Page 21«..10..20212223..3040..»

Vandals Splash Graffiti on Home of Jewish Director of Brooklyn Museum – The New York Times

Posted By on June 15, 2024

The homes of the Jewish director of the Brooklyn Museum and other museum leaders were vandalized early Wednesday morning in a coordinated attack, according to a museum spokeswoman.

Vandals attacked the Brooklyn Heights home of Anne Pasternak, director of the museum, by smearing red paint and graffiti across the entry of her apartment building and hanging a banner that accused her of being a white-supremacist Zionist.

The homes of two trustees and the museums president and chief operating officer, Kimberly Panicek Trueblood, were also targeted, according to Taylor Maatman, the museums director of public relations and communications.

Mayor Eric Adams said in a social media post that the Police Department will bring the criminals responsible here to justice.

This is not peaceful protest or free speech, Mr. Adams said. This is a crime, and its overt, unacceptable antisemitism.

A Police Department spokeswoman said that officers were investigating. Outside one of the victims homes, police officers walked door to door trying to get footage of the attack and speaking to neighbors.

We are having trouble retrieving the article content.

Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.

Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit andlog intoyour Times account, orsubscribefor all of The Times.

Thank you for your patience while we verify access.

Already a subscriber?Log in.

Want all of The Times?Subscribe.

View post:
Vandals Splash Graffiti on Home of Jewish Director of Brooklyn Museum - The New York Times

Pro-Palestinian protesters blame Oct.7 victims, absolve Hamas – The Jerusalem Post

Posted By on June 15, 2024

Pro-Palestinian protesters compared Gaza to a concentration camp and laid blame on the Nova Music Festival victims for the Hamas massacre that occurred there during the October 7 attacks, according to footage taken during the Monday Union Square memorial in New York that honored victims of the Nova Music Festival massacre.

The protesters were recorded repeating words spoken by Within Our Lifetime (WOL) organizer Nerdeen Kiswani.

On October 7th, on the Nova Music Festival A.K.A [also known as] the place where Zionists decided to rave next to a concentration camp. That's exactly what this music festival was. It's like having a rave right next to the gas chambers during the Holocaust," the protesters chanted, repeating after Kiswani. "This is beyond what you saw in the Zone of Interest."

Showing this exhibit is nothing more than Zionist propaganda to try and justify the mass murder of the Palestinian people that we see day in and day out," Kiswani continued.

Just a few days ago, US and Israeli forces disguised as humanitarian aid trucks decided to invade a refugee camp in Gaza to save the same hostages that they have been bombing for the last eight months along with the people of Gaza. Over 200 Palestinians were killed, 700 injured. This is on top of the 40,000 Palestinians killed in the last eight months alone.

The US built this port for so-called aid or at least that's the lie they told. Instead, they used it to further the genocidal mission of the Zionist entity. The massacre of 40,000 Palestinians is on Bidens hands, is on [New York Mayor] Eric Adams hands and even we are all complicit because these are our tax dollars and this is our government claiming to speak for us when committing genocide against the Palestinian people.

Let's not give the Zionists attention, they would rather talk about anything else instead of Gaza

The Anti-Defamation League said Kisawani had been arrested multiple times during pro-Palestinian protests and has been kicked off multiple social media platforms for breaching community guidelines. The ADL also has a screenshot of Kiswanis Instagram story, where she seemingly praised Hamas.

The story depicted a child kissing a Hamas terrorist with the cut-off text Do you condemn Ham- Additionally, the ADL also claimed that in November 2023, Kiswani appeared on Iranian government-backed TV where she asserted that Resistance is the only way forward in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. She has also reportedly shared content venerating PFLP terrorist Leila Khaled.

The IDF operation referenced by Kiswani saw the IDF successfully free four hostages kept in Hamas captivity for eight months. The exact number of casualties incurred during the operation is unknown, though the IDF believes the number to be below 100 which disputes Hamass claims. Unmentioned by Kiswani was why hostages were being held captive in a refugee camp or the fact that casualties were also likely the result of terrorists shooting at the escaping hostages.

Additionally, the figure of 40,000 killed comes from the Hamas-run Palestinian health ministry, which has been accused of both inflating figures and failing to draw distinctions between civilian and terrorist deaths.

The US-built pier was also constructed to ensure that humanitarian aid could reach Palestinian civilians without falling into the hands of Hamas.

The protests, which saw open support of Hamas and Hezbollah, were widely condemned.

Mayor Adams slammed the protest, calling the protesters despicable.

The protest also drew condemnation from the White House.

US President Joe Biden wrote on X, formerly Twitter, on Friday, The horrific acts of Antisemitism this week including a demonstration celebrating the 10/7 attack, vandalism targeting Jewish homes, attacks on Jewish faculty at college campuses, and harassment of subway riders are abhorrent.

Antisemitism doesn't just threaten Jewish Americans. It threatens all Americans, and our fundamental democratic values.

See the article here:
Pro-Palestinian protesters blame Oct.7 victims, absolve Hamas - The Jerusalem Post

Hindu nationalism and Zionism in exclusionary lockstep – Asia Times

Posted By on June 15, 2024

The results are in for Indias general election. The countrys prime minister, Narendra Modi, has won enough seats to stay in charge for a third consecutive term. But his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has suffered big setbacks and is gearing up for coalition talks having failed to win an outright majority for the first time in ten years.

The BJP is premised on Hindutva, a Hindu nationalist ideology. Devised in the early 20th century, the politics of Hindutva insist that the countrys national identity be built around those who consider only Indias geography sacred. Muslims and Christians, whose holy sites lay in the Middle East, were therefore considered second-class citizens.

Modi foregrounded Hindutva in his election campaign. He falsely accused the main opposition party, the Indian National Congress, of basing their manifesto on the ideology of the Muslim League, the party that championed the partition of India in 1947.

And he weaponized demographic anxieties around marginally higher Muslim fertility rates to claim that the opposition planned to redistribute wealth to infiltrators who have more children.

But Hindutva doesnt stop at Indias borders. Hindu nationalists have used the ongoing conflict in Gaza to vilify other Muslims globally. BJP troll farms have spread disinformation and anti-Palestinian hatred online, and Hindu nationalist groups in India have organized pro-Israel marches.

Where does this curious Hindutva-Zionist solidarity spring from? One origin is from the earliest Hindu nationalists who modeled their Hindu state on Zionism.

Hindutvas founder, Vinayak Damodar Savarkar, supported majoritarian nationalism and the rooting out of all disintegrating forces. These included Muslims who supported electoral quotas for their community and left-wing internationalists.

As a result, he even condoned the Nazis antisemitic legislation in two speeches in 1938 because, as he saw it: a nation is formed by a majority living therein. Yet Savarkar was not antisemitic himself. He often spoke favorably of the tiny Jewish-Indian minority because he considered it too insignificant to threaten Hindu cohesion.

In fact, Savarkar praised Zionism as the perfection of ethno-nationalist thinking. The way Zionism seamlessly blended ethnic attachment to a motherland and religious attachment to a holy land was precisely what Savarkar wanted for the Hindus.

This double attachment was far more powerful to his mind than the European model of blood and soil nationalism without sacred space.

Today, Hindu nationalists perpetuate this legacy and still look to Zionism as a uniquely attractive political ideology. To Hindu nationalists, some Zionists were engaged in a project to reclaim their holy land from a Muslim population whose religious roots in the region were not as ancient as their own.

