Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By admin on January 9, 2020

This is not the aspirational fluff of Instagram wall neon; its fact. Recent surveys have shown that a majority of travelers consider food first when planning a trip, even ahead of where they sleep. Add to this that people are also traveling more than ever before earthlings logged a record-breaking 1.4 billion international trips last year and its safe to say that the hunger for new culinary experiences is more ravenous than ever. While the endlessly alluring bistros of Paris, izakayas of Tokyo, shawarma stands of Tel Aviv, and tasting menus of Mexico City will always top many peoples lists of cravings, were continually on the lookout for something new to fill our bellies, our passports, and our feeds.

Which is why weve put together Eater Travels first-ever list of the most dynamic food cities in the world right this second. These 19 vital destinations are places where, for whatever reason, the food scenes today are resonating with appetites more than ever before. Whether its Pristina Kosovo has the youngest population in Europe where chefs are using food to establish a new national identity; or Lagos, where the buzz around the local art and music scenes are trickling onto the plate; or Marseilles, which has shattered its bouillabaisse-only rep to become Frances hottest food town; or and trust us here Milwaukee, where the forthcoming Democratic National Convention has put the cheese-curd city on its toes, these are the places you want to eat now.

To curate this list, we reached out to Eaters vast web of culinary experts across the globe, who revealed where in their respective regions theyre most excited to eat. Then Eater editors dove in deep with on-the-ground research, local input, and reference to our own travel journals to come up with a collection of cities that celebrate the many magnificently diverse ways there are to eat in 2020. Guiding your appetite once you land are 19 corresponding maps written by locals, made for travelers to the utterly essential restaurants, cafes, street stands, bars, coffee shops, and market stalls in each of these edible wonderlands. So, with this your wanderlust playbook for the next 12 months in hand, its time to cash in those miles and open wide. Your next trip, and your next meal, await.

Quite possibly the best place to eat in all of Southeast Asia, the capital of the Malaysian island state of Penang.

With influences that include Malay, regional Chinese, Indonesian, south Indian, British, and only-found-here fusions of all of the above (try Baba-Nyonya cuisine, a mix of indigenous and Chinese cooking styles), George Town is a hotbed of culinary diversity. A typical day of eating here might start with the Malay-style breakfast of nasi lemak, rice cooked in coconut milk and served with sambal; lunch could mean a banana-leaf thali, an all-you-can-eat platter of south Indian deliciousness.

At dinner, go for a plate of Chinese-style fried noodles, or wander one of the hawker centers and graze your way through a lifetimes worth of specialties. The town was made for a food crawl much of the best stuff is served from small stalls or mobile carts, meaning that its easy to hit multiple spots and try several dishes (most under $3) in a single meal.

And with elder cooks following classic recipes and using centuries-old techniques, eating in George Town is a bit like traveling back in time. None of these charms are particularly new, but they are fleeting. Aging vendors and declining hawker centers, plus the increasing pressures of gentrification and tourism, mean that George Towns particular magic is something to experience now, while it lasts.

The historic and oft-romanticized North African hub, at the crossroads of cultures for millennia. The native Amazigh peoples, Arabian settlers, and European traders are largely responsible for whats here today: a bustling, architecturally magnificent city rapidly changing to keep up with modern life while preserving ancient ways, which include the countrys signature sweet-savory-spiced cuisine.

Ask any Moroccan and they will tell you the very best Moroccan food is in a Moroccan home. This has long made eating in Marrakech as a visitor a tall order. But as the profile of North African cooking has risen worldwide, more and more of the foreigners coming to Marrakech are coming as culinary tourists. In response, there are new and genuinely excellent restaurants popping up every month featuring high-quality Moroccan cuisine.

Its still hard to find many locals dining out for tagine and couscous, but the options for foreigners to taste the citys traditional foods are better than ever. For those who prefer their Moroccan classics at home, a wave of new pizza, burger, sandwich, and coffee places have opened as well, catering to a growing enthusiasm for international street food. With more investment in infrastructure, increased tourism, and the new official designation as Africas first-ever Capital of Culture, the time to see (and eat) Marrakech is now.

An industrial Swedish town less than an hour from Copenhagen, but which stands out as far more funky and eccentric than its Danish cousin.

Taking a 40-minute train ride over an impressive structure immortalized by the TV show The Bridge and crossing from Denmark to Sweden might seem paradoxical why, you may ask, would you do that when the capital of New Nordic cooking, Copenhagen, is right there? But proximity does not equal similarity.

Malm has long bred young talent eager to work with the pristine produce made possible by the mild climate and organic farms of the Skne region. Nose-to-tail thinking, here originating from the trailblazing restaurant Bastard, seems to flow from the taps, and pairing that with the citys hippie-ish spirit and diverse population results in some truly compelling cooking.

A lover of natural wine will find the train ticket more than worth the price to explore the vast selections and long-forgotten treasures poured in most restaurants. For a city of 300,000, Malm has an impressive range of delightfully nonconformist bars and restaurants that share a spirit with but stand distinctly apart from its neighbors.

An island city suburb of Vancouver, British Columbia, Richmond is home to North Americas largest proportion of citizens of East Asian heritage, as well as whats reputed to be the continents largest Asian night market.

Its the best place to eat Chinese food in North America, hands down. While locals have been proud of Richmonds cuisine for decades, the rest of the world is now getting wise. Richmonds culinary landscape is a two-pronged exploration of the traditional and hyper-regional foods of its residents many of whom have roots in Hong Kong, Taiwan, and mainland China as well as an apex for Canadas young Asian-Canadian chefs building off the traditional toward something completely their own.

Diners can expect to find the staunchest of old-guard cooking happily alongside the unique Asian-Canadian style of Richmonds new-wave chefs, who have started to shift Richmonds culinary scene from classically Chinese to an anomalous taste of the past, present, and future of Asian cuisine in North America.

The Korean capital during the Silla dynasty (57 B.C. to A.D. 935) and current architectural haven, surrounded by miraculously well-preserved temples, palaces, burial mounds, and other structures of religious and political significance.

The southeastern city of Gyeongju is called the museum without walls for good reason. In a country where many historic structures have been lost to war or the ravages of time, Gyeongju is the exception. Its historical significance has made the midsize city a top destination among Korean tourists for decades, but the picturesque town remains relatively untread by foreigners.

Eating in Gyeongju is its own kind of time travel here, you can dine like a Silla royal, with recipes passed down over centuries, cooked by chefs specially trained in the formal styles, or eat like a monk, with the clean, vegetable-driven cooking of Korean temple food, prepared and served by Buddhist clergy beneath swooping tile roofs. The boom in domestic tourism has drawn young, boundary-pushing chefs as well, who use local ingredients and modern techniques to reach new depths of Korean flavors. With as many garlicky fried chicken stands and cold noodle shops as there are monuments, and with more and more international tourists flocking to South Korea, the time is now to get a taste of old Korea in Gyeongju.

The blue-collar Midwestern burg, cozy against the banks of Lake Michigan and long in the shadow of Chicago, which may finally be having its moment.

The Democratic National Convention invades Milwaukee in 2020, setting up shop in shiny new Fiserv Forum home of reigning NBA MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Eastern Conference favorite Bucks prompting city leaders to ponder a temporary extension of bar time (4 a.m.?) and wonder how many additional hotels are needed downtown (seven?). Theres a sense that Milwaukee may finally be worthy of its own Portland-ish converted warehouse district, Austin-esque food truck park, and a spell in the national spotlight.

Of course the city has always been long on cheese and beer and corner-bar drinking culture. But 2020 seems like a potential high watermark of buzz, an all-at-once realization of decades of Rust Belt renewal. Or maybe thats just the collective hazy optimism that comes from two dozen or so area breweries opening in the past three years. Either way, high or low, old or new, pierogies or Pisco sours, goulash or James Beard-level gastronomy, a bag o curds or goat cheese curds with chorizo cream sauce, theres a lot to eat, and even more to consider, in Milwaukee right now.

An ancient Israeli port city that goes by many names Akko (Hebrew), Acre (English), and Akka (Arabic) skirting the Mediterranean coast just over an hour northwest of Tel Aviv.

