Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By admin on February 23, 2022

The Calcalist business daily's report on police use of NSO spyware apparently only has negligible impact on former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's corruption trial. Netanyahu knows this, though he called for a state commission of inquiry on the issue anyway, and asked his supporters to fill Tel Aviv's Habima Square to underscore his demand.

What happened on the evening of the protest was nothing less than a sociological turning point. That morning, Netanyahu responded with humility to a letter that Supreme Court President Esther Hayut sent to Netanyahus Likud party colleague David Amsalem, as would be expected of a man from an established Ashkenazi family, a man who had always respected the judicial system and submitted to its authority until the criminal investigation was opened.

'The New KKK': the danger of Israeli settler violence against Palestinians. LISTEN

The assumption that he used Amsalem and then threw him under the bus after Amsalem lambasted the court, presumably at Netanyahus bidding, again shows how flawed and inadequate the reading of the Israeli reality is when it comes to status and social standing particularly by the left wing. Thats apparent from the reaction of Netanyahus supporters, who flooded social media with statements that they would stay away from the demonstration until Netanyahu backtracks on his decision to disassociate himself from Amsalem and his flattery of Hayut. Amsalem had taken the court to task claiming bias against Mizrahim.

Surprised? The public discourse over the courts racism is important to this segment of the public. The conflict between Amsalem and Hayut in which Netanyahu naturally falls on the side to which he belongs socially, economically, ethnically and culturally reveals the bare bones of the story.

Let me tell you, someone with a Twitter profile picture of pro-Netanyahu commentator Jacob Bardugo tweeted, addressing Netanyahu. Next time that you contradict Dudi Amsalem, you lose 200 voters. I guarantee it. Your next tweet against our Mizrahi cell in Likud and you will be left on your own and that also includes your nonsense over your fabricated [criminal] cases.

Do you feel the earthquake? Because at my house, the windowpanes are rattling, the books are falling from the shelves and the light fixture is swaying back and forth. The Twitter account holder publicly stated that the conspiracy to fabricate the cases against Netanyahu was nonsense, that his supporters dont believe him, but they have stuck with him because he suits their purposes in their war against the social elites and their dazzling whiteness.

This isnt an isolated anecdote. There have been similar tweets on a daily basis. And if one can judge from the turnout at Habima Square, a considerable number of people made good on their word to stay away.

Amsalem did his job. He attacked the court as part of a broader effort in which he throws Netanyahu crumbs by undermining public trust in government institutions, but Amsalem wants dialogue with Hayut not the Esther Hayut of the immigrant transit camp of her childhood, but with Hayut the Supreme Court president. He wants a serious conversation about ethnic identity and oppression and discrimination.

Netanyahus attitude toward the judicial system is related to his legal situation. Its possible that hes attempting to maintain good relations with Hayut because hes pursuing a plea bargain, but deep down, he really believes in the judicial system.

On the other hand, in the Likud Mizrahi cell, they think the claims regarding fabricated criminal cases and a government run by civil servants is rubbish, but theyre prepared to go along with Netanyahu as long as he understands whos the man (Amsalem). Those making fun of the new Mizrahi middle class that supports the millionaire former prime minister from Caesarea can see that this support comes with considerable limitations.

Amsalems attacks are wild, crude and damaging, but they keep the discourse on structural anti-Mizrahi bias alive. A nervous Netanyahu attempted to appease the crowd by tweeting that the under-representation ofMizrahi communitiesis a real and painful problem in Israel.But the rift has already been exposed.

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'You'll be left on your own': The unmasking of Netanyahu's politics - Haaretz

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Posted By admin on February 23, 2022

Megillat Esther, or the Scroll of Esther, read on the upcoming holiday of Purim, describes the Jewish peoples escape from annihilation in Persia in the fifth century BCE. But really, its a quintessential story of Jewish life in the Diaspora, whereabsent splitting seas and falling mannaJews must rely on their wits and influence to preserve themselves and their way of life.

Purim, celebrated this year on March 17, does have one thing in common with every other Jewish holiday, however: It revolves around food. Edible gifts, called mishloach manot, are delivered to friends and family, and the day ends with a feast in commemoration of the wine-tastings Queen Esther hosted for King Ahasuerus and his wicked adviser, Haman.

Still, Purim cuisine is not known for its diversity. For most people, it begins and ends with hamantaschenthe triangular, fruit-filled cookies that represent Hamans hat, or maybe his pocket (more on that later). In fact, Jews all over the world cook an incredible variety of dishes to celebrate the story of Persian redemption, and these foods tell their own story of Jewish acculturation and continuity.

First and foremost, its a story of faith, says Joan Nathan, journalist and author of 11 cookbooks, most recently King Solomons Table: Jewish food is the dietary laws, no question about that. Even if you dont observe them, I think theyre always in the back of your mind. But equally, Nathan says, Jewish cooking in the Diaspora is about adaptation. Going elsewhere, going throughout the world and making these dishes kosher. Its a quality of Jewish food. Unlike French or Italian cuisine, its not limited to a place.

In Russia and Poland, for example, Jews celebrate Purim with koyletsha large, sweet loaf topped with white frosting and sprinkles. It shares a name, and a striking resemblance, to a panettone-like Russian bread served at Easter, but its shapebraided like challahmakes it Jewish. Koyletsh is said to represent the rope used to hang Haman after his downfall.

Giving food a symbolic meaning was a common way of incorporating local cuisine into Jewish culture. Stuffed foods are really common on Purim to represent the surprises of the story, says Jonathan Katz, an amateur chef who explores the diversity of Jewish cooking on his blog, Flavors of Diaspora. One old Eastern European tradition is to serve pierogi, and there are Sephardi traditions to make bourekas on Purimboth have equivalents in surrounding communities.

