Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By admin on September 6, 2022

Ourworld besieged by war and conflict desperately needs the message of peaceand tolerance. Wars take lives, destroy schools and homes, and devastate fields and factories. But they also divide and polarize entire regions, continents, and the whole world. This is why Kazakhstan hosts thecongressof the worlds religious and spiritual leaders every three years.Andwe hope the upcoming 7thCongress of Leaders of World and Traditional Religions will issueanappeal for peace, understanding, inter-ethnic and interfaith harmony in the name of Islam, Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism, Hinduism, and other world religions.

As the world struggleswith the consequences of the pandemic that has already taken over six million lives, faith leadersand politiciansmust work together to prevent aggression and violence, and allow nations to prosper and develop.

On September 14-15, Kazakhstan will host thecongress,firstestablishedin 2003 -two years after the terrorist attacks onSeptember 11, 2001 -to foster dialogue between faiths and cultures and search foranswers to the daunting challenges of our time. This platform has been critical in building bridges betweenChristianity and Islamand otherreligious communitiesat a time when terrorism and religious extremism threatened adeeperrift between them.

As Kazakhstan is a secular country,and home to 17 religions and more than 100 ethnic groupswhohavepeacefully coexistedfordecades andcenturies, our capital is the perfect place to host such an event.

This yearsCongresswill be vital in voicing theclear and strong positionofthe worlds religious leaders in upholdingpeace as the most important condition for human progress. The role of religious leaders in the worlds spiritual and social development in the post-pandemic period is the maintopic of the forum.

Foralmosttwo decades, the Congresshas been bringingtogether leaders of the worlds religions, including representatives of Islam, Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism, Shintoism, Zarathustrianism, and other religions.

For the first time, the head of the Roman Catholic Church, His Holiness Pope Francis, will take part in this unique forum.We will also host the Orthodox Patriarch of JerusalemTheophilIII, the Grand Mufti of AlAzharSheikh Muhammed Ahmad At-Tayeb, Chief Ashkenazi Rabbi of Israel David Lau, and Chief Sephardic Rabbi ofIsrael, Yitzhak Yosef, the Secretary General of the World Islamic League Muhammed benAbdulkarimAl-Isa, and the Secretary General of the Organization of Islamic CooperationHisseinBrahimTaha.More than 100 delegations will participate in the upcoming Congress.This is a powerful and a unique gathering that must work for peace.

But we also need the worldssecular leaders to jointly address todays most important challenges, upholding peace, expanding a global inter-religious dialogue and countering religious extremism and terrorism.That is whyleaders andpoliticiansfrom different countries and international organizations will also participate in the congress,that will dedicate a special session to that topic.

Furthermore, we need to enhance education about different religions, raise a young generation that is not afraid of the differences between faith communities and can manage political differences in a civilized and respectful way.

The Congress adheres to the principle of unity in diversity, a principle that had guided independent Kazakhstan since independence three decades ago. Our country is home to many ethnic minorities and several major religious groups. With a 70 percent ethnic Kazakh population that is mostly Muslim, Kazakhstan is also home tomore than 3.5 million ethnic Russiansand around 250,000 Ukrainians, who are Orthodox Christians. Uzbeks, Tatars, Chechens, Poles, Koreans, and Germans are also part of our society, many of themexiled to our nation by the Soviet government in the 20th Century. We are proud to have built a culture of peaceful co-existence and mutual respect between the various ethnic and confessional groups.

This is perhaps the most important achievement of our young independent state, a critical precondition to ensuring peace and stability. Everyone in our country can be proud of their identity, whether ethnic or religious. We have enshrined the rights of all ethnic groups in our Constitution and in government policies. The Assembly of the People of Kazakhstan was established to represent all ethnic groups in our country at the highest levels of the state, including the parliament.

We enshrined these same principles in the forum for religious dialogue in the world, the Congress of Leaders of World and Traditional Religions: to establish peace, harmony, and tolerance as the unshakable principles of human existence; to pursue mutual respect and tolerance between religions, confessions, nations, and ethnic groups; and to prevent the manipulation of religion to escalate conflicts. We believe this is a positive experience worth learning from.

The 7th Congress will be held in the Kazakhstan capital of Nur-Sultan. We hope its strong message will be heard around the world to remind societies that what unites us is greater than what divides us that every human being needs freedom of belief and mutual respect in order for us together to build a lasting peace.

The Congress of the Religious Leaders,an international event bringing togetherthe leaders of traditional religions, takes place14-15 Sept in Kazakhstan. Formore information visit:https://religions-congress.org/en/news/infografika/136

Excerpt from:

At a time of conflict, religious leaders are coming together to stand for peace - The Parliament Magazine

Category: Judaism | Comments Off on At a time of conflict, religious leaders are coming together to stand for peace – The Parliament Magazine
Tags:

Posted By admin on September 6, 2022

Until 1976, the only identity the black Jews residing in the West African nation of Ghana had was that they were a special breed of people who migrated to their present settlement about 300 years ago.