Streets of cobblestone weave through a majestic old city that earned UNESCO World Heritage Site status in 2001 thanks to its millenia-old walls, fortresses, castles, mosques, and synagogues. The culture of Akko is a complex tapestry of Jewish, Arab, Muslim, Christian, and Bah influences; unlike in much of the country, where divergent ethnic and religious groups exist alongside but largely separate from one another, the lives of those in Akko, with their varied backgrounds and faiths, are more peacefully intertwined.

One obvious beneficiary of all this convergence is the food scene, which erupts on seemingly every corner. Here, find coffee spiked with cardamom and Yemenite hawaij, endless international variations of hummus, and seafood dropped on your plate direct from the surrounding seas. Peerless eating takes place on every level, from walk-up bakeries selling sweet kanafeh pastries dripping with syrup to one of Israels most acclaimed restaurants, Uri Buri, whose famed bearded chef shows off his lifelong obsession with the ocean. Olives, dates, tahini, zaatar, fresh fish, and rare herbs all come together in this endlessly walkable city, where past meets present and sea meets earth.

Frances second-largest city, built around one of the great natural harbors of the Mediterranean, whose gastronomic reputation was long summed up for the French by bouillabaisse. Thats changing fast.

During the 19th century, immigrants from Italy, Spain, Greece, and other countries came to Marseilles to work its docks, mills, and factories. This early influx of cultures helps explain whats evolved into a spectacularly cosmopolitan food scene, which became even richer with the arrival of repatriated North Africans from Frances North African colonies following independence in the 1950s and 60s.

When Marseille was named one of Europes two official Capitals of Culture in 2013, the city undertook a series of urban-renewal projects, including the construction of a sleek tramway and Sir Norman Fosters beautiful renovation of Le Vieux Port (the old port), and tourism has boomed as a result. With all the new mouths to feed, talented young chefs from all over France suddenly saw Marseille through fresh eyes, and they started opening small restaurants serving a cuisine that never existed here before: moderately priced contemporary southern French bistro cooking, spinning on an axis of global flavors, freshness, and creativity. Marseilles restaurant scene has never been so good.

A globally recognized technology hub and the entertainment heartbeat of West Africa, with a boundless creative energy wired into the fabric of the city.

The biggest names in Afrobeat are, more often than not, Lagosians, and the food scene here pulsates with equal force. First-time visitors encounter a barrage of sights, sounds, street food, and restaurant options representing the foods of immigrant populations from across West Africa, much of it lush with spice and oil. Rice dishes anchor Nigerian cooking: specialties like jollof, white rice with a tomato-y sauce, and locally grown ofada rice with a stew of peppers and palm oil.

Fish pepper soup dispensaries double as art galleries, and international tech-industry transplants have brought with them the flavors of Ethiopia, Lebanon, and south India. By day, vendors selling crispy puff puffs and other small chops snacks line the sidewalks, while flickering streetside grills illuminate the city at night. The forthcoming Eko Atlantic City project a 4-square-mile patch of land reclaimed from the Atlantic Ocean that will house 250,000 new residents is expected to bring an influx of chef-driven and fine dining restaurants, but amplified flavors and a boisterous spirit infuse all levels of eating in Nigerias buzziest metropolis.

One of the major breadbaskets of Japan, once described by writer Haruki Murakami as being similar to Arthur Conan Doyles Lost World, a city untouched by time, the kind of place where prehistoric animals might still roam. Which is to say, despite being the headquarters of industrial heavy hitters like Toyota, its more of an overgrown country hamlet than a proper cosmopolitan center.

As visitors pour into Japan for the Tokyo Olympics in 2020, Nagoya a neat two-hour ride from Tokyo Station and on the way to major destinations like Kyoto, Osaka, and Hiroshima is perfectly positioned for food-focused side trips. While admittedly theres not a ton to do here, there is more than enough to eat as Michelin formally noted in 2018 when it added Nagoya to its roster of cities.

Nagoya-meshi, the Japanese term used to describe the cuisine of the region, includes kishimen (chewy, flat noodles), hitsumabushi (crispy charred eel in a savory-sweet sauce), miso katsu (deep-fried pork in a rich miso gravy), and much more of the citys hearty, robust cooking. From an abiding love of rich red miso to a flourishing coffee culture centered around the Morning the benevolent tradition upheld by some restaurants and coffee shops of serving a small meal free of charge with your morning coffee Nagoya is a place where the food is as generous and cheerful as its inhabitants.

The most influential city in northeastern Mexico a major financial, commercial, and industrial center surrounded by the stunning mountains of Sierra Madre Oriental and the saddle-shaped landmark of Cerro de la Silla where beef is king and grilling is elevated to the point of fine art.

This is the birthplace of Topo Chico mineral water, arrachera (the skirt steak that often anchors carne asada), and the biggest barbecue competition in Latin America. Beef barbacoa, grilled cabrito (baby goat) and ribeye, and pillowy flour tortillas are reason enough to visit this prosperous city, but theres a bevy of lesser-known regional gems obscure even in other parts of Mexico that are just waiting to become international obsessions.

Dishes like empalmes, two corn tortillas spread with pork fat and filled with cumin-spiked refried beans along with cheese, salsa, and the endemic piquin chiles, warmed over a charcoal grill. Or machacado, a heavenly morning staple where dried beef meets scrambled eggs. For those same food-minded travelers whove become Mexico City regulars and are now falling in love with Oaxaca, Monterrey is very likely the next big thing.

A neighborhood in lower Manhattan with petite spaces, accessible prices, and possibly a wider diversity of cuisines and innovative restaurants than any other single neighborhood in the city and likely the country.

Even in a town with so many great restaurants, the East Village stands out as New Yorks most dynamic dining neighborhood. Its got cuisines galore Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Ukrainian, Jewish, Indian, Vietnamese, Filipino, and more but more than that, these restaurants arent painting with broad culinary strokes. More recently, theyve highlighted regional east and southeast Asian cuisines and even hyper-specific dishes, a result of both increased competition and a growing local customer base of discerning international students.

Theres a location of Suki, a six-seat restaurant that specializes in Japanese curry made from scratch, and Dian Kitchen, a spot dedicated to making rice noodles just as theyre found in the Yunnan province of China. Theres masala chai from Kolkata Chai, a bid from two brothers for South Asians to reclaim the drink, and theres the only New York location of the Alley, a cult-followed Taiwanese bubble-tea chain that levels up New Yorks boba game. Plus, the East Village is a neighborhood where creativity is prized and pretension isnt allowed; prices are generally reasonable here. Its a dizzying array of food, drink, and stylish downtown restaurants that cant be found anywhere else in New York, let alone the world.

The lively capital of Kosovo Europes youngest nation, which declared independence just 11 years ago and has since been finding its voice through the arts, nightlife, and, of course, food.

Kosovo separated from Serbia to become its own nation in 2008, just over a decade ago; experiencing those inspired early days of a newly independent food culture is a rare opportunity. Pristinas cooking has historically been influenced by the flavors of the Ottoman Empire, former Yugoslavia, and its Mediterranean neighbors, with a focus on grilled meats, peppers, cheeses, pastries, and pickles.

But with a new identity has come the freedom to look inward and explore how those classic flavors and hyper-local ingredients can be futzed with, mashed together, and made new. Pristina has remained mostly off the radar of mainstream tourists until now (the fallout of the Balkan wars of the 90s has been long lasting), the benefit of which is the sense of genuine innovation everywhere you look. Even the most jaded traveler can relish that kind of energy, which emanates through the people and the plates of Pristina.

Lisbons oft-overlooked (by tourists, anyway) and equally charming northern sibling cosmopolitan by definition, friendly by heritage, and in the midst of its finest gastronomic moment.

With Portuguese food on the rise worldwide, Portugal has never received so many travelers (especially Americans) willing to devour everything this small country has to offer. But most begin and end their Portuguese adventure with Lisbon, flying back home without ever tasting the coveted northern cuisine of Porto. Here, local chefs are cooking traditional food with newfound refinement, giving a fresh shape to hearty recipes that for decades have been considered too heavy. Now, restaurateurs from all over the world have settled in the city attracted by its nostalgic atmosphere and breathtaking beauty to open new third-wave coffee shops, pastry venues, pizza places, and other concepts that are betting on quality. But in this small town, its the traditional tascas putting out 10 euro meals that surprise at every turn.

