Posted By simmons on June 19, 2017
The Pursuit of Rabbi Dweck Jewish Chronicle When the Torah says an eye for an eye, the Talmud explains this is not taken literally but means monetary compensation must be paid for an injury. When the Torah specifies the death penalty of stoning, the Talmud explains it meant the offender was ... |
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Posted By admin on June 19, 2017
Ephraim Mirvis, the UKs chief rabbi, said public fallout from the dispute has been deeply divisive and damaging. Photograph: Facundo Arrizabalaga/EPA
The Orthodox Jewish community in the UK has been divided by a bitter row after a senior rabbis comments about homosexuality led to accusations of heresy and corruption.
The disagreement over a lecture given by Joseph Dweck last month has led to an intervention by the chief rabbi, Ephraim Mirvis, who said he was concerned about the public fallout from the dispute which has been deeply divisive and damaging for our community.
Dweck, the senior rabbi of the Sephardi community in the UK, has stepped aside from the day-to-day activities of the Beth Din, or religious court, in an attempt to defuse the row, which has broadened to encompass his teachings on a range of other issues.
In a 90-minute lecture given at a synagogue in Hendon, north London, Dweck emphasised that sexual intercourse between men was forbidden by the Torah but questioned attitudes towards gay people. There should not be witch-hunts, he said, adding there were plenty of skeletons in everybodys closet.
He went on: The entire revolution of feminism and even homosexuality in our society is a fantastic development for humanity.
Dweck said changes in social attitudes had forced us to look at how we deal with love between people of the same sex. And it has reduced the taboo of my children, of me, of my grandchildren being able to love another human being, same sex, genuinely to show affection to someone else, to hug and kiss someone else, to genuinely express love without worry of being seen as deviant and problematic.
The comments were swiftly criticised by ultra-Orthodox rabbis. Rabbi Aaron Bassous, the head of a Sephardi congregation in Golders Green, London, said the speech was false and misguided corrupt from beginning to end, and described Dweck as dangerous and poisonous.
Comparing his fellow rabbis views with the teachings of the reformers Conservative, Liberal [Jewish congregations] and their ilk, Bassous said: When is it dangerous? When you have someone who comes in front of you with two hats. Hes got the hat of an Orthodox [rabbi] and the hat of a Reform [rabbi]. From the outside, hes Orthodox, but his mouth spouts Reform.
Bassous said the London Beth Din should rule on Dwecks views, and if, in their view, [Dweck] is not an Orthodox rabbi, doesnt spout Orthodox views his Orthodox hat should be removed from him.
Dweck was also condemned by Shraga Feival Zimmerman, an influential rabbi in Gateshead, and by the Sephardic chief rabbi in Israel and many Orthodox Jews in the US.
Dweck claimed his words had been misunderstood and misinterpreted, adding: Important subjects that trouble our people should not be used for political positioning. He also said the word fantastic had been an exaggeration.
Sabah Zubaida, the president of the S&P Sephardi community, which comprises Jews of Spanish and Portuguese descent, said much of the criticism was based on misunderstandings, some deliberate and some not. More than 1,400 British Jews signed a petition supporting him.
Since the lecture, Dwecks views and teachings on a range of issues have been called into question, with some critics saying he had abandoned orthodoxy for liberalism.
Some within the Orthodox movement fear he is the subject of a political vendetta, although others are genuinely concerned about his views. This is not just about what he said regarding homosexuality its much broader and more complex than that, said a source.
Although Dweck has stepped aside from a decision-making role at the Sephardic Beth Din, his role as leader of the community continues. A spokesperson for Mirvis said the chief rabbi was working closely with Dweck and the leadership of the Sephardi community to offer guidance.
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Chief rabbi intervenes in Orthodox rabbis' row over homosexuality - The Guardian
Posted By simmons on June 19, 2017
Email a copy of "Palestinians Launch Fresh UNESCO Bid to Deny Jewish Ties to Hebron Holy Sites" to a friend
Israelis pray inside the Cave of the Patriarchs in the Old City of Hebron, on 23 September 2013, following the killing of an Israeli soldier the previous night. Photo: Wikicommons
Palestinian representatives at the global cultural and heritage organization UNESCO are campaigning for the Cave of the Patriarchs and the Old City in the West Bank town of Hebron to be designated as Endangered World Heritage Sites at a meeting of theWorld Heritage Committee in Poland next month.
A key holy site for the Jewish faith, the Cave of the Patriarchs known as the Machpela Cave in Hebrew housesthe tombs of Abraham and his wife Sarah, their son Isaac, and their grandson Jacob and his wife Leah.
The site is also revered by Muslims, who regard Abraham and his progeny as prophets belonging tothe pre-Islamic period.
June 19, 2017 4:37 pm
Since 2009, when the Palestinians gained entry to UNESCO, their strategy has been to force UNESCO to consider Jewish holy sites such as the Cave of the Patriarchs and the Western Wall in Jerusalem which they refer to as the Al-Buraq Wall as purely Islamic.
In July 2016, a UNESCO executive board meeting passed a resolution ignoring Jewish ties to the Western Wall and the Temple Mount. A similar measure concerning the Cave of the Patriarchs will nowbe discussed at UNESCOs 41st World Heritage Committee meeting in the Polish city of Krakow on July 12.
Jewish groups have begun mobilizing against the Palestinian effort. The Palestinians have declared their intention to once again hijack the Heritage Committee to take over the Machpela Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron, a site until now open to worshipers of all three monotheistic religions, said Shimon Samuels, the international relations director at the Simon Wiesenthal Center (SWC), and a veteran of the battles at UNESCO over Jewish holy sites in Jerusalem and the West Bank.
In a letter toProf. Jacek Purchla, the Polish chair of the forthcoming Krakow meeting, Samuels urgedhim to heed the advice ofthe International Council of Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS), the professional consultant to UNESCO on conserving world heritage sites. A Palestinian attempt in 2012 to gain exclusive control of the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem the birthplace of Jesus was opposed by ICOMOS, which determined that the church was being properly cared for by the Israeli authorities.
The Palestinians and their retinue must be restrained from further fast track tactics and mayhem to monopolize the session, at the cost of truly endangered sites awaiting attention, Samuels wrote to Purchla.As Chairperson, you cannot permit on Polish soil where a third of the Jewish people perished an outrageous theft of Judaisms narrative and heritage at a Krakow UN conference in the very shadow of Auschwitz-Birkenau.
On Friday, Stephane Dujarric, the spokesperson for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, said the international bodys chief was not planning to intervene in the current Hebron dispute.The Secretary-General believes that key issues between Israel and Palestinians need to be dealt with in direct negotiations, he said.
Hebron has been a flashpoint between Jews and Arabs for nearly a century. However, the Jewish community has consistently recognized the right of Muslims to access the site. At a UN General Assembly meeting in 2016, Israeli Ambassador Danny Danon produced a copy of a 1928 undertaking signed by the National Council of the Jews in the Land of Israel which stated that no-one has any intention of infringing on the right of Muslims to the places that are holy to them.
In 1929, Hebron was the site of an infamous massacre of more than sixty Jews murdered by Muslims convinced by their leaders of a Jewish plot to take over the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.
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Palestinians Launch Fresh UNESCO Bid to Deny Jewish Ties to ... - Algemeiner
Posted By richards on June 19, 2017
By Rabbi Jack Riemer/JNS.org
You dont need to be a scholar of Jewish music to enjoy Velvel Pasternaks new book, Behind the Music: Stories, Anecdotes, Articles & Reflections. You just need to be someone who wants to learn about the adventures of the author, a man who has done more than anyone else in our time to discover, record and transmit the treasures of Hasidic music.
Velvel, as everyone calls him, tells wonderful stories about his experiencesstories that will make you laugh, but also help you learn what lies behind some of the songs you think you already know.
How did Velvel get into the work of transcribing and recording Hasidic music? Once one of the children of the Bobover Rebbe came home from school singing a niggun (tune). When his father asked him where the niggun came from, the child had no idea it was his grandfathers melody. That was the day when the Bobover Rebbe realized his familys musical heritage needed to be recorded or it would disappear, and Velvel got the job.
Some of Velvels stories are hilarious. Once, the head honcho of the Hasidim told him not to make with his hands since the Hasidim would sing with their eyes closed anyway, because they were more concerned with expressing the melodys spiritual meaning than with paying attention to Velvel. He also told Velvel that the musicians he had hired to accompany the Hasidim would not be necessary, since the Hasidim would pay no attention to them. Velvel realized he was arguing with an irresistible force, so he let the Hasidim sing without trying to conduct them and dubbed in the musicians playing after the Hasidim left. The recording came out fine.
Velvels first album was a bestsellermuch to his surprise and to the Hasidims surprise. He went on to publish many more albums, rescuing treasures of Hasidic music that might otherwise have disappeared.
My favorite story from the book relates to the Hasidims request that Velvels recordings be autentic (how the Hasidim pronounced authentic). Velvel had no idea what autentic meant to them. He gathered a crew of 15 professional cantors to be the choir. The first song he chose was Siman Tov UMazel Tov, which is sung at many Jewish weddings. He dutifully transliterated it, using the Bobover dialect to please the rebbe, who had come along that night to make sure the recording would be autentic. But when the choir got to the words yihai looneymeaning it will be to us in English and more commonly pronounced by its Hebrew dialect, yehei lanuthey broke up in laughter and could not continue. They tried several times, but the same thing happened. Finally, the members of the choir went over to the Bobover Rebbe and tried to explain to him why they simply could not sing looney without laughing.
The rebbe listened politely and said, Let me tell you a story. He recounted how the cultural ambassador of the Ivory Coast once went to his counterpart, the cultural ambassador of Israel, and suggested they have a cultural exchange. The nations could send each other their singers and dancers, but with one condition: The Ivory Coasts dancers would dance naked from here to here, said the African nations envoy, drawing a line from his shoulders to his waist. The Israeli ambassador was shocked. He said, No way! If I were to let you do that, the minister of religion would hang me from a tree, and his people would throw stones at me as they passed by!
The Israeli ambassador offered a compromise. He said, You can wear whatever you want in your own country. But when you land at the airport here, I will be there and I will give you shmattes (rags) that you can put on and that you can wear while you are in my country. The Ivory Coast ambassador replied that if the dancers were to wear the shmattes, they might be able to dance well, but they would not be authentic.
Then the rebbe told the choir regarding their unwillingness to sing yihay looney in theBobover pronunciation, If you change the pronunciation of our song, it may sound nice to you, but believe me, it would not be authentic to us. And if the people of the Ivory Coast understand what is authentic, then you should too. That ended the discussion. The cantors sang yihay looney, after all.
The book is full of such stories. It contains fascinating material on some of the songs whose origins you think you know, but dont. For example, do you know why the French national anthem is sung at the grave of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai on Lag BOmer? Do you know where Naomi Shemer got the idea for Jerusalem of Gold? Or where Naftali Herz Imber got the music for Hatikvah, Israels national anthem?
Behind the Music is enriched with some wonderful photographs and tells readers where to find performances of every song the author discusses on YouTube. Even if you think you already know Jewish music, this book is worthwhile for the insights it provides into the worlds of Hasidim, classic Jewish cantorial music and Yiddish theater. And perhaps most importantly, youll get to know Velvel, the man who recorded a heritage and saved it for a new generation.
Behind the Music: Stories, Anecdotes, Articles & Reflections; by Velvel Pasternak; Tara Publications; May 2017; 229 pages; ISBN-10: 1495098966; ISBN-13: 978-1495098963.
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New book goes behind the scenes of Hasidic musical heritage - JNS.org
Posted By simmons on June 19, 2017
June 19, 2017 by Greg Hall, The Conversation Digitized strand of DNA. Credit: Mathagraphics/From http://www.shutterstock.com
With the availability of home genetic testing kits from companies such as "23andMe" and "Ancestry DNA," more people will be getting information about their genetic lineage and what races and ethnicities of the world are included in their DNA.
Geneticists, meanwhile, are also getting more tailored information about disease risk and prevalence as genetic testing in medical research centers continues.
Physicians accept that cystic fibrosis, for example, is much more common in people with Northern European ancestry and that sickle cell disease occurs dramatically more often in people with African origins. These commonly accepted racial and ethnic differences in disease prevalence are just the tip of the iceberg when looking at clinical differences that vary based on genetics.
But there's a problem, a recent study from the National Institutes of Health found. Many physicians and other providers are uncomfortable discussing race with their patients, and also reticent to connect race or ethnicity to genetics and clinical decision-making, the study suggested.
Overall, physician focus groups "asserted that genetics has a limited role in explaining racial differences in health," the authors added.
As a primary care physician who teaches urban health to medical students and as a state minority health commissioner who advocates for health equity, I see this as a problem that health care systems, and their providers, need to address.
The state of the science
Commercial DNA tests, such as those provided by 23andMe, not only give people their racial and ethnic lineage but also can provide a weighted risk for diabetes, stomach ulcers, cancer and many other diseases. In April, the FDA granted approval to 23andMe to sell reports to consumers that tell them whether they may be at heightened risk.
These companies already have the data that describe the risks for health problems based on the percentage of their ancestry composition. Those differences have been published and known in academic circles for many years. With the widespread availability of DNA tests, patients will now know their increased individual risks.
For example, Ashkenazi Jews, a specific Jewish ethnic population originating from Central and Eastern Europe, are known for having a disproportionate occurrence of a number of diseases, including Tay-Sachs disease, amyloidosis, breast cancer, colon cancer and many more.
The BRCA1/2 gene mutation greatly increases the propensity for breast and colon cancer and occurs in 1 in 40 people of Ashkenazi Jewish heritage, whereas 1 in 800 Americans in general carry that mutation. This 20-fold increased risk should prompt more aggressive screening for the gene, and more frequent and earlier mammography and colonoscopies in Ashkenazi Jews compared to the general population.
Relatively higher rates of these cancers occur in certain populations, such as Ashkenazi Jews, and demonstrates the need for more nuanced care based on data that is already available. But this information is too infrequently accessed by providers.
Genetics knowledge growing fast
African-Americans are another group with higher rates of certain genetically driven diseases. African-American men have an increased occurrence of prostate cancer, kidney failure, stroke and other health problems. Prostate cancer in African-American men, for example, grows faster and metastasizes four times as often than in European-Americans.
But despite this increased risk for prostate cancer, doctors' use of the PSA (prostate specific antigen), a test that works well with identifying prostate cancer in African-Americans, has steadily decreased due to recommendations aimed at majority patients who come from European-related heritage. In European-Americans, prostate cancer can be more indolent and occurs at a lower rate than African-Americans.
Also, certain types of blood pressure medications ACE inhibitors, for example lead to worse outcomes in African-Americans when used singularly as first-line therapy for high blood pressure, yet these medications work very well in Americans of European decent, a large study of hypertension therapy found.
A follow-up study that looked at subsequent clinical practices which was done in response to changed recommendations based on race showed nearly a third of African-American hypertensive patients continued to be prescribed medications that cause worse outcomes.
African-Americans also have a four-fold increased risk for renal disease leading to dialysis. Geneticists suspect that they have identified the gene that drives this difference yet most clinicians do not have the resources to test for this gene and identify the 30 percent of African-Americans that carry it.
And a gene that greatly increases the risk for Alzheimer's disease, APOE-4, has also been identified and occurs disproportionately higher in European-Americans yet is almost nonexistent in African-Americans and is inconsistent in Hispanic-Americans. Great controversy exists surrounding the testing for this gene, given the devastating impact it could have on a patient or family. (Hispanic and African-Americans still have a very significant risk for Alzheimer's disease, but it is not driven by this gene).
Genetically different responses to medications
Patient response to medications vary according to the presence or absence of genetic variants, which can impact the dose and the effect of many pharmaceuticals. Some of these differences can be anticipated based on race or ethnicity. For example, Warfarin is a commonly used medication in the treatment of a number of cardiovascular disorders including atrial fibrillation, deep vein thrombosis and heart valve replacement. It shows wide variations in dosing, with Americans of Asian descent requiring less medication and African-Americans requiring more to achieve equal effects. European-Americans have a variant gene that make having a major bleed on Warfarin much higher.
A popular cholesterol-lowering medication, Rosuvastatin, better known as trade name Crestor, is twice as powerful in patients of Asian descent, and their manufacturing label indicates starting at a much lower dose in this population. In fact, the highest manufactured pill dose of Crestor is "contraindicated in Asian patients."
Patient-centered care is the key
Because of the "patient-centered" movement in hospitals, clinics and insurance plans, providers are now feeling increased pressure to improve the quality of care provided to individual patients. Many outcomes and patient cost of care are now tracked by providers. And countless well-designed studies have validated verified differences in the clinical care of a number of pervasive diseases based on ancestry.
Providers need to educate themselves about the important differences that exist in their patient populations. Health disparities, while driven by a number of social factors, are also the result of some clinicians not applying known nuances in the care of special populations.
As home genetic testing grows, patients will be bringing their results to physicians for reaction and response. Physicians will need to be proactively prepared.
Explore further: Sequencing prostate tumors from African-American men reveals a novel tumor suppressor gene
This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.
African-American men develop prostate cancer more often than other men, and it tends to be more deadly for this population. Some of the differences seem to be due to socioeconomic factors, but scientists wondered whether ...
Most studies reporting the prevalence of breast- and ovarian-cancer causing genes have been conducted with Caucasian women, leaving questions about the role that these same genes play in African American patients with inherited ...
Genetic testing of mitochondrial DNA could reveal otherwise unknown ancestry that can influence a person's risk for certain types of breast cancer, a new study finds.
Administering chemotherapy to African-American breast cancer patients prior to surgery could improve their prognosis and survival rates from the disease, according to a new study.
Prostate cancer in African-American men is associated with specific changes in the IL-16 gene, according to researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Medicine.
A University of North Carolina Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center-led study has identified genetic differences in tumors of African-Americans with the most common type of kidney cancer compared with whites.
Researchers have identified mutations in a gene called CARD11 that lead to atopic dermatitis, or eczema, an allergic skin disease. Scientists from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of ...
A major new international study has revealed for the first time that some features in a baby's DNA can increase the risk of its mother developing pre-eclampsiaa potentially dangerous condition in pregnancy.
Genetic screening of Chinese patients with frontotemporal dementia (FTD) indicates that different genetic constitution in different populations could cause the same disease.
Scientists in the U.K. and India have observed a "significant" lack of 'editing' in microRNAs in brain tissue of brain cancer patients.
Cleft lip and/or palate are common birth defects and affect around 15 in every 10,000 births in Europe. New research by the University of Bristol from the largest study of cleft lip and/or palate in the world, the Cleft Collective, ...
For many patients, participating in gene therapy clinical trials isn't an option because their immune system recognizes and fights the helpful virus used for treatment. Now, University of Florida Health and University of ...
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Posted By admin on June 19, 2017
A Torah scroll. Photo: Rabbisacks.org.
I am returning to last weeks subject of homosexuality in Judaism and the personal attacks on Rabbi Joseph Dweck, because the ramifications are still very troubling.
The illogical, political and personal attacks on Rabbi Dweck have led him totake a leave of absence from the Sephardi Beth Din in London. The Sephardi Beth Din is made up of several different constituencies. Most are unduly influenced by Ashkenazi pressure, and many are not as enlightened or open-minded as the Spanish and Portuguese Jewish community.
Let me start by explaining who the Spanish and Portuguese Jewish communities are, and why the views of Rabbi Dweck areso important in Jewish life.
June 19, 2017 2:57 pm
The Spanish and Portuguese Jews (the S&P) trace their unique customs, liturgy and pronunciation to Jews who fled Iberia for Northern Europe and the New World some 500 years ago. They established their communities first in Amsterdam, where their originalsynagogue survives in all its glory to this day.
They then entered Britain illegally. Cromwell, despite his willingness and the arguments of Amsterdams brilliant and enlightened Rabbi Manasseh Ben Israel, couldnt get Parliament to overturn Edward the Firsts ban on Jewish settlement. Antisemitism has a long and despicable history in the UK. But Cromwellturned a blind eye, andthe Spanish and Portuguese Jewsre-established the modern Jewish presence in London. Their first synagogue, Bevis Marks, was completed in 1701 with beams, it is said, donated by Queen Ann herself. Other S&P synagoguessoon opened up in the United States and North America.
But theoriginal S&P membership has all but disappeared. For years now, they have drawn on other communitiesSephardi and even Ashkenazifor their membership and religious leadership. Theirpresent rabbi is an Ashkenazi, highly educated and open-minded, from the Soloveitchik family.
In London, the S&P was the power and the authority of the Anglo-Jewish community. In the 19th century, the influx of Ashkenazi Jews from Central and Eastern Europe changed the character of Anglo Jewry. Eventually, the Ashkenazistook over. The United Synagogue and its chief rabbinate became the decisive force in Anglo Jewry for the next hundred years. But slowly, the United Synagogue, like IsraelsChief Rabbinate, came under pressure from a different breedof Jews more aggressive, expansionist and fundamentalist.
Although UK mainstream Orthodoxy was never that strictly Orthodox, it prided itself on its inclusiveness and its tolerance. But as the haredi world grew, the Chief Rabbinate of the United Synagogue failed to stand up for its constituency. Its chief rabbis failed in their mission to preserve the island of open tolerance and moderation that had been established in Anglo-Jewish communities.
I have no problem with haredi rabbis running their own affairs. They should. It is when they interfere with others when they try to bully those they disagree with, andthey seek to change a community of a different tradition that I say they have overstepped their mark, and should be put firmly back into place. Not only that, but the behavior of some of them invalidates their own Orthodoxy becausethe calumnies that they have spread are clear violations of Jewish law.
Both the Sephardi and Ashkenazi worlds have their extremes and their varieties. I am not saying that one is right, and the other is wrong. There is a lot to be said for closed communities, just as there is for open ones. Butboth have their dangers. If I had to choose, I would choosethe charedi world. I am simply arguing for variety, for choiceto let others live the way that they want to.
Within Jewish law, within its constitution, there is room for variety and civilized disagreement. There is a strict side and a lenient one. A rational side and a mystical one. Ashkenazi, Sephardi, Chasidic, Lithuanian;open and closed;nationalist and anti-nationalist. Each constituency is different. This is the glory of the Torah. Let us not demean it.
The S&P must stand firm as a bastion of Torah sanity and moderation. I congratulate them on their support for Rabbi Dweck. I hope they will continue to resist the fanatics, and that the Beth Din will have the good sense to ask Rabbi Dweck back. Anglo Jewry needs rabbis like him.
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Posted By richards on June 19, 2017
WASHINGTON (JTA) The Anti-Defamation League urged authorities to probe the slaying of a Muslim girl in suburban Virginia as a hate crime.
We urge the Fairfax County Police Department to investigate the murder as a possible bias crime, Doron Ezickson, the ADLs DC director, said in a statement Monday. ADL has communicated that to law enforcement and we have reached out to ADAMS to offer any assistance.
ADAMS is the acronym for the All Dulles Area Muslim Society, the mosque that Nabra Hassanen had worshiped at in Washingtons northern Virginia suburbs in the pre-dawn hours Sunday before heading to a restaurant with friends for breakfast. Muslims fast from dawn to dusk during the month of Ramadan.
A motorist confronted the friends and assaulted the victim as they were walking back to the mosque, according to reports. All but Hassanen fled to the mosque, where people alerted authorities. Hassanens body was found later in a pond.
Police arrested Darwin Martinez Torres, 22, and he was charged with murder, but told the Washington Post they were not investigating the killing as a hate crime.
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ADL Urges Hate Crime Probe In Virginia Killing Of Muslim Girl - Forward
Posted By richards on June 19, 2017
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The Anti-Defamation League applauded last weeks resolution from the Southern Baptist Convention condemning the alt-right, calling the group insidious and hateful.
Steps like those of the SBC to clearly repudiate the movement go a long way toward raising awareness of the danger of the alt-right, wrote the ADLs Rabbi David Sandmel in an op-ed at Religion News Service.
Sandmel framed the conventions move in the context of what the ADL described as a general rise in intolerance, including the trolling of Jewish journalists on social media, as well as the harassment of Muslims and immigrants.
At a time when nooses and racist flyers are cropping up with shocking regularity on college campuses, and when swastikas and other graffiti have appeared at Jewish institutions and cemeteries, Sandmel wrote, it is imperative that major religious denominations step up and denounce this insidious and hateful movement, which is encouraging this activity.
Email Sam Kestenbaum at kestenbaum@forward.com and follow him on Twitter at @skestenbaum
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ADL: Southern Baptists Were Right To Condemn 'Alt-Right' - Forward
Posted By simmons on June 19, 2017
Photo: Tyler Sizemore / Hearst Connecticut Media
A police car is reflected in the window where a Swastika written in fecal matter was found on Rich Forum in Stamford, Conn. Monday, June 18, 2017.
A police car is reflected in the window where a Swastika written in fecal matter was found on Rich Forum in Stamford, Conn. Monday, June 18, 2017.
Police investigate the scene where a Swastika written in fecal matter was found on the windows of Rich Forum in Stamford, Conn. Monday, June 18, 2017.
Police investigate the scene where a Swastika written in fecal matter was found on the windows of Rich Forum in Stamford, Conn. Monday, June 18, 2017.
Jewish leaders call for more security after slur drawn in feces on Stamford window
STAMFORD Jewish community leaders called for more security in the city after someone used fecal matter to smear a swastika and the Star of David near the entrance of the Rich Forum Media Center on Atlantic Street.
Workers at the theater, where filming of the Jerry Springer Show, Maury Show, and Steve Wilkos Show takes place, called police to report the slur on Monday morning.
By the time police arrived at the theater, the swastika, Star of David and another symbol what could be a question mark or the number 2 had been cleaned off the window, said Sgt. Steve Perrotta.
Lt. Tom Barcello, who is in charge of the major crime squad, said discovering anti-semitic slurs in Stamford is rare.
But Lauren Steinberg, director of the Jewish Federation of Greater Stamford, New Canaan and Dariens Jewish Community Relations Council, said instances of anti-Semitism occurs more often than one might expect.
Unfortunately anti-Semitism remains a pervasive element in our communities that we see increasingly more incidents of, Steinberg said. This is a reminder to the Jewish community that we need to ensure our security and safety.
And to the Stamford community as a whole, it is important for us to stand together as neighbors against antisemitism, racism and bigotry of all forms.
Investigators are working to obtain security footage of the incident, which happened Sunday night, Perrotta said. Employees gave police a picture of the glass panel near the entrance, where the slurs were written.
A Stamford crime scene investigator discovered what appeared to be a cup of feces and a latex glove around the corner on Tresser Boulevard and put the items in a bag before loading them it into a police car, possibly for DNA analysis.
Steve Ginsburg, regional director of the Anti-Defamation League, said for the past 70 years or so the symbol of the swastika has been closely connected to the Nazis and efforts to create a white supreme race.
Ginsburg said there has been a significant rise and spike in the use of hate symbols in Connecticut and across the United States over the past year, beginning last summer.
From 2015 to 2016 the number of reported anti-Semitic incidents in Connecticut rose by 68 percent, according to the Anti-Defamation League. There were 38 such incidents in 2016 and 25 were categorized as harassment or threats, 12 were acts of vandalism and one was an assault.
Perrotta said police have a screen shot of the video, which they said shows a man walking away right after he puts a latex glove on and smears the feces onto the glass panel along Atlantic Street, a half block south of the new Bobby Valentines sports bar and restaurant.
The screen shot, however, does not show the mans face and police are hoping the entire video will help them identify the suspect, who appeared to be wearing khaki shorts over a pair of jeans.
Ginsburg urged residents against complacency with hate speech.
This has become on of the premier anti-Semitic ways of expressing hate and anti-Semitism, Ginsburg said. It is deeply offensive and hits to the core of anyone who lived through or has a relative who was lost during the Holocaust.
The right response is to shine a light on it (instances of anti-Semitism) and have other community leaders expresses that this is not who we are.
Martin Cassidy contributed reporting
Posted By admin on June 18, 2017
The Jerusalem Post mobile website | Fundamentally Freund: Rock & roll Zionism The Jerusalem Post mobile website Of all the places in the world to experience a Zionist rite of passage, the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland would appear to be the most unlikely of locations. Walking the halls adorned by memorabilia such as Elvis Presley's golden jacket, David ... |
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Fundamentally Freund: Rock & roll Zionism - The Jerusalem Post mobile website
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