Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By admin on October 19, 2019

Ever wonder which words appear most in the Mishnah? Heres your answer! , , , , Click to learn more. number of... Read more Are we missing a Talmud teaching resource? To submit materials, please contact us. Talmud Teaching Tools Habits of Mind for Gemara by Tzvi Pittinsky... Read more This site offers a new new approach to the study of the Torah and of the Mishnah. It is based on an original discovery... Read more I. Introduction Every educator is confronted with the question of how toeffectively test students comprehension of material taught. Whilefinding a way for students to... Read more Unit on shevuah sheeinah birshuti (Baba Metziah 34B) This unit is designed to demonstrate to students how the Talmud is relevant to the social... Read more This article explores contradictions and tensions between Peshat and Derash. To read the article, click here. Read more An article taken fromA Practical Guide to Torah Learning by Dovid Landesman (Jason Aronson Inc., 1995). Reprinted with permission. To read the article, click... Read more To read the article, click here. Read more This article is a collection of responses to student questions on Tractate Shabbat, in Hebrew. To read the article, click here. Read more The Talmudic Meaning of Peshat By: Louis Rabinowitz This article originally appeared in Tradition: A Journal of Orthodox Thought, 6:1, 1963. Reprinted here with... Read more

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Posted By admin on October 15, 2019

The Jewish Quarter (Hebrew: , HaRova HaYehudi; Arabic: , Harat al-Yehud) is one of the four traditional quarters of the Old City of Jerusalem (part of Israeli-occupied East Jerusalem). The 116,000 square meter area[1] lies in the southeastern sector of the walled city, and stretches from the Zion Gate in the south, along the Armenian Quarter on the west, up to the Street of the Chain in the north and extends to the Western Wall and the Temple Mount in the east. In the early 20th century, the Jewish population of the quarter reached 19,000.[2]

The quarter is inhabited by around 2,000 residents and is home to numerous yeshivas and synagogues, most notably the Hurva Synagogue, destroyed numerous times and rededicated in 2010.

In CE 135, when the Roman Emperor Hadrian built the city of Aelia Capitolina on the ruins of ancient Jerusalem, the Tenth Legion set up their camp on the land that is now the Jewish Quarter.[3] New structures, such as a Roman bathhouse, were built over the Jewish ruins.[4]

The Jewish quarter was initially located near the Gate of the Moors and Coponius Gate, in the southwestern part of the Western Wall.[5] Most of the housing property consisted of Muslim religious endowments, and was rented out to Jews.[6]

The population of the quarter was not homogeneously Jewish, such a rule being neither desired by the Jewish inhabitants nor enforced by the Ottoman rulers. During the Ottoman era, most of the homes in the quarter were leased from Muslim property owners. This is one of the reasons for the growth of buildings west of the city in the last years of the Ottoman Empire since land outside the city wall was freehold (mulk) and easier to acquire.[7]

While most residents of Jerusalem in the 19th century preferred to live near members of their own community, there were Muslims living in the Jewish Quarter and Jews living in the Muslim Quarter. Many Jews moved to the Muslim Quarter toward the end of the century due to intense overcrowding in the Jewish Quarter.[8]

In 1857, an organization of Dutch and German Jews named "Kolel Hod" (kolel standing for "society" or "community" and Hod being an abbreviation of Holland and Deutschland) bought a plot of land on which, between 1860 and 1890, the Batei Mahse ("Shelter for the Needy" in Hebrew) housing complex was built.[9][10] The most prominent building of the project, the two-storey Rothschild House, built in 1871 with money donated by Baron Wilhelm Carl von Rothschild, stands on the west side of the Batei Mahse Square.[11][12]

Between December 1917 and May 1948, the entire city of Jerusalem was part of British-administered Palestine, known after 1920 as Mandatory Palestine.

Between 1910 and 1948, the number of Jews in Jerusalem rose from 45 to 100 thousand and within these totals the Old City population fell from 16 to 2 thousand over the same period.[13] According to Benny Morris,quoting a British diplomat, the nearly all Orthodox community were "on good terms with their Arab neighbours," resented the Haganah presence, and were loath to see their homes sacrificed to Zionist heroics,".[14]

Following a battle on the 11 December 1947, the day after Jewish forces in the quarter had been reinforced by Irgun and Haganah units, the British set troops to positions between the Arabs and Jews and after this, the Old City remained largely quiet until the British evacuation.[15][13]

After Irgun bomb attacks outside the Damascus Gate on 13 and 29 December 1947, resulting in the death of 18 Arabs and 86 injured including women and children, the Arabs set roadblocks outside the Old City cutting off the Jewish Quarter. The British approved this while ensuring supplies of food and the safety of the residents.[16][17][18]

On April 28, 1948 Francis Sayre, the President of the United Nations Trusteeship Council announced that both Moshe Shertok of the Jewish Agency and Jamal al-Husayni of the Higher Arab Committee had agreed to recommend to their respective communities in Palestine: (a) the immediate cessation of all military operations and acts of violence within the Old City; (b) the issue of cease-fire orders to this effect at the earliest possible moment; and (c) that the keeping of the truce should be observed by an impartial commission reporting to the Trusteeship Council. At the May 3 Trusteeship Council meeting, Sayre announced that a cease-fire order had been issued the previous day. On May 7, General Cunningham, the High Commissioner met Arab League representatives including Azzam Pasha, the Secretary-General of the League and obtained approval for a cease-fire agreement covering all of Jerusalem provided that the Jews also agreed, this being forthcoming later the same day when the Haganah issued a cease-fire order to its troops in the Jerusalem area.[19]

According to a diary covering the period 12 May to July 16 1948, of Hugh Jones, a British clergyman with Christ Church, British troops were withdrawn from their positions protecting the Jewish Quarter in the evening of May 13 1948. Haganah forces occupied the positions vacated by the army and the High Commissioner left Jerusalem early the next morning.[20][21] Morris says that there were 90 mostly Haganah defenders, joined by 100 more after the British left their positions.[22]

The defenders surrendered on May 28, 1948, Mordechai Weingarten negotiated the surrender terms. In a letter sent to the United Nations in 1968, in response to Jordanian allegations, Israel noted that Colonel Abdullah el Tell, local commander of the Jordanian Arab Legion, described the destruction of the Jewish Quarter in his memoirs (Cairo, 1959):

... The operations of calculated destruction were set in motion.... I knew that the Jewish Quarter was densely populated with Jews who caused their fighters a good deal of interference and difficulty.... I embarked, therefore, on the shelling of the Quarter with mortars, creating harassment and destruction.... Only four days after our entry into Jerusalem the Jewish Quarter had become their graveyard. Death and destruction reigned over it.... As the dawn of Friday, May 28, 1948, was about to break, the Jewish Quarter emerged convulsed in a black cloud - a cloud of death and agony.

The Jordanian commander is reported to have told his superiors: "For the first time in 1,000 years not a single Jew remains in the Jewish Quarter. Not a single building remains intact. This makes the Jews' return here impossible."[24] Abdullah al-Tal justified the destruction of the Jewish quarter by claiming that had he not destroyed the homes, he would have lost half his men. He adds that "the systematic demolition inflicted merciless terror in the hearts of the Jews, killing both fighters and civilians."[25]

In respect of the destruction of the Hurva Synagogue, originally built in 1701, according to author Simone Ricca, Israeli, Jordanian and Palestinian sources generally present divergent versions of the events that led to the destruction of the building. Whereas Israeli sources say that the Jordanian army purposefully demolished the synagogue after the cessation of the fighting, Jordanian and Palestinian sources present the destruction of the synagogue as a direct result of the fighting that took place in the Old City.[26]

Vatikiotis writes of the diary[27]kept by Constantine X. Mavridis of the Greek Consulate General, Jerusalem, "an eyewitness account of the contest between Arabs and Jews for the control of the Old City which went on for at least six months during the Palestine War (1948)".[28] According to the diary:

The Arab guerrilla fighters who later joined with the Legion of Transjordan were preoccupied with clearing the Jews from the Jewish Quarter inside the Old City, who even used their own synagogues as strongholds from where attacks were made. Qawuqji and the Transjordanian army were continuously pounding the Jewish Quarter. The Tifereth Israel Synagogue was first destroyed, and was followed by the most famous and historic Hurva Synagogue, which was destroyed on May 27. But the Arab Headquarters had warned the Jewish Headquarters through the International Red Cross that unless the armed Jewish forces withdrew from the Synagogue within a certain time limit, they would be compelled to attack it. Since there was no reply from the Jewish side, as it was stated officially by the Red Cross, the Arabs bombed and destroyed it.

