Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By admin on January 11, 2022

While the rest of Israels coronavirus testing network is straining to cope with massive demand, the situation in the countrys Arab community is entirely different: The resumption of classes following the school winter break has led to a small uptick in requests for PCR testing and for more rapid antigen testing administered by medical personnel, but many community COVID coordinators report very limited demand on the whole for testing in the countrys Arab locales.

As of Monday, data from the Arab Emergency Committee, a panel of public health experts and public figures that was established at the beginning of the pandemic, pegged 22 Arab communities as red the highest rate of infection and another 21 just one notch lower at orange.

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The numbers are likely to climb even further in the next several days despite the large numbers of Israeli Arabs who are refraining from being tested, sources said. And theres no notable sense of urgency or preparedness in Arab communities in the face of burgeoning number of infections, the officials added.

Despite the pandemic, mass gatherings were held in Nazareth, Kafr Yasif and Miilya, to celebrate Christmas, among other occasions. All of these communities are now designated red.

Sakhnin Mayor Safuat Abu Riya, a physician by training, said testing and vaccination facilities in his city havent been seeing major traffic on a day-to-day basis, and he acknowledged that he understood why many Arab mayors hadnt bothered setting up such facilities to begin with.

It involves expenses that the local authorities have to assume, including not just establishing the facilities themselves but hiring attendants and [medical] staff, he explained. These are expenses that can go as high as hundreds of thousands of shekels, and for some local governments, thats just too much.

Dr. Nour Abdel Hadi Shahbari agreed. She is a member of the governments Arab desk in the effort to combat the pandemic. The local authorities are tapped out. For them, setting up permanent testing centers requires resources such as personnel, infrastructure and funding, she said.

And the financial situation of many Arab families, particularly those with a large number of children, precludes them from buying home antigen test kits. Quickly changing guidelines and the shift to antigen testing and limits on PCR tests have further undermined their faith in the system and in the experts, Shahbari added.

But she remains cautiously optimistic and hopes that the effect of the new government rules will be felt shortly on the ground particularly due to the resumption of classes in the schools and the rise in the case numbers.

According to data from the Arab desk, 83 percent of all PCR tests administered on Sunday were in the Jewish community (excluding ultra-Orthodox Israelis). Only 9 percent were performed in the Arab community, even though Israeli Arabs represent more than 20 percent of the countrys population.

When it comes to the more rapid antigen tests, 92 percent of them were administered on Jewish Israelis and just 3 percent on Arabs. Six percent of those who tested positive from PCR tests were Arab as were 2 percent of those who received antigen testing.

On Sunday, 15,526 COVID tests were administered in the countrys Arab communities, and 9.13 of them came back positive lower than the nationwide rate of 13.3 percent. In addition 3,846 professionally supervised antigen tests were performed, of which 237 came back positive.

The vaccination rate among Israeli Arabs is also not particularly high. As of last weekend, 67 percent of Arabs had received their first vaccine dose and 56 percent had gotten two doses, the Arab Emergency Committee reported. But the percentage who had received a booster shot, including patients who have recovered from the coronavirus, is less than 48 percent, compared with 74 percent among secular Israeli Jews.

Arab society is clearly treating [the current COVID wave] with skepticism, a lack of interest or even contempt, said Dr. Mohammad Khatib of the Safed Academic College and the Galilee Society an Arab medical service and research organization. The lack of clarity regarding frequently changing guidelines has exacerbated the crisis of confidence that already existed between Israels Arab citizens and the political and health care systems, he said. And, if you add to that the economic burden anticipated from the [new rules mandating] home antigen testing, its no surprise that Arabs arent getting tested.

Many of those responsible for pandemic-related issues at Arab schools said that if demand for testing now grows, they wont be able to cope with it. And a large number of students, as well as teachers, prefer to conceal that they have symptoms due to the prospect that they will be confined to isolation, the sources said.

The sense is that theres interest among adults and higher-risk people, but young people and children arent troubled at all, by the pandemic, an official responsible for COVID issues in the Galilee said. Were relying on parents to report truthfully to us, but I have no way of knowing who really did a home test, he acknowledged.

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Omicron wave met with apathy among Israel's Arabs, keeping vaccination, COVID testing low - Haaretz

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Posted By admin on January 11, 2022

Israeli leaders are likely looking at the unrest and power struggles in Kazakhstan with trepidation.

Although the Central Asian republic rarely enters the public discourse and ties seem so marginal that there are no direct flights between the two countries, Kazakhstan is an important source for imported oil and a lucrative market for Israeli arms. Both businesses are shrouded in secrecy but are strategically important, say experts.

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Israel doesnt release information on where it sources its imported oil, but the financial reports of Israels two big refiners cite the Black and Caspian seas, through which Kazakhstan and other Central Asian producers ship their petroleum to Mediterranean markets.

Gabriel Mitchell, a policy fellow at Mitvim the Israeli Institute for Regional Foreign Policies, estimates that perhaps 10 to 20 percent of Israels imported oil comes from Kazakhstan, and there were times when it reached 25 percent.

If were talking about Israels relations with Kazakhstan and the other Central Asian republics, the entry point for bilateral relations has been through energy, says Mitchell, adding, Start with oil thats the only way to start.

With 30 billion barrels of oil reserves, the worlds 12th biggest, Kazakhstan is a major exporter to much of the world. As a result, the current unrest in the country where over 160 demonstrators were reportedly killed in a week of protests that marked the worst scenes since the former Soviet republic gained independence 30 years ago has sent world oil prices higher amid reports of temporary disruptions. But even if supplies are cut, Israel should be able to buy oil elsewhere, Mitchell says, given the world glut.

Arms sales to Kazakhstan are relatively small, but they are significant. Though it buys less weaponry than neighboring Azerbaijan, Kazakhstans energy wealth gives it money to spend. Israel and Kazakhstan signed a defense agreement in 2014, whose particulars have never been revealed but appear to deal mainly with weapons sales. Unlike Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan doesnt border on Iran and therefore has less strategic importance to Israel.

All of Israels big defense companies have sold products to Kazakhstans armed forces and police, including drones, precision rockets, radar systems and communications equipment. Last May, a factory and service center run by Kazakhstan Aviation Industry began producing unmanned aerial vehicles under license from Israels Elbit Systems.

Kazakhstan has also emerged as a market for cybersecurity tools most notoriously those of the NSO Group, the embattled maker of spyware technology. Last month, a forensic analysis by Amnesty Internationals Security Lab found that the cellphones of at least four activists critical of the government in Kazakhstan were found to be infected with NSO software.

Two other Israel companies, Verint Systems and Nice in the past at least have sold monitoring systems to Central Asian security agencies, including Kazakhstans.

Always problematic given Kazakhstans autocratic regime and poor record on human rights, the arms and cybersecurity sales may now put Israel in an especially embarrassing position as its technology is at risk of being used against protesters. Besides monitoring equipment, Beit Alfa Technologies, which belongs to the kibbutz of the same name, reportedly sold Kazakhstan 17 riot-control vehicles a decade ago.

Russian role

Faced with protests against a friendly regime and a violent crackdown by the Kazakh government, Jerusalem has chosen to lay low.

The only official response from Israel since the unrest exploded was a neutral statement from the Foreign Ministry issued last Friday, saying it was look[ing] forward to the restoration of stability and calm in Kazakhstan soon.

