Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By admin on September 8, 2022

NUR-SULTAN. KAZINFORM More than 100 delegations from 50 countries of the world are expected to participate in the Congress of the Leaders of World and Traditional Religions, Kazinform correspondent reports.

According to Aibek Smadyarov, official spokesperson of the Kazakh Ministry of Foreign Affairs, among them are spiritual leaders of the world traditional confessions (Islam, Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism, Zoroastrianism, Shintoism), as well as political and public figures, representatives of international organizations, who will gather in the Kazakh capital on September 14-15 at the Palace of Independence.

The theme of this years Congress is set as The role of leaders of world and traditional faiths in the socio-spiritual development of mankind in the post-pandemic period. Four panel sessions will be organized within the Congress, which will focus on questions on the role of religions in strengthening spiritual and moral values, education and religious studies in promoting peaceful coexistence of religions, countering extremism, radicalism and terrorism, especially on religious grounds, as well as the contribution of women to the well-being and sustainable development of society.

The upcoming event will be notable for the participation of Pope Francis, Supreme Imam of Al-Azhar Ahmed Mohamed Ahmed at-Tayeb, Patriarch Theophilos III of Jerusalem, Chief Ashkenazi Rabbi David Lau, Chief Sephardi Rabbi of Israel Yitzhak Yosef and other religious leaders, as well as representatives of a number of international organizations.

Over 230 representatives of 60 foreign mass media have accredited for the event, Aibek Smadyarov added.

Photo: kartinki24.ru

Read more here:

Congress of World and Traditional Religions Leaders to be held at Palace of Independence - inform.kz/en

Category: Ashkenazi | Comments Off on Congress of World and Traditional Religions Leaders to be held at Palace of Independence – inform.kz/en
Tags:

Posted By admin on September 8, 2022

An elderly woman reclining in a green lawn chair, blowing smoke into the sky. A pastor in a red corduroy suit grinning at the camera. A couple in their backyard, matching half smiles on their faces.

These are just a few of Texas photographer Gay Blocks portraits of rescuers, non-Jewish Europeans who helped to smuggle Jews to safety during World War II often at great personal risk to themselves. The full collection includes more than 100 photographs, and 28 have come to San Francisco this month.

Rescuers: Portraits of Moral Courage in the Holocaust opened at the Jack Fischer Gallery on Sept. 3 and will be on view through Oct. 15. Block will sign copies of the 1992 book of her portraits at the gallery on Sept. 24.

The exhibit is sponsored by Palo Altobased art collector Pamela Hornik and her husband, David. Hornik first saw Blocks portrait of German aristocrat Countess Maria von Maltzan, another rescuer, last summer at the Fischer Gallery and knew she had to bring the collection to the public, she told J.

With all the pain and suffering [in the world], now more than ever, its important to be reminded that you can be an upstander, Hornik said.

Hornik is sponsoring the exhibit in memory of her mother, Susan Miller, who was a Holocaust educator and teacher at Congregation Bnai Shalom in Walnut Creek and Tehiyah Day School in El Cerrito.

Block grew up in the Jewish community in Houston and began taking photographs of her friends and neighbors at a young age. She studied photography at the University of Houston with her contemporaries Geoff Winningham, Garry Winogrand and Anne Tucker. Her other work has included a series on girls at Jewish summer camp, female spiritual leaders and her mother. Block, 80, now lives in Santa Fe with her wife, Billie.

Rescuers is the result of a collaboration between Block and Santa Barbara Rabbi Malka Drucker that began in 1986. Rabbi Harold Schulweis, the late spiritual leader of Valley Beth Shalom in Encino, suggested the project. He felt that though many Europeans had tried to help Jews, no one was paying attention to these people, according to Block. (The State of Israel has been honoring those who helped Jews escape persecution during the Holocaust as Righteous Among the Nations since 1953.)

Block and Drucker visited 11 countries and interviewed 105 individuals over the course of three years. They published their work, along with Blocks photographs, as a book in 1992.

I never wanted to stop meeting [the rescuers], Block said in an interview.

Rescuers premiered at the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 1992 to critical acclaim. Since then, it has been shown at more than 50 museums, universities and galleries. Block tried to speak at as many venues as possible, she said.

So many students have never heard of the Holocaust, obviously not about rescuers she said. That was amazing. I wanted to make sure people knew what had happened.

One rescuer whom Block photographed in 1988, a Polish and Jesuit diplomat named Jan Karski, told her his story demonstrates that the whole world was not against the Jews. Jewish children must learn about the rescuers so they do not lose faith in humanity, he said. Over one-half million Jews survived in Europe, and most of them were helped by individuals. (Karski is the subject of a new film, Remember This, that premiered at the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival in July.)

On display at the Fischer Gallery this month is Blocks favorite image: her portrait of the now deceased Zofia Baniecka, a member of the Polish resistance during World War II. Block and Drucker interviewed Baniecka in 1986 at the Staten Island home of one of the Jews she helped to save. During the war, Baniecka was a liaison to the Polish Underground State, a union of resistance organizations. She sheltered Jewish families in her apartment, sometimes many at a time, and helped to find hiding places for Jewish children across Warsaw.

She told Block, I was afraid, but I had to do it.

