Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By simmons on July 31, 2017

Photo Credit: Screenshot

A fire broke out Monday morning, Tisha BeAv eve, at the youth synagogue in Mevo Horon in the Benjamin region of Judea and Samaria. The synagogue was burned down with Torah scrolls that could not be saved.

A Police Spokesperson said that in the morning, a fire broke out in the community of Mevo Horon, resulting in great damage to the building (a caravan). Police, in cooperation with Fire Dept. investigators have launched an investigation of the circumstances that led to the fire.

At this point, the investigation centers on the possibility of an electric short as the culprit, according to Fire Dept. investigators on the scene.

Mati Goldstein, the operations officer of the international unit of ZAKA and one of the members of the burnt synagogue who lives nearby, told Radio Kol Hai Monday morning: My eye, my eye runs down with water (Lamentations 1:16). On the eve of Tisha BAv, in which we mourn the burning of the Temple, we will weep seven times more tonight for the burning of another Temple our synagogue.

Goldstein related: At 4:40 AM they woke me up and told me that there was a fire in our synagogue. I ran to the place with more worshipers, tried to extinguish the fire with fire extinguishers but the fire spread too quickly. Firefighters who arrived also tried, but, unfortunately, to no avail. We could not save anything. Not Torah scrolls, nor holy books, they were all burned down. All we have to do is look into our actions and repent.

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On Eve of 9 B'Av Synagogue Burns Down in BenjaminThe Jewish ... - The Jewish Press - JewishPress.com

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Posted By richards on July 31, 2017

Two Boca Raton residents are trying for a third time to sue the city over a pending synagogue project in one of the citys busiest areas.

Boca Raton is asking for the court to dismiss the lawsuit a third time after Gerald Gagliardi and Kathleen MacDougall challenged the legality of the project.

The two residents accuse Boca officials of bending land-use rules for a religious facility that they say would be a burden to neighbors.

U.S. District Judge Kenneth Marra threw out the lawsuit in March after dismissing it last summer, but Gagliardi and MacDougall filed an appeal in June. Their lawyers were not immediately available for comment Monday.

It is past time to drop the legal shenanigans and let Boca Raton welcome the Chabad into the community, Daniel Blomberg, a lawyer representing the Chabad of Boca Raton, said in a news release Monday.

City officials approved site plans in the summer of 2015 for the Chabad of East Bocas $10 million, 18,000-square-foot synagogue and museum that was supposed to go into less than an acre at 770 E. Palmetto Park Road, a piece of undeveloped land east of the Intracoastal Waterway.

The beachside project, dubbed the Boca Beach Chabad and My Israel Center, gained approval by the city after the Chabads founder Rabbi Ruvi New debuted the project in early 2015.

In response, Gagliardi and MacDougall, who live less than a mile from the site, sued the city in February 2016 claiming the city had given the Chabad special treatment. They also said the project would cause traffic and parking headaches for nearby residents.

More than a hundred people showed up to the initial Planning and Zoning Board meetings last year, some expressing similar concerns.

Due to a separate lawsuit by a neighboring real estate firm, a judge shot down the Chabads design for the synagogue and its museum. As of now, it is unclear when the project will move forward.

achokey@sun-sentinel.com, 561-243-6531, Twitter: @aric_chokey

Visit our Boca Raton community page at facebook.com/SunSentinelBocaRaton.

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Posted By admin on July 31, 2017

Demonstrators at a Slutwalk march through downtown Chicago, Sept. 7, 2013. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)

(JTA) SlutWalk Chicago will allow marchers carrying Jewish or Zionist symbols after saying earlier they would be banned.

The group, part of an international movement that protests rape culture, in its ban announced this month referred to a decision by the Chicago Dyke March to ask three women carrying rainbow flags featuring white Stars of David to leave.

But a SlutWalk Chicago organizertold Haaretz on Sunday that the group would welcome all participants at the Aug. 12 march who wish to protest sexual violence and the attitudes of shame and blame that surround it.The organizer, identified as Red, also said the collective needs to make amends to the Jewish community for past actions.

We are not banning any symbols or any kind of ethnic or heritage flags, Red told Haaretz following a meeting of organizers to hone their message. Those are welcome, everyone is welcome to express themselves as they see fit at SlutWalk. And we encourage people to bring signs and symbols that represent fighting sexism, patriarchy, rape culture, and that takes a lot of different forms for different people, and we support them in how they decide to show up for SlutWalk.

Since a series of tweets reportedly made by the groups social media team without consulting with the collective, SlutWalk has reached out to the Jewish and Muslim communities in Chicago to show that the event is inclusive and offers a safe space to all participants, Red told Haaretz.

Red said people carrying Israeli flags would not be banned.

As a feminist person myself, I feel very strongly about Palestinian liberation and radical Jewish resistance, Red told Haaretz. I care very deeply about those concerns, but I do think that at SlutWalk Chicago we have some apologizing to do around the confusion with some of our tweets.

Organizers of the Chicago Dyke March in June toldthe three women carrying Jewish Pride flags who were asked to leave that the rainbow flags with a white Star of David would be a trigger, or traumatic stimulus, for those who found them offensive.

Jewish groups have denounced the banning of the Jewish Pride flags at the lesbian march and called for an apology.

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SlutWalk Chicago, in reversal, will allow marchers carrying Jewish and Zionist symbols - Jewish Telegraphic Agency

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Posted By richards on July 31, 2017

Upcoming

BLOOD DRIVE: 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Aug. 2, Newton Free Library, 330 Homer St., Newton; noon to 5 p.m. Aug. 15, Whole Foods Newton, 916 Walnut St., Newton Highlands. Donors should get a good nights sleep, eat a nutritious meal and drink extra fluids. To schedule an appointment: http://redcrossblood.org; 800-733-2767.

DANCING IN THE PARKS LOOSE CHANGE: 6:30-8 p.m. Aug. 2, Coletti-Magni Park, 386 Watertown St., Nonantum. A family picnic with dancing. Loose Change is an Americana band with roots in blues, country and old-school rock and roll. They cover material ranging from the rock and roll of John Hiatt, The Gourds and the Rolling Stones to the country twang of Levon Helm and Old Crow Medicine Show to down home blues. Cancelled in the event of rain.

MAYORS ENVIRONMENTAL FORUM: 7 p.m. Aug. 3, Newton Community Farm, 303 Nahanton St., Newton Centre. For the first time, all seven candidates running for Mayor of Newton will appear on one stage to discuss their positions on environmental issues that concern Newton residents. The three city councilors running for Mayor, Amy Sangiolo, Ruthanne Fuller and Scott Lennon, will be joined by Al Cecchinelli, Richard Saunders, Eli Katzoff and Geoffrey Woodward, in a forum moderated by Boston University Earth & Environment Professor, Nathan Phillips. The evening begins at 7 p.m. with socializing and a farm tour, and the candidate forum begins at 7:45 p.m. in the barn. Seating limited; early registration advised. To register: http://bit.ly/2tfNuzP.

FREE WEEKEND AT HISTORIC NEWTON: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Aug. 5-6, Jackson Homestead and Museum, 527 Washington St., and the Durant-Kenrick House and Grounds, 286 Waverley Ave., Newton. Free admission to museums. For information: 617-796-1450.

CHILDRENS CHARITABLE GOLF TOURNAMENT: 11 a.m. Aug. 7, Woodland Golf Club, 1897 Washington St., Newton. Each year, the Chamber selects a different area nonprofit whose mission includes working with children to be the recipient of a portion of the tournaments proceeds. This years charitable recipient will be the Josephine McNeil Legacy Fund established to continue and expand the efforts by long-time affordable housing advocate Josephine McNeil, a Newton resident to provide supportive services for CAN-DO residents. Cost: All green fees and cart. Lunch at 12:30 p.m. in the clubhouse, cocktail reception immediately following play, use of practice facilities, prizes for top teams, a gift for each player. To register: http://nnchamber.com.

NEWTV ORIENTATION: 7 p.m. Aug. 7, NewTV Studios, 23 Needham St., Newton. Attendees learn about the opportunities offered at the media center. This class is a prerequisite for all NewTV course offerings. Free. For information: 617-965-7200; katieg@newtv.org; http://newtv.org/classes.

INTRODUCTION TO THE CANON 5D MARK III: 7 p.m. Aug. 8, NewTV Studios, 23 Needham St., Newton. This course goes over how to shoot video with a DSLR. For information: http://newtv.org/classes.

NETWORKING CRAWL AT THE STREET: 5-7:30 p.m. Aug. 9, various locations at The Street, 55 Boylston St., Chestnut Hill. Presented by the Chambers Young Professionals Group. Each location will be providing menu samples, space to network and a cash bar and opportunities to win prizes. Participating locations include: Del Friscos Grille, The Cottage and Showcase SuperLux. Cost: $30; $20 for members. To register: http://nn.nnchamber.com.

NEWTON COMMUNITY PRESERVATION COMMITTEE PUBLIC HEARING: 7 p.m. Aug. 9, City Hall, Room 204, 100 Commonwealth Ave., Newton. Includes brief items for the New Art Center and the Newton Cemetery, plus a public hearing on the Newton Housing Authoritys $2 million request for its Jackson Road new senior housing project in Newton Corner. For information and full meeting agenda and packet, and full text of the Housing Authority proposal: http://newtonma.gov/cpa.

TOWER BELL CONCERT: 7 p.m. to 8 p.m. Aug. 11, FUSN, 1326 Washington St., Newton. The First Unitarian Society in Newton will hold a free tower bell concert. The public is invited to bring lawn chairs, blankets and picnic suppers to the church grounds. Rain or shine. Indoor seating provided in case of rain. The concert will be played by a group of local musicians, called chimers, who regularly play the FUSN chime. A variety of music will be played, including popular, classical and show music. The program will include a piece commissioned for the churchs 100th anniversary celebration, called Tower Antiphonies.

HISTORIC NEWTON AT THE FARMERS MARKET: 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Aug. 12, Elm Street, West Newton. Historic Newton will have a booth at the Farmers Market where visitors can look through stereoscopes, play historic games and pick up historic recipes to try. Free. For information: 617-796-1450.

STUDIO ELEMENTS: 7 p.m. Aug. 14, NewTV Studios, 23 Needham St., Newton. Attendees learn how to set up all the necessary elements for in-studio productions: lights, cameras and audio, as well as all the necessary elements of the Control Room. Must be a member of NewTV to take this class. For information or membership: http://newtv.org/membership.

UPSTAIRS, DOWNSTAIRS: WOMEN OF NEWTONS TURN-OF-THE-CENTURY HOUSEHOLDS: 6:30 p.m. Aug. 15, Farlow Park, Church and Eldredge streets, Newton. Using census data, marriage records, local histories and newspaper accounts, Newton resident Anne Larner will paint a picture of life in 1900 for young women and enlighten attendees with stories of how life played out for selected women who lived upstairs and downstairs. Cost: $10 suggested donation. To register: http://historicnewton.org. For information: 617-796-1450.

NEWTON PATH RESIDENT ADVISORY COMMITTEE MEETING: 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. Aug. 15 and Sept. 12, Newton City Hall, Room 205, 1000 Commonwealth Ave., Newton. The publuc is invited to help plan an event for Newton Prevention, Awareness, Treatment, Hope, Mayor Setti Warrens multidisciplinary team committed to confronting the public health opioid epidemic. This event will happen in the fall of 2017 and will support community members who have a friend or family member struggling with addiction by offering referrals, strategies, and a safe place to share their experiences and ideas. Attendees will help decide program content and structure, find a location, identify sponsorships, and conduct outreach and promotion. No special training or experience necessary to participate, just an interest in and commitment to the issue. RSVP: http://surveymonkey.com/r/NewtonPATH.

MAYORAL CANDIDATES FORUM: 7-8:30 p.m. Aug. 15, Newton Senior Center, 345 Walnut St., Newtonville. The Newton Council on Aging will host an interactive session, during which the mayoral candidates will discuss their visions for an age-friendly Newton and their views on topics that are most relevant to senior residents. To register: 617-796-1660.

STORYTIME AT THE MUSEUMS AT HOME AT THE HOMESTEAD: 10:30 a.m. Aug. 16, Jackson Homestead and Museum, 527 Washington St., Newton. The Little House by Newton resident Virginia Lee Burton tells the story of a house similar to the Jackson Homestead. Attendees explore the theme of home, and imagine life from a houses perspective in this program. For children ages 18 months to 6 years and their caregivers. Includes free entrance to the museum after the program. Free. For information: 617-796-1450.

WOMEN IN NETWORKING LUNCH: 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Aug. 24, Davios Northern Italian Steakhouse, The Street, 55 Boylston St., Chestnut Hill. The Newton-Needham and Brookline Chambers are teaming up for a mega Women in Networking power lunch. Attendees can make new connections in an informal relaxed setting while sampling the restaurants. Includes buffet lunch and the opportunity to get to know more than 60 members of both the Newton-Needham and Brookline Chambers. Cost: $20. To register: http://nnchamber.com.

STORYTIME AT THE MUSEUMS -- FREEDOM: 10:30 a.m. Aug. 28, Jackson Homestead and Museum, 527 Washington St., Newton. Features the book Henrys Freedom Box by Ellen Levine, based on a true story of one mans escape from enslavement. Preschoolers and their caregivers will be given an opportunity crawl inside Henrys Box and see other artifacts about freedom seekers around Boston. Includes free entrance to the museum after the program. Free. For information: 617-796-1450.

WORLD WAR I AND AMERICAN JEWS: 7 p.m. Aug. 31, Newton Free Library, 330 Homer St., Newton. This lecture by author Gene Fax explores the effects of World War I on the American Jewish community. Free. For information: 617-796-1360.

NEWTON UPPER FALLS VILLAGE DAY: Noon to 4 p.m. Sept. 10, 44 Pettee St., Newton Upper Falls. Opportunities for vendors and/or nonprofit groups to appear at Newton Upper Falls Village Day are available. Those interested should email if they would like to reserve a space for a tent or table. No charge for nonprofits; $25 for vendors and political groups; food vendors will need a separate food permit from the city. For information: Anil Adyanthaya, aadyanthaya@newtonma.gov.

