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World Music Star GERARD EDERY to perform at the American Sephardi Music Festival in New York on August 24th … – Digital Journal

Posted By on August 11, 2017

Gerard Edery is one of the greatest names in World Music but for sure the greatest name in the Sephardi music genre. He has achieved great accomplishments and has brought the Sephardi music beyond its niche border. Gerard Edery will be performing at the 1st edition of the American Sephardi Music Festival for two concerts with two different repertoires.

Curated by David Serero for the American Sephardi Federation, this festival celebrates its very first edition on August 24th, 27th and 28th 2017 at the Center for Jewish History in New York. On August 24th, Mr Edery will open this unique Music Festival with a program "Three Religions, Three Faiths" and on August 27th, with "Treasures of World Song".

Tickets are availableon http://www.AmericanSephardiMusicFestival.com

About GERARD EDERY:

Gerard Edery received his Bachelor and Master of Music degrees from the Manhattan School of Music in New York City. Recognized as a leading musical folklorist and a master singer and guitarist, Gerard Edery has at his command a remarkable range of ethnic folk styles and traditions from around the world. He has been honored with the Sephardic Musical Heritage Award and is the recipient of a Meet the Composer grant for his original songs. Highlights of Ederys extensive performing career have included performances at Zankel Hall (Carnegie Hall), Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center, Merkin Concert Hall, Florence Gould Hall, and The United Nations in both New York City and Geneva, Victoria Hall in Geneva, The Kimmel Center in Philadelphia, Royce Hall in L.A., The Smithsonian Institute in Washington D.C., Seiji Ozawa Hall at Tanglewood, the Fez International Festival of Sacred Music in Morocco, the Festival Cervantino in Mexico, the Jewish Music Festival in Amsterdam, the Vilnius International Folk Festival, the Pax Sacred Music Festival and the Klaipeda Concert Series (with chamber orchestra) in Lithuania; in Poland at the International Folk Music Festival, the Zachor Music Festival in Bialystock and at the Warsaw Music Academy, among others. In addition to his busy concert schedule, he has released 17 CDs on the Sefarad Records label as well as the acclaimed Sephardic Songbook making him one of the most recorded Sephardi artists.

For his discography: http://www.gerardedery.com/discography

...Gerard Edery, a master of Sephardic song...- New York Times

Who: GERARD EDERY

When: August 24th 7pm (Three Religions, Three Faiths) and August 27th 3pm (Treasures of World Song).

Where: Center for Jewish History 15 W 16th St, New York NY 10011

Follow Gerard Edery: facebook.com/gerard.edery

http://www.gerardedery.com

Media: THE CULTURE NEWS

news@theculturenews.com

http://www.theculturenews.com

Media Contact Company Name: THE CULTURE NEWS Contact Person: Media Manager Email: news@theculturenews.com State: New York Country: United States Website: http://www.theculturenews.com

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World Music Star GERARD EDERY to perform at the American Sephardi Music Festival in New York on August 24th ... - Digital Journal

Alan Grabinsky – Tablet Magazine

Posted By on August 11, 2017

As a child, Haim Casas would walk the streets of the Jewish Quarter in Cordoba with his grandfather, talking about the citys past. He planted a seed in me, Casas told me via Skype from San Roque, a Spanish town close to Gibraltar.

This June, he was ordained as a rabbi, the first Cordobese to achieve this status in 500 years.

Cordoba, with its magnificent mosques and Moorish architecture, was one of the most important intellectual hubs of the Jewish World before the expulsion of the Jews in 1942. The city was the birthplace of, among many others, Maimonides, the Talmudic scholar who contributed to Islamic science and whose authority, undisputed to this day, stretched as far as Yemen and Iraq.

After the expulsion, Jewish presence in Spain went underground to escape persecution from the Inquisition; Crypto-Jews would practice secretly, their traditions mixing with the Mediterranean ebb-and-flow throughout the centuries. Today the 30,000 Jews living in Spain are recent emigres, mostly from Moroccan background. The descendants of Crypto-Jews that remained, according to Casas, inhabit a no mans land: unrecognized as Jews by the established communities and shunned by the Catholic church because of their hybrid background.

It is precisely this cultural mix that, for Casas, forms part of the richness of Sepharad. He started delving into the history of his hometown and uncovered his own familys past. After consulting with other Sephardic Jews around the world, he realized his last name was common among Sephardic Jews. But hes not only Jewish, he told me: He has Gypsy, Moorish and Catholic roots as well.

Before his plunge into the rabbinate, Judaism, for Casas, was a type of archeological phenomena, a thing of the past. His first encounter with a living Jewa fellow Moroccan student at the University of Sevillewas a shock. But it opened the world for him: In 2005, driven by his passion for invigorating Jewish identity in the Andalusian region, he teamed up with a Spanish couple to found a cultural center and museum called Casa de Sefarad, in the heart of the Jewish quarter of Cordoba.

It was through the activities that he managed in this center that he came into contact with Anglo-Saxon tourists who practiced Reform Judaism. Casas, who attended and loved traditional Moroccan serviceshe visited Morocco, on the other side of the Mediterranean, every summeridentified with the pluralistic values of Reform Judaism, and started organizing progressive Shabbat and holiday services, eventually establishing a small community of people from the Andalusian region, called Beit Rambam.

In a play of historical irony, when Casas decided that he wanted to become a rabbi, he realized that he had to leave Cordoba, where no center of Jewish studies exists. He graduated recently, in London, after practicing in Lion and Barcelona.

There have been other Spanish rabbisJordi Gendra, from Barcelona, for example, or Nisan Ben Abraham, from Majorca but Casas is the only one whos coming from the heart of the Andaluca region. He is aware and proud of the responsibility. His email signature features a drawing of his hometown and a quote by Ibn Gabirol, the eleventh-century Andalusian Jewish thinker. Although he is not required to, he signs his name in the traditional way, emphasizing his hometown: Rabbi Haim Casas from Cordoba.

He will not be returning to Cordoba, though: there arent enough Jews to lead a progressive congregation there. Instead, Casas will lead a community called Keren Or, a thirty-year-old congregation, in Lion, and will serve as assistant rabbi for a community in Geneva.

Hes moving away, but he is not leaving. The connection to Sepharad is too strong, he told me from his room overlooking the Mediterranean Sea, It is not something that one can easily dispose of.

Alan Grabinsky writes about cities, media and globalization from Mexico City. He is the Director of the qualitative consulting firm INTERseccin.

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Alan Grabinsky - Tablet Magazine

Cape Verde lists Jewish cemeteries as heritage sites – The Times of Israel

Posted By on August 11, 2017

WASHINGTON The government of Cape Verde listed the island nations Jewish cemeteries and some other structures as heritage sites.

A Washington-based group, the Cape Verde Jewish Heritage Project, announced the June 29 designation of the sites as part of the countrys National Historical Patrimony this week in an email to its members. The designation means that the cemeteries may not be destroyed and that a number of buildings with Jewish associations may not be altered, the groups president, Carol Castiel, told JTA.

