Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By admin on August 20, 2022

Shira Potash recently traveled from El Cerrito to a small village in Germany to visit a three-story red brick building with stone trim. She had been there before, but this time was different.

Located in the village of Ronnenberg, the building was once the home of her grandmother and great-aunt. Today it serves as a municipal center, and Potash and other family members had been invited to come see a new exhibit there about the towns former Jewish residents.

On permanent display are a tallit, porcelain figurines, a silver place setting, handwritten letters and a typewriter once used to write to the U.S. State Department. All are part of a remembrance of Ronnenbergs tiny Jewish community, about three dozen people, who were killed or displaced during the Holocaust. Many of them were part of the same family, the Seligmanns.

One of the rooms in the former family home was used as the community synagogue, and fittingly it now houses the display.

Ronnenberg, near Hanover, has fewer than 25,000 residents and doesnt get many tourists, so the exhibit is for local residents.

Obviously, theres no way the Germans can make up for the Holocaust, Potash, 43, told J. after her return. But the way theyre acknowledging their past and trying to reconcile it is really admirable. Im really touched by the efforts that the German government and individual people have put into trying.

When Potash refers to individual people, she is speaking largely of Peter Hertel, 84, and Christiane Buddenberg-Hertel, 74. The couple, with the support of the town, have been largely responsible for the efforts to remember its former Jewish residents.

Potashs great-grandfather Siegfried Seligmann was the kosher butcher in town, and he sold nonkosher cuts to the non-Jews, so he was known by everyone. After Kristallnacht, he was arrested and then released on the condition that he leave Germany at once.

Siegfried, his wife, Alma, and younger daughter Ursula ended up on the St. Louis, the ship whose passengers were refused entry to Cuba and sent back to Europe. There, the family was separated and sent to different detainment camps in France. Meanwhile, Seligmanns 16-year-old daughter Else (Potashs grandmother) stayed behind in Germany because her visa number was coming up, giving her the best chance of getting out. She got permission to go straight to the United States, and eventually the rest of the family reunited there.

Somehow they were all able to escape across the Pyrenees mountains into Portugal and get to America, Potash said, repeating the story that was told to her. Afterward, they heard that everyone in one of the detainment camps had been sent to Auschwitz. My grandmother never wanted to talk about her experience, but my great-aunt [Ursula] was the one who went through the trauma and was the one who was willing to talk. Im sure there was a lot of guilt on my grandmothers part, having been spared that trauma.

The towns efforts to memorialize its Jews started many years ago. A retired journalist and author, Hertel wrote a book about what happened in his hometown during World War II. As a journalist, he often broadcast programs about Judaism. He told J. his grandfather had hidden a Jewish friend in his attic during the war, and perhaps thats why Hertel feels so motivated to do this work. Ill keep doing it as long as Im able, he said.

A resident of Ronnenberg since 1973, Hertel felt the legacy of the towns Jewish residents was largely forgotten and years ago set out to do something about it, writing two books about the Seligmann family. In 1998, the town invited former residents and their descendants back to visit. Hertel and his wife created a traveling exhibit for schools and an accompanying study guide about the Jews of Ronnenberg, which is an example of how the Nazis expelled and partially murdered the entire Jewish population of a medium-size town in Germany, Hertel said.

The town has built a memorial to the Jews, both those who were killed and those who were expelled, based on his research. The Hertels have collected video testimonies from three Holocaust survivors from Ronnenberg for high school students to watch. And the Jewish cemetery, once largely ignored, is now kept up by the town.

In 1998, the mayor put a plaque on the town hall to commemorate the Seligmanns who once lived there, and 19 of the extended family members attended, including Potash (then 19), her grandmother Else and her mother, Helen Seligmann Hordes. Hordes, who donated some of the objects for the new exhibit, went back again in 2019 when stolpersteine, or stumbling stones, were placed to memorialize her family members. She has also developed a friendship with the Hertels.

While Else is no longer living, Ursula lives in Israel. Shes never been back to Germany, but on the recent visit Hordes video-chatted with her while walking through the halls of her old house in Ronnenberg, showing her the display of Seligmann family photos mounted in the hallway.

Other Seligmanns joined Potash and her mother on the visit, including some distant cousins from the U.K. and Israel that she didnt know existed.

We had never heard of them or had any idea how we were related, Potash said. But Hertel knew. He had put together a three-hour lecture about the Jewish history of Ronnenberg, dating back to the 1700s.

For Hertel, this work has become even more important as the last living Holocaust survivors are dying.

Our goal is primarily to educate young people, he said. For todays generation, the incomparable, unique Nazi crimes will become history as if they happened far away, in Eastern Europe, in Auschwitz. We say: They also happened here in Ronnenberg.

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Her family's old house is now memorial to German town's Jewish past J. - The Jewish News of Northern California

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Posted By admin on August 20, 2022

The epitaphsRussian, Hebrew, UkrainianRomanian, Yiddish, German

Here you canlearn from the deadhow we might live togetherwithout strife

Michael Augustin is a German poet and artist with strong links to Ireland. Mickle Makes Muckle, a collection of poems translated by Sujata Bhatt was published by Dedalus. Ad Infinitum, a trilingual collection of his poems, translated by Gabriel Rosenstock and Hans-Christian Oeser was published by Coiscim. Five volumes of his visual poetry were published by Redfoxpress on Achill Island.

The Milk Stand . . . is an abandoned altar by the roadUnwanted by whatever god, A staging post for emptiness and rust, A place where the past is held in trust. Outside this gate you might have heardA lorry as it slowed and throttled backAnd stopped; then the clank of churns transferred Echoes preserved in the solid block.

Peter Denman is retired from teaching in Maynooth University. His poems have appeared in periodicals in the UK and Ireland. Publications include Sour Grapes (Ulsterman Publications), The Poet's Manual (Sotto Voce Press), and Epigrammata (Astrolabe Press).

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Poems of the week: Jewish Cemetery, Chernivtsi by Michael Augustin; The Milk Stand by Peter Denman - The Irish Times

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Posted By admin on August 20, 2022

Editors note: Excerpted from the new three-volume set, Theodor Herzl: Zionist Writings, the inaugural publication of The Library of the Jewish People edited by Gil Troy, to be published this August marking the 125th anniversary of the First Zionist Congress. This is first in a series.

Today, Theodor Herzl is best known for his beard, not his books, for an Aha-moment he never had, for being an anti-anti-Semite rather than an idealist, and for launching the Zionist movement in 1897 eighteen months after he released his history-changing Zionist manifesto. Despite this confusion, he remains Israels iconic Founder, with George Washingtons mythic status, Thomas Jeffersons ideological impact, and Winston Churchills memorable bon mots. One hundred and eighteen years after his tragic death at the age of forty-four, and 125 years after he convened the first Zionist Congress in August, 1897, Theodor Herzl remains influential. His outsized shadow and the true, complicated, multi-dimensional person behind the myth are precisely why it is so important to read his Zionist writings in this new edition, which, quite fittingly, is also inaugurating the Library of the Jewish People.

It was a perfect match: the People of the Book got themselves a bookish savior. Theodor Herzl wrote articles, plays, novels, poems, manifestos, editorials, diary entries, stylish literary essays feuilletons and hundreds of letters. These volumes recreate his last eleven years as a Zionist leader. On these pages, Herzl works out his ideas, works through his problems, works his contacts, and works himself to death, trying to hustle a Jewish state into being. These pages demonstrate that Herzl was not just another bookish Jew. As a proud Jewish nationalist seeking to revive the independence Jews celebrate at Hanukkah, he was also a Maccabean a fighting Jew a Jew with a spine and spunk, not just a Jew with a mind and soul.

The diaries rollicking, free-flowing nature make them among the most easily misquoted and misunderstood sources in the Zionist canon. Anti-Zionists frequently rifle through Herzls writings, cherry-picking an entry here, a phrase there, to indict the entire Zionist enterprise as ethno-nationalist, racist, imperialist, colonialist, or in todays popular phrase settler-colonialist. These volumes confirm that the often vain, petty, thin-skinned, imperious Herzl was not perfect and very much a turn-of-the-century European. Nevertheless, this historical scavenging tells us little about Herzls Zionism and much about Zionisms enemies who daily demonstrate Herzlian Zionisms biggest failure: it did not end antisemitism.

The diaries record the cascade of feelings and ideas as Herzls Zionism evolves. He shifts from imagining a novel explaining his vision to drafting a manifesto charting out the Jewish future.

The diaries record the cascade of feelings and ideas as Herzls Zionism evolves. He shifts from imagining a novel explaining his vision to drafting a manifesto charting out the Jewish future to trying to make his dreams come true. It is a brainstorming book which is why extracting one line here or there to define the man or the movement distorts the diaries freewheeling, free-associational character. Day by day, Herzls Jewish consciousness and self-importance grow, along with his doubts. His life has become a high-wire act, with big ideas, great thrills, and historic stakes.

Perpetually struggling with tone and self-definition Herzl writes that artists will understand why I, otherwise of rather clear intelligence, have let exaggerations and dreams proliferate among my practical, political, and legislative ideas, as green grass sprouts among cobblestones. I could not permit myself to be forced into the straitjacket of sober facts. This mild intoxication has been necessary. Yes, artists will understand this fully. But there are so few artists.

Sometimes, he is more playwright than architect, as when he plots out the Jews redemption in three acts from Introduction to Elevation to Emigration.

As a result, his diaries frequently read like the political-science version of an artist sketchbook. Herzl draws in the contours of the Jewish state. He plans different dimensions from a flag to the architectural aesthetic, from labor-capital relations to the dynamics between rabbis and politicians. Sometimes, he is more playwright than architect, as when he plots out the Jews redemption in three acts from Introduction to Elevation to Emigration.

On these pages, Theodor Herzl emerges as the Zionist Organization Man building an infrastructure for the movement that would eventually become a provisional government until 1948, then todays sovereign government of Israel. He emerges as the Great Jewish Diplomat advancing the Zionist project by leveraging relationships while exploiting antisemitic assumptions that the super-rich Jews could buy themselves out of exile. He emerges as the Jewish Dreamcatcher living his phrase that became a clich: if you will it, it is no dream. And he emerges as the Liberal-Nationalist Tinkerer generating ideas about how to make the Jewish state into a model that saves the Jews and inspires the world.

These writings help solve the ongoing interlocking historical mysteries surrounding Theodor Herzl. First, what made him tick why did this ambitious, outer-directed, journalistic hotshot and somewhat successful, somewhat frustrated, playwright become a Jewish visionary and leader? Second, what did he accomplish in barely a decade on the Jewish stage? And third, what made him The One? How is Herzl the Modern Moses: of all the Jews leaders, of all the Jews thinkers, of all the proto-Zionists who sometimes grumbled that they came to the party first, how did he become the face of Zionism and the prophet credited with transforming millennia of Jewish trauma and longing into todays Jewish-democratic State?

Herzls diaries show that even in his thirties, he felt the angel of death hovering about. He sensed his heart would not keep him going for much longer. In 1897, when he was thirty-six, Herzl wrote a will, explaining: It is proper to be prepared for death. Sure that my name will grow after my death, he trusted that a future generation will be better able than the masses of the present to judge what I meant to the Jews. He deemed these writings, in which I have recorded my work on behalf of the Jewish cause, his principal legacy. Even he, the great Jewish dreamcatcher, grandiose enough as his Zionist career began to imagine that we would still be reading his writings more than a century later, was not as sure about an even bigger legacy: a thriving Jewish state which still horas and waltzes to some of his rhythms.

The most popular story about Theodor Herzls Zionist awakening is fun to tell. It conveys an essential truth about Zionism and about Herzls path from European man of letters to Jewish patriot. Yet it overdramatizes, oversimplifies, and overshadows other truths about Herzls more torturous lifelong journey as an emancipated Jew seeking freedom and dignity daily in an increasingly Jew-hostile Europe.

Nevertheless, for years we have heard the Disneyfied version: about this elegant, cultured European, a model Jew freed from the ghetto to be a lawyer, a playwright, a journalist. A turn-of-the-century Middle European with piercing eyes and a beautiful black beard, fluent in Magyar, German, French, having been born in Hungary, educated in Austria, working now in Paris for Viennas most prestigious newspaper. And there he is, so sure that he fits in, that he belongs, covering the treason trial of the French Army Captain Alfred Dreyfus.

