Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By admin on April 16, 2022

Filmmaker Gillian Mosely has been making documentaries for over 20 years and says it is important to address Britains key role in Israel and Palestine over the centuries

Image: Dartmouth Films/Youtube)

Occupation, war crimes, human rights infringements.

As war rages in Ukraine, it can be easy to forget that Ukrainians and other victims of war now share these experiences with the longest-standing group of world refugees, the Palestinians.

Here in Britain, discussion of the intersections between Israelis/Jews and Palestinians, has so often turned toxic, that most people have given up. There is a huge amount of misinformation circulating. Theres also fatigue. Why should we care about something that is happening over there that has little to do with us? The reality is that this is the biggest lie of all, because Britain played a huge role in the Holy Land when the first seeds of spiralling violence between Israelis and Palestinians, were sown.

One hundred years ago Great Britain governed Palestine.

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In 1917 wed marched into Jerusalem under the leadership of General Allenby, and liberated the city from its Ottoman rulers. We formed a temporary government there under Colonel Sir Ronald Storrs, and by 1920 Britain had installed the first civilian High Commissioner, Herbert Samuel. But how and why did this happen? And does Britains legacy in the Holy Land still persist?

Ive been making history documentaries for twenty-plus years. Im also Jewish. Getting to the stage where I was ready to make The Tinderbox has taken time. I was raised between London and New York and the American side of my family were largely very Zionist. So, I grew up believing in the inarguable right of Jews to have a Jewish State in the Holy Land. The reality is I actually knew very little about the situation in Israel, or indeed, about Palestinians, but this changed.

In 1985 I met Tamer Al Ghussein in a nightclub in Central London. We would become close friends until his death from cancer in 2017. It was at least five years into our friendship before we realised that he was Palestinian and I was Jewish, but around that time, Id be having dinner with his family and would pick up snippets about houses and land that had been seized by the Israelis. This was a very different story to the one Id been told growing up; and what I found out has formed the basis of this film.

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I come from three long lines of Rabbis. Around 910AD my grannys family had an Arabic surname, Ibn Daoud, son of David, but by the time we were booted out of Spain during the Inquisition, the family was called De Sola. D.A. De Sola moved to Britain from Amsterdam in 1818 to become a Rabbi at Bevis Marks Synagogue. In the City of London, its still the UKs oldest functioning Synagogue. He married Chief Rabbi, Haham Meldolas daughter, and became a community leader himself, introducing a number of reforms to the community such as English sermons and an English translation of the prayer book.

He was just one of a very long line of Rabbis. On my mothers side, the Ukrainian Cantor Gershon Sirota, was nick-named the Jewish Caruso. He and his family died in the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. When I was making my film, I also discovered that I was related to all the British Jews in the story, Herbert Samuel, Edwin Montagu MP, the only Jewish Minister at the time, who passionately opposed Zionism, and the Rothschild family.

For a long time, Ive felt that people from Britains Jewish Community need to be less defensive and more vocal about Israels Palestinian policies. With my background and film-making resume, I realised that person is me. For Jews, a main reason Israel exists is to keep Jews safe. But when British papers are reporting on spikes in anti-Semitic incidents here when the Israeli military is on an offensive in Gaza, can we say that Israel is making us safer? Weve screened the film in a number of Jewish venues and I have been surprised by how ready to have this conversation, many there have been.

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While we were filming, we came face to face with a lot of serious issues. For me, the need to address Britains key role in fostering this situation, and the human rights crisis there, largely amongst the Holy Lands Palestinian communities, loom largest. But theres another key reason I made this film: to bust a number of persistent myths about the situation, and to remind people in the West, that todays cycle of violence in the Holy Land was inextricably linked to the internationally convened British Mandate of Palestine and the policies it pursued. Britain and her allies had needs. It was World War I and what we needed was allies.

So, we agreed a deal in 1915 to back Pan-Arab independence. Then we needed more allies, so Arthur J. Balfour sent his declaration to Lord Rothschild offering support for a Jewish homeland in the Holy Land. At the time Jews formed 10% of Palestines population. About 10% were Christians and the remaining 80% Muslim. In Britain debates were raging, not least as this violated the principals of democracy by which we purport to live. But then Prime Minister Lloyd George, together with Balfour and Winston Churchill bull-dozed the policy through.

In addition to WW1 allies, a number of other things were going on. Palestine was geographically desirable, on the way to Britains colonial holdings in Egypt, India, and latterly Iraq. Christian Zionist sentiments, to return the Jews to Zion, played a role for George and Balfour, both fervent Christians.

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And there were some who thought that Palestine would be a convenient place to dump the worlds Jews (this was echoed in places like America). During the years I spent researching the story its clear that most of the Britons whod actually spent time in Palestine felt that this idea would have pernicious consequences. In fact, many of Britains Jews, as articulated by Edwin Samuel, were also against Zionism.

Britain went ahead and supported Zionism, while seemingly ignoring the Palestinians as an inconvenience. By the time Britain left Palestine the Jewish population had gone from around 60,000 to 600,000+. In around thirty years we changed the demographics and nature of Palestine. We were given an international Mandate to govern by the League of Nations, and under these terms should have been legally obliged to ensure that the local population developed a viable government. Its safe to say that we failed.

The Tinderbox enumerates our policies and their ongoing legacy in the Holy Land today. People there are still living with a situation we nurtured. Scroll forward to today and many Brits and indeed Westerners do not know this. Its high time we remembered.

BAFTA-award-winning filmmaker Gillian Mosely directed The Tinderbox, in cinemas across Britain, and on Curzon Home Cinema.

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'Britain's colonial legacy in Israel and Palestine needs to be addressed' - The Mirror

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Posted By admin on April 16, 2022

Ukraine conflict worsening food crisis and decimating families' purchasing power

Wheat flour reserves in the Occupied Palestinian Territory could be exhausted within three weeks and the cost of this food staple has surged by nearly 25% because of the Ukraine crisis, warns Oxfam.

Palestinian households are being hit hard by rising global food prices, and many are struggling to meet their basic needs. The reliance on imports and the constraints forced upon them by Israels continuing military occupation, settler violence and land grabs are compounding the food crisis, says Shane Stevenson, Oxfam Country Director in the Occupied Palestinian Territory and Israel.

The Palestinian Authority (PA) has to import 95% of its wheat but it owns no food storage infrastructure so is forced to rely instead on the Palestinian private sector and Israels facilities. Israel in turn imports half of its grain and cereals from Ukraine.

According to the World Food Program, the Ukraine crisis has increased food prices in the Occupied Palestinian Territory such as wheat flour (up by 23.6%), corn oil (26.3%) lentils (17.6%) and table salt (30%), decimating Palestinians purchasing power.

Most households in the Gaza Strip are now buying food on credit. Many families are eating less and lower quality of food items. Families are cutting out more expensive food such as fruit, meat and chicken that are necessary for a healthy diet.

The cost of animal feed (wheat bran) is up by 60% in the West Bank. This adds to the existing burden on Palestinian herders who face outbreaks of animal disease, worsening violent attacks by Israeli settlers and forced displacement because of Israeli annexation policies.

To save the livestock sector from collapsing, the Palestinian Farmers Union is urging the government to cancel the VAT on fodder.

Abbas Melhem of the Palestinian Farmers Union said: The sector is on its last breath and needs to be supported before it completely crashes. We have called upon the Palestinian Prime Minister to take immediate action. Farmers in Area C are facing daily attacks by Israeli settlers to push them off their land. With these challenges, especially with the extremely high prices of fodder, livestock breeders cannot stay and defend their lands if no immediate action is taken from our government to help save the livestock sector..

Area C - consisting of 60% West Bank territory - is critical to the geographic integrity of the West Bank. Its fertile agricultural lands offer the solution to Palestine increasing its agricultural investments and reducing its dependency on imports. However, Israeli authorities have rejected 99% of all the construction plans put forward to develop Area C.

Mazen Sinokrot, the Regional Director of the Arab Food Industries Federation, said: Palestine cannot expect to rely on the Israeli food reserves in times of crises. Palestine could attempt to strategically bring to the forefront the political issue of Area C once more into the international arena so that Palestinians may use their land for planting wheat and building their self-sufficiency.

Oxfam calls on the international community to urgently adopt a common and coordinated economic and diplomatic position that challenges Israels restrictive policies and allows Palestinians to invest in local food production and infrastructure. Oxfam believes that the international community must not forget its responsibility towards the Palestinian people, impacted by the policies and practices of an expansionist state operating with full impunity.

The Palestine Economic Policy Research Institute, MAS, told Oxfam: "Effective policies must be taken by the government in order to find urgent alternatives to wheat and flour imported from Russia and Ukraine. This is critical in order to protect poor and marginalized families from rising food insecurity and fluctuations in the supply chain due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The government must monitor and control prices in local markets and prevent monopoly on basic commodities.

Even before the Ukraine crisis, more than 115,000 families were registered with the Palestinian National Cash Transfer Programme (PNCTP) and received a quarterly payment between 700-1800 NIS (200-500 EUR) from the PA. 14,000 more poor households are on the PNCTP waiting list, which is expected to rise. However, registered families have not received payments since May 2021 because the PA is in a financial crisis. This is exacerbated by the decision of the European Commission as the largest donor to Palestine and contributing to roughly 50% of the PNCTP to continue withholding 214 million Euros in aid to the PA.

Najla Shawa, Oxfams Head of Food Security in Gaza, said: Every day we meet people who are searching for jobs and money just to feed their children. We feel very stuck at this stage. How can we draw attention from the international community to the deteriorating socio-economic situation in Gaza? Our work in Gaza is becoming increasingly challenging. It is difficult to describe the true level of damage that all this is causing on people's lives it is devastating."

Notes to editors

Contact information

Spokespersons are available for interviews. For more information please contact

Irene Kruizinga - in Jerusalem | irene.kruizinga@oxfam.org

Nesrine Aly - in Cairo | nesrine.aly@oxfam.org - +201222486964

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Fears that wheat stocks could run out in the Occupied Palestinian Territory within three weeks - occupied Palestinian territory - ReliefWeb

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Posted By admin on April 13, 2022

Good morning. Its Tuesday. Well look at how the pandemic is rewriting the people-in-offices model that sustained Manhattan for generations. And, a playwright who decided not to change the name of her play.

You cant stay home in your pajamas all day, Mayor Eric Adams has said.

He and Gov. Kathy Hochul, who have accelerated the return-to-office push, might well be shouting into the wind. Society is changing around them, and the idea that it takes an office to do office work is being rethought.

My colleagues Dana Rubinstein and Nicole Hong write that the list of New York companies that are changing the way they work keeps growing as the city moves beyond the this-is-only-temporary mind-set from the early weeks of the pandemic. For example:

PwC, a global consulting firm whose American headquarters are in New York City, has told 40,000 employees in this country that they can work remotely forever. Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, a white-shoe law firm with about 300 lawyers in New York, says its staff can live anywhere in the country. Verizon now lets hybrid employees workers who have not been required to return to the office every day as pandemic restrictions have eased go in as many days a week as they want. Or as few.

And Penguin Random House, the publishing house with roughly 2,500 employees in the New York City area, has no mandatory return-to-office plans at all. Theres not going to be some date where were going to be like, OK, everybody back in the pool, said Paige McInerney, the companys director of human resources.

With fewer workers in cubicles, the average New York City office worker is predicted to reduce annual spending near the office by $6,730 from a prepandemic total of around $13,700, according to research from economists at Instituto Tecnolgico Autnomo de Mxico, Stanford University and the University of Chicago. That was the largest drop of any major city.

And if fewer people are squeezing into office elevators and crowding around coffee machines and snack tables, the citys real estate-reliant tax base will feel the pinch. Manhattan office buildings underwrote more than a quarter of the citys property tax revenues before the pandemic, according to the state comptrollers office.

Already, many coffee shops, dry cleaners and other small businesses that served commuters have closed. Vacant storefronts have increased across Manhattan, according to the city comptrollers office. In some parts of Midtown, one in three retail spaces is empty.

Even so, policymakers have barely begun to address what that could mean for schools, parks and the police, all of which depend on tax revenues. Public transit could face service cuts that would disproportionately harm workers who still must show up every day. And the state has yet to move toward relaxing zoning regulations that hamper the conversion of office buildings to residential housing, including low-income units. A new $100 million fund authorized last year to help developers convert empty hotels into housing has not been touched, blocked by regulatory hurdles.

Officials have also been slow to consider repurposing Midtown office buildings for start-up incubators, educational institutions or entertainment promoters, said Brad Lander, New York Citys comptroller. Adams has so far proposed creating a joint city and state panel to study the future of work and its implications for the city. He and the governor have also put a priority on making the subway system safer, so that office workers feel more comfortable commuting.

We are not going back to 100 percent Midtown office occupancy, Lander said. The sooner that stakeholders come to grips with that reality, the sooner we can take smart action.

Weather

Prepare for a chance of showers in the morning, with gusty winds and temps in the mid-70s as it becomes gradually sunny throughout the day. The evening will be partly cloudy, with temps dropping to the low 50s.

alternate-side parking

In effect until Thursday (Holy Thursday).

Mayor Adams, working remotely after announcing on Sunday that he had tested positive for the coronavirus, designated Juneteenth June 19, the holiday commemorating the end of slavery in the United States a paid holiday for city workers.

Adams said that the move was long overdue and that it was time for our city to finally do whats right. It aligned the city with the federal government and New York State.

It also fulfilled a promise Adamss predecessor, Bill de Blasio, made in 2020 less than a month after George Floyd was murdered by the police in Minneapolis but failed to fulfill. That year and again last year, municipal workers who wanted to celebrate Juneteenth had to draw on pre-existing paid time off.

No longer, Adams said in a statement. As the second Black mayor of New York City, he said, I know that I stand on the shoulders of countless heroes and sheroes who put their lives on the line to secure a more perfect union.

The title is what it is

If this were a play, the stage directions would say that four people are seated at dinner in 2017 a woman who is herself a playwright and whose latest work has just had a reading; her husband; her father-in-law; and 12-year-old teenage son.

I think Im going to change the title, the playwright says. I dont want to freak people out.

The father-in-law thunders: You cant change the title. The title is what it is. The titles explaining what theyre getting. If they dont like it, they dont have to come see it.

The playwright, Michelle Kholos Brooks, would later say she remembered thinking, This is a guy who knows what hes talking about.

Her father-in-law is Mel Brooks. The title of her play is H*tlers Tasters. Performances begin on Thursday at Theater Row on West 42nd Street. The director is Sara Norris, the artistic director of the New Light Theater Project, which is presenting the play. More about the asterisk in a moment.

It is her imagined account of the German girls who were assigned to sample Hitlers meals in case there was an attempt to poison him. The story surfaced a decade ago, when Margot Wlk, then 95, was quoted as saying she had been a taster at Hitlers bunker in occupied Poland.

Brooks said that when she wrote the first draft, she called it Hitlers Tasters as a little bit of a placeholder.

Then I had the first workshop reading, she said, and nobody said anything.

Theres been some pushback, Brooks said. In Los Angeles, she said, we had one reviewer who refused to review it for the three days we were open before Covid shut us down. She changed the I to an asterisk because algorithms in some search engines apparently saw the name and listed the play as hate speech, she said.

The title isnt I Love Hitler; the title is Hitlers Tasters, she said. Were talking about a real person in history, you know. Just because you dont say his name doesnt mean he didnt exist. She said that knowing about dictators had become all the more relevant since Russia invaded Ukraine. World War II is very much in the rear view for young people, she said. The level of Holocaust denial right now is staggering. And here we have Putin.

METROPOLITAN diary

Dear Diary:

I was waiting for a bus at the corner of 85th Street and Fifth Avenue, near what is called Ancient Playground, where a young boy and his grandfather were playing with a beach ball.

Suddenly, a gust of wind blew the ball over the playground fence. A man walking his dog stopped the ball, picked it up, walked toward the fence and tried to throw it back over.

The ball went even higher in the air and was on its way onto Fifth Avenue when a cabby parked nearby jumped out of his taxi, grabbed the ball and ran it back toward the boy and his grandfather.

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The Ups and Downs of Remote Work in New York - The New York Times

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Posted By admin on April 13, 2022

Campus of the University of Washington in Seattle, Washington, April 21, 2015. (Photo by Smith ... [+] Collection/Gado/Getty Images)

Last month, the University of Washington (UW) made headlines when it returned a gift of $5 million for a named chair in Israel Studies to donor Rebecca Becky Benaroya. Outlets like Inside Higher Ed covered the incident as another example of a well-heeled university donor attempting to compromise academic freedom by stifling a professors political speech. Digging below the surface, however, the incident is far less about violating academic freedomand far more about understanding donor intent.

In 2016, Ms. Benaroya gave $5 million to UWs Stroum Center for Jewish Studies with the primary purpose of endowing a chair, whose holder will demonstrate a strong commitment to studying, teaching, and disseminating knowledge about Jews and Judaism, as well as the modern State of Israel. Additional funds could be used for studying the evolution of Zionism and the modern State of Israel. In retrospect, the point of contention, counterintuitive as it may seem, is what the modern State of Israel signifies. It is a reminder of the absolute need for explicit, written understanding between donor and recipient.

UW hired Professor Liora Halperin in 2017 as the Jack and Rebecca Benaroya Endowed Chair in Israel Studies. Prior to her appointment at the University of Washington, Professor Halperin had served as Assistant Professor of History and Jewish Studies and Endowed Professor of Israel/Palestine Studies at the University of ColoradoBoulder: Her web page twice mentions her interest in the history of Israel/Palestine (emphasis added), a name that arguably signals an approach not fully aligned with the modern State of Israel. Regarding the name Israel/Palestine, in a phone conversation, David Myers, who holds the Sady and Ludwig Kahn Chair in Jewish History at the University of CaliforniaLos Angeles and had taught Professor Halperin in her graduate work, agreed that the choice of name is significant and added that in his own teaching, he could not disentangle the history of Zionism and the history of Palestinian nationalism.

Other scholars find the nomenclature substantially more problematic, and perhaps at the very beginning there were clues to the tension that would erupt between the donor and the scholar whom UW selected to hold the inaugural chair bearing the donors name. Professor Ilan Troen, of Brandeis University, who created the first major Israel Studies program in the United States, asserted by email that Israel Studies as traditionally defined is not the same as Israel/Palestine Studies and points out that the insistence on changing accepted terminology reflects a commitment to an alternate agenda. He added that the UW misunderstanding, like a previous controversy at the University of CaliforniaBerkeley that led to the withdrawal of a gift for an endowed chair, could have been avoided.

Last year, Professor Halperin joined other scholars in signing a Statement on Israel/Palestine, which condemns state violence that the Israeli government and its security forces have been carrying out in Gaza. While the statement also notes the damage of indiscriminate Hamas rockets, the weight of its criticism is directed at Israel and Zionism, blaming it for: unsustainable systems of Jewish supremacy, ethnonational segregation, discrimination, and violence against Palestinians.

Was there a verbal understanding between UW and Ms. Benaroya that was not part of the written gift agreement? That is unknown. (Neither UW nor Ms. Benaroya agreed to my request for an interview.) Professor Halperin communicated to me that she had always abided by the language of the gift agreement. What is clear is that after the Statement on Israel/Palestine appeared, Ms. Benaroya expressed concerns about the direction of the program she had funded and requested a series of meetings with Professor Halperin and UW leadership. Then, in February 2022, the university announced that it would return the $5 million gift to make clear that endowment agreements cannot limit academic freedom in any way, and to maintain the program free from external influence and pressure to adopt any specific positions.

The UW statement puts academic freedom front and center, but in a way that obscures a more complicated picture. Professor Halperin has the right to express herself, inside the classroom and out, without fear of sanction or censure. But should a donor be compelled to support this speech if it strikes at the very heart of a gifts purpose?

If UW had taken punitive actions against Professor Halperin, that would indeed constitute the grave threat to academic freedom warned of by the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education and the Middle East Studies Association (MESA). But UWs statement makes clear that Professor Halperinas appropriatewill maintain her stature within the Jewish Studies department and will receive the same salary and research support, including a new, endowed chair in Jewish Studies (funded by interest accrued on the original gift, the universitys original matching funds, and other gifts totaling almost $6 million). Professor Halperin communicated to me by email that she is now pleased with the resolution, though she found it regrettable that the university did not make the new arrangements at the same time it returned the gift to the donor.

Considering the complexity and sensitivity of the issues at hand, the UW action appears to have aptly threaded the needle by giving due consideration to both academic freedom and donor intent. MESA and others have chastised the university for capitulating to donor pressure, but this simplistic view neglects the universitys responsibility to make a good faith effort to accommodate donor intent.

That there was a mismatch between Professor Halperin and Ms. Benaroya was apparent well before the disagreement over Professor Halperins decision to sign the Statement on Israel/Palestine. At the 2017 MESA conference, for example, Professor Halperin expressed discomfort with her position as Benaroya Endowed Chair in Israel Studies, saying on a panel, Many of us want to be in Middle East Studies. . . . I dont like the fact that the money I have to give graduate students is called Israel Studies money.

By hiring Professor Halperin as the Jack and Rebecca Benaroya Endowed Chair in Israel Studies, UW placed a distinguished scholar in a position at odds with objectives that Rebecca Benaroya apparently sought to advance. What transpired was akin to a university hiring an avowed socialist whose courses focus on how to overturn capitalism to occupy a donor-endowed chair in free market economics. Or hiring a climate science skeptic to lead a center funded to study the effects of anthropogenic climate change.

When a university agrees that bringing an underrepresented perspective to the campus will enrich the marketplace of ideas, it can adhere to donor intent without establishing an ideological litmus test for faculty hires. But deans and chairs must appoint a faculty hiring committee sympathetic to the aims of the benefactor. This does not mean a donor can dictate who is hired, what is taught in class, or the content of any professors political speech; but it does mean that the donors intention should be an important criterion in the search. If university faculty and administrators do not agree with the donors guiding purpose, it is not up to them to redefine it; rather, they have a responsibility politely to decline the gift.

UWs statement obscures its own role in making a mess of what ought to have been a win for the campus and the community it serves. At least it got the ending right. Despite the uproar in the press, what took place at UW is more like a conscious uncoupling than an acrimonious divorce. As fields of scholarship become increasingly polarized, other universities should give more attention to finding the right match for donor-endowed chairs and programs. Those that do not can at least take note of how UW honored the intent of Rebecca Benaroya after the fact, while working admirably to protect the intellectual freedom of the affected faculty member

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Posted By admin on April 13, 2022

Back in 2016, Washington Post emissary Anne-Marie OConnor ventured to the illegal Israeli West Bank outpost of Havat Gilad to report on how tourism is the new front in Israeli settlers battle for legitimacy. Indeed, there were not many better ways for a major US newspaper to contribute to this battle than by dispatching a writer to sample the good life, with fine cabernets and artisanal cheese on the hilltops of the rugged, rural Bible land populated by the gun-toting children of Abraham.

In the Zionist view, of course, the territorys association with Bible land confers more-than-sufficient legitimacy upon its illegal usurpation from Palestinians. In Havat Gilad, OConnor mustered such charming politico-touristic observations as Holiday chalets are new facts on the ground and Wine tastings are a new weapon against a two-state solution with a proliferation of West Bank boutique wineries effectively constituting a wine-washing of occupation.

The journalist chose to conclude her report with a quote from Karni Eldad, co-author of a West Bank vacation guidebook, who insisted that the local panorama was about so much more than hilltop youth burning a house in the village of Duma a reference, OConnor explained, to the young Jewish extremists who are the alleged perpetrators of a firebombing in 2015 that killed a Palestinian mother and father and their 18-month-old baby, and severely burned their 5-year-old boy.

At that same hilltop that produced the alleged firebombers, Eldad emphasised, there is a herd of goats that has unbelievable cheese. Enough said.

Fast forward to the present, and wine-washing proceeds apace. A March 2022 post on the website of the New York-based media company VinePair details how the Israeli Ministry of Tourism is capitalising on Israels booming wine scene which entails more than 300 wineries in the New Jersey-sized country and more than 50 in the vicinity of Jerusalem alone, some of them built in areas where wine was made by settlers thousands of years ago.

The Israeli wine industry has ancient roots, we are told, lest any opportunity be lost to drive into the ground Israels supposedly eternal and unalterable claim to this patch of earth. However, it was only in the 1990s with the Golan Heights winery that Israeli wine could compete on an international scale. These would be the same Golan Heights that Israel illegally seized from Syria, which again goes to underscore how good it can be for business when you just violently appropriate other peoples fertile land and other profitable stuff.

According to the Zionist narrative, Israeli desert-blooming techniques are to thank for the progressive fertility of select Levantine landscapes post-1948, when Israel officially invented itself on stolen Palestinian terrain. Despite there being no such thing as a Palestinian people, as former Israeli prime minister Golda Meir notoriously put it and despite the alleged agricultural incompetence of the non-people, who preferred instead to inhabit a barren wasteland Israel has to this day found it necessary to continuously uproot and destroy Palestinian olive and fruit trees, crops and orchards, not to mention Palestinians themselves. This would seem to suggest that the pre-1948 arrangement was hardly one of an Orientalist desert awaiting civilised conquest and that Israeli machinations have been anything but, um, bloomy.

Now, the whole Israeli wine spectacle has laid the ground for ever more aneurysm-inducing propaganda to distract from other domestic pastimes like ethnic cleansing, apartheid and the periodic massacre of Palestinians. In a November 2021 Jerusalem Post intervention, David M Weinberg opines that Israels wine revolution is a sign of divine favor an undeniable, stark indication of support from the Heavens and a realisation of biblical prophecies.

The Land of Israel has awakened, Weinberg proclaims, giving forth fruit to its indigenous people, the Jewish people, as it returns to and renews its ancient homeland now a verdant agricultural world superpower. He goes on to detect biblical and Zionist echoes in every glass of good Israeli wine, the consumption of which is a deep profession of faith and a celebration of the People, Land, and God of Israel reunified.

In the land of Palestine, it bears mentioning, wine has been made for millennia although contemporary Palestinian winemaking operations are complicated by, inter alia, land and resource theft, prohibitions on labelling Palestinian wine as Palestinian, and Israeli desert-blooming endeavours like erecting massive walls in the middle of Palestinian vineyards.

Weinberg is not the only one drunk on Zionism. With Israel having recently reopened to international tourists regardless of COVID vaccination status, various popular travel sites have undertaken to highlight offerings for the wine-oriented traveller.

Then there is Adam S Montefiore, who has contributed to the advance of Israeli wines for 35 years and boasts of being referred to as the ambassador of Israeli wines and the English voice of Israeli wines. His regular appearances on the pages of the Jerusalem Post include a March 2022 submission bearing the title Fly like a butterfly, sting like a bee leave it to an Israeli to appropriate the words of legendary pro-Palestinian boxer Muhammad Ali and another one the same month titled No room for small dreams.

The latter headline, under which Montefiore chatters on about the unexpected success of Israels family-run Nachmani Winery, is itself appropriated from late Israeli president Shimon Peress book by the same name. Speaking of things vine-related, Peres is incidentally also the man who presided over Operation Grapes of Wrath, the bloody 1996 Israeli military assault on neighbouring Lebanon not to be confused with the bloody Israeli military assaults on Lebanon in 1978, 1982, 1993, 2006, and so on.

Sharing a name with the John Steinbeck novel, Grapes of Wrath comprised the April 18, 1996, massacre of 106 civilians sheltering at a United Nations compound in the south Lebanese village of Qana. The late British journalist Robert Fisk visited the aftermath of the slaughter to find, as he later recalled, legs and arms, babies without heads, old mens heads without bodies, and a girl who sat cradling a grey-haired corpse and crying: My father, my father.

As luck would have it, Qana is the very village where, back in the day, Jesus is rumoured to have miraculously turned water into wine. And as Israels current glorified vinicultural miracle continues to wine-wash all manner of atrocities, it is a wrathful harvest indeed.

The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeeras editorial stance.

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Wine-washing the Israeli occupation - Al Jazeera English

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Posted By admin on April 13, 2022

One of the important messages of the Seder is to make the Seder relevant to ourselves and more importantly to our children. In a world where the role of God is downplayed how do we make the message and teachings of Judaism and our right to Israel relevant?

Lets start with simple truths.

The same God that took us of Egypt, brought us the modern State of Israel.

There are many comparisons We believe, share the story of the Exodus, the hardships, the miracles, we announce the hand of God. So, why is it so difficult to say This is the Land that God has given us, we have returned to our land with legality, this is our Land. Why is the right to a Land the only country whose right to exist is questioned? We have history, possession, and international law to prove It.

Why are there wars, terror and media, and other lies that seek to diminish our rights, and place uncertainty on our connection to the land?

The Rallying cry of the Exodus story is Let my people Go. Freedom. We want to be free in our Land.

So, lets go through the Hagadah

Kiddush on Wine The grape has gone through so much pain until it becomes wine, but when it does the wine is so beautiful. The same with life, and with Israel. (Credit Reb Shlomo Carlebach)

Karpas Dipping into salt Water The valley of tears. When will the tears stop?

Yachatz We break the Matzah it seems like our world is so broken.

Maggid Lets tell our story Our Story of our arrival to Israel, our story that God wants us to make Aliyah. Let it be soon.

The four questions

Please search for your own Questions. This year I am asking:

The Answer Do we really have answers?

We need to have strong faith and Jewish Identity We need to recall that God saved us from Slavery with a mighty hand and outstretched arm. It is now time to discuss the Exodus of Egypt. It is now time to reflect on: what is freedom? And tell the story. Stories have the power to connect and take us to another place, a higher place. It is an opportunity to reflect to make our lives and the world better. The Story starts off with a Seder of the Rabbis in Bnei Brak planning for the future a world without the Temple, how to inspire the next generation.

And how to relate to the4 sons the different groups and how to inspire unity amongst the different groups Haredim, National, religious, Israelis and Atheists (Post Zionist) or whatever label is chosen.

Or could be our growth phases or how to relate to my children each so different. Each is a reflection of inner convictions or doubts. Each paving their own way in life.

Vehi Sheamda In every generation they rise up to oppress us

From Slavery in Egypt to the land of Canaan (Israel)

From The Holocaust to the State of Israel

Eliyah Hanavi Redemption The Israel Story is this miraculous or pragmatic or both?

At this stageI want to share this story and insight from Reb Shlomo Carlebach.

This is a story of Rav Tzvi Elimelech. He told this story about his father. In those days, people were so poor, but a way of making money was to become a tutor in a rich mans house. They taught children from Succoth to Pesach, they made a few hundred rubles, and lived on that the whole year. So, his father became a tutor for a rich man. The first shabbos that his father was there, there were no guests. His father said to the rich man, How can you have a shabbos without guests? The man said, I dont waste my precious money on guests. Rav Tzvi Elimelechs father was so innocent. He said, Do me a favor. Take it off my salary. I cannot eat without poor people at the Shabbos table.

He stayed there from Succoth until Pesach. A few days before Pesach, he walked in and said, Now, give me my 500 rubles. The rich man said, What do you mean? You owe ME 500 rubles! Because of you I had to spend twice your salary on the poor. Anyway, Tzvi Elimelechs father realized that this rich man would not let him go without getting his 500 rubles back, so he ran to his room, took his things and left. In the meantime, his wife didnt have a single penny. The grocer and the butcher were asking her when she would pay them and she would tell them that her husband was bringing money on Pesach. So, he thought, how can I come home without any money? What am I supposed to do? He arrived home in the middle of the night. He was afraid to go home so he went to the Beis Midrash (study house).

Rav Tzvi Elimelech said, I was seven years old then. I went in the morning to daven and there was my father in the Beis Midrash! I said to my father, Why didnt you come home? We miss you so much! He said, I didnt want to wake you up. I ran home to tell my mother that my father came home. She was so happy. I ran back to my father and told him, For four weeks we had nothing to eat because the butcher the grocer didnt trust us any more. Now, we went and told them that thank G-d, you are here. Now that you are home, mother used her last rubles preparing the best breakfast for you. We are so happy you came home.

Well, my father davened so long. He didnt know what to do. He took an hour to pack his tfllin up and I was pulling him the whole time, saying, Lets go home already. We walked in the street. He walked so slowly. Finally, we came to the last corner before the house. Suddenly, a Cossack came charging along and stopped right in front of my father. He said, I am looking for Reb Feivel. My father said, Thats me. The Cossack took a little bag and threw it at my father and then took off. There was pure gold in it. Pure gold. So, Rav Tzvi Elimelech said, That Seder night, when my father opened the door for Eliyahu HaNavi, I started yelling and I said, Father, lookThe Cossack is here again.

May we all be blessed to see Eliyahu HaNavi this year!

Reb Shlomo would often relate before he began the prayer welcoming Eliyahu Hanavi Pour your wrath out upon the nations that dont recognize you (Shefoch Chamutcha). He said the hippalach in the 60s asked him if after we experience the loftiness of the Seder & we go out to greet Elijah the prophet, is this prayer the best we can offer, namely our hope that God pours out his wrath upon nations of the world? Reb Shlomo answered them that he saw a commentary from the Sar Shalom (Master of peace) the Belzer Rebbe that at this high point of the Seder we are really saying to G-d if there is some fixing the nations of the world need please dont make us do it, G-d, you do it yourself. So you pour your wrath out. Reb Shlomo added that the Hebrew word for wrath Chamatchu according to the Slonomer Rebbe is also related to the Hebrew word Cham which means warmth. We are praying that G-d unleashes a spiritual warmth upon all the nations of the world that will help repair all the ill feelings that nations and people of the world often have towards one another. May that be now!

Hallel Praise Lets look at the Cup at least Half Full and praise God. Sing with joy.

Discussion

I dont know about you, but these are my questions when I sit down on Seder Night and ponder on our remarkable, but troublesome story and history.

If God wanted a better world, a world where Israel fulfills its chosen mission, then HE sure has a weird way of bringing this about.

Lets look at some Facts

Why do we allow these lies to be repeated? Just look at this article on 2 April 22 as reported in a so-called right wring Media. Why do we allow this as NEWS? There should be a disclaimer. Or are we so blind? Why help them spread their lies.

https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/325097

Nabil Abu Rudeineh, the official spokesman for Palestinian Authority (PA) chairman Mahmoud Abbas, condemned on Saturday what he described as the dangerous Israeli escalation that took place today at the beginning of Ramadan.

In a statement, Abu Rudeineh noted that Israel is carrying out this planned attack that led to the deaths of threeciviliansat dawn in the city of Jenin. The statement was referring to three Islamic Jihad terrorists who planned to carry out a shooting attack and were eliminated by Israeli forces.

This Israeli policy poses a blatant threat andchallenge to international legitimacy and international law, and the occupation forces must stop all these dangerous practices, which threaten security, stability, and calm, said the PA spokesman.

Abu Rudeineh also said that at the same time, Jewish extremists continue to break into the Al-Aqsa Mosque and warned that the daily crimes of the settlers will lead to the creation of an atmosphere of tension and instability.

He stressed that the only way to achieve security is to force Israel to abide by international legitimacy decisions and to refrain from taking any unilateral measures.

We also call on the international community to provide international protection for the Palestinian people and not to allow double standards, Abu Rudeineh said, noting that Israel bears the consequences of this dangerous escalation, which will be severe and dangerous for everyone and the entire region.

Why do we tolerate these Lies?

The solution is to have Faith, believe in tradition, and demonstrate our right to be here. No Ambiguity.

There is a famous story of a Palestinian Prisoner seeing an Israeli Warden eat bread on Passover. When he saw this, he realized that when people do not respect their tradition, then they will also reject their connection and zeal to fight for their land. This gave this Prisoner renewed hope, energy, and conviction for his cause. That Prisoner became a leader in the intifada which is still continuing till today.

The Oslo Agreement of 1995 Gaza Withdrawal led to a weakening of our strength of position and connection to the land. These were based on false facts, pledges, promises, and guarantees from the US.

It can be compared allowing squatters to share your lounge. After a few months, they believe this is their house, make life uncomfortable, and tell you to leave.

Even today, we are still expected to make concessions. As Coraline Glick wrote Arab Israeli Terrorists and Blinkens Betrayal in the Negev

The Negev Two-State Summit CarolineGlick.com

The Two-State Solution has made a comeback. Thats the main take home lesson from the Negev Summit this week. The

carolineglick.com

I include this as an annex as this is recommended reading for the Zionist Haggadah.

My personal Pesach story began with recollections as a young boy in Shul on Yom Kippur 1973. That was my first loss of innocence and welcome to the Jew Club. You may label me a right-winger, extremist, or settler, but I am just a Jew trying to live up to a 3,300 tradition of longing, being connected, and living in the Land promised to Avraham, where Moses tried to lead the Jewish People to, living in the city of Jerusalem, where King David established his Capital in the Land of the Jews (Yehuda).

I made Aliyah on 25 August 1995. Little to my knowledge there was a civil protest against the Government resulting from the Oslo Accords, Led by Moshe Feiglin.

https://zehut.org.il/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/where-there-are-no-men-by-moshe-feiglin1.pdf

As reported in:

A wave of demonstrations by Jewish settlers and their supporters, who have camped on West Bank hills and blocked Israeli highways to protest the planned expansion of Palestinian self-rule, has sharpened a debate on the limits of legitimate dissent. The Government calls the actions dangerous assaults on law and order, while the settlers say they are following a democratic tradition of nonviolent civil disobedience.

They insist that Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin hold a referendum on any agreement to expand Palestinian self-rule in the West Bank, arguing that it would not have the support of most Israelis. They also contend that handing over wide areas of the West Bank to the Palestinian police will endanger Jewish lives.

Well, fast forward today it is clear that Oslo, Gaza, Camp David, etc. has led to terror and not peace. They are not Peace Accords. The Palestinians practice Apartheid. We are not allowed in their towns or villages, and we risk death by going there.

Shortly after making Aliyah, I started working in a Sugar Trading Company and was invited by one of our customers to come to Nablus (Schechem the place from the Bible). We had hopes of peace and a better future for all. I dreamt that Hebron would be an international city of Peace with all the shops full of tourists learning about the common forefather Abraham. Alas, this is now not a possibility.

Instead, we have lies, distortion, and terror.

We put our hope in treating the Palestinian and Israeli Palestinians with dignity enabling them to have nice housing, education, health, jobs, and more. Yes, it is really cute when the Muslim shop assistant gives you a big smile, or we meet in our local park. And boom Riots, Terror, and the indiscriminate murder of innocent Jews lack of respect for Life. Alas, despite high living standards et al, this approach is not working.

This is fueled further by the lies of Amnesty International, and we see examples of record levels of Antisemitism around the world. We have the accusation of Apartheid. (Yes coming from South Africa I know what apartheid was, and Israel is not an Apartheid state), we have BDS, and the twisting and ignoring of our 1000% historical and legal claim to this land.

So, on this Pesach, I ask you God Why? Why are you hiding? What do we need to do to correct the situation? To bring light, justice, and peace to the World. Why is this journey to Freedom, Redemption so hard?

Lets eat some bitter herbs, eat some Matzah and remember the past. Lets stand up say thank you and sing your praises- Hallel. Lets Remember that you saved us not only in Egypt but from the Holocaust. You have brought us to the promised Land. We ask you once again to shine your light. This time save not only Israel but mankind and the world.

As we sing in the Seder Next year in Jerusalem. This year we are slaves, next year let us be free.

___________________________________________________________________

Even today, we are still expected to make concessions.

As Coraline Glick wrote Arab Israeli Terrorists and Blinkens Betrayal in the Negev

The Negev Two-State Summit

The Two-State Solution has made a comeback. Thats the main take home lesson from the Negev Summit this week. The final remarks of the four Arab foreign ministers, and from US Secretary of State Anthony Blinkens remarks at the summit and throughout his visit make this glaringly obvious. All of Israels guests demanded that it be advanced.

The so-called two-state solution has a hundred-year history of uninterrupted failure. In 1920, the League of Nations gave Britain the Mandate for Palestine, which they were legally required to administer as the future homeland of the Jewish people. In 1922, the British carved out the majority of the land set aside for the Jews and established the Arab state of Transjordan now known as the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan.

Britains initial two state solution was supposed to end the Arab conflict with Israel. But of course, it didnt. The Arabs pocketed Transjordan and expanded their war, as they have with every subsequent attempt to implement the two-state solution.

Many Israelis and friends of Israel assumed that the so-called two-state solution had finally been exhausted in 2000, when PLO chief and Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasir Arafat rejected the Palestinian state that Israel offered him at the Camp David Summit in July 2000 and launched a terror war against the Jewish state.

Israel won Arafats terror war by the skin of its teeth in 2004. This week we marked the 20th anniversary of Israels counter-terror offensive. Operation Defensive Shield, which began Israels long, painful advance to victory was launched on March 31, 2002, after a month in which 130 Israelis were massacred in nearly daily suicide bombings countrywide. In all, more than a thousand Israelis were killed, more than ten thousand were wounded in the Palestinian terror war.

But rather than abandon the disastrous two-state solution and set off on a new course, just months later, Israel resuscitated it with its disengagement plan. The plan involved surrendering the Gaza Strip, lock, stock and barrel to the PLO, expelling ten thousand law abiding Israeli civilians from their homes in Gaza and laying waste their villages and farms while removing all IDF forces from the area, including the border between Gaza and Egypt.

In other words, then prime minister Ariel Sharons disengagement plan involved the establishment of a wholly independent Palestinian state in Gaza, in keeping with the two-state solution.

Like the establishment of Transjordan and the failed Oslo peace process before it, Israels surrender of Gaza and establishment of what became Hamastan in Gaza did not placate the Arabs of the land of Israel or even in Gaza. They pocketed the concession and used the territory they received to escalate their war against Israel.

Since the failed Gaza withdrawal, we have seen dozens more plans, peace conferences, and envoys all committed to advancing the two-state solution.

There was a sense that the long nightmare with the failed policy paradigm finally and permanently died during Donald Trumps presidency and Benjamin Netanyahus premiership. But now that Trump has been replaced with Biden and Netanyahu with the Bennett-Lapid-Gantz-Abbas government, this week it came roaring back.

The question is why? What is it about the colossally failed two-state solution, which makes people refuse to abandon it?

The two-state solution is based on two premises. First, that it is possible to appease the Arabs, that there is an upper limit to their demands and that it is possible to reach it without destroying Israel.

The second assumption is that the Jews and Israel are solely and only to blame for the Arab conflict with Israel. And as a result, Israel bears full responsibility for implementing the two-state solution. The reason there is no peace is because Israel is greedy and evil. It has offered the Palestinians too little. Accordingly, the job of the international community is to compel Israel to be more generous.

Antisemites will still cling to the two-state solution well after hell freezes over because of its second assumption. It gives them a policy to hide their bigotry behind. Even better, the two-state solution gives them license to bully the Jews, whether violently or diplomatically.

People who want to be viewed as great statesmen but are unwilling to confront Israels enemies for their hostility not only to Israel, but to the West also like the two-state solution. From Henry Kissinger to Blinken, secretaries of state have been able to use the two-state solution, as a justification for kowtowing to aggressors from Arafat to Iranian dictator Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Many have hoped to win the Nobel peace prize for their bullying of Israel. All hoped to win the US immunity from Palestinian terrorists by effectively legitimizing their terrorism against Israel.

Many Israelis have also found it convenient for various reasons to support the two-state solution, which blames their country for their enemies aggression. If Israel is to blame for the absence of peace, then Israel also has the power to bring peace, and solve the Palestinian conflict without war. By the same token, if Palestinian antagonism is the fault of Israelis who refuse to accept the blame for Palestinian antagonism, then Israelis who accept Israels guilt, can join forces with the governments of the world that demand Israel surrender lands it controls to the Arabs.

Blinken showed another purpose for the two-state solution during his visit.

Blinkens visit to Israel this week was a challenging moment for him. Like his Biden administration colleagues, Blinken is committed to implementing the Obama administrations plan to realign the US away from Israel and the Sunni Arab states and towards Iran. When Israel learned of then President Barack Obamas plans in 2014, Netanyahu opened a diplomatic offensive against them. The pinnacle of that offensive was Netanyahus speech before the joint session of Congress in March 2015, where he set out the dangers of the administrations nuclear deal with Iran.

Led by Saudi Arabia, the Sunni Arab states saw Israels outspoken efforts and decided the time had come to set the two-state solution aside. The entire Palestinian issue was dwarfed by the existential threat Iran posed to them, no less than to Israel. Indeed, as Israel squared off against the US and Iran, the Saudis, like the UAE, Bahrain, Egypt and other Arab states wanted Israel to be as powerful as possible, since its fight was their fight as well.

This assessment by the Saudis and the UAE formed the basis for an Arab-Israeli strategic alliance against Iran. And this informal alliance in turn formed the basis of the Abraham accords.

To block criticism of the nuclear deal the US is now concluding with the Iranians, Blinkens challenge this week was to neutralize the Israeli-Arab anti-Iran strategic alliance. And he used the two-state solution to achieve this goal.

Before Blinken arrived at the Negev Summit Monday night, he held another summit in Ramallah with PLO chief and PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas. When he arrived in Sde Boker, Blinken used his meeting in Ramallah to make the Palestinians the main subject of conversation.

Given the existential threat Iran poses to the nations of the region, Blinkens efforts wouldnt have had a chance of success without Israeli support.

Without a doubt, Blinkens greatest Israeli supporter is Defense Minister Benny Gantz. Gantz has been carrying out an independent foreign policy aligned completely with the administrations anti-Israel positions. Gantzs independent diplomatic forays have included meetings with Abbas and King Abdullah of Jordan. Media reports last week indicated Gantz was working to bring both men to the Negev Summit, a move that would have ended all talk of Iran.

Gantz is not the only Israeli leader who has been ably assisting Blinken. Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and Foreign Minister Yair Lapid also helped Blinken when they failed to defend Israel against Blinkens libelous statements about settler violence, which is all but non-existent.

In the face of Israeli Arab terror in Beersheva and Hadera, putting Blinken in his place and ending talk of a two-state solution would have been easy. The Israeli Arab terror shows that the two-state solutions first premise that there is an upper limit to Arab demands is false. If Israel surrenders Judea, Samaria, and large parts of Jerusalem the move wont bring peace. It will move the war to the Galilee, the Negev, and the rest of what will be left of Israel. Indeed, it is already there.

But Lapid and Bennett said nothing as Blinken accused their country of imaginary crimes in furtherance of the two-state solution.

Blinkens two-state solution offensive enabled him to ignore whatever protests Lapid and the Arab foreign ministers expressed at the Negev Summit. It also let him change the subject. In their final statements at the end of the summit on Tuesday, the Arab foreign ministers ignored Iran and joined Blinken in voicing their support for the two-state solution.

In truth, the main reason that the fake policy of two-state solution keeps going is because some Jews of Israel have yet to accept the truth about the Palestinian Arab conflict with Israel and what that means. The two-state solution is inherently, and necessarily anti-Israel. In a situation where the majority of Arabs living west of the Jordan River, (whether in Gaza, Judea, Samaria, Jerusalem, the Negev, the Galilee, the Dan Region or the Sharon) are unwilling to accept the Jewish states right to exist in any borders, you cant be pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian. You have to choose.

The proper and indeed only adequate response to the anti-Israel two-state solution is Zionism. To contend with the Palestinians, the Iranians, the Americans, and everything in between, Israel must adopt and maintain Zionist policies across the board, whether in military policy, foreign affairs and public diplomacy, in the legal system, in economics or in social affairs. Without Zionism, Israel will be incapable of defeating the new terror onslaught. It will be unable to block Irans path to nuclear armed regional hegemony. And it will be unable to contend with the Biden administration, which is facilitating both.

See the rest here:
My Zionist Hagadah | Jeffrey Levine | The Blogs - The Times of Israel

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Posted By admin on April 13, 2022

President Joe Biden steps off Air Force One upon arrival at Des Moines International Airport in Des Moines on April 12. (Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images)

By Ron Kampeas

WASHINGTON The good news for Joe Biden is that a majority of U.S. Jews approve of the job he is doing. The bad news is that the number in a new poll, 63%, is a sharp double-digit drop from where he was last year.

A poll released Wednesday by the Jewish Electorate Institute, a group led by prominent Jewish Democrats, showed Bidens approval rating down from80% in a poll by the same organization last July.His disapproval rating this year is at 37%, up from 20 percent last July.

Both polls were carried out by GBAO Strategies. The Jewish Electorate Institute put a positive spin on the numbers. Jewish Americans continue to support President Biden and the Democratic Party at levels higher than the general American voting population, a trend that appears on track to continue in this years midterm elections and in the future, said the groups chairman, Martin Frost, a former Jewish Democratic congressman from Texas.

Bidens approval numbers generally have dropped precipitously in the last year, a result of a botched exit from Afghanistan, a persistent pandemic and inflation that his government cant stem.His approval rating generally is hovering at 42%, the lowest of his presidency. Jewish voters generally favor Democrats.

One area Biden scores well among Jews is in his handling of Russias war against Ukraine, with 72% approving.

Support for Democrats on a generic congressional ballot also dropped from 68% to 61% while support for Republicans rose from 21% to 26%. Both parties are already campaigning heavily in Jewish communities where shifts in the vote can change the make-up of Congress, where Democrats have a thin majority.

The pollsters reached 800 registered Jewish voters via text from March 28-April 3 and the margin of error is 3.5 percentage points.

Excerpt from:

Jewish Approval of Biden Drops to 63% From 80% Last Year - Jewish Exponent

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Posted By admin on April 13, 2022

Israeli volunteers celebrate Passover in Przemysl

Israeli NGOs volunteering to help Ukrainian refugees celebrated Passover on Tuesday in Poland where more than two million refugees have crossed into the country. (April 13)

AP

Friday marks the beginning of a special time for many Jewish people around the world. It's Passover, also called Pesach, which celebrates the Exodus, the liberation of Israelites from slavery in Egypt.

Passover happens every year during the month of Nisan on the Hebrew calendar. That's typically in March or April. In Israel, it lasts seven days; everywhere else, it's eight days. This year's Passover is from Friday to April 23.

But how is the holiday celebrated and why is it so important? We talked to a few experts.

The holiday is named for the story behind it, when the angel of God passed over the houses of Israelites and saved them, said Clmence Boulouque, associate professor of Jewish and Israel Studies at Columbia University in New York.

People celebrate it over conversation and dinner, telling stories about liberation, the end of enslavement and those who are still fighting for freedom. Its meant to make people appreciate freedom and push for social justice, she said.

This year, it's especially powerful because of current events and conflicts around the world, said Rabbi Michael Holzman of the Northern Virginia Hebrew Congregation in Reston.

"My congregation, we're thinking about Ukrainians, we're thinking about Afghans, we're thinking about the situation at the southern border of the United States," he told USA TODAY. "We're living in a time of massive waves of refuge, so there's a lot of resonance with what's happening in the world."

How are the dates determined?Why are Easter and Passover so late in 2022? Blame the moon and a cacophony of calendars.

Yes. Jesuswas Jewish and had a Passover meal with his followers the day before his crucifixion on the Thursday before Easter Sunday. The last supper was actually a Seder, Boulouque said.

As Christianity developed and focused more on Jesus specifically, Hebrew practices were dismissed,said Simeon Chavel, associate professor of the Hebrew Bible at the University of Chicago's Divinity School. The calendars,practicesand meanings eventually diverged.

Also, for those wondering, Passover is not always before Easter. According to Holzman,Hebrew and Catholic authorities have separate systems for calculating their calendars. Most of the time they line up, but sometimes they don't.

No.Passover celebrates the liberation of Israelites from slavery, while Good Friday is a Christian holiday remembering the crucifixion of Jesus,Boulouque said. It just so happens that this year, Passover begins on a Friday.

Passover always starts and finishes in the evening, but traditions depend largely on where families are from.

Most commonly, there are Seders or ceremonial dinners with symbolic foods, guidelines and other traditions. Foods with leavening agents are prohibited, or consideredchametz, as a reminder of the haste in which the Jews fled Egypt.

Passoverin the United States:

Seder plate ideas? 6 Seder plates for your next Passover meal.

Before Passover, families cleanse their homes like spring cleaning and the night before the holiday, they search for "chametz" items, such as bread crumbs. If found, these items are burned,said Boulouque, associate professor of Jewish and Israel Studies at Columbia University in New York.

It's almost something that indicates a comfortable life, she said. Its something that you want to take out of your daily life as a reminder of the toll it took to be slaves and to get out of Egypt.

In the United States, the first two nights of Passover involve a Seder, which means order in Hebrew. Its a ceremonial meal and retelling of the Passover storyin a specificorder usingthe Haggadah, the book that tells the story of the Israelitesleaving Egypt, she said.

There are activities for childrenas well, including reading from the Haggadah. Some children will also hide bread so their parents can go find it, Chavel said.

Once Passover ends,families from NorthAfrica or the Middle Eastcelebrate the Mimouna, a festival in which they decorate with lights and have a feast andreturn to eating the foods forbidden during the holiday,Boulouque said.

During Passover, families eat symbolic foods such as matzo, or unleavened bread, as well as eggs.

Each item represents part of the story, such as the unleavened bread.Its sometimes called the bread of affliction as a reminder of the pain of slavery, Boulouque said.

There are also bitter herbs like horseradish to represent the bitterness of slavery, as well as charoset, a paste made from fruits, nuts and other ingredients that "symbolizes the mortar Jewish people made while building pyramids for Pharaohand thus their enslavement when they were under the yoke of a megalomaniac tyrant,"she said.

Some of the foods that are off limits during Passover are flour that has been risen with yeast, as well as wheat and grain products that have been in touch with water or have risen, Holzman said.He said that during Passover, Jews consume flour thathas been incontact with water only for less than 18 minutes before it was baked, creating bread that hasn't risen, ormatzo.

Even the prohibited foods are symbolic, Boulouque said.

This is a holiday in which humility is key, she said. This idea of being humble and eating food that is not sweet you're not swollen by pride. It is a story of people being grateful for not being slaves anymore and taking whatever they had and leaving immediately.

Some people even pay their respect to women during Passover by adding an orange to represent their inclusion in Jewish leadership, Holzman said.

There's a lot of creativity that goes into Passover food, with people wanting to honor and respect different Jewish traditions from around the world. You might find a family that's not connected to the Middle East making Middle Eastern Passover food.

Read more:

What is Passover? Here's a guide to the Jewish holiday - USA TODAY

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Posted By admin on April 13, 2022

CANTON Antisemitism is not only alive and well, it's flourishing.

Because even Jewish children living in Stark County have not been spared, the local Jewish community isensuring that they learn about their faiththrough theChadashCommunity Hebrew Academy.

Julie Zorn is education director of the academywhich conductsweekly religion classes and activitiesforJewish children at Beit Ha'am at 432 30th St. NW.The curriculum includesinstruction in Hebrew, history, and Judaicaforpreschool through 10th grade.

Currently, 32 students are enrolled.

"We want to give them a Jewish experience," said Zorn, who grew up in Akron. "We talk about symbols, holidays, values and a lot about Shabbat."

More: Shalom: Jewish Community Center closes its doors

Zorn said what makes the school unique is, because the local Jewish community is so small, Chadashis community-based and not exclusive to one congregation.

Beit Ha'amhouses Temple Israel and Shaaray Torah Synagogue, which are Reform and Conservative congregations, respectively.

The arrangement, she said, enables studentsto learn about one another's traditions.

"We've made it work. We've had a lot of success with it," she said, adding that the school is kosher.

Lessons areage-based. For instance, grades 3 through 5 study Israel and the Jewish life cycle. Students in grades 6 studycomparative religionsand the Holocaust.

Zorn said that studies for the Confirmation class, which consists ofninth and 10th graders, covers "everything you want to knowbut were afraid to ask about Judaism."

Students actively celebrateJewish holidays such as Passover, which begins at sundown Friday. During Passover, Zorn said Chadash students do hands-on projects, includinga "Passover Fair" with learning stations.

Overthe last two years, school activities were virtual because of the pandemic. In-person classes resumed in November2021.

The word "Chadash" means "new," but anti-Jewish hatred is a very old problem. Zorn noted that, even in 2022, she's fielded stories from students about being mistreated and bullied because of their faith.

"I'm majorly, majorly concerned," she said. "The kids in the program share incidents about other kids who won't play with them on the playground because they're Jewish. My own children come to me with stories.

"There's antisemitism in this town, in Stark County."

A 2020 audit by the Cleveland office of the Anti Defamation Leagueconcludedthatanti-Jewishincidents in Ohio increased by 72%between 2019 and 2020. Though such behaviordeclined by 4%nationwide, 2020 was thethird-highest year on record, according to the audit.

Zorn points out that although Passover began more than 3,000 years ago, itsthemes remaintimely and relevant.

"They (Jews) were enslaved by the Egyptians just because they were Jewish," she said, "to the point where women gave up their children so they could live a better life. I internalize that. I think about modern times, what mothers have had to give up."

Zorn said Chadash students also have informed her about LGBTQ students being bullied in school. She'sin the process of creatingshow-and-tell"diversity boxes" which can be used as teaching tools in secularschools for children from pre-kindergarten through the sixth grade.

"Theyinclude activities teachers can do in class," she said. "Unfortunately,hate is hate is hate. Itdoesn't matter who the hate is for, it's the same problem."

Zorn alsotouts"No Place for Hate," a free, anti-bias curriculum offered by the Anti Defamation League.

"It's student-led and it's not done through a Jewish lens,"she said. "The cool thing is, it's financed by a private donor in Chicago. They're paying for any public schoolthat wants to use it."

Zorn said she's willing to visit schools and churches, and that Beit Ha'am welcomesvisits by non-Jewish groups to foster better understanding. Chadash also has a partnership with the Maltz Museum of Jewish Heritage in Beachwood, which sponsorsa yearly "Stop the Hate" writing competition for students.

"The impetus is, we've got to stop the hate," Zorn said, adding that she'd like to see more community emphasis on mental health.

Rabbi David Komerofsky of Temple Israel praised Zorn's understanding of "the value of supplementary Jewish education for kids who are often the only Jewish student in their public school. In a community as geographically diverse as Stark County, Chadash students bear the blessing and the burden of uniqueness during the week. On Sundays, they get to be with other Jewish students and learn the values of Jewish tradition and how they are universally applicable in our common search for goodness and kindness in the world."

LikeZorn, Komerofsky is a native of Akron. They attendedSunday school, consecration, and confirmation in the same class.

"I treasure the opportunity to help Chadash kids embrace their Jewish identities on their own terms," he said.

Zorn said that when a young studentinforms her about an antisemitic incident, she consults with parents.

"What we try to do in this school is teach differences and celebrate differences and what makes us unique," she said. "A 6-year-old is not going to understand bias training. Education and dialogue is the key to changing this."

The teaching staff at Chadash also makes sure that any class discussions about national tragedies such as the Tree of Life Synagogue mass shooting in Pittsburgh in 2019, areage-appropriate.

"We knew we would have to address it at religious school the next day, which was Sunday," Zorn recalled. "We start with a t'filah, which is prayer time. We had a special prayer for the people. Our kids made cards for them. We don't not talk about it. We don't want to instill panic, but we have to talk about it."

Despite the prevalence of antisemitism, Zornremains an optimist.

"I wholeheartedly believethat goodness prevails," she said. "I believe there are so many more good people in the world than loud, bad people. I think most people want diversity and inclusion;I really do."

Zorn has been director of Chadash since 2017. A Jewish song leader from age 13,she worked inTucson, Arizona, for 13 years as a Jewish music specialistand as theJewish living and learning specialist at the Tucson Jewish Community Center.

In 2017, Zorn earned master's degree in Jewish education from Hebrew College. In 2019, in addition toChadash, Zorn was appointed director of non-rabbinic duties andprogramming outreach director at Temple Israel. She's won several awards, including the Gerald and Marion Gendell Excellence in Jewish Education Award,the TucsonCoalition of Jewish Education's Innovation in Jewish Education honor, and Hebrew Colleges Friedman Scholarship Award in Academic Achievement.

Zorn said it's rewarding to see children learning and having fun with Judaism.

"I hated going to Sunday school," she confessed. "It was boring. I was resolved not to let that happen."

She said she's sometimes asked why she's devoted herself to Jewish education.

"I say, 'Would you rather teach common core math, or would you rather teach kindness?'" she said.

To lean more, visithttps://chadashcanton.org.

Reach Charita at 330-580-8313 or charita.goshay@cantonrep.com

On Twitter: @cgoshayREP

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'We've got to stop the hate.' Chadash Academy offers Jewish children support, education - Canton Repository

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Posted By admin on April 13, 2022

WH slams 'horrific' attack on Ukraine train station

WH press secretary Jen Psaki calls the missile attack on a train station in eastern Ukraine "another horrific atrocity" by Russian forces but stops short of calling it a war crime. (April 8)

AP

As the son of Holocaust survivors, the sight of certain Ukrainian refugeestore at Michael Korenblit's heart the most during his recent visit to Poland.

"Seeing the children being pushed across the border in strollers and aHolocaust survivor being wheeled across in a wheelchair, I thought 'What is the matter with man that we would let this continue to happen?'" he said.

Korenblitwas part of a Jewish Federations of North America delegation that visited Poland on April 5-8. The Edmond resident is president of the Jewish Federation of Greater Oklahoma City.

A spokeswoman for the Jewish Federations of North America said the organization launched a series of ongoing aid missions to the Ukraine border to evaluate the developing needs on the ground, show solidarity, meet with refugees and bring those stories back to their local communities. She said Jewish Federations have raised more than $43 million in emergency aid thus far.

More: How to talk to kids about the Russia/Ukraine conflict

Eric Fingerhut, Jewish Federations president and chief executive officer, said Jewish Federations have a clear strategy for saving Jews around the world.

"We could not have predicted the war in Ukraine, but we are there to help because we know that maintaining a highly professional, well-funded global 911 is essential. The skill and expertise we have been witnessing in the relief efforts in Ukraine and in the bordering countries is the result of years of experience, training, relationship building, and fundraising," he said.

Korenblit said he wasparticularly interested in the trip because his parents were born inHrubieszow, Poland, and they were sent to Nazi concentration camps. Korenblit said he wanted to bear witness to the humanitarian crisis resulting from Russia's war on Ukraine because no one bore similar witness to the Holocaust.

He said what he saw in Poland shocked him, although he had knownthe situation was bleak in the wake of Russia's invasion in February.

"It was a pretty incredible, very intense journey for 96 hours," he said.

"I'm not sure if any of us realized how bad it was. We knew it was bad but ...you'redismayed by the situation, you're angry, you're sad."

Korenblit said he was pleased toseenumerous humanitarian relief agencies lined up near the border to help meet the needs of Ukrainians fleeing their country.

He said the Jewish Federations delegation of 28 people met with the Jewish Agency for Israel, an organization that has been aiding refugees inPoland. He said the agencyestimated that there were numerous Jewish Ukrainian refugees and that some of those were Holocaust survivors.

The agency is helping all refugees, Jewish and non-Jewish, as they make their way to safety. Agencyleaders briefed Korenblit's delegation about the work they are doing, including renting out a hotel and turning it into a refugee center with a school for refugee children.Korenblit said many of the children used crayons and pens to draw and write about their experiences.

More: Biden says Russia is committing 'genocide'; Putin says peace talks at 'dead end'

The Jewish Federation delegation got to hear some of the refugees' stories during theirvisit to the center. Korenblit said he was touched by refugees from the city of Mariupol who said they think the Russians' ultimate aim was to "starve them to death."

Many Jewish refugeeswere being guided through the process of emigrating to Israel and one family from Maripol, Ukraine, talked of completing their paperwork to resettle in Israel only to have their home destroyed by a bomb, and the paperwork along with it, just before they could flee the city. Korenblit said volunteers were helping the family complete the necessary documents again.

"They were able to get out," he said. "The motherexplainedwhat happened and there was a tremor in her voice as she was talking."

He also met a woman from Odessa, Ukraine, who had been conducting a seminar far from home when the war broke out.

"She's married with a child waiting for her at home," Korenblit said.

It was at a border crossing in Medyka, Poland, that Korenblit saw the heartbreaking scenes of families pushing children in strollers or leading the youngsters by the hand as they crossed the border. It was there that he witnessed an older man being wheeled over the border in a wheelchair and he later learned the man had survived the Holocaust only to be forced to flee his war-torn Ukrainian home.

More: Mapping and tracking Russia's invasion of Ukraine

He saidMedyka was about 91miles from his parents' hometown. Korenblit's parents Meyer (also known as Majir) and Manya Kornblit eventually made their way to Ponca City after World War II. Korenblit chronicled their experiences in Poland and how they survivedNazi death camps in his book "Until We Meet Again." Meyer Kornblit died in 2012 at age88, while Manya Kornblit died in 2008 at age 83. The couple were married for 62 years.

Korenblit and his group eventually visited the Kraczowa Krakowiec Refugee Center where they discussed the importance of bearing witness to Ukrainians' plight.

"Russia is saying that this didn't happen right now. It was important for us to be there to witness that it did happen, to bear witness to that," he said.

He said many members of the Jewish Federations delegation brought items to aid the refugees.Korenblit said he didn't have time to get such items because he was on the waiting list to join the delegation and onlylearned a few days before the trip that he would be going.

He said he and other members of the Jewish community have donated and will be donating funds for agencies that may choose to use the money to provide for refugees' immediate needs.

Korenblit said he left Poland with a vision that offered him a measure of positivity and it came in the form of some of the youngest refugees.

"There was one thing that brought us hope," Korenblit said.

"Thewalls of the refugee center were lined with drawings from the children."

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'What is the matter with man?' Jewish Federation OKC president bears witness in Poland - Oklahoman.com

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