In a similar way, Hindutvas supporters saw it as engaged with a Muslim population that it vastly outnumbered, but which had significant cultural power. This power came through the Mughal dynasty that ruled much of India from 1526 to the establishment of the British Raj in the 19th century.

This idea was further popularized by Savarkars ideological successor, Madhav Sadashivrao Golwalkar. In 1947, Golwalkar wrote that Zionism was the attempt at rehabilitating Palestine with its ancient population of the Jews to reconstruct the broken edifice and revitalize the practically dead Hebrew national life.

Just as the Palestinians had to make way for those whose claims of ancient sacred space took primacy, so too, in Golwalkars view, did non-Hindu people of Hindusthan have to be wholly subordinated to the Hindu nation. Part of this process today has been redefining citizenship.

In 2018, Israel passed a law that rebranded the country as the nation-state of the Jewish people and delegitimized its non-Jewish citizens. Similarly, Indias controversial Citizenship Amendment Act in 2019 eased paths to citizenship for immigrants from several religious groups, but not Muslims.

Coupled with rhetoric associating millions of Indian Muslims with illegal immigration, human rights groups argue that this law could be used to strip many Muslims of their Indian citizenship.

Hindu nationalists have also stoked a culture war to consolidate Hindu civilization and sweep away symbols of Islam. This is very much in keeping with the wish of Israels far-right to rebuild Solomons Temple on the site of the holy Temple Mount in Jerusalem, where the al-Aqsa mosque compound currently sits.

In 1969, a Zionist extremist burned the south wing of al-Aqsa. And in 1980, the fundamentalist group Jewish Underground plotted to blow up the Dome of the Rock, an Islamic shrine at the center of the compound.

A similar project of demolishing mosques and building temples in their place was suggested by Savarkar and Golwalkar. Hindu nationalist organizations focused their attention on Babri Masjid mosque in Ayodha since this was the mythical birthplace of the Hindu god, Ram.

The co-founder of BJP, Lal Krishna Advani, led a national campaign in 1990 to build a new temple a proposal that had been prohibited by the Indian Supreme Court for decades. But the fervor the campaign unleashed resulted in a Hindu nationalist mob demolishing Babri Masjid mosque in 1992.

And after a new Indian supreme court ruling in 2019 gave permission, a temple was built on the site of the destroyed mosque, and inaugurated by Modi with great ceremony in January 2024.

A few months later, in May 2024, Israeli national security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir declared from al-Aqsa mosque compound that a Palestinian state would never exist. As he did so, his entourage prayed illegally on the contested site of the Temple Mount.

As Hindu prayers are offered from the site of the demolished Babri Masjid, hundreds of other mosques in India now find themselves under threat. Hindu nationalists are petitioning courts to deliver land administered by Islamic trusts to the majority Hindu community.

As Modi embarks on a third term, he may look to complete the task of making India an exclusive Hindu holy land albeit with a more powerful opposition than before.

Vikram Visana is Lecturer in Political Theory, University of Leicester

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

See the original post:
Hindu nationalism and Zionism in exclusionary lockstep - Asia Times

How to effectively combat antisemitism in the West – opinion – The Jerusalem Post

Posted By on June 15, 2024

Every year, during the 49 days of Sefirat Haomer, the verbal counting of each of the 49 days between Passover and Shavuot, we recall the sheaves of wheat that our ancestors gleefully gathered in Israel, our homeland. This year, it felt like we were also unhappily harvesting hate.

Every day, horrible hypocrites assail Israel and the Jews. International organizations demonize Israeli democracy, while Western politicians criticize Israel and enable Iran. Academics try to make Zionism radioactive, as terrorists from Gaza to Lebanon target our civilians and torture our hostages. Yet they brazenly perfume their poison with human rights rhetoric, evoking Taylor Swifts warning of a nightmare dressed like a daydream.

The historian Robert Wistrich called Jew-hatred the longest hatred. Its the most plastic hatred, endlessly-pliable, always artificial, and occasionally toxic. And its the fullest hatred, totalizing and totalitarian. Our enemies try robbing Jews of our lives, our dignity, our story. They deny the Holocaust or October 7s rapes and murders unless they say we deserved it or staged it. Would anyone dare deny Black Americans enslavement or Yazidi womens sexual abuse by Islamist terrorists?

Our enemies negate everything Jewish, from our traumas to our roots in our homeland. They call heroic hostage rescues massacres. No lie is too big or too small to be launched, justified, believed, and mass-produced.

This nightmarish year has many Jews fearing that their Diaspora Dreams have ended. I recently met with 25 former McGill University students. Most were born in Toronto; some moved there after studying at McGill in Montreal. Their first question shocked me. My host asked: Is it time to leave and/or how will we know?"

That this question even crossed their minds represents an inexcusable failure on the part of Justin Trudeaus government, Torontos municipality, and Canadian society.

My former students are not hysterics. Well-educated, deeply-rooted in Toronto, they are proud Canadians. All have friends who moved to the US; they chose to stay. Theyre an impressive and impressively stable lot: raising children, running businesses, teaching, investing, lawyering, and doctoring.

But the global hatefest since Hamas massacred 1,200 people has unnerved them. The statistics showing anti-Jewish hate crimes doubling a community constituting 4% of Torontos population absorbed 37% of its hate crimes are too sterile. Too many good citizens have children harassed at school for being Jews. Pro-Palestinian protesters hound them as they walk to synagogue. Self-righteous academics bully them on campus. Their businesses and institutions have been vandalized and mobbed.

Most disappointing is the typical Joe and Janes deafening silence. If more non-Jews repudiated the goonish behavior, these unpatriotic, pro-Palestinian protests might come to an end. And if more non-Jews stood up, their Jewish fellow citizens wouldnt feel so abandoned, so betrayed.

I asked five questions:

First, has the street turned against you? Do you feel populist hostility?

Second, are the elites corrupted by Jew-hatred?

Third, do you feel the police and politicians have your backs?

Fourth, do you ever feel afraid at home or outside?

Finally, do you worry about your childrens identities and their souls?

Most shook their heads yes to every question, except for vigorously nodding no when I asked if they felt protected by the authorities.

IM AN historian, not a prophet. I cannot predict the future. And North America is not Europe or the Arab world. Canada and the US are more stable, decent, and safer than the Weimar Republic was before the Nazis subverted Germany. So I resist sloppy analogies or hysterical warnings.

But theres something fouling the West today. Protesting for or against Israels actions is legitimate, reflecting democratic robustness. But harassing individuals for being Jewish or Zionist is unacceptable, un-American, un-Canadian, and anti-democratic. A California billboard warns that rat poison poisons wildlife too. Beware, Jew-hatred poisons democracies too.

This isnt a fight about Israel and Palestinians; its about democratic values. Jews shouldnt take on the burden of fighting antisemitism, nor should they pay for it. Jew hatred is the disease of Jew-haters, not Jews. Rather than another summit of Jewish organizations handwringing together, let each organization extend a hand to like-minded non-Jewish organizations, partnering with them against hate.

We must combat bigotry broadly, but this surge also should be targeted specifically because the bigots target the Jews.

Jewish organizations now speak about hardening the target, beefing up security at Jewish institutions. Theyre hiring security guards, installing cameras, reinforcing doors. Some synagogues resemble walled compounds. These are warning signs of democratic decay.

Dont harden targets broaden them. If more citizens resisted this hatred, the haters would be intimidated, not the Jews. Every liberal-democrat should start wearing yellow hostage ribbons on their lapels, Jewish stars around their necks, or stickers denouncing Jew hatred. They should escort Jewish neighbors to synagogue or Zionist students to class. Everyone can join counter-demonstrations or sign petitions.

