Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By admin on July 21, 2017

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Josh Mandel, the current State Treasurer of Ohio.

Josh Mandel, the Jewish Republican Treasurer of Ohio, took to Twitter Thursday morning to defend the far right media figures who were attacked by the Anti-Defamation League.

Mandel objected to the ADL including Jack Posobiec and Mike Cernovich in a list of alt-right and far right figures who use xenophobic, Islamophobic and sometimes anti-Semitic rhetoric online.

Sad to see @ADL_National become a partisan witchhunt group targeting people for political beliefs. I stand with @Cernovich & @JackPosobiec, Mandel wrote.

Cernovich is a blogger who posts xenophobic and misogynist rants on his website and used to consider himself part of the alt-right. Posobiec is an activist and conspiracy theorist who played a major role in spreading the Pizzagate conspiracy that led one man to open fire in a Washington, D.C., pizza restaurant. In response to the ADLs Naming the Hate list, Posobiec tweeted a video he recorded while visiting the Aushchwitz Memorial, saying that the ADL would be wise to remember what happened the last time people made lists of undesirables.

The ADLs list garnered a backlash from the people named on it and their supporters.

Contact Ari Feldman at feldman@forward.com or on Twitter @aefeldman.

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Jewish GOP Senate Candidate Slams ADL For Far Right 'Witchhunt' - Forward

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Posted By admin on July 20, 2017

(by Ben Rothke)

Learn a few pages in the Mishnah Berurah and youll come to the phrase hamachmir tavo alav bracha. While the Chofetz Chaim didnt coin the phrase, he made it his calling card. He will accept an opinion, but commend those who want to be strict. These stringencies apply throughout Shulchan Aruch Orach Chaim, even though most of the topics do not deal with potential capital crimes.

Had the Chofetz Chaim written on Yoreh Deah hilchos Avodah Zara, I think its safe to say the phrase would be pervasive.

In a new book, Alternative Medicine in Halachah, Rabbi Rephoel Szmerla attempts to make the halakhic case for alternative medical treatments. Its a heavy tome; 11 English-language chapters and about 400 pages of Hebrew appendixes.

Yet in close to 200 pages, I was struck by the fact that never once does Szmerla use hamachmir tavo alav bracha. This is noteworthy given that avoda zara is one of the 3 prohibitions one must give up their live rather than violating.

Some of the therapies to which the book details the practical halacha include:

Remote healing Reiki Acupuncture Kinesiology Dowsing Homeopathy and flow essences Gem therapy Geobiology and Feng Shiu Hypnotherapy Yoga Therapeutic touch Shamanic healing

Szmerla is a proponent of these alternative therapies. Hes been involved with so-called energy medicine for twenty years and is something of an evangelist for this cause. For this reason, his devotion to this project, perhaps, the author struggled to provide a cogent rationale for his arguments. He also represents a curious trend among some elements of the Orthodox Right to declaim modern science as wisdom. The sinuous logic often takes some unorthodox and untraditional turns.

A Scientific Halakhist?

The failure centers on the authors attempt to be the medical and halakhic expert. This was not a challenge for some of the twentieth centurys leading halakhic authorities. For example, Rabbi Moshe Feinstein frequently called on the scientific knowledge of his son-in-law Rabbi Moshe Tendler, who had received his Ph.D. in microbiology from Columbia University. In Israel, Rabbi Shlomo Zalman Auerbach relied on experts in biology and physics when addressing halakhic issues related to these fields.

But it is troubling in this more recent project. While he quotes extensively from myriad new age sources, Szmerla does not reference any non-alternative scientists or medical doctors. What is more, the books bibliography lists a mere 29 citations, none of which are science-based works. The result is a goodly number of botched scientific proofs and impreciseor wrongterminologies. One example is his equating data and evidence as being the same.

Sometimes, the scholarship just does not back up the claim. For instance, an aura, according to new age thought is an emanation that encloses a human body. However, the myth-buster Joe Nickell writes that tests to observe alleged aura emanations have repeatedly met with failure. Nonetheless, Szmerla writes that it is worthwhile to note that there exists scientific data supporting the existence of the aura.

Rabbinic Authority

Its not just Szmerlas understanding of science that is lacking, his disdain for the halakhic process and understanding of the nature of halakhic development are also quite troubling. His portrayal of the rabbis of the Talmud deserves specific mention. Szmerla portrays rabbis of the Talmud as gullible. He writes that halachic determinations do not require the rigorous evidence of scientific double-blind studies. This is plainly crass, ignoring the fruitful scholarship conducted by Rabbi Nahum Rabinovitch, among others. The rabbis of the Talmud certainly didnt use a chi-squared test or regression and correlation analysis as we know it, they did operate with sophisticated levels of statistical analysis, the best of what was known to them in their time.

