Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By admin on November 30, 2021

British Photographer Alastair Miller Documents Rhine Getaway Journey on Viking's Award-Winning Enrichment Channel

LOS ANGELES, Nov. 29, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Viking (www.viking.com) announced this week a celebration of the Rhine River with a new original series on its award-winning enrichment channel, Viking.TV (www.viking.tv). Beginning today, Alastair Miller, the acclaimed British photographer and Viking.TV host will share his journey on Viking's Rhine Getaway itinerary aboard one of the company's state-of-the-art Viking Longships. "Alastair's Travels: The Rhine" will follow along the 8-day journey, as Alastair uses the new iPhone 13 Pro with its powerful new camera to document his experiences through the heart of Middle Europe including Amsterdam, Koblenz, Heidelberg and Basel.

This week, Viking will celebrate the Rhine River with a new original series on its award-winning enrichment channel, Viking.TV. Beginning November 29, British photographer and Viking.TV host, Alastair Miller will share his journey on Vikings Rhine Getaway itinerary aboard one of the companys state-of-the-art Viking Longships. For more information, visit http://www.viking.tv or http://www.viking.com.

"The Rhine River is one of Europe's most iconic waterways. After nearly two years of connecting our guests, crew and curious people from around the world with new content on Viking.TV, we are pleased to offer this firsthand account along the Rhine," said Karine Hagen, Executive Vice President of Viking. "We also greatly appreciate our collaboration with photographer Alastair Miller. We are proud to feature prints of his stunning work on board our ships, and we are honored to have him as a regular host on Viking.TV."

Alastair's Travels: The Rhine on Viking.TV

Viking.TV will celebrate the Rhine River with a week of new content airing daily from November 29 to December 3. The new original series will document Alastair's journey on Viking's Rhine Getaway itinerary, showcasing each port as he sails between Amsterdam and Basel aboard Viking Kara. The Rhine Week schedule on Viking.TV will include the following highlights:

Monday, November 29 Join Alastair as he explores the Dutch capital, Amsterdam. Follow along as he steps aboard a houseboat, visits unique shops and explores on a traditional Dutch bicycle. Alastair will also visit Kinderdijk, home of the iconic network of windmills, and learn about their significant roles from locals.

Tuesday, November 30 Explore the German city of Cologne as Alastair delves into its history and culture. As he tours the city, learn about the series of plaques embedded in the streets outside houses which honor the Jewish occupants who lost their lives in the holocaust. Then join him for a look at the magnificent cathedral, and as he visits one of the famous brewhouses to taste the local specialities.

Wednesday, December 1 Immerse yourself in the romantic Middle Rhine and join Alastair as he explores Koblenz before setting sail through the scenic river valley, dotted with fairytale castles. Famous for its Rieslings, Alastair will also visit a local vineyard to meet the winemakers and sample their product.

Thursday, December 2 Visiting two ports of call, Alastair will first explore picturesque Heidelberg and speak with students from the historic university before visiting Heidelberg Castle. He will then continue his journey to Strasbourg and discover the delights of the Alsace region including its distinct cuisine.

Friday, December 3 Finally, his journey will end exploring the mythical Black Forest region of Germany on an electric bike, before disembarking in the Swiss city of Basel. Alastair will conclude his journey in the lakeside city of Lucerne.

Livestream sessions on Viking.TV start every day at 2 p.m. Eastern Time / 11 a.m. Pacific Time, and all content is archived and available on-demand for anyone who cannot view at the original time of the broadcast. Also, on Viking.TV there are more than 200 original short-form Destination Insight documentaries and 60 additional pieces of content from Viking Cultural Partners, with programming from TED, BBC's Wonderstruck, Libera and more.

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Viking's Rhine River Itineraries

Renowned for its views of stately castles, Medieval villages, cultural centers and natural beauty, Viking's offerings on the Rhine River take guests through the heart of Middle Europe. One of Viking's most popular itineraries, the 8-day Rhine Getaway allows guests to discover ports of call in The Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland and France, as well as scenic sailing through the Middle Rhine a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Additional Viking itineraries offered along the Rhine River include: Paris to the Swiss Alps, Cities of Light, Tulips & Windmills, Grand European Tour and more.

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For more information, images and b-roll for Viking, contact vikingpr@edelman.com.

About VikingViking was founded in 1997 and provides destination-focused journeys on rivers, oceans and lakes around the world. Designed for experienced travelers with interests in science, history, culture and cuisine, Chairman Torstein Hagen often says Viking offers guests The Thinking Person's Cruise in contrast to mainstream cruises. With more than 250 awards to its name, Viking has been rated the #1 River Cruise Line and #1 Ocean Cruise Line by Cond Nast Traveler in the publication's 2021 Readers' Choice Awards. Viking has also been consistently rated the #1 ocean cruise line and one of the best river cruise lines in Travel + Leisure's "World's Best" Awards. For additional information, contact Viking at 1-800-2-VIKING (1-800-284-5464) or visit http://www.viking.com. For Viking's award-winning enrichment channel, visit http://www.viking.tv.

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Viking.TV Celebrates The Rhine River With Week Of New Programming - Yahoo Finance

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Posted By admin on November 27, 2021

In a passage of his new book The Will to See, a collection of dispatches and insights garnered from his travels in war zones around the world, the French Jewish philosopher Bernard-Henri Lvy reflects on the challenges of being an internationalist in a world that has increasingly turned inwards upon itself.

