.

Josef Neumann, a 72-year-old victim of the attack, remains in a coma with a fractured skull and other injuries, according to AP.

Thomas has reportedly pleaded not guilty to attempted murder and other charges in Rockland County. He also reportedly pleaded not guilty to 10 hate crime charges in federal court on Jan. 13.

Thomas is being held without bail in federal custody, according to AP.

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Lawyer argues alleged Hanukkah attacker incompetent to stand trial | TheHill - The Hill

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Posted By admin on January 28, 2020

NEW YORK (JTA) Earlier this month, Deborah Lauter stood in a Holocaust museum among students of color from a Brooklyn public school trying to explain why the museum is relevant to the current rise in anti-Semitism in their borough.

The Holocaust didnt happen in a vacuum, Lauter told the students. It started with egg throwing. It started with prejudice, discrimination. And what youre going to see today is a genocide.

In the months before the museum tour, New York had been plagued by a rise in attacks on Jews, from egg throwing to vandalism to harassment to assault.

In September, following a string of such attacks, Mayor Bill de Blasio appointed Lauter as the inaugural executive director of the Office for the Prevention of Hate Crimes. She came to the job following a career at the Anti-Defamation League and other Jewish groups.

Part of her job is to raise the alarm about anti-Semitism in Americas largest and most Jewish city. But at the same time, Lauter wants to dial down the panic. Yes, its rising. And yes, its bad. But is it Germany in 1933?

Not even close, Lauter says.

What took me aback over these four months is the level of fear I get it but the level of rhetoric in framing whats happening as a pogrom or Holocaust analogies, she told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency in a phone interview earlier this month. What weve seen is not state-sponsored anti-Semitism. Elected officials, law enforcement, the government, have absolutely been there for the community.

So if it isnt the Holocaust even if its redolent of the run-up to it what is it? Why is it happening? And what can stop it?

Those are questions that Jews in New York have been asking for months, especially as the attacks escalated from harassment to a deadly shooting in Jersey City across the river and a stabbing in upstate Monsey. And they are questions that Lauter must answer to succeed in her post.

Four months into the job, Lauter is focusing on the long game. While she supports the increased patrols by police and better hate crime reporting, her initiatives are centered on education and community relations. Preventing anti-Semitism in New York, she says, is going to require steps that could take years to come to fruition.

The reactive piece is important, she said. But for me the preventative measures, through community relations and education, are really going to, I believe, change the tenor of the conversation.

That approach has garnered a mix of reactions. Those who have met with Lauter praise her projects and eagerness. Rabbi David Niederman, a leader in the Hasidic community in Brooklyn, called Lauter a real pro whose ADL experience equips her to tackle the issue.

But in the face of an ongoing crisis, some critics want more immediate results. Others wonder whether an office with a budget of $1.7 million and a total staff of seven can make tangible progress. (Some programs Lauter is overseeing are funded with additional support from the city.)

I dont think she has the level of staff to deal with the demand of the issues we are facing, but so far so good, said Pastor Gil Monrose, who does religious outreach for Brooklyns borough president. They have been working diligently and working with partners. She needs more staff, and the staff that she has now is inadequate to take on the level of response that is needed in the city.

Lauter says she has had 50 meetings with community stakeholders in Brooklyn and elsewhere since September, part of an effort to show the citys commitment to tackling the problem. Niederman says it is starting to have an impact.

It seems to us, because theres a new chief in town, people are starting to get a little a little more ready to report hate crimes, said Niederman, executive director of the United Jewish Organizations of Williamsburg. Before, people were reluctant, [saying], Im not going to report it, nothing is going to happen. Now there is a watchdog, so to speak.

Beyond that, Lauters passion is clearly directed at education and community dialogue. One project she stressed repeatedly was the formation of neighborhood safety coalitions, groups of religious leaders and local activists in the diverse and heavily Orthodox Jewish Brooklyn neighborhoods of Williamsburg, Crown Heights and Borough Park.

Lauters office is choosing coalition members based in part on past experience working with city government, and they are expected to begin meeting next month. After that, she expects the coalitions to transform from a top-down initiative to a grassroots-led salve for neighborhood tensions.

Lauter is vague about what the coalitions should actually do, preferring to let the groups figure it out for themselves. She did mention posting anti-hate messages in shop windows, and a news release last month announcing the coalitions suggested its members keep watch at dangerous street corners.

The office also is coordinating with 16 city agencies from the police to mental health professionals to work together on youth education, victim support and other issues.

