Jewish American Heritage Month

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Things to Do This Week in LA [4-18-2022 to 4-22-2022] – We Like L.A.

Posted By admin on April 20, 2022

Lunchtime Yoga at Grand Park. Credit: Brian Champlin / We Like L.A.

Today is tax day. Hopefully that isnt a newsflash to you, otherwise we recommend you insta-close this list and immediately navigate over to your tax software of choice. Now assuming were all on the same page here with our filing requirements, lets move on to the to-dos.

This week in Los Angeles, from April 18-22, youll find new art at Forest Lawn Museum, the opening of the Pan African Film & Arts Festival, tax day food specials, a 4/20 movie drive-in, the return of lunch-time yoga at Grand Park, a Record Store Day discussion at the GRAMMY Museum, and the TCM Classic Film Festival. Check out those options, and more, all below.

Your (Un)natural Garden -> A new installation experience at Descanso Gardens created by artist AdamSchwerner.Your (Un)Natural Gardenoffers colorful, interactive pop-up works and installations located inside the Sturt Haaga Gallery, Boddy House. Touching the art is definitely encouraged. Runs through Jan. 8, 2023. Included with garden admission. More infohere.

A Culver City Amble -> The latest in Brians L.A. on Footseries is awalk in Culver Citythat takes you from the Ballona Creek through Downtown to the Hobbit Houses and back.

Pan African Film & Arts Festival > The 30th annual Pan African Film & Arts Festival runs from April 19 to May 1, with a lineup featuring more than 190 films originating from over 40 countries, with tickets for individual screenings starting at $12. Programming for this years PAFF also includes an ArtFEST featuring over 100 artists and craftsmen taking place this Thursday at the Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Mall, along with free Childrens Festivals on April 23 and April 30. Get more info on the entire schedule here.

Moments of Reflection -> A new multi-sensory installation at UCLAs Franklin D. Murphy Sculpture Garden opens this Tuesday with an unveiling ceremony scheduled for 7 p.m. The garden is free to view through April 24, and viewing hours are 6 to 10 a.m. and 4 to 10 p.m. daily. More info here.

Venice Family Clinic Art Walk + Auction-> Now through May 1, check out (and bid on) over 200 artworks at the Venice Art Walk Gallery (395 Santa Monica Place) as part of the benefit auction for Venice Family Clinic. The gallery is open daily from noon to 6 p.m. Admission is free. More infohere.

Free Garden Admission -> The South Coast Botanic Garden offers free admission on the third Tuesday of every month, and tickets for this Tuesday are still available. More info here. (A quick note: both the L.A. Arboretum and Descanso Gardens also offer free admission on the third Tuesday, but theyre already sold out. Plan ahead for next month!).

New at Skirball > Two new exhibitionsare now openat the Skirball Cultural Center, both firmly rooted in the immigrant experience.Ill Have What Shes Having: The Jewish Delitraces the Jewish immigrant experience in America through the lens of the delicatessen, whileTalking Back to Power: Projects by Aram Han Sifuentescenters on stories of immigrant garment workers in the United States. Skirball is open Tuesday through Sunday. General admission is $12, and free on Thursdays. You can find a photo preview of the new exhibitionshere.

Record Store Day Discussion at the GRAMMY Museum-> The 15th annual Record Store Day is this Saturday, April 23, and GRAMMY Museum celebrates it early on Tuesday through a discussion panel hosted by Varietys Chris Willman, and featuring Linda Perry, Kirk Hammett and Robert Trujillo of Metallica, The Sound Garden owner Bryan Burkert, and Record Store Day Co-Founder Michael Kurtz. The panel will be followed by a performance from singer/songwriter Nilfer Yanya. Tickets are $25. Get more info here.

Art on Montana Avenue-> Looking for an evening walk destination? Illuminated art has taken over the Montana Business District this month, with ficus trees along Montana Avenue transformed (one per block) into pop-up art installations. Scope works that everything from whimsical butterflies and flowers to hanging lanterns, chandeliers, and colored panes. The installations will remain in place through September, so youve got plenty of time to plan a summer stroll. More infohere.

Lunch Time Yoga > This Wednesday, Grand Park brings back weekly yoga with the Lunch La ParkYoga reTREAT, a free 45-minute session starting at noon. Get more info here.

Pipilotti Rist: Big Heartedness, Be My Neighbor at MOCA-> Now through June 5, head to the Geffen Contemporary at MOCA forPipilotti Rist: Big Heartedness, Be My Neighbor.The immersive, sensory-heavy works of Zrich-based artist Pipilotti Rist feature large-scale installations with hypnotic musical scores; video art; and sculptures. Special exhibitions at MOCA cost $18 for adults; $10 for students with I.D. and seniors (+65); and free for children under 12 and jurors with I.D. In addition, tickets allow for a free second visit to the exhibition within 72 hours of initial visit. OpenWednesday to Sunday.

Treasure of Armenian Music -> This Wednesday, the Hammer Museum highlights the musical history of Armenia with works by famed Armenian composers performed live by the UCLA VEM Ensemble. The event starts at 7 p.m. Free to attend with RSVP. More info here.

Harold and Kumar at Electric Dusk -> If youre feeling extra 4/20 friendly this Wednesday, roll on over to Electric Dusk Drive-in for a very timely showing of the stoner comedy Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle. Early bird tickets start at $28 per vehicle, and $8 per additional (not the driver) person attending. More info here.

Lovett or Leave It -> On Thursday, Crooked Media co-founder, and former Obama speechwriter, Jon Lovett is back at the The Dynasty Typewriter with another live edition of his podcast Lovett or Leave It. Get the skinny on the latest in the world of news and politics through as seen through Lovetts acerbic perspective, and paired with panels discussing the latest issues. Tickets are $25. More info here.

John Scofield Live -> Legendary jazz guitarist and composerJohn Scofield comes to the Theatre Raymond Kabbaz on Pico Boulevard this Thursday with a performance of his latest project, Yankee Go Home. There will be two sets, 7 and 9:30 p.m., and general admission tickets start at $40. More info here.

TCM Classic Film Festival-> A four-day (April 21-24) slate of classic films shown on the big screen at a range of historic Los Angels theaters. Kicks off this Thursday. For the full schedule and more info gohere.

Light & Matter: The Art of Matthew Brandt-> A new retrospective exhibition at Forest Lawn museum features more than 100 photographs and multi-media artworks from artist Matthew Brandt. Light & Matter opens with a public reception on Thursday (check the link for details on how to RSVP for that). The exhibition runs through Sep. 4. Admission is free. More info here.

Daisy Days in Concert -> This Friday, Oxy Arts hosts a special musical performance to close out the exhibition EJ Hill: Wherever We will to root. Free, and no RSVP required. More info here. UPDATE: This event has been cancelled due to a positive COVID-19 test result from one of the performers.

Parade (musical) – Wikipedia

Posted By admin on April 20, 2022

Musical with a book by Alfred Uhry and music and lyrics by Jason Robert Brown

Parade is a musical with a book by Alfred Uhry and music and lyrics by Jason Robert Brown. The musical is a dramatization of the 1913 trial and imprisonment, and 1915 lynching, of Jewish American Leo Frank in Georgia.

The musical premiered on Broadway in December 1998 and won Tony Awards for Best Book and Best Original Score (out of nine nominations) and six Drama Desk Awards. After closing on Broadway in February 1999, the show has had a US national tour and a few professional productions in the US and UK.

The musical dramatizes the 1913 trial of Jewish factory manager Leo Frank, who was accused and convicted of raping and murdering a thirteen-year-old employee, Mary Phagan. The trial, sensationalized by the media, aroused antisemitic tensions in Atlanta and the U.S. state of Georgia. When Frank's death sentence was commuted to life in prison by the departing Governor of Georgia, John M. Slaton, in 1915 due to his detailed review of over 10,000 pages of testimony and possible problems with the trial, Leo Frank was transferred to a prison in Milledgeville, Georgia, where a lynching party seized and kidnapped him. Frank was taken to Phagan's hometown of Marietta, Georgia, and he was hanged from an oak tree. The events surrounding the investigation and trial led to two groups emerging: the revival of the defunct KKK and the birth of the Jewish Civil Rights organization, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL).[1]

Director Harold Prince turned to Jason Robert Brown to write the score after Stephen Sondheim turned the project down. Prince's daughter, Daisy, had brought Brown to her father's attention. Book writer Alfred Uhry, who grew up in Atlanta, had personal knowledge of the Frank story, as his great-uncle owned the pencil factory run by Leo Frank.[2]

The musical's story concludes that the likely killer was the factory janitor Jim Conley, the key witness against Frank at the trial. The villains of the piece are the ambitious and corrupt prosecutor Hugh Dorsey (later the governor of Georgia and then a judge) and the rabid, anti-semitic publisher Tom Watson (later elected a U.S. senator). Prince and Uhry emphasized the evolving relationship between Frank and his wife Lucille.[3] Their relationship shifts from cold to warm in songs like "Leo at Work/What am I Waiting For?," "You Don't Know This Man," "Do it Alone," and "All the Wasted Time". The poignancy of the couple, who fall in love in the midst of adversity, is the core of the work. It makes the tragic outcome the miscarriage of justice even more disturbing.[4]

The show was Brown's first Broadway production. His music, according to critic Charles Isherwood, has "subtle and appealing melodies that draw on a variety of influences, from pop-rock to folk to rhythm and blues and gospel."[3]

The musical opens in Marietta, Georgia, in the time of the American Civil War. The sounds of drums herald the appearance of a young Confederate soldier, bidding farewell to his sweetheart as he goes to fight for his homeland. The years pass and suddenly it is 1913. The young soldier has become an old one-legged veteran who is preparing to march in the annual Confederate Memorial Day parade ("The Old Red Hills of Home"). As the Parade begins ("The Dream of Atlanta"), Leo Frank, a Yankee Jew from Brooklyn, NYC, is deeply uncomfortable in the town in which he works and lives, feeling out of place due to his Judaism and his college education ("How Can I Call This Home?"). His discomfort is present even in his relationship with his wife, Lucille, who has planned an outdoor meal spoiled by Leo's decision to go into work on a holiday. Meanwhile, two local teens, Frankie Epps and Mary Phagan, ride a trolley car and flirt. Frankie wants Mary to go to the picture show with him, but Mary playfully resists, insisting her mother will not let her ("The Picture Show"). Mary leaves to collect her pay from the pencil factory managed by Leo.

