Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By admin on October 6, 2022

(JTA) It seemed like a headline out of the 19th century: a warning of Jew-free zones at the University of California-Berkeley.

Thats the phrase being employed by some prominent pro-Israel groups this week to describe a dispute at UC Berkeleys law school, where nine student groups recently voted to adopt by-laws that state they will not invite any visiting speakers to campus who identify as Zionist.

But is the Jew-free label accurate? Not according to Jewish leadership at the university. Heres a rundown of the controversy, and where people have come down on it.

How did the UC Berkeley situation start?

In August, nine student groups at the UC Berkeley law school (out of more than 100) signed a statement authored by the group Berkeley Law Students for Justice in Palestine.

Under the justification of protecting the safety and welfare of Palestinian students, the statement pledges not to invite speakers that have expressed and continued to hold views in support of Zionism, the apartheid state of Israel, and the occupation of Palestine, as reported by J. The Jewish News of Northern California.

The student groups who backed the pledge include Women of Berkeley Law, Berkeley Law Muslim Student Association, Asian Pacific Amedrican Law Students Association and the Queer Caucus, according to the organizing group. The statement also expressed support for the goals of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions movement targeting Israel.

Opposition was swift and came from the highest office at the law school. Erwin Chemerinsky, the schools Jewish dean, wrote to the student body to condemn the pledge, calling it troubling and noting that taken literally, this would mean that I could not be invited to speak because I support the existence of Israel, though I condemn many of its policies.

Chemerinsky further pointed out that UC Berkeleys chancellor, Carol Christ, has denounced the BDS movement in the past, and that the school has an Antisemitism Education Initiative specifically designed to parse anti-Zionist rhetoric.

The law schools Jewish Students Association board also authored an Aug. 27 statement opposing the petition, writing that it alienates many Jewish students from certain groups on campus, and noting that their group was one of the few affinity groups not contacted during this process.

Even as all of this was happening, Chemerinsky insisted publicly that UC Berkeleys law school was still a welcoming environment for Jewish students and speakers, calling the petition a minor incident and any outside attempts to spotlight it as indicative of campus-wide antisemitism nonsense.

Does the story end there?

No. Last week, about a month after the law student petition circulated, Kenneth Marcus, formerly the head of the federal governments Commission on Human Rights, published an op-ed in the Los Angeles Jewish Journal claiming that Berkeley now has Jewish-free zones.

It is now a century since Jewish-free zones first spread to the San Francisco Bay Area, wrote Marcus, who is also a Berkeley Law alum and founder and chairman of the pro-Israel legal group Louis Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law. He compared the Berkeley Law petition to 19th-century signage in American cities with phrases like No Jews, Dogs, or Consumptives, and added that the incident was a sign of university spaces go[ing] as the Nazis infamous call, judenfrei. Jewish-free.

Other pro-Israel groups quickly followed suit in condemning Berkeley. Hadassah CEO Rhoda Smolow said the students actions are not only antisemitic; they are anti-education. StandWithUs repeated Marcus Jew-free zones comment in the subject line of a press release, threatening legal action against the school in the form of filing a Title VI civil rights violation complaint with the U.S. Department of Education.

The Jewish Journal op-ed also occasioned several open letters opposing the Berkeley student groups who signed the by-laws, from the American Association of Jewish Lawyers & Jurists (which accused the law school of having tolerated, condoned, and by such inaction, encouraged an antisemitic environment); more than 100 Jewish student groups nationwide, including more than a dozen Hillel and Chabad chapters as well as several Jewish fraternities; and a number of pro-Israel groups including AIPAC and the World Jewish Congress, alongside the American Jewish Committee and the Jewish National Fund.

Among others rising up in anger following the publication of Marcus op-ed: Barbra Streisand, who tweeted Oct. 1, When does anti-Zionism bleed into broad anti-Semitism? Streisand then linked to Marcus article.

So is Berkeley Law actually banning Zionist speakers?

No. The law schools policies around guest speakers remain unchanged, and the vast majority of law student groups have not backed the pledge to oppose such speakers.

Jews at UC Berkeley are mad, too but mainly at Marcus, and others who claim the school is now a breeding ground for antisemitism.

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The idea .. that the Berkeley law school has Jewish-free zones is preposterous, two Jewish faculty members, Ron Hassner and Ethan Katz, wrote in an op-ed in J.

Hassner is the Helen Diller Family Chair in Israel Studies and co-director of the law schools Helen Diller Institute for Jewish Law and Israel Studies, while Katz is chair of an advisory committee on Jewish student life and co-director of the Berkeley Antisemitism Education Initiative.

They wrote that fears about an antisemitic environment at Berkeley dont hold up to scrutiny, pointing to the law schools recent hosting of Zionist speakers including Yossi Shain, a member of the Israeli Knesset. The pair added that the actions of nine law student groups dont change Berkeleys deep institutional commitment to Jewish studies and Israel studies.

Panic-mongering around anti-Zionism on U.S. campuses serves no purpose, other than to offer free advertisement for extremist ideas, and to erode needlessly Jews sense of basic safety and security in places where Jewish life is actually thriving, Hassner and Katz wrote, while also condemning the law student anti-Zionist campaign as nakedly discriminatory, bigoted and an outrage.

Chemerinsky also spoke up, again, both in a response to the Jewish Journal and in his own op-ed in The Daily Beast. There is no Jewish-Free Zone at Berkeley Law or on the UC-Berkeley campus, he wrote.

Why Berkeley?

For one, theres the Bay Area citys reputation as an incubator for progressive activism, which has made it a regular target of right-wing campus free speech protests. But theres something else, too.

The Berkeley law schools Institute for Jewish Law and Israel Studies is a recent recipient of a $10 million donation from the Helen Diller Institute, money which was used to expand its Israel Studies programming including guest speakers. When the donation was announced last year, pro-Palestinian law student groups, including the group that later organized the petition protesting Zionist guest speakers, called on the school to reject the money.

They pointed to a long list of past objectionable donations by the Diller family, including to Canary Mission, an anonymous group that has published the personal information of Israel critics; the American Freedom Defense Initiative, a group led by Jewish anti-Islam blogger Pamela Geller; and to efforts to oppose a rent control ballot initiative.

At the time, the school rejected students calls to return the money, possibly laying the groundwork for the intra-campus dispute today over Zionist guest speakers, some of whom (including Shain) were funded by the Diller endowment.

The Dillers foundation had previously donated $10 million to UC Berkeley across two separate donations: half to fund the campus Center for Jewish Studies, and half to endow the Helen Diller Family Chair in Israel Studies.

Since the work of faculty like Hassner and Katz is made possible in part by the Diller familys generosity, donor concerns are another factor at play. Donors to university Israel studies programs are increasingly looking for assurance that their money is going toward research and political speech they agree with often with the encouragement of groups like StandWithUs, who push donors to build pro-Israel safeguards into their large-dollar donations. Reassuring the public that all is well with Israel-related matters at Berkeley also reassures the donors.