Another project, which received $1 million from the city, provides funding to 16 nonprofits to support various initiatives to prevent hate violence. Three of the groups are Jewish the ADL, Niedermans organization and the Brooklyn Jewish Childrens Museum in Crown Heights. Other groups work with the LGBTQ community, ethnic minorities and immigrants.

Niederman plans to use the funding to encourage the reporting of hate crimes. The childrens museum is bringing in groups of public high-schoolers to learn about Judaism.

Lauter also is working on creating an anti-bias curriculum for schools to be launched in the next academic year.

Were required to take math, were required to take English, were required to take science, but nobody requires us to learn respect, Lauter recalled a student telling her on a recent visit to a Williamsburg school.

Kids are asking for this, she said. They want guidance, and I think theres a willingness on educators part.

Leaders in the Crown Heights Jewish community say they support Lauters focus on education and prevention, but some want her to focus more on the law enforcement piece as well.

Devorah Halberstam, an activist and Brooklyn Jewish Childrens Museum official whose son was killed in a 1994 terrorist attack on the Brooklyn Bridge, wants Lauter to work on ensuring that perpetrators are held accountable for hate crimes. Halberstam said that means greater transparency around hate crime data, ensuring perpetrators with mental illness receive mandatory treatment and denying plea deals to almost anyone accused of a hate crime.

Are judges aware that theyre signing off on deals with someone who committed a hate crime with intent? she asked. This is not just a regular ordinary crime. This is very different. This is a message we need to send to people.

Rabbi Eli Cohen, a Crown Heights activist who has spent decades teaching non-Jewish students about Judaism, said he wants Lauters office to concentrate on the crimes themselves.

It would be good to figure out what is behind each of these individual incidents, he said. Were all guessing, but we really dont know. If she can use the resources she has available to find that out, everyone could be more able to find a solution.

Motti Seligson, a spokesman for the Crown Heights-based Chabad Hasidic movement, said schools should focus less on condemning hate and more on teaching positivity.

[O]bsessing about all forms of hate is often counterproductive for young people, he wrote in an email. Instead we must teach young people, through our public schools, to appreciate the intrinsic goodness within other human beings, as all are created in the image of the Almighty.

Lauters mandate extends beyond fighting anti-Semitism, which is reflected in her staff. Her deputy, Hassan Naveed, previously worked on relations between the NYPD and vulnerable communities. Another staffer, Ashtan Towles, worked with human rights groups. Daria Vaisman taught writing at John Jay Colleges Prisoner Reentry Institute.

If there is a target against one community, it very much affects all of us, Naveed said. We have to do it in a way that were advocating for every community and all communities.

Lauter believes the spike in anti-Semitism is part of a broader atmosphere of hate nationally. So while her office is focused now on ending hate crimes against Jews, she expects to be turning her attention to other groups before long.

Unfortunately, the lid has come off the sewer and theres some normalization of hate in this country, she said. My focus in these four months has been on the ones motivated by anti-Semitism. Im clearly very worried about whats happening to the Muslim community, to the LGBTQ community, to the undocumented community neighbors of ours who are still living in the shadows.

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She has 6 employees and less than $2 million. The mission: Stop anti-Semitism in New York City. - JTA News

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Posted By admin on January 27, 2020

VATICAN CITY Pope Francis on Sunday asked the world's 1.3 billion Catholics to stop for a moment of prayer and reflection on the 75th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi death camp at Auschwitz and say "Never Again".

The pope mentioned Monday's anniversary during his weekly noon address and blessing to tens of thousands of people in St. Peter's Square.

"Indifference is inadmissible before this enormous tragedy, this atrocity, and memory is a duty. Tomorrow, we are all invited to stop for a moment of prayer and reflection, each one of us saying in our own heart: 'never again, never again,'" he said.

More than one million people, most of them Jews, were killed at the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp during World War Two. Overall, some six million Jews died in the Holocaust.

At Francis' orders, the Vatican in March will open its secret archives on the wartime pontificate of Pope Pius XII, a historic move that Jews have sought for decades.

Some Jews say Pius, who reigned from 1939 to 1958, did not do enough to help those facing persecution by Nazi Germany and turned a blind eye to the Holocaust. The Vatican maintains that Pius chose to work behind the scenes.

The pope's appeal to his own flock on Sunday comes amid a backdrop of rising anti-Semitism in Europe and the United States. Last week, Francis called the rise a "barbaric resurgence".

On Friday, anti-Semitic graffiti was found scrawled on the door of the home of a son of a Holocaust survivor in northern Italy.

The words "Juden Hier" (Jews Here) were written above a Star of David on the door, recalling the signs put on buildings in Nazi Germany to mark the homes and businesses of Jews.