The Parisian crowds are seething. After all, in the 1890s, nationalism is rising. The French feel proud of their Frenchness, the Italians of being Italian, the Germans of their Germanness. And a traitor, accused of smuggling secrets to the enemy, threatens the nation, body and soul. Still, in January 1895, the crowds dont just shout Down with Dreyfus or Down with the traitor but mort! mort les Juifs [Death to the Jews]!

Herzl is traumatized. How could this happen, Herzl wonders, reeling, even before it becomes obvious that conniving Jew-haters framed Dreyfus. We Jews have worked so hard to be accepted.

Herzl is traumatized.

How could this happen, Herzl wonders, reeling, even before it becomes obvious that conniving Jew-haters framed Dreyfus. We Jews have worked so hard to be accepted. Yet, we are always suspect. And even if one of us is guilty, why does that crime condemn us all? Only when Jews have a proper sense of nationalism, a proper state of our own, a Jewish state, will we be respected and truly free.

Herzl plunges ahead. Before you know it, it is 1897 and he is addressing the First Zionist Congress in white tie and tails. When the conference finishes, he acknowledges that people may mock him but within half-a-century there will be a Jewish state.

Israels establishment in 1948 proves Herzl right. Being just off by one reality-check-of-a-year allows fans to chuckle at how close the Zionist prophets prediction was.

The story is delicious. It is dramatic. It is a useful parable. It covers much ideological territory vividly and efficiently. Essentially two scenes explain the European liberal nationalist context that spawned Zionism, the antisemitism that turned so many Jews into Zionists, and the Zionist quest for pride, dignity, national salvation. This cinematic plot tracks the Zionist trajectory from Wandering Jews to Rooted Jews, from homelessness to homeland, from powerlessness to power, from victim to victor, from broken ghetto Yid to muscular Israeli.

Moreover, much of the legend is true. Herzl covered the Dreyfus case. And the Jew-hatred was palpable, persistent and brutal. But Herzls conversion didnt occur in a flash he had been struggling with Jew-hatred and trying to define a sense of Jewish peoplehood his whole life. Herzl did not initially report the story as crowds shouting Death to the Jews, but Judas! Traitor! although he admittedly helped simplify his story and embellish his own legend over the years.

Finally, decades before Herzls Zionist Congress launched the formal Zionist movement in August 1897, the momentum had been building. In 1862, Moses Hess wrote Rome and Jerusalem: The Last National Question. In 1882, the first group of BILU Palestine pioneers arrived in the Land of Israel. In 1890, Nathan Birnbaum coined the word Zionism. In 1895, David Yellin transformed Naftali Hertz Imbers 1878 poem Tikvatenu into HaTikva, which became the national anthem. Other voices were demanding justice.

This romantic liberal-nationalist ends his pamphlet with a sweeping, idealistic, constructive vision that not only proves he was not the Garrison Zionist most people believe, but demonstrates the power of liberal nationalism to redeem a people and the world.

Herzl himself rocked the Jewish world in February 1896, with his Zionist manifesto Der Judenstaat, the Jewish State. And, perhaps most important, we see that Herzls Zionism entailed more than anti-antisemitism. This romantic liberal-nationalist ends his pamphlet with a sweeping, idealistic, constructive vision that not only proves he was not the Garrison Zionist most people believe, but demonstrates the power of liberal nationalism to redeem a people and the world. The Jews who want a state of their own will have one, Herzl writes, democratically acknowledging those who wish to stay in the Diaspora. We are to live at last as free men on our own soil and die peacefully in our own homeland. Then he soars, as every liberal-nationalist should, building up universal hopes and values, not putting up walls and barriers to idealism: The world will be freed by our freedom, enriched by our riches, and made greater by our greatness.

How lucky we are to be his heirs, to inherit a state that he helped create, rather than being born into the much harsher, more insecure world he inherited from his ancestors.

Professor Gil Troy is the author of The Zionist Ideas and the editor of the three-volume set, Theodor Herzl: Zionist Writings, the inaugural publication of The Library of the Jewish People, to be published this August marking the 125th anniversary of the First Zionist Congress.

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Theodor Herzl and the Jews' Leap of Hope - Jewish Journal

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Posted By admin on August 20, 2022

Pittsburghs shinshinim are here.

Since arriving from Israel last week, the four young ambassadors have begun exploring the community and creating new connections. The 18-year-olds, who deferred a year of Israeli military service to volunteer, will spend their time helping educators at Community Day School, the Jewish Community Center of Greater Pittsburgh and religious schools throughout the area.

These responsibilities, the teens explained, require more than simply teaching bright-eyed American children cheery Hebrew songs. They hope to introduce young Pittsburghers to young Israelis and, in turn, share insight into each others passions and practices.

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Before joining the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh-supported program, Michal Dekel and Shahar Kurland were both familiar with western Pennsylvania. Dekel is from Karmiel Pittsburghs Partnership2gethers sister city and was a Diller Teen Fellow. She was supposed to visit Pittsburgh in 2020 but was unable to due to the pandemic. Despite never visiting Pittsburgh before last week, however, Dekel said she met several teens and local residents through Zoom and had heard about the citys beauty.

Kurland is also from Karmiel and said her knowledge of Pittsburgh and its Jewish community stems from attending Emma Kaufmann Camp three years ago.

Pittsburgh is so green, she said. You can breathe and be relaxed. And I know that you say its big and noisy, but I think Pittsburgh is quiet.

Einav Mayer is from Kibbutz Dovrat in northern Israel. Before beginning the Shinshinim program, he didnt know much about Pittsburgh. Since arriving, however, hes found that his musical bent will be appreciated here; the family he is staying with is a musical bunch, and hes been able to practice piano in their home.

Bar Zeevi is from Midreshet Ben Gurion in southern Israel. Like Mayer, she had little knowledge of Pittsburgh before joining the program. Even so, she said, she researched local Jewish life and was delighted to discover how those of different denominations share spaces and join in activities together.

What I read is that the community is a mix of Conservative, Orthodox and Reform, and I thought it was really cool because each one of us could find their own place inside the community, she said.

