Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By admin on April 20, 2022

In May 1986, when news of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant disaster was finally leaked from behind the Iron Curtain, hundreds of people reverently gathered in New York City's St George Ukrainian Church on East 7th Avenue and Taras Shevchenko Place, named after Ukraines most famous poet.

The East Village had been the heart of the citys Ukrainian population since the 1950s post-war immigration boom, when many fled Soviet repression. St Georges, a golden Byzantium structure built in 1905 towering over Cooper Square, is really the heart of it.

As stories poured in about the catastrophic nuclear accident in Ukraine then part of the Soviet Union relatives frantically tried to get information from fellow church goers. How many people were affected? When would it end? How many died? They sought news from the anti-communist Ukrainian newspaper which was published across the Hudson River in Jersey City.

A child holds a sign while standing around a collection of shoes placed to represent killed Ukrainian children during a rally in support of Ukraine, on March 26, in New York City. Getty / AFP

In those days, after church people wandered to Veselka, the 24-hour Ukrainian diner famous for borscht, or to Surma, a Ukrainian general store where they could buy Ukrainian anti-communist newspapers or pysanky, hand-painted Easter eggs thought to protect families from ill-deeds. Or they could browse postcards painted by the Ukrainian-American artist Yaroslava Surmach, whose family owned Surma.

While Little Ukraine did not have the majestic architecture of Lviv, or Kyivs grandeur, people there in the community felt at home. They could gossip in front of the Ukrainian meat market, bank their money at the Ukrainian Credit Union, or frequent the shops where only Ukrainian (or sometimes Polish) was spoken. They could eat stuffed cabbage at Ukie Nash the Ukrainian National Home, which burnt down and was then rebuilt with a dive bar called the Karpaty after the Carpathian Mountains. They sent their children to Ukrainian scouts camp called Plast, or sent their daughters to Ukrainian dance classes. Preserving their identity, language and culture was paramount. Theirs was one of the proudest diasporas.

The Chernobyl nuclear power plant a few weeks after the disaster. Chernobyl, Ukraine, USSR, in May 1986. Getty Images

Today, the population of Little Ukraine is smaller than it was during Chernobyl days, but the fierce sense of identity still exists. Although the numbers are unclear, we do know that just after the Second World War, about 60,000 Ukrainians lived between Houston Street and East 14th Street. Now, it is estimated about one-third of the citys 80,000 Ukrainians live here.

The war with Russia has reignited the communitys pride, nationalism and resistance. This year, Ukrainian Easter is on April 24, right in the middle of a fierce offensive on the eastern part of the country. Little Ukraine my neighbourhood is bonded even tighter in a mixture of fierce solidarity and profound sadness.

There are flags everywhere, but the local shop where I buy paper or pens says he sold out in late February after the war started.

A flag of Ukraine hangs from the fire escape of a building, on the Lower East Side of New York City, on April 4. Reuters

You cant get a flag for love or money, he says.

Still, every morning when I wake up, I see a blue and yellow banner hanging out the window of my neighbour in the opposite building. He bought one early on. Up and down Second Avenue, there are more flags, alongside anxious conversations. What will Vladimir Putin do? Will there be a nuclear war? How can I get my relatives to Warsaw, then to New York? How is the counter-offensive going?

America is a country of immigrants but also of continuation. Except for Mayflower descendants, everyone comes from somewhere else. My maternal great-grandparents were married in 1888 at St Anthonys, the Roman Catholic church on East Houston Street, where I now go to mass, on the edge of Little Italy.

They then moved across the river to Newark, where there was a firm Italian American community in the Forest Hills section, many from the same villages in Southern Italy where they were born. They spoke Italian, bought bread from Italian bakeries, meat from Italian butchers, cheese from local farms. The same could be said for Germans, Poles, Swedes. Immigrants clustered together for safety and information. I have friends who grew up in Chinatown with three generations of family, whose grandparents escaped the Chinese Civil War. Further south from where I live, past Little Ukraine and east of Little Italy and Chinatown is the Lower East Side, Jews from Russia flocked to Delancey Street.

Canada's Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland points to her yellow button in support of Ukraine, and gets standing ovation, as she delivers the 2022-23 budget in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, on April 7. Reuters

I am not sure why the Ukrainians chose the area south of East 14th street and west of what is now known as Alphabet City. Some opted for Canada, which has a large and vocal diaspora, including Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland, who played a key role in getting sanctions on Russias Central Bank in place, and has been a leading voice in solidarity.

Many Ukrainians also ended up in the coal mines of Pennsylvania near Wilkes-Barre, or Chicago. But many also settled here in the East Village, bringing their food, their faith, their customs. Never have those bonds been more important, as Ukraine struggles to resist a gruesome war.

America is a country of immigrants but also of continuation. Except for Mayflower descendants, everyone comes from somewhere else

My local breakfast place, Veselka, opened in 1954 by Wolodymyr Darmochwal, a Ukrainian refugee, fleeing Soviet oppression after the Second World War. It serves Ukrainian comfort food that is, borchst and perogi. But now, on the menu is a sign advertising Eat Borscht and Stand With Ukraine. The restaurant is staffed by Ukrainians and Poles and is donating 100 per cent of its borscht sales to Ukrainian charities, some supporting children, some supporting soldiers.

Eavesdropping, I hear conversations over kovbasa, a sausage, and eggs about the war. I hear hushed tones as people huddle over their iPhones reading news reports and watching videos using key words such as Mariupol, Odesa, Lviv hit by rockets and War crimes. No one uses the word Russian.

I wont use that word, a woman who lent me her newspaper said.

The people at Veselka are also collecting non-monetary items, medical supplies such as band aids and Betadine, which will be shipped overseas for soldiers. It has been a gathering place for potential foreign fighters who meet and share tactics for getting to their motherland (cheap flight to Warsaw, train to Kyiv or cross at the border) as well as an Amazon Wish List to donate tactical backpacks, flak jackets and face respirators to survive chemical attacks.

Every little bit helps, thank you for your contribution, glory to Ukraine, they say.

On the Veselka website, there is also a link to a speech of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, of what Ukraine needs to win the war and a list of heavy artillery, armour, aircraft and air defence systems. I got more military information about why Ukraine needs attack aircraft on their page than I did in all my previous research and reading.

More from Janine di Giovanni

Before the war started, my neighbourhood was always colourful and very much a part of seedy old New York. There is rent-controlled low-income housing, dusty shops that sell ornaments or homemade bread, tiny hole in the wall restaurants, the East Village Meat Market staffed by Ukrainian butchers. The experimental theatre at the end of my street, LaMaMa was once a Ukrainian theatre. KGB, a famous dive bar, was once the Ukrainian Labour Home. Even though I am not yet in Ukraine, I have felt connected to the heart of the diaspora.

Next week on Ukrainian Easter, I plan to forgo my Roman Catholic church to visit St Georges, which still celebrates by the Julian calendar and where, in past years, people wore Ukrainian folk costumes. This year, I will try to make a traditional Ukrainian Easter egg with beeswax and paint. They go back to before Ukraine merged with Christian traditions in the 10th century. They were presents to the gods and symbolise rebirth and spring after a long winter.

I speak to people in Kyiv every day for a war crimes project and I will soon leave to work in Ukraine. But in a strange way, I feel completely connected to the country when I wander down Second Avenue. I understand the strength of the resistance by seeing these solid and brave Ukrainian Americans who came to the US searching for a dream.

Published: April 20, 2022, 2:00 PM

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Little Ukraine and the solidarity of a diaspora in New York - The National

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Posted By admin on April 20, 2022

Although she returned briefly to Broadway in 1934, inRevenge with Music,singing Arthur Schwartz and Howard Dietzs You and the Night and the Music, Holman was becoming vehemently antiTin Pan Alley. Cole PortersYou Never Knowin 1938 was the last musical in which she appeared. Unfortunately, Reynoldss death was only the first in a series of tragic events. In 1939, Holman married a second time, to Ralph de Rimer Holmes, an actor who spent most of the marriage at war and committed suicide soon after his return. On her own, Holman adopted two sons at birth: Tim (b. 1945) and Tony (b. 1947). Soon after, in August 1950, her first son, Topper, died climbing a mountain.

In 1941, Holman met Leadbelly and Josh White at a Greenwich Village nightclub. For the next four years, as Holmans guitar accompanist, White interested her in adapting songs previously sung only by black performers. Building on her earlier cross-over career, Holman researched American folk and blues songs at the Library of Congress, making use of the Lomax field recordings.

In 1947, Gerald Cook became her primary mentor and co-artist in this enterprise, composing and rearranging songs she referred to as Earth Songs. Their highly theatrical collaborative performance,Blues, Ballads and Sin Songs,included lyrics by Tennessee Williams and Paul Bowles, and made three continental tours. Mainbocher designed her trademark floor-length skirt, which served as a prop. She also used a small chair dramatically to suggest prison bars at one moment and an executioners block the next. Among their last appearances were a UNICEF Concert (1965), a Georgetown University benefit concert for civil rights (1966), and a World Federation of United Nations Association Benefit (1968). Embracing a Jewishness she had at times denied, Holman also made a point of accepting the invitation of the mayor of Jerusalem to perform at the first anniversary of the citys new museum.

Libby Holman adopted and practiced Zen at the end of her life, and when, on June 18, 1971, she apparently committed suicide at her Connecticut estate Treetops, a Quaker service was held in her memory. She was survived by her third husband, New York sculptor Louis Schanker, as well as her two adopted sons. The latter half of her life had been devoted to social and philanthropic activities. In Toppers memory, Holman founded in 1952 the Christopher Reynolds Foundation, which financed her friend Martin Luther King, Jr.s visit to India to meet with followers of Mahatma Gandhi, and is still devoted to civil rights, peace, and disarmament programs. In 1962, Holman established the Libby Holman Foundation, which funds arts and cultural programs for the disadvantaged.

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Do you know this Jew? An actress known for her scandalous personal life and revolutionary activism - St. Louis Jewish Light

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Posted By admin on April 20, 2022

After returning to Canada from Iran in June of last year, Hamed Samadi realized there was an issue with the power-of-attorney letter he had provided to his father back home to help sell a car.

But what should have been a relatively routine procedure consisting of him sending the required paperwork over, instead became an ordeal for Samadi and his parents since Canada has no offices offering consular services to Iranian-Canadians.

If we had a consular office here in Toronto or Ottawa, I could get it to them within a day, Samadi told New Canadian Media. Instead, I had to communicate with a very busy Iranian office in Washington.

The Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs estimates there are about 400,000 Iranians in Canada, including citizens, permanent residents, students and visitors. According to Canadas 2016 census, there are 170,755 people of Iranian origin and another 39,650 with multiple origins, one of them being Iranian, for a total of 210,405 Canadians, the Canadian Encyclopedia reports.

But for any consular services required, they must contact the Interests Section of the Islamic Republic of Iran in the Embassy of Pakistan, in Washington, D.C., and communicate through couriers.

However, the Iranian Interests Section in Washington is responsible for handling over 1.5 million Iranians consular services in the United States alone, according to an EuroNews report, which means the wait can and usually is much longer.

Samadi, for example, had to choose whether to wait in a queue of about 100 minutes while on a long-distance call, or put in a call back number and hope for a call.

The National Museum of American Diplomacy defines an Interest Section as the office responsible for protecting the interests of the United States, housed in a third country embassy, in a country with which the United States has no formal diplomatic relations.

The practice dates back to 16th-century France, according to an essay published in the Intergovernmental Research and Policy Journal, expanding in the 19th century to provide diplomatic protection for traders and travelers (and)codified in the (Vienna) Convention on Diplomatic Relations in 1961.

Because of its advantages, the interest section began to spread rapidly and has since been used tentatively as the first step towards restoration following a long period when there was no sustained direct contact (and) has played a definite and constructive role in sustaining bilateral relationships between nations, writes Emmanuel Finbarr Tizhe in The Role of Disguised Embassies in Diplomatic Relations.

In other words, where there is a lack of diplomatic relations, an interest section hosted in a third countrys embassy is the last resort for citizens to get consular support.

Yet, Canada has refused to open one for Iran since 2012, when the two nations severed diplomatic ties following the rise of political tensions. The abrupt move was the only one taken in the Western world, with major Canadian allies like France and Germany deciding to continue diplomatic relations.

Since then, its been ordinary Iranians like Samadi who are paying the price through a process that is costly, time consuming, and that can put Iranians in an impossible situation. For example, if a visitor loses their passport or money, or needs support in courts or to cover accidents, there is no one within the country to provide immediate support.

In Samadis case, he sent his documents to the Iranian Interests Section to fix the power-of-attorney issue, but he was surprised when he realized that it was going to be a matter of months instead of weeks.

As soon as I realized that, I thought about my parents they were both old and it was in the midst of the pandemic, he says, adding that he worried about them contracting COVID.

Additionally, while his passport was on transit, in Washington, he was effectively banned from traveling to his home country. Fortunately, he says, nothing happened to his parents but not everyone is as lucky.

There has been continuous political hostility between Iran and the U.S. for more than four decades. It started with the Iranian Islamic Revolution, which removed the pro-U.S. regime in Iran, and then escalated with the capturing of U.S. diplomats. Since then, the U.S. has imposed some of the toughest sanctions in the world against Iran.

But Canadas hostilities date back only to around 2012, making the snubbing that much more curious.

Asked why Canada has failed to at least open an interest section within its own borders, Global Affairs Canada sent an email statement which ignored the fact that there is a need for consular services in Canada. Instead, it shifted responsibility onto Iran, stating that since 2012, Iran has had the opportunity to improve the delivery of its consular services through its Special Interests Section in the Pakistani Embassy in Washington.

The statement also said Canadians in Iran who need consular and passport services can do so through the Embassy of Canada to Turkey.

Canadian-Iranians can also access services through Canadas Consulate in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Furthermore, Italy acts as Canadas protecting power in Iran, representing Canadas interests to the Government of Iran, including providing consular assistance to Canadian nationals in Iran, the statement reads.

Moslem Noori, the president of the Iranian-Canadian Congress (ICC), says the organization has for years tried to get the government to resolve this issue, including through a 2016 petition that garnered more than 16,000 signatures requesting reestablishing of diplomatic relations with Iran.

Another campaign in 2021 also saw Iranian-Canadians email their MPs asking for easier access to consular services for Iranian Canadians.

With this, Noori told NCM, hundreds of Iranian-Canadians sent their concerns to MPs.

Yet, nothing has been done about the issue, even as or perhaps because Canada has criticized the Iranian government over human rights violations and has initiated United Nations resolutions against the same.

Meanwhile, the Canadian government continues to ignore the basic rights of hundreds of thousands of Iranians across the diaspora in Canada and creating more difficulties for those in Iran who are forced to travel to neighbouring countries for the simplest of consular and visa-related procedures every year.

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10 years into sanctions, Iranian diaspora get the runaround - Toronto Star

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Posted By admin on April 20, 2022

I am not African because I was born in Africa, but because Africa was born in me. The first president of Ghana, Dr Kwame Nkrumah, uttered these now immortal words. The sentiment still rings loud and clear today so many years later.

aAfrica is a continent of 1.4 billion people from 54 countries speaking thousands of tribal languages, a handful of regional languages and the forced linguistic unification of the dominant colonial languages.

So, this is Africaand these are Africans, thats it, right? No, Africa is so much more and extends far beyond the continental land mass and nearby accompanying islands.

Diaspora is defined as the spread of any people from their original homeland, scattered about and spreading their culture as they go.

The African diaspora touches every part of the globe and numbers over 300 million people living outside of continental Africa. Some identify strongly as Africans and others have very little knowledge of Africa or their identity within this great continental and anthropological family.

The Caribbean is a place that has shown time and again that its African roots and identity are alive and well. Countries like Jamaica, Haiti, Barbados and Cuba still share similar traditions, beliefs, rituals, superstitions, music, food, language and culture as certain places in Africa. The Jamaican born, pan-African orator and leader, Marcus Garvey and his influential Back to Africa movement exemplified the spirit of Ubuntu and how we truly are one people despite being separated by hundreds of years and thousands of miles - the bonds of Africans globally remains strong.

Today in 2022, a huge shift is happening. The global diaspora is getting closer to Africa and Africa is getting closer to them.

In 2019, Ghana held what they coined The Year of Return. This year long event commemorated 400 years since the first slave ship left the shores of West Africa bringing enslaved people to the Americas. The goal of the campaign was to make the diaspora aware that Africa is their home and she wants them to come back.

During that year, over a million diaspora of African descent returned to Africa to visit, invest and reconnect Ghana specifically but also surrounding countries like Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Gabon, Senegal and others.

Knowing the importance of tourism for economic growth and cultural awareness, Ghana made sure to have many cultural, historic and entertainment elements available for diaspora to experience. The country generated over $1 billion during that year as a direct result of the campaign. Furthermore, several diaspora decided to settle in Ghana and other African countries, feeling the warmth of home, the comfort of long lost family all around them and the peace of mind of being in a place that allows them just be themselvesfinally!

Today, this feeling continues in pockets of connectedness all over the continent and the diaspora. For example, Liberia is celebrating its bicentennial this year under the theme, Liberia: The Land of Return Celebrating 200 Years of Freedom and Pan-African Leadership. The historic campaign invites diaspora to return (some for the first time) to that country and experience Africa.

Another recent example of continental Africa and diaspora cooperation is a historic direct flight that happened a few years ago between Lagos, Nigeria and Kingston, Jamaica that took just 12 hours. This was to show that we are closer together than we previously thought. Regular weekly flights have been called for from the highest pulpits such as in 2021 at the inaugural Africa / CARICOM Summit by Barbados Prime Minister, Mia Mottley.

Also interesting to mention is the participation and collaboration of African and Caribbean countries during the landmark 6-month event of the Dubai Expo, which just wrapped up last month. Rwanda had one of the most engaging and memorable pavilions (showcasing their unique tourism and investment offerings) along with other stand out pavilions such as Jamaica and Barbados, who brought a colourful flair to the already festive atmosphere of Expo.

Here in Rwanda, we have seen very encouraging signs of a strong Pan African ideal and deep desire to make Rwanda home. There is a thriving and growing group of black American and Caribbean diaspora that have chosen Rwanda for a number of reasons and have decided to visit, relocate and do business here. Some are even considering changing citizenship to embrace Africa more fully.

This year, Rwanda will host possibly the most significant and influential global diplomatic event to be held on African soil in recent history. CHOGM 2022, or the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, will be held the week of June 20th in Kigali, Rwanda.

Rwanda is the newest Commonwealth country and the only one to not have been colonized by the UK. Also, one of the smaller countries in the Commonwealth, Rwanda is making a name for herself in a way not seen by an African country in a very long time.

Led by the visionary stewardship of President Paul Kagame, Rwanda has made an impressive rebound from tragedy to triumph and the Rwandan sun continues to rise.

