Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By admin on February 28, 2022

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The survival of the Jewish people is unique in the annals of history.

Compared to the history of other peoples, Jewish history is just plain weird. Things happen to us, for better or worse, that just dont happen to anyone else.

Perhaps the best way to see the unique nature of Jewish history is through the eyes of non-Jews who can view it more objectively. These five famous non-Jews have taken note of the uniqueness of the Jews:

This people are not eminent solely by their antiquity, but are also singular by their duration, which has always continued from their origin...and in spite of the endeavors of many powerful kings who have a hundred times tried to destroy them...they have nevertheless been preserved... Pensees 1670

The preservation of the Jews is really one of the most signal and illustrious acts of Divine Providenceand what but a supernatural power could have preserved them in such a manner as none other nation upon earth hath been preserved . We see that the great empires, which in their turn subdued and oppressed the people of God, are all come to ruin Dissertations on the Prophecies; which have remarkably been fulfilled, and at this time are fulfilling in the world (1754)

What is a Jew? This question is not at all so odd as it seems. Let us see what kind of peculiar creature the Jew is, which all the rulers and all the nations have together and separately abused and molested, oppressed and persecuted, trampled and butchered, burned and hanged...and in spite of this is still alive. What is a Jew? Leo Nikolayevich Tolstoy, Jewish World" periodical, London 1908

The Egyptian, the Babylonian, and the Persian rose, filled the planet with sound and splendor, then faded to dream -stuff and passed away; the Greek and Roman followed, and made a vast noise, and they are gone The Jew saw them all, beat them all All things are mortal but the Jew; all other forces pass, but he remains. What is the secret of his immortality? Concerning the Jews Harpers, 1899

Its survival is a mysterious and wonderful phenomenon demonstrating that the life of this people is governed by special predeterminationThe survival of the Jews, their resistance to destruction, their endurance under absolutely peculiar conditions and the fateful role played by them in history; all these point to the particular and mysterious foundations of their destiny... The Meaning of History, 1936

In essence, these five famous personalities are saying: Isnt it amazing that the Jewish people have suffered for so long at the hands of so many and yet they have survived, while so many of those nations who persecuted them are gone.

Why are they all focusing on the same theme? To understand this, we need to take a quick look at a few very unusual aspects of Jewish history:

Hated: The Jewish people have been around for a very long time more than 3,000 years and from the get-go theyve been the objects of intense hatred and persecution, so intense a special word was invented to describe it: antisemitism. Jews have lived around the globe throughout their long history and where ever they went, antisemitism followed.

The hatred of the Jews has proven to be historys longest, most universal, most irrational and deepest hatred. Logic would dictate that such an intense hatred would make the odds of Jewish survival small indeed, yet this wasnt the only obstacle the Jews had to overcome.

Exiled: The Jewish people began their national history in the land of Israel 3,300 years ago, where they lived as a nation for over one thousand years, yet they have spent the last two thousand years in exile, wandering around the world as strangers in a strange land. Most of the ancient nations of the world are no longer extant, even though very few of them were exiled from their homeland. Most nations do not survive exile; they assimilate into their host society and over time disappear.

Amazingly, the Jewish people were exiled twice (first 2,500 years ago at the hands of the Babylonians, and then 2,000 years ago by the Romans) and survived! That is unique in the annals of history.

Scattered: If surviving as a people in exile for millennium wasnt a big enough challenge, for most of that time Jews lived in hundreds of communities scattered around the world. Isolation, persecution, expulsion, forced conversion and outright slaughter destroyed many of the communities and stifled population growth. Despite being around for thousands of years and traditionally having high birthrates, the Jewish people remained a tiny nation and today are just .2% of the worlds population.

Jewish survival is one huge contradiction. Exiled, dispersed, few in number and constantly persecuted all of these factors should have been nails in the coffin of Jewish peoples existence. The Jewish people should have disappeared. Yet the nation survived, outlasting many of those nations who tried to destroy them.

That is what these five non-Jewish thinkers quoted above found so amazing (and none of them witnessed the astounding return and rebirth of Israel in the mid-20th century).

David Ben Gurion, Israels first prime minister, once said, For a Jew to be a realist, he has to believe in miracles. A cursory glance at the survival of the Jewish people attests to their amazing history.

About the Author

Rabbi Ken Spiro, originally from New Rochelle, NY, graduated from Vassar College with a BA in Russian Language and Literature and did graduate studies at the Pushkin Institute in Moscow. He has rabbinic ordination from Aish Jerusalem and a Masters Degree in History from The Vermont College of Norwich University. Rabbi Spiro is also a licensed tour guide by the Israel Ministry of Tourism. He has appeared on numerous radio and TV programs such as BBC, National Geographic Channel and The History Channel. A father of five children, he currently lives in Jerusalem, where he works as a senior lecturer for Aish Jerusalem, a tour guide and an author.

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Posted By admin on February 28, 2022

When I told my family I met this wonderful woman at an improv class, they would say, Shes an actor? No, Id say, shes a doctor. And my family would laugh hysterically because in a Jewish family if you cant be a doctor, the next best thing is to marry one, he said.

Mr. Caplans Jewish heritage, Dr. Cohen said, was also something she appreciated.

Even though my mother wasnt Jewish, I grew up in a Jewish home, said Dr. Cohen, who was raised in Coral Springs, Fla., and lost both of her parents by the age of 32. But I never dated a Jewish man before. There were so many things that just felt comfortable and like family right from the very start.

Early in their relationship, Mr. Caplan said his weekdays were comprised of planes, trains and automobiles because he traveled extensively across the country and around the world for work. But the couple made up for it on weekends: Dr. Cohen said they were together 99 percent of the time when he wasnt on the road.

I would usually sleepover at her place in Manhattan, said Mr. Caplan, who owns an apartment in Jackson Heights, Queens. She rarely slept over at mine, he said, alluding to Manhattanites age-old resistance to having an Out-of-Borough Experience.

After dating for a year, Mr. Caplan said, I felt that Dana and I were a solid team. But in the years that followed, he said neither prioritized marriage.

We both didnt feel a strong compulsion to make it legal, Mr. Caplan said. In theater we say If it aint broke, dont fix it.