The gem of Colombias Caribbean coast a beach-y melding of indigenous cultures with the flavorful influences of the African, Arab, and Spanish populations whove each left their marks throughout history.

Cartagena today is composed of distinct, character-rich neighborhoods like arty Getseman and peaceful Manga, with its leafy, restaurant-rich promenades. Colombias international culinary cred has jumped in recent decades, thanks to the collision of native ingredients from the Amazon and a traditional repertoire that includes hearty stews, cheesy empanadas, stuffed arepas, grilled meats, and mind-boggling tropical fruits. Chefs from across the country have been lured to Cartagena by the abundant fresh seafood and tropical biodiversity, elevating the citys already-rich food scene to Andean-level heights.

The capital city of Tasmania, the enchanting island-state off Australia, is best known for its rugged wilderness, stunning coastlines, seaside chip shops, and cartoon anti-hero inspired by one of its indigenous species.

Hobart has long had the reputation of being a snoozy waterfront city, but the opening of the quirky Museum of Old and New Art (MONA) in 2011 has proven to be a catalyst for a general spirit of creative risk-taking. The art and music scenes here have exploded (as evidenced by the fantastical, gothic, pagan-inspired Dark Mofo festival each winter), and the restaurant scene has grown right along with it. Tourism too, has boomed, and chefs have begun moving from the mainland, attracted by the slower pace of life, tight-knit community, and impeccable farmland. A growing group of new restaurants are leading the way in showing that Hobart is more than just fish and chips.

The longstanding caricature of Oakland was of a city that a privileged core of San Franciscans reserved for a punchline: too poor, too black, and almost comically liberal, they said, devoid of culture, cappuccinos, and a decent Caesar. Today, few would deny that Oakland is the regions cultural and artistic center; the capital of small entrepreneurs, of food that gives voice to identity.

Oakland is currently one of Americas most dynamic food cities not because of the polish of its restaurants, the number of their James Beard medals, or any galaxy of Michelin stars, but because of its loyalty to cooks telling complicated stories through food: where they came from, their struggle for equity, or how we, as citizens, believe we ought to treat one another.

Weve known injustice and tragedy here the fatal shooting of Oscar Grant and the Ghost Ship fire, gentrification and the spiraling crisis of the unhoused, and especially the black exodus to affordable places, a sapping of Oaklands spirit. But the energy that persists with us, the resistance and struggle, our striving to be better, the beauty and community of this place: All of it shades the way we shop, cook, and gather to eat. All of it makes Oakland an essential city for food and drink.

Irelands ancient port town, which has managed to escape the worst aesthetics of mass-produced modernity and fridge-magnet chic that blight chunks of Dublin and Galway.

The easily walkable city center may still have the look of a sleepy Irish postcard, but Cork is far from snoozy, with frequent music and arts festivals and locals and students from its university campus filling the pubs, restaurants, and venues in between. In the last 18 months, three restaurants along this dramatic coastline have received Michelin stars, but while rural Cork County has long been on the international set of culinary coordinates from Ballymaloe and its world-class cookery school in the east to the wilds of West Cork and the origin stories of the Irish farmhouse cheese movement Cork city has long played second fiddle.

That has changed. With the beloved and ancient English Market as the towns traditional heart, what has grown up around it is a delicious and diverse counterpoint, ranging from a tiny south Indian ayurvedic cafe to sourdough pizza, from Japanese food both casual and starry to Middle Eastern cafes, and from impeccable fish and chips to an almost religious craft-beer obsession. Cork has always had the ingredients to be the most exciting food city on the island (before the 2008 economic slump, it was). Now its back and more vital than ever.

The stunning Chilean capital and colonial Spanish city nestled among the Andes mountains a favorite South American travel destination for summer ski bums and wine lovers.

While Santiago may bring to mind comfort-food favorites like overstuffed completos or heaping plates of pernil, the city is in a state of culinary flux. Santiago chefs, inspired by the inward-looking approach of Noma and simultaneous culinary revolutions occurring throughout South America, are reversing the old trope that traditional Chilean food was not suited for fine dining.

Theres increased access to and appreciation of indigenous ingredients used traditionally by the Mapuche people, and a new integration of modern techniques to Chilean classics. Whether one is experiencing Santiagos own bistronomy movement, the modernization and re-imagining of Chiles beloved barbecue, or its sangucheras, outposts of Chiles vibrant sandwich culture, Santiagos way of eating and cooking is evolving in ways weve never seen before.

Editor: Nicholas Mancall-Bitel

Creative director: Brittany Holloway-Brown

Contributors: Austin Bush, Amanda Ponzio-Mouttaki, Alisa Larsen, Hillary Eaton, Jay Friedman, Summer Sun-Min Lee, Todd Lazarski, Keren Brown, Alexander Lobrano, Kay Ugwuede, Nina Li Coomes, Liliana Lpez Sorzano, Serena Dai, Stefanie Tuder, Kaltrina Bylykbashi, Rafael Tonon, Juliana Duque, Audrey Bourget, John Birdsall, Tim Magee, Joe McNamee

Copy editors: Emma Alpern, Rachel P. Kreiter

Fact checker: Lisa Wong Macabasco

Engagement editors: Adam Moussa, Milly McGuinness, James Park

Project manager: Ellie Krupnick

Special thanks to: Amanda Kludt, Matt Buchanan, Meghan McCarron, Sonia Chopra

Photos, in order: Gary He, Inti St. Clair for Getty Images, Gary He, Henryk Sadura for Getty Images, Gary He, Denis Tangney Jr. for Getty Images, Corinna Kern, Meghan McCarron, Adetona Omokanye, Ozan Aktas / EyeEm, fbdesigncenter / Shutterstock, Aldo Felipe Orozco Hernndez / EyeEm, Louise Palmberg (Noodles at Ho Foods), Giannis Papanikos / Shutterstock, Apexphotos for Getty Images, Gary He, John White for Getty Images, eddie-hernandez.com / Shutterstock.com, Darren McLoughlin, Angela Lourenco for Getty Images

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The Best Travel Cities for Street Food and Restaurants in 2020 - Eater

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Posted By admin on January 9, 2020

By Daniel Cipriani | January 09, 2020

I was born and grew up in Israel to Brooklynite parents who made aliyah, and I grew up knowing Hebrew and the chagim, but my immediate family was secular. After my parents divorced and I came to the States I began to get closer to Judaism and Jewish learning. By the age of 26, after years of searching, I started becoming religious, put on my first pair of tefillin, and started down the baal teshuva road. I was always fascinated with the Talmud and the profound magic in its pages. When I started yeshiva at Aish HaTorah I began to learn Gemara. Seven and a half years ago I was so invested that I began the Daf Yomi cycle with groups, then a chavruta, then on my own. I marked where Ive been over the 7 -year cycle, from meeting my wife, having kids, working on my Phd, and beginning at RKYHS teaching history. Learning was a wonderful and deep process, which connected me to the tradition and wonderful evolution of Jewish law and thought. My message is that anyone can do this, from any stream of Judaism, male or female, and if you put your mind, body and spirit on the path, anything is possible.

By Daniel Cipriani

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Siyum HaShas Reflections - Jewish Link of New Jersey

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Becky Syrett, Operations Manager of the SSE Arena in London, expresses what surprised her most about hosting close to 7,000 at Englands Siyum Hashas. Full Story

By COLlive staff

A letter to the staff of the Siyum Hashas held this week in Londons Wembley Arena has been published in a newspaper expressing admiration to the organizers and the participants.

In the letter shared on social media, Becky Syrett, Operations Manager of the SSE Arena in London, expressed her surprise and appreciation of the behavior of the close to 7,000 participants of the event marking the completion of the daily reading and study of one page of Talmud from the 2,711 set, which takes place every 7 years.

Syrett wrote that the stadium staff was blown away that there was not a single incident of drunkenness, boisterous or rowdy behavior, during the event, which she says in her 28 months of working at the arena at over 300 events, has never happened before.

What surprised her as well was the fact that not a single dangerous item was confiscated at the event.

Syrett also noted that her team was blown away by the amount of thank yous they received at the end of the evening.

