Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By admin on February 7, 2022

The trans-Atlantic slave trade was the capture, forcible transport and sale of native Africans to Europeans for lifelong bondage in the Americas. Lasting from the 16th to 19th centuries, it is responsible, more than any other project or phenomenon in the history of the modern world, for the creation of the African diasporathe dispersal of Black people outside their places of origin on the continent of Africa.

As a result of the trans-Atlantic slave trade, there are presently 51.5 million people of African descent living in North America (United States, Mexico and Canada), approximately 66 million in South America, 1.9 million in Central America, and more than 14.5 million throughout the islands of the Caribbean. Over centuries of transformation and upheaval, these diasporic peoples have developed rich cultural traditions, distinct societies and independent nationsall sharing elements of a common African heritage.

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The trans-Atlantic slave trade was one leg of a three-part system known as the triangular trade. The forming of the triangle began when European ships, carrying firearms and manufactured goods, sailed to Africa, where the commodities were traded for enslaved men, women and children. Next, the same ships transported the human cargo across the Atlantic Ocean to the Americas.

This horrific journey was called the Middle Passage. Completing the triangle, the shipshaving disembarked the enslaved Africanswere reloaded with cotton, sugar, tobacco and other cash crops produced by slave labor, and returned to Europe.

A diagram of the interior of a slave ship from the Atlantic slave trade shows how captured humans were crammed into ships for their journey to the Americas where they were sold.

DeAgostini/Getty Images

The triangular trade generated incredible wealth for the European and American nations that participated in itat the expense of millions of human lives. An estimated 1.8 million Africans perished during the Middle Passage.

The countries that enslaved the highest number of Africans, from the most to the least, were Portugal, Britain, France, the Netherlands, Spain, the United States and Denmarkshipping a total of 12.5 million enslaved Africans to toil in what was considered the New World.

Other European nations, such as Germany and Sweden, took part in the trade indirectly or for a brief period of time. Canada, generally omitted from slavery history, was in fact involved in slave holding, first as a French colony, then as part of the British Empire.

Little is known about Canadian slavery, both inside and outside of the nation, says Charmaine A. Nelson, director of the newly founded Institute for the Study of Canadian Slavery at NSCAD University, in Halifax. It is a national amnesia.

Another downplayed factor is the central role played by ruling African states in the capture and sale of fellow Africans to European tradersan estimated 90 percent of all captives. The main motivation behind these transactions was the acquisition of guns for use in inter-ethnic warfare. The enslaved were abducted from as far north as present-day Senegal to as far south as Angola, and transported to destinations as far south as Argentina and as far north as New England.

Dehumanizing in all locations, the practice of slavery still could vary from place to place. This variation accounts for demographic, cultural and even genetic distinctions among modern diasporic Black populations.

A July 2020genetic study found that enslaved women contributed more than enslaved men to the modern-day gene pool of people of African descent in the Americas. The findings also show that Caucasian men contributed more than Caucasian women, confirming the well-documented practice of sexual violation of enslaved women.

Predating the trans-Atlantic slave trade were eastward and northbound slave-tradingenterprises known broadly as the Arab Slave Trade. They contributed significantly to the creation of an African diasporic presence in the Old World.

People from Ethiopia, Eritrea, Somalia and the Swahili Coast were deported as slaves to the Indian Peninsula, says Sylviane A. Diouf, a historian of the African diaspora who co-curated the 2013 exhibition, Africans in India: From Slaves to Generals and Rulers at New Yorks Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture.

From the 1300s, many of these Africans and their descendants became generals, admirals, architects, high-ranking officials, prime ministers and rulers, immortalized in numerous portraits. They also founded the states of Janjira and Sachin, where they ruled over Hindu and Jewish majorities.

The Arab and trans-Atlantic slave trades inevitably coincided, if not in their commercial dealings, in their human exploitation. It is known that continental Africans were taken to the island of Madagascar by Arab enslavers from as early as the 10th century. In the 18th century, European enslavers took up operations on the island, transporting roughly 6,000 people in shackles to U.S. slave markets. Though these Madagascans constituted a tiny percentage of the total enslaved population, their DNA is identifiable to this day among their living descendants, such as the actor Maya Rudolph and director Keenan Ivory Wayans.

To satisfy different European fascinations, enslaved Africans were also taken to Europe.

Among British royals, nobles, ship captains and merchants, a trend began of keeping Africans as entertainment, curiosities, and sometimes surrogate sons, says Monica L. Miller, author of Slaves to Fashion: Black Dandyism and the Styling of Black Diasporic Identity. In almost all cases, these Black men were extravagantly clothed in the latest fashions or liveriesforced foppishness.

For the nearly four centuries before its abolition by all nations involved, the trans-Atlantic slave trade not only influenced the composition of slave communities in the Americas, it also powerfully shaped slave resistance, according to Marjoleine Kars, author of Blood on the River: A Chronicle of Mutiny and Freedom on the Wild Coast.

Take, for instance, the Berbice slave rebellion of 1763-1764. Lasting more than a year, the rebellion took place in a small Dutch colony on the Caribbean coast of South America in February of 1763. Enslaved people, led by a man named Coffij, or Kofi, rose up, set the Dutch fleeing, and took control of the colony.

READ MORE: 7 Famous Revolts By Enslaved People

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How the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Created the African Diaspora - History

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Posted By admin on February 7, 2022

When enslaved Africans were brought to the Americas, their experiences were very different across different parts of the region. Their musical, religious and cultural traditions were frequently suppressed, and always adapted and mixed with those of other cultures. And yet, as music theory scholar Teresa L. Reed writes, religious musical traditions, often derived from West African Yoruba practices, still have remarkable parallels across U.S. and Caribbean cultures today.

