Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By admin on September 4, 2022

The former synagogue in Merthyr Tydfil is undeniably one of the most recognisable structures in the town. It stands tall on top of Bryntirion Road hill as though it has magically leapt from the page of a fairytale classic. With its gothic turrets morphed from sand-coloured stone and complete with a Welsh dragon on its gable, there's no wonder it is considered one of the most architecturally important synagogues in the UK.

Its imposing exterior hints at how it once sat at the heart of a strong and booming Jewish population who, for more than a century, called Merthyr Tydfil home. However, its broken and boarded up windows depict a very different story of its recent history as a dormant reminder of the community it once served.

The former synagogue was built just off Church Street in 1877 to accommodate the growing number of practicing Jews in the town and surrounding areas. Thought to be the third - and most impressive - synagogue established in Merthyr Tydfil, it boasted congregation numbers of around 400 during its heyday in the 1920s. The expanding community largely - but not solely - stemmed from the town's prosperous industrial revolution, which attracted people from a diverse array of backgrounds into the centre.

Read more: Forgotten Welsh Lowry painting reappears after 60 years and sells for thousands

According to an extract from Jews of Wales by Cai Parry-Jones, in 1906 the Jewish population in Merthyr Tydfil was recorded as 300. Comparatively, 100 were recorded in Pontypridd and 70 in Newport.

By 1976, shortly before the synagogue closed in 1983, Merthyr Tydfil recorded a Jewish population of 20. The dwindling population was caused by a variety of factors while the economic wealth of the town declined and families moved away to places such as Cardiff and London.

Since its official closure as a place of worship, the former synagogue has largely remained derelict and vacant. Though it was used as a gym for some years before 2004, it has been empty and decaying ever since. Plans to turn the building into flats in 2009 never came into fruition.

Although it has been abandoned for the best part of 20 years, the former synagogue and its congregation certainly have never been forgotten by those who live in and have lived in the Valleys town. Many were delighted by the announcement in July 2022 that the Foundation for Jewish Heritage had secured funding to bring the important grade II listed building back to life as a Welsh Jewish heritage centre.

One of those feeling particularly pleased is Rabbi Yisroel Fine, whose father - known as Rev. Meyer Fine - led services at the synagogue from 1956 to 1962. Travelling down from London to visit the building before its renovation, this is the first time Rabbi Fine has stepped into the building in more than 20 years - when he last saw it as a gym.

Walking around its rubble-filled yet eerily empty interior, he feels nostalgic. He remembers it being full of life and song decades before the paint started peeling of the walls and a flock of pigeons moved in and made it their home. Although it stands in a sorry state, he is comforted by the new plans which will celebrate Welsh Jewish culture.

He said: "The building is very sentimental to me because it reminds me of those good times, but it is sad knowing what could have happened to this building if these plans weren't going ahead. People might come past and remember there was a Jewish community but now by doing this, it's keeping that alive and it will inspire people to remember their roots. From my point of view it's a token of respect for my father. The years he was here will always be remembered."

Rabbi Fine, 73, moved from his birthplace Swansea to Merthyr Tydfil when his father began at the synagogue. He was seven when he arrived before his family moved to Cardiff just after he had his Bar Mitzvah at the synagogue aged 13.

He is now retired himself as a full-time Rabbi, leading for 40 years altogether in Newcastle, Wembley and Southgate. He recalls Merthyr's supportive Jewish community of around 50 families while he grew up there.

"There were possibly 130 to 150 at the synagogue," he said. "My recollection is that the synagogue never felt empty, you always felt a real communal atmosphere. This synagogue was everything to the Jewish community in Merthyr. The beauty of these provincial communities was that it was family. Even if you weren't super Orthodox or Observant.

"There were quite a lot of young Jewish children here, so I had plenty of Jewish friends. Even on a Saturday morning a lot of the community's children came to the synagogue and on Saturday afternoons my parents - who lived just up the hill and around the corner from the synagogue - used to host all the children of the community in our home. My parents used to give them a lovely Saturday afternoon mixture of stories and singing and so on. It was a really lovely communal feel here."

During his time at Merthyr Tydfil, Rabbi Fine said he attended Cyfarthfa Grammar School. He was just one of two Jewish pupils at the school and he looks back on his experience with fondness.

He said: "As a Rabbi, when I say I never went to a Jewish school people look at me with a sympathetic eye. I say I never considered it a disadvantage. The staff in schools were generally religious. They were chapel-going and you felt a wave of respect for somebody who is an Observant Jew. I remember for instance there was a teacher explaining to the class what the Jewish sabbath was. I never felt in any way a minority or shunned and absolutely no anti-Semitism at all - quite the contrary. I was a bit of a curiosity. I look back with lots of affections on those years."

Someone else who affectionately recalls the synagogue and Jewish community in Merthyr Tydfil is Adrian Jacobs. Adrian is the grandson of the late Benjamin Hamilton, the last secretary and organiser of services at the Merthyr Hebrew Congregation. He was also a solicitor and coroner who oversaw the inquests of the 144 children and adults who died during the Aberfan disaster.

Although he lived in Cardiff, Mr Jacobs regularly visited Merthyr Tydfil and the synagogue while he grew up. He said his grandad coordinated services right up until it was no longer possible to source a minimum of 10 Jewish men required to attend a traditional service.

The 61-year-old said: "My grandad's brother [Isaac] was the president and he was the secretary. They both lived here and I always remember coming to visit them and the synagogue. My grandad continued at the services until they could no longer get 10 people for a service. For the High Holy days, they would arrange it in advance and people would come down from London. Those were the last services they ever had here. They would arrange it in advance with old members until there was literally nobody left. My grandad was the last person to pray here."

Like Rabbi Fine, Mr Jacobs came down for the day from London and last entered the former synagogue more than 20 years ago. Walking inside it in its current state was a shock for him. He said: "I come to Merthyr once a year to visit my grandparents' and great grandparents' graves at Cefn Coed. We always make an effort to drive past the synagogue. It's the first time I've been in it in more than 20 years. It's very different to what it used to look like.

"It was terrible walking in. It's very, very sad that it's come to this, but I'm happy that it's still here. The future plans are really fantastic. The last time I came here it was still actually in tact - the furniture was still there. My late mother arranged for all the furniture to be taken up to Gateshead where there is a Talmudical college and they used it there for a while."

The planned heritage centre at the former synagogue will present the more than 250-year history, traditions and culture of the Welsh Jewish community while also addressing contemporary issues around religious and ethnic diversity, promoting inter-faith and inter-cultural dialogue while combating ignorance and prejudice.

The project has a dedicated website which indicates the 47 advisors and 16 partner agencies. Gerald Jones MP and Dawn Bowden MS are the projects special ambassadors, and Huw Edwards recently joined as a patron alongside David Baddiel and Sir Michael Moritz. To keep up to date with the latest news from across Merthyr Tydfil subscribe to our newsletters here.

The future heritage centre aims to cover a series of themes including local history, Welsh history, Judaism, the holocaust and inter-cultural dialogue. Work is due to start soon.

Michael Mail, chief executive of the foundation, stated: Merthyr Tydfil synagogue represents shared heritage it is a special Jewish story and a special Welsh story. Through this crucial financial support, we hope to be able to save a listed building at risk, the most important Jewish heritage site in Wales, and provide a solution that will secure its future and make an important contribution to Merthyr and Wales as a whole.

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The abandoned heart of the once-thriving Jewish community of Merthyr Tydfil that's being brought back to life - Wales Online

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Posted By admin on September 4, 2022

(September 2, 2022 / JNS) A Muslim cab driver from Staten Island, N.Y., has been charged and convicted for a 2018 unprovoked attack against three Chassidic Jewish men in the Borough Park neighborhood of Brooklyn, the citys district attorney Eric Gonzalez announced on Wednesday.

Farrukh Afzal, 41, was convicted of second-degree attempted assault, third-degree assault and third-degree menacing in a jury trial before Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Evelyn Laporte, reported Yeshiva World News. He was acquitted of hate-crime charges.

Gonzalez stated that this defendants violent conduct has no place in Brooklyn, where we value diversity and welcome all religions. He has now been held accountable and todays verdict should send a strong message to anyone who would commit this kind of outrageous and unprovoked attack.

On Oct. 14, 2018, Afzal allegedly swerved his cab to try to hit a Chassidic man in Borough Park, but the Jewish man ran away and escaped being hit by the vehicle. Afzal then drove to another Chassidic man, 62, got out of his car, ran towards the victim and stuck him, video surveillance footage showed.

The defendant chased the man into the intersection and continued to beat him, causing injuries to his face and body. A third Chassidic man who tried to intervene was chased by the defendant, according to Yeshiva World News.

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Afzal is scheduled to be sentenced on Sept. 15 and could face up to four years in prison.

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Muslim cab driver charged for attacks on three Jewish men in Brooklyn - JNS.org

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Posted By admin on September 4, 2022

Moyshe Beregovsky. Courtesy of Songsearchermovie.com

By PJ GrisarAugust 31, 2022

In the late 1920s, ethnomusicologist Moyshe Beregovsky began traveling to Ukrainian Jewish villages equipped with a phonograph and wax cylinders. He was out to record wedding songs, klezmer anthems and lullabies. He couldnt have known it at the time, but what he ended up documenting was a culture on the cusp of oblivion and one that, against all odds, would continue a tradition of song.

Beregovskys archive, a collection of over 1,000 phonograph cylinders containing oral traditions, the voice of Sholem Aleichem and a vast catalog of songs from before, during and after the Shoah, was believed lost for decades, broken or perhaps plundered by the Nazis. But in 1990, the collection turned up intact in the basement of an academic building in Kyiv. In 2019 the songs formed the basis for the Grammy-nominated album Yiddish Glory: The Lost Songs of World War II. Beregovskys life is also the subject of the new film Song Searcher, now making the rounds at Jewish film festivals.

Directed by Russian documentarian Elena Yakovich, Song Searcher is a gripping history told through music, archival film and interviews with musicians, historians and Holocaust survivors. Yakovich followed the path of Beregovskys expeditions throughout Ukraine, stopping by memorials in towns now largely free of Jews, where the folklorist and composer recorded songs recounting massacres and invasions that occurred there throughout the 1940s.

Since filming in Ukraine, Yakovich has been seeing many of the same places in the news, now under siege by a different army. This film became much more actual in two years, unfortunately, she said in a Zoom call.

Moses Beregovskys missions began as part of his work with the Institute of Jewish Proletarian Culture in Kyiv. Though the Institute was closed by Soviet authorities in 1936 and, years later, the tumult of war decimated the communities Beregovsky recorded, his work was far from over. There were new songs to seek out, with names like Babi Yar, Shkita (slaughter) and Tulchin, for a town where Jews were torn to shreds.

While these songs some digitized for the first time for Yakovichs film offer testimony, survivors tell of their own experience. One, Grigory Shmulevich, remembered Beregovskys team recording his mother. Yakovich said Shmulevich, who in the 1940s survived a killing squad in Zhabokrich, had a health scare near the memorial there.

I was standing on my knees and praying to the Jewish God, Yakovich said. I was praying and asking Him not to let this person die near the place from where he survived.

During production Yakovich was often surprised by the music Beregovsky recorded nearly a century ago.

In one scene, unprompted, Igor Polesitsky, the Kyiv-born founder of the Klezmerata Florentina ensemble in Florence, Italy, plays his violin at the memorial in what was once the Jewish settlement of Kalinindorf, where most of his family was murdered. He knew the tune, and that it came from the Kalinindorf, because Beregovsky recorded it there.

I dont feel as if my violin is being played by me, Polesitsky says in the film.

In August 1950, Soviet authorities arrested Beregovsky under charges that he was a Jewish nationalist, and he was sent to a gulag. His granddaughter Elena Baevskaya kept his correspondence, and reads from it in the film. Many of the letters request his family make copies of sheet music and send it to him. Though frail, he survived the labor camp, leading its choir.

After traveling the steppes and countryside to preserve Jewish tradition, Beregovsky realized the power music had in the face of the unspeakable.

The more we learned about the horrors and inhumane living conditions of Jews in the camps and ghettos, the more difficult it was to imagine even the slightest possibility that song could exist here, Beregovsky wrote. But, he added, the expeditions confirmed that music was in fact essential. It was a means of survival, a means of salvation. As in any dire situation, a person feels when he creates, even in the most inhumane conditions.

With Kyiv now in the crosshairs of Russia, the fate of Beregovskys cylinders, housed in the National Library of Ukraine, is once again precarious.

These cylinders survived through Stalin and Hitler, Yakovich said. I suppose everything is OK with them. Theyre still in the library. I hope so.

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He preserved Ukrainian Jewish culture before, during and after the Shoah - Forward

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Posted By admin on September 4, 2022

Israelis have a general love of corn: they put it in shakshuka and on top of pizza, and you can even order corn sticks at McDonalds in Israel. I once saw a grandma at a playground in Tel Aviv take ears of corn from her purse and present them as snacks for her grandchildren. (Its actually a great idea.)

Corn schnitzel may sound like a strange type of schnitzelsince it is more like a patty than thinly pounded meat. However, in Israel, it is popular both as a kid-friendly meal option and as a vegetarian alternative to chicken schnitzel. Serve these corn schnitzel patties with mashed potatoes or rice, and everyone will go home happy.

This recipe is excerpted with permission from Modern Jewish Comfort Food by Shannon Sarna

Serves 4 6

For the corn patty mixture:4 cups (24 ounces) cooked corn (from fresh or frozen)1 cup bread crumbs cup unbleached all-purpose flour2 large eggs1 tablespoon coarsely chopped fresh parsley1 teaspoon garlic powder1 teaspoon fine sea salt teaspoon freshly ground black pepperBread crumb mixture:1 cup unseasoned bread crumbs teaspoon fine sea salt1 tablespoons sesame seeds

For frying:Vegetable oil

1. Make the corn patty mixture: Pulse the corn in a food processor fitted with the blade attachment until almost smooth but you can still see pieces of corn kernels.

2. Transfer the corn to a bowl and combine it with the bread crumbs, flour, eggs, parsley, garlic powder, salt, and pepper.

Make the bread crumb mixture: In a separate bowl, combine the bread crumbs, salt, and sesame seeds.

3. Form 1-inch-thick round patties of the corn mixture, using around cup per patty. Dip them into the bread crumb mixture, pressing gently so the crumbs stick to the sides.

Repeat with all of the corn mixture and the bread crumb mixture.

4. Pour the oil to 1 to 1 inches depth into a large saut pan over medium to high heat.

5. Fry the corn patties until golden brown, around 3 minutes per side.

Serve warm with ketchup or other favorite dips.

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The Jewish Comfort Food Israeli Kids Are Obsessed With - Kveller.com

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Posted By admin on September 4, 2022

Joc Pederson of the San Francisco Giants. Photo by Ezra Shaw/Getty Images

By Jordan GreeneAugust 31, 2022

Theres always been something special for me about Giants games.

As a kid growing up in San Francisco, I learned the ins and outs of the sport from my dad, the biggest baseball fan there ever was. I was born in April, and my dad told my mom when she was pregnant that if she went into labor on Opening Day, I needed to be delivered in the stadium.

I attended my first ballgame when I was one month old. I grew up with season tickets. I was there to cheer the Giants on as they played in the 2010, 2012, and 2014 World Series. I walked the bases on Sunday afternoons, where I smiled as I ran across home plate and received a Sees lollipop in my hand a Giants postgame tradition for young fans.

And year after year, I attended Jewish Heritage Night an opportunity for Giants-loving members of the tribe to schmooze, celebrate and cheer for the home team. Its an event thats become essential to my sense of Jewish community. And at this years game, I had an experience that hit home literally! how much this ritual, however easily dismissed as frivolous, means to me.

In my family, baseball and Judaism have always gone hand-in-hand. My younger brothers bar mitzvah party was Giants-themed: team posters on the walls, orange suits and orange ties, and yarmulkes embroidered with the interlocking S.F. logo for party favors.

And our very Jewish love for baseball didnt stop with the Giants. Trips to visit relatives out of state always included a stop at the local baseball stadium no Passover at my grandparents in New York is complete without seeing both the Mets and the Yankees in person.

And above all, we love Jewish heritage nights at the ballpark the pinnacle of any season. Every year leading up to the Giants Jewish heritage night, we wonder what creative Jewish-related tchotchke the team will give out a precious keepsake bound to become the newest addition to the impressive (and embarrassing) collection of Giants memorabilia we have on display at our house. Already included: a rabbi bobblehead from one heritage night, an orange-and-black Giants menorah from another, and a team shirt printed in Hebrew from a third.

This year, the chosen item turned out to be a bobblehead of Gabe Kapler, the manager of the Giants, who is Jewish. Alas, that much-wished-for trinket isnt bobbing alongside the rabbi in my familys collection. By the time my friends and I got to the stadium for this years game two weeks ago, theyd already run out.

But the realmagic of Jewish Heritage Night isnt in the souvenir, but in the scene.

As I arrived, I saw fans showcasing their Jewish pride and Giants team spirit in equal measure. A few synagogue delegations tailgated outside with Hebrew National hot dogs. (No other brand could do.) We saw one man wearing a blue Team Israel baseball cap from the Tokyo Olympics and another in a shirt that said: Shofar So Good.

Wandering the concourses to look for dinner, I bumped into my former BBYO regional director, whom I hadnt seen in five years. And after my friends and I got on the video board during a mid-inning sing-along we were so over the top with our dancing they put us up there three separate times some long-lost friends who saw us on screen made their way over to our section to catch up.

Beyond reunions with old friends and the unfulfilled promise of a Kapler memento, the main attraction of this years game was Joc Pederson, the hunky Jewish outfielder whose Cali-bum swagger has made him an icon in the sport and one of two Jewish players at the 2022 MLB All-Star Game. Our seats in the right field bleachers were right behind Pedersons post in the outfield, which meant we could spend all game hooting and hollering in his general direction.

And hoot and holler, we did.

Either out of the goodness of his heart or fatigue from hearing us screaming throw it here! for several innings well never know our Hebrew hero eventually obliged. As Joc warmed up before the bottom of the sixth, he lobbed one right to us.

Reader, we were not ready for the five-ounce cowhide-and-cork projectile flying in our direction. The ball ricocheted off my arm, and landed on the ground in front of us, knocking over our drinks in the process. And thats how I caught yes, future generations will hear that I caught it with my bare hands my first ball at an MLB game. A Jewish heritage night miracle!

I woke up Friday morning to a black-and-blue bruise where the ball hit me. It was worth it: the official MLB baseball that caused it now has pride of place in our family Giants shrine. The bruise will fade away, but the memory wont.

And maybe Ill get that elusive Kapler bobblehead on eBay.

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The joys of catching a baseball at the Giants Jewish heritage night thrown by a Jewish player - Forward

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Posted By admin on September 4, 2022

Mark Spitz, center, smiles on the podium after winning the gold medal in the 100-meter butterfly ahead of Bruce Robertson, left, and Jerry Heindenreich, right, Aug. 31, 1972, at the Olympic Games in Munich. Photo by AFP via Getty Images

By Beth HarpazSeptember 01, 2022

Fifty years ago, on Sept. 5, 1972, a horrific story unfolded in Munich, Germany. Palestinian terrorists had murdered two Israelis at the Olympic Games and taken nine more hostage. Within hours, those hostages were dead as well.

But the day before the massacre, a different story was making headlines out of Munich a story of triumph. American swimmer Mark Spitz had made history by winning seven gold medals over the course of one Olympics, and hed set world records with every win. The feat stood unsurpassed for 36 years, when another American swimmer, Michael Phelps, set his own records at the Beijing Olympics.

Its only right, as we look back on the 1972 Games, that the massacre and the aftermath of the tragedy take center stage. The victims families continue to cope with grief and trauma. Both Germany and Israel will be marking the solemn anniversary with ceremonies.

But Spitzs incredible accomplishments deserve recognition as well. Hes not only one of the greatest Jewish athletes in history right up there with Sandy Koufax but hes also one of the greatest athletes, period. (Sports Illustrated ranked him No. 33 on a list of the 100 top athletes of the 20th century.)

Heres a look at Spitzs life and career, along with why his Jewish identity mattered at the Munich Games.

By age 10, Spitz was already a standout swimmer and getting private swim lessons near his familys home in Sacramento, California. The Spitzes eventually moved to Santa Clara so he could be mentored by Olympic swim coach George Haines.

At age 14, he was competing in national championships, and by 17, he had already set or tied five U.S. records and broken five world records.

His drive to win was instilled by his father, Arnold, who famously told him: Swimming isnt everything. Winning is.

At the 68 Olympics, Spitz made a cocksure prediction that hed win six golds. But he only won two, and both were for team relays, not individual races. He was roundly shamed by the media for his arrogance, and later said it was the worst moment in his life.

Still, those two golds from Mexico put him in rare company among Olympians. Hes one of just five athletes in history to have won a total of nine or more golds from multiple Olympic Games.

Not much has been written about whether Spitzs family was particularly observant, but one often-repeated story makes his fathers priorities clear.

When he was 10 and his hours in the pool began to interfere with Hebrew school, his father supposedly told the rabbi: Even God likes a winner.

And when his first coach, Sherman Chavoor, invited him to swim at a private club called Arden Hills, in an era when many clubs excluded Jews, African Americans and other people of color, Spitzs dad was concerned.

Can you take this kid on? Are you going to be prejudiced? Chavoors daughter, Shelley, recalled Arnold Spitz asking her father. Her dad responded: He swims! I dont care!

She said in an interview that her dad, who was Portuguese, had experienced discrimination himself, and was pretty sensitive to some of the things Mark dealt with in terms of antisemitism.

Spitzs first international competition was at the 1965 Maccabiah Games in Israel. He returned to Israel for the 69 Maccabiahs after his disappointing performance at the Olympics in Mexico.

The Munich Games took place just 27 years after the end of World War II. Any hopes the Germans had that hosting the games might soften their image were shattered, of course, by the massacre, which included a bungled rescue operation that led to the hostages deaths.

But before the attacks unfolded, Spitz was asked how he felt, as a Jewish athlete, competing on German soil. I have no qualms about Germany at all, he said shortly after arriving. Maybe I should, but I wasnt even born when all that stuff happened.

Asked again about being in Germany after hed won his medals, but before the attacks, he gestured at a lampshade and offered this unsettling response: Actually, Ive always liked this country, even though this shade is probably made out of one of my aunts.

In an interview with The New York Times a decade after the 72 Olympics, Spitz said he only learned of the attack and the ongoing hostage situation at a press conference where he thought hed be talking about swimming.

I was shocked and stunned, he told the Times. The press wanted my words because, first, I was Jewish, and second, they thought I was some kind of spokesman for athletes.

As the Times put it: He was prepared neither to be a spokesman nor, later, to discuss authoritatively the political ramifications of the murder of 11 Israeli athletes and officials.

Spitz had planned to leave Munich after his competitions were over, even though the games were scheduled to continue for another week. But now officials feared that being Jewish might make him a target. He was given a police and military guard and immediately flew to London. Frankly, he told the Times, I was scared.

Asked about the attacks as he arrived at Heathrow Airport, he said simply: I think theyre tragic.

Look at any photo of Spitz from Munich and you cant help but be struck by the difference between his appearance then, and how swimmers compete today. He had no goggles and no swim cap. In fact, he had a full head of dark hair and a mustache. Considering that nowadays even male swimmers routinely shave their body hair to reduce resistance in the water, it was a bold look.

The mustache in particular made him stand out even before hed won any medals. Hed planned to shave it off, but so many people were talking about it that he decided not to. In fact, when asked in Munich if the facial hair would slow him down, he claimed, in his typically brash way, that it would actually help him go faster by deflecting water away from his mouth.

Spitz was 22 coming out of Munich. He had a bachelors degree from Indiana University, and in interviews at the games, he said he planned to immediately retire from competitive swimming and go to dental school. After winning his fourth race in Munich, when asked what hed do with all his medals, he said: Maybe Ill hang em in my dental office.

Things changed when he got home. Suddenly, Mark Spitz was everywhere: magazine covers, TV shows and on 300,000 posters, priced at $2 apiece, wearing his red, white and blue swimsuit, medals in hand. Maybe Ill do some nudie movies, he said at one point. Im hot to trot.

Repped by the William Morris Agency in an era when athletes did not walk out of wins and into sneaker commercials, Spitz was criticized for commercializing his fame. He was a spokesperson for Schick razors and appeared on billboards promoting milk for the Milk Advisory Committee. His deal with Schick gave him use of a $65,000 yacht. And when he was asked about that dental school dream, he reportedly replied, Are you kidding? In later years, he reflected that he had been unprepared for the maelstrom he was thrust into, and that it took him a long time to go back to living a normal life.

Today, at age 72, the mustache is gone. Hes been married to the same woman, Suzy Weiner, since 1973. Hes described on his websiteas not just the worlds greatest swimmer, but also an athlete, motivational speaker, influencer, investor, husband, father.

Spitz did not respond to requests for comment for this story made through his website, his social media accounts or USA Swimming, the official organization for swimmers representing the U.S. But ina one-hour documentaryreleased a few weeks before the 50th anniversary, Spitz seemed introspective and even somewhat humble looking back.I believe the greatness of an athlete is not to recognize what you did right but to recognize what you did wrong, he says in the film.

He recalled his father cautioning him, after Munich, against letting it all go to his head: Youre still like everybody else. Youve got to put your pants on one leg at a time.

Spitz added: I was just an ordinary guy that trained hard, diligently, and on one particular week, did extraordinary things.

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Mark Spitz made Olympic history in 1972. Heres why his Jewish identity mattered in Munich - Forward

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Posted By admin on September 4, 2022

Helen Chervitz, before she immigrated to the U.S., as a student at Kyiv Sports University. Courtesy of Helen Chervitz

By Helen ChervitzSeptember 02, 2022

Today, when I walk the streets of Kyiv, I think of the days when my husband and I waited to leave the country with our baby daughter. Ukraine was no place for Jews, and we longed for a better life in the U.S., where the discrimination we faced here would not place limits on our futures.

We became American citizens, and had a good life in the U.S., first in the Boston area, and then in New York. I thought Id never go back to Ukraine. But I did, long before this horrendous war broke out. Now people ask me, Why do you stay? You could leave at any time and live your American lives again.

They also ask, as they remind me that I left Ukraine because of antisemitism, Whats it like to be a Jew in Ukraine today?

As a journalist, I usually write about other people. (And before this war I used to write about fashion, not current events.) But I understand that my story is intertwined with what is happening today in Ukraine, and its history. So Im sharing, in hopes that it helps to explain the worlds that Ive lived in, as much as it tells you about me.