Earlier this year at the University of Washington, a donor withdrew a $5 million gift from the schools Israel Studies program because she didnt approve of its endowed chair signing a letter critical of Israel. Katz signed a letter sent at the time to UWs president supporting the affected professor.

What could happen now?

As of now the initial student letter hasnt prompted much action on campus, apart from a strong rebuke from UC Berkeley administration. But the reactions to it could be a signal of something more.

The forceful public tactics being employed by pro-Israel groups well versed in campus controversies are a sign that their approach to UC Berkeley may follow a by-now familiar playbook, much to the chagrin of Jewish faculty on campus who would prefer to keep things quiet.

StandWithUs, which is threatening to file a Title VI complaint, brings to mind several similar investigations that the U.S. Education Departments Office of Civil Rights has opened up against schools in recent years for allegedly fostering antisemitic environments on campus. Most recently, the Brandeis Center and campus antisemitism watchdog group Jewish On Campus succeeded in opening an investigation at the University of Vermont by filing a complaint about ad-hoc student groups that said they wouldnt admit Zionist students, among other things (the schools administration has vigorously denied the allegations).

Marcus declined to tell JTA whether the Brandeis Center would also be looking to file a complaint against UC Berkeley. But the organization argues that any campus anti-Zionist speech or activity is tantamount to discriminating against Jewish students, and that universities have an obligation to oppose such speech by any legal means. The Brandeis Center wants the federal government to define anti-Zionist activity in the same way, and uses Title VI as a means of pressuring universities to take action against students who may be engaging in such activity.

Will they do so in this instance? Marcus told JTA in a statement that the center is prepared to take whatever action is required, but did not elaborate on what that action could be.

The post Does UC Berkeley really have Jew-free zones? We explain appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.

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Posted By admin on October 6, 2022

During the American Civil Wars, Jews served their country with steadfastness and valor.

On November 19, 1863, President Abraham Lincoln addressed a broken nation over the fresh graves of thousands of Americans. He opened his speech with the now-famous words, Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

These words are steeped in meaning for me personally. I imagine how it must have felt for my great-great-great-grandfather, Daniel Epstein, to hear his commander-in-chief assert that all men are created equal, as he stood at-attention in his Second Lieutenant Union uniform, a position he could only dream of attaining as a proud and open Jew in most other militaries worldwide at the time.

The authors ancestor, a Civil War veteran, poses in his uniform.

The American Civil War became the great crucible where the young countrys commitment to unity and equality were tested. For Jewish Americans, like my great-great-great-grandfather, the war became a litmus test where they proved their loyalties to their countrymen. It also became the era where their loyalty was reciprocated. Jews served in high positions, displayed valor in battle, won awards, and, most importantly, were largely given equal opportunity and treatment to attain these feats.

In 1840 there were about 15,000 Jews living in the United States. By 1860, that number had increased by a factor of ten. The reason for this rapid expansion? Waves of Jews from German-speaking areas of Europe flocked to the United States. They came seeking economic opportunity, religious freedom, and freedom from persecution. Some had also been involved in revolution attempts in Germany. When these revolutions failed to achieve liberalization and anti-monarchical policies, Jewish supporters fled to freer pastures.

Sometimes a large wave of immigration can lead to a backlash of intolerance. However, the four-score-year-old nation warmly welcomed its Jewish immigrants. Equal opportunities and an attitude of tolerance allowed Jewish immigrants to prosper in the United States. When war broke out, Jews responded in kind, serving their newfound communities patriotically, bravely, and tirelessly.

Edward Salomon

The remarkable story of the Salomon family clearly displays Americas tolerance towards Jewish immigrants in the 19th century, and these Jews' mutual requital and service to their country. Only 13 years after fleeing Germany, Edward Salomon became the first openly Jewish governor in American history, a remarkable achievement at the time. As the wartime Wisconsin governor, Salomon put his heart and soul into supporting the Union. He personally became involved in recruiting 14 fighting regiments, increasing the wheat output needed to feed the troops, and passing legislation allowing active soldiers to vote.

Salomon had two brothers in America who proudly and patriotically served their country on the battlefield. Frederick Salomon, a major general, became the highest-ranked Jewish Union officer. Another brother, Charles, became brigade general. A Salomon cousin, Edward Salomon held a colonel position during the war, and afterwards became the governor of Washington territory and later the State Legislator of California.

Frederick Salomon held a major general rank, the second highest rank. (Public domain)

On the other side of the Mason-Dixon line were devoted and politically active Confederate Jews. Before the war Judah Benjamin, nicknamed the brains of the Confederacy, made headlines as the first openly Jewish senator, and a sharp and erudite legal scholar. This won him the admiration of Jefferson Davis, who appointed him as the Confederacys attorney general. Benjamin then got promoted to secretary of war, where he oversaw all the logistics, and coordinated the war effort for the South. As the war drew to a close, Benjamin became the Confederate secretary of state, before fleeing to Europe when the Confederacy fell, where he restarted a successful legal career.

Judah Benjamin, the brains of the Confederacy

The Civil War era is known as a watershed era for greater equity in the United States military. In 1861, thousands of Jews were fighting for the Union. The non-Jewish Ohio state representative, Clement Vallandigham, argued successfully to amend the bill that only allowed for Christian army chaplains. Vallandigham testified that, There is a large body of men in this country, and one growing continually, of the Hebrew faith whose adherents are as good citizens and as true patriots as any in the country. This landmark amendment provided for greater religious freedom in the United States military.

Clement Vallandigham

Meanwhile, as Vallandigham asserted, men of the Hebrew faith were indeed good citizens and patriots who displayed valor in combat. Five Union Jewish soldiers earned Medals of Honor. The first was Benjamin Levy, who became the first Jewish Congressional Medal of Honor recipient in history. Levy was a drummer boy, but after his comrade fell ill with malaria, Levy took up his gun and marched into battle. When Confederate soldiers shot down the color bearer during the Charles City Crossroads battle, drummer-boy-turned-warrior Levy raised the flag in his stead, and evacuated it from the field at great personal risk.

Brave and patriotic Jewish soldiers, like Levy and like my ancestor Daniel Epstein, paved the way for integration of Jews in the US military. President Lincoln, intoned in his Gettysburg address that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

A memorial in the Jewish Military Confederate Cemetery, in Richmond, Va.

Indeed, Jews during that era did perceive America as a new birth of freedom and a government of the people. They were treated with tolerance in the country built on religious freedom, and they in turn reciprocated by serving with steadfastness and valor.

Like many other Jews, my family will always be personally grateful for the opportunities America provided my ancestors that allowed them to actualize their identities as proud Jews and proud Americans.

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Posted By admin on October 6, 2022

As we come out of the High Holidays of 5783, I hope we can all make one last reflection on our Why, on the most important questions of who we are and what our lives are about. I hope were also considering: When we face difficulties on the journey of actualizing our unique purposes, where will we turn for stability and guidance?

I believe a simple and essential answer is found in Parshah Haazinu, a Torah portion that is special in that it is primarily written not as prose, but in the form of a shir, a poem or song. Just looking at the unusual spacing of the text, we can see that the Torah is doing something special here.

And this is all for the purpose of helping us today hear Moses speaking or singing, in this parshah, a love letter to Torah itself. HaAzinu, give ear, he begins at the start of Deuteronomy chapter 32. O heavens, let me speak; Let the earth hear the words I utter! Moses continues even more poetically:

May my discourse come down as the rain,

My speech distill as the dew,

Like showers on young growth,

Like droplets on the grass.

This serves as a call to soak in and imbibe the instructions of the Torah, and to me its a further call to, like Moses, sing our own songs as we journey on in our lives. Our lives songs are our deepest expressions of our values and purpose in the world. When we experience an encounter that takes us beyond ordinary feelings, we can find satisfactory expression only in song.

We sing because its the outpouring of our souls, the Jewish musician Joey Weisenberg once said. We fill up our cup, and then when the cup overflows, it overflows in song, and we sing to give thanks back to the world.

But whats even more powerful than singing our own song is learning to do it as a community. We must learn to not only provide space for each member to sing their own song, but to create a collective, harmonious chorus a symphony, even, of many different parts together.

Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, of blessed memory, passed on a teaching of the Baal Shem Tov: that just as one missing letter makes an entire Torah scroll unkosher, one missing Jew makes the entire Jewish people incomplete.

Every Jew is a letter, Sacks wrote in his book A Letter in the Scroll. Each Jewish family is a word, every community a sentence and the Jewish people through time constitutes a story, the strangest and most moving story in the annals of mankind.

This grand vision only works if we leave the comfort of our own denominations, congregations, ideologies and echo chambers and learn Torah together. At my pluralistic learning organization, Valley Beit Midrash, we thrive by bringing together Jewish adults from around the Valley to reflect deeply about their own values and to grow in their Jewish wisdom. However, our goal of keeping Jewish wisdom alive cannot be reached if the knowledge is left in the recesses of individual minds and souls. Our ultimate measure of success must be whether we can sing a more beautiful song, which we can achieve only when we all sing together.

As it says is Psalm 96, one of the famous psalms recited at Kabbalat Shabbat, Sing to the Lord a new song, sing to the Lord, all the earth. Singing a new song is not the task of Moses, or King David, or even the entire Jewish people. Everyone and everything must be redeemed by being elevated to its highest purpose.

At the end of Moshes poem, the parshah says, Moses came, together with Hosea son of Nun, and recited all the words of this poem in the hearing of the people (Deut. 32:44). With the Torah, we today are possessors of not just as sacred book, but a holy song. Were sitting on moral and spiritual gold, more valuable than any concrete asset. What we have in the Torah is transformative wisdom that shows us how to live a good life and has done so for thousands of years. But it can only truly be actualized collectively.

Studying Torah, a habit I hope we all continue into the new parshah cycle and the new year, is not just about having a personal intellectual experience, although that would be enough. It should also inspire us to lift up all others in our communities and to emerge as harbingers of a better world, with an enthusiasm that feels to us more like music than prose.

I wish you blessings, community, and song in 5783. JN

Rabbi Dr. Shmuly Yanklowitz is the president and dean of Valley Beit Midrash.

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Posted By admin on October 6, 2022

I had a vision of myself preparing my very first break-fast in my own apartment, and naturally, it bore no relationship to the cook I actually know myself to be. I pictured myself as a chill, serene domestic goddess with a sense of humorhalf Nora Ephron, half Laurie Colwinready to greet her guests at the door with an excellent bottle of natural wine in hand, imploring them to make themselves at home on my heartbreakingly well-curated furniture, and lighting a Byredo candle before sauntering into the kitchen to check on the tzimmes.

I told myself Id make a nontraditional menu of the Jewish foods I loved best, culled from various holidayslatkes, matzo ball soup, and, for the first time, my very own challah, under the YouTube tutelage of Semitic angel Claire Saffitzand I imagined the food being so delicious that everyone at my table converted on the spot. (Just kidding: To quote one of my favorite unconventional Jewesses, Charlotte York-Goldenblatt from Sex and the City, Theres more to being a Jew than jewelry.)

As you might imagine, my vision quickly fell apart. Ten minutes before my guests were due to arrive, I was sweating profusely from the exertion of trying to put together three main courses simultaneously, my makeup running off my face from the heat of the frying oil for the latkes, and my hands bleeding in three separate places from a failed attempt to shred onion on a box grater. If I had only had to braid the challah six times, dayenu. (Yes, I know, wrong Jewish holiday.) Ultimately, it took a total of seven tries before I shoved the braided behemoth into the oven, feeling totally certain that something would go wrong in the baking process. I had to 86 the matzo ball soup at the last minute when the matzo balls disintegrated in the broth, feeling very much like Carmy from The Bearif Carmy were terrible at his job and a failure of Jewish womanhood, that is.

As my friends Hannah and Marshall filed in, drank wine, and let their curious dog Merle sniff around the living room before settling next to me on the couch, I began to relax. Maybe it was my friend Amalies generous hostess gift of a bottle of my favorite Hendricks gin, or maybe it was the tantalizing smell of the latkes topped with sour cream, dill, and lox, or maybe just the comforting knowledge that even I hadnt managed to fuck up potato pancakesbut I started to get into something approximating a festive spirit. (Even though Yom Kippur is the Day of Atonement, so, as usual, I was off-script.)

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Posted By admin on October 6, 2022

No, polio is not a threat to the vast majority of Americans. Thats because the vast majority has received a very effective polio vaccine. And thats also why public officials should stop turning a concern centered on a few under-vaxxed communities into everyones problem.

But Gov. Kathy Hochul did just that when she declared a polio state of emergency in the state of New York. The announcement made the national and international news, portraying New York as the center of a new disease outbreak, just as the state was still digging out of the pandemic slowdown.

Heres the real story: Wastewater samplings have revealed some traces of polio virus in vaccine-resistant pockets of the state mainly the community of Ultra-Orthodox Jews in Rockland County. The low vaccination rates in the Amish farmlands on the states Southern Tier have also been noted.

An unvaccinated young Hasidic Jewish man was stricken with the dreaded paralysis associated with the disease. This is the first and so far, only such polio case in the country in a decade.

That personal tragedy doesnt constitute a state or national emergency. Polio shots are required for admission to public and most private schools almost everywhere in the U.S. Thats why the disease had almost disappeared.

Experts in the spread of polio dismiss the idea that a handful of cases in rich, highly vaccinated countries with good sanitation are a threat to the larger public. Nicholas Grassly, an epidemiologist at Imperial College London, has been trying to tamp down fears of polio in places like New York.

Grassly has followed evidence of the virus in Orthodox communities in London, greater Jerusalem and Rockland County. There is a risk we will end up reporting one or two cases in London, he told Science magazine, evidently trying to head off panicky conclusions should that happen.

Virologists say they are far more worried about polios spread in parts of Africa where vaccination rates are low and sanitation is very poor.

As for the United States, the evidence of the polio virus in wastewater samplings does not herald COVID, Part II. Early on there was no vaccine against COVID, and the virus went on to kill thousands. All one could do for protection was wear masks, sanitize hands and avoid others. The COVID shot changed everything. It prevented serious disease. It freed us.

Right-wing disinformation and general ignorance promoted anti-vaccine sentiment. The original anti-vaxxers, however, were largely affluent white progressives in Marin County, California, and similar oases of natural living. (This group has apparently come to its senses, and now Marin has one of the highest vaccination rates in the country.)

Those of us who took care of business during the pandemic soon felt armored against stories of dying COVID patients wishing they had gotten vaccinated. With shots being waved at them seemingly from every street corner, sympathy did not flow easily.

These COVID patients burdened Americas emergency departments at great expense to the public. They hogged medical resources, forcing people with cancer and heart disease to put off treatment.

As for the polio vaccine, the four doses required for school enrollment provide 99% protection against the disease. And 99% of New Yorks schoolchildren are vaccinated for polio.

And so where is the polio health emergency? Saying it exists ignores the broad public compliance with vaccine mandates and the easy availability of the shots. It creates unwarranted fears. And by making it everybodys problem, it downplays the importance of responsible behavior that is, getting vaccinated. Polio is now largely a self-inflicted disease.

The best reason for not declaring an emergency, however, is that there isnt one.

Follow Froma Harrop on Twitter @FromaHarrop. She can be reached at fharrop@gmail.com.

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Posted By admin on October 6, 2022

On the surface, New Yorkers might assume that the states candidates for governor Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul and Republican Lee Zeldin would have polar opposite approaches to education if they were elected.

And while that likely holds true in several ways, there are still many open questions about how both would craft policy for schools.

Hochul has not focused much at all on education on the campaign trail, and while her time in office so far provides some clues, her campaign website has no details about her goals for the states K-12 schools beyond wanting to invest more money in them.

As a frontrunner she has little incentive to take sharp or even very precise and specific positions, particularly on policies that are at all controversial, particularly policies that are controversial in suburbs, said Jeffrey Henig, professor of political science and education at Columbia Universitys Teachers College.

In contrast, Zeldin is throwing everything at the wall that Republicans are trying in lots of places, Henig said.

The congressman has proposed several priorities, such as banning divisive concepts from being taught in schools related to race a talking point that conservatives across the country have embraced but he has not provided more specifics on many of his ideas. Some of his proposals are self explanatory, such as wanting to lift the cap on how many charter schools can open in New York.

Zeldins campaign did not respond to questions asking to elaborate on his positions or provide more details.

As the governors race nears this fall, heres what we know about where both fall on education issues:

Zeldin has said he would ban divisive curriculum that pits children against one another based on race and other factors language thats similar to what conservative lawmakers in other states have pushed for.

His platform does not explicitly talk about critical race theory, or CRT, which is an academic framework for studying systemic racism but has been used by Republicans as an umbrella term for diversity and inclusion efforts. Both city and state officials have said critical race theory is not taught in the citys and states public schools. Both locally and statewide, officials have encouraged schools to teach culturally responsive lessons.

But Zeldin wrote in an opinion article last year that CRT was politicizing education. In it, he blasted a lengthy framework released by the state education department that encourages but does not mandate districts to teach culturally responsive lessons, or lessons that relate to and affirm various students backgrounds. The department also wants districts to consider acknowledging the role of racism in American history and create lessons that empower students to be agents of change.

Zeldins platform also calls for restricting age-inappropriate sex education, though it does not detail what that means, requiring financial literacy courses in public schools, and civics lessons that teach students about how and why they get to live in the greatest nation in the history of the world.

Still, if Zeldin were elected, its unlikely that he would be able to successfully ban schools from teaching about race since the state legislature is overwhelmingly Democratic and unsupportive of such policies. For example, a bill seeking to ban critical race theory in schools didnt make it out of committee last year.

You may see outside money and national organizations try to come in and really sort of add amplitude to those messages around parental rights and critical race theory and gender identity issues, Henig said. I dont want to discount the importance of how people talk about things, but the impact on actual policy would be delayed, at best.

So far, Hochul has not taken a strong position on what sorts of curriculum or learning standards she supports in schools. When pressed about a New York Times investigation that revealed a lack of basic lessons in core subjects, such as English, in Hasidic yeshivas, Hochul said responsibility over those private religious schools fell to the state education department, not her office. (Zeldin has been supportive of the Hasidic yeshivas, and has been courting the vote of the Orthodox and Hasidic communities, the New York Times reported.)

Asked where Hochul stands on curriculum, her campaign pointed to an ABC 7 story from May, where she said she supported a bill that would have required New York schools to teach about Asian American history. (The bill did not move out of committee.) They also pointed to a bill she signed that requires the state education department to ensure school districts are meeting requirements to teach children about the Holocaust an idea that Zeldin also supports.

Zeldin has expressed substantial support for school choice and charter schools. In fact, he first announced his education agenda last spring outside of a Success Academy school in Queens.

Zeldin supports lifting the cap on how many charter schools can open in New York, which was reached in the city in 2019. He also wants to establish tax credits for school choice and create education savings accounts, but doesnt provide more details. With an education savings account, parents can withdraw their children from public schools and receive tax dollars in a restricted-use account to pay for private school or other educational options like therapy.

The state legislature so far has not supported lifting the charter cap.

Zeldins platform online says he wants more options for technical grade school level learning, experience and certification, though its unclear if hes referring to career preparation programs or something else.

On the city level, Zeldin saw eye to eye with Mayor Eric Adams and Hochul on extending mayoral control of schools. And, like Adams, Zeldin also supports keeping the controversial admissions exam in place for the citys specialized high schools, as well as advanced and specialized academics. Hes earned the support of some parents who favor screened admissions to the citys public middle and high schools and gifted and talented programs.

Hochul has not publicly said if she supports lifting the charter cap. Shes repeatedly touted overseeing a budget that sent more state money to school districts as the result of an agreement to fully fund Foundation Aid, the state funding formula that sends more money to higher needs districts.

Shes taken an interest in boosting mental health resources for students, ensuring more children go to college, specifically by expanding college tuition assistance to part-time students in New York, and has attempted to address the teacher shortage by expanding alternative teacher certification programs and temporarily waiving an income cap for teacher retirees who want to return to the profession.

She also signed a popular bill that requires lower class sizes in New York City, which was celebrated by many families, the teachers union, and advocates. City officials and some conservative parent groups pushed back, arguing the mandate would pull money away from other services for students.

Neither Hochul nor Zeldin have addressed one of the most critical issues facing public schools: dipping enrollment.

Enrollment in traditional public schools has dropped by more than 2% nationwide since the onset of the pandemic, and by about 9.5% in New York City public schools. Changes in enrollment have big implications for school budgets that are closely tied to the number of students in classrooms. That issue is already playing out in New York City, where three-quarters of schools saw cuts in the funding that pays for staff and programs for students.

Zeldins education platform doesnt address the issue. While Hochul has touted her commitment to boosting funding for public schools, she has not addressed what to do about enrollment changes across the state.

What you see on the Hochul side is, Yes, we support education, we are willing to spend more on it, but kind of resisting what progressive forces might want to see on the campaign, in terms of challenging basic funding formulas in ways that might not play well in wealthy or more affluent communities that would see this as redirecting state monies away from them and towards lower-income communities, Henig said.

Most COVID mitigations for schools have ended, so its not likely that the election of either candidate would drastically change that.

Both Zeldin and Hochul have supported peeling back COVID mitigations, such as masking, with Hochul recently calling remote learning a mistake. But Zeldin has pushed harder to remove all sorts of mandates.

While Hochul ended mask mandates, she also oversaw sending at-home COVID tests to schools and has touted keeping schools open during a major surge in infections last winter, though in-person instruction was still severely disrupted. (Shes come under fire in recent weeks for a deal she made when choosing a vendor for those tests.)

Zeldin has opposed COVID vaccine and mask mandates. If elected, he may press Adams to drop a vaccine mandate in place for New York City schools staff. At one point, Hochul expressed support for requiring children to get COVID vaccines. The state legislature would have to pass a bill that added COVID vaccines to the list of already required shots for school children, according to the New York Times.

Reema Aminis a reporter covering New York City schools with a focus on state policy and English language learners. Contact Reema at ramin@chalkbeat.org.

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Posted By admin on October 6, 2022

(JTA) When Sarah Jemal was pregnant with her first child, she couldnt keep any food or liquids down. Given her risk of dehydration and preterm labor, Jemals obstetrician recommended she use a concierge service to receive intravenous fluids at home.

Otherwise I was going to basically have to be administered to the hospital, be on hospital rest until I gave birth, Jemal said.

During her next pregnancy, she wasnt as sick. But then it came time for Yom Kippur, when Jewish law requires a 25-hour fast from food and drink. Jemal didnt want to risk dehydration again, so she reached out to IVDRIPS, the company that provided the IV concierge service she had used before and requested a few bags of the companys Yom Kippur hydration cocktail.

Bracha Banayan, a nurse practitioner and the founder of IVDRIPS, said Jemal reflects a frequent customer profile: pregnant people who are concerned about dehydration. In fact, she said, she timed the launch of her company to Yom Kippur in 2018 precisely because of her experiences treating pregnant women who had fasted and run into trouble as a result.

Weve taken care of clients already for four years in a row where before us they were going to the hospital after Yom Kippur, said Banayan, who herself is a Modern Orthodox Jew. Even though they knew that, they still fasted. So its kind of like something that really gave people a way to still keep what the Torahs asking and still be able to fast.

Nearly half of all American Jews say they fast for all or part of Yom Kippur, according to a 2020 Pew survey, making the fast one of the most widely observed Jewish practices in the United States; the proportion of Orthodox Jews who fast is far higher. The day can be physically punishing, and those who fast annually know to drink ample water in the preceding days and, in the case of regular coffee drinkers, to wean caffeine consumption to ward off a withdrawal headache.

The rise of non-medical IV treatments, a trend in so-called wellness culture that celebrities including Kendall Jenner and Hailey Bieber have popularized, has created a new form of fast-hacking for the influencer set. IVDRIPS is one of several concierge infusion companies offering clients a chance to hook up to an IV either in a posh office, sometimes with a side of champagne, or in the comfort of their own home. Those who purchase the service insurance rarely covers it can pick among an assortment of vitamins, electrolytes and medications to infuse into their veins to ward off fatigue, hangovers, migraines and more.

Banayan said she expects to deliver as many as 500 pre-fast IV drips in the markets her company serves, which this year expanded from the New York City area to include the fast-growing Orthodox center of Boca Raton, Florida, as well as Baltimore and New Orleans.

Her company advertises on its Instagram for pre-fast day drips which run about $300 in the New York area and $200 elsewhere and Orthodox influencers have been posting for weeks about their plans to receive IV hydration before Yom Kippur.

Frumee Taubenfeld, who has nearly 36,000 followers on her Instagram account, where she typically posts about modest fashion and her familys travels, posted on Sunday that she had booked an Elite Hydration Drip for Tuesday morning.

Please be advised that due to high demand during this holiday season, all bookings are nonrefundable within 5 days of appointment date, the email receipt she posted read. It concluded, Thank you and have an easy fast!

The Yom Kippur fast is the most stringent of the fast days in the Jewish calendar, and fasting is considered such an important obligation that it trumps going to services one reason that the Bobov Hasidic sect has held an IV clinic inside its main synagogue in Brooklyn.

Jewish tradition also holds that people who are ill, elderly, pregnant or nursing and whose health would be jeopardized by fasting should not do so. In Orthodox communities, rabbis and doctors are bombarded with questions in the days leading up to Yom Kippur from people asking whether they fall into those categories.

But even though their rabbis and physicians may advise them to avoid the fast or at least drink small amounts of water throughout the day, some Jews, animated by feelings of guilt, anxiety or communal pressure, ignore those recommendations.

Banayan said the message is not always so clear.

People are like, Well, if youre not healthy, then you shouldnt fast. Tell that to half the world! she said. Theyre still fasting. I mean, these rabbis are not saying, OK, dont fast. Theyre going to say, Try to fast. Do your best. This, to me, is doing your best.

Many medical practitioners frown on discretionary IV use, noting that it has not been studied rigorously and pointing out that any efficacy may be chalked up to a placebo effect. Its the latest trend in functional or alternative medicine to kind of rip through the general community as a cure-all, Dr. Joshua Septimus, a physician in Houston, told BuzzFeed News earlier this year. Its just one more way to fleece people for money.

In rare instances, discretionary IVs can actually be dangerous. Supermodel Kendall Jenner was hospitalized in 2018 after complications related to an IV vitamin infusion.

Every time you make a hole in the skin, theres a risk of infection, said Rivka Adelman, a nurse practitioner in the heavily Orthodox hamlet of Monsey, New York, one of the areas serviced by IVDRIPS.

Adelman said she could see a role for discretionary IVs nonetheless but not for people who want to fast against medical advice.

People who are not able to drink a lot, it would help them, Adelman said. IV fluids are really for people that are overall healthy and just have a hard time fasting. Its not really for sick patients who shouldnt be fasting anyway.

Dr. Aaron Glatt, the chair of medicine at Mount Sinai South Nassau and an associate rabbi at Young Israel of Woodmere on Long Island, says the use of pre-fast IVs is cut-and-dry.

There is no reason to do so medically, he said. People should be able to take [water] orally. It will work just as well as the IV. So the medical point of view it doesnt make sense.

I want to make it clear that absolutely if somebodys sick, theyre allowed to do that, Glatt added. But for somebody to do that to quote, fast easier so they should drink a lot before the holiday.

Thats exactly how some influencers have been promoting their plans to hook up to a drip before Yom Kippur, which this year starts on Tuesday night. Last year, Jewish comedian Claudia Oshry received an IVDRIPS infusion during a taping of her podcast to cure her hangover. Last week, on her podcast, she said she was considering doing the same before Yom Kippur.

Getting an IV like the week of fasting really, really helps. I dont know if thats cheating but I think Im going to do it, Oshry told her cohost, her sister Jackie Oshry.

Do it! Thats not cheating, Jackie replied.

OK. Im going to call IVDRIPS and schedule one for, like, two days before, Oshry said.

The company shared a video clip of the conversation on its Instagram story, with some text of its own: Totally NOT cheating!

Adina Miles-Sash, an emergency medical technician with the Orthodox womens ambulance corps Ezras Nashim, also known by her online activist persona FlatbushGirl, said she has personally used IVDRIPS ahead of Yom Kippur not simply to ease the fast, but to strengthen her prayers.

Its supposed to be as joyous and festive as Purim, minus the food. Its supposed to be a high, holy, optimistic day of yearning and connectivity and celebration, Miles-Sash said about the holiday.

Miles-Sash said she sees a lot of interest, especially from women in her community, in reducing the suffering that has come to be a hallmark of the holiday. She pointed to the popular use of pre-fast delayed-release caffeine pills, which some people consume to reduce the effects of caffeine withdrawal, such as headache and irritability. (Caffeine suppositories were in vogue a decade ago.)

Instead of the usual lightheadedness and chapped lips that commonly accompany the fast, she said using IV hydration means she can physically stand for a longer time through the service, and bring more intentionality to her prayers.

Any method that brings one the ability to more easily engage in a tradition that connects them to their ancestors and their religious heritage, Miles-Sash said, is something that should be embraced.

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Posted By admin on October 6, 2022

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American Airlines flight 146 touched down at Israels Ben Gurion airport on time, arriving from New Yorks JFK airport as one of the dozens of flights that arrive in Israel from the US daily. While a regularly scheduled flight, among the passengers there were five whose arrival in Israel made it one of the most celebrated and certainly unique flights in Israeli history.

What was special about the flight is that it had five unique passengers, traveling in the cargo section. It was the first time in nearly 2,000 years that Israel has been blessed with the presence of not just one red heifer, but five, all arriving together. People who read their Bibles know that red heifers are mentioned in Numbers 19, but their significance has been shrouded for nearly 2,000 years since the destruction of the Second Temple.

Jews read the verses longingly, praying for the opportunity to be able to rebuild the temple and, with it, the ritual purification from the ashes of a red heifer needed to resume the temple services. But for two millennia, the whole idea was simply a fantasy, until last year when these five red heifers were born in Texas, and now, their arrival in Israel.

Through a series of miracles overlaying technology and even the COVID pandemic, these five were found, checked head to toe and remain unblemished which qualifies them for service. They arrived not quite a year old. As long as they dont grow any white or black hairs, and remain unblemished, in just over a year they will qualify for the ritual purification process needed to resume temple service.

In modern cattle raising, its customary to tag all calves within days of their birth. Doing so would be considered a blemish that would disqualify the red calves. So, how these calves remained untagged is just one of the incredible miracles that made this all possible.

There are different perspectives about the significance of the red heifers arrival as it relates to rebuilding the temple. Some say that now the temple can be rebuilt. Jews have prayed for that daily for nearly 2,000 years.

Some say that their arrival is the heralding of the temple being rebuilt, a nuanced difference. And not mutually exclusive, some see the red heifers arrival as laying the foundation for the arrival of the Messiah, and end times among Christians. Either way, what is clear is that even if the temple were to be rebuilt tomorrow, or descend from the heavens as some believe (since God can do anything and the restoration of the temple is among the prophesies related to the return of the Jewish people to Jerusalem), without the red heifers the temple service cannot be reinstated because they are necessary in the ritual purification thats required for all Jews involved.

Regardless of the cause and effect, what is sure is that now theres a possibility, the first time since the year 70 AD, that temple service can be restored. I tend to be of the school that whenever and however it does happen, its all in Gods hands. This is just a key ingredient needed to make it all happen. A big one. That alone is significant, and a rare glimpse of biblical prophecy in our modern time.

A few dozen Israeli Jews and Christians participated in the heifers arrival ceremony. The excitement was palpable even among the workers on the loading dock who understood the significance of the moment. In addition to my reporting about it, there were a few others present, but strangely no national Israeli media. The story caught on nevertheless, and became a topic generating wide interest.

The red heifer is first mentioned in Numbers 19, Tell the Israelites to bring you a red heifer without defect or blemish and that has never been under a yoke. But its been more than just a biblical verse for many. One farmer who raised the cows, guided by Numbers 19, is a devout Christian who was so moved by the opportunity that he gave four of the cows as a gift, just to be part of it.

Today, all Jews are assumed to be ritually impure. While in everyday life in the modern day this status does not have much of a practical effect, this type of impurity prevents one from entering the temple. Thats not yet a practical consideration, but it could be.

One might think that theres no precedent for non-Jews to be connected, much less actively involved, with the restoration of the red heifers to Israel. However, its not only not unique, but past involvement of non-Jews providing a red heifer was documented in the Talmud.

The story goes that a non-Jew named Dama ben-Netina was visited by people from the temple, seeking a gem they believed that he had and which was necessary for the High Priests ephod (breastplate). When they appealed to him, and despite the offer of a large sum to do so, he refused.

His father was sleeping on the key to the box holding the gems when the guests from Jerusalem arrived, and he did not want to disturb his fathers rest. As a reward for honoring his father, a red heifer was born into ben-Netinas herd the following year and he was able to sell it for the equivalent to money he would have earned if he had sold them the gems.

With the red heifers arrival, its worth taking time to review Numbers 19 because the theoretical biblical obligation that had not been practiced for two millennia just got much closer to being practical.

The great 12th century rabbi, Maimonides, held that there were only nine red heifers used through the Second Temple era, and the arrival of the 10th red heifer would only be found and sacrificed when King Messiah was ready to appear. Jews and Christians see different nuance in the red heifer, but the significance is great all the same. The arrival of a possible 10th perfect red heifer, as just happened, signifies hope for the Messiahs imminent arrival, and the temples rebuilding.

So, if youre wondering whats all the talk about the arrival of five cows in Israel last month, you need look no further.

Jonathan Feldsteinwas born and educated in the U.S. and immigrated to Israel in 2004. Throughout his life and career, he has been blessed by the calling to fellowship with Christian supporters of Israel and shares experiences of living as an Orthodox Jew in Israel. He is president of the Genesis 123 Foundation, which builds bridges between Jews and Christians. Hear and understand more about this subject, including the backstory on the Inspiration from Zion podcast.

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Posted By admin on October 6, 2022

The relationship between Poles and Jews is complex and often contentious, historically when Poland was the home to the largest Jewish community in the world, ever more so when it was the site chosen by the Germans for the murder of Jews in death camps, and even today. We both remember a shared history, but often we remember it quite differently.

In 2018, Poland passed a law on Holocaust remembrance that the government believed would have benign implications on Polish-Jewish relations. The law sought to outlaw conflating the crimes committed by the Third Reich in occupied Poland with the Polish nation. While the Polish government may not be equally culpable for the crimes under German occupation, the law inhibited discourse on Polish complicity and accurate Holocaust memorialization.

The Israeli and American governments, along with the Jewish community, responded with strong condemnation. Accordingly, the Polish government recanted the possibility of criminal prosecution for violating the law; however, civil penalties remain. The second version of the law did not exclude creative and scholarly work in contrast to its predecessor. Israel, which initially agreed to the law, was slow to distinguish the differences, so much so that Yad Vashem, a government-sponsored memorial institution, admonished Israels complacency.

The issue of Holocaust remembrance is fraught in some cases, and there are competing narratives on how to accurately honor its victims. Three dominant narratives in the collection of Holocaust remembrance include: the Jews living in Poland, the Polish government, and Jews outside of Poland. Each narrative fails to incorporate a comprehensive overview of pre-Holocaust, the Holocaust and its aftermath.

Some neglect to include the complete arc of Jewish history in Poland, the background of Polands territorial sovereignty, or the resurgence of the Jewish community in Poland. However, a comprehensive narrative of the Holocaust in Poland under German occupation must account for 1,000 years of Jewish history in Poland, the context of previous conquests and annexation of Polish territory, and the current composition of Jewish life.

When studying the events of the Holocaust and World War II, specifically in Poland, many begin on September 1, 1939, with Germanys invasion of Poland. Some posit that a more accurate starting point is the moments leading up to Germanys invasion with the Anschluss of Austria, the takeover of the Sudetenland with the appeasement of Hitler by France and England, and the March 1939 conquest of Czechoslovakia.

While both of those dates align accurately with one objective of the Third Reich, to capture sufficient lebensraum,living space, for a more prosperous Germany unconstrained by territorial limitations, they neglect the second, more salient and consequential objective: the complete annihilation of the Jews, which was at the crux of Hitlers nefarious intentions.

In 1939, there were 3.5 million Jews in Poland amounting to approximately ten percent of Polands population. Such a prevalent Jewish demographic could not exist without suitable conditions that could enable a minority group to survive and even thrive in segments. While the territory under the auspices of the Polish State expanded and retracted, Jews within its border, notwithstanding anti-Jewish riots and expulsions from certain cities, benefited from proclamations and statutes enumerating their rights. As a consequence of greater religious freedoms, synagogues, yeshivas, and other cornerstones of Jewish life sprouted throughout Poland. Hitler chose Poland to be the location for his death camps because Poland was the epicenter of Jewish life in Europe, far enough from Germany to provide a measure of secrecy, and some Poles supported the annihilation of Jews.

Although some overlook the integral role a thriving pre-World War II Polish Jewry plays on the narrative of the Holocaust, the contemporary Polish Jewish community and Polands government actively seek to highlight how it flourished before the Holocaust. And the rebirth of the Jewish community after communism, while modest in scope, is deeply symbolic in importance. Situated next to the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising Memorial, the POLIN Museum broke ground in 2007 and opened in 2013, filling a massive chasm in Polish museology. The POLIN Museum is not simply another Holocaust museum within the myriad Holocaust exhibits and memorials.

The POLIN Museum is a paradigm for what the rest of Polish Jewry seeks to achieve. The Holocaust and World War II, as destructive and unfathomable as the events were, dominated six years of Jewish history in Poland. The museum adequately and accurately depicts the events of the Holocaust within the greater context of the history of Jews in Poland. To some, the Holocaust is the beginning, middle and end of Polish Jewry. For the POLIN Museum, the Holocaust is one of many examples of how governments and people were both historically cordial or antagonistic to the Jewish people in Poland.

The Holocaust does not mark the end of Jewish history in Poland. Between the culmination of World War II and the fall of communism in 1989, the vast majority of Polands surviving Jewish community, more than 350,00 people, emigrated out of Poland. Figures vary on how many Jews stayed; however, the community that remained could not be rebuilt until the democratization of Poland.

As Polands Chief Rabbi Michael Schudrich expressed, A Jewish community in Poland is the result of democracy. The liberalization of Poland became a catalyst for those who hid their Jewish identity to share who they truly were. Second, it initiated uninfringed access to academic sources and the study of Jewish history in Poland. Lastly, democracy enabled open practice of the religious and cultural elements that are sacrosanct to Judaism.

The discovery by some Poles that they are Jewish or have Jewish ancestors has sparked considerable interest in learning more about Judaism. Access to academic sources spurred an influx of scholars, Jewish and non-Jewish, to study Jewish archives and Jewish history. Freedom of religion has ushered in a growing Jewish community in Warsaw led by Rabbi Schudrich, a JCC in Warsaw and a JCC Krakow that provide shabbat meals and teach Hebrew, a 34-year-old Krakow Jewish festival that is the largest Jewish festival in the diaspora (incidentally, organized by a non-Jew), shops and restaurants dedicated to Jewish culture, and other Jewish institutions.

To say that the Jewish community in Poland could see a resurgence to pre-Holocaust levels of Jewish life would be inaccurate, but to ignore the work accomplished since the post-Holocaust democratization of Poland in the revival of Jewish life in Poland is a great disservice to the overall narrative of Jewish history in Poland.

To say that the Jewish community in Poland could see a resurgence to pre-Holocaust levels of Jewish life would be inaccurate, but to ignore the work accomplished since the post-Holocaust democratization of Poland in the revival of Jewish life in Poland is a great disservice to the overall narrative of Jewish history in Poland.

While the American Jewish community tends to focus primarily on the six years of the Holocaust, the Polish government and many in the Polish Jewish community emphasize the periods of Jewish prosperity before World War II and in the last decades.

The Polish government and many Poles place the Holocaust and World War II within the structure of Polish sovereignty and the historical infringement of Polish self-determination by its neighbors. In addition to German occupation, Poland lost battles against Kievan Rus and the Holy Roman Empire; the third partition of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth eliminated Polish sovereignty over its territory for 123 years; and political freedom and open markets crumbled under communist influence after World War II.

The larger Polish narrative differs from that of the Polish Jewish community. In this account, Nazi Germanys occupation of Poland in 1939 is just another example of Poland as the victim of enemy aggression. While many of the most horrific atrocities committed during the Holocaust happened on Polish soil, the Germans occupied the country. Of course, there were Polish collaborators, Nazi sympathizers and Poles who turned in Jews to receive a reward. However, Polands government argues that the Polish government, then in exile in London, did not participate in the persecution of Jews, Roma and political prisoners.

Polands narrative depends on distinguishing aggressors and elucidating a degree of Polish victimhood. It agonizes over the difference between calling concentration camps Nazi concentration camps in German-occupied Poland as opposed to a less precise Polish concentration camps, often used within the Jewish community. To the native English speaker, the meaning of Polish concentration camps is clear. To Poles, the suggestion of Polish concentration camps obfuscates who was culpable for the crimes, who established and ran the camps, and who was in charge of the country. When applicable, Poland uses the German names of ghettos. For example, most Jews would be familiar with the Lodz Ghetto; however, the Poles will refer to it only as the Litzmannstadt Ghetto. In research conducted by institutes funded by the Polish government, a greater emphasis is placed on righteous Poles and crimes inflicted on ethnic Poles. Although the Polish government recognizes Jews as the main target of Nazi Germany, officials insist on including and stressing Polish suffering in the narrative.

A third storyline, the narrative of Jews outside of Poland, revolves around Jewish suffering, preserving faith, and the establishment of the State of Israel. To many Jews, Poland is nothing less and nothing more than a massive Jewish cemetery. Trips that take Jews to visit the cemeteries and killing centers at Lodz, Chelmno, Sobibor, Madjanek, Treblinka, Auschwitz and Birkenau corroborate the aforementioned claim. But these visits fail to capture the broader scope and context of Jewish history in Poland. As Helise Lieberman, the director of the Taube Center, stated, Only going to concentration camps and ghettos is not education.

Educating young Jews about the Holocaust cannot be confined to an equation: death and suffering plus preservation of faith equals the creation of Israel. The Holocaust is an example of the most malevolent actions within the spectrum of human capabilities. However, the presence of Jewish life in Poland should be celebrated alongside the recognition of these atrocities. It should be just as much an integral part of studying the Jewish experience in Poland. Likewise, Polands government must acknowledge and discern the roles of individual collaborators even while recognizing that the Polish nation was under German occupation.

The mechanisms by which governments and people reckon with their pasts are indicative of the future they are looking to build. If Jews focus solely on death and destruction, it will serve as a signal to the generations that follow that Jewish life is confined to moments of sorrowhardly a reliable foundation on which to build. Similarly, should the Polish government disproportionately concentrate on Polish woes, it would catalyze a future where distorting history becomes an instrument for personal gain. For the Polish Jewish community, Polands government, and the Jewish community at-large, a comprehensive narrative is sacrosanct to preserving the memory of the Holocaust and ensuring a brighter future.

Ezra Hess is a Program Associate for NCSEJ, the National Coalition Supporting Eurasian Jewry, a nongovernmental organization dedicated to advocating for Jews in the former Soviet States and its historic sphere of influence. Recently, he participated in a trip funded by Polands Ministry of Foreign Affairs to bring members of American Jewish organizations to Poland.

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The creation narrative in Genesis offers insights on how and why humans create.

As we begin the Torah reading cycle anew, we return to the first Torah portion, Bereshit, Genesis, that opens with the well-known story of the creation of the world. When it comes to the creation of humanity, the text states: God created man in His image, in the image of God He Created him.

According to Rabbi Joseph Soloveitchik, a 20th century rabbinic authority and philosopher, the term image of God in this narrative embodies the idea that like God, man strives to create. In fact, Jewish tradition teaches that humans were designed to be creators and to partner with God in improving the world. Although the Hebrew word used in the text for Divine creativity, bara, literally means cut out and is reserved only for God, rabbinic scholars regard this language as challenging and encouraging man to mirror God by creating.

Jewish tradition teaches that humans were designed to be creators and to partner with God in improving the world.

This perspective sees human creativity as rooted in mirroring Gods creative capacity. It also supports the well-known parental metaphor of authorship, which posits that humans feel an attachment to their works of creativity that parallels Gods attachment to humanity. Artistic works are seen as the children of their human creators in the same way as the text of Genesis understands humans as Gods children.

The word create derives from the Latin verb creo, which means to give birth to. The idea that all types of authors essentially give birth to their artistic creations is also well recognized outside of the Jewish tradition. In her book Walking on Water, Madeleine LEngle affirmed this idea from a Christian perspective when she described works of authorship coming to the author and saying Here I am. Enflesh me. Give birth to me.

Secular creators have expressed similar sentiments. When Elliot Silverstein, representing the Directors Guild of America, testified before Congress regarding colorizing films, he analogized these films to our children being publicly tortured and butcheredby the various instruments of the new technologists.

The creation text in Genesis also illuminates that human ability to engage in expression, including through artistic skill, is endowed by an external source. The verse states, The Lord God formed man from the dust of the earth. He blew into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living being (Genesis, 2:7). According to the Rabbinic tradition, the phrase the breath of life is understood to mean that God blew his own breath in Adams nostrils, thus infusing humans with a special type of soul enabling humans to speak.

Rashi, the celebrated eleventh-century French Biblical commentator, explains that the soul of man is more alive than the soul of animals because mans soul contains the powers of speech and reasoning. Speech is another way in which man mirrors God. God spoke the world into existence by preceding every creative act with a declaration. Human creativity is an act of speech.

Although the classical Jewish tradition views God as the external source of creativity, the more generalized idea is that creative expression is gifted in that it comes from a source beyond the authors control. Current psychological theories about human creativity endorse a multifaceted explanation that links this idea of giftedness with faith (in God, the work, the process) and self-transcendence.

This perspective has also been articulated by a broad range of artists. Lewis Hyde, for instance, has observed that whereas the narcissist believes that her creative spirit comes from herself, the true creative spirit is grateful for the gift and labors to serve her genius. Similarly, LEngle wrote that when the artistic work takes over, the artist is enabled to get out of the way, not to interfere.

Another significant parallel between Divine and human creativity appears in Genesis 3:19, stating that God created humans from dust, and they return to dust. This notion of cyclicality is also common in discussions of human creativity. Lewis Hyde noted that the Chilean poet Pablo Neruda was so pleased with when he learned that an unknown worker had heard his poems because that was a sign that his artistic gift was being directed back to the very audience that served as his inspiration. Hydes own observation that an artists gift must always move embraces this concept of cyclicality of creation deriving from the text of Divine creation.

Human creativity results in works that offer important sources of hope and renewal. The urge to create is a prized gift that must be nourished and cherished. The initial passages of Genesis offer important lessons about human creativity for everyone.

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