I am devastated that Siyum only takes place once every seven years, she concluded. This event was a delight for all of us.

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The Kiddush Hashem at the London Siyum Hashas - COLlive - Chabad News

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If ever there were a Gen X Jewish woman writer who made meaning out of the intimate details and dark forces that wreaked havoc on her life, it was Elizabeth Wurtzel. The author of Prozac Nation and More, Now, Again: A Memoir of Addiction, Wurtzel died, far too young, on Tuesday from metastatic breast cancer; she was just 52.

I didnt know Wurtzel personally, but I knew her deeply personal struggles. Time and again, Wurtzel used her writing to confront her own vulnerabilities head-on, honing an intimate and detailed form of personal memoir which changed the conversations around mental illness and addiction in the U.S. What she accomplished was new and brave and important. With her visceral approach, Wurtzel helped many understand their own struggles, and slay their own demons.

Wurtzels life had many revolutions, from music writer to memoirist to provocateur to lawyer (with a JD from Yale). Finally, she was a patient, and being who she was, Wurtzel brought the same unflinching honesty to her own cancer, writing a deeply disquieting Sunday op-ed in The New York Times: The Breast Cancer Gene and Me.

I did not know I have the BRCA mutation, she wrote then, in 2015. I did not know I would likely get breast cancer when I was still young, when the disease is a wild animal. I caught it fast and I acted fast, but I must have looked away: By the time of my double mastectomy, the cancer had spread to five lymph nodes.

In the wake of her death this week, those of us who are or love Ahskenazi Jewish women should follow Wurtzels lead and face up to the facts of breast cancer and BRCA without flinching.

Lets start with the numbers, as staggering and scary as they may be. Beyond some kinds of skin cancer, breast cancer is the most common cancer in women, regardless of race or ethnicity. Its the second most deadly cancer for women in the US, causing 40,000 deaths each year.

One in eight women will receive a breast cancer diagnosis in her lifetime. One in 400 women are BRCA-positive, having a mutation that increases their lifetime risk of developing breast and/or ovarian cancer up to 84%. And for women of Ashkenazi heritage, theres a one in 40 chance of having a BRCA genetic mutation.

I could have avoided all this, Wurtzel wrote, if I had been tested for the BRCA mutation. All Ashkenazi Jewish women should be tested, because we have it at least 10 times the rate of the rest of the population.

It seems extremely likely shes right. A preventative double mastectomy decreases the risk of breast cancer by 95% for women who have a disease-causing BRCA mutation, according to the National Institutes of Health.

Right after her Times op-ed on BRCA came out, I spent the better part of a week interviewing geneticists, doctors, scientists and advocates from New Yorks Mount Sinai to Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem to better understand the different schools of thought on breast cancer, specifically on when and which Jewish women should get genetic counseling and testing.

What I came away with is this: Ashkenazi Jewish women even those who are unaware of breast cancer or BRCA in their families (especially when carried by the father) should talk to a genetic counselor. Even those who opt not to go for genetic testing will better understand their risks and what they can do to mitigate them. Because, yes, our choices absolutely impact our health. So do our laws.

Like Wurtzel, we can all fight to ensure that we dont lose the mandatory health insurance coverage for breast cancer screenings and some preventative treatments we gained through the Affordable Care Act and to gain coverage for genetic counseling and testing.

There are also tests you can order online to take at home, but its not recommended. The counsel of professionals who can help you understand the implications of your results for you and your family are crucial; if you were to get a positive result, youd want to hear the news from a genetic counselor who can talk you through what your next steps should be. And if you were to get a negative result, youd want to understand just whats been ruled out and what hasnt.

Most people arent brave and bold and public about the things that hurt and scare them most, like Elizabeth Wurtizel was. But maybe thanks to her, more women will be catalyzed into action, at the very least to get a mammogram, and if Ashkenazi or otherwise at higher risk, to talk to a genetic counselor. I did. And I hope the Ashkenazi women in your life will too.

Im not someone who says hella, but here it is: Elizabeth Wurtzel had hella chutzpah.

Everyone else can hate cancer. I dont, she wrote in the Guardian in 2018. Everyone else can be afraid of cancer. I am not.

And while most of us absolutely are, we can be afraid even as we face it head-on.

Erica Brody is a writer, editor and strategist who lives in Brooklyn. The views represented here are her own.

The views and opinions expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect those of the Forward.

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Elizabeth Wurtzel's death is a wakeup call - Jewish Journal

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There is a tendency among certain high-minded journalists to believe that when all sides take issue with their work, they must be doing something right. If no one is satisfied, the reasoning goes, then the piece must be onto something. But it often seems as if this logic is employed as a kind of deflection to avoid reckoning, in any meaningful way, with criticism.

Daniel Okrent, the first public editor of the New York Times, addressed this idea in a 2004 column in which he quoted a very wise dictum he had picked up from the papers Jerusalem bureau chief at the time, James Bennet: Just because everyone is mad at you doesnt necessarily mean youre doing the right thing. It was a phrase Okrent somewhat cheekily referred to as Bennets Corollary, writing that most journalists, who play defense even more aggressively than they play offense, should etch [it] into their computer screens.

Its ironic that Bennet, who is now the editorial page editor of the Times, should have coined this phrase. The journalist at the paper to whom it most often applies is Bret Stephens, the conservative pundit whose columns have been drumming up controversy ever since he defected from the editorial page of the Wall Street Journal and began working at the Times three years ago. Bennet brought him on.

The most recent column of Stephens to make the masses mad on all sides was The Secrets of Jewish Genius, his now-infamous December 27 piece in which he cited and linked to a paper that takes a genetically-minded look at the Ashkenazi intellect. One of the studys authors, Henry Harpending, is a known racist. The column caused such a stir that the Times was forced to append a lengthy editors note atop it, removing any reference to the study. Mr. Stephens was not endorsing the study or its authors views, the Times wrote unconvincingly, but it was a mistake to cite it uncritically.

The bigger mistake, though, was letting the piece get published at all. On Friday, Bennet told Politicos Michael Calderone that Stephens piece was fact-checked and edited, an embarrassing admission given that a proper edit would have caught Stephens reference to the specious study.

Stephens has been infuriating readers since he began at the Times. His first column for the paper, published in April of 2017, cast doubt on climate science while making a somewhat confusing argument in favor of what sounded like epistemological modesty, which is typically David Brooks domain. Stephens also misquoted a number from the 2014 Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and was forced to issue a correction. A bad start, though not a disqualifying one.

Still, at what point does provocation veer into lazy thinking? Stephens appears to have answered that question with his Jewish genius column whose overall boringness seems to have been overshadowed by the fact that he relied on a racist study.

Maybe the reason Stephens keeps writing bad columns is that he is bad at taking criticism. When a journalist told Stephens he was dumb in an email last year albeit not the most elevated critique Stephens responded with a long, condescending note in which he bragged about having chaired two Pulitzer juries. When David Karpf, an associate professor at George Washington University, jokingly compared Stephens to a bedbug on Twitter after it had been revealed that the Times offices had bedbugs, Stephens wrote an entire column on the resurgence of Nazi rhetoric. The implication was that Stephens was a victim of anti-Semitism because Karpf was snarking on social media.

Perhaps a more salient question is: How many times will Stephens have to mess up before Bennet cans him? Stephens work is, to my mind, proof of Bennets corollary that when everyone disagrees with you, it might be because they are right.

Bennet brought Stephens on, it seems, because he wanted to imbue the opinion pages with a diversity of thought a noble goal. Hes a beautiful writer who ranges across politics, international affairs, culture and business, Bennet wrote when he hired Stephens, and, for The Times, he will bring a new perspective to bear on the news.

But Stephens perspective may have run its course. When he abandoned the Journal because of his anti-Trump views, he was leaving a world that until the most recent election cycle was a comfortable one for him and his neoconservative compatriots. A world in which his views werent challenged. Probably the most controversial column he published shortly before bidding adieu to the Journal was the one in which he declared that Hillary Clinton was the best hope for whats left of a serious conservative movement in America. That would hardly have been a risqu idea at the Times, which endorsed Clinton, though some of Stephens other views might seem somewhat alien.

