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When Ashkenazi Jews Eat Kitniyot on Passover, Is It Cultural …

Posted By on April 24, 2016

How do millions of Ashkenazi Jews react when, after hundreds of years, they finally get permission to eat kitniyot on Passover?

Were about to find out.

Last December, the Conservative movements Committee on Jewish Law and Standards approved a teshuvah , a Jewish legal ruling, permitting the consumption of kitniyot on Passover. Kitniyot foods like rice, corn, lentils and beans, which are not technically hametz have long been forbidden to Ashkenazi Jews, but theyre staples of the Sephardic Passover diet. This year marks the first time that many American Jews will learn to include these foods at their holiday table.

My Ashkenazi friends, I have tasted your Passover foods of bitterness. I know you have suffered many years enslaved to a diet of matzo brei with cinnamon and sugar. As a college student, I went back to school after the Seder with Tupperware containers filled with rice and beans so that I wouldnt starve in a pluralistic Hillel that catered to Ashkenazi customs and palates. I am happy that more American Jews will soon be enjoying kitniyot on Passover. For one thing, that makes it more likely that a wider variety of Passover products will be available for my family in my local grocery store.

But after reading the teshuvah , I also have some concerns. Part of my worry stems from the approach with which the Sephardic dietary laws are being adopted: a mix of cultural appropriation and noblesse oblige . Borrowing from the practices of your neighbors is natural; no religious tradition exists in a vacuum. But borrowing has ethical overtones, especially when youre not attuned to whos borrowing from whom and to the relationships of power between those groups. While the Conservative movement in Israel permits Ashkenazi Jews to eat kitniyot partly in order to facilitate positive relationships between Jews of different ethnic backgrounds, that line of argumentation is absent from the American teshuvah.

The heritage of Sephardic Jews does not exist just to make the Passover practices of our Ashkenazi neighbors less burdensome and expensive, and more delicious and nutritious. Kitniyot on Passover is not just food, its foodways . That is, the eating of kitniyot is one piece of a large and diverse culture, spanning centuries and continents, and embedded in history, memory, language, stories and other social practices.

Thats why I think the adoption of Sephardic traditions for Passover food should include some acknowledgement of actual Sephardic tradition. Perhaps any Ashkenazi Jew wishing to eat kitniyot on Passover should have to pass a basic Sephardic cultural literacy test? While Israeli Jews see the vitality of other ethnic Jewish communities every day, in the United States the experiences of Sephardic Jews are rarely taught or even acknowledged, and Jewish is almost always synonymous with Ashkenazi.

Obviously, an actual test would be impractical and silly. But I dont think its silly for Ashkenazi Jews to respectfully try to learn from living American Sephardic Jews how they determine the permissibility of kitniyot on Passover.

In tracing the permissibility of kitniyot , the authors of the CJLS ruling took into account both classical sources and the perspectives of contemporary Ashkenazi Jews who seek a joyful, affordable and kosher holiday. But as far as I can see, there is no account of the local practices of Sephardic American Jews and how they approach eating kitniyot . Its as though Sephardic experience, expertise and life ends in the 16th century with Joseph Caro and the codification of his major legal work, the Shulchan Aruch.

The CJLS released some basic guidelines in order to help members determine which foods are permitted. Of course, Sephardic Conservative Jews have been eating these foods for decades without any guidance from our rabbinate. Weve relied on lists published by Orthodox Sephardic organizations in order to have a kasher vsameach holiday, a kosher and happy Passover.

For now, lets put aside the question of why the Conservative movement in the United States never attended to the needs of Sephardic Conservative Jews and only became interested in the kashrut of kitniyot once it was permissible for Ashkenazim. Instead, let me give an example of the practical perspective I can offer as a result of having kept abreast of the guidelines of Orthodox Sephardic communities.

An important consideration involving the consumption of rice on Passover in the United States is that not all kinds of rice are kosher for all kinds of Sephardic Jews. (And by the way, some Sephardic Jews dont eat rice at all during the holiday.) In order to be considered kosher for Passover by most Sephardic Jews here, rice must not contain additives that may bear hametz. Brown rice is generally fine, but white rice is trickier as it is often enriched with additives, including wheat starch. The CJLS guidelines treat rice as though it is an unprocessed food, but for much of the rice on the shelves in American stores that is not true. To be kosher for Passover for many Sephardic Jews in this country, white rice without special Passover certification should be unprocessed and unenriched.

I am not a rabbi or kashrut scholar. But my point is that its valuable to learn about how Sephardic tradition continued to evolve and play out in the world inhabited by contemporary Sephardim. It seems that the authors of the CJLS guidelines, while purporting to follow the example set by Sephardic tradition, did not think to do that.

Finally, its worth mentioning that some Ashkenazi Jews might not want to eat kitniyot on Passover. They have their own rich cultural heritage, one that has been sustained for hundreds of years, and they may wish to continue the traditional practices of their ancestors. But if Ashkenazi Jews do wish to avail themselves of kitniyot , maybe they can seek to acknowledge the larger culture out of which these foodways emerged. Even better, they can appreciate the legal, artistic and philosophical not just culinary contributions of Sephardic Jewry to Jewish culture and to its ongoing vitality.

Otherwise, my Ashkenazi friends, the rice and lentils youre cooking smell a little like cultural appropriation.

Arielle Levites is a doctoral candidate in education and Jewish studies at New York University, and an alumnus of the Wexner Graduate Fellowship.

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When Ashkenazi Jews Eat Kitniyot on Passover, Is It Cultural ...

Ashkenazi Jews Can Now Eat Sushi During Passover

Posted By on April 24, 2016

This year, the Passover menus of many American Jews may feature rice and beans or sushi for the first time, thanks to new rules taking them off the list of foods forbidden during the elaborate meals prepared for the long holiday, which begins on Friday.

The change, approved by Judaism's Conservative movement in November, lifts a rule in place since the 13th century that prohibited Ashkenazi Jews outside Israel from eating a group of foods known as kitniyot - rice, corn, peanuts, beans and other legumes - during Passover.

The move comes partly in response to the growing popularity of gluten-free and vegan diets, said Rabbi Elliot Dorff, chair of the Conservative movement's Committee on Jewish Law and Standards. But he said it is also a recognition of a changing composition and traditions of the Jewish faithful in the United States, which has the world's largest Judaic community outside Israel.

Jews of Ashkenazi descent, typically from Eastern Europe, are still in the majority in the United States. But a growing number are of Sephardic descent, typically from Spain, Portugal, North Africa and the Middle East. And Sephardic Jews never had a ban on eating kitniyot during Passover.

This year's Passover menusmight include sushi, rice and beans, hummus, chicken satay with peanut sauce and other once-forbidden foods.

Passover, which starts on Friday with a holiday meal known as a seder and ends on April 30, commemorates the flight of the Israelites from Egyptian slavery.

Conservative Judaism, one of the religion's three major branches, observes Jewish law but not as strictly as Orthodox Judaism or as loosely as Reform Judaism.

For Conservative Jews who have observed the centuries-old prohibition against eating kitniyot over Passover, this year's seder promises to be like no other they have experienced.

Menus might include sushi, which is made with rice; rice and beans; hummus; chicken satay with peanut sauce and other once-forbidden foods. The new variety may satisfy seder guests who balked in the past at traditional dishes like beef brisket, gefilte fish and matzo ball soup.

"For vegans, it was really a matter of not having protein for eight days," said Dorff, a philosophy professor at American Jewish University in Los Angeles.

Still taboo for all Jews during Passover are any foods that are leavened - called hametz - including such grains as wheat, barley, oats, rye and spelt. The only approved way to consume grains is in the form of matzo, a cracker-like food that symbolizes the Jewish flight from slavery, when there was no time for bread to rise.

Changing rules is one thing; changing tradition another, said Rabbi Amy Levin, interim rabbi at Congregation Rodeph Sholom in Bridgeport, Connecticut, whose research supported the decision to make kitniyot kosher for Passover.

"I'll make lentil soup in the pots I bought myself," Levin said. "But the pot I inherited from my grandmother, I don't know. She never wanted to put lentils in that thing!"

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Ashkenazi Jews Can Now Eat Sushi During Passover

About ADL – Albert D. Lawton

Posted By on April 24, 2016

ADLs Mission

A community of learners Developing a nurturing and safe environment to prepare Life-long learners for the global community.

ADLs Vision

We will foster the love of learning and belief of self in a safe, healthy and caring environment. We will value and respect the contributions of all members of our learning community by collaborating and connecting with each other. We will utilize research-based strategies to promote individual growth and encourage positive contributions to the global society.

School Hours (for students): 7:45 AM 2:40 PM

Library Hours: 7:30 AM 3:00 PM

Lunch Times:Parents/Guardians are welcome to join their children for lunch. Please stop by the main office to sign in. 11:38-12:03 Nova (7th) & Discovery (7th) 10:56-11:21- Alchemy (8th) & Discovery (8th) 12:03-12:28 Infinity and NRG (6th)

ADL Moves to Standards Based Reporting

Contact Information: Phone: 802-878-1388 Fax: 802-879-8175

ADL School 104 Maple Street Essex Junction, VT 05452

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Experience API ADL Net

Posted By on April 24, 2016

The xAPI Overview

Many learning experiences in the modern world occur outside of a Learning Management System (LMS) and a web browser. The Experience API (xAPI) specification is flexible. It releases us from the constraints of only being able to track web-based formal learning; in addition, it is capable of tracking informal learning, social learning, and real world experiences. Example learning activities that can be tracked include reading an article, watching a training video, participating in a virtual world with augmented reality or simulation, using a mobile application, or having a conversation with a mentor.

When a learner completes a learning activity, a simple human and machine readable activity statement is generated in a < actor >< verb >< object > format. Previous technologies require programming knowledge to understand the data, but with the activity statement format anyone in the learning process can interpret it. These statements are validated by and stored in a Learning Record Store (LRS).

Third party reporting systems are able to access and query the data in an LRS to create analytics and visualizations. Example analytics that may be generated include how many times a learner attempted a question, how long a learner took to answer a question, or if a learner watched the introductory video and how that affected the overall score on the assessment. Analytics can be formulated for learners, instructors, groups, mentors, peers or any role in a learning environment. Learning designers and managers can use this information to make informed decisions, create more personalized learning, or modify their assessments, resulting in increased learner performance and an improvement in the overall learning experience.

xAPI is adaptable and can be used to augment almost any performance assessment situation. It is currently being used for many LMSs, museums, flight simulators, firing ranges, and emergency medical services.

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Paradesi Synagogue – The Synagogues of Kerala

Posted By on April 22, 2016

The Sephardic House Hotel – Hotels in Jerusalem

Posted By on April 22, 2016

A unique hotel in Jerusalem's Jewish Quarter in the Old City.

The Sephardic House hotel nestles at the very heart of the Jewish Quarter of Jerusalem's Old City an exquisite jewel offering the ultimate hospitality in the magical atmosphere of Jerusalem. The building was first built some 200 years ago and completed towards the end of the 19th century. From the residence, there are superb views of the Old City and the City of David. The complex boasts 51 guest rooms located in three separate wings, each offering a different level of accommodation and hospitality: Deluxe wing - offers superb and luxurious accommodation in 12 rooms and 3 suites. The entire storey of deluxe accommodations faces towards the charming patio with its echoes of a traditional Spanish courtyard orchard. Rishon LeTzion wing a wing suitable for private events, such as family gatherings, with 6 rooms. Economy wing with 30 standard guest rooms for dual and single occupancy. Our guest rooms have been designed meticulously in order to carefully conserve their historical features create a harmonious blend with modern luxury and comfort, so that guests can enjoy a truly unique holiday experience. Sephardic House is a unique building in the Jewish Quarter, located within walking distance of the magical alleyways of the Old City of Jerusalem, the ancient Hurva Synagogue, the Kotel (Western Wall), Mt. Zion, the Kotel tunnels, the Armenian Quarter, the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, the Mamilla District, the Jerusalem Cinemathque and town center. This location provides an extremely convenient starting point for walks around the Old City, while its proximity to the Western Wall transforms it into an attractive venue for hosting Bar/Bat Mitzvahs and other family events. We invite you to come and enjoy the attention of our friendly, professional team and experience our exceptional standard of service and hospitality. Take in the magical views, the atmosphere of holiness and peacefulness, alongside the life of a vibrant modern city that offers you countless leisure options and facilities

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About us | AZL Home

Posted By on April 19, 2016

We are an Aryan organisation who foresees a better way of life for people of European descent globally. However, to achieve this aim it is necessary to address the root cause of our peoples problems. The key destructive element is JUDAISM. All that stems from this are tools and weapons of Jewish controllers used to manipulate, undermine and destroy our societies.

The most beguiling tool in the Jewish arsenal is their cunning psychological and financial manipulation. The scourge of Europe and wider populations for centuries Judaism named it Zionism in the 19th century and concealed it behind a nationalistic pretence. Now Jewish Zionist banking systems rob our people and enslave us to debt, combined with a Jewish political front this is the first line of their control. The other most influential tool is Communism invented by the Jew Karl Marx under the supervision of the Jew Moses Hess the philosophical father of Zionism. Already implemented by Jewish Bolsheviks Lenin and Trotsky to racially cleanse Europe of Europeans-the death toll in the Holodomor genocides alone was 16.5 million, Communism remarketed as Cultural Marxism (political correctness) covers a wide spectrum. The focus is division from the importation of coloured colonisers and its corresponding Zionist media images of miscegenation (race mixing), to interracial disunity (Sectarianism) and sexual dysfunction (Feminism and Homosexuality).

This site is not for the faint of heart for the Jewish Zionist agenda is physically and psychologically destroying the European race. Nourished through social engineering in schools, universities and work place unions it is the political structure of Government in the Western world regardless of the terminology-Communism, Bolshevism, Cultural Marxism or Political correctness. Consequently the ballot box is Jewish slavery for the Aryan as his vote maintains the Zionist status quo. Our choices have been limited to the inescapable; confront for survival as a unified race or suffer genocide at the hands of our eternal tormentors who seek to destroy through displacement and miscegenation. This will inevitably lead to bloodshed. Thus this organization welcomes the religious and not so religious and those that seek to divide our race on any grounds including religion or class the divisive weapon of Marxist schism, are not welcome here.

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LiveLeak.com – The Hidden History of Zionism and its …

Posted By on April 19, 2016

As we have learned from the Zionists over the years, the best way to hide your crimes is to accuse your opponents of the same thing. Claiming "we are being attacked and have a right to defend ourselves" when in fact Israel is brutally killing Palestinian civilians in a 1-230 ratio as seen in the last Gaza slaughter. Claiming that Iran should be under nuclear watch and restrictions when the Zionist have 100's of undeclared nukes. And what will be the focus today, claiming that Muslims were in cohorts with the Nazi's when in fact the zionist were actively working with them in civil and economy matters. Many people have noted that the Zionists view and treatment of the Palestinians are very like how the Nazi's were treating the Jews, and as we shall see today, they had a lot in common in terms of policies of single minded goals and a total disregard for "unsuitable" people to join their mission.

This Nazi-Zionist medallion was issued in 1933 by Goebbles to commemorate a joint visit to Zionist Palestine by SS Officer Leopold von Milderstein and Zionist Federation official Kurt Tuchler

Full book further down. Critics should cross check sources, facts and links.

Out takes from the book below.

Embracing the S.S. "Consequently, the Zionists brought Baron Von Mildenstein of the S.S. Security Service to Palestine for a six-month visit in support of Zionism. This visit led to a twelve-part report by Joseph Goebbels, Hitlers Minister of Propaganda, in Der Angriff (The Assault) in 1934 praising Zionism. Goebbels ordered a medallion struck with the Swastika on one side, and on the other, the Zionist Star of David. In May 1935, Reinhardt Heydrich, the chief of the S.S. Security Service, wrote an article in which he separated Jews into "two categories." The Jews he favored were the Zionists: "Our good wishes together with our official good will go with them."[82] In 1937, the Labor "socialist" Zionist militia, the Haganah (founded by Jabotinsky) sent an agent (Feivel Polkes) to Berlin offering to spy for the S.S. Security Service in exchange for the release of Jewish wealth for Zionist colonization. Adolf Eichmann was invited to Palestine as the guest of the Haganah.

Feivel Polkes informed Eichmann:

Jewish nationalist circles were very pleased with the radical German policy, since the strength of the Jewish population in Palestine would be so far increased thereby that in the foreseeable future the Jews could reckon upon numerical superiority over the Arabs. [83]

The list of acts of Zionist collaboration with the Nazis goes on and on. What can account for this incredible willingness of Zionist leaders to betray the Jews of Europe? The entire rationale for the state of Israel offered by its apologists has been that it was intended to be the refuge of Jews facing persecution.

The Zionists, to the contrary, saw any effort to rescue Europes Jews not as the fulfilment of their political purpose but as a threat to their entire movement. If Europes Jews were saved, they would wish to go elsewhere and the rescue operation would have nothing to do with the Zionist project of conquering Palestine."

Further:

"Berel Katznelson, editor of the Labor Zionist Davar, described the "cruel criteria of Zionism": German Jews were too old to bear children in Palestine, lacked trades for building a Zionist colony, didnt speak Hebrew and werent Zionists. In place of these Jews facing extermination the WZO brought to Palestine 6,000 trained young Zionists from the United States, Britain and other safe countries. Worse than this, the WZO not merely failed to seek any alternative for the Jews facing the Holocaust, the Zionist leadership opposed belligerently all efforts to find refuge for fleeing Jews.

As late as 1943, while the Jews of Europe were being exterminated in their millions, the U.S. Congress proposed to set up a commission to "study" the problem. Rabbi Stephen Wise, who was the principal American spokesperson for Zionism, came to Washington to testify against the rescue bill because it would divert attention from the colonization of Palestine.

This is the same Rabbi Wise who, in 1938, in his capacity as leader of the American Jewish Congress, wrote a letter in which he opposed any change in U.S. immigration laws which would enable Jews to find refuge. He stated:

It may interest you to know that some weeks ago the representatives of all the leading Jewish organizations met in conference ... It was decided that no Jewish organization would, at this time, sponsor a bill which would in any way alter the immigration laws. [85]"

About the Author

Ralph Schoenman was Executive Director of the Bertrand Russell Peace Foundation, in which capacity he conducted negotiations with numerous heads of state. He secured the release of political prisoners in many countries and initiated the International Tribunal on U.S. War Crimes in Indo-China, of which he was Secretary General.

Preface

The Uprising

With anger, hatred, and sheer ferocity, thousands of youngsters hurled rocks at their Israeli occupiers, undaunted by the gunfire that greeted them. This was more than civil unrest. ...It was the beginning of a civil rebellion. [l]

This is how Jerusalem Post correspondent Hirsh Goodman described the uprising of Palestinian youth in the West Bank and Gaza in mid-December 1987.

Goodmans remarks were written the day before the December 21, 1987, general strike which engulfed every Palestinian community under Israeli rule. The strike was described by the Israeli daily, Haaretz, as writing on our wall even more serious than the bloody riots of the last two weeks. [2]

On that day, wrote John Kifner in The New York Times, the vast army of Arab laborers who wait on tables, pick vegetables, haul garbage, lay brick and perform virtually all Israels menial work, stayed home. [3]

The Israeli response to the uprising was brutal. Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin ordered the use of tanks, armored vehicles and automatic rifles against an unarmed population.

The San Francisco Examiner cited Rabin as openly advocating assassination. They can shoot to hit leaders of disorder, Rabin said in defense of the armys practice of using marksmen with high-powered .22-caliber rifles to shoot indiscriminately at Palestinian youth. [4]

Rabin ordered house-to-house searches, first for young men and later for anyone of whom an example might be made. By December 27, over 2,500 Palestinians were seized, many of them as young as twelve; by the end of January the number reached 4,000 and was rising. [5] The militants were marked for deportation. Israeli high-security jails and detention centers were overflowing. Mass trials of Palestinians were underway.

The act of brutality which most inflamed the Palestinian population was the army seizure of the wounded from hospital beds. This practice, standard procedure throughout the invasion of Lebanon in 1982, made Shifa Hospital in Gaza a center of resistance. Great crowds amassed to defend the wounded, whom, they rightfully feared, would never be seen again.

The youngsters in Gaza and the West Bank where riots erupted, wrote Jerusalem Postcorrespondent Hirsh Goodman have not received any terrorist training, nor are they members of a terrorist organization. Rather they are members of that Palestinian generation that grew up knowing nothing but occupation. [6]

A mother of a Palestinian man shot three times in the head by Israeli soldiers was asked if she would let her remaining sons join the demonstrations. As long as I am alive, she responded, I am going to teach the young people to fight ... I dont care whatever happens, as long as we get our land. [7]

Rashad Shawaa, deposed Mayor of Gaza, expressed the same sentiment:

The youth have lost hope that Israel will ever give them their rights. They feel the Arab countries are unable to accomplish anything. They feel that the Palestine Liberation Organization (P.L.O.) has failed to achieve a thing. [8]

Los Angeles Times correspondent Dan Fishers account is even more significant:

This new-found sense of unity has been one of the most striking changes to foreign observers and non-Gaza Palestinians ... It is a phenomenon that extends to previous divisions between young and old and between those who work in Israel and those who do not. [9]

Force, Might, BeatingsAs the uprising intensified, the Israeli cabinet and Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin implemented collective punishment, a tactic characteristic of the Nazi occupation of France, Denmark and Yugoslavia. Food, water and medicine were prevented from reaching Palestinian refugee camps in Gaza and the West Bank. The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (U.N.R.W.A.) personnel reported that children seeking powdered milk at U.N. depots were shot at and beaten with sticks.

The Casbah, where over half of the 125,000 inhabitants of Nablus live, has been sealed off by concrete barricades and iron gates. Qabatiya and the nearby refugee camp at Jenin were placed under siege. At the time of writing, the siege, which has cut off all food, water, fuel and electricity, has lasted fifty-five days.

A Jerusalem Post analyst explained the policies of Rabin:

The first priority is to use force, might, beatings. [This] is considered more effective than detention ... [because] he may then resume stoning soldiers. But if troops break his hand, he wont be able to throw stones. [10]

By the next day, the news media were reporting the most bestial beatings by soldiers throughout the West Bank and Gaza. The account by John Kifner was compelling:

NABLUS, Israeli Occupied West Bank, January 22: Both hands encased in plaster casts, Imad Omar Abu Rub explained from his bed in the Rafidiya Hospital what happened when the Israeli Army came to the Palestinian village of Qabatiya.

They entered the house like animals, shouting, the 22-year old student at Bir Zeit University said. They took us from the house, kicking us in the head, beating us, all the soldiers with their rifle butts.

Then he was taken to the construction site of an unfinished house where, he said, the soldiers put an empty bucket over his head. Several of the soldiers held him down, he said, gripping his arms to force his hands against a rock. Two others, he said, beat his hands with lengths of two-by-fours, breaking the bones.

The injuries are the product of a new officially declared policy of the Israeli Army and the police to beat up Palestinians in hopes of ending the wave of protests in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip that began in early December. At least thirty-eight Palestinians have been killed by Israeli gunfire in the protests.

In the bed next to Mr. Abu Rubs, Hassan Arif Kemal, a 17-year old high school student from Qabatiya, told a nearly identical story. [11]

Labor and Likud leaders responded with one voice to world-wide outcry over these practices. President Chaim Herzog declared: The alternative facing us today ... is between suppressing these riots or allowing them to develop into a new Teheran or Beirut. [12]

John Kifner reported in The New York Times:

Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir and Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin continued to defend the policy, with both men saying publicly that the purpose of the beatings was to instill fear of the Israeli army in Palestinians.

Shamir stated that events had shattered the barrier of fear ... Our task is to recreate that barrier and once again put the fear of death into the Arabs of the areas

He concluded that the uprising would never have taken place had the troops used firearms from the very first moment. [13]

Palestinian Resistance GrowsThe rebellion of the Palestinian people of the West Bank and Gaza has engulfed every village, town and refugee camp. Children as young as eight and old people in their seventies and eighties defy the Israeli army daily. Entire village populations, waving makeshift Palestinian flags of bedsheets and cloth, mass defiantly, singing and chanting and hurling stones at soldiers firing automatic weapons.

The Great Uprising the Intifadeh has become a symbol of Palestinian nationhood as the brutal repression that once filled the people with despair now fuels their determination and will, which encompasses the readiness to die.

The Israeli reprisals have been barbarous. The repression has been unleashed with particular savagery against the refugee camps and the old quarters of the cities inhabited by the impoverished.

By April 1988 over 150 Palestinians had died. The Israeli government had admitted to the arrest of 2,000 people, bringing the acknowledged total to 4,000. The real figure was far higher.

Sources in the West Bank and Gaza established that the number detained by the weekend of March 27 had exceeded 13,000. Bassam Shakaa, deposed Mayor of Nablus, placed the total held solely in a hastily constructed barbed-wire encampment at Dhariyah at 10,000.

In the Balata camp outside Nablus, and in the Casbah the old quarter l,000 people were arrested in a period of 48 hours. The discovery of people in ditches in the fields shot in the back or with their heads caved in has been reported from villages throughout the West Bank and Gaza.

Bassam Shakaa described the rampage of the Israeli armed units:

No matter which house one calls, the anguished accounts of family members wounded or arrested pour forth. Convoys of buses cruise the streets of Nablus followed by vans of the Mossad, Israels secret police. Army units go from house to house pulling youths from their beds at 3 a.m. As the buses fill, the soldiers beat the youths viciously around the head, shins, groin and back. Shrieks fill the air.

As the army makes its rounds kidnapping the young from their homes, people gather at their windows and on the roofs of houses shouting in unison, Falistin Arabia, Thawra Hatta al Nasr, Allah Akbar [Arab Palestine, Revolution Until Victory, God is Great]. [13a]

Bassam Shakaa described the attempts by the Israeli army to spread panic and terror in Nablus and outlying villages:

Fleets of helicopters fly over Nablus at night dropping a dense, green toxic gas over the city. The smell pervades every house. Armed units fire canisters of the substance into houses at random. Doctors at Ittihad Hospital reported several deaths and severe lung injuries from this as-yet unidentified asphyxiating chemical, totally distinct from tear gas.

Among the victims were the grandmother of the Daas family and the 100-year-old father of noted Nablus attorney Mohammad Irshaid. Soldiers had entered the house at 2 a.m., smashing furniture and firing a canister of the dreaded green gas while preventing the family from leaving.

Two of the children, ages 9 and 11, were taken by the soldiers in their night clothes, frog-marched in the streets and beaten as they were forced by the jeering soldiers to clear debris.

Simultaneously, the Israeli army targeted the hospitals. Army trucks rammed ambulances and blocked them from reaching the homes of those overcome by the gas. Soldiers entered the Ittihad Hospital in Nablus numerous times, arresting the wounded and those waiting to give blood to family members. Even the operating theater was invaded while surgeons were operating on patients.

Doctors were beaten and equipment smashed. Family members were prevented from entering the hospital and the cars of doctors and nurses were destroyed by soldiers.

Meanwhile, all of Nablus was paralyzed by a total strike. All the streets in every quarter of the city were without open shops or business activity. As gas permeated the city, cries and chants filled the night.

Gas canisters recovered by Bassam Shakaa, Yousef al-Masri [chief of Ittihad Hospital] and American author Alfred Lilienthal bear the markings 560 cs. Federal Lab. Saltsburg, Pa. USA MK2 1988. Biochemists are studying their properties as casualties mount.

John Kifner reported on April 4 that Hundreds of refugees were treated in United Nations clinics for gas inhalation. On April 15, Kifner wrote, ...gas has been thrown inside homes, clinics and schools where the effects are particularly severe. [13b]

His report was the first, after four months of the use of such chemical weapons, to acknowledge the fact:

Agency doctors have seen symptoms not normally connected with tear gas, and U.N.R.W.A. is seeking information on the contents of the gas ... to provide antidote ... especially for the most vulnerable groups ... pregnant women, the very young and elderly.

Kifner later reported, Warnings on the canisters say the contents can be lethal. Throughout the West Bank and Gaza, cases of miscarriages, vaginal bleeding and asphyxiation were occurring after the use of the gas.

A Glimpse of the SavageryOne of the most vicious incidents occurred in the town of Qalqiya. Soldiers entered the house of workers and poured gasoline over them, setting them alight. Six workers were covered in flames. Four of the victims managed to rush out of the building and rolled on the ground, ripping off their clothes. Two were severely burned and are in critical condition.

On February 20, two youths were arrested in Khan Yunis, beaten savagely and taken to the beach where they were buried alive under the sand. After the soldiers left, villagers managed to dig them out.

Reports in the establishment press give a glimpse of the scale of Israeli brutality. A soldiers account reported in the Israeli newspaper Hadashot was cited inNewsweek:

We got orders to knock on every door, enter and take out all the males. The younger ones we lined up with their faces against the wall, and soldiers beat them with billy-clubs. This was no private initiative. These were the orders from our company commander. [13c]

The accounts make clear that Israeli protestations about excesses of individual soldiers are transparently false. Newsweek revealed:

Armed with 30-inch wooden clubs and urged by their prime minister to put the fear back into the Arabs, Israeli soldiers have methodically beaten up Palestinians since early January, deliberately breaking bones and beating prisoners into unconsciousness. Casualties included not only young men ... but also women. Most of the injured shunned hospitals for fear of arrest.

The avoidance of hospitals by the injured has prevented accurate reporting of the vast scale of the savage beatings and of the deaths of those who endured them. But an indication was provided in the reports of the medical team inspecting the wounded in the hospitals in early February 1988. Dr. Jennifer Leaning, a faculty member of Harvard Medical School and a trauma specialist, reported her findings: There is a systematic pattern of limb injury that is clearly organized to cause fractures ... a consistent pattern of bonebreaks across the back of the hand and in the middle of the forearm that ... come from holding the hand or arm in place and applying a strong blow to the bone. [13d]

Dr. Leaning and the team of Physicians for Human Rights traveled throughout the West Bank and Gaza. They concluded, It is a pattern that is controlled. A systematic pattern over a wide geographical area. It is as if they have been instructed.

Dr. Leanings account of the new patients brought to Shifa Hospital in Gaza is compelling:

They looked like they had been mauled. What is impressive is the number of fractures per patient. These patients look as if they had been put through a washing-machine wringer. They would have had to hold them down and just keep beating them.

Repeated instances of young males shot deliberately through the testicles were reported in Shifa Hospital in Gaza and Makassad Hospital in East Jerusalem. Soldiers poured boiling water over a 2-year-old infant, rendering her catatonic.

Quelling the ProtestsNew York Times correspondent John Kifner called the systematic roundups part of a series of tough new measures, including economic sanctions and collective punishment, that the Israeli army and other officials are imposing in hopes of quelling the protests, which have grown into an increasingly organized Palestinian mass movement in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip. [13e]

The armys new orders allow detention without any specific charge or trials, even in military courts. Moreover, according to the March 23 New York Times, the new procedures do away with judicial review of the administrative detention sentences and allow local commanders to order the arrests.

Immediately after the order, people were seized overnight in more than a dozen refugee districts, villages and towns in the West Bank and Gaza.

Israeli Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin announced that Israeli civilians have the same authority as soldiers to shoot. He added that soldiers need not fire warning shots before shooting Palestinians.[13f] Newsweek was more explicit: The decree meant Israeli soldiers could shoot to kill Palestinian youths ... Yitzhak Rabin [was] effectively deputizing settlers. [13g] The decision, according to Newsweek, would open the floodgates of the 60,000 settlers pent-up frustration [sic]. It was not long before an attack occurred. On April 6, settlers engaging in a clear provocation shot in cold blood a Palestinian working in his field outside the village of Beita. Attention, however, focused on the death of Tirza Porat, a 15-year-old settler girl among the group. The settlers reported Tirza Porat had been stoned to death by the Palestinian villagers, but an army autopsy report revealed she had been shot in the head by the Kahane follower acting as her nominal guard. [Rabbi Meir Kahane is the founder of the Jewish Defense League.]

Despite the autopsy report, Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir used the occasion to vow that Palestinians would be crushed like grasshoppers ... heads smashed against the boulders and walls. [13h]

In Beita village, the scene of the incident, thirty houses were blown up. The number of houses destroyed was confirmed by Hamdi Faraj, a noted Palestinian journalist.

Forms of Self-Government EmergeThe recent Palestinian uprising has done more to challenge Israeli control than had been achieved in twenty years. The entire infrastructure of Israeli rule has unraveled. Spies are asking forgiveness, confessing their deeds and exposing the apparatus of control. Police are resigning.

The Village Leagues, Israeli organizations of collaborators, have collapsed. The Los Angeles Times reports that challenges by the Unified National Leadership of the Uprising have led to resignations by municipal, village, and town councils.

Before the uprising, 20,000 Palestinians worked under Israeli army and police control, providing services to the West Bank and Gaza. They were teachers, clerks and administrators. Most have resigned.

Increasingly, forms of self-government are emerging in the West Bank and Gaza. The Israelis close the schools; the resistance organizes classes. The Israelis order shops to open; the resistance keeps them closed. The Israelis close the shops; the resistance opens them.

The West Bank and Gaza are trapped in what Newsweek calls a colonial setup. Newsweek cites Israeli demographer Meron Benvenisti, the former Deputy Mayor of Jerusalem, as follows: The Occupied Territories became a source of cheap labor and a captive market for Israeli goods. [13i]

Israels trade surplus with the West Bank and Gaza, Benvenisti reveals, is $500 million a year. The government takes a further $80 million a year in taxes above what it provides in meager social services. The territories import $780 million a year of Israeli goods at high prices.

But the uprising has changed everything. Newsweek states:

The Palestinians have some economic weapons of their own. Thousands of Arab workers had long since walked away from jobs at Israeli farms, factories and construction sites. Palestinian shoppers cut back their purchases of Israeli goods. Arab merchants and self-employed professionals struck a more direct blow at the occupation; they refused to pay Israeli income and commercial taxes.

Thus, as Newsweek acknowledges, the economic sword cut in two directions. Israels construction industry, which drew 42% of its workforce from the Occupied Territories has been hobbled by Arab walkouts. Hotels in Jerusalem report a sharp drop in spring bookings.

Israeli Economic Minister Gad Yaacobi estimated that the first three months of rioting cost Israels economy at least $300 million 10% of U.S. aid for a full year.

Liberated ZonesNo respite can be expected for Israel. The villages in the West Bank and Gaza have responded defiantly to Israels barbaric onslaught, declaring themselves liberated zones, barricading their streets, and flying the Palestinian flag.

Newsweek reports: Their protests are adroitly coordinated through leaflets issued by the shadowy Unified National Command of the Uprising. Their leaflets are the law of the land. [13j]

Despite the massive repression, Palestinian spirits have never been higher. This spirit is perhaps the factor of greatest concern to the Israeli state. Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir told Israeli television:

The people who are throwing stones, the inciters, the leaders, they are today in a situation of euphoria, of great enthusiasm. They think that they are the victors.

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Christian Zionism 101 | ICEJ USA

Posted By on April 18, 2016

Tens of thousands of churches have a committed belief in the importance of standing with Israel and blessing the Jewish people. The verse most often referred to as their biblical mandate is Genesis 12:3 in which God tells Abraham I will bless those who bless you and I will curse those who curse you and in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.

Since the birth of the State of Israel in 1948 the theological error known as Replacement Theology has begun to decline and increasing is a theology of Christian Zionism that understands the importance of Gods everlasting covenant with Abraham and the nation he would birth.

However, just as the term Zionism has been turned into a negative word by Israels enemies, so Christian Zionism is under attack and often misrepresented in the media and in some public discourse. For this reason, the ICEJs articles and monographs defining and clarifying the beliefs of Christian supporters of Israel and placing their love for Israel within its proper biblical context are proving invaluable.

"Zionism, [is] the national movement for the return of the Jewish people to their homeland and the resumption of Jewish sovereignty in the Land of Israel, advocated, from its inception, tangible as well as spiritual aims. Jews of all persuasions, left and right, religious and secular, joined to form the Zionist movement and worked together toward these goals. Disagreements led to rifts, but ultimately, the common goal of a Jewish state in its ancient homeland was attained. The term "Zionism" was coined in 1890 by Nathan Birnbaum." (Jewish Virtual Library).

If Zionism is the belief in the Jewish people's right to return to their homeland, then a Christian Zionist should simply be defined as a Christian who supports the Jewish people's right to return to their homeland. Under this broad and simple definition, many Christians would qualify no matter what their reasons are for this support. Just as Jews of all persuasions formed the Zionist movement then Christians of all persuasion can also fall within this broad definition of a Christian Zionist.

For this very reason, a myriad of answers may be given by a Christian when questioned about their support of Israel. Answers can include political, historical, and/or religious reasons.

The actual theology of Christian Zionism, also known as Biblical Zionism, supports the right of the Jewish people to return to their homeland on scriptural grounds. The biblical foundation for Christian Zionism is found in God's Covenant with Abraham. It was in this covenant that God chose Abraham to birth a nation through which He could redeem the world, and to do this He bequeathed them a land on which to exist as this chosen nation.

Christian Zionism is confirmed throughout the Hebrew Scriptures. The major and minor prophets consistently confirmed this national calling on Israel, promised her future restoration to the land after a period of exile, and spoke of her spiritual renewal and redemption bringing light to the world.

Christian Zionism differs with Replacement Theology which teaches that the special relationship that Israel had with her God in terms of her national destiny and her national homeland has been lost because of her rejection of Jesus as Messiah, and therefore the Church has become the new Israel. The Church has then inherited all the blessings promised to Israel but the judgments and curses still conveniently remain over the Jewish people.

Instead, Christian Zionism teaches from the scriptures that God's covenant with Abraham is still valid today. There remains a national destiny over the Jewish people and her national homeland is her everlasting possession in fulfillment of God's plans and purposes for her. The New Testament scriptures not only affirm the Abrahamic covenant, but they confirm the historical mission of Israel and that Israel's gifts and calling are irrevocable.

Thus, Christian Zionism is not based on prophecy or end-time events. Most Christian Zionists would agree, however, that Israel's reemergence on the world's scene, in fulfillment of God's promises to her, indicate that other biblically-predicted events will follow.

Rev. Malcolm Hedding ICEJ Spokesman

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Christian Zionism 101 | ICEJ USA

Events – May is Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By on April 15, 2016

Interactive Calendar

Submit the program or event you are planning in honor of Jewish American Heritage Month. Every program matters as we build awareness across the country of the important contributions of Jewish Americans to our nations history and culture.

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THE INHABITANTS THEREOF: PHILADELPHIA JEWISH HISTORY :RABBI LANCE J. SUSSMAN, PH.D.

Apr 6, Apr 20, May 4, May 18 6-7:30pm $90/$75 members/ $65 teachers Purchase Member tickets Purchase Non Member tickets The 4-week class (every other week), taught by Rabbi Lance Sussman, will explore the sweep of Philadelphia Jewish history. For much of its history, Philadelphia has functioned as the Jewish Capital of America. At other times, it has been paradigmatic of the American Jewish experience and, thus, in many ways is part of the "national" story the Museum is dedicated to exploring. Week 1: April 6, 2016 A Revolution in Jewish History: Jewish Patriots and Tories in Philadelphia, 1776-1787 Week 2: April 20, 2016 The Golden Age of Philadelphias Uptown Jewish Community, 1866-1920 Week 3: May 4, 2016 South Philly: An American Shtetl, 1880-1920 Week 4: May 18, 2016 Suburban Frontiers: Jewish Life in Philadelphia Since 1960

Place: National Museum of American Jewish History, 101 S Independence Mall E, Philadelphia, Pe 19106

Date: 04/06/2016 6:00 PM to 5/18/2016 7:30 PM

Type: Lecture

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Holocaust Remembrance 2016

Holocaust Remembrance in Battle Creek, Michigan this year includes a theater production, traveling museum exhibition, and survivor's presentation. A website at http://bitly.com/HolocaustRemembranceBC offers resources to help students and adults prepare for events of spring 2016.

Place: Art Center of Battle Creek, 265 E Emmett St, , Battle Creek, Mi 49017

Date: 04/13/2016 12:00 PM to 5/27/2016 5:00 PM

Type: Other

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Events - May is Jewish American Heritage Month


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