While remembering to do unto others as you would want them to do unto you, everyone should also do for others as you would want them to do for you if hooligans threaten you.

Resisting constructively would revive the democratic spirit. Non-Jews should embrace their Jewish friends and neighbors. Even Israels critics should reassure Jews that the civilized world retains its commitment to peace, order, good government, and robust debate. We need righteous anger and effective police enforcement.

Every citizen should repudiate those who abuse free speech by harassing, threatening, intimidating, and trying to make Jews feel uncomfortable for being Jewish and pro-Israel.

Meanwhile, Jews should use this Shavuot holiday, celebrating the giving of the Torah, to remember that the Jew-hater doesnt make the Jew. The Jew makes the Jew and the Zionist too.

The writer, a distinguished scholar in North American history at McGill University and a senior fellow in Zionist thought at the JPPI, the Jewish People Policy Institute, is an American presidential historian and the editor of a three-volume set, Theodor Herzl: Zionist Writings, the inaugural publication of The Library of the Jewish People (www.theljp.org).

Read the rest here:
How to effectively combat antisemitism in the West - opinion - The Jerusalem Post

Zionists don’t need to play the victim card like Hamas does – The Jerusalem Post

Posted By on June 15, 2024

In the aftermath of the October 7 attacks, many voices in the pro-Israel community took on the mantle of victimhood. They highlighted the atrocities that Palestinian terrorists perpetrated against Israelis in the South, the hostages held in Gaza, and Hamass refusal to own up to its horrific acts and asked the world how they would react had they been victims of this oppression.

The strategy was well thought through. Gain the worlds sympathy and earn support for a counterattack against the Palestinian enemies that attacked Israel and held Israeli hostages.

This isnt the first time advocates in the pro-Israel community thought that playing their victim card was a good strategy to gain global support for the worlds position. Since Israels pullout from the Gaza Strip in 2005, Israelis, especially those living in the Gaza border communities, have been pummeled by over 25,000 rockets. A common reaction to these rocket attacks has been to challenge the world by asking, How would you demand your government respond if it was facing rocket fire from a neighboring enemy? That challenge played to the same strategy: Direct the world to empathize with the Israeli position and support Israeli counterattacks.

This strategy has rarely proved effective. The world has trouble viewing Israel as the victim.

Philip Slater, former professor and chair of Brandeis Sociology Department, wrote to Israelis, You dont get to act like a victim anymore. Poor little Israel just sounds silly when youre the dominant power in the Middle East. When youve invaded several of your neighbors, bombed and defeated them in combat, occupied their land, and taken their homes away from them, its time to stop acting oppressed.

Yes, Arab states deny your right to exist, threaten to drive you into the sea, and all the rest of their futile, helpless rhetoric. The fact is, you have the upper hand and they dont. You have sophisticated arms and they dont. You have nuclear weapons and they dont. So stop pretending to be pathetic. It doesnt play well in Peoria.

Along similar lines, in the wake of October 7, Andrew Mitrovica, a columnist for Al Jazeera, offered a much more insidious perspective on why Israel is no longer the victim: Many of the reporters and columnists now gripped by the latest eruption of murderous madness in Palestine and Israel have always interpreted events through a prism chiefly dictated by Israel whether they are prepared to admit it or not.

In this myopic calculus, Israel is always the victim, never the perpetrator. Israels understanding of history matters; Palestinians reading not only of the past but of the present and the future too, does not count. And, perhaps most indecent of all, Israeli lives and deaths matter; Palestinian lives and deaths dont.. Israels deliberate, organized oppression is not only unsustainable, it disfigures both the oppressor and the oppressed. Ultimately, violence begets violence in round after round of horrific vengeance by both sides.

SLATER AND MITROVICA took anti-Zionist positions in their approach to opposing the Israel as a victim narrative. There is a Zionist narrative that also views victimhood as the opposite of Zionism. Andres Spokoiny, president and CEO of the Jewish Funders Network wrote, One of the key messages of Zionism is that Jews are not going to cry over the persecution they suffered but take their destiny into their own hands. To the despair of the victim, theyd offer the hope that comes from taking responsibility and recovering agency. Not in vain were two of the first Zionist colonies named Mikve Israel (The Hope of Israel) and Petah Tikva (The Gates of Hope) and the Zionist anthem Hatikvah (The Hope).

Physician and early Zionist Leon Pinsker (1821-1891) began his book, Auto-Emancipation, with a quote from Hillel the Elder: If Im not for myself who will be, and if not now, when? And that became the war cry of Zionism, the antidote against the poisonous drops of despair that the world kept feeding us.

Israel can defend itself from any enemy it faces, making it far from a victim.

In his first address as prime minister, Yair Lapid declared, We believe we must always preserve our military might. Without it, theres no security... We will defend ourselves, by ourselves. We will make sure we always have the Israel Defense Forces, an army with undeniable strength, that our enemies fear... I stand before you at this moment and say to everyone seeking our demise, from Gaza to Tehran, from the shores of Lebanon to Syria: dont test us. Israel knows how to use its strength against every threat, against every enemy.

Early Zionists saw their mission as creating a state of existence for the Jewish people which would prevent them from becoming victims again. They aimed to create a Jewish state in Eretz Yisrael with its own army to protect its people. That mission took on a sense of urgency with the rise of Adolf Hitlers Nazis in Germany. In the space of just a few short years, 10 million Jews desperately needed a place of refuge.

ON OCTOBER 7, Palestinian terrorists from a diverse group of extremist organizations streamed across Israels border from Gaza murdering, kidnapping, torturing, and raping.. Almost overnight it seemed the Jewish people were victims once again. Many pro-Israel voices asked the world how they would respond to such an attack, an approach seemed especially effective with Americas growing progressive movement and its premium on victimhood. The battle in the mainstream and on social media became who could portray themselves as the bigger victim. Initially, it seemed that was Israel, and for a short period it gained the worlds sympathy and support for counterattacks, especially in order to rescue the kidnapped hostages. But as October 7 receded and Israels actions in Gaza became more and more effective, many across the world began seeing Israel as the oppressor, its support began to wane, and even the United States, its greatest supporter, began questioning the proportionality of the attacks.

Ultimately, Zionists dont need to play the victim card; Zionists need to explain that they are exercising their right to defend themselves and to put an end to the threats Israel faces.

The writer, a Zionist educator at institutions around the world, recently published a new book, Zionism Today.

Read more from the original source:
Zionists don't need to play the victim card like Hamas does - The Jerusalem Post

The Need for Studying Zionism, Critically – CounterPunch.org – CounterPunch

Posted By on June 15, 2024

June 9, 2024 by Susie Day

Emmaia Gelman.

Since 1897, Zionism has been the religious and political impetus behind what is now the nation-state of Israel, which, like the United States, is settled on the lives, land, and cultures of millions of Indigenous peoples. Although todays Israel began as a refuge for European Jews fleeing the Holocaust, Zionism long ago broke out of its moral constraints to become a formidable geopolitical force that demands study. Which is why, in late 2023 America, the Institute for the Critical Study of Zionism was created. And why, because the Institute is fundamentally antizionist, its under attack for antisemitism.

susie day writes about prison, policing, and political activism. Shes also written political satire, a collection of which, Snidelines: Talking Trash to Power, was published in 2014. In 2020, her book, The Brother You Choose: Paul Coates and Eddie Conway Talk About Life, Politics, and The Revolution was published by Haymarket.She lives in New York City with her partner, the infamous Laura Whitehorn.

Read over 400 magazine and newsletter back issues here

Make a tax-deductible monthly or one-time donation and enjoy access to CP+. Donate Now

Support our evolving Subscribe Area and enjoy access to all Subscribers content. Subscribe

Originally posted here:
The Need for Studying Zionism, Critically - CounterPunch.org - CounterPunch

AOC acknowledges antisemitism, denies antizionism is the same thing – The Jerusalem Post

Posted By on June 15, 2024

New York Democratic Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez made clear that she and the women she was speaking with held opposing views on the United Statess role in the Israel-Hamas war, but that it was possible to hold space for discussion without excluding one another.

Stacy Burdett, former vice president for Government Relations, Advocacy and Community Engagement at the Anti-Defamation League and government and external relations director at the US Holocaust Memorial Museum, and Amy Spitalnick, CEO of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, joined Ocasio-Cortez on Monday afternoon for a webinar on Antisemitism and the Fight for Democracy, when they spoke about antisemitism post-October 7 and coalition building in progressive spaces where Zionists are excluded.

Antisemitism, hate, and violence against Jews because of their identity is real and it is dangerous. It is also important to say here in this moment, and during that conversation, that criticism of the Israeli government is not inherently antisemitic, and criticism of Zionism is not automatically antisemitic, Ocasio-Cortez said at the beginning of the discussion.

Right now, antisemitism is on the rise in America and across the world, she said.

Acknowledging that fact does not take away from fights for liberation, Ocasio-Cortez added. It actually advances them. And the growth of antisemitic attacks and rhetoric, before and since October 7, is unacceptable to all of us who believe in a better world, period.

Ocasio-Cortez criticized politicians who weaponize accusations of antisemitism against people, especially women of color in efforts to sow division and create a false choice between the fight for Jewish safety and the cause for Palestinian self-determination.

People can disagree bitterly about Israel and Gaza, Ocasio-Cortez said, but it feels like its impossible to come together to acknowledge any antisemitism at all.

And because of that defensiveness, people shut down and other peoples identities get completely flattened, she said. Thats when all nuance goes out the window, and we all become less safe for it.

Burdett explained the history of antisemitism, and supported Ocasio-Cortezs claim that people use the power of labeling someone as antisemitic to hurt political opponents.

There are bad actors using this issue as a weapon in this moment against progressives. Its an issue that fits very neatly into a culture war narrative, Burdett said. And in that culture war, this big group of people determined to brand progressives and diversity itself as a threat.

Spitalnick said the conspiracy theories behind antisemitism also intend to sow distrust in democracy, making Jews and every community unsafe as it undercuts democratic norms and values.

Its seen in the Israel conversation how antisemitism is used to divide Jews from the communities and pro-democracy coalitions with which Jews need to be in solidarity, Spitalnick said.

Spitalnick reiterated Jews and all communities are unsafe if communities are pitted against one another and if the vast majority of American Jews are told theyre unwelcome in progressive spaces for having a connection to Israel or a relationship to Israel.

Well never be able to come together to advance the sort of inclusive future we need, Spitalnick said. Ultimately, our safety is inextricably linked and bound up with one anothers and with our democracy.

More:
AOC acknowledges antisemitism, denies antizionism is the same thing - The Jerusalem Post

Sharon Kleinbaum gets stellar send-off after 32 years as rabbi at CBST – Gay City News

Posted By on June 15, 2024

Sign up for our Gay City News email newsletter to get news, updates, and local insights delivered straight to your inbox!

The extraordinary 32-year tenure of Sharon Kleinbaum as Senior Rabbi of Congregation Beit Simchat Torah (CBST) New Yorks LGBTQ synagogue that she led to become a major national force in Judaism, LGBTQ rights, and human rights everywhere was celebrated in words and song at Jazz at Lincoln Center at Columbus Circle on June 3 by political leaders from President Biden on down, performing arts stars, CBSTs Community Chorus, the many rabbis she helped train and inspire, and her spouse, American Federation of Teachers president Randi Weingarten.

The evening was hosted by veteran lesbian comedian Kate Clinton, who noted that Kleinbaum was the first full-time Rabbi at the synagogue.

Hillary Clinton spoke at the celebration and said Kleinbuam made CBST a bold spiritual community of resistance and love. We need both right now.

Her career demonstrates that joy and resistance can have their roots in despair and adversity, Clinton said, noting that the Rabbi started at CBST in the depths of the HIV/AIDS crisis in 1992 before there were effective treatments when we were being reminded by AIDS activists that silence equals death. She praised CBST as the only synagogue in the city with an immigration clinic on site a majority of whom are LGBTQ and/or HIV-positive.

Those wanting to try to hijack faith, Clinton said, need to be reminded by this rabbi that they are the faithless ones and do not stand with those who care about the pursuit of truth and justice.

President Joe Biden sent a video tribute from The White House, saying, For 32 years youve been on the front lines of the nations most profound and powerful truths: dignity, equality, and love. Speaking of Sharon and Randi, Biden said, Jill and I treasure our friendship with both of you.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, also speaking via video, called Kleinbaum a good friend: compassionate, smart, caring, and energetic. So many of us seek her advice. He said he was proud to appoint her to the US Commission on International Religious Freedom.

Rabbi Sharon Cohen Anisfeld, president of Hebrew College, who just conferred an honorary doctorate on Kleinbaum, said, 32 years ago Sharon said to the CBST congregation, Enlarge the size of your tent. Extend the size of your dwelling. Do not stint! Lengthen the ropes, and drive the pegs firm.

When I text Sharon in the middle of the night to say I am in despair about the state of the world, she almost always writes back immediately, Dont worry. Its going to get worse, Anisfield said. I admit that I had to warm to this pastoral move. But this is the thing: For Sharon, hope does not mean everything is going to be OK. It certainly does not mean everything is OK. It starts from her clearheaded, profoundly intelligent assessment of what is and a willingness to be there with you wherever you might be.

Sharon understands, Anisfeld added, that hope cant be rushed or facile or forced, but she is unyielding in her insistence that it is a sacred obligation.

There were also heartfelt (and funny) tributes from Kleinbaums adult daughters, Liba Wenig Rubenstein and Molly Wenig Rubenstein.

Molly said, She taught us how to embrace all the ways we are different with pride. Liba said, We learned that no one else could define for us what it meant to be a family, a Jew, or an American.

Liba added, Our childhood wasnt easy, but we would not trade being raised by this fierce, soulful woman and this fierce soulful community for anything.

Rabbi Ayelet S. Cohen spoke for the 50 former Cooperberg-Rittmaster Rabbinical interns who studied with Kleinbaum at CBST, making it a center for LGBTQ rabbis with alumni serving all over the world. In a video, these rabbis praised her mentorship and how her influence extends beyond the Jewish, LGBTQ, and New York communities.

Weingarten said she knew Kleinbaum for decades before she came out publicly herself as a public figure in a city that only pretended to be accepting of LGBTQ people who were ascending to leadership roles.

Sharon defied every norm, Weingarten said. She was and is brave and brilliant, wise and witty, persistent and pugnacious not just as a spiritual leader but as a cultural leader who paved the way for others like me to live our authentic lives and to have a shitload of fun while we were doing it.

She doesnt just decry injustice, Weingarten said, but she crafts ways to confront and overcome it and bring people together. Yes, she demands a lot from all of us but its because she shows us what is right and what is possible. Even in these really fraught times she shows us how to be present, how to be alive, and how to journey for justice.