CVJHP will continue to work hand-in-hand with the government based on our memorandum of understanding (Protocolo) signed in September 2016, to identify, restore, preserve and maintain these important monuments to Jewish heritage, the statement said. Castiel told JTA that the sites may eventually be marked as a Jewish heritage circuit for tourists to the island.

The islands Jews have all but disappeared, although many of its families are aware of their Jewish ancestry, as are some Cape Verde emigres who have settled in New England.

There were two waves of Jewish immigration to the former Portuguese colony about 300 miles off Africas west coast. The first was of secret Jews who came with Portuguese colonization in the 15th century.

That immigration is difficult to track because of the Jews secrecy, and the cemeteries and other sites are relics of a wave of Jewish immigrants to the island from Morocco and Gibraltar in the mid-19th century.

The Cape Verde Jewish Heritage Project has been working since 2008 with municipalities particularly Praia that are known to have had a Jewish presence. King Mohammed VI of Morocco has been a benefactor of the project.

Earlier this month, Cape Verde announced that it would no longer vote against Israel in the United Nations. The announcement came following a meeting two months ago between Israels Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Cape Verdes President Jorge Carlos Fonseca on the sidelines of the Economic Community of West African States conference in Liberia.

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Cape Verde lists Jewish cemeteries as heritage sites - The Times of Israel

Jewish Insider’s Daily Kickoff: August 10, 2017 – Haaretz

Posted By on August 11, 2017

How Sheryl Sandberg, Natalie Portman & Howard Schultz cope with imposter syndrome | Intel completes Mobileye purchase | New Air-Krafts

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TOP TALKER: Israel Held Secret Talks With Russia, U.S. Over Cease-fire in Southern Syria by Barak Ravid:Israel, the United States and Russia held a series of secret meetings early last month in Amman and in a European capital regarding the cease-fire in southern Syria The Israeli team included top representatives of the Foreign Ministry, Defense Ministry, Mossad and the Israel Defense Forces. The American team was led by President Donald Trumps special envoys on Syria, Michael Ratney and Brett McGurk The Israelis told the Russians and the Americans that they had to demand from the Iranians that the Revolutionary Guards, Hezbollah and the Shiite militias in Syria must leave the country. [Haaretz]

"Facing Palestinian criticism, White House says closeness to Israel is an asset by Michael Willner, Adam Rasgon and Herb Keinon: This is a way for the Palestinians to try and message the administration: We have to see some sign that you in fact take our interests into account, said Dennis Ross.White House officials say that Abbas takes the Trump team more seriously knowing that Kushner and Greenblatt are personally close with the Israelis a distinction from members of the Obama administration. What they mean to say is that, because were close to the Israelis, we have the ability to influence Israeli behavior, Ross said. And that indeed could benefit the Palestinians, to an extent.[JPost] Abbas issues new demands of Israel, but is quietly still arresting terror suspects [ToI]

JARED INSIDER: Behind The Jared And Ivanka PR Machine by Steven Perlberg:On a Thursday late last month... Jared Kushner paused in the West Wing to chat with ABCs Jonathan Karl and his daughter, who worked as a CNN summer intern. Kushner told Karls daughter that it must be interesting to be a reporter, because you always have to figure out who is going to lie to you When Kushner thought he noticed another reporter, New York magazines Olivia Nuzzi, recording the exchange, he was startled and said it was off the record. He then uncomfortably asked Nuzzi to delete the recording, which she did not do. A few minutes later, after Kushner had left, a Secret Service agent and a press assistant approached Nuzzi and told her she was not permitted to record (she is).

A product of the ruthless New York corporate arena, [Josh] Raffel conducts the blocking and tackling for Kushnerand his wife, Ivanka Trump, routinely making the couple available for off-the-record chats, sources say. Hes smart and good-humored, and reporters whove battled with him say he comfortably oscillates between friendly chatter and aggressiveness. One White House reporter said hes the most competent staffer in the West Wing Sources say Raffel is intensely loyal to the couple The couple trusts Raffel, whom Kushner has known for years, more than the White House communications department, and, according to sources close to them, they want him to be their press steward. [BuzzFeed]

DRIVING THE CONVO: "Elizabeth Warren Comes Out Against Senate's Anti-BDS Bill" by David Colon:"Warren, who was never a sponsor of the bill, was asked about it by a constituent at a town hall last night. In response, she said that while she disagreed with BDS, she also said that 'outlawing free speech-protected activity violates our basic constitution.'"[Gothamist]

NY Post editorial Democrats latest anti-Israel turn:"The White House hopefuls may be responding to the shift by the partys base against Israel Then again, [Chuck] Schumer is 66 and [Steny] Hoyer 78, while [Cory] Bookers 48 and [Kirsten] Gillibrand 50. In the Democratic Party, reliable support for Israel looks to be a thing of the past. [NYPost]

An NJDC spokesman emails us..."Saying that the Democratic Party is anti-Israel is both detached from reality and an easy way to kill bipartisan pro-Israel support. We must work to keep fighting for the US-Israel relationship as a bipartisan issue, especially during the erratic Trump administration. This is too important of an issue to fall victim to increasing partisanship."

ON THE HILL -- Four Democratic Senatorsadvocate for Palestinian Issa Amro -- by Aaron Magid: SenatorsBernie Sanders (I-VT), Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL), Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) recently wrote a letter to Secretary of State Rex Tillerson advocating for Palestinian activist Issa Amro who has been charged by the Israeli military court system, a Congressional staffer told Jewish Insider. A similar petition was submitted in the House and backed by 34 Democrats.

It was a private letter raising the case of Issa Amro asking him to monitor the case citing the State Departments own human rights report, which had mentioned Amros case, the Senate staffer explained. Haaretz reported that Amros charges are for spitting at a settler, obstructing soldiers and insulting them. ...We fear that Israeli military courts deliberating over Mr. Amros charges will be unlikely to render a fair and impartial verdict given that the conviction rate within that system is 99.74 percent, the House letter noted.

Eugene Kontorovich, Professor of Law at Northwestern University, blasted the Democratic House letter and told us last month, Just as Israel does not seek to politicize the treatment of U.S. security detainees, U.S. Congressmen should not meddle in this matter.

DRIVING THE DAY --Trump Threatens Fire and Fury Against North Korea if It Endangers U.S. by Peter Baker and Choe Sang-Hun:This is a more dangerous moment than faced by Trumps predecessors, said Mark Dubowitz, chief executive of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a nonprofit group in Washington. The normal nuanced diplomatic rhetoric coming out of Washington hasnt worked in persuading the Kim regime of American resolve. This language underscores that the most powerful country in the world has its own escalatory and retaliatory options. [NYTimes]

HEARD YESTERDAY - Former Senator Joe Lieberman on i24News Crossroads: I know that a lot of people will criticize President Trump for the language he used towards North Korea today, but as far as I am concerned, we have tried just about everything else and it hasnt worked So, I dont mind the strong language. The question is: what next? Because this is an unstable, unpredictable leader of North Korea.. [Prompting China to act] could be the most immediate the most positive response to what President Trump has said. The Chinese may worry that they dont know exactly what President Trump would do. He might take military action, which would destabilize the entire area, probably create massive refugees flows from North Korea into China, which the Chinese dont want.

Eliot A. Cohen: "America Is Not Ready for a War in North Korea" [TheAtlantic]

MORE ON TRUMP'S PLATE -- Iranian drone comes close to U.S. fighter jet: U.S. official by Idrees Ali:An unarmed Iranian drone came within 100 feet (31 meters) of a U.S. Navy warplane as it prepared to land on an aircraft carrier in the Gulf, a U.S. official said on Tuesday This appears to be the first time an Iranian drone has come dangerously close to a U.S. fighter plane in the Gulf. [Reuters]

"Getting Trump Out of My Brain" by David Brooks:"If Trump falls in disgrace or defeat, and peoples partisan pride is no longer at stake, I hope that even his supporters will have enough moral memory to acknowledge that character really does matter...But where are people going to go for a new standard of decency? Theyre not going to go back to the old WASP ideal. Thats dead. Trump revealed the vacuum, but who is going to fill it and with what? I could describe a similar vacuum when it comes to domestic policy thinking, to American identity, to Americas role in the world. Trump exposes the void but doesnt fill it. Thats why the reaction against Trump is now more important than the man himself." [NYTimes]

WSJ editorial...McMaster and the Commander:"Mr. Trump may worry about the damage Mr. Bannon and his allies could do to his Administration if he is no longer part of the White House team. But if his minions continue to vilify his colleagues inside the White House, how can anyone tell the difference?" [WSJ]

BUZZ ON BALFOUR: Investigations Intensifying, Israel Imagines Life After Netanyahu by Isabel Kershner:There is, as yet, no clear contender to replace Mr. Netanyahu An Israel without Mr. Netanyahu at the helm would, in any case, be an unfamiliar place for its inhabitants, the Middle East and the world The Israeli leader has also become a fixture at the annual meetings of the United Nations General Assembly, showcasing a combative, theatrical style of diplomacy.... His tenure has been one of impasse in the Palestinian peace process. But inside Israel, he is credited with having maintained stability as Arab neighbors descended into chaos. A departure would leave Israel, its allies and its enemies in uncharted terrain The notion that there is nobody to replace Mr. Netanyahu holds until it happens, Professor [Gadi] Wolfsfeld said. They said nobody could replace Ben-Gurion. [NYTimes;LATimes]

KAFE KNESSET -- by Tal Shalev and JPost's Lahav Harkov:Thousands of Likudniks are expected to gather this evening in Tel Aviv for a mass rally and demonstration of support for Netanyahu. The rally was scheduled in the wake of all of the PM's legal troubles and the Likud has been preparing quite a buildup for the event. Bibi himself is the keynote speaker and everyone is waiting for his speech, in which he is likely to address the latest developments in his investigations. A senior Likud figure told Kafe Knesset that he believes Netanyahu will be putting on quite a show. "It will be a declaration of war - on everyone - from the media to the Left - and even on law enforcement authorities."

Not in the bag anymore?As if Netanyahu doesnt have enough to worry about, senior United Torah Judaism MK Moshe Gafni referred to an interesting letter in a talk to yeshiva students this week, according to a Walla! News report. Gafni recounted that Rabbi Elazar Menachem Shach, who was the undisputed head of the Lithuanian Haredi community while he was alive, wrote a letter to former Prime Minister Menachem Begin while he was negotiating peace with Egypt that it is permissible to evacuate settlements for peace. Concessions made only for peace are not considered concessions, and when God has mercy on us and the time comes, the ceded land will all be returned to us, Rabbi Shach wrote...Haredi parties have long been reliable members of any right-wing government.Is Gafni hinting to Netanyahu that they arent his natural partners anymore anymore? Read today's entire Kafe Knesset here [JewishInsider]

2020 WATCH -- Fundraising slows at pro-Trump super PACs by Megan Wilson: Future45, which collected $20 million of its $25 million in donations from Casino magnate Sheldon Adelson during the 2016 campaign, had zero donors so far this year Of all the pro-Trump super PACs, Future45 had the least left in its coffers and also the smallest amount of operating costs in the first half of the year spending just over $19,000, which could indicate it is shutting down or going on hiatus. [TheHill]

Mark Zuckerbergs Political Ambitions Are Grander Than You Think by Nick Bilton:The reaction to the rumors, though, were sometimes stranger than the potential of a Zuckerberg presidency. On the left, a lot of people applauded the notion of a tech genius running for office... Some in the alt-right reduced the prospect of Zuckerberg, who is of Jewish heritage, in the White House to horrifying racist screeds... One person who interacts with Zuckerberg on a regular basis theorized that maybe Zuckerberg is leaving open the option to run for office one day in the very distant future, or that he could try running for lesser office to better understand how government works. [VanityFair]

** Good Wednesday Morning! Enjoying the Daily Kickoff?Please share us with your friends & tell them to sign up at [JI]. Have a tip, scoop, or op-ed? Wed love to hear from you.Anything from hard news and punditry to the lighter stuff, including event coverage, job transitions, or even special birthdays, is much appreciated. Email Editor@JewishInsider.com**

BUSINESS BRIEFS:After A Comeback, Anne Wojcicki's23andMe Faces Its Next Test [FastCompany] By Buying IsraeliMobileye, Intel Jumps Firmly Into Driverless Car Race [NYTimes] Nielsen buys AI sports marketing co vBrand[Globes] WeWork grows Seattle footprint with biggest deal yet in a project developed by Martin Selig [ConstructionDive] With $5.3 million in funding, Yinon Weiss'CarDash wants to change how you get your car serviced [TechCrunch]

SPOTLIGHT: "Its Not Just You: These Super Successful People Suffer From Imposter Syndrome" by Stephanie Vozza: "You might be surprised at the people who admit to feeling like an imposter. While a member of the Phi Beta Kappa honor society at Harvard University, Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg felt she didnt deserve to be there. Every time I was called on in class, I was sure that I was about to embarrass myself, she writes in her book Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead. Every time I took a test, I was sure that it had gone badly. And every time I didnt embarrass myself or even excelled I believed that I had fooled everyone yet again. One day soon, the jig would be up.

"Actress and fellow Harvard alum Natalie Portman shared her continued feelings of inadequacy with the schools 2015 graduating class in a commencement speech. Today I feel much like I did when I came to Harvard Yard as a freshman in 1999, she said. I felt like there had been some mistake, that I wasnt smart enough to be in this company, and that every time I opened my mouth I would have to prove that I wasnt just a dumb actress.

"Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz admitted to being insecure: Very few people, whether youve been in that job before or not, get into the seat and believe today that they are now qualified to be the CEO. Theyre not going to tell you that, but its true.Schultz says a CEOs willingness to feel insecure is not a weakness, but only when used properly. I would say one of the underlying strengths of a great leader and a great CEOnot all the time but when appropriateis to demonstrate vulnerability, because that will bring people closer to you and show people the human side of you. [FastCompany]

PROFILE:"The Hotelier Who Reinvigorated a New York Neighborhood Heads to Vegas" byNikki Ekstein:"With his next project, New Yorks NoMad, Andrew Zoblerput himself in charge of the whole thing, including operations. I wanted to prove to myself and to the world that I could create a hotel, he says...With the opening next year of the Park MGM in Las Vegas, which hes undertaking with the namesake casino giant, Zobler is looking beyond boutique hotels to megaproperties with mega social scenes... Convention hotels, Zobler says, dont have to be as boring as they usually are: To me, thats the next chapter." [Bloomberg]

--"Despite his reluctance, when Zobler does talk about his background, its very telling. He starts with his two larger-than-life grandmothers. He inherited his ambition from his Holocaust-survivor paternal grandmother. She had the idea that we survived for a reason, he says. That we should do something of importance. He attributes his aesthetic sense to his maternal grandmother, Sydell, for whom the company is named." [Surface]

"El Chapo Gives Up Public Defenders and Hires a Private Lawyer" by Alan Feuer:"While traveling in Israel on Tuesday, [Jeffrey] Lichtman confirmed in an email that he had been retained by Mr. Guzmn, whom he will now defend against a sprawling international conspiracy indictment that was filed against him in January by federal prosecutors in Brooklyn." [NYTimes]

"FBI: Teen Sold Bomb Threats Against Schools, Jewish Centers on the Dark Web by Kelly Weill:Michael Kadar, 19, was arrested in Israel in March, under suspicion that he was behind a wave of bomb threats targeting U.S. institutions. When Israeli police raided the Kadars bedroom, they found a flash drive containing the teens personal records on his alleged bomb threats U.S. officials allege in newly unsealed court documents that he was running a bomb threat business on the dark web marketplace AlphaBay The post offered refunds for unsuccessful bomb threats, and tiered pricing ranging from $30 for a single threat, to $90 for emailed bomb threat to a school districtsmultiple schools + framing someone for it. [DailyBeast; NYTimes]

MEDIA WATCH: "When Silicon Valley Took Over Journalism" by Franklin Foer:"Makers of magazines and newspapers used to think of their product as a coherent packagean issue, an edition, an institution. They did not see themselves as the publishers of dozens of discrete pieces to be trafficked each day on Facebook, Twitter, and Google. Thinking about bundling articles into something larger was intellectually liberating...Journalism has performed so admirably in the aftermath of Trumps victory that it has grown harder to see the professions underlying rot. Now each assignment is subjected to a cost-benefit analysiswill the article earn enough traffic to justify the investment? Sometimes the analysis is explicit and conscious, though in most cases its subconscious and embedded in euphemism." [TheAtlantic]

TRANSITION -- Hadas Gold tweets: "Im starting a new chapter and a new beat! Im joining CNN to cover European politics, media, & global business.This is a bittersweet moment - I LOVE Politico and the people here. I am forever indebted to Politico, my editors and colleagues.I joined Politico 5 years ago -- my first real journalism job. There aren't enough words to express my gratitude to for giving me a chance.Im excited for this new opportunity CNN covering Europe's changing dynamics and how it deals with U.S." [Twitter]

Welcoming Gretchen Hammond to Tablet by Alana Newhouse:Starting this month, Gretchen Rachel Hammond will be writing full-time for Tablet, as part of a year-long fellowship at the magazine On June 24, Hammond broke the news that three women flying Pride flags festooned with the Star of David were forced by organizers to leave Chicagos Dyke Marchsetting off a massive news story and a national conversation about anti-Semitism on the left. One week later, Gretchen was reassigned to nonjournalistic duties at the paper. [Tablet]

Remembering Arlene Gottfried: Legendary New York City Street Photographer by Paul Moakley:Gottfried, who died at 66 on Aug. 8 of complications from cancer, according to her family, was born and raised in Brooklyn with her sister, Karen, who became a muse for much of her work, and a surprisingly camera shy brother, the comedian Gilbert Gottfried As a shy, young Jewish girl with a head of curly hair, her identity was ambiguous and could fit in anywhere. She always carried a camera and as she got older, she carried a point-and-shoot in her purse. Over the span of three decades, Gottfried published five books that taken together can serve as photo albums of her life. [TIME]

SPORTS BLINK: Blatt remaining patient as he waits for another NBA opportunity by Allon Sinai:I have an end game and that end game is that I would really like to go back to the NBA, Blatt told The Jerusalem Post on Tuesday. There were no changes in the NBA this year from a coaching standpoint and my real goal is to try next year to get back into the league as a head coach. It may happen and it may not happen. But I wanted to leave that door open for myself if the opportunity arises. [JPost]

"The New Moneyball, With Lots and Lots of Money" by Jared Diamond: "Andrew Friedman and Farhan Zaidi took over the Los Angeles Dodgers front office before the 2015 season and quickly drew the ire of a city built on the power of stardom.Inheriting a record payroll and massive expectations, they began running the Dodgers less like baseballs wealthiest organization and more like the small-market teams they came from: They shunned the most expensive free agents and headline-grabbing trades in favor of protecting the farm system and adding complementary pieces of the puzzle." [WSJ]

'NEW AIR-KRAFTS' -- Patriots Become 1st NFL Franchise to Buy a Team Plane: "They only figuratively own the New York Jets, but the defending champions now own two wide-body jets. According to ESPN's Darren Rovell, the Patriots bought a pair of 767 Boeing aircrafts." [BleacherReport; ESPN]

DESSERT: "At Nur, an Open-Armed Approach to Middle Eastern Flavors' by Pete Wells:"For long commutes, few chefs can top the one that Meir Adoni has been making since he opened a Middle Eastern restaurant calledNuron East 20th Streetin April. He splits his time between Manhattan; Tel Aviv, the site of his two other restaurants; and his home outside Jerusalem...The plates have energy. At times, in fact, they dont know when to quit. The sauces and powders and garnishes proliferate so quickly that its hard to keep count... Nurs menu embraces Morocco and Libya in North Africa, in addition to Israel, Yemen and Syria; again, its hard to keep count. His vision of his part of the globe is pluralistic." [NYTimes]

BIRTHDAYS:Physicist and venture capitalist, co-founder and general partner of New Markets Venture Partners, Donald M. "Don" Spero, Ph.D. turns 78...Emmy Award-winning correspondent for ABC News for more than 20 years, then a research fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution, Carl Robert Zelnick turns 77...Host of Showtime's "Inside Comedy," son of a Rabbi, he has appeared 130 times on Johnny Carson, David Steinberg turns 75...Romance novelist with 19 books on the NYT bestseller lists, Barbara Delinsky (born Barbara Ruth Greenberg) turns 72...Author of 36 Jewish themed books, founder of Rossel Books, he lectures on Israel, the Holocaust, Bible, archaeology, spirituality, Jewish history and Jewish education, Seymour Rossel turns 72...Psychologist and bestselling suspense novelist, Jonathan Kellerman turns 68...Southern California resident, Faith Schames turns 66...Member of the Minnesota Senate since 2007, following four years in the Minnesota House of Representatives, Ronald Steven "Ron" Latz turns 54...Chief of Staff for Congressman Jerrold Nadler (D-NY-10), Amy B. Rutkin turns 48...

Kiev-born, member of the Maryland House of Delegates since 2007 from Montgomery County, Kirill Reznik turns 43...Reporter in the Washington bureau of The New York Times since 2017, previously Chief Investigative Reporter for Politico (2007-2017), Kenneth P. Vogel turns 42...Executive Director of the Israel on Campus Coalition, Jacob Baime turns 32...South Pasadena, California resident, Giovanna Fradkin...Senior counselor at at Dezenhall Resources since April 2017, previously communications director for the Republican Jewish Coalition and an RNC alum, Fred Brown...Partner at Hilltop Public Solutions, who served as Special Advisor to NYC Mayor de Blasio, Rebecca Kirszner Katz...Researcher at the London School of Economics, previously a public affairs / political intern in the DC office of SKDKnickerbocker, Isaac Lederman...Amanda Isaacson...Elise Aronson (h/ts Playbook)...Dan Zimerman...Mark Shapiro...

Gratuity not included. Welovereceivingnews tips but we also gladly accept tax deductible tips.100% of your donation will go directly towards improving Jewish Insider. Thanks! [PayPal]

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Jewish Insider's Daily Kickoff: August 10, 2017 - Haaretz

First Read For Aug 11 – Jewish Week

Posted By on August 11, 2017

Glen Campbell, Messianic Jew, has died at 81

Glen Campbell, the country music star who died this week at 81 from Alzheimers disease, was a Messianic Jew for the last two decades of his life, JTA reports. He and his wife Kim attended services at a synagogue near their home in Malibu, and they celebrated major Jewish holidays, such as Passover, Rosh Hashanah and Hanukkah.

Messianic Judaism combines Jewish traditions with the idea that Jesus Christ is the coming Messiah. Some Messianic Jews want the movement to be accepted as a branch of Judaism, but mainstream Jewish movements believe the ideology is a contradiction.

Minneapolis JCRC reaches out to vandalized mosque

The Jewish Community Relations Council of Minnesota has supported affirmed the Muslim community in the wake of an attack on Saturday at a local mosque, JTA reports.

Following the bomb blast at the Dar Al Farooq Islamic Center, in which no one was injured, the JCRC of Minnesota and the Dakotas said in an ad in the Star Tribune that the Jewish community affirms its solidarity with the school, mosque, and local Muslim community.

The attack caused an estimated $95,000 worth of damage.

Endangered Iranian journalist arrives in Israel

Neda Amin, a Turkey-based, Iranian-born blogger forThe Times of Israels Persian website, arrived safely in Israel yesterday, and was met at Ben-Gurion Airport by Times of Israel editor David Horovitz, the paper reports.

Neda Amin, left, meeting The Times of Israel editor David Horovitz at Ben-Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv, Aug. 10, 2017. JTA

Amin, threatened with imminent deportation by Turkey, had feared that if no other country took her in, she would be sent back to Iran, where she feared for her fate.

After The Times of Israel alerted the Israeli authorities to her plight, government officials immediately responded and paved the way for her safe arrival in Israel.

Amin has blogged regularly for The Times of Israels Persian site. I felt we had an obligation to ensure her well-being, and I am very grateful to all the Israeli officials to whom I turned for assistance for providing it, immediately, said Horovitz.

In Poland, a Jewish wedding without Jews

A fake Jewish wedding was held on Saturday in the Polish village of Radzanw, 80 miles northeast of Warsaw, according to the Times of Israel.

Organized by the Radzanovia Association, a cultural group that promotes Polish heritage, the event featured a few dozen non-Jewish volunteers, men and women, dressed in traditional charedi costumes. Some men wore fake beards and side curls including ones that didnt match their natural hair color. The marital couple stood under a chupah, where they were wed by a fake rabbi in a show before villagers, whom the events organizers sought to teach about Jewish traditions.

Teresa Wroska, an actress from the Jewish Theater in Warsaw, choreographed the entire affair from the signing of the ketubah (the Jewish marriage contract) to the traditional Jewish music played by a band of locals and musicians from the capital.

Harvey Weinstein to film Mila 18 novel

Oscar-winning producer Harvey Weinstein is planning to make a version of Leon Uris novel Mila 18 next year, according to Haaretz. The book recounts a fictionalized version of the real-life Warsaw Ghetto Uprising during the Nazi occupation of Poland during World War II. Weinstein announced that he had developed a script for a film adaptation years ago, collaborating with his friend, the Iranian-born writer and director Hossein Amini. Weinstein added that he intended to direct the film himself and that he was now committed to making the film.

Harvey Weinstein, co-chairman and co-founder of Weinstein Co., at a Conference in Sun Valley, Idaho. July 12, 2017. Getty Images

Israeli channel fined for excluding non-Orthodox Jews

Israels Channel 20 has been fined about $30,000 for failing to give broadcast time to non-Orthodox Jewish groups, Haaretz reports. The fine, imposed by the Council for Cable TV and Satellite Broadcasting, was preceded by several warnings following complaints on the matter.

The council examined the channels broadcasting in April and May of this year following the complaints, and found that there was no coverage at all of Reform or Conservative Judaism. Last month the Reform movement petitioned the High Court of Justice, but the council said it had completed its investigation more than two months before.

Israeli boxer wins bronze medal in youth championship

Israels Amit Mdah won a bronze medal this week at the IFMA Youth Muay Thai World Championships in Bangkok after his Palestinian opponent failed to show up for their quarterfinal match-up, the Jerusalem Post reports. Mdah, 16, from the Druze-Arab town of Kisra-Sumei in the western Galilee, was supposed to face Acbag Sultan, a resident of the Ramallah district, but the Palestinian teenager never appeared for their fight. Mdah eventually ended the age 16-17 under-54 kilogram competition with a bronze medal after losing to Ukrainian Andrii Mezentsev in the semifinals.The head of the Palestinian Association of Kickboxing and Muay Thai, Muhammad Ahmad Zeidani, told Palestinian news agency Maan that Sultan didnt face his Israeli opponent as there has not yet been an official Palestinian decision over whether to face Israeli athletes in any sporting event.

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First Read For Aug 11 - Jewish Week

Mission to Ukraine, Israel shows power of JFSA giving – Jewish Post

Posted By on August 11, 2017

Afew months ago, I accepted the daunting responsibility to chair the 2018 campaign for the Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona. I have been a staunch supporter of the Federation since I moved to Tucson 37 years ago, and having recently retired from Tucson Hebrew Academy as their director of admissions, I knew it was the right time to volunteer my efforts to a cause I hold dear to my heart.

Stu Mellan, JFSA president and CEO, suggested I attend the annual mission offered by Jewish Federations of North America to witness firsthand how our dollars are spent for overseas needs.

The trip was short but intensive two days in Kiev, Ukraine, and three days in Israel. I had visited Israel before, three of those times on Federation missions, so I assumed I was knowledgeable about the various programs that Federation funds. I was about to be truly educated.

First stop was Kiev. I have a personal connection to the area as my grandparents were from a shtetl (small Jewish town) named Pokitilivo, located midway between Odessa and Kiev.

But Kiev is no shtetl its a beautiful, bustling city. I strolled the promenade and visited the 130 year-old Brodsky Synagogue, wondering if my grandparents had ever done the same. I questioned why Federation dollars would be needed in such a beautiful place. I soon found out.

Kiev is the sight of the infamous Babi Yar Massacre. During the Holocaust, hundreds of thousands of Jews from this area were murdered. The most vulnerable were left behind with no family and no support system. They were disenfranchised, unaffiliated, and not allowed to practice their religion.

Now, 70 years later, the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, known as JDC, is working hard to revitalize Jewish life in the former Soviet Union. There are estimated to be more than one million Jews in the FSU who know very little about what it means to be a Jew. With the help of Federation dollars, they are rediscovering their Jewish heritage and culture or, in many cases, being introduced to it for the first time. If no action was taken, Russian Jewish life could have disappeared within a single generation.

The JDC is a lifeline for Ukraines most vulnerable Jews. An estimated 110,000 of these Jews receive JDC aid of some kind, in the form of food packages, food cards, bankcards, or medicine. About 27,000 are elderly and homebound. We visited one sweet 83-year-old woman, Bella, who recalled celebrating Hanukkah as a child. She lost a daughter who was shot during military duty in Israel, and now she waits eagerly for the JDC caretaker to visit, help her with the housework, provide companionship and bring her groceries to bolster her $70/month pension. In her twilight years, we are there to give her the dignity she deserves, the loving companionship she needs and the Jewish compassion she craves.

For those who are not homebound, there is a beautiful Chesed Center (aptly named, since chesed means kindness) for the elderly where they celebrate the Jewish holidays together and rekindle their connection to Judaism. They sing and dance to Israeli and Jewish music and socialize with their peers. Our dollars provide this much needed interaction.

Day 3 of my mission abroad brought me to Eretz Israel. So many good things are happening in Israel! They are building a high-speed train from Jerusalem to Tel Aviv; the travel time will be 27 minutes. It will tunnel under the territories and provide bomb shelter capabilities to thousands. Ben Gurion airport, with its state-of-the-art security, is a model for the world. There are new office buildings, apartment buildings, shopping malls and new archeological digs uncovering thousands of years of Jewish history. Although I marveled at the modern growth of Israel, Federation dollars are not a part of this progress. Federation dollars are used exclusively for social and educational services for Jews who are at risk or in need. Not for government, not for military, not for infrastructure only for helping our fellow Jews in need.

During Operations Moses in 1984 and Solomon 1991, the world witnessed a miracle as more than 25,000 Ethiopian Jews were airlifted to Israel, saving them from the ravages of drought and famine. Since then, a trickle of Ethiopian aliyah has continued. Adjustment to modern society is a challenge, and the majority of Ethiopian immigrant families live in low-income areas. The Ethiopian National Projects School Performance and Community Empowerment program helps students who are immigrants or children of immigrants overcome cultural and socio-economic barriers and achieve their full potential.

The focus is on STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) education. After successfully completing this program, high school graduates are appointed to excellent commissions in the Israel Defense Forces. A meaningful IDF service is a ticket to success in Israeli society. At the Ben Shemen Youth Village we met with some Ethiopian teenage participants, who shared with us their dreams: to become doctors, lawyers, and teachers. These ambitions are a far cry from life in the impoverished villages from which theyd come.

Our Federation dollars accomplish remarkable things throughout our global community, including in the former Soviet Union (which also encompasses war-torn eastern Ukraine), Israel, and right here in Tucson. As I take on the charge of campaign chair for the upcoming year, I am empowered by the needs I witnessed. Please join me in raising the necessary funds to help Jews in need. Consider these stories when making your pledge to the 2018 campaign. If you could see how your Federation dollars transform Jewish lives every day, you would be compelled to care. Lets make this world a better place!

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Mission to Ukraine, Israel shows power of JFSA giving - Jewish Post

Hasidic congregation secures $8M in public funding – Times Herald-Record

Posted By on August 11, 2017

Chris McKenna Times Herald-Record @ChrisMcKenna845

An Orange County agency agreed to issue $8 million in tax-exempt bonds for a Hasidic congregation in June, money that the group misleadingly said it would use to buy the two boys schools and surrounding property that it had been renting on County Route 105 in Monroe and Woodbury.

Congregation Bnai Yoel's application referred to the property owner as a "related entity," which was an understatement. Public records indicate that the same seven men run both the congregation and Cody Inc., a shell company created in 1990 to hold the congregation's property. And what was presented as a cost-saving property purchase appears, in reality, to have been a method of refinancing a $5.7 millionbank mortgage that Bnai Yoel and Cody Inc. jointly obtained in 2013 and 2014.

There's no sign that the bonding the Orange County Funding Corp. approved for Bnai Yoel was improper, apart from the congregation's deceptive explanation for why it wanted the money. Laurie Villasuso, chief operating officer and executive vice president for the funding agency, said that helping nonprofits refinance their debts is a legitimate use of the corporation's bonding authority. She pointed out the agency did something similar for Mount Saint Mary College in 2012, when it approved up to $75 million in bonds for the Newburgh college to renovate its Dominican Center and pay off earlier bonds.

The funding corporation is not allowed to issue bonds for religious activities. But its bond attorneys had determined the $8 million in bonds for Bnai Yoel "was allocable toportions of the school that relate to secular education and other secular school-related activities," Villasuso said.

Yitzchok Tyrnauer, who is board secretary for both Bnai Yoel and Cody Inc. and signed the bond application, didn't respond to calls and emails from the Times Herald-Record to discuss the transaction.

Stephen Weiss, a Long Island financial adviser who spoke for the congregation at the funding corporation's meeting in May, told the Record he had referred the matter to an attorney for the project and hung up.

Edward Ambrosino, the Long Island attorney who represented Bnai Yoel at the same board meeting in New Windsor, didn't return phone calls.

Less than two months before he sat at that Orange County meeting, a federal grand jury on Long Island indicted Ambrosino on eight counts of wire fraud, tax evasion and other charges, accusing him of depositing in his own account $800,000 in legal fees that belonged to his law firm and failing to pay more than $250,000 in taxes. Ambrosino, who specializes in economic development and financing, had collected $1.3 million in payments from two Nassau County economic development agencies from 2013 to 2015, according to federal authorities. He's free on $250,000 bail while his criminal case is pending.

Refinancing

County records show that Bnai Yoel and Cody Inc. borrowed $5.7 million from the Bank of Princeton through two transactions in 2013 and 2014. The purpose of the mortgage, according to a court petition they submitted to get permission to borrow, was to pay off $4.6 million in private loans and a 2006 mortgage on which the congregation still owed justmore than$300,000.

The court papers listed 23 private loans and indicated they had been made to pay for school construction. A financial statement noted that several Bnai Yoel board members had personally lent the congregation $914,000, and said that most of the private loans were repaid right after the initial Bank of Princeton mortgage in 2013.

Bnai Yoel was founded in 1989 and runs religious schools for Kiryas Joel families who don't belong to the Hasidic community's main congregation or use its yeshiva system, known as the United Talmudical Academy. About 2,000 children now attend Bnai Yoel schools, according to the bond application.

The congregation's bond application in March said it was borrowing $8 million to help buy the two schools for $11.5 million. It stated the transaction would provide "lower debt service and lower annual operating costs" and create 20 jobs, giving no explanation for the new jobs.

The county agency that approved the bonds has the same seven-member board and support staff as the county's Industrial Development Agency, but serves a different purpose. The IDA offers property-tax abatements and other tax breaks to encourage companies to locate or expand operations in Orange County. The funding corporation's functions include issuing bonds, typically for nonprofits or manufacturers, according to its mission statement.

The corporation merely acts as a "conduit" for the bonds, which means Bnai Yoel has sole responsibility for making regular payments to the bond holders. The corporation plays no part in that debt service and wouldn't be liable if the congregation defaults, Villasuso said.

cmckenna@th-record.com

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Hasidic congregation secures $8M in public funding - Times Herald-Record

A factual fictional look inside Brooklyn’s Hasidic community – The Boston Globe

Posted By on August 11, 2017

Menashe Lusting (left) with Menashe director Joshua Weinstein.

Its hard to make a documentary when your subjects wont talk to you. So veteran documentary director Joshua Z. Weinstein decided to make his scripted-film debut with Menashe, a contemporary father-son drama set in the Yiddish-speaking, ultra-orthodox Hasidic Jewish community of Borough Park in Brooklyn.

You cant make a doc in the Hasidic world. You cant run around the streets with a camera; people will yell and scream. Authenticity was going to make or break this movie. If it didnt feel 100 percent real, it would fail like a hot gefilte fish rolling down a pavement, said Weinstein, who was born in New York and raised in a liberal Jewish community in New Jersey. But it was difficult. No one has seen a film crew in Borough Park. Some liked it; some did not.

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He didnt have a screenplay when he started; just the desire to capture modern-day Hasidic life using non-actors in the spirit of Italian neorealism and pioneering indie directors like John Cassavetes.

I just knew I wanted to make a fiction film in the ultra-orthodox world with non-actors, and write the roles for them. I also wanted to tell a story so specific and nuanced that you could not make it up unless you knew about it, Weinstein recalled during a recent return to the city where he once studied filmmaking at Boston University. His credits since then include the 2013 short I Beat Mike Tyson, the story of Dorchester heavyweight Kevin McBride and his upset victory over Tyson in 2005.

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Weinstein found his feature film subject when he met Menashe Lusting, a Hasidic comic and actor. He fashioned a story that mirrored aspects of Lustings own life, and cast him to play the lead character.

On film, Menashe is a widower who works in a grocery store while trying to regain custody of his young son Rieven (Ruben Niborski) from his brother-in-law Eizik (Yoel Weisshaus) and his family. Menashes insulated community has strict religious codes requiring that he remarry to resume full fatherhood. Though Menashe pleads his case with Eizik and the neighborhood rabbi (Meyer Schwartz), hes at such a low point that even he seems to question his paternal abilities until he violates the arrangement and spends time with Rieven.

When I was looking through tapes, Menashe showed so much humor and so much pain at the same time. He was the sad clown we hear so much about, said Weinstein. I just knew right away he could carry a film and be brilliant and people would want to watch him. His stuff is Chaplin-esque.

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Joshua was searching to make a Yiddish film but I was searching to approach someone who understands my language; someone who understands what I have in my head. He got it without even talking, said Lusting, who speaks with a Yiddish accent and dresses in traditional Hasidic attire.

But even with Lusting by his side, the residents of Borough Park eyed Weinstein with suspicion.

Working in documentary for a dozen years, including traveling in India, [I learned] to be respectful of their society. You can be critical but you have to be respectful, the filmmaker said.

The lack of cooperation from many in the community made production more difficult but Weinstein was prepared for obstacles.

Nothing happened the way it was supposed to. But coming from the doc world, I wasnt afraid of surprises. I was ready to roll with the punches because I knew I had Menashe and Ruben, so no matter what happened, I could write something and theyd hold the film together, he said.

For both filmmaker and star, Menashe is personal. Lusting sees it as an opportunity to expose ultra-orthodox Judaism to the world of art and cinema. I posted the first clip of a Hasidic on YouTube in 2006. Now there are many. Im more open minded. I believe there has to be something like [Menashe]. Many Hasidic have never even seen a movie. They think [Menashe] will be negative. No; welcome to 2017. Its for everyone; it connects everyone.

Menashe, which opens here on Friday, is also Weinsteins tribute to his own family history. His great grandparents immigrated to Brooklyn from the shtetls of Poland. His grandparents, though born in Brooklyn, grew up speaking Yiddish and Weinstein enjoyed hearing it when he visited them.

Im not saying this film will revive Yiddish cinema thats not my goal, Weinstein said. I just loved that this was the language my grandparents spoke and it connects me and Menashe.

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A factual fictional look inside Brooklyn's Hasidic community - The Boston Globe

Who owns America’s oldest synagogue? Ruling backs Sephardim over Ashkenazim – The Jewish Standard

Posted By on August 11, 2017

The story of Americas oldest synagogue, as told by retired Supreme Court Justice David Souter, is the story of American Jewish history.

Touro Synagogue in Newport, Rhode Island, was built by Sephardic merchants in the 1700s, and then their community declined, Souter wrote. In the late 1800s, Eastern European Jews arrived in the area, occupied the building, and have used it to this day. Since then, heirs of the older Sephardic community have tried to maintain a foothold in the historic synagogue that they consider theirs.

On Wednesday, Souter awarded a victory to the Sephardim.

Writing an appeals court ruling on a lawsuit over who owns Touro Synagogue, Souter who has regularly sat on that court following his 2009 retirement from the Supreme Court wrote that the building and its centuries-old ritual objects all belong to Congregation Shearith Israel, the historic Sephardic congregation on Manhattans Upper West Side that perhaps is better known as the Spanish-Portuguese Synagogue.

The decision reversed an earlier district court decision that gave ownership of the building and its multimillion-dollar collection of artifacts to the group that worships there: the Ashkenazi Congregation Jeshuat Israel.

Its an odd and oddly enduring dispute that is being played out in an American courtroom. Souters ruling is a primer on nearly 400 years of American Jewish history, and the dispute touches on historical tensions between Sephardic Jews, with roots in Spain, Portugal, North Africa, and the Middle East, and Ashkenazi Jews, whose roots go back to Eastern Europe.

Touro, built in 1763, has loomed large in American Jewish history. Along with its claim to being the first Jewish building in the country, it also received George Washingtons 1790 letter guaranteeing that the United States gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance.

Shearith Israel, hundreds of miles away, has held title to Touro since the early 1800s, when the shrinking Newport community asked the New York City shul to steward the building and its ritual objects.

Its a fitting relationship. Shearith Israel has a sense of its history as well. Founded in 1654, it bills itself as Americas First Jewish Congregation. (Its Central Park West building is its fifth home.) Old-time male members still wear top hats, and the congregation still worships in the distinctive Sephardic style passed down from its founders, complete with a cantor in robes and choir. Some Shearith Israel members are descended from the original families that started the congregation four centuries ago.

Jeshuat Israel, founded in 1881 as Ashkenazi immigrants began flooding America from Eastern Europe, has worshipped at Touro for more than a century. For a time, according to Souters ruling, its members occupied the synagogue illegally, praying there even as Shearith Israel sought to keep it closed. Only in 1903, following a court battle, did the two groups sign a contract establishing Shearith Israel as the owner and giving Jeshuat Israel a lease on the building.

According to the terms of the contract, Jeshuat Israel must pray in the Sephardic style, its own identity be damned.

Seeking to form an endowment, in 2011 Jeshuat Israel arranged to sell a pair of handcrafted 18th-century silver bulbs, which are used to adorn Torah scrolls, to the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, where they were on loan. But Shearith Israel objected to the $7 million sale, both because Shearith Israel said it owned the ornaments and because, it claimed, the sale violated Jewish law. Jeshuat Israel then sued Shearith Israel, and Shearith Israel countersued. Both groups were seeking legal ownership of the bulbs.

Because the bulbs are meant to rest upon a Torah scroll, Shearith Israel asserted, selling them to a secular institution constitutes an unacceptable decline in holiness.

The district court had ruled in Jeshuat Israels favor, on the grounds that it occupies the building and that Shearith Israel had failed in its trustee obligations. But Souter reversed the ruling, partially based on the 1903 contract, writing that Shearith Israel is fee owner of the Touro Synagogue building, appurtenances, fixtures, and associated land.

Now, says Gary Naftalis, Jeshuat Israels lawyer, the congregation is reviewing our legal options going forward. Jeshuat Israel could ask the appeals courts full panel of judges to review the ruling, and it may petition to have the case heard by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Shearith Israels president, Louis Solomon, said in a statement that the congregation is gratified by the courts decision and, as a result, has been restored to the position it has held for centuries. The statement added that the congregation hopes to move forward from the court ruling, which enables two great Jewish congregations to regain the harmony that existed between them before this unfortunate episode began five years ago.

But even as Shearith Israel has retained ownership of Americas oldest synagogue, it no longer reflects the community that American Jews have become. The families who founded Americas first Jewish congregations exiles from Spain and Portugal via Amsterdam, London, Brazil and the Caribbean likely would not identify with the largely Ashkenazi, largely non-Orthodox American Jewish community of 350 years later.

Even Shearith Israel has gone with the flow, hiring a rabbi from a renowned Ashkenazi rabbinical dynasty, Meir Soloveichik, in 2013.

Still, part of the New York congregations appeal is its anachronism led by a cantor and choir in an era of lay leadership, formal in an era of casual dress, Sephardic in an Ashkenazi-led community. And now, even if it no longer owns the American Jewish present, it can say that it still holds title to the American Jewish past.

JTA Wire Service

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Who owns America's oldest synagogue? Ruling backs Sephardim over Ashkenazim - The Jewish Standard

PokerStars Explains Its Turn Away from Serious Players as Revenues Shift – CardsChat.com

Posted By on August 11, 2017

PokerStars needed to become more entertaining to the masses, Stars Group CEO Rafi Ashkenazi said, which is why his company has shifted its focus away from efforts that appeal to skilled players.

Stars Group CEO Rafi Ashkenazi tells viewers of Bloomberg TV that hes pleased with the companys current business plan, with the positive results flowing as the site turns away from serious pro players. (Image: Bloomberg.com)

Speaking to Bloomberg in his first TV interview since taking charge of the recently renamed The Stars Group (formerly Amaya), Ashkenazi explained that hes currently sizing up merger and acquisition opportunities. With cash flow in a positive realm, Ashkenazi believes the company is ready to expand, but not necessarily in a way that some PokerStars loyalists might want or expect.

In analyzing the current situation at PokerStars, Ashkenazi said that the average player doesnt want to face off against seasoned grinders. They instead, he said, want to enjoy the game as a fun entertainment experience that offers many winning moments and the dream of the big payout.

The Stars Group Director of Operations and Innovation Severin Rasset echoed that sentiment.

We were starting to have too many professional players for what we could maintain for a good, healthy ecosystem, Rasset said of the companys latest revenue report, which was released on Wednesday.

Rasset joined the company in August 2015 with a background in video games and an awareness of how professionals could be harming a sense of player balance at PokerStars.

The news of this shift in outlook wont come as much of a shock to longtime PokerStars players. When Amaya took over in 2014, a few subtle yet significant changes started to become apparent.

For one, the introduction of Spin & Go tournaments seemed to be a way to protect fish from proverbial sharks. The removal of sponsored pros at PokerStars sister site Full Tilt also supported a new approach, and the reduction of Supernova Elite rewards by 5 percent also took place in 2014.

For the first time in PokerStars history, the most loyal players seemed to be getting short shrift.

Such changes would be compounded by a rake increase that pro player Mike McDonald described as an attack on the skill aspect of poker.

Spend years branding poker as a skill game. Analyze win rates of top players. Set rake to be slightly more. Our job is now a carnival game, McDonald tweeted in 2014.

In an effort to stem the tide of changes, players across three popular poker forums organized a protest in late 2014 where they took seats at PokerStars table then elected to sit out, effectively closing down the games temporarily.

But that didnt stop Stars from making additional changes, and moving their attention to non-poker endeavors.

As their Q2 financial reports indicated, the Stars Group is now drawing an ever-decreasing amount of revenue from its poker asset, PokerStars.

According to the report, poker revenue for Q2 of 2017 was down 5.9 percent year-on-year. More significantly, 66.5 percent of the companys total revenue for the period came from poker, which is down from 75.5 percent compared to 2016.

Despite the drop in poker revenue, PokerStars total revenue for Q2 was up 6.8 percent, while new sign-ups increased by 2.1 million. The figures seem to support the new direction PokerStars is heading, even if the rebalancing of skill levels could upset the pro poker players.

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PokerStars Explains Its Turn Away from Serious Players as Revenues Shift - CardsChat.com


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