To boot, Szmerlas proof for this criticism is rather simplistic. For example, he notes that in the eyes of the Torah, any phenomenon that has been validated three times is considered authentic. He is referring to the Talmud in Shabbat 61a that discusses when amulets are to be approved as medical devices. He takes a discussion limited to amulets and applies it to all medical therapies. In any system, be it legal, mathematical, or theological, one cant take a limited item; and pro forma apply it globally.

Further, Szmerlas methods are precarious from a practical halakhic perspective. He assumes to know exactly what the Talmud is discussing, and can precisely correlate it to a particular new age therapy. Contrast that with the notion that the Talmud states in Shabbat 35a: that we are not experts in identifying medium-sized stars to determine nightfall. If we cant expertly identify the size of the stars in the sky, its hard to understand how he can know the specific new age therapy. Yet, Szmerla does exactly that. For example, the Talmud in Horayot 12a discusses the concept of a babuah di-babuah, a shadow of a shadow. Szmerla writes that this description is identical to the description of the aura given by energy healing practitioners, a therapy he therefore allows.

He also ignores notions of rabbinic consensus and debate. In the foreword, Rabbi Shmuel Meir Katz of Lakewood writes that a hallmark of a genuine moreh horaah is the intellectual honesty to examine an issue from various standpoints and the capability to honestly evaluate dissenting opinions. Yet, one of the most egregious problems with Szmerlas approach is that he does not significantly reference those dissenting opinions. He writes that there is scientific data to support his findings, but much of his data is based on vibrational medicine, to which a 2008 study by noted researcher Edzard Ernst found that the evidence is not fully convincing for most complementary and alternative medicine modalities.

Finally, he writes the efficacy of homeopathy has been well-established. That simply is not true. No large-scale study has found homeopathy any more effective than a placebo. Yet that assertion is what allows him to permit ineffectual therapies, as he believes that any phenomenon that has been validated three times is considered authentic. With enough of a sample size, its easy to get three cases of anything. Science would call that the placebo effect. Szmerla would call that authentic.

An Orthodox Counterculture

Looked at more broadly, this book reflects disturbing trends in some subculture elements of Orthodoxy to disdain modern science and certain medical developments and to engage new age therapies.

Why the opposition? For Szmerla, modern science is not God-focused. He contrasts the opinions of atheistic scientists with those of the creators of alternative therapies, who he feels realize that their healing powers originate from the Divine. Both characterizations are overly generalized, and his simplistic observation does nothing to support his claims. The author does not explain why alternative therapies, which may have their ancient roots in Krishna or Vishnu, may be more acceptable or effective than those from non-believing scientists and doctors such as Linus Pauling or Franois Jacob.

What Hath the New Age Movement Done to Us?

The New Age movement, with its acceptance of occult practices, pantheism, and a spirituality without borders or confining dogmas that is inclusive and pluralistic is anathema to halakhah. Rabbi Szmerlas book, I fear, reflects a trend within some parts of the Orthodox Right to eschew modern science and contemporary medicine.

This comes at a significant cost. The authors weltanschauung leads him to be a promulgator of bad science while misrepresenting Chazal. The danger with Alternative Medicine in Halachah is that the author oversimplifies both halakhah and the often-complex fields of science and medicine. This leads to his acquiescence to therapies that other major poskim outright forbid. Perhaps more disturbing than the poor scholarship in this book, is the underlying trend it illustrates.

Ben Rothke lives in New Jersey and works in the information security field. He blogs about information security at The Security Meltdown and is the associate editor of the Information Security Journal: A Global Perspective. He writes technology book reviews for Security Management, and reviews of books on Jewish thought for The Jewish Press, The Lehrhaus and Times of Israel.

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A Critical Look At A New Sefer: Alternative Medicine in Halachah ... - Yeshiva World News

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Posted By admin on July 20, 2017

A humanoid figure that crash-landed headfirst into the Earth stands six meters tall in the courtyard of St. Pancras Church in Euston, London.

Artist David Breuer-Weil based the sculpture, called Alien, on his grandfather Ernst BreuerWeils experience after arriving in the UK as a refugee from Nazi-occupied Vienna in 1938.

