Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By admin on November 30, 2021

In the US, breast cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer in women, and the second leading cause of cancer-related deaths. Each year, an estimated 270,000 women and a far smaller number of men are diagnosed with it. When caught in early stages, its usually highly treatable.

A promising new form of targeted treatment may expand options available to some women with early-stage breast cancer linked to specific genetic glitches. (Early-stage cancers have not spread to distant organs or tissues in the body.)

You may have heard the term BRCA (BReast CAncer) genes, which refers to BRCA1 and BRCA2genes. Normally, BRCA genes help repair damage to our DNA (genetic code) that occurs regularly in cells throughout the human body.

Inherited BRCA mutations are abnormal changes in these genes that are passed on from a parent to a child. When a person has a BRCA mutation, their body cannot repair routine DNA damage to cells as easily. This accumulating damage to cells may help pave a path leading to cancer. Having a BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutation or both puts a person at higher risk for cancer of the breast, ovaries, prostate, or pancreas; or for melanoma. A persons risk for breast cancer can also be affected by other gene mutations and other factors.

Overall, just 3% to 5% of all women with breast cancer have mutations in BRCAgenes. However, BRCA mutations occur more often in certain groups of people, such as those with triple negative breast cancer (TNBC), Ashkenazi Jewish ancestry, a strong family history of breast and/or ovarian cancer, and younger women with breast cancer.

Certain types of breast cancer are commonly found in women with BRCA gene mutations.

Knowing what encourages different types of breast cancer to grow helps scientists develop new treatments, and helps doctors choose available treatments to slow or stop tumor growth. Often this involves a combination of treatments.

The OlympiA trial enrolled women with early-stage breast cancer and inherited BRCA1/BRCA2 mutations. All were at high risk for breast cancer recurrence despite standard treatments.

Study participants had received standard therapies for breast cancer:

They were randomly assigned to take pills twice a day containing olaparib or a placebo (sugar pills) for one year.

Olaparib belongs to a class of medicines called PARP inhibitors. PARP (poly adenosine diphosphate-ribose polymerase) is an enzyme that normally helps repair DNA damage. Blocking this enzyme in BRCA-mutated cancer cells causes the cells to die from increased DNA damage.

Results from this study were published in the New England Journal of Medicine. Women who received olaparib were less likely to have breast cancer recur or metastasize (spread to distant organs or tissues) than women taking placebo. Follow-up at an average of two and a half years showed that slightly more than 85% of women who had received olaparib were alive and did not have a cancer recurrence, or a new second cancer, compared with 77% of women treated with placebo.

Further, the researchers estimated that at three years:

The side effects of olaparib include low white cell count, low red cell count, and tiredness. The chances of developing these were low.

Olaparib is already approved by the FDA to treat BRCA-related cancers of the ovaries, pancreas, or prostate, and metastatic breast cancer. FDA approval for early-stage breast cancer that is BRCA-related is expected soon based on this study. These findings suggest taking olaparib for a year after completing standard treatment could be a good option for women who have early-stage breast cancer and an inherited BRCA gene mutation who are at high risk for cancer recurrence and, possibly, its spread.

Follow me on Twitter @NeelamDesai_MD

As a service to our readers, Harvard Health Publishing provides access to our library of archived content. Please note the date of last review or update on all articles. No content on this site, regardless of date, should ever be used as a substitute for direct medical advice from your doctor or other qualified clinician.

See more here:

A new targeted treatment for early-stage breast cancer? - Harvard Health

Category: Ashkenazi | Comments Off on A new targeted treatment for early-stage breast cancer? – Harvard Health
Tags:

Posted By admin on November 30, 2021

On the 20th of November, the Chairman of the Struggle to Save Ethiopian Jewry Organization, Joseph Feit, urged Israeli authorities to bring all of the 14,100 Ethiopian Jews who have been awaiting aliyah (immigration to Israel), in some cases for decades. Otherwise Israel will be partially responsible for deaths which could have been avoided. This statement came six days after Ethiopian Israelis demanded that Israel rescue relatives left behind in conflict-ridden Ethiopia, as stated on France 24.

Israels National Security Council is still unconvinced that ongoing hostilities in Ethiopia warrant an emergency evacuation of Ethiopian Jews. Moreover, Israelis who oppose Ethiopian immigration question whether there are any real Jews in Ethiopian transit camps. The Israeli government, perhaps to defuse accusations of racism, agreed two weeks ago to eventually transfer 5,000 Ethiopian Jews back to Israel. They failed to specify when this will happen, according to the New York Times.

Yet time is running out. The Ethiopian Civil War is escalating as Tigrayan rebels threaten to overrun Addis Ababa. The UN and European Union are ordering foreign citizens and diplomatic staff to get out of Ethiopia as soon as possible, as noted in the Guardian. Ethiopian Jews stranded in decrepit transit camps in Gondar are likely to get caught in the crossfire. Tel-Aviv should immediately strike a deal with the Ethiopian government to hasten the Beta Israels emigration in exchange for humanitarian aid.

It is understandable that Ethiopian Jews want to flee war and intolerance and finally reunite with friends or family in Israel. Ashager Araro, founder of the Battae Ethiopian Israeli Heritage Center in Tel Aviv, told the Jewish Journal that her grandfather was killed for being Jewish in Ethiopia. But Israel is by no means a promised land for coloured or religious minorities either. Muslim Palestinians in the Occupied Territories and Israel are treated like second-class citizens and experience systemic institutional discrimination. A Human Rights Watch report demonstrated earlier this year that such grave inequities are akin to apartheid.

The Druze community, a group sociologist Lisa Hajjar described as a favoured minority due to its members distinguished records in the Israel Defence Forces (IDF), intelligence services, and border police, suffers widespread economic and political marginalization as well. Reuters and the Times of Israel often cover the many Druze protesters who highlight glaring disparities between their decaying villages and well-funded Jewish towns.

British-Israeli journalist and author Rachel Shabi exposed the plight of the Mizrahi Jews (Jews originating from Yemen, Iraq, Iran, Egypt, Morocco, and Tunisia) a people that the dominant Ashkenazi (Jews from Europe) view with suspicion and prejudice due to their North African features, cultures, and languages. Zionist authorities also gave Mizrahi Jews poorer land, fewer social services, and lower wages upon their arrival to British Mandate Palestine and later independent Israel, according to Islamic Art specialist Sascha Crasnow. These inequalities persist to this day.

Additionally, Israelis generally do not welcome members of the East-Indian Bnei Menashe Jewish community. The Observer Research Foundation alleges that Indian Jews are discreetly segregated from the rest of society after being resettled to some of the most dangerous areas in the West Bank. Hanoch Haokip told Forward that his teenage daughters endure racist abuse in school, while adults are trapped in low-income factory, security, or cleaning jobs with little hope of social advancement.

A similar fate has befallen the majority of Ethiopian Jews currently living in Israel. The killing of teenager Solomon Tekah by a police officer in 2019 sparked massive demonstrations and unleashed a torrent of anger. An Ethiopian grocery store owner ruefully told Middle East Eye: Theres no democracy, except maybe for whites. Theres no rule of law for Ethiopians. Furthermore, for years dozens of Ethiopian women claimed that Israeli health workers in Ethiopian transit camps and Israeli absorption centers coercively injected them with Depo-Provera. American hospitals administered this temporary sterilization drug to Black, Indigenous, and disabled women without their consent as a method of population control, according to Ethnic Studies scholar Bayan Abusneineh.

Israel authorities are not only obliged to reunite Ethiopian Jewish families, but they must ensure that new arrivals will be spared the injustices that blighted the lives of countless Ethiopian Israelis who came before them.

Go here to see the original:

Israel Reluctant To Save Jews From War-Torn Ethiopia - The Organization for World Peace

Category: Ashkenazi | Comments Off on Israel Reluctant To Save Jews From War-Torn Ethiopia – The Organization for World Peace
Tags:

Posted By admin on November 30, 2021

Tis the season to be jolly, which means that retailers everywhere are breaking out their best seasonal wares, whether its ugly Christmas sweaters or mammoth Rudolphs for your front lawn. Traditionally, we American Jews have looked at these rites of commerce with an air of bemusement, grateful that our wintertime holiday required nothing more complicated than a small and tasteful menorah. But lately, the ghost of Christmas commerce is haunting us, too.

