Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By admin on May 31, 2022

In the 1980s, Rabbi Aryeh Markman took groups of people on tours around the world. He went to places such as China, Canada, all over Europe and Russia. It was in Russia that someone from the United Jewish Appeal came up to him and asked him for a favor.

He gave me the number of a professor who was fired from the University of Moscow because they were complaining about quotas and not letting Jews into the university, said Markman, who is executive director of Aish HaTorah Los Angeles. The man asked if I could visit the professor.

The rabbi made contact with the professor and made six more trips to Russia carrying contraband for him. In those days, contraband included blue jeans, money, the game Monopoly and proofs of a book the professor was working on.

Up until that point, Markman was a secular Jew. As his father told him when he was growing up, their family was left of Reform.

I did a bar mitzvah, but it was transactional, he said. I told my parents, Dont bother me about Judaism after this. For the next 15 years, I stepped into a shul maybe five times. I was done.

When he went to Russia, however, he saw what it meant to be a Jew in that country. I thought, Holy cow, this professor is Jewish, and look at how they are treating him, he said. No Jews were leaving the country then.

Markman was supposed to enroll in an MBA program. But before going to school, he wanted to take six weeks to backpack in Israel.

All of a sudden, I confront my Judaism and its like Im back in Sunday school, he said. I was going to classes at Aish HaTorah and Ohr Somayach. I became so fascinated. I could not believe this was Judaism. Why did no one ever teach me this?

When the rabbi learned about the Talmud, he was all in. I said, this trumps MBA school, he said. I have to master this. This is life wisdom.

He was in his late 20s at the time, and he became a yeshiva student who didnt know Hebrew and was living in a dorm room with four college-aged guys.

Who knew what my future would be? Markman said. This really felt like the right thing to do. I decided I wanted to spend my life bringing this to everyone else.

Markman received smicha from Aish HaTorah Founder Rabbi Noah Weinberg and ended up staying with the organization he became executive director of the LA branch in 1994. Hes responsible for the budget in his everyday work.

To date, with the help of the Almighty and our generous donors, I have covered 684 payrolls plus all the other expenses since 1994, he said. Additionally, I help set the vision for Aish LA. The secret to my success, of what success I have, is dont look down, only up.

Aish, a kiruv organization, focuses on helping Jews connect to their Judaism. However, its not about them becoming observant. He and the other staff meet people on their level, showing them how Judaism can allow them to live to their fullest and not take anything away from them.

People will think they have to give up something they really enjoy, he said. They think their life will be less, but no, itll be so much more. Judaism enhances whatever youre doing if you go about it the right way.

The rabbi has experienced this himself. He loves running and participating in marathons; hes part of a group of rabbis who run. He said, Running is a very spiritual pursuit. You can do that with cooking, your marriage, your job or your children. Everything has a spiritual dimension to it.

At Aish, its his job to encourage Jews to connect to the source of their spirituality, just like he did all those years ago.

Im always looking in the Torah for the most inspirational, motivational and big life ideas and trying to bring them to people.

Im always looking in the Torah for the most inspirational, motivational and big life ideas and trying to bring them to people, he said. I try to find all those inspirational pieces so we can become the best versions of ourselves.

Jewish Journal: Whats your favorite Jewish food?

Aryeh Markman: My wifes chocolate chip cookies. They are organic so you actually lose weight eating them.

JJ: Whats your perfect Shabbat look like?

AM: Catching up on a sleep-deprived week, sharing our Shabbos meals with family, friends and students, a few hours of immersive Torah learning and not overeating my wifes delicious organic cooking.

JJ: How do you get all seven of your kids into the car at once?

AM: It would take my wife and I an hour to get everyone in the car. The only way to get them all in is to say were going to leave, or we have really yummy food in the car.

JJ: What was your favorite marathon to run?

AM: The Jerusalem marathon. Even though it was so hilly, it was really something special.

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Posted By admin on May 31, 2022

Why did so many non-Jews, even from the ranks of the Roman elite like Queen Helena and Nero, convert to Judaism?

The conversion of Emperor Constantine of Rome to Christianity in 313 CE1 changed the course of world history. His conversion conferred Christianity as the Roman Empires national religion, beginning the process of it becoming arguably the worlds most dominant religion.

What is not widely known is that before this point Rome was inching ever closer to becoming a Jewish empire.

There are themes about the Jewish population of the Roman empire that are generally accepted by historians and scholars. In the first century of the Common Era, upwards of 10% of the Roman empire was Jewish with anywhere from 2 to 7 million Jews.2 This is quite remarkable. In comparison, consider the United States today where the Jewish community yields tremendous influence, yet only 2.4% of the countrys adults are Jews.3 The percentages of the Roman Empire were significantly greater.

Remarkably, in the first century of the Common Era, upwards of 10% of the Roman empire was Jewish with anywhere from 2 to 7 million Jews.

If we look at the number of Jews in the world at the onset of the Babylonian Exile in 423 BCE we uncover something startling. Best estimates put the world Jewish population at that time at well under a quarter of a million.4 In a span of half a millennium, the Jewish people went from close to extinction to being a force to reckon within the Roman empire.

What could account for such a population explosion?

These were tumultuous times for the Jews. After the success of the Maccabees in the Hanukkah battles, the war with the Greeks went on for 25 more years. This was followed by several civil wars amongst the Jews, culminating in three major wars with the Romans. It was a time of a lot of Jewish bloodshed. Yet the numbers rose astronomically. Why?

Through mostly circumstantial evidence, scholars concluded that there was mass conversion to Judaism in the Roman empire at this time.5 There is no evidence, circumstantial or otherwise, that points to the Jewish community at this time proselytizing.6 How are we to understand such a rapid rise in the Jewish population through the avenues of conversion, without an active effort on the part of the Jewish community?