At first glance, Alien is extraterrestrial, but the real subject is the challenge of being an outsider or immigrant, he explains.

The monumental sculpture is one of a series being exhibited in outdoor spaces throughout central London this month in an unprecedented outdoor sales exhibition put on by auction house Christies. The sculptural trail of figurative works includes significant artist-chosen works such as Brothers, Visitor and Emergence, which explore the conflict of opposites, including components such as belonging and alienation; frailty and endurance; communication and reconciliation prompting more questions than answers.

In the last few years, Breuer-Weils work has also transported him to Jerusalem. Unable to place figurative sculptures in the Holy City for religious reasons, the objective for the polished stainless steel works on permanent view is spiritual content.

Jerusalem is the center of my spiritual world, says the London-born and -bred, 51-year-old father of three. I was inspired by the atmosphere particularly the clear light and sense of significance of every stone there, he explains. They are all about light and reflection and for that reason I used stainless steel that reflects the skies and buildings of Jerusalem.

Center of the World, situated in Teddy Kollek Park, is based on a Renaissance map by Heinrich Bnting showing Jerusalem at the center of three continents.

The sculpture, which reflects the walls of Jerusalem by day, allows visitors to physically enter the spherelike structure for contemplation. The seas and oceans are suggested by the cutaway sections between continents, which at night become patches of light, as the work is internally lit.

The sculpture was commissioned by Helene Stone Laor in memory of her husband Eran Laor, an antiquarian map expert. He owned the Bnting map together with hundreds of other legendary early maps of Israel.

Breuer-Weils design, which was chosen from a shortlist, had to be approved by the Jerusalem Foundation and other committees before being given the go-ahead.

Soul is also focused on the theme of the world, fusing a globe with a human being.

I wanted to make a work of art in which man and the world become one, explains the artist. Commissioned by the family of Marilyn Rosenfelder in her memory, the sculpture was dedicated and placed at the entrance to the new wing of the Next Generation Building at the Shaare Zedek Medical Center.

Inspired in part by my first Jerusalem sculpture when I made this work, I thought of the famous talmudic dictum that whoever saves a life saves the whole world, and a hospital like Shaare Zedek saves the world practically every day, multiple times.

Much of the Orthodox artists creativity comes from his study of the Talmud, which he does religiously for one hour each morning at a Daf Yomi class near his home in northwest London. There he studies aggadic (narrative and mystical) areas of the Talmud. He credits the study with fueling his imagination, resulting in paintings with multiple layers of meaning. This can be seen in his more than 200 large-scale Project series paintings, several of which reference the Holocaust.

Inspiration came from those who have borne witness, in particular, writer Primo Levi and Breuer-Weils friend Sam Pivnik, whose testimony was published as Survivor in 2012.

One of the most powerful in this series is the monumental canvas Crate, in which figures stand in a honeycomb of cubicles and we peer down on their shaven heads and stifled bodies. Another, called Commodity, sees thousands of individuals contained within a great mountain of boxes. This, says the artist, is an expression of the dehumanization that was characteristic of the 20th century tragedy.

Breuer-Weils undergraduate dissertation at Clare College in Cambridge was on Holocaust literature; he shared literary critic and philosopher George Steiners concern that Holocaust art would never be able to reflect the hell of that period. The problem, he observed, was that fictionalizing the victims experience risked violating it. It is for that reason that none of these works contain any clear depictions of the Holocaust.

Rather, they can be described as a modern version of medieval apocalyptic paintings, such as were painted by Giotto, Masaccio, Michelangelo and Tintoretto.

Breuer-Weils paintings are filled with symbols and metaphors about the human condition in a general sense.

These are existentialist works about the limits of endurance, imbued with the most intense emotion.

The artist, who is also a dealer and collector with a passion for the Jewish artifacts of destroyed communities, believes that the Holocaust has entered the unconscious minds of the second and third generations in a very profound way and has colored our vision of life.

Those particular paintings have more to do with that inheritance than the events themselves, because I would never attempt to illustrate them.

Breuer-Weils imagination has been filled with complex imagery for most of his life. As an 11-yearold joining Londons Hasmonean High School, he invented a fantasy world of imaginary friends through drawings in the margins of his exercise book. They were creatures of a bizarre prophecy, which he called the Kingdom of Nerac. This was the subject of a documentary on Breuer-Weil The King of Nerac that premiered in London and New York in 2013.

It is this fictional kingdom of Neracian images, together with his childhood memories and family history, that forms the infrastructure of his creative mind. But it is his philosophical vision of the world, to which he bears witness, that is fundamental to his artistic integrity.

Having recently discovered that he is a direct descendant of philosopher Rabbi Judah Loew ben Bezalel, the celebrated Maharal of Prague, his conviction that creating art is as much a philosophical as an aesthetic enterprise, has been reinforced.

Some people are uncomfortable with art that asks questions. But for me thats the whole point. Art is not about producing decorative or marketable objects, but a way to philosophize in paint, pencil or metal and turn thoughts into emotion. My father taught me early on that art is the one area of life where you can be truly independent.

For more information about the London show: http://www.christies.com

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'Jerusalem is the center of my spiritual world' - The Jerusalem Post

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Posted By simmons on July 20, 2017

Photo Credit: Moshirah / Wikipedia

(JNi.Media) The Egyptian government plans to restore the historic Eliyahu HaNavi synagogue. Egypts Ministry of State of Antiquities announced that it would allocate $2.2 million or 40 million Egyptian pounds for the restoration,according to head of Islamic and Coptic Monuments Department, al-Saeed Helmy Ezzat.

The synagogue, which had stood in disrepair for many years, closed its doors when the ceiling in the womens section collapsed last year and it was rendered unusable.

The reconstruction of the synagogue will begin pending approval from the Board of Directors of the Antiquities Ministry.

The historic synagogue was built in 1354 and was bombed by the French when they invaded Egypt in 1798. It was rebuilt in 1850 with funding from the Muhammad Ali Dynasty in 1850. The Jewish community in Alexandria was thriving in the 1930s with over 20,000 Jews. However, there are currently just 50 Jews in Alexandria.

Although Egyptian law stipulates that the Jewish community should pick up the bill for the restoration of Jewish sites, the Egyptian government intends to provide the funds.

State-owned media outlet, Al-Ahram, insisted that none of the money to restore the synagogue was coming from Israel and that the synagogue was considered as a treasure of Egyptian, rather than Jewish, culture.According to Al-Ahram, Israeli minister David Govrin offered money to restore the synagogue in 2016, but was turned down. El-Saeed said, Egypt has a clear and direct stand on Israel, and it doesnt accept money from it. The temple is located on Egyptian lands, and it would never accept Israeli money to renovate our heritage.

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Historic Egyptian Synagogue Will Be Renovated for $2.2 Million - The Jewish Press - JewishPress.com

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Posted By simmons on July 20, 2017

Like many shuls that have dwindled over the years, Hendon Reform Synagogue is leaving its heartland, its Danescroft home, for ever. There is no way around it, the shul is dying; of its 700-strong ageing community, only 10 per cent still remain in the area. It may not feel that way during wedding or bar/batmitzvah celebrations when younger people infuse the place with their vibrant energy. But then they are gone, leaving a wistful nostalgia behind them.

Its merger with Edgware Reform is virtually complete. Two communities, each with separate histories and identities will wonder as in an arranged marriage whether they can be happy together. It will work for some, less so for others. Some will reject the merger altogether and move elsewhere.

But what is less easily dissipated is the emotional attachment felt for a synagogue. People who had not attended services for years thronged the official concluding Shabbat to reconnect with old friends, old memories. There were few dry eyes when the rabbi received a standing ovation.

Its too sudden, someone turned to me, sadly. There is no time to grieve. Shouldnt there be a mourning period for a dying synagogue? But how does one grieve for a synagogue?

What will I miss about this institution, this blue-carpeted sanctuary bounded on each side by commemorative stained glass windows into which you can stare for hours and find a different meaning each time? Theres the choir; an exceptional blend of voices, not all of them Jewish, woven together by choirmaster Joseph Finlay, who skilfully infuses the liturgy with a chord or two of a Handel sarabande, and his own original compositions. Liturgy, then, is constantly recreated. So, not to be grieved over.

The communitys founder, the then Orthodox rabbi Dr Arthur Katz had his eye on a Progressive future when he opened the synagogue in 1949. His son Rabbi Steven Katz joined as an associate rabbi in 1975 and has led the community up till now, a dynastic link which lends it special grace.

Hendon Reform was an island of Progressive Jewry, in a sea of Orthodoxy. And this isolation had a doomed charm for me. I was not brought up with synagogue allegiance, despite attending a Strictly Orthodox primary school where I endured the agony of classroom whispers because I was shopping with the au pair on Shabbat.