The Tirefeth Israel community in Ghanas farming settlementof Sefwi Wiaso believe they descended from one of the lost tribes of Israel.

Though the black Jew community is unable to back with documentary proof which of the 12 tribes of Israel they belong to, oral tradition handed over from generation to generation had transmitted knowledge of the observation of Jewish customs with regard to the observance of Shabbat, circumcision of their newborns, refraining from eating pork and abiding by the rituals of purity.

Many lost tribes of Israel settling in isolated communities like the Tirefeth settlement have been linked to the destruction of Israel by the Assyrian empire in 722 BCE.

The disclosure of the true identity of the Tirefeth Israel community was revealed to one of their members in 1976 and thats how the community came to the realization of the Judaism customs they have been practicing for centuries, according to the Canadian Jewish News.

The community in their pilgrimage to their present location settled in the Sahara desert, moved to Niger, Mail, Cte dIvoire and finally Ghana.

Some scholars are of the view that this tribe descended from Jews who were pushed out from the Iberian Peninsula in 1492 and settled in Morroco.As part of their activity in the trans-Sahara trading, they migrated to other parts of Africa over time.

Archaeological excavations at Jewish cemeteries and synagogues in countries like the Mail and Gambia have confirmed the existence of black Jews and their trading activities.

The Tirefeth Israel community enjoys religious freedom and practices its customs in rural settings.The community leaders believe they are the only tribe that draws inspiration from the Torah.

It is the hope of the community to have some of their members go on a pilgrimage to Israel to learn more about their identity and their religious customs.

Corine Forward, a researcher who authored a paper for Georgetown University in the United States on Jewish civilization and African American studies, said when many think of Jews, they assume they are all whites until she visited the Jewish community in Ghana.

She said when the Tirefeth Israel found their identity in 1976, they reached out to the Israel Embassy in Ghana which assisted them.Forward said in her research, which was mainly fieldwork, she observed the community identified themselves as Jews.

According to her, they believe they were descendants of Abraham and that legitimizes their association with Judaism.She said presently the community is learning Hebrew, they light candles, observe the sabbath and celebrate Jewish holidays.

Her worry is that even though many have confirmed the existence of the Tirefeth Israel community, little efforts have been made into researching them extensively.

See the original post here:

The Black Jews of Ghana who discovered their roots through a vision - Face2Face Africa

Category: Judaism | Comments Off on The Black Jews of Ghana who discovered their roots through a vision – Face2Face Africa
Tags:

Posted By admin on September 6, 2022

TEL AVIV, Israel When God wanted to tell the story of His faithfulness through the ages, He chose to do it through the Jewish people. Now, that history is the subject of a new museum in Israel.

Its called Anu it means us The Museum of the Jewish People in Tel Aviv. Its goal: tell the story of Gods chosen people from Abraham until today.

It's the biggest museum of its kind in the world. So, while there are literally hundreds of Jewish museums all over the world. This is the only one that attempts to tell the whole story, historically, geographically, and thematically, says Dan Tadmor, CEO of Anu, The Museum of the Jewish People.

The museum uses artifacts, stories, artwork, and innovative technologies to tell the good and sometimes difficult history of the Jewish people like never before.

Tadmor believes this story is relevant to both Jews and non-Jews.We refer to Judeo-Christian values as the bedrock of Western society. They are Judeo-Christian values. It's the things that we share. It's the values of the Bible, Tadmor explained.

The museum covers 72,000 square feet of exhibition space spread over three floors. One aspect features inter-actives like one where you can find out if your name is from the Bible.

Another one shows Jewish food from around the world and how to make certain special recipes.

More than fifty original films help tell the various parts of the story.The historical wing, for example, begins with a seven-minute huge projection that tells the entire story of Jewish migrations through the ages, Tadmor explained while giving CBN News a tour of the museum. This wing is a chronological track that begins with Abraham and ends with the establishment of the State of Israel and beyond.

From there path begins with the 586 BC destruction of the first Jewish Temple.

Until then all Jews resided in one place, the Land of Israel. Ever since then, Jews never [resided] in one place. So for 2000 years and the present, we Jews always live in diverse places, he said.

Theres an exhibit that explains how Jews were the first to believe in Jesus.

And of course, the first Christians considered themselves Jews because they were. And so, this is that part of history, Tadmor says.

Visitors can learn about the rebellions against the Romans which led to the Jews expulsion from the Land. And how in Spain, Jews were forced to convert to Christianity during the Inquisition.

Even though the dark chapters in Jewish history, like the Holocaust, are part of the story, Tadmor says, the museum is about Jewish life.

When we look at Jewish history and Jewish life, we refuse to do so solely from the position of the victim. Jews have not only been persecuted and survived. Along the way, we've thrived and flourished [and] contributed, he said.

The first Jews in north America were Spanish and Portuguese who fled the Inquisition to South America and were pursued to North America. There they established the first synagogue in north America in Newport, Rhode Island.