The desire to speak not to France alone, not to Europe alone, not to the United States alone, but to the world; the concern for justice, ideally applied not just to a given city that is ignoring its metics [the ancient Greek term for foreigners] within and without, but to all cities, as well as to that part of the world where people do not know what a city of citizens even means; the wish to be able to feel at home anywhere, even where tyrants are triumphant or the spirit of Nineveh reigns none of that, I am well aware, comes easily, Lvy writes.

Both the book and the accompanying film of the same title which provides viewers with a raw glimpse of the human suffering produced by forgotten wars past and present, in Libya, Ukraine, Kurdistan, Afghanistan and Somalia among others demonstrate Lvys lifelong commitment to these principles, as well as his efforts to give them energy and meaning in a world that has become, especially since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, decidedly more parochial.

On Sunday, Lvy will be in Jerusalemfor the premiereof The Will to See at the Jewish Film Festival in the Israeli capital, where he will receive the festivals Achievement Award.The Algemeiner caught up with him by phone on Friday in advance of the event.

November 27, 2021 11:31 am

Many of the themes in your film persecution because of ones origin, the indifference of the outside world, trying to simply survive resonate strongly with Jewish history. How do you think your film will be interpreted by an Israeli audience? What lasting impression do you wish to leave on them?

First of all, I am deeply honored to have been selected and given an award by this festival. To me, it means the world, really. Second, how would I want the film to be received in Israel? As the lifetime achievement of an affirmative Jew, of a Jew inhabiting his own being. The lifetime achievement of a Jew doing his best to give substance to the true Jewish commandments, orders and messages. And the children and grandchildren of Jews who were persecuted will hear an echo of that ageless persecution. When a Holocaust survivor, or the son or daughter of a Holocaust survivor, sees the martyrdom of a young woman in Nigeria, when they see the survivors of the mass atrocities committed against the Kurds, how can they not hear that echo? At the end of the film, the lyrics of my music composer Nicolas Ker On and On and On and On and On also carry this echo. So if there is a place where I really expect a reply, a response, an emotion, it is in Israel and its capital, Jerusalem.

Your work has taken you to Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Syria, Iraq, Libya, and many other places. Can you reflect on the position of a Jew who intervenes frequently on political and humanitarian questions in parts of the world where Muslims constitute the majority?

For me, its about what one of the ancient prophets of the Jewish people, Jonah, was ordered to do. Jonah was ordered to go to Nineveh, which is the modern-day city of Mosul in Iraq, but which could also be a metaphor for most of the places where I spent the year 2020 in order to make this film. Very humbly and very modestly, I tried to be faithful to the order that was given to Jonah the prophet to whom I dedicated my 2017 book, The Genius of Judaism. That is, to go to the big city, or the remote city, or the city that might not be friendly in any way to my own people, the city that is full of sins and crimes to go and try and help this city to walk along the path of its own redemption. This is the order that was given to Jonah for the city of Nineveh. For me, it is a thoroughly Jewish way of acting. Of course, its not the only way, but it is one of them, and in this film, it is mine.

You make the point in the film that Gaza was one location where you didnt travel, which is all the more striking because we see you in so many of the comparatively forgotten war zones elsewhere in the world. Do you think the persistence of the Palestinian issue distracts public and media attention from these other causes and crises?

Of course, and I hope that this will be one of the lessons of the film. The world is focused on Gaza and the West Bank. In the meantime, we have wars that are real bloodbaths, where you have real mass crimes committed, where sometimes you are standing on the precipice of genocide. And so this focus on Gaza really overshadows these mass crimes which are the subject of my film. By the way, I have been to Gaza and the West Bank in the past. During the war in 2009, I was embedded with an elite unit of the IDF, and in 2002, I wrote about the Palestinian city of Jenin, where there were false reports presented in the Western press of a crime committed by the Israeli army unprecedented since World War II. What I saw was a heavy military battle, a few dozen dead on the Palestinian side, two dozen dead on the Israeli side, but no massacre, no mass crime. So Ive never been reluctant to go on the ground there when I felt it necessary to tell the truth, to put a stop to the demonization and delegitimization of Israel. But this time, for this dive into the hell of forgotten wars and suffering, Gaza did not have its place, and I was content to skip it.

Finally, what are you working on now?

(Laughs) I think Im working on something interesting, but for the time being, Ill keep that to myself!

Bernard-Henri Lvys latest documentary film, The Will to See, is receiving its premiere in Israel at 8pm, Sunday Nov. 28, at the Jerusalem Cinematheque Hall 1, 11 Hebron Rd, Jerusalem.

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'The Lifetime Achievement of an Affirmative Jew': Bernard-Henri Lvy Reflects on New Film, 'The Will to See,' Ahead of Jerusalem Premiere - Algemeiner

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Posted By admin on November 27, 2021

For 10 years, Polish tour guide Alicja Ziolo led groups around her native Krakow, where so-called Lucky Jew figurines and portraits of money-holding Jews are a souvenir of choice.

In my fathers home, he has a little painting of a Jew counting money, Ziolo told The Times of Israel. He believes it is supposed to bring luck and prosperity to his household.

During the past three years, Ziolo said she came to see the negative connotations of the Polish-made tchotchkes. Influenced by the opinions of Jewish tourists, Ziolo also took part in a community-organized discussion on the topic with other stakeholders in Krakow tourism.

Talking to Jewish visitors made me see the inappropriateness of the dolls and paintings, said Ziolo. I dont like them and I think we can rise above things like this.

Before the Holocaust, Poland was home to 3 million Jews. Nearly all of them were murdered in Nazi-built death camps, and fewer than 15,000 Jews live in the country today. In other words, there are probably more Lucky Jews for sale in Poland than there are Jews.

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According to Ziolo, the dolls have a long tradition in Polish folklore. Specifically, Krakow has for centuries hosted an annual Easter fair where Jew dolls with springs for legs to imitate a Jewish man praying became popular. Importantly, the dolls did not have coins attached to them and they were sold alongside dolls representing other ethnic groups in Poland.

Lucky Jews purchased in Warsaws old city, 2014. (Matt Lebovic/The Times of Israel)

Since 2017, the nonprofit CentrALT has sought to deepen understanding of the stereotypes behind the figurines and shop-side images of Lucky Jews. Known for tackling thorny issues in Polish-Jewish relations, CentrALT petitioned Krakows municipality and ultimately convinced them to declare the dolls and paintings antisemitic.

The city, which experienced such tragedy during the war and the Holocaust, must be aware that certain items sold in the public sphere are perceived through the filter of these tragic events, read a letter issued by the municipality in June, co-signed by 49 officials.

According to the representatives, Only cooperation and dialogue will make it possible to change commonly held attitudes and remove these offensive figurines as well as the antisemitic inscriptions/signage on the stalls.

After the letter was published, some Israeli media outlets reported the figurines had been banned in Krakow. According to CentrALT co-founder Michael Rubenfeld, however, there is no legal mechanism for a ban and attempts to impose one are a bad idea.

CentrALT co-founder Michael Rubenfeld as a Lucky Jew Doll in Krakow, 2018. (courtesy)

Theres not actually been a ban, Rubenfeld said. What has happened is that the city has publicly stated that [the dolls and paintings] are antisemitic, and they feel they should be phased out.

According to Rubenfeld, Krakow mayor Jacek Majchrowski has expressed warm feelings about Lucky Jew Dolls in the past. Last year, Majchrowski responded to a member of parliaments inquiry about the figurines with a thumbs-up review.

The purchase of such a figurine is nothing more than the purchase of a talisman that is supposed to magically ensure happiness and financial success, which rather boils down to a positive social perception of their functions, wrote Majchrowski.

This is also evidenced by the way the characters of such Jews are presented jovial, friendly old men evoke warm feelings, associated primarily with resourcefulness and diligence, wrote the Krakow mayor.

Three years ago, Rubenfeld dressed Jewishly and sold portraits of himself to Polish passers-by. Setting up a Lucky Jew stall, Rubenfeld sold self-branded paraphernalia including mugs to curious Poles of all ages, and recorded the stunt in a tongue-in-cheek video.

If people are profiting off my luck, then I should be able to profit off my luck, said Rubenfeld in the video.

Rubenfelds provocation attracted the attention of the mayors culture advisor, Robert Piaskowski, who started to work with CentrALT on the issue. Since the end of 2019, CentrALT has held three discussion forums and created several exhibits related to Lucky Jews for sale in Krakow.

Piaskowski told The Times of Israel that the municipality has come to view Lucky Jews as responsible for opening unhealed wounds and evoking painful associations with the infamous antisemitic propaganda of Nazi Germany.

The most photographed passageway in Kazimierz, the heart of Jewish life in Krakow, Poland, May 2019 (Matt Lebovic/The Times of Israel)

People from 130 countries call Krakow home, said Piaskowski, and the city has a very coherent policy of remembrance when it comes to World War II and the Holocaust. The municipality works with half a dozen local Jewish organizations to negotiate this memory together, he said, as demonstrated by the Lucky Jews issue.

In October, Margaux Dinerman organized a trip to central Europe, including sites of Holocaust memory. The California-based tourists introduction to Jewish figurines and paintings did not take place in Poland, but 500 miles away in Pragues historic Wenceslas Square.

I saw ones made of glass and also ones that resembled Russian dolls, Dinerman said. But I was most bothered by some of dolls that show [the ritual slaughter of] chickens, said Dinerman, who said some figurines such as Jews with klezmer instruments are less problematic for her.

Lucky Jews for sale in Krakow, October 2021 (Margaux Dinerman)

From Prague, Dinerman visited Krakow and the citys Church of Saint Mary square. Strolling through the fabled market hall, Dinerman said she saw more than a handful of vendors selling Lucky Jew paintings and figurines.

The general idea of the dolls I saw was that all Jews have money and control the world, said Dinerman, who purchased a figurine to bring home.

To me, it personified my feelings about being in Krakow. I want it to be a reminder that you cant ever forget this history, said Dinerman.

Following the genocide of European Jewry, the market for Lucky Jews went underground. With the reappearance of Lucky Jews in the late 1970s, Polish business owners started to turn paintings of Jews upside-down once a week to bring luck.

In Warsaws old city, Zamoscs main square, or Bialystoks market, Lucky Jews are a fixture at souvenir mongers. Earlier this year, media reported on candle versions of Lucky Jews sold largely online in Poland.

Pre-Holocaust Jewish peddler figurine made in Germany. (USHMM)

Several historians have said that to some Polish citizens, the dolls reflect mourning the loss of the countrys Jews. CentrALTs Rubenfeld said he agrees with that assessment.

It sounds bizarre, but given how little reflection Poland has done on the psychological effects of the eradication of Polands Jewish people, the Lucky Jew images began to give people feelings of comfort and nostalgia for a romanticized pre-war reality, said Rubenfeld.

According to Lena Rubenfeld, co-founder of CentrALT with her husband, some Poles view buying Lucky Jews as a tribute to the community.

This is a problematic stereotype but people dont see it as a problem. They see it as a positive thing and buy them for their friends, Lena Rubenfeld said.

To challenge peoples perception of Lucky Jews in Krakow, CentrALT is launching a public competition to designate the citys official new Jewish souvenir. According to Rubenfeld, the market for Jewish figurines and paintings became so overheated that some manufacturing takes place in China now.

We are trying to bring the society along, said Michael Rubenfeld. We want to change the consciousness of the buyers and sellers.

In cyberspace, there has been a stunning proliferation of Lucky Jew marketing in recent years. According to a recent study on the topic, the financial success connotations of purchasing Lucky Jews has fueled the trend, which includes offering buyers elaborate positioning instructions for new paintings.

Annual FestivALT put on by CentrALT in Krakow, Poland, 2019. (Courtesy)

According to researchers, The phenomenon of trading figurines of Jews on the internet is truly contemporary, capturing the transformative journey of Poland from a socialist command economy to private facing capitalist enterprise, along with current tastes, purchasing trends, and new methods of marketing.

The figurines are also sold by a handful of Polish merchants on Etsy, suggesting a market outside of Poland for what some of the sellers call wedding cake toppers. In general, Polands Jewish-themed tchotchkes produce a host of reactions in people, depending on the individual, said CentrALTs Michael Rubenfeld.

To be honest, if you look at most of the images with money, the Jews are rarely portrayed as malicious or money grubbing and where a Jew will look at an image of a Jew with money, they will instantly see something negative, a non-Jew in Poland might just see a Jew, he said.

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Why Lucky Jew dolls are more popular than actual Jews in Poland - The Times of Israel

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Posted By admin on November 27, 2021

(New York Jewish Week via JTA) Fany Gerson, 45, has always loved sweets. When Gerson was growing up in the Polanco section of Mexico City, her mother tried to rein in her sweet tooth. Gerson was permitted an occasional treat, but only if it was made with care and love, as she told the New York Jewish Week.

Its a philosophy that Gerson has taken to heart and to her super-successful, creative food businesses, the enormously popular New York-based mini-chain, Dough Doughnuts, which she launched in 2010. That same year, Gerson, who considers herself a cultural Jew, also opened La Newyorkina, a business specializing in all-natural handmade paletas (Mexican fruit or cream popsicles), ice cream and pastries.

In the ensuing decade, both brands expanded and garnered acclaim Dough, for example, earned a spot on Food & Wine magazines Americas Best Doughnuts list, and Gersons name became nearly synonymous with Mexican sweets in New York. She also published two cookbooks, My Sweet Mexico(2010) and Paletas(2011).

More recently, after parting ways with her Dough partners in early in 2020, Gerson opened Fan-Fan Doughnuts with her business partner, Thierry Cabigeos, at the original Dough location in Brooklyns Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood. At Fan-Fan, Gerson reinvented her dough recipe and added Mexican touches as well as flavors from around the world, including Mexican Cinnamon Sugar, White Coffee and Mango Lassi doughnuts, as well as Guava Cheese Fan-Fans, Gersons take on rectangular, eclair-like filled doughnuts. Despite opening in October 2020 mid-pandemic lines formed out the door.

In her work, as in her life, Gerson likes to reflect on the richness of her Jewish and Mexican heritages. I feel like through time Ive explored it through food and Im kind of bridging the two worlds, she said.

Gersons doughnut-creating journey, it turns out, may have a surprising Jewish inspiration: In her younger years, Gerson spent a year in Israel on an overseas student exchange program and worked on a kibbutz. One night, during Hanukkah, she was out dancing with friends at a club and they brought in large boxes of sufganiyot the fried, round jelly doughnuts traditionally eaten on Hanukkah. Gerson recalled never having seen or tasted anything like them, and it was possibly her first inkling that doughnuts would become a special part of her life (as well as future Hanukkah celebrations).

The joyful memory of those boxes of sugary, fried spheres served on a carefree night in Israel, so many years ago, comes rushing back whenever Gerson makes sufganiyot which shes gearing up to do as Hanukkah starts this year on Sunday, Nov. 28. This years sufganiyot selection from Fan-Fan includes house-made strawberry jam rolled in lemon sugar; vanilla diplomat cream, which is vanilla pastry cream mixed with whipped cream, rolled in toasted sugar; and chocolate halvah in collaboration with Seed + Mill at Chelsea Market.

But thats not all: Gerson is also collaborating with Jewish chef and author Jake Cohen, introducing a brand new sufganiyah thats inspired by Hanukkahs proximity to Thanksgiving: a doughnut filled with cranberry sumac jam and tangerine and rolled in salt and pepper. They are available from Friday, Nov. 26 through Monday, Dec. 6, the last day of Hanukkah.

Since Gerson always enjoyed working with her hands, her parents thought she was destined for art school. Instead, having discovered a love of cooking during a high school elective class, she lobbied for culinary school. After completing two years of cooking school in Mexico, her parents permitted her to enroll at the Culinary Institute of America, from which she graduated in 1998. This was followed by stints at well-known New York restaurants, including La Cote Basque, Rosa Mexicano and Eleven Madison Park.

When her friend and former boss, Cabigeos, suggested they open a doughnut shop, Gerson agreed to give it a try. Recognizing she was bringing an immigrants point of view to the great American doughnut, Gerson said she was careful to do it very mindfully. As she put it: Here I do one thing, and Ive got to do it right because people have a lot of nostalgia attached to it.