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Improv Class Sparked Their Long-Term Romance - The New York Times

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Posted By admin on February 28, 2022

Our disability lineages can only be reclaimed through the stories we uncover. This means conceiving of disability as an identity like being queer, rather than reducing it to a medical condition. L.G.B.G.T.Q.+ people such as myself, who in the closeted past had no queer family members to look to as models, can now proudly find and claim their queer lineage, reclaiming and retelling family narratives to include their queer ancestors. Despite this progress, disability remains stigmatized. Disabled forbears often remain in the shadows, viewed with shame, not pride. Without ancestry, family history or lineage. Inconceivable.

After my daughters diagnosis, I began reclaiming my disabled kin. I discovered I had a distant relative with Down syndrome in the U.K., who had been integrated into her family. Her name was Rhona: Hebrew for joy. I learned about her joyous, Jewish life. Her parents helped found a cutting-edge care facility, Cosgrove Care, I visited Cosgrove and learned more about Rhona. Claiming my disabled relative transformed how I thought and felt about my daughters disability.

Finding disability lineage can mean learning to listen. To hear the untold story in euphemisms, silences and gaps. To read between the family lines. It means looking at old photos and noting the variety of bodies and minds you see. It meant seeing my daughter in a picture of Rhona from 50 years ago. For her bat mitzvah, my daughter chose a blingy purple plaid dress with metallic pink accents. Only when I was looking at the bat mitzvah photos afterward did I notice how Nadias woven plaid echoed Rhonas taffeta. Same pattern, same confidence.

Reclaiming our disability lineage also means rethinking fundamentally what a disability is its meaning and value. I had never thought of my Grandma Adina as disabled. I just knew that she adored me, dance in any form, and social justice, possibly in that order. Grandma Adina was also extremely hard of hearing. Yet I never thought of her as part of my familys rich disability lineage. Nor did I let, as Jewish tradition enjoins, her disabled memory be a blessing for my daughter. Shame and stigma about disability are so great that I had internalized them, never acknowledging that my dynamic dancing grandma was disabled.

We neednt minimize the challenges of impairment in order to value the gifts they give us. My grandmother was frustrated by her inability to hear. She hated having to yell What? and we hated repeating ourselves. Nonetheless, she was the best listener Ive ever known. But her hearing loss helped shape her extraordinary capacity for paying attention to me. In disability culture, this is called disability gain: the surprising benefits that an impairment can reap. This isnt about transcending ones disability, or being a supercrip. Disability justice activists like Stacey Milbern, who died in 2020, yearn for crip ancestries: the stories and wisdom of disabled elders. If we share our disabled family stories, we might just find such ancestors right in our own families.

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Posted By admin on February 28, 2022

Politics A woman holds a sign at a rally in Times Square to denounce the Russian invasion of Ukraine on Saturday, Feb. 26, 2022, in New York. (AP Photo/Brittainy Newman) The Associated Press

By The Associated Press, Associated Press

The latest on the Russias invasion of Ukraine:

WASHINGTON A senior U.S. intelligence official says Belarus is expected to send troops into Ukraine as soon as Monday to fight alongside Russian forces that invaded Ukraine last week.

Belarus has been providing support for Russias war effort, but so far has not taken a direct part in the conflict.

The American official has direct knowledge of current U.S. intelligence assessments and says the decision by Belarus leader on whether to bring Belarus further into the war depends on talks between Russia and Ukraine happening in the coming days. The official spoke anonymously to discuss the sensitive information.

Russian forces have encountered strong resistance from Ukraine defenders, and U.S. officials say they believe the invasion has been more difficult, and slower, than the Kremlin envisioned, though that could change as Moscow adapts.

James LaPorta

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CLEVELAND Russia has apparently rendered Facebook largely unusable across leading Russian telecommunications providers amid rising friction between Moscow and the social media platform.

The London-based internet monitor NetBlocks reports that Facebooks network of content-distribution servers in Russia was so badly restricted Sunday that content no longer loads, or loads extremely slowly making the platforms unusable.

Russian telecoms regulator Roskomnadzor on Friday announced plans to partially restrict access to Facebook. That same day, Facebooks head of security policy had said the company was barring Russian state media from running ads or otherwise profiting on its platform anywhere in the world.

Facebook says it has also refused a request by the Kremlin not to run fact checks related to Russias invasion of Ukraine on the platform for users inside Russia.

NetBlocks reported earlier that access to Twitter was similarly restricted Saturday. That was a day after Twitter said it was temporarily halting ads in both Ukraine and Russia.

The Twitter and Facebook restrictions can be circumvented inside Russia using VPN software, just as users do in mainland China.

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TOKYO Asian stock prices have fallen after Western nations moved to tighten sanctions against Russia and as President Vladimir Putin escalated tensions by ordering Russian nuclear forces on high alert.

U.S. futures fell, with the contract for the S&P 500 down 2.5% early Monday. The stock markets in Tokyo, Hong Kong and Shanghai declined while Sydney was higher.

Russias invasion of Ukraine has caused markets to swing wildly, given the potential impact on inflation, energy supplies and other areas. The Russian ruble has weakened sharply but was steady early Monday at 83.86 to the dollar.

Japan joined moves by the U.S. and Western nations to impose sanctions on Russia, including blocking some Russian banks from the SWIFT global payment system.

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BERLIN The United Nations nuclear watchdog says missiles have hit a radioactive waste disposal site in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv, but there are no reports of damage to the buildings or indications of a release of radioactive material.

In a statement late Sunday, International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Rafael Grossi says Ukrainian authorities informed his office about the overnight strike. He says his agency expects to soon receive the results of on-site radioactive monitoring.

The report came a day after an electrical transformer at a similar disposal facility in the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv was damaged.

Such facilities typically hold low-level radioactive materials such as waste from hospitals and industry, but Grossi says the two incidents highlight a very real risk. He says if the sites are damaged there could be potentially severe consequences for human health and the environment.

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CANBERRA, Australia Australia will provide lethal military equipment to Ukraine to help the Ukrainians resist the Russian invasion.

The Australian governments announcement Monday gave no details on what material it may be sending. The move follows an offer on Friday of non-lethal military equipment, medical supplies and a $3 million contribution to a NATO trust fund for support of the besieged country.