This is the second time the Rescuers series will be shown in the Bay Area. In 1994, the photographs hung at the Magnes Collection of Jewish Art and Life in Berkeley.

For both Block and Hornik, Rescuers is almost more relevant today than it was 30 years ago, with antisemitism in the United States at a record high, according to the ADL.

I think now, more than ever, is a time to stand up for others, Hornik said.

Here is the original post:

Gay Block's portraits of non-Jewish Holocaust rescuers on view in S.F. J. - The Jewish News of Northern California

Category: Jewish | Comments Off on Gay Block’s portraits of non-Jewish Holocaust rescuers on view in S.F. J. – The Jewish News of Northern California
Tags:

Posted By admin on September 8, 2022

Jewish Federation Co-president Nancy Rubin shared on behalf of our leadership that We are thrilled to invite the entire Jewish community to two very special programs in October, Reverse Tashlich and Womens Havdalah from the Heart. We hope that you will come as a community, bring your family and friendshope to see you there. REVERSE TASCHLICH

On Sunday, October 2nd at 2 p.m., we invite you to join Jewish Federation in elevating the annual Tashlich experience with a Reverse Tashlich beach cleanup.

Reverse Tashlich is a program created by Tikkun Hayam, whose mission is to share the spiritual wonders of the sea from a Jewish perspective and to raise awareness and encourage action to address the many threats facing the marine environment.

It is customary on Rosh Hashanah to go to a body of water and symbolically cleanse ourselves by casting our sins into the water. In 2016, Scubi Jew (the college division of Tikkun Hayam) at Eckerd College devised the idea of Reverse Tashlich and removed human sins from the water during a cleanup of the waterfront on campus.

This exciting program will be happening in conjunction with other Jewish Federations and Jewish organizations across America who will be joining together to clean the earth. We will start by hearing the blast of the shofar followed by a beach cleanup in Margate and a special dessert.

We are excited to be bringing this Jewish practice to our community by the sea for the third time. This year, we invite you to join us in participating in our community practice of removing the sins of others from our beautiful Margate beach and doing a mitzvah for our local community and for our environment.

Advance registration is required via this link: reversetashlich.eventbrite.com or by calling the Jewish Federation office at (609) 822-4404. Beach location will be confirmed to registrants in advance of the program.

WOMENS HAVDALAH FROM THE HEART

The Jewish Federations second Womens Havdalah From the Heart program will be held on Saturday, Oct. 8 at 7:30 p.m. at Congregation Beth Israel.

Join us for a spiritual Havdalah program led by Cantor Larisa Averbakh, Cantor Jacqueline Menaker, and Rabbi Abby Michaleski, women clergy of the South Jersey Board of Rabbis and Cantors. Following Havdalah, Rabbi Menachem Creditor, Pearl and Ira Meyer scholarin residence at UJA-Federation New York, will lead us in a discussion on Jewish Perspectives of Dobbs v. Jackson.

We look forward to discussing the Supreme Courts decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Womens Health Organization through the lens of halakha, Jewish law. We will relate text and Jewish law to current American judicial decisions as we respectfully engage in this important conversation.

This program is free to attend, but advance registration is required via this link: havdalahfromtheheart.ev entbrite.com or by calling the Jewish Federation office at (609) 822-4404. Leading a diverse group of women throughout our Jewish community, Michele Bronkesh is the event chair for this special program.

We hope many members of our Jewish community will join us for these special opportunities to be Jewish together.

The rest is here:

Being Jewish together - Jewish Community Voice

Category: Jewish | Comments Off on Being Jewish together – Jewish Community Voice
Tags:

Posted By admin on September 8, 2022

Across America, young men and women are abandoning religious faith in droves and Judaism is no exception. More Jewish adults than ever classify themselves as religious nones. In fact, according to the latest Pew survey on American Jews, fully 40% of Jews under the age of 40 describe themselves as atheist, agnostic or nothing in particular rather than as Jewish.

This pattern is most pronounced among younger Jews.These young adults rarely or never darken the door of a synagogue or mark Shabbat, according to Pew respondents who were asked how they connect with Jews and Judaism. Both of these trends would not seem to bode well for Judaism in America.

But hidden within the data are clues as to how American Jewry can reverse these trends. As Dava Schub, CEO of the Edlavitch Jewish Community Center in Washington, D.C., said, There is a lot of room to continue to move and grow and evolve.

First, the bad news:

The fact that many young Jewish men and women do not stick with their faith tradition, what scholars call religious retention, is one challenge facing the Jewish community. Another is that of below-replacement fertility Jewish women are averaging 1.5 children each (2.1 is the replacement rate). Both these trends suggest the Jewish community as a whole, which currently numbers about 7.6 million, or 2.28% of Americans, could shrink substantially in the coming generations. Given these demographic trends, at first glance the future for Jewish life in America looks rather bleak.

These trends, however, are not evenly distributed across the different Jewish denominations.

Jews who identify as Reform or Conservative are seeing the lower rates of retention, religious attendance and fertility compared to their more observant counterparts in Orthodox and traditional Judaism. Perhaps the key distinction is that of fertility.

Birth rates for Orthodox women are 3.3 children per woman, whereas the rate for non-Orthodox women is only 1.4 children per woman. This statistic is illustrated in real life when considering that the average age among Orthodox Jewish adults in America is at least 18 years younger than the average among Reform/Conservative Jews.

Regarding regular religious service attendance, 83% of those who identify as Orthodox attend services at least once per month, compared to 33% for those who identify as Conservative, and 14% of those who identify as Reform. Considering generational retention, the Pew data show that a higher proportion of people who were raised in Orthodox homes remain Orthodox as adults (67%) than Conservative (41%) or Reform (66%).

To put it plainly, in the words of Alan Cooperman, director of religion research at Pew Research Center, If you are familiar with the American-Jewish community, youve seen the growth in Orthodox neighborhoods, communities across the country.

In other words, the decline of American Judaism looks to be concentrated in its moderate and liberal branches, whereas retention, fertility and attendance among young Orthodox adherents is on the rise.

Add to this the fact that only 1% of those who identify as Orthodox are not synagogue members, whereas 36% of those who identify as Reform and 11% who identify as Conservative are not synagogue members. And, as the figure indicates, a growing share of young adults identify as Orthodox and they are having more than two times more children than are their more religiously liberal counterparts. All this suggests that Orthodox Judaism in America is doing something right that cannot be ignored.

And what are those lived behaviors among the Orthodox that encourage Jewish-positive values and seem to herald intergenerational strength and continuity? Some items are relatively easy to predict:

Other somewhat surprising, but actually quite logical, practices distinguish more religiously engaged Jews from others. They include:

Of course, it is possible that there might be enough Jewish nones, combined with those who identify as culturally Jewish, to provide just enough Jewishly-aware descendants in two generations to register as a significant minority portion of American Jewry in Pews 2080 survey.

Indeed, it is notable that at least large minorities of Jewish nones observe Yom Kippur, life cycle events (such as bar/bat mitzvahs) and attend a Passover Seder. These activities, however, are insufficient to provide any reasonable certainty that succeeding generations will embrace a Jewish identity and engage in similar Jewish behaviors.

Fortunately, for those who know that they want their Jewish children today to be successful Jewish parents in 2050, there are ways to increase the odds that they stay in the fold. The key, the Pew data suggest, is to make some basic and intentional choices.

You should not only increase family synagogue attendance and religious awareness, but also regularly make matzah ball soup with your children and grandchildren, keep up with the latest Jewish news in the U.S. and Israel, and tune in to Jewish music on the internet. When traveling, plan to go out of your way to visit significant Jewish historical sites, and when at home, engage with the local Chabad house at least on occasion.

While these activities may seem rather simple and even innocuous, from the story told by the Pew data, those who intentionally pursue these activities may not only strengthen their own Jewish identity and connection to the American and Israeli Jewish communities, but they will also create, support and sustain the identities of their children and grandchildren, resulting in the sustenance of American Jewry to the end of the current century.

Finally, the rising fortunes of Orthodox Judaism also suggest lessons for other Abrahamic traditions that would like to see their fortunes sustained in the 21st century. Beyond attending services, focus on family devotions, plug into your own faiths religious media and music, and make regular pilgrimages to places that are meaningful for your tradition. Such steps are likely to protect you, your children and your community from the secular currents eroding the faith of many faithful young adults today.

Brad Wilcox is director of the National Marriage Project at the University of Virginia and The Future of Freedom fellow at the Institute for Family Studies.Sam Richardson is the director for small community outreach at the Jewish National Fund-USA and research specialist for the National Marriage Project at the University of Virginia.

Originally posted here:

What Jewish group is thriving in the secular age? | Opinion - Deseret News

Category: Jewish | Comments Off on What Jewish group is thriving in the secular age? | Opinion – Deseret News
Tags:

Posted By admin on September 8, 2022

As we welcome in the new year 5783, we look to our South Jersey community once again for your support. It is a critical time of year for the Jewish Federation and our family of agencies as we close our fiscal year and usher in a new fiscal year alongside the High Holy Days. With your generous gift, we can focus on lifting those who have fallen and nourishing those who are hungry, making sure not one Jewish person falls through the cracks.

At first glance, an older man living in Jerusalem has nothing in common with a single mother in Cherry Hill. And a 7-year-old girl with special needs in Delran is nothing like a 90-year-old Holocaust survivor from the former Soviet Union. While we may live in different places, speak different languages, and lead different lives, we are all connected through the Jewish Federation of Southern New Jersey. And when people are in need, our differences quickly disappear.

Your gift to our Jewish Federations annual JFund Campaign travels from Ukraine to Uruguay, from Madrid to Morocco, from the U.S. to Israel. In Israel, youre helping people like Sigal, who, through our partner agencies on the ground, aids victims of terror. In Eastern Europe, your support helps a new generation to rebuild Jewish communities that were all but decimated by the Holocaust and Soviet rule. Here in Jewish South Jersey, your support provides inspiration and mentorship to the next generation of leaders. And the good you do right in your own backyard keeps going. It enables children like Rachel to attend Jewish summer camp, where she is forming lifelong Jewish friendships and a deep attachment to Jewish community. Your gift also helps safeguard our Jewish community in the face of anti-Semitic attacks. With anti-Semitism on the rise, enhanced security measures are necessary to protect our Jewish community from harm.