Israel is engaged in a difficult balancing act in Central Asia, where it is trying to square its national security and economic interests with the complicated politics of the region, Mitchell says. Russias presence adds another complication.

Kazakhstan has traditionally sought to play off Russia, China and the United States against each other. But some observers warn that Russias central role in sending in peacekeeping troops to Kazakhstan last week, under the banner of the Collective Security Treaty Organization, may begin a new era in which Kazakhstan is more tightly bound to Moscow.

Mitchell believes Israel would look askance at such a development. While Israel has a relationship with Russia, Israel doesnt see Russia as a partner. The partnership between Russia and Israel is only circumstantial, based on common interests, he says. From a geographical perspective, if Russia makes a move into a space, its not in Israels interest. That can be said about Kazakhstan as well.

But Alex Melikishvili, a principal country risk analyst for Central Asia at IHS Markit, thinks Kazakhstan President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev aims to keep Russia at arms length. Kazakhstan has always been firmly anchored in the Russian sphere of influence, he says. But this superficial deployment of the Collective Security Treaty Organization is just that extremely superficial.

Despite the harsh crackdown he ordered against protests, Tokayev may be looking at the unrest as a wake-up call for liberalizing the regime. This is a chance for President Tokayev to introduce much-needed political reforms, Melikishvili says. If there is no liberalization of the political system, we will witness more devastating and organized political unrest with far-reaching consequences, he adds.

Kevjn Lim, IHS Markits Middle East principal country risk analyst, says that, diplomatically speaking, Kazakhstan needs Israel less than in the past. In the 1990s, Israel played an important role for the newly independent countrys efforts to establish itself in the world community due to Jerusalems strong ties with the United States and the perceived power of the Jewish lobby and business.

For Israel, on the other hand, the Abraham Accords may have eclipsed Central Asia in media prominence and salience as Israeli-friendly Muslim countries, but certainly not in intrinsic strategic importance, Kim argues. Kazakhstan and especially Azerbaijan remain the twin anchors of Israeli engagement within the former Soviet Unions Muslim space, he says.

Dashed expectations help explain why Israel has never developed broader commercial ties with Kazakhstan.

In the years after the two countries established diplomatic ties in 1992, many Israeli businessmen most notably Shaul Eisenberg through the Israel Corp. hunted for deals, only to meet with corruption and limited opportunities.

Meanwhile, Kazakhstans early ambitions to diversify away from oil, in which Israel could have played a part by deploying agricultural and other technologies, largely failed. According to International Monetary Fund figures, two-way trade between the countries was about $370 million last year, down from $1.6 billion in 2014, with the lions share of that presumably oil.

Daniel Tartakovski, executive director of the Kazakhstani-Israeli Business Association, estimates there are about 140 companies involving Israelis registered in Kazakhstan, engaged mainly in agriculture, pharmaceuticals, energy and construction. He puts Israeli investment in the country at some $220 million.

Immediately after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the market was not saturated and therefore the 1990s were a good time for quick business, fast deals with good and comparatively easy high-yield earnings, Tartakovski states in an email. Today, Kazakhstan is an established competitive market that requires long-term investment, heavy local presence and hard day-to-day work for those willing to be successful.

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Oil, cyber and weapons: Inside Israel's relationship with Kazakhstan - Haaretz

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Posted By admin on January 11, 2022

The Israeli government does not intend to freeze the Western Wall deal, which was meant to provide the Conservative and Reform movements with a proper egalitarian space and official status at the Jewish holy site. But neither does it plan to push ahead with it at full force.

This conflicting message was conveyed to leaders of the non-Orthodox movements, as well as to representatives of the government and Jewish communities in the Diaspora, at a meeting held on Monday with Cabinet Secretary Shalom Shlomo. Prime Minister Naftali Bennett appointed Shlomo to represent the government in negotiations over the deals future. The deal has been a source of great tension between Israel and world Jewry in recent years.

This meeting was the first convened by Shlomo on the issue since rumors began circulating that the Bennett government had resolved to wash its hands of the agreement.

The government headed by former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had approved the Kotel deal, as it is known, in January 2016. However, it suspended implementation a year-and-a-half later under pressure from his ultra-Orthodox coalition partners.

According to sources present at Mondays meeting, Shlomo expressed the governments genuine willingness to move ahead quickly with certain physical changes at the existing egalitarian prayer plaza aimed at improving the prayer experience at the site.

A large boulder fell from the Western Wall right near the egalitarian prayer space, located next to the archeological site known as Robinsons Arch, in 2018. Because of ongoing repairs, which dragged on much longer than anticipated, worshippers at the egalitarian space have been forced to distance themselves from the actual wall. At the meeting, Shlomo indicated that the Prime Ministers Office planned to intervene to hasten the repair work, which has been held up for bureaucratic reasons, so that non-Orthodox worshippers could once again stand in touching distance of the stones.

Ongoing attempts by Orthodox groups to encroach on their territory in order to push them out pose another key challenge to worshippers at the egalitarian prayer plaza. Such attempts evolved into violent clashes on the eve of Tisha bAv the annual fast marking the destruction of the two ancient temples. Young yeshiva students showed up in large numbers at the egalitarian space, set up a mechitzah (barrier) to separate men from women and tried to drown out the megillah-reading service of members of the Conservative movement gathered there. This was not the first time that members of Orthodox groups opposed to the Western Wall deal put up their own mechitzahs at the egalitarian space.

Shlomo indicated to his interlocutors at Mondays meeting that the government would support a total ban on mechitzahs at the egalitarian space to avoid such future confrontations.

Both these changes, he said, could be implemented in the near future.

But other key elements of the Western Wall deal, he warned, would have to be put on hold. The government was not keen on moving ahead at this stage, Shlomo said, with plans to build one single entry to the Western Wall, as proposed in the original deal, in place of the current two separate entries. The one single entry would symbolize the equal status of all the Jewish denominations at the Western Wall.

Neither, he said, was the government interested in advancing the proposal to set up a new statutory authority, with representatives of the non-Orthodox movements on its board, to oversee the egalitarian prayer section. As far as the non-Orthodox movements are concerned, having a place at this particular table is as close as they could have expected to get in achieving formal state recognition.

Meeting participants were told that implementation of these elements of the deal would have to wait until after the government overcomes the latest hurdle it faces on matters of religion and state: passing a new law regulating Orthodox conversions performed in Israel. Religious Affairs Minister Matan Kahana has been drafting a bill that would strip the Chief Rabbinate of its monopoly on conversion, sparking significant opposition within Israels religious establishment.

This meeting was Shlomos second with Reform and Conservative leaders, as well as leaders of Women of the Wall, the feminist prayer group. For the first time, a Diaspora Affairs Ministry official, as well as Rebecca Caspi, director-general of the Israel office of the Jewish Federations of North America attended. Her participation indicates that the Kotel remains a high-stake issue for the largest Jewish community in the Diaspora.

Following the meeting, the Reform movement in Israel stated: We appreciate the fact that in these complicated days of a pandemic, the cabinet secretary found time to hold a meeting on this issue. In the meeting, some of the immediate challenges concerning the Kotel were discussed: the violence and incitement against the Reform movement, the miserable state of the egalitarian prayer plaza and the need to correct this situation. We will continue with our monthly meeting in an effort to implement the deal.