The English-speaking teens have different interests, which will help create inroads throughout the community. Dekel enjoys traveling and reading books about philosophy or biblical commentary. So whether its during a discussion about a weekly Torah portion or a specific region of Israel, Dekel said she is excited to share her knowledge and learn from others.

Kurland is an athlete and makeup artist and is eager to show American youth how Israelis experience high-energy activities like dance, gymnastics and Muay Thai. Purim, she added, is a perfect time to share her love of makeup and hair braiding.

Mayer said he knows that music is a great means of introducing children to a new language or another place, but he hopes to do even more with his talents.

I think that music is something that brings the community together, even if it's not related to learning Hebrew, Mayer said.

Hes hoping that during the year there will be opportunities for fellow musicians to play together, as those experiences arent only educational but just fun in general, he said.

Zeevi is an artist with an ability to sew, paint and weld. Back home, during Adloyada (an Israeli parade marking Purim), she oversaw costume design a responsibility that required her to begin helping participants as early as two months before the holiday. Zeevi said shed love to see a citywide arts-filled Purim parade, like those in Israel, but is also keen on introducing students to paint and other expressive materials when discussing the Jewish state.

Federation staffer Risa Kelemer joins the Shinshinim. Photo by Adam Reinherz

As excited as the 18-year-olds are to begin working with local youth, theres a certain level of fear that goes along with being a part of the Shinshinim program.

It's kind of scary because if they don't like me I don't want them to hate Israel, Dekel said.

Representing an entire country is a big responsibility, she added. Its stressful because we dont necessarily know how to handle some of the arguments [people may want to have]. We also dont want to get into politics because its not our job.

Risa Kelemer, Federations Shinshinim coordinator, said the young adults are not here to serve as formal educators but rather 18-year-olds who just graduated high school and are able to create those kinds of very natural connections with kids in the same age group essentially.

Even so, the Shinshinim said the task is worrisome.

Weve come to represent Israel and, for some people, thats already a reason to argue, Dekel said.

If people wish to challenge the Shinshinim about Israeli politics or policies, Kurland is nervous about her ability to respond in English.

This language is not my first language, she said. I cannot [articulate] my ideas like I would in Hebrew, and thats hard because sometimes people cant understand me when I say something.

Kurland is also concerned about the cultural differences that can affect conversation.

I think that in Israel you can say everything because in Israel this is what we do, she said. But like when you say something a little bit harsh here people can be sensitive about that and maybe get very defensive.

Mayer said hes less distressed about a potential linguistic divide than an information gap.

While I've lived in Israel my entire life, and I've experienced many parts of it, I'm scared that I wouldn't be able to answer every question that everyone has about the country, he said. I'm not an expert on everything, even though I live there, and I just don't want to spread misinformation about things.

Zeevi said that she and the other Shinshinim agree theres at least one major concept that Americans need to be understand.

There's a difference between Israel the country, the government, and the people in Israel, she said. That's a really big difference that people are not very aware of.

Along these lines, the Shinshinim appreciate that working with a younger demographic may require responding to inaccurate information they see online.

There is a lot of fake news on social media, and although Israel, and Israelis, may be often maligned online, Zeevi said she hopes that by spending time together the Shinshinim and American youth will gain greater insight into one another.

Part of their mission, Kurland said, is predicated on understanding American Jewish practices: We need to learn how you live and how you make your traditions. And we need to bring this to Israel.

Whereas bolstering Jewish peoplehood is a program element Kelemer said that the Shinshinim serve as a bridge not only between Israel and Pittsburgh but also between different institutions because there are very few people in the community who migrate between CDS and all the Hebrew schools and the JCC.

Given their bird's eye view of the community, Kelemer is eager to see what the 18-year-olds accomplish in Pittsburgh.

The Shinshinim are talented, they are energetic, they kind of reinvigorate every institution that they're a part of, she said. They come in with fresh ideas, a fresh mindset and a different way to connect and speak about the conversations that we're already having in the community. PJC

Adam Reinherz can be reached at areinherz@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.

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Meet the Shinshinim: Building connections in Pittsburgh | The Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle - thejewishchronicle.net

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Posted By admin on August 20, 2022

In the Aug. 15, 1947 edition of what was then called the Jewish Community Bulletin, we wrote that San Francisco within the last year has become the port of hope to more than 2,000 refugees who have come through San Francisco from Shanghai on their way to new homes and new lives.

The article detailed a visit by an official from the United Service for New Americans, one of the many organizations at the time set up to aid the influx of Jewish refugees into the United States.

It is through those organizations USNA nationally and the San Francisco Committee locally that emigres who have spent years in the Shanghai ghetto under Japanese rule are received here and helped on their way to new homes throughout the country, we wrote.

In the same issue, we wrote about a new series of USNA-provided visas for Jews in Shanghai.

The men, women and children who will immigrate with visas based on the agencys affidavit are a part of a group of some 14,000 refugees who fled Central and Eastern European countries before the war, to escape the nazis [sic]. They were stranded later in Japan and China, and interned by the Japanese in Shanghai after Pearl Harbor Day.

On arrival in San Francisco the newcomers will be provided with a complete program of reception, shelter, maintenance, and resettlement services by United Service, working in cooperation with the San Francisco Committee for Emigres, the San Francisco Section of the National Council of Jewish Women and HIAS, the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society.

Many of the Shanghailanders, as they were known, stayed in San Francisco and Northern California. Weve written about them before, including the once-robust community around Congregation Bnai Emunah in San Francisco (now part of Am Tikvah). Now their numbers are dwindling, but their voices are still being heard in the pages of J.

(The first article, back in 1947, was written by Rita Semel, who celebrated her 100th birthday last year. Besides being a reporter for this paper and the San Francisco Chronicle, Semel has been a longtime Jewish leader with the San Francisco Interfaith Council and is the subject of a new biography.)

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75 years ago: S.F. was 'Port of Hope' for Jewish refugees from Shanghai - The Jewish News of Northern California

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Posted By admin on August 20, 2022

After a two-year hiatus, the Hazon Michigan Jewish Food Festival is back live and in-person 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday, Aug 21. Weaving the themes of Jewish living, sustainability, community and above all nourishment event organizers expect hundreds of attendees to attend from all backgrounds in a gathering that for the first time will take place at the DNR Outdoor Adventure Center, 1801 Atwater St., Detroit, which is located at the intersection of the Dequindre Cut at the Detroit River. Admission into the Outdoor Adventure Center will be free during festival hours.

Hazon has long focused on food as the foothold into a larger conversation about environmental sustainability, said Hazon Detroit Director Amit Weitzer.

The importance of stewarding and connecting with Earth is a part of how we engage as Jews.

In the past two years, Weitzer said the food festival was reduced to a drive-up or drive-through experience due to the COVID pandemic. Supporters of the food festival were given food baskets or drove up to vendors to sample or purchase food from local food artisans and companies.

Weitzer added that this year, the festival will take place in indoor and outdoor areas and will provide flexibility for the comfort levels of participants who may still be hesitant about crowds in the age of COVID-19.

Weitzer said Hazon Detroit invites the Jewish and wider Detroit community to lean into the nurturing feeling of coming together in person that the festival provides. Visitors can stop by the booths of partnering organizations to learn about the work they are doing in sustainability and community building initiatives. Of course, she added, there will be plenty of food to sample from a rodeo of food trucks with food to purchase, inlcuding Treat Dreams, Chef Cari, Nu Deli, Shimmy Shack and Drunken Rooster.

There will also be live music from Joe Reilly and Henry Barnes and the Half Sauers String Band.

The festival is made possible by the generosity of the William Davidson Foundation, the D. Dan & Betty Kahn Foundation, the Ben N. Teitel Trust, Hebrew Free Loan, the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit and dozens of Jewish and communal organizations.

Weitzner said the Outdoor Adventure Center essentially serves first as an interactive childrens museum, introducing urban children to the wonders of the natural bounty of northern Michigan. The center features a 40-foot-tall, manmade, interactive tree; off-road vehicle, bicycle, kayak, canoe and fishing-boat simulators; a life-size beaver lodge and eagles nest; an indoor archery range; a 3,000-gallon, freshwater aquarium; and a man-made, 36-foot-tall waterfall.

The top floor of the center features classrooms overlooking the Detroit River. Here is where event organizers will hold interactive classes and workshops and tastings. Zach Berg, co-owner and head cheese monger at Mongers Provisions, will lead a session called Cheese: Milks leap toward immortality where participants can explore dairy preservation and sample cheeses. Chef Phil Jones of Farmacy Food will lead a workshop called Sweet Potato Latkes: an edible journey through Black and Jewish cultures. He will offer cooking demonstrations and samplings as well.

One workshop, entitled When Manischewitz is Treyf, will challenge participants ages teen and up to think about whether their values are reflected in choices they make when buying food and drink, said facilitator Avery Robinson.

Robinson, who grew up in Metro Detroit and now lives in Brooklyn and works as an editorial associate at the Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, describes the class as a lively lesson and discussion about the history of the Jewish values surrounding food and kashrut through the lens of wine.

This is going to be an engaging conversation that will revolve around what makes wine kosher or not kosher, and why as a beverage the rabbis created a certain set of special rules for wine making and consumption, said Robinson, who grew up in an actively involved Jewish family.

The class will be a combination of stories from history, texts and a discussion to explore what kosher wine means when one decides on what bottle they will pick out next time they bring one to serve and drink at the next seder or meal with a Jewish ritual.

Rabbi Louis Finkelman of Or Chadash of Oak Park will lead a discussion and demonstration on how wheat is grown and processed. He will also speak to the many times in Jewish tradition where wheat and bread leavened and unleavened is mentioned in Jewish traditions. Part of his stories will come from his own experiences growing a modest amount of wheat in his Southfield backyard.

People have a different take on sustainability when they have experienced growing their own food, even growing a small part of their own food, Finkelman said. Last year, my daughter-in-law gave me red wheat seeds.She planted a tiny bed of wheat in her garden in Oak Park, and I did the same in my garden in Southfield. We harvested the wheat, and got together toprocess what we had planted, generating enough flour for one loaf of bread.

Outside, on a lawn adjacent to the center, representatives from Outdoor Adventures from Tamarack Camps will be staging outdoor games and activities, allowing those who may not get the chance to go away to camp in the summer to get a taste of camping.

The environmental organization Plastic Oceans will host stewardship activities along the Dequindre Cut Greenway and children can create art projects made from recyclable materials with the Flying Cardboard Theater.

Rob Streit of the Detroit Food Academy will be on hand to teach stoppers-by the educational programs the academy offers to students as young as middle school. The DFA trains students in culinary arts where they can eventually find employment and try their skills in one of the small batch companies in partnership with the academy. Some of its most well-known products are its Slow Jams, Mitten Bites Energy Bars and Popsicles, all available for purchase at the festival.

Author Anita Pazner of West Bloomfield will be reading and selling her new childrens book The Topsy Turvy Bus (2022 Kar-Ben Publishing) a book about sustainability. Fueled with leftover vegetable oil collected from restaurants, the real Topsy Turvy bus will be on site at the festival, and visitors can climb aboard, though it will stay put during the festival. Pazner will also teach about the values and importance of home composting with a hands-on demonstration.

Inspiration for the book came to Pazner during volunteer outings on the bus at the height of the pandemic. Former Hazon Detroit Director Wren Hack drove the bus to pick up used cooking oil in local restaurants and deliver food to area food banks.

Pulling on the Jewish value of tikkun olam repairing the world Pazner said the book can show children of all faith backgrounds that there are things they and their parents can do to make the Earth a healthier, more sustainable place to live.

When I walk visitors through the bus, Ill teach them how it uses vegetable oil and solar power and talk about the benefits of composting, Pazner said.

I hope by visiting the bus, and by reading the book, kids and their parents will come to understand that we can all perform tikkun olam one new, fresh idea at a time.

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This Editors Note was sent out earlier Wednesday in ToIs weekly update email to members of the Times of Israel Community. To receive these Editors Notes as theyre released, join the ToI Community here.

First came Yasser Arafat, who repeatedly and clear-headedly chose to forgo the opportunity of winning statehood for the Palestinian people on much of the territory they sought notably during the Clinton administration, in negotiations with prime ministers Yitzhak Rabin and Ehud Barak. Ultimately, he could not bring himself to abandon terrorism against the Jewish state, to transition from terror chief to national leader.

And then came Mahmoud Abbas, who did not so much as respond to departing prime minister Ehud Olmerts hurriedly scribbled offer of a state that met almost all of the Palestinians ostensible demands, including control of much of East Jerusalem and shared sovereignty in the Old City. While not directly orchestrating the killings of Israelis, Arafat-style, Abbas evidently shared and continued to promulgate Arafats murderously incendiary narrative that the Jewish people have no legitimacy in their ancient homeland.

Abbass remarks in Berlin on Tuesday, accusing Israel of carrying out 50 holocausts against the Palestinians, are the pernicious, logical culmination of the false narrative he set out in his 1982 Peoples Friendship University of Russia doctoral thesis, which in turn shaped his failed leadership.

As published in book form in 1984, he sought to minimize the scale of the Holocaust, writing, according to a translation by the Simon Wiesenthal Center, It is possible that the number of Jewish victims reached six million, but at the same time it is possible that the figure is much smaller below one million. And he blamed the Zionists for such murders as did take place, claiming that Zionist leaders gave permission to every racist in the world, led by Hitler and the Nazis, to treat Jews as they wish, so long as it guarantees immigration to Palestine More victims meant greater rights and stronger privilege [for Zionist leaders] to join the negotiation table for dividing the spoils of war once it was over.

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Four years ago, in a speech in Ramallah, Abbas amended and expanded his inflammatory falsification of history, to allege that the Holocaust was caused by the Jews social behavior, [charging] interest, and financial matters. As for Zionists, Israelis and Israel itself, the Palestinian leader pronounced, Their narrative about coming to this country because of their longing for Zion, or whatever were tired of hearing this. The truth is that this is a colonialist enterprise, aimed at planting a foreign body in this region.

Its classic antisemitism, and classic blame the victim, Deborah Lipstadt, the scholar who in 2000 had triumphed in a libel suit brought against her by British Holocaust denier David Irving, told The Times of Israel after that May 2018 Abbas speech. This brings one back directly to his dissertation, to his distortion of history.

Added Lipstadt, Heres a man who started his career denying the Holocaust and now, at the latter stages of his career, seems to be engaging in rewriting the history of the Holocaust.

Four years later, Abbas is unrepentant, and Lipstadt, now the US special envoy to combat antisemitism, is again calling him out for his unacceptable antisemitism.

Four years later, too, the latter stages of his career linger on, and the man who inherited Arafats narrative demonizing and delegitimizing Israel continues his foul revisionism, seeking to stir up hostility, and by extension violence, against the Jews and their state, and thus continuing to stave off the process of interaction and negotiation he claims to seek to enable Palestinian independence.

In his very same nauseating Berlin appearance, Abbas ludicrously professed himself committed to building trust and achieving a peaceful solution to the conflict with Israel. Please come to peace, he implored. Please come to security, lets build trust between us and you.

But like Arafat before him, the current Palestinian leader is the biggest obstacle to a better future for his people. Lets build trust, he urged. But trust is a function of confidence. It requires mutual good faith. And it is founded on truth.

In our perilous reality, trust simply will not, cannot be built with a man who has failed our people and his own because of his manifest lifelong incapacity, his refusal, to acknowledge and come to terms with Jewish history ancient and modern, in Israel and in exile.

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Thats why we started the Times of Israel ten years ago - to provide discerning readers like you with must-read coverage of Israel and the Jewish world.

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A Palestinian teenager was killed as heavy clashes broke out in Nablus late Wednesday and early Thursday while Jewish worshippers held a monthly pilgrimage to a shrine in the Palestinian West Bank city under military guard.

The visit to Josephs Tomb came a week after the city saw rare daytime gunbattles between troops and Palestinian fighters. It was the first trip to the shrine since late June, when Palestinian gunmen opened fire on pilgrims, wounding a senior Israel Defense Forces officer and two civilians.

Wassim Khalifa, 19, was shot by a sniper during the clashes and rushed to a hospital before succumbing to his wounds, Palestinian media outlets reported, citing the Palestinian Red Crescent rescue service.

Khalifa was from the Balata refugee camp in Nablus, according to reports.

Dozens more were injured, including at least one person hospitalized in serious condition, the al Quds news site reported. Most of the other injuries were for tear gas inhalation.

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The IDF said in a statement that troops from the army and Border Police were securing a coordinated pilgrimage, and had returned fire at Palestinian gunmen.

The fighting broke out as a convoy of Jewish worshippers and IDF soldiers entered the city for a monthly visit to the tomb, revered by some as the final resting place of the biblical Joseph, where they met with resistance from locals.

Clashes during the visits are commonplace; Palestinians routinely throw rocks at the troops, and frequently attack them with Molotov cocktails and gunfire.

No injuries were reported among Israelis, though a bullet struck an armored bus used by the Israeli group.

Heavy bursts of gunfire could be heard in footage from the scene which were shared on social media.

The clashes came with the city already on edge following a rare daytime raid on August 9, sparking a number of gunbattles. Israeli forces killed wanted terror chief Ibrahim Nabulsi during an exchange of fire outside his home. Two others were killed and forty more were injured in the clashes.

Nabulsi was part of an Islamic Jihad squad that had committed several shooting attacks against soldiers and civilians in the West Bank earlier this year, according to the Shin Bet. The IDF said that included a shooting at the Josephs Tomb complex, where there have been several attacks recently.

Tensions have been high at the site since April, when some 100 Palestinian rioters broke into the shrine and vandalized it.

Illustrative: Israeli soldiers escort hundreds of Jewish worshippers to the Josephs Tomb holy site in Nablus in the northern West Bank on December 10, 2018. (Israel Defense Forces)

A day after the vandalism, two Jewish men were shot and lightly to moderately hurt while trying to reach the tomb to restore it. Israel later carried out major renovation work at the site.

On June 29, Samaria Regional Brigade Commander Col. Roy Zweig, who was involved in the sites rehabilitation, was shot along with two civilians as Palestinians directed heavy gunfire at the shrine compound during a monthly pilgrimage. All three suffered light injuries.

Two weeks later, an Israeli man was shot and lightly injured while trying to reach the site with three others in an uncoordinated visit.

Josephs Tomb is located inside Area A of the West Bank, which is officially under complete Palestinian Authority control, though the Israeli military conducts activities there. The IDF bars Israeli citizens from entering Area A without prior authorization.

Emanuel Fabian contributed to this report.

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Supporting The Times of Israel isnt a transaction for an online service, like subscribing to Netflix. The ToI Community is for people like you who care about a common good: ensuring that balanced, responsible coverage of Israel continues to be available to millions across the world, for free.

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Pick of the weekLicorice Pizza

Paul Thomas Andersons comedy-drama is a colourful slice of nostalgia, delighting in the passion and possibilities of youth. In 1973 Los Angeles, a relationship develops between 15-year-old actor and waterbed entrepreneur Gary (Cooper Hoffman, son of Philip Seymour) and mid-20s photographers assistant Alana (Alana Haim of sibling rock trio Haim). Despite the occasional discomfort of the age gap (picture this with the genders reversed), its a chaste romance, sweetly played by the two leads, which develops through a series of exquisite set-pieces none more so than the delivery of a bed to notoriously furious Hollywood producer Jon Peters (a hilarious Bradley Cooper cameo). From Friday 26 August, Prime Video

Billy Wilder meets Agatha Christie in court and the verdict is unanimously positive. The 1957 thriller, adapted from Christies play, is carried along partly by its twisty plot and partly by Charles Laughtons twinkly-eyed turn as defence barrister Sir Wilfrid Robarts. His interest is piqued by a watertight murder case against poor inventor Leonard Vole (Tyrone Power) and he wont let a recent heart attack stop him taking the brief. Marlene Dietrich challenges him for star wattage as Voles wife Christine, who is strangely indifferent to her husbands fate. Saturday 20 August, 2.35pm, BBC Two

War affects two Israeli parents and their soldier son in different ways in this narratively bold drama. Michael (Lior Ashkenazi) and Daphna (Sarah Adler) are devastated after being told their child Jonathan (Yonathan Shiray) has been killed in the line of duty. We then see Jonathan at his desert checkpoint, where the mood is, initially, a bit Catch-22 a squaddie foxtrots; the barracks slowly sinks into the sand; a camel saunters past. Samuel Maozs film encompasses both black comedy and searing grief, while his camera hovers, monitoring events like a military drone. Saturday 20 August, 12.30am, BBC Two

This fever dream of a thriller throws Vietnam war trauma, deep state conspiracies and weighty religious concepts into a horror film that teeters on the brink of absurdity but remains bracingly enjoyable. Affable soldier turned postman Jacob (Tim Robbins) starts having nightmarish hallucinations, but is it the result of PTSD or secret army experiments on his platoon? Or is he in purgatory in between heaven and hell seeing his life flash before his eyes? Teasing biblical references abound as director Adrian Lyne keeps you guessing as to what is and isnt real. Monday 22 August, 11pm, AMC

In a similar vein to his 2008 drama The Class, French director Laurent Cantet takes a teacher and watches them negotiate a challenging group of students. In this case, novelist Olivia (Marina Fos) is leading a creative writing workshop in a declining industrial town on the Mediterranean coast. All the pupils seem engaged, except for Antoine (Matthieu Lucci), whose morbid fascinations and rightwing leanings frustrate and intrigue Olivia. A slow-burner of a film, full of inchoate teen disaffection. Tuesday 23 August, 11.15pm, BBC Two

Surfs up, as is the crime rate, in Kathryn Bigelows exhilarating bromance thriller. Keanu Reeves plays greenhorn FBI agent Johnny Utah, sent undercover on the beaches of California to track down the Ex-Presidents, a bunch of highly effective bank robbers who may also be surfers. His focus soon turns to the charismatic Bodhi (Patrick Swayze) who draws Johnny in with his freewheeling rebel philosophy, in between wave-riding and skydiving excursions. Reeves is more comfortable in slacker dude guise than as a gun-toting G-man but Swayze inhabits his sunbleached part fully. Wednesday 24 August, 10.20pm, BBC Three

This affectionate parody of Star Trek picks fun at the excessive fandom surrounding sci-fi films and TV shows, while nodding towards the pigeonholing that the actors can face in the rest of their careers. It helps that its a quality cast Tim Allen plays the Shatneresque star of cancelled 80s series Galaxy Quest, contacted by aliens who believe the show is factual. Along with Sigourney Weaver and Alan Rickman (wonderfully sour in the Spock role), he is thrust into a real extraterrestrial war and must use all his thespian skill to defeat the enemy. Friday 26 August, 9pm, Film4

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New technology has allowed scientists to discover fascinating details about the life of a Judean shepherd that lived and died around 6,000 years ago.

In the 21st century the deductive power of archaeology has grown by leaps and bounds. Largely because of various technological advances and breakthroughs, archaeologists are now able to extract far more detail from artifacts, ruins, and buried skeletons than they were able to in the past.

A fresh example of this is an analysis published late last year in the Journal of Eastern Mediterranean Archaeology and Heritage Studies . Working under the sponsorship of the Israel Antiquities Authority, a team of archaeologists reexamined the remains of an individual male skeleton taken from a cave in the Judean Desert near Jericho nearly three decades ago. As a part of this study, they also scrutinized and reanalyzed the various artifacts found buried near or alongside this person, to gain further insights into this individuals life and living circumstances. Through this intensive analysis they were able to create a micro-history of what we now know was a Judean shepherd, despite the fact that he lived and died in the Late Chalcolithic period (4500-3900 BC).

The Chalcolithic shepherds belongings, pictured here in a museum exhibit, were analyzed by 21st-century technology to create a highly-detailed microhistory of someone who lived in the Judean Desert nearly 6,000 years ago. ( The Israel Museum, Jerusalem )

The type of narrowly focused examination performed here is a relatively recent innovation in archaeology. Using the most up-to-date scientific technologies and tools, archaeologists and ancient historians can learn so many details about an individuals life that they automatically increase their understanding of that persons culture and society. The profile created during this type of analysis is referred to as a one-person microhistory. Microhistories like the one created for the Chalcolithic shepherd are changing the way archaeology uses personal data to tellus more about these societies in general.

One-person microhistory focuses on an individual and traces their life, Israel Antiquities Authority Geoinformatics Manager Dr. Hai Ashkenazi explained, in a recent article he wrote for Haaretz about this research project (Dr. Hai Ashkenazi was the project leader). Micro-historians try to understand that personal life story and use it to extrapolate about the lifestyle of a larger society.

The skeleton of the Chalcolithic shepherd and his belongings were found in this Wadi el-Makkukh area cave in the Judean Desert about 30 years ago. ( The Israel Museum, Jerusalem )

In 1993, archaeologists entered a small cave in the Wadi el-Makkukh region of the Judean Desert . As they explored the cave further they eventually unearthed the remains of a single skeleton wrapped in fabric and partially hidden beneath a straw mat. Placed next to the skeleton were an assortment of tools and utensils, including a bow and two arrows, a short blade made from flint, a longer blade made from the same type or rock, a wooden bowl, a coiled-straw basket, a 41-inch (105-centimeter) wooden stick, and footwear that resembled a pair of sandals .

All of these items were extremely well-preserved in the arid desert cave. Because of their state, the archaeologists hypothesized that the person buried there must have lived and died during the period of the Bar Kochba Revolt (132-136), a Jewish rebellion against Roman Empire rule in the province of Judea.

This was a reasonable conclusion, since the many artifacts unearthed in Judean Desert caves typically date to either the time of the Bar Kochba Revolt or to the much earlier Late Chalcolithic period . Based on this dating and the nature of some of the artifacts found beside him, the archaeologists deduced that the man was likely a warrior who had fought during the fierce second-century conflict that pitted Roman occupiers against Judeas homegrown population. The small cave was referred to as the Cave of the Warrior from that point on.

While these conclusions seemed reasonable at the time, it is now known that they were mistaken. New radiocarbon dating tests of organic traces found in the excavation layer revealed that the individual had been buried in the Cave of the Warrior in approximately 3760 BC. This pushed the date of his life and death back nearly 4,000 years to the Late Chalcolithic, completely negating the idea that hed been a soldier who battled the Romans.

During this still Neolithic era, the people who lived in the region were pastoralists who grazed sheep and goats and cultivated crops like grains, lentils, and fruits grown in orchards.

To understand the ancient mans role in his society, the archaeologists involved in the new analysis took a much closer look at his personal belongings. What they found showed that the man had not been a warrior at all, as previously thought, but was instead a Judean shepherd given the task of tending herds for his people.

Reconstruction of the nobleman, now shepherd, from roughly 6,000 years ago in full garb. ( The Israel Museum, Jerusalem )

The ancient sandals represented a remarkable find. Footwear from this long ago is seldom recovered, and the only reason these cowhide sandals survived is because of the protected cave environment and the arid desert soil conditions that resist decay.

These sandals were an unusual discovery, but they were especially important for another reason. Tests showed that a substance stuck on their bottom contained microscopic particles of a type only produced in the stomach of herbivores and released in through feces. This means the man had stepped in dung left by domesticated animals, which is something that would have happened quite often to someone engaged in shepherding work.

The wooden bowl was another item that helped the archaeologists identify the man as a Chalcolithic shepherd. In size and shape the bowl closely resembled bowls found at a site in Israels Negev Desert , which is known to have been used as a campsite by shepherds in more recent times. A bowl of this kind would have been ideal for grinding, crushing, and mixing food, and the signs of wear on this artifact suggest it was used daily. It was likely carried from place to place by an individual who was often on the move and would have needed his own personal bowl to carry with him.

Pollen grains found embedded in the mans various personal items showed that he must have lived in a community in a hilly region just west of the cave, where grazing activities would have been practiced in ancient times. The fabrics he was wrapped in would have been suitable for making a sash and skirt, which was typical wardrobe for a shepherd. The bow and arrow he carried would have allowed him to hunt birds and small animals to supplement his regular diet when he was away from his community. The straw basket would have held his some of his belongings, and he could have slept on the straw mat at night under the stars.

An extensive examination of the mans skeletal remains revealed more fascinating details about his life and health.

He was approximately 63 inches (160 centimeters) tall, and he would have likely been in his 40s at the time he died. This would have been considered old during the times when he lived, since the average lifespan at that time was about 30. The mans teeth were in terrible condition, consistent with some level of malnutrition. However, his bones were thick and strong, indicating hed been physically active and had well-developed muscles (as would be expected of a shepherd).

The man had suffered a broken leg not long before he died, but it seems this had fully healed and therefore was not directly related to the cause of his death. However, signs of wear in the heels of one of his sandals, plus the presence of the long wooden stick, suggested hed walked with a limp in his latter days and needed to use a cane for support. Perhaps his weakened condition had compromised his chances of survival in some unknown way and had ultimately played some role in his demise.

Microhistory and modern forensic technologies are making it possible to recreate very detailed individual ancient lives that also tell us more about the societies they lived in. This is a dreamy desert scene showing a modern shepherd in ancient landscape in the Sudan. ( YiannisMantas / Adobe Stock)

Taken in total, everything revealed during this intensive investigation is consistent with the conclusion that the man who lived during the Late Chalcolithic period and was buried in the Cave of the Warrior was a Judean shepherd. All his personal items would all have been useful and practical for someone who lived the shepherds lifestyle, and he lived in a community that would have relied on grazing animals as a vital source for food and other resources.

In addition to what a microhistory investigation can disclose about the life of one person, this type of investigation is ideal for the study of ancient cultures and societies.

The rare state of preservation of the findings in the Cave of the Warrior presented a singular opportunity to describe the microhistory of a lone individual, Dr. Ashkenazi wrote in his Haaretz article. Instead of engaging with long-term processes or the history of dynasties and monarchs, here was an opportunity to understand the life of an ordinary person who lived 6,000 years ago.

Modern analytical tools and techniques have enabled this type of detailed reconstruction of an individual life and society. Archaeology is advancing and historical understanding is advancing right along with it, at a pace that would have shocked archaeologists even 30 or 40 years ago.

Top image: Thanks to 21st-century technology we are now able to examine ancient artifacts, like those found with a Judean shepherd, to learn fascinating details about his life. Source: sajis / Adobe Stock

By Nathan Falde

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