A selection of treats available at Fan-Fan Doughnuts in Brooklyns Bed-Stuy neighborhood, Nov. 18, 2021. (Risa Doherty)

More than a decade later, when the pair opened Fan-Fan, Gerson took things up a notch. For example, her reimagined dough is seasoned with a mild Mexican cinnamon tea, which adds a light, floral note to her pastries but no discernible flavor. On a recent visit, Toby Shebiro of Searingtown, New York, passed on Fan-Fans doughnuts and opted for a sticky bun made from that very same dough instead.

It was outrageous, she said. It wasnt gooey, the way many sticky buns can be. It was the perfect consistency, moist and flavorful, and not overly sweet.

For Gerson, food was never monocultural. Her paternal grandparents, like other Jews with roots in the Ukraine, brought customary Ashkenazi dishes to their table. But it didnt take long before these dishes got tropicalized with Mexican flavors, creating new traditions: gefilte fish with tomato was served warm and pan-fried, sour and spicy with guajillo pepper sauce; challah was made with apples and cinnamon; matzah ball soup featured avocado, cilantro and serrano pepper. She knew, too, that Mexican cooking had already been influenced by Spanish, Moorish, Mayan and Aztec cuisines.

Oftentimes, Gersons creations are inspired by the people she loves. She honored her husband, Daniel Ortiz de Montellano, with the Mensch, a Fan-Fan doughnut that contains hazelnut praline covered with Belgian dark chocolate ganache and topped with hazelnuts. (She first met Ortiz de Montellano, also a chef, in New York, only to learn that they had grown up eight blocks from each other in Mexico City. His mother, originally from New York, is descended from Hungarian Jews and moved to Mexico, where she met his father. )

Gerson seems to be more attuned to her own food memories than many of us. She said she has long missed her native Mexico especially throughout the pandemic but connects to it by working with the Mexican seasonings shes always loved.

Thats the thing about food, its not ephemeral, she said. How many memories are tied to food? A smell can take you back.

Perhaps those memories remain so vivid because eating is so sensory, allowing Gerson, as well as Fan-Fans customers, to recapture some childhood joy. Whats more, Gerson points out that food preparation is the only art that utilizes all the senses, giving her the added benefit of reminiscing throughout the baking process.

Gerson deeply respects food traditions but is an innovator at heart. Even something that becomes traditional is rooted somewhere else, so what I do is my own cultural blend, she said.

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Brooklyns Mexican-Jewish chef Fany Gerson makes doughnuts that are out of this world - Jewish Telegraphic Agency

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Posted By admin on November 27, 2021

I try to keep up on official Jewish claims about the oneness of Judaism and Zionism, and here is an important statement on that score from last May that I just saw.

Days after Israels war with Gaza sparked unprecedented outrage in the west, Rabbi Wendi Geffen gave a sermon to her Reform congregation in suburban Chicago about the new antisemitism in which she said that anti-Zionist Jews are Jews in name only who must be kept out of the Jewish tent.

There are boundaries to that tent. And those begin when a person engages in word or action that seeks to destroy Israel or the Jewish people. Or enables or condones violence in support of extremist ideology or theology. There is no place for any of that in the big tent.

The rabbi went on to explain that the vast majority of Jews support Israel and that anti-Zionist Jews who say that Zionism and progressive values are a contradiction are more dangerous to the Jewish people than the rightwing antisemites who shoot up synagogues.

But within the vast majority of those in that tent, we must as individuals and a community reject the assertion that you either care about the Jews in Israel, or you care about others in the world, and that you cannot be both.

This is a false dichotomy. It belies the core of what it means to be a Jew. I am a Zionist and I want Palestinian suffering to stop. I am a believer in the possibility of coexistence. I am a person who has built my career and my life on the foundational assumption that a diversity of viewpoints can be held and sustained in one community, and at the very same time I can build alliances and friendships across all sorts of other diverse groups. This is not a betrayal to either.

And to suggest as such is no less and perhaps even more if were honest dangerous to the Jewish people than any external antisemitic threat.

During a 15-minute sermon, the rabbi had nothing to say about a matter that has caused great disaffection among Jews: the lopsided conflict that ended a week earlier, in which Israeli missiles leveled office buildings and killed 256 people in blockaded Gaza, while Palestinian militants killed 13 in Israel.

That onslaught helped fuel a survey last summer showing that 38 percent of young Jews believe that Israel practices apartheid, and 20 percent say Israel has no right to exist as a Jewish state. Those are Geffens Jews in name only. Though heres a new book all about such Jews!

Geffen is the senior rabbi at a congregation that prizes diversity. She opened her sermon to North Shore Congregation Israel by quoting the rightwing Israeli leader Natan Scharansky saying that while classic antisemitism targeted Jewish people or the Jewish religion, the new antisemitism is aimed at the Jewish state. And this hatred is advanced in the name of values most of us would consider unimpeachable, such as human rights.

Geffen said that while the new antisemitism may be dressed up differently underneath, its the same insidious old hatred.

It always finds a way to slither itself into our lives and into our world.

Right and leftwing antisemites get along with each other.

Despite whatever hatred each side has for the other, We must remember that those extremes find alignment and agreement over their shared hatred of the Jew. Both revolve around the utter devaluation and negation of the Jew.

Geffen said criticism of Israel was merely the cloak for leftwing Jew hatred.

A word about Israel related antisemitism. Whether or not a Jewish person loves or hates Israel, the antisemite sees no difference. Just ask our college students whove been asked whether or not they are Jewish before they can participate in a social justice activity on campus, and if they answer yes, they are then asked to take a loyalty oath disavowing Zionism in all its forms. No one else is asked that question.

Geffen asserted that leftwing antisemitic influencers online equate Jews not the Israeli government, not Israelis but Jews, with Hitler. She said that her own 12-year-old daughter, who follows fashion and arts & crafts on Tiktok and twitter, asked her days before, Why does everyone she follows hate the Jews and call us murderers? (I am sure that many leftwingers made such assertions about Israel, but if Israel = Jews, you can see why Geffens daughter reached that conclusion.)

Geffen said with emphasis that antisemitism deserves the same sole and full attention that other forms of hate receive.

When some politician or pundit disavows antisemitism and then follows it up with and all other forms of hate, its the very same thing as claiming All lives matter in the face of African Americans! Its just one more way of denying the Jews our full agency and claim.

Reaching her conclusion, the rabbi said that Jews need to have new ways of discussing antisemitism. And here she branched into Jewish identity and exalted the idea of Jewish particularism.

We need to remember that the very best way to fight antisemitism is to be proud Jews and Jewish families. Not Jews in name only! Not Jews who disavow their particularism in the name of universal. But rather Jews who embrace particular Jewish thinking and practice it and they practice that not just within their Jewish community but outside of it in the communities with which and with whom they engage as well. To be a Jew in its fullest sense is to be both of these things.

Yes, we have to look out for ourselves. You always look to your own house first. But we are called upon to do more. And that involves upholding our particular Jewish mission, as Elie Wiesel taught, Not to make the world more Jewish but to make this world more human.

I agree with Geffen that people are tribal, and that particularist ethnic/religious communities give people comfort and meaning. We see it everywhere. But many anti-Zionist Jews I know have come to reject the particularism because they weary of seeing it invoked to insulate Zionism and Israel from accountability for serious crimes, from apartheid to persecution, in the name of the nation state of the Jews. When these Jews are forced to choose a community based on such values or excommunication, they readily choose excommunication, and seek out other communities for shelter, communities that include many Jews.

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Anti-Zionist Jews are 'Jews in name only' and 'more dangerous than external antisemitic threat' Chicago Reform rabbi - Mondoweiss

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Posted By admin on November 27, 2021

The Old City of Jerusalem is both magical and cursed at the same time. It is filled with so much hope, yet so much suffering. The Jewish people had waited thousands of years to walk those streets again, just to be near a place of the Shechinah.

Our people knew ups and downs, we built a kingdom in the Holy Land and we witnessed its annihilation. After the destruction, we were scattered all around the globe, where we were shamed, chased, and slaughtered.

In fact, what drew us back and connected us was these few hundred square meters, where recently Jews once again have been getting murdered.

I remember almost all of them by their names. Eliyahu Amedi was killed on Shabbat in 1986. As a child I remember the rumors of his death reached the Jewish quarter where we lived. We rushed to the only place where you could receive the latest information even on Shabbat - the Western Wall.

The place was crowded, the tensions were in the air, and sirens were ringing all around us, breaking the Shabbat silence in the religious neighborhood of Jerusalem. Then, all of a sudden, handcuffed and wearing only underwear, the killers of Eliyahu were brought into the Western Wall Plaza. It was so absurd and unthinkable to see murderers in their underwear at the holiest place in the world.

A year later, Yigal Shachaf was murdered - also on Shabbat. I remember the adults were talking after Mincha - afternoon prayer - and saying "a Jew was shot."

Three and a half years later, on February 28, 1991, my brother Elhanan Atali was on his way to a Yeshiva where he studied, but he never made it, having been stabbed and killed on the same cursed streets.

After him, more Jews were murdered in those alleyways: Gabriel Hirschberg, Chaim Kerman, Nehemia Lavi, Aaron Bennet, and Adiel Coleman. My family knew most of them. They all had one common thing in common - unconditional love for Jerusalem.

You don't love this city the way you love a "regular" city, there's something else that's hard to put into words. A connection of historical consciousness, tradition, and belief that this place is the heart of the Jewish people.

You don't like this city the way you like a normal city, there's something else that's hard to put into words. A connection of historical consciousness, tradition, and belief that this place is the heart of the Jewish people.

The difference between the murdered and the murderers is that they wanted Jerusalem to thrive in order for all of its residents to enjoy it, not just the Jews. We came here by virtue of our right to live, while they sanctify death.

I received a link to the Facebook account of Aboud Abu Shkhaydam, son of Fadi Abu Shkhaydam, who murdered Eliyahu Kay.

The difference between us and them is that as soon as the murder his father committed became public knowledge, instead of being ashamed or mourning, the son Aboud just replaced the profile picture with a photo of him and his father and announced how proud he was that his dad is now a martyr.

As a result, hundreds of people commented on the photo, congratulating him on the privilege of being the son of a jihadist.

However, the Jewish people's resilience and will to live fills me with hope. Despite the pain, the light will dispel the darkness and good will overpower evil.

It's incomprehensible that people the highest honor for whom is to commit murder of the innocent would overcome those who seek only to do good. It might be a long, exhausting road, but I'm sure there is a light at the end of it.

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Jerusalem is the Jewish people's gift and curse - Ynetnews

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Posted By admin on November 27, 2021

Avia Yosef, 17, originally joined the volleyball team during her freshman year at Venice High School because she thought it would be a fun extracurricular activity that would teach her teamwork and leadership.

Now a senior, its turned out to be so much more. Shes part of a team that defeated Palisades Charter High School, which previously had a winning streak of 130 consecutive Western League victories. Additionally, the team was the first in the schools history to win a City Section upper division volleyball championship against Granada Hills, a six-time champion, and theyre going to the state finals.

I was fortunate to play with these girls, said Yosef. Our coach, Raul Aviles, was really amazing with teaching us everything we know to this day.

There are 17 girls on the team, some who had never played before they joined in ninth grade. Yosef is one of two Jews on the team. Volleyball keeps me healthy and fit on a daily basis, she said. It also helps my mental health, because for two or three hours of practice, I get to forget about everything.

During game season, Yosef and her teammates would practice every day of the week. This year, her position is opposite, and in her sophomore year, she was captain of the team, which fans can follow on Instagram through their @venicevolleyball account.

The girls wouldnt let anything stop them from continuing to improve even COVID. During the worst times of the pandemic, they played in front of the school while wearing masks. Theyd have to get regular COVID testing done as well.

It wasnt the same until we got back into the gym and were able to get our groove back, said Yosef. We were fortunate enough to get back in July, which is when we started our summer training.

Along with playing on the volleyball team, Yosef started a Jewish culture club at her school, where they have meetings and participate in activities like learning about the importance of Shabbat.

Along with playing on the volleyball team, Yosef started a Jewish culture club at her school, where they have meetings and participate in activities like learning about the importance of Shabbat, eating challah bread and hummus and bringing in guest speakers. So far, 12 members have joined.

I wanted to have a safe community for those who are Jewish to go to, she said. Going to a public school, there arent a lot of other Jewish kids, so its good to have a little community.

Yosef is also part of Jewish Big Brothers Big Sisters of Los Angeles, where shes had a big sister for three years. Together, they roller skate, have picnics and go to the beach. Its a great support system and I have things in common with her, she said. Its like having a big sibling. You can feel comfortable telling them anything. You know you have an older influence.

Since Yosefs father is Israeli, shes been to Israel five times to visit family and tour the country. I absolutely love it there, aside from the crazy hot weather, she said. I dont speak Hebrew, but I love to connect with a whole different culture and feel a part of it. I just feel very welcome there.

Next year, Yosef plans to go to college. Right now, shes in the World Languages and Global Studies magnet at Venice, but she plans to major in psychology, nursing or STEM. No matter what she ends up doing, she can use the valuable lessons shes learned from volleyball to guide her.

Volleyball teaches you how to stay motivated and keep persevering, she said. Even if you hit the ball into the net a bunch of different times, you just learn how to make strategic decisions really fast and adjust quickly. You have to keep striving to do better.

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Venice High Senior on Being a Volleyball Champ and Proud Jew - Jewish Journal

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Posted By admin on November 27, 2021

In June, I went to the Western Wall for the bar mitzvah of a cousin from Ohio who was studying in Jerusalem. It was my first visit to the Wall since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. The bar mitzvah was probably a more meaningful rite of passage for the bar mitzvah boy because he decided to become a bar mitzvah in his early 20s, rather than at 13.

I have vivid memories of my first visit to the Western Wall the courtyard wall and only remnant of the ancient Temple destroyed by the Romans in the year 70. I was a teenager visiting from Cleveland with a group of other Cleveland-area high school students.

I have visited the Wall dozens of times since, and although I was thrilled to attend the bar mitzvah, the dominant ultra-Orthodox character of the site was particularly striking, and it bothered me. The Wall should be the crown jewel of Israeli historic sites, and not dominated by any particular denomination.

With a little luck and political courage, in the near future, it will again be a place that is fully reflective of the diversity of Jewish religious practice. It should also be a place where Jews who are not religious at all and that pretty much includes me

can feel the resonance of the site as the historic heart of ancient Jerusalem without the narrow imposition of a particular religious viewpoint.

Knesset member Gilad Kariv, who before his election to the Knesset ran Reform Judaisms movement in Israel, posted an interesting video in Hebrew on his Facebook page on the character of the Wall. He showed that the ultra-Orthodox domination of the Wall is relatively new. The Wall is not a synagogue, he pointed out, and in the past, men and women prayed there side-by-side, unlike the gender segregation in the main section of the Wall now.

Following increasing friction over the ultra-Orthodox domination of the site, in 2016, then-Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu presided over an agreement to expand a separate egalitarian section of the Wall for use by non-Orthodox denominations and by Women of the Wall, a multidenominational feminist prayer group. The agreement had the tacit support of the two ultra-Orthodox parties in Netanyahus coalition, but following a backlash in some ultra-Orthodox circles, Netanyahu reneged on the deal. He simply failed to carry it out.

The religious affairs minister who agreed to establish the egalitarian section in the first place was Naftali Bennett the same Naftali Bennett who is now prime minister. Bennett is the first religiously observant prime minister in the countrys history, but unlike Netanyahu in 2016, he is not beholden to the countrys two small ultra-Orthodox parties for support. Neither ultra-Orthodox party is a member of his new government.

Bennetts approach to American Jewry is also different. In Netanyahus later years in office, his focus shifted from fostering ties with the American Jewish community as a whole to a narrower focus on ties with Jewish, pro-Trump Republicans and Evangelical Christians. Under Bennett and his Diaspora affairs minister, Nachman Shai, the bipartisan and pluralistic approach to the American Jewish community has been restored.

A realignment of policies at the Wall would not only enhance the experience of Jewish visitors from Israel and abroad. It would have tremendous symbolic significance. The Western Wall is not only a religious site. It is a national heritage site for the state of Israel and the Jewish people.

Although I welcome every opportunity to visit the Wall, even under its current setup, I look forward to the day when it is administered in such a way that I, as a secular Jew, feel fully at home there.

Cliff Savren is a former Clevelander who covers the Middle East from Raanana, Israel. He is an editor at the English edition of Haaretz.

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There should be no Wall before secular Jews - Cleveland Jewish News

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Posted By admin on November 27, 2021

Setting the Stage

After World War I, Germany was in shambles and its people, led to believe they were winning the war right up until defeat, were in shock. Their leader, the Kaiser, was forced to step down and the Treaty of Versailles led to significant loss of land and citizens. In February 1919, a new German government was created: the Weimar Republic. The constitution of the Weimar Republic was very progressive and allowed women the right to vote, freedom of speech, and freedom of religion. However, as an emergency measure in the name of national security, Article 48 of the Weimar Constitution allowed for the suspension of these civil liberties.

In 1932, Adolf Hitler, leader of the nationalistic, antisemitic and racist National Socialist German Workers Party (Nazi Party), was elected to the German Reichstag (Parliament). In January 1933, he was appointed Chancellor by President von Hindenburg. After the Reichstagfire, Hitler manipulated Article 48 and passed the Enabling Act, which allowed him to pass laws without the approval of the Reichstag or the President. This was the beginning of the end of the Weimar Republic. The Nazis established a single party dictatorship referred to as the Third Reich. From 1933 until 1939, the Nazi government enacted hundreds of increasingly restrictive and discriminatory laws and decrees that banned Jews from all aspects of German public life.

The Holocaust was the systematic, bureaucratic, state-sponsored persecution and murder of six million Jews by the Nazi regime and its collaborators. Holocaust is a word of Greek origin meaning sacrifice by fire (U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum).

During World War II, the Nazis systematically targeted Jews in Nazi occupied territories. Jews were forced to wear identifying symbols, relocate to heavily crowded ghettos, and participate in forced labor. Millions of Jews were murdered during the Holocaust. The Nazis also targeted racial, political, or ideological groups deemed inferior or undesirable Roma (Gypsies), homosexuals, Slavic peoples, the mentally and physically disabled, Socialists, Communists, and Jehovahs Witnesses. Within several years, mass murder became the official Nazi policy (officially organized at the 1942 Wannsee Conference). By then, the Nazis had already deployed Einsatzgruppen (mobile killing units) to massacre Jewish communities in Poland and the Soviet Union. The Nazis also used poisonous gas, in vans and later in gas chambers at six death camps (Chelmno, Auschwitz, Majdanek, Belzec, Sobibor, and Treblinka). Even when their defeat was imminent, the Nazi leadership committed resources to the destruction of Europes Jewish population. Prisoners were forced to evacuate in what are now known as Death Marches.

When the Allied troops (led by the United States, United Kingdom, and Soviet Union) defeated the Nazis, they encountered evidence of genocide: documentation, witnesses, mass graves, and concentration and death camps. Europe was in disarray; millions were displaced, and entire cities were destroyed. Displaced persons camps were established to house Jewish survivors. Many Jews continued to face antisemitism and violence and most Jews decided to emigrate. The Nuremberg Tribunal was established and tried 22 members of the Nazi leadership for war crimes but the majority eluded justice.

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The Holocaust | USC Shoah Foundation

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Posted By admin on November 27, 2021

Ergebnisse, lter als eine Woche:

Auf 160 Steinelementen sind dort die Namen von 64.440 in der NS-Zeit ermordeten sterreichischen Jdinnen undJudeneingemeielt...

Die neue Shoah-Namensmauer im Wiener Ostarrichipark ist nicht unumstritten. sthetisch knnte die dritte Wiener Holocaust-Gedenksttte aber erstmals breiteAkzeptanzfinden...

Wien OTS - Sandra Szabo prsentiert im ORF-Religionsmagazin Orientierung am Sonntag, dem 14. November 2021, um 12.30 Uhr in ORF 2 folgende Beitrge: Mythen der Verschwrung: Fast nichts Neues unter derSonneIn...

Bei der Einweihung von dem Gedenken waren auch Bundeskanzler Alexander Schallenberg und Kurt YakovTutterdabei...

Wien PK - "Diese Gedenkmauer gibt den 64.450 jdischen Kindern, Frauen und Mnnern, die in sterreich gelebt haben und in der Shoah ermordet wurden, ihre Identitt zurck. Ihre in Stein gemeieltenNamensorgen...

Die Shoah-Namensmauer wurde am Dienstag bei einer Zeremonie in Wien seiner Bestimmung bergeben. Es handelt sich dabei um ein Mahnmal, das an eines der grten Verbrechen der Geschichte erinnert undimAlsergrund...

In Wien wird heute eine Gedenkmauer mit den Namen der 64.440 ermordeten sterreichischen Juden erffnet. Die Gravur der Namen wurde von der Firma Strack aus Loretto angefertigt. LORETTO/WIEN...

In Wien wurde die Namensmauer fr die im Holocaust ermordeten Jdinnen und Juden eingeweiht. Bei der Feier verschwiegen Politiker nicht die unrhmlicheVorgeschichte...

In Wien wurde am Dienstag im Rahmen einer feierlichen Zeremonie ein Mahnmal seiner Bestimmung bergeben, das an eines der grten Verbrechen der Geschichte erinnert: Die Shoah-Namensmauer. Auf160Steinelementen...

Bini Guttmann, Mitglied des World Jewish Congress-Exekutivrats, spricht im Interview mit PULS 24 Anchor Jakob Wirl ber das Gedenken an die Novemberprograme 1938, die Shoah Namensmauer in Wien undberden...

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