During the nineteen years of Jordanian rule, a third of the Jewish Quarter's buildings were demolished.[29] According to Chief Rabbi Rabbi I H Herzog speaking in Tel Aviv in June 1948, of 27 synagogues in the Old City, 22 had been "razed by fire and explosives".[30] As part a letter sent by Israel to the United Nations in 1968 in response to Jordanian complaints, it was stated all but one of the thirty-five "Jewish houses of worship" in the Old City were destroyed and that "the synagogues" were "razed or pillaged and stripped and their interiors used as hen-houses or stables."[23] According to Dore Gold addressing the United Nations Security Council in 1998, "Fifty-eight synagogues, including the 700-year-old Hurva synagogue, were destroyed and desecrated."[31]In the wake of the 1948 war, the Red Cross housed Palestinian refugees in the depopulated and partly destroyed Jewish Quarter.[32] This grew into the Muaska refugee camp managed by UNRWA, which housed refugees from 48 locations now in Israel.[33] Over time many poor non-refugees also settled in the camp.[33] Conditions became unsafe for habitation due to lack of maintenance and sanitation.[33] Jordan had planned transforming the quarter into a park,[34] but neither UNRWA nor the Jordanian government wanted the negative international response that would result if they demolished the old Jewish houses.[33] In 1964 a decision was made to move the refugees to a new camp constructed near Shuafat.[33] Most of the refugees refused to move, since it would mean losing their livelihood, the market and the tourists, as well as reducing their access to the holy sites.[33] In the end, many of the refugees were moved to Shuafat by force during 1965 and 1966.[32][33]

The Jewish Quarter remained under Jordanian rule until the Six-Day War in June 1967 when Israel occupied it. During the first week after taking the Old City, 25 dwellings constituting the largest part of the Mughrabi Quarter were razed to create a plaza at the foot of the Western Wall.[35]

In April 1968, the government expropriated 129 dunams (about 32 acres) of land which had made up the Quarter before 1948.[36] In 1969, the Jewish Quarter Development Company was established under the auspices of the Construction and Housing Ministry to rebuild the desolate Jewish Quarter.[37]

According to an article by Thomas Abowd in the Jerusalem Quarterly (Hawliyat al-Quds), the Arab population of the quarter reached approximately 1,000, most of whom were refugees[38] who had appropriated the evacuated Jewish houses in 1949. Although many had originally fled the Quarter in 1967, they later returned after Levi Eshkol ordered that the Arab residents not be forcefully evacuated from the area. With Menachem Begin's rise to power in 1977, he decided that 25 Arab families be allowed to remain in the Jewish Quarter as a gesture of good will, while the rest of the families who had not fled during the Six-Day War were offered compensation in return for their evacuation, although most declined.[2] The quarter was rebuilt in keeping with the traditional standards of the dense urban fabric of the Old City. Residents of the quarter hold long-term leases from the Israel Lands Administration.[37] As of 2004 the quarter's population stood at 2,348[39] and many large educational institutions have taken up residence.

Beginning in the years immediately after 1967, around 6,000 Arabs were evicted from the Jewish Quarter, and the start of exclusion of Palestinians from appropriated land by the private company in charge of its development, for the reason that they were not Jewish. This later became legal precedent in 1978 when the Supreme Court made a decision in the case of Mohammed Burqan, in which the Court ruled that, while Burqan did own his home, he could not return because the area had "special historical significance" to the Jewish people.[40]

The area in which the modern Jewish Quarter now stands is unique, insofar that the Jewish people have returned to build a residential area in what during the late Second Temple period was called "the Upper Marketplace" (Aramaic: shqa ilaah).[41] Before being rebuilt, the quarter was excavated under the supervision of Hebrew University archaeologist Nahman Avigad. The archaeological remains are on display in a series of museums two or three storeys beneath the level of the current city as well as outdoor parks.[clarification needed] Among the finds were a 2,200-year-old depiction of the Temple menorah, engraved in a plastered wall, and the Burnt House, the remnant of a building destroyed in the Great Jewish Revolt against Roman rule. The dig also unearthed lavish homes inhabited by the Herodian upper classes, the remains of the Byzantine Nea Church, Jerusalem's cardo maximus, a fifth-century 70-foot (21m)-wide road connecting the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and the Nea Church, and remnants of the late 8th-century BCE "broad wall" twice mentioned in the Book of Nehemiah, which was built to defend Jerusalem during the reign of King Hezekiah. Avigad also unearthed the Israelite Tower, a remnant of Jerusalem's Iron Age fortifications attesting to the Babylonian sack of Jerusalem in 586 BCE.[42]

In 2010, Israeli archaeologists uncovered a pool built by the Roman Tenth Legion "Fretensis". The dig uncovered steps leading to the pool, a white mosaic floor and hundreds of terracotta roof tiles stamped with the name of the Roman unit. It may have been part of a larger complex where thousands of soldiers once bathed and suggests that the Roman city was larger than previously thought. During the Jordanian rule, a sewing factory was built on the site.[43] An Arabic inscription, also unearthed in 2010, dates back to 910 CE and commemorates the granting of an estate in Jerusalem by the Abbasid Caliph.[44]

Haaretz witness account

Coordinates: 314634N 351356E / 31.77611N 35.23222E / 31.77611; 35.23222

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Jewish Quarter (Jerusalem) - Wikipedia

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Posted By admin on October 15, 2019

...if ones field is sown with cannabis... --Masechet Menachot 15:2

Though cannabis has been a hot topic in the medical field and in the general public for at least the past 5 years, the ancient herb is having a tough time losing its stigma. The recent renewal of this pancultural medicine has sparked a new debate on its safety and legitimate use. In step with this trend, Israel has been the man worldwide force in propelling medical cannabis to the fore around the world since 1999. The Israeli government allows for robust research on the drug which the US has banned to Schedule 1 status. The seeded stalks with surprising Talmudic roots are quickly finding the mainstream in Israeli research, encouraged by the current Minister of Health, Rabbi Yaakov LItzman of United Torah Judaism. Cannabis access for patients in Israel is one of the few political issues in the Israeli government that unifies both the right and the left of the spectrum.

Perhaps it is no surprise that the green herb native to the Sinai has been used throughout the ages by physicians to treat respiratory ailments, as the Rambam describes in his medical writings; indeed, cannabinoids are potent bronchodilators. Additionally, recent archeological remains found near Beit Shemesh show that cannabis resin was used as anesthesia during childbirth. More recently, the OU has certified certain medical cannabis foods for oral consumption, and Tikkun Olam, an Israel-based Torah-minded cannabis grower, is producing chewing gum for children with intractable seizures, amongst others.

The Rambam surely felt quite comfortable with the use and discussion of cannabis, given its spotlight in the Talmud. At several points, the Infinite provided Moshe Rabeinu and the Jewish people clear instructions on cannabis cultivation and use, around the laws of kilyaim and shatnez. Should it be treated like flax, or not? Daas HaZakenim even debates whether it was flax or cannabis stalks behind which Rachav hid the spies in Jericho. The Meam Loez acknowledges that the stalks were naturally perfumed, suggesting cannabis.

Indeed, the use of cannabis in fabrics, Shabbos wicks, and sukkah building has been a debated and discussed topic in Tosefos, the Shulchan Aruch, Sefer HaChinuch, Ben Ish Chai, and Magen Avraham amongst others. Rabbinical scholars once excluded cannabis as food on Pesach due to the kitynos prohibition, most recently, HaRav Chaim Kanievsky made a medical caveat for this prohibition.

And while recreational intoxication is surely not proscribed in Torah, the former Chief Rabbi of Egypt, the Radbaz, does mention its intoxicating effects. He surely does not attest to personal experience, but he describes the leaves as simchah producing upon consumption. Additionally, the Tur and the Shulchan Aruch Jews warn Jews against reciting the Shema within dalet amos of a bowl where cannabis is soaking in water, due to its pungent odor.

The intoxicating chemical in cannabis, THC, was discovered in Jerusalem in 1964 by Dr. Rafael Meschoulam and colleagues. His team later discovered the natural cannabinoid that the brain produces, termed anandamide. Scientists have, in parallel discovered, indeed that the body possesses an entire endo-cannabinoid system that actively works at multiple levels, including bone structure, eye pressure, bronchodilation, mother-fetus communication and immune function, to name a few. Researchers in Tel Aviv have recently demonstrated that cannabinoids, THC in particular, may actually have neuro-protective effects in the setting of trauma. Far from damaging the brain, THC may even protect it according to Israeli research. In fact, there is growing early evidence that the cannabinoids work counterintuitively to preserve the brains memory, even in Alzheimers.

Medically speaking, cannabis is safer than aspirin, acetaminophen and, surely, oxycodone, which can stop ones breathing. Cannabis is hands-down safer to body and society than alcohol, which is a common drink. And, while it is not recommended, one cannot overdose on cannabis, short of ingesting 65 kilograms of the substance.

The bottom line is: not only does the Shulchan Aruch mention cannabis as finer choice for a Shabbos candle wick, but indeed the Torah may consider it a healing pillar of smoke.

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The Deep Roots of Cannabis in Torah - Hidabroot

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Posted By admin on October 13, 2019

We cannot study Zionism without studying Theodor Benyamin Zeev Herzl (1860-1904).

