Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By simmons on August 4, 2017

Saeb Erekat, the legendary Palestinian leader and chief negotiator with Israel for the last two decades, is renowned for his persistence against all odds and for a steel-trap legal mind.

But the challenge he faces today may be his most daunting. At 62, Erekar is suffering from advanced pulmonary fibrosis, a debilitating condition that can be cured only by a lung transplant.

He requested to be added to the waiting list in both Israel and the United States, but the odds are long. In Israel, Erekat, like other foreigners, will qualify for a donated lung only if it does not match the needs of any Israeli patient.

In recent months, friends and colleagues report seeing a steep deterioration in his health. Erekat has lost a significant amount of weight and appears in public tethered to an oxygen tank. He has admonished his associates to refrain from speaking about his condition.

Few people have been more crucial to the Palestinian cause than Erekat.

Uri Savir, Israels former chief negotiator for the Oslo peace accords, has known Erekat since 1994.

Saeb is a brilliant man. A brave man. A man of peace, very moderate, with all the normal critique of the occupation, he said. I dont think hes really a political animal, but he ended up in a top leadership role because his particular talents were essential for the team.

Those talents, said Savir, who is the co-founder of the Peres Center for Peace, include an unusual gift for negotiation, an uncanny ability to formulate the precise lines necessary for a legal document in this he is second to none and an extremely rare ability to represent his leader, who was Yasser Arafat, and represent matters to him.

Eighty-nine Israelis are on the waiting list for a lung transplant, said Dr. Tamar Ashkenazi, director of the transplant center at Israels Ministry of Health. Last year, 50 patients received donated lungs.

Ashkenazi said that in the event an available organ has no match in Israel, she will reach out to the deceaseds family and request special permission, above and beyond the legal necessity, to offer the organ to foreigners. Under similar circumstances, she once sent a childs liver to Germany.

Erekat, who is of average height, suffers yet another disadvantage.

I have no idea why, but we have many tall donors here, Ashkenazi said, noting that height is a crucial factor for matching lungs. A tall patient might wait two weeks, and a shorter person can wait two years.

The order of transplant precedence is determined solely according to medical criteria.

Khaled Abu Toameh, an expert on Palestinian affairs who has known Erekat for 25 years, said his illness has been an open secret. You could tell by looking at him.

Erekats physical deterioration comes laced with irony. As his body has succumbed to illness, his political stature has only grown.

For one, Abu Toameh said, It is important to underscore that his name has never been associated with corruption. Ever.

In recent years his position has gotten a lot stronger, Abu Toameh said. Hes become the leading candidate to replace Abu Mazen, another name for Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, 82. Among Palestinians he is considered the most prominent symbol of the Oslo process, and hes taken a lot of flak for being the flag bearer of ongoing negotiations and contacts with Israel.

In part, Erekats popularity can be attributed to renewed Palestinian enthusiasm for the peace process he spearheaded. On Thursday, a poll released by Tel Aviv Universitys Tami Steinmetz Center for Peace Research and the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research showed that 52% of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip supported the two-state solution, an increase of 8 percentage points since December. Fifty-three percent of Israelis, a decline of 2 points, agreed.

A peace process waiting for redemption may be awaiting only the renewed vigor of one of its most devoted proponents.

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Revered Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat awaits lifesaving lung transplant - Los Angeles Times

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Posted By richards on August 4, 2017

(Reuters) - Thanks to the First Amendments Establishment Clause, U.S. courts have to be extremely wary of taking sides in doctrinal disputes between religious groups. On the other hand, as retired U.S. Supreme Court Justice David Souter pointed out Wednesday in his opinion for the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Congregation Jeshuat Israel v. Congregation Shearith Israel, the Free Exercise Clause means courts cant interfere with religious autonomy.

Judges have to navigate between those twin risks, Justice Souter said, using the map the Supreme Court provided in 1969s Presbyterian Church v. Mary Elizabeth Blue Hull: When property disputes reflect religious cleavages, courts should avoid entanglement with the doctrinal issues and hew closely to civil law.

So, according to the 1st Circuit, no matter how fascinating the history of one of the oldest synagogues in the U.S. nor how rich the tale of the divide between the Sephardic and Ashkenazi Jews who worshipped there, the dispute between two warring congregations comes down to ordinary documents: 1903 and 1908 leases, a 1945 agreement with the U.S. government and a 2001 deal with the National Trust.