A film segment on Sharon showed her in action in many protests against South African apartheid and nuclear proliferation as well as getting arrested at the Pentagon as a mass of women tried to wrap the building in yarn.

Rabbi Kleinbaum had the last words, thanking her past and present staff, board, and whole family many of whom were there for her and her spouse, who Kleinbaum said spoke so beautifully.

Its not easy being the wife of a rabbi, Kleinbaum said, prompting laughter, but honestly its not easy being the wife of a labor leader.

Kleinbaum articulated the principles that have guided her, notably that its about more than numbers. The metric by which a synagogue should be judged is how much each person who comes in contact with that synagogue community is personally, profoundly, and deeply transformed. She also said, The best way to defeat anti-Semitism in the world today is to be more Jewish. That is the best way to transform the hate in the world.

Kleinbaum said she strove to make CBST provide a community we love, a prayer and music life that transforms our spiritual innards, and an intellectual life that doesnt talk down to us but in fact encourages us to see Judaism as source of profound intellectual curiosity and inquiry.

The evening was also filled with great music and song, something that Kleinbaum has emphasized in her services at CBST.

Introduced by Seth Rudetsky, Tony winners Danny Burstein (for Moulin Rouge!) and Andrea Martin (for Pippin and My Favorite Year) sang a sweet duet of Do You Love Me? from Fiddler on the Roof as they did in the last Broadway revival. And the CBST Community Chorus did a humorous riff on Tradition from that show called Transition as Kleinbaum moves on to the next stage of her life.

Out Beth Malone, Tony-nominated for Fun Home, sang the Ring of Keys number from that Tony-winning musical, a song about a young lesbians awakening to her identity when a butch repair woman visits her house.

Mozarts String Quartet in G Major was performed by Sebu Sirinian and Lisa Tipton (on violin), Adria Benjamin (viola), and Deborah Assael-Migliore (cello).

Metropolitan Opera soprano Toni Marie Palmertree gave a stirring rendition of Vissa darte from Puccinis Tosca and Sally Wilfert sang Infinite Joy from Elegies: A Song Cycle by out composer William Finn, a CBST member.

CBSTs Cantor Sam Rosen and music director Joyce Rosenzweig combined for In Kheyder and, with the CBST Chorus, Ldor Vador.

Rabbi Kleinbaums last service as Senior Rabbi will be on June 28 at CBSTs Pride Shabbat at 130 W. 30thSt. She will be succeeded by Jason Klein as Senior Rabbi on July 1 when she will assume Emerita status at the synagogue.

Event co-chairs Eric Rosenbaum and Lisa Kartzman announced that the evening had raised $1.15 million for the Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum-Randi Weingarten Fund for Social Justice at CBST to honor their legacies.

The fund is dedicated to enabling CBST to augment and build upon its work as a leader in the Jewish/LGBTQ+ community social justice movements.

Video of the celebration is on YouTubefor a limited time.

Read this article:

Sharon Kleinbaum gets stellar send-off after 32 years as rabbi at CBST - Gay City News

A yeshiva that preps Haredi men for IDF service mourns first graduate to fall in battle – The Times of Israel

Posted By on June 15, 2024

On Wednesday, May 22, Staff Sgt. Bezalel Zvi Kovach, 20, was critically wounded while fighting in Gaza. Four days later he succumbed to his wounds at Soroka Medical Center.

Kovach was the first to fall in battle among graduates of Chedvata, a yeshiva that prepares Haredi men for IDF duty.

If fatal casualty rates are an indication which segments of society are doing their fair share in Israels defense, the Kovach familys loss is a step toward balancing inequality between ultra-Orthodox or Haredi and non-Haredi Israelis.

The soldier Bezalel Kovach fought in Gaza out of a commitment to being a part of the Israeli story, and he embodies the educational legacy I want for our students, said Rabbi Yonatan Reiss, who created and runs Chedvata.

In recent months, as the uncompromising Haredi political leaderships opposition to a mandatory military draft threatens to topple Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahus government, Reiss, a member of the Belz Hasidic movement, has been making frequent media appearances on Israeli TV dressed in full Hasidic garb with long sidelocks framing his face.

Lawmakers early Tuesday voted 63-57 to apply continuity to a bill from the previous Knesset dealing with the military service of yeshiva students, reviving the contentious legislation amid the ongoing war with Hamas in Gaza.

As a member of the Haredi community, I can tell you that we excel at volunteering and thats really wonderful, but volunteering is not the same as taking responsibility, with all due respect, said Reiss.

The day members of the Haredi community commit, truly commit to three years of service, to being a part of whats happening here as Bezalel did the day they start serving their nation or even commit to working in a hospital, wherever they feel comfortable, wherever they feel their Haredi identity is respected, thats the day youll see Haredim in the labor market, thats the day Haredim will be fully integrated and thats the day they will understand what it means to be an integral part of the Jewish people, he said.

Kovachs funeral was conducted in strict accordance with the traditions of Jerusalems Perushim (separatists) community, founded by disciples of the Vilna Gaon, Rabbi Eliyahu ben Shlomo Zalman, who immigrated to Israel from Lithuania in the 1800s.

The three-volley salute, flower bouquets and other obsequies of IDF burial protocol were absent. The funeral was conducted at the Givat Shaul cemetery, not at Mt. Herzl Military Cemetery.

Kovachs battalion commander, Lt. Gen. Shlomo Shiran, gave a eulogy before a mostly male crowd, some dressed in black suits and hats, others in olive green military uniforms.

Staff Sgt. Bezalel Zvi Kovach, left, with Rabbi Maj. (res) Shimon Hartman. (Courtesy)

One of the mourners present at the funeral was Yehuda Segal, a close friend of Kovach who grew up in the same Haredi neighborhood, learned with him in the Chedvata Yeshiva and served in the same battalion, Netzah Yehuda, that was designed to cater to Haredi customs.

Segal said Kovach, a squad commander, was the most selfless person he had ever met.

He was the type of guy who you could wake up at three in the morning and he would be there with a cigarette and a can of Coke and encourage you, said Segal. He had this amazing spirit, totally selfless, always there for others, especially his soldiers. It didnt matter whether that person was Jewish or non-Jewish. So what if he is a gentile, he would say when guys pointed this out to him, Hashem [God] created him too.

Segal recounted how, while visiting Kovachs family during the week of Jewish ritual mourning, he met a young Haredi man who had never heard of the Netzah Yehuda battalion.

I told him how we combine commitment to Judaism with army service, the holy with the profane, contributing to the nation with learning Torah that the two dont contradict each other, said Segal.

He looked at me like he couldnt believe what I was telling him. I showed him pictures of Bezalel I guess he thought he would see someone with dreadlocks and earrings, and suddenly he sees a guy in uniform wearing a four-cornered garment with fringes, sitting during guard duty learning [the teachings of Rabbi Nachman of Breslev], said Segal. The guy said, Wow, I didnt know that was possible.

Segal noted that in the days between Kovachs injury and his death, prayer rallies for his recovery were held in Kovachs strictly Haredi Ramot Dalet Jerusalem neighborhood.

It can tell you that there will be guys from the neighborhood, and not just one or two, who will follow Bezalels example and enlist. Attitudes are changing, said Segal.

But if Haredi attitudes toward military service are changing, the pace is glacial.

In all, there are fewer than 300 students enrolled at Chedvatas different programs. Another 60 graduates are serving in the IDF.