We ask that you consider a gift to the Jewish Federations annual JFund Campaign this new year to help bring hope, dignity, and relief to those who need it right here in South Jersey, in Israel, and in 70 other countries around the world. Each gift to JFund helps in myriad ways, bringing food, shelter, and medication to the elderly and infirm; providing counsel and support to the abused and disadvantaged; inspiring the next generation of Jews with education, scholarships, outreach, and so much more.

Every dollar you give brings compassion and security to someone in need. Thank you for your generosity and commitment to our Jewish Federations mission to care for those in need, enhance Jewish life, and ensure the continuity of a vibrant Jewish community locally, in Israel, and around the world.

You can make your 2022 JFund gift online at jewishsouthjersey.org/jfund

jweiss@jfedsnj.org

Read the original here:

Your financial support is a lifeline to Jews at home and around the world - Jewish Community Voice

Category: Jewish | Comments Off on Your financial support is a lifeline to Jews at home and around the world – Jewish Community Voice
Tags:

Posted By admin on September 8, 2022

Creating a successful museum exhibition about the Jewish deli is an order thats taller than well, a pastrami sandwich. But organizers of Ill Have What Shes Having at the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles have no need to worry.

The new provocatively-titled display is a smash hit with visitors, and its stay at the Skirball has been extended by two weeks to September 18. After that, its off to another deli mecca, New York City, where it will show at the New York Historical Society starting November 11.

A lot of people say the exhibition makes them hungry, said Laura Mart, an associate curator at the Skirball who is one of the three organizers.

Working on the exhibition along with Mart were Skirball curator Cate Thurston and writer Lara Rabinovitch an expert in immigrant food cultures.

[Mart] and I often enjoy lunch together, Thurston wrote in an email. During these meals we often talk about work and bounce ideas around. Deli grew out of these conversations over food, which is fitting. We contacted Ill Have What Shes Having co-curator Lara Rabinovitch to see if this seed of an idea had legs and ended [up] having an incredible conversation where we mapped out some early ideas. The finished product is very much the result of our collaboration.

Get The Times of Israel's Daily Editionby email and never miss our top stories

Planning lasted five years, starting in 2017, with the envisioned October 2020 opening delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic. The exhibition debuted this April.

In her opening remarks, Thurston described the Jewish deli as a community centered on food a secular synagogue, if you will, that connects and welcomes all who have ever found comfort at the bottom of a bowl of matzo ball soup.

The show has more than made up for lost time.

Every time I go to the gallery, it is packed with people, Mart said. It was a lot of fun to research.

Snack at Mannys Delicatessen, Chicago, 2010. (Image Professionals GmbH/ Alamy Stock Photo/ Skirball Center)

The title adds a fun note, evoking the When Harry Met Sally double entendre uttered by Estelle Reiner, the late mother of director Rob Reiner. The famous scene was filmed in New York mainstay Katzs Deli. Founded in 1888, Katzs is the oldest deli in operation in the United States.

Its cheeky, Mart said of the title, and also something that if youve not seen the film you would be able to understand its about food, sharing space, other people eating with you, youre ordering food in a convivial dining experience.

Of course, she noted, theres an extra meaning.

To show the rich history of delis, organizers found numerous artifacts, many of which relate to LA mainstays past and present. Rabinovitch likes a photo of Elvis Presley at Glassmans Deli. She also mentioned the cigarette dispenser from Canters, plus a historic collection of matchboxes. There are mid-20th-century menus from New Yorks Carnegie Deli and Lindys Restaurant, and the largest artifact in the show, a 10-foot-high neon deli sign.

Elvis Presley with deli employee Joe Guss at Glassmans Deli and Market, Los Angeles, 1969. (From the BonarFamily Collection/ Skirball Center)

There are also several deli uniforms on display, including one from the late waitress Kaye Coleman, who worked at Nate n Als for 38 years. Upon Colemans death, Larry King remarked, She was just a waitress the way that Sigmund Freud was just a doctor.

All aspects really tell the story of the deli as it changed through time, Rabinovitch said. Of course, the menus tell the story of the food.

There are interactive features, including one where visitors can leave their favorite deli order such as the No. 19 from Langers, a pastrami sandwich. One visitor left something else his phone number and a request to call a nice Jewish boy. Another shared a story of scattering their fathers ashes under his favorite booth at Juniors. For the kids, there was a necklace-making activity using pickling spice an exception to the no-food-in-the-gallery rule.

And yes, there is a place where visitors can actually have deli fare: the museum cafe. On the menu are pastrami sandwiches, rugelach, black-and-white cookies, and a spectrum of Dr. Browns sodas.

There have been other Jewish food-related museum exhibitions Chosen Food: Cuisine, Culture and American Jewish Identity was on display at the Jewish Museum of Maryland in the previous decade. Yet on the whole, the subject remains a rarity.

You look at what, historically, Jewish museums have done for exhibition programming. Theres a lot of biography, arts and culture, history, pop culture, Mart said. Looking at food is an entirely new area.

Illustrative: Pastrami on rye. (Yaakov Schwartz/Times of Israel)

With Thurston and Rabinovitch, she planned an exhibition that was as comprehensive and multifaceted as a deli menu.

Thurston said that the research process drove the narrative. What started as a broad look at the Jewish delicatessen grew into a larger story about Jewish immigration to America and the creation of a uniquely American restaurant.

The first delis in the US were actually German and not necessarily German-Jewish. Delicatessen is a German compound word that doesnt quite connote the American deli experience. An approximation of the word is a place to find delicious things to eat.

Mart went into more detail, defining the word as a restaurant where youre able to find dainty or delicate generally luxurious things to eat, that youd not necessarily prepare at home.

Although this tradition existed in Europe, it evolved into something quite different in the US during the waves of immigration from Central and Eastern Europe starting in the 1880s.

A 10-foot-high neon deli sign. (Morgan Foitle)

A tradition started with families, especially Jewish people living in a city, Mart said. Its where a lot of kosher products were originally served. People needed a place where they could buy foods under supervision that they knew were kosher.

She compares the resulting Jewish delis to two modern NYC institutions the bodega, with its all-purpose options for grocery shopping, and the coffee shop, with its crowded but cozy confines. From the late 19th century, the deli caught on with immigrant patrons, spreading across the US like a schmear of cream cheese across a bagel.

Speaking of schmear, the exhibit pays homage to Yiddish as a language of the deli. After all, the deli is a great place to nosh, it takes some chutzpah to cut the line and if theyre out of corned beef, you feel verklempt.

The goldene medina gets some love, too. American ingenuity gave the world sliced bread, and there was enough open space to graze cattle for all that brisket. Although tenement life was hard, immigrants looking to advance found a way to do so by serving beloved recipes, from smoked fish to sliced pastrami.

Rena and Harry Drexler at Drexlers Deli in Los Angeles, circa 1970s. (Private collection/ Skirball Center)

In 1924, the Johnson-Reed Act drastically limited immigration to the US, including Jewish immigration. A generation later, the nightmare of the Holocaust devastated Europe and its Jews who could not reach safety. After the war, a number of survivors and refugees went on to build a new life in the US through delis. They included Rena Drexler, an Auschwitz survivor who was liberated on her 18th birthday. She met her future husband, Harry Drexler, in Munich. They immigrated to America and founded Drexlers Deli in North Hollywood. Meanwhile, Abe Lebewohl endured persecution by the USSR and life in a refugee camp before immigrating to America and founding the Second Avenue Deli in New York.

They found healing and community in the deli, Mart said in describing the section on survivor stories.

A further section addresses new possibilities for the deli. In the 2010s, foodie-ism took over think farm-to-table fare, in-house cured pastrami, even artisanal pickles. During the current decade, its all about food sourcing and equity. The exhibition includes a menu from Beetroot, a Portland, Oregon, deli that had to close during the COVID-19 pandemic. Before it did so, owner Sonya Sanford offered a menu with more options than the traditional Ashkenazi fare. There were Israeli options such as falafel and hummus, and favorites from Sanfords roots in the former Soviet Union, such as borscht. Ingredients were sourced from women- and immigrant-owned farms.

I see the Jewish deli take on all kinds of different forms I love it, Rabinovitch said, adding, The traditional Jewish deli is being revered and experiencing a renaissance in its own way as well.

Link:

LA deli exhibit puts a little mustard on the Jewish-American immigrant tale - The Times of Israel

Category: Jewish | Comments Off on LA deli exhibit puts a little mustard on the Jewish-American immigrant tale – The Times of Israel
Tags:

Posted By admin on September 8, 2022

AFTER serving since 2007 as the state MP for Davidson which includes suburbs with significant Jewish communities like St Ives and Lindfield Jonathan ODea announced on Tuesday that he has decided not to recontest his seat at the NSW election in March 2023.

ODea, who is also the NSW Legislative Assembly speaker, told The AJN, Ive enjoyed working with the Jewish community in my electorate for the past 15 years and Jewish communal leaders across NSW, like former NSW Jewish Board of Deputies (JBD) CEO Vic Alhadeff, and the current CEO Darren Bark.

Ill continue to do my duties for the next six months with diligence, but then its time for someone else to have the opportunity, and the honour, of representing this seat.

Proud of his record of being a strong supporter and advocate for multicultural NSW, and in Davidson, which has a very vibrant Jewish community, ODea reflected fondly on participating in an Israel study trip in 2012 run by the Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council, and of being warmly welcomed at annual events at Masada College, North Shore Synagogue, and Chabad North Shore from school prize-giving nights, to Chanukah on the Green in St Ives.

He also supported Ku-Ring-Gai Councils decision in November 2016 to approve the St Ives eruv.

ODea acknowledged fellow retiring NSW MPs Labors Walt Secord, and the Liberal MP for Vaucluse, Gabrielle Upton, for their advocacy for the states Jewish community.

Bark said, The JBD board thanks Jonathan for his warm friendship, dedication, and staunch support of the Jewish community over many years.

NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet described ODea as a vital contributor to the state, and thanked him for his outstanding contribution and dedication over many years of service.

Get The AJN Newsletter by email and never miss our top storiesFree Sign Up

Original post:

Ive enjoyed working with the community - Australian Jewish News

Category: Jewish | Comments Off on Ive enjoyed working with the community – Australian Jewish News
Tags:

Posted By admin on September 8, 2022

Almost as soon as Russias bombs began falling in Ukraine, prompting millions of Ukrainians to flee the war zone, Jewish aid groups sprang into action.

