Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By admin on January 27, 2020

Its almost at the end of the world. Its an island 250 miles south of Australia. Its the last land mass before Antarctica.

Getting to Tasmania involved a six-hour flight to Los Angeles, a 14-hour flight to Melbourne, and a two-hour flight to Hobart.

Why Tasmania?

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My wife and I love what Americans call hiking, Europeans call trekking, and Aussies call bush-walking.

We love the world-famous treks we have been blessed to experience, such as the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu in Peru, the Himalaya Path to Mount Everest in Nepal, and the Routeburn Track to Milford Sound in New Zealand.

We love the exotic treks that we have walked in wondrous places like Iceland, Switzerland, Patagonia, South Africa, and Uganda.

The entranceway to the Hobart Hebrew Congregation.

And we love the off-the-beaten-track gems that we have discovered in places like Newfoundland and the Azores.

Avid world-trekkers will tell you that remote Tasmania offers some of the most dramatic coastline walking in the world, not to mention a unique mix of sub-alpine tarns and moors in the interior. And sharing the path at any moment are those uniquely weird Australian marsupials kangaroos, wallabies, padymelons, along with wombats, echidnas and, of course, the elusive Tasmanian devil.

Tasmania did not disappoint and we saw everything but the devil.

But the real reason for my writing is about what we saw on Shabbat, which was our first day in Tasmania. We saw the Hobart Hebrew Congregation.

Would you believe that this beautiful little synagogue, with its rare neo-Egyptian revival faade, a style that was popular in the mid-19th century, is the oldest one in Australia?

Would you believe that the congregation was founded by two paroled Jewish convicts in 1845?

Would you believe that the day I went there, only two people besides us were were there too but that one of them turned out to be an expat friend of my friend who moved to Tasmania 20 years ago?

The synagogue was built next door to Temple House, now headquarters of the Tasmania Police.

When the tiny Jewish community in Hobart requested a synagogue in 1842, the governor refused to make a plot available, citing a law restricting Crown land grants to Christian organizations. Judah Solomon, a paroled Jewish convict from England who had prospered, stepped in to donate land from his large home near city center, which had been dubbed Solomons Temple. That house, which to this day is called Temple House, still stands next door to the synagogue and is the headquarters of the Tasmania Police.

Judah and his brother Joseph, another paroled convict, rallied their fellow Jews, and a few overseas philanthropists, including the famous Sir Moses Montefiore, contributed money to help them build the synagogue. The donors names, and the amounts they gave, are prominently inscribed on the rear synagogue wall. Numbered benches that originally were at the back of the synagogue were for the use of convicts and the poor. The shuls fact sheet proclaims that The Hobart synagogue is thus believed to be the only place of Jewish worship in the world with seats set aside for convicts.

A large and beautifully inscribed plaque on another wall caught my eye because I completed a rabbinic thesis many years ago on the long history of the Jewish prayer for the government. The inscribed text was a prayer for the welfare of Queen Victoria and the royal family. It is said that non-Jewish guests were so impressed by the music and fervent prayers for the Crown at the dedication service that they contributed the princely sum of 100 guineas to the congregation.

Given that much of Tasmania served as a penal colony (the most prominent site in nearby Port Arthur is now a World Heritage Site that made for a fascinating visit), and that Jewish convicts were required to attend Sabbath worship, it is understandable that the congregation sent an early inquiry to the Chief Rabbi in London asking whether convicts could be counted in a minyan, and whether they could be called to the Torah. The response was affirmative to the former and negative to the latter.

Sadly, we were not even close to a minyan on my visit. There are not many Jews left in Tasmania. But one of them spoke to me in a decidedly un-Australian accent. When he found out that I had lived in Cherry Hill, he asked if knew someone named David Lerman, his former roommate. I smiled and told him that David was a dear friend and a past president of the Jewish Publication Society, of which I am the head.

Tasmania may be as far away as it gets, but Jewishly speaking its a small world after all!

Barry L. Schwartz is the editor in chief and CEO of the Jewish Publication Society and the rabbi of Congregation Adas Emuno in Leonia.

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A small, small Jewish world | The Jewish - The Jewish Standard

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Posted By admin on January 27, 2020

.and Spring Festival in China and Vietnam. The darkest days are behind as we go toward spring. This is the year of the rat, the first of the zodiac animals in the repeating cycle of 12 years.

.and Spring Festival in China and Vietnam. The darkest days are behind as we go toward spring. This is the year of the rat, the first of the zodiac animals in the repeating cycle of 12 years. The rat reigns from January 25th 2020 to February 11th 2021. Past rat years: 1924, 1936, 1948, 1960, 1972, 1984, 1996 and 2008. Unlucky numbers for rats are 5 and 9 but lucky flowers are lilies. Colors are gold, blue and green. George Washington, William Shakespeare and T.S. Elliot were rats. If you are a rat, you are optimistic, energetic, love to hoard things, clever, have great ability to focus on fine detail but possibly suffer from frail health. It is recommended that rats always eat a good breakfast and partake of moderate exercise!

The official Chinese New Year holiday lasts 7 days, but the traditional period runs 23 whole days. Fireworks are set off on the night of the new moon (New Years Eve Jan 24th) and again New Years morning. Houses are cleaned before the holiday begins because it is taboo to sweep or toss out garbage during the holiday. Other taboos include cussing, negative words, breaking of pottery or glass or use of sharp objects during this time. You dont want to jinx yourself by severing your link to prosperity and fortune. If you take a shower or bath on New Years Day, the water could wash away your good luck. Real or virtual red envelopes (which may include money) are given to friends, workers, bosses and children as a way of passing on good fortune.

It all ends with the Lantern Festival held the night of the first full moon in February (Feb 8th in China), the 15th day of the first lunar month. A time for families to be together, celebrate the return of spring, and hang, float or fly red lanterns at home, in parks and through the countryside. Eat Tangyuan, a fermented rice soup with round filled rice dumplings formed from glutinous rice mixed with water. The round images imitate the full moon. Traditional Lion dances are performed to drive away bad spirits while offering protection.

