Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By simmons on July 28, 2017

This past April, my husband, New York Post Op-Ed Editor Seth Mandel, started receiving a number of identical hostile tweets (right down to the same typo). He noticed many were officials at various branches of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL).

Seth had been criticizing the organizations national director and CEO, Jonathan Greenblatt, a former Obama administration staffer, for increasingly heavy-handed bias. Greenblatt was essentially turning the vaunted nonpartisan anti-hate organization into a left-wing pressure group and vehicle for partisan score-settling.

He realized what was happening: The ADL had launched a coordinated rapid-response attack on him a Jewish journalist. The ADL denied it, but the next month, Tablet Magazine turned up the proof: ADL staffers were sent two sample tweets with which to attack Seth.

The most ironic thing about all this was that less than a year earlier, I had been named to an ADL task force seeking to combat coordinated anti-Semitic online harassment. And here was the ADL itself coordinating such a campaign against my husband.

Alas, that was just one instance in the last several months where conservatives have watched the lopsided manner in which the ADL has attacked anti-Semitism under Greenblatts watch. During the election and since President Trumps victory, the ADL has expended most of its institutional firepower and energy on the alt-right. While President Trumps appointment of Stephen Bannon, who once deemed his website the platform for the alt-right, is concerning and justifies the ADLs attentions on the political philosophy, conservatives have noticed the ADLs myopic fight against anti-Semitism. This past week, the ADL put together a list of the 36 worst members of the alt-right and the alt-light, leaving many wondering when it would release a similar list of progressive activists.

In Tablet Magazine, Liel Liebowitz wrote,

Looking for social justice warriors who kick Jews out of their marches? Prominent progressive activists who think you cant be both a Zionist and a feminist? Professors who believe Jews were behind the 9/11 attacks? Dont bother the ADL by arguing that Jew hatred is as rampant on the left as it is on the right, if not more.

Why the double standard? Why focus on one end of the political spectrum and ignore the other? Todd Gutnick, the ADLs Senior Director of Communications, said his organization will continue to put out reports on the wide range of extremist threats, as well as those involved in anti-Israel activity. He also added that the organizations CEO, Jonathan Greenblatt, a former assistant to Barack Obama, has spoken out before about the lefts growing anti-Semitism problem. But reporting on the right, Gutnick said, felt timely and necessary. These groups have been holding a number of public rallies recently and our Center on Extremism has been tracking their activities. As more of the individuals in these movements attempt to move into the mainstream, we felt it was crucial to understand their ideas and to share their statements.

Its a strange argument. Is Andrew Anglin, who runs the neo-Nazi site The Daily Stormer, more mainstream than Linda Sarsour? Are KKK rallies in Virginia better attended or more prominent than leftist anti-Jewish marches in Chicago? Of course theyre not. Why, then, the systemic focus on the alt-right? I pressed Gutnick for an answer; I never heard back.

I asked Gutnick the same question and received basically the same response. Im unconvinced, as was a former ADL staff member I spoke with.

The former staffer, who worked directly with former ADL head Abe Foxman, told me, The ADL has lost its identity I can only imagine how sad Abe must be. He dedicated his entire life to try to help Jewish people feel they had someone who had their back. And then less than five years after he leaves, his lifes work is in ashes [Greenblatt] wants the ADL to basically be a Jewish-lite organization that gets involved in fights it has no place being in, like Hispanic hate crime. Its not their lane. Its bad, but not anti-Semitic.

The staff member pointed out to me that the organization, founded in 1913 to combat anti-Semitism, has now removed anti-Semitism from its mission statement, which now reads Our Mission: To stop the defamation of the Jewish people, and to secure justice and fair treatment to all.

Also in the last week, one of the leaders of Black Lives Matter expressed sympathy with the anti-Semitic actions of the Chicago Dyke March and Sarsour, an already highly controversial leader of the Womens March, deemed CNNs Jake Tapper, a Jewish journalist on the receiving end of a great deal of anti-Semitism, a member of the alt-right.

Its almost laughable, if it wasnt so scary that a woman who helped marshal between three and four million people nationwide was so quick to villainize anyone with the audacity to object to many of her own inflammatory remarks. Organizations of the size and power of Black Lives Matter and the Womens March are powerful enough to deserve an equal-sized rebuke as minor figures of the alt-right from the ADLat least, one would think.

Standing against the ADL has now become en vogue among Republican politicians, who see a political opportunity in placing themselves against the organization that once prided itself on its nonpartisanship. Ohio Treasurer and candidate for Senate Josh Mandel (no relation) tweeted last week, Sad to see @ADL_National become a partisan witchhunt group targeting people for political beliefs. I stand with @Cernovich & @JackPosobiec. Yet one need not stand with the likes of Cernovich and Posobiec, two vile figures of the alt-right, to stand against the politicized nature of the ADLs current leadership.

There are enough organizations and individuals standing with The Resistance against the Trump presidency, aligned with progressive causes. What the world desperately needs instead, but is rapidly losing, is a respected and nonpartisan global monitor of anti-Semitism. The ADL is correct about elements within the Trump administration that are worrisome for those concerned about an emerging anti-Semitism, not to mention rampant and growing anti-Semitism worldwide. Too bad the one organization tasked with fighting it is instead fighting a losing battle not with Jew-hatred and bigotry, but for its own legitimacy.

Bethany Mandel is a stay-at-home mother of three children under four and a writer on politics and culture. She is a senior contributor to The Federalist, a columnist for the Jewish Daily Forward, and a contributor at Acculturated. She lives with her husband, Seth, in New Jersey. You can follow her on Twitter @BethanyShondark.