Students study Talmud at Chedvata Yeshiva. (Courtesy)

Based on data provided by the Israel Democracy Institute and statements made by IDF officials in Knesset meetings, despite annual population growth of four percent the fastest of any group in Israel Haredi IDF enlistment has remained relatively steady since 2018 at about 1,200, just 10% of those eligible for service in 2023. And many of these men come from the fringes of Haredi society yeshiva dropouts, children of newcomers to Orthodoxy, boys from modern-minded families with high school matriculation, new immigrants from non-Haredi communities.

Despite attempts by the IDF, public figures and social activists both Haredi and not to encourage IDF enlistment, a painful chasm separates those Israeli families who live in fear of the knock on the door from an IDF death notification officer and the vast majority of Haredi families who dont.

Since the 1950s, a political arrangement anchored in a series of laws and government decisions has allowed Haredi men to postpone mandatory military service until they are too old to be drafted. They need to declare Torah study to be their full-time occupation and commit to remaining unemployed. The state provides those who study with modest stipends. Yeshivot are supposed to be audited for attendance. But tens of thousands of able-bodied men are said to be fictively registered at a yeshiva in order to receive funds but never set foot inside.

For the embattled Jewish state, this arrangement has become increasingly untenable.

Israel faces myriad military threats: the war in Gaza, escalation on the Lebanese border, drone and missile attacks by Iran-backed militias in Yemen and Iraq, the threat of a nuclear-armed Iran, the uptick in Palestinian terrorism in Judea and Samaria. Overwhelming defense burdens are being shouldered by those who do serve along with their spouses, children and parents, who must cope with the economic, physical and emotional stress of having a loved-one away from home for prolonged periods of time exposed to existential dangers.

Since October 7, 299 soldiers and one police officer have been killed during the ground offensive against Hamas and amid operations along the Gaza border. A civilian Defense Ministry contractor has also been killed in the Strip. About the same number of soldier deaths took place during the October 7 invasion, when thousands of terrorists brutally murdered 1,200 people in southern Israel, the vast majority of them civilians, and kidnapped 251 to the Gaza Strip, where roughly 120 many of them soldiers are still being held.

Illustrative: Family and friends of Israeli soldier Master Sgt. (res) Nahman Natan Hertz, 31, attend his funeral at the Mount Herzl Military Cemetery in Jerusalem on May 7, 2024. Hertz was killed in a Hezbollah drone strike on Metula (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Meanwhile, over 60,000 Haredi men between the ages of 18 and 26, many of whom fit for military service, avail themselves of the Torah-is-my-profession exemption. Not all devote their productive hours to Torah study.

The discrepancy has led to public outcry.

A video of hundreds of military-age Haredi men sitting in Ramat Gans National Park on the evening of June 1, watching an open-air screening of the UEFA Champions League final between Real Madrid and Borussia Dortmund went viral on social media. Comments included, Parasites, Desecration of Gods name, My son is serving and didnt get permission to watch the game, and, So soccer takes precedence over studying Torah?

In 2017, the High Court of Justice, based on a quasi-constitutional Basic Law ensuring equality before the law, declared the status quo to be unlawful because it discriminates against the non-Haredi population.

Since then, consecutive governments have successfully petitioned the High Court to delay wholesale drafting of Haredim, arguing success depends on cooperation of the Haredi communitys political and spiritual leadership.

But this cooperation has not materialized and the High Court is not willing to wait any longer. At the end of March, the High Court shot down a government request for another 30-day extension and issued an interim order to cut state funding to Haredi yeshivot.

On June 2, a special panel of nine High Court justices heard the governments legal advisor argue in favor of deferrals for Haredi young men, claiming it was the IDFs sole prerogative whether or not to conscript them and that the court should not interfere.

Word games and going around in circles were the way several justices described the arguments, with some appearing to mock the legal counsels claims. The IDFs dire need for manpower was a central concern of the justices, who seemed to favor an aggressive move to conscript Haredi men, but have not yet ruled on the matter.

As the High Court justices and the governments legal advisor traded arguments in Jerusalem, dozens of Haredi men blocked Route 4 at the entrance to the ultra-orthodox town of Bnei Brak, just east of Tel Aviv, in protest against attempts to conscript them.

Ultra-Orthodox demonstrators outside the Supreme Court in Jerusalem, June 2, 2024, during a hearing on Haredi enlistment in the IDF. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

The two Haredi political parties Shas and United Torah Judaism would sooner resign, and thus topple Netanyahus government coalition, before implementing a High Court decision to forcibly draft Haredi men.

The quiet, tree-lined, all-male Haredi campus where Chedvata is located seems far removed from all the legal and political controversy surrounding Haredi conscription. Nestled inside a residential neighborhood in Gan Yavne, a town 40 kilometers (25 miles) south of Tel Aviv and purposely distant from any Haredi community so as not to arouse opposition, the campus includes an extension of Ashkelon College offering Haredi men practical academic degrees such as accounting, business or computer sciences. Also on the campus is Derech Haim Yeshiva, which, like Chedvata, prepares young Haredi men for the IDF.

But whereas Derech Haims students all have the educational background and proclivities to complete a computer sciences degree, Chedvata caters to a more diverse student body. In addition to a computer science degree, young men at Chedvata can also obtain a practical engineering degree in computers.

The two tracks are part of the hesder (arrangement) yeshiva framework in which religious soldiers are permitted to shorten their military service and combine it with Torah studies. Besides Derech Haim and Chedvata, all the other hesder yeshivot, which number more than 60, cater to modern Orthodox students.

Chedvata also offers a combat track like the one completed by Kovach and Segal. Called Tzavta, it is a pre-military academy where young Haredi men receive seven months of preparation before enlisting.

But Chedvatas two technological tracks, which prepare students to integrate into one of the IDFs high-tech units, are the most popular.

Students sit in front of Chedvata Yeshiva. (Courtesy)

I didnt want to end up working in a supermarket trying to support a wife and children with rent to pay and no future, said Baruch Linshe, 23, who grew up in the Seret-Viznitz Hasidic community in Haifa, and is completing his final year of studies to become a practical engineer.

My message to Haredi guys who are where I was four years ago is this: dont throw your life away sitting around doing nothing, sleeping during the day and wandering around at night, without a purpose or a goal, said Linshe, who is presently undergoing tests and interviews to get accepted to one of the IDFs sought after high-tech units.

Im contributing to the country and Im also preparing myself for life, he said. By the time I finish my IDF service, Ill have both theoretical training and practical experience and will be able to find a good job.

Rabbi Maj. (res.) Shimon Hartman, 41, the educational head of Chedvata Yeshiva, said that unlike the students at religious Zionist hesder yeshivot who, he said, tend to be motivated by ideology, his young men are very pragmatic.

If I offered a teaching degree, like the religious Zionist hesder yeshivot do, instead of a high-tech degree, I would be sitting here alone, Hartman said.

Hartman said the IDF encourages his graduates to specialize in the field that most interests them so that they can excel.

You can choose from Full Stack, Cyber, Data, AI and QA there are plenty of IDF units with technology needs, he said.

The yeshiva is housed in a former synagogue. Students learn Torah during the morning hours and pursue their academic studies in the afternoon and evening. Men who are in the combat track do physical training or learn colloquial Arabic in the afternoon and evening.

The students who spoke to The Times of Israel come from diverse, often eclectic Haredi and quasi-Haredi backgrounds.