Volunteers with the emergency medical services Magen David Adom and United Hatzalah dispatched teams to the area to set up emergency triage centers to treat the wounded, sick and elderly. Tikva Childrens Home, which in normal times cares for neglected, abandoned or abused children in the Ukrainian city of Odessa, began busing kids out of the war zone and into safety in neighboring Romania. The JCC of Krakow, Poland, where over 1 million Ukrainians fled after the outbreak of the war, served as a distribution point for food, medicine and clothing for Jewish and non-Jewish refugees alike.

These humanitarian groups were able to meet the sudden and dramatic surge in need for aid thanks to their partnerships with the Jewish Federations of North America, which since February has raised over $73 million for Ukraine-related needs. That leadership has made federations the backbone of the Jewish humanitarian effort helping Ukrainians not just flee the fighting and find safe haven, but also figure out long-term solutions while their country remains at war.

These have included efforts to resettle refugees in Israel, Europe and the United States, provide refugee children with education and emotional respite, run training programs to help Ukrainian adults find housing and jobs while in exile, coordinate volunteer efforts both in Europe and the United States, and advocate for policies that help refugees find their footing in new communities.

In all, the Jewish Federations have channeled over $61 million so far to some 50 nongovernmental organizations worldwide, often through the Federations main overseas partners: the Jewish Agency for Israel, the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) and World ORT.

Everything were doing in Ukraine and surrounding countries is made possible by the collective efforts of 146 Jewish federations and, in turn, by the donations of Jewish communities, said Eric Fingerhut, president and CEO of the Jewish Federations. We love individual philanthropists, but this is really grassroots-supported fundraising a collective effort of massive proportions.

Serving as the umbrella organization for some 146 federations and 300 network communities, the Jewish Federations collectively comprise the largest Jewish charity in North America. They often operate as the unseen hand of North American Jewry because most of the aid is delivered via the frontline agencies and organizations with which the Jewish Federations partner.

When Russia attacked Ukraine on Feb. 24, Fingerhut said, we were able to respond right away because we had professionals on the ground, as well as relationships and the expertise to know what to do instantly.

Six months on, the situation in Ukraine is still dire.

The areas under Russian attack are in a very serious crisis. Not only can people not leave, their businesses and homes are destroyed. Its hard to provide humanitarian relief in such places, though our partners are desperately trying to do that, Fingerhut said. And in parts not under attack, you still have shortages of medicines and a collapsing economy.

Although the exodus of refugees fleeing Ukraine has slowed considerably, about 12 million people have been displaced by the war, either within Ukraine or in nearby countries, according to United Nations estimates. So the need for aid remains very high.

Out of Ukraines prewar Jewish population of about 200,000, more than a quarter has left, according to estimates. Most have gone to Israel, with some immigrating and others in the country on tourist visas. Israel also is hosting thousands of war evacuees who are not eligible for immigration but are sheltering in the country for the time being.

In late July, the Jewish Federations announced a $1 million Ukrainian Resettlement Grant Initiative with the support of the Shapiro Foundation to support refugees seeking safety in the United States. The first nine grants, have already been awarded to Jewish federations in Boston, Buffalo, Miami, Philadelphia, Delaware, Atlanta, Richmond, New Yorks Westchester County, and Greenwich, Connecticut. Funds will help build capacity within social service organizations to support displaced Ukrainians in their communities.

Ukrainian children ages 10 and 11 attend a class in Russian at the Kiryat Yearim Aliya Youth Village summer camp in Israel, August 2022. (Larry Luxner)

The grants are one of the many ways the Jewish Federations are operating behind the scenes to coordinate and fund Ukraine aid efforts. Funding for humanitarian aid is going to everything from resilience programs in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv to the distribution of hygiene supplies to supporting new Ukrainian immigrants to Israel.

Working together with the Israeli trauma group Natal and the first ladies of Israel and Ukraine, Jewish Federations helped bring 27 Ukrainian therapists to Israel for a week to learn trauma coping techniques.

At the Kiryat Yearim Youth Aliya Village near Jerusalem, an Israeli overnight summer camp called Start.IL run by the Jewish Agency for Israel has used federation funding to welcome some 400 Ukrainian Jewish children displaced by the Russian invasion. The camp held four weeklong sessions this summer of 100 campers each, with 8- to 17-year-olds enjoying sports, singing, games and learning about Israel.

These kids are from Kyiv, Odessa, Mariupol all over Ukraine. Some of them left their houses when the war started, and others ran from their houses the moment bombs started falling on their cities, said camp director Vitalina Latysheva. They still talk about the war, but here they make new friends and have a new life in Israel. The ones who came in February are already speaking Hebrew.

In the United States, the Jewish Federations also have lobbied on Capitol Hill for expedited refugee resettlement. In late July, those efforts paid off when the U.S. government announced a new, streamlined, online process for Ukrainian refugees filing for work permits.

Fingerhut, who has been to the Ukraine border and neighboring Poland several times since the war began, said that Jews can lend a hand no matter where they live.

We have a volunteer hub which is especially looking for Russian-speaking and Ukrainian-speaking professionals, he said. Also, our refugee resettlement program is very vigorous, and requires financial support and commitment. Every little bit helps.