Reed attended a Black Pentecostal church in Gary, Indiana as a child from the late 1960s through the early 1980s. There, it was common for a congregant to catch the Spirit, dancing energetically even after the church music went silent. She and her fellow parishioners recognized this as a spiritually significant event. But they were unaware that, thousands of miles away in Trinidad, Haiti and other parts of the Caribbean, worshippers in a range of religious settings experienced something very similar.

Although Americanized in format and Christianized in content, spirit possession was every bit as much the goal, the raison dtre, of our worship as for that of our diasporal counterparts, Reed writes.

Many African societies recognize some form of spirit possession, in which a divine presence takes over a worshipers consciousness and behavior. Often, this state is brought about with rhythmic music, dancing, costumes, storytelling and intense mental concentration. And something very similar occurs in worship across the West African diaspora, including in various Christian denominations and in syncretic religions like Candombl, Vodou, and Santera.

In some cases, many obvious elements of African religion remain today. In Cuba, some twenty-first-century worshippers use highly specific drumbeats and vocal melodies to summon orishasdeities also worshiped by Yoruba people in West Africa. In Reeds own childhood church rhythmic patterns were not tied as tightly to specific ritual functions, but services still depended on skilled drummers capable of matching the tempos of the worship.

The survival of common aspects of African musical rituals is remarkable, considering the effort slaveholders in many places put into eradicating African forms of music and religion, which they found baffling at best and menacingly evil at worst.

The use of drums, as well as tambourines and cymbals, in Pentecostal services is actually a revival of instrumental worship music, which was banished during centuries of enslavement. In much of the U.S. South, as in some other parts of the Americas, slaveholders generally banned drums for their communicative power. Enslaved people turned to clapping and foot-stomping to keep rhythmic traditions alive.

While visiting and learning about the services of a range of Caribbean religious groups, Reed was repeatedly reminded of the things she loves in her own spiritual tradition.

To this day, she writes, I crave that spirit crescendo, and I continue to clap, sing, and shout my way into that blissful, transcendent, empowering, and life-affirming contact with a Holy Spirit who condescends to fill me now and then.

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By: Teresa L. Reed

Black Music Research Journal, Vol. 32, No. 1 (Spring 2012), pp. 5-25

Center for Black Music Research - Columbia College Chicago and University of Illinois Press

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Music and Spirit in the African Diaspora - JSTOR Daily

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Posted By admin on February 7, 2022

Award-winning author Gish Jens latest collection opens with a Chinese saying: A long journey begins with a step. Readers could add, gratefully, And ends with a story.

There are 11 here insightful, wistful, nuanced sometimes heartbreaking and often funny. Each tale packs in social commentary, political asides, and keen observations that lodge the characters in time and place like thumbtacks on a map. Even more satisfying, these very different women, men, and children get more than a moment in the sun; many appear in an early story only to reappear, more grown up, altered, later in the book.

Jen, a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, is a short fiction wizard; her stories can be found in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, and The Best American Short Stories anthologies. Thank You, Mr. Nixon is her ninth book.

The title story appears first; its a letter from Tricia Sang, lodged upon a cloud in heaven, writing to United States President Richard Nixon at his Ninth Ring Road, Pit 1A address in hell. Tricia, one of the young girls Nixon spoke with during his 1972 visit, reflects on the historic event the cleaned-up streets, the carp-crammed lake, the scrubbed slogans, the prepped populace. Really the whole China you saw was a tailor-made China, she declares with a childs cheerful bluntness.

It was also a China ready (yet again) for change. Tricia, aloft and all-seeing, makes her case that the first sparks of Chinas economic opening and consumer boom can be traced to the vibrant red coat the first lady wore during that visit. You let a big genie out of a bottle, Tricia writes to Mr. Nixon. Still, I am glad that you came.

Jens next story, Its the Great Wall!, follows travelers on a package tour to China shortly after the parting of the bamboo curtain in the 1980s. Grace is Chinese American and her husband Gideon is of Caribbean and Sephardic Jewish background. The couple bring Graces mother, who ends up serving as an ad hoc translator during the tour, even as she struggles with her own outsider status after slipping away for a family reunion.

Its like going to Narnia [or t]he moon, Gideon blurts about their trip of a lifetime. Grace disapproves of the statement, but identifies with the sentiment. China had been no-go for so long, she muses, that it was hard not to feel whiplash at its new travel destination status.

Such cultural whiplash whether characters belong to the Chinese diaspora, live on the mainland, or hail from other backgrounds threads through Jens collection. Jen captures the pull, mystery, and myriad contradictions of China as it marches through the last decades of the 20th century and bursts into the 21st.

Jens stories prove engrossing thanks to her polished prose and multifaceted characters. Equally riveting is the fearless way she dives into fraught, ripped-from-the headlines topics. A Tea Tale touches on the complexities of cross-cultural and cross-racial adoptions of Chinese children. Rothko, Rothko asks readers to consider the gray areas between artistic homage and creative theft.

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Thank You, Mr. Nixon concludes with Detective Dog, a pandemic story that brings back several familiar faces. Jen loads the brisk tale with comments on anti-Asian hate, protests in Hong Kong, Zoom school realities, and Chinese surveillance. The story asks: How does crisis redefine home and reshape family? The answers are both poignant and pending; the present is very much a work in progress.

In this collection, Jen stares down history with a discerning eye, cracking wit and well-tuned words.

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Thank You, Mr. Nixon and other tales of the Chinese diaspora - Christian Science Monitor

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Posted By admin on February 7, 2022

Between 2017 and 2020, Nigeria received total of $87.37billion in remittances from its citizens living in the diaspora, latest data released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) and the World Bank shows.