The Talmud gives us a better picture as to what was happing at this time.

Tractate Sanhedrin7 tells the story of Rav Ashi who referred to three idolatrous kings of Israel and Judah as our colleagues. That night, King Menashe (one of the three referenced) appeared to Rav Ashi in a dream and chastised him for presenting himself as their equal and showed him his vast knowledge of the intricacies of the Torah. Rav Ashi asked: if they were so wise, why did they engage in idolatry?

King Menashe responded, Had you been there, you would have pulled up the hem of your cloak and run after me! You have no clue how intense the desire to worship idols was in my day. You cannot relate and should not judge us by your present-day situation.

Pagan wooden idols.

This is a strange episode. King Menashe ruled the Southern Kingdom of Judah starting in 533 BCE and Rav Ashi was one of the main editors of the Talmud in 392 CE. The two were separated by almost a thousand years. What changed in those intervening years that took the enormous inner desire to worship idols that enticed King Menashe and reduced it to become an empty, laughable mode of thinking for Rav Ashi? None of us feel a tempting pull to get down on our knees and worship ancient idols on display in a museum. Why not?

The book of Nechemia,8 expounded by the Talmud,9 describes how the Evil Inclination to worship idols caused the First Temple to be destroyed, the righteous to be murdered, and the Jewish people to be exiled from their land. The governing body at the inception of the Second Commonwealth, known as the Men of the Great Assembly, was collectively aware of the desires amongst mankind to worship idols, as well as the past woes that it had caused. They wanted to make sure that their reboot of Israel would not be aborted by the same nefarious entities that caused the destruction of the First Commonwealth.

The Men of the Great Assembly received a divine sign that their prayers were answered and the rampant inner desire to worship idols had been eradicated.

So the Men of the Great Assembly proclaimed three days of fast and prayer. At the end, they received a divine sign that their prayers were answered and the rampant inner desire to worship idols had been eradicated. This was around 350 BCE. From that point on in Jewish history, there is barely a mention of Jewish communities engaging in this spiritually destructive activity. It would take a lot longer for the flames of idolatry to be stamped out throughout other kingdoms where paganism was a national institution.

Perhaps we can now understand the climate in the Roman Empire that lead to such an explosion of Jewish conversion. The populous had become keenly aware that idols of wood and stone held no sway over the world. The innate drive of an individual to find an authentic spiritual connection left many throughout the empire with a gaping void. They began to search, and many found the satiating waters of Judaism and converted.

Before this point, there are very few mentions of converts to Judaism. From this point through the end of the Roman empire there are a plethora of examples, often from the aristocracy. The following is a shortlist of some of the most famous amongst them.

The first famous converts we meet from this time are Shmaya and Avtalyon. Around the middle of the first century BCE, Shmaya was the Nasi or President of the Sanhedrin, the Jewish Supreme Court, and Avtalyon was the Av Beis Din or presiding Head Judge.10 Together, they were the spiritual leaders of Israel. What is most remarkable is that they were converts to Judaism11 and descended from Sancheriv, the Assyrian Emperor who is credited with conquering the Northing Kingdom of Israel and exiling 10 of the 12 tribes of Israel in 556 BCE.12

Jewish leadership is a meritocracy.

This shows a fundamental principle: Jewish leadership is a meritocracy. Here are two men of royal lineage who not only leave the comforts of their upbringing to embrace Judaism at a tumultuous time, but reach the greatest heights of the scholars of the generation. Shmaya and Avtalyon were the teachers of the great Hillel the Elder, one of the most famous rabbis of the Mishna. It doesnt matter what a persons beginnings are, with hard work and dedication, they can achieve anything in Jewish scholarship.

Adiabene was a region in the Assyrian Empire, located where modern-day Erbil now stands in Iraqi Kurdistan, roughly 1,300 kilometers north-east of Jerusalem. Helena was the queen of this small Empire around the same time that Shmaya and Avtalyon led in Israel. After the passing of King Monbaz, their son Izates succeeded his father.13

When Izates was identified as crowned prince, he was sent away for his protection to Charax-Spasini, located in the modern-day Basra Governorate of Iraq, roughly 900 kilometers south-east of Adiabene. While there, he had fallen under the influence of Judaism. Unbeknownst to him, his mother was also being inspired by Jewish teaching.

Sarcophagus of Helene, Queen of Adiabene, from a collection at the Louvre Museum.

Upon returning home, mother and son learned of their synthesized religious interests. Initially, Queen Helena cautioned that they should keep their interest in Judaism a secret and urged her son not to take the converts final step of circumcision, lest it spark a rebellion in their kingdom. Izates at first heeded his mother's warning, but later fully converted as a Jew. When Helena saw that the feared rebellion didnt happen, she too fully embraced Judaism and even traveled to Jerusalem to bring sacrifices and valuable gifts to the Temple.14

Upon her passing, Helena was buried in Jerusalem. The tomb was discovered by archeologist Louis Felicien de Saulcy. The sarcophagus, assumed to be hers, found was later taken to the Louvre in France.15

The great Rabbi Akiva is one of the most famous Rabbis of Mishnaic times. He was born around 50 years before the destruction of the Second Temple (cir. 20 CE) and was one of the great Jewish rabbis in history. For his first 40 years he was an ignoramus, and then in the middle of his life he rose to become one of the greatest scholars and teachers of the Jewish people. He subsequently lost his entire academy of 24,000 students, yet did not give up. At the end of his life, he rebuilt everything with five students before being brutally assassinated by the Roman Emperor Hadrian in the aftermath of the failed Bar Kochba Revolt.

Rabbi Akivas father, Yosef, was a convert to Judaism.16 He was descended from Sisera, the great Canaanite General who tormented the Jewish people at the end of the second Millennium BCE. Sisera was finally subdued by Devora and Barak in 1087 BCE.17

At the beginning of the First Jewish-Roman War in 66 CE, Nero Claudius Caesar Augustus Germanicus, known simply as Nero, was the Emperor of Rome. It was he who sent Vespasian to put down the Jewish Revolt who, together with his son Titus, eventually conquered the country and destroy the Second Temple.18 Roman history records that in 68 CE a rebellion was mounted against Nero in Rome. He was declared a public enemy and sentenced to death by the Roman Senate in absentia. When Nero learned of his fate, he committed suicide.19

Jewish history tells a different story. The Talmud20 teaches that Nero came to Jerusalem during the war. In an attempt to see if fate would be on his side, he shot arrows in all four directions. All landed facing Jerusalem. In an attempt to explore further, he asked a Jewish child what verse in the Jewish Bible he was learning. The child responded by quoting the book of Ezekiel21 And I will lay My vengeance upon Edom (Rome) by the hand of My people Israel.

Nero concluded that The Holy One, Blessed is He, wishes to destroy his Temple, and to wipe his hands with that man (referring to himself). Nero then fled and was so inspired by the pseudo-prophecy that he received that he converted to Judaism. The great Rebbe Meir, whom much of the Mishnah is based on, is descended from him.

Imagine how embarrassing Neros conversion would be for the Romans. In the midst of a war, their Emperor suddenly defected to the other side. It makes sense that Roman history would seek to cover this up.

The Midrash Tanchuma22 tells us the unbelievable story of Onkelos the Convert. Onkelos was the nephew of Hadrian, the Roman Emperor referred to above who is infamous in Jewish history for the Bar Kochba War and subsequent anti-Torah decrees and bloodshed. When he decided to convert to Judaism, he feared his uncles wrath. As a pretext, he told his uncle that he wanted to travel to foreign lands to engage in business. Hadrian gave his nephew the age-old advice to buy low and sell high.

Onkelos convinced Hadrians troops to convert to Judaism and the emperor stopped trying to bring his wayward nephew back.

Onkelos then traveled to Israel to study Torah. After his conversion, he was asked by his uncle on whose advice he had done such a foolish thing. Onkelos responded that it was indeed the advice of his great uncle that motivated his conversion. There was no nation at that point as lowly as Israel. Surly their stock was destined to rise!

Hadrian sent a number of troops after Onkelos, but the newly minted scholar successfully convinced them all to convert to Judaism and the emperor stopped trying to bring his wayward nephew back. Onkelos went on to reestablish the ancient Aramaic interpretative translation of the Torah that now appears on the side of almost every Bible and is known as Targum Onkelos, Onkelos translation.

Perhaps these famous converts are not the exception. There is circumstantial evidence that suggests that they were representative of the rule. The Roman elite began to see paganism as bankrupt. This led droves, especially amongst the aristocracy, to embrace Judaism. This also left the soil fertile for the eventual move of the empire towards Christianity. The religion of Jesus was a much easier pill to swallow as it offered at the time a version of ethical monotheism without the obligatory commandments like observing the Sabbath and circumcision.

The Rambam teaches us that the ascent of Christianity and Islam in the world are part of the Divine plan.23 Through these offshoot religions, central Jewish concepts and the Messianic ideal have spread to the four corners of the earth. This way, when the real Messiah finally arrives, the nations of the world will be as ready to embrace him, as will the Jews. May it happen speedily in our days.

Like What You Read?Give Jews around the world thechance to experience engaging Jewish wisdom with more articles and videos on Aish. It would make your mother so proudand as a nonprofit organization it's your support that keeps us going. Thanks a ton!

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The Surge of Converts to Judaism in Ancient Rome - aish.com - Aish

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Posted By admin on May 31, 2022

The goal of the majority of the opposition is to form an alternative government headed by Benjamin Netanyahu

The leaders of Israel's right-wing opposition parties said Monday that they would not support any upcoming coalition legislation, despite ideologically supporting them.

The heads of the Likud, Shas, United Torah Judaism and Religious Zionism parties who call themselves the "national camp" stated that their goal is to form an alternate government headed by opposition leader and former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

If this is not possible, the national camp will press for elections.

Except for the Arab-majority Joint List party, the opposition leaders accused the government of relying on "terror supporters" in the Islamist Ra'am party, being inadequate for Judaism and the economy, and being unable to handle the "existential threat" posed by Iran.

We wont help them; they need to go, said Netanyahu, saying the coalition was a sinking ship, according to The Times of Israel. We wont fall into the trap that each time well save them.

Religious Zionism leader Bezalel Smotrich said that all outside support for the coalition would end.

We wont be its crutches, he said.

Shas leader Aryeh Deri, who left the parliament (Knesset) as part of a plea deal, but continues to run the religious Sephardi party, declared, "It is wrong to back the coalition on anything, not even a good bill," according to The Jerusalem Post.

Lacking the support, the coalition was forced to withdraw a bill reapplying Israeli law to Israelis in the West Bank, a bill that the national camp ideologically supports.

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Israel: Right-wing Opposition Members Vow To Defeat All Coalition Bills - i24NEWS

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Posted By admin on May 31, 2022

Fifty years ago, on June 3, 1972, as Sally J. Priesand became the first woman ordained a rabbi by a Jewish seminary, her 35 male classmates spontaneously rose to their feet to acknowledge her historic feat.

For nearly 2,000 years, the position of rabbi which literally means my master or my teacher - was limited to men. The only exception during all those years had been Rabbi Regina Jonas, who was ordained in a private ceremony in Germany in 1935. Jonas perished at Auschwitz in 1944, and the details of her life were discovered in archives after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989.

Thirty-seven years after Jonas pioneering first, Rabbi Priesands ordination by Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, the seminary of Reform Judaism, the largest denomination of religious affiliation among American Jews, opened the door to hundreds of women becoming rabbis.

As a rabbi and historian of Jewish women in the modern era, I know that while the advent of women as ordained religious leaders has changed the face of the rabbinate, the values of equity and justice codified in the Hebrew Bible have not yet been fully realized when it comes to gender.

The rise and integration of women into the rabbinate over the past five decades has transformed many aspects of Jewish life, especially in North America, where they primarily serve. A smaller number are employed in Israel, Europe and Australia.

An estimated 1,500 women have become rabbis across every major Jewish denomination. After Rabbi Priesand in 1972, Rabbi Sandy Eisenberg Sasso was the first in the Reconstructionist movement in 1974, Rabbi Amy Eilberg in the Conservative movement in 1985 and Rabba Sara Hurwitz in Modern Orthodoxy in 2009.

The use of the professional title rabbi for an ordained woman remains controversial among Orthodox Jews as it derives from the masculine Hebrew word rav, the title given to men at ordination. As a result, some use rabba, the feminine rendering of rav in Hebrew, while others use maharat, a Hebrew acronym for a female leader of Jewish law, spirituality and Torah.

Classes at liberal Jewish seminaries today often consist of at least equal numbers of male- and female-identifying rabbinical candidates. Maharat in New York City was founded in 2009 as the first institute to ordain women to serve as Orthodox clergy. Over 50 women have been ordained since then.

Along with female academics, female rabbis have expanded the canon of Jewish study and stretched the parameters of Jewish practice to include women and their perspectives.

New commentary based on the Torah which means Jewish learning in general but refers literally to the first five books of the Bible contained in the scroll regularly read in synagogue has recovered the stories of biblical women and treated them with the academic rigor usually reserved for biblical men. Women, alongside men, are studying classical legal texts and responding knowledgeably to questions that inform practice.

Feminist Jewish theologians have questioned the ways in which God is described and understood, challenging the centrality of both male imagery and hierarchy in Jewish religious thinking and leading to the production of prayer books with gender-inclusive language.

Moreover, female rabbis have been instrumental in creating rituals to acknowledge milestones relating to womens experiences. So, for instance, baby namings welcoming girls into the covenant now coexist alongside those for boys, and new religious ceremonies marking the first menstrual period and menopause have emerged.

By dint of their presence as religious authorities, female rabbis are toppling the traditional gendered differentiation of roles between Jewish women and men and democratizing Jewish communities. In Reform, Conservative and Reconstructionist Judaism, for instance, women are no longer relegated to lighting candles and men alone privileged with reciting Kiddush, the blessing over the wine, on the Jewish Sabbath. Female scholar-rabbis now teach and, in some cases, lead seminaries, like Bostons Hebrew College and New Yorks Jewish Theological Seminary.

They are also challenging conventional definitions of professional success by raising questions about work-life balance pertinent to all rabbis, regardless of gender.

While their impact on Jewish life has been significant, female rabbis continue to face considerable challenges.

Teams deployed to Reform synagogues in the early 1980s to interview Jews about their qualms regarding female rabbis initial entry into the workplace yielded comments such as the rigors of the rabbinate are too great and women too weak for the demanding routine, women do not know how to, nor care to, wield power or authority and women who succeed will reflect poorly on their [male] colleagues. These have given way to far more egregious claims of gender discrimination and sexual misconduct at seminaries and synagogues in the wake of the #MeToo movement.

Equity in the Jewish workplace has yet to materialize. There is, for instance, an 18% gender-based wage gap among Reform rabbis in congregations. The acceptance of female rabbis in Orthodox Judaism remains highly contested. The Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America continues to reiterate its opposition to ordaining women. For sectors further to the right, like the ultra-Orthodox Hasidim, affirmations of male and female difference make the question of women rabbis moot.

Organizations like the Womens Rabbinic Network and the three-year-old grassroots Facebook group known as Year of the Jewish Woman are seeking to root out inequities. Plans to thoroughly revise the ethics code of Reform rabbis have been set in motion, and the Womens Rabbinic Network continues to advocate for passage of a uniform family and medical leave policy.

The truth is that the days of a rabbi envisioned as a white man with a beard in a dark suit are coming to a close.

In more recent years, the diversity engendered by women in the rabbinate has expanded to include rabbis of color, rabbis with disabilities, openly gay rabbis and transgender rabbis. In May 2022, the Hebrew Union CollegeJewish Institute of Religion issued a certificate of ordination to a nonbinary candidate for the first time in its 147-year history.

When Rabbi Michelle Missaghieh appeared on the long-running medical television drama Greys Anatomy in 2005 (as herself), and Jacqueline Mates-Muchin, who is the first Chinese American rabbi, addressed the Democratic National Conventions Jewish American Community Meeting in 2020, they were smashing the so-called stained-glass ceiling and enabling all Jews to consider the rabbinate as a calling.

As Priesand told me during an interview in May 2021, One of the things Ive always been proudest of is that little girls can grow up knowing they could be rabbis if they want to. And Ive worked really hard not just to open the door but to hold it open for others to follow in my footsteps.

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Posted By admin on May 31, 2022

Back in May 2022, a resident of Kerala named Askar Ali told the media that he was abducted by his relatives, hours before he was scheduled to hold a press conference about renouncing Islam.

Alleging harassment at their hands, Ali said, I left Islam after I studied it in detail. When I was doing the [Hudawi] course, there was very little opportunity to read materials other than those related to Islam. During the lockdowns, I got to read other disciplines, which opened my eyes.

He emphasized that those who leave the religion are seen as despicable creatures by their family members. Ali had braved attacks from a frenzied Muslim mob for committing the sin of apostasy. Unlike others, he had studied Islam for 12 years, only to abandon it later.

Askar Ali is not the only ex-Muslim, who has been at the receiving end of harassment. Recently, another apostate named Sahil was intimidated on live TV by an Islamic cleric. The Maulana repeatedly branded the man as a Murtad and thereby exposed him to real-life threats from fellow Islamists.

A Murtad (apostate) has no right to speak about Islam. Shut up, you cannot speak a word, declared the cleric. He then targeted the news anchor for inviting apostates on the show, who speak ill of the faith.

This is a conspiracy against Islam. India Muslims will show you, your place, the Maulana continued with his threats.

The intolerance displayed towards an apostate by a practicing Muslim on live TV is not a one-off incident. Individuals, who renounce Islam, are often subjected to death threats by their co-religionists.

To understand whether such behaviour towards apostates is influenced by religious diktats, we need to take a closer look at the teachings of the Holy Book and the Hadiths.

Chapter 9 (At-Tawbah) Verse 66 of the Quran says:

Make no excuses! You have lost faith after your belief. If we pardon a group of you (those who repent), we will punish others for their wickedness.

Chapter 16 (An-Nahl) Verse 106 of the Quran says:

Whoever disbelieves in Allah after their beliefnot those who are forced while their hearts are firm in the faith, but those who embrace disbelief wholeheartedlythey will be condemned by Allah and suffer a tremendous punishment.

Chapter 88 (An-Ghashiyah) Verses 22-24 of the Quran says:

You are not there to compel them to believe. But whoever turns away, persisting in disbelief, then Allah will inflict upon them the major punishment.

Sahih al-Bukhari (one of the 6 major hadith collections) states in Volume 9, Book 84, Hadith 57:

Narrated `Ikrima: Some Zanadiqa (atheists) were brought to `Ali and he burnt them. The news of this event, reached Ibn `Abbas who said, If I had been in his place, I would not have burnt them, as Allahs Messenger forbade it, saying, Do not punish anybody with Allahs punishment (fire). I would have killed them according to the statement of Allahs Messenger, Whoever changed his Islamic religion, then kill him.'

It further states in Volume 9, Book 84, Hadith 58:

A man embraced Islam and then reverted back to Judaism. Muadh bin Jabal came and saw the man with Abu Musa. Muadh asked, What is wrong with this (man)? Abu Musa replied, He embraced Islam and then went back to Judaism. Muadh said, I will not sit down unless you kill him (as it is) the verdict of Allah and His Apostle.

According to Pakistani Islamic theologian Dr Israr Ahmed (1932-2010), the punishment for apostasy in Islam is death. Any Muslim who leaves his faith and exits from the Jammat i.e. becomes a Murtad, he must be punished with death.

He pointed out that some Islamic scholars, under the influence of the West, had succumbed to notions such as Freedom to change ones religion. He said that those scholars argue that apostates should only be killed if they conspire to overthrow the Islamic State.

Ahmed claimed that those scholars opine that merely deserting Islam does not amount to death. He claimed that such assertions were made by those scholars under pressure and that the act of renunciation of Islam automatically implied capital punishment.

Another Islamic scholar named Assim al Hakeem remarked, Is killing others justifiable? This depends on where you are coming from. If you are a Muslim, then, you say yes It is a prescribed punishment. He went on to explain that leaving Islam after having accepted it is a cardinal sin.

Following closer scrutiny of the Quranic verses, along with the sayings of the Hadiths and the Islamic scholars, it becomes clear that leaving Islam is not an easy option for people born as Muslim. Besides the sanctions of death for apostasy, there can be societal consequences of such an act. And it is not limited to India alone.

According to Humanists UK, there are 13 countries in the world that award the death penalty either for blasphemy or apostasy. These countries include Afghanistan, Brunei, Iran, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, United Arab Emirates, Malaysia, Maldives, Mauritania, Nigeria, Pakistan and Yemen.

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Posted By admin on May 31, 2022

Warren Harbeck recounts a touching tribute to the late David Lertzman at Beaupre Hall.

Last weeks columnon how Stoney Nakoda wisdom counters racism drew some amazing responses. Yes, its all about diversity-in-harmony, beautiful like a fine flower garden.

Jeanne Hammer writes: The answer is so simple. If we would only stop and look around us, there is beauty everywhere, whether in people or nature. We are all Gods children.

Wendy Allison Barnes, quoting her Bahai Faith founder Bahaullah, adds: Ye are all fruits of one tree, the leaves of one branch, the flowers of one garden.

Thats all because of the Divine Spark in all the creation, the late David Lertzman shared with us in ourMay 13, 2021 columnfollowing his death from an apparent bear attack while out running near his home in Waiparous Village.

This past Saturday, many of his admirers gathered at Beaupre Hall to celebrate Davids life and legacy. Around talking circles, in heartfelt conversations, and in music, we renewed our appreciation for his Judaism-informed understanding of our roles as Divine partners in creation in healing our broken world. In that spirit, allow me to revisit his letter I ran a year ago:

I FIND MYSELFreflecting on the Jewish concept ofTikkun Olam, the restoration or healing of the World, as a model for personal development in service to the Earths greater good. Yet, how can this be done with the diffusion of such cruelty and suffering across our beloved Planet? Judaism teaches that sin is collective. We are all responsible for the World, including the problems we witness and experience whether or not we feel we have created them. We must start with ourselvesand look within.

Turning within is ultimately about returning to who we are at our Core, our true Self, the Divine Spark of Sacred Mystery within each of us. During the 16th Century in Safed, Israel, Rabbi Isaac Luria popularized the idea ofTikkun Olam. He taught that nothing in this World is without a Spark of the Divine, which is the Core and Essence of every being. Our purpose is to liberate these Divine Sparks in all we do, revealing the beauty and true nature within elevating our Soul and all those we touch.

Two centuries later, the Baal Shem Tov taught that good can be found and celebrated wherever and within whomever it is encountered. We are led, as it were, to seek these Divine Sparks who have been waiting for liberation, perhaps since the dawn of Creation. Thus, wherever we go and with whomever we meet, we bring and fosterTikkunin all we do through our thoughts, words and deeds.

When I hold back, when I diminish that Divine Spark within for whatever reason, the World becomes a dimmer, less bright place. The World needs you to shine, to be true to your inner nature, your authentic Self. In giving that gift to the World, you will be giving it to yourself. What greater sense of purpose and call to service could there be than as a Divine Partner in Creation?

A HIGH POINT in our time together at Beaupre Hall was Davids wife, Sarah, singing a selection of his compositions. One, in particular, says it all: Ill carry you always in my heart. / All life is a circle. / We are all together. / Ill carry you always in my heart.

And well carryyoualways in our hearts, too, David. Thank you.

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Coffee with Warren: We are healers of a broken world - Cochrane Today

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Posted By admin on May 31, 2022

Associate Rabbi Elle Muhlbaum and Cantor Vladimir Lapin of Anshe Chesed Fairmount Temple came to the Beachwood temple two years ago, but are already envisioning a larger role in the Cleveland Jewish community.

Muhlbaum will be overseeing the temples new Tamid initiative to engage with young adults, while Cantor Lapin, founder of Music at TBE, plans to bring different music styles to Cleveland.

We worked on Long Island for four years following ordination at Temple Beth-El in Great Neck and then we moved here the summer of 2020, Muhlbaum told the Cleveland Jewish News May 17. So at that time, Vlad took over as the cantor and I, in my first year, worked as our lower school director, and then my role expanded July of last year.

The married couple lives in University Heights with their two children and a dog. Muhlbaum grew up in Cincinnati and said she is an Ohioan at (her) core.

In her role as associate rabbi, Muhlbaum oversees the educational programming at the synagogue, leading the educational team of administrators, the upper school director and early childhood center director, as well as teaching a weekly Shabbat morning Torah study group for adults.

The Tamid initiative set to launch this summer is the brainchild of Senior Rabbi Robert Nosanchuk and a fundraising effort during his 10-year celebration a few years ago, Muhlbaum said.

He felt really strongly about teen engagement, young adult engagement, helping folks feel connected to Judaism in different ways and creating lots of on ramps for engagement and connection, she said.

The name for the initiative, meaning eternal or everlasting, draws inspiration from the Ner Tamid, the eternal light that shines in every synagogue or Jewish prayer space to symbolize Gods presence in the community.

In thinking about that symbol, the Tamid initiatives mission is to create an ongoing ... connectivity to Judaism and Jewish practice and Jewish thought and ritual life, Muhlbaum said. What the Tamid initiative will essentially do is create on ramps for engagement for two main groups of people all in the same age range.

The target group for the initiative is 18 to 30 year olds who are either connected to Fairmount Temple as alumni and have moved away from the area, or are people in Greater Cleveland looking for a spiritual home. As part of the program, participants will be given a free membership to Fairmount Temple and be able to participate in a range of virtual and in-person programming.

While the initiative is still in the works, Muhlbaum said the plan is to have events around holidays and Jewish moments, as well as find ways to meet the needs of the different demographics in the age range. This may be monthly meetings online or in person for young parents to socialize or to connect college students.

With a range of ages and experiences in the target group and by inviting the greater community to join through virtual programming, the Tamid initiative aims to meet people where they are in life and in the world.

I think as a larger Jewish community, and I dont mean Fairmount Temple, I mean as a Jewish community writ large, this is an age demographic that we can do a better job serving, Muhlbaum said. So, this is one way we are experimenting and doing that. And we hope it will be a great success.

The Tamid initiative will partner with Fairmount Young Professionals, which serves members and nonmembers locally in the community, and will attempt to expand the model to reach more young adults and serve them in different ways.

As a leader of the educational program at Fairmount Temple, Muhlbaum works with some of the youngest in the community, starting at 18 months old to the oldest adult learners.

I feel like one of the things I am so drawn to as a rabbi is intergenerational programming, she said. So, its kind of my calling to work with people of all different age groups to see where there is room to connect them.

She added that the Tamid initiative will have some educational programming, but it wont all be educational.

Im really excited about this work, Muhlbaum said. I think there is so much potential here and so much opportunity, and were really looking at it as a chance to learn about who is here and who we can connect with.

Before arriving in Cleveland, Muhlbaum and Lapin served at Temple Beth-El in Great Neck, N.Y., where Lapin founded Music at TBE, an annual concert series which brought Jewish and secular music to the community from classical to jazz to contemporary to folk music performed by choirs and solo artists.

The underlining goal was to build community, and its something I hope to create here in Cleveland at Fairmount Temple, Lapin, who serves as chair of the fundraising committee for the American Conference of Cantors executive board, told the CJN May 20.

He said he has already started this here by including new contemporary music ensembles and jazz musicians in Friday night services at the temple.

In his role as cantor, Lapin joins the clergy team, which also includes Rabbi Joshua Caruso, to oversee all the musical and ritual aspects of the synagogue. He also oversees the bnai mitzvah program and leads Shabbat singing every Friday with the early childhood center.

One of the things I am really proud of and excited about doing is the bnai mitzvah program, he said. Im really trying to elevate the meaning that the families are experiencing when their children become bar or bat mitzvah at the temple, and I do that by really meeting the kids where theyre at.

Lapin said he wants them to have a grounding in the rituals, but also to leave the experience feeling connected and rooted to Judaism and the community.

I want them to feel pride in what they were able to accomplish, and I want them to look back at this moment and to be one of the highlights of their life for them, he said.

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Fairmount Temple initiatives aim to connect young adults, change tunes - Cleveland Jewish News

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Posted By admin on May 31, 2022

When Eden Rosenblum graduated from high school in Canada in June 2020, she knew exactly what she wanted to do before starting college: take a gap year and travel, likely to Israel. But the world had other ideas.

When the Covid-19 pandemic scuttled plans that summer, she decided to take online classes from home at the University of Alberta.

At the end of her freshman year, she was ready to try again. Looking for a program that would challenge her, she applied to the LEAP Year Program, co-run by the Oshman Family JCC in Palo Alto and the Tel Avivbased Bina: The Jewish Movement for Social Change.

LEAP Learning, Experience, Action and Peoplehood is a 10-month program in Israel that includes a three-week visit to the Bay Area, and specifically Silicon Valley, and includes educational, social and cultural components in both countries.

I didnt want to just go to Israel for 10 months to spend my day at the beach, surrounded by all English speakers, said Rosenblum. Even though it was a year away from academia, I wanted to still learn and push myself in other ways.

LEAP Year brings Israeli and diaspora Jewish teens together for learning, volunteering and exploring Jewish life and Jewish peoplehood, according to Tova Birnbaum, director of Jewish content at the OFJCC. This year, the program had 10 Israelis and 10 participants from outside Israel, mostly from the U.S.

The whole group spends eight months in Tel Aviv before heading to the Bay Area and then returning to Israel for their final month.

During the past two weeks, the LEAP cohort that includes Rosenblum has explored life in and around the Bay Area, making both Jewish and non-Jewish stops. The participants visited Jewish Family and Childrens Services and Urban Adamah, Glide Memorial Church and the Delancey Street Foundation, among other community organizations. The purpose, Birnbaum said, is to expose the students to as many kinds of social service programs as possible and expand their worldviews.

We are so passionate about not only educating them but also inviting them to experience and be part of the process of how Jewish life forms itself, Birnbaum said.

While in Tel Aviv, the students worked with Bina to study traditional Jewish texts and philosophies, and engaged in social work in the region. Elliot Glassenberg, senior educator at Bina, said the goal is for participants to experience both the beauty and the hardships of community work.

We like to give our participants a choice of where they spend their time volunteering, Glassenberg said. It allows them not only to get to know the communities, but also put these ideas of their learning into practice.

Now in its second year, the idea for LEAP came from Zack Bodner, OFJCCs president and CEO. He wanted to create an opportunity to strengthen the connection between Israelis and diaspora Jews. Bringing teens from both communities together in Israel and the U.S., the two groups might understand each other better, he said.

In the communities as a whole, theres friction in that relationship, Bodner said. We thought that if we could build this model of people-to-people relations, and people-to-place relations, it would reset the relationship for the next 10, 20 years.

In a little over a month, Rosenblum will return to Canada and, in the fall, to the University of Alberta, this time in person. She said LEAP opened her eyes to the breadth of Jewish life, while pushing her out of her comfort zone. One of the most memorable parts of the program for her was working in Israeli schools with underprivileged children.

Im volunteering two, three times a week at schools with children that come from migrant families, or refugees or asylum seekers, who really, really need the help, and the government hasnt given them the infrastructure, Rosenblum said. Thats been the most meaningful thing for me.

Originally posted here:

At Palo Alto JCC, teen group 'leaps' between Israel and diaspora J. - The Jewish News of Northern California

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Posted By admin on May 31, 2022

It happened four years ago, yet the memory remains fresh. I was waiting for a downtown A train at the West 4thStreet subway station in New York. A middle-aged man was panhandling on the not-crowded platform, approaching each person, most of whom nodded no.

He reached me, and I declined, too. He did not move on. Instead, he started yelling at me, getting closer with each insult. At first, the comments were unmemorable. Then he shouted: You dirty Jew!

The words shook me. I tried to get him to move away, but with little luck. I moved. He followed, all the while yelling, You dirty Jew!

I found some protection in a small of group of people on the platform. One woman made a point of suggesting I go into the same car she did when the train arrived. We boarded; the man did not follow and that was the end of it.

Except it wasnt.

I am not Jewish, but my paternal grandfather, the German novelist AlfredDblin,was. Born in 1878 in what is now Poland, he moved to Berlin at age 10 and became, along with Tomas Mann, one of the most important writers during the Weimar Republic. Prompted in part by antisemitic pogroms in Berlin in 1923, he spent two months exploring his family and communal roots in what became the 1925 non-fiction book Journey to Poland.

While I have always understood where antisemitism can lead, it had never reared its ugly face inches from mine. I have had other slurs thrown my way. Im a gay man in my middle 60s; I know what it is like to be walking in a safe neighborhood with a date and have a car speed past, windows rolled down, and homophobic epithets pour out.

Dirty Jew unsettled me in a different way. It suggested that the panhandler had somewhere, at some time, been indoctrinated with insidious tropes about Jews and money that I will not give more life to here. And its clear that these kinds of ugly incidents are only getting more common.

The Anti-Defamation Leaguerecently reportedthat there were more antisemitic incidents of assault, harassment and vandalism reached last year 2,717 than in any year since it started keeping track in 1979. New York and New Jersey topped the list of states where these incidents occurred, and the New York Police Department reported around the same time that there werenearly twice as many anti-Jewish hate crimesin the city this March versus March of 2021.

And while conservative Floridians are up in arms about children being groomed an abhorrent phrase toward non-heterosexual identities in schools, they ignore that Florida had the fourth-highest number of antisemitic incidents in the ADL report (California ranked third).

Rather than restricting the way teachers talk about diversity in classrooms, conservatives should be advocating for education that erases dangerous stereotypes. That includes directly addressing antisemitism, racism and homophobia.

Crime is on the rise in New York and people inside the citys subway system have reason to feel vulnerable. But antisemitism, and more specifically, hate crimes directed at Jews, is not a post-pandemic phenomenon. There has been and there remains a real and present danger to Jews just because they are Jews.

Rather than restricting the way teachers talk about diversity in classrooms, conservatives should be advocating for education that erases dangerous stereotypes. That includes directly addressing antisemitism, racism and homophobia.

Crime is on the rise in New York and people inside the citys subway system have reason to feel vulnerable. But antisemitism, and more specifically, hate crimes directed at Jews, is not a post-pandemic phenomenon. There has been and there remains a real and present danger to Jews just because they are Jews.

The Holocaust was possible because there was an ingrained antisemitic sentiment in much of Europe. The kindling was there. All it needed was a flame.

The kindling is here, too, now. It was lit in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017 when mobs carrying torches chanted blood and soil, a Nazi slogan. It was lit again this month in Buffalo when a white-supremacist gunman allegedly killed 10 people and wounded three more, apparently motivated by thegreat replacement conspiracy theory.

This so-called theory claims Jews are responsible for the immigration of non-white people to the United States. The suspected shooter wanted to kill Blacks in Buffalo this month and he did 11 of the 13 people shot were Black buthatred of Jews is part of his screed. It cannot be overlooked.

In the 1966 Broadway production of Cabaret, the Emcee dances with a gorilla, singing if you could see her through my eyes. The punchline of that lyric was originally, She wouldnt look Jewish at all. In the pre-Broadway tryout in Boston, though, some Jewish audience members were upset at what they saw as a suggestion that Jews look like gorillas.

Hal Prince, the shows director, changed the lyric to meeskite, a word described earlier in the musical as Yiddish for ugly, funny-looking. (Jewish was restored for the 1972 Oscar-winning film adaptation of the stage musical.)

In 2014, I interviewed Prince atWilliam Paterson Universityin New Jersey and I asked about the mutations of that lyric in our backstage conversation.

He stood by his decision in removing the word Jewish from the 1966 production, saying he did not think audiences were ready for it then in a musical about Nazi Germany. I asked then about his 1998 production of Parade, a musical about Leo Frank, a Jew lynched by a mob after being wrongly accused of raping and murdering a young girl in 1913. Did Prince think its closing after fewer than 100 regular performances was due to audiences not being ready to face American antisemitism?

He smiled at me, intrigued by my question. He said he didnt know. More than two decades later, we seem ready to hear such truths, but learn from them? Im not sure.

Just as Im not sure what made that panhandler on that subway platform four years ago think I looked Jewish at all. Of course, it does not matter.

You dirty Jew.It has stuck with me. It fills me with anger. It also reminds me of my Jewish heritage. For a few minutes on that platform, I understood what it was like to be singled out because of my faith, my race, my very identity as a human being.

The experience was fleeting, but I know that Jews across the city, the nation and the globe, experience it with great frequency.

That evening, I boarded an A train home to Brooklyn Heights. Six million Jews who boarded trains not so very long ago were not so fortunate.

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I'm not Jewish. But being called dirty Jew shook me. J. - The Jewish News of Northern California

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Posted By admin on May 31, 2022

TSURUGA, Fukui Prefecture--Chiune Sugihara, a Japanese diplomat who servedas vice consul in Kaunas, Lithuania, during World War II,is deservedly known as the Japanese Schindler.

But what about Saburo Nei and Yoshitsugu Tatekawa?

Now an English translation of a book by Akira Kitadeis on the way to publication thatfeatures five diplomats in and outside Japan who helped thousands of Jews flee Nazi persecution in Europe during World War II, just as Sugihara did by issuing his visas for life.

Titled Emerging Heroes: WWII-Era Diplomats, Jewish Refugees, and Escape to Japan, theEnglish version is translated from the original edition thatwas published in December 2020.

Kitade, 78, a freelance writer in Tokyo, has extensively studied the period in which a few individuals like Oskar Schindler, at great personal risk, ensured that many Jews would survive the Nazi Holocaust.

How relevant officials extended a helping hand to Jewish refugees fleeing to safety is covered in great detail, said Kitade, 78, expressing his expectations for the translation. I hope people around the world who pick up the book will reflect on the past.

It portrays, among other things, the accomplishments of Nei (1902-1992), the vice consul general of the Japanese Consulate General in Vladivostok, who allowed Jews to travel to Japan in defiance of a Foreign Ministry edict not to issue visas due to fears of a refugee spike, and Tatekawa (1880-1945), theJapanese ambassador to the Soviet Union.

Those also presentedin the book include a Dutch consul in Kaunas, Lithuania, and a Polish ambassador to Japan. Like Sugihara, the diplomats outside Japan committed themselves to evacuating Jewish refugees to Japan and beyond but are not as famous.

Kitade, who formerly worked for the Japan National Tourism Organization, visited former refugees and their descendants in the United States and other nations to weave stories of the exodus into his book.

In the process,Kitade referredto photos of passengers of a vessel carrying Jewish evacuees between Vladivostok and Tsuruga Port in Japans Fukui Prefecture.

The English translation by a U.S. publisher is expected togo on sale around June.

On May 13, Kitade attended a ceremony to mark the release of the foreign language edition at the Port of Humanity Tsuruga Museum, which is located in Tsuruga, Fukui Prefecture, and devoted to passing down the history of Jewish refugees who arrived there safely.

I will derive immense pleasure if people become interested in Tsuruga after reading my book and come here, said Kitade.

The English version will be sold at the museum as well.

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Book depicts the unsung wartime heroes who saved Jewish lives | The Asahi Shimbun: Breaking News, Japan News and Analysis -

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