President Kagame has always been a man on a mission but he has remarkably increased his efforts ahead of the landmark CHOGM 2022 meeting in Kigali by visiting several Commonwealth countries in Africa and the Caribbean (namely Zambia, Jamaica and Barbados), spreading goodwill, strengthening ties and negotiating mutually beneficial bi-lateral relationships. The fruits of his labour will soon become apparent when all Commonwealth heads of government descend on Kigali, Rwanda this June including the 19 African and 13 Caribbean countries.

Indeed, we are one Africa and our unity is our strength. I hope Rwandas example of looking within and including the greater, global Africa (the Caribbean, African Americans, Afro-Brazilians, etc.) will be the spark for great cooperation amongst us all, TURI KUMWE.

The author is aJamaican-American diaspora currently living in Rwanda. He is theCEO of AFRIKANEKT.

editor@newtimesrwanda.com

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Africa and the global Diaspora - The New Times

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Posted By admin on April 20, 2022

Regarding Jonathan Spyers op-ed Whats Behind the New Wave of Terrorism Against Israel (April 12): Unfortunately there is nothing new about it. Arab terrorists have been attacking Jews for many decades, even before Israels rebirth in 1948. They massacred Jewish civilians in Hebron in 1929, for example, and have been killing Jews seeking a peaceful existence in the Jewish homeland since at least the latter part of the 19th century.

Anti-Semitic incitement pours forth daily from Palestinian educational, religious and government outlets. Jews who quietly visit their holiest site, the Temple Mount, are accused of storming the nearby Al Aqsa mosque, an accusation that helped foment the 1929 massacre as well. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas proclaims a type of apartheid by stating that not one Jew can reside in any area he controls, and accuses Jews of contaminating Muslim holy sites with their filthy feet. Arab terrorist attacks on Jews in Israel will not stop until there is a fundamental change in this ideology.

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Arab Incitement to Violence Against Jews, Then and Now - The Wall Street Journal

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Posted By admin on April 20, 2022

It's election year in Fiji and political parties are now beginning to make their presence felt in the community.

First off the block was the opposition National Federation Party, with leader Professor Biman Prasad doing the rounds in Auckland, meeting members of the diaspora and media last week.

Although one media interview - atRadio Tarana- ended on a sour note withPrasad walking out of the studio when questioned about his plans for Fijiby hostPawanPrasad, other engagements went without a hitch.

Arvind Kumar

Professor Biman Prasad, leader of Fiji's National Federation Party, addresses attendees.

The interview, on April 13,went viral on social media and the local media in Fiji, attracting mixed reactions from Fijian diaspora listeners and readers.

READ MORE:*Fiji's prime minister rules out lockdown despite record Covid-19 cases*Fiji in economic crisis, says opposition MP. Not at all, says the Prime Minister*Jagannath Sami takes up full-time general secretary role with NFP*NFP leader calls on community to exemplify the courage shown by our forefathers*Touch of star power as NFP names line-up for polls*We're back in business, says Fijian Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama

Arvind Kumar

Fiji's National Federation Party leader Professor Biman Prasad pictured with supporters at a fundraising dinner function in Auckland, from left, Salesh Mudaliar, Udit Singh, Prasad, Vinod Kumar, Harnam Singh Golian.

Prasad's Auckland tour culminated with a fundraising dinner which attracted more than 160 supportersin Mt Roskill that same evening.

He thanked the diaspora community in New Zealand, saying their support had been vital in keeping the Fiji economy going during the Covid pandemic.

"In 2020, Fiji received F$652 million in remittances from our people who are living in Australia, New Zealand, America and Canada," Prasad told the attendees.

Arvind Kumar

Guests at a fundraising dinner function in Auckland for National Federation Party leader Professor Biman Prasad.

"In 2021, we received $842m, and if you add the two, it's a total of $1.5 billion injected into the economy through your families, friends and NGOs.

"And that has kept the country going because the state of the economy, even before Covid,was that Fiji's economy was going downhill."

Without going into details, Prasad talked of a plan to deal with the state of affairs "when we come into government".

Arvind Kumar

Guests at a fundraising dinner function in Auckland for National Federation Party leader Professor Biman Prasad.

"We have a strategy, we have a vision to deal with the problems when we come into government," Prasad said.

"It is going to be a very difficult proposition for any government that comes after the lot that are running the country at the moment, to deal with the mess that has been created.

"We have the people, and we have the skills," said Prasad, whose party has formed a partnership with Sitiveni Rabuka's People's Alliance Party for a coalition government.

Arvind Kumar

MC Lolesh Sharma addresses guests.

Prasad said thepartnership with People's Alliance was a formidable onegoing into the election, expected to be held in the second half of the year.

"This election is not going to be for the faint-hearted, this election is not going to be for sycophancy.

"This election is going to be about a choice between a ruin that is already there and the hope that we are providing to the people in the form of the partnership agreement that we have made withPeople's Alliance."

Arvind Kumar

Fiji's National Federation Party leader Professor Biman Prasad in ernest discussion with former Fiji MP Ahmed Bhamji and other supporters.

Arvind Kumar

Fiji's National Federation Party leader Professor Biman Prasad pictured with supporters, from left, Yash Singh, Nik Naidu, Raj Chand, Prasad, Pritesh Patel.

RADIO TARANA

This is the interview at Radio Tarana which saw Professor Biman Prasad walk out of a live on-air interview with Pawan Prasad.

Arvind Kumar

Former Fiji MP Ahmed Bhamji addresses guests at a NFP fundraising dinner function.

Arvind Kumar

At a fundraising dinner function in Auckland for National Federation Party leader Professor Biman Prasad, from left, Ashfaaq Khan, Shanti Gounder and Nardesa Gounder.

Arvind Kumar

Fiji's National Federation Party leader Professor Biman Prasad is flanked by Ashfaaq Khan and Anji Naidu-Khan.

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Fiji's NFP leader thanks diaspora for Covid support on Auckland tour - Stuff

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Posted By admin on April 20, 2022

For 16 years Lady Beast battled nationally and beyond, repping Haiti, Canada, Boston, and Black women worldwide. Seven of those years she spent teaching local youth the art of popping, pro bono. She also opened for global acts like Jay-Z, Ciara, Roxanne Shant, and Lil Wayne. She is among the multitude of women that prove there is no shortage of talented Black girls in street dance. Still, Lady Beast has had to bear the brunt of biases unique to people like her. I don't think enough of us are expressing how much it can hurt to be a Black woman in these spaces. Just think of the mental abuse that was put upon us at an early age and how we were made to feel we didnt have a voice, Lady Beast laments, illustrating a history of erasure even in the very industries and movements where Black women have played requisite roles.

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Black Women Around The Diaspora Find A Home In Street Dance - Refinery29

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Posted By admin on April 20, 2022

The people of Indian origin keep the identity of India alive wherever they are in the world, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh has said, applauding the Indian-Americans for maintaining the complete identity of their culture thousands of miles away from their home country.

The defence minister was here to attend the India US 2+2 ministerial in Washington DC. Thereafter, he travelled to Hawaii for meetings at IndoPACOM headquarters and then to San Francisco.

Describing his five-day trip to the US as fruitful, Singh said he had a wonderful meeting with his American counterpart Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin.

I congratulate you for maintaining this complete Indian identity, Singh told a group of Indian-Americans during a public reception hosted in his honor by the Indian Consulate in San Francisco on Thursday.

This is not a small thing. People lose their (cultural identity) when they stay at some place for a long time, he said.

Indians living outside India always feel pride in calling themselves Indians.

Singh said he was making his fourth trip in his political career to the United States and the first in San Francisco.

The Indian community in the United States has established itself here. This is a result of the efforts of the community, he added.

Had I come here as a political leader, not on my official tour, I would have met the Indian community in all the places I visited here, he said.

India and the United States, being the largest democratic powers, have the potential to establish global peace and prosperity.

The relationship between the United States and India is multifaceted, economic, strategic, and defence as well, he said.

Today the entire world knows that India and the US are natural allies, Singh said, asserting that this relationship has stability and continuity and at the same time the two countries have an important role to play in maintaining this stability and continuity.

This ground reality cannot be ignored, Singh said.

He is scheduled to leave San Francisco for India on Friday.

The Indian Diaspora, which keeps on climbing to new heights in the US, plays a key role in this relationship, Sigh said.

People in India are always proud of the achievements that the people of Indian origin or its diaspora achieve here. For instance, when Parag Agarwal became the Twitter CEO, people in India felt that someone among their own has become the head of Twitter, he said amidst applause.

Similarly, there are several tech leaders in the US from among us, be it Satya Nadella of Microsoft or Sunder Pichai of Google, he said.

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Indian Diaspora keeping identity of India alive wherever they are: Rajnath Singh - Economic Times

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Posted By admin on April 20, 2022

This year, Easter and Passover, holidays central to Christianity and Judaism, respectively, begin on the same weekend.

This timing provides an ideal opportunity to address faulty and often dangerous misconceptions that have been part of Christian communities for nearly 2,000 years.

Many Christians of varying denominations regard their faith as having developed from Jesuss rejection of Judaism. But Jesus was a faithful Jew who respected and protected Jewish traditions, practices and laws.

The belief that Christianity replaced or supplanted Judaism is known as Christian supersessionism.

Christian supersessionism has not only fed into negative perceptions of Jews and Judaism since antiquity, but has also incited violence against Jews.

Historically, Christian anti-Jewish sentiment often became especially pronounced when Christians observed Holy Week, the week commemorating the time leading up to Jesuss crucifixion and resurrection.

As Amy-Jill Levine, a leading professor of New Testament and Jewish studies, writes, every time the Passion narratives are read, the threat of anti-Judaism reappears.

From as early as the second century to today, some Christian readers of the New Testament Gospels have concluded that these depict Jesus doing away with Jewish law or replacing Judaism. This interpretation often includes the view that Jesus told his audiences that rules regarding ritual purity were irrelevant and outdated. But these views are simply incorrect.

Ancient Jewish law focused on three sources of ritual impurity: corpses; male and female genital discharges; and skin conditions known in Hebrew as tzaraat, translated into Greek as lepra. English translations of the Bible mistakenly identified this with leprosy, a disease that would have been unknown to the ancient Israelites.

Anyone in a state of impurity was not permitted to visit the temple until a certain period of time had passed and they had washed in a ritual bath.

The Gospels depict how Jesus interacts with many people who were experiencing ritual impurity. At the end of every one of those episodes, the people he meets are no longer in a state of ritual impurity. Their encounter with Jesus results in both their healing and purification.

For example, in Gospel stories describing the life of Jesus, people with lepra are purified when Jesus heals them.

In the Gospel of Mark, a woman who had been suffering from hemorrhages for 12 years another condition causing impurity leaves Jesus with her defiling discharge healed.

And even corpses, which are inherently impure under Jewish law, are no longer corpses after Jesus brings them back to to life.

Since many modern Christian readers are unfamiliar with ancient Judaisms ritual impurity system, they often fail to recognize that Jesus repeatedly removes the sources of ritual impurity from people he encounters. These sources of impurity seem to be connected with death or the loss of life.

My scholarship has examined how Jesus roots out ritual impurity throughout his ministry. These encounters with people who are ritually impure do not depict him rejecting the ritual impurity system, but battling the root sources of impurity (forces of death) and defeating them.

These events demonstrate Jesus caring so much about ritual impurity that he took actions to resolve it wherever he encountered it, because it was a barrier to accessing the temple, where Gods presence dwelt.

These skirmishes with impurity culminate with Jesuss own death on a Roman cross. At the very point when it looks like death has defeated Jesus and he has become irrevocably ritually impure, the Gospels depict Jesuss resurrection and triumph over death itself. Jesuss resurrection becomes a central aspect of Christian theology.

The notion that Jesus rejected Judaism and Jewish observances developed in the decades after the crucifixion.

After the destruction of Jerusalems Second Temple under Roman occupation in 70, some followers of Jesus felt there was no longer a reason to be concerned with impurity because no one could visit the temple.

Many Christians today, especially those in the West, live with little or no concern for ritual impurity, and thus conclude that Jesus too must not have cared about it. But this is an inaccurate understanding of Jesus.

In fact, many early Christians, some of whom were Jews and others of whom were non-Jews, continued to observe aspects of ritual purity, only abandoning it partially and over time.

One of the most dangerous New Testament passages occurs in the Gospel of Matthews Passion narrative, which depicts Jews at Jesuss trial demanding his crucifixion and declaring, May his blood be on us and our children. Many Christians through the ages have understood these verses to pronounce an eternal blood curse upon Jews as the Christ killers. This imagery and wrongful accusation has been used to fuel dangerous myths that have served to bolster violence against Jews.

Read more: Politicians have 'washed their hands' and blamed others since Jesus's crucifixion

Matthews Gospel was written by a Jewish believer in Jesus and for other Jewish believers in Jesus. So regardless of its polemical nature, it is unlikely that Matthew would have intended or approved the use of these verses as both a curse and a pretext for violence against all Jews throughout time.

Levine discusses and evaluates contemporary Christian strategies for avoiding anti-Judaism during Christian Holy Week. One strategy she flags as misguided and insensitive is taking a romantic approach to the past such as if churches seek to celebrate a Christian seder.

Passover and Easter both commemorate liberation one in terms of escaping the bondage of slavery, the other in the form of resurrection from the dead and freedom from sin. Some earlier biblical scholars believed that what the Gospels describe as Jesuss Last Supper was in fact his celebration of the Passover seder, but most scholars now disagree.

Levine notes while there are educational benefits to introducing Christians to Jewish ritual, a Christian seder is historically compromised, demonstrates interfaith insensitivity and serves to absolve the congregation: how could they be anti-Jewish if they are doing something so Jewish as having a Passover seder?

Levine writes that Jews and Christians today can recover and even celebrate our common past, while working together to love G-d and our neighbour. For Christians, this begins with admitting the problem and directly confronting it.

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Jesus the faithful Jew: How misreadings of the Christian Gospels miss this and fuel anti-Judaism - The Conversation

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Posted By admin on April 20, 2022

Imagine if a newspaper depicted a vegan food festival with photographs from a Barbecue Brisket Cookoff.

On the First Day of Passover (April 16) the Houston Chronicle published a large picture entitled Passover Begins. The picture is from a messianic Jewish church. Messianic Jews believe in the Christian messiah; their movement was started as a means to proselytize and missionize Jews. Their seder incorporates many distortions about our Passover ritual as they weave Christian theology into our Passover story and symbols. Their methods are shamelessly deceitful.

The rabbis from this messianic church are self-ordained. A man from that church told me hes not Jewish. Then, a few weeks later, he appeared across the street from the JCC with a shmatte on his head and telling people hes a rabbi. This messianic rabbi couldnt recite the Shema. His church is the source the Chronicle chose to highlight Passover.

Messianic Jews claim to be Jewish; however, it is Judaism and Jewish Law that determines who is a Jew, not former-Jews or Christians role-playing as Jews. Their goal is converting every Jewish person to accept Christian beliefs.

Christianity negates the fundamentals of Jewish faith, and one who accepts it rejects the very essence of Judaism. Even if one continues to keep all of the rituals, it is the same as if they completely abandoned Judaism.

Why the Chronicle chose to highlight a messianic Jewish church to represent our Passover Seder is disturbing on several levels. Aside from legitimizing a nefarious perversion of Judaism, its misleading for anyone who seeks more knowledge about our faith and diverts them from legitimate sources at our local synagogues.

Theres a deeper and far more troubling pattern developing at the Chronicle of publishing articles that demean, degrade, delegitimize and even foment disdain and hatred toward our local Jewish community. Much of this incitement is in the form of anti-Zionism, which is the contemporary vehicle for antisemites.

On April 12, following two weeks of terroristic attacks against Israeli civilians, the Chronicle published a large photo entitled A Day for Mourning, invoking sympathy for the family of a young Arab terrorist. Only near the end of the caption did we learn officials said he was throwing a firebomb at [soldiers]. Eleven Israelis murdered in random terrorist attacks in the previous two weeks merited no mention.

The pattern gets worse. Last summer, the Chronicle published a shockingly distorted description of Israeli defense against Gaza attacks by omitting any mention of 4,000 Hamas rockets. Instead, the Chronicle simply said there was an 11-day armed Israeli aggression against Gaza (jhvonline.com/reader-asks-for-chronicle-meeting-after-questionable-israel-coverage-p29203-114.htm).

The Chronicle did publish an easily overlooked, brief two-sentence correction about the messianic seder the next day. The damage was already done, which also is part of a pattern: Print a distortion and retract it later. In the case of the 11-day armed Israeli aggression, Chronicle editors promised to correct the article, but waited 10 days to do so.

Houston Chronicle editors have a remarkably cavalier attitude about their malfeasance. After their intentional failure to mention Hamas rocket attacks, I arranged a meeting with their top managers to highlight how they are fomenting and inciting antisemitism. I brought local Jewish leaders from two high-profile organizations, a major advertiser and a BIPOC [Biracial Indigenous People of Color] rabbi to our meeting.

The Chronicle listened politely. We encouraged them to contact any of us for clarity or fact-checking on topics related to Jews and Judaism. We implored them to apply codified journalistic ethics to their reporting. We left feeling they were just going through the motions.

Our Houston Jewish community deserves better and can do better. Yet, nothing changes until we demand it. Large media outlets can write whatever they want about Jews and distort it as they please. And, heres why: They know only a few Jews will object. Editors will pacify them and then go right back to doing what they do, expecting little to no repercussions. Rinse and repeat.

Letters to the Editor are selected for publication based on the number of letters received. The HC letters page typically has much more support for Gaza because its Hamas sycophants who write letters. Where are the Jews? Where are our leaders who would empower us to be more proactive? If you ever find yourself saying. Someone should do something. then Be The Someone.

If we are not for ourselves, who will be? At Passover were reminded how In every generation an enemy rises up against us. We cant let others define us as Jews nor define what is or isnt Jewish.

Zionism is part of our Seder. We dont conclude our Seders announcing, Next year in West Jerusalem.

Lets start asking at our shuls and schools about teaching how to write letters to editors, politicians, bureaucrats and businesses, and put together groups ready to respond quickly. Jewish business owners who advertise in the Chronicle should contact the publisher and object to the misinformation. Donors to Jewish organizations should ask what is being done to counter growing media antisemitism.

We are fortunate to have the Jewish Herald-Voice, and many of us have little problem giving feedback to the publisher. We need to be even more diligent in monitoring major media outlets who have a wide reach to the general public. One person can make a difference, and that one person can be you.

Ira Bleiweiss is a longtime Houston activist and lecturer whose innovative and effective pro-Israel and interfaith activities have garnered international recognition.

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It's time for Houston Jewish community to challenge antisemitism in the media - Jewish Herald-Voice

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