Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By admin on September 2, 2022

The beginning of Bereshit teaches us a very powerful lesson: And God created man in His image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.

This is the Torah teaching that guides Rabbi Emerita of Temple Emanuel of Beverly Hills Laura Geller in all of her work. A longtime social justice advocate, Judaisms emphasis on treating others with respect and dignity is what drew her to the rabbinate in the first place.

Born just outside of Boston in Brookline, Mass., Geller grew up going to a Reform synagogue. Becoming a member of a synagogue was just sort of what you did, she said. But I never went to Jewish day school or summer camp. I didnt have the kind of religious background that many rabbis have.

At Brown University, Gellers alma mater, she studied religion and became formally involved in social justice causes. I began in 1967, she said. That was a time of great change in the world and I was very curious to try to understand the connection between politics and social justice and spirituality. I had never seen those come together.

Geller was part of the feminist and anti-war movements and, at the end of her senior year, she had a light bulb moment when she went to the Southern Christian Leadership Conference convention in Nashville. It was the year after Martin Luther King Jr., one of the groups leaders, had been assassinated.

I remember vividly feeling like I didnt belong, she said. I sat outside under a tree, and a wonderful Black community organizer came out to see how I was doing. I told him I felt that I didnt belong. He said, Youre right. You dont. You should be organizing within your own community. I realized I needed to bring my social justice and Jewish commitments together.

Geller spent six months on a kibbutz in Israel and tried to understand what being Jewish meant. She took a college class in Jewish studies and then was part of a committee to search for Browns next Hillel director. We interviewed candidates and I thought, This would be an interesting job: To be a Hillel director and work with young people at this stage of their life, she said.

In 1971, Geller enrolled in rabbinical school at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in New York. She was the third woman in the Reform movement to become a rabbi. From 1976 to 1990, she was director of Hillel of University of Southern California, and she served as the Pacific Southwest Regions executive director of the American Jewish Congress for four years.

During this time, she was interviewed for a prestigious job to lead Temple Emanuel of Beverly Hills. Though Geller hadnt intended to work at a synagogue, the opportunity seemed appealing.

For the first time, I imagined myself at a congregation, she said. I had two kids, I was divorced, and I wanted a synagogue that met my needs until then. I decided to throw my hat into the ring.

In 1990, she made history: Temple Emanuel hired her, and she became the first woman selected to lead a major metropolitan synagogue.

I took a chance with Temple Emanuel and it turned out to be a really good ride. They were brave to hire me. The news stories said, Rabbi Breaks Stained Glass Ceiling.

I took a chance with Temple Emanuel and it turned out to be a really good ride, she said. They were brave to hire me. The news stories said, Rabbi Breaks Stained Glass Ceiling.

At Temple Emanuel, Geller continued to be involved in social justice causes such as womens rights and advocating for a two-state solution. Today, she is passionate about senior issues and co-founded ChaiVillageLA, a synagogue-based senior village. She also co-wrote the book Getting Good at Getting Older with her late husband, Richard Siegel, of blessed memory.

With ChaiVillageLA, we want people to stay in their homes as long as possible, Geller said. We figure out what it means to grow older with joy, energy and purpose.

The rabbis main joy comes from doing her part in making the world a better place whether shes working with her community, improving the lives of seniors or simply being kind to a stranger she meets.

Since all human beings are created in the image of God, that means everyone is equal and has the opportunity to become the best versions of themselves they can, she said. There should be equal opportunity and inclusion. The goal of Judaism is to help people create a world where that is true. We need to make it real.

Jewish Journal: What is your favorite Jewish food?Laura Geller: Challah. Really good challah. I often pick it up from Got Kosher.

JJ: Whats your favorite spot in LA?

LG: My garden. Its a meditation space thats very peaceful and restorative.

JJ: What do you like to do with your grandkids?

LG: I spend as much time as I can with each of them in different parts of the country. Its hard on Facetime, but its wonderful to see them in person.

JJ: Whats your perfect Shabbat look like?

LG: Having friends for dinner on Friday night and going to shul on Saturday. Studying Torah with my friends every Shabbos afternoon in my garden.

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Rabbis of LA | Rabbi Laura Geller: Seeing Everyone in the Image of the Holy One - Jewish Journal

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Posted By admin on September 2, 2022

FENSTER: Frankly, I think the job of Judaism is to change the world. We've got to figure out how and who we will work with to do this. I'm thinking about how we find partners, the challenges that come with finding partners, and developing a language of shared values. We need to keep working to bring people together in sacred spaces where they can ask good questions and feel loved and safe.