New Telegraphs analysis of the 2020 Demographic Statistics Bulletin released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) at the weekend, as well as the Migration and Development Brief 35 report published by the World Bank in November, indicates that Nigeria received $70.16billion and $17.21billion in remittances from 2017-2019 and in 2020 respectively. Infact, theWorldBankinits report in November projected that Nigeria would receive $17.6billion in remittances in 2021. If the prediction comes true, it would mean that the country received a total of $104.97billion in remittances in the last five years.

A breakdown of the latest NBS data shows that total remittance inflows into Nigeria, which stood at $22.04billion in 2017, increased to $24.31billion in 2018 and decreased to $23.81billion in 2019.

The World Bank said, in its report, thatwhiletheimpactof the Covid-19 crisis resulted in remittanceinflowsintoNigeria plungingto$17.21billionin 2020, policymeasuresintroducedby Nigerianauthoritieswouldsee inflows rebounding to $17.6billion in 2021.

As the Bretton Woods institution put it, Nigeria, the regions largest recipient, is experiencing a moderate rebound in remittance flows, in part due to the increasing influence of policies intended to channel inflows through the banking system.

The bank also noted that the exceptional size of the Nigerian migrant base (an estimated 800,000 persons) concentrated in two key host countries, the United States (375,000) and the United Kingdom (220,000) ensures that Nigeria continues to dominate remittance inflows into Sub- Saharan Africa.

It predicted that despite easingeconomicgrowthinhostregions of the world, and continued uncertainty regarding the course of the pandemic, remittance receipts in sub-Saharan Africa will accelerate in 2022, on the back of a gradual movement toward the use of official channels for inflows to Nigeria.

Specifically, the multilateral development bank stated that: Following the countrys (Nigeria) substantial adjustment of 2020, there are now signs that recent policy changes may be achieving some traction. For example, an increase in official remittances of 2.5 per cent in the first half of 2021 contrasted with the same period of 2020.

An anticipated 7.3 percent increase in remittances during 2022 would carry Nigerian receipts to $19 billion, still well below the average $23 billion that characterized the immediate pre-pandemic period.

Indeed, latest data released by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) indicates that remittance inflows into the country last year may surpass the World Banks projection , as they rose to $14.2 billion in the nine months ending September 2021, up 10 per cent, from $12.9 billion in the corresponding period of 2020.

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Nigerians in the Diaspora remitted $87.37bn in four years - New Telegraph Newspaper

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Posted By admin on February 5, 2022

Mazel Tov is getting Mazel Tough-er for some families.

In the final episodes of And Just Like That on HBO Max, Charlotte York-Goldenblatt (Kristin Davis) helped her nonbinary child, Rock, prepare for their traditional Jewish coming-of-age ceremony. Typically, bar and bat mitzvahs, in which 13-year-old boys and 12-year-old girls are welcomed into adulthood and called up to the Torah for the first time, are divided by gender.

I dont want a bat mitzvah, Rock tells their mom.

Charlotte, ever the cheerleader, reassures her child: Thats why youre having a they mitzvah!

Such celebrations arent limited to fictional portrayals.

Its not uncommon, Rabbi Mike Moskowitz told The Post of gender-nonconforming mitzvahs for Jewish tweens.

As the scholar-in-residence for Trans and Queer Jewish Studies at Congregation Beit Simchat Torah (CBST), a progressive congregation in Midtown, Moskowitz said that increasingly, kids are chafing at the gendered nature of this religious rite of passage.

Its abrasive for them, it rubs them the wrong way, the rabbi said.

But the shows signature joke-y style belies one reality they mitzvah, as a term, isnt really a thing. Rather, families are going with the gender-neutral bnai mitzvah (plural for bar or bat mitzvah) or b-mitvah.

Theres no industry standard, said Moskowitz, who studied in an ultra-Orthodox yeshiva. But the term is less significant than what it actually represents. And what it represents is reaching the age of consent, the age of being responsible for ones actions or inactions, in a way that reflects ones gender identity.

Keshet, an organization that supports equality for all Jews, has a guide for the gender neutral b-mitzvah thats part of a Jewish tradition that is continuously evolving.

But others in the Jewish community said they liked the Sex and the City sanctioned term. [They mitzvah] is clever, said Rabbi Tamara R. Cohen, VP, Chief of Program Strategy for Moving Traditions, a Jewish organization that emphasizes inclusiveness for young people. I think it really does validate the experience of young people today. The truth is, people are experimenting with different names. We call it a b-mitzvah right now Its a way of using a non-gendered term.

Cohen, who told The Post that she grew up with a conservative Jewish upbringing, struggled with reconciling her homosexuality and religion in her own community coming out as a lesbian. I felt like I did have to choose between my sexuality and being accepted in the Jewish community. It was extremely painful, she said, noting that it was a time when gays couldnt be role models or rabbis, which has since changed. Shows like this help alter perceptions, she said, even if theres a fine line between making a joke, and making a point.

In the final episode, Charlotte scrambles to find a rabbi to preside over the they mitzvah after another clergy member backs out, citing Rocks unpreparedness. (Ultimately, Rock decided not to go through with it, and Charlotte decided to undergo the rite of passage.)

Experts say such a reaction from a rabbi isnt realistic. Gender identity aside, no self-respecting member of the clergy would be so judgmental towards a childs lack of preparation. The goal is to make the experience welcoming and meaningful, said Cantor Lauren Phillips Fogelman of Temple Israel of Northern Westchester.

Overall, respecting a young persons needs and feelings is critical during this milestone, said Moskowitz. When we think about welcoming someone into the Jewish people as adulthood, were recognizing who they are. So we rely on them to tell us who they are.You tell us who you are and well support you in that identity.

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'They mitzvahs' are the gender-neutral trend sweeping the Jewish community - New York Post

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Posted By admin on February 5, 2022

The Louisville Jewish Film Festival is almost a quarter of a century old and its returning tomorrow.

The hybrid in-person and virtual Festival will run officially from Feb. 5-27, but one movie, Mazel Tov Cocktail, is available to stream now for free. You can buy a $12 ticket to most movies individually (two are free but still require a ticket) or purchase a Festival pass, which gives you access to all of this years movies for $99.

The lineup includes 11 movies, two short films, and one six-part mini-series. You can check out the full calendar and list of movies here (or the printable PDF version here.)

Last years Jewish Film Festival was themed around the intersections of Blackness and Judaism, but theres no theme this year instead, the Festival wants to offer something for everyone, said Tricia Kling Siegwald, senior director of festivals & special projects at Jewish Community of Louisville.

That said, many of the movies on offer do feature characters who grapple with questions and conflicts of identity on an individual and societal level. In Blewish, a free four-and-a-half-minute animated movie, a young Black Jewish boy learns to be proud of his heritage. In Mazel Tov Cocktail, a cynical Russian-Jewish teenager in Germany named Dima monologues to the audience about antisemitism, history, and hypocrisy.

Our mission is to educate, entertain, enrich peoples lives, and build bridges, Siegwald told LEO. We want to share with the community, and as youre educating the community on these issues, thats a part of building bridges.

Likewise, there are a number of movies about Jewish history. In Persian Lessons, Gilles, a Jewish man sent to a concentration camp, pretends to be Iranian (then called Persian) to save himself. When a Nazi guard asks Gilles to teach him the Persian language Farsi, Gilles creates his own language with its own grammar something the director, Vadim Perelman, did, too, with the help of a linguist. (Perelman will be doing a virtual speaking event at the Festival on Feb. 13.)

Other movies on the docket this year include Kiss Me Kosher, a comedy about a lesbian wedding; Sky Raiders, a childrens movie about two Israeli preteens who love aviation; and Greener Pastures, a comedy about an elderly man who sells medical marijuana.

The star of Greener Pastures, famous Israeli actor Dov Glickman, will be taking part in a virtual Q&A on Feb. 27 at 1 p.m.

Unlike last years fully virtual LJFF, this years Festival is mostly virtual but hybrid. Therell still be a few live events at the Speed Art Museum: three movie screenings, one for Persian Lessons and two for Neighbours; and one virtual-but-live talk with a director (that is, the Zoom call will be projected onto the screen at the Speed Cinema.)

Beyond that, all of the other five speaker engagements will be virtual via Zoom, and all of the movies will be available to stream virtually. (You have to buy a ticket to a movie at the Festival to get the Zoom link for its speaker engagement.)

We had tremendous success in terms of numbers last year with a virtual [format], said Siegwald. The Festivals turnout was just outstanding, and were anticipating that again.

Siegwald began her role in September of last year, replacing Marsha Bornstein, who recently retired. Before that, Siegwald had worked for the Kentucky Derby Festival for 25 years. She told LEO that working with the committee who chooses the Film Festivals programming has already been an educational experience.

Ive learned so much already about the film industry and just come to really appreciate what this committee is producing, she said. Their knowledge and their passion for what we are doing is incredible.

This years movies, she said, are quality films, and they are thought-provoking films, so I think folks will really, really enjoy [the Festival.]

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The Louisville Jewish Film Festival Returns With Some In-Person Events And 'Something For Everyone' - Louisville Eccentric Observer

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Posted By admin on February 5, 2022

Dan Buffa, Special For The Jewish LightFebruary 4, 2022

Its that time again to relax and watch some movies and television shows. Heres what to watch this week in Jewish entertainment

While My Best Friend Anne Frank isnt exactly engineered to make you relax, it will get your mind racing. Working from a story by Alison Leslie Gold, director Ben Sombogaart takes an alternative angle to the mystery surrounding one of the most tragic stories from the Holocaust. The story of Annes best friend, Hannah Goslar, who recounted her friendship with Frank in Nazi-occupied Amsterdam up until their reunion in a concentration camp.

The tale of Anne Frank is well known, so finding another point of view for such a horrific tragedy is enlightening. Sombogaart traveled to Israel to speak with the real Goslar, who was in her nineties but was willing to tell her story. If you want a piece of entertainment that can fill in the blanks and draw upon a trusted emotion, My Best Friend Anne Frank should be right up your alley.

Every February, the streaming giant releases a 2-3 minute teaser trailer for their upcoming content. Along with Knives Out 2 and the Ryan Gosling and Chris Evans-starring The Gray Man, Hill and Sandler have a couple big swings on the docket this year.

When Sandler, whose Jewish family descends from Russian-Jewish immigrants on both sides, isnt making disposable comedies with his friends, he actually decides to show his true acting talents. Hustle is about a struggling NBA scout (real-life basketball fanatic Sandler) who attempts to revive his career by bringing a player from overseas to try out. If Uncut Gems taught us anything, its that basketball movies involving Sandler are gold.

Dont sleep on Beanie Feldsteins brother, though. Hill co-wrote and stars in the untitled Netflix comedy drama, which centers around a young couple who experiences a clash of cultures and generations when they meet each others families. Eddie Murphy, David Duchovny, and Julie Louis-Dreyfus. Hill co-wrote it with director Kenya Barris, writer and creator of the popular show, Black-ish.

Heres the rest of the preview slate:

When the Critics Choice Awards ceremony, rescheduled due to the Omicron outbreak last month, takes place, a certain very well-known Jewish comedy guy will receive a Lifetime Achievement Award. Billy Crystal hasnt worked that much in recent years, but he has put together quite the career. From the stage to hosting for the Oscars to a slew of classic comedy roles (City Slickers will always be funny), Crystal can blend comedy and drama like no other. Just watch Forget Paris, the B-side to the much-more popular When Harry Met Sally.

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On March 13 at the 27th annual ceremony, he will become just the sixth star to receive the prestigious honor from the C.C.A.

Jewish Olympic figure skaterJason Brownhas waited this long to use the powerful music of Steven Spielbergs award-winning yet punishing watch of a film in order to gain the maturity needed to do so at the worlds biggest event. After winning a bronze medal in Sochi back in 2014, Brown didnt qualify for the 2018 games. He will be at this months games and using this music. That alone deserves a good cheer.

Taboo in Israeli societies, Nakba is what Palestinians call the War of Independence that took place in 1948 shortly after Israel declared its own freedom. Due to the depopulation, their military engaged in a battle that claimed over 200 Arab lives. Israeli-Jewish filmmaker Aron Schwarz digs into the infamous date that hasnt been talked about or investigated in decades. You cant always present Nabka, also known as catastrophe, but you can avenge its existence by pointing out the wrongdoings.

Being Israeli, Schwarz wants to clear the red off the ledger of his ancestors with this documentary, which premiered at Sundance last month. The film, titled Tantura, is named after the tiny fishing village where the massacre occurred. Like the other pulverizing 2022 Sundance documentary, Three Minutes-A Lengthening, Schwarzs film aims to not understand, but illuminate the past.

Days of Our Lives fans were given a jolt of fresh air when St. Louis native Jewish actor Kevin Spirtas reprised his popular role, Dr. Craig Wesley, for this season. Upon his return to the popular, and never-ending, town of Salem, Wesley makes a huge revelation to his wife on the show, Nancy. To say its fired up hardcore fans of the show is an understatement. Next week, Jewish Light will speak with Spirtas about his return to the soap opera hit and what hes been up to since his last appearance in 2009.

What you can skip this week: Anything to do with Whoopi Goldberg. Just skip it for a week while the actress and talk show host understands her history. Also, you can skip Sister Act 2 forever.

See you next week.

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What to watch this week in Jewish entertainment - St. Louis Jewish Light

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Posted By admin on February 5, 2022

As we move into the third year of the COVID-19 pandemic, we are all watching the seemingly never-ending seesaw of numbers caused by the omicron surge, and now the omicron BA.2 variant. Add to that the political divisiveness over the vaccine, staffing shortages, overrun hospitals, overworked medical staffs, concerns about teacher and student wellness. Among Jewish groups, there continues to be growing concern about how Jewish life and our mental health are being affected by the pandemic.

During the start of the pandemic, Jewish Federation of St. Louis made getting a handle on just what the St. Louis Jewish community was up against a top priority. On March 23, 2020, just 10 days after President Donald Trump declared the novel coronavirus a national emergency, Federation conducted a Community Partner COVID-19 Needs Assessment. They reached out to 69 Jewish organizations in St. Louis and surrounding areas to better understand their needs.

All of this isolation and issues around the pandemic have seen an increase in mental health concerns for many, said Jewish Federation President and CEO Brian Herstig. As such, mental health and well-being have become priorities and emerged as one of our communitys top challenges for us within our Core Commitment to secure the well-being and safety of individuals within the Jewish Community.

That summer, the Federation conducted their Covid Response Phase II Needs Assessment, and found 61% of respondents reported that their constituents were experiencing mental health challenges. That number is staggering and yet, not surprising with all of the stressors we have all had to deal with since COVID began.

To address these challenges, the Federation has developed a multi-pronged approach that includes both financial investments and program planning to continue to meet and alleviate the mental health needs of our community:

Starting this week, Jewish Federation and supporting partners are making a variety of mental health training opportunities available. All focus on Jewish mental wellness.

We have invested $14,000 in this training for the community. We feel this investment will make an impact on the needs and help our community with this issue, said Herstig.

Connect with your community every morning.

All training will be held virtually, and space is limited. Details are below.

Each workshop series consists of two consecutive training sessions, listed as either Option 1 or Option 2.

Community members can choose the workshop series that aligns with their role in the community and their schedule. A Jewish Mental Wellness Toolkit will be distributed to all participants prior to the first workshop (details on how and when to pick up the toolkit will be shared after registration).After completing the workshop, participants will receive a completion certificate and will have the option of being added to the Facebook alumni group of The Blue Dove Foundation, an organization that works to address the issues of mental illness and addiction in the Jewish community.

WORSHOP SERIES FOR STAFF OF LOCAL JEWISH ORGANIZATIONS:

WORKSHOP SERIES FOR RABBIS AND CLERGY MEMBERS:

WORKSHOP SERIES FOR GENERAL COMMUNITY MEMBERS:

Click hereto register.

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Jewish Federation of St. Louis continues investing in community and mental health - - St. Louis Jewish Light

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Posted By admin on February 5, 2022

New York Jewish Week via JTA Try to come up with the most Jewish spice out there and you might have some trouble answering. But ask Ori Zohar and Ethan Frisch, the founders of the single-origin spice company Burlap & Barrel, and youll quickly get a list of spices with a robust claim to the title.

Jewish food uses so much cinnamon, baking sweet and savory, Frisch, a native New Yorker, said, noting that cinnamon is used in babka, rugelach, sweet noodle kugel and tzimmes.

Zohar, whose family moved to Baltimore from Israel when he was 5 years old, offered up nigella seeds, which are often used in Middle Eastern baking, and cumin, a staple of Middle Eastern savory dishes. But, ultimately, he went with poppy seeds. Obviously bagels and hamentaschen and all the other wonderful pastries that use either poppy seeds or poppy seed paste, he said. I think poppy seed has a deep history there.

Since starting their Queens-based company in October 2016, Zohar and Frisch have traveled to Tanzania to visit cinnamon and black peppercorn farms, to Guatemala to find cardamom and chili producers, and to India to source turmeric, among many other countries.

Along the way, they said, they found a commodity that they say was ready for the kind of supply chain revolutions that happened to the coffee and chocolate industries. The New York Jewish Week spoke to Zohar and Frisch about how they first learned about the spice industry, what makes for a higher quality spice and why you should find out where your spices come from.

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This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

Illustrative snapshot of spices in the market. (Carlos Bocai/Instagram)

How did you first become interested in spices and the way theyre sourced?

Ethan Frisch: Im the culinary half of our business and Ori is the business half of our business. My background is half in restaurant kitchens I worked at a high-end Indian restaurant here in New York City called Tabla under a chef named Floyd Cardoz, a kind of iconic Indian American chef, so I learned a lot about spices. And then I left kitchens to go to grad school to work in international development, got a masters degree, moved to Afghanistan. I lived there for about two and a half years and was working for a big nonprofit, spending a lot of time in this pretty remote mountainous area of the country in the northeast, a province called Badakhshan, which is famous within Afghanistan for this amazing wild cumin that grows in the mountains. Id never tasted anything like it so I started bringing it home to share with friends in the restaurant industry and they got really excited about it. And as these things sometimes go, they started to ask if they could buy some, or could they get it into the restaurants. And so I called Ori and said, There isnt a business here, right? And he said, Maybe there is.

What are the social issues involved with the spice industry? What do people not know about their spices that they should know?

Frisch: What we realized pretty quickly was that there had been these sort of supply chain revolutions in coffee and tea, in cacao, even in veggies, right? People go to the farmers market, they want to know where their food is coming from, and that had not extended into spices at all. But spices are traded in similar ways to other agricultural commodities farmers are pushed to grow for volume, not for quality. When an individual farmer is doing something different, like growing an heirloom variety or using regenerative techniques, kind of taking a more holistic approach, it all gets lost, because that special thing that they grew is just getting mixed with everybody elses. So most people are accustomed to cooking with pretty low-quality, stale spices that have been sitting around forever, [that] have no sense of terroir, no origin, no farmer behind them who created something special.

Ori Zohar: Id say spices are the food in your pantry that people know the least about about where it comes from, about what it is. Whats been really cool is weve been able to kind of demystify that and go back to origin and create a connection directly from the cinnamon that youre kind of sprinkling over your oatmeal or floating in your coffee and the farmer that got that cinnamon tree when they were a kid from their parents and watched it grow for 20 years as the bark matured and became more fragrant and more flavorful.

Frisch: That was exactly my experience working in high-end restaurants in New York City, where we would list the name of the farm that grew the lamb, but the spices were totally generic, big brands.

Illustrative photo of cumin fields. (Wikimedia commons/CC SA 3.0/ Photo By Raju Odedra)

Where do you go to find the producers of these spices?

Frisch: Thats the fun part. Weve been in the business five years and so we built a really strong network. We now source from 20 different countries and close to 300 farmers. We meet them through NGOs thats how we met the farmer in Guatemala. We meet them through the local government offices. Thats how we met our partner star anise farmers in Vietnam, and a few others [through the] ministry of foreign affairs or ministers of agriculture, people [who] know who the best farmers are in a particular region. And then, more and more, were meeting farmers online, or theyre finding us on social media. We work with a nutmeg farm in Grenada where the niece, who is in her late 20s, is taking over the business from her aunt and uncle, and found us on Instagram and reached out. We went to visit in July, and now I have four shipments from them.

Do any of your spices come from Israel or the West Bank? Are there any other spices that youre thinking about bringing in from that area?

Frisch: We just got a shipment of Palestinian zaatar from Ein Sabiya, right outside of Ramallah. And its all Palestinian-grown ingredients the zaatar herb itself, the sumac, the sesame. But there really is not that much grown in Israel or in the West Bank. Weve looked at a few other things. Theres some interesting things happening around seaweed and Oris father has connected us with some seaweed producers.

Zohar: My dad is a marine biologist, so he works with kelp and seaweed and all that. Im Israeli, we go back every year, my parents spend a fair amount of time there. So it has been really nice to be able to come back and have some business there, too. Were always trying to find ways to sneak flavor into peoples foods in better and more interesting ways. And thats the general story around spices and how people should be cooking with them more often. You know, people often build flavor with salt and fat and sugar, which we love. But theres a much broader palette to paint with. And we think that seaweed should be part of that palette.

The great synagogue of Szeged, Hungary, July 2020. (Yaakov Schwartz/Times of Israel)

Is there any Jewish history of the spice trade that youve thought about or that motivates you?

Frisch: We were just in Hungary in October to meet a paprika farmer who we are starting to work with, and we went to visit the Szeged synagogue. Szeged is a famous Hungarian paprika-producing region. Oris family went to that synagogue many, many decades ago. We were both really struck by, in this stained glass [in the] synagogue, there were all of these spice plants there was ginger, there were peppercorns on the vine, there were fresh cloves. I mean, things that most people wouldnt even recognize; most people dont know what fresh cloves look like, and there they are etched into the stained glass. So that was pretty incredible to see that.

Zohar: You know, the spices that you smell after Havdalah, its cloves. And so there is this big connection between Judaism and spices and also in the foods that we eat.

A paprika market at Szeged, Hungary in July 1938. (AP Photo/James A. Mills)

Why is cinnamon so iconic in Jewish cooking?

Frisch: I think its a connection to the Middle East, a trading hub for spices going all the way back. There were stories that cinnamon sticks were from the nest of a giant eagle, and you had to lure the eagle away with meat so that you could steal the sticks from the nest. And it was Jewish and Arab traders, going all the way back, who were transporting spices around the world, ultimately to and through the Mediterranean. So we picked up some interesting flavors.

Zohar: I also think that its worth mentioning that the creator of Old Bay Seasoning was a Jewish immigrant who came to Baltimore, got a job at McCormick, and was fired almost immediately. McCormick, years later, acquired the brand, so I think thats a really fun connection between Jews and trading and spices. Theres always been a deep connection, historically, in this area, and Im very happy that the crab seasoning that is so famous was started by a Jew. It feels like, you know, we did it.

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Posted By admin on February 5, 2022

Review: To Egypt with Love, a Literary Jewish Memento of a By(going) Era

There are few realities I tend to hold, adamantly and harshly, against Egypt, and that is, for all its capacity to retain structures and mummies, for thousands of years, it is incapable of retaining our loved ones near us today.

To the most privileged, Egypt is a wondrous home where the idea of taking lagoon dips under the moonlight in Dahab, or sipping strong cocktails from rooftop bars, is not an impossible dream but a feasible reality. But, for others, the vast majority of its minorities, Egypt is a bitter and ungenerous space, ready to shun its most diverse sons and daughters.

For years, I lamented the dwindling voices of its minorities atheists, intellectuals, LGBTQI+ members forced to eclipse under the shadow of a majority. Most of all, I mourned, and still mourn, the fact that my generation will be the last to see and experience the few remaining Egyptian Jews in Egypt. In fact, Egypt is saying goodbye to the last handful.

They were 8 years old when they were expelled from Egypt. They were 14 and 10 years old. They were 20 and 12. The year was 1956; the difference between their inclusion and exclusion was stark. Only one day prior, they had shared school benches with Muslims and Copt classmates, but the next, they were being stoned for being zionists.

Then, the letter came. Expelled, was the judgment call. They had ten days to leave. And leave many did: between 25,000 and 30,000 jews, as well as British and French nationals who found themselves evicted for the role France, Israel and the United Kingdom played against Nassers nationalization of the Suez canal.

As such, when a generous spirit called Viviane Bowell, pitched her book To Egypt With Love: Memories of a Bygone World for me to read and review, I jumped at the opportunity of being familiarized so intimately with the former life of a Jew in Egypt, and chat with her.

Leaving behind a cultural legacy

Bowells autobiography was not intended as one. Indeed, what was meant to be a recipe book passed down to her grandchild, became a journey down in memory lane, with recollections of her journey to the UK.

I wanted to talk about the Jewish community in Egypt: what we were like, what we ate, what we thought, our superstitions. You know, were quite unique, and I want that to probably be documented, explains Bowell who adds a second reason for writing her book.

I wanted to talk about Egypt itself because I noticed that, with a lot of people, they know nothing about Egypt, and they have a lot of misconceptions. Even supposedly educated people are very surprised when I say that we lived in apartment blocks or that there were trams in Egypt in the 1950s, she adds.

In her simple but lovely memoir, Bowell starts with introducing us to her family origins, and the origins of many Egyptian Jews, a blend of Sephardic and Mizarahi. This book is an excellent introduction to anyone who wants to glimpse at a time Egypts communities were coexisting and thriving, as well as understanding the Egyptian Jewish genealogy.

She addresses not just the Jews that formed her family, but also the Jewishness of Cairos social fabric for the first time; a reader can capture the nuances of the social classes, from the poorest who ate fuul as anyone else, to the haute juiverie, replete with financiers, bankers and socialites close to the royal family. The fashion industries and businesses which hailed from the Jewish community, such as Benzion, Grands Magasine Hannaux, Maison Circurel and Oreco. It almost comes as a shock to discover the jewish origin of many Egyptian big names: Smouha district in Alexandria is named after Joseph Smouha, a British Jew, the Frenkel brothers were behind the Egyptian equivalent of Mickey Mouse Mish Mish Effendi, and a throng of names, from Laila Mourad (born L,iliane Morchedai!) to Dawood Hosni and Togo Mizrahi were amongst the many contributors to Egyptian culture.

Generally, there are usually various elements that are lacking in books that tackle Jewish culture in Egypt, namely the cuisine and the celebrations of religious festivals, which richly stand out in From Egypt to love. With a love for cuisine that seeps out from the pages, the reader is invited to explore Judeo Egyptian cooking, largely inspired by Tunisian, Spanish, Moroccan, among others. She paints a fascinating picture of dishes, from hamud (vegetables in lemony sauce with potatoes and carrots) to sofrito (braised meat with spices and lemon), reminding the reader once more that Jewishness in Egypt was as varied as it was rich.

Most of it [the book] was quite personal, but what I wanted very much was leaving a legacy: that, if somebody picks up the book, they think Oh, this is what they [the Jews] did at Passover, explains Bowell, whose hopes for her project veered between preserving her familys history as well as sociologically documenting the life of her community.

Bowell speaks of blending in the cultural, personal and historical background, as a tripartite mlange that can only give sense to her own life and mish-mash of cultural influences.

A flair for memories, a flair for style

Bowell is a phenomenal writer. Her style is no-nonsense, but it is still poetic. It feels like sitting with an old friend who has a charming, but meaningful story to tell. She is, above all, an honest writer, in the candid manner in which she captures simplicity and complexity, never amplifying either.

Prior to her familys exit from Egypt, she writes We had eyed the servants [house staff] nervously, wondering whether they would turn on us. They and all the local people around us remained very courteous and loyal to the end. They seemed sympathetic to our plight and were upset that we were leaving. On the morning of our departure, they all lined up to say goodbye.

In other instances, Bowell can elicit a chuckle, as she learns how to navigate her new life in the UK, or she induces nostalgia, as she reminisces over old Egyptians expressions, games, meals, and rituals.

Alternatively, the brave writers explicit exploration of the prejudices, classist and old-fashioned streams of thought can also be shocking. She reveals how societal expectations can be oppressive towards all, namely women, no matter their religion or country of origin; she highlights that women often had to settle down, get married and devote themselves to the household.

True to its multifaceted purpose, the book is also constantly heart-aching, and never fails to highlight the second tragedy of the Exodus from Egypt: familial separation. Distant relatives ended up moving to various locations: kibbutz in Israel, London, Paris, and the US. It thus captures the unfurling of the Jewish diaspora before our very own eyes.

I used to see my aunts every day. Literally. I used to go. I used to see my mothers sister every day, narrates Bowell who also stresses that the lack of phones aided social interactions and community bonds.

A lot of our friends ended up in Brazil and we never saw them again.

More interestingly is Bowells take on the Exodus of the Jews in the 1950s. While she believes that the Suez Canal crisis precipitated the Jews exit from the country, the critical writer holds on to the belief that they were collateral damage in the political crisis.

You see, it wasnt just the Jews. It was Europeans too. It was the British who were not Jewish, French and everyone. It was just hordes of people whose lives changed because Britain and France couldnt bear the thought that the Suez Canal was not theirs to run anymore, she says.

When asked about the choice of the country, for the expelled Jews, Bowell explains that many opted for different options, including re-settling in Canada, Australia and the US.

I think those who had a British or French or Italian passport opted for Britain, France and Italy, not Israel. Israel would have been the last resort, she explains.

A lot of people who were stateless and had no option would have opted for Israel. But, interestingly, a lot of them opted for Brazil because Brazil was welcoming a lot of stateless people.

Her answers and her book provide answers to questions many have but feel unable to get to the bottom of. Even today, as a 2012 documentary Jews of Egypt reveals, thousands of Jews who had lived in Egypt, live on, in mainland Europe, the UK, and Canada amongst many countries.

My own family, despite the multiculturalism my parents lived through in Alexandria and Cairo, does not speak of the Jewish legacy, as if the Jews never existed among Egyptians. When I visit Heliopolis, taking in the curious sight of the Vitali Madjar synagogue, I cannot help but imagine throes of men and women happily entering the temple before socializing in nearby parks or over a cup of Turkish coffee and maamoul biscuits.

I am often haunted by their disappearance. The hand rails that are no longer touched, the menorah inside, no longer polished. I wonder to myself: where are they now? Where have they gone? What is their story? That is the story Bowell is aiming to deliver a personal story which transcends the subjective: it is a story of one Jewish woman which is also a story of all the modern Jews of Egypt.

The personal: a tale of self actualization and forgiveness

The books story telling is straightforward, with a strong focus on the documentation aspect that Bowell initially started with. Yet, little by little, Bowell revisits each aspect of her past as well as relationship with her family.

In the midst of capturing the exodus that she, and many like her went through, Bowell also manages to openly reflect on the cracks of her upbringing, namely her parents difficult marriage. She humbly admits that her parents upbringing of her was faulty, yet she does not deny them the humanity of their error.

Moreover, she embodies the getting on with it, stiff-upper-lip attitude that many British people are known for. By leaving Egypt, and unlike the Man in the Sharkskin Suit (by Lugnette Lagnado), her fathers reaction to having been evicted from Egypt is not take me back to Egypt! but forget about it.

It is a stone cold reaction, yet one that is understandable and remarkable all the same. In writing her book, Bowell makes peace with her parents: a mother who instilled fear, and a father who was too controlling, despite their efforts to be supportive, providing and loving. There is a recognition of the sacrifices that have been made, as well as the resilience in needing to uproot from a life they cherished to be thrown into a different, unfamiliar country, whose even its winters they could not imagine.

The most poignant excerpt in the book, which affected me to the point of tears, was in reading the story of her younger sister Claudine, who died, after a long battle with terminal cancer. Bowell had not felt capable of seeing her in her last days. She writes She died alone and this will always haunt me, as I should have been there to hold her hand; she may have lost consciousness by then, but I think at some level she would have known I was sitting next to her. A very kind nurse was with her until the end, but that does not exonerate me.

For me, it was this particular passage that transcended religion and politics: tales of familial bond and resilience are all too familiar they are irreligious and timeless. They live in a space in which they can be heard by any and all, and still inspire the rawest of emotions.

There is more to explore in the book, such as her attempts to explore and reconnect with the Egypt that she had once known, and even venture into her familial home, now occupied. Yet, it would be harsh to rob any reader the chance to learn more for themselves.

This may be Bowells own story, but, in a sense, this is also the story of thousands of Jews who had lived in Egypt. They might not be dwelling amongst us anymore, but their stories still do.

The book is available on Amazon (UK and international).

Main image: Ben Ezra Synagogue by khowaga1.

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Review: To Egypt with Love, a Literary Jewish Memento of a By(going) Era - Egyptian Streets

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