Even as a small child in Ukraine, it was very clear to me that Jews were treated differently than other people, as second-class citizens. That was the case even though my family was not observant, and didnt know much about Judaism.

On official documents the fifth line to be exact from school forms to passports, our nationality was marked Jewish, not Ukrainian or Russian. Jewish people called it the damn fifth line.It was like a curse, assuring that we would always be treated with disdain, and barred from educational and professional opportunities.

I experienced antisemitism from both those who acted out of ignorance, parroting the beliefs of their parents, and others who, hostile and occasionally violent, seemed eager to hurt Jews.

When I was ready for college, I had little choice. I was a serious swimmer, and competed on the Ukrainian junior national team. But I didnt want to make a career of athletics, and yet, as a Jew, that was the only college program that would accept me in Ukraine. I then went to Moscow, where antisemitism was not as rampant, and earned a masters degree in math.

After I graduated with honors, I couldnt get a job for a year because I was Jewish.

And in daily life, it seemed antisemitism could strike anywhere, unexpectedly. Strangers would judge me to be Jewish by my looks, and lash out.

There was the time at a restaurant when I, then 19, asked the people at the table next to ours if they could pass the salt shaker. One of them, a man, threw it at my head, yelling, You think its not enough that you eat our bread?

That same year, I was grabbed by my coat and thrown off a bus by a passenger who announced that I was Jewish. I can still hear him addressing my non-Jewish companion: Do you know who your friend is? Obviously not!

Some of my friends distanced themselves from me when they found out I was Jewish. Others remained friendly, but let me know that I was cool, unlike other Jews.

No wonder so many Soviet children were taught by their parents to hide their Jewishness. My husband and I wanted to liberate ourselves from this antisemitism, and we didnt want our child to grow up in such a country.

In the late 1980s, the Soviets finally buckled to international pressure and agreed to allow Jews to leave Ukraine. As soon as we applied to emigrate, my husband and I were stripped of our citizenship and lost our jobs.

We had to wait 10 months before we were allowed to go, and as we left the country, customs officers combed through our belongings, tossing most of what we had packed into a trash can, including my swimming medals and our babys formula.

We made our new home north of Boston, because our sponsor, my husbands uncle, lived there, and quickly came to understand that the North Shore is home to a vibrant Jewish community.

Two weeks after we arrived, I applied for a job as aquatics director at the Jewish Community Center of the North Shore in Marblehead. There were 12 applicants and three rounds of interviews, and when I got the offer, the feeling was beyond happiness. This could never have happened in Ukraine, regardless of my qualifications.

I also discovered that in my new home, being Jewish was something to be proud of, not hidden. At the JCC, most of my colleagues and many of the children I taught were Jewish. Other Jewish refugees from the Soviet Union became our friends, and among them, many began to learn about and practice Judaism, and became active synagogue members.

My husband and I never became observant, yet we connected her to Jewish life and culture. She spent summers at Jewish camps and twice went to Israel for cultural and educational trips organized by American Jewish organizations. She now works at the Vilna Shul in Boston.

As for me, I was proud of my work at the JCC, where I took the swim team from last place in the league to a championship title. But I wanted to do what I couldnt in Ukraine to study and work in the art world. My husband was doing well as a stockbroker, which enabled me to open a gallery on Bostons Newbury Street. There I curated contemporary exhibits, including one showcasing Soviet artists both those who stayed and those who had left.

Bostonians appetite for modern art wasnt all I hoped for, so I accepted an offer as a marketing director for a fashion designer whose pieces I consider works of art. That led to courses in fashion design, and trips to Paris for Fashion Weeks. I learned French so I could conduct business in France. The brand I worked for took off in Europe, the U.S. and Japan. Thats how, in middle age, my career in fashion began.

My family was prospering in the U.S., and my gratitude to the country and American Jews for the sanctuary given to us is beyond words. I have never regretted our decision to leave Ukraine. I swore I would never set foot in the country again.

Yet here I am.

After 25 years in Swampscott, Massachusetts, and five in New York, my husband and I moved back to Ukraine. He had a business venture he wanted to pursue. The idea was to stay for just a year.

But we have been back for a decade, due to changing political and economic circumstances.

Readjusting to life in Kyiv was hard. But the city grew on me. And it is now a very different place from the one I left as a new mother.

The world has opened up to Ukraine, and it has moved far in the direction of democracy, freedom and tolerance. People began to study about other religions and cultures.

And antisemitism is not ever-present. On the contrary, being a Jew in Ukraine is even kind of cool. Some of the non-Jewish students I tutor in English search for Jewish ancestors, study Judaism and wear Magen David necklaces.

Gone is the state-sponsored antisemitism Jews endured under the Nazis and the Soviets. And incredibly, in 2019 Ukrainians elected a Jewish president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, by a landslide 73% of the vote. At one point, Ukraine was the only country in the world, outside Israel, with a Jewish president and prime minister.

And after the mass exodus of Jews from Ukraine in the wake of the Soviet Unions fall, those remaining have managed to resurrect old Jewish communities and to build new ones. There are an estimated 100,000 Jews in Ukraine today, and in recent years, synagogues, Jewish schools and cultural centers have cropped up.

Importantly, most Ukrainians see Jews as part of Ukraines history.

Of course there is still antisemitism in Ukraine, just like there is everywhere. In the last five years, it has festered in particular within nationalist groups, who have a long history of anti-Jewish leaders and alliances. Streets and statues around Ukraine, some of them newly erected, pay tribute to the nationalists who collaborated with the Nazis. They make Jews here uncomfortable.

And even though Ukraine is now proud of its Jewish president, it still doesnt have the will or tools to effectively prosecute hate crimes against Jews. Ukrainian officials, at best, charge perpetrators with hooliganism.

Still, what I notice in Ukraine now, is that the talk about Jews centers on their cultural and spiritual contributions to the country not their otherness or victimhood.

I live in the heart of Kyiv, around the corner fromits main thoroughfare, Khreshchatyk Street. When the war broke out I saw its citizens suffer. They waited in lines for food even longer than in Soviet times, and feared the Russian army would move closer.

Life is much better here than at the wars start. Children are back in school and my gym has reopened so I have resumed swimming. But however scary it was to remain in the city after Vladimir Putins invasion, there were many Kyivites like us, who decided to stay and defy his attempts to terrorize us.

We, who once risked everything to leave Ukraine, now feel tied to this city and its people Jews and non-Jews alike.

Helen Chervitz is an American fashion writer in Kyiv, but since the Russian invasion has been writing about living in a country at war.

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34 years ago I left Ukraine because it was no place for Jews. Im not ready to leave again. - Forward

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Posted By admin on September 4, 2022

WASHINGTON, Aug. 31, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Women Business Collaborative (WBC) the leading alliance of organizations, companies and individuals working together to achieve equal position, pay and power for all women in business, announces the appointment of Robin Schwartz to serve as Senior Director of Development.

Schwartz, who most recently served as Director of Strategic Partnerships and Business Development at NextUp, a 501c3 nonprofit that advocates for advancing women in business, will assume responsibility for overseeing the WBC's revenue streams including grants, donations, and fundraising events. Prior to her role at NextUp, Schwartz worked in corporate sales in the software and broadcast radio industries in Atlanta, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Seattle.

"We are excited to have Robin join our growing team," said Edie Fraser, Chief Executive Officer of the WBC. "Robin brings the right background, personality and skillset to successfully work with the over 55 corporate sponsors and partners of the WBC to accelerate impact in driving diverse leadership from the C-Suite to the Boardroom."

Based in Boise, Idaho, Schwartz is a graduate of Washington State University. She currently serves as a member of the Board of Directors for the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) representing Idaho in the Pacific Northwest Region.

About the Women Business Collaborative

The Women Business Collaborative (WBC) is an alliance of over 70 women's business organizations and hundreds of business leaders building a movement to achieve equal position, pay, and power for all women in business. Through collaboration, advocacy, action, and accountability, we mobilize thousands of diverse professional women and men, business organizations, public and private companies, and the media to accelerate change. For more information, please visit https://www.wbcollaborative.org.

SOURCE Women Business Collaborative

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Women Business Collaborative Announces the Appointment of Robin Schwartz as Senior Director of Development - PR Newswire

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Posted By admin on September 4, 2022

The Anti-Defamation League is asking Gov. Gavin Newsom to sign a piece of legislation it says will help hold social media companies accountable for antisemitism and other forms of hate shared on their sites.

Despite opposition from large social media platforms, which insist they are already taking pains to make their platforms safe, Assembly Bill 587 passed both houses of the Legislature on Aug. 30 and headed to Newsoms desk. It would require social media companies to publicly post their terms of service, which set boundaries around what behavior is permitted on their platforms, and report that information to the state attorney general. The companies say the measure would add a regulatory hurdle to their current efforts.

Jesse Gabriel, a Democrat from the Los Angeles area who chairs the California Legislative Jewish Caucus, introduced the bill.

We believe that California has a special obligation and a special opportunity to lead on these issues, Gabriel said during a news conference on Aug. 30, speaking of AB 587 and another bill that would regulate how social media products engage children. Were proud of our technology economy, he said, and we know that many of the companies that these bills would regulate are homegrown California companies. But with dysfunction in Washington, D.C., we believe that California must step up and lead.

According to a recent ADL report, 65 percent of individuals in marginalized groups which included Jews, women and people of color have experienced hate-based harassment online because of their identity. Among participants in the study, 68% of those harassed said at least some harassment happened on Facebook, 26% on Instagram and 23% on Twitter.

If not now, when? said Jeffrey Abrams, ADL Los Angeles regional director. When will we be able to understand how pervasive this problem is? When will we hold big social media platforms accountable? When will we take action to protect our children? California has a chance to lead the way again. We are grateful to Assemblymember Gabriel for his leadership on this bill. Now, lets get this thing passed.

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ADL urges Newsom to sign hate bill opposed by tech companies J. - The Jewish News of Northern California

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Posted By admin on September 2, 2022

Many years ago, I was asked to speak, on short notice, at a symposium in Geneva about the future of the global climate refugee crises. It was an important opportunity but attending meant I was going to miss my 11-year-old daughter Elianas choir concert, the one for which she had been rehearsing for months. I was crushed, but no compromise was possible Id be on the other side of the globe for every performance.

To my great shock, Eliana didnt care, at least not exactly.

Its OK, dad, she said. If you miss it, you miss it. But do me a favor. When you are here, how about actually being here?

I was stunned, a little hurt, but I knew just what she was talking about. For the past year-plus, Id been wandering around the house, conducting half my business by cell phone, distracted even when I was playing a board game with her. In the great way that children can state a complex thing simply and purely, my daughter had summarized our whole cultures dilemma.

Stuck in a forever state of reactive short-termism an almost obsessive focus on the near future glued to our devices and grappling with never-ending breaking news and business plans measured in hours and even minutes, weve become too much tree and not enough forest. News about the most recent COVID variant, for example, is a tree. Being part of my kids growing up? Thats the forest. Our short-term addictions, understandable as they are, are obscuring our longer-term potentials.

In another story from the home front, my 9-year-old Gideon recently did something improper. Its not important what, but lets just say he wasnt being his best self. When I found out, I flipped out and really read him the riot act.

My wife, Sharon, pulled me aside and whispered, Ari:longpath. The word is a mantra in our household it stands for the deliberate practice of long-term, holistic thinking and acting that, at its root, starts with real, hard-earned self-knowledge. At that instant I saw how off I was. Instead of modeling behaviors of self-awareness to help my son grow, I was reacting, and probably overreacting at that, glued once again to the short term at the expense of the long-term relationship with my son.

On the highest level, I knew who I wanted to be in that moment with my son, but we are reactive creatures, easily prone to short-term decision making.

So why is a futurist, who works with multi-national organizations, governments and leading foundations, and whose TED talk has been viewed several million times, writing about conversations with my children?

The future is not just about flying cars, jet packs and robots doing our laundry. Nor is it just about climate change, rampant inequality or the loss of global biodiversity. Taken together, these aspects good and bad leave us with an incomplete picture of tomorrows promises and perils.

The huge challenges we face as a society are going to require significant action at a political level. We need to vote at the booth and at the check-out counter in a way that aligns with our values. But that is not enough. Shaping the future also entails doing something beyond the political, something in some ways more difficult and definitely closer to home. Shaping the future toward a world we want to see necessitates that we connect with each other at the human-to-human level in a way that has significantly more impact than just how we vote or consume.

How?

Trim tabs are the small edges of a ships rudder that, although tiny, can make a huge impact on the direction of the ship. The futurist Buckminster Fuller used the metaphor of a trim tab to explain how even small actions could have massive long-term effects, especially when scaled across populations.

Shaping the long-term trajectory of society means connecting with others through a lens of empathy and with an eye on how those interactions will ripple out through time. What makes you a futurist someone who cares and wants to shape society toward a better tomorrow is putting your device down when your child enters the room and thinking about how your every action will play out over generations. This is the mindset of a true futurist. This is longpath thinking.

At its heart, the belief in a longpath or longer-term mindset is a Jewish one. After all, were the people who have dragged our story along to every outpost the people who have waited on and insisted upon a future return. And just as our Passover story promises a transformation that does not happen overnight, the longpath view says that, yes, you canbe an agent of change, not just a slave to the current climate, but its going to take some work.

For me, the High Holy Days manifest the essence of a longpath outlook best of all. Rosh Hashanah both reaps the harvest of the past and points us toward our most profound wishes for the future year but you cant get there without a Yom Kippur. On this day of teshuvah, which means repentance and return, we understand that to look ahead of us requires that we first look back on the year past and engage in an honest reconciliation with all we have been and all those we have wronged both in our own eyes and Gods. Its hard work, but if we do this with an open heart, we have a chance to not only envision a better future, but to participate in creating it for us and for others.

The longpath view doesnt just look deep into the future, but deep into the past. It holds that you cannot consider the future without transgenerational empathy, a clear accounting of all the preceding generations went through. Then, when you are ready to face the days, months, years, decades and centuries ahead, you must do your future-oriented thinking with future generations in mind. After all, your community and your world will belong to them.

My father was a Polish refugee who escaped the ghetto and lost most of his family in the Holocaust he went onto become a commander in the Jewish resistance. Years later, he used to say, The future really started yesterday. To move through the narrow passages and get to the land of milk and honey, we must adopt a mindset that integrates the far past and the far future.

Transgenerational empathy is not merely a high-flown concept its a practice, a way of taking the future seriously.On our mantel, along with photos of my parents and Sharons parents, and photos of us and of the kids, we have placed a few empty frames, a reminder of the generation to come. Seeing those empty frames is a subtle but persistent reminder that the decisions we make today, as individuals, as a family, as a community, are going to have everyday repercussions hundreds of years from now.

This Rosh Hashanahmarks the beginning of 5783 in the Jewish calendar. That means were only 217 years from the year 6000. Some say thats the latest time for the messiah to arrive and usher in the redemption. Others insist the messiah can and will come earlier. The real question is: Where do we want the world to be in 6000, and what kind of longpath thinking will help get us there?

To give you a little context, 217 years ago Napoleon was crowned King of Italy, Lewis and Clark headed out on their expedition, Beethoven premiered his Third Symphony and the first steam locomotive had just had its first run. There was no electricity, no cars, no phones, no internet. The United States itself was a mere 29 years old.

Consider what can happen in two centuries. How would you like the world to look in Year 6000 and what are you willing to do to help make it that way?

Its a mistake to think that the people who will be affected will likely not be yourpeople. According to the handy Descendants Calculator, in 217 years, or eight generations, the youngest of my children, 13-year-old Ruby, could have anywhere between 500 and 87,000 offspring, depending on the average number of kids per generation. And thats just one of my three children!

What kind of a world do you want your descendants to live in? What do we have to do collectively to co-create that future?

We dont need the answers this instant, but we do need to start making the small actions and asking the big questions right away.

Ari Wallach is a futurist to Fortune 500 companies, global nonprofits and philanthropists and is the author of Longpath: Becoming the Great Ancestors Our Future Needs (HarperOne, Aug. 16, 2022).

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Opinion: When Judaism Considers the Long Term, It Looks to the Past Detroit Jewish News - The Jewish News

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