Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By admin on August 10, 2022

It was with great anticipation that I read Rabbi Hayyim Angels latest commentary, Psalms: A Companion Volume (Kodesh Press, 2022). Like so many of his other books on biblical text, Rabbi Angels newest volumethis time a commentary on the Book of Psalms or Tehillimdoes not disappoint. Overall Rabbi Angel has written a relevant and readable commentary that will grow the readers appreciation for Psalms.

Tehillim often stands out as one of the most compelling yet enigmatic books in the biblical canon. Its authentic and powerful insight into human experience produces a uniquely penetrating and reflective experience that has endured for centuries. Psalms are often quoted by religious and secular leaders for inspiration and recognized as one of the great literary works of Western Civilization. In recent history leaders ranging from former President Barack Obama to former President Donald Trump have publicly reflected on Psalms (chapters 46 and 34 respectively).

The new commentary is divided into 13 discrete chapters covering a handful of Psalms. Each chapter stands on its own, exploring a different thematic or structural aspect of the Psalms. The subdivision of the book makes for pleasant readings that can be done in short bursts or longer continuous studies. Many classic points are discussed, including the original context, authorship, structure and overall message that helps the reader gain deeper appreciation and insight for these compositions. More in-depth discussions of intentional omissions, imperfect acrostics, difficult phrases, repetitive psalms and superscriptions are also addressed for more advanced readers seeking to engage with deeper biblical scholarship. Despite the complexity and advanced sources shared by the author, the text remains surprisingly approachable and readable.

Understanding Psalms is doubly important for Jewish readers as many chapters and verses are enmeshed in the traditional liturgy. Psalms forms the bedrock of traditional Jewish prayer, encompassing no less than 50 Psalms throughout the weekly and Shabbat prayers. While many chapters of Psalms may be familiar to readers, without context they can remain somewhat opaque in meaning. Having a masterful overview such as the one provided in this new volume gives one a deeper appreciation of these compositions and ultimately can contribute to more significant prayers.

Rabbi Angel quotes widely, citing secular academic, rabbinic, American, Israeli and even Karaite sources. His introduction of many contemporary Jewish scholars to the general reader is of particular interest and a real contribution to the field. High quality insights by the likes of Amnon Bazak, Amos Hakham Yehudah Elitzur, Elhanan Samet and Yakov Medan present the reader with new and sophisticated observations. Equally impressive are the array of traditional rabbinic scholars who are not often quoted in modern analyses such as Rabbis Yosef Albo, Moshe ibn Gikatilla and Yosef Hayyun. Both groups of Jewish scholars, contemporary and medieval, are given the spotlight in this volume to help decipher the intricate meaning of Psalms. That these rabbinic opinions are lesser known today is a lament underscored by the author in this short but powerful book.

The Maimonidean principle of accepting the truth from whoever speaks it is loudly reinforced throughout the rabbis commentary as he gives equal deference to all textually supported opinions. The volume includes a subtle suggestion that critiques on both ends of the commentary spectrum have forsaken the diversity of high quality rabbinic voices in the exegeses of Psalms. On one hand the ultra-orthodox approach produces an invented homogenous interpretation that this volume demonstrates was never maintained by traditional commentators. On the other hand, an equally extreme secular approach, which the author quotes often, operates on the opposite end of the same echo chamber by ignoring many important opinions from the rabbinic corpus. Rabbi Angel reinforces the idea that many of the modern secular scholarship issues related to biblical study were already addressed centuries ago by the traditional first rate scholarship of the rabbis in the Talmud and Midrash, leaving the reader with a greater appreciation for both rabbinic commentary and the Psalms.

The volume includes a subtle suggestion that critiques on both ends of the commentary spectrum have forsaken the diversity of high quality rabbinic voices in the exegeses of Psalms.

Interesting forays in the commentary include reading the Psalms as a midrashic-intertextual window to understanding the narratives of the Bible. Psalms often references biblical narratives or personalitiessuch as events in the life of King David, the destruction of Jerusalem, or the crossing of the Red Sea. Rabbi Angel contends that Psalms functions as an early form of commentary that helps elucidate these narratives for the reader.

Most importantly, the commentary focuses on the multiple understandings of the Psalms that can speak to readers on different wavelengths. For example, many familiar chapters of Psalms can simultaneously address issues on a personal, historical and national level. For example, what was once a lament of national proportions for the destruction of Jerusalem, can now be repurposed by an individual seeking to rebuild their personal lives after tragedy. Or a Psalm recounting the celebratory nature of the exodus from Egypt can be utilized for personal thanks and celebration. These multiple meanings are what Rabbi Angel contends have made the Psalms eternally relevant to generations of readers.

The wide diversity of opinions quoted in this volume demonstrates the complexity of Tehillim while leaving the reader with a sense of appreciation for the biblical text and the excellent arrangement of these sources by the author. Overall the resulting commentary is a very amicable volume rooted in traditional interpretation while fully taking into account modern scholarship. It will leave the reader inspired by timeless messages of Psalms and enthusiastic to further their study.

Dr. Murray Mizrachiis a Business Lecturer at Baruch College. His advisory firm, MM Consulting LLC, is based in New York City where he resides with his family.

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Reading the Book of Psalms in the Twenty-First Century - Jewish Journal

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Posted By admin on August 10, 2022

Republican candidates from Arizona to Pennsylvania ought to worry. On Tuesday, voters in Kansas rejected efforts to gut a womans right to choose. In 2020, Donald Trump trounced Joe Biden there 56-42. Two years later, an anti-choice referendum went down in defeat 59-41. Suburban moms and dads had thundered; turnout soared. The supreme courts wholesale attack on Roe backfired.

The competing opinions authored by Justices Alito, Thomas and Kavanaugh may gift the Democrats a two-seat gain in the Senate, and doom Republican pick-ups of governorships in Michigan and Pennsylvania. Grasp more than you can hold, and you will be left with nothing, the Talmud says. On primary day, the high courts decision in Dobbs seems to have energized plenty of otherwise loyal Republicans. By the numbers, 65% of Americans believe the constitution enshrines a right of privacy even as they hold doubts about abortion.

Trump-endorsed Senate hopefuls JD Vance (Ohio), Mehmet Oz (Pennsylvania), Herschel Walker (Georgia) and Blake Masters (Arizona) must now answer for the Republicans war on autonomy. Vance also wants to ban pornography as he gives a greenlight to guns and embraces Marjorie Taylor Greene. He claims smut harms fertility rates.

A recent Fox News poll shows Democrats with double-digit leads in Pennsylvanias Senate and governors races. Doug Mastriano, the Keystone states Republican gubernatorial candidate, came under recent fire for his embrace of Christian nationalism and ties with antisemitic figures. And Dr Oz is Dr Oz.

Tudor Dixon, the Trump-backed winner of Tuesdays Michigan Republican gubernatorial primary, believes that a 14-year-old raped by a relative should be forced to carry her pregnancy to term. Yeah, perfect example, she told an interviewer.

Her remarks now are a centerpiece of incumbent Democrat Gretchen Whitmers re-election efforts. Dixon opposes exceptions to an abortion ban in cases of rape and incest. She trailed Whitmer by 11 points in a July poll.

The Michigan Right to Reproductive Freedom Initiative may also appear on the fall ballot. Once upon a time opponents of Roe claimed the ruling was wrong because it was anti-democratic.

Adding fuel to this Great Lakes dumpster fire, Matt DePerno, Michigans prospective Republican attorney general, openly mused about restricting accessibility to contraception. At a Republican debate, he questioned the validity of Griswold, the pertinent 1965 supreme court ruling. For good measure, DePerno previously spearheaded efforts to undo Bidens 150,000-vote win in Michigan.

Tuesdays contests were also about the 45th president exacting revenge and promoting the big lie that he was defrauded of victory.

To be sure, not all Republicans were buying what the former guy was selling. But he had greater success than Kansass pro-lifers. Trumpism remains very much alive.

In the state of Washington, incumbents Jaime Herrera Beutler and Dan Newhouse stand on the verge of rebuffing primary bids by Trump-endorsed challengers. Both Representatives Herrera Beutler and Newhouse voted to impeach the ex-reality show host over his role in the January 6 insurrection.

On the other hand, Michigans Representative Peter Meijer, who voted for Trumps impeachment, lost to John Gibbs, a Trump-backed challenger. Gibbs had received a boost from congressional Democrats, as part of an audacious strategic move to empower Republicans they think will lose in the general elections. Meijer, a supermarket chain scion, lost by four points.

With the rightwing Gibbs as the Republican nominee, the Democrats may actually pick up a House seat. Had Meijer emerged with the Republican nod, he would have been favored. All this raises the question of whether Democratic talk about putting the country ahead of party is partisan blather.

Elsewhere, Trump claimed the head of Republican Rusty Bowers, the outgoing speaker of the Arizona senate. He had opposed efforts to overturn the 2020 election, and appeared before the January 6 select committee.

Days after Bowers testified, Trump declared: Bowers must be defeated, and highly respected David Farnsworth is the man to do it.

Farnsworth believes that Satan stole the 2020 election. Really.

This is a real conspiracy headed up by the devil himself, he explained at a debate.

Along with Farnsworth, Mark Finchem, a diehard election denier and conspiracy theorist, notched the Arizona Republican nomination for secretary of state. He too had Trumps blessing.

As for the states Republican primary for governor, Kari Lake holds a two-point lead with more than 80% of precincts reporting. Like Finchem and Farnsworth, Lake garnered a Trump endorsement and rejects Bidens legitimacy as president. Whether she actually wins the primary and can prevail against Democrat Katie Hobbs, the current secretary of state, remains to be seen.

With Kansass resounding no vote, Democrats have good reason to make abortion a major issue for the midterms. Of course, as Republicans learned on Tuesday, it is all too easy to go off the deep-end.

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Tuesdays primaries offered a glint of hope for Democrats this fall - The Guardian

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Posted By admin on August 10, 2022

Living in New York City: Jewish (even if youre Catholic). Living in Butte, Montana: goyish (even if youre Jewish). So observed the late comic Lenny Bruce. (The real one, not his fictional avatar in The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.)

The Jewish or goyish game, which has persevered, to varying degrees, both onstage and off, finds its newest iteration in 2 Jews Choose, a Comedy Central digital series hosted by Jewish comedian and writer Elliot Glazer. The 3-minute shows can be found on YouTube and Comedy Central social platforms.

Glazer is probably best known as the fictional brother of his real-life sister Ilana Glazer on her show Broad City, or from his memorable part in the Seth Rogen film An American Pickle, where he played a Brooklyn hipster named Christian (goyish) who discovers and promotes a new artisan pickle (Jewish). In both cases, Glazers work is nestled within a strong Jewish identity, and 2 Jews Choose is no exception.

The series he created is light and funny, and features Jewish celebrities Judy Gold, Josh Peck, Abbi Jacobson, Susie Essman and Rachel Antonoff who debate the pairings. Some, like outlet stores vs. department stores, have answers that are uttered quickly and with confidence (outlets are Jewish, of course). Others, like coffee cake vs. babka, give the guests pause. Shouldnt there be room for both? But thats not the game: One must be Jewish, the other goyish.

Bruce did the Jewish and goyish routine on stage many times, but it first appeared in print in Playboy (goyish?). David Kamp joined in with a 1999 article in GQ (goyish), then the internet yielded at least two resurrections (a goyish word, no doubt). In 2006, BangitOut.com rebirthed the format to proclaim, among other things, that HBO is Jewish but Cinemax is goyish. And in 2009, on Aishs Jewlarious site, Marnie Winston-Macauley nailed The Golden Girls (Jewish) and Desperate Housewives (goyish), but many would disagree with her call on Lois Lane (Jewish) and Superman (goyish).

Its a strange time to insist on separating things into strictly two categories. Maybe an act built this way is a vestige of a more black-and-white era. Glazers iteration is more relatable in this moment than Bruces original six decades ago. The discussion that follows the decision is less a monologue and more of an identity inquiry and conversation that can edge on Talmudic.

How Jewish are you? Glazer asks fashion designer Antonoff in a recent episode. Culturally, Id say Im off the chart. Religiously, I have all the religious fears and guilt. Replies Glazer: Food, guilt that basically sums up the Jewish experience. In a discussion of ketchup vs. ranch dressing, Antonoff dubs thousand island the ranch of Judaism.

Gold, a Kung Pao Kosher Comedy favorite whose Jewish identity is so core that her Twitter handle is @jewdygold, proclaims that fishing is way Jewier than hunting. Have you ever met a Jew who hunts? Glazer affirms. Gold scoffs at the whole notion of hunting and then says, Were very water, explaining that the Talmud insists that people need to learn to swim and that Jews love herring and whitefish.

So what is Jewish? Depends whom you ask. Theres always someone who you think is more (or less) Jewish than you are, and there are some who might tell you that youre not Jewish enough. This and other Jewish publications argue over this in their newsrooms all the time: What makes a story Jewish? Rabbis and thought leaders debate it using texts both ancient and contemporary.

Not only arent there any easy answers, but questions beget more questions: Ashkenazi or Sephardi? Secular or religious? Which denomination? Were you born Jewish or are you a Jew by choice? Israeli Jew or diaspora Jew? Bottom line is we dont have enough space to even determine what Jewish is which is very Jewish.

So lets start with the other one. What is goyish? The word comes from the Hebrew word goy, which literally means nation. Abraham the patriarch is promised that his descendants will be goy gadol, a big nation. The word goy came to mean gentile or non-Jew and maybe you heard that Elvis Presley served as a Shabbos goy, helping an Orthodox Jewish family in Memphis keep Shabbat.

The Yiddish term goyishe (goy-like) reinforced Jewish communal insularity. Jewish experiences were yiddishe, and things outside the Jewish experiential ghetto, or which seemed illogical, appalling or dangerous were goyishe. A yiddishe kop (Jewish head) meant the person was thinking like one of us, in contrast to goyishe kop, people who think totally differently. If your parents or grandparents used the term goyishe kop, or talked about the goyim, it probably wasnt a huge compliment. Glazer translates goyish as not for the Jews, a kinder approach.

Jewish has changed. Goyish has changed. The embrace of the binary has waned. Denominations and delineations matter less, while nuances and personal connections to culture mean more. The categories are expanding as cultural assumptions expand to include new paradigms for defining what Jewish is.

One of the best parts of 2 Jews Choose is watching the two Jewish entertainers in each episode appreciating each others Jewishness. You are the queen of the Jews, Glazer says to Gold. Oh my God, I love you, Eliot Glazer, Gold says with a huge smile. I love your family. I love that youre so Jewy.

Heres a good place to remember that Lenny Bruces real name wasnt Lenny Bruce. It was Leonard Alfred Schneider. With this name change, perhaps the comic was playing his own personal meta round of the Jewish or goyish game, in which he emerged, if not entirely goyish, then perhaps slightly less Jewish.

Whatever that means.

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'Jewish or goyish' makes comeback in web series '2 Jews Choose' J. - The Jewish News of Northern California

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Posted By admin on August 10, 2022

Summer in Milwaukee is synonymous with festivals.

From Summerfest to Bastille Days to Mexican Fiesta, there isno shortage of live music, food and fun for families and friends to enjoy.

A few years ago, Rabbi Moshe Luchinsand his wife, Sheina, questioned why there was no festival celebrating southeastern Wisconsin'sJewish community.

"There are festivals for everyone," Sheina said."There's Polish Fest and Irish Fest and German Fest. We were like, 'Where is the Jewish fest?'"

The Luchinses had no doubt people in the area were interested in Jewish food.

That winter,at various local grocery stores, they'd hosted "Taste of Kosher" tables, where shoppers could try free samples ofmatzah ball soup, challah, kugeland other traditional Jewish dishes.

"People really liked it and were asking where they could get more of this," Sheina recalled.

She and her husband realized a food festival could be the answer.

In 2019, they launched Mequon'sfirst Jewish Food Festival. It offered a diverse, all-kosher menu, featuringtraditional favorites like cabbage rolls, chicken schnitzel, potato knish and more. Children and families could enjoy face-painting and an inflatable zone and even make their own kosher dill pickles.

The event,held in Mequon's Virmond Park,attracted more than 3,500 people.Rabbi Luchins,whose goal had been to fill the park'sparking lot, said he was blown away to meet people who had parked 15 to 20 minutes away to walk to and attend the festival.

Now in its fourth year, the Jewish Food Festival has outgrown its original venue.

Thetwo-day celebration of Jewish food and culture takes place Sunday, Aug. 14, and Monday, Aug. 15, at Rotary Park, 4100 W. Highland Road, Mequon.

Made possible by community corporate sponsors, thefestival is put on by the Peltz Center for Jewish Life,a division of Lubavitch of Wisconsin. Admission is free. Proceeds from food sales benefit the Peltz Center's community outreach programs.

Festival-goers can purchase a wide range of dishes including pastrami, corned beef and turkey deli sandwiches;sweet noodle kugel;matzah ball soup; and kosher hot dogs. A complete menu with pricesis availableatjewishfoodmequon.com.

All foodis certified kosher and prepared by a team of more than100community volunteers.

The festival also offers a selection of Israeli and Middle Eastern options includingchicken shawarma, falafel and fresh-baked pita bread, Rabbi Luchins said, an homage to Jewish history and heritage.

Luchins said Jewish food is unique because it has been influenced by such a wide range of cultures and peoples throughout history.

"Jewish food came about because the Jewish nation has been traveling and always on the move," he said. "Living in Europe, Russia, Italy, Spain, we picked up different foods and called them 'Jewish food,' but a lot of different nationalities can relate to our food."

Examples, he said, includestuffed cabbage, a Polish dish, and corned beef, a dish from Ireland.

New this year, the festival will serve a dinner special both evenings from 5 to 7 p.m. Sunday night's special is a slow-cooked meat dishcalled cholent, which Sheina Luchins described as a cross betweena stew and a chili.

Rabbi Luchins said Jews have been eating cholent for over two millennia. Traditionally, the dish is served forShabbat lunch on Saturday afternoons.

Jewish law prohibits cooking on the Sabbath, so many Jews throughout history have refrained fromcooking on Fridays after sunset and on Saturdays. Nowadays, Sheina said, many people put something in the crockpot Friday afternoon so it's warm and ready the next day.

"Cholent evolved because, back in the day when they only had coal ovens, they needed something that could slow-cook …and would be ready 24 hours later," she said.

Families would bring their pot ofuncooked but assembled cholent mixture to the local bakerFriday before sundown. Thenthey'd come pick up the cooked cholent Saturday morning.

There will be live music performances throughout the festival, including a concert by Jewish folk singer Josh Engleson and his band Cedars of Lebanonon Sunday from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m.

For $4 each, children can unlock unlimited access to the festival's Expanded Fun Zone, which includes a giant slide, inflatable obstacle course, basketball and more.

Festival-goers also can visit a kosher petting zoo, which also teaches Jewish and non-Jewish visitors which animals are kosher and which aren't, Rabbi Luchins said.

Other activities include a hands-on challah braiding demonstration and educational shows on kosher laws and the shofar horn a trumpet typically made from a ram's horn and blown on Rosh Hashanah.

Rabbi Luchins said he hopes the festival helps the community learn more about Jewish culture and traditions and connect with one another.

"Every year, people reconnect with people they haven't seen for like 25 years. Maybe they went to school together, and they finally get to see each other again because (the festival) brings a lot of the community together," the rabbi said. "That's the goal creating a fun community atmosphere with a Jewish educational component to it so people can understand us more."

What:Jewish Food Festival

Where:Rotary Park,4100 W. Highland Road,Mequon

When:Sunday, Aug. 14, and Monday, Aug. 15, from noon to 7 p.m.

Prices:Admission and parking are free. An expanded Fun Zone admission is $4 per child.Food prices range from $3 to$29.

Info (including a full menu): jewishfoodmequon.com.

All the food at the Jewish Food Festival is kosher, meaning certain rules are followed in its preparation and consumption.What does it mean to be kosher?

Here are some basics:

Fun fact:Rabbi Luchins said that Coca-Cola keeps its recipe a closely-guarded secret. Only a small group of the company's employees know the complete recipe for the soft drink. However, since Coca-Cola is certified kosher, that meansat least two rabbis knowa portion of the recipe.

"My understanding is they each know half the recipe, and they can't share it," Rabbi Luchins said. "(Coca-Cola) is willing to give out their secrets, so to say, to ensure that their product is kosher."

To learn more about Jewish food and keeping kosher, visitchabad.org.

More: A Tropical Smoothie Cafe is coming to the Mequon Pavilions shopping center this fall

More: Festivals, Odd Duck events, Chef Paz at 10 and more in Milwaukee food and drink news

Our subscribers make this reporting possible. Please consider supporting local journalism by subscribing to the Journal Sentinel at jsonline.com/deal.

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What to know about the Jewish Food Festival, which returns to Mequon for its fourth year with new recipes - Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

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Posted By admin on August 10, 2022

NEW ORLEANS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Congregation Gates of Prayer, a vibrant reform synagogue in Metairie, Louisiana, today announced a $1 million investment to make Jewish summer sleepaway camp an affordable reality for hundreds of families for decades to come.

The Gates of Camp Initiative (a.k.a. GO-Camp Initiative) represents the temples largest-ever investment in its congregations children and will reduce the cost of sleepaway camp a quintessential rite of passage by 50% for all qualifying J-FLEx religious school students.

Studies have proven that Jewish summer camp children are more likely to be congregation members, observe Jewish rituals at home, and support Israel, said Rabbi David Gerber, Senior Rabbi of Congregation Gates of Prayer. With the GO-Camp Initiative, we hope the children of our community will have impactful summers at camp and meaningful Jewish lives with our congregation throughout the year.

The tuition award is available to all congregational members in good standing who achieve participation milestones during the calendar year. Both students and their families can achieve milestones through J-FLEx (Jewish Fun Learning Experiences) participation, participation in the temples youth group and other meaningful community activities, attendance at services and holidays, committee service, singing in the choir, or joining Sisterhood or Brotherhood.

For more information on the Gates of Camp (GO-Camp) Initiative, please click HERE. For more information and to register for J-FLEx, please click HERE.

About Congregation Gates of Prayer

At nearly 175 years old, Congregation Gates of Prayer is the oldest ongoing congregation in the Greater New Orleans area. Located in Metairie, LA, the robust, vibrant, and welcoming Reform Jewish synagogue has been on the cutting edge of Reform Jewish life and programming emphasizing inspirational and creative worship services. Our mission is to help members of all ages find Kedusha, or holiness within their lives, through worship, lifecycle events, educational and social programs, and social action.

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Congregation Gates of Prayer Announces $1 Million in Funding to Defray Cost of Jewish Summer Camp for All Members - Business Wire

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Posted By admin on August 10, 2022

The 'Syndrome K' hospital unit as seen in 1944. Courtesy of Freestyle Digital Media

By Simi HorwitzAugust 09, 2022

Director-composer Stephen Edwards says he is drawn to ordinary people doing extraordinary things. So, when he came across the virtually unknown story of Syndrome K and the Italian doctors who concocted this wholly invented disease in order to save Italian Jews during World War II, he knew he had to explore the topic further.

Co-directed by Greg Hunger, Syndrome K begins in the fall of 1943 as the German soldiers invade Italy, rounding up and shipping thousands of Jews off to concentration camps. Jews were already ghettoized and faced an array of antisemitic humiliations and daily restrictions, but nobody was prepared for the horrors that followed.

Some fled to the 450-year-old Catholic-run Fatebenefratelli Hospital set on a teeny island in the middle of Romes Tiber River, just across fromthe Jewish ghetto on one side and the Vatican on the other. The Catholic hospital, under the leadership of anti-fascist Dr. Giovanni Borromeo, had a reputation as a safe haven for Jews and other anti-Fascists. This made it possible for Jewish physicians like Vittorio Sacerdoti to work as a doctor in that hospital, providing him false documentation. Outside its walls Dr. Sacerdoti was forbidden to practice medicine.

In the institutes basement, Dr. Borromeo installed and hid an illegal radio transmitter and receiver that were employed to communicate with local partisans.

Working jointly with anti-fascist activist Dr. Adriano Ossicini, Dr. Borromeo and others came up with an ingenious plan to conceal Jews in the hospital by claiming they had Syndrome K, a degenerative, disfiguring and highly contagious disease, which in fact did not exist.

Fearful of contracting the fatal illness, the Nazis largely steered clear of the hospital in general and the K ward in particular, though the patients were encouraged to cough their heads off if and when the Nazis were on the premises.

Dr. Adriano Ossicini, who was 96 and living in Italy when he was tracked down for this documentary, takes credit for coining the moniker Syndrome K in honor of Albert Kesserling, the German commander overseeing Romes occupation, andSS chiefHerbert Kappler, who had been appointed city police chief.

Had the SS gotten wind of the doctors activities they would have been tortured and/or killed. They were indeed violating the mandates of the government andthe Vatican. Still, some of the doctors closest confederates in and out of the hospital were friars and priests. In the end many Jews were saved, though precise numbers are not known.

The films central subjects are the two surviving doctors Sacerdoti and Ossicini; Giovanni Borromeos son Pietro recounts his late fathers recollections. Other Italian Jews who lived to bear witness provide their own memories, in addition to Suzanne Brown Fleming of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, who offers commentary. Narration was provided by by Ray Liotta in his final film (he died this past May).

The doctors are remarkable figures who displayed extraordinary bravery. Yet regrettably they never fully come alive as three-dimensional human beings. How did they evolve to become the great moral saviors that they were? Giovani Borromeo is justifiably honored at Yad Vashem. Its unclear if others are recognized there as well; they certainly deserve to be.

Part of the films problem is that in an effort to create historical backdrop and place the narrative in a broader context the role of the pope and the church, the bonds and conflicts between Italy and Germany, the activities of the allies the filmmakers lose their focus. Though individual sections hold interest, a lack of cohesiveness is pervasive.

In addition, some of the production values can seem tacky. Interspersed with the interviews are familiar archival footage and re-enactments, which cheapen the piece. Intermittent animation, a trendy cinematic device that is frequently incoherent and intrusive, feels more so here.

And the dubbing or what appears to be dubbing doesnt help. At times, we hear Italian-accented English that is out of sync with the moving mouths of the interviewees. In one puzzling snippet, English subtitles appear beneath an English-speaking pope.

Still, the film is worth seeing. I was especially intrigued by its discussion of the church and Pope Pius XII, who helmed the Vatican during this period. To this day, hes a source of controversy over his silence on the treatment of the Jews. Some accuse him of being complicit with the Nazis. Others interviewed in the film, including surviving Jews, say that the pope was in a moral and political quagmire and had no choice other than neutrality and diplomacy.

The most pertinent question the film raises, however, remains unaddressed: To what degree was the pope truly ignorant of the hospitals subversive activities or did he just turn a blind eye?

Syndrome K casts a new light on an old conversation, while opening up another. Its a story that needed to be told if only it had been told better.

Simi Horwitz won a 2018 Front Page Award from the Newswomens Club of New York for her Forward story, Ruchie Freier: Hasidic Judge, American Trailblazer. She received two 2020 New York Press Club Awards, three 2021 National Arts & Entertainment Journalism Awards, and a 2021 Simon Rockower Award.She is a 2022 finalist for a Los Angeles Press Club Award for her film criticism published in the Forward.

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How a deadly disease saved Jewish lives and fooled the Nazis during WWII - Forward

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Posted By admin on August 10, 2022

Photo: Spencer Platt (Getty Images)

In Los Angeles, the Skirball Cultural Center is currently running an exhibit that showcases the history of the Jewish Deli in America, from its humble food cart origins to its brick-and-mortar temples of smoked, cured meats and brined vegetables. The title of the exhibition, Ill Have What Shes Having, is a reference to the most famous scene from the 1989 film When Harry Met Sally, filmed at the famous Katzs Delicatessen of Manhattans Lower East Side (and indisputably the most famous film scene ever set in an American deli). The exhibit captures delis at their cultural peak in the 20th century, and while the number of delis has waned since then, those that remain continue to be a vital element of major American cities.

The deli was a natural outgrowth of the immigrant experience: move to places where other folks you know already live, then work together to establish your community. These establishments were the nerve center, filling a need as both a place to buy kosher food items and a crucial public gathering space.

Image: Skirball Cultural Center

It continued to serve those necessary functions following the Holocaust, and more Jewish immigrants arrived in the US. Rena Drexler, who was liberated from Auschwitz and eventually wound up in Los Angeles, opened Drexlers Deli in 1951. Abe Lebewohl, another survivor who opened 2nd Avenue Delicatessen in New York, refused to turn away customers for an inability to pay.

The enduring appeal of the deli is as much about food as it is about simply being surrounded by other people. Some are hungry, some are satisfied. The smell of meat is as visceral as the sounds of old people slurping soup or the frenetic energy of the cashier at the end of the bustling cafeteria line.

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I have to give a shoutout here to Mannys in Chicago, which was one of the many great delis featured in the Skirball exhibit. More specifically, credit is due to Mannys latke, an absolute unit of a potato pancake and one of those foods Ill always dream of eating.

One of the most enlightening sections of the exhibit put a spotlight on the trade and union publications for and about delis in 20th-century America. One, the Mogen Dovid Delicatessen Magazine (operated by the Mogen Dovid Delicatessen Owners Association), ran from 1930 to 1939 and covered local politics, racketeering issues, union matters, and community news.

Labor Monthly of the Food Service Industry, meanwhile, was a newsletter circulated by New York Citys Local 338, the bagel bakers. The image on the cover hows a weary bageler looking out across the landscape toward a mountainous horizon, beckoned by the sunrise, its rays accompanied by phrases like job security, higher wages, shorter work week, and expanded health service.

Photo: Skirball Cultural Center

Local 338, the exhibit explains, was able to secure better wages for its members, but the mass-production of bagels, which became standardized in 1958, undercut [the unions] ability to bargain collectively.

As Jews arrived in the United States, the country was becoming a beef nation. A hot dog isnt a deli food, per se, but the two are indirectly linked. In America, the growing abundance of the cattle industry aligned with the technological innovation to process them on a mass scale: Slaughtering and dressing a cow could take eight to ten hours by hand, but by 1890, industrial packing houses cut that time down to thirty-five minutes.

Creating an all-beef hot dog that was also kosher was a new development in the sausage world, and it became incredibly popular. Vienna Beef was founded by two Jewish immigrants who sold their dogs at the 1893 Worlds Columbian Exposition in Chicago. The salad on top, dragged through the garden as a Chicagoan would say, was in response to the need to give Depression-era customers a bit more bang for their buck.

The Chicago dog is an example of how multiethnic collaboration can produce legendary results. The dog itself was a Jewish creation. The poppyseed Rosens roll was the work of a Polish Chicagoan. Tomato and onion for our Italian palates. Sport peppers from Mexico. Influences converging in a dish that embodies an entire citys cuisine.

Successful delis will always retain a mythical quality. Presidential hopefuls hungry for attention visit them on the campaign trail. There is a great image of Guns N Roses sitting in debauched malaise at a booth at Canters Deli in Los Angeles, their first publicity photo as a band. Its a place you go to get really full, to the point that you start making those noises only someone who has eaten too much can make. Its a place of sight and sound and smell, a full spectrum of the human eating experience, which is beautiful and ever so slightly disgusting at the same time.

Maybe Art Ginsburg, a Los Angeles deli owner, put it best when he once jokingly referred to the delis huge framed photos of pastrami and corned beef platters as Jewish pornography. The main difference is that with pastrami, its okay if you finish quickly.

Link:

The Lasting Cultural Impact of the American Jewish Deli - The Takeout

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Posted By admin on August 10, 2022

GOSHEN Orange Countys Human Rights Commission and the Jewish Federation of Greater Orange County will hold a free seminar to help residents better understand antisemitism from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. on Sunday, August 21at the Kaplan Center at SUNY Orange inNewburgh.

Understanding Antisemitism and the Jewish Experience is a program designed to help residents better understand what antisemitism is and the importance of addressing it for the well-being and betterment of our communities.

Prejudice, including antisemitism, cannot and will not be tolerated in Orange County, County Executive Steven Neuhaus said. Hate crimes are offensive on every level and hurt not just the victims, but the entire community. This important forum provides an opportunity to learn more about antisemitism and discuss ways to come together to fight hatred in the County.

The Human Rights Commission is proud to stand together with our Jewish neighbors and offer programs to the community that enhances understanding and promotes love and equity for all, said Inaudy Esposito, executive director of Orange Countys Human Rights Commission.

With the increase in modern antisemitism our hope is that this presentation will help improve understanding and make our community a better place to live, said Wendy Cedar, executive director of The Jewish Federation of Greater Orange County

Registration for the seminar is required athttps://www.jewishorangeny.org/.

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Orange County and Jewish Federation to host seminar: Understanding Antisemitism and the Jewish Experience - Mid Hudson News Website

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Posted By admin on August 10, 2022

ST. CHARLES COUNTY, Missouri The second annual St. Charles Jewish Festival will take place on Sunday, August 14th from 11 a.m. - 2:30 p.m. outside the Foundry Art Centre (520 N Main Center; St. Charles) and will showcase and celebrate the local Jewish community, as well as bring the sights and sounds of Jewish life from around the world to St. Charles. The festival is organized by the Chabad Jewish Center of St. Charles County and its St. Charles Jewish Family Network, which serves the estimated 6,000 Jews who live in St. Charles County.

Attendees will have the opportunity to enjoy live Jewish music and kosher food, and learn about Jewish culture and traditions in a fun and meaningful way. Upon arrival, attendees will receive a passport, which will enable them to take a trip around the Jewish world without ever leaving St. Charles County, as theyll encounter characters dressed in costume representing Jewish communities from across the globe including Europe, North and East Africa, Asia and more who will share the history of Jewish life and culture, and stamp visitors passports.

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St. Charles Jewish Festival to Host 'Jews From Around the World' - newstime-mo.com

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Posted By admin on August 10, 2022

The Holocaust: What Hate Can Do, at New Yorks Museum of Jewish Heritage shows the destruction of once-vibrant Jewish communities. Photo by John Halpern

By Diane ColeAugust 09, 2022

I learned what hate can do on March 9, 1977, when I went to work as usual that morning at the Jewish service organization Bnai Brith in Washington, D.C. By lunchtime, I had become one of the more than 100 hostages seized and held there for the next 39 hours by an armed group of Hanafi Muslims.During that time, we were harangued with nonstop anti-Jewish rants by group leader and head hostage-taker Hamaas Abdul Khaalis.

Wielding a machete, Khaalis threatened to cut off our heads and throw them out the window.His accomplices had rounded us up at gunpoint, then forced us to climb the steps to the cavernous top-floor space still under construction. With bloody injuries inflicted by the gunmen visible for all to see, we sat on the concrete floor and listened in terror as Khaalis not only warned us that nobody promised us tomorrow, but urged us to pray to whatever God we prayed to.

That I am here to tell the tale is thanks to the lengthy negotiations that led to our release. That I feel compelled to continue to repeat this tale, all these years later, is testament both to the tenacity of hate, and to the short-term memory span of too many American Jews who prefer to regard each new violent attack against Jewish communities in Pittsburghs Squirrel Hill, the Colleyville synagogue in Texas, and elsewhere as individual wake-up calls rather than an ever-more insistent alarm bell.

This experience has served as my personal motivation for writing so many articles over the years focused on fighting prejudice, fostering cooperation, teaching tolerance and reviewing exhibitions like two that recently opened in New York.

The Holocaust:What Hate Can Do, atNew Yorks Museum of Jewish Heritage and Confronting Hate 19371952 at the New York Historical Society invite, if not compel, us to wrestle with how to grapple with the omnipresent violence fueled by prejudice we hear about daily and sometimes experience ourselves.

The visitor enters the new core exhibit at the Museum of Jewish Heritage through a spooky, tunnel-like corridor backlit by antique photographs and film reels from the first half of the 20th century depicting family and communal scenes of the once-thriving Jewish communities of Europe and northern Africa. Then, just as you approach what looks like a light at the end of this tunnel, you see the wall text: Many of these Jews were murdered by April 1943.

At which point its not only the contrasting brightness of the exhibit hall youre then thrust into that makes you blink; its being cast into the Nazi maw, circa 1943, through immersive photographs of the Warsaw Ghetto, artifacts from the Auschwitz death camp and surviving possessions of the millions already murdered.

As in a film or nightmare flashback, we dive into the next gallery which makes us understand the depth and breadth of what the Nazis wanted to destroy, through a comprehensive retelling of the history, culture and religious traditions of the Jewish people from ancient times onward. Yet that is only prelude to the galleries that follow, filled with the equally long historical trajectory of antisemitic violence.

Its a draining journey even before we reach the ascent of Nazi leader Adolf Hitler as head of the German government in 1933.Through newsreels, photos, letters, video memories of survivors, and the memory-laden personal belongings (a bracelet, a shirt, a drawing) that remain, the exhibit chronicles the year-by-year escalation of hatred, persecution, violence and mass murder perpetrated by the Nazi regime. You arrive grief-stricken at the end of the 12,000-square feet and two full floors of exhibition space.

The historical qualities are excellent and the visual materials both vivid and effective. This is what hate can do, the exhibit tells us annihilate millions of people who did not conform to Hitlers Aryan standard; obliterate the infrastructure of Europe; destroy whole towns and cities; and wipe out the sense of history and cultural continuity for so many Jewish and other communities that had once lived in the lands Hitler overran.

Most of all, the exhibition impresses upon us why and what we must remember.But because it abruptly stops, with the formation of the State of Israel in 1948, it also feels incomplete, leaving us with unanswered questions about what we can do in the present to halt the continuing spread of hatred.

More successful in that regard is the New-York Historical Societys exhibit Confronting Hate: 1937-1952, which explores the wide-ranging media campaign launched on the cusp of World War II by the American Jewish Committee (AJC) to beat back rising levels of American antisemitism along with all forms of bigotry.

The exhibit, organized in collaboration with the AJC, packs a powerful punch literally. It starts with a vibrant poster from 1937 by German-Jewish illustrator Eric Godal depicting a powerful, angry worker swatting away the swarm of nasty stinger-bees, each one named for a particular prejudice: anti-Jewish, anti Negro, anti Catholic, anti foreign born, anti Protestant, anti labor union. Swat Them all! the caption reads.

With each angry insect bearing a swastika, it was also a call to resist Nazi ideology, even before America entered World War II.

Richard Rothschild, the advertising executive tapped by AJC to lead the campaign believed these hatreds were anathema to America, said Charlotte Bonelli, director of AJCs Archives & Records Center.

The AJC commissioned posters, comic books, pamphlets, newspaper cartoons and magazine ads, many of which are displayed here.AJC also formed alliances with numerous groups, including labor groups, the Citizens Committee on Displaced Persons, American government departments, womens groups, educational associations, religious groups, and even celebrities such as Judy Garland and Frank Sinatra who participated in anti-prejudice ad spots.

Judy Garlands smiling photograph graces a signed message that reads, in part:When you get to know a lot of people you make agreat discovery. You find that no one group has a monopoly on looks, brains, goodness or anything else. It takes allthe people black and white, Catholic, Jewish andProtestant, recent immigrants and Mayflower descendants to make up America.

The exhibit illustrates the ways that new technologies were utilized then and suggests that the newer technologies of today are waiting to be used, said exhibit curator Debra Schmidt Bach.

Bonelli and Bach both say that they hope the exhibit will spark ideas for educators, community leaders and others to foster dialogues and programs to fight prejudice.One of the biggest things we can learn is these are not just dialogues from the past, said Bach.The exhibit presents an opportunity to think about how we can continue the conversation today.

Well, then: Based on AJCs work in the past, I suggest several possibilities for the future.First, lets return to AJCs message that prejudice against and intolerance of others is downright un-American, and rally anew around the words of our first president, George Washington, who in 1790 declared that our country would give to bigotry no sanction.Just how patriotic is that quotation?Washingtons letter is on display across the street from the Liberty Bell and around the block from Independence Hall, at the Weitzman National Museum of Jewish History in Philadelphia.

Second, lets focus on social media, which in recent years has become a major breeding ground for hate speech, hate groups and possible hate crimes. Perhaps Sheryl Sandberg, former chief operating office of Facebook/Meta, could lead the charge. That she has fallen from grace of late does not negate her vast expertise in new media. Indeed, embarking on such a venture would provide her with a way to redeem her reputation by starting the clean-up of the vast swamplands of the hate engulfing cyberspace.

Finally, I put forward this motto for us all to contemplate: To confront hatred is to repair the world. Its a tough job, but if we dont, who will?

Diane Cole is the author of the memoir After Great Pain: A New Life Emerges and writes for The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal, among other publications.

Excerpt from:

How Jews have confronted the seemingly eternal scourge of hatred - Forward

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