The Federations, along with the Jewish Agency and the JDC, already have placed 90 volunteers in Eastern Europe. Some are in Poland, where the JCC of Warsaw, along with local partners, recently hosted a three-week summer camp for 85 refugee children and teens fleeing the war in Ukraine. The camp operated with funding from the Jewish Federations.

Other volunteers have been helping out at the Israeli Consulate in Budapest, Hungary, including several who themselves were once child refugees.

Ukraine-born Alina Gerlovin Spaulding came to New Jersey in 1979 as a young girl, eventually relocating to Greensboro, North Carolina, where shes a real-estate broker. She said she feels like she has come full circle from being on the receiving end of Jewish communal aid as a child immigrant to helping deliver aid to others as an American adult. The experience demonstrates the collective power of the Jewish community when it operates together, she said.

Tatiana Goldvarg, a counselor at the Start.IL summer camp for Ukrainian youth at Kiryat Yearim, Israel, leads campers in a song, August 2022. (Larry Luxner)

When we left the former Soviet Union, no one asked us what denomination of Jew we were, said Spaulding, 48. The Jewish community worldwide stepped up to rescue hundreds of thousands of us in the 70s, 80s and 90s. They gave us a soft landing and an opportunity for an extraordinary life. And now this war in Ukraine has brought a large portion of that community together once again, because so many of us have roots in that part of the world.

Spaulding spent two weeks around Passover in Hungary, using her fluency in Russian to help potential new immigrants to Israel get their paperwork in order.

Many people couldnt take their passports, so they had no records of who they were. Also because of COVID, a lot of people werent traveling and their records had expired, she said. So we helped them in any way we could.

On the same trip to Hungary, Larisa Svechin, who was born in Belarus and came to the U.S. with her family in 1979, helped greet refugees straight off the bus from Ukraine. A former mayor of Sunny Isles Beach, a mostly Jewish suburb of Miami, Svechin was part of a 12-member team that welcomed new arrivals at a Budapest hotel with everything from diapers to insulin.

While they were filling out paperwork, we acted as their support system from morning to night from making them tea and giving them snacks to playing with their kids. These people were so traumatized, said Svechin, 49.

The experience of those two weeks in Hungary changed her life, Svechin said.

You get to know these people on such a personal level because you know all their details, she said. This experience was so profound. Id do it again without even thinking.

Read more:

With $73 million and counting, this organization is the backbone of the Jewish aid effort for Ukraine - JTA News - Jewish Telegraphic Agency

Category: Jewish | Comments Off on With $73 million and counting, this organization is the backbone of the Jewish aid effort for Ukraine – JTA News – Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Tags:

Posted By admin on September 8, 2022

Members of the Jewish community in Las Vegas, N.M., are trying to purchase Temple Montefiore, the first synagogue in the New Mexico Territory, from the Archdiocese of Santa Fe. Photo by Jim Weber/The New Mexican

By Sarah NachimsonSeptember 07, 2022

The Las Vegas, New Mexico, Jewish community is determined to buy back its synagogue.

Its an opportunity few saw coming. The Las Vegas Archdiocese has owned the Montefiore Synagogue for some seven decades, and consistently refused to sell it back to the local Jewish community, despite repeated pleas.

But a $121.5 million settlement related to a Chapter 11 lawsuit about sexual abuse in the New Mexico church has pushed the archdiocese into bankruptcy and forced a sale of the historic building, which Jewish leaders in the city of 13,055 have long aspired to make a new center of Las Vegas Jewish life.

Sure, the community has to drum up the funds to purchase the building. But it will be bought by us, said Zelda McCrossen, treasurer for the Las Vegas Jewish Community. Thats a given.

A GoFundMe page to help the community purchase the Montefiore Synagogue which, per the archdioceses bankruptcy agreement, the archdiocese must sell within 30 days of signing had raised more than $78,000 as of Wednesday afternoon. According to court documents, the Las Vegas Jewish Community and Archdiocese of Santa Fe entered a deal for the community to buy the synagogue and an adjacent house for $200,000 on Aug. 23.

Since the Las Vegas Jewish Community does not have sufficient funds to meet that price on hand, they are crowdfunding to cover the costs.

A history, and a rebirth

The Montefiore Synagogue dates to 1886, a time when a large Jewish community had settled in Las Vegas and nearby Santa Fe. That community grew after Amtrak added a train stop in the city in 1899, making it more accessible.

However, by the 1950s, the Jewish community had dwindled, and could no longer afford to maintain the synagogue. The archdiocese purchased the property, and transformed it into a private facility for students at the nearby public Highlands University for students to learn about Catholicism.

The Jewish community of Las Vegas, which has been growing in the past decade, has, McCrossen said, made multiple offers to buy back the building in the past few years.

John Macken, a representative of the Las Vegas Archdiocese, said the church would be delighted if the synagogue returned to the Jewish community as planned.

The Las Vegas Jewish community today, McCrossen said, is a mixed community without any official denomination. We do have a lot of converso and crypto Jews in northern New Mexico, she said. But, she said, were from all over.

In recent years, the community has hosted major events at the citys Episcopal Church, including Passover seders and Hanukkah celebrations. It also held Hebrew classes over Zoom during the pandemic.

The community does not have an in-person rabbi, but visiting rabbis from Albuquerque regularly help with events.

The community plans to hold High Holiday services this year in the synagogue after reclaiming it, and to use it as a community space. At least for the moment, weekly services dont appear to be in the communitys future, but there are plans in the works for the synagogue to host a museum and community events, and to serve as a center for Jewish education.

The only way were going to fight antisemitism is through education, McCrossen said, and thats part of our goal in wanting to have this building back.

Read the rest here:

They were forced to sell their beloved synagogue. 7 decades later, they finally have a chance to buy it back - Forward

Category: Jewish | Comments Off on They were forced to sell their beloved synagogue. 7 decades later, they finally have a chance to buy it back – Forward
Tags:

Posted By admin on September 8, 2022

The Roosevelt administrations refusal to strike Auschwitz was among the issues raised in Wolf Blitzers recent CNN special about the Holocaust, and will be discussed in Ken Burnss upcoming documentary film on Americas response to the Holocaust.

During the spring and summer of 1944, as hundreds of thousands of Hungarian Jews were being deported to Auschwitz, at least thirty officials of Jewish organizations or institutions urged the Roosevelt administration to carry out air strikes on the railways and bridges over which the deportations were taking place, or to undertake precision strikes on the gas chambers and crematoria themselves.

Nahum Goldmann, head of the World Jewish Congress, and Rabbi Jacob Rosenheim, president of the Orthodox advocacy group Agudath Israel, were particularly active in pressing the Roosevelt administration on the bombing proposals.

Usually such pleas were made behind closed doors. On occasion, however, the bombing idea spilled out into public view.

On July 10, the JTA published a dispatch from London, reporting that recent escapees from Auschwitz were urging: The crematoria in Oswiecim [Auschwitz] and Birkenau, easily recognisable [sic] by their chimneys and watch-towers, as well as the main railway lines connection Slovakia and Carpatho-Ruthenia with Poland, especially the bridge at Cop, should be bombed.

On the day the JTA article appeared, and during the several days before and after that date, eight trainloads of Jewish deportees from Hungary arrived in Auschwitz. More than 30,000 Jews were gassed in that four-day span. Those were the last trains to come from Hungary, but deportations of Jews to Auschwitz from other countries continued.

The JTAs mention of the bridge at Cop is significant because some contemporary pundits have argued that the Germans were capable of quickly repairing damaged railways. But bridges that were bombed could take days, even weeks, to repairwhich is why the Allies frequently bombed bridges throughout Europe.

Four days later, the JTA again highlighted the issue of the railways leading to Auschwitz. It reported that in a radio broadcast to Europe, a leader of the International Federation of Transport Workers had urged railway workers in Hungary, Poland and Czechoslovakia to prevent the deportation of Hungarian Jews to [Nazi] death camps [in Poland] by sabotaging rail equipment being used to transport the Jews.

Wolf Blitzers late father David, who was a prisoner in Auschwitz, remarked on the railways issue in excerpts from his 1983 oral history interview, which were aired in CNNs August 26 program. Every day, thousands of people were burned and gassed in the camps, only because [the Germans] had the possibility to bring those trainloads of people, the elder Blitzer recalled. If those rails had been bombarded, they couldnt have done it so perfectly.

On July 20, 1944, the JTA raised the bombing issue again. This time, it reported that liberal circles [in London] are demanding that Britain and the United States act to save the Jews of Hungary by, first, bombing the extermination camps of Oswiecim and Birkenau in Poland

Some other Jewish publications picked up the cry. Editorials or columns calling for bombing Auschwitz or the railways and bridges appeared in the National Jewish Ledger (in Washington, D.C.), the national Jewish magazine Opinion, the New York City Yiddish-language daily Morgen Zhurnal, the Independent Jewish Press Service, and Jewish Frontier, the monthly published by the Labor Zionists of America.

Unbeknownst to the American Jewish community, however, the Roosevelt administration had already made the fateful decision that would shape U.S. policy on bombing Auschwitz.

In memoranda and policy meetings in early February 1944,senior officials of the War Department (today the Defense Department) decided that as a matter of principle, the U.S. would not use military resources for rescuing victims of enemy oppression. The officials claimed the most effective relief which can be given victims of enemy persecution is to insure the speedy defeat of the Axis.

Four months later, when Jewish leaders first began urging the administration to bomb the railways to Auschwitz, Assistant Secretary of War John J. McCloy used language directly from the February decision. The most effective relief to victims of enemy persecution is the early defat of the Axis, McCloy wrote. Bombing the railways to Auschwitz was impracticable, he claimed, because it would require diversion of considerable air support essential to the success of our forces now engaged in decisive operations.

The truth, however, was that no diversion would have been necessary, because American bombers were already preparing to strike German oil factories located in the Auschwitz industrial zone. On July 8two days before the first of the three JTA articles was publishedAllied planes carried out their fourth reconnaissance mission over the oil factories.

In his book Night, Elie Wiesel described how he and other Jewish slave laborers in the oil factories were filled with joy when U.S. bombers struck on August 20, 1944. Even though the prisoners lives were endangered, they were ecstatic at the possibility that the mass-murder machinery nearby would be destroyed.

Read more here:

The Jewish Telegraphic Agency and the Bombing of Auschwitz - Jewish Journal

Category: Jewish | Comments Off on The Jewish Telegraphic Agency and the Bombing of Auschwitz – Jewish Journal
Tags: