Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By admin on August 5, 2017

Australia's Jewish community has expressed dismayafter a local council's decision to prevent the construction of a new synagogue because of the possibility of it becomingthe target of a radicalIslamist attack.

The New South WalesLand and Environment Courtsupported the decision of the local council to prevent the building of the place of worship in the Sydney suburb of Bondi, near the country's most famous beach. It said the risk assessment at the site was "inadequate" and that a "more sophisticated risk assessment process" may be required for the extremist threat that would face the site.

Radical Islamist groups and their supporters have called for attacks against symbols and sites of the Jewish community worldwide, and European jihadis have carried out several attacks against the Jewish communityin recent years.

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Religious leaders saidthe decision represents a blow to religious freedom and a victory for radical Islamists.

The decision is unprecedented, Rabbi Yehoram Ulman told news.com.au. Its implications are enormous. It basically implies that no Jewish organization should be allowed to exist in residential areas. It stands to stifle Jewish existence and activity in Sydney and indeed, by creating a precedent, the whole of Australia, and by extension rewarding terrorism.

Police officers at Parramatta Court in Sydney on August 4. Two men were arrested by counterterrorism police during raids across Sydney on Saturday over an alleged plot that involved blowing up an aircraft. Mark Metcalfe/Getty

The court upheld the decisionshortly after Australian security services foiled a plot to bring down a domestic flight by gassing the entire aircraft, a plot authoritieshave since said was directed by the Islamic State militant group (ISIS).

The jihadigroup has continued to target Australia, which is a member of the U.S.-led coalition to defeat the group in Iraq and Syria.

The country has suffered several attacksby individuals whoauthorities believewere radicalized. In 2014, a man besieged a cafin Sydney, killing one person before police shot him dead. Another person died when a police bullet ricocheted during the raid on the caf.

In September, an Australian courtsentenced teenager Sevdet Ramadan Besimto 10 years in prison for plotting to attack an Anzac Day parade, a commemoration of the First World War landings at Gallipoli, in Melbourne. British security services had intercepted conversations between Besim and a British teenager regarding a plot to run over and behead a police officer.

Turkey has agreed to extradite Neil Prakash,one of the top Australian militants in ISIS's ranks, said Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbullin May. Canberra suspects him of involvement in the directing of plots on Australian soil and the recruitment of Australian citizens to join the jihadigroup.

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Australia Bans Sydney Synagogue Over Islamist Attack Fears, Prompting Outrage Among Jewish Community - Newsweek

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Posted By richards on August 5, 2017

Posted: Aug. 2, 2017 8:00 am Updated: Aug. 2, 2017 11:32 pm

BOSTON (AP) A federal appeals court in Boston has decided the fate of the nation's oldest synagogue, overturning a lower court's decision that put control of the building and a set of bells worth millions of dollars in the hands of the congregation that worships there.

The 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals announced its decision Wednesday.

That means control of the nation's oldest synagogue, Touro Synagogue in Newport, Rhode Island, will no longer be in the hands of the local congregation but rather under the control of the nation's oldest Jewish congregation, Shearith Israel in New York.

The decision also gives Shearith Israel ownership of a set of silver Colonial-era bells, called rimonim, valued at $7.4 million.

Shearith Israel had appealed last year's lower court ruling removing it as trustee of the 250-year-old Touro Synagogue. The judge at the time rejected the New York congregation's arguments that it was the rightful owner of the bells and the synagogue.

"Congregation Shearith Israel is gratified by the First Circuit's unanimous decision reaffirming our lawful, outright ownership of Newport's Touro Synagogue and the precious rimonim at issue here," said attorney Louis Solomon.

An attorney for the Newport congregation said he was disappointed with the panel's ruling.

"We are reviewing our legal options on behalf of the Touro Synagogue and Jeshuat Israel, the Congregation that has prayed there for over a century," attorney Gary Naftalis said.

Touro Synagogue holds an important place in the history of the nation's commitment to religious liberty. In 1790, George Washington visited Touro, and then sent a letter to the congregation pledging America's commitment to religious liberty.

The synagogue, dedicated in 1763, is a national historic site that draws thousands of visitors each year.

By 1820, all of the Jews had left Newport, and Congregation Shearith Israel became trustee of Touro. It was reopened later that century as Jews began to move back to the city.

The dispute over ownership began when the Newport congregation, which was struggling with money, formed a plan to establish an endowment by selling the bells to the Museum of Fine Arts. The New York congregation objected, arguing that the sale would violate religious law and would be akin to selling a "birthright."

___

This story has been corrected throughout to clarify that Shearith Israel in New York is the nation's oldest Jewish congregation and Touro Synagogue in Newport, Rhode Island is the nation's oldest synagogue building.

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Appeals court decides fate of nation's oldest synagogue - New ... - New Jersey Herald

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Posted By simmons on August 5, 2017

Becket, a non-profit, public interest legal group, is defending an Orthodox Jewish synagogue in yet another lawsuit barring it from building new quarters in a Florida community.

After outgrowing two previous locations, the Chabad of East Boca Raton, Florida, has long been renting a small, storefront facility for its synagogue. After years of searching, the Chabad located property, took steps necessary to build, and received unanimous city council approval under a 2008 zoning law that gave all houses of worship equal rights to build.

Rabbi Ruvi New said they thought the synagogue would be a welcome addition to the community. Instead, he said it "actually caused a firestorm of opposition which we were just completely blindsided by."

In lawsuits filed by a small group of opponents over a period of ten years, the synagogue has won two court victories. The opposition is now appealing to the Eleventh U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Their lawyers contend that Boca Raton city officials violated the separation of church and state by granting approval for the site. (See video below for an explanation of the case.)

"I think it's a pretty big stretch to say that just because you allow a Chabad to be treated fairly, you're somehow establishing a religion," contended Lori Windham, the Becket attorney defending the synagogue.

Opponents previously argued the synagogue would cause problems due to increased traffic, prevention of emergency vehicle access, and flooding. The property is surrounded by tall buildings, strip malls, a convenience store, and 22-story condos.

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Jewish synagogue continues fight to build - OneNewsNow

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Posted By simmons on August 5, 2017

Anna Burgess The Enterprise @AnnaBurgess_ENT

After nearly two transient years, the congregation of Temple Beth Emunah will have a new home in Easton inSeptember.

Temple Beth Emunah, which was located on Torrey Street in Brockton until October 2015, will begin holding services next month at 15A Plymouth St., in South Easton.

For almost 100 families in the Beth Emunah congregation, Plymouth Street will become our own, distinct home, said Rabbi Andrea Gouze.

Gouze has been the rabbi at Beth Emunah for almost a year, and is thrilled to bring her new congregation to its new location.

Im incredibly enthusiastic and optimistic about what well be able to do with the synagogue, Gouze said. The way the space is configured will allow for lots of different types of programs, so we can take a very holistic approach to meeting the needs of the Jewish population of this region.

After a long search for a space that fit their needs, synagogue leaders signed the lease for the Plymouth Street building in June.

Gouze said theyre restructuring some of the rooms within the building, expanding the sanctuary area for larger services, and adding a handicapped-accessible bathroom.

Synagogue president Howard Shore said Easton officials have made the permitting process very easy, which he appreciates.

Shoresaid hes excited the synagogue is moving to Easton, because many members live in town, and he hopes the relocation is attractive to other Jewish families who are currently unaffiliated with a congregation.

Shore said they also anticipate the return of a number of families who have been on the fringes of the congregation since it left Torrey Street.

The synagogue, which was founded on Cottage Street in Brockton, was then located at the corner of Torrey and Pearl Streets in Brockton for 45 years, Shore said.

When it left that space in 2015, it marked the first time in 125 years that Brockton was without a Jewish place of worship.

SinceOctober 2015, Temple Beth Emunah has existed in a more fluid fashion, holding services at members homes, other synagogues, and even outdoors, at Sheep Pasture in Easton.

Though Temple Beth Emunah discussed apossible merger last year with Temple Beth Am of Randolph, Gouze said the congregation ultimately decided it was not a direction we wanted to go in.

Temple leaders will dedicate the new space on Sept. 10, and services will begin that week.

Less than two weeks later, the congregation will mark the start of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year.

Its very nice to feel those dovetail together, Gouze said. A new year, and a new synagogue.

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Former Brockton synagogue finds new home in Easton - Wicked Local Randolph

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Posted By simmons on August 5, 2017

(by Paola Del Vecchio)

MADRID - Over five centuries after Queen Isabel the Catholic in 1492 expelled Spain's Jews and Moors, the Judeo-Spanish language, which has been passed from generation to generation and is still spoken in some countries will be honored by the country's top linguistic authority, the Spanish Royal Academy. The Academy has announced that it will set up in 2018 a Judeo-Spanish branch in Israel.

Judeo-Spanish, or Ladino, is still spoken today in the countries where Sephardic Jews moved at the time, from North Africa to the Balkans, Italy, Equatorial Guinea, the Philippines and Latin America.

The director of the RAE, Dario Villanueva, said the creation of the new branch aims to ''pay an historic debt to Sephardic Jews''.

He said the initiative also aimed to preserve a ''cultural and historical phenomenon of great importance''.

''The Jews who were expelled in 1492 dispersed around Europe and the Americas, taking with them the Spanish language as it was spoken at the time of their expulsion'', he told the Guardian newspaper. ''All of this has been miraculously preserved over the centuries. There's literature, folklore, translations of the Bible and even modern newspapers written in Ladino''.

Villaneuva is already in contact with professors, experts and institutions to create the new academy, to be based in Tel Aviv, with the support of the National authority of the Sephardic community, the Sefarad-Israel Casa center and the Spanish and Israeli governments. The language, whose conservation suffered under the diaspora and holocaust, includes many terms of archaic Spanish and has been influenced by the language of countries that hosted the refugees.

One of the initiative's promoters, Shmuel Rafael Vivante, a member of the executive committee of the national authority and director of the Center Naime and Yehoushua Salti for Judeo-Spanish studies of the University Bar-Llan, has dedicated his life to preserving and rebuilding the memory of the language spoken by his family.

Judeo-Spanish words and expressions were taught in his family, along with Sephardic customs and songs, he said, calling the language one of ''happiness''.

''It was the language of happiness that filled my mother's social space with neighbors and that of my father with friends and holocaust survivors'', the researcher told El Diario.

Over time, Judeo-Spanish lost importance compared to Hebrew, which was increasingly spoken in ghettoes. According to Vivante, there are today some400,000 people in Israel with some knowledge of Ladino. Esther Bendahan, a writer and director of the Casa Sefarad-Israel in Madrid, said the language has been lost in countries such as the Netherlands and the UK but not ''in North Africa, the Balkans and Turkey''.

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A language academy to save Judeo-Spanish - ANSAmed

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Posted By simmons on August 5, 2017

Jewish Chronicle

Holocaust denial set to rise, warns Bazalgette, as memorial designs go on display Jewish Chronicle Sir Peter Bazalgette, chair of the UK Holocaust Memorial Foundation, said: I have the impression that Holocaust denial may well grow in the next 20 years rather than diminish. Sir Peter issued the warning on Tuesday, as designs for the new national ...

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Holocaust denial set to rise, warns Bazalgette, as memorial designs go on display - Jewish Chronicle

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Posted By admin on August 5, 2017

Touro Synagogue, nestled in historic Newport, R.I., is the oldest extant synagogue in the United States, Sept. 2, 2004. (John Nordell/The Christian Science Monitor via Getty Images)

NEW YORK (JTA) 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, Souter wrote, was built in the 1700s by Sephardic merchants whose community then declined. 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 the court following his 2009 retirement wrote that the building and its centuries-old ritual objects all belong to Congregation Shearith Israel, a historic Sephardic synagogue in Lower Manhattan.

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

Its an odd and oddly enduring dispute being played out in an American courtroom. Souters ruling is a primer on nearly 400 years of American Jewish history, and a dispute that touches on historical tensions between Sephardic Jews with roots in Spain, Portugal, North Africa and the Middle East, and Ashkenazi Jews with roots in 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 also known as the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue has a sense of its history as well. Founded in 1654, it bills itself as Americas First Jewish Congregation. (Its current building is its fifth home.) Old-time members still wear top hats, and it 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, Jeshuat Israel arranged in 2011 to sell a pair of handcrafted, 18th-century silver bulbs, 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 and sued Jeshuat Israel both because Shearith Israel said it owned the ornaments and claimed the sale violated Jewish law.

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 may petition to have the case heard by the U.S. Supreme Court.

Shearith Israel did not respond to JTA calls and emails for comment.

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.

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Who owns America's oldest synagogue? It's a 350-year-old argument. - Cleveland Jewish News

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Posted By richards on August 5, 2017

Chaya Salomon was murdered at a Sabbath dinner with her family. The 46-year-old Jewish woman was stabbed to death alongside her 70-year-old father Yosef and her 36-year-old brother Elad.

Photos showthe kitchen of the Salomon house in the Israeli village of Neve Tsuf covered in blood. The youngest Salomon daughter had given birth to a new member of the family. The bottle of Glenfiddich on the table was never opened. Instead an Islamic terrorist burst in and stabbed the new grandfather. Tova, the new grandmother was badly wounded. Elads wife rushed the children to a safe room.

The smiling terrorist was taken away. He had come armed with a Koran and a knife. I know that with Allah my dreams will come true, he had posted on Facebook. I will go to heaven.

His dreams coming true have more to do with the Palestinian Authority and American taxpayers. Like all terrorists who kill Israelis, he will be receiving a salary from the PA. And the PA is funded by you and me.

Abbas, the terrorist leader who is Israels peace partner in the two-state solution, touched off this atrocity. Fatah, the organization behind the Palestinian Authority, has repeatedly called for violence. The terroristsFacebook messageincluded this plea, Put in my grave Arafats Keffiyah and the ribbon of the Al-Aqsa Brigades. The Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade is the military wing of Abbas Fatah movement.

Another terrorist attack. More funerals. More calls for restraint by both sides.

There are the formal condemnations before everyone moves on to the business of being pro-Israel. The term pro-Israel doesnt mean much. Anyone and everyone can be pro-Israel.

AIPAC isnt backing the Taylor Force Act which would cut off taxpayer money to the Palestinian Authority until it stops funding these attacks. J Street, the anti-Israel group which claims to be pro-Israel and also claimed to be appalled by the Salomon murders, is lobbying against the Taylor Force Act.

What did this fake pro-Israel posturing amount to when Chaya was being murdered in her own home?

In previous weeks, liberal Jewish clergy fulminated angrily at their more conservative counterparts in Israel over a religious controversy. Daniel Gordis, who makes an excellent living writing pro-Israel books, put forward his own version of BDS. Netanyahu and Israels consuls-general in the US should be shunned and disinvited. Americans should fly Delta and United instead of El-Al. Meetings with hospitals fund-raisers should be canceled. The hospitals did nothing wrong, but when they start running out of money, Israelis will start to care.

No doubt.

I dont write to take a position on this issue. Only to note that some pro-Israel figures can dig into more reserves of anger when fighting the Jewish right than over the murder of Israeli Jews.

Its easier for even professionally pro-Israel figures to rage at Israel than at the murderers of Jews. If only they could feel a fraction of the same anger when looking at the Salomons bloody kitchen floor.

Where is Gordis call to watch Muslims die in hospitals in Ramallah to make them care? It would be deemed monstrous. Un-Jewish. Anyone proposing it would be shunned in pro-Israel circles.

If Gordis has a position on cutting off aid to the PA after its murders of Israelis, I have yet to find it.

So much of pro-Israel advocacy consists of meaningless lip service. Israel is an abstraction for many of them. Chaya Salomon was a real person. She bled out on a white kitchen floor on Shabbat.

And so I offer a counterproposal. Instead of being pro-Israel, lets be pro-Chaya.

Pro-Israel is a meaningless metric. Obama claimed to be pro-Israel while funding the terrorist murder of Jews from the West Bank to Iran. I am 100 percent pro-Israel,Bernie Sandersinsisted after pushing for an anti-Israel platform, falsely accusing Israel ofkilling 10,000 innocent people in Gaza and putting aBDS activist in chargeof his Jewish outreach. If thats pro-Israel, what exactly is anti-Israel?

Its easier to understand what it is to be pro-Chaya than to be pro-Israel. If you want to be pro-Chaya, dont fund her killers. And not just pro-Chaya, but pro-Hallel.Hallel-Yaffa Arielwas a 13-year-old girl who came home from a dance recitaland was stabbed to death by a Muslim terroristin her bedroom. Or pro-Michael.Rabbi Michael Mark wasdriving home with his wife and children when he was murdered. Or Pro-Taylor.Taylor Force was a veteranof two wars who was stabbed to death in Tel Aviv.

The Taylor Force Act that would cut off aid to the Palestinian Authority if it continues funding terrorism is named after him.

Pro-Israel can cover a multitude of sins. It devolves easily into abstractions. And then we are told that giving money to Islamic terrorists is the pro-Israel position because Israeli security depends on the terrorists keeping the peace. For decades, we have been told that the two-state solution which creates a terrorist state inside Israel is actually pro-Israel. And therefore the destruction of Israel is pro-Israel.

The left is adept at such Orwellian insults to reality. In the same way that bringing Muslim terrorists to America is hailed as patriotic, funding Islamic terrorists and Irans nukes become vital to Israels security.

And so lets take a step back from the hall of mirrors. Lets consider instead what is pro-Sarah.

Sarah will be the next victim of Islamic terrorism. Somewhere she is getting on a bus or cooking dinner for her family. And the next Muslim terrorist, lets call him Mohammed, is plotting to kill her.

Mohammed has been listening to the calls by Fatah to kill Jews. He has seen crowds cheer the murderer of Chaya, Yosef and Elad. He has been told by the preacher on Palestinian Authority television that if he kills a Jew, he will go to heaven. He seesFatahs Facebook message, If I fall I will not be the first to die, and not the last to die #Rage! And he knows that he will receive $2,000 a month if he succeeds.

What is the pro-Sarah policy?

Is it to pour millions more into the war chest of the terrorists so that they can pay Mohammed for her murder? Is it the continuing championing of the Palestinian Islamic State that Mohammed is killing for?

Let us break through the intellectual abstractions because Sarah and Mohammed are real. In a week or two from now, Sarah will be bleeding out on the living room floor while her children scream. Or she will lie dying on the back seat of her car with blood and broken glass surrounding her head. Its happened before and it will go on happening until the pro-Israel position becomes the pro-Sarah position.

Everyone or almost everyone is pro-Israel in theory. As long as pro-Israel encompasses both opposing and supporting the murder of Jews, both opposition to BDS and support for BDS, both opposition to terrorists and support for terrorists, then anyone can join and its meaningless.

Israel is not an abstract idea. It is a nation of millions of individuals. And these individuals are being killed, one by one, by the genocidal imperative of Islamic Supremacism. If Israel, its geopolitical role, its complex political and religious institutions, its history of thousands of years, its relationship to the Jews of the diaspora is too much to take in, it may be easier to focus on the lives of those individuals.

There is a booming pro-Israel industry. Much of this industry accomplishes very little. It celebrates boosterism and eschews controversy. It seeks a meaningless middle ground. It believes that Israel is morally superior because it continues to strive for peace even at the expense of Israeli terror victims.

There is no pro-Sarah industry. But maybe there ought to be one. And in the future, if we want to determine whether someone is truly pro-Israel, we should ask whether they are pro-Sarah.

Are they for doing whatever it takes to stop her from being murderedtomorrow?

Because you cant be pro-Israel if you arent pro-Sarah. You cant be pro-Israel if you support funding the murderers of Israelis. You cant support both Israel and her enemies or support Sarah and her killer.

Then well know who is and isnt pro-Israel. Because pro-Israel will finally mean something.

Daniel Greenfield, a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the Freedom Center, is a New York writer focusing on radical Islam.

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Don't be pro-Israel, be pro-Sarah - Heritage Florida Jewish News

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Posted By admin on August 5, 2017

On July 17, Sheri Zvi became the new Florida regional director of the Anti-Defamation League.

Zvi succeeds Hava Holzhauer, who was the ADL Florida regional director since 2013.

According to officials from the organization, Zvi was selected as Florida regional director because of her past experience in Florida as an ardent voice against bigotry and passion for human dignity as the Southeast Regional Director of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum since 2014.

Prior to being with the USHMM, Zvi was South Palm Beach County director of American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) from 2008-14.

"We are excited that Sheri will be leading ADL's efforts to combat anti-Semitism and bigotry of all forms in the Florida region," said Tracey Grossman, Anti-Defamation League Florida regional board chair.

"She has been a steadfast advocate in the Jewish community of Florida and we are looking forward to her leadership at ADL."

Zvi and her family personally witnessed the work of the Anti-Defamation League recently, prior to her appointment with the organization.

"I experienced their work in a very personal way several months ago when my children's school experienced multiple bomb threats in under two weeks," said Zvi.

"The ADL was there uniting people, working with local authorities, speaking with students and parents."

Zvi is proud of joining the Anti-Defamation League and looks forward to her role with the organization.

"As the grandchild of Holocaust survivors, it has been my goal to help move society to a place where anti-Semitism and bigotry become things of the past."

"The Anti-Defamation League works to stop the defamation of the Jewish people and secure justice and fair treatment to all."

"I feel like I can make a difference, stand up for what is right and encourage others to do the same. I am thrilled to be working with an exceptionally talented team of professionals and dedicated leaders in the community," said Zvi.

To learn more about the Anti-Defamation League, 621 NW 53rd St., Suite 450 in Boca Raton, call 561-989-0712 or go to http://www.adl.org.

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Sheri Zvi is ADL's new Florida regional director - Sun Sentinel

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Posted By admin on August 5, 2017

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KKTV) - A local synagogue was vandalized with messages of hate and anti-Semitism Thursday night. It happened at Temple Beit Torah, near Wahsatch and Monroe Street just north of downtown Colorado Springs.

Friday morning, neighbors near the synagogue, noticed some of their cars and homes had been spray painted overnight.

When Daniel Bushman saw this, he had to do something.

"This is a great neighborhood, all the neighbors look out for each other. There's always kids playing around, kids going to the park, and it's just ridiculous that somebody has to come around and put nonsense up like that. I just was trying to get rid of it, I didn't want it to be there, plus they have service today. I didn't want them to come in and see all of that it's just gross, Bushman.

Bushman tells 11 News he used paint thinner to try and scrub it off for almost an hour.

"In this day and age you have to hark back to the Nazi era for that kind of thing. In the grand scheme of things it may not seem big but it's big to us, the temples Administrator Laura Gross said.

Colorados Anti-Defamation League or ADL says in 2014, they had reports of about 10 incidents. In 2017 so far, they've already seen more than 60.

ADL says, The presidential election and heightened political atmosphere played a role in the increase.

If you have any information on who may have vandalized the synagogue, call CSPD at (719) 444-7000.

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Synagogue vandalized in Colorado Springs neighborhood - KKTV 11 News

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