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The Anti-Defamation League's Sad Slide Into Just Another Left-Wing Pressure Group - The Federalist

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Posted By richards on July 27, 2017

This is an embarressing story, but it needs to be told. I was recently stopped at a red light, first in line. I did something I shouldn't have done. I put my hand on my phone, flipped it upright, and looked at a text that had just come in. When I lifted my eyes from reading the phone I noticed that the light had turned green. In that very moment a large pick-up truck raced through its red light. I had enough time to hit the brakes and avoid being severely side-swiped. But had I pressed on my gas pedal when the light initially turned green, as most of us usually do, it is almost certain that the truck would have hit my car, and me.

So there it is. Texting while driving may have saved my life. Let that sink in for a second.

One of the mantras in the gun-rights movement is that the presence of a gun in the home, or on one's person, offers more protection from violence or injury. Or, more simply put: if you have a gun, you'll be more safe. Never mind that this assertion is statistically false and doesn't hold up to peer-reviewed and scientific scrutiny. In fact, gun ownership actually doubles the risk of homicide and triples the risk of suicide. These numbers become even more harrowing when we limit their application to woman (domestic violence) and children (accidental and negligent shootings).

And we also know that there are, in fact, rare cases in which citizens use a firearm for protection. In other words, it is possibleeven if unlikelythat owning a gun could actually save your life.

So here's the the thing. While in theory I could advocate for texting while driving because it could potentially save a lifeas it may have mineit would be absurd to make such a claim. Why? There are roughly 1.6 million auto crashes, 500,000 injuries, and roughly 6,000 deaths due to cell phone usage in cars per year. When we use our phones in the car, we are 23 times more likely to be in an accident because of that usage. The fact that texting while driving may have saved a life is essentially meaningless against these numbers.

A gun in the home, some studies show, increases the chance of it being used for homicde, suicide, accidental shootings, or attempted suicide by a rate of 22 to 1. For every time a gun is used in self-defense in the home, there are 7 assaults or murders, 11 suicide attempts, and 4 accidents involving guns in or around a home. To suggest, against those numbers that unfettered access to a gun is an objectively good idea, with practically no serious and common-sense restrictions, is equally challenging.

The Torah states: When you build a new house, you shall make a guard rail for your roof, so that you shall not cause blood [to be spilled] in your house, that the one who falls should fall from it [the roof]" (Deuteronomy 22:8)

The Talmud reflects on this verse: Rabbi Nathan teaches: From where is it derived that one should not breed a bad dog in his house, or keep an impaired ladder in her house? From the text [Deuteronomy 22:8]: "You shall not cause blood in your house." (Babylonian Talmud, Bava Kama 46a)

It's certainly true that we can't avoid all danger. We can't avert all accidents. We can't control all life and death. But religious tradition asks us to pursue every opportunity to avoid unnecessary loss of life.

So, don't text and drive. Put your phone down. I certainly need to put down mine.

And, please, elected officials: vote to enact the common-sense gun measures, like universal background checks, that this country so desperately needs.

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Texting While Driving May Have Saved My Life - HuffPost

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Posted By admin on July 27, 2017

Egyptian Jews By Jacob Wirtschafter | 25 mins ago

The 700-seat Italianate synagogue is one of four buildings on a compact city block that once comprised the Jewish community living in Alexandrias historic center, including a three-story school, a community center and two residential buildings. RNS photo by Jacob Wirtschafter

ALEXANDRIA, Egypt (RNS) A $2 million restoration of Egypts largest synagogue is the start of a government effort to keep alive the legacy of the Jewish community, whose members have largely left for Israel, France and elsewhere since the middle of the last century.

We are experiencing a renaissance, said Samy Ibrahim, vice president of the Cairo Jewish community, which, like the one in Alexandria, counts a population of less than a dozen members. The government is elevating the profile of the heritage of Egyptian Jews.

Ibrahim spoke on Tuesday (July 25) as Joshua Shamsi, a Connecticut-based photographer, met with him and other members of the Egyptian Jewish community in the Prophet Elijah Synagogue in Alexandria (sometimes called Eliyahu Hanavi Synagogue) to draw up plans for a comprehensive visual survey of their synagogues, schools and cemeteries.

The 160-year-old Prophet Elijah Synagogue in Alexandria, Egypt, is the centerpiece of a once-strong Jewish community in the city. Photo courtesy of Creative Commons/Moshirah

Something important is happening in Egypt, said Shamsi, who has documented abandoned heritage sites in Morocco, Tunisia and Iraq for Diarna, an American online geo-museum of Middle Eastern Jewish life. Doors closed before are now opening.

Last week, Minister of Antiquities Khaled El-Enany announced his agency would fund the restoration of the Prophet Elijah Synagogue, including repairing the rain-damaged roof of the womens gallery.

The 160-year-old structure is itself an 1850s-era restoration of a sanctuary damaged when French forces bombarded the Mediterranean port city. Egyptian King Muhammad Said Pasha paid for the work at the time.

The 700-seat Italianate synagogue is one of four buildings on a compact city block that once comprised the Jewish community living in Alexandrias historic center, including a three-story school, a community center and two residential buildings. Today, non-Jews occupy most of the apartments.

Rent from the apartment buildings no longer can pay for the upkeep of the synagogue, said 81-year-old caretaker Abdel Nabi, a Muslim who has overseen the facilitys maintenance for four decades. Inshallah (God willing), the men from the construction company will be starting the job next week.

Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, right, shakes hands with Pope Tawadros II, the 118th pope of the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria and patriarch of the See of St. Mark Cathedral, to offer condolences for the victims of the terrorist incidents of the Palm Sunday bombings in Tanta and Alexandria, in the Abassiya Cathedral in Cairo on April 13, 2017. Photo courtesy of the Egyptian Presidency/Handout via Reuters

The push is in line with Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissis attempts to court Coptic Christians and emphasize Egypts diversity in response to a series of deadly bombings in minority communities, mostly by the Islamic State group.

READ: Egyptian Copts prepare for Easter amid rising fears for their safety

The efforts show el-Sissi is serious about promoting diversity, said Ibrahim.

This is part of Egypts national heritage, and what we are doing is encouraging understanding among religions and respect of the other, said Ibrahim, explaining why the government has authorized the new Jewish charity even as human rights groups accuse authorities of cracking down on civil society in other spheres of life.

Islamists have criticized the effort.

Mohammed Nasser, an exiled Muslim Brotherhood supporter in Istanbul, denounced the Alexandria synagogue restoration and accused el-Sissi of taking money from Israel and Jewish members of the American government on Mekameleen TV, a pro-Brotherhood outlet supported by Turkish authorities.

In fact, Egypt has rebuffed Israeli efforts to fund the restoration of Jewish heritage sites. Even though Israel and Egypt formally signed a peace accord in 1979, relations have remained cool.

But Cairo has engaged with U.S. government officials and Jewish American organizations concerned with the preservation of synagogues and cemeteries and allowed them to fund Egyptian groups.

Exterior of the Prophet Elijah Synagogue in Alexandria, Egypt. The 160-year-old structure is considered the second-largest Jewish house of worship in the Middle East. RNS photo by Jacob Wirtschafter

Cairo has made some intelligent moves recently, said Roger Bilboul, 75, a Jewish Alexandria native who advocates for the communitys interests from France. They have organized a charity to look after the Jewish heritage in Egypt and the members of the board of that charity dont have to necessarily be Jews. They are cultivating a support network to maintain the sites and an interest in our culture, even after the last member of the Jewish community passes away.

Among the groups receiving American money was Drop of Milk, a registered nonprofit co-founded by Ibrahim and Cairo Jewish community President Magda Haroun. The group aims to maintain synagogues with the goal of opening them as arts and community centers for all Egyptians. The American Research Center in Egypt recently awarded Drop of Milk $51,000 to document and register 13 synagogues and their contents in Cairo.

Egyptian Jewish community leader Magda Haroun welcomes visitors during an iftar party at Shaar Hashamayim synagogue in Cairo on July 9, 2014. (AP Photo/Amr Nabil)

Haroun, 63, is the youngest of the six women remaining in a community that once numbered 75,000 when the first Arab-Israeli war broke out in 1948. Many other Egyptian Jews who remained in the country converted to Islam or Coptic Christianity or are the offspring of interfaith marriages who might not consider themselves Jewish.

Jewish American groups working in Egypt said it took time to launch the effort.

The Egyptians made it clear that they were not interested in a formal partnership with global Jewish groups, said Rabbi Andrew Baker, international Jewish affairs director at the American Jewish Committee.

In Cairo, the U.S. Embassy has been relaying concerns in Congress over the years about some of the more dilapidated Jewish sites and worked with Baker and other American Jewish leaders to offer support for restoration efforts.

We believe that Egypts unique Jewish heritage, like its Muslim and Christian heritage, is an indelible part of the countrys history, said a senior U.S. diplomat in Cairo who asked not to be identified. The U.S. partners with the government of Egypt and the private sector on projects that help preserve cultural and religious heritage sites, including mosques, churches and synagogues.

Baker has visited Egypt six times over the past decade to meet with local Jewish leaders and government officials who eventually agreed to release public funding and welcome indirect help for the work.

The attention these efforts brought to the subject led Egyptian authorities to a position that claimed Jewish sites as Egyptian heritage and to say we will do these things ourselves, Baker said. Thats a good outcome.

(Jacob Wirtschafter is a reporter based in Cairo)

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In a bid to promote diversity, Egypt plans to restore Alexandria synagogue - Religion News Service

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Posted By simmons on July 27, 2017

Jewish Chronicle

Don't forget our heroes Jewish Chronicle Sephardic history is not properly taught in Jewish schools. It is given little respect in our yeshivas. Even in Israel, when designs for new banknotes were proposed in 2013, they omitted any Sephardic heroes even though Jews whose roots lie in North ...

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Posted By richards on July 27, 2017

The opening shiur will be Preparing for Tisha BAv in 2017. This program will be broadcast live on http://www.yutorah.org. To co-sponsor, please email [emailprotected] Keter Torah is located at 600 Roemer Avenue in Teaneck.

This years video is titled Emunah for Life: How to Master Lifes Challenges. The video will start after early mincha at 1:38 p.m. and will run continuously until the second mincha at 7:40 p.m. Shomrei Torah is located at 19-10 Morlot Avenue in Fair Lawn.

Admission is $15 for adults and $10 for students. The viewing will be in the Arzei Darom social hall, 2:30 p.m.-4:30 p.m. Arzei Darom is located at 725 Queen Anne Road in Teaneck.

The Jewish Center of Teaneck will host a special movie screening of Denial. At 5:15 p.m., Rabbi Fridman will present an introduction to the film about Holocaust denial in our generation, and the screening will begin at 5:30 p.m. The screening will take place in the Weiss Auditorium. The Teaneck Jewish Center is located at 70 Sterling Street in Teaneck.

This film tells the story of Israels 55th Paratrooper Brigade and how the Israel Defense Forces risked everything for the sake of their homeland. Featuring MK Michael Oren, first-hand interviews and historical reenactments, this powerful 1-hour-49-minute docudrama focuses on the commitment and sacrifice of the soldiers who reunited Jerusalem. To view a trailer, visit https://youtu.be/5Ah9bLW3Rh4; to co-sponsor, e-mail [emailprotected] Keter Torah is located at 600 Roemer Avenue in Teaneck.

In the Pressburger Sanctuary, between Mincha and Maariv, 8:05 p.m. until 8:30 p.m., Rabbi Fridman will hold a sicah, Had I Been There: Why Dont We Fast on the 10th? The Teaneck Jewish Center is located at 70 Sterling Street in Teaneck.

This womens kinot program will take place in the Reibel Bais Medrash, JEC. For more information, or to volunteer to present a kina, please call, text or email Mrs. Amy Tropp, 908-337-7756, [emailprotected] The JEC Elmora Avenue Shul is located at 330 Elmora Avenue in Elizabeth.

Teaneck Womens Tefillah (TWT) is holding its annual reading of Megillat Eicha on Monday night, July 31, starting promptly at 10 p.m. For information about the private home location and to join the TWT mailing list, email [emailprotected] Women and young girls are invited to join together in this solemn commemoration.

On Monday, July 31, erev Tisha BAv, at 7 p.m. and again after Mincha, Gift of Life will be hosting a bone marrow drive at Chabad of West Orange. Get your cheek swabbed and potentially save a life!

On Tuesday, August 1, Tisha BAv, Chabad of West Orange will show two films appropriate to the day: at 3:30 p.m., Europa Europa [A 1990 film of Solomon Perel, a German Jewish boy who escaped the Holocaust by masquerading not just as a non-Jew, but as an elite Nazi German]; and at 5:30 p.m., Paper Clips [As a part of their study of the Holocaust, the children of the Whitwell Middle School in Tennessee try to collect six million paper clips representing the six million Jews killed by the Nazis, and that number eventually grows to include millions of others killed.]

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Local Tisha B'Av Programming - Jewish Link of New Jersey

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Posted By simmons on July 27, 2017

Email a copy of "Menashe Presents a Rare Authentic, On-Screen Depiction of Hasidic Judaism" to a friend

By Jane Hanser/JNS.org

Hasidic father Menashe and his son Rieven in the film Menashe. Photo: Federica Valabrega.

JNS.org In the filmMenashe, which debuts across America onJuly 28, director Joshua Weinstein has delicately crafted a work that emanates a rarely seen authenticity, tenderness and depth sadly lacking in other mainstream films about Hasidic Jews and their communities.

In the film, aHasidic father named Menashewho works long hours in a small grocery store in Brooklyn, struggling to make ends meethas lost his young wife Lea to illness. Their sole child Rieven, an adolescenthas also become suddenly bereft of his beloved mother. Anchored against the resulting father-and-son relationship is AizekMenashes former brother-in-law and Rievens uncle. He isa successful, but arrogant property owner who seeks custody of the boy to raise him in his own family.

July 27, 2017 4:14 pm

This heart-wrenching triangulated scenario could play out anywhere. But this is Borough Park, home to numerous Hasidic groups, a world unknownand also misunderstood and misjudgedby many. Filmed on location, this engrossing exploration of love, grief and devotion pulses to the heartbeat of the Hasidic community and its many nuances. In Menashes particular community, children must be brought up in a home with a mother, meaning that following his wifes death, Menashe faces a choice between finding a wife, giving up his son, or violating the communitys tradition.

In the film, spoken almost entirely in Yiddish (with English subtitles), Weinstein sheds layer after layer, and reveals a profound humanity.

The real-life story of the unpretentious Menashe Lustig, who loosely portrays himself in the film, inspired this main character. Lustig is a grocer from New Square, NewYork. Except for Menashes Hispanic co-workers, all of the actors in the film are Hasidim, most of whom have chosen to remain unnamed in the credits. Rieven is portrayed by a boy from London who was studying in an American yeshiva. These casting choices are instrumental to the films authenticity.

As Leas first yahrzeit approaches, the conflict over custody heats up, framed by the swirling, towering flames of theLag BOmer street bonfires, around which the Hasidim have gathered to celebrate, dance and sing.

Menashe is defiant that he can be responsible for his son, but the harder that he tries to prove his worthiness, the more that goes wrongand the more rebuke and humiliation that the principled Menashe is subjected to. We empathize.

Simple affection from Menashes adoring son provides him respite from all these pressures.

Menashes humble walk-up apartment where Rieven, the Ruv (communal religious leader), Aizek and several other men have come to share in the yahrzeit meal complete with bachelor-proof kugel provides the setting for the dramatic climactic scene. Up close and personal, crisp editing masterfully evokes the tensionand high stakesof this meal. With humor and drama, the community experiencesits proudest moment.

From the brilliant opening scene of a dispute over the sale of a head of lettuce in the grocery store where Menashe is employedto the faint suns rays illuminating the early morning netilas yadayim (ritual hand-washing) or a wordless sunset shared by father and son in the parkthe cameras deft touch pulls us into story after story. Weinstein calls these micro-moments.

I think the whole film is like that. How does a small moment tell a big story? the director toldJNS.org in a joint interview with the soft-spoken Lustig.

The many local characters in the film radiategenuineness, and a strong on-screen presence. Aware of the challenges that Hasidim face today, Weinstein says that he understands that when problems happen, its so easy to leaveI wanted to make a character [who],by definition, never even thought about leaving.

Lustig and Niborski didnt know each other when the filming began, so bridging that emotional distance within the films storyline comes across as real. Lustig exclaims, I told [Weinstein] that if you put the clothes of my son on [Niborski], he looks like my son!The child feels to me very close.

Soulful music byZusha, a New York-based Hasidic folk and jazz band, vitalizes Menashe with modern wordless niggunim (melodies). The searing melody of a solo violin, scored by Aaron Martin and Dag Rosenqvist, adds color and commentary throughout the film, and heightens the mesmerizing closing scene.

When I asked Weinstein how he chose the ending, Lustig didnt hesitate to chime in: My answer is simplethat thats a real story, he says, and the story will continue.

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'Menashe' Presents a Rare Authentic, On-Screen Depiction of Hasidic Judaism - Algemeiner

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Posted By admin on July 27, 2017

Before making the film Menashe, documentarian Joshua Weinstein donned a yarmulke and explored Brooklyns Borough Park, getting to know the stories and personalities of New Yorks Hasidic Jews. That was the easy part of the process. It was trickier when Weinstein returned to the neighborhood with a camera crew to work with the locals hed hired for his cast. In this insular societywhich for the most part has kept itself purposefully cut off from popular culturethe whole Menashe project seemed morally suspect. Weinstein reportedly lost locations and actors as the shoot went on, and left some peoples names out of the credits so that they wouldnt bring shame to their families.

Throughout, the movies key collaborator remained steadfast. And thank goodness he did. Menashe Lustig brings warmth and a lumpen charisma to Menashes lead role, giving life to a film based in part on his own experiences. Lustig too is a widowed father from a deeply religious community, where everyone minds everyone elses business. In the fictionalized version of his life (written by the non-Yiddish-speaking Weinstein with help from Alex Lipschultz and Musa Syeed), he finds himself fighting for custody of his son Rieven (Ruben Niborski), who lives part time with Menashes brother-in-law Eizik (Yoel Weisshaus). While the dad works as a clerk in a grocery store, his late wifes brother is a well-to-do real estate broker, who agrees with their rabbis judgment that Menasce needs to remarry and give Rieven a mother before the boy can come home to stay.

Weinstein has said he was drawn to Lustig in part because of his story, and in part because the amateur actor had already shown a willingness to skirt the customs of his culture, by posting comic videos on YouTube. Much of Menashes tension springs from how the title character genuinely desires to be devout, while also wishing he lived somewhere where he was allowed to loosen up a little. Menashe is playful by nature, which serves him well at times. Hes helpful to customers in the grocery and is the kind of father whod rather go get ice cream with his son than nag him to do his homework. He also clearly loves a lot about his faith, like the sense of fellowship and the sincere efforts to understand and explain the deeper meaning of life.

But when hes too nice on the job, his manager complains that hes putting the customers ahead of profits. When he has fun with Rieven, Eizik complains that hes irresponsible. When he attends religious functions, he hears gripes from his fellow Hasidim that he drinks too much wine, dances too freely, and offers laymens interpretations of the Torah that are well-meaning but unscholarly. Everyone can see he has a big heart, but hes a bit too unorthodox for the Orthodox.

It wouldve been easy for Weinstein to make Menashe into a melodrama about heroes and villains: the misunderstood free spirit versus the stodgy pillars of the community. Instead, the model here is more the classics of docu-realism, like Little Fugitive, or anything by the Dardenne brothers. The focus is largely on the fascinating and strikingly filmed visual contrasts of an old-fashioned people against a modern city. And aside from the custody issue, the storys stakes are relatively low.

The slim plot mainly involves Menashes attempt to impress his brother-in-law and their rabbi by hosting a successful memorial dinner for his late wife, the preparations for which detour into a brief subplot about a pricey shipment of gefilte fish. Weinstein focuses primarily on his protagonists smallest challengeslike whether or not he can prepare an edible dish of kugel for his guestsand is generous enough with every character that the audience can understand why Eizik and others would find Menashe exasperating.

The director also pours as much of his research as he can into every sceneperhaps to an excessive degree. Anyone who knows nothing about Hasidism will come away understanding quite a bit about some of the rules and beliefs that govern Menashes life, from the ritual hand washing to the certainty that strict order is superior to the gentiles broken society. Weinstein includes small details, like the 24-hour candles and portraits of famous rabbis intended to make a memorial dinner more proper, and he explores wrinkles that are far more significant, like Menashes insistence that he doesnt really need a second wife because Talmudic law would prohibit her from ever touching Rieven anyway. Sometimes the dialogue sounds like it was written by that staple of old Broadway mystery plays: Moishe The Explainer.

What keeps Menashe from just being outside-in ethnography is how much nuance Weinstein and Lustig bring to the main character. In one of the few scenes in the film in English, Menashe is drinking malt liquor on the grocerys dock alongside a couple of his Latino co-workers, and he admits that while he desperately loves his son, he never liked his late wife that much. The moment is presented not as miserablismor as some kind of critique of arranged marriagesbut as a matter-of-fact declaration by a guy who leads two lives. Menashe is open enough to respect both of this mans identities: the child of God, and the ordinary New York schmo.

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Posted By admin on July 27, 2017

An explanation of the Orthodox Jewish custom of an eruv. Wochit

An Eruv remains on a utility pole on West Saddle River Road at Applewood Drive in Upper Saddle River on Wednesday afternoon after the noon deadline passed to have it removed.(Photo: Tariq Zehawi/NorthJersey.com)

Amid an increasingly ugly battle that has prompted accusations of anti-Semitism, an Orthodox Jewish group seeking to expand a religious boundary into northwest Bergen Countyhas hired a Manhattan law firm to defend itself against threatened legal action.

A leader ofthe South Monsey Eruv Fund, which wants to extend a boundary known as an eruv into Mahwah, Upper Saddle River and Montvale, said Wednesday that the firm of Weil, Gotshal & Mangeshas agreed to represent them on a pro bono basis.

The firmhas a successful history of defending the Jewish ritual boundaries in Bergen County. The firmguided a Tenafly Orthodox Jewish groupto a decisive victory in the U.S. Court of Appeals in2002, after the local government banned the group from marking its eruv withlechisthin pieces of wireattached to utility poles.

Its a service for the Jewish community living there," the head of the Monsey eruv, Rabbi Chaim Steinmetz, said."Its not thatthe area will be taken over."

But that is precisely what some residents fear will happen if the eruv, which allows Orthodox Jews to perform prohibited tasks such as pushing strollers on the Sabbath, is allowed to extend intoBergen County.

MAHWAH: Engineer orders Jewish group to take down religious boundary

OPPOSITION: 200 people gather to support removal of eruv

EDITORIAL: Mahwah goes wrong way on eruv

As news of the proposed boundary has spread in the last week, social media groupsof concerned residentshave swelled with thousands of new members. On Monday, more than 200 people gathered at a Mahwah park tovoiceconcerns overout-of-state residents traveling into Mahwah and overcrowding local parks and public facilities.

The organizer of an online petition opposing the eruv said he decidedto shut it down after posters left "inappropriate" comments.

Its a service for the Jewish community living there. Its not thatthe area will be taken over.

One read,I don't want these rude, nasty, dirty people who think they can do what they want in our nice town. Another stated: I don't want my town to be gross and infested with these nasty people.

The response, says the head of Teaneck's eruv, Joey Bodner,smacks terribly of anti-Semitism."

In Teaneck, which has a large Jewish community, the boundaries of an eruv have been marked on township utility poles with pieces of wood, metal and plastic since the early 1970s.As the townships Jewish population grew, the eruv expanded to include parts of neighboring Bogota, Bergenfield and New Milford.

They have all been cooperative, said Bodner, who is also the chairman of Teaneck's Planning Board.This has literally been a non-issue in Teaneck for more than 40 years.

Eruvscurrently existall over theworld,inNew York City, Washington D.C,. and22 locations across New Jersey, including Paramus,Fair Lawn and Passaic.

An eruvcreates an enclosure for Orthodox Jews that extends the perimeter of the home into the street. The expanded border allows them to perform tasks such as pushing strollers or carrying books from the home to the outside world, which is prohibited on the Sabbath.

The same way people want to have Verizon, Jewish people want an eruv,Steinmetz said.

Much of Rockland County is enclosed in an eruv, serving the areas massive Hasidic population, said Steinmetz.

The Monsey eruvcirclesmost of the communitiesinRamapo,N.Y., whereHasidic residents have frequently clashed with the rest of the community.

An Eruv remains on a utility pole on W Saddle River Rd at Applewood Dr in Upper Saddle River Wednesday afternoon after the noon deadline passed to have it removed.(Photo: Tariq Zehawi/NorthJersey.com)

Steinmetz said his group undertook an expansion into BergenCountyto accommodate Hasidic families living near the New Jersey border along Route 59.

The latest eruv extension is about 75 percent finished, said Steinmetz, but has been interrupted by an opposition movementin Mahwah and surrounding towns, where residents have expressed concern about thespread of Rockland's Hasidic community into the area.

Officials in Mahwah, Montvale and Upper Saddle River have allcalled for the eruvs removal, citingzoning regulations that prohibit signs on utility poles.

Montvale Mayor MikeGhassalisaid he ordered the group weeks ago not to build the eruv, which is marked by white PVC pipes on utility poles.Mahwahgave the group an Aug. 4 deadlineto strip down the pipes or face summonses. Upper Saddle River said the borough would remove the eruv itself if the Monsey group failed to do so by noon Wednesday. The eruv, however, remained untouched hours after the deadline.

CONTROVERSY: Ramapoughs demanding dismissal of tepee summonses

CRIME: Mahwah man in child sex case ordered released from jail

POLICE: Mahwah man killed in suspected ATV accident

MahwahMayor Bill Laforetdisputed accusations of anti-Semitism. Hemaintains that the townships response is strictly about the enforcement of its ordinance restricting signs on poles.

It's an argument that was used by Tenafly in 2000, when it sought to baneruvsin its community.

The Tenaflylitigation waged for six years,beginning with a lawsuitfiled by an eruv association inresponseto the borough's action.

The U.S. District Court sided with the borough, ruling that it had the right to restrict access toutility poles because they are not a public forum.

The 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reversed that decision, however,finding that Tenafly officialsengaged in selective enforcement,allowing signs on utility poles for local churches and lost pets.

In 2006, the town settled with the association, agreeing to keep the eruv intact and pay the association $325,000 in legal fees.

Email:nobile@northjersey.com and burrow@northjersey.com

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Jewish group prepares for legal fight over religious boundary - NorthJersey.com

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Posted By simmons on July 27, 2017

An important lesson for Tisha bAv may be gleaned from Hacham Ovadia Yosefs approach to the issue of chalak, or glatt kosher meat. On the one hand, Hacham Ovadia was insistent that Sephardic Jews should make every effort to purchase meat that is chalak or glatt by Sephardic standards (Teshuvot Yabia Omer 5: Yoreh Deah 3 and Teshuvot Yechave Daat 3:56). Hacham Ovadias grandson Yaakov Sasson does an excellent job explaining the issue in the Halacha Yomit of May 11, 2015.

One of the blemishes that render an animal forbidden for consumption is sirchot (adhesions that cross the lung from side to side and resemble scabs; if there are sirchot on the lungs, this is a sign that there was once a hole in that area that was later sealed by this sircha). When checking for sirchot, there are certain problematic sirchot that raise questions about whether or not the animal can be rendered kosher or non-kosher.

Maran Rabbeinu Yosef Karo, ztl, rules strictly in his Shulchan Aruch (Yoreh Deah, Chapter 39, Section 10) and writes that whenever sirchot are forbidden, there is no difference if the sircha is as thin as a strand of hair or if it is thick and strong, as opposed to those who rub the sircha and if it is removed, they assume there is room for leniency. Anyone who does so is tantamount to feeding treifot to the Jewish nation.

Nevertheless, the Rama (ibid. Section 13), whose rulings are followed by Ashkenazi Jews, rules as follows: Some permit mashing sirchot and rubbing them, and they claim that an actual sircha (the forbidden kind and not merely mucus) cannot be disconnected even if one rubs it all day long. Thus, if it is indeed removed after being mashed, we rule leniently and assume it to be mucus and not a sircha. Although this is a great leniency, this is already the established custom in these countries; one need not protest this custom, for they have on whom to rely.

One of the most fundamental issues that Maran Rabbeinu Ovadia Yosef, ztl, instituted for Sephardic Jewry all over the world was not to purchase meat unless it was truly chalak or glatt according to the Bet Yosefs standards, for according to the majority of the poskim, including Maran HaShulchan Aruch, this issue borders on a possible Torah prohibition of consuming treifot.

We should clarify that chalak Beit Yosef standards are stricter than the Ashkenazic standards for glatt kosher meat. Ashkenazic Jews regard meat as glatt kosher if one or two negligible and easily removable sirchot are found on the lung. This does not meet the standard of chalak Beit Yosef.

Hacham Ovadia championed adopting the chalak Beit Yosef standard as another example of chazarat atara lyoshna, restoring the [Sephardic] crown to its original glory. Interestingly, after learning the teshuva in Yechave Daat with my friend Dr. David Serur in 1986, we met with Rav Yehuda Amital, ztl, the great co-rosh yeshiva of Yeshivat Har Etzion. We asked if it was absolutely necessary for a Sephardic Jew to strictly adhere to this ruling of Hacham Ovadia. Rav Amital responded that one needs to decide if he wants to eat meat. If he wants to eat meat then he has no choice other than to follow the lenient approach set forth by the Rama.

However, it seems that the situation has changed significantly in the past 30 years, and chalak Beit Yosef is much more available in areas where there is a large population of Sephardic Jews such as Brooklyn, Queens and Deal and, of course (and lhavdil), most of Medinat Yisrael. Thus, I do not believe Rav Amital would make that statement today, considering current circumstances.

Despite Hacham Ovadias firm stance regarding chalak Beit Yosef, he champions a lenient approach for a Sephardic Jew visiting an Ashkenazi friend or relative, where obtaining meat that is chalak Beit Yosef is not a realistic option. In such a case, Hacham Ovadia permits eating the meat even if it is not designated on the package as chalak Beit Yosef, as long as it is glatt kosher by Ashkenazic standards.

Hacham Ovadia cites the Devar Shmuel (number 320) who rules that one may rule leniently in such a situation due to a sfeik sfeika, a double doubt (one may rely on a sfeik sfeika, generally speaking, even regarding a Torah-level prohibition). One safek is whether the meat satisfies the Beit Yosef standard, since meat labeled as glatt by Ashkenazic standards might be chalak even according to Maran. A second safek is that perhaps Rama and those who support him are correct. Thus, meat that is acceptable only for Ashkenazim is viewed as possibly acceptable for Sephardic Jews.

Rav Yosef devotes considerable effort to defending and bolstering the approach of the Devar Shmuel. Hacham Ovadia did not veer from this ruling and it is codified by his son Hacham Yitzhak in his Yalkut Yosef to Yoreh Deah Chapter 39.

Rav Ovadia Yosef elsewhere develops approaches to allow Sephardic and Ashkenazic Jews to eat each others food even when their halachic standards differ. Examples include permitting Sephardic Jews to eat food that meets only the more lenient bishul akum standard (Teshuvot Yechave Daat 5:54) and permitting Ashkenazim to eat at a Sephardic home on Pesach despite the lenient approach Sephradim adopt regarding kitniyot (Teshuvot Yechave Daat 5:32). In the aforementioned Teshuvot Yabia Omer, Hacham Ovadia disagrees with Rav Kook and permits Ashkenazim to eat animals slaughtered according to Sephardic halacha, even though Ashkenazim follow Rama who adopted many chumrot (stringencies) in regard to shechita.

As much as Hacham Ovadia championed restoring Sephardic greatness and Sephardic fidelity to the rulings of Maran HaBeit Yosef, Rav Ovadia viewed the unity of am Yisrael to be of paramount importance. Hacham Ovadia was very close with the great Ashkenazic poskim in Yerushalayim such as Rav Tzvi Pesach Frank, Rav Shlomo Zalman Auerbach and Rav Eliezer Waldenberg. He even viewed Rav Waldenberg as his best friend.

As much as each group of Jews can and should take pride in the practices and customs of their particular tribe, we must always bear in mind the bigger picture that we are am echad, one nation. Whatever the differences, which we rightfully celebrate, that which unites us is far greater and far more important.

By Rabbi Haim Jachter

Rabbi Haim Jachter is the spiritual leader of Congregation Shaarei Orah, the Sephardic Congregation of Teaneck. He also serves as a Rebbe at Torah Academy of Bergen County and a Dayan on the Beth Din of Elizabeth.

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A Tisha B'Av Lesson From Hacham Ovadia Yosef and Chalak Beit Yosef - Jewish Link of New Jersey

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Posted By richards on July 27, 2017

(JTA) Andrew GoodmanandMichael Schwernerare about the closest American Jews have to secular saints. The two Jewish civil rights workers traveled south for the Freedom Summer campaign of 1964, joining the African-American activist James Chaney in canvassing black churches. All three were kidnapped and murdered by a lynch mob.