And now that he is at the Times, he has had the chance to expose his views to new audiences, though he hasnt viewed the experience in a reciprocal manner. He isnt learning from his mistakes. After Stephens found out about Karpfs bedbug tweet, he emailed Karpf to complain, ccing Karpfs boss, in an apparent effort to land his critic in trouble. Then he deleted his Twitter account when the backlash on social media became too much for him to bear. After he wrote his Jewish genius column, a proper thing for Stephens to do would have been to throw a mea culpa somewhere into his next piece, acknowledging his indiscretion and moving on. Instead, he ignored it which is his prerogative, but readers shouldnt have to put up with it.

Bennet did not respond to an email asking whether he believed his dictum applies to Stephens. Okrent, for his part, told Mediaite in an email that he doesnt think it should extend to the columnists work largely because its an opinion column, he wrote, and Bennets Corollary was applied to controversial news coverage.

It may be time for Bennets adage to expand its scope.

This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.

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Everyone Is Mad at Bret Stephens, So He Must Not Be Doing the Right Thing - Mediaite

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Posted By admin on January 9, 2020

In publishing The Secrets of Jewish Genius, anopinion pieceby regular columnist Bret Stephens, The New York Times demonstrated its commitment to free speech, at least for its stable of elite writers. That commitment means tolerating even the expression of extreme opinions that lack any solid foundation in reality. The immediate outcry from readers and media commentators was overwhelming. The Times chose to ignore the critics and defend its columnist, demonstrating either its inability to recognize racism or, more likely, its complacent acceptance of a racist view of the world.

The Times could have retracted the article or expressed its own editorial critique of its premises. Instead, the newspaper of record rose to Stephens defense. In its now edited version, the article is preceded by a long, tortured justification of Stephens position, assuring its readers that even if he appeared to be making a claim for the genetic superiority of Ashkenazi Jews, that that was not his intent.

Here is how The Times dismisses the obvious: An earlier version of this Bret Stephens column quoted statistics from a 2005 paper that advanced a genetic hypothesis for the basis of intelligence among Ashkenazi Jews. After publication Mr. Stephens and his editors learned that one of the papers authors, who died in 2016, promoted racist views. Mr. Stephens was not endorsing the study or its authors views, but it was a mistake to cite it uncritically.

We can only admire what an author and a great newspaper can learn after publishing a supposedly researched article. To prove its point, The Times quotes (rather than explains) one exasperatingly meaningless passage from the article as if it was a proof of innocence: At its best, the West can honor the principle of racial, religious and ethnic pluralism not as a grudging accommodation to strangers but as an affirmation of its own diverse identity. In that sense, what makes Jews special is that they arent. They are representational.

Here is todays 3D definition:

Representational:

A term that has specific meaning when referring to democratic processes (electing representatives to a legislative body) or, in the graphic arts, when referring to an artists attempt at artistic realism, but which has no meaning when referring to entire groups or categories of people

How do Stephens and The Times expect us to understand the idea that Jews (specifically Ashkenazi Jews) are representational? What can they, as a group, possibly represent? This begs another question: Are Jews, Catholics, Evangelicals, Muslims or the faithful of other religions a group? This becomes especially problematic in the context of the melting pot that the US has long claimed to be. Its culture of individualism the bedrock of the consumer society theoretically separates personal identity, including individual talent and intelligence, from group identity. Each individual becomes the autonomous agent of his or her will, rather than a representative of the group.

For The Times, the word representational sounds democratic and egalitarian, so rather than try to make sense of Stephens obscure and poorly reasoned prose, the editor simply quotes it, as if it was self-explanatory. Perhaps this is Stephens inelegant way of repeating the truism that the melting pot is made up of numerous groups, and the Jews, like all the other groups, are competing to be the best performers. But this fundamentally vacuous claim is belied by the title of the article that promises to reveal to its readers a secret that sets Jews apart, with the suggestion that they have been predestined to be the best performers.

Stephens racist thesis couldnt be clearer to any reader who focuses on the occasional meaningful words in his text. As the seasoned journalist Jack Shaferobservedin Politico, Jewish genetic superiority was the exact direction his woolly argument was headed, something easily deduced from reading thepassages excisedfrom the original column. Stephens cites approvingly some kind of vague consensus affirming that Jews are, or tend to be, smart. He then goes on to make a new, more precise claim concerning the more difficult question of why that intelligence was so often matched by such bracing originality and high-minded purpose. To make his case, he cites a number of heroes and one anti-hero: Sarah Bernhardt and Franz Kafka; Albert Einstein and Rosalind Franklin; Benjamin Disraeli and (sigh) Karl Marx.

There had to be one black sheep in the brilliant family, but Stephens, a former Wall Street Journal columnist, knows that everyone recognizes that Marx was a genius. Stephens might have cited a few other family members who, in more recent times, equally rose above the crowd, achieving widespread admiration: Harvey Weinstein, Bernie Madoff, Jeffrey Epstein,Ghislaine Maxwell. Most people seem to have suddenly stopped believing in the bracing originality and high-minded purpose of those personalities who wielded so much influence for so long.

Stephens then proceeds to misquote Einstein whoattributedwhat he called an attitude (and not a moral belief) that he felt was incarnate in the Jewish people. Einstein summed it up in these words: [T]he life of the individual only has meaning insofar as it aids in making the life of every living thing nobler and more beautiful. Perhaps Stephens believes that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu whoclaimsto represent the Jewish people globally demonstrates this attitude incarnate in his people. Einstein, who rejected all forms of militarism, opposed the creation of the Jewish state and condemned Menachem Begins and Yitzhak Shamirs Likud party as fascist and espousing an admixture of ultra-nationalism, religious mysticism and racial superiority, certainly wouldnt havebelieved it.

Its worth noting that, before The Times belatedly edited the article, Stephensreferred specificallyand repeatedly to Ashkenazi Jews. In the Bowdlerized version now available on The Times website, all references to the Ashkenazi have been removed. But in his text, Stephens clearly isnt referring to the Jewish religion, but to a particular ethnic group (the term used in the cited study).

Bret Stephens appeals to history to explain the superiority of the Jews: And there is the understanding, born of repeated exile, that everything that seems solid and valuable is ultimately perishable. Nearly every creative writer in Europe from the late middle ages to the Renaissance eloquently expressed the exact samesentiment(Sic transit gloria mundi). Does Stephens believe that Michel de Montaigne and William Shakespeare (among so many others) borrowed this from Ashkenazi culture? Its true that this traditional philosophical theme has now been lost in the pragmatic, ever more materialistic West, but does Stephens believe contemporary Jewish writers promote it?

Had he taken the historical argument seriously, Stephens might have explored a certain decline in the quality of Western culture that has provided an opportunity to some formerly marginalized groups of people to come to the fore in business, science and the arts. He might equally have looked into the specific role that Christians, who refused to dirty their hands with the sin of usury, attributed to European Jews.They counted on Jewish bankers to manage the money capitalism needed for its development. Jews thus found an increasingly influential place in the colonial and imperial power structures, but also in the arts and sciences that accompanied the expansion of the capitalist economy.Embed from Getty Images

Instead of delving into the deeper trends of history, Stephens prefers to wax poetic, borrowing a metaphor from the Hebrew Bible and the story of Joshua at Jericho: If the greatest Jewish minds seem to have no walls, it may be because, for Jews, the walls have so often come tumbling down. Some critics might point out that the Israelis have also become pretty good at erecting walls.

Because of his sloppy thinking and even more imprecise writing, Stephens may simply be seeking to reinforce US President Donald Trumpsrecent initiativeto define the Jews as a race or nationality as a means of punishing those in US universities who oppose Israels politics. Stephens tries to hedge his bets. He hesitates between claiming that Ashkenazi Jews are a superior race and affirming that the Jews globally represent a superior culture.

The link with Trumps politics may be revealing. Stephens thesis dovetails with the dominant trend in current US political ideology, embraced by Republicans and establishment Democrats alike: exceptionalism. If either all Americans or all Jews believe they are exceptional, all their actions, however aggressive, will appear to be justified.

Over recent decades, US exceptionalism has become, in the minds of politicians as diverse as George W. Bush,Barack ObamaandJoe Biden, a dogma never to be doubted and a mantra to be endlessly repeated, even if there is some dispute as to what exceptionalism means. The secret message Stephens appears to be trying to get across is that Ashkenazi exceptionalism is the indispensable complement to American exceptionalism. The link between the two also helps explain and justify the strength of the unbreakable alliance between the US and Israel, two incredibly prosperous nations.

But there is another link between both exceptionalisms: racism or a form of elitist white supremacy (not to be confused with the populist white supremacy of David Duke or the Ku Klux Klan). Ashkenazi Jews are white. They govern Israel and orientate its culture. This means that Israel can appear to be an appendage of Europe rather than a nation of the Middle East. Jews exercise significant influence as talented and highly-motivated individuals in numerous domains within the US power structure.

In Stephens reading, Sephardic and Ethiopian Jews, with their darker skin, do not benefit from the superior IQ attributed to the Ashkenazi. In its official culture, The New York Times expresses equal sympathy to all minorities. But, like other corporate media in the US, it does tend to express a sympathy that in Orwellian terms makes a dominantly white elite in business and politics a little more equal than the minorities. One would have to be blind or at least as naive as, say,Chuck Todd not to notice that the solidarity between the US and Israeli power structures has something to do with whiteness and the traditional colonial occupation of keeping the ever-threatening darker races at bay.

Peter Isackson

This article was originally published in Fair Observer

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Posted By admin on January 9, 2020

JERUSALEM, ISRAEL The scene: A classroom in a building next to Jerusalems Great Synagogue. About twenty women in headscarves and wigs sit poring over texts. One, in the back row, is nursing an infant under a cover.

At the front of the room sits Rabbi Refoel Kreuzer, looking more like an absent-minded professor than a revolutionary, with a black beard, long peyos behind his ears, frameless glasses. He is fully focused on the text, a complex legal discussion of the punishment to be doled out to what the text calls plotting witnesses.

This Gemara demands work, Kreuzer began. Who will read?

Midreshet Otot

Rabbi Refoel Kreuzer teaching at Midreshet Otot

A young woman in a waved wig volunteered, and read the Aramaic carefully. Kreuzer, the 38-year old founder of a Haredi rabbinic training program Lemaan Daat, holds his book like a child holds a beloved toy, as if he sleeps with it under his pillow. Can there be such a thing as an accidental plotting witness? he asked.

The women offered various scenarios, their native Hebrew allowing them to parse the text with agility. The infant grew fussy; the mother moved further back and rocked him while listening. An older woman in a blue snood sighed, leaning forward on her book.

I thought of the Midrashic adage: There is no Torah like that of the Land of Israel. Indeed, it was nearly impossible to imagine the same scene back home in the Orthodox communities of Monsey, N.Y., Long Islands Five Towns, or the shtiebels of Manhattan fluency in Hebrew is key.

Of course, Haredi women studying Talmud in such a structured and serious way is also extremely rare and controversial here in Israel; this program, called Midreshet Otot (which translates to The Academy Of Letters) has only twenty-two students.

It started, as so many interesting things do, underground. In 2016, Rabbi Kreuzer led a modest, informal weekly Talmud discussion for Haredi women in his Jerusalem home. Back then, he rebuffed my request to attend.

The situation in the community is very sensitive, he wrote to me when I first reached out to him, in 2017. For the women and for us, and we wont want to damage this progress.

There is an oft-cited rabbinic opinion that says, One who teaches his daughter [oral] Torah is as if he taught her frivolity. While Gemara study for women is gaining popularity in modern Orthodox circles known in Israel as national religious in Haredi communities in the United States and in Israel, it remains almost exclusively the province of men.

Which is why I was so intrigued when I heard about Rabbi Kreuzers secret class. I kept emailing him asking if I could sit in, and finally, when I visited Israel in December, he relented, inviting me to observe the Wednesday evening session at Midreshet Otot, based in Herzog Colleges Jerusalem campus.

I was whisked into the room by Vardit Rosenblum, a lawyer, rabbinical court advocate and the director of Midreshet Otot. She wore an auburn wig and a long skirt, and had the soft yet determined gestures of a teacher in an ultra-Orthodox Bais Yaakov girls school. I didnt know where she lived or who she was married to and where she had studied, but within ten minutes, we were debating the legal logic of the Talmud with the intimacy of lifelong study partners.

Do all plotting witnesses deserve equal punishment, Rabbi Kreuzer asked the group, whether their testimony succeeds or fails in incriminating someone?

The room erupted, the women speaking over one another. The focus was exclusively on the text; not a cell phone was in sight for the entire ninety minutes I was in the class.

Midreshet Otot

Women at Midreshet Otot

Dont rush ahead, let us make sure we really understand this, Kreuzer warned his flock. Later, he told me that while some women want to start Talmud study with Daf Yomi the practice of studying a page each day for seven-plus years to get through the entire thing he does not think this is ideal.

Learning should be deep, Kreuzer says. I throw my students into the sea of Talmud. Its like learning a language its all about immersion.

I found myself almost drowning in that sea. I had grown up in a modern Orthodox milieu, shaped by Haredi teachers and principals I had studied Bible and Jewish law in a New Jersey yeshiva girls high school and then at Stern College, and spoke an advanced Hebrew, yet I could hardly follow Kreuzers class. Gemara, yeshiva-style: it was like its own language, and the words shot over my head like rapid-fire missiles. It took me a half hour to even understand the relevance of the questions.

Lets say someone is brought in for an alleged murder on King George Street, Kreuzer said at one point, offering a modern example to illustrate the ancient rabbis point. And then two witnesses come and say, it wasnt so because we were with him that night in Bnei Brak.

He wound his thumb in a circular motion, directing his students back to the text: Now, I want you to go to the next step with this thought.

Knowledge Is Power

Talmud study for women has long been a rallying cry for Orthodox feminists. In a society where knowledge is power, the study of the rabbinic text seemed the only possible path to gender parity.

Starting in 1977, Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik, famously taught women in Yeshiva Universitys Stern College for Women. Without the Torah She-Baal Peh, there is no Judaism, he said in his inaugural lecture, referring to the Oral Law. Any talk about Judaism minus Oral Law is just meaningless and absurd, he added. Its important that not only boys should be acquainted, but girls, as well.

Since then, womens study of Talmud has grown exponentially. Today, institutions like Nishmat and Migdal Oz teach hundreds of post-high school women to study Talmud in a beit midrash. At Yeshiva University, a masters degree is offered to women in advanced Talmudic studies; twelve women are studying in this program this academic year. Some graduates go on to serve as yoatzot (halakhic advisors on ritual purity) or toanot rabbaniot (rabbinical court advocates).

Eight years ago, Michelle Cohen Farber, a Raanana-based educator, started a popular Talmud-study podcast aimed at the national-religious community. I called it Daf Yomi for Women because I wanted women to find me, she told me. Most women who have never learned before, to listen to a yeshivish podcast, one meant for men, is a foreign language.

This Sunday, four days after the much-publicized Siyum Hashas that drew 90,000 people to Met Life stadium in New Jersey to celebrate the completion of a Daf Yomi cycle, Farber will be among 3,000 women expected in Jerusalems Binyanei Hauma, in the first-ever such celebration for women who have completed the cycle.

There was a very good PR job that convinced women that Gemara is not for them, Farber said in an interview. But these days, even rabbis to the right, theyre cognizant that highly-educated professional women need to learn texts at a high level.

Daf Yomi, Farber said, can give spiritual structure to Orthodox women, who generally do not go to synagogue daily, like their husbands, brothers and sons. Its what men like about shul: You start your day feeling like you did something good, she said. It frames your day, and it gives people food for thought throughout the day.

But this sort of study is all but nonexistent for Haredi women, whether they be long-wig-wearing-fashionista in the Five Towns or the ascetic rebbetzin in Lakewood. Its not that studying these texts is outright forbidden, but its what is known as pasht nisht just not done. Though religious women often work as professionals, entrepreneurs, and even occasionally pursue doctorates in Jewish or secular subjects the books of the Talmud still serve as a red line here, a social faux pas. They are often told it isnt for them there are just so many other things one can study, or the logic is so difficult, or there are other priorities that come first for a mother.

Which is what makes the experiment of Midreshet Otot quite remarkable.

For Kreuzer, a graduate of the elite Hebron Yeshiva, it started with his marriage to Sari, a computer engineer. We began to study Gemara together, and she started writing her own thoughts down, he recalled. And I was shocked, I wasnt raised to think that women could learn, and could learn in a yeshivish way the way of the study hall.

In 2016, a group of mostly single young Haredi women eager to study approached Kreuzer, and he agreed to arrange a weekly gathering in their home in Ramot, a largely Orthodox neighborhood in Jerusalem.

These women no longer had the structure of the seminary, and they wanted to connect with the Torah, he explained. In general, our women who study in universities and pursue high-level careers they are not happy with just the parsha anymore, he said, referring to the weekly Torah portion. As a community, we must respect and support mothers with children to leave the house to study, just like we do for men.

But the Haredi establishment still heralds womens connection to the Talmud mainly through their husbands. A recent Siyum Hashas video, produced by Agudath Israel of America, celebrated the women who enable their husbands to study (without actually featuring them) these women will often work outside the home to support the family and shoulder the bulk of household chores. Many of the Midreshet Otot students are products of that cultural system.

At one point, they ask, Where is my connection? They realize it cant just be through their husband. This isnt feminism, he said. This is Torah.

A pause. Though Im not sure its for the masses, he added.

Rosenblum, a granddaughter of a rabbinic judge in Israel, is a graduate of Bais Yaakov, the Haredi girls school network. In school, they drilled into us, from a very real place, a deep love, a desire to build a home of Torah, she told me. I believe in the concept of mosifim bakodesh, that we must work to increase our spirituality. In Bais Yaakov, they would encourage us to grow in modesty, or in mitzvos observance. And if I want to be loyal to that value what else can I add to my religious commitment? I wanted to commit more to my Harediness, in a meaningful way.

Rosenblum, inspired by a childhood of watching her grandfather at work, started studying Talmud, to become a rabbinical court advocate they were, in her words, the happiest two years of her life.

She opened Midreshet Otot in October 2018; now in its second year, the class has doubled in size. It attracts those Haredi women who are searching for depth, she said. Those who knock on our doors are very serious about study.

Midreshet Otot

Midreshet Otot

For both Rosenblum and Kreuzer, the matter of teaching the next generation of Haredi women is an existential one. If we dont teach Haredi women Talmud, Kreuzer said, We are both going to lose that talent in the world of Torah thought, and their connection to Torah study.

A New Tractate

Several weeks later, back home in New York, I went with my husband to the Siyum Hashas at MetLife it is hard not to be moved by the experience of being in such a huge place filled to the rafters with Orthodox Jews.

But it is a mens event. The women were there to cheer the men who had done the studying; many wiped away tears, proud of the study they had enabled, by holding down the fort at home while their husbands went out to the beit midrash.

Sitting there in the womens section, I sense I am an observer, a supporter but not a participant.

We stood, in our furs, taking pictures for our Instagram stories and our WhatsApp chats, watching our men dancing below but most of us had barely any idea what Talmud study really means, beyond a photocopied sheet here and there in our high school and seminary classes, beyond watching our husbands and fathers.

I came home that night and stared at our family set of Shas the Talmud the heavy volumes, impenetrable behind their leather binding and foreign Aramaic.

It seemed masculine. In other words: Not for me.

In college, I never took classes in Talmud because it seemed like a statement it branded you as a feminist and thus called into question your religious commitment. Only the bright, very progressive-thinking women took it those who planned to go into education or pastoral work. But I was an ordinary, thinking frum woman; no Torah educator. I had no business on those shelves.

Now, I asked myself: How could I read another book on Jewish thought, when I have still not tasted a most central text to my Torah observance?

I picked up a volume of the Koren Talmud, the tractate of Berakhot, with an English translation.

I thought back to that Jerusalem night, to that makeshift study hall, to those women who look just like me, to the way they lovingly held their books, the passion which they have found in the depths of their own traditions.

I envied them.

Avital Chizhik-Goldschmidt is the life editor at the Forward. Find her on Twitter and Instagram.

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JERUSALEM (JTA) What does one wear to the worlds first womens Siyum HaShas?

The question I posed on social media was a joke, a play on the idea of worrying about surface appearances at any event celebrating womens achievements. But it also wasnt a joke. What does one wear to the first major celebration of womens achievements in Talmud learning, a before and after moment that will affect our community for ages to come?

A Siyum HaShas celebrates the conclusion of a cycle of Daf Yomi literally a daily page of Talmud, which was instituted in 1923 by Rabbi Meir Shapiro of Lublin and brings lomdim (those who study) through the entire Talmud in 7 years and 5 months.

It is true that completing a page of Talmud a day does not a Torah scholar make. And it is true that we are blessed with female Torah scholars whose knowledge of the Talmud, halacha and other areas of Jewish learning is deep and well beyond a daf a day. Yet, Daf Yomi and the Siyum HaShas has always been nearly an exclusively male experience. An event in Jerusalem marking womens completion en masse is simply unprecedented.

In response to my question of what to wear, one person responded: Not a wig!

But in fact, as we stood in line with hundreds of other women (and some men) in the frigid Jerusalem air on Sunday, we saw wigs, falls, hats, scarves, berets and some with no head coverings at all. The event didnt belong to any one segment or denomination of women it belonged to us all.

Through chattering teeth, women discussed things they had cancelled, ignored or asked their husbands to deal with so that they could attend the event. The atmosphere among the attendees was one of excitement and anticipation; we were taking part in a seminal event for women and the entire Jewish community.

As an activist for women in Orthodoxy, Im often witness to where women are excluded, sidelined and shut out. I know women harmed by the system, treated horribly by those meant to aid them, and I regularly see women erased. Being here, where women carved a space for themselves, created a platform and taught and learned Talmud, was perhaps more gratifying to me than most. Here, I was seeing the future, the way things could be, the way things should be.

Women well into their eighties joined babies, teenagers and over 1100 midrasha (gap year yeshivot for young women) students who were there to witness their teachers and friends celebrate their achievements. About 150 men joined as well, knowing that learning Torah is always something to celebrate.

When Rabbanit Michelle Farber, who has taught a daily Daf Yomi class for women for the past 7-plus years, took the stage, a roaring standing ovation filled the hall. Farber had done something no other woman in history had done, and with her, she brought thousands upon thousands of women and men across the Jewish world along for the ride.

Every female scholar that took the stage or was shown in a video clip was met with cheering generally reserved for rock stars, mainly led by the hundreds of teenagers in the balcony.

Tears fell from my eyes as I realized that far from screaming for Justin Bieber, these young women were cheering in awe off their female role models the women who taught them that the Torah is theirs and that they can achieve, embrace and own Torah scholarship.

Rabbanit Esty Roseberg began her remarks by thanking her father, Rav Aharon Lichtenstein of blessed memory and her grandfather Rav Yosef Solovetchik of blessed memory for opening the doors for womens learning.

When my father and grandfather opened up Torah to women, I dont think it was so much because of what they thought about women, but about what they thought about Torah. They couldnt imagine life without it.

The lone man to take the stage was Rav Benny Lau, and Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks sent in a video of congratulations. The rest of the evening featured a veritable whos who of female Torah scholars, and each was greeted with thunderous cheers and applause.

While celebrating, there was no talk of equality, status, leadership or titles. The featured speakers didnt talk about leadership they modeled it. Every speaker was impressive, each one a role model.

When I congratulated Rabbanit Farber, I asked her if she understood that she changed the world for women and girls in Torah learning. She told me that it hadnt sunk in yet.

Perhaps from her view on stage, she couldnt see the reactions of the audience, the tears in the eyes of the women who for so long had felt so left out. Perhaps she couldnt distinguish the younger girls cheering for each scholar among the roars of the audience. And clearly, she couldnt see our hearts bursting with pride. I hope that she reads the posts, the articles and the messages that have flooded social media.

From them, its clear to see that the event showed the world that womens scholarship is real and adds immensely to the Jewish world.

As we left the hall, the young women streamed down from the balcony into the stairwell and broke out into spontaneous singing and dancing on the landing. They danced for Torah, they danced for the women who achieved and they danced for themselves for the bright and open future they now face.

As more and more women master Torah and halacha, the problems we face will be addressed differently. For while learning Torah should always be about learning Torah, it must also be about improving our community.

What should one wear to the womens Siyum HaShas? The crown of Torah, of course.

The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of JTA or its parent company, 70 Faces Media.

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Posted By admin on January 9, 2020

Every day for 7 1/2 years, Jews around the world partake in Daf Yomi reading a page of the Talmud daily. Then, when theyre finished, they attend a siyum, which honors the completion of the learning.

In 2012, more than 90,000 Jews gathered at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey to hold a siyum organized by Agudath Israel of America. And this year, on Jan. 1, thousands met again at MetLife to celebrate another Daf Yomi cycle.

To educate Jewish children about the Daf Yomi tradition, Silver Spring, Md., author Leah Cypess recently released No Day Without Torah, (Menucha Publishers). The book follows the life of Rav Meir Shapiro, who was born in the late 1800s and founded Daf Yomi. Cypess is also the author of secular young adult novels and Jewish books on Purim and the Spanish Inquisition.

The Journal spoke with Cypess (whose pen name is Leah Sokol) about why this book is important, and her reverence for the Daf Yomi program.

Jewish Journal: How long have you been writing?

Leah Cypess: Ive been writing for as long as I can remember. I have it on record that when I was 8 years old, I told my grandmother that I was going to be an author when I grew up. I started submitting my short stories to magazines when I was 15, and I wrote and sent my first book out when I was 17.

JJ: You write fiction under the name Leah Cypess. What are those books about?

LC: I write young adult and middle-grade fantasy novels for the mainstream market. My first book to be published was my young adult novel Mistwood, [which was] published by HarperCollins in 2010. Mistwood is about a shapeshifter trapped in the form of a human girl. [My other book] Nightspell is about a castle where many of the inhabitants are ghosts, and Death Sworn and its sequel, Death Marked, are about a sorceress forced to train a cult of assassins.

JJ: Why did you decide to write No Day Without Torah?

LC: No Day Without Torah started with a question. I knew Daf Yomi was relatively new and I wondered how it had gotten started and managed to take off and become established so incredibly fast. My research only increased my amazement at what an incredible accomplishment it was, and the more I read, the more I wanted to popularize the history in the form of a childrens book.

JJ: How did Daf Yomi start?

LC: Well, thats what the book is about. Essentially, it was the brainchild of Rabbi Meir Shapiro, a Polish Chassidic rebbe, who introduced it at one of the meetings of the nascent Agudath Israel organization in the early 20th century. The idea took hold of peoples imaginations and became almost immediately popular.

JJ: Are kids encouraged to do Daf Yomi or do you only start at a certain age?

LC: In my experience, children are not encouraged to do Daf Yomi in its classic form. Learning an entire page of Talmud a day is quite an undertaking. But there are offshoots of Daf Yomi in other areas that children are often encouraged to do. The most common, I believe, is the idea of learning the laws of lashon harah (refraining from gossip) every day, and repeating that cycle each year.

JJ: What ages is the book designed for?

LC: The book is an early reader, most appropriate for first graders or second graders.

JJ: Where can people find No Day Without Torah?

LC: Im happy to say that Ive seen it in most of the Judaica bookstores where Ive gone to subtly check out whether its there.

JJ: What do you hope kids and adults get out of it?

LC: Im a firm believer in the importance of history, and I think its always valuable for people to understand the origins of the things we do and believe. So mostly, I hope that people come to understand how Daf Yomi came to be. I also hope to share my admiration for Rabbi Meir Shapiro and encourage adults to read more about him. There was so much in my research that I had to leave out to create a narrowly focused childrens book and to inspire kids with the knowledge that one person with one idea has, in so many ways, transformed the Jewish world.

JJ: Why is Daf Yomi a meaningful tradition to you?

LC: I have to admit that I have never personally learned Daf Yomi. For people who do, I think it is the learning itself thats the most meaningful. For me, what makes Daf Yomi meaningful is, actually, its history. [Its] the fact that something so innovative could arise so late, relatively speaking, in Jewish history and yet become so significant and entrenched for so many people.

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Leah Cypess on Daf Yomi and No Day Without Torah - Jewish Journal

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Posted By admin on January 9, 2020

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The Jerusalem Convention Center lobby on Sunday looked like a strange combination of excursion and high school reunion. The room was filled with high school and religious college girls wearing hoodies and padded backpacks next to older women who looked excited. The age range was wide, as was the choice of headgear, skirt lengths and pants.

But they had all come to celebrate an event: the end of the cycle in which women read a page of Talmud every day. The end of the cycle is considered the culmination of the lives of hundreds of thousands of Talmud students around the world. There are 2,711 pages in the 37 volumes of the Talmud, and over the past century Jews have read it on a daily basis. So the cycle spans seven and a half years. The cycle starts again immediately afterwards.

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Last week, around 10,000 people gathered in the arena in Jerusalem to celebrate the completion of the cycle sponsored by the Shas Partys El Hamaayan movement. A similar celebration was held by the Hasidic community at the Jerusalem Convention Center. Other Jewish communities celebrated with a common denominator only men.

But on Sunday, 3,000 women came to celebrate the revolution in womens Torah, along with a few men like Rabbi Benny Lau, among the prominent liberal voices in Orthodox Judaism, and the husbands of some female students.

The audience at an event in Jerusalem celebrates the end of the cycle of women reading a page of Talmud every day on January 5, 2020.Ohad Zwigenberg

According to the Hadran group organizers, only a few hundreds of thousands of women who attended the celebration had completed the cycle. But from their perspective, the fact that the event was held was confirmation that the students are not temporary curiosity.

These women belonged to a steadily growing circle of women who took an active part in the world of the Beit Midrash, the study room: Gemara teachers at girls schools or womens colleges, students in these institutions and women studying in their schools for leisure.

Women stayed away

For generations, the Talmud was out of reach of women, even if they could be trained and immersed in other Jewish books. Men didnt want to share their sole authority with women, said Prof. Rachel Elior to Haaretz in the past. Studying Gemara grants power, it allows you to gain the authority of a rabbi and a judge.

Michelle Cohen-Farber at the event at the Jerusalem Convention Center on January 5, 2020.Ohad Zwigenberg

An examination of the answers to questions of Jewish law in recent years shows that this is still a common attitude. In 2012 Rabbi Yaakov Ariel said: Studying Gemara with all its difficulties is not necessarily an adequate diet for her [women] and the harm can be greater than the benefit.

In the nineties Rabbi Shlomo Aviner wrote: The study of Gemara is not part of a womans soul, and the sages very much reject a man who teaches his daughter Torah, that is, the Gemara hair splitting.

Nobody can deny that the Gemara is full of difficulties. First, because of its language mostly Aramaic, without vowel points or punctuation. This is an associative text with its own language that can hardly be read and understood without help. Studying Gemara was a duty for men for years, and women were kept away from it. Girls learned the Mishna, a simpler text written in Hebrew, or they learned Jewish law without the trifles of the Gemara.

The seeds of the revolution began in the 1970s when Midreshet Bruria named after a Talmud woman who is famous for her scholarship began the first female counterpart to a high-ranking yeshiva in a small apartment in Jerusalem. The first students were young women from the United States who had come to Israel for their year abroad.

From then on, the trend prevailed. Such framework conditions were created for women before or after military or civilian service. The religious girls school in Pelech was the first at which girls could take an enrollment exam in this subject. According to the Ministry of Education, around 1,000 girls are taking the matriculation exam in Gemara today.

But even today the Orthodox believe that studying Gemara is only for men. The administration of religious education at the Ministry of Education, now led by a woman, held a ceremony at the end of the reading cycle in the presence of rabbis and students all men.

Feminism was not mentioned at Sundays convention center event. Instead, the organizers emphasized that this was the natural result of the chain of Torah studies in Jewish history. The audience got up and applauded the main organizer, Michelle Cohen-Farber.

In my house, she said, there are three sentences of the Talmud. One was my grandfathers when it was clear that only the man was studying. The second time my husband and I received a wedding gift, and the third time is the Talmud the future that we gave our daughter last year.

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