Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By admin on June 2, 2022

On April 25, news broke that Elon Musk and Twitter had reached a deal wherein Musk would buy Twitter for $44 billion. When and whether the deal will actually be finalized is up in the air, however. Musks recent tweet that the Twitter deal is on hold, combined with his call for the U.S. Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) to investigate the amount of spam and bot accounts on Twitter, has contributed to uncertainty among investors about the future of the deal. Twitter stock has dropped, and the departure of high-level staff at Twitter has also signaled that the future of Musks Twitter acquisition is murky.

Along with uncertainty over Musks Twitter acquisition, his provocative criticism of the platforms content moderation policiesconcerning disinformation, hate speech, and harassmenthas also sparked debate about the meaning and importance of free speech in digital spaces. As PEN America CEO Suzanne Nossel notes, its as if Musk has tried to take humans out of the loop of driving with his self-driving cars, but it is not so easy to take humans out of the loop when considering the impacts of disinformation or other speech considered harmful. As Nossel recently tweeted, Elon Musk will learn the same lesson about self-governing social media as he has about self-driving vehicles, which is that they unavoidably crash. As Ive discussed elsewhere, pioneering scholars, such as Sarah Roberts, have documented the important role of invisible workers along the global digital assembly line in untangling the complexities of content moderation.

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Much of the debate about the Musk acquisition fails to appreciate Twitters international reach and the applicability of international standards, including those governing speech. Twitter and other social media platforms operate in a number of countries whose governments have routinely restricted speechsometimes based on benign reasons (such as preventing violence), but other times to suppress political opponents and critics.

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Last month, I moderated a panel called Can You Hear Me? Speech and Power in the Global Digital Town Square, at the American Society of International Law (ASIL) Annual Meeting in Washington, DC (see video recording here; scroll down to the Friday, April 8 event at 9:00 am ). Panelists (in order of speaker) included:

Matt Perault, director of the Center on Tech Policy at UNC-Chapel Hill and former director of public policy at Facebook

Jacquelene Mwangi, doctoral candidate at Harvard Law School and former research consultant for the Center for Intellectual Property and Information Technology Law

Emma J Llans, director of the Free Expression Project at the Center for Democracy and Technology

Arsalan Suleman, counsel on international litigation and arbitration practice at Foley Hoag and former acting special envoy to the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in the U.S. State Department

The panelists discussed a number of timely topics related to free speech on social media platforms in our global marketplace of ideas.One of the main themes we discussed was the tension that exists between tech companies stated commitment to free speech on social media platforms and laws concerning free speech that differ from country to country. Mwangi noted that normally, when U.S.-based tech companies conduct their operations in other countries without setting up local offices, U.S. laws apply to the companies operations. According to Mwangi, the ability of U.S.-based tech companies to operate internationally without abiding by local laws has incited backlashincluding by powerful interestsleading to more countries, such as Russia, to establish local presence laws. The emergence of these laws, Llans explained, points to a growing trend in which tech companies are required to establish a local office in-country, and therefore be subject to the countrys laws. Depending on the country, establishing a local office could have significant implications for human rights, user privacy, and content moderation, Llans pointed out. She warned that governments may want to use local presence laws as a tool to censor free speech or sidestep companies privacy policies to access user data.

The adoption of local presence laws is but one example of how countries and tech companies sometimes clash over what legal norms should govern the digital space. Another instance that Llans raised is the Russian Smart Voting App, which was run by supporters of prominent opposition candidate Aleksei Navalny. The Russian government declared the app illegal, and authorities began pressuring tech companies to remove the app from their platforms, going so far as to threaten local staff with prosecution. Eventually, Apple and Google removed the app from their app stores several days before the 2021 elections due to concerns of the safety of local staff.

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Part of the problem, Perault said, is that there are not clear international norms guiding tech policies behavior when it comes to content moderation. While international human rights law permits and even encourages governments to ban hate speech, U.S. courts take a more lenient approach. For example, U.S. courts have ruled in favor of allowing Nazis to march in the predominantly Jewish neighborhood of Skokie, Illinois, and the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a law that would have prohibited burning a cross on a Black familys lawnin both instances, finding protected speech interests. Yet in other countries, such as Rwanda, where hateful, targeted messages on the radio facilitated the 1994 Rwandan genocide, application of international standards allowing for some restrictions on hate speech have been viewed as not appropriate, but necessary. Similarly, EU countries, such as Germany, take a more restrictive approach to harmful speech, for example, prohibiting Holocaust denial, due to the European experience with the atrocities of the Holocaust.

Suleman reminded us about the Myanmar governments use of Facebook to incite violence against Rohingya Muslims and the importance of platforms using content moderation where hateful speech can lead to violence, death, and even the mass slaughter of civilians. Facebook refused to release to the government of Gambia the data of government-controlled accounts in Myanmar that had violated Facebooks terms of service by engaging in coordinated inauthentic behavior. Gambia had requested this data to support its case against Myanmar at the International Court of Justice. The government of Gambia then sued Facebook to release the records and received a fully favorable initial order from a magistrate judge to release both public and private content from the accounts. Facebook objected to part of the magistrate judges order that required the release of private messages in those government-controlled accounts, and a U.S. District Court judge sided with Facebook on that specific issue.

The lack of clarity surrounding international standards for tech companies content moderationand how these international norms interact with domestic approacheshas been magnified with Russias invasion of Ukraine. Without clear international norms, tech companies are individually left to question whether further engagement in Russia is more harmful than withdrawing their services entirely. Perault noted that while companies are clearly uncomfortable operating in Russia during the war, there is not a clear answer to this question. In the absence of specific international norms, tech companies are crafting their policies toward Russia on an ad hoc basis.

Emerging norms may establish clearer standards. Having reached a deal concerning the landmark Digital Services Act, the European Union (EU) will require companies to establish new policies and procedures to more forcefully police their platforms and remove suspect material, such as hate speech, terrorist propaganda, and other content defined as illegal by EU countries. As Llans indicated, the Digital Services Act will require companies to regulate their algorithms and create risk assessments, among other regulations. Notably, the law will enable regulators to impose heavy fines on tech companies who do not comply with the laws provisions. While the response from tech companies has been muted, it is possible that greater regulation of large tech companies may lead to a more coherent response to human rights abuses.

In sum, social media has been essential for movements ranging from the 2010-2011 Arab uprisings to #MeToo to #BlackLivesMatter, as discussed further in my recent post on hashtag activism. However, as Johnathan Haidt illustrates in his recent piece in the Atlantic, social media has not only brought people together, but it has also created divisions and even led to violence. The recent shooting in Buffalo demonstrates how violent extremists are influenced by online hate. Not only do hate groups creep from the hidden corners of bulletin boards to more mainstream websites, but hate and division are more likely to be amplified online.

A final dilemma was highlighted on our panel by Mwangi, who criticized the fact that the current discourse on speech and internet regulation tends to ignore parts of the world where the right to free speech is dependent on the whims of state power. Mwangi said that international law needs to address the prevalence of internet shutdowns and online censorship. Despite the threat of censorship and oppression, Mwangi highlighted the vibrancy of digital movements in Africa such as #EndSARS, #ZimbabweanLivesMatter, and #SomeoneTellCNN. While some governments have managed to successfully use social media platforms to cement their power, there are brave citizens who regularly speak out for their human rights, both online and offline. How tech companies decide to confront or acquiesce to state power remains to be seen.

You can watch the full panel here; scroll down to the Friday, April 8 event at 9:00 am >>

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Can You Hear Me? Speech and Power in the Global Digital Town Square - Council on Foreign Relations

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Posted By admin on June 2, 2022

May is Jewish American Heritage Month, a time to celebrate the contributions Jewish Americans have made to the United States since they first arrived in New Amsterdam in 1654.

Jewish American Heritage Month had its origins in 1980 when Congress passed Pub. L. 96-237, which authorized and requested the President to issue a proclamation designating a week in April or May as Jewish Heritage Week.

On April 20, 2006, President George W. Bush declared that May would be Jewish American Heritage Month, after resolutions passed unanimously in both the House and Senate.

Library of Congress resources about Jews in the United States

To celebrate Jewish American Heritage Month, here are some resources at Emorys Woodruff Library:

Jewish Life in America, c1654-1954.

Contains materials related to the history of Jewish people and communities in the U.S. from the 17th to the middle of the 20th century.

American Jewish Historical Newspapers

Index to Jewish Periodicals

Oxford Bibliographies Online: Jewish Studies

Jews and race in the United States:

The Price of Whiteness: Jews, Race, and American Identity Eric L. Goldstein, Oxford : Princeton University Press; 2008

What has it meant to be Jewish in a nation preoccupied with the categories of black and white? The Price of Whiteness documents the uneasy place Jews have held in Americas racial culture since the late 19th century. The book traces Jews often tumultuous encounter with race from the 1870s through World War II, when they became vested as part of Americas white mainstream and abandoned the practice of describing themselves in racial terms. (Provided by publisher)

Related Video: Eric K. Ward, executive director of the Western States Center, is a nationally recognized expert on the relationship between authoritarian movements, hate, violence, and preserving inclusive democracy. Ward was interviewed by Prof. Eric L. Goldstein, author of The Price of Whiteness: Jews, Race, and American Identity.

Jews in Hollywood:

From Shtetl to Stardom: Jews and Hollywood Lisa Ansell, editor. Project Muse, 2016

The influence of Jews in American entertainment from the early days of Hollywood to the present has proved an endlessly fascinating and controversial topic, for Jews and non-Jews alike. From Shtetl to Stardom: Jews and Hollywood takes an exciting and innovative approach to this rich and complex material. Exploring the subject from a scholarly perspective as well as up close and personal, the book combines historical and theoretical analysis by leading academics in the field with inside information from prominent entertainment professionals. (Provided by publisher)

by Tarina Rosen, Jewish Studies, REES and linguistics librarian

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Emory Libraries Blog | Celebrating Jewish American Heritage Month

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Posted By admin on June 2, 2022

Let me be the first to wish you a Happy Jewish American Heritage Month. The month is almost over. Nevertheless, Reader, I know I am the first to greet you.

Proclaimed by President George W. Bush in 2006, after energetic advocacy by Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Jewish American Heritage Month recognizes the more than 350-year history of Jewish contributions to American culture. At any rate, thats what its supposed to do.

Although recognized by President Joe Biden and the Library of Congress, JAMH has become the Rodney Dangerfield of commemorative occasions. It gets no respect.

The U.S. Department of State, for example, honors nine history and heritage months on its public website. These months recognize women, LGBTQ, Asian, Hispanic, Caribbean, Arab and African Americans, among others. Jewish Americans, however, are forgotten. This is surprising, since our Secretary of State is a Jew.

Other great institutions offer Jews the same slight. Harvard, for example, has chosen this year to honor eight heritage months and seven identity recognition days. None are for the children of Israel.

The most extraordinary recognizer of commemorative days, weeks, and months might be the U.S. Census Bureau. Our census-takers offer Stats for Stories with helpful data to assist the media in story mining and producing content on dozens of observances. Spoiler alert: Jewish American Heritage Month doesnt make the cut.

In fairness to the Bureau, it is understandable that they rank some commemorations higher than ours. Take Mothers Day or National Police Week. No one wants to piss off either of those groups.

National Poultry Day is harder to swallow. How do we rank lower than chickens? Or consider this: The Census Bureau has stats for Doughnut Day but not for bagels. Or for the people who gave bagels to the world.

Other commemorations are more mysterious. Single people get both a month and a week. February 15 was Singles Awareness Day. Unmarried and Single Americans Week will stretch from September 19-25. Are single people supposed to appreciate themselves? Or are married people supposed to appreciate them? And who thinks that will end well?

Why should we care? Presidential proclamations establishing Jewish American Heritage Month do not have the force of law and are entirely symbolic. Nevertheless, symbols matter.

It is important to recognize the contributions the Jewish people have made to this country, from Leonard Bernstein in music to Albert Einstein in science to my own organizations namesake in law.

As importantly, such celebrations can provided needed relief in a time of record-setting antisemitism. We need positive messaging after an onslaught of anti-Jewish and anti-Israel propaganda.

Elan Carr, the former Special Envoy to Combat Anti-Semitism, argues that celebrations of Jewish heritage can strike a blow against Jew-hatred. He reasons that the opposite of antisemitism is philosemitism. By this, he means appreciation, respect and affection for the Jewish people.

Some disagree. The current academic consensus is that antisemitism and philosemitism are not opposites. Rather, both involve stereotypes and generalizations. Some academics even joke, What is a philosemite? An antisemite who likes Jews.

Yale scholar Maurice Samuels says this doesnt mean that philosemites are all antisemites in disguise. Rather, both groups treat Jews as others, projecting fantasies of the Jew that they use to form their own sense of identity.

Samuels and Carr can both be right. It may be true, as Samuels argues, that philosemitism has dangers. Nevertheless, it is surely also true that hate and bias of all kinds, including antisemitism, can be reduced when people develop mutual admiration and respect.

This is especially true today, when Jewish identity is increasingly undermined by the rise of a new erasive antisemitism, which negates the right of Jews to define our own identity and experience.

We see this frequently among college students and instructors who come to the Brandeis Center for help. They may work at institutions like Stanford University, where Jewish staff have been pushed to join a whiteness accountability affinity group, created for staff who hold privilege via white identity.

They may study at places like Brooklyn College, where Jewish students are told that they are white, privileged, systemic racists. One student said, Im a Hispanic person of color, and yet even I was told by faculty and administrators in the program that because I am Jewish, I enjoy the privileges of whiteness and that my skin color would not save me.

These sorts of diversity programs often omit Jewish heritage from their commemorative occasions for the same reason that they forget Jews everywhere else. They do not understand antisemitism or grasp why they must address it. Worse, they may be spreading Jew-hatred rather than combating it.

Jewish American Heritage Month is no panacea. Nevertheless, it is an excellent first step for institutions that seem to have forgotten the Jewish experience. At a time when antisemitism is rising, a simple step that any institution can take is to celebrate Jewish American heritage, just as we do with the other heritages that make our nation strong.

In the meantime, may you have a happy Jewish American Heritage Month. And a joyous Asian/Pacific American Heritage Month as well.

Kenneth L. Marcus is founder and chairman of the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law and author of The Definition of Anti-Semitism. He served as the 11th Assistant U.S. Secretary of Education for Civil Rights.

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My fellow Jewish Americans, Happy Rodney Dangerfield Month | Opinion ...

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Posted By admin on June 2, 2022

Back in the late 2000s, Williamsburg, Brooklyn, was the worlds coolest neighborhood. And if lifestyle blogs were to be believed, everyone in Williamsburg rode a bike. But not everyone in New York did, and then-Mayor Michael Bloomberg wanted to change that. He installed hundreds of miles of bike lanes throughout the city, which had the potential to cut both pollution and traffic deaths.

In the Hasidic section of South Williamsburg, the Department of Transportation striped a white corridor down a particularly chaotic section of Bedford Avenue, home to kosher grocery stores and Hasidic apartment buildings. Locals, already wary of outsiders, were furious. To them, bikes were not symbols of hip urbanism but of unwelcome intrusionparticularly by women riders whose clothes offended the communitys religious mandate of strict modesty.

Ahead of Bloombergs reelection bid, the city removed the bike lane. A few nights later, the Hasidic community patrol found renegade cyclists repainting it at 3:30 a.m. The city got rid of the DIY lane, too, leaving the two sides debating for months, but the lane never reappeared. Cyclists still ride that stretch, finding their own path through tightly crammed vehicles. The Hasidim still seem to resent the cyclists. The conflict grinds on.

Read: The design bible that changed how Americans bike in cities

Substitute 1890 for 2009, or London for New York, and this episode looks the same as any other in the endless drama between cyclists and the people who live begrudgingly alongside them. From their debut in the 1800s, bicycles have been a confounding presence on the streets, their riders unpredictable careening infuriating carriage drivers, then car drivers, and, the whole time, pedestrians. For just as long, many cyclists have tightly held on to a sense of moral superiority about their machines. As climate collapse looms, bicycles have taken on a saintly quality, extolled as squeaky-clean instruments of penance for wealthy countries carbon emissions.

Or at least, thats the story that many of us, especially in the global North, tell ourselves about bicycles. Whats missing from it could fill a book, which Jody Rosen, a New York Times Magazine contributor and lifelong cyclist, has written. Two Wheels Good: The History and Mystery of the Bicycle takes readers time-traveling and globe-trotting to build up an alternate narrative about a simple machine that becomes harder to categorize the more you learn about it. Through history and across cultures, bicycles are a human denominator. Their past and future concern us alleven if you dont think they have anything to do with you.

The first machine resembling a bicycle emerged in 1817 from the workshop of the German inventor Baron Karl von Drais. His Laufmaschine (running machine) was essentially a balance biketwo wheels connected by a seat, which the rider pushed forward with their feet. It took until the turn of the century for the bicycle to evolve into what we ride today: two evenly sized wheels connected via a frame and propelled by a pedal-powered drivetrain. This iteration of the bike really took off, transforming the machine from a reviled plaything of the idle rich to a threatening equalizer of the classes and the sexes. (Susan B. Anthony said in 1896 that cycling was doing more to emancipate women than anything else in the world.)

Rosen covers this early history because he has to, but immediately starts mining it for nuance. The bicycle is a populist project, the result of grassroots innovation and an exchange of knowledge that runs in all directions, he writes, acknowledging that hobbyists retrofitted its design nearly from the beginning. He connects those amateur engineers to both Vietnamese guerrilla fighters who packed anti-French, and then anti-American, bombs into their frames, and to American freak bike clubs that solder together endearingly bizarre contraptions that are almost impossible to ride. Even when theyre a bit of a stretch, these historical and global parallels, which Rosen draws throughout the book, disentangle bicycles from the ownership of any one time or type of person.

Having the motivation to write this much about bikes requires loving them, which Rosen does, deeply. After a childhood spent admiring bicycle design, he fell hard for riding as a messenger in Boston during college (Ive definitely never had a more pleasurable job, he says), an experience that made him a lifelong enthusiast but not a pedantic gearhead. Even after decades of cycling he regards it with a fresh mind, still in awe of the pure joy of the experience. In the passages where he describes what it actually feels like to ride, he makes it sound irresistible:

[On] a particularly free-flowing ride, [your] body and beingshoulders, hands, hips, legs, bones, muscles, skin, brainseem to be inseparable from the strong but supple bicycle frame. At such moments, to conceive of the bike as a vehicle is perhaps not quite right. It may be more accurate to think of it as a prosthesis. Ideally, it is hard to say exactly where the bicyclist ends and the bicycle begins.

His enthusiasm does occasionally overwhelm. Fascinating tidbits organized by loose themes, abrupt topical switches within sections, and chapters on trick cycling, exercise bikes, and bikes as sex objects make the book comprehensive but also unfocused. Still, the meandering structure often feels like a leisurely ride, full of spontaneous detours into unexpected delight.

But what makes the book essential is its rigorous reporting. Rosen holds his responsibility as a journalist higher than his love for his subject, sharing unflattering and sometimes bleak truths about bicycles that rust their shining image. Like the lithium that powers electric-car batteries (and e-bikes), the materials that bikes are made from are steeped in the blood of the global South. Rubber for early bike tires was harvested in the late 1800s by laborers in Portuguese Brazil and others in Belgian Congo, whom the colonizers mutilated or murdered by the millions. The asphalt that first paved major American and European cities around the same time (it was cyclists who first successfully demanded smoothed-out streets) came from Pitch Lake in Trinidad, then owned by American business interests in contract with imperial Britain, and later exploited mostly for foreign benefit despite being state-owned; Trinidadians still saw almost none of the benefit after more than a century of their labor.

Bicycles can also themselves be a vehicle for colonialism. Klondike bicycles, designed (albeit poorly) to navigate unpaved terrain in cold temperatures, helped 1890s gold prospectors in Canada more thoroughly exploit land that had long belonged to Indigenous communities. Bike lanes like the ones that bedeviled the Hasidim are also, in historically Black and Latino neighborhoods in the U.S., omens for displacement. Rosen doesnt wrestle with these stories so much as list them in thorny intertwinings, challenging readers to put aside any assumptions they might have had about bikes before picking up the book.

To prove both the flexibility and unwavering functional value of bicycles, Rosen looks, near the end of the book, toward adjacent machines: the tricycles piloted by Dhakas impoverished rickshawallahs, and the e-bikes that New York Citys mostly immigrant deliveristas use to drop off takeout. Both types of work are grueling and exploitative, and the people doing them face government bans of the tools of their livelihoods. But as police and bureaucrats in those and many other cities have had to accept, there is no eliminating bicycles, or the various forms of transportation derived from them. Their promise of some sort of freedom, whether personal or economic, is too great to be suppressed.

Read: Im risking my life to bring you ramen

This holds true whether you ride for work, pleasure, or simple transportation. The worlds rickshawallahs and deliveristas use their modified bikes to navigate an economy that marginalizes them, so they likely dont romanticize their rides the way that hobbyists like Rosen (or me) do. But anyone who cycles does so because thats how you get where youre going mostly on your own terms, something that no other form of transportation allows for in quite the same way. Bicycle history may be complicated, but the reason its such a long history is not. Everyone appreciates a hint of self-determination.

Amid the Hasid-hipster uproar, a self-appointed peacemaker named Baruch Herzfeld, a 30-something Modern Orthodox Jew who ran a bike shop on the edge of the neighborhood, tried several times to get the two sides talking. In 2010 he told The Atlantic that outsiders had been missing important context for the controversy: In this particular Hasidic community, typically only children rode bicycles. Brawling over something that they considered a toy likely made the whole thing not just infuriating but perplexing for the Hasidim.

But by Herzfields telling, a few Hasidic men would also rent bikes covertly at night, sometimes returning overwhelmed with joyThey say, Its beautiful! Its wonderful! Bikes became little miracles that zipped them through an enlivening, novel tour of their own neighborhood. Finding a personal relationship with bikes had changed their minds about who could ride. All it took was someone leading the way.

If non-bike people can be persuaded to read it, Two Wheels Good might do the same thing. In showing that bikes have always been complicatedaccessories to some and essential to others, means of recreation and of labor, signifiers of both wealth and povertyRosen also shows that they are universal, inviting even the most skeptical readers along with his humility and humor. Bicycles dont belong to hipsters in Brooklyn or to parents in Copenhagen, and riding one doesnt have to signify anything about the rider. You neednt give your bike a second thought if you dont want to. In all of their complexity, and maybe because of it, bicycles have always been, and will always be, for everyone.

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The Ideology of the Bicycle - The Atlantic

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Posted By admin on June 2, 2022

BEDFORD-STUYVESANT, Brooklyn (PIX11) New video exclusively obtained by PIX11 News shows a suspected bias attack on a Hasidic Jewish teenager in Brooklyn.

It happened Thursday morning at the corner of Park Avenue and Spencer Street. In the exclusive video, the 16-year-old can be seen crossing the intersection, where he is approached by a man he doesnt know.

Suddenly, the man hurls forward at him and starts throwing punches. Seconds later, a man in a nearby delivery truck can be seen jumping out and rushing to help the teen.

The suspect is knocked down before he runs off.

He came up and started beating him up and my brother he was surprised. He tried to block the punches, said Isaac, the victims brother. PIX11 News is only using Isaacs first name to protect the victims identity.

In an exclusive interview, Isaac said the suspect allegedly yelled I am going to get rid of all you Jews before he pushed his sibling down.

He said his brother is now traumatized.

He was hurt on his shoulders. He was completely shocked. He didnt want to see any doctor. He just walked to school. He didnt even tell any kids at school that the story happened, Isaac added.

Police have released images of the man they are looking for.

As for the person who helped his brother, Isaac said it turns out, its one of his friends. He said the man didnt know who he was protecting when he rushed to help.

He didnt even stop the truck. The guy with him had to stop the truck and stop from making an accident and he ran out to help my brother, Isaac said.

The NYPD Hate Crimes Task Force is now investigating.

PIX11 News reached out to the driver, who said he did not want to be interviewed. However, he said he jumped in to help because it was the right thing to do.

Both he and the victims family said anti-Semitic attacks are on the rise and need to end.

It really sucks. It really really does. Everyone deserves to be respected and treated [equally,] Isaac said. Sadly, were used to it. It happens a lot in the neighborhood.

As for his brother, Isaac said he is now recovering. Physically he is OK, he added, but emotionally, it will take time for him to get over what happened.

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Exclusive: Man jumps in to protect teen from suspected bias attack - PIX11 New York News

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Let the Rainbow Pride flags fly: Pride Month kicks off Sunday in Stroudsburg.

You can show your support for theLGBTQ community at the PoconoPride Festival taking place noon to 5p.m. at Courthouse Square, 600 Main St.

The gathering now in its second year is organized by the Pocono Chamber of Commerces LGBTQ Business Council as a way to support and promote the LGBTQ community.

We are very proud to be holding this festival in the Poconos to truly bring awareness to inclusion and diversity throughout all of the communities, HaydenRinde, manager of the Pocono Chamber of Commerce, said. And to be able to partner with the organizations in the community that focus on inclusion and diversity day in and day out, and to give them a platform to be able to connect directly with the community.''

An estimated 60 vendors will be part of the event including Novus, a sponsor of the festival that will offer free HIV and STD testing on site, according to Rinde.

Pamper yourself:Check out these lux Pocono spas

Drag queen performersClan Ann (Carol Ann Carol Ann andSharron Ann Husbands), who were at last years Pocono Pride, will emcee the 2022 vent.

The cheeky duowas founded on the streets of Philadelphia in 2011 "after an altercationwith three prostitutes and a lady cop, the festivalwebsite says. Whether solo or together, Clan Ann is fun from beginning to end. Their unpredictable antics and love of games, Broadway, and boys make them the perfect pair for any event.

Pocono Pride also will feature a drag show featuring five or six performers.

Local musical artists such as HOLDN, Rubix Pube, Brother Bear, Nimbus Cloud and Holy Roasters will grace the stage.

Poconos congregation hosts webinar:Abby Stein shares her journey from Hasidic upbringing to LGBTQ advocate

Story continues after gallery.

Food options will include options from Angels Cook Catering, Atomic Hogs Pit Barbecue, Savory Eats, RK Mobile Foods, and Curd Zone, along with buzz-worthy beverages from Shawnee Craft Brewery, Banters Hard Cider, and Tolino Vineyards.

If you go: PoconoPride Festival, noon to 5p.m. Sunday, Courthouse Square, 600 Main St., Stroudsburg. Visit poconopridefestival.com

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2nd annual Pocono Pride Festival will be held Sunday in Stroudsburg - Pocono Record

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Posted By admin on June 2, 2022

The Deborah Chapel was named to the National Trust for Historic Preservation's 2022 list of Most Endangered Historic Buildings in America.

HARTFORD, Conn. The Congregation Beth Israel has put a historic building in Hartfordup for sale, as news of its possible demolition makes its rounds.

The congregation is selling the Deborah Chapel, which sits in the Beth Israel cemetery in Frog Hollow, for $1, on the condition that the buyer "removes the structure from its current location."

We have made this offer in the past, but have never received any response, says Scott Lewis, Chair of the Beth Israel Cemetery Committee. "Given the recent interest in the building, we thought it would be a good time to renew our offer.

That offer was made 10 years ago, years before applying for a permit to demolish the building in 2018.

There has been much back and forth between the City of Hartford and the synagogue with the request to demolish, including alawsuit from Beth Israel when their initial request to demolish the building was denied, as well as anappeal from Hartford's Historic Preservation Commission (HPC) when the judge revisited the suit and reversed the decision to decline the demo request.

The appeal, filed in March 2021, is still in progress, as a motion from the HPC for an extension was granted, and "until the court issues its decision," the synagogue will keep the $1 offer open.

"These conversations usually end very quickly because moving a building in a northeastern city is logistically very difficult and prohibitively expensive," said Carey Shea, a Frog Hollow resident and founder of Friends of Zion Hill Cemetery group.

The investment goes beyond $1. The building would need a new property to sit on, as well as a new foundation and renovations, Shea added.

The two-and-a-half-story building was constructed in the mid-1800s and occupied by the Hartford Ladies' Deborah Society, a women's auxiliary of Jewish women who immigrated from Germany and found community within Hartford. One of their main tasks was to prepare bodies for burial.

The building has been vacant for decades since burial preparations are now done in funeral homes. The city deeded the property to the synagogue centuries ago, and that deed requires the property to be used only for cemetery purposes, according to the synagogue.

It's possible to request the removal of the deed's restriction through the City Council if need be; it's not clear if there was an attempt to remove that restriction from the property's deed in recent years.

Regardless of whether the building is demolished or wheeled out by the new or current owner, Beth Israel intends to reserve that part of the property for graves when they would eventually be needed by members of their congregation.

"Beth Israel Cemetery still has plenty of land available for burials and most of the Congregation members appear to prefer burial in the larger and newer Beth Israel cemetery in Avon," said Shea. In the meantime, we hope they continue to consider alternatives to demolition."

The City believes that the best place for this historic building to be preserved and renovated is in the location in which it has historically stood, and the City continues to pursue an appeal to prevent this historic structure from being demolished, said Howard Rifkin of Hartford's Corporation Counsel.

At the beginning of May, city officials and local historic preservation advocates called on Beth Israel to reconsider demolishing the building and the history that it holds. The Deborah Chapel was also named to the National Trust for Historic Preservation's 2022 list of Most Endangered Historic Buildings in America.

This $1 offer was extended to the City of Hartford, the city's Historic Preservation Commission, and members of the community. Anyone interested in purchasing the Deborah Chapel for $1 and removing it from the property is asked to contact Tracy Mozingo, Congregation Beth Israels Executive Director.

It's not clear how much time the buyer would have to get the building off of the property;"Obviously that is something that we would have to work out with any prospective purchaser," The congregation told FOX61 on Tuesday.

Leah Myers is a digital content producer at FOX61 News. She can be reached atlmyers@fox61.com

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Historic building in Hartford threatened with demolition being offered for $1 - FOX61 Hartford

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Posted By admin on June 2, 2022

GONDAR, Ethiopia (JTA) The atmosphere was festive at this citys only synagogue as the congregations prepared to send off 180 community members who are moving to Israel.

Everyone is happy because todays a day of hope, Abraham Zemenu, a 49-year-old regular, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency at the service Tuesday at the Hatikvah synagogue, a corrugated-metal structure with a Torah ark and seats for about 600 people.

Hatikvah means hope in Hebrew and it is also the name of the Israeli national anthem. It also describes the emotion harbored by thousands of people in Ethiopia who identify themselves as Falash Mura, descendants of Ethiopian Jews who converted to Christianity about 200 years ago, sometimes under duress.

Over the past 40 years, Israel has haltingly allowed thousands of Falash Mura to immigrate, with the aim of reuniting families of Ethiopian Jews in Israel and ultimately leaving none behind in Ethiopia, a poor African nation where the average life expectancy is 67 years. Wednesdays flight is one of the first since Israel reopened immigration for a small number of Falash Mura last year.

Abraham Zemenu did not make the list drawn up by the Jewish Agency and Israels immigration authorities. Hell remain in Gondar this week as 300 people leave on two flights.

Kefale Tayachew Damtie, a father of six from Gondar, Ethiopias sixth-largest city, will be on the Wednesday flight. (Another flight with 120 Falash Mura is scheduled to fly out later this week.)

A girl smiles upon arriving from Ethiopia as her mother kisses the ground at Ben Gurion Airport in Israel on Feb. 12, 2021. (Courtesy of ICEJ)

Damtie has not seen his mother in years but has not told her that hes coming.

Ill do it right before I board the plane to Israel. I dont want to disappoint her, said Damtie, 56, who lives with his wife and children in a rented 300-square-feet room with no running water.

Damtie, who has been waiting to immigrate to Israel for 23 years, has good reason to be cautious. Geopolitical complications, COVID-19, political instability in Israel and disagreements there about the countrys Falash Mura policy have delayed and otherwise complicated immigration for the Ethiopians.

Israel considers as eligible for immigration only Falash Mura who have a child or parent in Israel. Their children can come only if those children are single and childless.

Damtie was married when his parents left for Israel, so he stayed behind. He has waited through multiple rounds of Falash Mura emigration, when Israel would let in small groups of people at irregular intervals, each according to the same stipulations. Damties children are unmarried so he is able to leave with his whole nuclear family.

I have been waiting to leave because this is not my home. These are not my people. I am Jewish and Zion is my country, said Damtie. On Tuesday, he and his whole family wore their best clothes as they loaded their only possessions a serving dish and some clothing onto a pickup truck bound for Gondar Airport, en route to Addis Ababa ahead of the final flight to Israel Wednesday.

In total, about 95,000 Ethiopians have left from Ethiopia to Israel, beginning with the Beta Israel, a group whose members are widely recognized as Jewish. Almost all members of that group left Ethiopia by 1993 for Israel under its law of return for Jews, which allows the children or grandchildren of Jews or recognized converts to gain citizenship automatically.

Ethiopian Jews on a flight to Israel in 1991. (Patrick Baz/AFP via Getty Images)

Falash Mura are not eligible under the law of return. But Israel admitted some that year anyway in response to lobbying by Beta Israel Jews who wanted the state to let in their Falash Mura relatives.

Over time, about 25,000 Falash Mura have come to Israel, according to Jewish Agency records.

The immigration of Falash Mura is a divisive issue among Israelis with Ethiopian roots.

Some, especially from the Beta Israel community, believe some newcomers identifying as Falash Mura are Christians seeking a ticket to a Western country. Last year, one group of Ethiopian Israelis filed a petition with the Israeli Supreme Court to halt that immigration. The court threw out the petition, citing jurisdiction issues.

Others from the same community are vocal supporters of the Falash Mura immigration, which they say is a moral duty of the State of Israel and Ethiopian Jews.

Israels immigrant absorption minister, Pnina Tamano-Shata, who was born in Ethiopia, told Ynet about the flight: Its a historic event and Im glad that after unrelenting efforts we are continuing aliyah from Ethiopia.

The flight Wednesday is organized by the Jewish Agency for Israel and the Israeli government and its part of an operation called Zur Israel, launched by the government last year and funded partly by the Jewish Federations of North America, Keren Hayesod and the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews.

The Jewish Agency estimates that there are 10,000 Falash Mura who meet Israels immigration criteria, though many of them have married children who would be ineligible to join their parents.

Israeli absorption minister Pnina Tamano-Shata poses in an undated photo. (Natan Weil/Government Press Office)

Operation Zur Israel will allow up to 3,000 of them to move to Israel, where they will undergo Orthodox conversions to Judaism in accordance with a promise they must make to be allowed to immigrate.

But even though the Falash Mura are not considered Jewish by the State of Israel and Orthodox rabbis, many of them have formed Jewish communities in Gondar, where they pray and study Hebrew. Rabbi Menachem Waldman, the Israeli Chief Rabbinates point person for Jewish issues in Ethiopia, has trained a group of young Falash Mura men in leading services at Hatikvah Synagogue.

In honor of the departure of the 180 passengers on Wednesday, those men led a special service that ended with the singing of Hatikvah.

Operation Zur Israel means that thousands of new immigrants from Ethiopia will be able to fulfill their dream and unite with their relatives in Israel after many years of waiting, Yaakov Hagoel, the acting chairman of the Jewish Agency, said during his visit to Ethiopia to oversee preparations for the flights this week.

Damtie knows just what hell do when he gets to Israel. His first order of business is to hug his mother, whom he last saw when she visited Gondar.

Then I want to see Jerusalem, the city I have been dreaming so much about, he said.

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After decades of waiting, 300 of Ethiopias Falash Mura to leave for Israel this week - JTA News - Jewish Telegraphic Agency

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Posted By admin on June 2, 2022

The Kramer family (from left), Michele Kramer Sloane, Charles Kramer, Mark Kramer, and Lynn P. Kramer.

On Thursday, June 30, Charles Kramer and his children, Michele Kramer Sloane and Mark Kramer, will host the Lynn P. Kramer Concert at Shirat Hayam. The concert will feature the multi-talented Divas on the Bima starring Cantor Jen Cohen, Cantor Alisa Pomerantz Boro, Cantor Elizabeth Shammash, and Cantor Magda Fishman, accompanied by Musical Director Scott Stein and trio.

The concert, orchestrated by Joe Handler and Charles Kramer, will honor Charless late wife through music and joy.

Michele Kramer Sloanes great-grandparents Ben and Molly were members of (then) Beth Judah. She was raised at the synagogue, she and her brother had their bnai mitzvahs there, and Kramer Sloane was married at Beth Judah, too. The synagogue was always a place of connection for Lynn Kramer. With her husband serving as a past president of the synagogue, she was always present for services and events, remaining committed and connected.

Lynn Kramer helped set an example of what was right and wrong for her children. Both she and Charles had many leadership roles, ran a business (Kramer Beverage, which continues to thrive today), and were busy attending meetings for local groups. We were always taught to be charitable, be responsible and have a strong work ethic. While my brother went into the family business. Ive spent my career in the Jewish nonprofit world. I think with both of our professional roles, my moms advice has helped us exemplify these attributes, said Kramer Sloane.

Throughout her life, Lynn Kramer was an avid supporter of the local community. She was born and raised locally, attending Atlantic City High School. My mom was someone who was fortunate, but never forgot where she came from. She was never a showy person, but someone of substance, said Kramer Sloane. Lynn Kramer was seen by her daughter as a very bright and strong woman who valued putting others first.

Lynn Kramer was a keen supporter of the Jewish Federation of Atlantic & Cape May Counties, Shirat Hayam, Jewish Family Service of Atlantic & Cape May Counties, Jewish National Fund, United Way, Atlanticare Foundation, Stockton University Foundation, Atlantic Cape Community College, Community Food Bank, and many more agencies.

Lynn Kramer was born to Ann and Milton Popowsky in Atlantic City on November 8, 1942. She graduated from Atlantic City High School in 1960 and the University of Pennsylvania in 1964. One week after graduation, she married Charles Kramer and they were happily married for 56 years.

Lynn Kramer passed away on March 1, 2021 at age 78, after a short but courageous battle with pancreatic cancer.

The committee members for the June event include Jodi and Joe Handler (Chair), Meryl and Steve Baer, Norma and David Blecker, Michele and Noah Bronkesh, Ronnie and Barry Cohen, Deena and Jim Dine, Sheila and Alan Friedman, Judy and Lenny Galler, Rabbi Gordon and Elaine Geller, Andi and David Goldberg, Linda and Mitch Gordon, Charles Kramer, Mark Kramer, Ellie and Rabbi Jonathan Kremer, Linda and Cantor Ed Kulp, Sue and Rob Lang, Cantor Jacki and Mitch Menaker, Iris and Marc Needleman, Patti and Leo Schoffer, Michele Kramer Sloane, and Natlyn and Cantor Harvey Wolbransky.

The event will take place on Thursday June 30 at 7:30 p.m. After the performance, there will be a Kosher dessert buffet catered by Panache.

For more information, please contact Marcy Sless, director of congregational engagement, at marcy.sless@shirathayamnj.org.

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Shirat Hayam is hosting a concert to remember the life of Lynn Kramer - Jewish Community Voice

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Posted By admin on June 2, 2022

Marcia Bass Brody on her 94th birthday after receiving 94 Pennsylvania lottery tickets | Courtesy of Susan Sonenthal

In The Brady Bunch, a young Jan whines Marcia, Marcia, Marcia!, lamenting how her sister always seems to get acclaim effortlessly.

The same seems to be true of, not Marcia Brady, but Marcia Brody the 94-year-old whip-smart Cheltenham resident.

Brody was a guest in a 1992 episode of You Bet Your Life, hosted by Bill Cosby, where her deadpan humor and tales of growing up in the small town of North, South Carolina, charmed, if not befuddled, her audience.

Among the other contestants on the show were a professional storyteller, the youngest Justice of the Peace in the U.S. and a jazz pianist.

At the time, Brody was a secretary in Cheltenham. But her bit was a hit: Her time on the comedy quiz show has merited tens of thousands of YouTube views since a clip of it was uploaded in 2019.

Brody, with a thick drawl that betrayed her Southern roots, stuck out from the pack.

One of the contestants turned to Brody on set before the taping and asked, What is your speciality?

Upon explaining that she was just a secretary, the other contestant replied, Are you the fastest typist in the country? Brody said no, she used a computer and not a typewriter.

When the contestant asked if Brody was the best secretary in the country, Brody said, straight-faced, Not really.

Finally, exasperated, the contestant asked, Why are you there?

Because I was picked, Brody responded.

Three decades after her fifteen minutes of fame on You Bet Your Life, Brody still has plenty to say. In April, she self-published a book of poetry shes written over the years.

The book, Age is Only a Number, contains over 35 poems Brody has written in years past, mostly inspired by notes she scribbled on sheets of paper she kept.

Its more a book for the elderly, really, Brody said, Things I was experiencing I slowed down a lot changes occurred in my life.

Brodys poems are concise and honest, many of them focusing on the details of becoming older or reflecting on growing up in a family of seven children (of whom Brody is the fifth). In spite of, or maybe because of, the seriousness of the topics, Brody approaches each verse with waggish comedy.

Itch, Itch, Itch/ Scratch, scratch, scratch/ That is what happens when your skin gets old, Brody writes. This can happen in weather that is hot or cold. / My son is now scratching/ On lottery tickets he bought today. / I hope his scratching continues/ And mine will go away.

Growing up in North (which is about 90 miles southeast of the South Carolina town of Due West), Brody, born Marcia Bass, and her family were the only Jews in town.

The Bass family belonged to an Orthodox synagogue in Columbia, South Carolina, the states capital, but traveled 30 miles from their home town to attend a Reform Sunday school.

Despite being a minority, Brody doesnt remember experiencing antisemitism growing up, though her father used to hide Black town residents in his dry goods store when Ku Klux Klan members entered town.

Brodys father, Nathan Bass, was a Lithuanian immigrant who came to the U.S. at 16, not knowing how to read, write or speak English. He and his cousin were supposed to travel to Charleston, West Virginia to work in the fall and winter, but a mistake at the train station yielded two tickets to Charleston, South Carolina. Bass, with growing success with a dry goods store, moved to North, a town of 800 people.

North remained a small town. Brody had nine students in her high school graduating class, and a small social pool became even smaller when her parents put limitations on her dating life.

The girls in our family had a late social life because we werent allowed to go out with non-Jewish boys, Brody said.

That changed, however, when Brody met her to-be husband in Charlotte, North Carolina, where she relocated after graduating from the University of South Carolina in 1948 to take a secretary position. Brody was volunteering at a Sunday school and was active at her synagogue; the executive director, a Philadelphia native, took an interest in her, and the two married. Brody was involved in Haddassah chapters in both Charlotte and Philadelphia.

Brody moved to Cheltenham with her husband and daughter, and had two sons after the move. She and her husband divorced after 28 years of marriage.

But family remains the most important thing for Brody; she still sends out a family newsletter three times a year. Brody still works to take care of her children, paying her bills and feeding herself three square meals a day. She insists shes got plenty to do.

Life keeps me going, she said.

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Last Word: Marcia Bass Brody Shows Her Southern Charm on TV, in Book - Jewish Exponent

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