Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By richards on June 16, 2017

Theannual block party celebrating atrifecta of treats egg rolls, egg creams, and empanadas is hitting the streets of the Lower East Side this weekend. Yup, now in its 17th season, the Museum at Eldridge Streets festival will once again commemoratethe diverse communities of the neighborhood, by way of food, performances, games, and hands-on demonstrations.

As in years prior, there will be performances byFrank London and band,theChinatown Senior Center Orchestra, East River Ensemble, and Cantor Eric Freeman. Puerto Rican bomba music will fill the streets, while Hebrew and Chinese scribal art is showcased. Other activities include yarmulke making, Puerto Rican mask making, and plenty ofof mah jongg to go around. Plus, you can watch food demos, including how to make kreplach, dumplings, and empanadas. And, lest we forget, there will be kosher egg rolls, egg creams, and empanadas for sale.

Festivities kick of this Sunday, June 18 at noon, at the Museum at Eldridge Street (aka Eldridge Street Synagogue).

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Celebrate 'Egg Rolls, Egg Creams, and Empanadas' with the ... - Bowery Boogie

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Posted By admin on June 16, 2017

Patch.com

Upper West Side Synagogue Tapped For Registers of Historic Places Patch.com UPPER WEST SIDE, NY An Upper West Side synagogue is one of 22 properties being recommended to the State and National Registers of Historic Places by the New York State Board for Historic Preservation, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced Thursday.

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Upper West Side Synagogue Tapped For Registers of Historic Places - Patch.com

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Posted By admin on June 16, 2017

What is 'Holocaust Denial'?

By Barbara Kulaszka

In recent years, considerable attention has been devoted to the supposed danger of "Holocaust denial." Politicians, newspapers and television warn about the growing influence of those who reject the Holocaust story that some six million European Jews were systematically exterminated during the Second World War, most of them in gas chambers.

In several countries, including Israel, France, Germany and Austria, "Holocaust denial" is against the law, and "deniers" have been punished with stiff fines and prison sentences. Some Jewish community leaders have called for similar measures in North America. In Canada, David Matas, Senior Counsel for the "League for Human Rights" of the Zionist B'nai B'rith organization, says: [1]

"The Holocaust was the murder of six million Jews, including two million children. Holocaust denial is a second murder of those same six million. First their lives were extinguished; then their deaths. A person who denies the Holocaust becomes part of the crime of the Holocaust itself."

Often overlooked in this controversy is the crucial question: Just what constitutes "Holocaust denial"?

Six Million?

Should someone be considered a "Holocaust denier" because he does not believe - as Matas and many others insist - that six million Jews were killed during World War II? This figure was cited by the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg in 1945-1946. It found that "the policy pursued [by the German government] resulted in the killing of six million Jews, of which four million were killed in the extermination institutions." [2]

Yet if that is so, then several of the most prominent Holocaust historians could be regarded as "deniers." Professor Raul Hilberg, author of the standard reference work, The Destruction of the European Jews, does not accept that six million Jews died. He puts the total of deaths (from all causes) at 5.1 million. Gerald Reitlinger, author of The Final Solution, likewise did not accept the six million figure. He estimated the figure of Jewish wartime dead might be as high as 4.6 million, but admitted that this was conjectural due to a lack of reliable information.

Human Soap?

Is someone a "Holocaust denier" if he says that the Nazis did not make soap from the corpses of murdered Jews? After considering the evidence - including an actual bar of soap supplied by the Soviets - the Nuremberg Tribunal declared in its Judgment that "in some instances attempts were made to utilize the fat from the bodies of the victims in the commercial manufacture of soap." [3]

In 1990, though, Israel's official Yad Vashem Holocaust center "rewrote history" by admitting that the soap story was not true. "Historians have concluded that soap was not made from human fat. When so many people deny the Holocaust ever happened, why give them something to use against the truth?," said Yad Vashem official Shmuel Krakowski. [4]

Wannsee Conference?

Is someone a "Holocaust denier" if he does not accept that the January 1942 "Wannsee conference" of German bureaucrats was held to set or coordinate a program of systematic mass murder of Europe's Jews? If so, Israeli Holocaust historian Yehuda Bauer must be wrong - and a "Holocaust denier" - because he declared: "The public still repeats, time after time, the silly story that at Wannsee the extermination of the Jews was arrived at." In Bauer's opinion, Wannsee was a meeting but "hardly a conference" and "little of what was said there was executed in detail." [5]

Extermination Policy?

Is someone a "Holocaust denier" if he says that there was no order by Hitler to exterminate Europe's Jews? There was a time when the answer would have been yes. Holocaust historian Raul Hilberg, for example, wrote in the 1961 edition of his study, The Destruction of the European Jews, that there were two Hitler orders for the destruction of Europe's Jews: the first given in the spring of 1941, and the second shortly thereafter. But Hilberg removed mention of any such order from the revised, three-volume edition of his book published in 1985. [6] As Holocaust historian Christopher Browning has noted: [7]

"In the new edition, all references in the text to a Hitler decision or Hitler order for the 'Final Solution' have been systematically excised. Buried at the bottom of a single footnote stands the solitary reference: 'Chronology and circumstances point to a Hitler decision before the summer ended.' In the new edition, decisions were not made and orders were not given."

A lack of hard evidence for an extermination order by Hitler has contributed to a controversy that divides Holocaust historians into "intentionalists" and "functionalists." The former contend that there was a premeditated extermination policy ordered by Hitler, while the latter hold that Germany's wartime "final solution" Jewish policy evolved at lower levels in response to circumstances. But the crucial point here is this: notwithstanding the capture of literally tons of German documents after the war, no one can point to documentary evidence of a wartime extermination order, plan or program. This was admitted by Professor Hilberg during his testimony in the 1985 trial in Toronto of German-Canadian publisher Ernst Zndel. [8]

Auschwitz

So just what constitutes "Holocaust denial"? Surely a claim that most Auschwitz inmates died from disease and not systematic extermination in gas chambers would be "denial." But perhaps not. Jewish historian Arno J. Mayer, a Princeton University professor, wrote in his 1988 study Why Did the Heavens Not Darken?: The 'Final Solution' in History: "...From 1942 to 1945, certainly at Auschwitz , but probably overall, more Jews were killed by so-called 'natural' causes than by 'unnatural' ones." [9]

Even estimates of the number of people who died at Auschwitz - allegedly the main extermination center - are no longer clear cut. At the postwar Nuremberg Tribunal, the Allies charged that the Germans exterminated four million people at Auschwitz. [10] Until 1990, a memorial plaque at Auschwitz read: "Four Million People Suffered and Died Here at the Hands of the Nazi Murderers Between the Years 1940 and 1945." [11]

Is it "Holocaust denial" to dispute these four million deaths? Not today. In July 1990, the Polish government's Auschwitz State Museum, along with Israel's Yad Vashem Holocaust center, conceded that the four million figure was a gross exaggeration, and references to it were accordingly removed from the Auschwitz monument. Israeli and Polish officials announced a tentative revised toll of 1.1 million Auschwitz dead. [12] In 1993, French Holocaust researcher Jean-Claude Pressac, in a much-discussed book about Auschwitz, estimated that altogether about 775,000 died there during the war years. [13]

Professor Mayer acknowledges that the question of how many really died in Auschwitz remains open. In Why Did the Heavens Not Darken? he wrote: [14}

"... Many questions remain open ... All in all, how many bodies were cremated in Auschwitz? How many died there all told? What was the national, religious, and ethnic breakdown in this commonwealth of victims? How many of them were condemned to die a 'natural' death and how many were deliberately slaughtered? And what was the proportion of Jews among those murdered in cold blood among these gassed? We have simply no answers to these questions at this time."

Gas Chambers

What about denying the existence of extermination "gas chambers"? Here too, Mayer makes a startling statement: "Sources for the study of the gas chambers are at once rare and unreliable." While Mayer believes that such chambers did exist at Auschwitz, he points out that "most of what is known is based on the depositions of Nazi officials and executioners at postwar trials and on the memory of survivors and bystanders. This testimony must be screened carefully, since it can be influenced by subjective factors of great complexity." [15}

Hss Testimony

One example of this might be the testimony of Rudolf Hss, an SS officer who served as commandant of Auschwitz. In its Judgment, the Nuremberg International Military Tribunal quoted at length from his testimony to support its findings of extermination. [16]

It is now well established that Hss' crucial testimony, as well as his so-called "confession" - which was also cited by the Nuremberg Tribunal - are not only false, but were obtained by beating the former commandant nearly to death. [17] Hss' wife and children were also threatened with death and deportation to Siberia. In his statement - which would not be admissible today in any United States court of law - Hss claimed the existence of an extermination camp called "Wolzek." In fact, no such camp ever existed. He further claimed that during the time that he was commandant of Auschwitz, two and a half million people were exterminated there, and that a further half million died of disease. [18] Today no reputable historian upholds these figures. Hss was obviously willing to say anything, sign anything and do anything to stop the torture, and to try to save himself and his family.

Forensic Investigations

In his 1988 book, Professor Mayer calls for "excavations at the killing sites and in their immediate environs" to determine more about the gas chambers. In fact, such forensic studies have been made. The first was conducted in 1988 by American execution equipment consultant, Fred A. Leuchter, Jr. He carried out an on-site forensic examination of the alleged gas chambers at Auschwitz, Birkenau and Majdanek to determine if they could have been used to kill people as claimed. After a careful study of the alleged killing facilities, Leuchter concluded that the sites were not used, and could not have been used, as homicidal gas chambers. Furthermore, an analysis of samples taken by Leuchter from the walls and floors of the alleged gas chambers showed either no or minuscule traces of cyanide compound, from the active ingredient of Zyklon B, the pesticide allegedly used to murder Jews at Auschwitz. [19]

A confidential forensic examination (and subsequent report) commissioned by the Auschwitz State Museum and conducted by Institute of Forensic Research in Krakow has confirmed Leuchter's finding that minimal or no traces of cyanide compound can be found in the sites alleged to have been gas chambers. [20]

The significance of this is evident when the results of the forensic examination of the alleged homicidal gas chambers are compared with the results of the examination of the Auschwitz disinfestation facilities, where Zyklon B was used to delouse mattresses and clothing. Whereas no or only trace amounts of cyanide were found in the alleged homicidal gas chambers, massive traces of cyanide were found in the walls and floor in the camp's disinfestation delousing chambers.

Another forensic study was carried out by German chemist Germar Rudolf. On the basis of his on-site examination and analysis of samples, the certified chemist and doctoral candidate concluded: "For chemical-technical reasons, the claimed mass gassings with hydrocyanic acid in the alleged 'gas chambers' in Auschwitz did not take place ... The supposed facilities for mass killing in Auschwitz and Birkenau were not suitable for this purpose..." [21]

There is also the study of Austrian engineer Walter Lftl, a respected expert witness in numerous court cases, and former president of Austria's professional association of engineers. In a 1992 report he called the alleged mass extermination of Jews in gas chambers "technically impossible." [22]

Discredited Perspective

So just what constitutes "Holocaust denial"? Those who support criminal persecution of "Holocaust deniers" seem to be still living in the world of 1946 where the Allied officials of the Nuremberg Tribunal have just pronounced their verdict. But the Tribunal's findings can no longer be assumed to be valid. Because it relied so heavily on such untrustworthy evidence as the Hss testimony, some of its most critical findings are now discredited.

For purposes of their own, powerful special interest groups desperately seek to keep substantive discussion of the Holocaust story taboo. One of the ways they do this is by purposely mischaracterizing revisionist scholars as "deniers." But the truth can't be suppressed forever: There is a very real and growing controversy about what actually happened to Europe's Jews during World War II.

Let this issue be settled as all great historical controversies are resolved: through free inquiry and open debate in our journals, newspapers and classrooms.

Notes

1. The Globe and Mail (Toronto), Jan. 22, 1992.

2. Trial of the Major War Criminals Before the International Military Tribunal (IMT "blue series"), Vol. 22, p. 496.

3. IMT "blue series," Vol. 22, p. 496.

4. The Globe and Mail (Toronto), April 25, 1990; See also: M. Weber, "Jewish Soap," The Journal of Historical Review, Summer 1991.

5. The Canadian Jewish News (Toronto), Jan. 30, 1992, p. 8.

6. See: Barbara Kulaszka, ed., Did Six Million Really Die: Report of the Evidence in the Canadian 'False News' Trial of Ernst Zndel (Toronto: Samisdat, 1992), pp. 192, 300, 349.

7. C. Browning, "The Revised Hilberg," Simon Wiesenthal Annual, Vol. 3, 1986, p. 294; B. Kulaszka, ed., Did Six Million Really Die (1992), p. 117.

8. B. Kulaszka, ed., Did Six Million Really Die (1992), pp. 24-25.

9. A. Mayer, Why Did the Heavens Not Darken?: The 'Final Solution' in History (Pantheon, 1988), p. 365.

10. Nuremberg document 008-USSR, in IMT "blue series," Vol. 39, pp. 241, 261.

11. B. Kulaszka, ed., Did Six Million Really Die (1992), p. 441.

12. Y. Bauer, "Fighting the Distortions," The Jerusalem Post (Israel), Sept. 22, 1989; "Auschwitz Deaths Reduced to a Million," The Daily Telegraph (London), July 17, 1990; " Poland Reduces Auschwitz Death Toll Estimate to 1 Million," The Washington Times, July 17, 1990.

13. J.-C. Pressac, Les Crmetoires d'Auschwitz: La machinerie du meurtre de masse (Paris: CNRS, 1993), p. 148. See also: R. Faurisson, "Jean-Claude Pressac's New Auschwitz Book," The Journal of Historical Review, Jan.-Feb. 1994, p. 24.

14. A. Mayer, Why Did the Heavens Not Darken? (1988), p. 366.

15. A. Mayer, Why Did the Heavens Not Darken? (1988), pp. 362-363.

16. IMT "blue series," Vol. 1, pp. 251-252; Nuremberg document 3868-PS, in IMT "blue series," Vol. 33, pp. 275-279.

17. Rupert Butler, Legions of Death (England: 1983), pp. 235-237.

18. See: R. Faurisson, "How the British Obtained the Confession of Rudolf Hss," The Journal of Historical Review, Winter 1986-87, pp. 389-403.

19. See, for example: B. Kulaszka, ed., Did Six Million Really Die (1992), pp. 469-502. See also: M. Weber, "Fred Leuchter: Courageous Defender of Historical Truth," The Journal of Historical Review, Winter 1992-93, pp. 421-428 ( http://www.ihr.org/jhr/v12/v12p421_Weber.html )

20. "An Official Polish Report on the Auschwitz 'Gas Chambers'," The Journal of Historical Review, Summer 1991, pp. 207-216.

21. G. Rudolf, Gutachten ueber die Bildung und Nachweisbarkeit von Cyanidverbindungen in den 'Gaskammern' von Auschwitz (London: 1993) (http://www.vho.org/D/rga/ ); The Rudolf Report (in English) ( http://www.vho.org/GB/Books/trr/ )

22. "The 'Lftl Report'," The Journal of Historical Review, Winter 1992-93.

About the Author

Barbara Kulaszka is a Canadian lawyer who practices law in Brighton, Ontario. She is best known for her work in free speech cases. During the 1988 "Holocaust trial" in Toronto, she served a co-counsel (with Doug Christie) for defendant Ernst Zundel. In 1999 she was awarded the "George Orwell Award" by the Canadian Free Speech League.

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What is 'Holocaust Denial'?

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Posted By richards on June 16, 2017

Many recessive diseases caused by genetic mutations among Ashkenazi Jews from Eastern Europe are disabling and fatal. They occur when a fetus inherits two mutations in the same gene, one from each parent. Tests can determine if people carry the common mutations, and prenatal testing is possible for all the diseases included on the list below. Cystic Fibrosis and Spinal Muscular Atrophy, while slightly more prevalent among Jewish Caucasian populations than among other Caucasian populations, are not primarily considered Jewish diseases. If both parents are carriers of the same disease there is a one in four chance with each pregnancy of having an affected fetus. This is the autosomal recessive pattern of inheritance where both individuals must carry the same disease in order to be at risk of having an affected child.

Recent research also indicates Crohns disease, Ulcertative Colitis, and a mutation which increases the chance of developing Parkinsons disease are all more commonly found in Ashkenazi Jews. Bloom Syndrome Bloom Syndrome hinders normal growth. Children typically reach a maximum of five feet at maturity. Other symptoms include increased respiratory and ear infections, redness of the face, infertility in males and an increased risk of cancer.

Apparently normal at birth, babies with Canavan Disease develop an enlarged head, mental retardation, feeding difficulties and seizures. Although many die in the first year of life, some live into their teens.

Familial Dysautonomia This dysfunction of the autonomic nervous system has been found only in Ashkenazi Jews. Occurring in infancy, symptoms include the inability to produce tears when crying, poor weight gain, indifference to pain, excessive sweating, gastrointestinal problems and incorrect perceptions of heat and taste. Before 1960, approximately 50 percent of patients died before age five, but today that same percentage reaches age 30.

All five types of Fanconi Anemia, a red and white blood cell and platelet deficiency, are inherited, but Type C is the most common in Ashkenazi Jews. Although symptoms are highly variable, physical abnormalities such as limb defects, bone marrow failure, and increased cancer risks are common. Many children who are diagnosed with Type C do not survive beyond young adulthood.

Caused by an enzyme deficiency, the symptoms of Gaucher Disease are variable and can present any time from early childhood to adulthood. Gaucher disease type 1 causes orthopedic problems and blood abnormalities. Gaucher disease is treatable with enzyme replacement therapy.

Its first symptoms are severe developmental delays and clouding of the cornea of the eye during early infancy. As it progresses, ML IV cripples the central nervous system. Most afflicted children never walk and some become severely retarded by age three.

Among its five variations, only Type A is more frequent among Ashkenazi Jews. By six months, infants with Type A experience difficulty feeding and recurrent vomiting, and develop enlarged spleens and livers. Children with Niemann-Pick disease type A usually die by age three.

A severe neurodegenerative disease, the most common symptom is the development of a cherry-red spot on the back of the eye, which occurs when a child is four to eight months old. Most children are totally debilitated with seizures, blindness, and spasticity by age three and die by age five.

Other diseases of connection to Ashkenazi Jews are Glycogen Storage Disease type 1A, Maple Syrup Urine Disease, Familial Hyperinsulinism, Joubert Syndrome Type 2, Lipoamide Dehydrogenase Deficiency (E3), Nemaline Myopathy, Usher Syndrome Type 3, Usher Syndrom Type I, and Walker Warburg Syndrome.

NOTE: There are also diseases which are more prevalent in people with Ashkenazi Jewish heritage. They are autosomal dominant, where an individual carrying a mutation is affected, and then has a 50% chance to pass on the mutation to his/her children, including:

Torsion Dystonia Affecting movement control, Torsion Dystonia generally shows up between the ages of six and 16 and affects the muscular development of limbs. Approximately one in 3,000 Ashkenazis is likely to develop it, and symptoms sometimes develop when there is no family history.

5-10% of breast and ovarian cancers are hereditary. Of those, ~85% are due to mutations in the BRCA genes, which cause hereditary breast and ovarian cancer. 1 in 40 Ashkenazi Jews carry a mutation in the BRCA genes. There are three specific mutations (two in the BRCA1 gene and one in the BRCA2 gene) in the Ashkenazi Jewish population. If an Ashkenazi Jewish woman carries a BRCA mutation, most of the time it is one of the three founder mutations previously discussed.

Sephardi Jews, whose ancestry can be traced to North African and Mediterranean countries, including Spain and Greece, suffer from the same genetic diseases as other populations in these countries. Jews of Sephardi ancestry also have their own set of distinct carrier screening tests based on their country of origin.

This disorder reducing the amount of hemoglobin can result in severe anemia in the first two years of life or in a milder case later in life. Roughly one in 30 people of Mediterranean descent carries the gene; one in 3,600 develops it.

As many as one in 200 North African and Iraqi Jews, Armenians and Turks has the disease, distinguished by 12 to 72-hour bouts of fever. Symptoms usually start between ages five and 15.

This common human enzyme deficiency affects an estimated 400 million people worldwide, and is transmitted from a carrier mother to her male infant. The disease can manifest itself as life-long hemolytic anemia or bouts of it. Some experience no symptoms at all, although certain oxidative drugs and infections as well as fava beans can induce it.

This disease prevents the liver and muscle from breaking down stored glycogen to glucose. Some develop hypoglycemia, an enlarged liver and weak muscles. Roughly one in 5,400 North African Jews has the disease.

Other diseases of connection to Sephardi origin include: Alpha-Thalassemia, Ataxia Telangiectasia, Corticosterone Methyloxidase Type II Deficiency, Costeff Optical Atrophy, Cystic Fibrosis (CF), Familial Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease, Familial Tumoral Calcinosis (Normophosphatemic Type), Inclusion Body Myophy Type 2B, Metachromic Leukodystrophy, Polyglandular Deficiency Syndrome, Pseudocholinesterase Deficiency, Spinal Muscular Athrophy (SMA) and Wolman Disease.

Mizrahi, the term for Eastern, in Hebrew, generally refers to Jews of Persian (Iranian) and Middle Eastern heritage. Jews of Mizrahi ancestry also have their own set of carrier screening tests based on their country of origin.

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List of Jewish Genetic Diseases - Moment

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Posted By admin on June 16, 2017

If you ever get your DNA tested, you might be surprised to discover a certain percentage of Ashkenazi Jewish DNA. Many people with European ancestry who are not practicing Jews and know of no Jewish ancestors do discover some Ashkenazi in them. There is a lengthy discussion on the topic on 23andme.com, a popular DNA testing site. People are using the discussion to try to determine their Jewish ancestors and their origins after discovering they are descended from some of the Ashkenazi population. Heres what you need to know about the Ashkenazi Jewish people, and how they are different genetically from the general Jewish community.

The name Ashkenazi comes from a Biblical person named Ashkenaz. He was the eldest son of Gomer. Gomer was a grandson of Noah through Noahs son Khaphet. This makes Ashkenaz a great-grandson of Noah. The Jewish population in eastern and central Europe began being distinguished from the Holy Land Jewish people by the use of the name Ashkenazi in the early Medieval period of history. There was a Christian custom at this time of calling areas of Jewish settlement in Europe with Biblical names, which is how the Ashkenzazis received their name. By the later Medieval period, the term Ashkenazi was used for the German and French Jewish populations alone and was even adopted by the Jewish people and scholars of the area themselves.

How the Ashkenazis got up into Germany and France is a matter of speculation. There are historical records that talk of Jewish settlements in the southern part of Europe during the pre-Christian era. Most of these Jewish people were living in Roman communities. Jewish people were granted full Roman citizenship and all the privileges and rights that came with it in 212 A.D., but began to be pushed to the outskirts of society and shunned when Christianity became the dominant religion of Rome in 380 A.D.

There is also evidence of Jewish people living in ancient Greece. The Greek historian Herodutus knew Jewish people and called them Palestinian Syrians. The Jewish people in ancient Greece were included in the lists of the naval forces who fought for Greece against the invasion parties of Persians. Though the Jewish people practiced monotheism, while the ancient Greeks practiced polytheism, there was no mixing of their religions and no persecution that was recorded. Both communities appear to have lived in harmony with one another. In fact, the lifestyle of ancient Greece was attractive to wealthy Jewish people. There are at least three known ancient Jewish synagogue ruins in ancient Greece, which shows the Jewish people were there, practicing their religion, and allowed to do so.

While there were definitely Jewish people in ancient Greece, no trace of them exists above or east of Germany before the age of the Romans. Through the Roman period and into the Middle Ages, the Jewish people in Europe migrated into eastern Europe and France, and some of them became assimilated into the local cultures. Some converted to Christianity, while others, like the Ashkenazis, maintained their Jewish customs and religious practices.

It was only with the rise of emperor Charlemagne, who joined the mini-kingdoms of France into one country in 800 A.D. that the history of the Ashkenazi Jewish people in Europe becomes well documented. Charlemagne gave them the same freedoms they once enjoyed under the Romans, and they began opening businesses in finance and commerce. They also got into banking, as Christians were prohibited from charging interest by their religion. By the 11th century A.D., the Ashkenazi Jewish people were well known for their Talmudic studies and halakhic learning. They were also criticized by Jewish people in the Holy Land for their lack of knowledge in traditional Jewish law and the Hebrew language. They spoke Yiddish instead, which was a combination of traditional Hebrew and various German dialects from the communities in which they lived. The Yiddish language was still written with Hebrew letters, however, while also being influenced with Aramaic.

If you have Ashkenazi Jewish DNA, you come from a line that goes into antiquity. The Ashkenazi Jews moved away from the Jews of the Holy Land so early on that their DNA is now distinct from other Jewish people. If you discover Ashkenazi Jewish DNA in your DNA profile, explore it and see where it leads. You may be surprised by what you discover.

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Posted By simmons on June 16, 2017

BBC News

Why isn't there more 'Jewish food' in Israel? BBC News The menu is classic Ashkenazi or Eastern European Jewish food, and the glass display case is full of prepared potato latkes (pancakes) and fried cauliflower. The matzoh balls (soup dumplings) here are 'sinkers', in the common parlance. That means ... Learning from Laughter this Father's DayMy Jewish Learning The Best Jewish, Israeli Films Of 2017 So FarJewish Week all 3 news articles »

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Posted By richards on June 16, 2017

Sephardic Jews from Spain.

Many American Jews, who are at least 95 percent Ashkenazi by origin, also find it hard to relate to those Jews in Israel whose cultural background is so different. By origin, approximately 50 percent of the Israeli Jewish population identify themselves as "Edot HaMizrah" (The Eastern communities) and are generally distinguishable by the many factors that are attributable to a different cultural heritage and separation by many centuries from the Ashkenazim-in their genetic make-up (often but not always skin complexion), and a whole host of traits such as male-female relationships, social conventions, attitudes towards child upbringing, dress, food preferences, music, use of language (pronunciation, vocabulary, syntax and grammar of both Hebrew and various Judeo-hybrid languages), courtship, marriage and divorce customs, sex attitudes, perception of time, attitudes toward literacy, learning and education, recreation and leisure pursuits, work ethic, attitudes towards public space, respect for authority, the rules by which status and rank are determined, prevailing ideas of liberty and restraint, views of wealth, folklore and superstitions.

Although a gross simplification, it has become acceptable parlance to divide all Jews into two major geo-cultural groups: "Ashkenazim" from the Hebrew term Ashkenaz that came to denote Eastern and Central Europe, and "Sephardim," from the Hebrew term Spharad, denoting Spain and the Diaspora that followed the 1492 expulsion from the Iberian peninsula. Technically speaking, calling all Jews who were and are indigenous to Asia and African as Sephardim is wrong historically and just as misleading as European settlers calling the native peoples of the Western hemisphere "Indians."

Any serious student of Jewish history and tradition knows that the only authentic Sephardim are the descendants of the Jews expelled from Spain and Portugal. They went on to settle in Western Europe including England, Holland, Denmark, North Western Germany, colonial America, the Caribbean and Brazil as well as in lands dominated by Islam, throughout North Africa, the Ottoman Empire, the Balkans and across the Levant. There are thus many Sephardi Jews who have always lived in Europe and many Jewish communities around the world composed of both Sephardim and Ashkenazim, who lived together and intermarried, notably in Italy, Egypt, Syria and Bulgaria, where later Ashkenazi immigrants arrived and were welcome by Sephardi residents. This has also been true in the Caribbean, South America and modern Israel.

Just as America's Afro-American population has gone through several self-designations indicating a search for their authentic identity ranging from Black to Colored to Negro and then Afro-American and for some, back to Black (originally a term of disparagement used by whites), Israel's Jews of Afro-Asian origin have shifted from Sephardi to Mizrachi (Oriental). For religious purposes, "Sephardi" describes the nusach ("litugical tradition") used by most non-Ashkenazi Jews in the Siddur (prayer book).

In reality, there are also many Jews who are neither Ashkenazi nor Sephardi. These include the Jews of Ethiopia, Egypt, India, Iraq,Iran, Yemen, the Caucasus region (Georgia, Azerbaijan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Armenia), all of whom are recognized as being of Afro-Asian origin yet have nothing to do with the original Sephardim. They are the descendants of the Jews who fled into exile following the Assyrian, Babylonian and Roman conquests of ancient Israel. No doubt, they were later joined by numerous converts who were attracted to the high moral and ethical principles that distinguished Judaism in ancient times from pagan and polytheistic religions.

There is indeed a serious social and geo-cultural cleavage in Israel's diverse Jewish population groups, precisely because all the four divisions overlap to a considerable degree. Most of the Jews from Africa and Asia arrived in Israel after 1948 and being relative newcomers had to adjust to difficult conditions. Most of them arrived destitute and unlike many of the Ashkenazim never received any reparations for their confiscated property.

They still tend to have larger families and as a rule are much more religiously observant than the Ashkenazim who established the secular norms and institutions of the Zionist movement and later of the State of Israel. It is only human nature that the new arrivals from Asia and Africa resented the more established veteran European settlers and those new immigrants from Europe who immediately found more personal connections and sympathy with the veteran Ashkenazi settlers through a common knowledge of Yiddish and shared political and social backgrounds.

A list of new army recruits will probably reveal names like de Leon, Toledano, Castro, Franco, Mizrahi, Dayan, Gabbai, Abulafia, Kimhi, Shar'abi, Sassoon, Azulay, Kadouri, Marziano, Ohana, Aflalo and Hasson, as often or more than Schwartz, Goldberg, Wolf, Guttmann, Rabinowitz, Berdichevsky, Kaplan or Finkelstein. So how then can they then be one people? They are, because history, traditions and their faith (whether they are orthodox observant or secular) have instilled in them the idea of sharing a common peoplehood.

Jews, although a small minority in the South, were well respected and even elected as mayors in towns such as Ocala and Tampa in the 1890s long before the post-World War II mass migration to the state! The fact that these mayors were all conservative businessmen does not fit the "image" of the natural tendency of American Jews towards liberal/Left and radical politics.

Yemeni Sephardic boys in Egypt.

Prior to the mass immigration of Jews from Eastern Europe and Russia following the Civil War, the American Jewish community was predominantly Sephardi (of Spanish-Portuguese origin and who later emigrated to Holland and then the New World), and German-Alsatian. The Jews of Savannah, New Orleans, Charleston and nearby Georgetown were wealthy, conservative, very educated and cultured and predominantly of Sephardi origin. They gravitated toward Reform but were determined to maintain a strong sense of communal identity.

Cultural and folklore difference

Sephardim eat rice during Pesach. They have a more relaxed attitude toward sex and erotic themes (song), are more self-forgiving, self-mocking and understanding of human faults and weaknesses. They are less maudlin; Zionist leader and great poet, Ze'ev Jabotinsky, explained his support of the Sephardi (Judeo-Spanish) pronunciation of Hebrew as due, in part, to appreciation of the gayer, more carefree, less inhibited nature of the Sephardim and their Mediterranean traditions than the heritage of the more morose and somber Ashkenazi (East European Jewish) past.

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Posted By admin on June 16, 2017

Dr. Jerry Bowskill (pictured) joins Amaya as part of a new-look team seeking to move past the mess left behind by founder and former CEO David Baazov. (Image: LinkedIn)

Amaya has appointed Jerry Bowskill to be its new Chief Technology Officer, as the biggest poker company in the world continues to develop its iGaming interests beyond poker.

Bowskill is the latest casino industry player to join the Amaya team. His addition comes three months after CEO Rafi Ashkenazi announced plans to expand the parent company of PokerStars, including changing its name to the Stars Group.

Talking to Bloomberg back in March, Ashkenazi said that the second half of 2017 would give him a chance to grow the company and not necessarily organically. With potential takeovers in the offing, having Bowskill in the role of CTO reflects Amayas focus on expanding the breadth of its game offerings.

Bowskill, a PhD-educated technologist, comes to Amaya with an extensive gaming background that includes a stretch with Scientific Games, where he served as CTO and chief architect of the internet product division for the Las Vegas-based gaming equipment manufacturer.

Bowskill will take charge of 300 technologists and developers at Amaya, a publicly traded company listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange. Part of his role will be to expand Amayas current suite of products, as well take part in any future takeovers or mergers that are part of Amayas non-organic growth plans.

He is the latest in a significant shakeup at the top of Amayas executive offices. Under Ashkenazi, who ascended to CEO upon the scandal-clouded departure of his predecessor, David Baazov, Amaya has been building an accomplished team to help expand its gaming reach.

The drafting of Bowskill follows recruitment of former William Hill exec Robin Chhabra to serve as chief corporate development officer, and ex-Mr. Green CEO Bo Wnghammar, who will now serve as managing director for casino products.

Several executives who came to Amaya from PokerStars, meanwhile, are leaving. Among them, Michael Josem, head of public relations, left in April after being with PokerStars since 2008.

Baazov founded Amaya in 2005, and the Montreal-based company remained a bit player in the gaming industry until the acquisition of PokerStars and Full Tilt. This $4.9 billion purchase suddenly put the high school dropout at the helm of the largest poker company in the world, and one of the biggest online gaming companies on the globe.

Amayas stated intent at the time was to use the PokerStars and Full Tilt brands to create a universal betting platform across multiple gaming sectors, including casino and sports. That dream lasted for just a few months before Canadian financial regulators and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police showed up at Amayas door in late 2014 with a warrant.

As Baazov got embroiled in the biggest insider trading scandal in Canadian history over the acquisition of PokerStars and Full Tilt, growth plans were thrown into chaos, and he would eventually step down as CEO in August 2016.

Yet even while under the threat of criminal charges, Baazov still managed to put together a consortium of foreign investors and former board members during this period in a bid to buy back Amaya for $2.8 billion and take the company private again.

That deal ultimately fell through in December 2016. Since then, Ashkenazi has been seeking new direction for the company, as it continues down a path of expanding the future Stars Groups reach and offerings in gaming, even at the expense of losing a reputation that used to be synonymous with the best in poker.

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Posted By admin on June 16, 2017

Leading provider of technology-based products and services, Amaya Inc. (NASDAQ: AYA), announced Wednesday that it has appointed former technology consultant for Partis Solutions, Jerry Bowskill, as its new Chief Technology Officer, effective immediately.

Dr. Bowskills responsibilities include the overall technology performance and strategy of the business, according to PRNewswire. The Canadian gaming and online gambling companys new Chief Technology Officer will report directly to Rafi Ashkenazi, Chief Executive Officer of Amaya. Dr. Bowskill will reportedly lead and execute the strategic technology vision of the online gambling companys business in order to maximize the potential of its growing product suite and its impact on the millions of current and future Amaya customers.

Dr. Bowskill will head a team of more than 300 developers and technologists worldwide.

Mr. Ashkenazi said, Jerrys wealth of technical expertise and commercial experience will be a great asset for our gaming and interactive brands. I look forward to working closely with him again, according to the news release.

Dr. Bowskill commented on the appointment, saying, I am excited to be joining such a continuously evolving consumer tech company and to help lead its growth through the efficient delivery of high quality products and services, development of innovative new products, and continued expansion of its offerings.

Prior to abrief stint at Partis Solutions, from January 2017 to June 2017,Dr. Bowskillsprevious roles have seen him work at TouchTunes Interactive Networks, Scientific Games, and SG Interactive.

Dr. Bowskill began his professional career as a research scientist and has held several roles within British Telecoms advanced applications & technology research group. In his role as researcher, he has authored more than 40 academic publications and was a research associate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technologys Media Lab.

Headquartered in suburban Montreal, Quebec, Canada, Amaya owns gaming and related consumer businesses and brands including, BetStars, PokerStars, PokerStars Casino, Full Tilt, StarsDraft, and the PokerStars Championship and PokerStars Festival live poker tour brands. Through certain of these brands, Amaya also offers non-poker gaming products, including sportsbook, casino, and daily fantasy sports.

Amaya appoints new Chief Technology Officer was last modified: June 16th, 2017 by K Morrison

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Posted By admin on June 16, 2017

Whereis theAnti-DefamationLeague?

As a new anti-Semitism caststhe Jewish stateas the cruelest of nations,and her Jewish supporters as racists, the ADL has been largely silent.The lies are spreadinnewspapers,churchesand college classrooms. On campuses,Jewish students are harassed and intimidated.Eventhe curriculain many public high schools and middle schoolsisbiased against Israel.Yet theADL, once the Jewishpeoplesdefense agency,seems unable or unwilling toeffectively fight back.

Case in point: LindaSarsour,a virulently anti-Israel Islamistwhois asupporterofterrorists,andadefenderof Sharia law,wasa featured speaker at the City University of New York (CUNY) School of Public Healths graduation onJune 1.

Yet it was only after weeks of silence,andonlywhenupbraidedfor that despicablesilence,thattheADLfinallyissueda statementcriticizingSarsour. (Ms. Sarsour is an antisemite whofightsto bar Jewish women from the feministmovement unless they renounce Israel, and hastweetedthat,Nothing is creepier than Zionism.

And even theADLsbelatedcriticism ofSarsour, penned by its CEO, JonathanGreenblatt, was weak.The ADL statementrejectedSarsourssupport of BDS,butit supported CUNYsdecision toinvite her, citing her right to free speech.But, as former CUNY trustee JeffreyWeisenfeld haspointed out,allowing someone to speak and giving them one of the most honored platforms that a university can provideare twodifferent things. EvenAbe Foxman himself, the legendary ADL leader whoreportedlyselected Greenblatt as his heir, unblinkingly told reporters that CUNY should not have invited Sarsour.

The ADLs problem is that ithas never figured out what to do about the new anti-Semitismwhich is exactly whatSarsourrepresents.

When the enemies of the Jewish people were onlyNazis,neo-Nazis, Christian anti-Semites and skinheads, the ADL did just fine. They exposed, they warned, they scolded and they sued. In every city with a sizable Jewish population, the ADL functioned as the Jewish Civil Defense Department.

But sometime during the late 1960s,the virus ofanti-Semitismbegan to morph. Age-old accusations against the Jews and their religion were re-directed toward the Jewish state, and its Jewish supporters. Anti-Semitic smears were used to paintIsrael as the Jew among nationsan art that the United Nations has perfected. And much of this hate comes from liberals and leftists, along with the traditional anti-Semites (white supremacists, neo-Nazis, etc.)

But the ADL and its donorsstuck in the past, like old generals fighting the last warcannot or will not adjust.

The ADLwas born on the progressive side of politics, fighting right-wing Jew-hatred, and supporting social justice. The group haschosen to stay there, even whenin my viewthe threats from the left now eclipse those of the right in their intensity and reach.And so the ADL keptsending those (fundraising) postcards with swastikas found inbathroom stalls in Iowa, and campaignedagainst Pat Robertson, whom itpainted as thesamesort of right-wing threat that we all once kneweven though many people now believe that Robertson andChristian evangelicals areIsraels, and the Jews, best allies.

And asit ignores anti-Semitism from the left,the ADL hassimilarlyshrunk from confronting Islamic Jew-hatredthe biggest threat to Jewish life on the planetfor fear of being labelled Islamophobic by its left-wing allies.Some scholars now describe the new anti-Semitism as being propelled by a Red-Green Allianceof radical leftists and radical Islamists. The ADL hesitates to defend the Jews against either threat.

Morton Klein, of the Zionist Organization of America, and others like him who pressured the ADL to condemn Sarsour were right, and they deserve creditfor shining a light on the Sarsour/ADL scandal. ADLsweakness on this controversyis emblematic of its failure to adopt to the new anti-Semitism. And it is a timely reminder to American Jewry of the need for a new, and bold, leadershipthat is up to the challenge of confrontingthese dangerous times.

Charles Jacobs is the founder of Americans for Peace & Tolerance. This article was originally printed in The Algemeiner.

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