In the museum, theres a replica of a letter written by George Washington to the Jewish community of that synagogue.

It's a very famous letter in which he basically says the Children of Abraham will always have a home in these United States, Tadmor relates.

Tadmors favorite item is here in what they call the Hallelujah Hall, dedicated to synagogues around the world throughout the ages.

It actually all begins with the Temple in Jerusalem. So, time was when all Jews resided in one place, the Land of Israel. And we had one Temple, which we would congregate in. With the destruction of the Temple and Jews being dispersed in the world there became a need for synagogues, he said.

Most of the synagogues represented are still in use. But one, the biggest synagogue in Warsaw, Poland, was blown up by the Nazis.

The leadership hid the holy items before the Nazis arrived and then secretly sold them to feed the Jews in the ghetto. A giant menorah from the synagogue survived and is on display.

So, this is the actual object from a synagogue that was destroyed by the Nazis over 70 years ago and it miraculously survived because a Swedish philanthropist acquired it, Tadmor said.

It somehow made its way to Stockholm, probably because you were able to dismantle it and send it and it has survived. The synagogue didnt. The congregants of the synagogue didn't. But the menorah did. And so, you asked me about my favorite object.

Tadmor says the museum is so big you cant see it all in one day. But that only encourages people to return again and again to interact with the never-ending story of the Jewish people.

***Please sign up forCBN Newslettersand download theCBN News appto ensure you keep receiving the latest news from a distinctly Christian perspective.***

Visit link:

New Museum Shares the Story of the Jewish People Like Never Before - CBN.com

Category: Synagogue | Comments Off on New Museum Shares the Story of the Jewish People Like Never Before – CBN.com
Tags:

Posted By admin on September 6, 2022

Back-to-school season is well underway. And many children, and maybe even some of their parents, are surely wondering why all this focus on preparing to go back?

Aside from the need for stores to sell school supplies and clothes, the answer is both simple and obvious you cant just show up on Day One with no preparation.

If your child doesnt have pencils and notebooks, if their clothes are too small or their shoes too tight, their experience in school and their ability to learn will be compromised.

I think the same holds true for our religious and spiritual practices. Whether you are heading to synagogue, church, mosque or any other house of worship, walking in the door without taking a few minutes to prepare and clear your head first can similarly compromise your experience.

I learned that firsthand when, about six months after becoming the congregational leader at CAA, I moved from an apartment in downtown Newburyport to West Newbury.

It turns out that the 10-minute walk from home to the synagogue on Washington Street, observing the town slowly awaken on a Saturday morning, was an important opportunity for me to center myself and prepare for Shabbat services.

Although the drive from West Newbury took about as long, the experience was not the same I was no longer arriving at the synagogue feeling ready to pray or lead others in a reflective experience.

I had to rethink how I could prepare myself. I started leaving the house about 10 minutes earlier so I could have some quiet time and reset myself once I got out of the car. And during my drive, I made sure that the radio was either off or turned to the folk station (thanks WUMB!), not news or louder music.

Proper preparation is even more important for our most intense religious experiences. We share religious traditions where the emphasis is not solely on one holy day, but rather, spread out over a prolonged period to help us incorporate our religious practices and observances into our lives and prepare for the spiritual high points.

The month of Ramadan in the Islamic tradition, and the period of Lent or Easter week in many Christian denominations, exemplify this pattern as does the Hebrew month of Elul.

Elul, which began on Sunday, is the final month of the Hebrew calendar, culminating in the upcoming Jewish High Holidays of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, and Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement.

We are encouraged not solely to show up in synagogue when the holiday begins and dive right into the liturgy of self-reflection and repentance. Rather, we spend the entire month of Elul preparing ourselves.

One tool our tradition uses to help prepare ourselves for the High Holidays that I have found particularly impactful is the addition of Psalm 27 to our daily liturgy during Elul.

In this psalm, attributed to King David, we ask for Gods support, love and protection during our most vulnerable moments. Theres one line in particular that our synagogue community comes back to consistently, singing it in the original Hebrew: One thing I ask of the Lord, only that do I seek: to live in the house of the Lord all the days of my life (Psalm 27, Verse 4).

This line is an important reminder that although holiday celebrations are special and stand out in their own way, those moments the intensity of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur are fleeting. The goal we should always seek is to be connected to God and to our spiritual lives each and every day.

Alex Matthews is the congregational leader of Congregation Ahavas Achim in Newburyport.

We are making critical coverage of the coronavirus available for free. Please consider subscribing so we can continue to bring you the latest news and information on this developing story.

Read more:

In the Spirit: Proper preparation always pays off - The Daily News of Newburyport

Category: Synagogue | Comments Off on In the Spirit: Proper preparation always pays off – The Daily News of Newburyport
Tags:

Posted By admin on September 6, 2022

Tree of Life shooting suspect Robert Bowers will go to trial next year.

The federal criminal case has dragged on for almost four years since that Saturday morning in October 2018 when Squirrel Hill joined the list of mass shooting locations in the U.S. Eleven people died at the synagogue, which was home to three congregations. It was the deadliest synagogue shooting in American history.

This week, the defense filed a motion asking for a one-question survey of would-be jurors ostensibly to ensure that Catholics and other religious groups are not being screened out of the pool.

The Catholic Church opposes the death penalty. The defense argued that keeping Catholics out of the mix could set up a jury more likely to deliver a deadly verdict in the capital case.

The question is interesting initially because the defense and prosecution requested in June that the jury questionnaire be sealed.

Aside from that, the language proposed is simple: What is your present religion, if any? But is it that cut and dried?

A list of options is given, including Protestant denominations, Roman Catholic, Mormon, Jewish and others. The phrasing of the motion and the list does beg another question. Is the defense being disingenuous?

The Tree of Life shooting is one of the most prominent examples of antisemitic attack in recent history. But a question about religion is proposed, and it is focused on Catholics?

Yes, as the defense notes in its motion, Pew Research Center does say the greater Pittsburgh area has a large Catholic population about 1 in 3 people. But Pew says other things about Catholics. That only 39% attend Mass regularly. That only 43% take communion when they do and more than half dont go to confession. About 68% of Catholic women of reproductive age use birth control, according to the Guttmacher Institute.

All of that says Catholics have no problem going against what the pope says.

At the same time, the Public Religion Research Institute puts support for life sentences over death penalty equally at about 68% for Catholics, Jews and many other religions as well as those without a faith.

So does making sure Catholics are included in the pool matter? It could. There definitely shouldnt be a reason to exclude them.

But polling for Catholicism in a case where antisemitism is really on trial seems like misdirection.

Continue reading here:

Editorial: Are Catholics key to the Tree of Life shooting jury? - TribLIVE

Category: Synagogue | Comments Off on Editorial: Are Catholics key to the Tree of Life shooting jury? – TribLIVE
Tags:

Posted By admin on September 6, 2022

The former B'Nai Israel Synagogue is featured on this year's Old Town Cape Christmas ornament.

Submitted

Old Town Cape has announced the former B'Nai Israel Synagogue in downtown Cape Girardeau is the organization's 2022 Christmas ornament.

OTC said the latest ornament is the 26th in a series with only 228 items produced this year, and is available for $30 with a stand or $25 without one.

Ornaments will be available at the following locations in Cape Girardeau while the supply lasts: Old Town Cape, 338 Broadway, Suite 401, (573) 334-8085; Cape Riverfront Market, 35 S. Spanish St. (from 8 a.m. to noon every Saturday through October); CP McGinty Jewelers, 117 Main St. (573) 335-6347; Hutson's Big Sandy Superstore: 43 S. Main St., (573) 334-6251; Jayson Jewelers, 115 Themis St., (573) 334-8711; Pastimes Antiques, 45 Main St., (573) 332-8882; Riverside Pottery Studio which is in the building B'Nai Israel formerly occupied 121 S. Main St., (573) 803-2060; Shivelbine Music Store, 535 Broadway, (573) 334-5216; Visit Cape, 220 N. Fountain St., (573) 335-1631; and Zickfield's Jewelry & Gifts, 29 Main St., (573)-335-5681.

Riverside Pottery is located on the site of the former synagogue.

Do you want more business news? Check out B Magazine, and the B Magazine email newsletter. Go to http://www.semissourian.com/newsletters to find out more.

Continued here:

Business: Old Town Cape unveils 2022 Xmas ornament (9/6/22) - Southeast Missourian

Category: Synagogue | Comments Off on Business: Old Town Cape unveils 2022 Xmas ornament (9/6/22) – Southeast Missourian
Tags:

Posted By admin on September 6, 2022

The simple, if slightly tone-deaf, game board of "Gestapo: A Game of the Holocaust." Photo by Gary Rudoren

Editor-in-ChiefJodi RudorenSeptember 02, 2022

This is an adaptation of Looking Forward, a weekly email from our editor-in-chief sent on Friday afternoons. Sign up here to get the Forwards free newsletters delivered to your inbox.

The worn cardboard box unearthed this summer from a chaotic storage room at my suburban synagogue is labeled, in felt tip, Gestapo Game. Inside are bingo-style boards that distill what our forebears risked and lost in the Holocaust to eight values: Family, House, Community, Religion, Civil Liberties, Income/Job, Pride and Life itself.

Shocked, horrified, and also intensely curious, my friend Josh Katz, our synagogue president, brought the box over to my place for a surreal sort of game night. We played with my husband and 14-year-old twins, Joshs about-to-be-bar-mitzvah son, Benny, and a journalist friend who might fairly be described as obsessed with historical trauma. When we saw on the instruction sheet that the game allowed for four to 1,000 players, someone joked that the upper limit should have been set at 6 million.

It was not, shall we say, fun, but it was also not as bad as we expected.It might even be a little bit brilliant.

Gestapo: A Game of the Holocaust was created in 1976 by a rabbi and a Jewish educator who ran Alternatives in Religious Education, a little company that pumped out pamphlets about life cycle events, holidays and history. It was meant to be educational, not fun, of course, and in some ways is not really even a game the instructions lack the usual How to Win section.

Each person starts with three cards for each of the eight values, and on each turn has to choose which value to risk. The turns consist of someone reading cards with, as the instructions say, specific (and true) events that occurred between 1933 and 1945, in chronological order.

The cards help break down the overwhelming, horrific history into more absorbable, even relatable bits: Hitler comes to power in Germany; The Talmud, Torah and other Jewish books are burned by the Nazis; Jews are barred from eating in public restaurants; In the ghetto, the birth rate plunges toward zero; Emigration of Jews to free lands is stopped; When Jews arrive at a death camp, families are separated. Some are particularly personal: FATHER IS TAKEN TO PRISON; Your son has been taken by the Gestapo and charged with smuggling food into the ghetto; YOU HAVE BEEN SELECTED BY THE NAZIS TO BE A KAPO.

I started out thinking that preserving my Life cards was most important, but soon realized, since the early Nazi attacks were on civil liberties, religion and pride, the better strategy is actually to risk Life early on. Then and heres the little bit of brilliance you realize that, as in the actual Holocaust, there really is no reliable strategy. When you get to the Wannsee Conference, where the card afinal solutionof the Jewish Problem is planned, for example, the instructions are: LOSE ALL RISKED MARKERS.

WHAT WERE THEY THINKING was what we all kept thinking about the makers of the game, which was pilloried in a1980New York Timesarticlewhere Elie Wiesel said such supposed educational materials dishonored the victims and rendered the public insensitive to the tragedy.

So we tracked down Rabbi Raymond A. Zwerin, who created Gestapo along with Audrey Friedman Marcus, his partner in the publishing company, after a public-school teacher named Leonard Kramish came to them with the idea for a trivia game about the Holocaust.

I said the idea is interesting, Len, but it doesnt feel right, recalled Zwerin, who is now 85. You cant ask questions about the Holocaust. The Holocaust isnt about statistics. Its about people moving, its about the destruction of the human spirit, its about mans inhumanity to others.

So ultimately, this game is about saving your life, this game is about surviving, he added. But the cards cant be questions, they have to be statements of fact.

Zwerin was ordained by Hebrew Union College in 1964 and three years later started a synagogue in Denver that by his retirement in 2005 had 1,165 families. He told me a long, detailed history of the little publishing company, which he framed as largely a response to a tumult at the 1972 General Assembly, when as he put it, hundreds of young Jewish kids came marching in and demanded that they stop using junk materials in religious schools.

I was intrigued, as it reminded me of a more recent generations complaints about the one-sided nature of much of what synagogue schools, camps and day schools teach about Israel. All of Jewish educational materials until about 1970 was the same as before World War II, Zwerin said. In the 1960s, there was a revolution in education in the public schools, but Jewish schools were still using outdated materials.

He and Friedman Marcus, educational director at another Denver synagogue, started meeting on Thursdays, his day off, to type up mini-courses that he described as self-motivating pamphlets in which students would answer questions or fill in the blanks or have to discover somehow.

The first 500 copies of the Gestapo Game sold out in three months, at $8 a pop, Zwerin said. Then the Red Cross of New Zealand ordered 1,000 copies he thought it was a typo, but officials assured him they wanted to put one in every Red Cross center in their country as well as Australia. He said the game continued to sell, perhaps 100 a year, until 2006, when the publishing company itself was sold (it is now part ofBehrman House, perhaps the nations largest seller of Jewish educational books).

Overall, he estimated, there were perhaps 6,000 copies, many likely now buried in synagogue storage closets.

I took the game to a couple of college campuses, I did it for youth groups, I did it for my confirmation class every year for 20 years, I did it at board meetings, Zwerin said. Any time there was a group of 20 or more people. With 20 or more people the results of the game were always the same. There was a percentage that survived, and that percentage was exactly the percentage that survived in Europe 33%.

I asked him about that 1980Timesarticle, in which a member of the American Association for Jewish Education called the game an example of problematic curriculum that turns classrooms into concentration camps.Zwerin acknowledged that calling it a game might have been a mistake but said he never heard such criticism from anyone who actually played the game or from his wife, a Holocaust survivor herself, who sold and packaged thousands of copies of it.

The Holocaust was not a game that you could play, it was Oh my God, how do I get out of this, and there was no getting out, it was all about mazel, not saichel, mazel, he said, using Hebrew words that mean luck and smarts. I think about my wifes situation. Her parents were killed, her sister was killed, and she escapes. Somebody found her on the street, as a little kid, and got her to the right ship at the right time. Total mazel.

The copy of the game I played was discovered as part of a summer-long purge project initiated by Rabbi Sharon Litwin, who just took over as educational director of our synagogue, Temple Ner Tamid in Bloomfield, New Jersey. With a teenage assistant, shes given away thousands of old books, and organized thousands of others, finding a time capsule of treasures along the way.

There was a bin of perhaps 50asimonim, the tokens used for Israeli pay phones until 1990. There was a pile of pristine envelopes with a canceled Israeli stamp reading from the visit of Jimmy Carter to the State of Israel 1979. There was a placemat from an Israeli kosher McDonalds with a picture of Ross and Rachel from Friends. There were Keep Abortion Legal posters from rallies in the 1980s and, as Litwin put it, many, many multiple copies of the Jewish calendar that the funeral home dropped off in 1989. And there was this mysterious box that had GESTAPO GAME hand-written on its cover.

I thought, I cant throw this away, its too much like nostalgia or crazy, somebody else needs to see it, Litwin said. I brought it up to the library, was going to put it on a shelf with other games, then I looked at it and thought, I cant put this on a shelf. Its in such poor taste.

Litwin said shed never heard of the Gestapo Game, but recalled being shown documentary footage of the gas chambers in Hebrew school at the Teaneck Jewish Center back in the 1980s. Its so not the way we teach about the Holocaust in 2022, she explained. My training, from Yad Vashem, is safely in, safely out. You bring in a story or a situation so that the kids dont feel unsafe about it. They dont feel they could be in danger.

Its more about survivors than it is about the concentration camps, Litwin added. Youre always just trying to protect their mental health. In the world today, were so much more protective of our children.

The mention of Yad Vashem reminded me of the Nazi-propaganda board games from the 1930s Id seen on display there, filled with antisemitic canards designed to stoke hate and dehumanize Jews in the minds of German children.

The Gestapo Game is basically the opposite of that. Its a game designed by Jews mainly for Jews, filled with stark, straightforward truths and teaches the larger, essential truth of the Holocaust: that no strategy could keep you safe.

Jodi Rudoren became Editor-in-Chief of the Forward in 2019. Before that, she spent more than two decades as a reporter and editor at The New York Times. Follow her on Twitter @rudoren, email [emailprotected] and sign uphere to receive her weekly newsletter, Looking Forward, in your inbox.

The views and opinions expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect those of the Forward. Discover more perspective in Opinion.

Read the original post:

What I learned about the Holocaust playing a game called Gestapo - Forward

Category: Synagogue | Comments Off on What I learned about the Holocaust playing a game called Gestapo – Forward
Tags:

Posted By admin on September 6, 2022

The Voice: You recently called for stronger relations with Ghana; do you see trade and diplomatic links building between Barbados indeed the whole Caribbean region and African nations?

Mia Amor Mottley: Yes, I am very pleased to see the growth and the strengthening of trade and diplomatic links between the Caribbean region and the African continent. This is a matter we have discussed both within CARICOM and with African leaders. Most of us I believe feel very passionately about this. In fact, we have reaffirmed our commitment to Work together purposefully during the first CARICOM-Africa Summit held in September 2021.

Barbados commitment was seen in October 2020 when Barbados opened its diplomatic embassy in Accra, Ghana, and in June of this year, we also formally opened the joint CARICOM diplomatic mission in Nairobi, Kenya in June this year.

Of import, this year next week in fact Barbados will also host the first-ever Africa-Caribbean Trade and Investment Forum (ACTIF), which will take place in Bridgetown, Barbados, from August 31 to September 3, 2022. Under the theme One People, One Destiny: Uniting and Reimagining Our Future, the Forum aims to foster the development of strategic partnerships between the business communities in Africa and the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) region, to bolster bilateral cooperation and increase engagement in trade, investment, technology transfer, innovation, tourism, culture, and other sectors.

The future of the CARICOM-Africa relationship looks bright, and I have no doubt we will continue to see it blossom in the years to come.

As I said at the inaugural CARICOM-Africa summit we must work to eliminate the middle leg, the middle man and the scars of the Middle Passage. We can do it together.

The Voice: What is it about this moment that is driving this move at this time? Is it Pan-Africanism in practice? And has going fully independent given Barbados a new lease of life on the world stage?

Mia Amor Mottley: What we are seeing and experiencing today is the process of healing. It isnt possible to fully understand or appreciate this moment as you put it, without first acknowledging the history that led us here. The uncomfortable truth is that for many centuries the world focused its gaze on Africa and people of African descent for the purpose of profiteering and exploitation from slavery and colonialism.

We have seen the impact and the lingering effects of this action. At the core of Pan-Africanism is the understanding that racism, imperialism and colonialism, were derived through forcing divisions, and therefore the remedy to that, must be firmly rooted in the product of our solidarity, our togetherness. That is an important component of how we heal and that is what you are seeing in motion.

Barbados has been a fully independent and sovereign state since November 30, 1966. We recognise now, just as we did then, that independence and national development is a continued process. I believe that it is the duty of each generation of Barbadians to ensure our decisions and actions do not reproduce the inequities of our complex history but forges a new destiny where we see, hear and feel each other in a way that lifts us all up.

Barbados transition to a Parliamentary Republic on November 30th, 2021 was an important milestone in our historical timeline, signaling our renewed commitment to nation building and national transformation in this 21st century and beyond.

Barbados decisive step to elect a Barbadian to the office of Head of State, in one fell swoop, removed the historical limitations that symbolism and representation had previously placed on the dreams and aspirations of our younger generations, paving the way for every child of Barbados to aspire to the highest office of State and to know that they are equal to any task or position. It is the liberation of the aspirations of our people.

The Voice: Moves to deepen relationship and trade building between African and Caribbean coincide with a move to become fully independent of Britain as Barbados has done and other countries like Jamaica are seriously considering. Is that just a coincidence or are they related in some way?

Mia Amor Mottley: An honest look at world history would make it very difficult to deny the historical role global powers like Britain played in the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade and colonialism, and the corresponding impacts of underdevelopment and inequality many countries are now currently challenged with in the 21st century. We must both work together in the conversation on reparations and on the scars of the slave trade which is likely to galvanize with the bold statement of HRH Prince Charles in his speech to the last Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting in Rwanda when he acknowledged that this is a conversation whose time has come.

But it would be a mistake to place Britain at the centre of either the narrative surrounding Africa and the Caribbeans efforts to deepen our ties. These are steps being taken by each country on the basis of our interests and on our own behalf within the context of identity, national development and transformation and multilateralism in the 21st century. Simply put, we are family! Without stepping foot in Africa, our people talk the same way, love and eat the same food, have the same flair and rhythm. My friend, we are family.

The Voice: The road to becoming a Republic was something that captured the imagination of people of the African Diaspora across the world. Was that something you felt in Barbados, and did that make you more determined?

Mia Amor Mottley: It is important that we understand that Barbados transition to Republic status was about us as a country looking inward and setting a path that roots our people and liberates fully their aspirations. It really was not inspired by any external forces. However, we appreciate that it has sparked a sense of pride and captured the imagination of people across the world. I spoke earlier of the power of symbolism and representation. This is especially true for people of African descent. If this has been another benefit to our decision, we give thanks.

The Voice: How do you feel now that other countries like Jamaica are making moves to follow Barbados?

Mia Amor Mottley: I have no doubt that respective Governments and their people will take whatever action they determine to be in their best interests as it relates to matters of national identity, development and transformation. We applaud the efforts of our brothers and sisters throughout the Caribbean and around the world who are doing the nation building work that ultimately makes them stronger nations and better global partners. Like with the discussion on slavery and reparations, I believe this time has truly come.

The Voice: You expressed a wish to leave the colonial past behind has that now been achieved, or what more needs to be done to make that a reality?

Mia Amor Mottley: Attempts to reverse centuries of systemic oppression and exploitation is not the burden of Africans and people of African descent to bear alone. The current global order simply does not serve the interests of achieving the goal of sustainable development for the majority of the worlds population, and frankly, many of the crises we are faced with today are derived from unresolved and reproduced inequalities of the colonial era as I referred to earlier. Similarly, while we may have removed. The laws that reinforce discrimination. We still have to win the Battle of Mental Emancipation of our people. The new battleships. In the music and movies and the games. That reinforces messages that do not place us as Caribbean people and Africans at the centre of development, power or the creation of wealth. Remember the words of Frederick Douglass Power concedes nothing.

So no, our work is not done. It is a work in progress. It will take time.

I feel strongly that as global leaders we have an obligation to deconstruct the architecture of this failing global orde We must reconstruct it in line with the universal values we claim to hold dearly and in accordance with the needs of our 21st century and beyond. Yes a crucial step in addressing matters of global inequality will be reparatory justice for Africans and people of African descent.

Leaders and institutions must take steps to address the absence of a development compact for many of our nations which simply did not exist when we became independent nations. Let us summon the courage and heal the world. Let us seize the moment and reform the United Nations and the Bretton Woods institutions so that they mirror those universal values that they otherwise promote. In so doing, let them respond to our very real vulnerabilities and stop blocking progress because they defend an old order that seeks to preserve the inequitable status quo. We need to recognize that one size rules are blind to the needs of our countries and our people. They lead to disproportionate actions and regrettably even more disproportionate consequences.

In short, we need to see significant restructuring of the major international institutions, a re-engineering of the terms of international trade, re-definition of the inequitable rules of international finance, and long overdue action on reparatory justice and compensation arrangements to address the lingering inequalities left in the wake of centuries of exploitation of the African peoples.

The Voice: Are you hopeful that other nations with the Queen still as head of state will follow suit and become a republic?

Mia Amor Mottley: That is not for us to say. Those are the decisions to be taken by a sovereign people in their own national interests, just as we did.