ESKOW: I think the first answer is antisemitism, especially in America right now. It's a bigger issue than ever before, and that's scary.

The second issue is connection. We, as a collective group of Jewish leaders, are trying to help people connect, and I think that for many years, we've been doing that the wrong way. Too many people care about which synagogue this person goes to.

But It doesn't matter if they're affiliated or unaffiliated with a synagogue. What matters is that Jewish people feel connected to their truest version of themselves.

It's all of our jobs as people who are really in touch with the pulse of the Jewish community to say, "There isn't one way to be Jewish. We want you all to feel connected. We welcome you with more pluralistic and open-minded arms."

MELLITS: Writ large across the country, it's the breakdown of people being able to speak across their differences and relate to people who are different. And we see that is also true across the American Jewish landscape.

In the most recent Pew [Research Center] study of American Jews, one of the questions was, What do you have in common with this other movement? If you're Reform, what do you have in common with Orthodox, and vice versa? And the answers were very similar for each group. The majority say they have little or nothing in common.

This reminds me of one of my favorite stories from the Talmud. There's a discussion among the rabbis about when the day begins so that you can begin the morning prayers. They say it's when you look at another person's face and see your kinsmen, your brother in that person's face.

HERZOG: American Jews are facing issues of antisemitism. I don't want to say that every Jew is being attacked in the street, but it is a nagging problem.

And along with antisemitism, we also have strong anti-Zionism. For a lot of university students, the question is, how can I be progressive or liberal and pro-Israel because being pro-Israel means being rejected [by other progressives]?

DAVIS: I think this is a dangerous question because the minute we try to define the biggest problem, we're going to cause infighting in our community. Everybody has a different relationship with Judaism and a different variety of problems they face.

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What's the Most Pressing Issue Facing American Jews? Answers from a New Generation of Jewish Leaders - brandeis.edu

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Posted By admin on September 2, 2022

Chabad of Ulster County held their annual Empowerment Breakfast on Sunday, August 28, with honors going to local Kingston elected officials, public servants and residents, including a 101-year-old who recently became a bar mitzvah. The Jewish Press was the only news outlet covering the event.

When introducing the Town of Ulster supervisor, Chabad director Rabbi Yosef Yitzhak Hecht provided his take on politics.

One of the things that I appreciate very much in the local politics in Ulster County is that there is more [importance placed] on the person than the party. When everything becomes about the party, people dont get help and the services that have to reach people dont get there because everything is a political game and a political dance. People know that, Hecht told an audience of approximately 50 people. I think thats why people like you and what you do. Youre frank and you get the job done. It doesnt matter who it is. If someone needs to be helped, they will be helped.

In Judaism, hakores hatov, giving thanks and being thankful and recognizing, is very, very important. In Judaism we begin our day every morning with the words, Modeh ani lfanecha we give our thanks to you, G-d, every single morning. As we go through the day, we always have to remember to be thankful to all those that are there and contribute. Sometimes you read the papers and you see only complaints about those who serve public office. This is a man who gets a lot of complaints in the local papers but you see very few thanks. I know from my role and responsibilities how many people he helps and the care he has for the community. Its very special and we really appreciate it, Hecht concluded.

Supervisor James Quigley, a Republican, picked up on Hechts comments upon receiving the Empowerment Award.

I want to thank Rabbi Hecht and the congregation for this honor. My service started long before becoming a politician, Quigley said. As Rabbi Hecht said, its not about the party, its about the individual and what they do. My dedication to this community started long before becoming an elected official. We gave back as a family to a community that has supported my family since 1849. As long as I can continue to do that, I am happy. I want to thank you all for this recognition.

The Leadership Award went to Ulster County legislator Abe Uchitelle, who is Jewish and represents the area where the Chabad center is located in Kingston, NY.

When I was thinking about what leadership means to me, I thought about the Torah portion in Leviticus from my bar mitzvah where the text describes how you should deal with your field, and to leave the corners of your field unharvested so that people in the community can take what they need if they are less fortunate, Uchitelle, a Democrat, said. I thought about how that is key to the Kingston community because there are so many groups that are out there helping people. There are so many groups that are engaged with the community. When you come in from a leadership perspective its not always about centering [on] yourself, building the biggest monument or doing the biggest thing. Sometimes its about letting people help themselves, letting people get what they need, getting out of the way and finding out what the networks are in the community so that folks can get everything that they need because we have such a vibrant community of people helping.

Rabbi Mendy Karczag, director Chabad of Woodstock, N.Y., demonstrated his shofar blowing prowess at the breakfast and then explained the meaning behind the month of Elul and the succeeding 40 days from Rosh Chodesh Elul.

Its a very special day, its a very special month, its a very special 40 days. These days are days when G-d is available. Its a day when we can connect, Karczag told the audience, not all of whom were Jewish. As the Alter Rebbe, the first Chabad leader, called this month, a time when the King is in the field. Sometimes the king would go out and travel to the various cities to see the people in the city. Before coming into the city, sometimes the king would stop in the field and all the workmen in the field would come to meet the king. It was an informal way of meeting the king. When the king is in the palace its almost impossible to get to the king, especially for a regular guy. When the king is in the field thats a very opportune time to greet the king and to ask for a request and the king is a lot more relaxed and a lot more open to hear peoples requests and answering the requests from the people who come over to him.

The month of Elul is a time when Hashem is in the field. Its a very special time, an opportune time when we can connect to G-d and ask Him for our needs and ask G-d for a wonderful, healthy and good year. The year ahead of us should be a year full of blessings, health and success and everything that comes with it, Karczag continued.

The shofar is also a symbol of the cry of the soul that is beyond words, that connection that we have that is very much felt during these days as we prepare for Rosh Hashanah, the High Holidays. Throughout the month we blow the shofar, which is like a wake-up call to remind us that this is the time to prepare, Hashem is around and the king is in the field and its a time to reconnect.

I want to thank everyone in the community for all you do, not just for Kingston but the larger Ulster County community. It is great to see partnership and friendship and its what makes the Hudson Valley such a beautiful place to live, to work and to prosper into the future, Karczag concluded.

Assemblyman Colin Schmitt, (R New Windsor, Orange County) represents a district that includes New York Citys northern suburbs of Orange and Rockland counties. He is virtually unknown outside his Assembly district where he is running for Congress in a district that includes Ulster County. While attending the Catholic University of America, Schmitt, 32, earned a degree in Politics with a minor in Theology and Religious Studies.

I want to thank everyone in the community for all you do, not just for Kingston but the larger Ulster County community, Schmitt said during his brief remarks. It is great to see partnership and friendship and its what makes the Hudson Valley such a beautiful place to live, to work and to prosper into the future. Many blessings as we go into these next 40 days and into the holiday season. Im always here to be a friend of the community.

Receiving the Public Safety Award was Captain Mario Restivo, State Police Troop F Zone 3 Commander, and the Chesed/Kindness Award went to Roscoe Pecora, a former county legislator and the caretaker for Ted Cohen, who turned 101 years old in February.

Rabbi A.B. Itkin helped Cohen put on the tallis and tefillin. Teddy Cohen, who is a kohen, recently celebrated his bar mitzvah. Rabbi Itkin said the prayer with Cohen for putting on the tallis and they said the Shema after the prayer for putting on the tefillin. Even though hes not Jewish, Pecora was honored for taking Cohen to Shabbat services and reading the English translation for Cohen to follow along.

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In Ulster County, Service Beyond Politics With A Dose Of Judaism - The Jewish Press - JewishPress.com

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Posted By admin on September 2, 2022

One of the best compliments you can give to anyone is that they show up.

Think of that simple phrase showing up. How do you not love someone who always shows up when you need them?

It can apply to all kinds of thingsfrom showing up for meaningful and joyful events to visiting someone in the hospital. It can be showing up to help a friend whos down or showing up to volunteer at a soup kitchen.

The idea is the same: People who show up dont settle for just words or thoughts. They walk the walk.

As we slowly crawl out of a pandemic that shook up the planet, and with the High Holidays right around the corner, the question of who will show up in synagogues this year is front and center.

The past two High Holiday seasons were hobbled by COVID and its pesky variants. While were still not totally out of the woods, this year is markedly different. Events are back. Shops and restaurants are fully open. Restrictions have waned.

In other words, its a lot harder to use COVID as an excuse to not go to shul.

The problem is that habits that offer us maximum comfort are hard to shake. Especially for those in the non-Orthodox world who have gotten used to watching services on Zoom in the coziness of their homes, the choice of trekking back to shul is no longer obvious.