On a recent trip to a large retailer, we spotted the following abominations: a festive tray featuring four minuscule bearded dudes, their hats decorated with dreidels, above the phrase Rollin With My Gnomies; a throw pillow, in the blue-and-white color scheme of the Israeli flag, stitched with the phrase Oy to the World; an assortment of elves, sporting Jewish stars and looking like they belonged more in a Brooklyn yeshiva than anywhere near the North Pole; and a set of three kitchen towels with the truly baffling wording, Peace Love & Latkes.

We have absolutely nothing against the practice of cultural appropriation. Were guilty of it ourselves: Pick up any Jewish cookbook, and youll see traces of the spices and herbs we picked up from different parts of the world before once again getting expelled. Weve also shared with the world our own cultural assets, like monotheism and Natalie Portman. It makes us kvell when something profoundly and fundamentally Jewish gets embraced by the world at large. Nothing makes us happier than, say, strolling through the airport in Boise and seeing a bagel shop with a distinctly Jewish name selling a jalapeo bacon bagel with reduced fat salsa schmear its our gift to America. Yall are welcome.

But weird bagels are one thing. Hanukkah becoming Christmas is another.

The holiday we celebrate more or less around the same time as the Yuletide isnt the Jewish Christmas. In terms of the holiest days on the Jewish calendar, it wouldnt even crack the top five. Hanukkah doesnt hold a candle to Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur in the fall or Passover in the spring. Its neither a fast nor an epic feast. Its proximity to Christmas is probably the most marketable aspect of Hanukkah, a holiday specifically designed not to appeal to the masses.

Hanukkah, after all, is a commemoration of an ancient uprising by a band of bearded zealots, the Maccabees, who took arms not only against the oppressive Greeks but also against their fellow Jews who happily assimilated into the cosmopolitan culture of the day. Sure, the holiday has taken on a few embellishments over the years, like eight nights of presents, concessions to make sure our kinderlach dont feel left out when you-know-who comes sliding down the chimney. But at its core, Hanukkah is about celebrating our Jewish particularity, relishing our differences from the wider world. The commercialized Christmas creep, the repackaging of Hanukkah to fit the gingerbread cookie cutter mold, is precisely the sort of stuff those Maccabees were fighting. The entire point of Hanukkah is that its not Christmas.

These days, of course, commerce may not be the only motivation for merchants hawking Christmas-y Hanukkah wares. Some of the marketing (and the Hallmark movies) seems to be attempting a sort of cultural sensitivity, an inclusivity, the kind that leads people to say Happy Holidays. But what we Jews want is respect for particularity - yours, and ours. Thats why well gladly wish you a Merry Christmas, and even partake in the occasional eggnog. We celebrate difference and appreciate public displays of religiosity. So wish us a Happy Hanukkah (if were being honest, merry does sound, well, goyish). Dont assume well be offended because were a minority. We love having our own thing. And we dont suffer from stocking stuffer envy. We appreciate nothing more than someone taking a moment to learn about our tradition, so if you drop a line about the Maccabees or the miracle of the little tin of oil that lasted eight nights, we promise you a latke.

And when we say our tradition, we really mean our traditions. Jews all celebrate the same core holiday, but those of us who hail from the Middle East, say, have holiday treats of their own, and Ethiopian Jews have traditions theyve been carrying for centuries, and all of them make the holiday, and Judaism itself, that much more beautifully diverse. Were not all Ashkenazi Jews straight out of the eastern European shtetl just another reason items like the Dancing Bubbe, a stereotypical Yiddishe mama doll from the makers of the Mensch on a Bench, who squawks in a Jewish accent and shakes her booty when you press a button, are so disappointing. We come in all colors, and our differences only make what we have in common more profound, as is the case in any warm and loving family.

But finally, and most urgently, this plea: Enough with the Christmas-y looking Hanukkah swag. We beg of you. Keep the elves and the jollies and the funny caps. We dont need them in our holiday. No Jew has ever gazed longingly at a 12-foot inflatable reindeer and wished in her heart she had an equally large Moses to display in front of her house. And if we want an outfit to wear on special occasions, all we have to do is reach into the closet and pull out our tallis, or prayer shawl. Unusual garments, weve got. Accessories, too. Just wait until you see our tefillin.

So, friends, a very merry Christmas from us to you. And may this year bring us nothing more than an abundance of blessings and a dearth of hideous cheap tchotchkes.

Stephanie Butnick, Liel Liebovitz and Mark Oppenheimer are the hosts of the podcast Unorthodox and the authors of The Newish Jewish Encyclopedia: From Abraham to Zabars and Everything in Between. This first appeared in The Washington Post.

Read more here:

Opinion: Hanukkah isnt Jewish Christmas. Stop treating it that way. - CT Post

Category: Ashkenazi | Comments Off on Opinion: Hanukkah isnt Jewish Christmas. Stop treating it that way. – CT Post
Tags:

Posted By admin on November 30, 2021

The season of light and festive celebration is upon us! This year, more than ever, we need the inspiration and message of the holidays to reassure us that all will be well with us and with the world. For Jews, we are lighting our Chanukah menorahs at the beginning of December. Christians will be celebrating the birth of Jesus toward the end of the month. And Kwaanza will be observed also at the end of December with lights. Light is a symbol of the Divine within each of us and a reminder of God's presence in the world and in our lives. Particularly at this time of the year, we are also reminded of our common humanity and that what unites us is greater than our differences. We are blessed to live a country that endorses religious liberty and allows each of us to worship in our own way, or not at all, without any interference from government. This freedom is quite unique to America and is not found to the same extent in any other country in the world!My ancestors, the Jewish people of the second century BCE(before Jesus), fought to keep Judaism of their day alive against overwhelming odds and the great power of the Assyrian Greek Empire. The Assyrian-Greeks turned our Holy Temple in Jerusalem into a pagan shrine and banned the observance of Jewish rites and rituals. A single family, descendants of Hasmon the Priest, rallied the people and successfully fought to recapture and rededicate the Holy Temple. Had they failed, not only would Judaism have ceased to exist, but perhaps, Christianity might not have come into being after Jesus, born a Jew - Joshua of Nazareth.And so, we all have much to celebrate and much for which to be thankful. Amid the festivities of lights, presents, family and food, let us remember the spiritual message of the season. In our darkest moments, the light of God shines upon us all, lifting us from despair and giving us hope.Rabbi Art Vernon, Congregation Shaaray Shalom

See the original post:

Rabbi Art Vernon of Congregation Shaaray Shalom offers holiday message - liherald

Category: Judaism | Comments Off on Rabbi Art Vernon of Congregation Shaaray Shalom offers holiday message – liherald
Tags:

Posted By admin on November 30, 2021

Eliyah Hawila, a Lebanese man who moved to the U.S. with his family in 2015, has lost his wife and part of his identity after it was discovered that he was faking his religiosity.

Hawila, 23, told Israeli TV, as reported by The Times of Israel, that growing up he was not religious. Though his father "used to pray and fast like regular Muslims," his mother was not religious and he felt no connection to Islam.

"The first thing I remember googling was Jewish Bible, and I got a copy of the Tanach, a PDF," he said. "I felt, you know what, this is right, this feels like the word of God. So I started looking up even more and more, Jewish laws, Jewish prayers."

He said he began "coming out to people" as Jewish, which resulted in being spit on and death threats. After moving to the U.S., he thought he would now be able to practice Judaism as he pleased and sought out local synagogues.

The Times of Israel reports that he was turned away from a reform community in Houston when he inquired about converting officially.

"When I got rejected, I started just saying I'm Jewish. My name is Eliyah, and this is the name I chose for myself because I love the story of the prophet Elijah," Hawila said.

Tablet Magazine reported earlier this year that after a survey it conducted, it found that trends suggest that more people are converting to Judaism. The article says that the publication sent surveys to 100 rabbis of all Jewish denominations and got responses from 79. Thirty-four, which is 43 percent, said they were performing more conversions than previously in their careers. The articles notes that while the old stereotype existed that most people converted for marriage, nowadays that reason is not as prevalent.

Hawila became active in the Jewish community, and met his soon-to-be wife on a Jewish dating site where he "falsely presented himself to her as observant," Rabbi Yossi Lazaroff, the head of the Chabad house in Texas A&M University where Hawila attended, said in a statement obtained by The Times of Israel.

Newsweek contacted Chabad at Texas A&M University but they did not respond in time for publication.

Lazaroff said, according to The Times of Israel, that when asked by the bride and her family about Hawila, he told them that his "conduct did not reflect that of a fully observant Jew." He said he trusted that the rabbi who officiated the nuptials would have done his due diligence.

As suspicions began to arise, Hawila created stories to cover his tracks. He says his wife and her family, who come from an ultra-orthodox Syrian Jewish community in Brooklyn, found an ID with his birth name, Ali Hassan Hawila, printed on it.

He said he was on a mission and part of the National Security Agency, The Times of Israel reported.

After the wedding, suspicions remained when none of his family members attended the nuptials. His wife's father took to Google and made contact with Hawila's father, who revealed the truth.

"So I started making even more stuff up, I ... I ... I was panicking, and they took her away from me, they separated her away from me," he said.

Now, he says while the woman is the love of his life, he understands if she won't give him a second chance.

The Times of Israel notes that even if he were to convert, which is still his goal, due to an edict within his wife's community as of 1935, members of the community are not allowed to marry converts.

Continued here:

Man Loses 'Love of His Life' After Lying About Religion and Marrying Ultra-Orthodox Woman - Newsweek

Category: Judaism | Comments Off on Man Loses ‘Love of His Life’ After Lying About Religion and Marrying Ultra-Orthodox Woman – Newsweek
Tags:

Posted By admin on November 30, 2021

Rabbi Gershon Weissman| Special to Ventura County Star

I love the holiday of Thanksgiving.Even though I now live in Israel, I still observe the American Thanksgiving with very dear friends atime for all to express appreciation for the countless blessings we have.

In my Jewish tradition, we prioritize the expression of thanks multiple times every day. Three times a day, morning, afternoonand evening we are to recite meditative prayers which include the following blessing contained in the Daily Prayerbook.

We gratefully thank you, for it is you who are Lord, our God and the God of our ancestors for all eternity; rock of our lives, shield of our salvation are you, from generation to generation.

"We shall thank you and proclaim your praise, for our lives, which are committed to your power and for our souls that are entrusted to you; for your miracles that are with us every day; and for your wonders and favors at all times, evening, morning and afternoon.

"The beneficent one, for our compassions were never exhausted, and the compassionate one, for your kindnesses never ended, always have we put our hope in You. For all these blessings, may your name be blessed and exalted, our king continually forever and ever.

Even the name of our religion, Judaism, comes from the name Judah, which in turn has the root meaning of thanksgiving or praise. When our matriarch Leah gave birth to her third son, she named him Judah, saying she will now praise (give thanks) to God,Genesis 29:35.

More: Interfaith: Autumns gifts of change and the joy of giving

Another tradition within Judaism is to recite 100 blessings of thanks to God each day. This is based on the Torah verse Deuteronomy 10:12, What does God ask of you? The Hebrew word for what is mah, which is close to the Hebrew word me-ah, meaning 100.

A later commentary by the rabbis in the Talmud saidthat God asks of us to recite 100 blessings each day to express thanks for all the kind and good things we experience each day.

From the earliest moments of everyones day, we are to thank God for waking up, for the breath of life, for observing the distinction between day and night, for our ability to perform our bodily functions, for getting up and putting ourselves together to greet the day, and each moment when we eat or drink we are to recite a blessings of thanks, through each day, to total 100 blessings.

Many years ago, when I was serving my congregation in Agoura Hills, I asked our elementary school age Hebrew school students how many bad things would have to happen for them to feel that they were having a bad day? One said five things, another said four, one said eight.

Ithen asked how many good things would have to happen for you to feel youre having a good day? One said five, one said six, another said seven. Then I said: if we really think hard we can come up with thousands, even millions of good things, that happen every day.

Our planet Earth is just the right distance from the sun so as to allow for us humans to live. We have farmers working to plant and grow the food that we take for granted. We have parents who love us, and God who puts all of this in to motion.Many students added their list of things that happen just right each day!

Indeed, we are to be thankful for all these blessings. And we are to be grateful for the United States of America, which taught us to celebrate Thanksgiving!

Rabbi Gershon Weissman is a member of the Conejo Valley Interfaith Association, whichmeets monthly and welcomes clergy and representatives of all religious faiths. Weissman and his wife Sheva retired to Jerusalem, Israel. Contact him at gershonweissman@gmail.com.

More:

Interfaith: We are to be thankful for many blessing - Ventura County Star

Category: Judaism | Comments Off on Interfaith: We are to be thankful for many blessing – Ventura County Star
Tags:

Posted By admin on November 30, 2021

Right before Hanukkah begins this year, Americans will be celebrating Thanksgiving, which is a holiday that commemorates the Pilgrims arriving in the New World and sharing their first harvest meal with the Native Americans, after so many Pilgrims who fled England due to religious persecution in the 17th century arrived in America only to perish in the winter cold.

On this occasion, Americans generally express their gratitude to God for saving them both from the religious persecution that the Pilgrims experienced and from other tribulations.

Americans every year generally celebrate this holiday by eating a gigantic turkey with stuffing, corn on the cob, corn muffins, cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie, apple pie, and other delicacies. While some Jews are reluctant to celebrate Halloween as the holiday is closely connected historically to Christianity, this is not the case with Thanksgiving.

This is because Americas First President George Washington refrained from utilizing Christian language when he designated November 26th to be Thanksgiving, thus signifying that the holiday should include all Americans and not just Christian Americans. Rabbi Moshe Feinstein andRabbi Joseph Soloveitchik, two leading 20th century Orthodox legal authorities, both agreed that Thanksgiving was a secular American holiday, similar to the Fourth of July.

Many of the central themes of the Thanksgiving holiday resonate with Jews across the globe. Just as the Pilgrims fled religious persecution in England, many Jews are descended from refugees who fled antisemitism in Europe, Latin America, and the Middle East. A holiday that promotes the right to religious freedom and being grateful to God for ones survival has great significance for the Jewish people.

Miriam Alstern/Flash90

American soldiers doing Israeli army service enjoy a Thanksgiving meal dinner organized by the American Jewish committee in Jerusalem.

As Psalms 100 proclaims, A song of thanksgiving offering. Shout to the Lord, all the earth. Serve the Lord with joy, come before him with praise. Know that the Lord is God; he made us, and we are his people and the flock of his pasture. Come into his gates with Thanksgiving, into his courtyards with praise; give thanks to him, bless him. For the Lord is good; his kindness is forever and until generation after generation is his faith.

Indeed, giving thanks to God and to our fellow human beings is an important Jewish value. As Rabbi Shalom Arush, author of The Garden of Gratitude, noted: For years already, I have been expounding and explaining more and more new aspects of todah saying thankYouto G-d, and truly appreciating everything in our lives from every part of our body that functions, to every item we own and use throughout the day, to the big aspects of our lives like our families, jobs, etc., and even for the things in our life that make us suffer be it physical things like difficulties with earning a living, or spiritual things like lusts, bad character traits, or just not serving Hashem the way You want.

According to him, Throughout all this time, I have explained the importance of saying thankYoufor everything, including specifically the bad in our lives, for at least 30 minutes one half hour every single day. I also explained the importance and power of saying Psalm 100 Mizmor LTodah. Many people have also seen miracles writing 18 or 40 new thankYous every day, and I recommend writing 100 thankYous a day, in order to fulfill the words of Arizal to say 100 blessings a day.

Rabbi Nachman of Breslev teaches that Hanukkah is the Jewish Thanksgiving, as the main function of the holiday is to sing praises to God for saving the Jews from Seleucid Greek persecution, just as Americans sing praise to God for sparing the Pilgrims in the 17th century. Thus, both Thanksgiving and Hanukkah are celebrated well in unison, as both holidays have similar themes.

Chabad teaches that our gratitude to G-d must express itself in the actions of our daily life. In other words, it should not be confined to one day like Thanksgiving, but rather expressed at every moment from when we rise in the morning until when we go to sleep in the evening. Every day should be a Thanksgiving in Judaism.

Therefore, Judaism teaches that we must pray and say thank you to God three times each day when we do the Amidah prayer, or standing prayer central to Jewish liturgy. In the Amidah prayer, Jews should not just pour out to God what their heart desires, but they must also thank God for the simple things that they were blessed with, such health, security, sustenance, etc.

Additionally, Jews must pray both before and after meals. This is because there are people in the world who are not fortunate enough to have food on their table in abundance. So, we should thank God for every meal we have. In fact, there are even basic blessings of gratitude in Judaism where one blesses simple things, like a glass of water. After all, there are enough parts of the world that are experiencing drought or where the sanitation is so poor that a glass of clean drinking water is something dear enough that we should all express gratitude every time we drink a glass of water.

Especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, everyone should express gratitude for what they have, for just being alive and healthy at a time when over five million people across the world have perished from the coronavirus. If one was fortunate enough to travel during the pandemic, one will begin to understand how much Jewish Israelis should be grateful for what they have, for they had it good compared to many other parts of the world. No one should take their blessings for granted and this is the main message that we all should consider this Thanksgiving.

Read the rest here:

A Jewish Perspective on Thanksgiving - Israel Today - Israel Today

Category: Judaism | Comments Off on A Jewish Perspective on Thanksgiving – Israel Today – Israel Today
Tags:

Posted By admin on November 30, 2021

While today he is sharing Hanukkah moments with his daughter, Goldman's history with the holiday and Judaism go way back. His parents also instilled in him the importance of tzedakah, the ethical obligation to charity. "It was very important to [my parents] growing up to make sure that I knew there were people in the world who were less fortunate than me and to always help anyone whenever possible," he explained to Jewish Journal. "It's been a blessing that they did, because the joy and fulfillment one can feel from giving is a singular emotion not felt in many circumstances."

For Goldman, this often takes the form of donating to different organizations and foundations. However, as The Jerusalem Post notes, tzedakah also works on the principle that such giving should be done anonymously, which means that Goldman is less forthcoming about naming all the organizations to which he gives money. Still, he does highlight No Kid Left Hungry, the Make-A-Wish Foundation, and Save AChild's Heart Foundation in the giving section of his website. He highlights these, though, with the option for us to donate with the observation that "Every time we give it makes us want to give more."

See the original post:

Duff Goldman Fans Are Loving This Pic Of His Daughter's First Hanukkah - Mashed

Category: Judaism | Comments Off on Duff Goldman Fans Are Loving This Pic Of His Daughter’s First Hanukkah – Mashed
Tags:

Posted By admin on November 30, 2021

With an economic toll ofan estimated at $57.7 billion, the study estimated the cost to be equivalent to three and a half times the 2019 GDP of the occupied Palestinian territory.

Moreover, it indicated that the minimum cost of eliminating poverty in the West Bank had increased six times between 1998 and 2007 from $73 million to $428 million.

We're talking about the reproduction of despair in the in the West Bank and Gaza, said Richard Kozul-Wright, UNCTAD Director of Division on Globalization and Development Strategies, calling for Palestinian territories to be reconnected into a fully fledged State to reverse this.

The report covers the period following the outbreak of the second Palestinian Intifada in September 2000.

According to UNCTAD Economist Rami Alazzeh, the Israeli closure policy was multilayered.

Roads between the West Bank, Gaza, Israel, and the border with Jordan were closed and in 2020 there is still the separation wall which Israel started building in 2003.

Moreover 600 obstacles in the West Bank, including checkpoints and gates remain in place.

The immediate effect of tighter Israeli restrictions imposed on the West Bank witnessed a drastic fall in living standards, which most affected the populations poorer segments.

The report projected that without the Israeli closures, restrictions and military operations, the 2004 poverty rate in the West Bank would have been 12 per cent, or one-third of the current 35 per cent.

In 2019, the West Bank GDP per capita would have been 44 per cent higher than its actual value,the report found.

It's a substantial amount of money for a small economy like this, said Mahmoud Elkhafif, UNCTADs Coordinator of the Assistance to the Palestinian People.

In the West Bank between 2000 and 2002, tighter Israeli restrictions and military operations triggered a one-third contraction, according to the report.

Although there was an annual 6.2 per cent growth in its economy since 2007, the report pointed out that the expansion was volatile ranging from 13.1 per cent in 2008 to 1.6 per cent in 2019 which led to high unemployment, hovering around 18 per cent during that time.

Unable to secure jobs, many Palestinians sought employment in Israel and its settlements, creating a harmful dependence of the West Bank regional economy on Israel.

However, without it the West Bank would have almost reached unemployment rates as high as the besieged Gaza Strip, which averaged 39.8 per cent between 2007 and 2019.

But the report pointed out that even with employment in Israel, the West Bank regional economy has not been able to reduce or stabilize its joblessness rate since 1999.

UNICEF/Eyas El Baba

Thirteen-year-old boy in Palestine collects rubble near Gaza City, which he transports by donkey to the market to sell. (file)

The report called for all mobility restrictions to be lifted in the occupied Palestinian territory and for reconnecting it with East Jerusalem and all cities and villages in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

It also called for the enabling of the Palestinian public and private sectors to establish and run agricultural, industrial, commercial and mining businesses in Area C which comprises more than 60 per cent of the West Bank area where Palestinians are not currently allowed to operate businesses.

The document reiterates that until the occupation ends, Palestinian economic development will continue to be arrested and its cost on the people, continue to grow.

To create decent jobs it is critical to overcome the kind of poverty levels that we see in the West Bank, stressed Mr. Kozul-Wright.

Go here to read the rest:

Arrested development and poverty take a $57 billion economic toll in Palestine - UN News

Category: Palestine | Comments Off on Arrested development and poverty take a $57 billion economic toll in Palestine – UN News
Tags:

Posted By admin on November 30, 2021

Dream of Palestinians for an independent state remains farfetched as they mark 74th anniversary of partition of their homeland by UN resolution.

Palestinians have marked International Day of Solidarity that coincides with the 74th anniversary of the controversial partition of their homeland by the United Nations with calls to countries to help them establish a state with Jerusalem as its capital.

Marking both events, the Palestinian National Council, which is affiliated with the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) affirmed in a statement on Monday that Palestinian rights are "preserved, immutable, inalienable, and will not go away."

It called on the UN and the countries that stood behind Israel, especially Britain, to assume their legal and moral responsibilities and implement the other part of the 1947 partition resolution, by establishing the state of Palestine with Jerusalem as its capital.

The body also urged parliaments across the world to show their solidarity with the rights of the Palestinian people and condemn the Israeli occupation and its settlement policies.

How UN resolution partitioned Palestine

On November 29, 1947, the UN General Assembly adopted Resolution 181, which called for the partition of Mandatory Palestine into three territories, including Jewish and Arab states, following the expiry of Britain's Palestine Mandate a plan that was called "illegal" and immediately rejected by the Palestinians and several Arab states.

Although Jews formed, at the time, 33 percent of the total population and owned only 7 percent of the land, the resolution gave them a state on 56.5 percent of the total area of historical Palestine.

Arabs, who owned the majority of the land with 67 percent of the population, were only designated 43.5 percent of the land.

The resolution was not implemented as the Jewish armed militants took control of most of the territory of Palestine in 1948 under a plan that relied on increasing the frequency of attacks on Palestinian cities and villages.

In the same year, Britain withdrew from Palestine, and the Jewish militants seized Palestinian lands on which they established the state of Israel.

'I know this is theft'

Experts see no hope in the foreseeable future for the establishment of a Palestinian state.

Talal Okal, a writer and political analyst, said after all these years, the establishment of a Palestinian state on the pre-1967 borders has become a "farfetched dream."

"There is no room for solutions based on negotiations that would give the Palestinians an independent state, regardless of its borders, size, and specifications," Okal told Anadolu Agency.

"The problem again is not ignorance, it is inaction," said Mohammed el Kurd, a popular Palestinian writer and activist, during his speech at the United Nations.

"Our lives are consumed by the anxiety of living on the brink of homelessness. The UN has called this a war crime, but more importantly: I know this is theft."

International Day of Solidarity

Coinciding with the anniversary of the partition plan is the UN-instituted International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People on November 29, 1977.

On Monday, marking the occasion, the UN chief warned the situation in the region "continues to pose a significant challenge to international peace and security."

The "persistent violations of the rights of Palestinians, along with the expansion of Israeli settlements, risk eroding the prospect of a two-State solution," said UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterres.

His message comes ahead of a special meeting held in New York on Monday to discuss the unresolved question of Palestine and the Palestinian people's inalienable rights.

Source: TRTWorld and agencies

Read the original here:

Palestine marks anniversary of UN plan that split it - TRT World

Category: Palestine | Comments Off on Palestine marks anniversary of UN plan that split it – TRT World
Tags: