Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By richards on July 4, 2017

The Hindu

Modi makes impromptu visit to grave of Zionism's founder The Hindu Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday made an impromptu visit to the grave of Theodor Herzl, who is considered as the founding father of Zionism, at the suggestion of his Israeli counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu. Mr. Modi, who visited the Yad Vashem ... Modi Visit: How Israel Went From 'Contaminated' by Colonialism to India's Strategic AllyHaaretz As Modi Visits Israel, a Look at the Country's Tumultuous CreationThe Quint Modi in Israel | In 'home away from home', terrorism and technology top focusDaily News & Analysis Livemint -Aljazeera.com all 919 news articles »

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Modi makes impromptu visit to grave of Zionism's founder - The Hindu

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Posted By simmons on July 4, 2017

Jerusalem: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday visited Israel's Yad Vashem memorial and honoured the victims of the Holocaust, among the greatest tragedies in human history as some six million Jews were killed by Nazi Germany. Modi was accompanied by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the Israel's largest Holocaust memorial.

"So that the light of humanity always shines through us. PM pays homage to 6 million lives lost in the Holocaust at Yad Vashem Memorial," External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson Gopal Baglay tweeted, along with the pictures of Modi at the Yad Vashem memorial.

The leaders toured the Hall of Names, containing photographs and names of Holocaust victims, and the Children's Memorial and participated in a memorial ceremony in the Hall of Remembrance.

Following the visit, Netanyahu suggested that he and Modi visit Binyamin Ze'ev (Theodor) Herzl's grave on which Indian Prime Minister Modi agreed.

Theodor Herzl was an Austro-Hungarian journalist, playwright, political activist, and writer who was one of the fathers of modern political Zionism, a movement to establish a Jewish homeland.

Yad Vashem started as an organisation in 1953 on the slopes of the Mount of Remembrance near Jerusalem, as a form of reference to future generations, documenting the memory of Holocaust victims and the history of the Jewish people during the tragic time.

The museum occupies over 4,200 square metres - mainly underground - and emphasises the experiences of the individual victims through original artifacts, survivor testimonies and personal possessions.

Shaped as a prism penetrating the mountain, the new Yad Vashem opened in 2005. Its architecture sets the atmosphere for the nine chilling galleries of interactive historical displays which present the Holocaust in several ways.

The museum leads into the Hall of Names, which contains more than three million names of Holocaust victims submitted by their families and relatives.

The Holocaust was the killing of nearly six million Jews, including some 1.5 million children, by Adolf Hitler's Nazi Germany. Though the persecution of Jews began in 1933, the mass murder was committed during the more than four years of World War II.

On his arrival, Modi was greeted by Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu along with the top tier of Israel's leadership - known as segel aleph. Modi's three-day visit to Israel is the first by an Indian prime minister to the Jewish state.

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PM Modi Honours Holocaust Victims, Pays Tribute to Zionism Founder - News18

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Posted By richards on July 4, 2017

As Narendra Modi becomes the first Indian Prime Minister tovisit Israel, there is already a strong cultural relationship between the two countries, and something in Delhi itself that is at the very foundation of thecommunity ofIndian-origin Jews in Israel. Barely four kilometres from the Prime Ministers official residence in New Delhi, is the symbol of Jewish existence in India-- the Judah Hyam Synagogue. It is easy to miss the small building, whichdoes not boast ofelaborate architecture. What is intriguing about the synagogue, however, is a Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel guardingthe outside, while insidethere are only ten Jewish families attempting to safeguardtheir dwindling community. The blue cemented structure reflects the 2,000-year-old history of Jews in India, but it is now visited only by the 40 jews left in the city, Israeli diplomats and tourists. On the walls of the building there are names of the people who have donated funds to build it. The synagogue is managed by Ezekiel Isaac Malekar, Rabbi and Honourary Secretary of the Jewish Welfare association. Malekar, who is also a lawyer, has made working for the synagogue his full time job. He recalls the 1961 census when the Jew population was a healthy 30,000. Today there are 6,000 Jews left in India. In Delhi there are only 10 families. It is a micro-minority but a very close-knit community,he says. Before the establishment of the Judah Hyam Synagogue on Humayun Road, Jews in the city used to organise community activities in their homes. During the British-era, Delhi was home to many Jewish viceroys and officers who held prayer services at their residences. The community also hired a place in Bara Tuti Chowk and placed a Torah (religious scroll of the Jews) there to hold prayer meetings. It was in 1930 that the government of India allotted a land for the the synagogue, which was built in 1956. A library that acts as a community hall was also built. Malekar says that India is one of the few countries where Jews havent faced Antisemitism. The only time Jews were victims to a major attack was during the 2008 Mumbai attacks, when the Nariman House in Mumbai, a Chabad Lubavitch Jewish centre, was taken over by two terrorists and many residents were held hostage.

Survival

Given their numericallyminiscule population, the Jewish community in Delhi has tried to blend in and adapt to the citys culture in order to survive. Delhi mostly has the Bene Israel community of Jews. Over time all of us have blended with the citys culture. Our culture, rituals and even cuisine have evolved with time in harmony with other religions and cultures.The decreasing numbers do not affect prayer meetings and community activities, he says. In order to keep the Jewish values alive among the younger generation, hebrew classes for children are held in the synagogue. The families celebrate all the Jewish festivals together. There is also an inter-faith study centre that gives information on the history of Jews in India. The Synagogue has also tackled orthodoxy and adopted more liberal practices like inter-faith marriages and equal participation of women. There is fanaticism in every religion but we in Delhi have moved away from orthodoxy and have become open to inter-community marriages. I have performed around 50 inter-community marriages and I do not support conversion. In fact the Jewish community resembles a matriarchal set up because we allow children to be Jews even when the mothers are Jewish, Malekar says. The Delhi synagogue has also made the rules of worship more flexible. There is noseparation ofmale and female worshippers. Unlike someother conservative synagogues, women are included while reading the Torah. In order to read the Torah and the Kaddish (hymn) we must have the quorum of 10 men, but I count women for the purpose of quorum. During Bat-Mitzvah (the coming of age ceremony for Jewish girls), when a girl is being ordained, other synagogues do not allow girls to wear the religious shawl and read the Torah but the synagogue in Delhi encourages girls to read portions from the religious text, Malekar Says. Jews from Delhi and other parts of the country started moving back to Israel after the formation of the modern Jewish state. Today there are around 130,000 Jews of Indian-origin in Israel. But the ones who have stayed back relate more to the Indian culture. Malekar says like him many other Jews in Delhi cannot tolerate the idea of settling in Israel. Israel is in my heart, but India is in my blood, he says. Even if there is one Jew left in India, the light of Judaism should be kept burning.

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Delhi's synagogue, home to the city's 10 remaining Jewish families - WION

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Posted By simmons on July 4, 2017

Synagogue membership 'falls by 20 per cent since 1990', report reveals Jewish Chronicle While the Orthodox middle continues to be squeezed, Charedi communities have more than tripled their share of the synagogue market from four per cent in 1990 to 13 per cent in 2016. Jonathan Boyd, JPR executive director and co-author of the report ...

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Synagogue membership 'falls by 20 per cent since 1990', report reveals - Jewish Chronicle

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Posted By richards on July 4, 2017

Holocaust denial is an attempt to negate the established facts of the Nazi genocide of European Jewry. Holocaust denial and distortion are forms of antisemitism. They are generally motivated by hatred of Jews and build on the claim that the Holocaust was invented or exaggerated by Jews as part of a plot to advance Jewish interests.

These views perpetuate long-standing antisemitic stereotypes, hateful charges that were instrumental in laying the groundwork for the Holocaust. Holocaust denial, distortion, and misuse all undermine the understanding of history.

The Nazi persecution of the Jews began with hateful words, escalated to discrimination and dehumanization, and culminated in genocide. The consequences for Jews were horrific, but suffering and death was not limited to them. Millions of others were victimized, displaced, forced into slave labor, and murdered. The Holocaust shows that when one group is targeted, all people are vulnerable.

Today, in a world witnessing rising antisemitism, awareness of this fact is critical. A society that tolerates antisemitism is susceptible to other forms of racism, hatred, and oppression.

The denial or distortion of history is an assault on truth and understanding. Comprehension and memory of the past are crucial to how we understand ourselves, our society, and our goals for the future. Intentionally denying or distorting the historical record threatens communal understanding of how to safeguard democracy and individual rights.

Holocaust denial, distortion, and misuse are strategies to reduce perceived public sympathy to Jews, to undermine the legitimacy of the State of Israelwhich some believe was created as compensation for Jewish suffering during the Holocaustto plant seeds of doubt about Jews and the Holocaust, and to draw attention to particular issues or viewpoints. The Internet, because of its ease of access and dissemination, seeming anonymity, and perceived authority, is now the chief conduit of Holocaust denial.

Key denial assertions are that the murder of approximately six million Jews during World War II never occurred, that the Nazis had no official policy or intention to exterminate the Jews, and that the poison gas chambers in Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp never existed. Common distortions include, for example, assertions that the figure of six million Jewish deaths is an exaggeration and that the diary of Anne Frank is a forgery.

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Holocaust Denial and Distortion United States Holocaust ...

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Posted By admin on July 4, 2017

BERLIN (JTA) The German parliament passed a new law Friday designed to curb hate speech and libel on social networks.

The law requires Internet platforms likeFacebook, Twitter and YouTube to remove material with obviouslyillegal content and fake defamatory newswithin 24 hoursof itshaving been reported. Previously, illegal material was reported butdid not have to be removed.

The new law places the onus on the social media platforms to removethe material or be subjected to heavy fines, reportedly of up to about $56million.

Josef Schuster, head of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, praised the new network law as a strong instrument against online hatespeech, and added that an evaluation period would help determine its efficacy.

In an official statement, he noted that social media has become ahotbed of anti-Semitic incitement, which is easily spread worldwide.Since platform operators generally failed to stick to agreements of a voluntary nature, this law is the logical consequence.

Criticism of the law came from legislators from the Left Party and theGreens, who said they worried about granting Internet companies thepower to set the boundaries for free speech online.

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German Law Curbs Holocaust Denial On Facebook, Twitter The ... - Forward

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Posted By simmons on July 4, 2017

A ritual bath under construction in the Hasidic development in Bloomingburg has allegedly been defaced with Nazi imagery.

According to Lonnie Soury, a spokesman for the Town of Mamakating, where Bloomingburg is located, the Anti-Defamation League received reports about the hateful graffiti from the builders of the mikveh. The ADL was not immediately reachable for comment.

The Bloomingburg ritual bath has been a sore point between Mamakating and the Hasidic residents of Bloomingburg, who settled in the area after developer Shalom Lamm started building units in the small town several years ago.

Mamakating sued to prevent the building of the mikveh, claiming that it violated zoning regulations. Ultimately, the project was allowed to move forward after a state appeals court ruled that the mikveh counted as a house of worship and thus was permissible under building codes.

The town board of Mamakating condemned the incident, and urged those with information to contact the Sullivan County sheriffs department, which is investigating the incident.

As a town board, we take these actions of hate very seriously. We stand together with all residents of our community to say that this will not be tolerated in Mamakating, not now, not ever, the statement read.

Contact Daniel J. Solomon at solomon@forward.com or on Twitter @DanielJSolomon

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Controversial Ritual Bath in Ultra-Orthodox Town Vandalized - Forward

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Posted By admin on July 4, 2017

As a graduate of the Toronto Jewish day school system, having attended both the Toronto Heschel School and the Anne and Max Tanenbaum Community Hebrew Academy of Toronto, I like to think I have a solid Jewish education. So far, it has served me well. When Im in Israel, I can speak with Israelis. When I watch The Prince of Egypt, I can pinpoint the inaccuracies. However, on a recent trip through eastern Europe, I noticed that there were serious gaps in my education.

I cannot recall a year when I did not study the Holocaust in school. With the majority of my fellow students being Ashkenazi Jews, a great many of their ancestors came from eastern Europe. So if one of the reasons for studying the Holocaust is to acknowledge the plight of our ancestors, then why must instructors teach only of death and brutality, instead of life and prosperity?

This past April, I visited Prague. When I was researching what to do, many travel sites recommended a visit to the Jewish Quarter (known as the Josefov). I was intrigued, as I thought I knew a great deal about the Holocaust and the communities affected by it. Boy was I wrong.

READ: THE GLORIOUS ARCHITECTURE OF PRAGUE

TheJosefov was ghettoized during the Second World War and, while its inhabitants were horribly mistreated, many of the buildings survived the war and remain in good condition. The remaining synagogues, mikvah and meeting halls reveal that there was once a thriving Jewish community in Prague.

When visiting these historic sites, I realized that the descriptor, there existed bustling Jewish communities in eastern Europe, was the extent of my knowledge of the pre-Holocaust European Jewish community. Just how much they flourished was never fully expressed to me. I saw this portion of the Jewish story as serious faces in black-and-white photographs and as the terrible images of death camps and cattle cars.

Yet in Pragues Jewish Quarter alone, there are six synagogues (which are mostly still complete), a ceremonial hall, a town hall and a cemetery thats overflowing with tombstones. Another massive synagogue, the Jerusalem Synagogue, stands outside of the Josefov. I was in awe of these synagogues, which were built between the 13th and 19th centuries. The synagogues I have visited in North America are maybe 100 years old or less. I had previously only been exposed to physical evidence of Jewish history when I was in Israel and when the Dead Sea Scrolls came to Torontos Royal Ontario Museum. Seeing these magnificent Jewish buildings and learning about life in eastern Europes vibrant Jewish communities made the reality of the cruelties of the Holocaust even sadder something that I had not imagined possible.

Another knowledge gap I discovered related to Raoul Wallenberg, the namesake of my high school (TanenbaumCHATs Wallenberg Campus). I knew that Wallenberg was a righteous gentile, but didnt know that he was Swedish, or how great an impact he had on Hungarys Jewish community. I visited Budapest, where, in the garden of the Dohny Street Synagogue, I came upon a glistening stone plaque, engraved in gold, with hundreds of pebbles placed around its perimeter. I understood immediately that it was dedicated to a truly noble person and felt shocked to read Wallenbergs name. I had to go to Budapest to learn why my school had its name. Maybe if we had learned more about the eastern European communities themselves, I would have known more about Wallenberg than just his name.

I strongly recommend a visit to eastern Europe for anyone whos genuinely interested in Jewish history. My intention is not to criticize the education I received; I am an avid supporter of both Toronto Heschel School and TanenbaumCHAT. I do, however, recommend that their curriculums focus more on European Jewish life before it was brutally demolished, because the more we focus a spotlight on strife, the less we appreciate the preceding joy.

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Discovering the vibrant communities of eastern Europe before the Holocaust - Canadian Jewish News (blog)

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Posted By richards on July 4, 2017

Arab News

Israel's opposition Labour holds primary as influence wanes Arab News But at the same time, Peretz would risk alienating Ashkenazi voters of European origin, he added. Writing in Haaretz daily, political commentator Yossi Verter said the vote was Labour's last chance to rehabilitate itself, if only partially. Even if ... and more »

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Israel's opposition Labour holds primary as influence wanes - Arab News

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Posted By admin on July 4, 2017

Charlotte Silver Rights and Accountability 3 July 2017

Palestinians visit the Ibrahimi mosque in the occupied West Bank city of Hebron on 25 February 2014, 20 years to the day after an American Jewish settler opened fire killing 29 worshippers there.

Israel is refusing to give visas to a team of investigators with UNESCO who are scheduled to visit Hebrons Old City in the occupied West Bank.

The visit was to take place ahead of a July vote by the UN educational and cultural organization to consider the Old City an endangered World Heritage Site.

Calling the move principled and strategic, Israels ambassador to UNESCO, Carmel Shama Hacohen, said the UN teams visit was based on lies that plot against Israel.

The UNESCO team was to provide its findings to the International Council on Monuments and Sites, the body that considers which sites should be placed on the the World Heritage in Danger list.

Hacohen said the group was denied entry to Israel because in the past UNESCO had overruled the councils recommendations against placing sites in the occupied West Bank on the endangered list. It would be a shame to waste the time and money, Hacohen said, for the team to go to Hebron.

After UNESCO granted Palestine full membership in 2011, the Palestinian Authority applied for the agency to recognize the Church of Nativity in Bethlehem as an endangered World Heritage Site.

In 2014, UNESCO recognized the terraces of Battir in the occupied West Bank as a World Heritage Site, helping to protect the villages ancient agricultural landscape and culture from Israels plans to build its separation wall through it.

Hacohen described the planned UNESCO mission to Hebron as a broader campaign of lies that plot against the state of Israel as well as the history and the connection of the Jewish people to this important holy site.

Hebrons Old City is the site of the Ibrahimi mosque, known to Jews as the Cave of the Patriarchs. Muslims and Jews hold that this is where the prophet Abraham was buried.

It is one of 35 potential additions around the world that the World Heritage Committee will consider when it meets in Poland later this month.

On 25 February 1994, Baruch Goldstein an American Jewish settler from Brooklyn walked into the mosque during Ramadan prayers and opened fire, killing 29 Palestinian men and boys and injuring dozens more, before his victims overwhelmed him and beat him to death.

In the days immediately following the massacre, Israel took action not against the settlers but against Palestinians: Israeli forces killed and injured dozens more unarmed Palestinians protesting the mosque massacre across the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

This set the pattern: Israel escalated its repression of Palestinians, gradually allowing the settlers to take over more of the city.

The Ibrahimi mosque was partitioned between the settlers and Palestinians. In 1997, settlers were rewarded even further for Goldsteins massacre when the Palestinian Authority agreed to allow Israel to partition Hebron itself into two zones: H1 and H2.

H1 is nominally administered by the Palestinian Authority and is home to more than 120,000 Palestinians.

H2, under full Israeli military rule, includes Hebrons historic Old City as well as the Ibrahimi mosque.

Israeli occupation forces severely restrict the movement of thousands of Palestinians in H2 while about 800 Israeli settlers in the heart of the city move about freely under army protection, including on segregated roads.

According to the Israeli news website Ynet, Israel fears that including the Old City on UNESCOs World Heritage List, could impose limits on Israeli construction and protect the Ibrahimi mosque and areas around it from development.

Inclusion on the list could also heighten scrutiny of Israel when it erects new checkpoints in the Old City or carries out work that is damaging to the site.

In the last two years, checkpoints in the heart of Hebron have been the sites of numerous slayings of Palestinian civilians by Israeli occupation forces, which in a number of cases Amnesty International has urged be investigated as extrajudicial killings of persons who posed no threat to soldiers.

It was near such a checkpoint in March 2016 that Elor Azarya took aim and fired fatally at the head of injured and incapacitated Palestinian Abd al-Fattah al-Sharif, a videotaped killing for which the Israeli army medic received a slap on the wrist.

Ynet also reported that Israel was scrambling to find seven countries whose votes are needed to block the UNESCO motion, which also includes a clause rejecting Israels claim of sovereignty over occupied East Jerusalem.

In April, The Times of Israel reported that the Trump administration had instructed US diplomats to lobby UNESCO delegations to help Israel secure enough votes against a resolution that criticized Israels actions in Hebron and Bethlehem.

Meanwhile, Israel continues to prevent the entry of the United Nations special rapporteur on human rights in the occupied Palestinian territories.

According to the Palestinian Human Rights Organizations Council, Israel has not responded to any of Michael Lynks requests to conduct official visits. Lynk was appointed in 2016. Israel has prevented the entry of all UN special rapporteurs since 2008, according to the human rights groups.

Israel is obliged under the UN Charter to allow UN officials to access its territory.

Lynks predecssor, Makarim Wibisono, resigned in protest at Israels refusal to allow him to enter the occupied Palestinian territories.

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Israel fears endangered World Heritage status could thwart Hebron takeover - The Electronic Intifada (blog)

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