In a way, this is unprecedented. If theres one thing we could always count on in the Jewish world, its that the great majority of Jews will attend Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur services. Just like in that famous Curb episode, the only issue is getting good tickets.

But in speaking to some rabbis across the community, theres a general feeling, bordering on anxiety, that weve entered new territory.

In an impassioned recent sermon that would have been relevant in most synagogues, Rabbi David Wolpe of Sinai Temple called on his flock to stop being observers and start being participants and be a community again like we have been for thousands of years.

He reminded them that a synagogue is not called a Bet Tefilla, a house of prayer, but a Bet Knesset, a house of gathering, and that without gathering, there is no community.

It is impossible to live a full Jewish life without a community, Wolpe said.

The rabbi focused on the Jewish communal ritual of gathering in a synagogue. But there are other uniquely Jewish rituals that beckon us. In her Journal cover story this week, Roberta Kwall argues that those rituals are crucial to nurturing a strong Jewish identity.

The point is not to create Orthodox Jews, she writes, but rather to create more Jews who are committed to the practice of vibrant religiously liberal Judaism.

Kwall acknowledges that the Torah underscores the role of ethics, morality and social justice, values that are now seen as universally relevant, and that many modern American Jews embrace these universalized values as the essence of their Jewish identity.

Her point is not to downplay these universal values, but rather to highlight the irreplaceable value of Jewish rituals in strengthening Jewish identity.

I call it the value of going out of your way.

If I base my Jewish identity mostly on societal and ethical values I would follow regardless of my Judaism, nothing Jewish stands out as my actions blend in with the world. I may be deeply satisfied, but that doesnt mean I will feel more Jewish.

If I go out of my way, however, to attend synagogue, prepare and host Shabbat dinner, take Torah classes, celebrate Jewish holidays, and engage with other uniquely Jewish rituals, it follows that I will be nurturing a more distinct Jewish identity.

The ideal is to find enough joy and meaning in Jewish rituals so it wont feel like you need to go out of your way.

If we hope to recapture this year the electricity of standing-room-only High Holiday crowds in our main sanctuaries, more Jews than ever will need to go out of their way.

If we hope to recapture this year the electricity of standing-room-only High Holiday crowds in our main sanctuaries, more Jews than ever will need to go out of their way. That would mean leaving the comfort of backyard minyans in the Orthodox world or online services in the non-Orthodox world.

If youre one of those Jews feeling ambivalence, look at it this way: If going out of your COVID comfort zone means to be a community again, like we have been for thousands of years, isnt that worth trekking back to your main shul to make your rabbis and community happy?

Dont you want to be known as the kind of person who always shows up when people need you?

Dont you want to be known as the kind of person who always shows up when people need you?

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Are We Ready to Show Up? - Jewish Journal

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Posted By admin on September 2, 2022

(RNS) In the Trump years, white evangelical Christians deepened their association with political power and doubled down on their social conservatism, even as and some observers would say because of a precipitous drop in theiroverall numbers. Evangelicalisms 23% share of the American population in 2006 shrank to 14% in 2020.

Despite this decline, evangelicals comprise a large and prominent segment of the population one too large to be static or monolithic. The makeup of this group has been shifting, and as younger generations take up leadership roles, theyve grappled with how to reconcile the tendency toward right-wing politics with more progressive approaches to social issues.

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Now, a rising cohort of evangelical pastors is looking beyond partisan politics and messaging based on fear of straying from a narrowly defined path. Bishop Robert Stearns is part of this shift. The pastor of The Full Gospel Tabernacle, a thriving Assemblies of God church in Orchard Park, New York, near Buffalo, Stearns said in an interview late last year that evangelicals are waking up to the reality that the ground underneath their feet has shifted.

Younger evangelicals are just leaving the church, said Stearns. They might still call themselves spiritual, they might still have a real affinity for Jesus and his teachings, but there are aspects of evangelicalism that have disappointed them and that they no longer trust.

That distrust was sown in part by evangelicalisms emergence on the national stage. The 1980s and 1990s was the era of institutional evangelicalism, he said, pointing to the rise of The 700 Club, Regent University, Liberty University and other organizations that purported to represent and speak for evangelicals. Not everyone in the movement liked what they saw.

Then social media came along and challenged the Goliaths. It empowers the charismatic individual to have massive influence, Stearns said. It gave a platform to individuals who heretofore would not have had that kind of reach.

Another transformation that was aided by technology is the growth of what used to be the very small liberal arm of evangelicalism. Before, he said, to be evangelical meant you were right-wing on a whole host of issues, so you didnt have to have conversation or exploration. Now you have many, many different voices.

And though many people are leaving the church, those who stay are viewing issues of climate change, human sexuality and the politicization of religion in America through a more critical lens.

RELATED: Creating a Catholic Church she can belong to

The question now, Stearns said, is: Will the true evangelical please stand up?

The answer depends on how the younger generations think about what they believe. The big pivot that we need to make is in how we express our theology, he said.

Stearns has found success in rearticulating evangelical theology for this new era, in which many evangelicals feel the need to be more open and embracing. If evangelicalism is anything, its about incarnation that God became incarnate in humanity. We have to come within culture, we have to come and bring God within humanity.

Stearns is also open to encountering the wisdom of other faith traditions, particularly Judaism. I dont think you can understand Christianity apart from Judaism, he said.

Stearns, who graduated from the University of Valley Forge at 20, rose to prominence as a Christian Zionist. Today he is the founding executive director of Eagles Wings, an organization that brings Christian pastors to Israel. At the Tabernacle, he runs a weekly study session on the same Torah portion that Jews read each week in synagogue and has a podcast called The Bishop and theRabbi, in which he talks with rabbis as his weekly guests.

My Christianity has been so profoundly informed by my relationship with Jewish people and with Judaism, he said. In studying the Jewish roots of Christianity, he has discovered a deep connection in how the two faiths regard humanity.

Its difficult to look at human history or humanity today and not say that there is something very broken within the human condition. But Judaism, and I would argue biblical Christianity, says that before you get to the brokenness of humanity, you must start with the image of God.

The proposition that God breathed the breath of life (into) Adam and that God mystically breathes the breath of life into each and every one of us that tells me every human being is sacred, and that I must view them through that lens.

RELATED: An immigrant Muslim finds his model of empowerment in Black American Islam

Stearns focus on the image of God also has profound implications for how he approaches young people in his church who are wrestling with gender identities or sexual orientations. It doesnt matter your political background or your religious background or the human issues that we walk with. God is the God of all of us, he said.

While he leads with an openness that might have been, in his words, unthinkable in an evangelical pastor a few decades ago, he has a deep respect and love for evangelicals. Some people and some media deliberately mischaracterize evangelicals as bigoted and horrible people. I know evangelical leaders all across this nation who are loving, kind, good-hearted, tolerant, open-minded people, he said.

Stearns explains how evangelicals are charitable and care deeply about the society in which they live. Even with profound changes afoot in the evangelical movement, he said, Their humanity and humane actions give me hope for the future of our faith.

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Bishop Robert Stearns wants to reinvent evangelicalism without leaving it behind - Religion News Service

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Posted By admin on September 2, 2022

AHillel chapter that was formed at Stevens Institute of Technology in 2019 has come out strong on the other side of the pandemic.

Despite the schools shift to remote learning during covid, Hillel board president Sabrina Benayoun and vice president Dennis Vink forged ahead to build a Jewish community on the Hoboken campus that is poised for more growth in the fall.

Itll be a refreshing new fall semester with a bunch of students who are excited to be back on campus, Rachel Waldorf, the director of Hillel of Northern New Jersey, said. We are thrilled that so many students are staying connected to Jewish life on campus.

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Last school year, twice monthly Shabbat dinners drew 50 students, which is considered a good turnout at a campus of 4,000 students, Mr. Vink, a 20-year-old quantitative finance major from Fair Lawn, said. At least 5 percent of Stevens students are Jewish, he estimates.

Im looking at this growth spurt now and I know its only the start, Mr. Vink said. I know we can do a lot. Theres a lot of Jewish students here who are nonpracticing. Its just finding them and showing them you dont have to be religious. Its more cultural.

Mr. Vink participated in Jewish activities at Fair Lawn High School, where he was president of the Jewish Student Union. He was heavily involved in the National Council of Synagogue Youth and traveled across the country and to Israel with NCSY. This pushed me to want to make Judaism a part of my life since I see it as a people and we are all connected through that, he said.

Hillel of Northern New Jersey supports Jewish life at four other local campuses: William Paterson University in Wayne, Fairleigh Dickinson University in Teaneck, Bergen Community College in Paramus, and Ramapo College of New Jersey in Mahwah.

Hillels vice president, Dennis Vink, and board member Isabella Ziv stand together at a Hillel dinner.

Hillel of Northern New Jersey is a program of Rutgers University Hillel and sponsored by the Jewish Federation of Northern New Jersey.

Within a few weeks of arriving on campus as a freshman, Mr. Vink sought out an outlet for Jewish life. Since the first year of the school was mostly online, I was able to join the eboard as the outreach coordinator, he said.

Seeking a formal connection to Judaism at school, Mr. Vink and Ms. Benayoun, who comes from Jericho, on Long Island, met with a group of Federation officials, school administrators, and Rabbi Robert Scheinberg of the United Synagogue of Hoboken to discuss starting an official Hillel chapter at Stevens.

Since then, they got the word out, and now the Stevens chapter is thriving. Its a great STEM-focused school with a really diverse student population, Ms. Waldorf said. Theyre doing great work on campus. We want to be able to support them and help elevate it.

Mr. Vink is indebted to Ms. Waldorf for assistance in organizing events. She helps us build ideas and plan out how we are going to incorporate those ideas, he said.

Ms. Benayoun is going into her fourth year and studying environmental engineering. When I initially joined Hillel, it was a pretty small club, but we were dedicated to growing it, she said.

Ms. Benayouns plan is to have a consistent schedule of events and meetings. It will include Shabbat dinners, discussions on subjects of Jewish interest, and joint events with other religious organizations on campus.

Some events are purely social. Students launched the spring 2022 semester with a get-together to decorate coffee mugs.

I greatly look forward to seeing the growth of this club, Ms. Benayoun said. I aim to create a strong sense of community that considers different perspectives while also having common shared beliefs or interests.

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Hillel in Hoboken: Perfect together - The Jewish Standard

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Posted By admin on September 2, 2022

(September 1, 2022 / JNS) Though the majority of American Jews identify ideas about social justice as the essence of Judaism and vote accordingly, they nonetheless support policies that are both unjust and penalize the poor to help the better-off.

JNS editor-in-chief Jonathan Tobin said that by backing both open borders and especially President Joe Bidens student loan bailout, Jews are prioritizing partisanship and personal interest over social justice.

According to Tobin, No one should confuse a policy that will benefit some of the most privileged and ultimately wealthy people at the expense of the hard-earned taxpayer dollars paid to Washington by truck drivers, food servers and manual laborers with justice.

Tobin is then joined by columnist and author David Harsanyi, who discussed the dishonest way democracy is being discussed by Biden and the Democrats.

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Well, I think most of the time when you hear someone say that democracy is being threatened, its just a euphemism for whatever policies they want, he said.

Harsanyi agreed that the student loan bailout was deeply wrong, saying, I think there are two aspects to it that bother me. One is that it is Robin Hood in reverse. Thats just unjust and an unfair policy that seems like vote-buying to me. But the other side of it is that its unconstitutional. Joe Biden does not have the right to do it.

He was also scornful of the way liberal Jewish groups were backing such proposals.

Its gotten to a point where Jewish organizations are the same as the Democratic Party, and thats terrible, said Harsanyi. A lot of Jews are now just anti-Zionist. And that was something you didnt see on the left when I was growing up.

The two also discussed the rise of anti-Semitism on the left. It is functionally anti-Semitic to say that the Jews should not have their own nation. There are some right-wing anti-Semites, and they should be called out. But theyre not embraced by the Republican establishment in the way that Ilhan Omar is or AOC is or other members of the squad.

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Posted By admin on September 2, 2022

Two and a half years ago, Gonzaga University's Foley Library applied to host the "Americans and the Holocaust" traveling exhibition. This year, the exhibit has finally come to campus and arrived last Tuesday.

Out of more than 250 applicants, 50 libraries (both public and academic)were selected to host. Foley library is the only library in Washington State that was selected.

Located on the third floor of Foley in the Cowles Rare Reading Room, the exhibit opened to the public Aug. 23 and runs through Oct. 7. The exhibit features photographic reproductions of original primary source content at the Holocaust museum in Washington D.C., as well as interactive tablets and audio recordings.

Walk-in hours are on Wednesday from 3-8 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday from 1-5 p.m. until Sept. 30, and students and community members can also schedule private tours.

Brad Matthies, the associate dean for library services at Foley, is excited for students to be able to experience the exhibit.

"The exhibit is based on a 10-year research project from [the] U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, and this is what I like to call a snapshot of the big exhibit in Washington, D.C.," Matthies said. "You have photographic reproductions and some interpretation of the data. You'll see that in graphs, but also each section has a multimedia component. Some of them have sound, so there's a little headset you can listen to [and] watch the information."

Matthies said his favorite part of the exhibit is a portion that's based on the American Newspaper Project, which is something that the Holocaust museum in the nation's capital created.

"What they ended up doing was they crowd-sourced historians, scholars, history buffs and even college students [and] professors in every state to locate newspaper articles and clippings from the ... late 1930s into mid-1940s," Matthies said. "On that interactive tablet, you can pick any state in the Union ... and hopefully see how your hometown newspaper was actually covering ... the Holocaust."

The four main questions that the exhibit asks guests to consider are "What did Americans know about the Holocaust?", "Did Americans help Jewish refugees?", "Why did we go to war?" and "How did we respond to the Holocaust?" Through the information provided, guests will be able to learn more about the role the United States played during the Holocaust and hopefully be able to answer the questions for themselves.

With the exhibit being open to the wider Spokane community, students from surrounding schools will also have the opportunity to visit the exhibit and implement the exhibit into their curriculum.

Three schools are lined up to visit the exhibit and complete an activity for an assignment, as well as have lesson plans and take-home homework related to the Holocaust.

"Between those three schools, we're probably going to see somewhere between 900 and 1,000 schoolkids go through that, so I'm pretty stoked about that, Matthies said. "It's the schools that are within the Opportunity Northeast and Center for Community Engagement Service District, so those are generally underserved schools that dont necessarily get those kinds of opportunities."

In addition to the exhibit, there will be an event on Sept. 8 called "Americans and the Holocaust: Remembering Our Past to Inform Our Future." The event will be at 7 p.m. and will be free for the public to attend. There will be multiple guest speakers, including Holocaust survivor Carla Peperzak, who will be interviewed by the Holocaust Center for Humanity based in Seattle and will talk about her experience being a Dutch Jew during the Holocaust.

Professor Kevin OConnor from the history department will introduce Peperzak at the event. O'Connor teaches history courses on Russian civilization and Nazi Germany and emphasized the importance of learning about events like these, especially as they become more distant in a chronological sense.

"[This is] a great opportunity for Gonzaga to model historical awareness for its students [and] to expose them to events and history that most Americans and probably most college students, especially those just entering university ... probably have very little awareness of," O'Connor said. "I think that it's important for Gonzaga to seize these opportunities whenever they present themselves."

The Jewish Bulldogs will also be putting on an event in late September and are one of the main campus supporters of the exhibit. The event will include music and food and will be a space for students to come together and celebrate Jewish culture.

Cassie Gittelson, a junior and member of the club, emphasized how the goal of the event is to showcase the positive aspects of the Jewish community.

"We really want to bring to light how Jews have thrived after the Holocaust and make sure that people understand that just because these atrocities have happened to us doesn't mean that Judaism isn't thriving, and [doesn't mean] that Judaism isn't still very alive," Gittelson said. "Especially in relationship to the recent uprise in antisemitism, I think it's really important that we remember those we've lost and celebrate those that we still have and try to make sure that nothing like this ever happens again and not just to Jews, but to everyone."

For more information on the Americans and the Holocaust Exhibit, be sure to visit the website: http://www.gonzaga.edu/holocaustexhibit.

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Foley Library hosts Americans and the Holocaust traveling exhibit - Bulletin

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Posted By admin on September 2, 2022

Having brokered an agreement for Religious Zionism and Otzma Yehudit to run together in the November elections, opposition chief Benjamin Netanyahu has launched efforts to ensure Haredi party United Torah Judaism remains united.

Hoping to clinch the 61 Knesset seats that will allow him to return to the prime ministers seat, Netanyahu is intensely focused on ensuring his right-wing and religious supporters maximize their electoral potential. A split of UTJ, which has won seven seats in most recent elections, could well lead to one of the factions or both falling below the four-seat electoral threshold, potentially thwarting Netanyahus bid to return to power.

UTJ is made up of two factions: Hasidic party Agudat Yisrael and the non-Hasidic Degel HaTorah. The parties have run on a joint list since 1992. However, that alliance has recently come under threat amid disagreements between the sides.

One issue is who will lead the party. Gafni took control of UTJ in 2019 from longtime chair Yaakov Litzman of Agudat Yisrael, who resigned from the Knesset as part of a plea deal after he abused his position to thwart the extradition of suspected pedophile Malka Leifer. Agudat Yisrael announced that Yitzhak Goldknopf would take over as leader of the faction.

According to media reports, Gafni is opposed to Goldknopf, who has never served as an MK, leading the combined UTJ slate.

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Degel HaTorah is also said to be irate at an agreement by the Belz Hasidim, part of Agudat Yisrael, to allow the study of some secular subjects in their schools in exchange for increased state funding. The spiritual leader of Degel HaTorah, the 99-year-old Rabbi Gershon Edelstein, is fervently against any state involvement in Haredi schooling or the introduction of any secular subjects into boys classrooms.

Agudat Yisrael chairman Rabbi Yitzchak Goldknopf at the Supreme Court in Jerusalem, July 28, 2022 (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Kan news reported Sunday that Netanyahu held a meeting with Agudat Yisraels Goldknopf and Moti Babchik in an attempt to bridge the disagreements. But the network also cited an unnamed senior official in UTJ as attacking Netanyahus intervention, saying he was taking sides in an ideological argument he should stay out of.

A similar sentiment was expressed by an anonymous party source quoted by the Ynet news site, who said officials very much dont like Bibis interference.

These are ideological issues that have nothing to do with him and which he does not understand, the official said. This isnt a political-personal matter of placing on the slate and jobs, but a principled ideological argument.

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Netanyahu seeks to keep Haredi UTJ party united, but some prefer he not interfere - The Times of Israel

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Posted By admin on September 2, 2022

Since several centuries, various religious groups have been working to increase the number of followers across the globe. Various battles have been fought throughout history for religious expansion. It continues even today, although religious expansion is now being triggered via other means as well such as social media influence and monetary incentives.

As of now, there are various religions in the world such as Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Chinese traditional religion, Ethnic religions, African traditional religions, Sikhism, Judaism, Jainism, Shinto and Zoroastrianism. There are also more than a billion people on the planet who do not follow any specific religion.

Christianity currently has the largest number of followers at around 2.382 billion. This is around 31.11% of the total world population. Next is Islam with around 1.907 billion followers. In percentage terms, Islam followers are approximately 24.9% of the total world population. Third is Hinduism, with around 1.161 billion followers, constituting 15.16% of the worlds population. Followers of Buddhism and Chinese traditional religion are around 5.06% and 5% of the world population, respectively.

As a major shakedown is happening in geopolitics, it makes us wonder which religion will dominate 21st century. Christianity is clearly the dominating force now, but can it sustain it over the coming decades. And which religions could possibly witness a decline in coming years. For better understanding, lets see which will be worlds largest religion by 2100.

Islam growing fastest

As per report published by Pew Research Center, Muslim population is growing at a faster rate than rest of the world. It is projected that by 2050, the world population would increase to 9.3 billion. That will be a 35% increase, as compared to 2010 numbers. Christianity growth rate will be around the same as that of global population growth. But in case of Muslims, their growth rate is projected to be around 73%. Thats more than double of global population growth rate. If the current momentum is sustained, Islam will come quite close to Christian population by 2050.

Muslims to overtake Christians after 2070

If current Muslim population growth rate is sustained, their numbers will become equal to that of Christians by 2070. Beyond that, Muslim population will emerge as the largest in the world. Most other religions are also expected to grow, but at a slower rate than Muslim population. As a result, their percentage share in world population will decline. Some religions like Buddhism are expected to decline by 2050.

Demographics favor Muslim population growth, as the religion has a larger percentage of young adults. Moreover, things like birth control are usually considered taboo. Polygamy is another factor that leads to higher number of children being born.

Geopolitics and natural disasters can impact religions

21st century has marked the rise of China as a superpower, creating challenges for United States and other allied countries. There is a threat of nuclear war, which could result in deaths of millions of people. Another factor is climate change, which can also impact global demographics. For example, things like drought and disease can lead to decline of affected population groups.

So, while Muslims population is expected to be the worlds largest religion by end of this century, there are way too many variables to be able to make 100% accurate predictions. A lot will also depend on Africas growth, which is currently become a hub for both Christians and Muslims. Technology innovations are another factor that can impact global demographics over the coming decades.

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Which Will Be Worlds Largest Religion By 2100 - NewsPatrolling

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