It is these common instruments for establishing ownership and control that most readily enable a court to apply the required, neutral principles in evaluating disputed property claims, wrote Justice Souter for a panel that also included Judge Sandra Lynch and 10th Circuit Judge Bobby Baldock, sitting by designation. When such provisions of deeds, charters, contracts, and the like are available and to the point, then, they should be the lodestones of adjudication.

Reversing an epic 2016 decisionby U.S. District Judge John McConnell of Providence, the 1st Circuit found that the documents proved New York Citys Congregation Shearith Israel to be the rightful owner of a 250-year-old synagogue in Newport, Rhode Island, even though Newports Congregation Jeshuat Israel has worshipped there and maintained the building for more than 100 years.

The Newport synagogue - formally known as the Touro Synagogue in honor of two brothers who bequeathed thousands of dollars to keep it standing in the 1800s embodies the divide between Americas original Jewish settlers from Spain and Portugal and those who arrived two hundred years later in a wave of immigrants from Central Europe.

The first Jews to arrive in Newport, in 1658, were Sephardim, mostly of Spanish and Portuguese descent. By the mid-1700s, their community was sufficiently well-rooted to begin raising money to build a synagogue. Sephardic Jewish communities from around the world, including the New York City congregation known as Shearith Israel, contributed to the Newport appeal. In 1763, the Newport congregation, Yeshuat Israel, or the Salvation of Israel, celebrated the dedication of its brand-new synagogue. Myer Myers, a colonial silversmith who was a member of the congregation, created elaborate silver-and-gold finials, known as rimonim, to adorn Yeshuat Israels Torah scrolls.

Alas, most of the Sephardic Jews who founded Yeshuat Israel left Rhode Island when the Revolutionary War decimated Newports shipping industry. The last of Newports Jews died in 1822, according to Judge McConnells utterly compelling 2016 opinion.

As Judge McConnell recounted the story, many of the Sephardic Jews who left Newport ended up joining New York Citys Shearith Israel. The New York congregation cared for the Newport synagogue and the synagogues contents for several decades in the 19th century, when Newport didnt have enough Jews to sustain it.

But over the last half of the 1800s, a new wave of Jews arrived in Rhode Island. Unlike their Sephardic predecessors, these Jews were mostly Ashkenazi from Russia and Central Europe. The two cultures followed slightly different religious rituals. The crucial doctrinal difference, as it would turn out, is that the Sephardim prohibit the disposition of ritual objects and the Ashkenazi do not.

At the turn of the nineteenth century, the Newport Ashkenazi staged a year-long occupation of Touro Synagogue at the turn of the century, after the New York Sephardim from Shearith Israel shut them out of the building in a dispute over the appointment of a new religious leader. The warring congregations eventually put aside their differences to execute a 1903 lease agreement allowing Congregation Jeshuat Israel to use the building, although the lease specified that the Ashkenazis must conduct services according to the ritual rites and customs of the (Sephardic) Jews as at this time practiced.

The two congregations renewed the lease in 1908. In 1945, the New York group reached an agreement with the U.S. Department of the Interior to preserve Touro Synagogue as a national historic site. The Newport congregation signed the agreement as a leaseholder. Congregation Jeshuat Israel similarly affirmed its leaseholder status in a 2001 agreement between the congregation, a group known as the Society of Friends of Touro Synagogue and the National Trust for Historic Preservation. That contract, according to the 1st Circuit, described the Newport congregation as having possession of the site through a lease with Congregation Shearith Israel as owner.

Despite their mutual respect for Touro Synagogue as a landmark of American Jewish history, relations between the New York and Newport congregations were prickly. (Justice Souters exceedingly dry description: a want of cordiality.) Matters exploded in 2011, when the Newport group proposed selling the historic Myers Torah ornaments to establish an endowment for their congregations activities. Bostons Museum of Fine Arts offered more than $7 million. The New York congregation protested that a sale would violate the terms of the lease agreement, which required adherence to Sephardic practices. Litigation ensued.

Judge McConnell concluded after a nine-day bench trial and copious historical research that the New York congregation was actually a trustee for Touro Synagogue, not the owner, and that the Newport congregation has a right to oust the New York group as trustee. The judge also found the Newport congregation to be the outright owner of the Myers Torah adornments.

The judge tried to follow the U.S. Supreme Courts directive from the Presbyterian case, grounding his opinion in the legal agreements between the two congregations, as well as ancient deeds, wills, trust documents and congregation account books.

But when the 1st Circuit reviewed his opinion, it concluded Judge McConnell wasnt quite careful enough. As Justice Souter put it, with great delicacy: These are circumstances in which we think that the First Amendment calls for a more circumscribed consideration of evidence than the trial court's plenary enquiry into centuries of the parties' conduct by examining their internal documentation that had been generated without resort to the formalities of the civil law.

In a strict reading of the documents, the 1st Circuit found no reference to a trust in the lease agreements between the New York and Newport congregations, which assumed the New York group owned Touro Synagogue. The appeals court also held the Torah ornaments are encompassed in the leases reference to paraphernalia, so the New York congregation owns them as well.

The New York congregation is represented by Greenberg Traurig and Locke Lord. Greenberg partner Louis Solomon, who argued before the 1st Circuit, told my Reuters colleague Chris Kenning that his clients will continue to uphold their obligations to Touro Synagogue and look forward to putting this unfortunate litigation behind us. Gary Naftalis of Kramer Levin, who argued for the Newport congregation, said hes exploring the groups options.

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Justice Souter, the First Amendment and the case of the synagogue standoff - Reuters

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Posted By simmons on August 3, 2017

I feel that Zionism as initially conceived has run its course. It is in need for review to reconsider its mission and political platform.

Zionism was created as a reaction to anti-Semitism. Theodor Herzl, the founding father of this movement, being exposed to the Dreifus trials, came to the conclusion that Jews should go back to their origins, Palestine at the time, and be like all nations, with a country of their own, and stop being dispersed in the diaspora.

From its inception the basic tenet of Zionism is the immigration to Israel.

This works well in countries where anti-Semitism is rampant. In USA and other countries where anti Semitism is not so pronounced, not all Jews feel compelled to do aliya, immigrate to Israel. This gave birth to the question: can one be a Zionist and still live in the diaspora.

Since Israel needed financial support, donations from the Jewish community abroad, pure Zionism compromised its demands on immigration - One can be a Zionist if one supports Israel by donations or politically in the country they inhabit.

This has been the first crack in the armor called Zionist political ideology.

One major factor that kept Jewish communities Jewish in the diaspora is the religion.

Zionism negated the diaspora and thus, indirectly, not only the diaspora but the Jewish religion as such; For a Zionist one could be Jewish and not practice the Jewish religion. All that was needed for being Jewish was to just be an Israeli, i.e., living in Israel.

This is not true of Jews in the diaspora. If one does not practice the religion or identify oneself as belonging to the Jewish religion one denounces being Jewish.

The result is that Zionism separated national identity from religious identity. It had many repercussions.

First it made the secular Israeli not feel part and parcel of the world Jewry.

Israelis abroad keep themselves in a separate community from the Jewish community.

Furthermore, not having religious limitations, secular Israeli are more prone to marry out of the religion. This creates further separation of Israel vs. world Jewry.

The whole question what does it mean to be Jewish is now wide open and asking for an answer.

As long as being Jewish meant being of the Jewish religion this question did not have to be answered. With secular Zionism it IS a burning question.

Moreover, if Israel ceases to exist and nations, as different from religion, do have a shorter life cycle.

There is more to the emerging rift between Israel and the Jewish community in the diaspora.

Israeli occupation of Palestine has created a strong backlash worldwide. It has ignited long dormant anti Semitic sentiments. It is endangering the physical safety and social standing of Jews in the diaspora. Increasingly, the interests of Israel to hold on to the territories are clashing with the interests of the world Jewry to be accepted by the people they live with. It is not strange that the leaders of the BDP movement to impose sanctions on products produced in occupied territories are all Jews.

I think that a new Jewish identity is being created not related to religion. It is the identity of the Israeli.

But is that what we want? A nationalism without the religion to be like all nations?

Nations have a shorter life span than religions. No nation has the track record of two thousand years the Jewish nation has. It has it because it is based on religion.

So may be the answer is religious nationalism.

Religious nationalism has its own drawbacks. The settlers embraced it. They are the ones who are giving the headache to Israeli politics by insisting on occupying the West Bank which prohibits the Palestinians to have their own country. This is the source of rising anti-Semitism around the world and the break down of Israeli society.

The concept of Zionism, and what it means to be Jewish needs review and redesign.

We need to extract what it means to be Jewish values wise. For instance, Tikun Olam, repair the world, is one value I cherish and consider as the corner stone of being Jewish. Mutual support is another one. One more: The commitment to seek the truth in whatever we do. High conscience is another one.

Can we extrapolate what it means to be Jewish as a value system. Then how do we reinforce it. How do we institutionalize it beyond the prayer book?

Culturally. Socially. Behaviorally.

Once that is done we can proceed to what is modern Zionism based on the new definition of being Jewish.

Post script to those who know Adizes theory:

Religions start with (I). That is why they are usually created in time of social crisis. Religions have a life cycle too and over time (A) is developed, rituals, prayer books. As (A) grows, (I) declines. And that is what has happened to Jewish religion too.

I am suggesting going back to the (I) component of being Jewish or we are losing many young people to spirituality away from Judaism.

Another point, with the establishment of Israel (P) became dominant in Jewish Israeli culture. Nationalism. Another reason for (I) to suffer. For religion to be rejected. Nationalist religion (PI) has political burden. The paper above suggest going back and redefine (I) in what it means to be Jewish and subsequently a Zionist.

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Zionism: Quo Vadis - HuffPost

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Posted By admin on August 3, 2017

Sacramento has a small Jewish community, with perhaps no more than two-dozen households where Shabbat and kashrut are kept. Yet it will host a big celebration on Thursday night, when a group of dedicated students will celebrate the completion of the 2,711 pages of the Babylonian Talmud.

Since Talmudic times, such a celebrationcalled a siyumhas been a festive affair, marking the culmination of weeks, months, and in this case, years of achievement.

Participate in the daily Nine Days siyumim at Chabad.org

Talmud-class participant Harry Weiss, who has lived in Sacramento since 1979, says he began studying on his own years ago, ordering cassette tapes with recorded classes from New York. Having a regular Talmud class with Rabbi Mendy Cohen, who co-directs Chabad of Sacramento, Calif., with his wife, Dinie, has allowed him to master the material. While the rabbi mostly focuses on the straightforward meaning of the Talmud, he occasionally adds the insights of the medieval commentaries, as well as pertinent teachings of the RebbeRabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, of righteous memory.

Weiss reports that participation in the class fluctuates between three and eight attendees, a significant group for a community of that size.

On a personal level, Cohen says the milestone marks the closing of a circle that opened 30 years ago. I was 18 years old, and I was at the Rebbes farbrengen, he recalls. As is customary, I lifted up a small cup of wine to wish the Rebbe lchaim. The Rebbe acknowledged the person on my right and the person on my left, but not me. I stood up as tall as I could, but again, the Rebbe nodded to the people around me, but not me. I felt that I needed to do something, so I put down my head and thought for a moment. On the spot, I decided to learn the entire tractate of Ketubot, which we were studying in yeshivah at that time.

By the time I lifted my head up, he continues, the singing had concluded, and the Rebbe was about to begin to speak. Suddenly, the Rebbe turned to me, wished me lchaim velivrachah and started his talk. This is what got me startedand this is what keeps me motivated and focused.

In conjunction with teaching the daily Talmud class, the rabbi also learned regularly with Rick Brodovsky, learning their way through the entire 24 books of the Tanach (Hebrew Bible). Tanach taught me that Gd is very real and very present in our world, says Brodovsky, who began learning with the rabbi after a series of health crises prompted him to redirect his life. He loves us more than we can imagine.

The siyum will also celebrate their having completed the entire work over the past several years. The timing of the celebration is also significant.

We are now in the Nine Days, the saddest time of the year for the Jewish people, notes the rabbi. And the Rebbe encouraged us to brighten up the gloom with the spiritual brightness of Torah.

Of course, a siyum is not just the end of one cycle, but the beginning of another. In addition to continuing his efforts in Talmud, Weiss has embarked on another program as well: the daily study of Maimonides Mishneh Torah.

Join Chabad.orgs daily Talmud class with Rabbi Avraham Zajac

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Sacramento Celebrates Talmud Completion - Chabad.org

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Posted By admin on August 3, 2017

Click here for the original text of the Talmud.

This tractate, which literally means profane [items], covers the laws of preparing kosher meat for consumption (as opposed to sacred sacrificial meat) and other laws that govern the Jewish dietary restrictions.

The last chapter discusses the mitzvah of sending away the mother, which forbids the taking of eggs or hatchlings in the presence of the mother bird, and the requirement to shoo the mother away before taking her brood.

Regarding this mitzvah, the Torah writes that it be good for you, and you live a long life. The Talmud quotes a tradition regarding Acher, the sage-turned-heretic, who once saw someone die whilst performing this very mitzvah, for which we are promised longevity. Disillusioned, he turned his back on the Torah. The Talmud notes that Acher reacted thus because he was unaware that the sages interpret the good long life to refer to the afterlife, which is entirely good and eternaland not this corporeal reality.

Shining a Beacon of Mitzvah Light on Days of Darkness

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Completing a Book of Talmud - Chabad.org

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Posted By richards on August 3, 2017

This prayer begins with a statement that God places chevlei sheina on our eyes. But what exactly does this term mean? In our printed siddurim, and in the text of the Talmud that is the source of this prayer (Berachot 60b), chevlei is spelled with a chet.

A few months ago, I discussed this root, Chet-Bet-Lamed. I mentioned that it had four different meanings in Tanach: 1) cord, 2) take a pledge, 3) cause damage and 4) the anxiousness and/or labor pains that the expectant mother feels approaching birth. Also, from the cord meaning developed a meaning of lot, portion because cords were used to measure portions of land. See, for example, Deut. 32:9, Josh. 17:5 and Ps. 16:6. (Also, in our daily prayers, right after Baruch She-Amar, we refer to the land of Canaan as chevel nachalatchem.)

Let us first see how two major siddur commentators have dealt with the term chevlei sheina. Abudarham (14th century) first suggests that it means chalakim me-chelkei ha-sheina. God gives out portions from the portions of sleep. Then he suggests it has a meaning like chevlei leida and refers to the anxiety/pains that you have when you cannot sleep.

Isaac Baer (19th century), in his Siddur Avodat Yisrael, first suggests that it means cords. Accordingly, the image would be of cords tying your eyes closed while you sleep. He then suggests portions. But he states that he does not like either of these interpretations. Moreover, he points out that both the cords and the portions interpretations would require a patach under the chet: chavlei. Yet, all the siddurim that he knew of had a segol: chevlei. Based on the segol and his uncomfortableness with the other two interpretations, he concludes that we should understand it like chevlei leida, i.e., the anxiety/pains that you have when you cannot sleep.

Let us put aside the question of what the original nikud was under the chet. (The Talmud, where the phrase first appears, has no nikud, so the original nikud cannot be determined.) Portions of sleep is a weird idiom. Why should sleep be meted out in portions? As to the anxiety/pains interpretation, it does not fit the context. God is being blessed for putting chevlei sheina on our eyes and tenuma (another word for sleep) on our eyelids. It seems to be a positive thing that God is doing. Another problem with both of these interpretations is the use of the verb ha-mapil, (literally: He places down upon us, from the verb NFL). The portions interpretation would fit better with ha-mechalek. The anxiety/pains interpretation would fit better with ha-mevi (brings). (See the Iyun Tefillah commentary in the Siddur Otzar Ha-Tefillot.)

What about the cords interpretation? It is still an unusual image. Also, cords seem a bit too big for eyes.

So, where does that leave us? Fortunately, there is another alternative. In the siddur of R. Saadia Gaon (10th century), the word is spelled with a caf, not a chet. (Admittedly, our earliest manuscript of this work is only from the 12th or 13th century. But that is still relatively early.) There is also at least one Kriyat Shema Al Ha-Mita fragment from the Cairo Genizah with this reading. See the reference in the siddur of R. Saadia Gaon, p. 87 (published in 1941), to a fragment published by Jacob Mann in 1925. (I suspect that more geniza fragments with this reading in the siddur may have come to light since then.)

Caf, Bet, Lamed, Yod means chains. But is this any better? The root caf, bet, lamed appears only two times in Tanach, at Ps. 105:18 and 149:8. (The latter, be-chavlei barzel, is part of a verse that we recite daily in Pesukei DZimra.) Both times it is referring to chains used to bind and restrict someone. It is not used in a positive way.

But let us focus on where Kriyat Shema Al Ha-Mita describes the chevlei as being placed. The chevlei are placed by God on the eyes. What is so special about the eyes in connection with sleeping? The eyes are the one part of the body that are noticeably different when one sleeps versus when one is awake. The closing and opening of the eyes thus serve as an effective symbol for sleeping and awakening.

There is always a presumption that the more unusual reading is the correct one. Caf-bed-lamed is a rare root. We can understand how caf-bet-lamed might have evolved into the more common chet-bet-lamed. The reverse scenario is much less likely.

Thus, most likely, the word was originally spelled with a caf, and the image is of God placing a small chain on our eyes and this symbolizes sleeping. There may be a symbolism of security in the chain as well.

Also, the cord interpretation perhaps lacks a symbolism of security and may reflect more of an image of being trapped. Also, do cords really fit over the eyes? Chains seem to be a bit better fit here. Cords seem to be more for tying than closing and covering.

Two sources that agree that the original text was likely with a caf are: the editors of the siddur of R. Saadia Gaon, and I. Jacobson (Netiv Binah, vol. 3, p. 254).

Interestingly, ArtScroll, both in its Daily Siddur and in its small separate Kriyat Shema book, has the following explanation: The expression bonds of sleep figuratively depicts the whole body as being securely chained in sleep. But this explanation does not exactly fit because the text of the prayer describes the chevlei as being placed only on the eyes. But it is interesting that the comment uses the word chained. It seems that the author of this comment intuited that chains made better sense than cord. But the author of the comment does not mention the alternative caf spelling, so I do not think he was aware of it.

It is also noteworthy that the Talmud instructs us to recite a blessing daily of matir asurim. Thus the idea of us being bound in some way every night is found here as well. Although, admittedly, the image in the case of Kriyat Shema Al Ha-Mita differs since the focus is only on the eyes.

Once we realize that the correct text is probably with a caf, it would seem, based on Psalms 149:8, that the word should be pronounced chavlei, not chevlei.

One other issue needs to be discussed. In Kriyat Shema Al-Ha-Mita we recite: ha-mapil ChVLY sheina. But when we refer to the removal of the sleep in the morning, at the end of Birkot Ha-Shachar, we recite only ha-maavir sheina, without the word ChVLY. Why should there be a difference? It is interesting to note that in the standard printed Talmud at 60b, ChvLY sheina (with a chet, as mentioned earlier) is recorded for both the evening and the morning blessings. There are also Rishonim like Rambam who record ChVLY sheina as being recited in both the evening and morning. (See Hilchot Tefillah 7:4, and see Abudarham. See further Siddur Otzar Ha-Tefillot, p. 126, Tikkun Tefillah commentary.) But I checked the Lieberman Institute. All the Talmud manuscripts of Berachot 60b that they have recorded so far have ChVLY sheina (with a chet) in the text of the evening blessing only, and not in the morning blessing.

Finally, it is interesting to point out that the phrase sheina le-einecha and tenuma le-afapecha is found at Mishlei 6:4. This was obviously the source for the prayer phrase that we have been discussing. It is ironic that our spelling issue only arose because the author of the blessing decided to deviate from the verse and add that extra word, ChVLY. When a prayer text is based on a verse alone, we would have a clear idea how each word is spelled.

Mitchell First is a personal injury attorney and Jewish history scholar. His most recent book is Esther Unmasked: Solvin

By Mitchell First

g Eleven Mysteries of the Jewish Holidays and Liturgy. He can be reached at [emailprotected] He sleeps a bit better now that he recites ChVLY with the correct spelling and vocalization (chavlei). But he is still not sure if he has the correct image and understanding.

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An Insight Into Kriyat Shema Al Ha-Mita - Jewish Link of New Jersey

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Posted By simmons on August 3, 2017

Efrata College Academic Council Chair Professor Manny Koslovsky expects that a full fifth of Religious Zionist students will become unobservant.

Efrata is a religious women's teachers' college in Jerusalem.

In an Efrata conference on education, Koslovsky said that the situation in the haredi community is also "complex," with some researches showing that one out of every ten haredi children will become unobservant.

Among the newly irreligious, suicide rates have risen, Koslovsky said. He posits that this could be because of the loneliness they feel and the disappointments they find the secular world to hold.

College President Professor Shmuel Sandlar explained during the conference that "as a religious teacher training college, we have an obligation to deal with the trend of children becoming unobservant. As individuals, we must embrace these children, without compromising the values of religious education."

The conference also discussed the connection between learning Talmud in yeshivas, and students becoming unobservant. Rabbi Dr. Dani Gutnamker explained how he would connect the Talmud to the students' lives.

Yehuda Eliraz, who also deals with the topic, said high school yeshivas need to stop teaching so many hours of dry Talmud.

Eliraz said that the Talmud needs to be learned as a subject which develops analytical thinking, but it also needs to provide students with a religious and spiritual experience. When this does not happen, he explained, it can cause students to hate Talmud study.

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'One-fifth of religious students will become unobservant' - Arutz Sheva

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Posted By richards on August 3, 2017

news.com.au (Joe Hildebrand) reports:

A LOCAL council has banned the construction of a synagogue in Bondi because it could be a terrorist target, in a shock move that religious leaders say has caved in to Islamic extremism and created a dangerous precedent.

The decision, which has rocked the longstanding Jewish community in the iconic suburb, was upheld in court this week as the nation reeled from the alleged airline terror threat and debate raged over increased security measures at airports and other public places.

The council contended that the site is not suitable for the proposed synagogue use as the Preliminary Threat and Risk Analysis relied on by the Applicant raises concerns as to the safety and security of future users of the Synagogue, nearby residents, motorists and pedestrians in Wellington Street, and yesterdays court decision (Friends of Refugees of Eastern Europe v. Waverley Council) agreed that there was a sufficient factual basis for the councils position. And once such a threat to users and the community was shown, then the guidelines can be used to justify modification of the development to minimise crime risk, or, refusal of the development on the grounds that crime risk cannot be appropriately minimised.

Moreover, the developer (here, the synagogue) bears the burden of showing a specific risk assessment for the site, and thus specifically justifying why the specific risk reduction measures that the synagogue proposed respond appropriately to that risk. (Here, the synagogue suggested using landscaping to soften building form and minimize impact of security devices.) The court concluded that the synagogue hadnt done so. And the court also said that it is also a valid question to ask whether the raised the [crime prevention through environmental design process] is the appropriate means to address a potential terrorist threat. It would seem that a more sophisticated risk assessment process could be required for matters such as a potential terrorist threat.

So while in theory this might leave open the possibility that a synagogue might be built with much delay and expense if measures that minimise [terrorism] risk are proposed to the courts satisfaction, in practice its not clear that any such measures would suffice. (Recall that one possibility is refusal of the development on the grounds that crime risk cannot be appropriately minimised.) The risk to nearby residents, motorists and pedestrians from, say, a truck bomb is hard to eliminate. Perhaps placing a synagogue in a rural area that is far from neighbors would suffice but that would banish synagogues from the neighborhoods where Jews actually live.

In any event, the decision imposes a burden on synagogues that other houses of worship (churches, mosques, Buddhist temples) do not have to face. It imposes the burden precisely because synagogues are already burdened by the threat of terrorist attack, thus piling governmental repression on private repression. By giving a bombers veto a version of the hecklers veto, in which the police shut down a speaker because thugs are threatening violence against him to the Islamic State and its supporters, it encourages them. (Look, brother: Already our fight for Islam and against its enemies has led to vile synagogues being blocked even in faraway Australia!) And it encourages would-be copycats of other ideologies, who learn that they can shut down organization X by sufficiently threatening X that the government signs up to help shut X down.

Thanks to Peter Wizenberg for the pointer.

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No building permit for Australian synagogue it might draw ISIS-supporter terrorist attacks and endanger neighbors - Washington Post

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Posted By admin on August 3, 2017

Mark Reynolds Journal Staff Writer mrkrynlds

PROVIDENCE, R.I. Newport's Touro Synagogue, the nation's oldest, and its set of silver bells worth more than $7 million are now controlled by the nation's oldest Jewish congregation, ShearithIsrael, in New York City.

The U.S. First Court of Appeals for the First Circuit in Boston issued its decision Wednesday, reversing a lower court's ruling in 2016.

Last year, U.S. District Court Judge John McConnell Jr. had declared the Congregation Jeshuat Israel in Newport is the synagogues rightful caretaker and overseer of the buildings valuable artifacts, naming it as the trustee.

Shearith Israel had strayed from its obligation to ensure public Jewish worship at Touro, according to McConnells ruling on the conflict.

In their decision Wednesday, the three judges of the appeals court argued that at one time, Shearith Israel, a Sephardic congregation, had cared for the synagogue.

This was during a period from the Revolutionary War through the War of 1812, when the Jewish population in Newport virtually vanished, says the appellate decision.

During this period, it says, the New Yorkers also protected the rimonim bells in New York.

The decorative silver finial bells had been crafted in the 1700s by renowned Colonial silversmith Myer Myers.

In the 19th century, a Jewish population took root once again in Newport, the decision says.

The current legal dispute over who controls the synagogue and the bells broke out in 2012 when Rhode Island congregation asked a Rhode Island court for designation as owner of the bells.

The move would have cleared the aisle for the Newport congregation to sell the bells to the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston for $7.4 million. The museum later withdrew the offer.

The New York congregation took the case to federal court, losing before McConnell but prevailing in the appeals court.

Gary Naftalis, a lawyer for the Newport congregation, said he was disappointed by the ruling and was exploring legal options, according to a Reuters report.

In a statement, Congregation Shearith Israel said its gratified by the First Circuits decision reaffirming its lawful, outright ownership of Newports Touro Synagogue and the precious rimonim at issue.

Until our holdover tenant Congregation Jeshuat Israel tried to sell the rimonim and sued us in Rhode Island, Shearith Israel had sought to preserve the Touro Synagogue as an active house of worship. We will continue in our historic role and look forward to putting this unfortunate litigation behind us.

CORRECTION: The original version of this story contained an incomplete version of the name of Congregation Jeshuat Israel.

With reports from Katie Mulvaney, Journal staff writer.

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RI congregation loses court fight over Touro Synagogue + court ruling - The Providence Journal

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Posted By admin on August 3, 2017

A local council in Sydney, Australia, has blocked plans for a new synagogue, saying it may become a terrorist target and poses an unacceptable security risk.

Members of the Jewish community in the Bondi Beach neighborhood reacted angrily to the ruling, saying it rewards terrorism.

The refusal of Waverley Council to approve the new Orthodox house of worship was upheld in court on Wednesday.

The council said the proposed building raised concerns as to the safety and security of future users of the Synagogue, nearby residents, motorists and pedestrians, news.com.au reported.

The Land and Environment Court upheld the decision, basing its decision on the risk assessment submitted with the application along with proposed security measures.

It would seem that a more sophisticated risk assessment process could be required for matters such as a potential terrorist threat, Commissioner Graham Brown said.

The council told the court that strong anti-Semitic undertones pervade much of ISISs online presence and literature which has manifested itself in both attacks and prevented attacks that have been aimed at Jewish communities in various parts of the world, The Australian reported.

At the same time the council refused to allow architects to change the design of the planned building to increase security, saying that would make the building too ugly.

A policeman wearing a Christmas hat patrols Bondi Beach on Christmas Day in Sydney, Australia, on December 25, 2016. (AFP PHOTO / PETER PARKS)

Its a very sad day for Australia if an established community, which needs a house of worship, is refused permission to build it because of fear that others may pose a threat, New South Wales Jewish Board of Deputies chief executive Vic Alhadeff told news.com.au.

This simply shows how were all losing our freedoms. Those who want us to be afraid are winning, and this ill-conceived judgment represents a dangerous precedent.

The rabbi of the Chabad house that applied to build the synagogue, Yehoram Ulman, said the decision was unprecedented and that it came as surprise and shock to the entire Jewish community.

Ulman said that the courts ruling to uphold the councils decision threatened Jewish life in Australia.

By pulling the terror threat argument they have shown that they are completely out of touch both with the reality and with needs of their constituency, he said. They have effectively placed in jeopardy the future of Jewish life in Australia.

On Saturday Australian police stopped a terrorist plot to bring down an airplane, arresting four men in raids on homes in several Sydney suburbs. Four men of Lebanese origin were accused of plotting to bring down a plane using poisonous gas or a crude bomb disguised as a meat mincer.

Australias national terror alert level was raised in September 2014 amid concerns over attacks by individuals inspired by organizations such as the Islamic State group.

AP and AFP contributed to this report.

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Council blocks Australia synagogue plans over terror fears - The Times of Israel

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