While Leo is at work, Lucille bemoans the state of their marriage, believing herself unappreciated by a man so wrapped up in himself. She reflects on her unfulfilled life and wonders whether or not Leo was the right match for her ("Leo at Work" / "What Am I Waiting For?"). Mary Phagan arrives in Leo's office to collect her paycheck. That night, police Detective Starnes and Officer Ivey rouse Leo from his sleep, and without telling him why, demand he accompany them to the factory, where Mary's body has been found raped and murdered in the basement. The Police immediately suspect Newt Lee, the African-American night watchman who discovered the body ("Interrogation"). Throughout his interrogation, he maintains his innocence, but inadvertently directs Starnes' suspicion upon Leo, who did not answer his telephone when Lee called him to report the incident. Leo is arrested, but not charged, and Mrs. Phagan, Mary's mother, becomes aware of Mary's death.

Across town, a reporter named Britt Craig is informed about Mary's murder and sees the possibility of a career-making story ("Big News"). Craig attends Mary's funeral, where the townspeople of Marietta are angry, mournful, and baffled by the tragedy that has so unexpectedly shattered the community. ("There is a Fountain" / "It Don't Make Sense"). Frankie Epps swears revenge on Mary's killer, as does Tom Watson, a writer for The Jeffersonian, an extremist right-wing newspaper ("Tom Watson's Lullaby") who has taken a special interest in the case. In the meantime, Governor John Slaton pressures the local prosecutor Hugh Dorsey to get to the bottom of the whole affair. Dorsey, an ambitious politician with a "lousy conviction record", resolves to find the murderer. Dorsey, along with Starnes and Ivey interrogate Newt Lee, but they get no information. Dorsey releases Newt, reasoning that "hanging another Nigra ain't enough this time. We gotta do better." He then attaches the blame to Leo Frank and sends Starnes and a reluctant Ivey out to find eyewitnesses ("Something Ain't Right"). Craig exalts in his opportunity to cover a "real" story and begins an effective campaign vilifying Leo. ("Real Big News").

Leo meets with his lawyer, Luther Z. Rosser, who vows to "win this case, and send him home". Meanwhile, Dorsey makes a deal with factory janitor and ex-convict Jim Conley to testify against Leo in exchange for immunity for a previous escape from prison. Lucille, hounded by reporters, collapses from the strain and privately rebukes Craig when he attempts to get an interview ("You Don't Know This Man"). She tells her husband that she cannot bear to see his trial, but he begs her to stay in the courtroom, as her not appearing would make him look guilty.

The trial of Leo Frank begins, presided over by Judge Roan. A hysterical crowd gathers outside the courtroom, as Tom Watson spews invective ("Hammer of Justice") and Hugh Dorsey begins the case for the prosecution ("Twenty Miles from Marietta"). The prosecution produces a series of witnesses, most of whom give trumped evidence which was clearly fed to them by Dorsey. Frankie Epps testifies, falsely, that Mary mentioned that Leo "looks at her funny" when they last spoke, a sentiment echoed verbatim by three of Mary's teenage co-workers, Lola, Essie, and Monteen ("The Factory Girls"). In a fantasy sequence, Leo becomes the lecherous seducer of their testimony ("Come Up to My Office"). Testimony is heard from Mary's mother ("My Child Will Forgive Me") and Minnie McKnight before the prosecution's star witness, Jim Conley, takes the stand, claiming that he witnessed the murder and helped Leo cover up the crime ("That's What He Said"). Leo is desperate. As prosecutor Hugh Dorsey whips the observers and jurors at the trial into a frenzy, Leo is given the opportunity to deliver a statement. Leo offers a heartfelt speech, pleading to be believed ("It's Hard to Speak My Heart"), but it is not enough. He is found guilty and sentenced to hang. The crowd breaks out into a jubilant cakewalk as Lucille and Leo embrace, terrified ("Summation and Cakewalk").

It's now 1914 and Leo has begun his process of appeal. The trial has been noted by the press in the north, and the reaction is strongly disapproving of the way in which it was conducted, but the African-American domestics wonder if the reaction would have been as strong if the victim had been black ("A Rumblin' and a Rollin'"). Lucille tries to help Leo with his appeal, but reveals crucial information to Craig, provoking an argument between Leo and Lucille ("Do it Alone"). Lucille then finds Governor Slaton at a party ("Pretty Music") and attempts to advocate for Leo. She accuses him of either being a fool or a coward if he accepts the outcome of the trial as is. Meanwhile, Tom Watson approaches Hugh Dorsey and tells him that he will support his bid for governor should he choose to make it. Dorsey and Judge Roan go on a fishing trip, where they discuss the political climate and the upcoming election ("The Glory").

The governor agrees to re-open the case, and Leo and Lucille rejoice ("This Is Not Over Yet"). Slaton visits the factory girls, who admit to their exaggeration (Factory Girls (Reprise)), and Minnie, who claims that Dorsey intimidated her and made her sign a statement (Minnie McKnight's Reprise). Slaton also visits Jim Conley, who is back in jail as an accessory to the murder, who refuses to change his story despite the noticeable inconsistencies with the evidence, and along with his Chain Gang, does not give any information, much to the chagrin of Slaton ("Blues: Feel the Rain Fall"). A year later, after much consideration, he agrees to commute Leo's sentence to life in prison in Milledgeville, Georgia, a move that effectively ends his political career. The citizens of Marietta, led by Dorsey and Watson, are enraged and riot ("Where Will You Stand When the Flood Comes?").

Leo has been transferred to a prison work-farm. Lucille visits, and he realizes his deep love for his wife and how much he has underestimated her ("All the Wasted Time"). After Lucille departs from the prison, a party of masked men (including Starnes, Ivey, Frankie Epps, the Fulton Tower guard and the Old Confederate Soldier) arrives and kidnaps Leo. They take him to Marietta and demand he confess to the murder on pain of death. Leo refuses, and although Ivey is convinced of his innocence, the rest of group is determined to kill him. As his last request, Leo has a sack tied around his waist, since he is wearing only his nightshirt, and gives his wedding ring to Ivey to be given to Lucille. The group hangs him from an oak tree ("Sh'ma"). In 1916, a remorseful Britt Craig gives Leo's ring, which has been delivered to him anonymously, to Lucille. He is surprised to discover that she has no plans to leave Georgia, which is now governed by Dorsey, but she refuses to let Leo's ordeal be for nothing. Alone, she gives in to her grief, but she takes comfort in believing that Leo is with God and free from his ordeal. The Confederate Memorial Day Parade begins again ("Finale").

Most critics praised the show, especially the score.[5] However, the public and some critics received the show coolly. A number felt the show took too many liberties in the use of racial slurs. When the show closed, Livent had filed for bankruptcy protection (Chapter 11). Lincoln Center was the other producer solely responsible for covering the weekly running costs.[6]

The musical premiered on Broadway at the Vivian Beaumont Theater at Lincoln Center on December 17, 1998 and closed February 28, 1999, after 39 previews and 84 regular performances. Directed by Harold Prince, it starred Brent Carver as Leo Frank, Carolee Carmello as Lucille Frank, and Christy Carlson Romano as Mary Phagan. Judith Dolan designed costumes for the production.[7]

A U. S. national tour, directed by Prince, started at the Fox Theatre in Atlanta in June 2000, with Jason Robert Brown conducting at some venues.[8] It starred David Pittu as Leo, Andrea Burns as Lucille, Keith Byron Kirk as Jim and Kristen Bowden as Mary.[9][10]

The first major production in the United Kingdom played at the Donmar Warehouse from September 24 to November 24, 2007.[11] It was directed by Rob Ashford and starred Lara Pulver as Lucille, Bertie Carvel as Leo, Jayne Wisener as Mary and Stuart Matthew Price as Young Soldier/Frankie.[12] Pulver was nominated for the 2008 Laurence Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Musical and Carvel was nominated for Best Actor in a Musical. A double-CD cast recording of this production has been released by First Night Records. The recording includes new material written by Brown for the production and contains all songs and dialogue from the Donmar production. The large Broadway orchestration was reduced by David Cullen and Brown to a nine piece ensemble consisting of two pianos, accordion, percussion, clarinet, horn and strings.[13]

Another off-West End production opened on August 10, 2011 for a 6-week engagement ending September 17, at the Southwark Playhouse's Vault Theatre. It was directed by Thom Southerland, with musical staging by Tim Jackson. Alastair Brookshaw played Leo, Laura Pitt-Pulford was Lucille, Simon Bailey was Tom and Mark Inscoe was Hugh.[14]