Avreimy Grinblat, a first-year student in computer science at Chedvata Yeshiva. (Courtesy)

Avreimy Grinblat, a first-year computer science student, grew up in the Haredi settlement of Kiryat Sefer. His parents, whose own parents embraced Orthodoxy later in life, belong to the Breslov Hasidic community. He graduated from the Hasidic Midrasha, a groundbreaking high school that combines a high-level math, science and English curriculum with Torah studies.

Grinblat admitted that it would be embarrassing to return home in uniform to his Haredi neighborhood.

But I want to be open about what I am doing and not feel as though I have to hide anything, he said.

Grinblat suggested that his choice to do IDF service could hurt his matchmaking chances.

I am looking for a woman who is like me, someone not classically Haredi, he said.

Natan Anter, also a computer science student, whose parents also latecomers to the Haredi lifestyle wanted him to complete high school matriculation, said he debated between Chedvata and doing a prestigious 10-year IDF Atuda training program that combines an academic degree and a stint as a career soldier.

I had really good grades and I could have attended Hebrew University, but I chose Chedvata even though the academic part is not the highest level because I wanted to learn Torah and strengthen my religious identity in a place that is both open-minded and demanding, Anter said.

Other students included Eden Biton, who grew up in a Chabad community in Hadera and Liam Amram of Netanya, who grew up in what he called a traditional family but embraced a Haredi identity as a teenager.

Baruch Linshe is in his final year of studies for a degree as a practical engineer in computers at Chedvata Yeshiva. (Courtesy)

Grinblat, Anter, Biton and Amram are not from the Haredi mainstream. They arrived at Chedvata as a natural extension of the education they received at home, which included secular studies. Without young men like them, Chedvatas small student body would be even smaller or it would have to accept yeshiva dropouts who lack motivation. The right balance between serious young men with a secular studies background and graduates of the Haredi school system is important for Chedvatas success.

A lot of thought and energy goes into striking the right balance, said Reiss. We cant maintain a yeshiva that only has guys who dropped out of the classic Haredi framework. We tried, but it doesnt work.

Reiss, 35, served in the IDFs Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Corps, eventually taking responsibility for Haredi soldiers in the unit. But he did not plan to serve. He got married at the age of 18 and left Israel for Brazil with his wife to teach Torah. While in Brazil he started an export business.

At the age of 26 by then a father of three children Reiss returned to Israel, where he was promptly arrested for going AWOL. After an initial attempt to avoid serving, he reconciled himself and decided to make the most of his time.

Reiss rejects the idea that he is a catalyst for change in the Haredi community. Rather he sees himself as riding the back of organic processes taking place within Haredi society.

We see ourselves as an educational framework for those who want to join the IDF, not a conscription service. Not everyone is cut out for it the truth is that most people within the Haredi mainstream are not built for army service but for those who are, Chedvata ushers them through a significant educational process which prepares them for the secular world while fostering a strong Haredi identity, something that is not talked about so much in the mainstream Haredi community, he said.

Rabbi Yonathan Reiss, founder of Chedvata Yeshiva. (Courtesy)

When an unmarried Haredi man joins the IDF it often means he has already left the mainstream Haredi community. And exit costs are high, which explains why not too many Haredi young men are rushing to the IDF induction center.

The story of Linshe, who grew up in the insular Seret-Viznitz community in Haifas Hadar neighborhood, is instructive. His first act of rebellion, which set him on a trajectory toward IDF service and exodus from Seret-Viznitz was his rejection, at the age of 17, of an arranged marriage organized for him by his family.

Out of 25 boys where I learned as a child, just me and another two are not married, he said.

For several years he learned at different Hasidic yeshivot while volunteering for Magen David Adom and other organizations.

Another turning point for Linshe was when he bought a smartphone.

My parents were very unhappy, it is not their way. But they eventually learned to live with it, he said.

Unlike friends of his, who were expelled from their homes for owning a smartphone, Linshes parents were more tolerant, perhaps because six of Linshes seven siblings are older and less impressionable.

Gradually Linshe stopped learning at yeshiva and started working full-time for Magen David Adom as a salaried ambulance driver.

Whenever I would have a call on Shabbat, kids in the neighborhood would shout at me shegetz, Linshe said, quoting a pejorative word for a non-Jew.

Because he postponed IDF service under the pretext that he was learning Torah full-time, it was illegal for Linshe to work. He recalled being fearful of being caught.

It was at this time that Linshe discovered Chedvata through a friend.

If not for Chedvata I would never have joined the IDF. I didnt have a clue how to go about it, he said.

Chedvata helped prepare Linshe for the secular environment in the IDF and provided him with a framework for learning a profession during what he calls the most meaningful years of my entire life.

Linshe said that today he could not find a marriage match with a compatible woman within the Seret-Viznitz community.

Theyd want to marry me with someone who nobody else wants, he said.

But Linshe said he has reconciled himself to his life decisions.

I want a wife who thinks like me and I want something better for my children. I want them to receive a religious education, but one that will prepare them for the labor market, Linshe said.

Most Haredi men are not willing to pay the price of giving up their network of family and social connections and all that is familiar to them to venture into the unknown.

Chedvata Yeshiva founder Rabbi Yonathan Reiss, left, speaks with a student. (Courtesy)

Reiss estimated that of more than 60,000 Haredi men between 18 and 26 who are indefinitely postponing IDF service because Torah is their profession, about 30% have completely dropped out and dont even know how to find the yeshiva where they are registered as full-time students.

Reiss recommended starting with these young men. But instead of dragooning them or demanding quotas, he suggested a two-step program: First, carefully audit attendance at yeshivot where young Haredi men claim to be learning.

Institutions that lie about attendance should be sanctioned, said Reiss. When their budgets are on the line youll see how quickly they will get their act together.

The second step is to provide state funding, rent-free buildings and other resources to projects like Chedvata that help prepare Haredi young men for IDF service.

Hartman, who does reserve duty as an IDF rabbi when he is not teaching and guiding his students at Chedvata warned against high expectations.

Youre not going to see tens of thousands of students leaving the yeshivot to join the IDF, said Hartman. The guys at Ponevezh and Hebron learning 16, 17, 18 hours a day you will continue to see. Thats not going to change. The question is what happens to the guys who dont learn?

Hartman said that Haredi parents are more sensitive to the needs of their children than in the past and are, therefore, more open to alternative educational options. And the IDF is increasingly seen by non-Haredi Israelis and by Haredim as a gateway to economic advancement, whether through professional training, special perks, financial aid or pensions.

Using coercion wont work, though, it will only strengthen Haredi opposition. Besides, it is not practical. There are tens of thousands of Haredim with an exemption. What are you going to do, put them all in jail? he said.

See more here:

A yeshiva that preps Haredi men for IDF service mourns first graduate to fall in battle - The Times of Israel

Rabbis opposed to Cuyahoga County Council resolution issue statement – Cleveland Jewish News

Posted By on June 15, 2024

Over 30 rabbis have signed a Northeast Ohio rabbinic statement opposing boycott, divestment and sanctions against Israel as of June 11.

The statement is in response to a resolution referred to Cuyahoga County Councils committee of the whole at its June 4 meeting, Rabbi Scott Roland of Congregation Shaarey Tikvah in Beachwood told the Cleveland Jewish News.

R2024-0208 urges Cuyahoga County to end its investment in bonds and other foreign sovereign debt issued by the nation of Israel, and seeks to prohibit future investments in foreign securities.

The resolution was sponsored by council vice president Cheryl L. Stephens, representative for District 10 which includes Cleveland Heights and University Heights, and councilman Patrick Kelly, representative for District 1 which includes Rocky River and Bay Village.

I drafted this statement for two reasons, Roland said in a June 10 email to the CJN from Israel. First, in response to the introduction of a BDS resolution by two members of our Cuyahoga County Council. Second, in response to organizations like Jewish Voice for Peace and Cleveland Jewish Collective who attended the county council meeting to support this resolution.

Myself and my colleagues who signed felt it was important to make sure that county council, and members of our Jewish community, know that the mainstream rabbinate is still very much supportive of the Jewish state.

The statement was sent to Cuyahoga County Council on June 7 to inform it on where mainstream Jews stand and to send a message to those claiming to speak on behalf of the Jewish people, he said.

The rabbinic statement urges community members and elected officials to stand against BDS and join in solidarity with the state of Israel and the Jewish people.

It reads: Nearly 2,000 years ago, our sage, Rabbi Hillel, taught us, Do not separate from the community. (Mishnah Avot 2:4) Later, the Babylonian Talmud reminded us that All Jews are responsible for one another. (Shevuot 39a) As rabbis living and working in Northeast Ohio, we firmly believe that it is impossible to detach ourselves from the over 7 million of our brethren who live in Israel. While we may differ in our social and political views, we collectively represent the overwhelming majority of American Jews who support the State of Israel.

Regrettably, there are a minority of Jews among us who do not embrace this core Jewish tenet. You may find them within college campus encampments or at local government meetings, claiming to speak on behalf of the Jewish People. Jewish Voices for Peace and Students for Justice in Palestine use words like peace and justice while advocating for resolutions that are neither peaceful nor just. We reject the tokenization of these Jews for the purpose of justifying anti-Zionist and antisemitic government resolutions.

Among the abhorrent policies for which these groups advocate are those that seek to boycott, divest and sanction the Jewish state. The boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement is wrong and antisemitic in that it seeks to delegitimize Israel and deny Jews the right to self-determination. The movement uses divisive language, ignores Palestinian responsibility in the conflict and fosters an environment that emboldens antisemitism. BDS does not support constructive peace efforts and instead promotes a one-sided, biased narrative that harms Israeli-Palestinian relations and isolates Jewish communities globally. We reject any movement that holds Israel to a higher standard than every other nation in the world. Not only does BDS apply a double standard to the State of Israel, but it also seeks to delegitimize and demonize the only Jewish state.

We call upon our friends, neighbors and elected officials to firmly stand against harmful ideologies like BDS. We strongly urge you to join us in solidarity with the State of Israel and the Jewish people, advocating for true peace and justice. Let the teachings of our sages regarding communal responsibility guide us to uphold our values and ensure strength and safety for all of us here in Northeast Ohio and in Israel. Together, we can counteract the divisive efforts of those who seek to undermine our unity and our support for the Jewish state.

Jewish community members in favor of divesting from Israel bonds and all other foreign investments, and instead in favor of local investments, began attending Cuyahoga County Council meetings on April 9, Robin Beth Schaer, a representative from Jewish Voice for Peace Cleveland, told the CJN in a June 11 email.

No, the resolution is neither antisemitic nor anti-Zionist, she said. None of us advocating for divestment from Israel do so out of self-interest or self-protection, to the contrary, we do so because we wholly believe ones safety should not come at the expense of anyone elses.

Rabbi Miriam Geronimus, founding rabbi of Cleveland Jewish Collective, posted a statement to Facebook on June 9 in response to the rabbinic statement in which she said she never claimed to speak for the whole Jewish community and wished she could say the same was true of all rabbis and all Jewish institutions.

Statement from Rabbi Miriam Geronimus, founding rabbi at Cleveland Jewish Collective, in response to the Northeast Ohio Anti-BDS Rabbinic Statement posted on June 9 to Facebook.

Disagreeing with fellow Jews does not set us apart from our fellow Jews, it roots us deeply in our ancient lineage and traditions, her statement reads. Saying we must all be unified is a disservice to the Jewish people and an attempt to silence any critique of the State of Israel. Every person and every nation state must be held accountable for their actions, and Israel is no exception to that.

In a June 11 email to the CJN, Geronimus said the rabbis who signed the rabbinic statement represent only a portion of the Jewish community.

I want to note that 30 is just a fraction of the rabbis in Northeast Ohio, she said in her email. The rabbis who signed it do not represent the entire Jewish community, but only a portion of the community.

Roland told the CJN that rabbis who signed the rabbinic statement could exist anywhere on the Zionist spectrum.

I reject the notion that one has to be either pro-Israel or pro-Palestinian, he said. In fact, I encourage us to be careful with our language in that regard. I only wish Iran, Hamas, Hezbollah, etc., were as pro-Palestinian as your average American rabbi. It is the anti-Zionist supporters of BDS who we seek to alienate with this statement.

If those who read this do not see their rabbis signature on the letter, I urge you to encourage them to sign, Rabbi Scott Roland told the Cleveland Jewish News. To read the full statement, visit bit.ly/4aVNCIJ.

Rabbi Scott B. Roland, Congregation Shaarey Tikvah, Beachwood

Rabbi Robert Nosanchuk, Anshe Chesed Fairmount Temple, Beachwood

Rabbi Binyamin Blau, Green Road Synagogue, Beachwood

Rabbi Hal Rudin-Luria, Bnai Jeshurun Congregation, Pepper Pike

Rabbi Elyssa Austerklein, Akron

Rabbi Edward J. Sukol, The Shul, Pepper Pike

Rabbi Emeritus Alan Lettofsky, Beth Israel-The West Temple, Cleveland

Rabbi Rosette Haim, Celebrating Jewish Life, Beachwood

Rabbi David Komerofsky, Temple Israel, Canton

Rabbi Carnie Shalom Rose, Mandel Jewish Community Center of Cleveland, Beachwood

Rabbi Lauren Werber, Orange

Rabbi Courtney Berman, Congregation Ohev Beth Shalom, Youngstown

Rabbi Seth J. Sternstein, Temple El Emeth, Youngstown

Rabbi Akiva Feinstein, King David Synagogue, Beachwood

Rabbi Shalom Plotkin, Right at Home and chaplain at Louis Stokes VA Medical Center, Beachwood

Rabbi Steven L. Denker, Beachwood

Rabbi Noah Leavitt, Oheb Zedek Cedar Sinai Synagogue, Lyndhurst

Rabbi Joan S. Friedman, College of Wooster

Rabba Amalia Haas, Oberlin Hillel, Beachwood

Rabbi Richard A. Block, The Temple-Tifereth Israel, Beachwood

Rabbi Stephen Grundfast, Beth El Congregation, Akron

Rabbi Josh Foster, Bnai Jeshurun Congregation, Pepper Pike

Rabbi Melinda Mersack, Solon

Rabbi Enid Lader, Beth Israel-The West Temple, Cleveland

Rabbi Ari Spiegler, Beachwood Kehilla

Rabbi Susan Stone, South Euclid

Rabbi Stacey Schlein, Shaker Heights

Rabbi Sharon Y. Marcus, Park Synagogue, Pepper Pike

Rabbi Matt Cohen, Temple Emanu El, Orange

Rabbi Chase Foster, Solon

Rabbi Joshua Jacobs, Bnai Jeshurun Congregation, Pepper Pike

* As of June 12

More:

Rabbis opposed to Cuyahoga County Council resolution issue statement - Cleveland Jewish News


Page 21«..10..20212223..3040..»

matomo tracker