In some cases, symbolic meaning was attributed to foods that were already a staple of the Jewish diet. Seasoned chickpeas, another Purim dish, are served because Queen Esther is said to have maintained the kosher laws in the palace of King Ahasuerus by subsisting on legumes. Garbanzos were so closely identified with Jews in Spain that, during the Inquisition, anyone caught cooking them was subject to arrest. But Ashkenazim, who call them nahit or arbes, eat chickpeas only on Purim and a few other select occasions.

Eating the enemy

If the story of Purim food has a protagonist, however, its the dessert table. Pastries of every kind abound, and thats not only because its a fun, kid-friendly holiday, Nathan says: Purim was a time to get rid of your last flour before youd replenish it after Passover.

The necessity to rid the house of all leaven led Jewish cooks into an orgy of invention and vengeance: Almost every traditional Purim dessert claims to be some part of Hamans body, so thatafter drowning out the sound of his name during the reading of the MegillahJews can take it one step further at the feast.

In Sephardic communities, fried dough shaped variously as Hamans ears, shoes and fingers is dipped into syrup and topped with sesame seeds and powdered sugar. Hojuelasrose-shaped, fried confectionsare enjoyed by Sephardim around the world. European Jews have their own take on eating the enemy. Refusing to settle for a mere ear or finger, German bakers serve gingerbread and lemon (Ha)man-shaped cookies.

But the hamantash, in its many variations, remains the most beloved Ashkenazi Purim dessert. The triangular cookies emerged in the late 16th century, a variation on a medieval German treat called mohntasche, or poppyseed pocket. It was a phonetic similarity that led to the pastrys rebirth as the bribe-filled pocket of Ahasueruss wicked adviser. The hat was a later interpretation, reflecting the fashions of 17th-century Europe (Persians didnt wear tricornered hats).

Aficionados debate over the dough (yeast is more authentic), and the proper filling continues to be a source of heated controversy among young and old. Nathan prefers a butter crust with orange or poppyseed filling. My grandchildren like chocolate, she says, but it doesnt do anything for me.

Hamantashen may never lose their place of honor at the Purim table, yet the diversity of Purim cuisine is a reminder that Jewish life in the Diaspora has its moments of triumph and sweetness. Jewish cultures and Jewishness are a kaleidoscopic world, and I think we lose something when we insist on only one tradition, says Katz. Were supposed to be joyful on Purim, and whats better than a range of delicious food to bring joy?

Chickpeas. Photo by Ethel G. Hofman.

Chickpeas (Nahit) for Purim (Pareve)

From Joan Nathans Jewish Holiday Cookbook

Ingredients:

1 (20-ounce) can of chickpeas

Salt

Freshly ground black pepper

Directions:

Place chickpeas with liquid from the can in a saucepan. Simmer for a few minutes until heated through.

Drain the water. Sprinkle with salt and freshly ground pepper to taste.

Serve in a dish with toothpicks, or eat the chickpeas as you would sunflower seeds or peanuts.

Makes 2 cups.

Hojuelas. Photo by HlneJawhara Pier.

Hojuelas (Pareve)

From Sephardi: Cooking the History. Recipes of the Jews of Spain and the Diaspora From the 13th century to today by Hlne Jawhara Pier(Cherry Orchards, 2021).

Ingredients:

For the hojuelas:

2 cups flour

1 tsp. baking powder

3 beaten eggs

cup sugar

2 tsp. water

tsp. salt

7 tsp neutral oil

neutral oil for frying

For the syrup:

cup water

cup orangeblossom water

cup sugar

To decorate:

cup icing sugar

cup sesame seeds

Put the flour, the baking powder, the beaten eggs, the sugar, the water, the salt and the oil in a bowl and mix with a spoon. Finish mixing with your hands. The dough should be smooth, without lumps.

Wrap the dough in plastic film and cool for 15 minutes.

Sprinkle flour on your working surface and roll out the dough. It must be thin and not sticky.

Cut strips 1 generous inch wide and about 15 inches long.

Heat the oil over medium heat.

Take a strip in your hand. Gently stick the teeth of a fork into one end of the strip and put the fork in the oil to cook this portion of the strip while keeping the rest out of the pan. Small bubbles will form on the dough. Every two seconds, gently turn the fork to roll up a little more of the strip and fry that bit. Continue like this until the entire strip of dough has been wrapped around the fork and fried.

Set aside and continue in the same way for allhojuelas.

Prepare the Syrup:

Pour the water, orange blossom and sugar into a pan. Mix everything over low heat for 5 minutes. The mixture should remain very liquid and transparent.

Soak thehojuelasin the sugar syrupbeing careful not to break themand put them onto a serving dish.

Put the sesame seeds and the icing sugar on two separate plates, and dip one side of each hojuelainto one or the other alternately.

Makes 10 pieces.

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Posted By admin on February 23, 2022

The first group of over 1,000 visitors said their prayers at the tzaddik's grave on Tuesday. Darek Delmanowicz/PAP

Around 2,000 Hasidic Jews, mainly from Europe and the United States, are expected to visit the town of Leajsk, in southeastern Poland, to take part in commemorations marking the 235th anniversary of the death of Tzaddik Elimelech Weissblum of Lizhensk.

The first group of over 1,000 visitors said their prayers at the tzaddik's grave on Tuesday. The observances will end on Friday.

Those coming to Leajsk believe that the tzaddik comes down from heaven on the anniversary of his death - he died on March 11, 1787 - and takes their requests to God for health, well-being for their children and success at work.

Before World War Two, Leajsk was inhabited by a large Jewish community and was one of the most important centres of Hasidism in Poland. The tradition of visiting the grave of Tzadik Elimelech Weissblum of Lizhensk was revived in the 1970s.

With its grave of Tzaddik Elimelech, Leajsk is one of the holiest places in the world for Hasidic Jews. Hasidim gather there not only to celebrate anniversaries of the tzaddik's death, but also on the occasion of various Jewish holidays, while making private pilgrimages and tours of Poland.

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Hasidic Jews from around the world pray at tzaddik's grave in Poland - The First News

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Posted By admin on February 23, 2022

(JTA) Members of Lev Tahor, the Hasidic group that is often described as a cult and has been chased across continents in the wake of a child abduction scandal, were sighted in a remote town in Bosnia and Herzegovina last month and in North Macedonia this month, as they bounce around the Balkans in a continual attempt to avoid scrutiny.

The group reportedly moved on from Bosnia in early February, but not before causing a media storm in the small country.

Lev Tahor members were sighted in Hadii, a town about 12 miles west of Sarajevo. In the largely Muslim town of about 20,000, the group stood out due to their traditional dress. They later relocated to a predominantly Bosnian-Serb neighborhood of Sarajevo known as Ilida. There they stayed in a building owned by a member of the national assembly of Republika Srpska, the ethnic Serb enclave within Bosnia and Herzegovina.

According to Igor Kozemjakin, the cantor and de facto spiritual leader of Sarajevos sole synagogue, the countrys small Jewish community only heard about their arrival as other locals did, via media reports. But he and other members of the Jewish community quickly found themselves called on to explain the group as their neighbors started learning more and more about their background. The media was speculating, they didnt know who they were, so they called us. But we didnt know they were in the country either, they didnt call us, Kozemjakin told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. They didnt make any connections with the Jewish community here, their way of life is very closed.I learned from the media that they were here, when I saw their pictures it was understood they were Jewish, but I had to learn about them as well, he added.

The group, whose name means pure heart in Hebrew, was founded in 1988 by an Israeli rabbi, Shlomo Helbrans. They follow an extreme interpretation of Hasidic Judaism, requiring women to be covered from head to toe, in garb not dissimilar to a burqa. They also eat a diet of mostly fruits and vegetables, considering almost everything else not sufficiently kosher and eschew all Jewish texts beyond the Torah and Helbrans own books. According to one former member of the group, Helbrans and later his son Nachman held almost complete control over its 300 or so members, even in matters of life and death.

By 1990, Helbrans and his followers had relocated to Williamsburg, Brooklyn. There, Helbrans served prison time for abducting a boy who had been sent to study with him as a bar mitzvah student. After their troubles in New York, they relocated to Canada. But in 2014, after allegations of child abuse and neglect, most of the group fled to Mexico and Guatemala.

Helbrans reportedly died in Mexico in 2017, drowning in a river he was using as a mikvah for ritual immersion, leaving the group in the hands of his son Nachman.

Nachman Helbrans and his right hand man Meyer Rosner were arrested in Mexico in 2018 and extradited to the United States, where they were convicted by a U.S. court in November for a scheme in which they tried to force a 14-year-old girl into a sexual relationship with a 19-year-old as part of an arranged marriage. By then, Lev Tahors leadership had fled Mexico and Guatemala and arrived in Iraqi Kurdistan hoping to enter Iran, after applying for asylum and pledging allegiance to Irans Supreme Leader Ali Khomeini.

Interviewed during their stay in Bosnia, members of Lev Tahor said that they were detained by Kurdish security for days and held in harsh conditions. Ultimately they were turned back and deported to Turkey, from which they traveled to Romania, and onto Bosnia and Herzegovina.

As their neighbors in Sarajevo became aware of more of their history, they became increasingly uncomfortable with the groups presence.

One Bosnian media outlet reported that neighbors were put off by what they described as rituals throughout the night and hearing childrens voices singing from the building at all hours.

The media portrayed them as child kidnappers, so people got scared in the neighborhood. But ultimately they understood they are a closed community, who dont interact with the locals, Kozemjakin said.

Under Bosnian law, as citizens of the US, Canada and Guatemala, they were legally permitted in the country for 90 days.

According to the Times of Israel, on Feb. 3, ahead of Shabbat, 37 members of the group crossed over Bosnias southern border into Montenegro. A man who had serviced the apartment building they had been living at, suggested they may be planning on heading to Bulgaria.

Not that I was worried too much, but Im happy that they left because now the media can focus on local issues, this was just a distraction from the real problems in our society, Kozemjakin said.

He said that an unfortunate result of the groups presence was that the media flurry around them began on Jan. 26th, just before International Holocaust Remembrance Day, drowning out other local coverage of the day.

Since their departure from Bosnia and Herzegovina, the group made similar headlines in another former Yugoslav republic, North Macedonia, where the group surfaced in the city of Kumanovo, about a half hours drive northeast from the capital Skopje.

Lev Tahor members told local media that they have been harassed in the town. We want to feel safe, but at the moment I do not know how to feel safe, one member told a reporter from the North Macedonian outlet Telma. He said that the house they were staying in was pelted with eggs and stones the night before.But as in Bosnia, Macedonian authorities reminded local residents that the group had entered legally on American, Canadian, Belgian and other passports and posed little threat. These people respect the laws of the Republic of Northern Macedonia, are completely legally residing here, and are temporarily residing in our country, the Macedonian interior minister said in a statement on Sunday. [Kumanovo police] informs the citizens of Kumanovo that the said group does not pose any danger and appeals for tolerance and solidarity towards them.

Nonetheless, for security reasons the group was moved to the capital, Skopje, Tuesday where they stayed in a hotel.

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The Lev Tahor Hasidic sect is bouncing around the Balkans, attracting attention wherever they go - JTA News - Jewish Telegraphic Agency

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Posted By admin on February 23, 2022

Good morning, New York. On this date in 1963, The New Yorker published the first part of Eichmann in Jerusalem,philosopher Hannah Arendts controversial book-length essay on the trial of the terrifyingly normal mastermind of the Holocaust.

Shelf life: Ezra Goldstein was 60 when he decided to take over the struggling Community Bookstore in Park Slope (photo, above). Twelve years later, after transforming Brooklyns oldest independent bookstore into a neighborhood hub for literary culture, hes retiring this week. Julia Gergely reports.

Safe space: Roslyn Engelmayer Bubby Roz is an adopted grandmother to the misfit Jews of the Lower East Side. Writing in Alma,JeJae Cleopatra Danielspays tribute to a woman who opens her doors to kids who dont fit the class, race and gender expectations of the Orthodox world.

At his side: Mayor Eric Adams appointed Joel Eisdorfer, a Hasidic Jew from Borough Park, as a senior advisor on Jewish affairs and small business recovery efforts, the Jerusalem Post reported. Eisdorfer is thought to be the first Hasidic Jew appointed to the position.

Remembering: Rebbetzin Chave Hecht, the founder of Camp Emunah Bnos YaakovYehudah anovernight camp for observant Jewish girls and a host of other educational initiatives originating in the Chabad-Lubavitch community, died Feb. 8 at the age of 95. Born in the Brownsville section of Brooklyn and educated at public schools, she, along with her husband, the late Rabbi J.J. Hecht, also directed a Jewish summer day camp on Coney Island for public school children, pioneering Chabads outreach to non-observant Jewish families.

PEOPLE & PLACES

Julie Platt, a leading Los Angeles philanthropist, one-time banker and mother of Broadway star Ben Platt, was named as the second woman to chair the Jewish Federations of North America, which is headquartered in New York. Chair of a foundation named for her and her husband, Hollywood producer Marc Platt, she has been involved in an array of Jewish educational initiatives.

The Hadar Institute named Deborah Sacks Mintz as director of tefillah and music and the newest member of Hadars faculty. She takes on the role after serving as an artist, consultant and teacher for Hadars Rising Song Institute.

WHATS ON TODAY

The Leo Baeck Institute presents Jerusalem, New York and London: A Discussion of Three German-Jewish Diasporas with Lori Gemeiner Bihler and Thomas Sparr. They will talk about three neighborhoods (Rehavia in Jerusalem, Washington Heights in New York and Hampstead/Swiss Cottage in London) and the havens they provided for Jews from Nazi Germany. Register here. 11:00 a.m.

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The man who turned Park Slope into Brooklyns literary HQ Hasidic Jew will advise Mayor Adams Remembering Rebbetzin Hecht - Jewish Telegraphic Agency

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Posted By admin on February 23, 2022

The Crown Heights riots, which roiled the Brooklyn neighborhood over four days in 1991, were some of the most thoroughly documented events in New York City history. Covered in real time by local, national and global media, the violence was recounted by witnesses in numerous civil and criminal trials. The riots were also the subject of countless books, essays, documentaries and a one-person play.

Add to that canon now, six months after the 30th anniversary of the events, an exploration in that most modern form of media: a podcast.

Love Thy Neighbor, a five-episode series available now on the Audacy platform, was created, written and narrated by journalist Collier Meyerson. It is a personal account of the riots by a Jew of color who depicts the unrest as a flashpoint that shaped a dark new era of politics, policing, antisemitism and anti-Black racism in New York City.

Meyerson was just 6 on Aug. 19, 1991 when a car driven by a Hasidic man accidentally killed 7-year old Gavin Cato, a Black child. A perfect storm of bad decisions, weak leadership and pent-up rage sparked widespread violence. Orthodox Jews were targeted by Black protesters, and a yeshiva student, Yankel Rosenbaum, was stabbed to death.

Meyerson views the events through the lens of her fathers work as a civil rights lawyer, which included defending people swept up in the events.

The podcast came from a desire to properly explore the events for her generation, and those to come. I was talking to a friend who had only heard of the Crown Heights riot by name and was curious about the history, the context and the political implications of its fallout, said Meyerson, who has contributed to The Nation, Wired, MSNBC (where she won an Emmy), The New Yorker and other media outlets.

She grew up in Manhattan but spent eight years living in Crown Heights as an adult. Born to a Jewish mother and Black father and later adopted by a Black mom and Jewish dad Meyerson, like many Jews of color, sees the events as a painful clash between the two central parts of her identity.

Episode 1 starts with a retirement party in 2020 for the local police precincts community affairs officer, with each of the tributes putting a positive spin on how the community has healed its wounds. But on the streets, says Meyerson, if you pay close attention, you are aware of the animosity just below the surface.

Flareups between Hasidic community patrols and Black residents in the years since are noted, and Meyerson says there is no denying the persistence of Jewish racism and Black antisemitism, sometimes palpable but often more subtle.

Meyerson also explores the hot-button, widely disputed question of whether the 1991 violence was a two-sided clash, rather than an antisemitic campaign what some even called a pogrom against Jews. The podcast cites eyewitness and media reports that Hasidim returned fire, throwing rocks and bottles and occasionally scuffling with the rioters. (Journalist Ari Goldman, who covered the events for The New York Times, later wrote an essay for The New York Jewish Week saying he never saw any violence by Jews against Blacks, and criticized The Times for suggesting both sides were culpable.)

I have a really hard time telling anyone from Crown Heights that their view or experience of August 1991 is wrong, Meyerson said in an email interview. My intention was never to be an arbiter of some universal truth, but to pull back the layers of two vastly different experiences, and hopefully add a context that wasnt there before.

Some bristle at such context. Chabad-Lubavitch spokesman Motti Seligson is featured in the podcast taking offense to the notion that the events were less a riot than an uprising stemming from Black residents resentment of what they considered the Chabad communitys oversized political power. That narrative, he says, borders on justification for the violence.

There are some in the Hasidic community who have told me that to even try and give it context is wrong and I certainly respect that point of view, Meyerson said. But I really do believe it was a worthwhile endeavor and hopefully one that would get people from both sides to view what happened before, during and after the riot just a little differently.