Parade was staged at the Neighborhood Playhouse in Palos Verdes Estates, California, from July 9, 2008. The production was directed by Brady Schwind. The production starred Craig D'Amico as Leo, Emily Olson as Lucille and Alissa Anderegg as Mary.[15]

The Donmar production transferred to the Mark Taper Forum, Los Angeles, California, in September 2009, for a run through November 15, 2009. Pulver reprised her role as Lucille opposite T.R. Knight as Leo. The cast also included Michael Berresse, Christian Hoff, Hayley Podschun, Rose Sezniak and Phoebe Strole.[16]

On February 16, 2015, a concert production of Parade was staged at Avery Fisher Hall in Lincoln Center by Manhattan Concert Productions, directed by Gary Griffin and conducted by composer Jason Robert Brown. Jeremy Jordan and Laura Benanti starred as Leo and Lucille, with Ramin Karimloo as Tom, Joshua Henry as Jim, Andy Mientus as Britt, Emerson Steele as Mary, Katie Rose Clarke as Mrs. Phagan, John Ellison Conlee as Hugh, Davis Gaines as Judge Roan/Old Soldier and Alan Campbell as Governor Slaton.[17]

Awards for Parade

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Parade (musical) - Wikipedia

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Laurel And Hardy’s Jewish Connections – The Jewish Press – JewishPress.com

Posted By admin on April 20, 2022

Englishman Stan Laurel (1890-1965) and American Oliver Hardy (1892-1957) were a comedy duo act during the early classical Hollywood era of American cinema. They started their careers as a duo in the silent film era and later successfully transitioned to talkies, and for the better part of three decades ranging from the late 1920s to the mid-1950s, they were internationally famous for their slapstick comedy, with Laurel playing the skinny, clumsy, childlike friend to Hardys rotund and pompous bully. (In Hebrew they were known as Hashamen vHarazeh the fat one and the thin one.)

Laurel and Hardy got their start in film working with a variety of Jewish slapstick comedians and, prior to emerging as a team, both had well-established movie careers; Laurel had acted in over 50 films and he was also a writer (see discussion below on his noteworthy Jewish scripts), while Hardy appeared in more than 250 productions. One of the most beloved comedy duos in cinematic history, they appeared as a team in 107 films, starring in 32 short silent films, 40 short sound films, and 23 full-length feature films. In 1932, the duo won the first Academy Award for Best Live Action Short (Comedy) for The Music Box, an uproarious performance in which they attempt to move a piano up a long flight of stairs. (For the younger generation who may not have seen it, you must; it may currently be viewed on YouTube.) In 1961, Laurel was presented with an Honorary Academy Award for his creative pioneering in the field of American comedy.

When Hardy moved to Atlanta and took a job as a variety hall singer, he met and married Jewish pianist Madelyn Saloshin. As the story goes, his mother Emily was outraged by Ollies relationship with a Jewish woman (and also because he was 21 and Madelyn was several years his senior), so the couple eloped and married in Macon, Georgia, on November 13, 1913.

According to many authorities, however, the significance of his audacious marriage to a Jewish woman was that it took place in the shadow of the trial of Leo Frank in Atlanta on August 1913, which is broadly recognized as the worst antisemitic incident in American history. Frank was falsely accused of the rape and murder of a Catholic female employee, 15-year-old Mary Phagan and, in a trial where the prosecution emphasized Franks Jewish identity, he was convicted, sentenced to death and, before his appeal could be decided, dragged from jail by a huge crowd and lynched in 1915.

By marrying a Jew in this environment, Hardy was making a bold statement to both his family and the public regarding his independence and determination to set his own course. The couple immediately left Georgia Hardy never again set foot there but the marriage lasted only six years. In his divorce papers, Hardy characterized the marriage as a sham.

Although Laurel is renowned as a performer, he displayed his early comedic chops as a writer in Jewish Prudence (a lovely pun on jurisprudence), a 1927 short comedy film he wrote in which neither he nor Hardy appeared. Characterized as a kosher courtroom caper, it tells the story of Papa Gimpelwart, a Jewish father burdened with three indolent adult children including his daughter Rachel, who wants to marry Aaron, a handsome newly barred lawyer, but he will not sanction the marriage until Aaron establishes himself and wins his first case. When Gimpelwart and his younger son, Junior, witness a road accident, Gimpelwart, ever on the lookout for a get-rich scheme, tells Junior to sneak into the overturned vehicle and pose as a passenger who had sustained a serious leg injury in the crash, and some hilarious scenes ensue.

Junior files what we know to be a nonsense suit against the driver, who is defended by Aaron, who humiliates the plaintiffs and exposes them as frauds. After winning his case, Aaron assures Gimpelwart that he zealously pursued the case only because of the condition Gimpelwart had imposed for allowing him to wed the beautiful Rachel, but a furious Gimpelwart drives away angrily and strikes a passing truck. Aaron enthusiastically offers to represent him in a suit against the truck driver who, it turns out, is Abie, Gimpelwarts other son.

Gimpelwart is played by silent-movie comedian Max Davidson, a Jewish actor with strongly Semitic features who tended to play stereotypical Jewish characters on screen. While it is reasonable to view Gimpelwart as an antisemitic stereotype, Laurel drew him comedically as a sympathetic character who is resourceful and frugal rather than cunning and cheap.

In Why Girls Say No (1927), another film written by Laurel and in which Hardy has a bit part as a comic police officer, Papa Whisselberg (played by Davidson) wants his very popular daughter, Becky, to marry a nice Jewish boy. Papa declares one suitor as kosher after seeing his big Jewish nose, but Becky falls in love with an Irisher, a young Irish-looking boy. She invites him to a birthday party for her father but tells him that he will have to pass as Jewish which he does by wearing a hat several sizes too small. Trying to be helpful, the well-intentioned lad opens the oven door, but the birthday cake deflates; desperate to cover up his error, he secretly pumps the cake up with air from a bicycle pump, but things go comedically awry and Papa throws him out of the house.

Announcing that she is going to marry him, Becky runs out after him and, after a riotous chase scene through the streets of Los Angeles, Papa finally catches the couple just as they enter the young mans house. While screaming at the boy that he will never permit his daughter to marry an Irish boy, Beckys beau introduces Papa to his parents who turn out to be obviously Orthodox Jews and the couple lives happily ever after.

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At the beginning of Blotto (1930), Laurel puzzles over an issue of Yiddishe Welt (the Jewish World), a Cleveland Yiddish newspaper with a headline about a Charles Lindbergh 1928 goodwill flight to Latin America and featuring a story about adverse weather conditions on his flight from Cuba to St. Louis. Laurel milks the Yiddish paper for hilarity as his character studies it with confusion for some time before realizing that it is written in a foreign language. Some commentators suggest that the characters irked, skeptical, critical wife was Jewish, but there does not seem to be any support for that proposition.

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In the much beloved March of the Wooden Soldiers (1934), starring Laurel and Hardy, the characterization of Silas Barnaby, the villain of the piece, is overtly antisemitic. The creepy Barnaby, the wealthiest resident of Toyland, owns the mortgage to the Old Womans shoe and threatens to evict her and her tenants if Little Bo Peep marries Peter Piper instead of him. He exhibits virtually every antisemitic caricature: his swarthy features are exaggerated in a manner that would make Der Sturmer proud: he moves around with a hunched posture; both affluent and cheap, he uses his wealth to exercise power over Bo Peep (whose striking blond hair could not have been accidental); he is a crooked, cunning and unscrupulous villain who manipulates the situation to serve his own selfish ends; he is the consummate outsider, alone and isolated with no friends or family; and he has no interest in the community around him and is in turn shunned by it.

When his evil plan to marry Bo Beep fails, Barnaby summons the Bogeys from the underworld and enlists these brown afro-haired half-animal creatures who grunt, cannot speak, and are known for hunting, terrorizing, and devouring all unfortunates who cross their path, in his effort to destroy the peaceful white town. At the end, the goose-stepping, boot-crushing Aryan-looking soldiers march in fearlessly to save the white townspeople from the hateful Jew and his black minions. In sum, Jews and blacks are portrayed as less-than-human undesirables to be destroyed at all costs, just classic Nazi tropes.

In this July 31, 1963 correspondence, Laurel, then living in a Santa Monica apartment, responds to William Brown, a Canadian super-fan who engaged him in extensive correspondence, regarding an antisemitic incident at Winnipeg Beach:

That anti-semitism situation sounds pretty bad. I dont know why those swasticka [sic] groups are allowed to function shouldnt [sic] be allowed PERIOD. A bunch of trouble makers this discrimination business is shocking.

Then, responding to Browns complaint that he could not decide where to go on vacation, Laurel writes with his characteristic tongue-in-cheek humor:

Note you dont [sic] know where to go for a holiday why dont you make up as a Heeb & spend a month at Winnipeg Beach?!!!! change your name to Irving Brownski!

The antisemitic Winnipeg Beach event to which Laurel refers did not begin in a vacuum. In the early 1960s, Canada experienced a wave of pro-Nazi and anti-Jewish activities accompanied by antisemitic vandalism. In particular, three weeks in May 1963 marked a period of extreme hate in Toronto, where Shomrei Shabbat and Anshe Apt synagogues in downtown Toronto were disfigured with slogans such as Jew Die painted on the buildings; black swastikas were plastered on the Borochov Center, which was known to house Jewish cultural and educational institutions; and marauding swastika gangs roamed the boardwalk at the Toronto waterfront. The Canadian Nationalistic Party printed a series of antisemitic and libelous statements against Jews and disseminated them throughout Canada.

In the early 20th century, Winnipeg Beach, known as Manitobas Coney Island, was a world-class resort, which some came to sarcastically characterize as the Jewish Beach because of generally accepted unwritten covenants prohibiting Jews from owning or renting property there. It was a center of antisemitism, which some experts attribute to the presence of a large Ukrainian population and, when the vacationers would return home at the end of the summer, the locals would regularly congratulate each other on the Jews finally being gone.

On June 30, 1963, a group drove through the streets of Winnipeg Beach in a car covered with placards inscribed with antisemitic slogans from which they announced through a loudspeaker Jews get out of the beach! You will be killed. This is Adolf Eichmann speaking. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police responded forcefully and arrested several antisemites, including the leader, Brian Isfeld, who claimed that he was only trying to advertise a dance and that he was merely advising Jews not to attend. He plead guilty to disturbing the peace and was fined $500.

Jews feared that the incident might trigger an attack on Jewish campers at a nearby Camp Massad. (Massad Gimmel, which is still in existence, is the only Hebrew immersion Massad outside Israel.) Particularly traumatized by the event were the many Holocaust survivors who had found their way to Canada and made a new life for themselves there; better than anybody, they saw the analogy between Winnipeg Beach and the beginning of Naziism in Germany and feared another Holocaust in their adopted country.

Interestingly, shortly after the Winnipeg Beach episode, Lawrence E. Tapper was elected its first Jewish mayor. In an interview following his election, Tapper, who was active in Jewish and communal affairs for many years, served as president of the local Bnai Brith Lodge 650, and was a member of the Shaarey Zedek synagogue, made a point of crediting his victory to the support of non-Jews, who are very much ashamed and revolted by the recent defacing of the synagogue and the swastika contagion at the Beach.

In a subsequent event at Winnipeg Beach a few weeks later in July 1963, a Jewish store was smeared and a synagogue was painted with swastikas and, when Harvey Davis, a 14-year-old Jewish boy, bravely spoke out against the gangs antisemitic rants, he was grabbed by the neck and choked. The perpetrator was charged only with disturbing the peace, and the police announced that no charges of assault would be filed because no bodily harm was caused to the youngster, [who was] able to go home on his own. Incredibly, the law enforcement authorities characterized the brutal attack as a prank that got out of hand rather than a serious act of racial prejudice.

Finally, it is interesting to note that in a subsequent letter to Brown dated June 5, 1964, Laurel wrote that Yes, [Charlie] Chaplin is Jewish thats no secret. Although Nazi propaganda denounced Chaplin as a foreign Jew after the success of his The Great Dictator (1940); and although in his first stage debut at age 18 (an unmitigated disaster), he billed himself as Sam Cohen, the Jewish comedian, Chaplin was raised Anglican and he was personally an agnostic, which leaves us wondering whether Laurel was mistaken or if this was an example of his sense of humor (almost certainly the latter).

Many people do not know that, early in their careers, Laurel and Chaplin were friends who toured together. The Strange Tale of Charlie Chaplin and Stan Laurel tells the story of Laurel sharing a cabin with Chaplin on the ship sailing from the United Kingdom to New York in 1910, serving as his understudy in Fred Karnos Army, and spending two years with him touring across North America. Within a few years, Chaplin had achieved international renown while an unsuccessful Laurel returned home, only to later achieve world fame with Hardy. Interestingly, Laurel, who always spoke fondly of Chaplin, received nary a mention in Chaplins comprehensive autobiography.

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Laurel And Hardy's Jewish Connections - The Jewish Press - JewishPress.com

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The Violence In Palestine Continues To Be Ignored And Excused – Junkee

Posted By admin on April 20, 2022

The ongoing violence is Palestine needs to be seen as the result of ongoing occupation and apartheid, not isolated events.

Almost a year ago, on May 20 2021, I published my first opinion piece. It was published in Junkee and titled The World Cant Ignore Palestine Anymore.

Until recently, Ive had a strange relationship with the term writer it always felt foreign to me, like the term wasnt one that I had any right to claim. I started writing not because I love the craft, although I have come to love it, but because I felt like I had something important to say.

My whole life, Ive watched as the world was silent on Palestine, and so I saw writing as one of the ways I could take action to amplify the Palestinian struggle. I write to ensure that these atrocities are on the public record; so that its impossible for people to one day look back and say we didnt know. You do know because we write to tell you.

As was the case this time last year, peaceful prayer goers are being shot at with rubber bullets by the Israeli military. As was the case this time last year, there have been mass arrests of Palestinians across historic Palestine. As was the case this time last year, Gaza is under attack. As was the case this time last year, we are seeing Palestinians take to social media to shed light on the settler-colonial violence thats being perpetrated against them by the Israeli regime.

The repeating of history can make it easy to think that these are waves of settler-colonial violence that come and go around the same time each year. The reality is that Israeli settler-colonial violence is not seasonal it doesnt happen in year-long cycles that start or end in Ramadan. Israels settler-colonial violence is constant because settler colonialism is constant.

In the last 12 months alone, we have seen ongoing violence being perpetrated by the Israeli regime across historic Palestine. In October 2021, Jerusalems al-Yusifiya cemetery was bulldozed to make room for the City of David National Park. Footage went viral of a Palestinian mother being ripped from her sons gravestone as the cemetery was being bull-dozed.

In December 2021, there was a wave of Israeli violence in the Naqab in which homes and villages were demolished in an attempt to seize Palestinian land. In January 2022, we saw footage of the home of the Salihiyah family in Jerusalem being stormed by Israeli forces and the family being arrested and their home bull-dozed shortly after. In March 2022 Al-Araqeeb, a Bedouin village in the Naqab, was demolished for the 199th time. In April 2022, Jenin Refugee Camp was raided and then besieged. This list of death and destruction of Palestinian land, homes and lives is by no means exhaustive: it merely provides a snapshot into the everyday reality for Palestinians; a reality that we have had to confront every day for 74 years.

The violence that is occurring in Palestine right now is only possible because the violence that has occurred between last year and this year has been enabled, ignored, and excused. The media have selectively reported when and how they report on Palestine so that acts of violence are seen as independent from each other rather than inherent to the broader, settler-colonial project that is hell-bent on eradicating the Indigenous Palestinian population.

We only need to take a look at organising efforts that have taken place over the last 12 months to know that Palestinian resistance is constant and that ongoing solidarity with the Palestinian people is possible. In September 2021, six Palestinian prisoners liberated themselves from Gilboa prison in occupied Palestine. In December 2021, we saw the success of the Sydney Festival Boycott campaign which has been described as the most effective, impactful and creative boycott campaign since the inception of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement in 2005. In January, we saw one of Israels Elbit Systems UK factories shut down following fierce direct action campaigning.

We know that, overwhelmingly, support for Palestine is growing on a national and international scale people are waking up to the brutal reality of the settler-colonial, apartheid state that is Israel.

The results from a recent YouGov poll found that the majority of people believe that Israel should immediately end its occupation of Palestine, that the Australian government should support an International Criminal Court investigation into Israeli war crimes, and that Australia should take action in response to reports of Israeli apartheid.

Footage went viral of a Palestinian mother being ripped from her sons gravestone as the cemetery was being bull-dozed.

Support alone is not enough to win this fight, your solidarity with Palestinians needs to also be constant. It cannot be as short-lived as the hashtags nor as fleeting as the news headlines on Palestine. Here are three things you can do right now to be in solidarity with us:

Show up to protests. So far, there are two protests being organised in Australia this weekend, the 22nd and 23rd April: 4:30 pm at Martin Place in Sydney and 1pm in front of the State Library in Melbourne.

Support the BDS movement. Since 2005, Palestinian civil society have been calling for boycotts, divestments and sanctions against the state of Israel. You can take action and share Australia-based actions here.

Vote with Palestine in mind. With the upcoming Federal Election, the Australia-Palestine Advocacy Network (APAN) has started an I Vote Palestine campaign. You can call on your local candidates in the lead-up to the election and let them know that you vote and that you care about Palestinian human rights.

Jeanine Houraniis a queer Palestinian activist, organiser, and storyteller. She is the director ofRoad to Refuge, an organisation that aims to change the narrative around refugees and people seeking asylum.

Photo Credit: ABBAS MOMANI/AFP via Getty Images

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The Rosa Parks of Palestine: Here’s to the Human Spirit – Palestine Chronicle

Posted By admin on April 20, 2022

A Palestinian woman at the Qalandiya military checkpoint. (Photo: Tamar Fleishman, The Palestine Chronicle)

By Tamar Fleishman

Every Friday, the story repeats itself at Qalandiya military checkpoint: the same characters, the same rules, the same scenario, the same ruthless domination, and the same Orwellian lingo.

Only the small, personal, human details change.

After decades of occupation, Palestinians lining up to cross the checkpoint, which separates Ramallah from East Jerusalem, are forced into submission, playing their tragic part in order for them to cross into their homes, hospitals, or schools. But on the second Friday of Ramadan, one old Palestinian woman defied the rules.

She was dressed in white and was carrying a backpack. She had trouble walking, so she had to reach the Israeli inspection post using a wheelchair provided by the Red Crescent.

Israeli soldiers checked her name on their computer and informed her that she was not authorized to reach Al-Aqsa mosque for prayers because a member of her extended family was included on a list of supposed militants.

But the Palestinian woman did not give up. She got off the wheelchair, stood in front of the Israeli soldiers and refused to turn back.

A group of armed Israeli soldiers came toward her and pushed her away with their bodies. Lacking the strength to push back, she sat down, resting her back against a wall.

Israeli soldiers crowded around her, telling her that she must turn back. The old woman refused to even look at them. She simply remained in her place.

As I watched her, I thought of Black civil rights heroine Rosa Parks, who, too, took a courageous stance in defiance of a racist system. It was a different time and place, but the story is essentially the same.

Even when the body is old and tired, the human spirit can remain strong and, at times, is impossible to subdue.

(Translated by Tal Haran. Edited by The Palestine Chronicle)

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The Eight Genders in the Talmud | My Jewish Learning

Posted By admin on April 20, 2022

Thought nonbinary gender was a modern concept? Think again. The ancient Jewish understanding of gender was far more nuanced than many assume.

The Talmud, a huge and authoritative compendium of Jewish legal traditions, contains in fact no less than eight gender designations including:

In fact, not only did the rabbis recognize six genders that were neither male nor female, they had a tradition that the first human being was both. Versions of this midrash are found throughout rabbinic literature, including in the Talmud:

Rabbi Yirmeya ben Elazar also said: Adam was first created with two faces (one male and the other female). As it is stated: You have formed me behind and before, and laid Your hand upon me. (Psalms 139:5)

Rabbi Yirmeya ben Elazar imagines that the first human was created both male and female with two faces. Later, this original human being was separated and became two distinct people, Adam and Eve. According to this midrash then, the first human being was, to use contemporary parlance, nonbinary. Genesis Rabbah 8:1 offers a slightly different version of Rabbi Yirmeyas teaching:

Rabbi Yirmeya ben Elazar: In the hour when the Holy One created the first human, He created him as an androgynos (one having both male and female sexual characteristics), as it is said, male and female He created them. (Genesis 1:27)

Said Rabbi Shmuel bar Nachmani: In the hour when the Holy One created the first human, He created for him a double face, and sawed him and made him backs, a back here and a back there, as it is said, Behind and before, You formed me (Psalms 139:5).

In this version of the teaching, Rabbi Yirmeya is not focusing on the first humans face (or, rather, faces) but on their sex organs they have both. The midrash imagines this original human looked something like a man and woman conjoined at the back so that one side has a womens face and a womans sex organs and the other side has a mans face and sex organs. Then God split this original person in half, creating the first man and woman. Ancient history buffs will recognize this image as similar to the character Aristophanes description of the first humans as both male and female, eventually sundered to create lone males and females forever madly seeking one another for the purposes of reuniting to experience that primordial state. (Plato, Symposium, 189ff)

For the rabbis, the androgynos wasnt just a thing of the mythic past. The androgynos was in fact a recognized gender category in their present though not with two heads, only both kinds of sex organs. The term appears no less than 32 times in the Mishnah and 283 times in the Talmud. Most of these citations are not variations on this myth, but rather discussions that consider how Jewish law (halakhah) applies to one who has both male and female sexual characteristics.

That the androgynos is, from a halakhic perspective, neither male nor female, is confirmed by Mishnah Bikkurim 4:1, which states this explicitly:

The androgynos is in some ways like men, and in other ways like women. In other ways he is like men and women, and in others he is like neither men nor women.

Because Hebrew has no gender neutral pronoun, the Mishnah uses a male pronoun for the androgynos, though this is obviously insufficient given the rabbinic descriptions of this person. Reading on we find that the androgynos is, for the rabbis, in many ways like a man they dress like a man, they are obligated in all commandments like a man, they marry women and their white emissions lead to impurity. However, in other ways, the androgynos is like a woman they do not share in inheritance like sons, they do not eat of sacrifices that are reserved only for men and their red discharge leads to impurity.

The Mishnah goes on to list ways in which an androgynos is just like any other person. Like any human being, one who strikes him or curses him is liable. (Bikkurim 4:3) Similarly, one who murders an androgynos is, well, a murderer. But the androgynos is also unlike a man or a woman in other important legal respects for instance, such a person is not liable for entering the Temple in a state of impurity as both a man and woman would be.

As should now be clear, the rabbinic interest in these gender ambiguous categories is largely legal. Since halakhah was structured for a world in which most people were either male or female, applying the law to individuals who didnt fall neatly into one of those two categories was challenging. As Rabbi Yose remarks in this same chapter of the Mishnah: The androgynos is a unique creature, and the sages could not decide about him. (Bikkurim 4:5)

In many cases, the androgynos is lumped together with other kinds of nonbinary persons as well as other marginalized populations, including women, slaves, the disabled and minors. For example, concerning participation in the three pilgrimage festivals (Passover, Shavuot and Sukkot) during which the Jews of antiquity would travel to the Temple in Jerusalem, the mishnah of Chagigah opens:

All are obligated on the three pilgrimage festivals to appear in the Temple and sacrifice an offering, except for a deaf-mute, an imbecile, and a minor; and a tumtum, an androgynos, women, and slaves who are not emancipated; and the lame, the blind, the sick, and the old, and one who is unable to ascend to Jerusalem on his own legs.

As this mishnah indicates, it is only healthy, free adult men who are obligated to appear at the Temple to observe the pilgrimage festivals. People who are not adult men, and men who are enslaved or too old or unwell to make the journey, are exempt.

As we have already stated, the androgynos was not the only person of ambiguous gender identified by the rabbis. Similarly, the rabbis recognized one whose sexual characteristics are lacking or difficult to determine, called a tumtum. In the mishnah from Bikkurim we cited earlier, Rabbi Yose, who said the androgynos was legally challenging for the sages, said the tumtum was much easier to figure out.

The rabbis also recognized that some peoples sexual characteristics can change with puberty either naturally or through intervention. Less common than the androgynos and tumtum, but still found throughout rabbinic texts, are the aylonit, who is born with organs identified as female at birth but develops male characteristics at puberty, and the saris, who is born with male-identified organs and later develops features recognized as female. These changes can happen naturally over time (saris hamah) or with human intervention (saris adam).

For the rabbis, what is most significant about the aylonit and the saris is that they are presumed infertile the latter is sometimes translated as eunuch. Their inability to have offspring creates legal complications the rabbis address, for example:

A woman who is 20 years old who did not grow two pubic hairs shall bring proof that she is twenty years old, and from that point forward she assumes the status of an aylonit. If she marries and her husband dies childless, she neither performs halitzah nor does she enter into levirate marriage.

A woman who reaches the age of 20 without visible signs of puberty, in particular pubic hair, is deemed an aylonit who is infertile. According to this mishnah, she may still marry, but it is not expected that she will bear children. Therefore, if her husband dies and the couple is in fact childless, his brother is not obligated to marry her, as would normally be required by the law of levirate marriage.

A nonbinary person who does not have the same halakhic status as a male or female, but is something else that is best described as ambiguous or in between, presented a halakhic challenge that was not particularly foreign for the rabbis, who discuss analogs in the animal and plant kingdoms. For example, the rabbinic texts describe a koi as an animal that is somewhere between wild and domesticated (Mishnah Bikkurim 2:8) and an etrog yes, that beautiful citron that is essential for Sukkot as between a fruit and a vegetable (Mishnah Bikkurim 2:6, see also Rosh Hashanah 14). Because they dont fit neatly into common categories, the koi and the etrog require special halakhic consideration. The rabbinic understanding of the world was that most categories be they animal, vegetable or mineral are imperfect descriptors of the world, either as it is or as it should be.

In recent decades, queer Jews and allies have sought to reinterpret these eight genders of the Talmud as a way of reclaiming a positive space for nonbinary Jews in the tradition. The starting point is that while it is true that the Talmud understands gender to largely operate on a binary axis, the rabbis clearly understood that not everyone fits these categories.

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A Class of Their Own – Tablet Magazine

Posted By admin on April 20, 2022

I am not a rebellious girl by nature, said Devorah Silberstein. Im doing the most traditional thing a woman can do: Im trying to be more frum. And yet, shes doing something most ultra-Orthodox women have not: advanced Talmud study.

Silberstein, 22, is part of a growing movement of women in Haredi communities who are confronting womens illiteracy about fundamental Jewish texts and the gendered inequality in serious text-based learning opportunities, specifically of Talmud. These ultra-Orthodox women are seeking to overhaul the average Haredi girls education, with its steady diet of biblical subjects, but very little study, if any, of Gemara or Mishna, the two sets of writings that constitute the Talmud. Unlike the boys yeshiva school system, which is founded on intimate study of Talmud, female Haredi education entirely excludes it.

People say that women dont need it, said Silberstein. But its a huge part of my Judaism, and you can so tangibly see the lack when you look at the frum [religious] community. You see the hole in our education, because we dont teach women Halacha [Jewish law] from the sources.

Silberstein and her compatriots view themselves as the intellectual descendants of the rare female scholars peppered throughout Jewish history, from Beruriah, the famed Talmudic master quoted in the Gemara, to Edelthe daughter of Hasidisms founder, the Baal Shem Tov, who was so knowledgeable in Oral Torah that her fathers followers turned to her for guidance.

These women believe their communities are in desperate need of not one or two learned women every other generation, but legions of them, who can teach girls Talmud starting from elementary school. They feel this educational overhaul is crucial to imbue Haredi girls with a true, deep understanding of their own Judaism. Without personal knowledge of Gemara and Mishna, the texts shaping every moment of an Orthodox Jewish life, they believe quotidian rituals and practices are done by rote, but without appreciation for their origins, development, and purpose. They see a discordant reality where the writings forming the ancient roots of Rabbinic Judaism are foreign lands to the women living by their strictures. They watch from outside as the learners of Talmud are inducted into a masculine fellowship of study with their contemporaries and the rabbinic figures animated in the Talmuds pages. Communities are cloven in two, with men ingrained with a near-reflexive comprehension of the famed Talmudic language and analytic method and women ignorant of the fundamental texts upon which their lives depend.

To rectify this, they have organized around a renegade learning program rooted in tradition called the Batsheva Learning Center, founded in 2015 by Silbersteins older sister, Hadassah Silberstein-Shemtov. Batshevas model centers around beginner and advanced courses in Talmud for post-high school women taught online and in person at various locationsprivate homes, synagoguesthroughout Brooklyn and Los Angeles; these two-month-long classes are offered three times year, with one course taught in autumn, spring, and summer. From 19-year-olds fresh out of seminary to grandmothers in their 60s, women are paired up chavrusa-style to learn themed portions of the Oral Torah. Courses tend to focus on issues women might find particularly resonant; one of Batshevas most popular classes studies the laws of niddah, or family purity. Three new classes are developed each year. For instance, Silberstein is currently preparing a course on the laws of Shabbat that Batsheva will offer in the autumn, after Silberstein completes the Yeshiva University Graduate Program in Advanced Talmudic Studies (a program she will leave without receiving its masters degree, as she has no bachelors degree, never having attended college).

Batsheva classes study Talmudic texts directly but are buttressed by proprietary coursebooks that include guiding questions, translations of difficult terms, and a reference list of abbreviations. These secondary sources are intentionally designed to give a neophyte the tools needed to approach the text directly and methodically become proficient. The coursebooks can also be bought separately from the Batsheva classes, to assist in an independent study of the topic.

Another core part of Batsheva programming are weekly learning classes on the Torah portion at Brooklyn-based gatherings, which have recently restarted for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic began. Dozens of women attend each week on a regular study schedule.

Batshevas programming has also expanded into offering a chidon-style programor Torah-study championshipfor high school-age students, where girls are challenged to learn one book of Oral Torah on their own. This program will soon be offered for middle schoolers, as well.

Currently, Batsheva is planning for its audacious next step: fundraising to establish a beis midrash in Crown Heights, where women will study Torah full-time. They hope to open their doors this autumn.

Across the spectrum of religious communities, it has become normal for women to get advanced degrees and have professional careers, but for them to invest time in learning Gemara is not considered necessary in any way, said Silberstein-Shemtov, whose intense passion for womens Torah study is obvious as she speaks rapidly about it as a crucial expression of a womans religious service to God. This creates a huge divide in a womans life, where her sophisticated secular life is much more engaging intellectually and emotionally, and her Judaism remains at a juvenile level. If the frum communitys goal is to raise generations of women and girls who are engaged and passionate about their Judaism, we need to change our attitude toward womens learning.

Silberstein-Shemtov, 29, is uniquely poised to lead this campaign. Raised out-of-towni.e., beyond the cloisters of Haredi Brooklynshe was home-schooled in her early years by a brilliant mother. There, she was exposed to Oral Torah, including Mishna. After high school, she attended an elite Israeli seminary where she first learned Talmud rigorously. When she returned to the United States, she was frustrated by the absence of infrastructure to continue her studies. She decided to do something about it.

But effecting change in Haredi education requires rabbinic approbation, and community rabbis have generally nestled into their tactical position as enemies of the notion of women studying Talmud. Interpreting Talmudic instructions regarding womens roles within organized Jewish life, some rabbis read a biological female disinclination toward Talmudic learning; others take the efficient view that learning is too great a time commitment for both parents to engage in equally, so mothers drew the child-rearing straw.

Silberstein-Shemtov believes that as a member of the Chabad community, she is exceptionally empowered to attack this issue. Unlike other Haredi streams, Chabads leader, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneersonpopularly known simply as the Rebbewas outspoken in his lifetime about the need for women to study all of the Oral Torah, including Talmud.

Silberstein-Shemtov cites as Batshevas ideological backbone a little-known 1990 directive by the Rebbe where he announced in a sicha, or public talk, at a Shabbat farbrengen (gathering) not only the permissibility but the religious obligation of all Jewish women to learn Talmud. Rather than reading womens traditional roles as making them unsuited to serious study, the Rebbes position was that a woman is naturally disposed to the activity. The Rebbes interpretive arguments emerged from sociological, historical, pragmatic, and messianic concerns, and rested on classical biblical and Talmudic texts, but analyzed and presented in a revolutionary manner.

First, the Rebbe repackaged the conventional Jewish role of women as akeres habayis, or foundation of the home. To function as a successful akeres habayis, responsible for shaping the homes environment and raising a family infused with Jewish values, the Rebbe said a woman requires a strong understanding of those values derived from her own learning. Second, the Rebbe characterized women as vibrant thinkers whose Jewish souls cannot be nourished by secular learning; rather, she can and must learn Torah to develop her relationship with God. Third, the Rebbe described the advent of widespread womens learning as a necessary step in the perfection of the world in preparation for the messianic era; the Rebbe did not merely accept womens learning as an unavoidable development of a modern society, but reframed it as a critical step in the spiritual elevation of the world.

[T]herefore not only is it permitted for them [women] to learn the Oral Torah, but more than this they need to learn the Oral Torah, not only to learn the verses of laws without their reasons, but also the reasons for the laws, even the complicated back and forth of the [Talmud], since it is the nature of a person (man or woman) that they have greater desire for and pleasure in this type of learning, said the Rebbe.

Chava Green, a doctoral student at Emory Universitys Graduate Division of Religion whose research focuses on Hasidic feminist ethnography, reads the Rebbes position as a radical statement that women are intellectual people. She views it as a particularistic form of Hasidic feminism. She adds that, given the Rebbes unequivocal stance, the frum world must provide intensive learning options to women, because without them, it means we dont take womens intellect seriously.

Yet, Silberstein-Shemtov acknowledges that the Rebbes position on this is long-ignored even within Chabad itself. According to Greens research, outside of Batsheva, Chabad women and girls are still largely not taught Talmud. Silberstein-Shemtov says school administrators common excuse for this egregious failure is that students are not interested.

This negligence is especially strange, as for Chabad, the Rebbes view is the only rabbinic perspective that holds weight; there are no competing rabbinic interpretations to navigate. If the Rebbe instructed that women should learn Talmud, the Rebbes followers must institute that.

Rabbi Shlomo Yaffe, director of Chabad of Watertown and longtime advocate of womens learning, recognizes that the glaring lapse results from school administrators discomfort with actualizing the Rebbes guidance. The Rebbe was always shaking things up, said Yaffe, explaining that there are other innovations within Jewish life and practice rolled out by the Rebbe that took time to become widely institutionalized, including the notion of shlichusi.e., the Chabad emissaries posted around the world who are now synonymous with the movement.

Yaffe says the Rebbe talked about the importance of womens learning multiple times throughout his 43-year leadership, but that the Hasidim generally tabled making these drastic changes in favor of focusing on other efforts.

Rebbetzin Rivkah Slonim, educational director at Binghamton Universitys Rohr Chabad Center for Jewish Student Life and an early supporter of Batsheva, recalls another sicha, delivered on a Shabbat in 1986, where the Rebbe reinterpreted the Torahs presentation of the outgoing nature of Patriarch Jacob and Matriarch Leahs daughter Dinah as an essential, vital element of what it is to be a Jewish woman. This was in stark contrast to the traditional reading of Dinah as bearing the glaring flaw of immodesty.

Because of what was happening in the larger Jewish world at the time, this sicha made such waves, said Slonim, explaining that the sicha was presented only about a decade after the Reform movement had ordained its first female rabbi in 1973. The Rebbes take on Dinah was a seismic shock.

According to Yaffe and Slonim, no one in Chabad establishment life would counter the Rebbes view. But that doesnt mean the community was mentally prepared to upend centuries of gender norms. Both agreed that years needed to pass for the community to become acclimated to the idea, and that a campaign for womens learning has awaited someone to take it on as their personal project. In their view, Silberstein-Shemtov has emerged as that crusader.

Hadassah has made it her baby, and it has blossomed and is having tremendous success, Yaffe said.

Silberstein-Shemtov recalls that whatever progress she has achieved has come only after numerous failures. Initially, Silberstein-Shemtov set out to create a place for hyperadvanced learning, the kind of institution she would have liked to attend. She eagerly opened her proverbial doors, and no one showed up. It turns out the average Haredi woman lacks the necessary basic skills, especially with respect to Talmud study. Silberstein-Shemtov regroupedmany timesuntil she identified the critical failures of the Haredi education system and an effective stratagem for fixing them. Batshevas focus became constructing curriculum to guide a neophyte to becoming proficient at learning Oral Torah in-depth and inside the text.

Its about basic literacy, said Chana Silberstein, the educational director at Chabad of Ithaca who holds a doctorate in educational psychology from Cornell University, and Silberstein-Shemtovs mother and first Mishna teacher. The benchmark of any education is the ability to read, so a basic Jewish education requires that you be able to engage with Torah. It does not mean you need to personally become a master of Gemara. But in a family where Torah is important and learning is important, you as a mother, sister, daughter must be able to participate.

Batshevas course books include introductions on the development of Jewish law, explaining how to contextualize different legal movements and interpretations throughout Jewish history. The books aid the new Gemara-learner through the Talmuds textual mysteries.

Slonim approves of Batshevas text-based approach as an imperative departure from the inspirational, self-help seminar that is the dominant format for Haredi womens learning. She urges women to reject chewed up and regurgitated Torah. She says Haredi women have to stop treating Talmud as a boys club, alter their self-perception, and embrace that they are fully capable of intensive Torah study.

These women are echoing arguments Sara Schenirer made for girls requiring a rudimentary Torah knowledge when she founded the Bais Yaakov schools in 1917. Schenirer slapped awake the intellectual soul of the average Orthodox Jewish woman who could not even read Hebrew, pulling her out from her long, lethargic sleep, as Schenirer put it. Schenirer was particularly concerned with the breakdown of the Jewish home, with unhappy marriages being arranged between secularly educated, cultured Jewish women and yeshiva-educated men, and a significant percentage of Jewish women breaking faith entirely. Schenirer identified Jewish education for girls as an antidote to this crisis. Bais Yaakov began as a grassroots movement, with handfuls of girls attending classes in Schenirers tailor shop. It eventually morphed into establishment institutions that remain the dominant model for Orthodox Jewish girls education.

Silberstein-Shemtov hopes to stimulate a similar sea change in the frum community by normalizing womens regular, intensive learning of Talmud. Though Jewish women today have far greater access to Torah study than they did a century ago, the inequality remains potent. As her mother put it, On one side of the Shabbos table, women are exchanging recipes, and on the other, the men are exchanging learning. The women behind Batsheva passionately believe that for Haredi communities to adequately confront the challenges of 21st-century life, and build thriving family units, girls need to be familiar with more than the weekly Torah portion. In Silberstein-Shemtovs mind, many of the growing difficulties Orthodox girls educators talk aboutcrises of Jewish observance and spiritual curiosity in a world increasingly hostile to religioncould be rectified if administrators equipped girls with the tools to learn the answers Judaism offers to the questions that emerge as a natural part of maturing. Batsheva challenges administrators to arm their students with the ability to flourish, with learning as the critical modality of living a meaningful life as a Jewish woman.

For now, like Schenirers early days, Silberstein-Shemtov works on the outside, demonstrating demand and providing supply. Batsheva runs Talmud courses throughout the year, and last summer piloted a Mishna for Moms course geared specifically toward provisioning mothers with the tools they need to be able to converse with their children (read, sons) about what theyre taught in yeshiva. Batsheva intends to introduce online Gemara classes for high schoolers and Mishna for middle schoolers next year. Meanwhile, the forthcoming Beis Midrash is, as Silberstein-Shemtov describes it, the truest expression of the vision she first had when she began Batsheva. The beis midrash will begin as a part-time study center, but Silberstein-Shemtov intends for it to evolve into a full-time, three-year certification program for Gemara teachers. The beis midrash will not replace Batshevas extensive other programming; rather, Silberstein-Shemtov intends for it to be the place for those women who would like to learn with intense commitment and consistency and become expert educators in the field.

While ambitious, these plans may succeed. Batsheva has bloomed in the last seven years simply over social media and by word-of-mouth, becoming the institution young Chabad women know to turn to for assistance when hoping to breech the walls encasing Gemara. Nearly 60 women participate in each run of Batshevas most popular Gemara courses, and over 100 Chabad high school girls compete in the international chidon, which Batsheva aims to expand to non-Chabad schools soon.

Batsheva has a burgeoning influence in other Haredi communities, too. The COVID-19 pandemic brought Batshevas programming online for the first time, resulting in attendance by young women from other Haredi communities. In-person classes have also been launched in cities outside of New York, including Los Angeles, where Silberstein-Shemtov lives. She says out-of-town communities are better integrated across Haredi streams, allowing Batshevas soft marketing to naturally permeate beyond Chabad.

Silberstein-Shemtovs new dream? That the most frum, Hasidishe woman from Boro Park can walk into our classes and feel comfortableand learn.

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How Matzah and the Teshuvas HaRashba Saved Yidden from Terrorism – VINnews

Posted By admin on April 20, 2022

By Rabbi Yair Hoffman for 5tjt.com

Yes, it is true. Six Hamas terrorist were killed and 7 were foiled because of Matzah and a Teshuvas HaRashba (Volume 7 #20).

**Please help an almanah with yesomim whose parked car was smashed and she has no means of transportation**

https://thechesedfund.com/zechornilah/almanahwithyesomimwhosecarwassmashed

It happened almost eight years ago, in Kibbutz Sufa at 4:00 AM, Thursday morning, on July 17th, 2014.

Kibbutz Sufa was founded in 1982 by evacuated settlers. It is on the border of Central Gaza very near the Egyptian border. It was shortly after 4:00 AM that the Matzah and the Teshuvas haRashba did the deed.

THE VERY BEGINNING

The story actually begins well over 3300 years ago. The Jews are taken out of Egypt. To commemorate the miraculous occurrence that has happened and to imbue the Jewish nation with an ever-constant source of nourishment of faith itself the Jewish people are given the Mitzvah of consuming Matzah.

We fast forward 1600 years.

THE PASSAGE IN THE TALMUD

We are now in Babylonia, as the Talmud is being written. Torah scholars are discussing a difficult topic. There is a fascinating exposition that the Talmud presents (Psachim 33a) in regard to the obligation to give a Kohain the gift of Trumah. The verse in the Torah states, Venasata lo and you shall give it to him. The Talmud expounds Lo velo luro to him, but not to his flame.

In other words, the Terumah that is given to the Kohain must, at the outset, be completely edible, it cannot be something that is prohibited in consumption to the degree that the Kohain would be obligated to burn it as soon as it reaches his hands.

The Talmud is searching for an illustration of such a thing. The Talmud is looking for an example where this exposition might apply. Finally, an answer wheat that is still attached to the ground which became Chometz. This is the first section of our tale, which took place in Babylonia in the late 300s.

The observant reader may now be thinking: Wait just one second. Wheat still attached to the ground that became Chometz? Wheat that got wet? Every plant gets wet! Thats how they receive nutrition! What is the Talmud talking about? A question that requires an answer.

Now we move on to the next part of our tale.

BARCELONA SPAIN

We are now in Barcelona, Spain. It is the late 1200s. We are at the home of the well-regarded Rashba, Rabbi Shlomo Ben Aderet. Indeed, the Rashba is so well regarded that even Queen Isabella of Spain has sent him to rule upon some of her countrys most perplexing cases.

The Rashba receives a letter concerning our section of Talmud. It is the very same question that the observant reader had above. It is now posed for the first time to the Rashba. He responds (Volume 7 #20) with the following explanation:

That section of the Talmud refers to wheat that became completely ripened while still attached to the ground, and it does not need any further nutrients at all. Everything that has dried out completely while still attached to the ground it is considered as if it is resting in the pitcher and thus susceptible to becoming Chometz if rain falls upon it.

TZFAT, ISRAEL

It is now 1563. We are in Tzfas, in Eretz Yisroel. The author of the Shulchan Aruch has just codified the Rashbas explanation of our Talmudic passage into his Shulchan Aruch (Chapter 467:5). Wheat that has completely ripened can become Chometz if it is rained upon. If it still requires sustenance from the ground to reach full develop then there is no problem.

RADIN, POLAND

We move to Radin, Poland. It is now the late 1890s.

The Chofetz Chaim, in his Mishna Brurah explains, what apparently has been the custom for Jews in Europe for some time. He states that Shulchan Aruch only refers to an abundance of rain. However, if it rains a little bit then the fully developed wheat is fine and can be used for the highest standard of Matzah. However, he does mention a tradition cited by Rabbi Avrohom Danzig in the Chayei Adam that the custom of the very pious is to cut the wheat earlier, while it is still somewhat green in order to ensure that there are no problems. The concern, of course, is the issue first mentioned in the Rashba.

The Chofetz Chaim mentions this custom of cutting the wheat early twice in his Mishna Brurah. Once regarding this topic and once earlier in a discussion (SA 453:4) about whether the wheat has to be guarded when it is cut or when it undergoes the grinding process. In his Biur Halacha, the Chofetz Chaim cites the practice of the Vilna Gaon who was careful only to eat Matzah that was watched from when it was cut. This too, the Chofetz Chaim points out, is because of the Rashbas position.

GAZA, HAMAS HEADQUARTERS

It is now either 2013 or early 2014. Hamas leaders plan a devastating attack on Israeli citizens. They will send terrorists through a tunnel. They will tunnel across the border and emerge in a completely camouflaged, carefully chosen, wheat field. The thirteen terrorists will have several types of weapons, including AK 45 Assaullt Rifles and Rocket-Propelled Grenade Launchers. The plan is perfect. The wheat is high enough to serve as camouflage but not yet ripe enough to be harvested. Who would harvest green wheat in July? The plan to kill Israelis is more than perfect. It is brilliant.

BNEI BRAK, ISRAEL

It is now 2014. A group of Matzah bakers in Bnei Brak are in serious need of some green wheat still on the ground in order to fulfill the requirements of the responsum of the Rashba. They search almost all of Eretz Yisroel. Finally, they come across a wheat field located in the Hevel Shalom area of the north-western Negev desert. It was an area administered by the Eshkol Regional Council.

Time is of the essence. They cut a deal with the farmer and arrange for the wheat to be reaped immediately. They compensate the farmers nicely for the wheat. It is mid-July.

KIBBUTZ SUFA

As planned, 13 terrorists emerge from the tunnel. But wait. Lo and behold, the wheat field is bare. It is completely bare! The terrorists think:

Who moved our wheat stalks?! And wait. Oh no!! An IDF watch station spotted us! Arghh! Bombs! They are bombing us! Lets crawl back into our hole in the ground! Arghh! Six of us are hit! Lets abandon them! Lets go back to Gaza!

Watch the IDF blow up the terrorists here:

Were it not for the Teshuvas HaRashba, the wheat field would never have been plowed. The Teshuvas HaRashba saves the day.

**Please help an almanah with yesomim whose parked car was smashed and she has no means of transportation**

https://thechesedfund.com/zechornilah/almanahwithyesomimwhosecarwassmashed

The author can be reached at [emailprotected]

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How Matzah and the Teshuvas HaRashba Saved Yidden from Terrorism - VINnews

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Do We Have the Game All Wrong?: Natasha Lyonnes Cosmic Journey Into Russian Doll Season 2 – Rolling Stone

Posted By admin on April 20, 2022

Imdeeply cracked from a combination of Talmud and LSD, says Natasha Lyonne, flicking a cigarette in her hand from the couch of her Los Angeles home, where shes been chatting by Zoom for over an hour. She is attempting to explain the underpinnings of her show Russian Doll, a metaphysical mindfuck she writes, produces, and stars in, whose second season recently dropped on Netflix. Based on a character Lyonne had long imagined essentially a hard-partying, alternate-reality version of herself named Nadia the series explores the nature of life and death, goodness and regret, of memory, ghosts, family, and the New York City she loves. It is both extremely personal and universal. And also, because its Lyonne, its fucking hilarious.

Without Lyonnes vast swath of experiences an intense early education at a Jewish yeshiva, where she learned about the Torah and the Talmud; time as an East Village junkie, seeing how much of that education she could forget she probably wouldnt have had the range for, or the interest in, building such an intricate, multi-planed universe. In fact, it was in rehab that she became deeply interested in the metaphysical aspects of existence. The thing that was most challenging for me, getting clean, is that youre supposed to rearrange your relationship to earthly things, so that youre not constantly being like, Oh, let me go smoke dope, she says. Where a lot of people find comfort in church, I started reading a lot of science books, and finding comfort there. She devoured Bill Brysons A Short History of Nearly Everything and Thomas Pynchons Against the Day. It just made me walk into the world differently and think about all the things that I didnt know, which felt very grounding.

In Russian Doll, Lyonne revisits these themes with the help of a very qualified writers room (these fucking brilliant women, just fucking Ivy League geniuses), creating a show that questions not only the world but also our place within it. If Season One was largely based on the cognitive scientist Douglas Hofstadters I Am a Strange Loop, the time travel that defines the new episodes comes from physicist Carlo Rovellis The Order of Time. Its really smacking wide open this idea of What if the nature of time is not as we experience it? Lyonne explains. Its just fun as hell.

With all her accumulated expertise, we asked Lyonne to drop some knowledge on building the shows world and understanding ours.

How Time Travel Works (or Doesnt)Its really just asking the question of What is this thing that I would go and change? What is that butterfly-effect event that Im looking for? We [in the writers room] thought a lot about, what would the rules be? Is it just a kill Hitler season? And its like, well, of course, we all want to kill Hitler. But assuming we could make that machine, would you actually be able to do things like that? Nadias not actually the center of the universe, shes just another bozo on the bus. For her and [fellow time looper] Alan, it really feels like the most you want to have them be able to do is handle their own case in a way, or at least try and fail to handle their own case but come away with a deeper understanding of what it is to be alive on the other side, having walked through that epigenetic footprint that was mapped onto them in a way where now they see their own trip differently, so that they can possibly be set up to enjoy the ride. It is pretty philosophical therapeutic by way of quantum physics and high concept and multiverse, and time travel, and death loops and all these things.

Addressing the Big QuestionsHow do we know we exist? I think the bigger question is Does it matter if we dont? That sort of speaks to [the idea of us living in a] multiverse simulation as well, which is where, as a storyteller, I philosophically deviate from something that truly ends in magic. Because in a way it doesnt matter; it doesnt matter if the concept of karma is not real. Does it not seem that it would still be a life better lived to do unto others [as they would do to you]? Is it not helpful to think that its better to not be a total fucking piece of shit in your daily dealings, and expect to have a lovely life and people that care about you? Probably wise to show up with some empathy in a life, even if life has no meaning. Even if none of this is anything, weve still got to go through it.

Essentially, I guess the questions that Im always talking to my friends about, or in the books or movies that Im curious about, are what is the game? And do we have the game all wrong? And why does it cause us suffering? And its, of course, because we live in this material world I dont mean financial; I mean, we actually are of this world. Whether we can see past it or beyond it or whatever doesnt change the fact that we all have bills, and relationships, parents, and weve got these weird bodies that we carry around and stuff. So there is no idea that actually will take you past all those things in the day [youre] in. So, I think its a show that wants to pose those big questions without getting into full magic. Because if [the characters] stay in their lives, hopefully altered in some tangible way that they can actually do something with them, thats not full magic, you know?

More Than Soup for the SoulIm 42. I dont know if exercising is really going to make much impact on my vibe. Im just big hair and sunglasses. Its not [like] Im running marathons or something, Im doing low-level calisthenics. [But] not doing that for a solid week, it makes my body feel rickety. And if I just stand up and do these stretches and a little fucking jog or whatever, Im going to have a better nights sleep and wake up the next day and be like, Guess whose pants fit?

I think that the condition of ones soul is not dissimilar. The less I treat that thing and the more I say, Do I even exist?... [If Im like,] Well, fuck it, Im not participating at all, fuck this whole thing they call life, I still have to be alive and have an experience that is increasingly disconnected and dejected and nihilistic. And I might feel really cool doing it like, Boy, is this a tough aesthetic but ultimately, in my experience, somewhat sadder and [more] lonely for it. At the age I am, I dont find that aesthetic to be quite so hip as I used to anymore.

Probably wise to show up with some empathy in a life, even if life has no meaning. Even if none of this is anything, weve still got to go through it.

Evidence Theres a MetaverseMaybe I come at all of this from more of a spiritual level. In my experience, if Im in a really shady mood, I come out of the house, Im in a rush, and I go to hail a taxi, and its raining, and theres no taxis there; and now Im walking in the middle of the street, turned backwards to traffic, just looking for taxis, and Im getting poured on; and I pull out my phone, and I try to click on Uber, but the account just doesnt work; I ordered the car, but it didnt even come, and so now Im on my way to the subway; but theres fucking yellow tape there for some reason, that [entrance] is closed, [so I have to] walk three blocks over here. Now, I may as well just walk the full distance. I dont know what happened, but its officially a shitty fucking day. Another day, I justwalk outside. Everythings there, Immaking the deli guy laugh while Im ordering my coffee. I walk out the deli, boom, theres a taxi. I actually get [to where Im going] a little bit early, and something funny happens outside the building right before I walk in. I dont know what that is, but I do think that its curious. It seems like at any moment theres multiple universes you can tap into and thats going to shift how your day goes.

String Theory Explained, Sort OfIts possible that were just not seeing things correctly, and that our entire sense of the history of the universe is incorrect. I think that [string theory] really is, essentially, opening up a possibility that the world as we know it is not quite so limited. From there, it becomes a question of what we can do with all that information, what its going to mean for the future of existence as we know it. Theres a lot of questions now about building quantum computers and stuff, which would be a measure of fallout. I mean, Im ultimately the wrong person to be asking about these things. Youd be better off asking scientists.

On Where We Go When We DieIm some schnook from the block or whatever, but Im collaborating with people who can really wrap themselves around these concepts more tangibly. Do you have to fucking sit with some angel of death and play chess? Is it [like] Albert Brooks [in Defending Your Life] and youre going to be looking down at your fucking mistakes? Do you have to run into your fucking parents in the afterlife? I am genuinely spooked by a lot of these concepts, so Im just curious to go swimming around in them and see whats what.

First night of Passover and Good Friday bonding. – KABC

Posted By admin on April 20, 2022

On this holy day for so many, check out this great article from nj.com: Passover and Good Friday through Easter go together like a hand and a glove, says David Kraemer, librarian and professor of Talmud and rabbinics at the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York. Theyre actually designed to go together.

https://www.nj.com/entertainment/2022/04/passover-and-easter-overlap-in-2022-heres-why-they-have-more-in-common-than-you-might-expect.html

(Jerusalem) Archaeologists and researchers say Leonardo Da Vincis painting of The Last Supper doesnt paint an accurate picture of what was served. Eels and orange slices appear in the famed painting. However, eels and oranges were a common pairing in 15th-century Italy and were on Da Vincis grocery lists. Christian scripture says Jesus passed unleavened bread and wine around the table teaching his disciples that the wine and the bread would become the sacrificial lamb by which sins are forgiven to be reconciled with God. Archaeologists in Israel say the Passover Seder could have also included bitter herbs, figs, olive oil and honey. In 2007, then Pope Benedict the 16th theorized the Last Supper took place before the ritual sacrifice of the lambs so the meal likely didnt include lamb.

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First night of Passover and Good Friday bonding. - KABC

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How Matzah and the Teshuvas HaRashba Saved Yidden from Terrorism – VINnews

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First night of Passover and Good Friday bonding. – KABC

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