Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By admin on December 28, 2021

A rabbi is a teacher of Judaism. The word itself literally translates from Hebrew to my teacher or my master.

For most of Jewish history, the primary qualification for this title was sufficient learning to render decisions in Jewish law. While one generally must be a rabbi to sit on a beit din, a panel that adjudicates Jewish legal disputes and that is present at a conversion, rabbis are not strictly required at other Jewish events.

While civil laws may require specific training or certification for weddings and circumcisions, nothing in Jewish tradition prevents lay people from officiating at weddings, leading prayer services or performing other rituals.

In the earliest stages of Jewish history, the ability to rule in matters of Jewish law was handed down orally from teacher to student in an unbroken lineage going back to Moses. Only in the early modern era did rabbis receive formal ordination from academies of advanced Torah study and begin to carry out a wider range of communal functions, including issuing guidance in daily ritual practice, overseeing synagogue services, preaching and serving as the spiritual leader of a community. Today, the rabbinic portfolio is wider still. Contemporary rabbis perform a vast range of activities under the aegis of their rabbinate, including social justice activism, education, Jewish outreach and chaplaincy.

While the use of rabbi as a formal title does not appear until the Mishnah (a first-century compendium of laws and teachings that, together with the Gemara, makes up the Talmud), the first rabbi in Jewish history is often considered to be Moses, who is referred to in the Talmud as Moshe Rabbeinu Moses, our teacher. At Gods command, Moses ordains Joshua as his successor to lead the Jewish people and render judgments, a process he effects by laying his hands upon him. According to a sequence laid out in the first chapter of Pirkei Avot (which is part of the Mishnah), the line of authority was directly transmitted from Joshua down to successive generations all the way to Hillel and Shammai, two leading sages of the Mishnaic period thereby establishing a direct link between the rabbis of the Talmud and Moses. Though this chain was disrupted in the wake of the destruction of the ancient temple in the first century of the Common Era, the modern use of the word semichah (literally, laying of the hands) for rabbinic ordination implies some kind of continuity between the rabbis of today and the earliest sources of Jewish communal authority.

The early form of semichah through direct transmission from one person to the next sometimes called classical semichah ended some time in the post-talmudic period. Attempts were made at various points in Jewish history to restore classical semichah, but none garnered sufficient consensus among the rabbis of Israel to succeed. The conferral of the title rabbi today is essentially an agreed convention, asserted by the authority of the ordaining institution and ratified by communal consent. The language of the semichah document conferred by Yeshiva University, the leading Modern Orthodox rabbinical school, makes no claims of lineal authority, but rather in a manner similar to academic diplomas attests to a students having successfully completed a course of study in particular areas that qualifies them as a decisor of Jewish law.

Prior to the establishment of modern rabbinical academies, many people who functioned as Jewish religious authorities and spiritual leaders carried the title rabbi despite lacking formal ordination. According to Ephraim Kanarfogel, a Yeshiva University historian, evidence of formal ordination certificates can be found as early as Spain in the 11th century. Efforts to professionalize and certify rabbinic training later gained traction across Europe, driven both by the influence of European Christian universities that conferred such formal titles on their graduates, as well as the requirements of modern statecraft.

Modernity changed the whole face of ordination, because one of the things that happened in modernity was the rise of the state, said Kanarfogel. You needed a document, a degree, a license.

Today, the rabbinate is a profession, and rabbis are almost always graduates of recognized rabbinic seminaries, though some do receive so called private semichah, the authority of which rests on the rabbi who gives it. The main Jewish denominations in the United States all have rabbinical seminaries associated with them. There are also a number of major ultra-Orthodox rabbinical academies, as well as non-denominational schools that are not affiliated with any of the major movements and whose graduates typically serve non-Orthodox or communal institutions.

Although the first female rabbi is believed to be Regina Jonas, who was ordained in Germany in 1935 and was murdered in the Holocaust, women rabbis were not regularly ordained until the 1970s. Sally Priesand became the first American woman formally ordained as a rabbi in 1972, when she graduated from the Reform movements Hebrew Union College; two years later, Sandy Eisenberg Sasso became the first female Reconstructionist rabbi. The Conservative movements Jewish Theological Seminary ordained its first female rabbi in 1985.

In the Orthodox world, women rabbis are still prohibited; however expanded religious leadership roles for women have opened up in recent decades. Yeshivat Maharat in New York has significantly pushed the boundary on female spiritual leadership within Orthodoxy, going so far as to take the controversial step of granting semichah to Orthodox women, though the school does not confer the title of rabbi. A similar program was started in Israel by the liberal Orthodox Rabbi Shlomo Riskin.

Typically, formal ordination is conferred after the completion of a multi-year course of study, followed by an examination. Successful candidates receive an ordination certificate, sometimes called a Semichah Klaf, which may be written on a scroll of parchment by a scribe and signed by the ordaining rabbis.

READ: So, Youve Decided to Become a Rabbi

Contemporary rabbinic training programs have significantly expanded the range of expected competencies beyond mere expertise in Jewish law and texts. Todays rabbis are expected to be proficient in a range of pastoral and professional skills, including nonprofit management, counseling, public speaking and Jewish communal leadership. The precise mix of training in traditional texts and contemporary rabbinic functions varies from school to school and among the various denominations. Growing numbers of rabbis today are finding employment beyond traditional pulpit positions as activists, educators, chaplains, outreach professionals and more.

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Posted By admin on December 28, 2021

Depressed by the mutual contempt in which the two Americas hold one another? By the gloom hanging over what is supposed to be a season of light?

I certainly am. But I am lifted by the story of Rabbi Rachel Schmelkin and evangelical pastor Tom Breeden and the work theyve been doing together since the infamous "Unite the Right" rally violated their city of Charlottesville, Virginia, in August 2017.

Rather than running for the shelter of like-minded liberals as she was tempted to do, Schmelkin has thrown herself into the work of reducing identity-based violence and hate. She has found a ready partner in Breeden who, contrary to oversimplified notions about evangelicals, shares her commitment to restoring decency to public life.

Cute story, we might think, but not widely applicable. We would be wrong. Despite what the division-mongers tell us (because their strategies depend on it) research shows that Americans are not hopelessly divided. Given a few more incentives and a larger share of the spotlight, what we share could upstage what separates us.

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Schmelkin was new in her rabbinate at Congregation Beth Israel when white nationalists rampaged through the city with torches and vile chants like Jews will not replace us. As she recently told Religion News Service, The Unite the Right rally was the most terrifying experience of my entire life. I had never seen extremism like that up close, and I never feared for my safety as a Jewish person. It changed me.

Dave Graham held a sign calling for national unity outside the Kenosha County (Wisconsin) Courthouse while the jury deliberated the Kyle Rittenhouse trial on Nov. 18.

When the One America Movement invited her to join a clergy group that included evangelical pastors, Schmelkin initially balked. Now shes glad she assented.

Im not going to sit down with someone who wants to harm me. But there are people with whom I can sit down, even though I might feel uncomfortable, she said.

When Breeden was invited to join the group, he, too, was reluctant. In a profile on the One America website, Breeden said: At first I was a little suspicious. Most of the clergy groups that I had experienced were not a great use of time, but Im so glad I gave this one a shot!

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Breeden who, like Schmelkin, now works for the One America Movement elaborated in an email exchange with me: Ive seen the effects of toxic polarization up close. Its tearing apart communities, and churches arent exempt from the damage. Ive also personally experienced the possibility of the alternative. Im motivated to do this work because Ive seen first-hand that it can be done, and I want other people to have hope in a better future than our divisions threaten.

Nice thought, you might say. But surely, those extremists on the other side have to be stopped before they destroy our communities and country.

Its true the zealots are out there, and you see them portrayed daily on Fox News, MSNBC and the like. But data show they are not representative of the people and ideas on the other side of the divide, whichever side youre on.

Polling by the group More in Common finds that on many of the issues that divide Democrats and Republicans, people have a grossly distorted idea of what the other side believes.

On immigration, Democrats estimate that only about half of Republicans agree that properly controlled immigration is good for America. The reality: More than 75% of Republicans hold that positive view of orderly immigration.

Overall, the research finds, there is a massive gap between our perception of extreme views in the other party and the actual prevalence of such views. It would be tragic beyond measure if the country gave up on our noble experiment in democracy and fell into some kind of civil war based on each sides misunderstanding of what it is up against.

Not to be nave. There are real differences between liberal and conservative America, and our ways of responding to those differences are not equally loathsome. Only one party is pushing lies about the validity of the 2020 presidential election and enacting legislation that threatens fair voting.

But its also true that regardless of the ground we occupy, we all carry around false ideas about the everyday people on the other side, and our own public citizenship is based, in large part, on those false notions.

Given the tremendous force propelling conflict and division the degree to which all the incentives and algorithms seem to favor toxic polarization havent we reached the point where resistance is futile? Where its too late to stop the runaway train?

Not yet. But to slow it down and steer it away from the cliff, everyday citizens will have to jump off and use our combined weight to turn our public life in a better direction.

We cannot let the manipulators and extremists on both sides continue their self-serving battle at the expense of, and against the wishes of, the non-extremists who constitute the majority.

That starts with all of us correcting our understanding of who our supposed enemies are and discovering that they are, on the whole, not our enemies. We can do that only by getting to know each other better.

Tom Krattenmaker, a member of USA TODAYs Board of Contributors, writes on religion and values in public life and directs communications at Yale Divinity School. He is the author of Confessions of a Secular Jesus Follower. Follow him on Twitter: @krattenmaker

You can read diverse opinions from our Board of Contributors and other writers on the Opinion front page, on Twitter @usatodayopinion and in our daily Opinion newsletter. To respond to a column, submit a comment to letters@usatoday.com.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: White supremacy fight unites rabbi and evangelical pastor

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Posted By admin on December 28, 2021

In November, when Rabbi Ariana Capptauber offered to house a few of the hundreds of Afghan refugees expected to arrive in the Harrisburg region, she was compelled by a deeply personal reason.

Capptauber is the descendant of Holocaust survivors. Her grandmother and great-grandmother fled Nazi-occupied Poland in the 1930s, embarking on a journey of survival made possible by the help of total strangers.

Capptauber wanted to help the Afghan refugees. She thought of it as a way to repay the universe. To pay it forward.

They went through harrowing times, she said of her grandmother and late great-grandmother. My grandmother had two other siblings who were shot and my grandfather died. They escaped the ghetto and lived through the kindness of strangers.

Last month, when she learned of the impending arrival of Afghan refugees, Capptauber, rabbi at Beth El Temple in Harrisburg, joined her congregation in organizing truck loads of donations of household items, clothing and food. And she learned that housing for the families was one of the greatest needs of the International Service Center, the resettlement agency working with the refugees.

Capptauber had not long ago renovated her basement, turning it into an apartment with its own kitchen and entrance. She realized it would be a perfect temporary home for a refugee family. She contacted Truong Phuong, executive director of the resettlement agency, and by late November, Abdul Tamim Zeiaye, his wife Shahnaz Khetabi, and their four children were living in Capptaubers basement.

For the rabbi, the newly minted connection with refugees brought to a full circle the legacy of her own familys experience with displacement.

Her grandmother, who was a child of no more than 3 at the time, and her great-grandmother were sheltered by farmers and even spent time in camps deep in the forest, run by the Nazi resistance. After the war, they ended up in Italy in displaced persons camps.

Eventually, they were given the option to emigrate to Israel or the U.S. They chose the latter, disembarking in New York, where they were first taken in by a doctor who provided them with a room. They moved from one living situation to another before Capptaubers great-grandmother was able to find work as a nurse at a Jewish school, where she enrolled her daughter.

They really lived the experience of being refugees from Poland and arriving at displaced persons camps and then emigrating, Capptauber said. Ive always been really connected to that part of my family history. It felt meaningful to me to offer that space to refugees given that my family arrived in this country as refugees and were sheltered by others.

More than 100,000 people were airlifted out of Kabul in September after President Joe Biden withdrew all U.S. troops from Afghanistan. The Taliban seized control of the country, even as the first families of refugees began to arrive in cities across the United States. Hundreds are expected to be directed to central Pennsylvania. Already scores have arrived, most in large family groups.

Housing remains a priority.

Capptauber said she and her husband check in on their downstairs neighbors several times a week, and she tries to play with the children as well. But mostly, she said, Abdul Tamim Zeiaye and his wife remain reserved, and certainly, constrained by the language barrier.

Like thousands of other Afghan families, the Zeiayes fled their homeland with little more than the clothes on their backs.

Abdul Zeiaye, a member of the Afghan army who worked alongside U.S. troops in Kabul, remains fearful for the safety of his family back in Afghanistan. Because of that, he has been reluctant to speak much about his experience.

We feel very good. We are safe. We are here, he said a few weeks ago during an interview with PennLive.

Its good to be here. We are happy, his wife, Shahnaz Khetabi, said.

These days, their time is mostly occupied with resettlement business and health screening appointments, for which they rely on volunteers and translators working with the International Service Center.

Capptauber relies on Google translator to navigate the meager conversations with her lodgers. The fact that she is Jewish and they are Muslims is not lost on her or them.

As much as the headlines tell us that there is so much tension between Jews and Muslims in the Middle East, theres so much more going on at the human level. So much collaboration and work, said Capptauber, who has done several events with the Muslim community to promote dialogue and fellowship.

Theres a lot of things that often go overlooked because of the larger scale politics, she said.

She said that soon after meeting the Zeiaye family, she was up front with them, informing them of her faith.

I told them I was a rabbi of a Jewish community and they were like, my brother, my sister, over Google translator, Capptauber said. They were writing messages of togetherness and solidarity. I was up front and they were very loving.

TO HELP: For more information on volunteering and donations, contact the International Service Center at 717-236-9401; tnp@isc76.org

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Posted By admin on December 28, 2021

PHOTOS BY JOE APPEL PHOTOGRAPHY

When the cloudy skies cleared just long enough for Benjamin Altshuler and Natalie Shribmans outdoor wedding ceremony on October 3, 2021, it shouldnt have been surprising.

After all, they had God on their side.

Rabbis Benj and Natalie, who met in rabbinical school in Jerusalem in 2015, had 13 clergy members, one reverend and two cantors present during their celebration at Longue Vue Club in Verona in a day filled with faith, family and friends.

Two of their teachers from rabbinical school officiated the ceremony. Three of their classmates helped to hold the chuppah they were married under and two more were witnesses for their Ketubah. Natalies mentors put together an aufruf, a blessing for the Shabbat before the wedding, and some of their colleagues helped them with the weekends Havdalah, a religious ceremony that marks the symbolic end of Shabbat.

Its safe to say the weekend, beyond even the ceremony, was the product of a lot of collegial collaboration, Benj says. All of these clergy took a step away from their respective congregational or professional responsibilities to be with us in Pittsburgh and still others celebrated with us from afar, and that made it a really special celebration.

Natalie says they wanted to involve all of the people who had been so influential in their relationship.

In our ceremony, our officiants said they blessed us in addition to the other rabbis and cantors who were present. They mentioned them by name and said these people all joined in the blessing. That made it all a little more real.

In addition to religious elements, the couple had numerous callouts to their shared love of literature at their wedding: they used bookmarks as table markers and their tables were named after their favorite authors.

We were focusing on the initials B and N for our names, but thats also the initials for Barnes & Noble, Natalie says.

They also paid homage to Pittsburgh, where Natalie grew up, with a cookie table as well as welcome bags for out-of-town guests containing a Heinz ketchup bottle and Mister Rogers Neighborhood buttons.

Their families were also key to their entire celebration. Benj and Natalie composed the wording of their ketubah, but they had it translated into Hebrew by one of their professors, hired a calligrapher to write it then Benjs sister illuminated it with watercolor. It now hangs over their dining room table. Benjs older brother, an architect, designed their chuppah.

All our siblings did toasts, Benj says. The whole weekend, it wasnt just about the two of us it was really about all of the people who we love and who love us helping us make our big day possible.

Natalie, whose journalist parents work in the same industry, says dating and marrying someone who works in the same field made sense to her, and the couple says its not uncommon for two people in their profession to partner they had invited a few married rabbi couples to their celebration.

Its very nice to have each other for sounding boards, sermons or services. Its good to collaborate on things, Natalie says. I think it is very beneficial and I definitely think theres a greater understanding of issues we might have with congregations or we may be able to share advice for things.

Benj currently presides over a congregation in Wausau, Wisconsin, and Natalie works as a rabbi with a congregation in Eau Claire, Wisconsin as well as chaplain for the Marshfield Clinic in Marshfield, Wisconsin. Benj, too, says he appreciates their similarities.

Theres many parallel experiences, which enables us to have an understanding of the challenges and also the benefits of the work we do, but at the same time we dont necessarily do the same stuff every day, he says. We have different jobs now and we can complement each other in the different things we are pursuing professionally.

Ceremony and Reception Longue Vue Club, VeronaCaterer Longue Vue ClubCake Confections by Casey ReneeDress Natalie wore her mothers dress, alterations by Clarissa BoutiqueMusic Joel Lindsey EntertainmentFlowers HepaticaHair & Makeup Valerie BuckleyRings Engraved wedding bands from Garcias Jewelers

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It Was a Match Made in Heaven for These Two Rabbis - Pittsburgh Magazine

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Posted By admin on December 28, 2021

Just before 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Shalom le Israel Rabbi Boris Tsiprush prepares for the synagogue's weekly Torah study having just learned that Sacramento County authorities arrested a man they believe targeted a menorah in front of his place of worship."My reaction, like a person who believes in God, like a rabbi it's: I forgive him," said Tsiprush.A message of forgiveness for 33-year-old Nicholas Sherman.According to the offices of the Sacramento County District Attorney and Sheriff, Sherman is now charged with one felony count of desecrating a religious symbol on the property of the Shalom Le Israel.He's charged with 12 additional misdemeanor counts of terrorism by symbol for placing Aryan Nation flyers containing a swastika on the doorsteps of several Carmichael homes and one additional misdemeanor count of terrorism by symbol for placing similar flyers on the property of Deterding Elementary School in Carmichael.They are crimes that left Shalom le Israel members concerned for weeks."We pray about it. We will pray for this man too," Tsiprush said. "We have to love each other. We have to help each other Hate never ever helps."A couple blocks over from the synagogue, a parent from Deterding Elementary remembers hearing about messages of hate being left on school grounds and at homes in the neighborhood."We were well-notified by the principal that an incident happened," said parent David White. "She shared with us her concern, the school district's concern and that it was something not tolerated by the school or the school district."There is relief among neighbors now that an arrest has been made in connection to the hate crimes."Intolerance should not be tolerated at all," said White. "We don't feel like this represents who we are as a community in Carmichael, or the greater Sacramento area, or even California as a state."Meanwhile, back at Shalom le Israel, Rabbi Tsiprush offered a message for his community as it looks ahead to the new year."I hope the new year us something new and something special," he said. "Without antisemitism. Without hate."Sherman is being held in the Sacramento County Jail with bail set at $100,000. He's scheduled to make his first court appearance on Dec. 27.

Just before 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Shalom le Israel Rabbi Boris Tsiprush prepares for the synagogue's weekly Torah study having just learned that Sacramento County authorities arrested a man they believe targeted a menorah in front of his place of worship.

"My reaction, like a person who believes in God, like a rabbi it's: I forgive him," said Tsiprush.

A message of forgiveness for 33-year-old Nicholas Sherman.

According to the offices of the Sacramento County District Attorney and Sheriff, Sherman is now charged with one felony count of desecrating a religious symbol on the property of the Shalom Le Israel.

He's charged with 12 additional misdemeanor counts of terrorism by symbol for placing Aryan Nation flyers containing a swastika on the doorsteps of several Carmichael homes and one additional misdemeanor count of terrorism by symbol for placing similar flyers on the property of Deterding Elementary School in Carmichael.

They are crimes that left Shalom le Israel members concerned for weeks.

"We pray about it. We will pray for this man too," Tsiprush said. "We have to love each other. We have to help each other Hate never ever helps."

A couple blocks over from the synagogue, a parent from Deterding Elementary remembers hearing about messages of hate being left on school grounds and at homes in the neighborhood.

"We were well-notified by the principal that an incident happened," said parent David White. "She shared with us her concern, the school district's concern and that it was something not tolerated by the school or the school district."

There is relief among neighbors now that an arrest has been made in connection to the hate crimes.

"Intolerance should not be tolerated at all," said White. "We don't feel like this represents who we are as a community in Carmichael, or the greater Sacramento area, or even California as a state."

Meanwhile, back at Shalom le Israel, Rabbi Tsiprush offered a message for his community as it looks ahead to the new year.

"I hope the new year [gives] us something new and something special," he said. "Without antisemitism. Without hate."

Sherman is being held in the Sacramento County Jail with bail set at $100,000. He's scheduled to make his first court appearance on Dec. 27.

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Posted By admin on December 28, 2021

RABBI JOSEF GERMAINE

By RABBI JOSEF GERMAINE

The holiday season, which begins with Thanksgiving and ends Jan. 1, comprises religious, ethnic and national qualities. What should be essentially fulfilling about this season is its spiritual overtones.Thanksgiving ushers in the season for all members of the community regardless of religious affiliation. It is a time when all can give thanks for being citizens of a country guaranteeing freedom of religion and expression. Christmas lifts the spirit and gives hope for blessings of salvation for all who celebrate the birth of Jesus.To those who celebrate Chanukah, there is a similar theme in terms of renewed dedication to a faith that also provides hope and blessing. It is a historic holiday dating back over 2,000 years. Chanukah is also known as the Festival of Lights, an eight-day Jewish holiday in which candles are lit each day to commemorate the rededication of the Holy Temple in Jerusalem at the time of the Maccabean Revolt.In 1966, African-Americans began celebrating their heritage through the festival of Kwanzaa, held Dec. 26 through Jan. 1. Like Chanukah, Kwanzaa utilizes the symbolic lighting of candles each day. Kwanzaa brings a cultural message that speaks to the best of what it means to be African and a human in the fullest sense.Therefore, it is appropriate in December to wish others a generic Happy Holidays. Naturally, this does not preclude the use of Happy Chanukah, Merry Christmas or a Blessed Kwanzaa when you know for certain an individuals affiliation and preferences.What is disconcerting is the objection by those who feel that the greeting Happy Holidays is a denial of the Christian ethos of Christmas as the prevailing holiday. An appreciable number of people insist that the holiday season is primarily Christian and all other religious observances during December should be ignored to the point of total exclusion.These individuals seem to forget that many of our founding fathers came to these shores to escape religious persecution and intolerance. I do not believe they intended that future generations forget the principles upon which this country was founded.Happy Holidays has as part of its constitution the word holy, a word which should serve to remind us that whatever holiday we celebrate, holy should be the major portion of our attitude, toward ourselves and others.

Rabbi Josef Germaine is a professional lyric tenor who has been a concert recitalist, cantor, vocal coach and rabbi. He received his bachelor's in music and masters degree in Hebrew education. He lives in Sumter and is a member of Temple Sinai. Reach him at tenore39@aol.com.

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(JTA) This year, everyone seemed to have an opinion about how the entertainment industry views Jewish women.

The comedian Sarah Silverman and others openly inveighed against what she deemed Jewface, or the trend of casting non-Jewish actresses as (Ashkenazi) Jewish women; a plotline on this years Curb Your Enthusiasm season mocked a similar idea by having Larry David cast a Latina actress as a Jewish character on a show about his childhood.

Whether you agree with Silverman or not, its hard to hear a term like Jewface and not think about the way Jewish characters have historically looked onscreen. For much of the 20th century, show business and popular culture considered stereotypical Jewish traits curly hair, olive skin, a prominent nose either exotic, comic or worse, inspiring countless Jewish women to undergo rhinoplasty. It wasnt until Barbra Streisand flaunted her Jewish looks beginning in the late 1960s as Bette Midler would a few years later that the culture began to shift. Streisand, writes her biographer Neal Gabler, had somehow managed to change the entire definition of beauty.

Now, at the end of 2021, along comes a film set in the 1970s with a female Jewish protagonist who is not only played by a Jewish actress, but is also portrayed as a sex symbol.

The film is Licorice Pizza, the latest from acclaimed writer-director Paul Thomas Anderson, and it opened wide in theaters on Christmas after several weeks of limited release. And the character is Alana Kane, played by singer Alana Haim of the band Haim, making her screen debut.

In the film, Alana is an aimless, guileless San Fernando Valley twentysomething who gains maturity and an entrepreneurial spirit after befriending Gary Valentine, an overconfident child actor (Cooper Hoffman, son of Philip Seymour Hoffman) who enlists her in various business schemes and convinces her to make a go at acting. The two of them enter a teasy, flirty codependency Gary, not even 16, makes his attraction to Alana known early and often, especially when the two open a waterbed business together and he instructs her to act sexy when selling the kitschy relics over the phone.

But its not just Gary. Seemingly everyone in the movie, from lecherous older industry veterans to upstart young politicos, is obsessed with Alana not in spite of her obviously Jewish appearance, but because of it. Anderson plays up Haims physical parallels to the Jewish beauties of the era: a casting director (Harriet Sansom Harris) gushes over her Jewish nose, which she notes is a very in-demand look, while real-life producer Jon Peters (played by Bradley Cooper as a manic, sex-crazed lunatic), gets very handsy with Alana after pointedly bragging that Streisand is his girlfriend.

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Licorice Pizza is in line with ideas espoused in Henry Bials 2005 book Acting Jewish: Negotiating Ethnicity on the American Stage and Screen, particularly its chapter on the 70s, which Bial described as the period when Jews became sexy. Streisand, at the time of her Broadway debut in the early 60s, was described in reviews as a homely frump and a sloe-eyed creature with folding ankles. But by the 70s, bolstered by her immense charisma and no-apologies attitude toward her own stardom, she was one of popular cultures greatest sex symbols, even appearing on the cover of Playboy in 1977 the year after starring in and producing her own A Star is Born remake. Her physical appearance didnt change in the intervening time; only the publics reactions to it did.

Barbra Streisand in the 1968 movie Funny Girl, when she was beginning to be embraced as a Jewish sex symbol. (John Springer Collection/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images)

Anderson himself was born in 1970, so the teenaged adventures in the film arent his memories specifically theyre mostly those of his friend Gary Goetzman, a former child actor who lived through many of the episodes depicted in the movie. And Anderson himself is not Jewish, though his longtime partner Maya Rudolph, who has a small part in the film, is. Yet perhaps by virtue of being born into a world in which Jewish women were suddenly being considered sexy, Anderson seems to innately understand the period-specific sexual, cultural and spiritual dynamics that would lead to someone like Alana being celebrated for her looks.

Anderson wasnt immune to those dynamics. As a child he had a crush on Alana Haims mother, Donna Rose, who was his art teacher: I was in love with her as a young boy, absolutely smitten, he told The New York Times, waxing rhapsodic about her long, beautiful, flowing brown hair.

For much of the film, Alana is unsure whether or how to leverage her sex appeal, as she also tries to figure out what she wants to do with her life. An attempt to respect the wishes of her traditional family (the other Haims, including their real parents, play the Kane clan) by dating a nice, successful, age-appropriate Jewish guy ends in disaster at a Shabbat dinner when the guy himself, Lance (Skyler Gisondo), refuses to say the hamotzi prayer.

The scene also touches on the debate over religious vs. cultural Judaism that has been raging in American Jewish circles since at least the time period when the film is set. While acknowledging he was raised in the Jewish tradition, Lance cites Vietnam as the reason why he now identifies as an atheist and cant bring himself to recite a blessing. In response, Alana gets him to admit hes circumcised before declaring, Then youre a fking Jew!

The moral of the scene might be the movies biggest lesson to impart about Judaism: Its not just a belief system. Its an innate part of you, affecting everything from your hair to your nose to your genitals. It can make you be perceived as ugly in one decade, and a bombshell in the next.

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Posted By admin on December 28, 2021

(New York Jewish Week via JTA) The story had all of the elements of a feel-good mystery novel: A box shows up on a college campus, its origins unclear. Nine months later, a professor who has made his way to the mailroom amid a global pandemic finally opens it finding $180,000 in small bills bundled together and earmarked for needy students.

Officials at City College of New York were unable to determine who actually sent the gift, which made headlines this week when the public universitys central board formally accepted the cash. Even though the letter accompanying the donation contained a number of potential clues, an exhaustive search by the university and the U.S. Postal Service one that included seeking video footage of the package being mailed hit a dead end.

But stories about the donation, starting with a big reveal in The New York Times, dont mention one clue that could offer insight about who sent the cash: its size.

The $180,000 figure is unmistakably a multiple of $18, the numerical value of the Hebrew word for life, chai.As a result, many Jews choose to make donations in increments of that number.

The anonymous donor also identified himself or herself as having graduated long ago meaning that he or she may well have attended City College when it was a magnet for the citys Jews.

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For a good portion of the 20th century, City College was known colloquially as the Jewish Harvard, in part because quotas kept many top Jewish students out of elite private universities. By the late 1960s, those quotas were falling away and the City University of New York, of which City College is a flagship, had turned to open admissions in a bid to serve New York City high school graduates more equitably. While Jewish students continue to enroll at City College and other CUNY schools, they are now a significant minority.

The giver notes that he or she also attended Stuyvesant High School, which also enrolled mostly Jewish students during the middle of the 20th century. (Another potential clue:The elite New York City public school, to which entrance is determined by an exam, began admitting female students only in 1969. Depending on your interpretation of long ago, that suggests the giver may well be a man.)

Both Stuyvesant and City College bear evidence of their Jewish graduates success and affinity to their alma maters. At Stuyvesant, for example, the multimedia center bears the name of Robert Ira Lewy, a 1960 graduate whose career as a doctor included major contributions to treating heart disease and improving breast implant safety; hes also given to Jewish causes.

At City College, meanwhile, the architecture school is named for Bernard Spitzer, a Jewish graduate who was also the father of former New York Gov, Eliot Spitzer; the library is named for Morris Raphael Cohen, a turn-of-the-20th-century graduate who became a longtime philosophy professor there; and an innovation center is named for Irwin Zahn, a graduate of both City College and Stuyvesant who died in November.

City College is planning to dole out the mystery funds according to the guidance in the donors letter, which instructed that the money go to needy physics and math double majors who have demonstrated high performance in their first years, ideally based on their grades. The first students could get scholarships as soon as next year, CUNY officials said.

Id like them to know that firstly, we are thankful for the gift. Im really honored that he or she decided that this was the right place to spend that kind of money on, Vinod Menon, the physics professor who first opened the package, told CNN. And Im also proud of the fact that the person had a wonderful career based on the education that they received at City College.

The post Is CUNYs mystery donor a New York Jew? Theres a $180,000 reason to think so. appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.

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Is CUNY's mystery donor a New York Jew? There's a $180000 reason to think so. - St. Louis Jewish Light

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Posted By admin on December 26, 2021

My name is Meadow Contreras and I am Sicangu Lakota and Chicana. I live in a Jewish suburban neighborhood. My family and I were always the only brown people anywhere we went. But we were never treated badly because of it. In fact, we were put on a pedestal because everyone loved our culture. And because we were commonly isolated from people who are also Native, my parents made sure we knew who we are and the purpose of our traditions. My mom was born and raised in the Rosebud reservation in a little community called Okreek. My dad lived in the same place for some time with his dad. My parents went to school together but didnt start talking till they were both in Denver. My mom mainly moved away because she wanted her kids to have a better experience growing up with more opportunities and brighter future options. She moved away from everything she knew before she was an adult to make sure she made a difference for us.

I dance Jingle dress at any powwow we can go to, but I never did it to compete. Mostly for the medicine that comes along with it. Our dresses are made by our mother and we get a new one every year. However, I havent danced in 3 years because I am in mourning. In my peoples culture, when someone close to you dies, you cut your hair and you arent allowed to dance for 4 years, because you are in mourning. We cut our hair because we believe it is sacred and helps the spirit of our loved one have and easier journey to the spirit world. Next year, when I am allowed to again, I will have made my own dress and with fully beaded moccasins and leggings.