Rakefet Ginsburg, executive director of the Conservative-Masorti movement in Israel, expressed cautious optimism. In a statement, she wrote: As in our previous meeting, we found a friend in the Prime Ministers Office. The cabinet secretary appears resolved to put an end to this ongoing and exhausting saga. In the meeting, different operational measures were discussed for advancing the Kotel deal, while serious concerns were raised about our relations with Diaspora Jewry, which have been increasingly unraveling. We hope and believe that alongside this goodwill demonstrated by the government, which is noteworthy, we can once and for all bring peace to the Jewish nation.

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Israel sends mixed messages on Western Wall deal, but plans to implement parts of it - Haaretz

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Posted By admin on January 11, 2022

OPINION:

Historians usually date the start of the Holocaust to June 1941 when German troops invaded the Soviet Union, identified Jewish civilians, lined them up and shot them by the thousands. Later, concentration camps equipped with gas chambers elevated the slaughter to an industrial scale.

But that timetable omits something important. After his accession to power in 1933, Hitler began a campaign to demonize and delegitimize Jews, accusing them of imaginary crimes, conveying the message that Jews are a vile and guilty race, deserving of punishment.

In 1935, the Nuremberg Laws officially made German Jews second-class citizens. In 1938, thousands of German Jewish stores and homes were ransacked and burned in the pogrom known as Kristallnacht. In 1939, after the Nazi invasion of Poland, Polish Jews were confined to ghettos.

All this and more laid the groundwork for the Final Solution to the Jewish Question, the Nazi euphemism for the genocide of European Jews.

Before their defeat by the Allied forces, the Nazis managed to exterminate six million European Jews two out of every three. Post-war, most countries of the broader Middle East, many of them influenced by Nazi ideology, drove out their ancient Jewish communities.

Refugees fled or, as many saw it, returned to a land in which Jews had survived for thousands of years despite multiple foreign conquests, massacres, enslavements and expulsions.

Israelis declared their independence following the departure of the British Empire from territories taken from the defeated Ottoman Empire after World War I. Israels founding was thus an act of anti-imperialism and de-colonialism.

Recalling this history now is relevant and perhaps urgent. For decades, the U.N. has been at the forefront of a campaign to demonize and delegitimize Israel. That campaign is now set to sharply escalate.

Last week, the U.N. approved a $4.2 million budget to establish a so-called Commission of Inquiry essentially a Grand Inquisition targeting and vilifying Israel.

Under the auspices of Human Rights Council, a body dominated by such notorious human rights violators as China, Russia, Cuba, Pakistan, Qatar and Venezuela, an 18-member staff will be led by Navi Pillay, a former U.N. high commissioner for human rights, with an appalling record on Israel, in the considered judgment of Hillel Neuer, executive director of U.N. Watch.

The COI will be dedicated to manufacturing charges and mounting a global chase to arrest and incarcerate Israeli Jews, Anne Bayefsky, director of the Touro Institute on Human Rights and the Holocaust, wrote in a paper for the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs.

The ostensible inspiration for the COI is the 11-day conflict initiated by Hamas last May. Over 4,000 rockets were launched against Israeli cities, towns and villages. Israelis defended themselves, for which the COI will accuse Israelis of imaginary crimes. Hamas, by contrast, will not be seriously criticized for either its attacks on Israeli civilians or its use of Palestinians as human shields indisputably crimes under both international and U.S. law.

Expect the COI also to broadcast the slander that Israel is an apartheid state, implying that Israel has no right to defend itself indeed, no right to exist.

I plan to say more about the bogus charge of apartheid in future columns. Still, for now, Ill just point out that Israels Arab Muslim minority, roughly 20%, enjoys rights and freedom unavailable to Arab Muslims even in countries where they constitute a majority. No positions or jobs are denied to Israeli citizens based on ethnicity or religion. Mansour Abbas, head of the Islamic Raam Party and an elected member of the Knesset, serves in the current Israeli governing coalition.

Gaza, from which Israelis withdrew in 2005, is ruled by Hamas. The West Bank is governed by the Palestinian Authority. Israelis have repeatedly offered to withdraw from most of the West Bank in exchange for a conflict-ending agreement. Those offers were turned down. Should Israelis withdraw without an agreement, the West Bank would become a second Gaza. Is that not obvious?

The endless drumbeat of anti-Israeli vilification by the COI is sure to energize the economic campaign against Israel (echoing the 1933 Nazi Dont buy from the Jews campaign) and perhaps lead to prosecutions of Israelis by the International Criminal Court, a politicized entity whose authority is recognized by neither Israel nor the U.S.

More concerning: The findings of the COI inquiry will be used to justify the genocidal threats frequently made by the Islamic Republic of Iran, its Lebanese-based proxy, Hezbollah, and of course Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

I could fill this column with examples of such threats, but two should suffice. Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has called on Muslims to remove the Zionist black stain from human society, adding that there is a religious justification to kill all the Jews and annihilate Israel, and Iran must take the helm.

When Nikki Haley was ambassador to the U.N., the Trump administration withdrew from the UNHRC, having concluded that significant reforms were unachievable. The Biden administration returned to that body this month, asserting that it can make a difference through diplomatic engagement. We shall see.

The U.N. campaign will make settlement of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict impossible for the foreseeable future. Why would any Palestinian leader compromise so long as there is a possibility that what happened to the Jews of Europe defamation followed by extermination, a final solution could happen to the Jews of Israel with the assent of the international community?

The U.N. was established following World War II to prevent and resolve conflicts. Today, it promotes antisemitism and enables both terrorists and genocidaires. Acknowledgment of this reality must precede any attempt to change it.

Clifford D. May is founder and president of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and a columnist for the Washington Times.

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The U.N.'s final solution to the Israel question - Washington Times

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Posted By admin on January 11, 2022

Bank of Israel Governor Amir Yaron gestures while he speaks during his interview with Reuters in Jerusalem June 16, 2020. Picture taken June 16, 2020. REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun

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JERUSALEM, Jan 10 (Reuters) - The Omicron coronavirus variant sweeping Israel will cost the economy around two billion shekels ($641.81 million) every 20 days, central bank governor Amir Yaron said on Monday.

"At this point we are not talking about a macro-economic development," Yaron told parliament's finance committee. The economic hit would come from decreased consumption and workers sick or stuck in isolation, he said.

"Most estimates are of a relatively short wave - a number of weeks, that is why the cost to the economy per confirmed coronavirus case is not of macro-economic proportions. In such a scenario, pinpoint compensations focused on sectors that have been hurt should be continued," Yaron added.

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Yaron said the government should also prepare for a worse scenario in which vital services could be hurt as infections soar. "We're not there now but such scenarios could bring about macro-economic damage," he said.

He said Israel's economic growth for 2022 would likely be 5.5% with businesses recovering after the Omicron wave subsides.

Omicron has pushed Israel's daily coronavirus cases to record highs in the past week. Businesses say they are hurting badly and have called on the government to do more to help them.

($1 = 3.1162 shekels)

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Reporting by Maayan Lubell

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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Omicron will cost Israel $640 mln every three weeks, central bank chief says - Reuters

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Posted By admin on January 11, 2022

In the lines for COVID tests, on the preschool parents WhatsApp groups and the incidental chatter on Zoom, the impression is that there is a broad Israeli consensus: The guidelines are extremely confusing. Muttering this sentence these days is akin to muttering something generic about the weather, a surefire way to break an awkward silence and evoke nods of agreement in solidarity from everyone around you.

Man, the new guidelines are so confusing, arent they? you can say in a tone filled with empathy to the electrician who just showed up without a mask, to the cousin you havent seen in a decade, to a colleague on the elevator. And you can up your game by sharing the joke thats going around online: In case of exposure to a confirmed carrier, one should immediately do eenie-meenie-miney-mo. See, its funny because, gosh, the guidelines are just so darn confusing!

Im aware that I am about to buck the tsunami of public sentiment here, but Ive got news for you: The COVID guidelines are not confusing. We just dont like them, because they shift more and more responsibility onto the individual. And if theres one thing human beings dont like, its having to make decisions alone. (Should we order the black one or the white one, babe? Nu, whatever you choose, I dont care.) And without a leader (a strong one! Whose party has plenty of Knesset seats!) to tell them exactly what, how and how much to do and spare them all of these dilemmas.

So here is a handy summary of the current guidelines for all those who are too confused because its impossible to keep track anymore (even though its a heck of a lot simpler than trying to keep track of the state of Eyal Golans marriage): Israel is slowly and steadily shifting to a policy that some will call living with the coronavirus and others will call every man for himself depending on your political attitude regarding the desirable degree of government involvement.

Some of the details are still being updated, such as the type and method of home testing and the optimal number of quarantine days, but the guiding principle remains the same: If you are young, healthy and vaccinated and youve been exposed to a confirmed virus carrier or have developed symptoms take responsibility, do home tests and recover at home. If you are older, at-risk or unvaccinated we will still keep tabs on you. Decisions about where and in what numbers to gather given the current infection rates, you will make on your own. Supervision of crowded places will be done via regulation (the Green Pass and Purple Badge), not lockdowns. And the most painful, serious subject: The government is also reducing financial compensation for people whose livelihoods have been hurt by the pandemic.

Does anyone really think that after two years of lockdowns, unemployment and compensation, it will be possible to go on like this forever? Does anyone really miss the days when police officers chased after citizens on beaches and in parks and gave out fines for walking the dog? Yes, the mixture of state responsibility and individual responsibility is not yet as balanced as it could be. Rather than compel citizens to choose between waiting in huge lines or paying for tests, the tests should be distributed free. Through the HMO clinics, possibly. A better model must also be found for supporting workers and businesses that are collapsing as a direct result of the pandemic. But the general direction is quite understandable and logical this is precisely the meaning of the slogan living with the coronavirus.

Which is what Health Minister Nitzan Horowitz tried to explain to journalist Kalman Liebskind on Sunday morning when Liebskind posed this question to him: I have tickets to a show tonight as health minister, do you recommend that I go or not? To which Horowitz replied: Every person should make his own decision based on his own judgment. Youre old enough to decide for yourself what you want to do. Were giving you all the means vaccine, medicine, treatment, tests.

This guideline is not confusing. It is very clear. We just dont want to make the decision ourselves.

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Israel's COVID rules aren't confusing. We just don't like them - Haaretz

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Posted By admin on January 11, 2022

The two terebinths that grow atop Tel Azeqa have lost their leaves. Six stone cubes have been placed beneath the trees and the view opposite the high observation point is wonderful. From the east you can see the Valley of Elah, green fields, greenhouses, orchards and Highway 38, which crosses the valley. In the distance you see Tel Socho, and on the opposite ridge the huge bloc of buildings called Ramat Beit Shemesh rises unexpectedly.

This description doesnt tell the full picture. Anyone who sits at the top of Tel Azeqa cant simply gaze at the landscape. Events that took place (or didnt take place) about 3,000 years ago appear before them and are constantly present during the course of the visit. The story of the heroic battle between David and Goliath, which according to the Bible took place during the reign of King Saul in the 11th century B.C.E. is present at every moment.

The Tanakh is the perfect guidebook for any visitor to the site. But even if you arrive without a copy, dont worry the story of the victory over the armed Philistine giant by the redheaded youth who refused to wear armor will become clear to you as youre breathing hard during the ascent. Stones have been placed alongside the steps that ascend to the summit, with biblical verses etched on them that tell the story from beginning to end. Those stone cubes beneath the two trees also tell the story of David and Goliath.

Tel Azeqa is the site of a victory by the small over the mighty. The setting leaves no choice. The sites designers urge the visitor to imagine the armies arraying themselves and the battle. One of the foundational stories of local culture presumably took place there, in the valley opposite Azeqa. The Bible conveniently provides clear geographical markers for this story: Now the Philistines gathered together their armies to battle, and they were gathered together at Socoh, which belongeth to Judah, and pitched between Socoh and Azekah, in Ephes-dammim. And Saul and the men of Israel were gathered together, and pitched in the vale of Elah, and set the battle in array against the Philistines (1 Samuel 17: 1-2).

Is it generally possible to use the Tanakh as our guidebook? At what sites should that be done? How certain is the identification of biblical sites with contemporary landmarks? And what is the attraction of a tour with the Tanakh? Is a Tel Azeqa tour in the company of David and Goliath more interesting than a tour observing the trees and cyclamens that are beginning to bloom all around? And of course: is there anyone who exploits the connection between the present site and the legendary-historical past? Is it proof of our right to the Valley of Elah?

Drawing up a complete list of Israeli tour sites with a biblical past is nigh-on impossible. There are hundreds of such sites that are identified as biblical. Some have been identified with certainty; others out of hope or faith.

In her delightful book Traveling with the Bible (also available in English), Galia Doron published 17 touring routes based on the stories from Dan in the north to Nahal Gerar in the Western Negev and Sodom on the shores of the Dead Sea.

Also there: Gideon and the Midianites at Harod Spring; Elijah the Prophet on Mount Carmel; Samson at Tzora; David at Tel Azeqa; Joshua at Gezer; Abraham who descends to Gerar; and Jerusalem during every period. On the book jacket, Doron wrote: Its a unique experience to hear the biblical stories at the site where they took place and as if there isnt a gap of thousands of years. The present, the distant past and not-so-distant past commingle in the same story.

Doron did not include sites in the West Bank (Judea and Samaria) in her book, but others believe there are many candidates there to join the list from the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron to the settlement of Ofra, near Nablus, from which Gideon set out. In the guidebook Yesha is Fun (by Karni Eldad and Shlomo Bashan, 2015), the visit to the Tomb of the Patriarchs is described thusly: You owe yourself a brief communion with the site of the burial of our patriarchs and matriarchs, one of the cradles of the birth of the Jewish people. After all, its not every day we travel to visit Father and Mother.

Archaeologists who have researched the site estimate that the foundation of the present structure was built during the days of Herod, about 1,600 years after the time of Abraham. The question of whether this tradition proves our right to Hebron is, of course, not related to archaeology or historical truth but to political opinion.

Identifying biblical sites

The first question that perturbs anyone sitting at Tel Azeqa is: How do we know the biblical story took place here? How do we know this is the site of Azeqa mentioned in the Book of Samuel? Archaeologist Prof. Israel Finkelstein of Tel Aviv University explains that identifying a place mentioned in the Bible and other ancient texts is based on three elements: The first relates to the preservation of the name in Arabic for example, Geva in the village of Jeba and Anatot in Anata or nearby (both are north of Jerusalem). Sometimes the name was not preserved: the Arabic name of Tel Megiddo is Tel-el-Mutesellim (Hill of the Governor); the name Megiddo wasnt preserved.

There are cases where the ancient site is found near the place that preserves the name. There are interesting cases in which the identification was made indirectly, and there are other cases where the name was preserved in the surroundings, like the grave of a sheikh (for instance, in the case of Gezer).

The second element for identification is geographical logic. So, a place that is mentioned near Jerusalem cannot be identified in the Galilee. The third element is archaeological findings: the existence of a finding that suits the period in which the place is mentioned.

An identification can be made with certainty even if the name was not preserved, Finkelstein explains. But its impossible to make a definite identification if there is no geographical logic and there are no findings.

Things are more complicated when dealing with identifying a spot without a settlement for example, Rachels Tomb, whose location (Bethlehem) was determined by pilgrims traditions that postdate the literal geographical explanation of the biblical text.

Finkelstein also adds a general and very important remark concerning the reading of the Bible. It can be done in a traditional-literary manner or a research oriented-historical manner, and both are good, he says. In terms of history and geography, the second method is required. And of course, in that case we have to ask about the authors, their time, their place and their objectives.

According to Finkelstein, the basic question is whether you believe the biblical story as is, or whether you treat it as a literary text and examine the authors motives.

Finkelstein says identification of such places is central to the discipline known as historical geography. This began in the 19th century with researchers like George Adam Smith and Edward Robinson. Jewish scholars also subsequently entered this field of research, the most influential of whom were Benjamin Mazar and Yohanan Aharoni. The Zionist movement, Finkelstein notes, promoted this field in the early 20th century as Yediat Haaretz literally, knowledge of the land. The field was pursued mainly by Joseph Braslavi and Zev Vilnay, who combined touring and research.

Tel Socho and Tel Azeqa from the David and Goliath story have been identified with certainty, Finkelstein says. The geographical logic has been preserved there and the sites were identified in prolonged excavations. The Valley of Elah that stretched between them served as the site of the battles between the armies of Saul and the Philistines.

Im infuriated by the idea that reading the Tanakh belongs only to the traditional reader. It is mine to the same degree as it belongs to any other person, Finkelstein continues. The experience is everyones. In a tour with the Tanakh, a person has an emotional experience. They connect to the past that they believe is their past. Thats an explanation from the field of psychology rather than archaeology, but when it comes to emotion, everyone has such a connection and its natural and normal. I assume that it comes from the education we received.

The important question is how to approach the reading of the biblical story. When you stand in front of the gate of Megiddo and read in the Book of Kings about King Solomon do you read simplistically or in a complex manner? Every verse youll read there arouses 1,001 questions. Who wrote it? Where? Why? I dont read the Bible in a direct way. I ask questions. I think that makes the reading more interesting. I get into the head of the ancients and ask what bothers them, what motivates them, why it was important to them. And thats much more interesting.

Lets say its from the time of Solomon, he says. How was it preserved up to the time of the author of the Book of Kings, who lived in the late seventh century B.C.E.? In other words, at least 300 years passed from Solomons time until the writing of the text. Did the author of the Book of Kings use something from a period close to his own life and draw conclusions regarding Solomons life? Im in favor of complex, empathetic and critical reading. Its reading done with great love for the Bible, but its more interesting than simplistic reading. We tour with the Tanakh in hand, but dont read it simplistically.

Searching for evidence

Archaeologist Prof. Aren Maeir of the Department of Land of Israel Studies and Archaeology at Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan, researched Philistine culture for many years. In an interview, he explains the question of touring with the Tanakh from his point of view: We have a text that lies at the foundation of our culture and of human culture. People have always loved to find routes to it, in order to connect to it. In the past 150 years, weve been looking for the sites and trying to identify them.

Its of religious, cultural and experiential importance, but the search for the geography of the Tanakh also includes an ideological aspect, Maeir says. Were looking for the biblical sites in order to prove or contradict a claim. If I found the place where David built his temple, then Ive presumably proven that the Tanakh is history. And if I searched for Joshuas Jericho and didnt find it, that presumably means the Tanakh is fiction. But thats a simplistic approach.

Maeir proposes a different worldview. He says that, for instance, the stories in the Book of Samuel about Samson and the Philistines are amazing stories that are fundamental to our culture. If a child visits Tel Azeqa, that will leave a stronger impression on them than the best lesson in a school classroom. Even if we treat the Bible in a totally secular way, its still an amazing tour, he argues. Even if we claim that there isnt much history in the descriptions, theres no doubt that the authors of the stories were very familiar with the geography of the Valley of Elah. Touring with the Tanakh is very powerful certainly if we read it in an ideological-religious manner, but even from just the cultural aspect.

He says that every time a society recalls its past, it changes it for its present-day needs. In light of that, its fascinating to examine how our view of the Bible has changed from the founding of the state until today. I recently participated in a conference in the City of David [in Jerusalem] and for a moment I thought I was listening to studies from the 1970s, Maeir recounts. There, the Bible is central to the Zionist narrative. In many forums, that has disappeared over the years, but there are still parts of the population who preserve that. The feeling is similar to listening to the news broadcasts of the Kan Public Broadcasting Corporation or the Keshet franchise, and then switching to Channel 14 [an Israeli commercial television channel aimed at a right-wing audience]. Its another world.

Asked whether a biblical site can prove a right to the land, Maeir says there is an interminable debate about the right of the Jewish people in the Land of Israel. The argument is that if the Tanakh is a work of fiction, without a historical component, then presumably weve lost that right. In my opinion, thats a strange conclusion. Even if we presumably lost the right 3,000 years ago, we were still here 2,300 years ago. So is the right preserved for us or not? The biblical stories are of significance, even if it isnt historical. We have an emotional, religious or cultural experience with the Tanakh that is not necessarily related to history.

Everything that has been said here refers to sites that have been identified with certainty. But thats only part of the picture. About a month ago, I visited a site near Tzora, central Israel, featuring an attractive sign: The tomb of Samson and his father Manoah. The twin-domed structure has been identified in the recent past as the grave of Sheikh Samat, but believing Jews go on a pilgrimage to this site in order to request fertility. Dozens of similar sites are scattered throughout the country, part of the broad map of biblical tourism, although theyve been identified with certainty as something else.

According to anthropologist Prof. Yoram Bilu of the Hebrew University, such things develop out of a human need for intermediaries. It exists in all the major religions, and in tribal religions as well. In all of them, we find intermediaries like Samson, Dan and Elijah to whom the believers turn. Its impossible to turn to the abstract God in order to solve everyday problems that make up our lives.

How reliable is the map of holy places?

Maimonides is apparently buried in Tiberias and Rabbi Judah the Prince (Yehudah Hanasi) is probably buried in Beit Shearim. As for all the others, theres no archaeological evidence for the location of their graves but thats not important from the point of view of believers. Theres logic to the location. The tomb of Dan is located in the area apportioned to the Tribe of Dan, but theres no evidence or ancient tradition to confirm the site. The fact is that its the grave of an Arab sheikh, but in many places holiness begets holiness. Thats what happened in [the southern city of] Netivot: The moment the Baba Sali [Israel Abuhatzeira, a revered kabbalist rabbi] was buried there in 1984, Netivot became a city where dynasties of tzaddikim are established.

Theres a local tradition that ancient Gerar the temporary residence of Abraham and Isaac in the Bible is located next to Netivot, and they created a mystical connection between our Father Abraham and Rabbi Abuhatzeira. Thats a good example of bridging over thousands of years in an instant.

It should be emphasized: There are not many places in the world where the biblical names were preserved and used after thousands of years. In other words, theres logic and historical reality behind these things.

Is it exploited politically in other places too?

Its exploited politically the world over. Sacred places are situated on the ruins of sacred places belonging to other religions. Thats also true of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. Its not necessarily a cynical agenda; usually its imbued with faith. In Beit Shean, for instance, a tzaddik appeared in someones dream and asked that they bring him up to the Land of Israel. Not his body, but only regarding faith. It could be seen as a way to make money but thats not true. If you brought a tzaddik into your home, and gave him a room in a 40-square-meter [430-square-foot] home, thats a big sacrifice. True, it also brings in money, but most of it stems from faith.

The loveliest story is about the discovery of the entrance to Paradise in a courtyard in Beit Shean in the late 70s. The discovery was on a Friday evening. The members of the household were supposed to move to the city of Yavneh two days later; the father of the family didnt want to leave, and then Elijah the Prophet was revealed to him and pointed to the entrance to Paradise in the courtyard. The place quickly became a communal site. A community of dreamers was formed there in the 80s, only dissipating in the 2000s. They were unable to receive legitimization from the Religious Services Ministry. But for a long time people went from the health maintenance organizations center, which was adjacent to the courtyard, to the entrance to Paradise, and strengthened the medications the doctor had prescribed for them. Dont mock that because it worked.

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Using the Bible as an archaeological travel guide to Israel - Haaretz

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(JTA) A marketing firm that has worked extensively with Jewish nonprofits has declined to work with one because of growing concerns among its staff members about groups with significant programming in Israel.

The Shalom Hartman Institute, a leading Jewish educational think tank, reached out to Big Duck, a Brooklyn-based worker-owned cooperative, because of Big Ducks history of working with Jewish organizations in the past.

But Farra Trompeter, Big Ducks co-director, told Dorit Rabbani, Hartmans North America communications director, last week that the firm would not work with Hartman because Big Duck staff had concerns about the Hartman Institutes activities in Israel, both officials said.

Hartman, which has headquarters in Jerusalem and New York, has a broad ambit of advancing Jewish education and promoting dialogue among Jews and between Jews and other faiths. It is expressly Zionist.

Big Ducks past clients have included the Jewish Theological Seminary, the National Council of Jewish Women, and Keshet, a Jewish LGBTQ group. Hartman would not be among them.

Being more vocal and committed to fighting oppression has led us to more active questioning of working with organizations with significant programming in Israel, among other issues, and in those cases, we have mutually agreed that it does not make sense to work together, Trompeter said in an email to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.

A screenshot from Big Ducks website. (Screenshot)

The decision follows a period of intense and widespread criticism of Israel spurred by last Mays conflict between Israel and Hamas in Gaza. At the time, many on the left expressed solidarity with the Palestinians, but an open question has been how much that advocacy, much of which was expressed on social media, would translate into real-world action.

Big Ducks decision not to work with Hartman is an indication of lasting consequences.

Trompeter said the firm does not have a hard and fast rule against working with groups with ties to Israel.

Big Duck does not decline work with organizations solely due to their position on BDS or presence in Israel, she said. But we do ask if they are open to working with a team and company that is questioning Israels policies and practices among other issues, and consider that in evaluating whether we will be a good fit for creating their communications and fundraising materials.

Rabbani, who took notes soon after her 21-minute conversation with Trompeter last Wednesday, described a considerably less nuanced conversation and said the decision was not mutual, but rather Big Ducks alone.

According to Rabbanis notes, Trompeter noted that Hartman had a presence in Jerusalem and asked whether Hartman defines itself as Zionist and whether it opposes BDS, the movement to boycott, divest and sanction Israel.

According to Rabbanis notes, Rabbani confirmed that Hartman is a Zionist institution and that it opposes BDS and Trompeter said that in that case, Big Duck would decline the commission.

Trompeter disputed the characterization. We did not decline to work with the Hartman Institute because it is Zionist and do work with other Jewish groups, she said in a follow-up email. Big Duck does not use litmus tests.

Rabbani recalled that Trompeter explained that staff must be committed to a product in order to market it, and Big Ducks staff would have trouble bringing passion to work with Hartman.

I said, I wish you could talk to people at Hartman and hear about why our work is actually so important furthering coexistence and peace,' Rabbani said.

In addition to working with Jews to promote pluralism and Israeli democracy, the Hartman Institute works with Muslims in America through its Muslim Leadership Initiative, which promotes Muslim American engagement with Jews and with Israel. Some Muslim figures who have participated in Hartman programming have found themselves censured by others in their community, some of whom cite Hartmans role in training Israeli army troops in explaining their opposition. Hartmans army work involves training in leadership and pluralism and discussions of Jewish and Israeli identity.

Rabbani had come to Big Duck because she had worked with the shop in a previous job at the Jewish Theological Seminary, the Conservative movement institution that is also an expressly Zionist outfit with a presence in Israel.

JTS said in a statement to JTA that it was disheartened to hear about Big Ducks decision.

JTS is not currently working with Big Duck, the statement said. We are disheartened to hear about the companys concerns over working with the Shalom Hartman Institute because of its commitment to the state of Israel, a commitment that we share. We worked on projects with the agency under its previous ownership, without them ever questioning our views on Israel.

NCJW and Keshet also have partnerships with Israeli organizations.

It is our understanding that Big Duck does not have an organizational policy around BDS nor do they have a litmus test around Zionism, NCJWs CEO Sheila Katz said in a text message to JTA.

When Keshet contracted with Big Duck in 2017 and 2018 for an extensive rebranding project, the firm never asked about Keshets position on Israel and Zionism, said Idit Klein, Keshets president and CEO. We were extremely pleased with Big Ducks work, and we value the firms expertise in marketing and communications. My understanding is that Big Duck does not have litmus tests around Israel and Zionism for determining with whom they will and wont work. Ive spoken directly with Farra Trompeter, co-director of Big Duck, who assured me that Big Duck has not endorsed BDS as a firm.

Trompeter in her email saidthat the firm would continue to work with Jewish groups.

Big Duck is not anti-Semitic and profoundly rejects anti-Semitism, she wrote. We have many clients who are fighting for justice, providing much-needed community services, and improving peoples lives with roots in Jewish values, traditions or culture.

Yehuda Kurtzer, Hartman North Americas president, said he would not go so far as to accuse Big Duck of antisemitism. But he said, speaking before Trompeter said Big Duck does not boycott Zionists as a rule, that the firms decision was dangerous given the large share of American Jews with an affinity for Israel.

To boycott American Jewish institutions who are Zionist is a really dangerous activity given the fact that it is a predominant idea among American Jews and an essential part of our Judaism, he said. Its especially disappointing given that many of us, including my organization, are working to advance the causes of democracy and human rights and pluralism in Israel.

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A marketing firm that works with Jewish groups, Big Duck, has nixed a potential client because of its Israel ties - JTA News - Jewish Telegraphic...

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Posted By admin on January 11, 2022

Last week, The Jerusalem Post ran a story under the headline Palestinian Americans to be allowed to land at Ben Gurion Airport". Israeli officials are now saying that instead of only permitting Palestinian Americans to cross over the Allenby Bridge from Jordan, they will allow them to fly into Israels airport and proceed from there to the West Bank. Israel is offering to make this change to gain entry into the USs Visa Waiver Programme. If Israel were to gain admittance, its citizens would be able to travel to the US without first securing a visa. It is a privileged recognition that Israel has sought since the VWP was first created.

One key reason why this has never happened, despite continued pressure from Israel's supporters in Washington, is because for any country to join the programme, it must guarantee reciprocity that is, it must ensure that it will treat all visiting Americans without discrimination and the US must agree to do the same with regard to its citizens.

The problem is that over several decades, clear evidence exists that Israel has engaged in disgraceful, degrading and discriminatory treatment of American citizens of Arab descent who travel to the country. It appears that The Jerusalem Post story is Israels effort to signal to Washington that it is now ready to meet at least some of the US requirements. But this Israeli move seems both suspicious and wholly inadequate.

It is suspicious because in 2014, the last time Israel was pressing to enter the programme, Haaretz ran a story under the headline Israel to US: well ease stance on Pal-Americans, if we join the visa waiver programme". Back then, it blamed the Oslo Accords for its refusal to allow Palestinian Americans to fly into Ben Gurion Airport. Officials claimed that they were respecting the accords and the Palestinian Authority in requiring Palestinians to cross over the Allenby Bridge. However, there is no such provision in the said accords. And despite having said they would make this change seven years ago, it still has not happened.

The promised Israeli move is also woefully inadequate. While the ability of Palestinian Americans to fly into the country is important, it is only one of the many serious issues that have been raised about Israels behaviour toward Palestinian and other Arab Americans. Of even greater concern is how Israel treats Arab Americans upon entry whether in the airport or crossing over the bridge. People suspected of being of Arab descent are routinely singled out for special screening that will often involve hours of repeated harsh interrogation, downloading of information from their phones and laptops, and sometimes even strip searches.

It must be noted that its not just Palestinian Americans carrying a Palestinian identification card who receive this treatment, and its not only at the point of entry. There are documented statements received from hundreds of Arab Americans, from a variety of backgrounds, who report harrowing and degrading treatment on both entry and exit from Israel.

A few examples come to mind.

The late PLO chairman Yasser Arafat holds the second phase of the Oslo peace accords after the initialling of the document, as Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres looks on.

One is that of a Palestinian-American deacon in the Orthodox Church who, with a fellow clergyman, was on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land and was told on arrival at the airport that he could not enter because he was of Palestinian descent and needed to go to Jordan. When he replied that he was an American and pointed to his passport, the border official said: What do you want me to do, kiss your passport? To us, youre not an American, you are an Arab. After detaining him for hours, he was forced to buy a ticket and return to the US.

Another example is of a Lebanese American woman, who was teaching in the West Bank and went on a vacation to Europe. She was detained and interrogated for hours on return and eventually denied entry because Israeli officials were concerned that she sought to settle in the West Bank. Because she couldnt return to her school, she lost her job and was forced to return to the US.

In another instance, a US-born Lebanese American on a business trip to meet with potential partners in the West Bank was detained for six hours and repeatedly interrogated about his father's village in Lebanon, his family history and his position on Palestinian rights. He was eventually allowed in but experienced the same treatment on departure from Ben Gurion Airport.

Each of these stories and hundreds more have been sent to the US Department of State. Yet, little or nothing has been done. What is most unsettling is not just the Israeli behaviour, but the way the US government has appeared to acquiesce to it. The state department knows about these reports, which is why it posts a travel advisory telling Arab Americans to expect to be treated in a discriminatory manner. When victims of this abuse have called the American consulate in Jerusalem to ask for assistance, they have been told theres nothing we can do to help you". While several secretaries of state have said that they have raised this issue with the Israeli government, "raising the issue" apparently isn't enough because it continues.

US President Joe Biden meets with Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett in the Oval Office of the White House in August last year. AP Photo

The protection of American citizens rights should not be a matter of debate or compromise

In the end, this isnt just about visa waivers; its also about the American government not taking seriously its obligation to protect the rights of its own citizens. The US passport reads: The Secretary of State of the United States hereby requests all whom it may concern to permit the citizen/national of the United States named herein to pass without delay or hindrance and in case of need to give all lawful aid and protection.

There is also a 1951 US-Israel Treaty of Friendship, Commerce and Navigation, which states that American citizens going to Israel be permitted to "travel therein freely, and to reside at places of their choice; to enjoy liberty of conscience ... and to bury their dead according to their customs." Furthermore, the treaty prohibits Israel from "unlawful molestations of every kind" and guarantees that American citizens be offered "constant protections and security".

With their discriminatory entry-exit polices, Israel has, in effect, declared that they recognise three distinct classes of US citizens: American Jews with special privileges, other Americans whose rights are expected, and Arab Americans, whom Israel does not recognise as full Americans. By failing to stand up to this bigoted policy, the US is effectively upholding it.

The protection of American citizens rights should not be a matter of debate or compromise between the US government and any other country. And hollow gestures allowing Palestinian Americans to fly into Ben Gurion does not absolve the US or Israel from fulfilling their respective obligations.

Published: January 11th 2022, 4:00 AM

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In Israel, some Americans are more equal than others - The National

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The Holocaust all but destroyed a centuries-old Jewish civilization, while the war carved up nations and left the Continent divided between the allied West and the Soviet-dominated East. The casualties of this upheaval included a monumental collection of scholarship and artifacts telling the story of Yiddish culture.

Before World War II, the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, founded in Vilna (now Vilnius), Lithuania, collected millions of documents and hundreds of thousands of rare books. The Nazis, not satisfied with their war on Jewish bodies, also plundered their past, stealing documents for a planned museum of the vanquished Jewish race in Frankfurt and condemning the rest to destruction.

But much of the Frankfurt material survived. After the war, it was returned to YIVO and ended up at its new headquarters in New York City, thanks to theMonuments Men, the U.S. army unit sent to recover artwork and scholarship stolen by the Nazis. Meanwhile, Jews who were tasked with sorting the collections under Nazi orders in the Vilna Ghetto the famed Paper Brigade managed to hide a trove of materials. That tranche would again be threatened when the Soviets took over Lithuania, and only survived thanks to a Lithuanian librarian who managed to hide the material in church basement.

Like a family divided by the war, the collections found homes in two countries Lithuania and the U.S. And like a child in a divorce, the Lithuanian trove was subject to a lengthy custody battle between YIVO and the Lithuanian government. The dispute was resolved amicably only in 2014, with a solution made possible only by modern technology: the digitization of all the millions of materials, uniting them online if not under the same roof.

This month marks the completion of the historic project,the Edward Blank YIVO Vilna Online Collections, named for its lead donor. Professional and amateur researchers are able to access the entirety of the YIVO archive of 4 million documents, which are in Yiddish as well as dozens of other languages. The materials reflect the religious and cultural diversity of Yiddishland, from theater posters and youthful memoirs to illuminated synagogue ledgers and rare music scores.

The result, says Jonathan Brent, executive director and CEO of YIVO, is a reawakening of YIVOs historic mission, an important (and successful) experiment in international cultural activity, and an irreversible marker of YIVOs future as a leading global Jewish institution.

In a Zoom call, the New York Jewish Week spoke to Brent and Stefanie Halpern, director of the YIVO Archives, about the diverse collection, the efforts that made the reunion possible and the ways a new generation of scholars and regular folkcan use the archives to expand their understanding and appreciation of a vast and endlessly surprising Jewish past.

The interview has been shortened and edited for clarity.

New York Jewish Week: Jonathan and Stefanie, give me a sense of the significance of this project and how its a game changer.

Jonathan Brent: YIVO has never done anything like this in its history a $7 million project over seven years, involving 11 archivists. It is an international project that has social, historical and also political meaning. It is a step forward into the future for YIVO, even as it is a step backward into the past and the recovery of all of these extraordinary materials. It has demonstrated the viability of international cultural projects on the subject of pre-war Jewish culture, and what can be accomplished with the right spirit and the right focus and the right talent and the right leadership.

It is a project that establishes YIVO as a leading institution in various different ways, in terms of archival science, preservation, accessibility and the putting of a massive amount of material online making it available, constructing the proper website, using all of the proper software, engaging all the proper specialists to make these materials available online around the world. But its also a step forward for us in terms of building the infrastructure of the organization.

YIVO has also become an archival training institution under Stefanies leadership, whereby we are training a new generation of specialists who can conserve, process and digitize this tremendous wealth of Jewish materials.

Stefanie, can you describe how researchers will experience the archive? And whats gained and whats lost if youre working in a digital-only format and dont have the documents to hold in your hands?

StefanieHalpern: Part of what we try to do with our digitization method is replicate the experience as much as possible of sitting in the reading room. Of course, you cant replace the physicality of touching a document, flipping it over, feeling the brittle pages, smelling the leather. But we try to shoot the documents so that you see all of the edges. You see the bends, you see the tears. We dont sanitize the materials. As youre scrolling through the materials, we try to replicate what you would actually see in the reading room.

And so, this opens up research to a whole slew of people who just never had access to these documents before. It allows younger researchers or non-academic researchers to feel comfortable accessing them. We see a lot of family historians who are using these materials and wouldnt necessarily be in the reading room, and I think thats really great.

Can you give me an example of how people are using the archive?

Halpern: The music collections are just top of my mind right now, because theyre the ones weve most recently gotten online and the ones that have been oftentimes least accessible. Ive had a scholar from Israel email me every month for almost the past year, asking if handwritten manuscripts of operettas are available.

A collection that were putting up this week isGroup 1.2, the YIVO Ethnographic Commission records. The materials that zamlers (amateur collectors)acquired included folklore materials, songs and childrens games. All of those materials are often written on tiny scraps of paper that are extremely difficult to read. Online you can blow them up as big as you want. I know a lot of people are really excited to get their hands on these materials, some of which actually have never been made available to researchers.

We havethe youth autobiographies that were collected by YIVO in the 1930s. We have several hundred of them, but sometimes a few pages are missing and archivists here and in Lithuania were able to connect and actually find the missing pages. Many scholars use the autobiographies because they are such a great snapshot of different types of Jewish life across Poland.

The raunchy stories, the pornographic materials in this collection, were hidden from view for a very long time. These materials were collected by YIVO. They were part of life. Its that kind of stuff thats going to create new scholarship and change the scholarship thats out there.

I have to ask: Who was creating raunchy pornographic Yiddish materials in the 1930s?

Halpern: The context for these is a little fuzzy, but we think they were stories that zamlers collected. They went out and they asked people, you know, what stories do you know about Jewish heroes? What stories do you know about talking bears? What dirty stories do you know?

Brent: Binyamin Harshav [the late Israeli poet and translator] told the story of going out into the marketplace, at the instruction ofMax Weinreich [a co-founder of YIVO andeditor of the Modern Yiddish-English English-Yiddish Dictionary]in order to collect obscenities used by women in the marketplace. And he would do so by irritating them to the point at which they would curse him out.

Another example of the use of this is that we are now workingin Vilnius with the Tartle Galleryon an exhibition of material that has been digitized by YIVO for display in May or June. It will be the first major exhibition of prewar Jewish materials in Vilnius since the Jewish Museum there was shut down by the Soviets in 1947 or 48. So these materials are not only igniting scholarship over here, but they will ignite a renaissance of knowledge of the Jewish world for Lithuanians and for the remnant of the Jewish community there.

Why is that important?

Brent:You have to be very careful about making assertions about another country and society. Of course, I remember very well, when the Polin Museum opened in Warsaw, everybody said This is a game changer. Its going to change Polish attitudes toward Jews. But look where we are today. But I do know that our project is making it possible for young Lithuanians to discover their own past, whether theyre Jewish or not Jewish. Jewish culture is part of Lithuanian culture; it was an inextricable part of what Lithuania became. What it will lead to, I dont know, but I do know that the YIVO project has been part of this awakening, and through our project people of goodwill, people with democratic instincts and desire for openness, are finding a way of further reinforcing their attitudes.

Are there underexplored parts of the collection youre hoping a scholar will at last be able to access?

Halpern:We have about, I dont know, 5,000 or 6,000 posters that have been digitized as part of the project, including over 2,000 Yiddish theater posters that were collected by YIVO during the interwar period, not just from Eastern Europe but from around the world. Posters are extremely difficult to take care of and show to researchers, so a lot of these have never been seen. Theater posters, election posters, posters advertising lectures on health-related things, political things, even hypnotism.

Museums are always interested in borrowing posters, but many of them were in six or eight different pieces. Our conservators were able to piece everything together, so you see that digitization is not just an act of access, but preservation. You can look at those digital images as much as you want and know that you have as accurate a representation of these materials as you can get.

We havethe papers of Zemach Shabad.He was a public figure and a private physician in Vilnius, and we have thousands of his medical records that have never been used by researchers. Im excited for a medical historian to glean whatever information they can from records over the course of 30 years.

Brent: Remember that the culture was destroyed first by the Nazis, then by the Soviets. You cannot separate that history from these materials. But this project is a celebration of what has been preserved through the efforts of generations of Jews who take care of their history, to understand themselves, to pass that knowledge on to the next generation. I cannot tell you the pleasure that it gives me to know that young people are studying these materials. That knowledge of ourselves is not something thats 2,000 years old or 1,000 years old or 500 years old. It lives in all of us. And somehow we are connected to that past. And so this helps give us more self knowledge, and thats what our institution wishes to celebrate.

The history of trying to unite the two libraries was very sensitive and was caught up in a legal and diplomatic dispute over ownership with Lithuania, whichbelievesthe materials are part of its national heritage.I understand you have a strong relationship with the Lithuanian government, but is there some disappointment that these great collections are not going to be together in the same physical space?

Brent:Theres disappointment for various people who would like to see it so united. I myself am not disappointed in the sense that I never expected it to be. I accepted the status quo. I accepted the historical fact that had not been altered after 20 years of litigation. But yes, there are many people around the world who would like to see all of these materials safe and sound at the YIVO Institute in New York City. But thats not something that we concerned ourselves with. That was not our job.

It is impossible to separate the centuries of Jewish life in Eastern Europe from the communities destruction in the Holocaust. Do you see YIVOs efforts as a memorial project, or one of preservation? Does a sense of mourning shadow your work, or are you able to see beyond the losses?

Brent:Yes, there is a pall of mournfulness over all of this and a sense of loss, but the power of this project, in terms of preservation and bringing forward the past into the present day, is something that I dont think we even know how to calculate. It will lead to all kinds of new energies. I didnt get into this business because of the destruction of this civilization. My interest has always been on the living culture, on all of the strange and interesting things that happened in Eastern Europe and how those came to America. My goal is to show the living culture, to change the narrative, to shift it from just the Holocaust and to actually bring these vibrant lives into the fore.

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From reverent to raunchy, vast Yiddish archives are reunited online J. - The Jewish News of Northern California

Category: Jewish Heritage Month | Comments Off on From reverent to raunchy, vast Yiddish archives are reunited online J. – The Jewish News of Northern California
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