Forty-three years ago next Friday, Aug. 4, their bullet-riddled bodies were found buried in a dam near Philadelphia, Mississippi, 44 days after their disappearance.

The hagiographies of the two Jewish men, both in their 20s, sometimes overlook the specific purpose of their trip to the Jim Crow South: registering African-Americans in Mississippi to vote. Freedom Summer was meant to directly confrontefforts, legal and otherwise, to prevent blacks from voting: poll taxes and literacy tests, fear and intimidation, and as Goodman, Schwerner and Cheney found out, beatings and lynchings.

As the Congress of Racial Equality, or CORE, described the mission, the inability to vote was only one of many problems blacks encountered in the racist society around them, but the civil-rights officials who decided to zero in on voter registration understood its crucial significance as well the white supremacists did. An African American voting bloc would be able to effect social and political change.

It was the unfinished business of Goodman, Schwerner and Chaney that animated 24 faith groups, 17 of them Jewish, to write a letter to Congress urging lawmakers not to fund the Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity the Orwellian name for President Donald Trumps effort to hunt down those 3 million illegal ballots that he claims illicitly cost him the popular vote. Thats Trumps agenda, anyway. Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach and other commission members say they merely want to gauge the extent of the problem and propose remedies.

Kobach has already signaled the kinds of remedies he has in mind: imposing strict voter identificationlaws; removing names from voter rolls perhaps using inaccurate or unreliable databases; identifying potential duplicate registration records that use a notoriously misleading instrument; or just failing to enforce existing laws that have expanded individuals right to vote.

Sure, such remedies might end up suppressing the votes of poor people, blacks, Hispanics, the elderly (and, what do you know, Democrats) in fact, nearly all reliable studies and multiplecourt cases say they will. But, according to Kobach and company, thats the price to be paid for, well, integrity.

The voting commission is a solution in search of a problem. Voting by non-citizens isvanishingly rare. Trumps claims of widespread voter fraud during the 2016 elections were baseless, as the faith coalition notes. There are no reputable studies to suggest that U.S. elections have been compromised by fraudulent voting by undocumented immigrants, felons, double voters or dead voters. Even the conservative Heritage Foundation, which maintains a Voter Fraud Database it says shows incontrovertible evidence that voter fraud is a real and pressing issue, lists only1,071 instances of voter fraud going back to 1981. Americans have cast over 1 billion votes during that period in presidential elections alone.

Rather than pointing to evidence that suggests otherwise because it cant the administration offers something else: doubt.We may never know if Hillary Clinton won the popular vote in the 2016 election, Kobach told MSNBC.Responding to reports that more than 40 states rejected intrusive requests for massive amounts of data on its voters, Trump said this month, If any state does not want to share this information, one has to wonder what theyre worried about.

The assumption of the commission is that voter fraud is real and widespread; the onus is on everyone else to prove it isnt.

Late-night comics giggle at Trumps propensity for creating alternative realities, whether it was his campaign claim that America was experiencing an unprecedented crime wave or this weeks tweetssaying that transgender service members are a financial drain on the military. Fitting this pattern is his and his teams ongoing refusal to accept the conclusion by the top four intelligence agencies that Russian interference in the 2016 election was real and significant. On Monday, top presidential adviser Jared Kushner emerged from his testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee to declare that accusations of Russian meddling and administration collusion with the Russians are an insult to Trumps voters.

Donald Trump had a better message and ran a smarter campaign, and that is why he won, Kushner said. Suggesting otherwise ridicules those who voted for him.

In other words: No matter what the CIA, FBI and National Security Council tell us, Russian interference in the presidential election is a non-issue. But the unfounded reports of voter fraud are worth a federally funded commission.

Unlike the talk show hosts, civil rights activists and other fans of representative democracy arent laughing.

Taxpayer funds should go towards efforts to encourage voter participation, the faith coalition said in its letter, rather than a commission intended to restrict voting rights.

Some have memories of how hard Jews fought alongside blacks to secure voting rights. Others believe, as the coalition put it, that their religion teaches them to work for a society that safeguards the rights of all people especially the sacred right to vote.

The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund has filed a federal lawsuit calling the presidents election commission a pretext for the suppression of black and Latino voters.

Obviously this is a calamity for Democrats, who already are seeing evidence that laws making it harder to vote are having a disproportionate effect on their constituents. But this should also be an issue for Jews who support the president and wish he would get on with the business of addressing actual problems, from infrastructure to job creation to regulatory overreach.

Theres been a debate over the years about whether or not Goodman and Schwerner were part of the Jewish story. At a big Jewish conference a number of years ago, I heard the head of what is now the Jewish Council for Public Affairs declare, When Goodman and Schwerner went south for Freedom Summer, they were doing Jewish! Others questioned then, and still question today, why so many Jewish activists pursue universalist causes in the name of tikkun olam rather than working on issues that will specifically benefit Israel or their fellow Jews.

Goodman and Schwerner were of a generation that did not distinguish between policies that were good for them and those that were good for us. Jews were only just emerging from decades in which discrimination against them was both legal and tolerated. They knew that rights won slowly could be taken away quickly, and that if any minority was at risk, then all minorities were at risk.

The organizations that backed Freedom Summer understood the power of coalitions in pursuing their own particularist agendas. You can call it enlightened self-interest, but maybe thats just another name for tikkun olam.

The views and opinions expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect those of the Forward.

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Why Jews Need To Fight Trump On Voting Rights 53 Years After 'Mississippi Burning' Murders - Forward

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