Recently this summer, we went to Sundance. My dad did it when he was younger with his dad and he wanted us to experience it. We camped in a tent all nights with no electricity or anything as such. We rose with the sun and went to a place called the Harbor, where the ceremony was held. As soon as you woke up, you heard the music coming from there. The men wore long pants and the women wore long skirts. As soon as you walked into the Harbor, you can feel the medicine and prayer surrounding the place and the people. Some of the things they did in sacrifice was kind of scary and quite intimidating at first, but once you realized it was done out of love and thankfulness for all they had, you realize how beautiful, meaningful, and sacred it is. It lasted all day and didnt stop till the sun was fully down. Everything continued no matter how brutal the weather got. You were also not allowed to bring food or water down the the Harbor, even if you were just watching. The night before the whole ceremony begins, the sundancers would eat and drink tons of water to prepare for their fasting. After all the days, the camp held a huge feast for them. You were not allowed to take photos or have phones. The camp had no service to insure this.

My family has baked frybread the same way since it was introduced. My great grandmother had the original recipe and I believe she got it from her mother. She never shared it with anyone. Everyone in our community loved it and always tried to get it. But when my mom was old enough, my great grandmother gave it to her. She always kept it hidden and I never knew where she kept it. About a year or two ago, she gave it to my older sister.

Everyday, My mom sages the house and everyone in it. We were taught to always have good thoughts and intentions when around it. Us being Lakota, we mostly use sage and cedar. When the pandemic started, we took tobacco and tied a pinch into red fabric. We tied all the ties on a string and hung them at the top of the doors that enter the house. I believe there are 27 of them on top of each door. Tabaco is sacred and helps keep negative energy and sickness out. We were also taught that when you pick sage from the ground, you leave a pinch of tobacco from where you picked it as an offering to the Earth.

However just because we are away in a town with almost no Natives, we make sure to help the places with plenty as much as we could. We go back every summer to Okreek and we host a summer camp for the youth in hopes of preventing Suicides. The camp includes a lacrosse clinic hosted by my sister and afterwards, an art camp led by me. Kids are able to go to both parts or just one, if they wanted. We also provide a lunch. Before it gets cold in the winter, we collect new or lightly used winter coats and give them to kids in the schools in our community. Same thing with toys when its time for Christmas and cloths before each school year. My mother is also starting and early learning center/headstart for the kids in the community. Many of the parents dont have access to transportation and the closest preschools are more than 19 miles away or more than 33 miles away, depending on which direction you go. Just because you live away from your people, does not mean that you cant be connected to them and your culture that people tried to strip away from you countless times.

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Posted By admin on December 26, 2021

Italian American Heritage month wrapped up at the end of October, but for members of the Italian-American Club at Bishop OConnell High School in Arlington, the celebration of Italian culture goes year-round. The clubs dedicated moderator and school counselor, Daniel Stabile, helped students get the club off the ground 11 years ago.

The impetus that led to initiating the Italian-American Club was to focus on all of the contributions, legacy and leadership that the Italian American community has provided for over 150 years in our country, said Stabile.

The clubs hope this year is to do just that.During October, students collaborated with Stabile to decorate a display case in the main corridor that commemorated the influence of numerous Italian Americans including Constantine Brumidi, the painter of the Capitol buildings rotunda; Mother Cabrini, founder of Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus; and Philip Mazzei, a contributor to the Declaration of Independence. By showcasing these individuals and many like them, the club hopes to convey just how deeply Italian culture is rooted in American art, religion and politics. The display is just one of the many unique activities the club has organized this year.

The club is open to anyone interested in Italian culture and history. Members recently hosted an evening talk on Dante and the Divine Comedy in the school library with Francesco Ciabattoni, an Italian literature professor at Georgetown University in Washington. Club members, parents, students enrolled in OConnells Global Studies program and teachers attended the event. Ciabattoni discussed how Dante Alighieris political position and relationships in Florence, Italy, affected his writing.

It was interesting to hear a college level analysis of Dantes (comedy) and how it was influenced by Italian culture, said Eric Olsen, club officer and senior.

Earlier this year, members of the club watched Life is Beautiful, the 1997 film based on a true story following a Jewish Italian family during the Holocaust. After watching the movie, the club discussed how Roberto Benigni, the lead actor, contributed to the film with his comedic approach to acting, as well as the heartwarming lengths his character went to in order to shield his son from the realities of the concentration camp they were in.

The club has had a busy schedule this semester. Stabile and the club leaders attended the annual Columbus Day ceremony Oct. 11 at Union Station in Washington, where they presented a wreath. Several members of the club were accompanied by the school activities director, Andrea Kalochristianikas, at a recent discussion about music in 18th-century Naples, Italy, presented by Professor Anthony DelDonna from Georgetown University and Professor Guido Olivieri from the University of Texas-Austin.

What is next for the club? They are looking forward to visiting the Italian Embassy and attending Mass at Holy Rosary Church in Washington. La vita bella!

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