My husband and I tended to experiment. New London Synagogue, where we married, its daughter shuls, New North London, Edgware Masorti we tried them, admired their qualities, but finally joined Hendon, with its blend of ancient belief and modernism.

It may have had something to do with Rabbi Katzs caring qualities and his wry wit which belie a deeply felt Jewish philosophy. A gifted orator, twice a finalist in The Times Preacher of the Year Contest, he once said he wanted to touch lives with the warmth and wisdom of Jewish learning.

My family was only one of many for whom Rabbi Katz has offered pastoral wisdom or consolation at times of celebration and tragedy. So, at the dying of the shuls light I will remember our sons barmitzvah, my parents passing, my divorce, the sudden death of my ex-husband and a painful, high-profile probate action in the High Court.

It is intensely difficult to think of that building without Rabbi Katz and all that his ministry has meant to me. Even visualising moving to another synagogue fills me with horror. Hendon is home.

So can one should one grieve for a synagogue? Thankfully, Rabbi Katz is joining the merged team of rabbis at Edgware and Hendon. Our building will soon be filled by other people with their own noisy lives, a school, it is rumoured.

A shul, in the end, is not a human being to grieve over, for whom you say kaddish and sit shiva. What survives of it cannot be defined. It is up to us to keep the spirit of Hendon alive.

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My synagogue is closing, and there's so much to miss - Jewish Chronicle

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Posted By simmons on July 20, 2017

Mark Kennedy grew up a Catholic, and a Harry Potter fanatic. Only one stuck.

I considered myself a non-spiritual person, he said. He thought he was done with religion. And then he stumbled on the podcast Harry Potter and the Sacred Text.

The podcast told him that the Harry Potter series the books that he always turned to for solace when he was angry or stressed or in need of an escape could be a source of spiritual sustenance.

I feel like Im born again, he said.

On Tuesday night, Kennedy came to an event space at Sixth & I Historic Synagogue in the District with hundreds of fellow fans of the podcast, who have found a surprising spirituality in the magical fiction series, which turns 20 years old this year.

Hosted by Harvard Divinity School graduates Casper ter Kuile and Vanessa Zoltan, the podcast Harry Potter and the Sacred Text became the number-two podcast in America on iTunes soon after it debuted last summer. It has inspired face-to-face Potter text reading groups, akin to Bible study more than book club, in cities across the country. In Harvard Square, ter Kuile and Zoltan host a weekly church-like service for the secular focused on a Potter texts meaning.

In the episode they taped at Sixth & I, they used one chapter of the third Harry Potter book as a vehicle for discussing the topics of trust, betrayal, love and prejudice (against werewolves).

Touring the country this summer, the podcasters have beenmet night after night by adoring, mostly millennial crowds who want to soak up their secular meaning-making.For the growing slice of Americans who label themselves spiritual but not religious, Casper ter Kuile and Vanessa Zoltan are kind of pop stars.

[Meet the nones, the Democratic Partys biggest faith constituency]

The irony is, the pair are skeptical about secularism.

It doesnt speak to peoples hearts and souls, Zoltan said during a recent interview. I get that people get connection and meaning from Soul Cycle, but will [those people] visit you when your mom is dying?

Zoltan and ter Kuile are complicated evangelists for their own cause. Even as their following grows, they are still ponderingsome big questions: Can non-traditional types of meaning-making build community? Can texts that are deeply moving to readers truly hold them to account in the way Scripture has among the God-fearing?

Neither one of them puts much faith in Humanism, thoughZoltan tried working as a chaplain at thelively, cutting-edge secularism center at Harvard called the Humanist Hub, where there is a Sunday school for kids based on ethics. People who dont want to join an organized religion arent looking to label themselves part of a religion for atheists either, ter Kuile said.

Thats all being unbundled. You might get your ecstatic experience at Soul Cycle, and your community in your book group, and your [spiritual] formation in Harry Potter or On Being,' he said.

[Clergy who dont believe in organized religion? Humanists think 2017 is their time to grow.]

The podcasters said they worrythat these disparate experiences leave people much lonelier than experiences that are all tied up within one faith community.

Im scared what were going to do without the buildings. Some of the best things in the world happen in church basements, Zoltan said. Thats where you have sex ed classes, and thats where you have kids on their church trip to build houses, and thats where you house the new immigrant, and thats where you register to vote. Im terrified if there arent these designated spaces. Theyre called sanctuaries for a reason.

On their summer cross-country tour, which concluded in the District this week, the podcasters did fill church and synagogue auditoriumswith fans in their 20s and 30s, many of whom hadnt set foot in a house of worship in years.

[How decades of divorce helped erode religion]

They said that their podcast doesnt aim to offer all the benefits of a religious community, but does strive to provide the moral insights that seekers gain from study of Scripture. In their podcast, they use the rigorous methods they learned in divinity school, like the Benedictine monks practice oflectio divina and the medievalflorilegium,to parse the lines of Harry Potter, which they typically refer to as the text.

In the seven-book adventure story of Harry Potter growing up, mastering his magical powers, forming friendships and fighting the evil wizard Voldemort, ter Kuile and Zoltan find an ethical theme in every chapter, like duty, forgiveness, mercy, love, heartbreak, sanctuary and grace.

Onstage at Sixth & I, they parsed a solitary sentence from the third book, selected by the audience: The important thing is, I was watching it carefully this evening.

Following a Jewish study method called Pardes, they analyzed the sole sentence on four levels, leading from the actual events of the story a professor, looking at a moving map to see if it reveals that his students are in trouble to an eventual sermonic conclusion. I think what I would preach is that everybody needs to be taken care of in different ways. You should take care of the person in the form they need to be taken care of, not in the way that works for you. We have to teach each other how to take care of each other, Zoltan said.

She said in an interview that she hopes this sort of close reading teaches moral values.

To me, the goal of treating the text as sacred is that we can learn to treat each other as sacred. If you can learn to love these characters, to love Draco Malfoy, then you can learn to love the cousin you havent spoken to for 30 years, then the refugee down the street, Zoltan said.

Attendees at Sixth & I lined up to buy t-shirts reading Harry Potter is my sacred text, but Zoltan and ter Kuile say theyre not trying to create a new religious identity, and they dont think anyone comes away from the podcast thinking his or her religion is now Harry Potter-ist. (They also say they have never communicated with J. K. Rowling, who wrote the texts that they study and promote.)

Sally Taylor, 23, came to Sixth & I toting her journal. The trip to Washington to see the podcast taping was her graduation gift to herself for finishing her degree at the University of North Carolina in Asheville. Shes been writing down sparklets aword she learned from the show for phrases that stand out to the listener as imbued with meaning and she wanted to write more during the live taping.

It always gives me guidance in a way I didnt know I needed, Taylor, who said she has no religion, said about the podcast.

Thats the goal. For a book to be sacred, Zoltan said, You have to believe a text can give you blessings. You have to read it with rigor, commitment and practice, and do it with others.

More than 500 cheering Potter fans seemed to agree.

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'Harry Potter and the Sacred Text' podcast draws non-believers who find meaning in magical fiction - Washington Post

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Posted By simmons on July 20, 2017

An autobiography of the life of Holocaust survivor Cantor Moshe S. Kraus likely would not exist if not for the help of members of the Cleveland Jewish community.

Krauss book, The Life of Moshele Der Zinger: How My Singing Saved My Life, tells the story of how Kraus survived the Holocaust and continued his life, and is the result of many hours of interviews with Rabbi Moshe Berger, scholar in residence at Young Israel of Greater Cleveland.In addition, Lyndhurst resident and Oheb Zedek-Cedar Sinai Synagogue congregant Larry Mervine was included in the acknowledgements section of Krauss book, and according to Kraus, helped make the book possible in all kinds of ways.

Berger was a rabbi at Sinai Synagogue, which was in Cleveland Heights and later University Heights, when he first met Kraus, after the latter came to visit the synagogue as a scholar in residence for a weekend after one of its members had met him elsewhere. Berger and other members of the community were so impressed with Kraus that they invited him to return.

Eventually, Berger asked Kraus to return again, this time staying with Berger and his wife at their home in University Heights and using a tape recorder donated by a member of the congregation to record Berger interviewing Kraus. Berger quickly discovered that even having a few hours each day of a week wasnt enough, so he asked Kraus to return yet again to finish the interviews. Berger provided the interviews, which became the basis for the autobiography, to Mitchell Rose, who transcribed the tapes.

We were delighted to have him, Berger said. Hes a real raconteur. I realized, hes a 'Wheres Waldo' of 20th century Eastern European Jewry. Hes been everywhere. Hes connected with famous rabbis, dignitaries; he was the first chief cantor of the Israel Defense Forces after the founding of the state of Israel. He was very close to so many important persons in Jewish history. Hes a historical treasure.

Berger said he wasnt necessarily proud to help bring Kraus story into the print format, but said he was thankful to have a hand in it and that he and his wife were in the right place a the right time to interview Kraus.

Hes a very valuable resource, Berger said of Kraus. Hes a delightful person, very good humor, really brilliant with an excellent memory and very inspiring stories. Hes compelling and I think that compelling element came through in the book.

Copies of the book will be available for sale at a special price July 30 at Oheb Zedek-Cedar Sinai Synagogue during the synagogue's Holocaust survivors tribute weekend.

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Recordings come to life in cantor's autobiography - Cleveland Jewish News

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Posted By admin on July 20, 2017

Twenty Jewish mothers from Jacksonville travelled to Israel for eight days for a Momentum journey with the Jewish Womens Renaissance Project and Israels Ministry of Diaspora Affairs.

The trip, which took place June 26-July 3, began in the city of Safed and ended in Masada, a national park in Israel.

The goal of the experience was to connect the women with their Jewish heritage while transforming themselves and ultimately their families and the community they live in and getting them to think about how they can make the world a better place.

Friends and Julington Creek residents Sheri Weiss and Sara Gross decided to go on the trip together.

Several of my friends have gone on the trip before and they were always telling me to do it, so this year I decided to go, Weiss said. It had been 30 years since Ive visited Israel and this was a soul-searching opportunity.

Gross said there was an interview process and you had to be able to physically be able to go on the trip as a lot of walking was involved.

For me, it was a spiritual journey to get back in touch with my Judaism, she said. After my divorce, I separated myself from my religion and I wanted to work on myself in a lot of areas and thought this would be the best way to do that.

Erica Jolles, a St. Johns resident, was supposed to travel to Israel several years ago, but backed out at the last minute.

Id known about the trip from several different friends and I had never gone to Israel, she said. I came back with a love for Israel and a greater understanding as to why people have such a passion about it.

The women attended a class each day during the trip that had a spiritual element before visiting a site in Israel, including the stock exchange and Independence Hall in Tel Aviv.

Colleen Bell, an Avondale resident and medical director for behavioral health at Sulzbacher Center, said praying at the Western Wall in Jerusalems Old City was one of the most memorable experiences on the trip.

I wasnt expecting to be moved as much as I was, she said. It was amazing.

The trip was part of Israels Ministry of Diaspora Affairs efforts to strengthen the countrys relationship with Diaspora communities around the world, said Director General Dvir Kahana.

We are extremely proud of our strategic partnership with the Jewish Womens Renaissance Project, he said in a statement. We share the vision of empowering Jewish women worldwide as leaders of the next generation with the ability and drive to raise children who are proud of their identity and strongly connected to Israel.

The Jewish Womens Renaissance Project aims to empower women to change the world through Jewish values.

More than 10,000 people from nearly 30 countries have experienced the organizations Momentum trip.

Our philosophy from the beginning has always been: inspire a woman, you inspire a family, Lori Palatnik, Jewish Womens Renaissance Project founding director, said in a statement. Inspire enough families, you can change a community. Inspire enough communities, you can change the world.

Now that the group of 20 women has returned to Jacksonville, they will meet once a month for the remainder of the year to continue their spiritual journey with curriculum provided by the Jewish Womens Renaissance Project.

Gross said shes looking forward to getting together with the group.

I feel like I have a group of sisters now, she said. Ive known several of them for a long time, but Ive expanded the horizon of strong, independent women.

Jolles added, What I came away with is a group of women, some who knew each other and some who didnt, and we left there with an amazing bond, which hopefully will continue.

Ann Friedman: (904) 359-4619

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Group travels to Israel to connect with Jewish heritage - Florida Times-Union

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Posted By simmons on July 20, 2017

In an echo of comments by far-right leader Marine Le Pen, Jean-Luc Melenchon says: 'Never, at any moment, did the French choose murder and anti-Semitic criminality'

Jean-Luc Melenchon, France's populist left-wing leader, blasted French President Emmanuel Macron for his admission that the Vichy government was indeed the French government during World War II, and that it and not the Nazis were responsible for deporting French Jews.

In an angry 2,000-word blog, Melenchon took the newly-elected president to task for a range of policy missteps, but saved the bulk of his wrath for the remarks Macron made in the presence of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Denying or hiding France's role in World War II is a disgrace, Macron had said on Sunday in the presence of visiting Netanyahu at a ceremony marking the 75th anniversary of the deportation of Jews from Paris. "We have a responsibility to realize where and when we have failed," Macron said. "There are those who say Vichy wasn't France," he noted. "It's true that Vichy wasn't all of France, but Vichy was the government of France and the French establishment It was responsible for deporting French Jews, and not the Germans."

In his blog, Melenchon didn't deny the involvement of French citizens in rounding up Jews for deportation, but in an echo of remarks during this year's election campaign by the leader of the far-right National Front, Marine Le Pen, Melenchon declared it "totally unacceptable" to say that "France, as a people, as a nation, is responsible for this crime." In April, during the French presidential campaign, Le Pen sparked controversy for saying: "I don't think France is responsible for the Vel d'Hiv," a reference to the Velodrome d'Hiver stadium where thousands of Jews were rounded up before being sent to Nazi death camps.

Some 13,000 Jews were deported by French police on July 16-17, 1942, many of whom were first detained in harsh conditions at Paris' Vel d'Hiv. In all, about 75,000 Jews were deported from France to Nazi concentration camps during World War II. Only 2,500 survived. Although the Vichy government was only in full control of southern France after the German invasion, it had nominal control of the entire country.

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The French republic, Melenchon asserted, had been abolished and the legitimate French government was in exile in London at the time. "Never, at any moment, did the French choose murder and anti-Semitic criminality. Those who were not Jewish were not all, and as French people, guilty of the crime that was carried out at the time! On the contrary, through its resistance, its fight against the [German] invader and through the reestablishment of the republic when the [Germans] were driven out of the territory, the French people, the French people proved which side they were actually on."

And then taking aim more directly at Macron, who roundly trounced Melenchon and his party in presidential and parliamentary elections this year, the left-wing parliamentarian added: "It is not in Mr. Macron's power to attribute an identity of executioner to all of the French that is not theirs. No, no, Vichy is not France!"

In his remarks Sunday, Macron also condemned Holocaust denial and anti-Semitism in France today, saying that it has taken a new shape, and that anti-Zionist and anti-Israel expressions should be opposed. "It's a new type of anti-Semitism," he said. That also riled Melenchon.

Casting doubt on a possible connection between anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism,Melenchon said there have been those who have made such a connection, "but this is the first time that this argument has been made official by the president of our republic."

Saying that it is no small matter to link a political opinion and a criminal offense in France, meaning anti-Semitism, Melenchon asked how Macron could make such a statement "in the name of the entire country without a second of discussion by anyone, based on the sole fact that the Prince," a reference to Macron, "had decided that way."

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Far-left French Leader Slams Macron for Accepting French Complicity in Holocaust - Haaretz

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Posted By simmons on July 20, 2017

The European Jewish Congress (EJC) has called on the French Judiciary to use the full weight of the law and impose the strongest possible punishment on Jean-Marie Le Pen, the founder and former leader of the National Front, after it was decided earlier this month that he will face trial for inciting racial hatred for comments he made about a Jewish actor and singer in 2014.

In a National Front video, Le Pen said that next time we will put him in an oven" when asked about Patrick Bruels criticisms of the party. The EJC was a civil party to the lawsuit.

"Le Pen is an unrepentant anti-Semite and a very clear warning has to be sent to people like him that racism and bigotry will no longer be tolerated in France, Dr. Moshe Kantor, President of the EJC, said. We hope that if found guilty he will face the fullest punishment possible under French law.

We deeply appreciate President Emmanuel Macrons strong words condemning anti-Semitism and we hope that this will be followed by action against people like Le Pen. Kantor added.

Earlier in the week, President Macron spoke at an event in Paris to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the Vel DHiv round-up, in which 13,152 French Jews, including 4000 children, were deported to Nazi concentration camps by the then French Vichy Nazi-collaborating government in July 1942. At the event President Macron admitted French official culpability for the round-up and condemned modern-day anti-Semitism and said this included anti-Israel sentiment.

Following President Macrons comments, far-Left French leader Jean-Luc Melenchon, echoing comments made by National Front leaders, said that French were not responsible for the Vel DHiv round-up. The French government has accepted reponsibility several times for the tragedy carried out by French police.

Melenchons comments are sadly yet another indication that the dangers of anti-Semitism exist on both extremes of the spectrum, Dr. Kantor said. These extremes share little in common except for a hatred and suspicion of Jews and now, even Holocaust denial.

We are heartened by President Macrons comments but dismayed that anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial are still prominent in modern day France.

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EJC says Jean-Marie Le Pen belongs in jail - Arutz Sheva

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