Newton North Class of 1976 reunion: Nov. 24, Newton Marriott, 2345 Commonwealth Ave., Auburndale. The Newton North High School Class of 1976 has scheduled its 41st reunion. The event will feature dinner, dancing and musical entertainment. For information, to volunteer or to get on the mailing list: nnhs1976reunion@gmail.com.

HOLIDAY GIFT FAIR: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Nov. 12, American Legion Post 440, 295 California Ave., Newton. Vendors and crafters wanted. For more information, call Lee (617-332-6509) or Helen (617-584-0640).

Ongoing

NEWTON FARMERS MARKET: 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturdays through Oct. 7, Elm Street, West Newton; and 1:30-6 p.m. Tuesdays, July 11 through Oct. 31, Cold Spring Park, Beacon Street, Newton Centre. Fresh fruit and vegetables, baked goods, fish, cheese, eggs, ice cream and more.

WATERSTONE AT THE CIRCLE INFORMATION SESSIONS: 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. Aug. 8; 5 p.m. Aug. 9; 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. Aug. 22; 5 p.m. Aug. 23; and 10 a.m. Aug. 26, Metropolitan Waterworks Museum, 2450 Beacon St., Chestnut Hill. Waterstone at the Circle, a luxury independent living community opening in early 2018, will host information sessions for attendees to meet the leadership team and learn more about the community. For information or RSVP: 617-232-3634; living@waterstoneatthecircle.com.

ADULT TENNIS LESSONS: 7 a.m. to 9 a.m. Tuesdays, July 11 through Nov. 21, Newton North High School, 457 Walnut St., Newton. For all tennis levels. Sponsored by Newton Community Education. For information: 617-559-6999; http://newtoncommunityed.org.

AUTHOR VISITS: 7 p.m. Aug. 8-11, Newtonville Books, 10 Langley Road, Newton Centre. Jeanne Blasberg, author of Eden: A Novel, Aug. 8; Meghan Kenny, author of Love Is No Small Thing: Stories, Aug. 9; Anne Korkeakivi, author of Shining Sea: A Novel, in conversation with Joanna Rakoff, Aug. 10; Tom Perrotta, author of Mrs. Fletcher: A Novel, Aug. 11. Open to all ages. Free. For information: http://newtonvillebooks.com.

FREED FROM THE FRAME: BEYOND THE CHILDHOOD PORTRAIT: Through January 2018, Jackson Homestead and Museum, 527 Washington St., Newton. The exhibit displays six portraits of children from Historic Newtons collection and also tells what happened to each child in adulthood. The exhibit is open during regular museum hours. Admission included in museum admission fee. For information: 617-796-1450.

ACTIVATE NEWTON SUMMER CHALLENGE: 100 MILES IN 100 DAYS: Activate Newton challenges residents to walk 100 miles this summer. Starting June 1, participants can log their progress on the ChallengeRunner page, http://activatenewton.challengerunner.com, and be entered to win prizes. The webpage also has an activities calendar, walking map, and more. For information: http://newtonma.gov/activate.

KIDS AT THE FARM SUMMER 2017: June 19 through the week of Aug. 21, Newton Community Farm, 303 Nahanton St., Newton Centre. A summer of exploration, digging, planting and harvesting. Programs for toddlers through middle school. Half-day and full-day options available. Week of June 19 Farm Sprouts, for toddlers/preschool age; Farm Explorers for 5- to 6-year-olds. For information or to register: newtoncommunityfarm.org/education.

CULTIVATING COMMUNITY ADULT PROGRAMS SUMMER 2017: Participants celebrate the season and join a community united by gardening, cooking, the arts and history. Features a potluck supper, yoga in the barn and the launch of the Community Book Read. For information or to register: http://newtoncommunityfarm.org/education/adult-programs.

MOBILE MARKET/FOOD BANK: Third Fridays, Post 440, 295 California St., Newton. Conducted by the American Legion Post 440 in conjunction with the Greater Boston Food Bank. Anyone is eligible to receive 32 pounds of food valued at $50-100 each month. To register: Ken or Carol at Post 440, 617-244-0440. No income or asset guidelines/restrictions.

NIA DANCE: 6-7 p.m. Tuesdays, Newton Centre Yoga, 796 Beacon St., Newton. This is an all levels class and open to everyone. Nia is a movement practice that guides the student into a physical, mental, emotional and spiritual state of energy and well-being. It combines dance and other movements infused with global rhythms.

Kids at the Farm: Through Aug. 25, Newton Community Farm, 303 Nahanton St., Newton Centre. Kids feed the chickens, harvest produce and learn what it takes to grow food sustainably. Programs for toddlers through middle school. For information or to register: http://newtoncommunityfarm.org/education.

Newton at Home small appliance repair workshop: 1-3 p.m. Wednesdays, Scandinavian Living Center, 206 Waltham St., Newton. Formerly associated with SOAR 55, operating under the auspices of Newton at Home. Several fix-it volunteers are taking on everything from irons to clocks to toasters every Wednesday for people hoping to repair rather than replace. They do not fix any electronic equipment. Repairs are completed for free, but there may be a small charge if parts are needed. Articles for repair can be dropped off at the workshop in the basement of the Scandinavian Living Center. No charge to city residents. Donations accepted. For information: 617-795-2560.

Voices of War: Americans in World War I 1917-1918: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesdays through Saturdays, through October, New England Historic Genealogical Society, 99-101 Newbury St., Boston. This exhibit traces the journeys of Newton residents Charles Judd Farley, an ambulance driver with the American Field Service, and Bernard Gorfinkle, a Judge Advocate in the 26th Yankee Division, during their years of service in World War I. Featuring materials from the collections of the New England Historic Genealogical Society, the Jewish Heritage Center at NEHGS and Historic Newton, visitors will have the opportunity to learn more about the War and the impact it had on the lives of those who lived through it. Free. For information: 617-226-1200, http://www.americanancestors.org.

Gam-Anon 12-step meetings: 10 a.m. to noon Sundays, Newton-Wellesley Hospital, Room 7, second floor, Bowles Conference Center, 2014 Washington St., Newton. A free 12-step recovery program for family and friends who have been affected by someone elses gambling. An anonymous spiritual recovery program.

Newton Hebrew School: 9:30 a.m. to noon Sundays, Beth MenachemChabad of Newton, 349 Dedham St., Newton. At Newton Hebrew School children will learn how to read Hebrew, learn about the Jewish holidays and the rich Jewish history, all in a fun, hands-on exciting way. For information: 617-244-1200; NewtonHebrewSchool.com.

Overeaters Anonymous: 7:15-8:15 a.m. Saturdays, Second Floor West, Shipley Auditorium, 2014 Washington St, Newton. No fees, dues or weigh-ins. Open to all. Parking in garage validated for attendees. For information: Suzanne, 617-965-4845.

Community Reiki Clinic: 7-8:45 p.m. first Friday evening of each month, Brenner Reiki Healing, 324 Central St., Newton. 30-minute Reiki sessions with Reiki practitioners. Cost: $10. Appointment times: 7-7:30, 7:35-8:05 and 8:10-8:40 p.m. Open to all ages and health conditions. For information or to schedule an appointment: 617-244-8856; Elise@BrennerReikiHealing.org; BrennerReikiHealing.org.

New Babies New Moms Group: 10:30 a.m. to noon Tuesdays, The Freedman Center at William James College, 1 Well Ave., Newton. Attendees bring their infant and meet other new mothers. For first-time moms with babies up to six months. Choose a six-week daytime series. Each group meets with a professional facilitator and provides a opportunity to ask questions, share experiences, make new friends and get some support. Discuss developmental issues, expectations of oneself as a new mom, changing relationships with family members, child care options and more. Free. For information: 617-332-3666, ext. 1123; freedmancenter@williamjames.edu; facebook.com/FreedmanWilliamJamesEdu.

New Dads Group: 7-8:30 p.m. Thursdays, The Freedman Center, William James College, 1 Wells Ave., Newton. Attendees learn more about parenting and meet other new dads. For first time Dads of babies 12 months or older. Dads welcome with or without baby. An opportunity to ask questions, learn skills, share experiences of fatherhood and make new friends. Participants meet for eight 90-minute weekly sessions to discuss developmental issues, changing relationships, balancing work, changing relationships and fatherhood. Free. For information: williamjames.edu.

Parenting Through a Jewish Lens: 4:15-5:45 p.m. Thursdays or 8:30-10 a.m. Fridays, Leventhal-Sidman Jewish Community Center, 333 Nahanton St., Newton. Attendees discover how compelling Jewish texts and traditions can enrich a family, and share stories and ideas about raising children today. Open to parents of all backgrounds. Scholarships and couple discounts available. Free babysitting. For information: hebrewcollege.edu/parenting; parenting@hebrewcollege.edu.

MEAH CLASSIC: 7-9 p.m. Mondays, beginning Oct. 31, Young Israel of Brookline, 62 Green St., Brookline. Meah, Hebrew for 100, offers adults of all ages and backgrounds a foundation in Jewish culture and civilization. Students study core Jewish texts, and grapple with concepts representing cultural and political movements from four historical periods: biblical, rabbinic, medieval and modern. Cost: $700 for the first year, financial aid available. To register: hebrewcollege.edu/meah.For information: Sara Brown, meah@hebrewcollege.edu, 617-559-8708.

AQUATIC EXERCISE CLASS: Saturday mornings. This Aqua Fit class is designed for people of all fitness levels. A total body workout designed for people age of 55 or older. Uses the resistance of the water for toning and increasing flexibility. Self-paced. Low to high impact, depending on personal effort. For information: Nancy, 617-796-1506.

CENTRE STREET FOOD PANTRY NEEDS SUMMER VOLUNTEERS: 11 a.m. to noon Tuesdays, through summer, 11 Homer St., Newton Centre. High school or college student who want to give back to the community this summer can volunteer to help load big orders at the Centre Street Food Pantry. Heavy lifting required. For information: centrestfoodpantry@gmail.com.

OVEREATERS ANONYMOUS MEETINGS: 7:15-8:15 a.m. Saturdays, Room B2, Newton-Wellesley Hospital, 2014 Washington St., Newton. A 12-step support group for people with eating disorders. Free. For information: 781-641-2303.

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Around Newton - Wicked Local Newton

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Posted By simmons on July 31, 2017

This year's 9th of Av remembrance day is a telling moment.

The Jewish fast comes after two weeks of Muslim protests, sometimes violent, that were sparked in Jerusalem and reverberated around the world. When both are viewed together as a whole, they tell a revealing story.

The latest protests, ostensibly over security measures at the holy compound, underscored not only how volatile any move on the Al-Aqsa mosque can be, but also how deeply the backlash is based on religion.

This was evident, for example, in one of the popular chants often sounded at the latest set of protests: "With (our) spirit, with (our) blood, we shall redeem you, Al-Aqsa!". It also became evident as leaders of the Waqf (the Islamic religious institute charged with administering the site) increasingly began calling the shots, dictating to worshipers when to refuse or comply with Israeli police.

The compound known as the Temple Mount to Jews and Haram Al-Sharif (Noble Sanctuary) to Muslims has been a territorial prize for a long list of occupiers throughout history the Jebusites, Israelites, Babylonians, Greeks, Persians, Romans, Byzantines, early Muslims, Crusaders, Mamluks, Ottomans and the British to name a few of the city's previous rulers.

This 35-acre compound has seen more historical events than perhaps any other area of its size in the world.

Saddest day

Today, the 9th day of the Hebrew month of Av, is seen as the saddest day in the Hebrew calendar. It marks for Jews the world over the date in which both Jewish temples were destroyed, some 650 years apart, with each devastating event coupled with exile.

Since Titus sacked Jerusalem and turned the tide against the four-year-long Hebrew rebellion against the Roman Empire in 70 AD (the rebellion was finally crushed in 73 AD), Jews have developed a wide array of practices to remember and sanctify their heritage in Jerusalem in general, and on the Temple Mount in particular.

One prominent example is the ritual breaking of a wine glass by the groom at Jewish weddings, coupled with a text the groom reads, signifying their sorrow for the loss of Jerusalem.

Another practice is to fast on the day of destruction, and pray at the Western Wall, the last standing remains of the exterior wall of the second Temple.

New owners

While Jews refined their traditions of memory, a formidable conquering force emerged from the Arabian desert, sweeping its way through the Levant.

The conquerors bringing with them a new religion Islam. It wasnt long before the new religion began erecting its own monuments, not least among them the Haram Al-Sharif. Its iconic golden Dome of the Rock is popularly identified with Jerusalem's skyline.

Fast-forward 1300 years, and by the end of the nineteenth century Jews had emerged from Europe's ghettos promoting their own version of self-determination: enough weeping for Zion, the early Zionists would say, now is the time for Jews to return and redeem their motherland.

Jewish immigration to Mandatory Palestine crept higher. By the early twentieth century, more and more Jews were praying at the Western Wall, the last remaining visible relic of the Temple.

This influx did not go unnoticed by the local Muslim population. As the number of Jews arriving at the Western Wall increased, Muslim leaders recognition of the sanctity of the site to Jews decreased.

The political consequences of any historical claims about Al-Aqsa became apparent early on, and would evolve into such a touchy issue that avoiding it all together became the policy of the many Grand Muftis, the highest Muslim authority in Jerusalem.

The current Grand Mufti, Mohammed Hussein, has been quoted several times asserting that the site has been holy exclusively to Muslims since the dawn of time. He's not alone; practically any religious figure ordained by the Waqf to administer the site will sound a similar notion.

It wasn't always this way. In 1924, the Supreme Muslim Council published A Brief Guide to Al-Haram Al-Sharif. The guide read: Its identity with the site of Solomons Temple is beyond dispute," confirming Jewish claims to roots at the site.

But this Guide, it continues, confines itself to the Muslim period, the starting [point of which] is the year 637 A.D., recognizing the historic limit of Muslim presence on the Mount.

The popular narrative on the Palestinian street and especially with Al-Aqsa's prime stakeholders, the Palestinians of East Jerusalem follows the current Muftis line. For largely political reasons, Palestinian leaders find it useful to deny the Jewish connection to the site, and frequently proclaim that Al-Aqsa is in danger.

Ibrahim, a middle-aged resident of a-Tur, an East Jerusalem neighborhood, provided a fine example of this.

I met him while covering the latest series of protests over the new security measures on the holy compound, introduced by Israel after a deadly attack on July 14th killed two Israeli policemen. In his neighborhood, clashes took place throughout the day between Palestinian youths and Israeli police. The youths took to the streets with stones and Molotov cocktails in hand to agitate against the Israeli nemesis, at the request of religious and political leaders who urged them to "defend Al-Aqsa".

Ibrahim was one of many spectators taking in the view as half a dozen teenagers hurling objects at Israeli police in riot gear who retaliated with tear gas, stun grenades and rubber bullets.

When I asked about Al-Aqsa and its meaning to Jews, Ibrahim rejected the notion off the bat. "What do Jews have to do with it?" he said. "First the wall was holy, now Aqsa is holy too? Every time it's something new with them."

Another resident of a-Tur, 23 year old Muhanad was also among the spectators, and echoed another prominent narrative often voiced in East Jerusalem's streets.

"You know," he said with the grin of one who is convinced he knows an unrevealed truth, "the Jews in America, they control everything. They send money here so the settlers can dig tunnels under the mosque," referring to archaeological excavations that have been conducted for the past couple of decades by Israeli authorities, sparking deep controversy and backlash among Palestinians.

It's not uncommon to hear a plethora of conspiracy theories regarding these excavations when speaking to Palestinian protesters.

Not the first time at the rodeo

The religious nature of the protest has also characterized similar cases in the past. These two hot and violent summer weeks reminded some commentators of the events in the summer of 1929.

Despite a decade of relative quiet throughout the 1920s, a steady flow of Jewish immigrants into British Mandatory Palestine invigorated Arab resistance to British rule and its complacency over Jewish immigration.

A series of events perceived by the Muslim population as Jewish encroachment on the Temple Mount would set off a string riots and attacks throughout British Mandatory Palestine in 1929.

In Arabic it was known as Thawrat al-Buraq, or the "al-Buraq Uprising", taking the name of the Islamic mythological steed which, according to Muslim faith, Mohammed rode to Al-Aqsa before ascending to the heavens.

The result of the 1929 Arab uprising was devastating in its cost of human life and property for both sides. In Jerusalem, Safed and Hebron, massacres by Arab assailants against the Jewish communities which were deeply rooted in those cities concluded with the slaying of 133 Jews, and the killing of 110 Arabs mainly by British police who were forcefully suppressing the uprising. Hundreds more were injured on both sides.

Then, like today, religious slogans played the role of the lit match that set the barrel ablaze.

One can only hope that today, unlike in the past, leaders on both sides of the conflict will make wise decisions the kind of judicious decisions that take into account and respect different peoples, their beliefs and sensitivities.

Michael Plutchok is a Middle East correspondent for i24NEWS

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Posted By admin on July 31, 2017

A man buys a Sunday newspaper at a news stand in London July 17, 2011.. (photo credit:REUTERS/SUZANNE PLUNKETT)

The Sunday Times, one of the largest-selling British newspapers, pulled an opinion column on Sunday and fired the writer after he was accused of antisemitism.

Also, eight years ago the same columnist published a statement denying the Holocaust, "...six million Jews were not murdered by the Third Reich."A statement only recently removed from the Irish Independent website.

The column, written by Irish journalist Kevin Myers, was titled Sorry, ladies equal pay has to be earned. It dealt with the ongoing public battle over salaries for women at the BBC. It was originally published online and in the Irish print edition of the weekly paper.

I note that two of the best-paid women presenters in the BBC Claudia Winkelman and Vanessa Feltz... are Jewish, Myers wrote. Good for them. Jews are not generally noted for their insistence on selling their talent for the lowest possible price.

After a horrified backlash from many readers, the newspaper deleted the column from the site and issued an apology. Later on Sunday, a spokesperson for the Times confirmed that Myers had been fired.

We can confirm that Kevin Myers will not write again for the Sunday Times Ireland. A printed apology will appear in next weeks paper.

Martin Ivens, editor of the newspaper, said the comments were unacceptable and should not have been published. It has been taken down and we sincerely apologize for the remarks and the error of judgment that led to publication.

Frank Fitzgibbon, editor of the Ireland edition, echoed Ivens.

I apologize unreservedly for the offence caused by comments in a column by Kevin Myers and published today in the Ireland edition of the Sunday Times, he said.

It contained views that have caused considerable distress and upset to a number of people... I take full responsibility for this error of judgment.

This newspaper abhors antisemitism and did not intend to cause offence to Jewish people.

The editors did not address if they were apologizing merely for the antisemitic content or also the rampant sexism.

Myers speculated in the piece that men were likely paid more because they are harder working, more driven and more charismatic performers.

UK Media Watch, a division of CAMERA, tweeted that it found the Times to be generally good on issues of antisemitism.

This one horrendous article is quite atypical.

Jewish Leadership Council CEO Simon Johnson said the article was appalling.

We are pleased that the Sunday Times has removed the story and issued an apology, he said. We hope that the Sunday Times will ensure that this type of incident does not happen again.

Guardian columnist Marina Hyde said she was amazed this disgrace made it into the paper. But instructive that it did. Financial Times editor Lionel Barber marveled at the undiluted antisemitism and misogyny in one paragraph.

Aiofe Barry, a news editor at The Journal in Ireland, tweeted that Meyers has espoused terrible and offensive opinions for decades and yet hes always been given a national platform.

Indeed, this is far from Myers first foray into offensive and antisemitic viewpoints.

In 2009 he published a column in The Independent entitled There was no Holocaust.

In it, he claimed that six million Jews were not killed by the Nazis and that this is an irrefutable truth.

That article remained online for more than eight years until The Independent finally pulled it on Sunday, noting that it does not comply with our editorial ethos.

And in 2008, he wrote a piece in The Irish Independent also since deleted called Africa is giving nothing to anyone apart from AIDS.

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Posted By simmons on July 31, 2017

Anti-Jewish agitators in every era claim they're only responding to the 'actual' misdeeds of Jews. For violent Islamists and the left, Israel's occupation is just the latest iteration

Identifying anti-Semitism and working out how to challenge and overcome it is no easy task, but in more than two decades of work and study in this field Ive come up with one simple rule: Dont mimic the anti-Semites you're fighting.

At least, youd think this is a simple rule; but British writer and activist Tony Klug fell straight into this trap when he wrote recently in Haaretz (If Israel's Occupation Doesn't End, Anti-Semitism Worldwide Will Rise to Sinister Heights) of an acquaintance who, he claimed, said to him: "I thought an anti-Semite was someone who hated Jews, not someone whom Jews hated.

I first heard Klug use this line two months ago, at a conference on Zionism and anti-Semitism held in London by the Pears Institute for the Study of Anti-Semitism. You can hear Klug make the comment here, followed by some laughter and applause. (Full disclosure: I am an Associate Research Fellow of the Pears Institute, on its Advisory Group and spoke at the same conference as Klug, but I had no role in the planning or organization of that conference).

However, this wasnt the first time Id heard the line itself, because for many years it was one of David Irvings favorite jokes. He would tell it in his speeches to audiences of anti-Semites and Holocaust deniers, and he usually got a much bigger laugh than Klug did.

I pointed this out to Klug, publicly, at the conference in May. I suggested that as he had used the same joke as David Irving a man described by a British court, on losing his 2000 libel action against Professor Deborah Lipstadt, as "an active Holocaust denier [] anti-Semitic and racist and [..] associates with right wing extremists who promote neo-Nazism" he might want to rethink.

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At the time, Klug seemed unperturbed by the revelation that he was parroting David Irving. He was much more animated by the suggestion that he had intended to make a joke. He was deadly serious, he assured the gathered academics, in implying that Jews have inverted the meaning of anti-Semitism to create a weapon of Jewish hatred against others. Apparently he still thinks it is a line worth using, despite knowing what company it puts him in.

In fact, Irving was not the first to come up with this quip. That dubious honor probably belongs to the late Joseph Sobran, who came up with it in the early 1990s. Sobran was fired by National Review in 1993 for writing a series of anti-Semitic columns, and became a fixture on the international Holocaust denial conference circuit where he, like Irving, would tell people that "an anti-Semite used to mean a man who hated Jews. Now it means a man who is hated by Jews."

Thanks to Klug, this line has now made its way from the proceedings of the Institute for Historical Review to a conference of the Pears Institute for the Study of Anti-Semitism. Perhaps Klug was unaware of the jokes origins when he used it in May, but he has no such excuse when deciding to repeat it in Haaretz this week.

Why does this joke work? I think it is because it plays to a stereotype of the complaining Jew; the paranoid Jew who sees anti-Semitism everywhere; the dishonest, cunning Jew who uses his cleverness to confound his unsuspecting foe. Its a joke that gives permission to laugh dismissively at Jewish fears of anti-Semitism.

Yet those fears are real and justified. Klug acknowledges that anti-Semitism is rising, but the best he can do to explain why this is the case is to blame it on the occupation; and the only solution he offers is for Israel to make peace with the Palestinians and, with a wave of its magic wand, end anti-Semitism at a stroke.

History tells us that life is not so simple. Anti-Jewish agitators in every era have claimed that they are only responding to the actual misdeeds of Jews.

Anti-Semitism, being a conspiracy theory, a prejudice and a closed worldview all rolled into one, does not behave rationally. If Israel does make peace, social media will probably fill with theories about how it is a Rothschild plot to subjugate the region under the yoke of Jewish capital, or some similar nonsense that will be believed by millions.

Klug cites the Oslo period as one when anti-Semitism declined due, he claims, to hopes of peace in Israel and Palestine. But those years also saw a surge in Islamist terrorism in Israel and overseas designed specifically to derail that peace process. Tell the Jews of Argentina that they were safer in the 1990s, when Iran and Hezbollah destroyed the AMIA Jewish community center killing 85 people, than they are now.

This violent jihadist terrorism, combined with the conspiracy theories that circulate unchallenged in parts of Muslim communities and on the hard left as well as the far right, are what alarm European Jews today.

Too much of the left has too little to say about this and even less to offer Jews in terms of solidarity. Instead we are told to distance ourselves from Israel or face the consequences.

Israel needs to make peace for its own reasons, but it is nave to imagine that the likes of David Irving will end their anti-Jewish propaganda if such a day comes to pass; and it is foolish for people who claim to oppose anti-Semitism to mimic that propaganda now.

Dave Rich is Deputy Director of Communications for the Community Security Trust and author of The Lefts Jewish Problem: Jeremy Corbyn, Israel and Anti-Semitism (Biteback, 2016)

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Posted By richards on July 31, 2017

Francie Latour was picking out produce in a suburban Boston grocery store when a white man leaned toward her two young sons and, just loudly enough for the boys to hear, unleashed a profanity-laced racist epithet.

Reeling, Latour, who is black, turned to Facebook to vent, in a post that was explicit about the hateful words hurled at her 8- and 12-year-olds on a Sunday evening in July.

I couldnt tolerate just sitting with it and being silent, Latour said in an interview. I felt like I was going to jump out of my skin, like my kids innocence was stolen in the blink of an eye.

But within 20 minutes, Facebook deleted her post, sending Latour a cursory message that her content had violated company standards. Only two friends had gotten the chance to voice their disbelief and outrage.

Experiences like Latours exemplify the challenges Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg confronts as he tries to rebrand his company as a safe space for community, expanding on its earlier goal of connecting friends and family.

But in making decisions about the limits of free speech, Facebook often fails the racial, religious and sexual minorities Zuckerberg says he wants to protect.

The 13-year-old social network is wrestling with the hardest questions it has ever faced as the de facto arbiter of speech for the third of the worlds population that now logs on each month.

In February, amid mounting concerns over Facebooks role in the spread of violent live videos and fake news, Zuckerberg said the platform had a responsibility to mitigate the bad effects of the service in a more dangerous and divisive political era. In June, he officially changed Facebooks mission from connecting the world to community-building.

The company says it now deletes about 288,000 hate-speech posts a month.

But activists say that Facebooks censorship standards are so unclear and biased that it is impossible to know what one can or cannot say.

The result: Minority groups say they are disproportionately censored when they use the social-media platform to call out racism or start dialogues. In the case of Latour and her family, she was simply repeating what the man who verbally assaulted her children said: What the f--- is up with those f---ing n----r heads?

Compounding their pain, Facebook will often go from censoring posts to locking users out of their accounts for 24 hours or more, without explanation a punishment known among activists as Facebook jail.

In the era of mass incarceration, you come into this digital space this one space that seems safe and then you get attacked by the trolls and put in Facebook jail, said Stacey Patton, a journalism professor at Morgan State University, a historically black university in Baltimore. It totally contradicts Mr. Zuckerbergs mission to create a public square.

In June, the company said that nearly 2billion people now log onto Facebook each month. With the companys dramatic growth comes the challenge of maintaining internally consistent standards as its content moderators are faced with a growing number of judgment calls.

Facebook is regulating more human speech than any government does now or ever has, said Susan Benesch, director of the Dangerous Speech Project, a nonprofit group that researches the intersection of harmful online content and free speech. They are like a de facto body of law, yet that law is a secret.

The company recently admitted, in a blog post, that too often we get it wrong, particularly in cases when people are using certain terms to describe hateful experiences that happened to them. The company has promised to hire 3,000 more content moderators before the years end, bringing the total to 7,500, and is looking to improve the software it uses to flag hate speech, a spokeswoman said.

We know this is a problem, said Facebook spokeswoman Ruchika Budhraja, adding that the company has been meeting with community activists for several years. Were working on evolving not just our policies but our tools. We are listening.

Two weeks after Donald Trump won the presidency, Zahra Billoo, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations office for the San Francisco Bay area, posted to Facebook an image of a handwritten letter mailed to a San Jose mosque and quoted from it: Hes going to do to you Muslims what Hitler did to the Jews.

The post made to four Facebook accounts contained a notation clarifying that the statement came from hate mail sent to the mosque, as Facebook guidelines advise.

Facebook removed the post from two of the accounts Billoos personal page and the councils local chapter page but allowed identical posts to remain on two others the organizations national page and Billoos public one. The civil rights attorney was baffled. After she re-posted the message on her personal page, it was again removed, and Billoo received a notice saying she would be locked out of Facebook for 24 hours.

How am I supposed to do my work of challenging hate if I cant even share information showing that hate? she said.

Billoo eventually received an automated apology from Facebook, and the post was restored to the local chapter page but not her personal one.

Being put in Facebook jail has become a regular occurrence for Shannon Hall-Bulzone, a San Diego photographer. In June 2016, Hall-Bulzone was shut out for three days after posting an angry screed when she and her toddler were called lazy brown people as they walked to day care and her sister was called a lazy n----r as she walked to work. Within hours, Facebook removed the post.

Many activists who write about race say they break Facebook rules and keep multiple accounts in order to play a cat-and-mouse game with the companys invisible censors, some of whom are third-party contractors working on teams based in the United States or in Germany or the Philippines.

Others have started using alternate spellings for white people, such as wypipo, Y.P. Pull, or yt folkx to evade being flagged by the platform activists have nicknamed Racebook.

In January, a coalition of more than 70 civil rights groups wrote a letter urging Facebook to fix its racially-biased content moderation system. The groups asked Facebook to enable an appeals process, offer explanations for why posts are taken down, and publish data on the types of posts that get taken down and restored. Facebook has not done these things.

The coalition has gathered 570,000 signatures urging Facebook to acknowledge discriminatory censorship exists on its platform, that it harbors white supremacist pages even though it says it forbids hate speech in all forms, and that black and Muslim communities are especially in danger because the hate directed against them translates into violence in the streets, said Malkia Cyril, a Black Lives Matter activist in Oakland, Calif., who was part of a group that first met with Facebook about their concerns in 2014.

Cyril, executive director for the Center for Media Justice, said the company has a double standard when it comes to deleting posts. She has flagged numerous white supremacist pages to Facebook for removal and said she was told that none was initially found to have violated the companys community standards even though they displayed offensive content. One featured a picture of a skeleton with the caption, Ever since Trayvon became white, hes been a good boy, in reference to Trayvon Martin, the unarmed black teenager killed by a volunteer neighborhood watchman in Florida in 2012.

Like most social media companies in Silicon Valley, Facebook has long resisted being a gatekeeper for speech. For years, Zuckerberg insisted that the social network had only minimal responsibilities for policing content.

In its early years, Facebooks internal guidelines for moderating and censoring content amounted to only a single page. The instructions included prohibitions on nudity and images of Hitler, according to a trove of documents published by the investigative news outlet ProPublica. (Holocaust denial was allowed.)

By 2015, the internal censorship manual had grown to 15,000 words, according to ProPublica.

In Facebooks guidelines for moderators, obtained by ProPublica in June and affirmed by the social network, the rules protect broad classes of people but not subgroups. Posts criticizing white or black people would be prohibited, while posts attacking white or black children, or radicalized Muslim suspects, may be allowed to stay up because the company sees children and radicalized Muslims as subgroups.

Facebook says it prohibits direct attacks on protected characteristics, defined in U.S. law as race, ethnicity, national origin, religious affiliation, sexual orientation, sex, gender, gender identity, serious disability or disease.

But the guidelines have never been publicly released, and as recently as last summer Zuckerberg continued to insist Facebook was a tech company, not a media company.

Unlike media companies, technology platforms that host speech are not legally responsible for the content that appears.

The chief executive has shifted his stance this year. At the companys Communities Summit, a first-ever live gathering for members of Facebook groups held in Chicago in June, Zuckerberg changed the mission statement.

Earlier, he said the company would become, over the next decade, a social infrastructure for keeping us safe, for informing us, for civic engagement, and for inclusion of all.

The company acknowledged that minorities feel disproportionately targeted but said it could not verify those claims because it does not categorize the types of hate speech that appear or tally which groups are targeted.

In June, for example, Facebook removed a video posted by Ybia Anderson, a black woman in Toronto who was outraged by the prominent display of a car decorated with the Confederate flag at a community festival. The social network did not remove dozens of other posts in which Anderson was attacked with racial slurs.

Benesch, who herself has tried to build a software tool to flag hate speech, said she sympathizes with Facebooks predicament. It is authentically difficult to make consistent decisions because of the huge variety of content out there, she said. That doesnt, however, excuse the fact they sometimes make some very stupid decisions.

As for Latour, the Boston mother was surprised when Facebook restored her post about the hateful words spewed at her sons, less than 24 hours after it disappeared. The company sent her an automated notice that a member of its team had removed her post in error. There was no further explanation.

The initial censoring of Latours experience felt almost exactly like what happened to my sons writ large, she said. The man had unleashed the racial slur so quietly that for everyone else in the store, the verbal attack never happened. But it had terrified her boys, who froze, unable to immediately respond or tell their mother.

They were left with all that ugliness and hate, she said, and when I tried to share it so that people could see it for what it is, I was shut down.

tracy.jan@washpost.com

elizabeth.dwoskin@washpost.com

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Posted By richards on July 31, 2017

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Three newly-painted public murals of the Lubavitcher Rebbe were vandalized in Crown Heights late last week, exposing an ongoing debate about the image of the movements late charismatic leader who is revered as the Messiah by a vocal segment of the community.

The community website Collive uploaded surveillance footage on Friday of two young men vandalizing one mural located on Kingston Avenue, the main artery of Hasidic Crown Heights by crossing out the portrait with black paint.

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The site identifies the two young men as Yeshiva students. Two other Kingston Avenue murals were also defaced last week.

The murals were painted earlier this summer by a Montreal graffiti artist known as Zrey Li, and featured a stylized portrait of Menachem Mendel Schneerson, the seventh and last leader of Lubavitcher Hasidim. Alongside the black-and-white portrait is a list of the Noahide Laws, a list of biblical principles that Schneerson believed should be taught as moral codes for both Jews and non-Jews.

Writing in Collive, a Chabad rabbi had previously denounced the murals as inappropriate, tasteless and disrespectful, likening the stenciled style of the image as suitable for political and cultural figures, like Martin Luther King Jr. or Che Guevara, but not for a Rebbe.

There was also community uproar last month after an image of Schneerson which some saw as mocking appeared in the New York Jewish Week newspaper.

Email Sam Kestenbaum at kestenbaum@forward.com and follow him on Twitter at @skestenbaum

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Posted By simmons on July 31, 2017

According to Daniel B. Schwartz in his study of The First Modern Jew the historian is referring to Baruch Spinoza as that trailblazer he discusses the descendants of German-Jewish philosopher Moses Mendelssohn, who was influenced by the heretic of Amsterdam. Of Mendelssohns six children, Schwartz writes, four converted [to Christianity], all following their fathers death in 1786. Of his grandchildren, only one went to his grave as a Jew.

Was Mendelssohns philosophy responsible for the conversions to Christianity of his descendants? The blame of the mass apostasy of Mendelssohns descendants does rest, for some, on his philosophy. There is precedent for this assessment in the work of historian Yitzhak Fritz Baer in his dichotomy between Sephardi and Ashkenazi Jews. Baer, a German Jew who made his mark of brilliance at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, blamed the conversion of Jews to Catholicism in Spain on their study of Aristotelian philosophy which, the historian believed, weakened their spiritual resolve. This was opposed to the Talmud-centered folk piety of medieval Ashkenazi Jews who chose martyrdom rather than conversion.

Many centuries before Baer in Muslim Spain, Hebrew poet Judah Halevi argued in his Kuzari that Revelation as an historical event dispensed with the need to reconcile Torah and Aristotle. But one could argue that Moses Mendelssohn was not Moses Maimonides, that 18th century Berlin was not medieval Cairo, and that the attempt by Mendelssohn to confront Kant led to a Jewish crisis worse than the Jewish struggle over Rambams philosophical works. For an early modern thinker like Catholic theologian and mathematician Blaise Pascal there was only one choice: Not the God of the philosophers but the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

But that is only part of the picture. While Mendelssohns philosophy was certainly the outcome of a confrontation with the German Enlightenment, it was not a radical rejection of Judaism in fact, it was an heroic defense of the Jewish faith and Mendelssohn remained an observant Jew his whole life. His classic work of Jewish philosophy, Jerusalem (1783), is conservative and careful and a far cry from the pantheism of Spinoza. In this work, Mendelssohn argues that Kant and the German Enlightenments understanding of Judaism are warped. Rather than viewing Judaism as coercive laws and superstitions that in no way elevates the individual morally, ethically or spiritually, Mendelssohn argues that it is Judaism that is a revealed legislation and not a revealed religion.

Mendelssohn is no atheist and, in fact, he argues that Judaism is the epitome of the Religion of Reason, purged of the dogma and superstition that dominated Christianity.

He is on the mark despite the fact that he reinterprets the nature of Revelation in a way that would not please traditionalists.

Mendelssohn seems to neutralize that nature of the Covenant based on the relationship between God and Gods Chosen People. Still, he argues against religious coercion and for religious tolerance and is brave enough to confront those who would demean Judaism and he would defend Judaism against Christianity. I do not see, at first glance, how this would lead to apostasy.

It seems just the opposite.

A more cogent argument is a social one.

Mendelssohns involvement in Prussian society, being dubbed the German Socrates, broke down the barriers which for centuries separated Jews from the non-Jewish majority. Mendelssohns acceptance by the German Enlightenment and especially by his close friend G.E. Lessing integrated the Jewish philosopher into a modern world he would not have know of had he been born 50 years earlier. The pressure on Mendelssohn by Christians to convert was intense and he had the fortitude to reject these calls. His children did not have that fortitude.

Under the pressure of Prussian society they were unable to resist the temptation to abandon their fathers modern approach to Revelation and instead abandoned Judaism.

Indeed, as described by historian Daniel B.

Schwartz, in the period in Berlin from 1750 to 1830 there was a wave of Jews who converted to Christianity. Among Berlins Jewish elite there was an epidemic of baptism. Heinrich Heine, born a Jew, the greatest German lyric poet of the 19th century, converted to Lutheranism, in part for professional reasons.

Throughout Germanic lands baptism was required to teach in universities or gain a professional position in the law. While I came down hard on Rachel Varnhagen and her salon that brought together Jews and Christians in the elite, my harshest criticism was that after her conversion she seemed to embrace a sincere Christianity. But for Jewish converts like Heine, baptism opened doors of opportunity that were closed for Jews. So the epidemic of baptism could have little to do with religious faith and much to do with Jews achieving success in Berlin in that period of discrimination.

Still, the conversions do not only have their roots in Jews getting ahead in Christian society. For many of the Jewish elite in Berlin the embrace of Christianity was an act of religious and intellectual conviction.

Abraham Mendelssohn a son of the great philosopher and a deist and rationalist, raised his children as Lutherans. In a July 1820 letter to his daughter, Abraham Mendelssohn seemed to both reject the influence of the legacy of his own father but also seemed to follow in a logical path of conversion where the philosopher could lead the Jew: The outward form of your religion your teacher has given you is historical, and changeable like all human ordinances.

Some thousands of years ago the Jewish form was the reigning one, then the heathen form, and now it is the Christian. We, your mother and I, were born and brought up by our parents as Jews, and without being obliged to change the form of our religion have been able to follow the divine instinct in us and in our conscience. We have educated you and your brothers and sister in the Christian faith, because it is the creed of most civilized people, and contains nothing can lead you away from what is good, and much that guides you to love, obedience, tolerance, and resignation, even if it offered nothing but the example of its founder, understood by so few, and followed by still fewer.

Heinrich Heine writes that the baptismal certificate is the ticket of admission to European culture. This indicates that the worldview of Abraham Mendelssohn, Rachel Varnhagen and Heine was rooted in the inferiority of Judaism to German culture. Heines conversion to Lutheranism was not simply practical but psychological.

Heine, in an early poem, equated Judaism with disease. This was not the outlook of Moses Mendelssohn he was raised in an observant environment with exposure to the great works of Jewish literature and theology.

For Mendelssohns son to explain that Judaism was only relevant 2,000 years ago and that one could reach goals of spirituality and ethics in the Christianity of the Enlightenment is an insult to his fathers faith. The argument for tolerance of all religion does not mean that all religions are equal. There is a rich heritage of Jewish polemics throughout the ages that argued for the superiority of Judaism. To understand the fundamental principles of Christianity and Islam in no way levels the playing field. The deists were wrong: Yahweh is not Christ is not Allah.

While Abraham Mendelssohn certainly did not understand the founder of Christianity as a Son of God in a way a traditional Lutheran would understand, there is no doubt that his fathers philosophy of tolerance for all religion weakened his sons perception that Judaism was still a vital faith and Christianity stood in opposition based on detail and dogma. G.E. Lessing, a close confidante of Moses Mendelssohn, expresses the equality of all religion as emanating from one source in his play praising his Jewish friend titled Nathan the Wise (1779). Mendelssohn believed in separation of church and state and emancipation.

At a time when the greatest German Enlightenment philosopher, Immanuel Kant, was discussing the euthanizing of Judaism as an outmoded and unethical superstition, Moses Menddelssohn spoke out bravely for the integrity of Judaism in the world of the European Enlightenment.

But his break with Jewish theology and tradition as understood by Jews living apart from non-Jews in the ancient and medieval world and their belief that their faith was divine in origin and their religion superior to other faiths created a slippery slope from which Modern Judaism would not recover.

Have Jews died with the Shema on their lips because a God of Reason revealed legislation to them on Mount Sinai? Was Judah Halevi right? Perhaps, the national and historical experience at Sinai was not a rational experience that needs to be reconciled with Athenian or Kantian or Hegelian philosophy. This is not to negate the great tradition of Jewish philosophy and its confrontation with the surrounding world. But divine legislation is sterile and banal and will only inspire the elite of the Haskala. Or in the case of the German Enlightenment lead Jews away from Judaism.

That his children and his followers interpreted his words in their own way often at odds with traditional Judaism, even embracing apostasy does not mean that there were many other social and psychological factors that weakened the resolve of the Jews of Berlin. In Jerusalem, the philosopher stated: Adapt yourselves to the morals and the constitution of the land to which you have been removed; but hold fast to the religion of your fathers. It seems too often in the modern Diaspora that Mendelssohns call for integration into non-Jewish society far outweighs holding fast to 3,500 years of profound texts and traditions.

(The text of Abraham Mendelssohns letter to his daughter can be found in The Jew in the Modern World: A Documentary History edited by Paul Mendes-Flohr and Jehuda Reinharz, Second Edition.) The author is rabbi of Congregation Anshei Sholom in West Palm Beach, Florida.

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