Australia has imposed sanctions on more than 350 Russian individuals, including Russian President Vladimir Putin since Thursday.

Australia has also targeted with sanctions 13 individuals and entities in Belarus, including that countrys defense minister, Viktor Khrenin. Belarus is supporting Russia in its war with Ukraine.

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TORONTO The two largest media companies in Canada are dropping Russian state TV channel RT from their cable offerings.

Rogers spokesman Andrew Garas says Russia Today will no longer be available on its channel lineup as of Monday.

The Bell media company also is removing RT.

Canadian Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez is commending the action, saying Russia has been conducting warfare in Ukraine since 2014 and information warfare across the world. He says RT is the propaganda arm of Russian President Vladimir Putins regime that spreads disinformation.

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FRANKFURT, Germany An Austria-based subsidiary of Russias state-owned Sberbank has been ruled likely to fail after depositors fled due to the impact of Russias invasion of Ukraine.

The European Central Bank said early Monday that the bank had 13.6 billion euros in assets at the end of last year, but has experienced significant deposit outflows due to geopolitical tensions.

The ECB says Vienna-headquartered Sberbank Europe AG is likely to be unable to pay its debts or other liabilities as they fall due. The bank is a fully owned subsidiary of Russias Sberbank, whose majority shareholder is the Russian government.

Europes bank resolution board separately says it has imposed a payments ban on money owed by the bank and a limit on how much depositors can withdraw. The board will decide on further steps, which could include restructuring, selling or liquidating the bank.

Sberbank Europe operates 185 branches and has more than 3,933 employees.

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KYIV, Ukraine Ukraines Interior Ministry says 352 Ukrainian civilians have been killed during Russias invasion, including 14 children. It says an additional 1,684 people, including 116 children, have been wounded.

he ministrys statement Sunday does not give any information on casualties among Ukraines armed forces.

Russia has claimed that its troops are targeting only Ukrainian military facilities and says that Ukraines civilian population is not in danger.

Russia has not released any information on casualties among its troops. The Russian Defense Ministry acknowledged on Sunday only that Russian soldiers have been killed and wounded, without giving any numbers.

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RIO DE JANEIRO Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro says his government will remain neutral regarding Russias invasion of Ukraine.

Bolsonaro said he had a two-hour long conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Sunday to talk about the war and assured Russias leader that Brazil will keep a neutral position. However, Brazils foreign ministry later said Bolsonaro did not speak to Putin on Sunday, but rather was referring to his two-hour meeting with the Russian during a visit to Moscow earlier this month.

Brazils ultra conservative president said Sunday that he does not want to bring the consequences of the conflict to Brazil.

Bolsonaro says that Russia has no intention of carrying out any massacres and that in some regions of Ukraine 90% of the people want to get closer to Russia.

The Brazilian president also criticized Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, saying people entrusted the fate of the nation to a comedian.

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WASHINGTON The U.S. for the first time has approved the direct delivery of Stinger missiles to Ukraine as part of a package approved by the White House on Friday.

The exact timing of delivery is not known, but officials say the U.S. is currently working on the logistics of the shipment. The officials agreed to discuss the development only if not quoted by name.

The decision comes on the heels of Germanys announcement that it will send 500 Stinger missiles and other weapons and supplies to Ukraine.

The high-speed Stingers are very accurate and are used to shoot down helicopters and other aircraft. Ukrainian officials have been asking for more of the powerful weapons.

The Baltic states have also been providing Ukraine with Stingers since January, and in order to do that had to get U.S. permission.

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TORONTO Canada will send an additional $25 million worth of defensive military equipment to Ukraine in an effort to help the country defend against Russias invasion.

Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly says the equipment includes helmets, body armor, gas masks and night-vision gear.

She says it will be routed through Poland to get there as quickly as possible.

Anand says Canada will offer up cybersecurity experts who can help Ukraine defend its networks against cyber attacks that are increasingly forming part of modern-day warfare.

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UNITED NATIONS The U.N. Security Council has voted for the 193-member General Assembly to hold an emergency session on Russias invasion of Ukraine on Monday.

The vote on Sunday to authorize an emergency meeting was 11 in favor, Russia opposed, and China, India and the United Arab Emirates abstaining. That was the exact same vote on a resolution Friday demanding that Moscow immediately stop its attack on Ukraine and withdraw all troops. But in that case, Russia used its veto and the resolution was defeated.

Ukrainian U.N. Ambassador Sergiy Kyslytsya asked for the General Assembly meeting to be held under the so-called Uniting for Peace resolution, initiated by the United States and adopted in November 1950 to circumvent vetoes by the Soviet Union during the Korean War.

That resolution gives the General Assembly the power to call emergency meetings when the Security Council is unable to act because of the lack of unanimity among its five veto-wielding permanent members the United States, Russia, China, Britain and France.

MOSCOW The U.S. Embassy in Moscow urged American citizens in Russia to think about leaving the country immediately on Sunday, as some airlines halt flights there and some countries close their skies to Russian aircraft.

U.S. citizens should consider departing Russia immediately via commercial options still available, the Embassy said in a statement on its website.

U.S. officials in recent weeks have urged Americans not to travel to Russia, and warned that the U.S. government could not help in any evacuation of Americans from there.

An earlier alert recommended Americans develop contingency plans about how to leave the country if necessary.

The European Union was among those announcing Sunday they were closing their airspace to Russian flights

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NEW YORK CITY New York Gov. Kathy Hochul signed an executive order on Sunday forbidding her state from doing business with Russia. The order includes canceling its investments in Russia.

During a press conference in Albany, the governor said her state would also welcome refugees from the besieged country. Hochul said New York is home to the largest Ukrainian population in the United States.

If you need a place to stay, you want to come over here, we will help you become integrated into our community, she said.

The economic sanctions follow those issued by President Joe Biden to help siphon resources from the Russian government, which launched its long-expected invasion of Ukraine last Thursday.

It remains to be seen how Hochuls move will aid the effort to severely squeeze the Russian economy in the global effort to get Russian President Vladimir Putin to retreat.

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KYIV, Ukraine As Russian troops draw closer to the Ukrainian capital, Kyivs mayor is both filled with pride over his citizens spirit and anxious about how long they can hold out.

In an interview with The Associated Press on Sunday, after a grueling night of Russian attacks on the outskirts of the city, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said there were no plans to evacuate civilians if Russian troops managed to take Kyiv.

We cant do that, because all ways are blocked, he said. Right now we are encircled.

When Russian troops invaded Ukraine on Thursday, the city of 2.8 million people initially reacted with concern but also a measure of self-possession. However, nerves started fraying when grocery stores began closing and the citys famously deep subway system turned its stations into bomb shelters.

The mayor confirmed to the AP that nine civilians in Kyiv had been killed so far, including one child.

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NEW YORK Some early signs are emerging of significant economic consequences to Russia following its invasion of Ukraine three days ago. While official quotes for the Russian ruble were unchanged at roughly 84 rubles to the dollar, one online Russian bank, Tinkoff, was giving an unofficial exchange rate of 152 rubles over the weekend.

Videos from Russia showed long lines of Russians trying to withdraw cash from ATMs, while the Russian Central Bank issued a statement calling for calm, in an effort to avoid bank runs. Reports also showed that Visa and Mastercard were no longer being accepted for those with international bank accounts.

Banks and credit card companies dealing with Russia are going into lock down mode given the fast pace and increasing bite of the sanctions, said Amanda DeBusk, a partner with Dechert LLP.

Russia may have to temporarily close bank branches or declare a national bank holiday to protect its financial system, analysts said.

If theres a full-scale banking panic, thats a driver of crisis in its own right, said Adam Tooze, a professor of history at Columbia University and Director of the European Institute. A rush into dollars by the Russian general population moves things into an entirely new domain of financial warfare.

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MOSCOW The Russian military said Sunday that some of its troops were killed and some were wounded in Ukraine admitting for the first time that it had suffered casualties since the Russian invasion.

Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov said Sunday there are dead and wounded among our comrades, without offering any numbers, but adding that Russias losses were many times fewer than those of Ukraines forces.

It was the first time Russian military officials mentioned casualties on their side. Ukraine has claimed that its forces killed 3,500 Russian troops. Konashenkov also said that since the start of the attack Thursday, the Russian military have hit 1,067 Ukrainian military facilities, including 27 command posts and communication centers, 38 air defense missile system and 56 radar stations.

Konashenkovs claims and Ukraines allegations that its forces killed thousands of Russian troops cant be independently verified.

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KYIV, Ukraine Hundreds of people protested Russias invasion of Ukraine in Belarus on Sunday. The protests came despite the fact that the authoritarian Belarusian government has sided with Moscow.

The anti-war rallies spanned at least 12 Belarusian cities, and human rights advocates reported that more than 170 people have been arrested. In the capital of Minsk, demonstrators marched in different parts of the city carrying Ukrainian flags. A large pile of flowers kept growing at the building of Ukraines Embassy.

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Live updates: US official: Belarus may join Ukraine invasion - Boston.com

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Posted By admin on February 28, 2022

A battle over a Congolese statue owned by the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts has thrust the local museum into the international spotlight.

The item in question is a wooden statue of Maximilien Balot that is currently on display in the African art galleries at the VMFA.

Balot was an abusive Belgian colonizer who was murdered in an uprising in the Congo in 1931. Later, a sculpture of the European oppressor was carved in wood by a native artist, to contain and control the Belgians spirit, in accordance with the beliefs of the Pende people. The VMFA purchased the Balot sculpture from collector Herbert F. Weiss in March 2015 for $25,000.

An art museum in the Congo called the White Cube has accused the VMFA of stonewalling requests for a loan of the Balot sculpture, an object it says belongs to the Congolese people.

After 18 months of trying to obtain the Balot statue on loan with no success, the White Cube decided to go a different route.

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Last month, , the White Cube decided to mint digital images of the Balot statue known as non-fungible tokens, or NFTs and sell them to raise funds and buy back land in Congo. A group associated with the museum, the Congolese Plantation Workers Art League -- also known as CATPC -- describes this as "digital restitution."

We received a letter from the director of the VMFA stating that the requested loan was regrettably not possible, without any opening as to when it would be possible," said Cedart Tamasala, part of the group. "This is when CATPC decided to investigate alternative opportunities to get back the power of the sculpture.

To create the NFT, the White Cube took an image of Balot from the VMFAs website without the VMFAs permission.

The Virginia Museum of Arts open-access policy specifically applies only to non-commercial use. The image used to create the NFT was lifted directly from VMFAs website without the museums permission and is being used for commercial purposes, Jan Hatchette, a spokesperson for the VMFA, said via email. Its use for financial gain as an NFT violates our open access policy. It is both unacceptable and unprofessional.

The controversy between the VMFA and the White Cube has already been written about in The Guardian, a daily British newspaper, and Artnet.com, an art market website.

"This has become a big issue in the art world over the past several years," said Amy L. Rector, an associate professor of anthropology at VCU. "We're seeing this at Western art museums that own art as a result of colonization. It's leading to bigger conversations such as, whose art is it? Who should own it? Who should benefit from it? And who should get to make those decisions?"

The White Cube is a small 1,290-square foot museum built in the town of Lusanga in Congo. Its construction was finished in 2019, with final stages of climate control and security completed in April 2021.

It looks exactly like its name: a white, angular cube located in the middle of an abandoned plantation.

The White Cube was established by CATPC, a cooperative of plantation workers, along with the help of the Dutch artist Renzo Martens, who helped secure funding for the White Cube building, which was designed by Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas firm OMA.

The idea behind the White Cube is part of a masterplan conceived to support a new art economic model that includes local Congolese labourers in arts creation and profit sharing, according to the museums website.

Martens most recent collaboration with the White Cube is a series of six short documentaries that tell the story of the White Cube, the artists in CATPC and their connection to the Balot sculpture. The documentaries can be viewed on Martens website for the Institute for Human Activities.

We built our own museum. Inside, its still empty, Tamasala, one of the artists of CATPC, says in the documentary. Right now, theres one specific sculpture we need. It has to come back. Its the sculpture our ancestors made of Balot.

Tamasala said that the White Cube wanted to bring the Balot statue back to the Congo to rekindle our relation with our heritage, and retrieve the powers that are contained in the sculpture.

In February 2020, Tamasala and fellow artist Matthieu Kasiama traveled to the VMFA, where they met with Richard Woodward, the founding curator of VMFAs African art collection. In the documentary, Tamasala and Kasiama asked if the statue could be loaned to the White Cube.

That would be a very interesting possibility to explore to be able to share the work back, said Woodward. As a museum that cares for the preservation of these objects we go through certain formalities about an agreement and shipping and display. You know, conditions of security and things like that.

The VMFA said Woodward was retired at the time of the interview.

According to the VMFA, a formal loan request for the statue from the Institute for Human Activities , where Martens is artistic director, was received on March 19, 2021.

At that time, the White Cube building was not yet complete and the VMFA could not commit to lend the sculpture, Hatchette said.

CATPC said it requested the sculpture from the VMFA for 18 months, to no avail.

The group said that's when it decided to create an NFT of the Balot sculpture.

CATPC describes minting the Balot sculpture as an NFT as one of the first global instances of digital restitution. The Balot NFT will put digital ownership of culture back into the hands of the many and helps buy back land once stolen and exhausted In a radical new model of restitution, blockchain-based NFT technology becomes a tool for decolonization.

The group plans to put 300 Balot NFTs on the market later this year. The goal is to use the funds to buy back land on the former Unilever plantation where they live and where the White Cube is located.

They have already bought back around 100 hectares of land once controlled by Unilever, according to ArtNet.

Buyers [of the NFT] get a digital rendering of the sculpture, based on photographic reproduction from the VMFAs website, it says on the Institute for Human Activities website. Every purchase helps to ultimately unleash the powers of the sculpture and make it work for the community: sales directly buy back land and [provide] autonomy and food security for plantation workers in one of the most impoverished areas of the world.

This gesture is a bit of a renegade, do-it-yourself attitude. If the VMFA wasnt going to loan the statue, CATPC decided to create its own version of the statue via a series of NFTs.

Indeed, a handful of museums are entering the blockchain space and minting NFTs as a mode of fundraising and monetizing digital collections, such as The British Museum and the Uffizi Gallery in Italy.

According to the IHA website, CATPC intends to use the window of opportunity that is offered by NFT digital ownership to claim lost art and restitute its functions: by using NFTs the powers of these objects can be reclaimed, even if the physical art is held by unwilling museums.

Impoverishment on the plantations is rampant: it is now essential that local communities make use of this technology and control the powers of their lost art, rather than the institutions that were built on the exploitation of their labour and culture."

We believe it is fair use for us to download the image from the VMFA website, Tamasala said via email. This image is the only way to get access to a sculpture that intellectually and artistically belongs to our community.

The controversy puts the VMFA in an uncomfortable position in the media spotlight, particularly for a museum that has publicly said that it intends to be one of the top three museums in the world for African American art.

The Guardian noted that the controversy highlights tensions between Western art museums displaying artifacts from the colonial era and the countries from where the works were taken.

"In my opinion, the answer from the VMFA should have been, 'Of course we will get this statue back to you. Let's work on the best way to do that,'" VCU's Rector said. "But hidden in those discussions is the way that Western art museums maintain this colonial perspective of, 'We're not going to give it to you until your facility is as secure as we want it to be,' or, 'You haven't given us enough information for a loan.' To me, that's the responsibility of an art museum. To make sure that those who are tied to this piece of artwork and who find meaning in it can get access to it."

The VMFA said that they never received actual loan dates from White Cube, which was still under construction when the museum first contacted the VMFA and "could not provide a facilities report that met museum standards."

The VMFA added that the "NFT had to have been planned for some time, at least as early as November 2021. This shows bad faith on their part since we were in regular email contact for almost two years."

The VMFA said it no longer intends to loan the Balot sculpture for exhibition at the White Cube gallery "because unfortunately, the minting of the NFT has broken all trust between VMFA and the exhibition organizers," Hatchette said.

We are sad ... that the museum qualifies us as 'unprofessional' and that the VMFA director no longer intends to loan the work to CATPC for an exhibition at White Cube," Tamasala said via email.

We could turn this around. Is it professional for the director of the VMFA to not even be interested in having a professional conversation about cultural heritage with the source community? Is it professional to not seriously answer a loan request? Tamasala asked.

While the Balot sculpture is currently on view at the VMFA in the African art galleries, it will be on loan to the North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, N.C., from Aug. 1 of this year until Aug. 1, 2023.

The VMFA has been in the middle of similar conflicts before.

In 2018, the VMFA returned a painting -- Madonna and Child Enthroned with Saints Nicholas of Tolentino and Sebastian, -- that had been stolen by the Nazis, to its original Jewish owners.

Since The Guardian and Artnet articles were published, the VMFA has said that it is conducting more research into the Balot sculpture. We are currently in the process of working with various partners to ensure that this matter is handled appropriately, a spokesperson said.

VMFA takes seriously, and responds to, all restitution claims for works in our collection. We have not received a claim from the Democratic Republic of the Congo for the Balot sculpture, a spokesperson for the VMFA said.

Tamasala said his group's stance is unchanging.

"The sculpture was made to resist forced labor. We still need the sculpture," he said. "If the VMFA says it no longer intends a loan request, one may question whether the VMFA has the skills and knowledge to conserve this sculpture at all.

ccurran@timesdispatch.com

(804) 649-6151

Twitter: @collcurran

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NFTs, art repatriation and the VMFA: How a local museum ended up in the middle of an international controversy - Richmond.com

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Posted By admin on February 28, 2022

click to enlarge

Photo via Google Maps

The site for the proposed "City Center at Hanna Ave" project at 2515 E Hanna Ave in Seminole Heights East.

The center is currently being built on an 11-acre lot at 2515 E Hanna Ave. in Seminole Heights East, and is supposed to host hundreds of City of Tampa workers once it's completed.

But the project has raised the concerns of construction experts, lawyers, local trade unions and leaders from the African American community, mainly due to the nature of the city's bidding process for the project.

In 2021, the city handed DPR Construction the massive contract directly. The company was first hired by the city in 2015 for a much smaller project costing roughly $6.2 million. Last year, the city awarded an extra $102 million to DPR to construct the full-blown city center project, without a public Requests for Proposals (RFP) process.

Now, council members want answers from the City of Tampa staff and legal team.Some councilmen want to find out if council can reverse their vote from last November to approve the project. The Tampa Bay Times reported that city council was "persuaded by Mayor Jane Castors administration" that the cost of the project was worth it at last year's meeting, and voted unanimously to approve it.Councilman Bill Carlson made the motion to bring these new questions to light at Thursday's meeting.

"If you look at my motion, I try to be clear that it's not the fault of the people who won the contract," Carlson told Creative Loafing Tampa Bay. "It's the fault of the city contract administration department, they broke all the rules."

Carlson went on to say that Mayor Castor's administration needs to address these problems.

"The mayor needs to clean out this department and bring in new people and new processes, because this shouldn't happen," Carlson said. "It's a misuse of authority that's been happening since Buckhorn was mayor, but this administrations needs to end it."

The city's Communication Director Adam Smith told CL he was checking for any official comment from the administration; City Attorney Gina Grimes have not responded to request for comment about the situation, this post will be updated if a response comes in.

"I have no doubt this is the biggest project in the city's history, and we need to make sure we're doing it right."

Dingfelder wants to hear about whether or not the city is planning on addressing the issues of the Black community and local trade unions being involved in the project.

"I have seen some good responses from from the mayor and the administration in regard to making sure that the contractor hits a goal for minority participation," Dingfelder told CL. "And I think they're bringing on an additional contractor, to make sure that the general contractor [DPR] is doing everything they promised they would do."

Both Dingfelder and Carlson were hopeful that the city would be able to address their concerns during Thursday's meeting. Dingfelder highlighted the project's massive scope, and the importance of following proper procedure to get it done.

"I have no doubt this is the biggest project in the city's history, and we need to make sure we're doing it right," he said.

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Tampa City Council will hear options for reversing approval of Hanna Avenue 'City Center' project - Creative Loafing Tampa

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Posted By admin on February 28, 2022

When it came to helping the Bay Area Jewish community thrive, Paul Cohen was an idea-generating machine.

Friends say hed crank out suggestions by the dozen. To his credit as shown by decades of dedication to San Francisco Hillel, the S.F.-based Jewish Community Federation, Menorah Park, Jewish LearningWorks and his synagogue, Congregation Shaar Zahav his ideas were good, and they stuck.

An LGBTQ activist, indefatigable Jewish community insider and friend to all, Paul Cohen died Feb. 22 after a fall at his home in Mill Valley. He was 74.

Paul was a gift to the Jewish community, said Beth Cousens, chief impact officer at the Federation. He cared about everyone, particularly about connecting them to the core of the tradition he loved, and particularly when he could expand the boundaries of what it meant to be Jewish. He was always ready to be of support, to talk through something hard, or just bring you brownies.

Added Shaar Zahav Cantor Sharon Bernstein, There was never a time that Paul didnt show up. There was never a time when he didnt convince others to show up with him.

Born in Jackson Heights, Queens, Cohen studied health care administration at George Washington University before embarking on a career in the health care sector. After relocating to San Francisco in 1979, he settled in for a lifetime of connections to the Bay Areas LGBTQ+ and Jewish communities, the nexus of which was Shaar Zahav, a largely LGBTQ shul for which he served as board president in its early years.

It wasnt the only institution he served. He also sat on the boards of the JCC of San Francisco, the Bureau of Jewish Education (now known as Jewish LearningWorks), InterfaithFamily Bay Area and the Jewish Community Federation.

I was not necessarily the first gay man on these boards, Cohen wrote in a Federation blog in 2013, but was able to teach an understanding of the needs of the gay and lesbian community.

Another of his passions was Hillel, serving as the Northern California director of campus advancement for Hillel International. He also sat on the board of S.F. Hillel. Its executive director, Rachel Nilson Ralston, said Cohen transformed our organization locally and nationally for the better.

Paul understood that Hillel is an on-ramp for Jewish adult involvement and is often the last chance we have to instill pride and foster belonging, Ralston added. He generously lent his leadership, passion and resources to ensure we made a difference in so many arenas, on multiple campuses.

In 2017, when Cohen was honored at a Hillel gala, he told J., Each of us has the opportunity to nurture and mentor whether children of our own, co-workers, or people we come across through organizational relationships. This is one of the greatest gifts we have to offer.

As a product of a strong Jewish education, Cohen also devoted time and energy to Jewish LearningWorks. CEO Dana Sheanin mourned his loss.

He continued to support us beyond his board service, she said, in particular by staying connected to and mentoring quite a few of our staff members. As one of my colleagues said yesterday, While he didnt have his own children, he had so many children in the community. His loss is palpable to our team.

Shaar Zahav Rabbi Mychal Copeland first got to know Cohen when he hired her as rabbi of Hillel at Stanford. As board president of InterfaithFamily Bay Area (renamed 18Doors in 2020), he hired her again to serve as director, and finally a third time when she came to lead Shaar Zahav. She remembers him as someone who always took time to help out, sometimes one fellow Jew at a time.

Copeland remembered a trans woman new to the congregation who initially had a hard time feeling comfortable in her new synagogue home. Sometime later, she came to the rabbi and asked for help writing the word Todah (Hebrew for thank you) on a card. It was a card for Cohen.

She said, He saw me, Copeland recalled. Other people didnt know what to make of me, but he saw me as capable.

One of Cohens most successful initiatives at Shaar Zahav was Journeys to Judaism, a multipronged program to welcome interfaith couples, non-Jews and those interested in becoming Jews. It is still going strong today.

Also going strong was his 36-year love affair with husband Robert Gutterman.

As for being that one-man ideas machine, Copeland says Cohen would call anybody who worked alongside him in the Jewish professional world, and he would download 50 ideas he had had that week.

He would say, I know you dont have to do all of these; Im just putting it out there. He was always looking for ways to better the Jewish community.

Paul Cohen is survived by his spouse of 35 years, Dr. Robert Gutterman, siblings Marc (Jane) of Fort Worth, Texas, and Ellen Hass (Steven) of Boynton Beach, Florida. Donations in his memory can be made to Congregation Shaar Zahav or San Francisco Hillel.

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Paul Cohen, 74, LGBTQ advocate and giant in Jewish community J. - The Jewish News of Northern California

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Posted By admin on February 28, 2022

Khan Younis, Gaza Strip

In a brightly lit classroom in Gaza, a teacher spells out Hebrew words on a whiteboard, followed attentively by Maher Al-Farra and dozens of other Palestinians hoping to take advantage of an opening up of employment opportunities in Israel.

Increased demand for the classes at the Nafha languages center follows a new offer of work permits by Israel as it has moved to calm border tensions following an 11-day war in May with Hamas, the Islamist group which rules the Gaza Strip.

It now offers 10,000 permits allowing Gaza residents to cross the border to work in Israel a new source of income to a region where 64% of the population is estimated to live in poverty and unemployment runs at 50%.

Ahmed Al-Faleet, the centers owner, said the number of people enlisted to learn Hebrew has increased four-fold to reach 160 students per course since Israel began giving work permits in the last quarter of 2021.

These courses allow anyone who gets a permit to read signs, documents written in Hebrew, and communicate with [soldiers] on Israeli checkpoints. If an employer speaks only Hebrew it enables the worker to deal with him, he told Reuters.

Some 2.3 million Gazans live in the narrow coastal strip, largely unable to leave to seek work abroad and squeezed by 15 years of restrictions imposed by Israel, which has fought four wars with Hamas and other armed groups since 2008. Gaza also borders Egypt, which imposes its own restrictions on crossings.

Before a Palestinian uprising erupted in 2000, some 130,000 Gazans worked in Israel. Palestinians said Israel had in 2005 barred laborers after pulling troops and settlers from Gaza.

A weeks wages in a day

No one expects the cautious increase in the number of work permits to end the long-running conflict between Israel and Hamas, who fought four wars since the Islamist faction seized control in Gaza in 2007.

But for the dozens of workers and merchants enrolled in the class at Nafha, the change offers the prospect of earning, in Israel, the equivalent of a weeks wages in Gaza.

I came here today to learn Hebrew so I can handle things at my work inside [Israel] easily, Mr. Farra told Reuters.

Israeli liaison officer Colonel Moshe Tetro said the new jobs would improve Gazas economy and would also serve calm and security stability.

Eassam Daalis, a senior Hamas official, said Israel was eventually expected to offer 30,000 work permits, which economists say could allow workers to earn an average of 500 shekels ($156) a day, equivalent to what some can earn a week working in Gaza.

Every week I go back home happy to my family with 2,000 shekels ($625). I also give to my mother and my father, said Jamil Abdallah, from Jabalya in northern Gaza.

Gaza economist Mohammad Abu Jayyab noted that the offer of permits was one of a series of economic steps agreed under a political settlement brokered by Egyptian, Qatari, and United Nations negotiators following the May war.

These are not unilateral Israeli initiatives, he said.

With tensions brewing over clashes between Jewish settlers and Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and the eviction of Palestinian families in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah the situation could change quickly.

Israel has tied the offer of more openness to improved security following Mays war and has accused Hamas of investing in building its fighting capabilities rather than resolving the humanitarian problems facing Gaza.

Get stories that empower and uplift daily.

If the security situation remains stable and calm the state of Israel would open up more and more, said Colonel Tetro.

This story was reported by Reuters.

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Why Gazans are rushing to brush up on their Hebrew - The Christian Science Monitor

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Posted By admin on February 28, 2022

Please join us for Learning About Learning: A Conversation with Professor Sharon Avni on Accentuating the American Jewish Hebrew Speaker. This conversation will focus on Sharon Avnis recent work on how the everyday acts of speaking, learning and engaging with modern Hebrew inform our understanding of contemporary American Jewish life.

Never miss the best stories and events! Get JewishBoston This Week.

Professor Sharon Avni (CUNY) is an applied linguist whose research on language, religion and education draws on a range of academic traditions and theoretical frameworks, including linguistic anthropology, historical analysis and cultural studies.

She is also a research affiliate at the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Center for Studies in Jewish Education at Brandeis University, where she worked with Sarah Benor (HUC) and Jonathan Krasner (Brandeis University) on the Hebrew at North American Jewish Overnight Summer Camps project. Their book, Hebrew Infusion: Language and Community at American Jewish Summer Camps, is the winner of the 2020 National Jewish Book Award in Education and Jewish Identity.

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Accentuating the American Jewish Hebrew Speaker | JewishBoston - jewishboston.com

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Posted By admin on February 28, 2022

Gadeer Kamal-Mreehs roots were planted the moment she was born in Daliyat al-Karmel. Born into a Druze culture that honors the idea of home, she never considered living anywhere besides the hill town southeast of Haifa.

Throughout her years as the first non-Jewish woman to anchor a Hebrew program on Israeli TV, and then as the first female Druze member of the Knesset, she drove the hour home each night from Jerusalem to the village.

Its obvious for me as a Druze that when I was born in Daliyat al-Karmel, I will get married in Daliyat al-Karmel, I will bring my kids there, I will raise them there and I will die in my village, she told Jewish Insider in a recent Zoom interview.

But during the video call, she was not sitting in her home in Israel. She was thousands of miles away in Washington, D.C., her first time living outside of her village of 17,000.

Kamal-Mreeh, 37, is in the United States as a shlicha, or emissary, of The Jewish Agency for Israel, which sends thousands of Israelis to the U.S. each year to serve as representatives of Israel in American Jewish communities. She is the first non-Jewish Israeli to serve as a senior emissary with the Jewish Agency, a quasi-governmental agency that deals with Diaspora affairs, but that was not her motivation.

You dont wake up in the morning and say, What is next? What is the next glass ceiling that I need to break? she explained. If those are things or stations or places that happened to me during my life, then Im glad. it is always important to bring diversity, not just to talk about diversity.

Israel has had non-Jewish diplomats before the first Arab Israeli diplomat was Ali Yahya, a Muslim appointed to be ambassador to Finland in 1995 but Kamal-Mreehs position is different. She does not represent the government of Israel, nor is she tasked with advancing Israels interests in matters of foreign policy. Her goal is more straightforward, but perhaps also more complicated: strengthening the relationship between American Jews and Israel.

She arrived in the U.S. in July of last year, weeks after a period of intense fighting between Israel and Hamas that touched off a wave of anti-Israel rhetoric and antisemitic attacks in the U.S.

The majority of American Jews say they have a connection to Israel. But studies released last year found that American Jews, particularly young Jews, have a wide array of views on Israel.

A survey of Jewish voters released last July found that a quarter of American Jews agreed that Israel is an apartheid state, including more than a third of Jews younger than 40. Nine percent of young Jews said that Israel does not have a right to exist. A major Pew Research Center poll published in May of 2021 found that 58% of American Jews feel at least somewhat attached to Israel, but that 48% of Jews between 18 and 29 feel an attachment to Israel.

We face a pivotal challenge in trying to connect American Jews to Israel, said Dan Elbaum, The Jewish Agencys head of North America. Kamal-Mreeh is not uncritical of certain Israeli policies or other things like that. They hear about that. From what Ive seen and heard, there is [also] such a pride in the Jewish state.

As a member of a minority group who has built a remarkable, if unlikely, high-profile career, Kamal-Mreeh argues that she brings a unique perspective to the conversation plaguing American Jewish leaders about how to better connect young Jews to Israel.

I believe my uniqueness is that I am bringing the complexity. Our role is not just to highlight the beauty. Our role also is to bring the complexity, to tell people, Dont be afraid to say anything. Dont be afraid to ask anything, Kamal-Mreeh said. I dont worry if people criticize me or us as a state. I will worry once they stop [doing] that, because you criticize when you care. And Israel is a complicated state.

From the time she was a child, Kamal-Mreeh was interested in journalism. I called the manager of a local TV station when I was in the sixth grade, telling him, Hi, my name is Gadeer, and I want to broadcast a TV show, she recalled. He just laughed. He didnt know how to react. Youre a child, they said.

Kamal-Mreeh did not serve in the Israeli army or do national service, a path that is now becoming more common for Druze women. She also did not become a journalist at least, not initially: First, she studied at Bar-Ilan University to become an ultrasound technician. It was only after an injury made it difficult for her to perform that job that she went back to school, to the University of Haifa, where she studied international relations.

As Kamal-Mreeh advanced in her highly visible career, she worried about how her conservative community would view her successes.

What surprised me is how much I was accepted in a respectful, fair way in my society, said Kamal-Mreeh. In 2017, she became the anchor of Channel 1s Hebrew-language weekend program, making her the first non-Jewish woman to anchor a broadcast in Hebrew. When her communitys spiritual leader called to congratulate her, I cried, she recalled. I said to myself, We did it, in terms of the religious leadership in my community is ready to be open-minded.

Her work as a news anchor came from a childhood belief in the huge power of screens when we are seeking to shape public opinion. But then, Kamal-Mreeh explained, I realized that my power is limited as a journalist. When now-Defense Minister Benny Gantz asked her to join his party, she agreed. In 2019, as a member of the Blue and White partys slate, she became the first Druze woman elected to the Knesset.

For her, Israel isnt only a home, but a mission and a calling for both Israeli society at large, and Druze society in particular, Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid told JI in a statement. I see the great work shes doing and Im sure shell make changes both big and small.

The 2018 passage of controversial legislation led Kamal-Mreeh to consider a career in politics for the first time. The Nation-State Law, she said, is a basic law that the Knesset legislated in 2018 to ensure that Israel is the historic homeland of the Jewish people, which is good, but with refusal of mentioning or adding the equality, the value of equality, the national equality for all of our citizens, which is the problematic part. The bill also downgraded the Arabic language, Kamal-Mreehs native tongue, to a special status.

As a journalist, she had covered Druze protests against the bill. When I was in Rabin Square, people were chanting, Shivyon, shivyon, shivyon. Shivyon, which means equality. Those are their demands, just to be equal citizens, said Kamal-Mreeh.

We are talking about the sense of belonging, about the refusal of my country to consider me as an A-class citizen. Once a democratic country categorized its citizens to A-class and B-class, to Jews and non-Jews, it is strong. And history taught us what happened to countries who create those divisions, and suddenly [Im] seeing my country doing that for me.

The law remains on the books, and she struggles with it publicly which she says is something that makes her proud to be Israeli. That public acknowledgment that Israel is far from perfect, and that it struggles with thorny identity questions in the same way that other democracies do, is why she was chosen to go to America.

We love our country. The fact that we cherish and we are enjoying freedom in our country, it doesnt mean that I need to be grateful each day for being born in Israel. I am the eighth generation living in Israel, she added.

In conversations with American Jews, Kamal-Mreeh says she has found a population that is eager to engage on complicated matters and aware that old-school styles of Israel advocacy no longer work.

Bringing the superficial propaganda of, We are good, trust us, we are wise, we are good, we are the absolute [that] advocacy, I dont believe it works anymore. What worked in the 80s or in the 90s, it doesnt work anymore, she explained.

Based in Washington, Kamal-Mreeh has a national portfolio. She has not yet engaged much with Washingtons political class a meeting with a few members of Congress is in the works although political types tend to populate the regions synagogues. She recently spent several days in Florida visiting college campuses, and she has spoken to Jewish communities around the country.

Shes probably been to more Shabbat dinners and spoken in more synagogues than many of our other shlichim, said Elbaum. She certainly is becoming part of our Jewish life also, even though shes not Jewish.

Kamal-Mreeh plans to spend up to three years in the U.S. with her husband and their children (and a dog, who interrupted her frequently during the interview). She doesnt know what may come next, but hasnt ruled out a return to politics. Maybe one day I will decide to go back to politics. It enriches me, enriches my ability to read reality. It broadens my perspectives, deepens the way that I think, how I think, my stance, my opinions, she explained.

By the time that she leaves, she and Elbaum have at least one metric of measuring her success.When she and I spoke about the role, within our first or second conversation, recalled Elbaum, what I said to her is that we both need to set a personal goal that when she leaves she will not be the only non-Jewish shaliach.

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The Druze emissary 'bringing the complexity' of Israel to American Jews - Jewish Insider

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