Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By admin on July 18, 2022

A VISUAL REVELATION, Afro-Atlantic Histories presents a sweeping account of the African Diaspora. The exhibition explores the historical experiences and cultural formations of Black people of African descent, across four centuries dating from the 17th century to the present. More than 130 works of art by artists from Africa, Europe, the Caribbean, and the Americas speak to the legacy of the transatlantic slave trade and its geographic and human outcomes.

Afro-Atlantic Histories was originally co-organized by Adriano Pedrosa with Ayrson Herclito, Hlio Menezes, Lilia Moritz Schwarcz, and Toms Toledo, in 2018 in Brazil, where it was presented across two institutions, the Museu de Arte de So Paulo and the Instituto Tomie Ohtake. In the United States, the show will be on view in Washington, D.C., Texas, and California. The landmark touring exhibition is curated by Kanitra Fletcher, who joined the National Gallery of Art in a newly created role as associate curator of African American and Afro Diasporic art in February 2021.

Installation view of Afro-Atlantic Histories, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 2022. Shown, mural-scale installation at right, ZANELE MUHOLI, Ntozakhe II (Parktown), 2016. | Courtesy National Gallery of Art

At the National Gallery in Washington, Fletcher co-curated the show with Molly Donovan, curator of contemporary art, 1975-present, and Steven Nelson, a professor and curator who serves of dean of the National Gallery of Arts Center for Advanced Study in the Visual Arts (CASVA). Afro-Atlantic Histories unfolds across several galleries arranged around six themes: Maps and Margins; Enslavements and Emancipations; Everyday Lives; Rites and Rhythms; Portraits; and Resistance and Activisms.

The presentation features several new acquisitions, including a photographic self portrait by South African artist Zanele Muholi titled Ntozakhe II, (Parktown) (2016); Current Forms: Yoruba Circle (1969), a painting by David Driskell (1931-2020); A Place to Call Home (Africa America Reflection) (2020), a stainless steel wall installation with a mirror finish by American artist Hank Willis Thomas; Njideka Akunyili Crosbys painting Eko Skyscraper (2019); and Figura de Poder (2020), a mixed-media sculpture by Puerto Rican artist Daniel Lind-Ramos. In addition, selections by Romare Bearden, Elizabeth Catlett, Aaron Douglas, Barley L. Hendricks, Lois Mailou Jones, Jacob Lawrence, Glenn Ligon, Kerry James Marshall, and Mickalene Thomas, among others, are drawn from the National Gallerys existing holdings. Works spanning painting, sculpture, photography, drawings, and video, from many other public and private collections from throughout the diaspora are also on display.

Culture Type spoke with Fletcher about Afro-Atlantic Histories. The conversation explores how the exclusively Brazilian exhibition eventually came to the United States, the ways in which the works on view capture both the artistss expressions and the history of the African Diaspora, and Fletchers new role at the National Gallery of Art:

Kanitra Fletcher is organizing the U.S. presentation of Afro-Atlantic Histories. The exhibition has been presented at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston and the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., and will also travel to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and Dallas Museum of Art. Fletcher joined the National Gallery of Art as associate curator of African American and Afro Diasporic art in February 2021. | Courtesy National Gallery of Art

CULTURE TYPE: If you were talking to someone who didnt really know much about art or even the history of slavery across the Atlantic and its legacy, how would you describe this exhibition?

KANITRA FLETCHER: The first thing I would say is that its really dealing with the breadth and the complexity of the African Diaspora and really thinking about how integral Black people and Black culture have been to the development of the modern West. Its not just about slavery, but really what has been born from that terrible experience, whats developed from the transatlantic slave trade.

I think what they need to really learn from the exhibition is how art responds to those official and overlooked narratives. How earlier works by European artists have later been challenged and complicated by later works by Black artists who really complicate the stories and show us how many different voices and lives and experiences contribute to the history of the African Diaspora. It isnt just one grand narrative or one singular way of understanding it. Its really about how all these histories and people and groups are intertwined. How the African Diaspora comprises all these voices and lives and experiences.

You mentioned the representations made by European artists. I didnt have a chance to see the show in Brazil, but I heard about it and read about it, and I had an assumption that all the art was by Black artists of African descent. But thats not the case. Its interesting to see the works of European artists and their interpretations. Can you give an example, within the exhibition, where you have a European artists work that is countered in some way by one of the Black artists or some of the Black artists in the exhibition?

The first one that comes to mind, its not exactly a European artist, but its an image of The Scourged Back (circa 1863). It was taken by a white photographer. The enslaved man Gordon had fled from slavery and landed in, I believe, Louisiana with scars on his back from being whipped. And so they took a picture of him, of his back, and it circulated for abolitionist purposes and it became famous and it was only titled the Scorched Back. His personhood was erased, but it was used for admirable purposes. But nonetheless, its still dehumanizing. He became an icon, not an individual.

With that important work, Arthur Jafa responds to it by creating a three-dimensional work, blowing him up, large scale and having those wounds be raised. Its this really visceral wall sculpture that really impresses upon you the individuality of this person and also the trauma that he experienced. What I think is important is that he uses his name in the title (Ex-Slave Gordon). He asserts his actual personhood. I think that thats an important connection. Its not necessarily countering the work, but its complicating it or expanding upon it and making us look at it from a different perspective, a more humanistic perspective.

I think what they need to really learn from the exhibition is how art responds to those official and overlooked narratives. Its really about how all these histories and people and groups are intertwined. How the African Diaspora comprises all these voices and lives and experiences. Kanitra Fletcher

Installation view of Afro-Atlantic Histories, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 2022. Shown, in foreground, The Freedman (1862-63) bronze sculpture by JOHN QUINCY ADAMS WARD, in background, from left, NATHANIEL JOCELYN, Portrait of Cinqu (1839-40) and SAMUEL RAVEN, Celebrating the Emancipation of Slaves in British Dominions, 1834 (circa 1834).. | Courtesy National Gallery of Art

Installation view of Afro-Atlantic Histories, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 2022. Shown, far right, ARTHUR JAFA, Ex-slave Gordon, 2017, with Into Bondage (1936) by AARON DOUGLAS, at center. | Courtesy National Gallery of Art

I want to talk about your role in the exhibition. My understanding is that when MASP co-organized the show in Brazil, an MFA Houston curator saw it. And then from there, the idea of bringing it to the United States came about, is that right?

I think an MFA (Houston) curator saw the show and/or received the catalog. I dont know which and then it got to me through the director. Yeah. The directors office sent it to me and so I looked at it. And then I went back to the directors office and said, Yes, I would like to do this show and think about how it could come to America.

At that point, when you made the decision that MFA Houston should show the exhibition, had you seen it in person in Brazil yet?

No. No. It was purely based on the catalog and in my knowledge of some of the works as well. Thinking about the organization of it was really exciting. I hadnt actually seen the works in person yet.

Did you ever see the show in Brazil, eventually?

I did not because it had already closed.

The show was in 2018 in Brazil, and there was a gap in the schedule, in terms of it not coming to the United States right away. What was that due to?

The show was never intended to travel to the United States. That was what the director and I in Houston initiated. We were like, Lets bring this to the States. It was never in the plans when the show originally opened in Brazil.

What was the timing of that? When did you first see the catalog and tell your director, We should do this show. What year was that?

Good Lord. Thats a good question. Its been so long. I think it was late 2019. That feels right, because I know when I finally had the first meeting with MASP, with Adriano (Pedrosa), the artistic director there, that was in Miami at Art Basel. It must have been December 2019. Thats the only date that makes sense. Because the next year, the following year, we wouldve been in quarantine.

AARON DOUGLAS, Into Bondage, 1936 (oil on canvas). | National Gallery of Art, Corcoran Collection (museum purchase and partial gift from Thurlow Evans Tibbs, Jr., The Evans-Tibbs Collection). 2021 Heirs of Aaron Douglas / Licensed by VAGA at Artists Right Society (ARS), NY

DANIEL LIND-RAMOS, Figura de Poder, 20162020 (mirrors, concrete blocks, cement bag, sledgehammer, construction stones bag, paint bucket, wood panels, palm tree trunk, burlap, leather, ropes, sequin, awning, plastic ropes, fabric, trumpet, pins, duct tape, maracas, sneaker, tambourine, working gloves, boxing gloves, acrylic). | National Gallery of Art, Washington New Century Fund 2022.6.1 Daniel Lind-Ramos

Lets talk about your curatorial career during that period. You were at MFA Houston and then joined National Gallery of Art. Was the National Gallery originally involved in Afro-Atlantic Histories? Or did that come about because you took a position there?

I was at Houston working on this show. We were going to partner with a different museum, but that didnt work out. And so it was kind of undetermined whether or not wed be able to go forward. Then we got this incredible grant from the Ford Foundation and we were able to do the show, but of course still wanted to find a partner to make it an actual tour. That was when we approached the National Gallery and Kaywin Feldman, our director, thankfully, got on board.

I was still in Houston and it wasnt even a twinkle in my eye, the National Gallery. I just thought Im going to be working on this show in Houston and then itll go off to the curatorial colleagues at the National Gallery and thats Steven Nelson and Molly Donovan. They were working on the show and then through the course of working on the show, they started looking for an associate curator for the museum. A couple people sent the posting to me and said you should consider it. I did, and then I got the position.

Of course, Steven and Molly had been already working on this show and so they had made a few choices, different from what was being shown in Houston. They were all great choices. The show was a little different because they were using works from the National Gallerys collection. I wasnt as familiar with the National Gallery collection at that time. It was really an exciting, welcome surprise to see what they had selected. We continued still to refine it and to make a few changes together.

HEITOR DOS PRAZERES, Musicians, circa 1950s (oil on canvas). | Museu de Arte de So Paulo Assis Chateaubriand MASP Gift of Rafael Moraes in the context of the exhibitions Histories of Dance, 2020

PAULO NZARETH, Untitled from the series For Sale, 2011 (photo print on cotton paper). | Collection Galeria Mendes Wood DM, So Paulo, Brazil

Im curious about the transition of the show from Brazil to the United States. From a curatorial standpoint, given the theme of the show, did you think about it with a different lens for the U.S. audience?

I did. Thats right. The show in Brazil, I would say it was very Brazil centric. They were thinking about their audiences, understandably. Some of the changes I made were to think about, well, at that time I was in Houston. So thinking about the Houston community, where there is a sizeable Brazilian population, but I was thinking about the Black and Latinx communities that would be going to see the show. I did expand in some ways on the U.S. selections or the U.S.-based artist selections a bit. I kept some of the more familiar names in the show, but I did want to keep the younger Brazilian artists who are less known in the states because you know, this is an exciting opportunity for them to be seen in the States.

Theyre also thinking in terms of global ideas about Blackness and I thought that it was important to have them represented, these later generations, how theyre connecting to these historical themes. What else? There were two sections that I decided to take out. One was called Roots and Trances and that was really thinking of connections between Bahia and Haiti and Jamaica, I believe. While that was fascinating, I didnt know that it would particularly resonate, as well, for U.S.-based audiences. Also, it was only dealing with three areas of the Diaspora and not the global view of the African diaspora the way that the rest of the sections were operating.

I also took out the Afro-Atlantic Modernism section which was another fantastic section, but it was smaller. It was dealing with art historical movements rather than narratives of people and stories about people. Also, it was really about a 30-year span I think it was from the 1940s to 1970s not the 400-year span that the other sections have, from the 17th century to today. But I did move a few works from those sections into other sections.

BARRINGTON WATSON, Conversation, 1981 (oil on canvas). | National Gallery of Jamaica, gift of Workers Savings & Loan Bank. Estate of Barrington Watson

Installation view of Afro-Atlantic Histories, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 2022. Shown, in foreground ELIZABETH CATLETT (Reclining Female Nude, 1955) from left, Works by DINDGA MCCANNON (Empress Akweke, 1975); MICKALENE THOMAS (Melody: Back, 2011); and WILLIAM H. JOHNSON (Little Girl in Green, circa 1941). | Courtesy National Gallery of Art

How difficult was it when you worked on transitioning the exhibition from Brazil to the United States to reduce it from the 450 works down to 130? Was it 130 in Houston too, as it is at the National Gallery of Art?

It was approximately, I would say no more than 150 (in Houston). It was very difficult. I mean, look, if I had it my way, we wouldve kept every one of them, 400 and something works in the show. Theyre all incredible choices and strong pieces, but the reality of it is that we didnt have the space for it. They had a tighter hang in Brazil, also. When you see the installation images, you can see that they put a lot into one space. It depends on your taste. Some people like that tight hang. Some dont.

I wanted to give the spaces a little more breathing room. It was very difficult. I really did think hard and long about what works. Of course, I looked at the works that I personally love and wanted to keep in the show. But, I did want to keep the integrity of the original show to make sure that there is a representation of many different nations. I think we were successful in that regard.

You have a masters degree in Latin American studies with an emphasis on art history and Brazilian studies. Was that part of the connection for you? Talk about that background and how your academic experience informed your work on this exhibition.

Oh yeah. I mean, there was absolutely selfish interest here. One, I have an interest in Brazilian art and Black Brazilian culture. So I thought it was important to bring this show to the States. One of the reasons that I was excited about it was also because it created this opportunity to disrupt the centering of Black Americans in histories and to present a global understanding of Blackness, that engages the struggles of Black resilience. Because the racial politics of their histories and their experiences have been clouded by this myth of the racial democracy that suggests that Black and white Brazilians live in harmony and that no racism exists in Brazil.

A lot of people dont know that that is not the case. Even many Black Americans believe this myth that theres no racism in Brazil. A lot of people are not aware of the numerous parallels of social and political struggles related to slavery and discrimination between the two countries. Well, really amongst all the countries represented in the show. That was one of my goals. In some small way to get that point across.

People also dont understand that only 6 percent of enslaved Africans arrived in the United States. Most enslaved Africans ended up in South America and the Caribbean. Its really just a strange development that so many people believe that Americans, Black Americans are the center of Blackness, of the African Diaspora. Its just really not the case. I think the breadth of this show, the complexity of it, helps get that point across to correct the traditional history that weve been taught.

People also dont understand that only 6 percent of enslaved Africans arrived in the United States. Most enslaved Africans ended up in South America and the Caribbean. So many people believe that Americans, Black Americans are the center of Blackness, of the African Diaspora. Its just really not the case. Kanitra Fletcher

FIRELEI BEZ, Given the ground (the fact that it amazes me does not mean that I relinquish it), 2017 (acrylic on canvas). | Collection of Kelly Williams and Andrew Forsyth, Firelei Bez. Photo by Victoria L. Valentine

DJANIRA DA MOTTA E SILVA, Feira da Bahia [Bahia Market], 1979 (oil on canvas). | Private Collection Salvador/BA

Presenting that history, correcting those assumptions is critical and a really important aspect of the exhibition. Some of that work is done with an infographic in the first gallery. Its a map that shows different sized spots representing where slaves landed, with a really large spot in Brazil. Was that map included in the Brazil version of the exhibition?

No, I dont believe so. That was something we developed.

Its such as an important visual that also emphasizes that this exhibition presents an artistic legacy for Black, global expression, but it also is very much, as you were talking about, exposing some of the history and reality of whats gone on with Black people going back to the 17th century. It really does help inform an audience that may not be aware of some of the specifics of that history, beyond America.

Oh, absolutely. I want people to learn and to be educated to some degree. But also at the same time, I do want them to enjoy the artwork. Its an interesting balance, but I think that its important to have these facts available, especially right now with all this talk about politicians, talk about history and whats being taught. There are facts (laughs). There are things that actually happened. Any opportunity that we can get to educate them on those facts, I welcome. Happy to do it. But just finding a way to balance the beauty of the work and the complexity and the differences, the differences between the voices, but then also have these real facts about the realities of these histories is important.

The catalog published to accompany the U.S. version of Afro-Atlantic Histories is fully illustrated, including images of artworks on display in the Brazil exhibition and an essay by Kanitra Fletcher titled Occupy: Self Portraiture. | Published by DelMonico Books/Museu de Arte de So Paulo (Dec. 7, 2021), 385 pages

Your essay in the exhibition catalog is about self-portraiture. Why did you choose to write on that topic and how does self-portraiture speak to or represent the histories that are presented in this show?

I had been doing research during my doctoral program and I thought I was going to write about self-portraiture for my dissertation. I had been doing research about it prior to this exhibition. And then when I looked at the works that were in the exhibition, I saw how many of the works fit into these categories, these major categories of self-portraiture, like masquerade, about the erasure of the self, and all those different aspects of self portraiture. Thats really why I decided to write on it. Self portraiture is one of those genres thats really, theres a traditional way of understanding it, but a lot of people dont understand how artists have really reinvented and reimagined ways of seeing the self.

I thought that would be an important way of really explaining to people how these stories and these histories are not far removed from the lives of the artists themselves. By having self portraiture in this show were saying artists arent up in their ivory towers, distanced from the realities and off in their imagination. No, theyre really living these histories. These histories resonate with them every day. And by having themselves in the exhibition, theyre showing that connection, how deep and how personal it actually is.

SAMUEL FOSSO, SelfPortrait (as Liberated American Woman of the 70s), 1997, printed 2003 (chromogenic print). | The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Museum purchase funded by Nina and Michael Zilkha. 1997 Samuel Fosso, courtesy JM. Patras / Paris

ZANELE MUHOLI, Ntozakhe II, (Parktown), 2016 (photographic wall mural from digital file). | National Gallery of Art, Washington Alfred H. Moses and Fern M. Schad Fund 2021.88.1 Zanele Muholi. Courtesy of the artist, Yancey Richardson, New York, and Stevenson Cape Town / Johannesburg

In the gallery where the portraits are on display, there is a huge mural-size image from (South African photographer) Zanele Muholi. Its monumental. Covering an entire wall, its the central image in the gallery. Is this the first time it has been displayed at that size?

Thats my understanding, yes. This was acquired by our photography department. The curator there said she learned that from the gallery, that thats the largest its ever been displayed.

Ive seen that self-portrait, that image by Muholi before, just never on that large of a scale. Its in the National Gallerys collection. How does that work? Its digital image and it can be shown or produced at any size and for effect in this exhibition you wanted to show it large?

Yeah, you can print it at any scale, as I understand it. I saw that wall and I said, why dont we just cover that wall with her? You know, we can do anything. We can have any size we want. And shes, you know, like a Statue of Liberty, which is a grand scale, right? So why shouldnt she be just as grand scale? (Editors note: Muholi uses they/them pronouns).

National Gallery of Art (April 7, 2022): Guided by curator Kanitra Fletcher (far right), Vice President Kamala Harris and her husband, Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff, preview Afro-Atlantic Histories exhibition, including works by Glenn Ligon (Untitled (I Am a Man), 1988, left) and Alma Thomas (March on Washington, 1964, in background). Vice President Harris spoke at the exhibitions opening gala. | Official White House Photo. Photo by Lawrence Jackson

I want to learn more about your position at the National Gallery of Art, associate curator of African American and Afro Diasporic art. What does the title mean and what is the focus of the position?

Well, one of the main thingsAfro Atlantic Histories is an example of itis to bring exhibitions here that feature and highlight the work of the African Diaspora and African American artists. But I think one of the main goals and intentions is for me, in collaboration with my colleagues, to expand the collection, to broaden and deepen its representation of Black artists and to really have our collection reflect the nation.

In other countries, the National Gallery is where you find those nations treasures. It is meant to reflect the history and the forms of expression of a nation. So thats what Ive been tasked to do and its been exciting. Weve brought in a few new acquisitions. Betye Saar, shes finally represented by a sculpture, the medium that shes known for, as well as Melvin Edwards, another artist who is known for sculpture. He was only represented by a print up to this point. Now hes represented by four of his Lynch fragments, his famous series. David Driskell is also now in the collection.

Is that the first time that David Driskell has been represented in the collection?

No, there were works on paper. There are prints. This is the first painting. Faith Ringgold (The American People Series #18: The Flag is Bleeding, 1967). That was a joint effort, by the way, not just me. James Meyer, one of the other curators (curator of art, 19451974) and I worked on that, which is very exciting. Ive really been tasked with working on the collection, thinking about who to add and whats important for me right now, Im thinking about those artists for which it is long overdue for them to be in the collection, who have been working for decades. You know, five, six decades like Ringgold and Edwards. These are people who should have been in the collection a long time ago. (Editors Note: A different work by Faith Ringgold is featured in Afro-Atlantic Histories, a 1983 painted quilt Whos Afraid of Aunt Jemima?, from the collection of Glenstone Museum in Potomac, Md.)

Im so thrilled that they are now and that our director is supporting these acquisitions, because another important thing to think about is that this collection is permanent, literally permanent. We do not deacession here. These are works that are meant to be preserved and cared for, for eternity. And so I really think thats important to have them in the collection, to make sure that they are forever representative of our nations art. And with that, acquiring works, youre also thinking about how do we display them? The traditional histories, the Picasso to Rothko story, that is one story, thats one history of art. There are so many more, so many more artists and movements and collectives. I think its going to be really exciting to start to have those stories alongside those traditional stories in the galleries.

KERRY JAMES MARSHALL, Voyager, 1992 (acrylic and collage on canvas). | National Gallery of Art, Corcoran Collection (Gift of the Womens Committee of the Corcoran Gallery of Art). Kerry James Marshall

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Culture Talk: Curator Kanitra Fletcher on the Exhibition Afro-Atlantic Histories: It's About 'How the African Diaspora Comprises All These Voices and...

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Posted By admin on July 18, 2022

A group of youth who pioneered Walk to Rememberin Rwanda has urged their compatriots in Diaspora to use the same approach among others to fight against genocide denial that is on the rise.

Walk to Rememberwas conceived in 2009 by members ofPeace and Love Proclaimers (PLP)to empower the youth of Rwanda and around the world to take a stand against Genocide.

Walk to Remember event is annually organized where Rwandan youth match in remembrance and honour of victims of the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi.

The Minister of Youth and Culture, Rosemary Mbabazi urged the youth to combat divisionism both in Rwanda and abroad.

PLP, which pioneered the walk, is an association founded in 2007, by 38 high school students who were at the time at Lycede Kigali(LDK).

It has so far over registered 10,000 members in schools across the country according to Naswiru Shema, the Executive Director of the organisation.

Speaking, on Saturday July 16to a group of over 100 Rwandan youth from 15 countries, Shema said Walk to Remember if embraced by all Diaspora could attract many youths in the commemoration event and serve as a weapon to fight against genocide denial abroad.

Some of the youth from Diaspora who are in Rwanda who a study tour , they were meeting with organizers of the Walk to Remember in Kigali on July 16, Dan Nsengiyumva

Theyoung Rwanda Diasporadoing tour dubbed Rwanda Youth Tour has so far visited different museums that tell the story of Rwandas liberation struggle and genocide memorials.

The idea of Walk to Remember is to tell where we come from and where we want to go. That is the message we want to give to Rwandan youth abroad, he said.

Shema who became PLP Executive Director in 2020 said they are working with the government to set up PLP associations abroad where young Rwandans are living and studying.

Youth especially in schools should use all their efforts and means to fight against genocide ideology and denial, he said.

The Walk to Remember pioneers also launched KU GICANIRO (at the bonfire), an initiative that aims at to commemorate 1994 genocide against the Tutsi by educating youth it's causes and consequences highlighting youth's role and responsibility in preventing such atrocities now and in the future.

One of youths from Diaspora asks a quetion during the meeting

During 28thcommemoration, KU GICANIRO was attended by Jeannette Kagame the First Lady of Rwanda, other government officials, diplomats and young people in Rwanda.

The youth and the old sit together to discuss issues in the community and find solutions for them, he said.

Paul Rukesha , the Director General of Communication and Partnership Cooperation in the ministry of National Unity and Civic Engagement (MINUBUMWE) told the youth thatgenocide denialis on the rise and that they should take lead in the fight.

The genocide denial and distorting facts about 1994 genocide against the Tutsi via YouTube and other social media is on the rise and youth should use different resources to fight against it. They are required to be critical thinkers, use books about genocide and other resources, he said.

Learning from liberation struggle

Major General Emmanual Bayingana, the Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Defence told the Rwandan youth abroad to learn from RPF-Inkotanyi values that stopped 1994 genocide against the Tutsi and liberated the country.

Major General Emmanual Bayingana, the Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Defence addresses a group of Rwandan youths from Diaspora in Kigali on July 16. Dan Nsengiyumva

The struggle Rwanda passed through should be a lesson to youth. The youth should not be discouraged by genocide deniers. They need teamwork to build a strong and peaceful country, he said.

The Minister of Youth and Culture,Rosemary Mbabazi urged the youth tocombat divisionismboth in Rwanda and abroad.

The divisionism led to killing more than one million Tutsi. We only need unity and young Diaspora should also learn a lesson so as to make the right decisions. Where there is a will, there is a way, she said.

Jasmine Kabandana, a young Rwandan living in Belgium said: we have learnt about Rwandas genocide history and transformation journey. This will give us an incentive to keep being involved in the commemoration process, fighting against negationism and teaching others the history of the country.

Serge Gihozo , another young Diaspora said, As Rwandan youth abroad we should join our efforts in case we detect those who are distorting facts about 1994 genocide against the Tutsi.

Sheha Ruzindana, Rwandan youth living in UK added: My role would be when I go back I will talk to my friends and share my experience of social media about the truth of 1994 genocide against the Tutsi so they can also join youth tour in Rwanda next year to understand how unity is at front.

Naswiru Shema, the Executive Director of the organisation addresses a group of Rwandan youths from Diaspora in Kigali on Saturday July 16. Photos by Dan Nsengiyumva

editor@newtimesrwanda.com

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Rwandan youth in Diaspora urged to replicate 'Walk to Remember' - The New Times

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Posted By admin on July 18, 2022

General elections in BiH will be held on October 2 this year. Voters who live outside BiH can register to vote until July 19, within 24 hours, in order to exercise their right to vote.

But, according to the outraged readers of the Avaz portal, the registration system on the Central Election Commission website is not working.

We are writing to you from Germany. We have tried three times to register to vote and it is not possible. With three different passports, with three different e-mail addresses. And the application deadline is until July 19, 2022, stated at the beginning the reader who wanted to remain anonymous (name known to the editors of op.a.).

He further raises the question of why they do not extend the application deadline if the system is not working properly.

My family and I, the six of us, cannot vote, but we are properly registered.

As can be seen from the application emails he gave, the automatic reply from the CEC states that the application does not meet the requirements. The reason given is that the application form was not submitted.

According to the reader, every time they duly submitted the aforementioned form and every time they received the same answer.

We load the documents, the visa on both sides, and then the passports so that the signatures match and again it doesnt work, concludes the reader.

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Diaspora claims that Registration System for Elections on the BiHCEC is not working - Sarajevo Times

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Posted By admin on July 18, 2022

The Herald

Dr Masimba Mavaza

THE way life works today, where money is mostly 97 percent debt-money, makes indentured slaves of us all. The way the world works now is to use the banks to bind humanity in voluntary slavery, which is the modern day slavery.

The large banks may extend new credit in exchange for our promise to repay. The more interest they rake in, the harder we have to work to service that debt.

Rising house prices mean more money created by the banks out of nothing and more enslavement of the populace as it labours to repay the banks mortgage, the landlords rent or face eviction.

We are shackled by this system. People abandon their homelands only to plunge themselves into perpetual bondage they become slaves of choice.

In search of wealth and better life, the roles and focus has changed. Sometime back, people would strive to go to school in order to have a better life.

But now they only need a passport to get themselves in self-imposed exile in order to have a better life.

A passport becomes more important than an O Level certificate. Most people who toil and suffer in slave-yards, politely called shifts in UK, have voluntarily offered themselves to such servitude.

But it does not have to be this way. Money is a social construct. We can change money and change the world.

But unfortunately the circumstances have made people accept any condition of work and have been willing participants to slavery.

The UK visa policy has increased abuse of foreign maids; the visa system called Tied visas that restrict domestic workers to one employer and limit their stay in the UK have left women vulnerable to slavery and abuse.

The British governments system of visa has exposed thousands of women brought to the UK by wealthy Gulf families to conditions of slavery, trafficking and abuse, according to a review of domestic worker visas.

Domestic workers transported to the UK are legally tied to their employers and are unable to change jobs while in the country.

The Home Office has faced a barrage of criticism that this Tied visa, introduced in 2012, leaves workers unable to leave abusive employers, effectively trapping them in domestic slavery.

This assessment was endorsed by the celebrated barrister James Ewins in his research sponsored by the Home Office of the UK.

The review found no evidence that a tie to a single employer does anything other than increase the risk of abuse and, therefore, increases actual abuse.

This is where people who are brought in as maids or household assistants are abused and denied pay. They are scared to complain because they will have their visas cancelled and get deported.

Now there is a serious shortage of slaves politely known as workers in the U.K.

Thousands of additional care workers are being recruited from abroad to fill chronic gaps in the workforce, the government has announced, after figures showed more than 40 000 social care staff had left the sector in the past six months.

Immigration rules have been relaxed for care workers, care assistants and home care workers, who have been added to the Home Offices shortage occupation list.

The Department of Health and Social Care said the pandemic had brought unprecedented challenges. The change follows a recommendation from the Migration Advisory Committee, which said there were severe and increasing difficulties faced by the care sector.

Care workers who arrive on a 12-month health and care visa receive an annual salary of at least 20,480 to qualify. They are entitled to bring dependants, including a partner and children.

To invite more workers, the Home Office also announced that a visa scheme to allow seasonal horticultural workers to come to the UK would continue until the end of 2024, but the government added it wanted to see a new plan from the sector to cut the reliance on foreign labour.

There are over 30 000 visas granted last year, with the number being tapered down from 2024.

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said a review had found the reliance on foreign labour had held down wages and was a disincentive to investment.

So in other words foreigners are paid less and to them its far more as compared to their home country.

George Eustice, the environment secretary, said a seasonal workforce long pre-dated membership of the EU but there was a determination to improve pay and skills to attract UK workers.

We recognise that agriculture has unique and seasonal requirements for labour at harvest and have listened to our world-leading fresh produce industry to understand their needs, he said.

So people have applied to come to the UK as carers or nurses. The pay is lucrative on paper, but once you are in the UK with all bills waiting, the lucrative salary becomes peanuts.

Once one gets into the UK, slavery starts to manifest itself.

The fear of going back home as well as the fear and embarrassment of societal backlash forces thousands to submissions of convenience.

As a result, people who migrated abroad for greener pastures found themselves in slavery of their choice.

A series of interviews with workers who suffered abuse in the UK highlighted a widespread fear that reporting abuse would result in deportation or arrest.

Even if you are not an illegal immigrant, you are forced to stick to one job because there are bills to pay and loans to settle.

There is a family to look after back home and those with you. The only option is to be a slave for the sake of the family.

A Zimbabwean woman died on the train after spending five months shuffling between jobs, with no rest. On searching her, she was found with over 10 000 worth of unpaid pay forms.

Another domestic worker who was left without food by her employer and prevented from sleeping, is fighting to stay in the UK after she was positively identified as a victim of trafficking.

Most people who are in these situations are trapped and cannot extricate themselves without help. Campaigners said the review made it impossible for the Government to deny that visa restrictions imposed on foreign workers create conditions under which abuse can flourish.

Workers are often treated like an extra piece of baggage by their employers. The Home Office said: This government is committed to stopping modern slavery in all its forms. We are working to ensure we provide all victims of modern slavery and trafficking with the protection and support they need through the national referral mechanism (NRM), a Government process set up to identify victims of trafficking.

Anyone who reports being brought to the UK against his/her will for the purpose of work shall have his/her case considered under the NRM.

Exploitation of migrant workers by unscrupulous UK employers is on the increase, the governments anti-slavery commissioner has reported.

A former Scotland Yard detective, Kevin Hyland, describes as extremely shocking the instances of exploitation he has witnessed in sectors such as agriculture, fisheries, hospitality and construction right across the country.

Were having to get society engaged to understand this that this is happening in the 21st century of the United Kingdom, he told the Financial Times.

An equally acute problem, which attracts less attention, is the employment abuse of Zimbabwean nationals, particularly those who are fully entitled to work in Britain.

They are forced to pay the agents who assisted them to come to the UK large sums of money. They are threatened with cancellation of their visas if they complain.

They cramped in horrible lodgings and charged unrealistic fees for having been brought to the UK.

Many Zimbabweans have formed employment agencies where they are inviting people to the UK at shocking charges.

If you dare question these charges, they will then withdraw their sponsorship.

Once one arrives in the UK despite the amount of monies paid, one is treated like a slave and still gets less than the minimum wage.

Workers are forced to sign two different contracts. One for the home office inspectors and one between the employer and the employee which tantamounts to extortion.

Whatever is happening we are now in an era of voluntary slavery.

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Voluntary slavery rampant in the Diaspora - The Herald

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Posted By admin on July 18, 2022

Since time immemorial, Africans have always embraced a giving culture and for those lucky enough to become successful in the diaspora, remittances to aid their kin or communitys welfare comes in handy. The need to provide quality and affordable Health Care to loved ones and the less privileged and direct it to local development goals has become a primary priority.

With the fast modern world advancing in technology which is consequently witnessing the move away from informal money transfer mechanisms, including couriering money through family, friends or traditional money changers, thousands of Kenyans are now subscribing to a new cashless technology that ensures your loved ones can receive quality and comprehensive Health Care from whichever location.

This is through purchase of transferable medical credits thanks to the creation of an organized digital Medicare plan, KimboCare. KimboCares new healthcare technology comes as a relief to thousands of working and financially stable individuals in the diaspora, who are willing to finance health provisions for the less privileged in society. Traditionally, using cash pay-outs, proved inefficient due to lack of a system which could effectively monitor and ensure the funds are put into their rightfully intended use. With KimboCare, this means that no money is transferred, but rather Kimbo points. Users simply download the App for free on their android and iPhone handsets and then they create an account before topping it up. KimboCare managers claim it takes less than 3-5 minutes to complete those two steps.

Once in their account, users can:

Purchase the points referenced on the website as health credits. Health credits can be used anytime, as the users and their families need it.

Then, name a beneficiary or patient to whom they want to donate health credits from their recharged account.

Next, choose the appropriate care bundle from a detailed description of each medical service included in each care bundle on the platform, so the sponsor knows that they are meeting the needs of the beneficiaries or patients.

Finally, pick a healthcare provider geographically convenient; the platform highlights the facilitys operational hours and the provided services.

Note that each care bundle is listed with a price, but the actual medical service delivered may cost less, leaving the users with a health credit balance which they can reuse in due time for another doctor visit or beneficiary in a functional and easy-to-monitor form. This makes KimboCare one of the most trusted and transparent health technologies in developed and developing countries.

At the forefront of this new development is a team of dedicated entrepreneurs who understood the frustrations faced by Africans in the diaspora due to lack of traceability and transparency of donated funds meant to give access to primary health care. With this innovation, you can now have peace of mind by sending quality care you are sure about to a loved one. No more money scams or headaches, said Franck Tiambo, one of KimboCare technology founders. Thousands can now breathe a sigh of relief with the new technology debuting its entry into the East African region. Our services are now in Nairobi, Kenya and soon in other cities. Its as simple as sending immediate access to the best care to your loved ones.

Our medical partners on the ground have been carefully selected to offer your family and friends quality Health Care, the team has announced. Having already been tried and tested successfully in two African Countries, KimboCare will definitely be a welcome change transforming the face of HealthCare in the region. In her own words, co-founder Murielle Tiambo notes, HealthCare modules are certainly the modern way to send care to those you love from wherever you are.

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Kenyans in the diaspora embrace new tech solution, KimboCare - GhettoRadio 89.5 FM

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Posted By admin on July 18, 2022

Just before midnight on a Friday in June, a short line formed outside Elsewhere, a music venue and nightclub in Bushwick, Brooklyn. Saphe Shamoun, one of the D.J.s performing that night, gingerly approached two women in the queue.

Are you here for Laylit? he asked. They nodded, and Mr. Shamoun directed them toward another entrance and a much longer line further up the block.

Laylit, or the night of in Arabic, is a party based in New York and Montreal that spotlights music from the Middle East and North Africa and its diaspora.

It has had a residency at Elsewhere since October, but this night was special: The event had become so popular that for the first time, it was being held not in the venues smaller rooms but in its cavernous hall, where over 800 people would soon dance under a shimmering disco ball and hypnotic light show.

On the bill: a performance by Anya Kneez, a Lebanese drag queen, and D.J. sets highlighting Arabic pop, hip-hop, folk and electronic music.

A decade ago, it was practically unheard-of for a major New York club to regularly host a Middle Eastern-themed party. But now, Laylit is part of a thriving scene in Brooklyn that puts Middle Eastern and North African music front and center.

The events vary in style, but they all celebrate cultures that the promoters say have been overlooked in the West. And they offer many New Yorkers a sense of comfort in a teeming city that can nonetheless feel isolating, especially after more than two years of a pandemic.

Its so, so beautiful to see the community coming together, said Felukah, a hip-hop artist who moved to New York from Egypt in 2018 and is a regular at Laylit and other parties like it. The sounds remind me of home.

For some partygoers, nostalgia is the main attraction. Yet each event also looks toward the future, be it through challenging stereotypical notions of Middle Eastern culture or by championing inclusivity and progressive ideals.

Laylit, for one, has created a shared space for Arabs who hold those values, said Mr. Shamoun, a Syrian D.J. and Ph.D. candidate who founded the party in 2018 with Wake Island, a Montreal-based music duo made up of Philippe Manasseh and Nadim Maghzal.

Ironically, it wasnt until the two left their native Lebanon that they embraced its sounds.

It wasnt cool when I was growing up to play Arabic music, Mr. Maghzal said.

It was actually uncool, Mr. Manasseh added.

And after emigrating to Montreal in the early 2000s, they actively separated themselves from their culture, fearing discrimination and feeling a sense of duty to assimilate, Mr. Manasseh said.

But now, they use Laylit as an outlet to rediscover their roots. In September, theyll be celebrating the partys fourth anniversary with another show at Elsewhere, and a tour across Montreal, Detroit and Washington, D.C.

Disco Tehran, a dance party and performance project that channels the international music culture of 1970s Iran, was also born out of the immigrant experience. The organizers, Arya Ghavamian and Mani Nilchiani, said it took years to get it off the ground.

Nearly a decade ago, Mr. Ghavamian, an Iranian filmmaker who had moved to the United States a few years earlier, approached an organization about throwing a party to celebrate Nowruz, a holiday that marks the beginning of the Persian New Year and is observed in several countries across Central and West Asia. It was a no, Mr. Ghavamian said.

A few years later, he began hosting get-togethers in his apartment where he would cook Persian cuisine and invite musicians to play. By early 2018, his apartment could no longer accommodate the crowds, so he and Mr. Nilchiani hosted their first public Disco Tehran event: the long-shelved Nowruz celebration.

The party has since expanded and evolved, and it now includes a film project and community outreach efforts. It recently celebrated its fourth anniversary at the Sultan Room, a nightclub and eatery in Bushwick, with an eclectic playlist and performances by Alsarah and the Nubatones, an East African retro pop band, and Epilogio, a Puerto Rican indie-funk band.

Disco Tehran, Mr. Ghavamian said, is about a collection of different cultures who may not have anything to do with each other on a given day, but they come together.

And the project is on its third European tour, which gives the organizers the sense that they have a place wherever we are in the world, Mr. Ghavamian said. Its next New York event is Aug. 13, at the Knockdown Center in Queens.

Yalla! Party Project also grew out of intimate apartment gatherings, hosting its first public event in the spring of 2018. (Yalla translates to lets go or come on in Arabic.) Its founder yearned for a queer party that featured Southwest Asian and North African music.

Over the years, Yalla! has expanded into an arts collective and community-building exercise. It is starting a professional directory to help people find jobs and it runs a market that supports small businesses run by women, people of color and queer people.

Its parties reflect New Yorks cultural diversity. At a May show at the Sultan Room, an Eritrean henna artist drew intricate patterns on a mans palm while partygoers danced to R&B and Lebanese pop. Yalla! also ramped up programming during Pride month, with four events spread across venues in Queens, Brooklyn and the Bronx.

Once word of Yalla! got around, similar events followed. It was at an early Yalla! show where Mr. Maghzal, of Laylit, first spun Arabic music. A year later, a drag queen named Ana Masreya her name means Im an Egyptian woman in Arabic organized a Middle Eastern and North African cabaret called Nefertitties, a play on the name of the ancient Egyptian queen.

Ana celebrated her shows third anniversary in May with an event at Littlefield, in Gowanus, and visited Washington, D.C., for a cabaret in late June. For her grand entrance at the anniversary show, she was carried in on a makeshift sedan chair, shrouded by a gold mesh sheet, which she later removed to reveal a gold crown modeled after that of Nefertiti.

Onstage, Ana spoke about her experience being a publicly known L.G.B.T.Q. person from the Middle East, a region where homosexuality is largely taboo and can, in some nations, lead to persecution. Its mad scary sometimes, Ana said.

The night featured drag performances by Rify Royalty, who is Egyptian American, and Meh Mooni, who is Iranian American; a set by Felukah; and a belly-dancing contest set to an Egyptian song that is a staple at Arab parties: Shik Shak Shok.

The following week, the song would be played again at the Sultan Rooms rooftop during Haza, a dance party and radio show that began in 2019 and spotlights artists from the Middle East and African diasporas and beyond.

One of its founders, an Egyptian American D.J. and creative writing consultant who performs under the name Myyuh, grew up in a predominantly white town in Connecticut, where she said she was largely detached from Egyptian culture. She felt embarrassed when her mother would blast Arabic music at home, she said.

But at Haza, she turned to it for comfort and blasted it on a pulsating dance floor while fellow Arabs ululated in celebration under the Bushwick sky. (Haza will return to the Sultan Room for its next show on July 29.)

Were creating a totally different experience with these songs, Myyuh said.

Her co-founder, an Egyptian D.J. and audio engineer who performs under the name Carmen Sandiego, likened the experience to a hug.

Its everything that you know and love, she said. And its not just you, but the person next to you is singing the same thing because they understand why this is so meaningful.

For Mr. Shamoun, of Laylit, that experience is particularly important for those who have fled the Middle East amid war, uprisings and refugee crises.

Weve been robbed of a present and a future in the Arab world, he said.

When hes behind the decks at his shows, he often spots recent immigrants and hopes the songs he plays transport them back home, if only for a few minutes.

As the events continue to generate buzz, few of the promoters appear to be in competition in fact, most of them collaborate with each other.

Ana Masreya performed at a Laylit party earlier this month, drawing cheers from the crowd, while Myyuh was in the D.J. lineup.

Mr. Manasseh believes the scene grew out of what he calls an affirm yourself on the dance floor movement that took hold after the aughts and grew stronger when Donald J. Trump became president.

Rock was suddenly out, dance and electronic music were in, and more people of color and L.G.B.T.Q. people were creating spaces where they felt seen and heard.

Even though Laylit is seemingly rooted in faraway cultures, Mr. Manasseh credits its existence to a single city.

All this was inspired and enabled by New York, he said.

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The Middle Eastern Party Scene Thriving in Brooklyn - The New York Times

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Posted By admin on July 16, 2022

Jason Van Tatenhove testifiedbefore the Jan. 6 committee that he left the Oath Keepers, the far-right militia group that took part in the attack on the Capitol, after hearing some of its membersexpress Holocaust denial over coffee in 2018.

That was for me something I just could not abide.

Why, I asked him over the phone the day after his July 13 testimony, was that the final straw?

Because I thought of my Jewish family, he said.

I understand life is messy and complex and no one is exactly what they seem. But I wasnt expecting a tattooed former militia member to be talking to me from a kitchen table in suburban New Jersey, alongside his Jewish aunt and cousin.

Van Tatenhoves uncle, Toki Tolkach, married Robin Mintz, a Jewish woman from northern New Jersey. Van Tatenhove himself, who is 48, grew up in Green Pond, New Jersey, where one of his best friends, from age 2, was his cousin Sarah Coen Cwiak, who is a year younger.

You know, theyre married into the family, he said, but theyre still family.

Van Tatenhove, aformer Oath Keepers spokesman, said he was living at reduced rent with his wife and two of his four daughters on a Montana property that belonged to one of the groups wealthy supporters.

Its kind of like where the whos who of the extremist movements live, he said.

That day in late 2016, he said, four or five Oath Keepers were meeting in the small deli section in the back of Steins Market in the town of Eureka, near the Canadian border.

I just kind of walked over to where they were and they were literally speaking out loud about how the Holocaust just had not happened, or if it had happened had been greatly exaggerated, he said. Some of the guys were just saying that the messaging had gotten backwards and that there were concentration camps for Americans.

He went home and told his wife he could no longer work for the Oath Keepers.

We had a family meeting, he told me. I didnt know how were gonna survive. But we just decided as a family, thats it, we just cant do it. I put in my resignation.

Van Tatenhove said he was drawn to Oath Keepers after the federal governments 2014 standoff with Cliven Bundy, a Nevada rancher, and a similar 2015 confrontation at Sugar Pine Mine in Oregon. It was then thatStewart Rhodes, who founded Oath Keepers in 2009, offered Van Tatenhove a full-time job.

They kind of started off in the early days as educational outreach, talking about constitutional issues, Van Tatenhove said. I definitely held my fair share of mistrust of government.

He said there were no obvious signs he had joined a hate group. Rhodes himself has Mexican heritage, and he knew Van Tatenhove identified as queer.

Stewart was fine with the fact I was bi or pansexual, and had no problem with it, Van Tatenhove said.

But his Jewish relatives were never fine with the Oath Keepers.

The first reaction was, What the f?! his cousin, Coen Cwiak, told me.

It didnt line up with who we knew him to be, added his aunt. We didnt know if youre going off the rails.

Van Tatenhove, who moved with his mother from New Jersey to Colorado when he was 12, grew up going to Hanukkah celebrations and Passover Seders with the New Jersey relatives, who sometimes celebrated Easter and Christmas with his family.

We kind of blended the holidays, Van Tatenhove said.

When he joined the Oath Keepers, Coen Cwiak, we didnt confront him, but we just kind of kept an eye on things.

Van Tatenhove sees the Oath Keepers growing racism as opportunistic. I dont think Stewart is racist in his core, he said. I think he just will cater to whatever will bring him the most money and the most influence and power, which is almost more dangerous. You know, he just has no moral anchor there.

Over the years, conspiracy theories and racist ideology began to ricochet around the groups social media: the great replacement theory, for example, which posits that people of color are vying to replace white people in spheres of power and influence in a scheme orchestrated by Jews, and charges that George Soros and Warren Buffett control the government.

It was a lot of, Theyre going to come and round up all the white conservative Christians and put them into reeducation camps in deserted Walmarts, he said.

Looking back, Van Tatenhove said it was easy to see what lured him and others into the group. For one, it was an adventure.

I flew to work in a Huey and got to travel all over the country, he said, and be in the middle of these things that got all this national attention.

He was also in an echo chamber, surrounded by like-minded white, Christian conservatives, and immersed in alt-right social media, which he called a blast furnace of hate and conspiracy.

I mean, thats the 500-pound gorilla in the room, he said. The algorithms just really weaponized this type of rhetoric. And if youre in that echo chamber, its hard to hear any voice outside of that.

Now that hes outside the blast furnace, Van Tatenhove has found connections with people he previously vilified: journalists reporting on hate groups, professors studying extremism, even a federal agent once sent to northern Montana to keep tabs on him.

He became one of my best friends, Van Tatenhove said. To this day, we still talk, and our kids are still friends.

Then there is Raphael Prober, a Washington lawyer and former board member of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, who helped Van Tatenhove pro bono prepare his testimony for the committee.

It was Prober who arranged for Van Tatenhove and his cousin to visit the museum in Washington the day before his testimony this week.

There, they saw a pile of of shoes taken off the bodies of murdered Jews.

For me the smell just triggered things emotionally, he said, apologizing for tearing up. It was just, you know, all the shoes.

He told his cousin afterward that the faces in the photographs of members of Hitler Youth seemed frighteningly familiar.

I saw those same faces, those same eyes of those Nazis, he explained. Ive seen them but in these patriots, as they call themselves, these militia guys. Like it was the same expressions. It was the same.

His cousin accompanied him the next day for moral support to the committee room. I asked if she were the woman I noticed on camera, sitting to his left, wearing a T-shirt featuring a photo of Keanu Reeves.

Its me, Coen Cwiak said. But its Jasons shirt. We needed a little Keanu energy to bring humanity together.

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Why did he leave the Oath Keepers? Because of his Jewish family. J. - The Jewish News of Northern California

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Posted By admin on July 16, 2022

BALATONOSZOD, Hungary, July 15 (Reuters) - Neomi Gluzman Kravchenko plays with her son in a kosher shelter on the banks of Hungary's Lake Balaton - a refuge for her and her Jewish community hundred of miles from their war-ravaged homes in Ukraine.

The psychiatrist from Kharkiv and millions of other Ukrainians fled after Russia launched its invasion on Feb. 24, finding protection wherever they could with families and charitable organisations.

Many Jewish families passed through the 'Machne Chabad' rescue village on their way to other destinations. "People went to Israel ... Some have gone to the USA," she says.

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Others, like her, are still there over the border in Hungary, pausing a while and wondering if they can wait out the war.

Earlier this week, families kept their spirits up with a day of dancing and eating and religious celebration.

Those traditions had flourished in Ukraine before the conflict, said Slomo Koves, chief rabbi of the Association of Hungarian Jewish Communities (EMIH), which runs the centre on land provided by Hungary's government.

"Jewish life was so thriving, so strong, so rich. Just before the war, they say it was like on a peak ... And that's why it's such a shame that all this just scattered in one day because of the war.

"Everybody hopes that they will have a chance to go back, to go home, and to restart this Jewish life."

About 400 people live in the camp, the largest of its kind in Europe, run by the EMIH and the Federation of the Jewish Communities of Ukraine on the site of a former summer resort for communist leaders.

Another of the residents is software developer Saul Melamed, who had already been forced to flee him home in Ukraine's Donetsk region years before the invasion, during fighting there with Russian-backed separatists.

That time he headed to Kyiv. This time he had to cross the border to find safety.

"The longer the war lasts, the smaller the chances that people would return," he said.

(This story corrects name of Federation of the Jewish Communities of Ukraine in paragraph 9)

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Reporting by Krisztina Fenyo, writing by Anita Komuves; Editing by Andrew Heavens

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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Jewish refugees from Ukraine find shelter on the banks of a Hungarian lake - Reuters.com

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Posted By admin on July 16, 2022

Eleven award-winning movies will be featured as part of the 22nd Kansas City JewishFilm Festival (KCJFF), presented by The Lewis and Shirley White Theatre at The JewishCommunity Center (The J). The three-week festival opens Sunday, July 31, and runs through Sunday, Aug. 21, with several films having multiple showings to accommodate people's busy schedules. The 2022 festival films have received recognition at the national and international levels.

The Kansas City Jewish Film Festival provides an opportunity to encounter films byJewish filmmakers -- usually highlighting Jewish history or culture - that audiences would be unlikely to encounter in conventional theatres or even on any of the various streaming platforms. KCJFF films explore issues of universal importance, with a Jewish twist! Some films are in English, while others feature subtitles. All KCJFF films will be shown inside The White Theatre at The J, with the notable exception of a special screening of the documentary "A Common Goal," on Sunday, Aug. 14 at 2 p.m. at Children's Mercy Park, home of Kansas City's men's soccer team, Sporting KC.

"We're very excited to be back in person for all of our films this year, and especiallythrilled to be partnering with Sporting KC for the special screening out at Children's Mercy Park," said Keith Wiedenkeller, Director of Arts + Culture at The J. The KCJFF opens Sunday, July 31 with two films. The festival kicks off with the 2 p.m. showing of the documentary film "Golda," about Golda Meir, the first and only woman to serve as Prime Minister of Israel. This subtitled film features Meir in an intimate conversation after being interviewed on Israeli television and will also be shown on Tuesday, Aug. 9 at 7 p.m.

The second opening day movie is a feature film, "The Raft," sponsored by Cal andMarilyn Cohen, and screens at 5 p.m., after our opening day reception. "The Raft" shares the story of three Israeli teens who build a raft to sail to Cyprus. This coming-of-age story follows their journey as they put their friendships to the test. "The Raft" will have an encore showing on Tuesday, Aug. 2 at 7 p.m.

The KCJFF also features Kansas City native Ed Asner in his final screen appearance inthe feature film, "Tiger Within". This poignant film is the story of an unlikely friendship between a homeless teen and a Holocaust survivor. The film is sponsored by Alan Edelman and Debbie Sosland-Edelman and will be shown twice: Saturday, Aug. 13 at 7 p.m. and Sunday, Aug. 21 at 2 p.m.

The special screening of "A Common Goal" at Children's Mercy Park on Aug. 14 ispresented in partnership with Sporting KC. Sporting KC Midfielder Gadi Kinda, who was amember of the Israeli Men's National Team and a former Israel Premier League player, willspeak about his experiences on the team at the conclusion of the film. Gates will open at Noon for this screening and concessions will be available for purchase from the Ellenberg Experience Kosher Food Truck, as well as other concession stands in the park. Fun activities for the whole family will also be provided!

For previews of all the films and to buy tickets, visit KCJFF.org, or call the boxoffice at913-327-8054. A festival pass is only $126 for all 11 films (for the price of nine) or individual film tickets are available at $14.

The Jewish Community Center of Greater Kansas City opened in 1914 in midtown Kansas City, Missouri and has grown and adapted to serve the changing needs of Greater Kansas City's Jewish and secular communities. Our mission is to build a strong, vibrant and inclusive community that enhances wellness, meaning, and joy, based on Jewish values, heritage, and culture. We are a welcoming community that embodies Jewish values in a safe and respectful environment. People of all ages and backgrounds learn and grow at our 'home away from home.'

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Kansas City Jewish Film Festival Returns To In-Person Events With 11 Award-Winning Films - Broadway World

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Posted By admin on July 16, 2022

In search of atmosphere and inspiration as I contemplated Walter Russell Meads magisterial new book about Israel and Jews in the American imagination, I took the bus from my street in Jerusalem across town to the American Colony. Founded in 1881 by fervent Protestants from Chicago, the colony was one of several attempts by 19th-century Americans to settle the Holy Land. Part of the idea was to induce Jews to take up farming by education or example, thus sparking a Jewish restoration that would in turn bring the Second Coming of Christ. But what made sense in Illinois made less sense in Ottoman Palestine, and the believers ultimately had to admit that real Jews werent particularly interested. Today the messianic compound is a luxury hotel.

The American Colony, where Im writing these lines on a table in the courtyard, is one physical incarnation of the thesis of The Arc of a Covenant: The United States, Israel, and the Fate of the Jewish People. Mead, a distinguished professor of foreign affairs, columnist, and author, would like to take us on a tour not of Israel but of the manifestations of Israel in the American mindan even weirder place than the actual country where I live and report.

The American fascination with Israel and with Jews, Mead believes, is not driven primarily by Israel or real Jews. Instead, Israel is a political instrument or a way of thinking about unrelated problems, just as those American settlers of the 1800s believed the Jews might serve as tools in a Christian end-times drama. The idea that the Jews would return to the lands of the Bible and build a state there, Mead writes, touches on some of the most powerful themes and cherished hopes of American religion and culture. And today, too, Americas furious debates about Israel policy have other homespun sources, and are more about conflicts over American identity, the direction of world politics, and the place that the United States should aspire to occupy in world history than about anything that real-world Israelis and Palestinians may happen to be doing at any particular time.

In that vein, Mead leads us with an even tone and expert hand through centuries of history, and through disparate topics including Puritan theology, the politics at the court of Kaiser Wilhelm II, and the personality of Billy Graham. Eleanor Roosevelts support for the creation of the state of Israel in 1948, we learn, was primarily a way of supporting a new liberal order after World War II. Growing Republican Party backing for Israel beginning in the 1970s was thanks not to any Jewish lobby but to the partys understanding that this was an issue that could unite a fractious coalition of pious evangelicals, honky-tonking southern good ol boys, blue-collar Midwestern Catholics, and elite neoconservative policy intellectualsjust as today, hostility toward Israel is a way to mobilize a progressive movement that wants to somehow embrace both Dearborn and the Dyke March. For millions of American Christians in the late 1800s, a Jewish return to Zion was less about helping Jews than about proving the truth of biblical prophecy in a country where many seemed to be losing their religion.

Read: What the media gets wrong about Israel

In the guise of a book about Israel and America, in other words, Mead has actually written an ambitious and idiosyncratic history of large swaths of Western politics and thought. Implicitly, and perhaps even more important, the book makes a case that complicated and sensitive topics can still be covered with balance, sympathy, and even occasional humor.

Most striking, for this reader, was the reminder of the depth of Zionist enthusiasm in non-Jewish America, where the idea of a literal Jewish return to the Land of Israel was popular among Christians long before it caught on among Jews. The author tells us of a Zionist petition signed by 400 prominent Americans that was presented to the president in the White House in 1891, several years before even Theodor Herzl, the founder of political Zionism, had found Zionism himself. Among the petitions supporters, Mead notes archly, was The New York Timeswhich was then under non-Jewish ownership. Later, when its owners were Jews whose primary concern was not redemption but assimilation, the paper changed its tune. One of the recurring observations here is that non-Jewish Americans have often been far more fervent Zionists than Jews, giving the lie to the idea that Jews are twisting American policy in their own interests. This was amply illustrated during the Trump administration, Mead writes, which was opposed by a solid majority of American Jews: If American Jews controlled Americas Israel policy, the U.S. embassy would still be in Tel Aviv, the annexation of the Golan Heights would not be recognized, and the United States would be pressing Israel on settlement policy.

That American enthusiasm is much older even than the 1891 petition, and is in fact older than America. In 1666, we learn, the American clergyman Increase Mather was preaching to Puritans in Boston that the body of the twelve Tribes of Israel shall be brought out of their present condition of bondage and misery, into a glorious and wonderful state of salvation, not only spiritual but temporal, and that the Jews would recover the Possession of their Promised Land. Early Americans saw themselves in Jews, nationally and even personally: Increases name, a literal translation of the Hebrew Joseph, might now be considered cultural appropriation.

Read: Israels problems are not like Americas

Meads point is that those who credit or blame Jews for Americas support of Israel misunderstand something basic about America. The driving forces behind Americans fascination with Israel, Mead writes, originate outside the American Jewish community and are among the most powerful forces in American life. Americans have identified with Jewish redemption because of their reading of scripture; or because they took them to be a great ancient people fallen on hard times, like the Ottoman-occupied Greeks, who were beloved by the liberal romantics of the 1800s and were misunderstood in similar ways; or because they imagined that a Jewish state would somehow look like America. Many supported a Jewish state so that Jews would go there instead of New York.

The Arc of a Covenant aims to convince critics who imagine undue Jewish influence on American politicsbut also many Jews who have embraced the story that Israel was wrought by their own skill and dedication. That story may be empowering, Mead thinks, but its mostly wrong. One classic example, which I took to be true until this book forced me reluctantly to let it go, is about a famous intervention at the White House by Harry Trumans Jewish friend and former business partner, Eddie Jacobson of Kansas City, Missouri, on the eve of Israels declaration of independence in the spring of 1948. Jacobson is said to have swayed the president toward supporting Israels creation over the opposition of the State Department. But as Mead shows, Jacobson and the Jews were secondary to the game that Truman was playing against his powerful domestic opponents, foreign allies like the British, and the Soviets. Jewish Zionists, despite both their own self-image and the dark fantasies of their enemies, have never been able to manipulate the political oceans currents. Theyve been washed this way and that like everyone else, and have survived by producing some talented surfers.

The fascination with Jews always has a dark side: The same Increase Mather who longed for a Jewish return to Zion, Mead reminds us, also wrote that the same people have been wont once a year to steal Christian children and to put them to death by crucifying. If Jews are symbols and not real people, they can be a symbol for all kinds of things, and this, too, remains a part of American intellectual life. The shooter who murdered 10 Black Americans in a Buffalo, New York, supermarket in May left a manifesto identifying Jews as villains engineering the erasure of white America; this view, known as the Great Replacement theory, is common on the far right. On the left, meanwhile, the American international-relations scholar David Rothkopf suggested in a tweet and an op-ed that the shooters motivations actually had something to do with the same kind of racism and closely linked political forces present in Israel. None of this is rational, but neither was the American Colony or the sermons of Increase Mather. This kind of thing will only grow as the sanity of the American body politic continues to erode, and as many on the right and the left abandon the grubby field of reality for a simplistic battle between good and evil.

Americans are usually optimists; our history has made us so, Mead writes. The belief that history is ascending toward a future of more freedom, more justice, more abundance, and higher spiritual values is one of the foundations of American thought. In this impressive and timely volume, this was the only sentence that struck me as possibly wrong or out of date; it might have actually changed in the decade that Mead tells us he spent writing The Arc of a Covenant. A kind of apocalyptic pessimism seems to have taken hold, and the way this plays out will dictate the next chapters of the story Mead is telling. In keeping with their religious and political DNA, Americans will continue to explain themselves to themselves with stories about a country and a people called Israel. From my table at the American Colony, whose founders were certainly optimists, it seems clear that as long as Americas future seems bright, Israel might appear as part of that shining horizon. But when things seem dark, some will find refuge in another kind of fantasy, and the arc might get bent into a different shape altogether.

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What We Talk About When We Talk About Israel - The Atlantic

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