Episode 2 takes a close look at Mayor David Dinkins handling of the riot or perhaps lack thereof, which cost the citys first Black mayor reelection. Hesitant decisions and missed opportunities are explored, as well as the pervasive allegation that he held the police back in order to allow the rioters to vent their rage. That notion was never proven in court proceedings, nor asserted in the states exhaustive review of the events, known as the Girgenti Report. Dinkins took great exception to that notion until his death in 2020.

I thought he got a fairly bad rap during the Crown Heights riot and that it was unfortunate because he really was a champion of so many Jewish causes and believed so much in the possibility of Jewish and Black alliance, Meyerson said. I do think that he stumbled a bit during the course of those four days with the Lubavitch community and that it caused him to lose support in that community.

Episodes delve into the early years of Crown Heights as it became home to two waves of immigrants, Jews from Europe and other parts of America, and Black immigrants from the Caribbean. A tale of two neighborhoods emerges, as the City Council district in 1976 was split in two in an apparent effort to give Jews a solid contiguous voting block. The city treated the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Menachem Mendel Schneerson, as a world dignitary, complete with NYPD guards. They have certain rights that we dont have, a Black resident tells Meyerson.

The riots were preceded by the tense 1989 mayoral election between Dinkins propelled into the Democratic nomination by racial strife surrounding the murder of Black teenager Yusef Hawkins by a white mob and Republican candidate Rudolph Giuliani, who worked unsuccessfully to paint Dinkins as weak on crime. (His strategy would prevail in their 1993 rematch.)

Meyerson sees those campaigns, as well as the policing strategies of Giuliani and his successors, as infused with racism. It was in that atmosphere that a false rumor spread that police and medics left young Cato to die, while rushing the Hasidic driver and his passengers to the hospital. We hear from the police officer who ordered the Hasidim to leave the scene, for their own safety, a reminder that the road to hell is paved with good intentions.

But Love Thy Neighbor is as much an exploration of identity and perception as it is of history. We see the cultural differences between African Americans and their Caribbean American neighbors, who never felt life as a minority in their birthplaces. We also hear from Jews who reject being labeled as white, such as an Iranian-born Chabad member who rejects being caught up in a binary.

During her time living in Crown Heights, Meyerson says she was never approached by Chabad, which is well known for outreach to less observant Jews. I had a joke with a friend, who is Irish Catholic, that she was approached more than I was, Meyerson says. Outreach has changed a lot since I was living there, I can say that from personal experience. But at the time, because I was secular and because I wasnt perceived as Jewish, I really didnt have a lot of interaction with the Hasidic community in Crown Heights. However, the West Indian community really embraced me, ironically, because they thought that (because of the way I look) I was from one of the islands.

In her personal reflections, Meyerson cites the sociologist and writer W.E.B. Du Bois words about double consciousness, or the ability of Black people to see themselves as white people see them. As a Black Jew, she said there have been people who tried to strip me of my Judaism by asking questions about her lineage no white Jew would be asked.

Perhaps thats why in Crown Heights she seems to see a metaphor of two parts of a whole that want to unite, but cant quite find a way to do so.

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In Crown Heights riots podcast, host explores her Black Jewish identity J. - The Jewish News of Northern California

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Posted By admin on February 23, 2022

Ukraine is in the news. Daily reports pour in about the buildup of Russian troops as many as 130,000, to the north, east and south of the country. Diplomatic activity is also escalating but without a clear path to resolving the situation. NATO is on alert. Ukrainian civilians are beginning to train militia-style to resist a possible invasion. Worst of all are the projections of massive casualties, especially if the capital city of Kiev is attacked. It is a night of watching (Exodus 12:42) for Ukraine.

In the middle of this storm is Ukraines Jewish community and remarkably, although only 100,000 Ukrainians are Jews at this moment, the President of the country, Volodymr Zelensky, is Jewish and embraces his identity. Few countries, including the United States, can make that claim. Eight decades ago, members of the Zelensky family were murdered during the Holocaust and others fought in the Red Army.

Another surprising fact about the Ukrainian Jewish heritage is that the novel on which the musical Fiddler on the Roof is based, Tevye the Dairyman, is most likely modeled on shtetlach in Ukraine where Tevyes creator, Sholem Aleichem (1859-1916), grew up. At the end of the 19th century, Ukraine was in the Pale of Settlement, a vast area established by the Czars to quarantine Jews along the western border of the vast Russian Empire. The Pale included not only Ukraine but also Poland and other large centers of Jewish population. Indeed, the territory of the Pale was the site of the largest Jewish population in the world until the Shoah.

Today, its hard to know exactly how many Jews live in Ukraine, but its believed to be about 100,000, down considerably from 400,000 before the massive waves of Jewish emigration at the end of the 20th century. At its high point, Ukraine had more than a million Jews whose native language was nearly 100% Yiddish.

Currently, Ukraine has the fourth largest Jewish community in Europe following France, Great Britain and Russiabut ahead or equal to Germany. Included in that Ukrainian Jewish population are Bratslaver Hasidim who have returned to Uman, south of Kiev, to be near the grave of their late Rebbe, Reb Nachman (1772-1810) and have re-established a Yiddish-speaking community and kindergarten. Yes, you read that correctly. There is literally a new shtetl-like communityin the old country, in addition to the massive annual Rosh Hashanah pilgrimage.

Historians speculate that Jews have lived in the Ukraine at least since the 9th century. By 1648, the Jewish population of Ukraine, then part of Poland, was massive and as many as 20,000 Jewish civilians (revised from earlier estimates of as high as 250,000) were killed during the Khmelnytsky Cossack Uprising, 1648-1655. One hundred years later, the Hasidic movement was founded among Ukrainian Jews in villages to the south and west of Kiev and quickly spread across much of East Europe. In 1791, the Pale was established on the western edge of the Russian Empire to contain (geographically) the countrys vast Jewish population. Subsequently, both Czars and Soviets targeted Ukraine for Jewish settlement as part of their respective south Russia policies.

Aside from giving birth to the Hasidic movement, Ukraine also has a rich legacy of Yiddish culture. The classic writer Sholem Aleichem was born in the shtetl of Pereiaslav, south of Kiev; the father of the Yiddish theater, Avrom Goldfaden (1840-1908), was born in Starokostyantyniv, western Ukraine, and the poet and songwriter Itzik Manger (1901-1969) was born in Czernowitz (Tshernovits), which was then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, but is now Ukraine.

Czernowitz was also the location of the first international Yiddish language conference, held in 1908. That conference was attended by the Yiddish writers Y. L. Peretz, Sholem Asch, Avrom Reisin and Hersh Dovid Nomberg.

Long caught in the crosshairs of history, Ukraines Jewish population suffered terribly during the pogroms of the late 19th century, leading to massive Jewish emigration, principally to the United States. They also sparked the development of the Zionist movement. Odessa became a leading port city for early Zionist pioneers on their way to Turkish Palestine, some of whom trained in Jewish agricultural schools in the region. They went on to help create some of the original kibbutzim. Indeed, a number of Zionist leadersincluding Zeev Jabotinsky, Golda Meir and Natan Sharansky were born in Ukraine.

Ukrainian Jews were caught in the crossfire of history during the Russian Revolution and the bloody wars, which followed until the founding of the Soviet Union in 1922, five years after the Bolsheviks first sought to overthrow the Czar. Soviet Communists then worked to destroy all religious expressions of Judaism in the USSR and control the nature of secular Jewish, mostly Yiddish, culture in their country. In the early 1930s, Stalins policies of collectivization and political suppression led to the complete failure of the Ukrainian agricultural sector and led to millions of deaths by starvation. During this period known as the Holodomor, Jews increasingly left their villages in Ukraine to look for food and work in the larger cities intensifying the regions native anti-Semitism.

But the worst was yet to come. In 1942, the Nazis broke their non-aggression treaty with Russia and launched Operation Barbarossa, the largest military operation in history, to create living space for Germany in the east and seize the areas rich natural resources. SS Einsatzgruppen followed the German army and slaughtered as many as one million Ukrainian Jews in mass shootings including the massacre at Babi Yar in September 1942. Knowledge of Babi Yar was suppressed by the Communists who ruled Ukraine until 1991 and the fall of the Soviet Union.

Since independence, Ukraine has witnessed both massive emigration and a revival of Judaism, although most of the countrys Jews, who are Russian speakers, are secular. Today there are large Jewish community centers in Ukraine and about 30 Chabad houses. The Reform movement in Judaism claims that as many as 14,000 Ukrainian Jews identify with it. Reports from Ukraine suggest that the countrys Jewish population plans to remain in place as the drama with Russia and a potential military invasion unfolds. Whatever happens, Ukrainian Jews again find themselves caught in the crosshairs of history. As Tevye the Milkman says in Fiddler, may God be with them.

Dr. Lance J. Sussman is senior rabbi of Reform Congregation Keneseth Israel, Elkins Park, PA and a historian of the American Jewish experience. He recently published a retelling of the megillah, The Purim Story, and is working on a history of the Jews and the American Revolution.

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The stormy, yet rich history of the Jews in Ukraine - Forward

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Posted By admin on February 23, 2022

A delegation of Diaspora Jewish leaders is set to meet with Prime Minister Naftali Bennett on Wednesday to lobby against religious reforms, including a compromise at the Western Wall that is widely supported by Reform and Conservative Jews.

The group of around 45 people includes the executive leadership of Agudath Israel of America, an Orthodox umbrella group also known as Agudah. The trip was organized by Am Echad, an affiliate of Agudah that says it aims to unite Israeli and Diaspora Jewry around traditional heritage.

The group will deliver a petition to Bennett against the so-called Western Wall compromise with over 150,000 signatures from Diaspora Jews.

The compromise, long a point of contention between Israels government and Diaspora Jewry, would create a permanent pluralistic prayer pavilion at the Jerusalem holy site, with representatives of non-Orthodox streams of Judaism sharing an oversight role.

Bennett and Religious Affairs Minister Matan Kahana decided to freeze plans to implement the compromise in December, amid violent confrontations at the holy site between ultra-Orthodox protesters and would-be reformers, and efforts by the right to use the as-yet unimplemented deal to fuel opposition to the government.

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The compromise is often framed as a dispute between Diaspora Jews and Israels establishment, but the Am Echad delegation seeks to show Israeli leadership that Orthodox Jews outside Israel also oppose any compromise at the Western Wall, also known as the Kotel.

Yaminas Naftali Bennett (R) and MK Matan Kahana in the Knesset on June 2, 2021. (Olivier Fitoussi/Flash90)

The Israeli government was turning to the Diaspora Jews for their opinion on how the Kotel should be set up, and the voices of the Reform and Conservative parties were very strong, and we felt that not everybody was being fairly represented, said Leah Zagelbaum, Agudahs vice president of communications, who is part of the delegation.

Am Echad launched its One Kotel campaign in early January to show Diaspora opposition to the compromise. The campaign started slowly, spreading by word of mouth, then took off on social media and chat groups. It spread in waves in Orthodox communities in the US, UK and elsewhere, reaching participants in 56 countries and hitting its goal of 150,000 signatures last week.

The campaign reached observant Jews who do not often use the internet by providing sign-up sheets in some synagogues and opening a phone line. It included outreach in Yiddish and other languages.

Participants signed up from across the religious spectrum, including Modern Orthodox, yeshivish and Hasidic groups, Zagelbaum said.

She said organizers vetted the submissions to check their authenticity by sorting and reviewing everything they received, checking for duplicates and suspicious submissions. The campaign portal display includes the names, locations and communities of the participants, many of whom were known to the organizers. Parents were able to sign for their children. Am Echad sponsored the campaign, and Agudah supervised it.

Women of the Wall dance with a Torah Scroll during a Rosh Hodesh service in the Western Wall plaza in 2015 (Miriam Alster/Flash90)

The One Kotel project sent the letters it received to Bennett, but he has not yet responded. The organizers plan to hand deliver a version of the petition to him on Wednesday.

We plan to just present it to him in person so he sees exactly how strong and how large the community is that feels about this, Zagelbaum said.

For 150,000 people to all agree on one particular view, I think thats very, very significant. Im not denying that emotions run high on both sides, she said, stressing that the campaign was not meant to stoke tensions around the sensitive issue.

Its not to demand that anybody pray in a particular way. Reform Jews are welcome at the Kotel, she said.

The campaign is meant to ask that the Kotel plaza itself retain the standard of halachic prayer. Its not to impose anything on anybody else, she said.

The compromise arrangement, negotiated between Israel and Diaspora leaders over more than three years, was approved by the Benjamin Netanyahu-led government in 2016, but was indefinitely suspended by him in 2017, under pressure from his ultra-Orthodox coalition partners.

Jewish men pray at the Western Wall, Judaisms holiest prayer site, in Jerusalems Old City, April 19, 2020. (Nati Shohat/Flash90)

Bennetts government initially supported the compromise, but backtracked, as protests at the Western Wall intensified and Netanyahus Likud partners used the move as ammunition against the coalition.

Secular party leaders in Bennetts coalition including Yair Lapid (Yesh Atid), Merav Michaeli (Labor) and Avigdor Liberman (Yisrael Beytenu) also voiced support for the compromise after the government took power last year. Implementing the compromise was an important condition in the centrist Blue and White partys agreement for joining the coalition.

In the coalition agreement that was signed in June, the parties wrote that they were committed to advancing the deal that was canceled by the Netanyahu government.

Labor lawmaker Gilad Kariv was tasked with implementing the plan and made it his focus in the Knesset. Kariv is an ordained Reform rabbi, the first to serve in the Knesset, and the director of the Reform movement in Israel.

Kahana, who is Modern Orthodox, has pushed forward other religious reforms as a minister, which have led to death threats against him and additional security.

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Posted By admin on February 23, 2022

As a child, visits to my maternal grandfather and grandmother (of Italian and Polish heritage, respectively) involved eating a lot pasta and pierogi. Dessert, in turn, was sometimes cannoli and poppyseed roll, but often a platter of Stella DOro cookies assorted dainty corrugated rings and logs of buttery dough with almond undertones. My grandfather had developed a taste for them early in his youth as an immigrant from Genoa, and my grandparents pantry was never without at least one package. Truth be told, my juvenile palate found the cookies too bland (re: insufficiently sugary), but they held a special place in my heart because they were a favorite of my beloved sometimes salty, comparatively sweeter Pop-Pop.

Up until my second year in college, I associated Stella DOro (Italian for Star of Gold) exclusively with Italian-American culture. While grocery shopping in the 7-Eleven near our dorm (hey, we didnt have cars, OK?) with a friend who also happened to be Jewish, I came upon a package and remarked upon my personal nostalgic ties. Stella DOro? he replied with a puzzled grin. Thats a Jewish thing.

We preceded to dive into an appropriately sophomoric argument about whether Stella DOro was more Jewish or more Italian, each of us buttressing our claims with mostly anecdotal evidence and hearsay, and completely eschewing the more interesting question: What happened with these cookies that laid the foundation for such a debate in the first place?

Stella DOro, as its name might suggest, was started in 1930 by Joseph and Angela Kresevich, Italian immigrants in Brooklyn. Already successful restaurateurs, the Kresevichs further parlayed their food business savvy by creating a line of Italian-style cookies, crackers, and breadsticks that appealed to other Italian immigrants missing flavors from home. The cookies, originally made by hand and without (gasp) butter, were immediately popular.

The fact that Stella DOro cookies were devoid of butter as well as milk also led them to be an object of desire early on for devout Kosher Jews because they were pareve and could therefore be eaten for dessert after a meat supper. The Swiss fudge variety, whose crimped circumference and inner opaque dark chocolate circle bore a whimsical resemblance to shtreimels, round fur hats worn on the Sabbath, led them to become particularly popular in the ultra-Orthodox community. And when in 2019 Tablet published its venerable list of the 100 Most Jewish foods, Swiss fudge cookies earned the title of most Jewish cookie ever made.

Broad appeal, however, has not prevented Stella DOro from becoming a subject of controversy. As the business changed owners throughout the years, wages and benefits have been reduced and/or altered, unsurprisingly souring relations between management and its multicultural labor force, many of whom had worked for the company for decades. This contentious history, and specifically the 11-month strike that ensued following its acquisition by a hedge fund, is documented in the 2011 film, No Contract, No Cookies.

Perhaps the greatest scandal occurred in 2003, when then-owner of Stella DOro Kraft foods announced they were discontinuing the traditional (pareve) Swiss fudge recipe and replacing the chocolate filling with a dairy version. Following public outcry, Kraft clarified this substitution was being reconsidered, eventually reversing course. There was much rejoicing, especially by one superfan Yaakov Kornreich of Flatbush, who dubbed the cookies so addictive that they should come with a surgeon generals warning.

Stella DOro aficionados (Italian, Jewish, both, and neither) continue to be highly vocal in their opinions, and the company in turn has been receptive to the taste vagaries of its consumer public. In 2014, the beloved Lady Stella collection was brought out of its five-year retirement in response to consumer demand. To commemorate the occasion, Stella DOro gifted loyalists with coupons for gratis goodies and donated 100,000 cookies to families in need.

So now that we have resolved why one can quibble as to whether Stella DOro are a Jewish or Italian thing, here is a better question: Does it matter? For me, an ardent lover of Jewish cuisine and proud Italian-American, the cookies cultural and religious connotations are trumped by something more important: their role in so many cherished family suppers.

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Why American Jews Love Stella D'Oro Cookies | The Nosher

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Posted By admin on February 23, 2022

JTA When she was cast as Midge Maisels mother-in-law in The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, veteran actress Caroline Aaron had no idea that a series about a very particular slice of mid-20th century Jewish life would strike a chord around the world.

But its popularity has gone far beyond Jews and the Jewish-adjacent. Much like Fiddler on the Roof, the show has found an audience even in countries where Jewish culture is all but nonexistent.

After the second season, we went to Milan to do international press, and there were journalists from all over the world from China, and India, and all of the European countries, and I was like, what could possibly be of interest? Aaron said during a recent Zoom talk hosted by The Braid, a Southern California Jewish womens theater.

But in this show, for people all over the world and even though they were interviewing us I had to interview them, just to find out what it was about this show that had enchanted audiences that had no cultural references.

And what did she learn?

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I think first and foremost, family is a universal. I think no matter how it manifests itself, that deeply resonates with everyone, said Aaron.

She added that one journalist in Sweden told her that weve never seen a show with a young woman who is confident. Here is a young woman who is in possession of her ambition, and her dreams, and has a direction.

Aarons talk at The Braid served in part as a preview of the fourth season of Mrs. Maisel, which begins airing on Friday after a nearly three-year hiatus. In it, she talked about her long career as an actress in films by major Jewish directors, her Southern upbringing, and her thoughts on criticism that Mrs. Maisel cast too many non-Jewish actors as Jews.

In a career spanning 40 years, Aaron has appeared in multiple films from major Jewish directors such as Mike Nichols (Heartburn, Working Girl, Primary Colors and What Planet Are You From?), Nora Ephron (Sleepless in Seattle and Lucky Numbers) and Woody Allen (Crimes and Misdemeanors, Alice and Deconstructing Harry). On television, Aaron has appeared on Curb Your Enthusiasm and Transparent, and since 2017, has been portraying Shirley Maisel. Along with the rest of the Maisel cast, Aaron won the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Ensemble in a Comedy Series, in both 2018 and 2019.

Jane Lynch, from top left, Stephanie Hsu, Carolina Aaron, Marin Hinkle, Rachel Brosnahan, Alex Borstein, Luke Kirby, Matilda Szydagis, and Sean Tarantina. Joel Johnstone, from bottom left, Michael Zegen, Kevin Pollak, and Tony Shalhoub pose in the press room with the award for outstanding performance by an ensemble in a comedy series for The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel at the 26th annual Screen Actors Guild Awards at the Shrine Auditorium & Expo Hall, on January 19, 2020, in Los Angeles. (Photo by Jordan Strauss/ Invision/AP)

She has also done notably Jewish-oriented work in the theater. She starred in a one-woman, two-character play about a Holocaust survivor called Call Waiting, later starring in the movie version as well. In 2016, she appeared in Stories from the Fringe, a play assembled from the voices of more than a dozen woman rabbis and presented at The Braid, then known as the Jewish Womens Theatre.

In the Zoom talk, Aaron defended the casting of Mrs. Maisel, which includes Rachel Brosnahan as Midge Maisel, Tony Shalhoub and Marin Hinkle as her parents, and Luke Kirby as the legendary Jewish comedian Lenny Bruce. None of them are Jewish.

Im very concerned that we are confining the art of acting to you have to be it to play it, Aaron said during the talk. When all of this sort of started to dust up, I wanted to write to every parent in the country whos writing a check for a performing arts program, to rip up their check I think that acting in its purest form is taking a walk in someone elses shoes. And ultimately, isnt that the definition of empathy?

When people ask Aaron if Brosnahan is Jewish, Aarons retort is that if youre asking, then shes doing her job and shes doing it well. She added it goes the other way, too.

I dont want to be confined to only playing Jewish women, Aaron said. I want to play all kinds of women. And I think that acting is an art form like any other art form.

Midge with her father Abe Weinberg, played by Tony Shalhoub. (Amazon Studios)

Shalhoub is Lebanese-American, but has played numerous ethnicities throughout his career, including Italian-American and Jewish characters. The casting, she suggested, also serves a dramatic purpose. Midges ex-husbands family is played by Jewish actors (with Aaron and Kevin Pollak as the parents, and Michael Zeglen as Joel, the ex.) She added that while it may not have been intended that way, the casting serves as something of a meta-commentary on the two families: Midges family, the Weissmans, are notably more assimilated than the Maisels.

She also praised the shows writing, and was clear that while the scenes of Jewish characters living at the top of their lungs often appear improvised, the show is scripted down to the comma. She contrasted that with her turn early in the run of Curb Your Enthusiasm, in which not a word is written down.

Aaron has been playing Jewish characters from New York throughout her career (she played Woody Allens sister in two different movies), but she actually comes from Richmond, Virginia, and as she made clear in the Braid talk, her Southern Jewish heritage is very important to her. I didnt even know, when I was growing up, of [the stereotype of the] New York Jewish mother, or a Jewish girl. I had no idea of where that was coming from, because it wasnt around me.

Born Caroline Abady, she took her fathers first name as her last name early in her career because her older sister, Josephine Abady, was already a well-known theater director and Aaron wanted to stand apart. After doing so, Aaron said, she went to see her agent, who told her now everyones gonna know youre Jewish.

Aarons mother Nina Friedman Abady, born in Georgia and raised in Alabama, was widowed at a relatively young age. She later became a professor at an historically Black college and a civil rights activist. The Nina F. Abady Festival Park in Richmond is named for her.

Her mothers example inspired Aaron to write The Mother Lode, which was performed last month as part of Sweat Tea and the Southern Jew, a Braid production featuring stories of Southern Jews. It was held in person in locations across the Los Angeles area and broadcast live on Zoom.

I did have something special with my mother, Aaron said. And I still cherish it to this day.

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Known for playing East Coast Jews, this Mrs. Maisel star is a proud Southern belle - The Times of Israel

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