Last month in eastern France, scores of Jewish graves were found desecrated in a cemetery, hours before lawmakers adopted a resolution equating anti-Zionism with anti-Semitism.

France has Europes biggest Jewish community - around 550,000 - and anti-Semitic attacks are common, with more than 500 alone in 2018.

A global survey https://global100.adl.org/about/2019 by the U.S.-based Anti-Defamation League in November found that anti-Semitic attitudes had increased in many places around the world and significantly in Eastern and Central Europe. It also found that large percentages of people in Eastern and Western European countries think Jews talk too much about the Holocaust.

Before he became pope and was still archbishop of his native Buenos Aires, Francis co-authored a book with his friend, Argentine rabbi Abraham Skorka.

In 2016, Francis visited Rome's main synagogue, in the former ghetto established by his predecessor Pope Paul IV in 1555 and where Jews were confined until the 19th century.

(Reporting by Philip Pullella; Editing by Frances Kerry)

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Posted By admin on January 27, 2020

This years International Holocaust Remembrance Day, celebrated annually on Jan. 27, marks the passage of three-quarters of a century since the liberation of Auschwitz, the largest German Nazi death camp. Underscoring the importance of this anniversary is the global rise of the same anti-Jewish hate that spawned the genocide of 6 million Jews under the Nazi regime.

One of multiple factors fueling this rise in anti-Semitism is a decline in Holocaust learning. In 2018, the Claims Conference found that 22% of U.S. millennials claimed they had never heard of the Holocaust, compared with 11% of all adults. Such lack of knowledge is easily exploited by traditional Holocaust deniers, who are spurred on in their efforts by anti-Semitic hate. It also benefits a host of governments and institutions that have either benefited from paltry understanding of Hitlers genocide or participated in revising the past for motives, which, though not anti-Semitic, harm Jews.

In honor of this important Holocaust anniversary, we must dedicate ourselves to Holocaust education and understanding and renewing our attempts to counter all varieties of denial and revisionism to prevent the further rise of anti-Semitism.

Traditional Holocaust Denial

Traditional deniers blame Jews for the Holocaust, claiming they perpetuated, manufactured, and exploited the genocide committed by the Nazis. Deniers also believe, in spite of factual evidence to the contrary, that organized mass murder of Jews did not occur under the Nazis. They suggest that fewer than 300,000 European Jews died during World War II as a result of typhus, starvation, and exposure.

The descent into genocide, however, was meticulously documented by the Germans. About 3,000 tons of records were culled from the millions of German documents the Allies captured while closing in on German forces and presented at the post-war trials of the highest-ranking Nazi war criminals in Nuremberg. After the fall of the Iron Curtain, U.S. historians gained access to the Red Armys trove of captured German documents, including the diary of SS leader Heinrich Himmler.

Additional Holocaust evidence is still being uncovered today. Personal belongings from those who likely died in Auschwitz were discovered in Poland in 2016 and in the Stutthof concentration camp in Poland in 2015. Throughout Eastern Europe, the group Yahad-In Unum is collecting oral histories and uncovering physical evidence of genocide left by Hitlers mobile killing units, the Einsatzgruppen.

Still, deniers argue that evidence is manufactured, that testimonies were falsified or issued under duress, and that video and photographs of camps were created during the post-war years. Deniers also argue over loopholes. For instance, no single captured German document shows Hitler calling for the Holocaust or enumerates the total Jewish death toll under the Nazi regime. Deniers seize on such absences to bolster their claim that the Holocaust is a lie.

Denial is meant to intimidate Jews, to discredit the existence of the Jewish state of Israel, or to pave the way for a return to Nazism. Its purpose may also be to create additional deniers. Peppering their false histories with footnotes citing other deniers who, on occasion, are associated with organizations whose names sound legitimate and authoritative, deniers sow doubt in populations not familiar with the history of the era. New recruits may not harbor anti-Semitic beliefs, but after being introduced to additional conspiracy theories about Jews, the ideals of anti-Semitism have fertile ground on which to take off.

Like anti-Semitism itself, Holocaust denial is not practiced by a single group but rather is shared by strange bedfellows. Denial is pushed by the far-right, by far-left groups such as affiliates of the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement, and by prominent anti-Semites David Duke, former grand wizard of the Ku Klux Klan, and Louis Farrakhan, leader of the Nation of Islam.

Denial also thrives in the Middle East and North Africa, where the Anti-Defamation League found in 2014 that 63% of the population who had heard of the Holocaust believed it was a myth or that the number of Jews who died had been greatly exaggerated.

The Iranian regime has perpetuated anti-Semitic Holocaust denial since 1998, according to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, even sponsoring denial conferences with prominent anti-Semites from around the world. Former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad claimed put[ting] [Holocaust denial] forward at the global level was among the great achievements of his presidency. Irans Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has trafficked in denial as recently as 2016.

Anti-Semitic denial has worldwide reach through the internet and social media. Facebook refuses to remove anti-Semitic Holocaust denial and revisionism from a platform shared by billions of people.

Forgetfulness and Holocaust Revision

Holocaust revisionism is not always anti-Semitic on its face, but any attempts from legitimate institutions to minimize the reality, or understanding, of Nazi genocide will always be harmful to Jews.

Revisionism can look like forgetfulness. On Jan. 3, the BBC World Service tweeted that the number of Yiddish speakers, which was once more than 10 million, had been severely depleted by the mid-20th century. The tweet neglected the probable link between this depletion and Hitlers mid-20th century genocide of two-thirds of Europes Jewish population. BBC later apologized for the error.

Sometimes, revisionism involves looking the other way. Museums and state-run facilities around the world, including those in Poland, Hungary, and Russia, have spent decades avoiding returning items which came into their possession through the theft and looting of Jewish valuables in spite of international pressure.

Revisionism might look like a failure to see parallels in modern society. In 2019, France issued final payments from the $60 million in reparations owed to survivors and relatives of the Jews sent on French trains to German death camps during the Holocaust. However, in the same year, the country declined to prosecute the anti-Semite who brutally murdered a Holocaust survivor and has, for multiple years running, failed to protect its Jewish population from the raging anti-Semitism that has led some French Jews to flee to Israel.

Revisionism can spring from attempts to preserve national pride. Laws passed recently in Lithuania, Latvia, Poland, and Ukraine make it a punishable crime to place blame for the Holocaust on groups of national Nazi collaborators or on individuals who turned local Jews over to the Nazis. While Poland eventually changed its law, making accusations of complicity a civil rather than a criminal offense, Lithuania is now in the process of drafting a stronger law claiming the Lithuanian state did not participate in the Holocaust.

This International Holocaust Remembrance Day, colored as it is by startling recent acts of anti-Semitism, is a reminder to dedicate ourselves to Holocaust education as an antidote to the denial fueled by a hatred of Jews. We must also speak out against the revisionists subtly chipping away at historical facts, with the purpose not of directing blame to stigmatize, but rather to truly embrace Holocaust history to avoid the repetition of a devastating past.

Beth Bailey (@BWBailey85) is a freelance writer from the Detroit area.

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For Auschwitz liberation's 75th anniversary, fight Holocaust denial with education - Washington Examiner

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Posted By admin on January 27, 2020

Art After Dark.(Photo: Enquirer file)

Would it be cheesy to say there are some reel cool events this week? The Jewish and Israeli Film Festival continues and theres a film festival fundraiser at Woodward Theater for local musician Jim Bundy. You can also catch all the 2020 Oscar-nominated short documentaries on the big screen over at Garfield Theatre.

The Winter Salsa Social offers dance lovers a chance to cut a rug over at Woodward Theater, while the Sheer Elite International Dance Competition and Convention in Sharonville is a fine place to watch others perfecting their art.

Ah, art. Its the end of the month, and you know what that means! Final Friday, when the majority of art galleries around town are open late. The Cincinnati Art Museums Art After Dark theme this month is Monochromatic. Dress up in black and white and go see The Levee: A Photographer in the American South before it closes on Sunday.

The Cyclones are back for a home stand this weekend and theyll be giving away kids jerseys on Friday night to the first 1,500 kids ages 2-12 through the door. On Saturday, brave the cold and join other crazy ... I mean hardy ... souls race along the riverfront and through the transit tunnels for the Cyclones Frozen 5K & 10K.

Chamber Music Cincinnati: St. Lawrence String Quartet 7:30 p.m., Memorial Hall, 1222 Elm St., Over-the-Rhine. $40. memorialhallotr.com.

Jewish and Israeli Film Festival various times and locations through Feb. 27. mayersonjcc.org.

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Cincinnati Cyclones.(Photo: Tony Bailey Photography)

The Merry Ploughboys 7-10 p.m., Irish Heritage Center Of Cincinnati, 3905 Eastern Ave., Columbia-Tusculum. $30, $27 advance, $25 members. Thistraditional folk group from Dublin, Ireland have been singing it like they mean it since 1989 with gutsy and engaging vocals backed by arrangements of fiddle, guitar and uilleann pipes. Their sound has the raw authentic energy of the classic balladeer as they work effortlessly through a packed set list that is often funny, compelling, engaging, exhilarating and always entertaining. The Pub opens at 6 p.m. irishheritagecenter.simpletix.com.

CSO Proof: Singulis Et Simul 7:30 p.m., Music Hall, 1241 Elm St., Over-the-Rhine. Keitaro Harada conducts. cincinnatiarts.org.

Jim Bundy Film Festival Fundraiser 8 p.m., Woodward Theater, 1404 Main St., Over-the-Rhine. $10. Ages 18-up. Fundraiser to help cover medical bills for Jim Bundy. Screening Jims favorite film and special performance by his band, Hurricane Hot Pants.

Cincinnati Cyclones v Orlando Solar Bears 7:30 p.m., Heritage Bank Center, 100 Broadway, Downtown. $1 beer night. ticketmaster.com.

Moon Hooch often uses a traffic cone to magnify the sound of their saxophones.(Photo: Chris Wilkinson/FSView)

Jessica Kirson Jan. 30-Feb. 2, Go Bananas, 8410 Market Place Lane, Montgomery. $10-$18. gobananascomedy.com.

Moon Hooch 8 p.m., Madison Live, 734 Madison Ave., Covington. $15-$18. ticketmaster.com.

The Freddy Jones Band 8:30 p.m., Ludlow Garage, 342 Ludlow Ave., Clifton. $20-$35. ludlowgaragecincinnati.com.

Bunbury Music Festival Reveal 6-8 p.m., Woodward Theater, 1404 Main St., Over-the-Rhine. Free. Find out whos coming to Bunbury this year.

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Brantley Gilbert plays BB&T Arena Friday night.(Photo: Samuel M. Simpkins / The Tennessean)

Brantley Gilbert: Firet Up 2020 Tour 7:30 p.m., BB&T Arena, 500 Nunn Drive, Highland Heights. ticketmaster.com.

Orchestral Spectacular: Gershwins Rhapsody in Blue Jan. 31-Feb. 2, Music Hall, 1241 Elm St., Over-the-Rhine. Tickets start at $25. Go all-out with an all-Gershwin program thats blues-y, jazzy and fun, featuring a brilliant improvisation of Rhapsody in Blue. Experience Rhapsody like never before, with the genius of the modern piano, jazz pianist Marcus Roberts. This is your chance to hear orchestral show-stoppers like Porgy and Bess, Cuban Overture and American in Paris, with the pull-all-the-stops power of the Pops. Want to hear Rhapsody in Blue played by Gershwin himself? Check out the CSOs 125th Anniversary Concert. cincinnatiarts.org.

Iron Maidens 7 p.m., Bogarts, 2621 Vine St., Corryville. livenation.com.

Jackopierce 8:30 p.m., Ludlow Garage, 342 Ludlow Ave., Clifton. $20-$35. ludlowgaragecincinnati.com.

Wayne Hancock, The Tammy WhyNots 8 p.m., Southgate House Revival, 111 E. Sixth St., Newport. southgatehouse.com.

Winter Salsa Social8 p.m., Woodward Theater, 1404 Main St., Over-the-Rhine. $25. Ages 18-up. Salsa dance featuring Cincinnatis 11-piece classic Salsa orchestra Son del Caribe with support from The Amador Sisters. cincyticket.com.

DC Benny Jan. 31-Feb. 1, Funny Bone Comedy Club, 7518 Bales St., Liberty Township.

Oscar-Nominated Short Documentaries Jan. 31-Feb. 8, Garfield Theatre, 719 Race St., Downtown. Two distinct programs provide a chance to experience thisyears best short films on the big screen. cincyworlscinema.org.

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Art After Dark: Monochromatic 5 p.m., Cincinnati Art Museum, 953 Eden Park Drive, Mount Adams. Free. The CAM is throwing a black and white party to celebrate 2020 and special photography exhibition "The Levee: A Photographer in the American South" with music, food for purchase, cocktails, and docent-led tours. cincinnatiartmuseum.org.

Cincinnati Underground Secret Society 8 p.m., 20th Century Theater, 3021 Madison Road, Oakley. $15. Ages 18-up. Travis McElroy hosts an improvised comedy talk show. the20thcenturytheater.com.

Final Friday 5-10 p.m., Downtown, Pendleton and Over-the-Rhine. Every month, artists and art galleries in the historic Over-the-Rhine district of Cincinnati open their doors for a special showing on the last Friday, known to most simply as "Final Friday." The festivities take place in galleries, studios and businesses throughout the Over-the-Rhine and Pendleton neighborhoods. In addition, studios of the Pendleton Art Center are open to the public, giving guests the opportunity to view creative art space, as well as purchase one-of-a-kind artwork directly from artists.

Cincinnati Cyclones v Indy Fuel 7:30 p.m., Heritage Bank Center, 100 Broadway, Downtown. Kids jersey giveaway. ticketmaster.com.

Sheer Elite International Dance Competition and Convention Jan. 31-Feb. 2, Sharonville Convention Center, 11355 Chester Road, Sharonville. sheereliteinternational.com.

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There's a onesie bar crawl happening Saturday!(Photo: Katie Klann/Naples Daily News)

Onesie Bar Crawl 16-Bit Bar+Arcade, 1331 Walnut St., Over-the-Rhine. $15-$17. Check in at 16 Bit from 2-4 p.m. Includes event T-shirt, koozie, discounted drink prices and giveaways. Bars include 16-Bit, MOTR, Mr. Pitifuls, Drinkery, Revel Urban Winery, Below Zero Lounge and OTR Live. eventful.com.

Cincinnati Cyclones Frozen 5K & 10K 9 a.m., Heritage Bank Center, 100 Broadway, Downtown. $40-$45. This unique winter race takes you on a course along the Ohio River banks and through Cincinnatis Transit Center beneath Second St. Join Twister, Puckchop and thousands of other brave souls while raising funds for the Cincinnati Cyclones Foundation. Participants get a long sleeve tech shirt, finisher medal, hot chocolate after the race, a Cyclones voucher good for any 2019-2020 regular season home game and plenty of swag and snacks. cycloneshockey.com.

Northminster Fine Arts Fair 10 a.m.-4 p.m., Northminster Church, 703 Compton Road, Springfield Township. More than 40 regional artists. Woodworking, photography, fiber arts, painting, pottery, jewelry, live music, raffles, kids activities, fair trade market and more.

Greater Cincinnati Fly Fishing Show 9 a.m.-4 p.m., Oasis Golf Club & Conference Center, 902 Loveland-Miamiville Road, Loveland. The Greater Cincinnati Fly Fishing Show promotes the sport of fly fishing. It has become the largest fly fishing show in the tristate, and one of the largest in the nation. Show headliner will be fly fishing legend Gary Borger, one of the worlds foremost fly fishing educators and consultant on Robert Redfords movie A River Runs Through It. buckeyeflyfishers.com.

Aussie Aid 8 p.m., Southgate House Revival, 111 E. Sixth St., Newport. 8 local bands perform. $12-$15. southgatehouse.com.

Black Flag 7 p.m., Thompson House, 24 E. 3rd St., Newport. $25-$35. seetickets.us.

Jamey Johnson 7:30 p.m., Lawrenceburg Event Center, 91 Walnut St., Lawrenceburg. ticketmaster.com.

Jo Dee Messina 8 p.m., Riverfront Live, 4343 Kellogg Ave., East End. $35-$40. ticketweb.com.

Cincinnati Cyclones v Kalamazoo Wings: Cyclones Fight Cancer 7:30 p.m., Heritage Bank Center, 100 Broadway, Downtown. ticketmaster.com.

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Superbowl Sunday

Chocolate in the Chapel noon-3 p.m., Spring Grove Cemetery and Arboretum, Norman Chapel, 4521 Spring Grove Ave., Spring Grove Village. Free. Local businesses showcase sweet treats with samples and for sale. springgrove.org.

Cin City Reptile Show 10 a.m.-4 p.m., Holiday Inn Centre Park, 5800 Muhlhauser Road, West Chester. $7, free ages 10-under. cincityreptileshow.com.

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Things to do this week in Cincinnati: Jan. 27-Feb. 2 - The Cincinnati Enquirer

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Posted By admin on January 27, 2020

About eight years ago, when Rabbi Jen Lader began leading a class for teenagers at Temple Israel in West Bloomfield Township, she asked the students if they had ever experienced anti-Semitism. Only a handful raised their hands.

Recently, she asked the same question. About 45 of 60 students answered affirmatively.

Lader said hearing the kinds of remarks her students have endured in school and elsewhere was really horrifying.

Lader was a panelist at a Jewish Community Forum on Anti-Semitism, held Thursday night, Jan. 23, at Adat Shalom Synagogue in Farmington Hills.

The forum was organized in the face of an increase in anti-Semitic incidents nationwide, including two last month -- a deadly shooting at a kosher market in Jersey City, N.J., and a knife attack at a rabbis home in a suburb of New York City that left five injured.

The Jewish community is still reeling from the October 2018 mass shooting at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh; 11 people died and six were injured. It was the worst attack on the Jewish community in U.S. history.

About 1,000 people attended the forum: Jews concerned about their community, clergy, elected officials, leaders of Jewish organizations, police representing about a half dozen Oakland County cities and ten agents of the FBIs Detroit office.

David Kurzmann, of the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit, left, moderates a forum at Adat Shalom Synagogue on anti-Semitism with Rabbi Azaryah Cohen, Rabbi Jen Lader and Rabbi Yisrael Pinson.

The event was presented by the Jewish Community Relations Council/American Jewish Congress, Anti-Defamation League of Michigan and the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit.

It occurred as leaders around the world prepare to observe International Holocaust Remembrance Day on Monday, Jan. 27, the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, the largest of the Nazi concentration camps. More than 1.1 million people died in the camp in Poland; a large share were Jewish.

Report, Report, Report

The panelists discussed causes of anti-Semitism and responses to it, including a plea from panelist Carolyn Normandin of the Michigan Anti-Defamation league to report, report, report, incidents, first to police and then to her agency, by going to adl.org.

Panelist Joe Lupinacci, FBI Detroit special agent, said he brought nine agents with him to the forum to demonstrate the importance the FBI places on investigating hate crimes, drawing enthusiastic applause from the crowd.

Fight Hate With Love

Several panelists spoke of the need to fight the new wave of hate with love.

Professor Howard Lupovitch, of the Cohn-Haddow Center for Judaic Studies at Wayne State University, spoke of anti-Semitisms, stressing they are plural, as they take different forms.

They all merit vigilance on the part of the Jewish community. But they do not merit the same response (given back to perpetrators), Lupovitch said.

He said Jews do not all share the same political views, nor do they agree on every doctrinal issue in their faith, evidenced by Judaism being split into Orthodox, Conservative and Reform divisions.

But, Lupovitch said, Jews can support each other in condemning all anti-Semitism, whether it comes in the form of violence; discrimination in education, housing or employment; or simply an attitude of intolerance.

Panelists said Jews have to stand up for all groups being targeted -- including Muslims and those of other faiths, people of color and the LGBTQ community.

No Jew is safe until everyone is safe, Normandin said.

Another panelist, Rabbi Azaryah Cohen, of the Frankel Jewish Academy in West Bloomfield Township, said many Jews are dismayed that they now have to operate synagogues and other institutions under tight security.

I grew up in Oak Park. You have to punch a code to get into every synagogue in Oak Park (now), he said. But lets make sure that once you are in, its a warm and welcoming place.

Panelists said it was important for Jews to reach out to friends and neighbors of different faiths and ethnic groups to teach them about Judaism, to learn about their traditions and to encourage them to speak up against anti-Semitism.

Lader said she is encouraged by the support Jews have received from people of other faiths.

She said the first expression of sympathy she received after an attack on a Jewish institution was from an imam. A United Methodist church near her synagogue sent flowers after the Tree of Life shooting in Pittsburgh.

That message resonated with West Bloomfield resident Shosana Rubenstein, a forum attendee who lives in an area with a strong Jewish presence. Rubenstein said all people can benefit from getting to know those who are different.

Have dinner with them. Visit their institution. I think thats the route we should all go. Be there for one another, she said. I dont think theres anything more powerful than being kind.

A trial date is scheduled for the man charged with stabbing to death a Waterford woman, and then setting a fire in her house.

A group of local children were recently honored by the state for their community service efforts throughout the Pontiac area.

LANSING (AP) A third woman in two weeks has publicly come forward with sexual harassment allegations against a Michigan state legislator, according to a published report Sunday.

An 18-year-old Pontiac man has been arrested after attempting to flee from a deputy around 3 p.m. Sunday, January 26, 2020.

The Troy Police department is investigating a crash on southbound I-75 near 14 mile in Troy Sunday, January 26, 2020, shortly after 4 a.m.

A 68-year-old West Bloomfield man is dead after his car crashed into a series of trees at about 3:53 p.m. on Friday, January 24, according to

This dream home features a wide-open floor plan starting in the grand great room with its 12-foot ceiling, pillars, big windows and a full fir

A milestone two million ebooks and audiobooks were checked out through theMidwestCollaborativefor Library Services OverDrive group in 2019.

A former Beaumont employee allegedly gained unauthorized access to patient information from February 1, 2017 to October 22, 2019, according to

A Washington Township mans trial for three bank robberies in Macomb and Oakland counties concluded with a hung jury, but thedefendant absconded during the trial and is now detained while awaiting a second trial.

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Recent events stoke concerns of rising anti-Semitism - The Oakland Press

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Posted By admin on January 27, 2020

As president, I will always have Israels back, Mr. Bloomberg said.

Mr. Bloomberg has also long opposed the movement of economic boycotts and sanctions against Israel known as B.D.S., or Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions.

The Democratic presidential candidates across the board have condemned anti-Semitism, especially after the recent attacks in Monsey, N.Y., when five people were stabbed in a Hasidic rabbis home during a Hanukkah celebration and an Orthodox Jewish man was stabbed while walking to synagogue. Pete Buttigieg, the former mayor of South Bend, Ind., said his administration would devote $1 billion to combat violent extremism, and Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts has a plan to fight white nationalism; both of their plans aim to fight anti-Semitism.

But the field as a whole has not addressed the specifics of anti-Semitism enough, said Jonathan Greenblatt, the chief executive of the Anti-Defamation League.

We are certainly hearing about this issue more than we have before, Mr. Greenblatt said in a phone interview. But the real question candidates must address is, he said, How do you move from rhetoric condemning anti-Semitism to real plans rooting it out?

Many American Jews have found themselves caught in an uncomfortable tension between traditional liberal American Jewish values and Mr. Trumps alliance with Israel. Mr. Trump, who won 24 percent of Jewish voters in Florida in 2016, according to the Pew Research Center, has also been trying to strengthen his support by making anti-Semitism and backing of Israel a partisan issue.

Mr. Sanders wrote about his Jewish identity, his relatives who were murdered by Nazis and the recent rise of anti-Semitic violence in a personal essay in November for Jewish Currents, a progressive Jewish publication. Unlike Mr. Bloomberg, he criticized what he called false accusations of anti-Semitism by Mr. Trump against progressives and called for the end of Israels occupation of Palestinians.

We should be very clear that it is not anti-Semitic to criticize the policies of the Israeli government, he wrote. We must also be honest about this: The founding of Israel is understood by another people in the land of Palestine as the cause of their painful displacement.

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Bloomberg Warns of Anti-Semitism Rearing Its Ugly Head - The New York Times

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Posted By admin on January 27, 2020

This Holocaust Memorial Day, as we commemorate the 75thanniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, we confront one of the greatest evils that humankind has ever inflicted. The mechanised slaughter of Jews, planned, plotted and executed by the Nazis, remains a stain on the moral conscience of the world.

But there is the risk that when we look at black and white photographs of something that happened to other people, in another time, in a different place and at the hand of people with whom we feel we have nothing in common, we might think of antisemitism as a relic of the past.

The sad reality is that we cannot be so complacent. Antisemitism has never gone away and is stubbornly resurgent.

In recent years, we have seen murderous attacks at synagogues in Pittsburgh, Poway and Halle. Last month, we saw a vicious attack in New Jersey and antisemitic graffiti on and around a synagogue local to me in North London. Even this weekend, we saw further graffiti appear in Greenwich.I would like to pay tribute to the staff and volunteers of the Community Security Trust, who responded so quickly and always work to keep Jews safe in our community.

In our own Labour Party, it is a matter of deep sadness and regret that the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) is investigating the Party over institutional antisemitism.

I share the anger, frustration and pain of many in the Jewish community over how antisemitism has been handled by the Labour Party in recent years.It will be an urgent task of the next leader to turn things around.

I have signed the Board of Deputies ten pledges to help tackle the antisemitism crisis. And if elected party leader I will work with the Board, the Jewish Leadership Council and others to banish this prejudice from our movement and regain the trust of the Jewish community.

As leader, I would take personal responsibility for this and lead from the top. On day one, I would demand an update on ongoing antisemitism cases and ask for a clear timetable for their resolution. I will ask the Jewish Labour Movement and others to submit the list of cases they believe are still outstanding and to leave no stone unturned, I will ensure an independent process and work with social media platforms to take hate off the internet.

And my test for our party will be this; do those who have left the Party because of antisemitism feel comfortable to return. Only when they do, will I be satisfied that we have made progress. At the next election I dont want a single Labour member or activist to knock a door and be told that people who previously voted Labour wont do so because of antisemitism. If youre antisemitic, you shouldnt be in our Party or anywhere near it.

On Holocaust Remembrance Day it is our duty to remember and learn. I would like to offer my gratitude to the amazing survivors who show tremendous bravery in reliving their trauma to share their stories and fight for a better future and to organisations like the Holocaust Educational Trust that do such vital work in our schools.

The defeat of antisemitism will not be easy, but together, we can and we will prevail.

Keir is Labour MP for Holborn and St Pancras

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How I would take personal responsibility for tackling antisemitism - The Times of Israel

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