Glutinous rice is a staple in many eastern Asian countries. Remember Japanese Mochi, the glutinous rice pounded into a paste and slightly sweetened? The soft balls are available year-round, but traditionally served during the Japanese New Year on January 1st.

The Vietnamese today also celebrate the Lunar New Year (Tet) with family, red envelopes, no sweeping away good luck, and Lion (Lan) dancing. In Vietnam the Lan is a cross between the lion and a dragon and very powerful eradicator of evil spirits. Savory filled sticky rice cakes shaped as blocks of the earth or round as the moon are eaten. Tet lasts from 7 to 9 days.

The Lunar New Year in Korea also features rice. Tteok (duck) is the chewy and dense Korean rice cake made from steamed, pounded glutinous rice. Tteokguk (duck-gook) is a soup with sliced rice cakes served during the three day celebration. The rice coins will make you richer, live longer and today in Korea you officially turn one year older! As in other neighboring countries, this is a traditional family holiday.

We celebrated the Korean New Year earlier this week by eating Korean tteokbokki rice cake stir-fry with pork and shiitake mushrooms. Good thing I saved the Sun Basket pamphlet with the recipe and name! Delicious.

I like the idea of friends and family gathering together and having fun over an extended period of time. In the US we celebrate New Years for one day. Some of us actually eat black-eyed peas (Vigna unguiculata) for good luck. Why?

Pick your story, since many stem from the distant past. During Shermans march through Georgia in 1864, food stores were pillaged except for silos, field peas and salt pork, (the last two considered food fit only for animals). That story doesnt pan out, since Sherman pretty well took everything and cleaned house. It is possible the troops traveled through fields of unharvested peas late autumn, leaving them untouched.

According to passages in the Talmud, eating black-eyed peas on New Years Day brought good luck. Some say it was a mistranslation of rubia (fenugreek seeds) with lubia (black-eyed peas). Whatever, for centuries the Jewish have eaten the legumes for Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year in late summer or early fall. Jewish colonists did arrive in Georgia in the 1730s.

Black-eyed peas could have arrived in slave ships coming to America well before the Jewish. The peas may have been eaten on January 1st, 1863, the first day the Emancipation Proclamation went into effect. Many southern crops were destroyed after the Civil War. Hardy and nutritious, the black-eyed pea was easy to grow and kept Southerners alive especially during Reconstruction (1863-1877).

When growing one of the many varieties of black-eyed peas (heirloom, seed packet, plastic sack from grocery store) remember this subspecies of the cowpea likes sandy or well-drained soil that should be over 60 degrees for faster germination. Field peas originated in warm semi-arid regions of India, traveled to Africa and eventually went global. The peas will camp out in colder soils and wait, or rot, if too wet. Chose vines that range from 24-36 in height, or bushes that reach up and out 3 feet.

The black-eyed pea swells when cookedprosperity. Ham hock or porkpositive energy (pigs are so good at foraging). Greensmoney. Cornbreadgold. Cant get any luckier than this!

If you did not eat black-eyed peas on January 1st, why not cook some today to celebrate the Lunar New Year. Our full moon (the Snow Moon or Hunger Moon) rises Feb. 8th and peaks the 9th. This is America. Blend cultures. Go visit friends or relatives and be sure to bring a pot of black-eyed peas cooked with ham. Heat up greens and make a batch of cornbread. Gather together outside and light red lanterns. This could be your lucky year.

And by the way, I have received good support from those who read Goodbye Old Friends. Seems there are many out there just as concerned as I about how nature is being destroyed. They asked why the larger trees growing along the road for over half of century could not have been saved. More than one mused that the new road will never last as long as those trees. The trees gave. The road stole. The land suffers.

Save our trees. Save our planet.

Becky Emerson Carlberg, graduate of Oklahoma State (Plant Pathology) is a teacher, artist, writer as well as certified Oklahoma Master Gardener and Master Naturalist. Contact her at Becscience@att.net.

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Gardens of the Cross Timbers: Happy Lunar New Year - Shawnee News Star

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Posted By admin on January 27, 2020

By Jonathan D. Sarna, Brandeis University

It is a common scene on many a Saturday morning in cities and towns across the United States to see seventh- and eighth-grade boys and girls, a few not Jewish at all, gather in synagogues and temples to watch a classmates bar mitzvah.

This coming-of-age ritual marks a 13-year-old mans assumption of religious and legal obligations under Jewish law.

In my experience, many modern-day teens who gather for this ceremony have no idea what the word bar mitzvah means, nor how the ceremony they have come to observe evolved.

The roots of the bar mitzvah, which literally means son of the commandments, are obscure. The term never once appears in the Hebrew Bible.

Ancient rabbis, writing in the compendium of Jewish law known as the Talmud, did declare that boys are obligated to fulfill the mitzvot the commandments of Jewish law beginning at the age of 13. But as an historian of Judaism, I know that rabbis and commentators have struggled with the question of why the age of 13 was actually chosen.

After some debate, these Jewish scholars concluded by the 11th century that it must have been an orally transmitted requirement handed down to Moses when he stood atop Mount Sinai. There, Moses received not just the Ten Commandments but also, according to Jewish tradition, all Jewish law, both written and spoken.

The first use of bar mitzvah for the Jewish coming-of-age ritual seems to date to a 15th-century rabbi named Menahem Ziyyoni.

The bar mitzvah ceremony at that time was a modest affair with two or three major components. First, was an aliyah. This meant that the bar mitzvah boy was, for the very first time in his life, called up to make a blessing over the public readings from the Torah, the sacred handwritten scroll containing the Five Books of Moses. In addition, the bar mitzvah boy often delivered his first public discourse, teaching the community and offering thanks to his parents and visiting guests.

The bar mitzvah boy, however, was not expected to read from the Torah, chant the Prophetic portion associated with it, known as the Haftarah, or lead any part of the prayer service, as so many do today.

Those elements came later, in the 18th and 19th centuries, when the bar mitzvah grew in importance for the Jewish communities of Europe, North America and the Caribbean. As traditional Jewish communal authority weakened during the Enlightenment period, newly emancipated Jews across the globe became citizens with civil and political rights.

Anxious parents wondered whether their sons would carry on ancestral traditions such as observing Jewish law, studying Jewish texts, marrying within the faith and raising their own children Jewish. The more they worried, the more they focused on the bar mitzvah the last religious rite of passage they could control.

By the early 20th century, many bar mitzvah boys publicly pledged to love, honor and keep the Holy Torah. The 20th century also witnessed the spread of a parallel ceremony for girls, known as the bat mitzvah, meaning daughter of the commandments.

In lands where Jewish life was changing rapidly, families seemingly sought to stave off fears of the morrow. Parents strove, at least momentarily, perhaps for one fine Saturday morning, to reassure themselves and the community that Jewish learning and life would continue despite the lure of modernity and its many seductions.

Jonathan D. Sarna, University Professor and Joseph H. & Belle R. Braun Professor of American Jewish History, Brandeis University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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What Is A Bar Mitzvah? - Longmont Observer

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Posted By admin on January 26, 2020

Andrew Neil of the BBC kept asking Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn the same question over and over.

Eighty percent of Jews think that youre anti-Semitic, he stressed. Wouldnt you like to take this opportunity tonight to apologize to the British Jewish community for whats happened?

Corbyn would not yield: What Ill say is this I am determined that our society will be safe for people of all faiths.

The Daily Express called this late-2019 clash a horror show. This BBC interview, with surging fears of public anti-Semitism, lingered in headlines as Brits went to the polls. Corbyns party suffered its worst defeat in nearly a century.

Meanwhile, in America, a wave of anti-Semitic attacks left Jews wondering if it was safe to wear yarmulkes and symbols of their faith while walking the sidewalks of New York City. In suburban Monsey, New York, a machete-waving attacker stabbed five people at a Hasidic rabbis Hanukkah party. Finally, thousands of New Yorkers marched to show solidarity with the Jewish community.

The New York City Police Department estimates that anti-Semitic crimes rose 26% last year. Anti-Semitic hate crimes in New York, Los Angeles and Chicago are expected to hit an 18-year high, according to research at California State University, San Bernardino.

No one who watches the news can doubt that the darkness has returned. It has returned likewise to virtually every country in Europe, argued Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, who led the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth from 1991 to 2013. He was knighted by Queen Elizabeth in 2005 and entered the House of Lords.

That this should have happened within living memory of the Holocaust, after the most systematic attempt ever made ... to find a cure for the virus of the worlds longest hate more than half a century of Holocaust education and anti-racist legislation is almost unbelievable. It is particularly traumatic that this has happened in the United States, the country where Jews felt more at home than anywhere else in the Diaspora.

Why now? In an essay for the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Rabbi Sacks urged religious and political leaders to study trends often digital behind these tragedies.

Anti-Semitism, or any hate, he argued, becomes dangerous in any society when three things happen: when it moves from the fringes of politics to a mainstream party and its leadership; when the party sees that its popularity with the general public is not harmed thereby; and when those who stand up and protest are vilified and abused for doing so.

Imagine the hellish Protocols of the Elders of Zion updated for the internet. In the age of smartphones and viral videos, noted Sacks, millions of people can brew hate online rarely speaking face-to-face with their disciples or their victims. This gap creates what researchers call a disinhibition effect that turns up the heat.

Cyberspace has proved to be the most effective incubator of resentment, rancor and conspiracy theories ever invented, noted Sacks. Most people encounter these phenomena ... in the privacy of their own home. This allows them to be radicalized without anyone realizing it is happening. Time and again, we read of people carrying out horrific attacks, while those who knew them recall not having seen any warning signs that they were intent on committing evil attacks.

Its crucial to grasp the logic behind political and cultural fears on both the left and the right. Many people are furious because they believe the world as it is now is not the way it used to be, or ought to be, he argued.

The far left has not recovered from the global collapse of communism and socialism as ideologies. ... The far right feels threatened by the changing composition of Western societies, because of immigration on an unprecedented scale and low birth rates among the native population. ... Many radical Islamists are troubled by dysfunctions in the Muslim world.

Thus, many people around the world want to know why bad things are happening. Anyone seeking to fight anti-Semitism, Sacks wrote, needs to understand what can go wrong with that process.

When bad things happen, good people ask, What did I do wrong? ... Bad people ask, Who did this to me? They cast themselves as victims and search for scapegoats to blame. The scapegoat of choice has long been the Jews.

Terry Mattingly leads GetReligion.org and lives in Oak Ridge, Tenn. He is a senior fellow at the Overby Center at the University of Mississippi.

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Terry Mattingly: Rabbi Lord Sacks on the surge of anti-Semitism - Joplin Globe

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Posted By admin on January 26, 2020

Andrew Neil of the BBC kept asking Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn the same question -- over and over.

"Eighty percent of Jews think that you're anti-Semitic," he said. "Wouldn't you like to take this opportunity tonight to apologize to the British Jewish community for what's happened?"

Corbyn would not yield: "What I'll say is this -- I am determined that our society will be safe for people of all faiths."

The Daily Express called this late-2019 clash a "horror show." This BBC interview, with surging fears of public anti-Semitism, lingered in headlines as Brits went to the polls. Corbyn's party suffered its worst defeat in nearly a century.

Meanwhile, in America, a wave of anti-Semitic attacks left Jews wondering if it was safe to wear yarmulkes and symbols of their faith while walking the sidewalks of New York. In suburban Monsey, N.Y., a machete-waving attacker stabbed five people at a Hasidic rabbi's Hanukkah party. Finally, thousands of New Yorkers marched to show solidarity with the Jewish community.

The NYPD estimates that anti-Semitic crimes rose 26% last year. Anti-Semitic hate crimes in New York, Los Angeles and Chicago are expected to hit an 18-year high, according to research at California State University, San Bernardino.

No one who watches the news can doubt that "the darkness has returned. It has returned likewise to virtually every country in Europe," argued Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, who led the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth from 1991 to 2013. He was knighted by Queen Elizabeth in 2005 and entered the House of Lords.

"That this should have happened within living memory of the Holocaust, after the most systematic attempt ever made ... to find a cure for the virus of the world's longest hate -- more than half a century of Holocaust education and anti-racist legislation -- is almost unbelievable. It is particularly traumatic that this has happened in the United States, the country where Jews felt more at home than anywhere else in the Diaspora."

Why now? In an essay for the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Sacks urged religious and political leaders to study trends -- often digital -- behind these tragedies.

"Anti-Semitism, or any hate," he said, "becomes dangerous in any society when three things happen: when it moves from the fringes of politics to a mainstream party and its leadership, when the party sees that its popularity with the general public is not harmed thereby and when those who stand up and protest are vilified and abused for doing so."

Imagine the "Protocols of the Elders of Zion" updated for the internet. In the age of smartphones and viral videos, Sacks noted, millions of people can brew hate online -- rarely speaking face-to-face with their disciples or their victims. This gap creates what researchers call a "disinhibition effect" that turns up the heat.

"Cyberspace has proved to be the most effective incubator of resentment, rancor and conspiracy theories ever invented," Sacks said. Most people "encounter these phenomena ... in the privacy of their own home. This allows them to be radicalized without anyone realizing it is happening. Time and again, we read of people carrying out horrific attacks, while those who knew them recall not having seen any warning signs that they were intent on committing evil attacks."

It's crucial to grasp the logic behind political and cultural fears on both the left and the right. Many people are furious because they believe the "world as it is now is not the way it used to be, or ought to be," he said.

"The far left has not recovered from the global collapse of communism and socialism as ideologies. ... The far-right feels threatened by the changing composition of Western societies, because of immigration on an unprecedented scale and low birth rates among the native population. ... Many radical Islamists are troubled by dysfunctions in the Muslim world."

Thus, many people around the world want to know why bad things are happening. Anyone seeking to fight anti-Semitism, Sacks wrote, needs to understand what can go wrong with that process.

"When bad things happen, good people ask, 'What did I do wrong?' ... Bad people ask, 'Who did this to me?' They cast themselves as victims and search for scapegoats to blame. The scapegoat of choice has long been the Jews."

Terry Mattingly leads GetReligion.org and lives in Oak Ridge, Tenn. He is a senior fellow at the Overby Center at the University of Mississippi.

Religion on 01/25/2020

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Rabbi: Rise of anti-Semitism linked to cyberspace - NWAOnline

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Posted By admin on January 26, 2020

Psychiatrist Erich Fromm in 1974. Photo: Mller-May / Rainer Funk / CC BY-SA 3.0 (DE) via Wikicommons.

Erich Fromm was one of the most influential psychiatrists of the last century. He was educated in Germany. When the Nazis came to power in 1934, he moved to Switzerland and then on to New York. He was a restless and brilliant man. I first encountered his work when, as a student, I read his short book You Shall Be as Gods: A Radical Interpretation of the Old Testament and Its Tradition.It was originally published in German in 1954 and English in 1966. I still recommend it heartily as it is still relevant today.

Here was one of the most acclaimed psychiatrists of the century arguing for the benefit of Orthodox Judaism but without God. He was a completely non-religious, atheist Jew writing about how psychologically important Jewish Law and its behavioral rituals (including keeping Shabbat and Kashrut) were for the sanity of modern society.

He was born to an Orthodox, scholarly family in Frankfurt. He studied Talmud and Hasidism in depth. He had a deep knowledge of Jewish mysticism. However, in 1926 he turned away from Orthodox Judaism and towards secular interpretations of scripture. He described his position as nontheistic mysticism.

Reading his book had a huge impact on my thinking. I had my own very personal relationship with God. But Fromm argued that religion did not have to be circumscribed by the idea of God. Being religious without God could still be very beneficial. At the time, I was coming into contact with many Jews who had rejected the idea of God and/or Jewish practice and could not identify with the Jewish religion. Here seemed an answer for them.

January 26, 2020 7:10 am

Fromm said that humans should take independent action and use reason to establish moral values rather than blindly adhering to the dictates of authorities. He disliked all authoritarian systems, yet argued that humans needed the discipline that religious practice provided. Their rituals and training helped people think about morally right decisions. Otherwise, humans would tend to take the easiest and most selfish way out.

Fromm often used the Bible to illustrate his points of view. The story of Adam and Eve was, he said, an allegorical explanation for humans defying God and struggling to work out for themselves how to act. And, of course, mistakes have consequences. The book of Jonah described someone who did not wish to save the people of Nineveh from the consequences of their sins. It advocated the importance of care and responsibility for others even if one disagreed with them. Important ideas for human beings both religious and non-religious. Autonomy, the freedom to make up ones own mind, was paramount. But so was being part of a community.

Fromm liked the Talmudic story of Rabbi Eliezer who, in a dispute with a majority of his fellow rabbis over a minor issue of Jewish law, asked God to intervene with miracles to prove him right. But the rabbis insisted that, since the Torah had been given, it was no longer up to God to intervene in such matters but for human beings to use their powers of thought to deal with current situations and challenges. This was evidence that we should be able to use our deductive tools to deal with life.

He admired Hasidic tales in which God was challenged and called to account by man for the horrible things that happen on earth. It was dangerous to accept God unquestioningly. The Bible, he said, was more concerned with the fight against idolatry than with a correct theology. Idolatry was the worship of oneself, ones own intelligence, and ones own strength. Only by embracing freedom could one free oneself from idolatry. Failing to do this was the root of psychological conflicts.

Fromm thought that modern societies focused too much on freedom from responsibility. Too few people respected the autonomy of their fellow human beings what other people truly wanted and needed. They preferred conformity.This led to destructiveness the process which tried to eliminate others. All of which became manifest in Nazism and Marxism. Sadly, most people find it harder to try to be free than to simply accept conformity. Submitting ones freedom to someone else diminishes freedom of choice. This preference for controlled lives was a danger to religion itselfas well.

As I look around me nowadays I see too much of todays Jewish life is conformism. Layers have been added for social reasons, not spiritual ones. Too many people observe rituals out of social pressure instead of religious commitment. Yet without accepting the discipline of a religious way of life, one flounders and struggles for comfort and a sense of belonging. Humans, said Fromm, need to be excited and stimulated by striving for goals. And to find their own places in the world.

Hewanted to eliminate the concept of God except as a poetical symbol of the primary and mystical ego-transcending experience of man. This was where I parted company. I believe the idea of God is important as a personal experience (more than a concept). This is what adds the spiritual dimension to the structure of the law. God is a way of reaching beyond oneself. Even if I question the theology.

I agree we must try to experience life on a higher, more intense, personal level. But I also value the Torah concept of accepting first and questioning afterward (Naaseh VeNishma). Without a structure to begin with, one is in danger of wandering, getting lost and not finding. Like a child with no discipline.

All of this makesYou Shall Be as Godsone of the most important books on the relevance of religion even in our skeptical, modern world where everything is open to challenge.

Rabbi Jeremy Rosen received his rabbinic ordination from Mir Yeshiva in Jerusalem. He has worked in the rabbinate, Jewish education, and academia for more than 40 years in Europe and the US. He currently lives in the US, where he writes, teaches, lectures, and serves as rabbi of a small community in New York.

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Erich Fromm and Religion Without God | Jewish & Israel News - Algemeiner

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Posted By admin on January 26, 2020

The first Holocaust poems were written 90 years ago, when the full extent of the horror was yet to be known. Starting in the 1930s, those first works foreshadowed the catastrophe that was soon to come. As the second world war erupted and the Nazi killings began, people continued to write poetry that recorded direct experiences of persecution and lamented the murder of loved ones.

While many writers of Holocaust poetry are Jewish, there are those who belong to other groups targeted by the Nazi regime. Including those who were perceived to have disabilities, Roma and Sinti people, political and religious opponents and homosexual men.

Writing poetry of the Holocaust has often been a way to reclaim identity, as writer and translator Lou Sarabadzic puts it:

Victims of the Holocaust are not the Other in these lines, but rather the authors, the ones we listen to, the ones expressing emotions.

As such, they continue to be written today as people continue to reckon with the memories and impact of the Holocaust.

Published in 2019, Poetry of the Holocaust: An Anthology brings together poems from 19 languages that were previously unavailable in English. The translations in this book are followed by the original texts. These include poems in languages not normally associated with the Holocaust, such as Norwegian and Japanese, and from places like Argentina, Denmark and South Africa.

Holocaust poetry in the 1930s and through the war wrestled with the incomprehensible reality its writers were facing. The earliest poems in Europe responded to the foreboding of the fascist regime and its politics of elimination.

In 1932, the German poet Eduard Saenger wrote in reaction to the sinister change of atmosphere that he was witnessing in his country:

A silent wind sends fear through the land / with an edge like the howling of wolves.

Like Saenger, many wrote poems warning of the approaching dark times and also in reaction to specific events, like the book burnings of May 1933 and Kristallnacht in November 1938.

During the war, the poems documented life in ghettos, prisons and concentration camps. They spoke of mass shootings and of seeing neighbours deported.

Writing in the Terezn (Theresienstadt) ghetto in the early 1940s, the Czech teenager Dagmar Hilarov expressed the desire to die rather than undergo further humiliation and torture:

Like a bird with wounded wings / To lie down, / And not to wait for morning.

Poems written in concentration camps were memorised or hidden, often later found by others. Sallie Pinkhof wrote a poem in Bergen-Belsen in 1944, in which he mocked the state of his body:

What a hoot / these loose-fitting tendons / and bones in my foot!

Pinkhof did not survive but his poems were preserved by fellow camp inmates. An anonymous poem found in the Zigeunerlager (Gypsy Camp) of Auschwitz-Birkenau opens with the wish:

Do not wake me from my dream, / so the world need never know / how they treat a Roma.

Read more: Nazis murdered a quarter of Europe's Roma, but history still overlooks this genocide

For many the horror of the Holocaust is both lifelong and unspeakable. As the memory and impact of the catastrophe continue to be felt by survivors, their children and people touched by its reverberations, poems continue to be written about the Holocaust to express what is almost beyond words. Dutch poet Chawwa Wijnberg (2001), whose father was executed by the Nazis:

Always present is the unsaid / the unsaid / that rips the wound open

Silence is a recurrent theme. Rita Gabbai-Simantov, a Sephardic-Turkish poet who lives in Greece and writes in Ladino, Judaeo-Spanish, about Thessaloniki old Saloniki and its wiped-out Jewish community (1992): As you walk, your companion / will be silence.

After her visit to Auschwitz, the Lithuanian poet Janina Degutyt recorded in 1966 the enduring silence of the people who were deported from her country and murdered:

Lips gasp for air / The only sound is the rustling of golden leaves, / The rustling flow of time: which was is will be .

Later poetry also gave voices to persecuted groups who were previously unrepresented. In 1995, French writer Andr Sarcq was the first to express the fate of gay men who for decades after the war, in France and elsewhere, could not speak about their experience in concentration camps. This was because homosexuality continued to be outlawed and they felt, in Sarcqs words, like "the rag of a pool of souls.

Poetry of the Holocaust continues to be written in our time. A striking example is the poem by Angela Fritzen, a journalist who has Downs syndrome. Written after visiting an exhibition in Bonn, Germany in 2016, the poem is about the fate of people with disabilities during the Nazi era. To have strength is how Fritzen ends her deeply felt poem.

Holocaust poetry is a rich and diverse genre that continues to be added to. Both the older and the contemporary poems need readers, because Holocaust poetry is about communication. The poets felt the need to share their pain and it is vital that readers take the chance to empathise with what they have been through. By way of reflecting on the experience of others we recognise what it means to be human.

The translators of the quoted lines of poetry in this article are: Jean Boase-Beier (Saenger, Fritzen, Sarcq), Maria Grazina Slavnas (Degutyt), Marian de Vooght (Pinkhof, Sarcq) and Philip Wilson (Hilarov).

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Holocaust poetry and the reclamation of many identities - The Conversation UK

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Posted By admin on January 26, 2020

The mosque they burned is in Beit Safafa, but Beit Safafa was swallowed by Jerusalem long ago. Waze directs me to the Gilo off-ramp and down a narrow, unmarked road. Its dark the street lamps that brighten the streets of Jerusalem dont light the streets here. I follow the robotic voice that distorts the pronunciation of the street names, no longer Begin and Dov Yosef, but Al-Butma and A-Zeitun.

The streets are dark, but the Jews who park their cars on the sidewalks and against the walls of the alleys are easy to spot here in Beit Safafa. They huddle together, pretending that its because of the frigid Jerusalem air and not due to the strangeness of being in an Arab village five minutes from the Malcha Mall. Hagai said 2 Badareen Alley, and look, this is 40 Badareen Alley, so we just have to keep walking. The Jerusalem municipality has neatly labeled the streets with blue signs, the street names printed in Hebrew and Arabic. There it is! someone points at the green neon lights of the minaret peeking over the rooftops. I trail behind them towards a narrow staircase.

A man in a quilted jacket with the logo of a security company welcomes us in. Did the police send a security guard to the mosque, I wonder? But it isnt a police uniform, and he speaks Arabic easily with a group of men on the stairs. A private security guard, I realize, like the ones Jews hire to keep them safe in synagogues in Europe and the US. I step over the threshold and wonder if I should take my shoes off.

Visitors from Tag Meir listen to the mukhtar.

The arched ceilings and walls are blackened with soot and the carpets have melted into the tile floors. Scoot in, scoot in, someone says. There are more people coming. Most of the mosques I have visited are big, touristy affairs. El Aqsa in Jerusalem, the Blue Mosque in Istanbul. This one is cozy and strikingly similar to a Sephardic synagogue. It feels familiar.

A rabbi speaks This week we remember the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King. Rabbi Abraham Heschel was Dr. Kings friend and a civil rights activist. When confronted with the violence and hatred directed at the black community in America he said, We are not all guilty, but we are all responsible. We are all responsible here. The crowd murmurs in agreement.

The mukhtar speaks next, his Hebrew fluent and unaccented. The Jews are our friends we dont want trouble here. We know that this is an aberration. Again, the crowd murmurs. There are 150 people here, maybe 200, I think. If this is an aberration, where is everyone else? I look at the blackened bookcases, full of holy books and remember my grandmothers stories of Kristallnacht, of Nazis desecrating the holy Torah.

The mukhtar continues, Our Imam gave a sermon on Friday, calling for calm, telling us that we must all live in peace, Jews, Christians and Muslims. It was inspirational we should translate it to Hebrew, post it on Facebook. I wonder what speeches would be given if Muslims had burned a synagogue, if, unlike this attack, it would have made the news.

Damage caused by the fire.

Has anyone from the municipality been here? someone asks. The mukhtar and the Imam shake their heads sadly. Others speak, decry what happened, and the Imam ends the event with a soulful prayer in Arabic.

The crowd mills around the mosque, slow to leave. An old man wipes the soot off a bookcase. See here, he says, pointing to the words engraved upon it. My mother donated this bookcase, before she died.

The man and his mothers bookcase.

Im sorry, I tell him. Ive been crying since yesterday, when I first heard what happened. I am ashamed. Tears flow down my cheeks as I say this. What can I offer him other than my tears?

This mosque is 800 years old, another man says. It was built here in the time of Saladin.

Im sorry, I am ashamed, I say again. My tears fall to the ground, dotting the soot. My words echo against the blackened walls. There is no more to say. I step out of the mosque into the darkness.

Gadi Gvaryahu, the head of Tag Meir, with a Bet Tsafafa community leader. (Yossi Zamir, Tag Meir)

*The visit described was organized by Tag Meir: Light instead of terror.

After having several life-changing educational experiences in her teens, Elana Kaminka dedicated many years to creating those experiences for others. Originally working in the field of Israel programs, she became fascinated by the field of development and worked for Tevel b'Tzedek, an Israeli NGO that both runs quality volunteer programs and does quality development work in Nepal. She is currently an independent content writer, working on a novel.

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Posted By admin on January 26, 2020

Red lights are flashing. As world leaders gather in Jerusalem and Auschwitz to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the camps liberation, Europes report card on Holocaust Remembrance is worrying.

A year ago, the Holocaust Remembrance Project found numerous European Union countries commemorating collaborators and war criminals while minimizing their own guilt in the attempted extermination of Jews. Revisionism was worst in new Central European members Poland, Hungary and Croatia, and Lithuania.

This years update finds new signs of concern, particularly in Western Europe:

Little progress was observed throughout Central Europe, the site of Nazi killing grounds. The Baltics continue to host commemorations for anti-Soviet resistance fighters who collaborated with the Nazis. Hungary continues to downplay the role of Hungarians in deporting Jews. Croatia, despite taking over the EU presidency, continues to display an unclear attitude towards its wartime Ustasha regime.

Tensions remain in Poland over its law criminalizing suggestions that Poles contributed to the Holocaust. After Russian President Vladimir Putin accused Poland of collaborating with the Nazi regime, President Andrzej Duda rightfully denounced him of rewriting history and downplaying the full significance of the 1939 Nazi-Soviet pact, which divided Poland. ICovernstead of staying on the moral high ground, however, Duda protested Putins speaking spot at last weeks Jerusalem commemoration by boycotting the event. The Lithuanian President followed his lead, also citing Putins presence.

This troubled landscape around Holocaust remembrance reflects our troubled times. Despite the clear evidence of how prejudice can lead to catastrophe, we ignore its lessons. The post-Cold War liberal world seemed to have put these demons to rest. Jews felt at home, both in my native United States and my adopted Belgium, facing little discrimination or danger. Today, this is no longer the case.

Defenders of our tolerant, multinational ideal must stand up. One sign of light over the past year has been the much-maligned European Union. In declaration after declaration, officials representing its 28 countries have stood up and declared that a Europe without treating Jews as full, patriotic citizens and promoting a flourishing Jewish life will be a betrayal of the European ideal.

In two strong resolutions, Brussels has outlined a series of measures that member governments should take, from appointing a senior official to fight anti-Semitism to ensuring mandatory Holocaust education. As we move forward into a new decade, I plan to study and benchmark Europes performance in living up to these commitments to protect and promote Jewish life.

William Echikson is the director of the Brussels office of the European Union of Progressive Judaism. Before joining the EUPJ, Mr. Echikson worked with the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum to bring the State of Deception exhibit on Nazi Propaganda to Europe. He also worked for six and a half years at Google running corporate communications for Europe, Middle East and Africa. He launched the companys Europe blog and led its efforts around data center government affairs and Internet freedom Issues.Mr. Echikson began his career as a foreign correspondent in Europe for a series of US publications including the Christian Science Monitor. Wall Street Journal, Fortune and BusinessWeek. From 2001 until 2007, he served as Brussels Bureau Chief for Dow Jones. Mr. Echikson also has written, directed and produced for television documentaries for BBC and Americas Public Broadcasting Service. He is the author of four books, including works on the collapse of communism in Central Europe and the history of the Bordeaux wine region.An American and Belgian citizen, Mr. Echikson graduated from Yale College with a Magna Cum Laude degree in history.

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Posted By admin on January 26, 2020

US President Donald Trumps peace plan will advance Israels interests, a confident Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday before boarding a plane to Washington for what he predicted would be a historic meeting with Trump.I am going to Washington to face an American president who is bringing forward a plan that I believe will advance our most vital interests, Netanyahu said. During the last three years I spoke countless times with Trump who is a great friend of Israel and his team, Netanyahu said.During those conversations he discussed Israels vital interests, its security and the issue of justice, Netanyahu said.He recalled the time he had traveled to the US under very different circumstances, to hold a speech in Congress to argue against former US president Barack Obamas Iran deal. It was a plan that he felt endangered Israels very existence.The circumstances have now changed when it comes to Israels future,Netanyahu said.I am meeting with President Trump tomorrow, and on Tuesday, together with him, we will make history, he stated.US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman joined Netanyahu on his flight.Blue and White leader Benny Gantz will also have a one-on-one meeting with Trump on Monday, and he left for Washington earlier Sunday on a commercial flight with a stopover in Zurich.An invitation had originally been extended to Netanyahu and Gantz to meet together with the president, but Gantz and his advisers opposed the idea for political reasons. The Blue and White leader said on Saturday night that he had now accepted an invitation to meet with Trump alone.The long-delayed Trump peace plan, expected to be extremely generous to Israel, was drawn up by the former special envoy Jason Greenblatt, Trump adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner, and Friedman.Some of the expected details of the plan, according to KAN, are that Israel would maintain control of Jerusalems Holy Basin, which includes the Western Wall, while some of the Arab neighborhoods in east Jerusalem would be part of a future Palestinian state.Israel will be able to annex 30% of the West Bank, including all the settlements in Area C and the entire Jordan Valley, according to KAN. However, Israel will have to evacuate illegal outposts, and give the Palestinians land in exchange for the annexed areas.A demilitarized Palestinian state would be formed on the other 70% of the land. Gaza would also have to be demilitarized. Israel will also have freedom of military action in the Palestinian state.The Blue and White leader will meet with Trump in the White House at 12:00 noon to discuss the details of the plan, which is expected to be released in the coming days. The meeting will be closed to the press but Gantz will give a briefing to the press at his hotel shortly afterwards. He will leave to the airport to fly back to Israel at 15:30 so as to be present during hearings in the Knesset on Netanyahus request for immunity from prosecution.We are in the critical hour of designating the national and security border of the State of Israel, Gantz said in a speech on Saturday night before he headed out to the US capital. That is why I responded to his invitation to meet with him personally as the head of the largest party in Israel.The Blue and White leader, who has heard many of the details of Trumps plan, said it could be a significant milestone in defining a path to resolving the IsraelPalestinian conflict, but also that the presidents plan could be the basis of an agreed-upon accord with the Palestinians and regional states, a possible acknowledgment of the deep hostility of the Palestinians to the proposals.Accompanying Gantz on his trip is Maj.-Gen. (res.) Amir Eshel, a former Israel Air Force commander who has been serving over recent months in an advisory capacity to the Blue and White leader on the American peace plan, and as a liaison to the American government on his behalf.Gantz is also taking Yoram Turbowitz, a member of Blue and Whites strategic team, as well as by Maayan Cohen Israeli, his chief of staff.Speaking to The Jerusalem Post on Sunday, Blue and White MK Chili Tropper said it appeared there were some good aspects of the peace plan for Israel, but demurred from commenting on it until the details are fully released.Asked if Blue and White can agree to a Palestinian state if the Trump plan calls for it, Tropper said the party was first and foremost concerned with the security of Israel, and that any further comment must wait until it is clear what kind of entity is envisioned in the forthcoming proposals.Blue and White includes a diverse array of politicians across the political spectrum, although Gantz is the driving force in its decision-making mechanisms, in consultation with the so-called cockpit of Yair Lapid, Moshe Yaalon and Gabi Ashkenazi.The MK also said the fact that the Palestinians have already rejected the plan must be taken into account.You cannot ignore the fact that there have been proposed plans which have been far more generous to the Palestinians which they have also opposed, said Tropper.It is thought that there are contingencies built into the plan in the event that the Palestinians reject it outright, which might include allowing Israel to take unilateral steps, such as annexing settlement blocs or the Jordan Valley.Gantz is wary of using the terminology Palestinian state but sources say he believes some sort of Palestinian entity should be established, with some form of autonomy, as long as Israels security concerns are met.The Blue and White campaign is not unduly worried about the introduction of the Trump peace plan and believes the focus of the elections will swing back quickly to domestic issues, Netanyahus immunity request and the criminal complaints against him.Tovah Lazaroff and Tamar Beeri contributed to this report.-US President Donald Trumps peace plan will advance Israels interests, a confident Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday before boarding a plane to Washington for what he predicted would be a historic meeting with Trump.I am going to Washington to face an American president who isbringing forward a plan that I believe will advance our most vital interests, Netanyahu said.During the last three years I spoke countless times with Trump who is a great friend of Israel and his team, Netanyahu said.

During those conversations he discussed Israels vital interests, its security and the issue of justice, Netanyahu said.

He recalled the time he had traveled to the US under very different circumstances, to hold a speech in Congress to argue against former US president Barack Obamas Iran deal. It was a plan that he felt endangered Israels very existence.

US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman joined Netanyahu on his flight.

Blue and White leader Benny Gantz will also have a one-on-one meeting with Trump on Monday, and he left for Washington earlier Sunday on a commercial flight with a stopover in Zurich.

An invitation had originally been extended to Netanyahu and Gantz to meet together with the president, but Gantz and his advisers opposed the idea for political reasons. The Blue and White leader said on Saturday night that he had now accepted an invitation to meet with Trump alone.

The long-delayed Trump peace plan, expected to be extremely generous to Israel, was drawn up by the former special envoy Jason Greenblatt, Trump adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner, and Friedman.

Some of the expected details of the plan, according to KAN, are that Israel would maintain control of Jerusalems Holy Basin, which includes the Western Wall, while some of the Arab neighborhoods in east Jerusalem would be part of a future Palestinian state.

Israel will be able to annex 30% of the West Bank, including all the settlements in Area C and the entire Jordan Valley, according to KAN. However, Israel will have to evacuate illegal outposts, and give the Palestinians land in exchange for the annexed areas.

A demilitarized Palestinian state would be formed on the other 70% of the land. Gaza would also have to be demilitarized. Israel will also have freedom of military action in the Palestinian state.

Gantz will meet with Trump on Monday morning in the White House to discuss the details of the plan, which is expected to be released in the coming days, although the meeting will be closed to the press.

Following his meeting with Trump, Gantz will fly back to Israel immediately so as to be present during hearings in the Knesset on Netanyahus request for immunity from prosecution.

We are in the critical hour of designating the national and security border of the State of Israel, Gantz said in a speech on Saturday night before he headed out to the US capital. That is why I responded to his invitation to meet with him personally as the head of the largest party in Israel.

The Blue and White leader, who has heard many of the details of Trumps plan, said it could be a significant milestone in defining a path to resolving the IsraelPalestinian conflict, but also that the presidents plan could be the basis of an agreed-upon accord with the Palestinians and regional states, a possible acknowledgment of the deep hostility of the Palestinians to the proposals.

Accompanying Gantz on his trip is Maj.-Gen. (res.) Amir Eshel, a former Israel Air Force commander who has been serving over recent months in an advisory capacity to the Blue and White leader on the American peace plan, and as a liaison to the American government on his behalf.

Gantz is also taking Yoram Turbowitz, a member of Blue and Whites strategic team, as well as by Maayan Cohen Israeli, his chief of staff.

Speaking to The Jerusalem Post on Sunday, Blue and White MK Chili Tropper said it appeared there were some good aspects of the peace plan for Israel, but demurred from commenting on it until the details are fully released.

Asked if Blue and White can agree to a Palestinian state if the Trump plan calls for it, Tropper said the party was first and foremost concerned with the security of Israel, and that any further comment must wait until it is clear what kind of entity is envisioned in the forthcoming proposals.

Blue and White includes a diverse array of politicians across the political spectrum, although Gantz is the driving force in its decision-making mechanisms, in consultation with the so-called cockpit of Yair Lapid, Moshe Yaalon and Gabi Ashkenazi.

The MK also said the fact that the Palestinians have already rejected the plan must be taken into account.

You cannot ignore the fact that there have been proposed plans which have been far more generous to the Palestinians which they have also opposed, said Tropper.

It is thought that there are contingencies built into the plan in the event that the Palestinians reject it outright, which might include allowing Israel to take unilateral steps, such as annexing settlement blocs or the Jordan Valley.

Gantz is wary of using the terminology Palestinian state but sources say he believes some sort of Palestinian entity should be established, with some form of autonomy, as long as Israels security concerns are met.

The Blue and White campaign is not unduly worried about the introduction of the Trump peace plan and believes the focus of the elections will swing back quickly to domestic issues, Netanyahus immunity request and the criminal complaints against him.

Tovah Lazaroff and Tamar Beeri contributed to this report.

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