The Voice: How are your relations with the Royal family?

Mia Amor Mottley: Excellent. And we will continue to work closely on the matters that we feel passionately about protecting our environment and our biological diversity, creating opportunities for our young people. And I hope we will work together on having the conversation so that the necessary healing may truly start and be completed.

Read more from the original source:

The African Diaspora: We are family - The Voice Online

Category: Diaspora | Comments Off on The African Diaspora: We are family – The Voice Online
Tags:

Posted By admin on September 6, 2022

As a result of the recent emigration, the diaspora from Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) is becoming more and more numerous every year. According to estimates available in official data, the Agency for Statistics of Receiving Countries and Diplomatic-Consular Representations of BiH in the world, it is estimated that at least two million people from BiH live in emigration. However, there is no accurate data because there is no necessary diaspora registry either. Despite the activities of certain organizations that deal with emigration issues, there is still no single database for local communities and the interests of our diaspora. At the First Days of the BiH Diaspora event, held in Sarajevo, there was talk about the project of a necessary service for the diaspora due to the wide range of needs of our people outside of BiH and the lack of quality connections with the homeland. Nudzejm Pasic, coordinator of the event, says that their intention was to build mutual trust and strengthen relations.

Act jointly towards the diaspora and use this potential in the right way. This is the reason for the project under the title 5525, through which investments are realized in specific projects from investors from the BiH diaspora.

Haris Halilovic, vice president of the World Diaspora Federation of BiH FBiH, believes that BiH the diaspora has done what it can and that now it is the turn of the state of BiH, which must take certain steps if it wants a partnership relationship.

Stojan Stevanovic decided to invest in his native Lopare.

Hasib Hadzic, president of the Association Bosna International Forum, which organized the First Days of the BiH Diaspora, claims that the country remembers diaspora only before the elections.

Although there are certain strategies at the entity and state level, there is still no strategic connection with the homeland in terms of institutional connection through the Ministry of Diaspora. For now, there is no political will, Federalna reports.

E.Dz.

See the article here:

There is no institutional Connection between the State of BiH and the Diaspora - Sarajevo Times

Category: Diaspora | Comments Off on There is no institutional Connection between the State of BiH and the Diaspora – Sarajevo Times
Tags:

Posted By admin on September 6, 2022

Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla on Sunday interacted with the Indian diaspora in Paris and welcomed their significant contribution to India's growth journey. Addressing the members of the Indian diaspora there, Speaker Birla wrote, "Happy to see that they are connected to the civilisational ethos of India and at the same time, contributing to the progress and prosperity of France. Welcomed their enthusiasm to be part of India's journey of development."

Prior to this, Birla was on a productive visit to Mexico. Upon departing, he thanked and appreciated the Mexican Parliament and government for their commitment to strengthening ties with India. Birla expressed hope that the visit would set the tone for closer ties between the two countries. On Saturday, Om Birla unveiled a Swami Vivekananda statue in Mexico and said his teachings to humanity transcend geographical barriers and time. "Honoured to unveil a Statue of Swami Vivekananda in Mexico. This is the first statue of Swami Ji in Latin America. The statue will be a source of inspiration for people, especially for the youth of the region, to strive and bring the change which will take their country to a new prime," Om Birla tweeted.

Earlier, Speaker Birla also unveiled a bust of freedom fighter Dr Pandurang Khankhoje at Chapingo University in Mexico and visited Chapingo University, the oldest agricultural university in Latin America. Birla called on the President of the Chamber of Deputies in Mexico Santiago Creel. The two leaders discussed several matters of mutual importance. He observed that India and Mexico have historically close relations and Mexico was the first country to recognize India as an independent country in 1947.

Recalling that the discovery of Mexico to the modern world was the result of an expedition that was initiated to explore India, Birla noted that the relations between the two countries, in terms of trade, economy and culture, have grown from strength to strength. Both the countries are also sharing best practices for strengthening parliamentary democracy in the world, Birla noted. Lok Sabha Speaker had inaugurated the India-Mexico friendship garden in Mexican Parliament Complex.

He hoped that the India-Mexico Friendship Park, which symbolizes the vibrancy of relations between the two countries, would spread the energy and fragrance of democracy to the whole world. Birla also thanked and appreciated to Mexican Parliament and Government for their commitment to strengthening ties with India. "As I depart after a highly productive visit to Mexico, I place on record my thanks and appreciation to Mexican Parliament & Govt. for their commitment to strengthen ties with India. Hopeful that this visit will set the tone for closer ties between the two countries," he tweeted.

He also expressed confidence that the relations between India and Mexico will continue to flourish "like the flowers of this garden". (ANI)

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

View post:

Om Birla interacts with Indian diaspora in Paris, hails their contribution in India's growth journey - Devdiscourse

Category: Diaspora | Comments Off on Om Birla interacts with Indian diaspora in Paris, hails their contribution in India’s growth journey – Devdiscourse
Tags: