Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By admin on April 25, 2022

My first day back in Tel Aviv after seven years away, I buy and insert a new SIM card, open my phone and gasp when a name resurrected, perhaps, by the international area code appears in my contacts: Nava.

I first interviewed Nava in early 2011. Then, on a cold winter night, she called to invite me to join her and other protesters as they demonstrated against public housing evictions. Nava was one of the Jewish Israelis who was slated to lose her home. So I followed her as she marched down a major road in the south of the city, weaving through traffic with a sign; her fellow demonstrators held signs decrying Israeli officials as government for the rich.

I walked behind her as she and others sat down in the street, stopping traffic. And I crouched and snapped a picture of Nava a petite, dark woman with long curly hair as she plopped down on the road in front of a line of magavnikim, Israeli Border patrol, and police officers. She was fighting for more than her home, I realized. This was a struggle for dignity; this was a fight to force Israel to make good on its promises to be a refuge for Jews the world over, regardless of who they were, where they came from and what they were worth.

I know journalists arent supposed to fall in love with their subjects but, in that moment, I did.

Now I had returned, nearly 75 years after the United Nations voted in November 1947 to partition Palestine into two states, one Jewish, one Arab. Id come back to gauge how much the state of Israel, three-quarters of a century later, has kept its oath to provide a safe, prosperous haven for Jewish people from all over the world. It was February 2022, and back in the U.S. partisan divisions had grown deeper than ever, everyone seemingly entrenched in their own positions, more impervious to hearing each other out, more radicalized. I wondered how much Israel already, from its inception, the epitome of bifurcation had slid in the same direction.

Looking at Navas name on my phone I recalled how shed taken me by the hand and pulled me into her neighborhood, Kfar Shalem, to show me remnants of the Palestinian village, Salama, that had stood here prior to Israels war of independence, which erupted after the 1947 U.N. vote. Standing in the sun, Nava pointed to a stone arch and said, They kept their horses there.

By they she meant Kfar Shalems former inhabitants. Refusing to use the word Palestinian, she said, Theyre Arabs two words that said everything about her politics. I, too, had offered two words that had said a lot about my politics: Al Jazeera. Thats who I was writing the piece for back then in 2011, a media outlet owned by the government of Qatar, a country that doesnt formally recognize Israel. Though it was clear that we stood on completely opposite sides of the political spectrum, I didnt mind. Shed moved through the neighborhoods remains respectfully; she was thoughtful when she spoke of the people whod lived here before us and by us, I mean the Jewish people.

Jewish settlers and police in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood during demonstrations against the eviction of Palestinian families, February 2022.

Daniel Rollider for the Deseret News

Gesturing to a crumbling wall that the state had partially destroyed, she asked me if I thought it was true what people say that Israel wanted to erase the history of the place.

Thinking yes, Id said instead, I dont know.

I dont think so, she said, But Im not sure.

In that doubt dwelled curiosity, openness a willingness to interrogate things. Though she was a die-hard fan of then-Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, she told me she was asking questions about him, too, and had voted left in municipal elections a few years before.

She knew the name of the Palestinian family whod lived in her home before her parents had gotten possession of it in 1948 and, gazing at the stones, she wondered aloud what had happened to them. But at the same time, this was the house she had been born in and her parents and a brother had died in. This place, she told me, is my air.

I knew if that Palestinian family came back she wasnt about to hand over her home, and I also knew that she was unapologetic about what had happened here in 1948. Still, in my mind, her curiosity about Kfar Shalems previous inhabitants betrayed an empathy, a softness. Her words revealed compassion. And it made me sympathetic to her despite our huge ideological differences.

The affection had seemed mutual: Despite our very different backgrounds and very different politics, Nava had called me gingit sheli, my redhead.

Nava had been on my mind even before I left South Florida, where I now live with my Palestinian husband (another story for another time) and our two young children. Shed come into my head as Id packed, mulling over the question of whether Israel was fulfilling its promise to the Jewish people. Nava, who seemed to embody many of the contradictions that plague Israel, was, I thought, the ideal person to ask.

Now, standing there on Allenby Street, in the middle of the sidewalk, holding my phone, staring at her number, I wonder: Do I just call? What if she doesnt remember me?I mentally rehearse, in Hebrew, what I want to say to her. But the Hebrew in my mind is always grammatically perfect and unaccented, but what comes out of my mouth is the Hebrew of an immigrant to Israel which I am marred by unmistakably American consonants and vowels. The gap between my knowledge of the language and what I actually say leaves me blushing; too nervous to call, I slide the phone into my backpack.

I run the rest of the way to the apartment a friend has loaned me, passing construction sites filled with Palestinian workers, and spend the day preoccupied with making plans for the week, Nava lingering in my mind as I do so. On Friday, Ill head to Tapuach Junction in the West Bank, where left-wing Israelis will protest a new Jewish settlement called Evyatar.If efforts to build the settlement are successful Evyatar was established, some structures hastily built, and then was evacuated due to Israeli government intervention it will stand on the land of several Palestinian villages; among them Beita, an Arabic name that literally means home.

Protesters call for the dissolution of Evyatar, an Israeli outpost in the West Bank, February 2022.

Daniel Rollider for the Deseret News

Jewish settlers have been open about the strategic location of the place: It will break up the territorial contiguity between Beita and nearby Palestinian villages, they said in a Facebook post. Territorial contiguity, of course, is crucial to a future Palestinian state; a disjointed, noncontiguous state wouldnt be economically viable, experts at The Rand Corp. say.The Jewish settlements are also, according to international law, illegal, because they fall outside the Green Line, the boundary drawn in the armistice agreements that ended Israels war of independence, land that Israel nevertheless began occupying after the second big war in 1967. Since Evyatar was established, Beita residents have protested the new settlement, clashing with both settlers and the Israeli army. Soldiers have used gunfire during clashes and at least eight Palestinians have died in the past year.

To get a sense of the price of the Jewish state that continues to encroach on Palestinian land beyond the Green Line, I want to go to Beita and talk to the Palestinians about what is happening there. So I get in touch with a Palestinian woman, Lina, who lives in the West Bank and does some translation work.

Lina and I make arrangements via Facebook the Israeli and Palestinian cellular networks no longer connect to travel to Beita. As we talk, I mention that I should be transparent with her and tell her that I have an Israeli passport. Beyond the emotional baggage of being a citizen, my ID also affects what parts of the West Bank I can legally enter and exit.

How did you get it? she wants to know.

I admit that Im an immigrant to Israel, that I took citizenship a decision that many Palestinians find more egregious a sin than being born here. You cant choose where you were born. But choosing to participate in a system that offers Jews from the diaspora an option to live here under the Law of Return while denying Palestinian refugees and their descendants who were displaced by the 1948 war the same is, in the eyes of some, unforgivable. In fact, the Law of Return is one of the pieces of legislation advocates point to as proof positive that Israel makes national distinctions between Jews and Palestinians.

The Law of Return, which was passed in 1950, gives Every Jew ... the right to come to this country as an oleh, a new citizen. A 1970 amendment extended this right to the spouses, children and grandchildren of Jews, as well a move that echoes Jewishness as defined by the Nazis in the Nuremberg Race Laws that declared anyone with Jewish grandparents to be either Jewish or mischlinge, mixed race. The idea behind the Law of Return, of course, is to make Israel a safe haven for the Jewish people it formalizes Israel as a place where all Jews can find refuge.

A hand for the diasporas children, sculpted by Zeev Ben-Svi, between 1945 and 1947

Daniel Rollider for the Deseret News

Taking Israeli citizenship, Lina says to me now on a Facebook call, affirms that the place exists.Sitting in an apartment in Tel Aviv, a bustling city of nearly half a million, I dont even know what to say. I look out the window. Clearly, the state of Israel exists. And, at this point, I think its unlikely that its going anywhere. This was the same debate I had with myself in early 2008, before I took citizenship whether my doing so would actively hurt the Palestinians who cant return or if it was a way of denying their national aspirations.

I try to explain now to Lina that my decision was pragmatic. I tell her how I arrived in 2007 on a volunteer visa and had gotten deeply involved in the migrant worker and asylum-seeker communities; my visa was going to run out and I wanted to stay to continue working with and for these groups.

I think that was selfish and privileged of you, Lina says. And then the call disconnects.

Five minutes later, she gets back in touch and explains that it was a coincidence at the very moment she got upset her internet cut out. Nonetheless, she isnt sure she wants to work with an Israeli and so she will need to think about whether we can go to Beita together.And if we do go, she says, she wants me to be transparent about my second passport with everyone we interview. There are so many Israelis with dual citizenship wandering around out here, disguised as foreigners, the people in Beita have a right to know my full identity, she says. And, she adds, I need to know ahead of time that its possible well go out there and no one will be willing to talk to me. In that case, I will need to pay her even if no one speaks to me.

A young Palestinian protester in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood, February 2022.

Daniel Rollider for the Deseret News

Im apprehensive about all of this I want to go to Beita to interview Palestinians, not to have tense conversations about my second passport. Theres also the fact that things can get very violent in Beita; I remember covering clashes in villages where Palestinians have opened their homes and businesses to Israeli protesters and journalists seeking to escape the violence. What if things get hot in Beita, but no one will give me shelter? What if Im stuck out on the street amid live gunfire? The image of this flashes through my mind. We agree to take a day to think about this possible trip to Beita.

In the meantime, I manage to install Hebrew to my phone and work up the nerve to message Nava. After snapping an awkward selfie no makeup, a close-lipped smile I send it to her along with a text.

No response.

Maybe Navas number has changed. The next day, I ask around Tel Aviv is at once large and small. Everyone is connected somehow. Less than an hour later, I have Navas new number. I call and say, Nava, its Mya, the journalist you talked to about 10 years ago gingit shelach, your redhead.

Gingit sheli! My redhead! I was just thinking about you a few days ago. How are you? she asks, using a phrase that is both formal and earnest, something that cuts past the superficial, slangy how are yous that young Israelis offer each other when they dont really care.

I interpret all of this as a good sign and tell Nava that Im fine. That Im living in America now but Im back to report a story. That Im hoping to visit her again in Kfar Shalem and find out what has happened with the eviction.

Today, Im in Jerusalem, she says and I wonder, for a moment, if she has joined the struggle against the evictions of Palestinian families from their homes in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah. I wonder if she has connected their plight with her own a thought that gives me hope.

A prayer before a protest against the eviction of Palestinian families from east Jerusalem, February 2022.

Daniel Rollider for the Deseret News

But before I have a chance to ask, Nava tells me, Call me back tomorrow so we can talk a bit and maybe set up a meeting.

I wonder about the maybe. Her reluctance seems odd. On the one hand, Im her gingit, still, but on the other, shes not sure she wants to meet me. Brushing the feeling off, I tell myself its about her busy schedule. I promise to call her back.

The next day, I try Nava but theres no answer. I have a fantasy that I will see her on Friday, at the protest at Tapuach Junction or at the protest in Sheikh Jarrah. I want to believe that she has made the connection between the state that seeks to evict Palestinians from their homes in Sheikh Jarrah and the state that is trying, at her expense, to hand her neighborhood over to land developers.

The third day the day, in theory, Nava and I are to meet she finally answers. She doesnt greet me warmly this time. Rather, her voice and words are tinged with suspicion.

Whats the flavor? she asks.

I dont understand. Confused, I repeat her words back to her. The flavor?

Nu, she says, impatient. The flavor of your article.

I realize she means the angle. Uncomfortable, I babble about some of my underlying questions What was the promise of the Jewish state? Has Israel fulfilled that promise? What will she look like at 100? in my heavily accented Hebrew.

So you want to use my story to show that the state is discriminatory, right?

No, I say, finding her comment odd. After all, this is something she, herself, has said about the state in the past. She has accused the state of racism. I explain that Im curious what she thinks about the questions Im grappling with.

Let me ask you a question first, she says. And you have to answer or I wont sit with you. What do you think: Should Israel be Jewish or democratic?

Does she have to choose? I ask. Cant she be both?

No. No. She cant. She has to be Jewish. And I can tell by your answer what you think, Nava says, explaining how tiny Israel is and how we just want this small space for ourselves, while the Arabs have 22 other states to choose from.

Then she changes tracks: Let me ask you something else, Mya. Are you Jewish?

Of course.

What of course? she responds.

What Im thinking is, Dont you remember me, Nava? Dont you remember my story and the things I shared with you? Dont you remember my tortured love for this place? But what I say instead is something like, How else would I have citizenship?

I dont know, she concedes. OK. Youre Jewish. Then what are you ashamed of? Why are you ashamed of your Jewishness?

I begin to protest, Im not ashamed

She cuts me off. Because me, Im not ashamed. Im proud of my culture, Im proud of my roots, Im proud of my Torah.

She tells me that Jewish people died on their way from Yemen to Israel, referring, perhaps to the antisemitic riots in Yemen that erupted after the U.N. vote that partitioned Palestine or those who died during Israels Magic Carpet Operation to evacuate Yemeni Jews. She tells me that if you dig deep enough, youll see that we were here before the Palestinians.She tells me that the people who became Yemeni Jews were the original inhabitants of the land.

Then she asks me where my people came from.

My family history is complicated, my lineage crooked, marred by affairs and divorces and remarriages and so many ands. I simplify things and tell her that my family is from Europe part from Italy and part from Poland.This makes me Ashkenazi a European Jew. Forget about the Palestinians, now weve stepped into the territory of Israels inner racial tensions that pits Mizrachim like Nava those who hail from Muslim and Arab countries, a group that, on the whole tends to lean and vote right against the Ashkenazim.

All you Ashkanazim are the same. Youre all leftists. Youre a traitor.

I wince.

She asks about my army service and I admit that I didnt serve; she roars that everyone goes to the army. And because I didnt, Im not really a citizen, she says.

Batya Ben-Or, 92, was a member of the Jewish military force after the United Nations voted to partition Palestine into two states, nearly 75 years ago.

Daniel Rollider for the Deseret News

Youre not really an Israeli. You live in the United States and you come back to write things about us and you do it at my expense.

I listen in silence, hoping that shell calm down. She has a right to express herself and I have a duty to listen.She doesnt calm down. I interrupt and say, evenly, So Im guessing you dont want me to come?

Mamash lo. Mamash mamash lo, No way. Really no way.

I thank her nonetheless. We both say bye at least theres that tiny shred of civility and hang up.

I look at the phones screen and see that the call was 17 minutes long.

Standing at the window in the lingering silence, I think about how, in interview after interview, the other Israelis Id spoken with said that the biggest threat to the future of the Jewish state is internal whether it comes from Israels policies of settling and occupying the Palestinian territories or from something else. Here, as in the U.S., something had changed. The partisan divisions had grown sharper. The ability to talk to each other seemingly vanished. The art of listening warbled out of reach like a mirage.

Alone, I look out at the city. At the country that exists.

This story appears in the May issue ofDeseret Magazine.Learn more about how to subscribe.

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Whats Israels history? What is the future of Israel and Palestine? - Deseret News

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Posted By admin on April 25, 2022

The book, with its kitschy cover illustration of a red rose, has made the rounds for years. By the time I became a bride in 2015, it was status quo, passed around alongside the traditional recommended readings on ritual purity and Jewish marriage. The Surrendered Wife is a title frequently invoked among Orthodox Jewish women, quoted during mom walks with strollers and discussed in WhatsApp groups. Premarital teachers recommend the text to young brides-to-be. Rabbis and their wives preach from it, framing it around selective quotes from the Torah and Talmud.

In the controversial 2001 best seller, the American author Laura Doyle argues that the key to a happy marriage is a wife relinquishing control and allowing her husband to handle all decision making, including household finances, a lifestyle that is rooted in conservative biblical principles. When you surrender to your husband, you accept that a supreme being is looking after you both, reads one passage. The more you admire your husbands magnificence and how everything about him is just as it should be, the more you will feel Gods presence. Though these tenets are rooted less in Jewish textual traditions than in the New Testament and in fundamentalist-Christian notions of wifely submission, they have seeped into the Orthodox community over the past two decades.

The Surrendered Wifes popularity highlights how an insular religious group with carefully preserved boundaries can in fact be quite porous to outside influenceparticularly to views popular on the American Christian right. A mini-industry of Orthodox Laura Doyle coaches and educators have emerged, most of them unlicensed yet fashioning themselves as quasi-therapists, offering marital-harmony courses and workshops. Drawing from Doyles text (albeit sometimes without Doyles direct involvement or instruction), they teach women how to accept their husbands, to never criticize, and above all, to be aidel, the Yiddish word for refined or demure. But recently, the books proliferation in the community has stirred controversy, as some Orthodox women began to publicly criticize this sort of marriage education.

Traditional Jewish texts are complex regarding marriage. Though ancient Jewish law sees marriage as a sort of financial transaction, giving husbands control over their wifes vows and ability to divorce, the idea of female surrender as a virtue is a foreign import. As intra-community struggles over Orthodox womens rights have grown more heated in the past decade, this sort of literature has found a home within the community. Social media has created grassroots platforms for religious women to speak up about issues such as female erasure in public spaces, the right to divorce, access to female-provided emergency medicine, and sexual abuse. And in response, theres a real communal concern about what would happen if women would start to assert themselves, Rivka Press Schwartz, an Orthodox educator, told me. There is something scary for individual women about the power of their own anger, and its easier to say, I choose to be surrendered in order to make my husband happy, to make me happy.

Read: The unorthodox art of an ultra-Orthodox community

Whats more, The Surrendered Wife has attracted many Orthodox Jewish women who see it as a solution to what they perceive to be a marriage crisis. I just wanted to share that I can honestly say that Laura Doyle book saved my marriage, one woman wrote in a letter published on an Orthodox Jewish womens lifestyle blog. Others see female submission as harkening back to a more traditional past. May I venture to say that the reason why [Doyle] is so controversial is that she is going back to what marriage used to look like? wrote another woman in that blogs comment section. Her concepts are very much in line with the Torah perspective Many rabbonim [rabbis] approve of her method. (Doyle did not respond to multiple requests for comment.)

One of the most popular proponents of reframing Doyles work for Orthodox Jewish audiences is the American-born, Jerusalem-based author Sara Yoheved Rigler, who in 2013 created the Kesher Wife Workshopa virtual seminar series that she has described as offering basic ideas from The Surrendered Wife amplified by the Torah. Rigler has said that she has given this workshop to 2,000 Jewish women internationally. On a popular Orthodox podcast last year, she spoke about reframing dissatisfaction with ones husband as heaven-sent. This is from Hashem, she tells her students, using the Hebrew word for God. Its not from my husband. Im going to stop blaming my husband, criticizing my husband, because everything that happens to me is from Hashem. That perspective, she suggested, takes the sting out of it.

But some women are calling into question the merits of these parallels drawn to Jewish doctrine. Leslie Ginsparg Klein, a scholar of Jewish womens history and an Orthodox educator, told me that seminars like these are a retelling of a completely non-Jewish ideology in Jewish terms in order to push girls and women into adopting a new social norm. Another woman I spoke with, Rachel Tuchman, was engaged to be married when she first heard of the ideology, in 2003. I couldnt believe that it had infiltrated our community, she told me. In her work as a licensed mental-health counselor in Cedarhurst, New York, where many of her clients are from varying Orthodox backgrounds, Tuchman told me she observes firsthand the consequences of subscribing to The Surrendered Wifes ethos. A lot of kallah [premarital] teachers are recommending the book, and I think thats why its getting [attention] Then people end up in therapy and [Im] like, Where did you learn that this is how you should have a relationship? Doyles book may have gained nearly doctrinal status among many women, but, Tuchman said, its not based in Orthodox principlesits really a cultural-societal influence.

To some religious women, though, the question of authenticity is not as urgent as seeking the key to a happy marriage in a terrifyingly modern world. Theres kind of a sense of family life being under attack, that the world out there is not welcoming to families, that the world out there is trying to get everyone divorced, said Keshet Starr, the director of the Organization for the Resolution of Agunot, which is devoted to resolving contentious Jewish divorce cases. Some women, she said, are looking for this perfect formula: Just follow these rules, and youll have a perfect, amazing marriage. Fear of the outside world is prevalentand, ironically, the solution to dealing with that fear comes from the outside, too.

According to historians, the American embrace of wifely submission was popularized in the 19th century with the cult of domesticity, or the cult of true womanhood. As men went to work outside the home and middle- and upper-class white women stayed back to manage the household, American religious literature and womens magazines began to preach four virtues for the ideal wife: domesticity, purity, piety, and submission. Female labor outside the home was needed during the world wars, but afterward, the notion of wifely submission reentered the popular discourse, in an attempt to return to some myth of an idyllic America. Part of that is reimagining the home, Beth Allison Barr, a history professor at Baylor University and the author of The Making of Biblical Womanhood, told me over Zoom. Part of it was What do we do with all these displaced men who have just gone through this horrible thing? Part of it is Lets get them back in jobs; lets build back their self-esteem. And part of that was reordering the household.

Read: Unpacking the immense popularity of Shtisel

The pendulum swung back and forth: The 1960s brought the sexual revolution, and then, Barr said, the early 70s brought a desire for religious education. Some 1,600 women were enrolled in Southern Baptist divinity programs, many of them likely seeking ordination. If all of those women came through, there was going to be significant displacement [of men]. And it is at that time that we see that crackdown, Barr noted. In 1979, the Southern Baptist Convention experienced a conservative resurgenceand within a few years came conservative Christians widespread adoption of the verses in Ephesians 5: Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church. Barr characterizes the rise of the wifely-submission ideology, and the use of language like biblical womanhood, largely as a reaction to ascendant female religious power. And then it just explodes onto the scene.

Many religious Americans, both Christians and Jews, point to Gods punishment of Eve (And he shall rule over you) as proof of female submission being divinely commanded. That reading sees the text as prescriptive. In fact, the central description of the ideal wife, according to Genesis, is as a helpmate opposite him. It is this phrase in Hebrew, ezer knegdo, that is most cited in the Orthodox Jewish community: in girls schools, at wedding ceremonies, in eulogies. The phrase suggests that a spouse ought to be a foil, a point of contrast, neither a mirror nor a servant. The righteous wife is also often referred to as akeret habayit, the bedrock of the home, in a complementarian sort of way; families sing an ode to the woman of valor at the Sabbath table weekly, praising the Jewish wife as both a domestic queen and a shrewd businesswoman.

But as todays Orthodox women attain educations, pursue careers, become breadwinners, access the wider world through the internet, and even build independent platforms for themselves, that complementarianism has been challenged. Some community influencers have turned to conservative American Christian thought for its language on submission within a religious framework, in order to maintain a certain status quo around gender. This sort of anxiety isnt newthe history of modern-day Orthodoxy is one long chain of reactions to outside influences, whether dominant religious cultures or secularism. Orthodox Judaism as a whole has grown more stringent, in what sociologists call a slide to the right, as a response to the pervasiveness of secular culture. And yet, as Doyles influence shows, this communitys boundaries are, as ever, permeable. Theres no way to exist in American culture and not be in some way influenced by it, Ginsparg Klein, the Jewish womens-history scholar, said. Throughout history, the Jewish community has been influenced by its surrounding culture and has likewise influenced its surrounding culture.

Indeed, the Orthodox Jewish adoption of The Surrendered Wife is part of a bigger trend: As large swaths of the community have aligned themselves with the Christian right, theyve built political alliances based on the idea of a shared Judeo-Christian worldview, on concerns about social issues regarding abortion and gender, and on a general sense of an existential threat posed by secular progressivism. Concurrently, a younger generation of religious women that is plugged in to online discourse is being exposed to alternative critical voices. The tension will only continue to grow. As this community struggles with assimilation and with its boundaries around authenticity, the outcome of that struggle will likely set the tone not just for the design of a home, but also for female visibility and leadership in the Orthodox sphere.

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The Controversial Marriage Book That's Dividing Orthodox Jewish Women - The Atlantic

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Posted By admin on April 25, 2022

JTA When the war came, Galina Chornobyl fled so fast she left her teeth behind.

Thats one of the first things she shared with me when I met Galina at the Siret border crossing in Romania late last month.

Kyiv had become untenable too much time spent inching down five flights of stairs to her basement bomb shelter, too much fear after watching the TV tower across the street explode.

The 95-year-old had only left Ukraine once before, as a child on an evacuation train during World War II. Now, a lifetime later, she was running once again this time to the west, seeking shelter in neighboring Romania.

Galina and her daughter Olga Goriachko, 69, didnt have much of a plan when they crossed the border, but then they saw the big tent operated 24/7 by my organization, the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, in partnership with the Federation of Romanian Jewish Communities.

There was a large banner reading Bruchim Habaim, Hebrew for welcome. That was a good start, Olga thought Hebrew felt good. Hebrew felt safe.

Then they saw Russian letters spelling out Hesed, the network of social welfare centers we established across Ukraine and the former Soviet Union from which Galina had received support for years. Thats when they knew theyd be OK.

They understood, Olga told me, that they had found an open door.

It was like an oasis in the desert. They surrounded us immediately, offering food, water, help, comfort, and support, she said. We got to our people.

Wherever we live in large communities with robust communal infrastructure and in small villages where you can count us on one hand we Jews belong to each other in unshakable, ineffable ways.

During my time in Moldova and Romania to help in the refugee aid response and document it, I saw that chain of Jewish mutual care in action: refugees turned volunteers, helping fellow Ukrainian Jews acclimate to new surroundings; teens leading Shabbat services at refugee camps; Jewish Community Centers repurposed as round-the-clock call centers and shelters for mothers with young children.

This is part of a wide-ranging effort carried out by local Jewish communities, Jewish groups abroad and Israel. Its been steadfastly supported by Jewish philanthropy and leadership from Jewish federations to the Claims Conference, from theInternational Fellowship of Christians and Jews to major foundations and individuals. JDC, alone, has raised more than $50 million since the beginning of the war.

In Ukraine, JDC continues to reach tens of thousands of Jews receiving emergency support through our infrastructure of social service centers, staff and Jewish volunteers. Theyre providing tons of life-saving aid, psychosocial support and the warm embrace of community during air raids and bombardments.

Additionally, JDC, together with partners, has helped almost 12,000 Jews evacuate from places like Kramatorsk, Kyiv and Kharkiv. On the other side of the border, together with the Jewish communities of Poland, Hungary, Romania and Moldova, weve ensured that more than 30,000 refugees have food, medical care, trauma support and accommodation. These activities, in Ukraine and in neighboring countries to which refugees have fled, are supported by UJA-Federation of New York and other partners.

Across this landscape, well try to make good on Passovers message of deliverance through online and in-person communal celebrations, matzah delivery and extra food for the neediest. And as we face the future, well continue to be part of both these refugees journeys and the long-term project to rebuild Jewish life in Ukraine.

In all this work, I saw the open door and was reminded again of the many times my own family needed it: When my great-great-grandmother Molly escaped a pogrom in what is now Vilnius, Lithuania, securing herself, her child, and a future that included me. When my grandfather Samuel returned to a shattered Europe after fleeing his shtetl on the eve of World War II and found safe harbor in a displaced persons camp. When my cousins decided to leave Soviet Ukraine in the late 1980s, and received support from my organization and others as they waited for their visas in Italy and settled into Brooklyn with cautious optimism and palpable relief.

I know Im only here because of the doors that opened for them, and the ones weve all worked to keep open in the years since.

Like Galina and Olga, Anna Timoshenkofled when the bombs and blasts in Kyiv were no longer bearable. When I met her, she was in Moldova with her elderly mother and teenage son. Both Annas mother and her aunt are Hesed clients, receiving life-saving humanitarian assistance from the Jewish community.

A successful tax lawyer in Kyiv, Anna described a harrowing 14-hour journey through Ukraine, more than twice the length of the trip in peacetime zigzagging on back roads to avoid military checkpoints, terrified that something awful would happen to her family, afraid the scenes she saw as she drove would stay with her forever.

Sitting in her aunts apartment, she couldnt shake a recent grim epiphany: This wasnt the first time that shed sought shelter here when chaos reigned back home.

In 1986, in the wake of the Chernobyl disaster, she and her family packed suitcases and headed to her aunt. She was 17 the same age her son is now.

This is where we come when were going through ordeals, she said with a wry laugh. It means something, that its always here.

Thats our job, too, as Jews to always be there, making sure the door is never closed for Galina and Olga, for Annas family, and for tens of thousands of others in their time of need.

Just as we opened the door for Elijah at the seder, we must continue to guarantee that when our brothers and sisters around the world knock, we answer.

The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of JTA or its parent company, 70 Faces Media.

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Among Ukraine's refugees, I found new meaning in Passover's open door - The Times of Israel

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Posted By admin on April 23, 2022

Russian President Vladimir Putin launched his brutal war with a straight face, claiming to be de-Nazifying Ukraine. He had the gall to summon, and demand Israels ambassador explain, why Israel was supporting Nazis.

Both sides have inappropriately invoked the Holocaust. Early on, President Volodymyr Zelensky compared Ukraine to Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto. Calling Russias actions pure Nazism, Ukraine shared images of Putin as Hitler. Using Holocaust imagery to establish victimhood is never a sound strategy.

So, whats the truth? Many know that Ukraines president is Jewish. Less widely known are his Jewish chief of staff and his defence minister. Much of Ukraines leadership has Jewish background, including the previous prime minister and current mayor of Kyiv.

Jews serve as mayors of major cities and governors of significant regions. If Ukrainians are contaminated with Nazism like Putin claims, they sure forget at the voting booths.

Some would whitewash Ukraines unsavoury past. Antisemitism has deep roots in Ukrainian lands. Much of US Jewry descends from those fleeing Ukrainian pogroms. Ukraine in the 17th century saw the largest modern massacre of Jews until the Holocaust. Kyiv hosted the last major blood libel trial, in the 20th century!

The Nazis were welcomed by a population who had witnessed the slaughter of 100,000 Jews in pogroms just 30 years earlier. Local enthusiasm for killing Jews surprised even the Nazis. Collaborators rounded up thousands of Jews, making the Nazis work much easier. About 100,000 Ukrainians joined units helping the Nazis, including the infamous Ivan the Terrible of Treblinka. Ukraine never investigated anyone for Nazi crimes.

Ukraines national heroes, from Bandera to Khmelnitsky, are drenched in Jewish blood. These butchers arent consigned to history. Today Ukraine celebrates them with statues, parades, street signs and even a bank note. What should Jews make of this?

Similar issues with confronting history prevail across Europe, especially in Lithuania, Poland and Hungary. Indeed, former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu cultivated relationships with the latter two, turning them into Israels principal European defenders.

Recent developments elevate Ukrainians image of Jews. Zelenskys support tops 90 per cent. Golda Meir, whos earliest memory was her father barricading the door to repel an antisemitic mob, is now celebrated in her native Kyiv as a hero of Ukraine.

Ukrainians and Jews must work through our issues. With Ukraine under threat, now isnt appropriate to dredge up complex matters without bearing on the conflict.

But its Zelensky, married to a Christian and who reportedly had his children baptised, who repeatedly attempts to make this a Jewish issue. His claim to Jewish leaders that Russian bombs damaged the Babyn Yar memorial was revealed to be untrue.

Zelensky demanded to address Yad Vashem. When rebuffed, a Ukrainian official labelled it corrupt. Zelensky did address the Knesset, again comparing Ukraines situation to the Holocaust. He urged Israelis to help Ukraine like the Ukrainian nation helped Jews during the Shoah. Unsurprisingly, his Holocaust revisionism wasnt popular in Israel.

Zelenskys discovering his Jewishness is a recent phenomenon. Hes always downplayed being Jewish. His domestic messaging is very different. At Babyn Yar commemorations, he didnt mention his own family was murdered there.

A Jewish president hasnt impacted relations with Israel. In 17 UN votes on Israel, Zelensky hasnt voted with Israel once. Ukraine wont join the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance or adopt its antisemitism definition.

This isnt an attack on Zelensky. He was elected to protect Ukrainian, not Jewish, interests. But he neednt twist everything into a Jewish issue to receive support. Israel and Jews worldwide have responded tremendously. Theres Israels field hospital, prayer rallies, and reportedly Israels largest-ever aid operation.

Israel will take more refugees per capita than any country not bordering Ukraine, including hosting tens of thousands of non-Jewish Ukrainians. Israel helps, not because the war is a Jewish issue, but because its the right thing to do.

Zelensky should understand that Israel faces its own existential struggle. Bidens pending nuclear deal with the Ayatollahs hangs over its head. Has Zelensky ever expressed concern over the threat to Israel from a nuclear Iran?

While Russia points fingers over Ukraines blemished history, it neednt look far. True, pogroms largely occurred in Ukraine and were fewer in Russia proper. The reason though Russia banned Jews for most of its history. Antisemitism has equally rich heritage in Russia, from the KGB to the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. Whether under the Tsars or Stalin, Jews faced horrific persecution.

If Putin is concerned about Nazis, he neednt look further than his allies, who threaten to annihilate the Jewish State. Putin himself bears not insignificant responsibility for Irans nuclear program.

Both Ukraine and Russia have come a long way. Statistics show neither are amongst the worst offenders regarding antisemitism. Jews are far likelier to be victims of antisemitic attacks in the streets of Paris or London than Moscow or Kyiv.

Jews must resist Putin and Zelenskys efforts to make this a Jewish War. The images from Ukraine are devastating. We must oppose unjustified aggression and war crimes, but as a matter of principle, not because of how either country treated us.

Robert Gregory is director of public affairs for the Australian Jewish Association.

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Leave the Jews out of the war in Ukraine - Australian Jewish News

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Posted By admin on April 23, 2022

The Cosmic Library explores massive books in order to explore everything else. Here, books that can seem overwhelmingbooks of dreams, infinity, mysteriesturn out to be intensely accessible, offering so many different ways to read them and think with them. Season one considered Finnegans Wake; in season two, it was 1,001 Nights. Season three, titled Mosaic Mosaicjourneys through and beyond the Hebrew Bible.

Subscribe and download the episode, wherever you get your podcasts!

We regulate each others nervous systems, says the neuroscientist Lisa Feldman Barrett in this chapter of Mosaic Mosaic. We are the caretakers of each others nervous systems. So feelingand thinkingand the regulations of law join together; the idea that laws exist apart from our nervous systems, our feelings, doesnt quite work, in this sense.

The poet Peter Cole here describes an emotional state associated with the language of rules and ritual in the Hebrew Bible, and in Leviticus particularly. He says, I was just totally spellbound by the choreography of sacrifice. And the novelist Joshua Cohen speaks of living law, a kind of vitallegal system that emanates beyond the Torah, through commentary and debates ever after.

Laws, rules, rituals: these, youll hear, are all alive with feeling. Regulation doesnt mean damping down, Lisa Feldman Barrett says. It just means coordinating and making something happen. Poet and critic Elisa Gabbert describes poetry as a vibration, which in a way might match the nervous-system correspondence described by Lisa Feldman Barrett. In literature as in legal regulation, we learn in this chapter, language coordinates responses and participates in the merging of thought with emotion.

_____________________

Peter Cole is a poet and MacArthur genius whose new book,Draw Me After,will be out this fall.

Elisa Gabbertis a poet and poetry columnist with the New York Times. Her latest book, Normal Distance, will be out this fall.

Lisa Feldman Barrettis a psychologist, neuroscientist, and author of books including How Emotions Are Made.

Tom DeRoseis a curator at the Freud Museum in London.

Joshua Cohenis a novelist whose books include Book of Numbers.

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Rules, Rituals, and Laws of Emotion in the Hebrew Bible - Literary Hub

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Posted By admin on April 23, 2022

Vivek Agnihotri's 'The Kashmir files' shattered all the post-pandemic box office records as it was released in theatres on March 14. The movie based on the exodus of Kashmiri Pandits received rave reviews from audiences and critics alike.

Now after dominating many international markets, the movie is all set to release in Israel with the Hebrew subtitles.

On Wednesday, director Vivek took to his Twitter account and shared the news, ''On huge demand, #TheKashmirFiles is releasing in ISRAEL on 28th April. I thank Consul General @KobbiShoshani for coming to our studio to inaugurate the poster of TKF. Its is a major step in sharing our coming goal of fighting terrorism and promoting humanity.''

The movie which has been the country's hottest topic for weeks now has crossed the 300 crore mark worldwide.

The movie starring Anupam Kher and Mithun Chakraborty shows the heart-wrenching stories of the Kashmiri Pandit exodus in the 1990s and shows the genocide that took place back then.

Meanwhile, the movie will soon premier on ZEE5, across 190+ countries in multiple languages like Hindi, Tamil, Telugu and Kannada.

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`The Kashmir Files` to release in Israel with Hebrew subtitles - WION

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Posted By admin on April 23, 2022

Preston T. Massey| Guest columnist

Does God know the future? Some say no; some say yes. I would like to offer aview on how to understand God and whether he knows the future. I introduce three texts from the Hebrew Bible (more generally known as the Old Testament).

The first text is found in Psalm 22, attributed to David, the sweet singer of Israel and perhaps ancient Israels greatest king. The opening words at verse 1 are ominous: My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? From there, the psalm proceeds to describe a person surrounded by a blood-thirsty mob. Three metaphors are used to make the description more vivid: strong bulls, roaring lionsand wild dogs. These men, in wild animal manner, are mocking a person who is in extreme distress, painand shock. The text at verse 16 then depicts this afflicted individual voicing the following experience in his own words: They have pierced my hands and feet.

This first person account is intriguing because it invites a sobering question: who is this describing? Although this psalm is attributed to David, the Hebrew Bible never shows David undergoing such an experience. The historical books of Samuel, Kingsand Chronicles provide no information that David ever experienced such a traumatic moment in his life. In fact, these historical books never show anyone suffering such a fate. But the totality of scripture does reveal such a person. When we combine the Old Testament with the New, only one person fulfills the words of the text Jesus. This is remarkable because Psalm 22 was written some 1,000 years before Christ.

The second text is that of Isaiah 53. This account gives the above events from a different perspective. While Psalm 22 is a first person account, using some 34 personal singular pronouns (I or me) in the first 20 verses, Isaiah 53 uses the plural pronouns of we and our, thus shifting the vantage point from the one suffering to the doubts of skeptical onlookers. For the text says, We esteemed him not. Isaiah depicts humanity observing someone being abused indeed, he is viewed as being pierced (verse 5). Yet, the viewers place no value on the figures sufferings.

The prophet Isaiah, however, makes several very bold statements, affirming that such an event was for sins and that it can actually bring healing and peace to the human heart. This chapter from Isaiah was probably written 700 years before Christ.

The third and final text is that of Zechariah 12:10. This verse states, They will look on me whom they have pierced. This statement, also spoken in the first person singular, is attributed to the Lord and it contains another reference to being pierced. Those who do the piercing are stated in the future tense, but this piercing is presented as an accomplished fact. This text was likely written more than 400 years before Christ.

The three texts mentioned above provide evidence of a kind that God can and does know the end from the beginning. The conclusion I offer from Psalm 22 is that God knew the events of the death of Christ centuries before the event took place. More specifically, if one takes this psalm as an account of the sufferings of the Christ, we then become privy to his very thoughts while suffering a terrible death anticipated hundreds of years before the actual day.

If the text of Isaiah 53 is taken as a reference to Christ, then this would provide further evidence of the predictive nature of Scripture and how God does know the future. These projections into the future of an unnamed person suffering innocently on behalf of others defy human understanding. Such glimpses into the future are impossible for us, but not for God.

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Religion column: Biblical texts offered as evidence of God's knowledge of future - The Herald-Times

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Posted By admin on April 23, 2022

West Hartford WEST HARTFORD The May meeting of the West Hartford Garden Club is open to a limited number of non-members. This will be the final open club meeting until the fall.

The meeting will take place at noon Thursday, May 5, at noon, at Saint Johns Episcopal Church, 679 Farmington Ave. Bob Dinucci of Lane and Lenge Florists will present a spring flower arranging demonstration.

The fee is a guest donation of $10. The meeting room entrance is at the ramp door in the back of the church. Visit http://www.WestHartfordGardenClub.org to register.

WEST HARTFORD On Saturday, April 30, the West Hartford-Bloomfield Health District and the West Hartford Police Department are hosting a collaborative effort with the West Hartford Prevention Partnership and West Hartford Social Services to remove unused and unwanted medications during National Take Back Day in conjunction with a Wellness Fair for mental health and substance abuse awareness.

Collection activities will take place in the Charter Oak International Academy parking lot, 425 Oakwood Ave., from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Enter the parking lot via Flatbush Avenue. The program is anonymous and free of charge. Volunteers will be on hand to take items from your vehicle.

Accepted are prescription and over-the-counter dosage medications. Tablets, capsules and liquids will be accepted. Not accepted are intravenous solutions, injectable medicines, Epi-pens and needles.

National Take Back Day provides an opportunity for the public to surrender expired, unwanted, or unused pharmaceutical controlled substances and other medication for destruction in an environmentally safe manner.

The West Hartford Prevention Partnerships Wellness Fair will run from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Connect with resources focused on mental health, substance misuse and gambling prevention, intervention and treatment. Your community is here for you and you are not alone.

For more information on Take Back Day, contact the Health District at 860-561-7900 or the West Hartford Police Department at 860-570-8845. For more information on the Wellness Fair, contact the Town of West Hartford Social Services at 860-561-7561 or 860-561-7575.

WEST HARTFORD --- CONCORA will present the world premiere of Hebrew Prayer in B Minor on Sunday, May 1, at 4 p.m. at The Emanuel Synagogue, 160 Mohegan Drive.

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Hebrew Prayer features the complete music of Johann Sebastian Bachs Mass in B Minor considered the greatest work in the choral repertoire and featuring many early music styles such as Italianate Baroque, German fugue, and Polonaise.

This adaptation makes parallels to the original Latin Mass text (such as in movements that praise God) and expresses them in the words of ancient Hebrew prayers. Sung in Hebrew, the work will be performed by CONCORAs singers and soloists with a chamber orchestra under the direction of Chris Shepard, Artistic Director. The concert is made possible by the Edward C. & Ann T. Roberts Foundation and the Friends of Bach.

Hebrew Prayer is the creation of Dr. Eric Weitzner, a devotee of Bachs music and former student of Hebrew and Jewish theology.

Tickets for reserved seating are $20 to $49 per adult and $12 per student. Visit concora.org or 860-313-1410 for more info or to purchase tickets.

WEST HARTFORD The Town of West Hartford is conducting a community survey to help inform and guide the preparation of an affordable housing plan. This effort seeks to further many of the goals and strategies outlined in the Plan of Conservation and Development.

Visit https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/PDWJSLZ to take the survey. The survey may be completed and comments submitted through April 30.

Questions or written comments may be addressed to Town Planner Todd Dumais, by email todd.dumais@westhartfordct.gov or mail to the following address: Town of West Hartford, Attn: Town Planner, 50 South Main Street, Room 214, West Hartford, CT 06107.

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Community news for the West Hartford edition - Hartford Courant

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Posted By admin on April 23, 2022

A.J. Jacobs shows off "Jacob's Ladder," a custom puzzle that would take until the end of the known universe to complete. Courtesy of Zoom

By PJ GrisarApril 21, 2022

Those who follow A.J. Jacobs masochistic career in which he lived by the strictures of the Hebrew Bible for 365 days and thanked the countless people involved in producing his daily cup of coffee may have had no problem solving a Saturday New York Times crossword a few years ago; Jacobs was the answer to 1-Down.I thought this was the highlight of my life, Jacobs said over Zoom from his home in Manhattan. As a word nerd, this was the Holy Grail. My wedding was good, but this this is what I had been waiting for.

But for the many who arent devotees of Jacobs brand of endurance journalism, the answer was a head-scratcher. As the authors brother-in-law was first to note, a cameo in a Saturday puzzle the hardest puzzle of the week was a confirmation of Jacobs obscurity. Crestfallen, but undeterred, this sent Jacobs on a puzzling journey, one that saw him answering The Times crossword religiously until one day thanks to the intervention of a sympathetic crossword constructor Jacobs was the answer for a Tuesday puzzle. High on that notoriety, Jacobs endeavored to write a whole book about puzzles.

In The Puzzler, Jacobs meets the man who put him in the worlds most storied gridded box. He goes to CIA headquarters in Langley to try and crack a famous cipher statue on its campus. Our hero gets lost in a corn maze in Vermont, plays a chess puzzle with Garry Kasparov and even represents his country in the World Jigsaw Puzzle championship (he and his family come in second to last).

Jacobs views his new book, which includes notable puzzles from history and its own, brain-breaking puzzle contest with a prize of $10,000 (more info here) as an extension of his books The Year of Living Biblically and Thanks A Thousand, where he seeks to solve the riddles of his heritage and how to be grateful in an alienated world.

I spoke with Jacobs, who is appearing in conversation with Times crossword editor Will Shortz at the 92nd Street Y April 25, about Paddington 2, Darren Aronofskys psychosis-inducing furniture and why Jews are such a puzzling people. The following conversation which contains discussion of Wordle strategy and biblical groin handling has been edited for length and clarity.

PJ Grisar: This is more than just a book its a puzzle too.

A.J. Jacobs: I wanted to do a contest for the book because one of my favorite books when I was a kid had a hidden contest in it. So there is a secret code hidden in the introduction to the book. You dont have to buy the book to get it because its available for free on the internet. You put that code into the puzzlerbook.com website on May 3. Itll open up to this crazy month-long puzzle adventure. I didnt design it. I couldnt win this contest. I would be shut out. In the end, the person who solves them all in the final round wins 10,000 actual dollars.

The book from your childhood was called Charade or something, right?

Masquerade.

Masquerade! Thats it. Im thinking of Audrey Hepburn. But I was actually thinking of Paddington 2 because there is a plot in that with a puzzle in a book, and treasure somewhere in London.

The Greatest Movie Ever according to Rotten Tomatoes.

Better than Citizen Kane! That brings me to a good place to start: your origin story with puzzles. We find out that its sort of been the family love language.

The sixth love language is puzzles! I come by it honestly. My parents were huge puzzle fans. My dad was in the army in Korea and he would mail back crossword puzzles to my mom in the United States and they would each fill in a clue and mail it back to the other. Thats probably the least efficient crossword solving experience in history, but it was romantic. As a kid, I loved Games Magazine. I would draw mazes the size of my living room floor. I think that it did inform the way I look at the world because I do look at the world as a big puzzle and you could sort of see my other books as metaphorical puzzles. It sort of has framed my life.

Theyre a huge part of everyones life now.

Weirdly, I started this project a couple of months before COVID. But the timing was eerie, because the pandemic was a boom time for puzzles like we havent seen since the Great Depression. Puzzles were harder to find than toilet paper and hand sanitizer. And then theres the Wordle craze, which happened actually right after I finished the book. I had literally finished all edits on the book two weeks before it had closed and then I begged my editor saying, We gotta just reopen it and put Wordle in somehow. I did insert it in the introduction, literally the word Wordle is in the book. So it says, At night I do that Times crossword and Wordle. So thats my Wordle coverage.

I was going to ask you about any Wordle gameplay strategies or insights since we dont have a full chapter.

Well, I am a fan. Im not a rabid fan. The Spelling Bee, for some reason, is much more addictive to me. But I do play Wordle every day and Ive read about the best strategies and theres one engineer who designed an AI to do it. And he discovered the best opening word is soare S-O-A-R-E, which is a young hawk. And I do that, I put it in, I dont feel good about it, though. I got it from an A.I. And yet, it does seem to be effective. So I use that, but I do actually appreciate people who do a new word every day. I feel that even though its riskier, it feels more sporting.

A podcaster I know starts with roast.

Michael Ian Black did a YouTube video where he puts in robot as the first word everyday. His theory is someday thats gonna be the word, but then he just does it for all six guesses. Hes just like, well, maybe itll change. Which is an interesting strategy.

There might be some A.I. applications for Wordle. When I was doing a piece on it, I found out about Mastermind, which was developed by an Israeli postmaster. Of course, we had to do the secret Jewish history of Wordle.

Josh Wardle is not Jewish himself. I made a little list if you ever want to get to it about Jewish puzzle makers. I do think there are some great ones.

Well just in the book you encountered so many people. This is not the point of it, but, youre looking at Darren Aronofskys puzzle desk for example.

Well Darren Aronofsky is an interesting case. He loves puzzles, as you can tell from his movies there are all twists and turns. And so he commissioned this guy Kagen Sound, who is known to be the greatest wooden box puzzle maker in the world to make a puzzle desk. And its got 22 incredibly tricky puzzles and it takes hours to open a drawer because you have to solve this puzzle where you have to move a bunch of pieces around. The guy who made it spent four years on it. It literally almost drove him insane. He said he gave up all his hobbies and didnt see friends for four years. It was like an Aronofsky movie.

It was like Pi or something.

Yes, it was like Pi. If you have the Venn diagram of Judaism and puzzles, there are so many overlaps. And I think because for several reasons: One, Judaism is a lot about curiosity and asking questions, which are at the heart of puzzles. To me, the most Jewish sentence form is an interrogative, a question. I was just at the Seder where we had the four questions. And Jerry Seinfeld Jewish humor is a lot about What is the deal with X? And you know, the Talmudic tradition is wrestling, asking questions, wrestling with God, all that.

When I was doing A Year of Living Biblically, I was trying to wrestle with some of these biblical passages. And theres a passage in Leviticus that says, If two men are in a fight, and the wife of one of those men grabs the private parts of the other man, then you shall cut off her hand.

I asked a rabbi in Israel. Whats going on here? This seems like a very specific and strange rule. And he said, Well, youre looking at it on the surface that is a very superficial reading. What its really saying is, Do not embarrass your neighbor. And I said, Okay, I can understand that. But why wouldnt the Bible just say that? Why not just say, Dont embarrass another person, instead of this whole story about grabbing private parts? And he said, Well, the Bible and life are like a jigsaw puzzle; the fun and the challenge and the meaning comes in trying to solve them. And if a jigsaw puzzle came all assembled, then youd return it.

I thought it was a very interesting perspective. Im not sure I 100% agree. But I do still think that it is a strange commandment, but I do like you know, I, thats a big theme in the book is How is life like a puzzle? And this was his rabbinic version of that.

Theres an awful lot of groin-grabbing in the Bible. Usually I think it says they grab the thigh or something, but Im reading the Robert Alter translation right now. It will have a footnote that says in the Iron Age Near East, grabbing another mans that was how you made oaths.

Well, I had read and I dont know how true it is that the word testimony comes from, how when you would testimony, you would have grab the other guys private parts that is how you swore.

Sure, youre vulnerable then! We enter into this book with a premise thats Tikkun Olam-y kind of, that approaching the world like a puzzle could ultimately make the world a better place. Did writing the book confirm that premise?

I had not thought of Tikkun Olam, which I think means to heal the world. I guess this version would be more like, the world is in pieces. Lets try to solve it. I dont know what the Hebrew equivalent of that is. I love the idea of seeing the world as a puzzle and trying to solve it because I think its solution-oriented. I like that. Its optimistic. There is a solution. Maybe there is maybe there isnt, but if you dont try, youre never gonna find out. And I also think its just useful in practice.

If I am in a situation where Im talking to someone from the other side of the political spectrum, there are a lot of lenses I could use. I could view that through the lens of a war of words: I am going to beat him down or or hes gonna beat me down, which, to me, is not that productive because youre not going to change either of our minds. But what if you viewed that discussion as a puzzle and tried to figure out what we really disagree about? Why do we believe what we believe? What can we do to change our belief? Is there something she could present to me or I could present to her that would alter our view? Thats much more likely to result in a productive conversation. Plus, its a lot more fun.

Watch the video below to see Jacobs puzzle collection, hear Jewish riddles and learn how Stephen Sondheim changed the world of crosswords.

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A.J. Jacobs on Jews, puzzles and how Sondheim changed American crosswords forever - Forward

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Posted By admin on April 23, 2022

Police are searching for two suspects accused of burglarizing a Hebrew school on Long Island.

The two suspects were seen on video pulling on the door handles of the Chabad Hebrew School, located at 80 Shore Road in Port Washington, at 3:30 p.m. on Tuesday, April 12, according to the Nassau County Police Department.

The female suspect cut the side screen window, climbed through the window, and took property from the school, NCPD said.

Both suspects then fled the scene in a white 2014 Ford Mustang with an Illinois registration.

Police said one of the suspects was a white female, between ages 17 and 28, with blonde hair.

The second suspect was a white male, also between ages 17 and 28, with long brown hair, NCPD said.

Police asked anyone with information about the case to call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-244-TIPS or NCPD at 516-573-6600.

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Know Them? Two Suspects Wanted For Port Washington Burglary - Daily Voice

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