We already saw inPart 59, as a correspondent during the Alfred Dreyfus affair, he was shocked to hear the civilized French screaming Death to the Jews! He determined then and there that the solution to anti-Semitism was the establishment of a Jewish national state. He wrote a book about it, entitled Der Judenstaat (The Jewish State) in which he described his vision for a Jewish homeland.

Although Zionism was not his invention, Herzl became the driving force of the movement. There were several factors that made him the ideal leader:

Even though he was raised as assimilated Jew, woefully ignorant of the religion of his forefathers, the anti-Semitism of Vienna and the Dreyfus affair had a powerful impact on him. He became obsessed with Zionism and relentlessly though out Europe, meeting many heads-of-state, in his attempt to gain support for a Jewish state.

In 1896 he published the book Der Judenstaat (The Jewish State: An Attempt at a Modern Solution of the Jewish Question) which gained him much notoriety and transformed him into a leading personality in the Zionist movement. In 1897, on August 29th, Herzl convened the First Zionist Conference in Basel, Switzerland. Present were 197 delegates from 16 countries who formed the initial Zionist policy. This gathering proved a major event in the establishment of the modern State of Israel.

Afterward Herzl wrote in his diary:

Were I to sum up the Basel Congress in one word which I shall guard against pronouncing publicly, it would be this: At Basel I founded the Jewish State. Perhaps in five years but certainly in 50 everyone will know it.

(See The Siege by Connor Cruise OBrian.)

On May 14, 1948 - 50 years and 9 months later, the State of Israel was founded.

Unfortunately, Herzl did not see it happen. He died at age 44 of a heart attack following the stormy controversy involving the proposal that the Jewish people make their home in Uganda. Herzl, who had provisionally supported the idea, settled the controversy convincing his detractors that he had remained faithful to Jewish settlement in the Land of Israel. Thus, he safeguarded the unity of the Zionist movement, but his weak heart gave out in the process.

Herzls is a tragic story. He died having given his life for the cause and he died bankrupt having spent all his money on his cause and leaving his family life and marriage in turmoil.

Perhaps the greatest tragedy of his life was that he left no descendants to carry on after him. His wife Julia, who he was estranged from, died at age 35. His three childrenPauline, Hans and Trudeall died tragically. Pauline became a drug addict and died in France. Hans, after becoming Catholic, shot himself on the day of Paulines funeral. Trude Margarethe, who was mentally ill, died at Theresienstadt at the hands of the Nazis. Herzls only grandchild, Stephen Theodor (Trudes son), changed his name to Norman and committed suicide by jumping from a bridge in Washington D.C. in 1946.

Herzl was buried in Europe, but in 1949, after the state of Israel was declared, his body was disinterred and brought to Israel. He is buried in Jerusalem in a cemetery now known as Mount Herzl, where various heads of state and military heroes are also buried.

Of the key personalities at this time, we must mention three:

Weizmann was a Russian-born chemist, who early on in his youth became associated with the group Hovevei Zion (Lovers of Zion). After Herzls death in 1904 he became the de facto leader of the Zionist Movement.

Interestingly, Weizmann invented artificial acetone, the chief ingredient in gunpowder, in 1915 in the middle of World War I. His invention enabled the British to mass-produce gunpowder for the war effort.

Because of this, he became friendly with Arthur Balfour, the foreign secretary of England. Balfour, who in 1917 promised British support for a national homeland for Jews in Palestine, said that acetone converted him to Zionism. (We will discuss the Balfour Declaration in the next installment.)

David Ben-Gurion was born David Gruen in Plonsk, Poland. A very significant personality, he was small in stature but a real powerhouse. Although he came from a religious family which was fervently Zionistic, early on he, like most of the movements leadership, abandoned his religious roots.[1]

Ben-Gurion arrived in Israel in 1906 at age 20, working in the orange groves and in the wine cellars of the early settlements. He was active in the Poalei Zion (Workers of Zion), but he took some controversial positions in his partysuch as that immigrants and settlers have the right to manage their own affairs without interference from the Diaspora, that immigrating to Israel was the obligation of every party member, and that Hebrew be the sole language of his party.

In that time, the land of Israel was still under the control of the Ottoman Empire and Ben-Gurion, who studied law in Constantinople for a while, favored loyalty to Turkey and adoption of Ottoman citizenship for Jews. However, when World War I broke out and the Turks began to persecute Zionists, he ran into trouble with the authorities and was exiled. He went to New York where he founded the Ahdut ha-Avodah (United Labor Party).

(The second part of Ben-Gurions storywhen he returned to Israel to become the head of the Jewish Agency in 1935 and then the first Prime Minister of Israel in 1948will be covered in the next installment.)

The third key personality was Asher Hersh Ginsberg, whose pen name was Ahad HaAm. He was originally one of the Maskilim who became disillusioned with their plan to acculturate the Jews to Eastern European society. He became the great intellectual leader of the early Zionist movement. His vision for the Jewish state was not as a refuge for the oppressed Jewry of the world, but rather a place where the modern Jew could create a new secular, progressive, enlightened state which would become the center of a new modern Jewish culture.

In 1897, he wrote in The Jewish State and The Jewish People:

This Jewish settlement, which will be a gradual growth, will become in course of time the center of the nation, wherein its spirit will find pure expression and develop in all its aspects to the highest degree of perfection of which it is capable. Then, from this center the spirit of Judaism will radiate to the great circumference, to all the communities of the Diaspora, to inspire them with new life and to preserve the over-all unity of our people. When our national culture in Palestine has attained that level, we may be confident that it will produce men in the Land of itself who will be able, at a favorable moment, to establish a State thereone which will be not merely a State of Jews but really a Jewish State.

Ginsberg personified the dominant element in the Zionist movementenlightened Jews who started out wanting to solve the problem of anti-Semitism by helping Jews to assimilate. Only later, when they found their efforts were futilein the face of terrible persecution which did not let up no matter how much the Jews tried to blend indid they turn to working for a Jewish homeland. Since many had been born into observant households and had had consciously left religion behind in the quest to assimilate, most carried their negative attitudes toward Judaism into their new Zionist ideology.

The key factor which shaped their worldview was a nationalism based not only on the notion of creating a physical Jewish homeland, but also of creating a new kind of Jew to build and maintain this homeland. Many of these early Zionist thinkers felt that centuries of ghettoization and persecution had robbed the Jews of their pride and strength. To build a homeland required a proud, self-sufficient Jew: a Jew who could farm, defend himself, and build the land.

The pious, poor, ghettoized Jewwho presented a pathetic image of a man stooped-over and always at the mercy of his persecutorshad to be done away with. To build a state required something all-together differenta Hebrew. The early Zionists called themselves Hebrews and not Jews, and deliberately changed their German or Russian or Yiddish names to sound more Hebraic and nationalistic (for example, David Gruen became David Ben-Gurion. Shimon Persky became Shimon Perez). It was a deliberate attempt to create a totally new Jewish identity and rid themselves of any aspect of the religious, Diaspora Jewish identity. They believed that this new Jewish State, populated by fighting, farming Hebrews would revitalize the Jewish people, restore Jewish pride and put an end to anti-Semitism once and for all. While there is no doubt that the Jewish immigrants who created the modern Jewish state accomplished amazing feats against all odds-Zionism has not proven to be the solution to anti-Semitism and ironically, today, the number one excuse for Jew hate in the world is Zionism and the State of Israel.

These early Zionist leaders knew of course that religion had preserved Jewish identity in the ghettos and shtetls of Europe, but in the modern Jewish state, they felt there would be no need for it. Of course the Bible would be used as a source of Jewish history and culture but there was no room for religion or ritual in the modern Jewish state.

The strong anti-religious attitude of much of the early Zionist leadership put them at complete odds with vast majority of the rabbinic leadership of Europe. Torah and mitzvoth (commandments) were the essence of what Judaism is all about and Jewish nation without these key ingredients would be a like a body without a soul. More than that, the Torah explicitly stated over and over again (Deut. 7:6-11; 8:11-19; 10:12-13; 11:8-25 etc) that the whole ability to live and prosper in the land was dependent on the Jewish people keeping the Torah. How could a Zionist leadership that was largely anti-religious and bent on driving Jews away from Judaism possibly succeed in creating a Jewish presence in the Land of Israel? Rabbi Tzadik Hacohen Rabinowitz, who was known as the Tzadik of Lublin (1823 to 1900) typified this view:

We surely know that if we were believers and truly trusted in the salvation of the Lord and were observers of the commandments of God, we would even today be dwelling in our Holy Land. ...Why did the Land perish? Because they abandoned My laws which I put before them. It has already been made clear that the Zionists reject all the commandments and cleave to every manner of abomination. It may be assumed that if the Zionists gain domination they will seek to remove from the hearts of Israel, belief in God and in the truth of Torah.They have thrown off their garments of assimilation and put on a cloak of zeal so that they appear zealous on the behalf of Judaism. They are in fact digging a mine beneath our faith and seeking to lead Israel from beneath the wings of the Shechina, the Divine Presence. [2]

The anti-religious sentiments within Zionism were not the only problem. As with the Reform Movement in Germany in the 19th century, the Zionist leadership often took an active role in trying to help new arrivals to Land of Israel assimilate into their new identity by actively seeking to separate Jews from Judaism and Jewish observance. This was often achieved by deliberately placing new immigrants, often Sefardic Jews, into secular environments such as anti-religious kibbutzim (collective farms). This led to the rapid secularization of a significant proportion of Jewish immigrants from Moslem countries that, having not experienced the European Enlightenment, had remained overwhelmingly observant, ironically, until their arrival in Israel.[3]

This conflict between the secular Zionist leadership and the rabbinic leadership of Europe lies at the heart of the secular-religious debate in modern Israel. This attitude of rejection of Zionism is the ideology of the vast majority of the haredi community in Israel today and is the central reason why the majority of Israels ultra-orthodox community chooses not to participate in many of the institutions of State of Israel such as military service in the Israel Defense Force (IDF) or to send their children to the state religious school system.[4]

While the majority of the Rabbis of Europe took a decidedly anti-Zionist stance, not all Orthodox Jews shared this attitude. There were numerous religious Zionists who were some of the fiercest fighters for returning to the land.

As we saw in Part 62, it was Rabbi Shmuel Mohilever, one of the first religious Zionists from Poland, who heavily influenced Baron de Rothschild in supporting early settlements.

Another key figure was Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook (1865-1935), Torah scholar and Kabbalist, who arrived in Palestine in 1904 and was one of the leading Torah authorities in pre-state Palestine. He saw Gods hand in the foundations laid by the secular Zionists and endeavored to work with them. He wrote the famous Orot (Lights) about the holiness of the newborn nationalism. In 1921, he became the first chief rabbi of Palestine.

After the Fifth Zionist Congress in 1901, a group of religious Zionist, in an attempt to synthesize modern Jewish national with traditional Jewish identity founded the Mizrachi Movement ion 1902 ( an abbreviation for the words merkaz ruchani-spiritual center). The Mizrachi manifesto stated:

In the lands of the Diaspora the soul of our people-our Holy Torah-can no longer be preserved in its full strength, nor can the commandments, which comprise the entire spiritual life of the people, be kept in their original purityThe people have found one remedy for this affliction-to direct their hearts to that one place which has always been the focus of our prayersZion and JerusalemIt has therefore been agreed by all those who love the spirit of their people and are faithful to their Gods Torah, that the reawakening of the hope of the return to Zion will provide a solid foundation as well as lend a special quality to our people. It will serve as a focus for the ingathering of our spiritual forces and as a secure fortress for our Torah and sanctity.[5]

Today the Mizrachi movement has evolved into the religious -nationalist movement Israel, whose adherents wear knitted kippot (skullcaps) and comprise the vast majority of the religiously right-wing settler movement.

Reform Jews in America and Germany were very much opposed to Zionism.

German Reform Jews said: The hope for national restoration [to Israel] contradicts our feelings for the fatherland [Germany]. And American Reform Jews said: We consider ourselves no longer a nation, but a religious community, and therefore expect neither a return to Palestine nor the restoration of any of the laws concerning the Jewish state (See Parts 54 and 58 for more on this subject.)

Still, whatever the reaction of the Jewish world at large, Jews kept returning to Israel.

In the last installment we covered the first aliyahascent to the landwhich brought 30,000 Jews to Israel between 1882 and 1891.

The second aliyahfollowing the Kishinev Progrom on Easter 1903 (see Part 57) and following the first aborted Russian Revolution of 1905brought another 40,000 Jews to Israel between 1904 and 1914.

The third aliyahfollowing World War I and the Russian Revolutionbrought another 35,000 (between 1919 and 1923).

By this time, the dream of a Jewish homeland was no longer just a dream. It was becoming a reality as the victorious Allied Forces conquered the Ottoman Empire (which had picked the losing side in World War I) and the British took over control of the Middle East.

[1]Ben Gurions attitude toward religion and its place in the Jewish state could be categorized as hostile or at best ambivalent and many of his policies regarding dealing with new immigrants and army service were designed to push observant Jews towards dropping their observance. He could also take a harsh and event violently confrontational attitude toward political rivals such as toward Menachem Begin and the Irgun (The military wing of the break-away Revisionist Zionism Movement founded by Zev Jabotinsky in 1923) which culminated with Ben Gurions order to sink the Altalena, an Irgun arms ship, off the coast of Tel Aviv on June 21, 1948. Sixteen Irgun members were killed in the incident which could have led to civil war.[2] Paul Mendes-Flohr & Yehuda Reinharz ed., The Jew in the Modern World, (Oxford University Press, 1995), pp.544-545.[3]The most ironic an interesting aspect of all of this is that in Israel today Zionism has largely disappeared as an ideology. (Less than 10% of secular Israeli characterize themselves as Zionist (The one big exception is the religious -nationalist camp of today which is the backbone of the settler movement). Religion and observance, on the other hand, are rapidly rising among the general population. The most recent survey done in 2007 shows that 30% of Israelis characterize themselves as religiously observant and another 40% say they are traditional (not fully observant). Totally secular Jews are now the minority and truly anti-religious Jews are a very small percentage of the population. (The core of anti-religious sentiment in Israel today rest in a small but very powerful/influential Ashkenazi (Jews of Europen extraction) power elite who still largely control the courts, newspapers, T.V., Radio, universities and the army.)[4]Amongst the ultra-orthodox community in Israel today the attitude to towards the State of Israel varies from pragmatic (there are several ultra-orthodox parties in the Israeli political system) to total rejection of the system (The Satmar Hassidic movement is the best example).[5] Paul Mendes-Flohr & Yehuda Reinharz ed., The Jew in the Modern World, (Oxford University Press, 1995), p. 546.

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Note: For reasons explained below, particular caution must be used when evaluating this symbol.

The okay hand gesturein which the thumb and index finger touch while the other fingers of the hand are held outstretchedis an obvious and ancient gesture that has arisen in many cultures over the years with different meanings.

Today, in a usage that dates to at least as early as 17th century Great Britain, it most commonly signals understanding, consent, approval or well-being. Since the early 1800s, the gesture increasingly became associated with the word okay and its abbreviation ok. The gesture is also important in the Hindu and Buddhist worlds, as well as in yoga, where it is known as mudra or vitarka mudra, a symbol of inner perfection. The "okay" hand gesture also forms part of the basis for a number of words or concepts in American Sign Language. It appears in many other contexts as well.

Use of the okay symbol in most contexts is entirely innocuous and harmless.

In 2017, the okay hand gesture acquired a new and different significance thanks to a hoax by members of the website 4chan to falsely promote the gesture as a hate symbol, claiming that the gesture represented the letters wp, for white power. The okay gesture hoax was merely the latest in a series of similar 4chan hoaxes using various innocuous symbols; in each case, the hoaxers hoped that the media and liberals would overreact by condemning a common image as white supremacist.

In the case of the okay gesture, the hoax was so successful the symbol became a popular trolling tactic on the part of right-leaning individuals, who would often post photos to social media of themselves posing while making the okay gesture.

Ironically, some white supremacists themselves soon also participated in such trolling tactics, lending an actual credence to those who labeled the trolling gesture as racist in nature. By 2019, at least some white supremacists seem to have abandoned the ironic or satiric intent behind the original trolling campaign and used the symbol as a sincere expression of white supremacy, such as when Australian white supremacist Brenton Tarrant flashed the symbol during a March 2019 courtroom appearance soon after his arrest for allegedly murdering 50 people in a shooting spree at mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand.

The overwhelming usage of the okay hand gesture today is still its traditional purpose as a gesture signifying assent or approval. As a result, someone who uses the symbol cannot be assumed to be using the symbol in either a trolling or, especially, white supremacist context unless other contextual evidence exists to support the contention. Since 2017, many people have been falsely accused of being racist or white supremacist for using the okay gesture in its traditional and innocuous sense.

Other, similar-seeming hand gestures have also been mistakenly assumed to have white supremacist connotations as a result of the okay hoax. One of these is the so-called Circle Game, in which people attempt to trick each other into looking at an okay-like hand gesture made somewhere below the waist. Another is the hand sign of the Three Percenter movement, a wing of the anti-government extremist militia movement. Three Percenters, who are right-wing extremists but are not typically white supremacists, often make a hand gesture to symbolize their movement that uses the outstretched middle, ring, and pinky fingers to represent a Roman numeral 3. This gesture, from certain angles, can often resemble an okay hand gesture and has been misinterpreted by some as a white supremacist symbol.

Because of the traditional meaning of the okay hand gesture, as well as other usages unrelated to white supremacy, particular care must be taken not to jump to conclusions about the intent behind someone who has used the gesture.

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Video blogger Felix PewDiePie Kjellberg recently celebrated reaching 100 million subscribers on YouTube by releasing a video in which he announced a $50,000 donation to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL).

The ADL is one of the leading advocates of extreme censorship on Big Tech platforms. Whether he realizes it or not, PewDiePie is contributing to the deplatforming of other individuals within the YouTube community..

PewDiePie was once targeted by the ADLs hate machine years ago, as the organization led a boycott campaign against him that coerced Disney into dropping him as a talent following an edgy joke he made in one of his YouTube videos.

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ADL commends Disneys decision to sever ties with PewDiePie following his posting of videos on YouTube containing swastikas and other anti-Semitic content, ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt said in 2017. This clearly crosses a line, but is becoming all-too commonplace on social media.

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After widespread anger and accusations of blackmail in the comments section of his YouTube video, PewDiePie released a statement today attempting to quash the outrage among his fans.

Misrepresenting headlines of me has led me down a path of twists with MSM for years now. Previously it hasnt bothered me much, I know who I am. But, after the Christ Church travesty a few months ago, my own clash with MSM was manipulated as a tool for destruction, PewDiePie explained about his decision. Im not ok with this situation any longer and Ive felt responsibility to make changes.

Making a donation to ADL doesnt make sense to everyone, especially since theyve outright spoken against me. I wanted to show publicly that I can move past it and move on. I think that its important, it just isnt my fight anymore, he added.

Tim Pool, the independent journalist who has covered Big Tech censorship extensively, is not buying PewDiePies explanation.

The ADL proudly works with tech monopolies to devise new ways to censor content, as the Big Brother crackdown kicks into high gear heading into the 2020 presidential election.

We work with Google on using AI to try and interrupt cyber-hate before it happens, Greenblatt told the Council on Foreign Relations earlier this year.

So there are different ways [Facebook] can tweak their algorithms and adjust their products so they think not only about free speech but protect the users right to not be harassed or hated, he added.

There is a gap in the legal regime. There are techniques that extremists have used online to terrorize Jews and other people like doxing, and swatting and different forms of cyberbullying that are not covered by existing laws and need to be, Greenblatt concluded, making it clear that his organizations ultimate goal is destruction of the Bill of Rights and Constitution.

It remains to be seen if there will be a change in PewDiePies content now that he has paid his tribute to the influential thought control group.

Facebook, Twitter and Google are actively restricting conservative content through biased algorithms. Silicon Valley doesn't want you to read our articles. Bypass the censorship, sign up for our newsletter now!

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The Holocaust had a deep effect on society both in Europe and the rest of the world, and today its consequences are still being felt both by children and adults whose ancestors were victims of this genocide.

German society largely responded to the enormity of the evidence for and the horror of the Holocaust with an attitude of self-justification and a practice of keeping quiet. Germans attempted to rewrite their own history to make it more palatable in the post-war era.[1] For decades, West Germany and then unified Germany refused to allow access to its Holocaust-related archives in Bad Arolsen, citing privacy concerns. In May 2006, a 20-year effort by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum led to the announcement that 3050million pages would be made available to survivors, historians and others.[2]

The Holocaust and its aftermath left millions of refugees, including many Jews who had lost most or all of their family members and possessions, and often faced persistent antisemitism in their home countries. The original plan of the Allies was to repatriate these "displaced persons" to their countries of origin, but many refused to return, or were unable to as their homes or communities had been destroyed. As a result, more than 250,000 languished in displaced persons camps for years after the war ended. Many American-run DP camps had horrific conditions, with inmates living under armed guard, as revealed in the Harrison Report.[3][4][5]

With most displaced persons being unable or unwilling to return to their former homes in Europe, and with restrictions to immigration to many western countries remaining in place, the British Mandate of Palestine became the primary destination for many Jewish refugees. However, as local Arabs opposed their immigration, the United Kingdom refused to allow Jewish refugees into the Mandate territory. Countries in the Soviet Bloc made emigration difficult. Former Jewish partisans in Europe, along with the Haganah in British Mandate of Palestine, organized a massive effort to smuggle Jews into Palestine, called Berihah, which eventually transported 250,000 Jews (both displaced persons and those who had been in hiding during the war) to Mandate Palestine. After the State of Israel declared independence in 1948, Jews were able to emigrate to Israel legally and without restriction. By 1952, when the displaced persons camps were closed, there were more than 80,000 Jewish former displaced persons in the United States, about 136,000 in Israel, and another 10,000 in other countries, including Mexico, Japan, and countries in Africa and South America.[6]

The few Jews in Poland were augmented by returnees from the Soviet Union and survivors from camps in Germany. However, a resurgence of antisemitism in Poland, in such incidents as the Krakw pogrom on August 11, 1945, and the Kielce pogrom on July 4, 1946, led to the exodus of a large part of the Jewish population, which no longer felt safe in Poland.[7] Anti-Jewish riots also broke out in several other Polish cities where many Jews were killed.[8]

The atrocities were motivated in part by the widespread Polish idea of "ydokomuna" (Judeo-Communism) which cast Jews as supporters of communism. ydokomuna was one of the causes that led to an intensification of Polish antisemitism in 1945-8, that some have argued was worse than prior to 1939. Hundreds of Jews were killed in anti-Jewish violence. Some Jews were killed for merely attempting to restore their own property to their possession.[9] As a result of the exodus the number of Jews in Poland decreased from 200,000 in the years immediately after the war to 50,000 in 1950 and 6,000 by the 1980s.[10]

Lesser post-war pogroms also broke out in Hungary.[9]

As of 6 May 2016, 45,000 Holocaust survivors are living below the countrys poverty line and need more assistance. Situations like these result in heated and dramatic protests on the part of some survivors against the Israeli government and related agencies. The average rate of cancer among survivors is nearly two and a half times the national average, while the average rate of colon cancer, attributed to the victims' experience of starvation and extreme stress, is nine times higher. The population of survivors that now live in Israel has now dwindled to 189,000.[11][12][13]

There has been a recent resurgence of interest among descendants of survivors in researching the fates of their relatives. Yad Vashem provides a searchable database of three million names, about half of the known Jewish victims. Yad Vashem's Central Database of Shoah Victims Names is searchable over the internet yadvashem.org or in person at the Yad Vashem complex in Israel. Other databases and lists of victims' names, some searchable over the internet, are listed in Holocaust (resources).

In the decades preceding World War II, there was a tremendous growth in the recognition of Yiddish as an official Jewish European language, and there was even a Yiddish renaissance, particularly in Poland. On the eve of World War II, there were 11 to 13million speakers of Yiddish in the world.[14] The Holocaust destroyed the Eastern European bedrock of Yiddish, though the language was rapidly declining anyhow. In the 1920s and 1930s the Soviet Jewish public rejected the cultural autonomy which was offered to it by the regime and opted for Russification:[15] while 70.4% of Soviet Jews declared Yiddish their mother tongue in 1926, only 39.7% did so in 1939. Even in Poland, where harsh discrimination left the Jews as a cohesive ethnic group, Yiddish was rapidly declining in favour of Polonization. 80% of the entire Jewish population declared Yiddish its mother tongue in 1931, but among high school students this number fell to 53% in 1937.[16] In the United States, the preservation of the language was always a unigenerational phenomenon, and the immigrants' children quickly abandoned it for English.[17]

Starting with the Nazi invasion of Poland in 1939, and continuing with the destruction of Yiddish culture in Europe during the remainder of the war, the Yiddish language and culture were almost completely rooted out of Europe. The Holocaust led to a dramatic decline in the use of Yiddish, because the extensive Jewish communities, both secular and religious, that used Yiddish in their day-to-day lives were largely destroyed. Around five million victims of the Holocaust, or 85% of the total, were speakers of Yiddish.[18]

Holocaust theology is a body of theological and philosophical debate concerning the role of God in the universe in light of the Holocaust of the late 1930s and 1940s. It is primarily found in Judaism; Jews were drastically affected by the Holocaust, in which six million Jews were murdered in a genocide by Nazi Germany and its allies.[19][20] Jews were killed in higher proportions than other groups; some scholars limit the definition of the Holocaust to the Jewish victims of the Nazis as Jews alone were targeted for the Final Solution. Others include the additional five million non-Jewish victims, bringing the total to about 11 million.[21] One third of the total worldwide Jewish population were killed during the Holocaust. The Eastern European Jewish population was particularly hard hit, being reduced by ninety percent.

Judaism, Christianity, and Islam have traditionally taught that God is omniscient (all-knowing), omnipotent (all-powerful), and omnibenevolent (all-good) in nature. However, these views are in apparent contrast with the injustice and suffering in the world. Monotheists seek to reconcile this view of God with the existence of evil and suffering. In so doing, they are confronting what is known as the problem of evil.

Within all of the monotheistic faiths many answers (theodicies) have been proposed. In light of the magnitude of depravity seen in the Holocaust, many people have also re-examined classical views on this subject. A common question raised in Holocaust theology is "How can people still have any kind of faith after the Holocaust?"

Orthodox Jews have stated that the fact that the Holocaust happened does not diminish the belief in God. For a creation will never be able to fully grasp the creator, just as a child in an operating theater can not fathom why men are cutting up a live man's body. As the grand Lubavitcher Rebbe once told Elie Weisel that after witnessing the holocaust and realising how low man can steep, who can we trust, if not God? Nevertheless, Orthodox Judaism does encourage us to pray and cry out to God, and complain to him how he lets bad things happen.[22]

Theodor Adorno commented that "writing poetry after Auschwitz is barbaric,"[23] and the Holocaust has indeed had a profound impact on art and literature, for both Jews and non-Jews. Some of the more famous works are by Holocaust survivors or victims, such as Elie Wiesel, Primo Levi, Viktor Frankl and Anne Frank, but there is a substantial body of literature and art in many languages. Indeed, Paul Celan wrote his poem Todesfuge[24] as a direct response to Adorno's dictum.

The Holocaust has also been the subject of many films, including Oscar winners Schindler's List, The Pianist and Life Is Beautiful. With the aging population of Holocaust survivors, there has been increasing attention in recent years to preserving the memory of the Holocaust. The result has included extensive efforts to document their stories, including the Survivors of the Shoah project and Four Seasons Documentary,[25] as well as institutions devoted to memorializing and studying the Holocaust, including Yad Vashem in Israel and the US Holocaust Museum. The historic tale of the Danish Jews fleeing to Sweden by fishing boat is recounted in an award-winning American children's novel.[26]

Huge amounts of works of art were looted by the Nazis from Jewish art collectors and dealers, either through outright theft or fire sales under extreme duress. Thus, any work of art that existed prior to 1945 has a potential provenance problem. This is a serious obstacle for anyone who currently collects pre-1945 European art. To avoid wasting thousands or even millions of dollars, they must verify (normally with the assistance of an art historian and a lawyer specializing in art law) that potential acquisitions were not stolen by the Nazis from a Holocaust victim. The highest-profile legal case arising from this problem is the U.S. Supreme Court decision of Republic of Austria v. Altmann (2006), in which the Court held that U.S. courts could retroactively apply the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act of 1976 to Austria for torts that allegedly occurred before 1976.

In the immediate aftermath of the Second World War, the Jewish Agency led by Chaim Weizmann submitted to the Allies a memorandum demanding reparations to Jews by Germany but it received no answer. In March 1951, a new request was made by Israel's foreign minister Moshe Sharett which claimed global recompense to Israel of $1.5billion based on the financial cost absorbed by Israel for the rehabilitation of 500,000 Jewish survivors. West German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer accepted these terms and declared he was ready to negotiate other reparations. A Conference on Jewish Material Claims against Germany was opened in New York City by Nahum Goldmann in order to help with individual claims. After negotiations, the claim was reduced to a sum of $845millions direct and indirect compensations to be installed in a period of 14 years. In 1988, West Germany allocated another $125million for reparations.[27]

In 1999, many German industries such as Deutsche Bank, Siemens or BMW faced lawsuits for their role in the forced labour during World War II. In order to dismiss these lawsuits, Germany agreed to raise $5billions of which Jewish forced laborers still alive could apply to receive a lump sum payment of between $2,500 and $7,500.[27] In 2012, Germany agreed to pay a new reparation of 772millions as a result of negotiations with Israel.[28]

In 2014, the SNCF, the French state-owned railway company, was compelled to allocate $60millions to American Jewish Holocaust survivors for its role in the transport of deportees to Germany. It corresponds to approximately $100,000 per survivor.[29] Although the SNCF was forced by German authorities to cooperate in providing transport for French Jews to the border and did not make any profit from this transport, according to Serge Klarsfeld, president of the organization Sons and Daughters of Jewish Deportees from France.[30]

These reparations were sometimes criticized in Israel where they were seen as "blood money".[27] The American professor Norman Finkelstein wrote The Holocaust Industry to denounce how the American Jewish establishment exploits the memory of the Nazi Holocaust for political and financial gain, as well as to further the interests of Israel.[31] These reparations also led to a massive scam where $57millions were fraudulently given to thousands of people who were not eligible for the funds.[32]

While the restitution movements of the mid-1990s reunited some families with their stolen property, Holocaust remembrance also served as an important part of the reparation and restitution movement. The main idea of Holocaust remembrance comes from Dan Diner's article "Restitution and Memory: The Holocaust in European Political Cultures" which is the idea that Europe is now bound together by a collective memory of the Holocaust. This unified memory is one of the main reasons Diner lists for the flourishing of the restitution movement of the mid-1990s, following that of the initial movement immediately after World War II. This unified memory allowed for all European countries to come together after such a tragic event to establish the Holocaust at its center as one the most damaging occurrences of the 20th century leading to a greater consciousness and awareness of this horrific event, in addition, to beginning countless discourses on the topic. Immediately after the Holocaust, countries such as the United States were preoccupied with the Cold War, whereas countries like Germany were controlled by foreign powers, and the Holocaust was not the main concern. Only as time went on did Europe begin to understand the importance of restitution and reparations. As the restoration of property increased, an increase in the memories for Holocaust survivors was found to be a direct correlation. The connection between property and memory proved to be a key in unlocking more details about the Holocaust, further adding to this collective European memory, and thereby increasing and furthering the restitution movement.[33]

The United Nations General Assembly voted on November 1, 2005, to designate January 27 as the "International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust." January 27, 1945, is the day that the former Nazi concentration and extermination camp of Auschwitz-Birkenau was liberated. The day had already been observed as Holocaust Memorial Day a number of countries. Israel and the Jewish diaspora observe Yom HaShoah Ve-Hagvora, the "Day of Remembrance of the Holocaust and the courage of the Jewish people," on the 27th day of the Hebrew month of Nisan, which generally falls in April.[34] Starting in 1979, the United States' equivalent commemoration is similarly timed to include the 27 Nisan date as well in a given year, beginning on the Sunday before the Gregorian calendar date that 27 Nisan falls on, and onward for a week to the following Sunday.

Holocaust denial is the claim that the genocide of Jews during World War IIusually referred to as the Holocaust[35]did not occur in the manner and to the extent described by current scholars.

Key elements of this claim are the rejection of the following: that the Nazi government had a policy of deliberately targeting Jews and people of Jewish ancestry for extermination as a people; that between five and seven million Jews[35] were systematically killed by the Nazis and their allies; and that genocide was carried out at extermination camps using tools of mass murder, such as gas chambers.[36][37]

Many Holocaust deniers do not accept the term "denial" as an appropriate description of their point of view, and use the term Holocaust revisionism instead.[38] Scholars, however, prefer the term "denial" to differentiate Holocaust deniers from historical revisionists, who use established historical methods.[39]

Most Holocaust denial claims imply, or openly state, that the Holocaust is a hoax arising out of a deliberate Jewish conspiracy to advance the interest of Jews at the expense of other peoples.[40] For this reason, Holocaust denial is generally considered to be an antisemitic[41] conspiracy theory.[42] The methods of Holocaust deniers are often criticized as based on a predetermined conclusion that ignores extensive historical evidence to the contrary.[43]

According to German-British journalist Alan Posener, "...failure of German films and TV series to deal responsibly with the countrys past and to appeal to younger audiences feeds a growing historical amnesia among young Germans. ... A September 2017 study conducted by the Krber Foundation found that 40 percent of 14-year-olds surveyed in Germany did not know what Auschwitz was."[44]

A survey released on Holocaust Remembrance Day in April 2018 found that 41% of 1,350 American adults surveyed, and 66% of millennials, did not know what Auschwitz was. 41% of millennians incorrectly claimed that 2 million Jews or less were killed during the Holocaust, while 22% said they had never heard of the Holocaust. Over 95% of all Americans surveyed were unaware that the Holocaust occurred in the Baltic states of Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia. 45% of adults and 49% of millennials weren't able to name a single Nazi concentration camp or ghetto in German-occupied Europe during the Holocaust.[45] By contrast, a study conducted in Israel has shown that young participants in social media use the Holocaust as a discursive means to critique and object Israel's current surveillance agenda.[46]

Documentaries that have to do with life after the Holocaust:

Astor, Maggie (12 April 2018). "Holocaust Is Fading From Memory, Survey Finds". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 18 April 2018. Retrieved 23 January 2019.

External links, references, and other resources are listed at Holocaust (resources).

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Hasidic Vs Orthodox. Whats the difference? Let me get right down to it: Hasidic Jews are a sect/movement within Orthodox Judaism. All Hasidic Jews are Orthodox, but not all Orthodox Jews are Hasidic. There are various sects within Orthodox Judaism and the Hasidic movement is only one of them.

If you are not very familiar with Orthodox Judaism, I will try to give a brief breakdown of the different sects (by the way, Orthodoxy is only one sect within Judaism as a whole). This is a bit of a simplification, but there are three major types of Orthodox Jews: Hasidic, Yeshivish/Litvish, and Modern Orthodox.

Lets start with Hasidic. The Hasidic movement was founded in the 1700s by the Baal Shem Tov. At that time, Orthodox Judaism had become an elitist movement that valued Torah learning and intellect. Those that were not Torah scholars often felt out of place and received little respect within the Orthodox world. The Baal Shem Tov tried to counteract that notion by emphasizing the value of each and every Jew, even those that had little time or abilityto learn Torah. Instead, he emphasized fervent prayer, song, and the connection with a Rebbe (the leader of a Hasidic sect).

Today, Hasidic Jews are the strictest and most insular sect within Orthodox Judaism. They have many children, often learn Torah full-time, and live within very insular communities. Major Hasidic communities include Williamsburg and Monsey in the US, Antwerp in Belgium, and Jerusalem and Bnei Brak in Israel. Hasidic Jews have a very unique way of dressing. Almost all Hasidimwear long coats, black hats, and have side curls.

To make things even more complicated, within Hasidic Judaism there are many different sects, each with its uniquestyle of dress and practices. Some of the major sects within Hasidic Judaism include Satmar, Chabad, Gur, Breslov, Toldos Aharon, and Belz.

Here is a picture of a Hasidic family in Brooklyn, New York:

And another picture of Hasidim, but this time in Meah Shearim, Jerusalem:

Yeshivish/Litvish Jews are another very strict sect within Orthodox Judaism and like Hasidim, are also referred to as Haredi or Ultra-Orthodox Jews. The movement started in Eastern Europe as a reaction to Reform Judaism. The Rabbis that started the movement were The Chasam Sofer and The Vilna Gaon. Both were tremendous Torah Scholars.

Litvish Jews emphasize Torah learning more than anything and many learn full-time. Major centers of Litvish Judaism include Lakewood in New Jersey, Brooklyn in New York, and Jerusalem and Bnei Brak in Israel.

Here is a picture of Litvish Jews in Jerusalem. Notice that the men are not wearing long coats and their hats have a completely different style than those worn by Hasidim.

Modern OrthodoxJudaism is a sect within Orthodoxy that believes in combining Orthodox Judaism with the modern world. They believe in receiving both a Jewish and secular education. Most Modern Orthodox Jews have full-time jobs in the secular world and only learn Torah at nighttime or on weekends. In Israel, Modern Orthodox Jews serve in the Israeli army, unlike most Litvish or Hasidic Jews.

Major Modern Orthodox thinkers include Rabbi Joseph Soloveichikand Rabbi Aharon Lichtenstein. Modern Orthodox Jews live in cities across both America and Israel.

Here is a picture of Rabbi Moshe Lichtenstein, a major Modern Orthodox Rabbi in Israel. Notice that he is not wearing a hat, he is clean shaven, and his yarmulkeis knitted.

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Baslow MH, Guilfoyle DN. Canavan disease, a rare early-onset human spongiform leukodystrophy: insights into its genesis and possible clinical interventions. Biochimie. 2013 Apr;95(4):946-56. doi: 10.1016/j.biochi.2012.10.023. Epub 2012 Nov 11.

Feigenbaum A, Moore R, Clarke J, Hewson S, Chitayat D, Ray PN, Stockley TL. Canavan disease: carrier-frequency determination in the Ashkenazi Jewish population and development of a novel molecular diagnostic assay. Am J Med Genet A. 2004 Jan 15;124A(2):142-7.

Guo F, Bannerman P, Mills Ko E, Miers L, Xu J, Burns T, Li S, Freeman E, McDonough JA, Pleasure D. Ablating N-acetylaspartate prevents leukodystrophy in a Canavan disease model. Ann Neurol. 2015 May;77(5):884-8. doi: 10.1002/ana.24392. Epub 2015 Mar 27.

Janson CG, McPhee SW, Francis J, Shera D, Assadi M, Freese A, Hurh P, Haselgrove J, Wang DJ, Bilaniuk L, Leone P. Natural history of Canavan disease revealed by proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy (1H-MRS) and diffusion-weighted MRI. Neuropediatrics. 2006 Aug;37(4):209-21.

Madhavarao CN, Arun P, Moffett JR, Szucs S, Surendran S, Matalon R, Garbern J, Hristova D, Johnson A, Jiang W, Namboodiri MA. Defective N-acetylaspartate catabolism reduces brain acetate levels and myelin lipid synthesis in Canavan's disease. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2005 Apr 5;102(14):5221-6. Epub 2005 Mar 22.

Matalon R, Michals-Matalon K. Canavan Disease. 1999 Sep 16 [updated 2011 Aug 11]. In: Pagon RA, Adam MP, Ardinger HH, Wallace SE, Amemiya A, Bean LJH, Bird TD, Ledbetter N, Mefford HC, Smith RJH, Stephens K, editors. GeneReviews [Internet]. Seattle (WA): University of Washington, Seattle; 1993-2017. Available from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK1234/

Namboodiri AM, Peethambaran A, Mathew R, Sambhu PA, Hershfield J, Moffett JR, Madhavarao CN. Canavan disease and the role of N-acetylaspartate in myelin synthesis. Mol Cell Endocrinol. 2006 Jun 27;252(1-2):216-23. Epub 2006 May 2. Review.

Surendran S, Bamforth FJ, Chan A, Tyring SK, Goodman SI, Matalon R. Mild elevation of N-acetylaspartic acid and macrocephaly: diagnostic problem. J Child Neurol. 2003 Nov;18(11):809-12.

Surendran S, Michals-Matalon K, Quast MJ, Tyring SK, Wei J, Ezell EL, Matalon R. Canavan disease: a monogenic trait with complex genomic interaction. Mol Genet Metab. 2003 Sep-Oct;80(1-2):74-80. Review. Erratum in: Mol Genet Metab. 2006 Mar;87(3):279.

Tacke U, Olbrich H, Sass JO, Fekete A, Horvath J, Ziyeh S, Kleijer WJ, Rolland MO, Fisher S, Payne S, Vargiami E, Zafeiriou DI, Omran H. Possible genotype-phenotype correlations in children with mild clinical course of Canavan disease. Neuropediatrics. 2005 Aug;36(4):252-5.

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This article needs to be updated. Please update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information. (October 2018)

Arab Americans (Arabic: or ) are Americans of either Arab ethnic or cultural and linguistic heritage or identity, who identify themselves as Arab. Arab Americans trace ancestry to any of the various waves of immigrants of the countries comprising the Arab World.

According to the Arab American Institute (AAI), countries of origin for Arab Americans include Algeria, Bahrain, Comoros, Djibouti, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Oman, Qatar, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates and Yemen.[3]

According to the 2010 U.S. Census, there are 1,698,570 Arab Americans in the United States.[4] 290,893 persons defined themselves as simply Arab, and a further 224,241 as Other Arab. Other groups on the 2010 Census are listed by nation of origin, and some may or may not be Arabs, or regard themselves as Arabs. The largest subgroup is by far the Lebanese Americans, with 501,907,[1] followed by; Egyptian Americans with 190,078, Syrian Americans with 148,214, Iraqi Americans with 105,981, Moroccan Americans with 101,211, Palestinian Americans with 85,186, and Jordanian Americans with 61,664. Approximately 1/4 of all Arab Americans claimed two ancestries.

A number of peoples that may have lived in Arab countries and are now resident in the United States are not-classified as Arabs, including Assyrians (aka Chaldo-Assyrians), Jews, Kurds, Iraqi Turkmens, Azeris, Mandeans, Circassians, Shabaki, Armenians, Turks, Georgians, Yazidis, Balochs, Iranians and Kawliya/Romani.

The majority of Arab Americans, around 62%, originate from the region of the Levant, which includes Syria, Lebanon, Palestine and Jordan, although overwhelmingly from Lebanon. The remainder are made up of those from Egypt, Somalia, Morocco, Iraq, Libya, the GCC and other Arab nations.

There are nearly 3.5 million Arab Americans in the United States according to The Arab American Institute. Arab-Americans live in all 50 states and in Washington, D.C., and 94% reside in the metropolitan areas of major cities. According to the 2010 U.S. Census, the city with the largest percentage of Arab Americans is Dearborn, Michigan, a southwestern suburb of Detroit, at nearly 40%. The Detroit metropolitan area is home to the largest concentration of Arab Americans (403,445), followed by the New York City Combined Statistical Area (371,233), Los Angeles (308,295), San Francisco Bay Area (250,000), Chicago (176,208), and the Washington D.C area. (168,208).[5](Note: This information is reportedly based upon survey findings but is contradicted by information posted on the Arab American Institute website itself, which states that California as a whole only has 272,485, and Michigan as a whole only 191,607. The 2010 American Community Survey information, from the American Factfinder website, gives a figure of about 168,000 for Michigan.)

Sorting by American states, according to the 2000 U.S. Census, 48% of the Arab-American population, 576,000, reside in California, Michigan, New York, Florida, and New Jersey, respectively; these 5 states collectively have 31% of the net U.S. population. Five other states - Illinois, Texas, Ohio, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania - report Arab-American populations of more than 40,000 each. Also, the counties which contained the greatest proportions of Arab-Americans were in California, Michigan, New York, Florida, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Virginia.

The cities with 100,000 or more in population with the highest percentages of Arabs are Sterling Heights, Michigan 3.69%; Jersey City, New Jersey 2.81%; Warren, Michigan 2.51%; Allentown, Pennsylvania 2.45%; Burbank, California 2.39% and nearby Glendale, California 2.07%; Livonia, Michigan 1.94%; Arlington, Virginia 1.77%; Paterson, New Jersey 1.77%; and Daly City, California 1.69%.[6] Bayonne, New Jersey, a city of 63,000, reported an Arab-American population of 5.0% in the 2010 US Census.[7]

Arab population by state in the USA in 2010.

While the majority of the population of the Arab world is Muslim, most Arab Americans, in contrast, are Christian.[63]

According to the Arab American Institute, the breakdown of religious affiliation among persons originating from Arab countries is as follows:

The percentage of Arab Americans who are Muslim has increased in recent years because most new Arab immigrants tend to be Muslim. This stands in contrast to the first wave of Arab immigration to the United States between the late 19th and early 20th centuries, when almost all immigrants were Christians. Most Maronites tend to be of Lebanese or Syrian; those Palestinians often Eastern Orthodox, otherwise Roman Catholic and a few Episcopalians. A small number are Protestant adherents, either having joined a Protestant denomination after immigrating to the U.S. or being from a family that converted to Protestantism while still living in the Middle East (European and American Protestant missionaries were fairly commonplace in the Levant in the late 19th and early 20th centuries).

Arab Christians, especially from Lebanon, Iraq, Syria, and Egypt, continue to immigrate into the U.S. in the 2000s and continue to form new enclaves and communities across the country.[64]

The United States Census Bureau is presently[when?] finalizing the ethnic classification of Middle East and North Africa (MENA) populations. This process does not pertain to Jewish, Muslim, Christian, Sikh and other religious adherents, whom the bureau tabulates as followers of a religion rather than members of an ethnic group.[66] In 2012, prompted in part by post-9/11 discrimination, the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee petitioned the Department of Commerce's Minority Business Development Agency to designate the MENA populations as a minority/disadvantaged community.[67] Following consultations with MENA organizations, the Census Bureau announced in 2014 that it would establish a new MENA ethnic category for populations from the Middle East, North Africa and the Arab world, separate from the "white" classification that these populations had previously sought in 1909. The expert groups, including some Jewish organizations, felt that the earlier "white" designation no longer accurately represents MENA identity, so they successfully lobbied for a distinct categorization.[68][69]

As of December 2015, the sampling strata for the new MENA category includes the Census Bureau's working classification of 19 MENA groups, as well as Turkish, Sudanese, Djiboutian, Somali, Mauritanian, Armenian, Cypriot, Afghan, Iranian, Azerbaijani and Georgian groups.[70]

The Arab American Institute and other groups have noted that there was a rise in hate crimes targeting the Arab American community as well as people perceived as Arab/Muslim after the September 11 attacks and the US-led 2003 invasion of Iraq.[71]

A new Zogby Poll International found that there are 3.5 million Americans who were identified as "Arab-Americans", or Americans of ancestry belonging to one of the 23 UN member countries of the Arab World (these are not necessarily therefore Arabs). Poll finds that, overall, a majority of those identifying as Arab Americans are Lebanese Americans (largely as a result of being the most numerous group).The Paterson, New Jersey-based Arab American Civic Association runs an Arabic language program in the Paterson school district.[72] Paterson, New Jersey has been nicknamed Little Ramallah and contains a neighborhood with the same name, with an Arab American population estimated as high as 20,000 in 2015.[65] Neighboring Clifton, New Jersey is following in Paterson's footsteps, with rapidly growing Arab, Muslim, and Palestinian American populations.[73]

In a 2007 Zogby poll, 62% of Arab Americans vote Democratic, while only 25% vote Republican.[74] The percentage of Arabs voting Democratic increased sharply during the Iraq War. However, a number of prominent Arab American politicians are Republicans, including former Oregon Governor Victor Atiyeh, former New Hampshire Senator John E. Sununu, and California Congressman Darrell Issa, who was the driving force behind the state's 2003 recall election that removed Democratic Governor Gray Davis from office. The first woman Supreme Court Chief Justice in Florida, Rosemary Barkett, who is of Syrian descent, is known for her dedication to progressive values.

Arab Americans gave George W. Bush a majority of their votes in 2000. However, they backed John Kerry in 2004 and Barack Obama in both 2008 and 2012. They also backed Hillary Clinton in 2016.

According to a 2000 Zogby poll, 52% of Arab Americans are pro-life, 74% support the death penalty, 76% are in favor of stricter gun control, and 86% want to see an independent Palestinian state.[75]

In a study, Arab Americans living in Detroit were found to have values more similar to that of the Arab world than those of the general population living in Detroit, on average, being more closely aligned to the strong traditional values and survival values. This was less the case when participants were secular, or belonged to second and subsequent generations.[76]

There are many U.S. immigrants from the Arab world who are not classified as Arabs. Among these are Armenian Americans, Kurdish Americans and Jewish Americans of Mizrahi origin. Some of these groups such as Assyrians and Chaldeans are Semites, while the vast majority of the rest are not Semites. It is very difficult to estimate the size of these communities. For example, some Armenians immigrated to the U.S. from Lebanon, Syria, or Iraq. Estimates place these communities at least in the tens of thousands.[78][79] Other smaller communities include Assyrians (a.k.a. Chaldo-Assyrians), Berbers, Turkmen people, Mandeans, Circassians, Shabaki, Turks, Mhallami, Georgians, Yazidis, Balochs, Iranians, Azerbaijans and Kawliya/Roma.

Most of these ethnic groups speak their own native languages (usually another Semitic language related to Arabic) and have their own customs, along with the Arabic dialect from the Arab country they originate from. Aviva Uri, in her study of Mizrahi Jews in America, writes that "activists and writers in the United States, both gentile Arab and Jewish, are legitimizing through their various activities and publications the identity of Mizrahim as Arab Jews."[80]

In 2014, Montgomery County, Maryland designated April as Arab American Heritage Month in recognition of the contributions that Arab Americans have made to the nation.[81] The first documentary on Arab Americans premiered on PBS in August of 2017, The Arab Americans features the Arab American immigrant story as told through the lens of American History and the stories of prominent Arab Americans such as actor Jamie Farr, Ralph Nader, Senator George Mitchell, White House Reporter Helen Thomas, Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Anthony Shadid, Danny Thomas actor and Founder of St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, pollster and author John Zogby, Congressman Nick Rahall, racing legend Bobby Rahal. The documentary is produced and directed by Abe Kasbo.

While the spectrum of Arab heritage includes 22 countries, their combined heritage is often celebrated in cultural festivals around the United States.

The Annual Arab-American & North African Street Festival was founded in 2002 by the Network of Arab-American Professionals of NY (NAAP-NY).[82] Located in downtown Manhattan, on Great Jones Street between Lafayette & Broadway, the Festival attracts an estimated 15,000 people, in addition to over 30 Arab and North African vendors along with an all-day live cullltural performance program representing performers from across the Arab world.

The New York Arab-American Comedy Festival was founded in 2003 by comedian Dean Obeidallah and comedian Maysoon Zayid. Held annually each fall, the festival showcases the talents of Arab-American actors, comics, playwrights and filmmakers, and challenges as well as inspires fellow Arab-Americans to create outstanding works of comedy. Participants include actors, directors, writers and comedians.[83]

Of particular note is ArabFest in Seattle, begun in 1999. The festival includes all 22 of the Arab countries, with a souk marketplace, traditional and modern music, an authentic Arab coffeehouse, an Arabic spelling bee and fashion show. Lectures and workshops explore the rich culture and history of the Arab peoples, one of the world's oldest civilizations. Also of new interest is the Arabic rap concert, including the NW group Sons of Hagar, showcasing the political and creative struggle of Arabic youth.[84]

In 2008, the first annual Arab American Festival in Arizona was held on 1 and 2 November in Glendale, Arizona. There were more than 40,000 attendees over the two-day event; more than 35 international singers, dancers and musicians from all over the Arab World performed 20 hours of live entertainment on stage. Activities included folklore shows, an international food court, hookah lounge, kids rides and booth vendors, open to the public, and admission was free.[85]

The Annual Arab American Day Festival is a three-day cultural and entertainment event held in Orange County. Activities include book and folk arts exhibitions, speeches from community leaders in the county, as well as music and poetry, dancing singing, traditional food, hookah and much more.[86]

Since 1996, Milwaukee's Arab World Fest has been part of the summer festival season. It is held during the second weekend of August. This three day event hosts music, culture and food celebrating the 22 Arab countries. The festival features live entertainment, belly dancing, hookah rental, camel rides, cooking demonstrations, a children's area and great Arab cuisine. It is a family friendly festival on Milwaukee's lakefront.[87]

Here are a few examples of famous Arab Americans and Americans with partial Arab ancestry in a variety of fields.

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