Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By admin on October 20, 2021

Park Synagogue and Cory United Methodist Churchs Building Home: A Conversation on Housing Challenges & Neighborhood Partnerships explored topics of homelessness, home insecurity and poverty in a virtual talk on Oct. 17 featuring the Rev. Derrick Harkins, director of faith-based and neighborhood partnerships at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, and Michiel Wackers, director of the city of Clevelands department of urban development.

The program, which was hosted in partnership with Beth Israel-The West Temple, Celebration United Methodist Church, Bnai Jeshurun Congregation, Congregation Shaarey Tikvah, Cory United Methodist Church, Mt. Pleasant United Methodist Church, Park Synagogue and The Temple-Tifereth Israel, also featured the Rev. Gregory Kendrick Jr., pastor of Cory United Methodist Church in Cleveland and director of Cory Glenville Community Center in Cleveland, as emcee.

Wackers opened the talk, and spoke on the housing trends in Cleveland neighborhoods and where were trying to go in the city of Cleveland.

At the end of the day, and I want to stress, the city of Cleveland cant do this alone, he said. It is a community partnership and effort, which is why this forum is such an important opportunity for me to extend an offer to everyone here, that there really is a lot to do and hopefully we can find a place for you to work on the serious issue of housing and housing insecurity in the city of Cleveland.

Sharing a slideshow, Wackers touched on the number of challenges that Cleveland neighborhoods are dealing with specifically how the pandemic was an eye-opener on how we view housing in the city of Cleveland along the lines of the east-west income divide.

But the pandemic and housing insecurity are extremely pervasive throughout the city of Cleveland, he said, explaining that the city has provided rental assistance to homes throughout Cleveland, regardless of the east-west income divide. We received 13,000 applications. ... There is an overwhelming need that were seeing from Clevelanders in this area. When the pandemic occurred, those most vulnerable were tipped over the edge and needed assistance to maintain their housing.

Wackers said his department distributed $18 million in rental assistance and has $20,000,000 lined up for future rental assistance, but that it is one-time money, that they dont have a clear road to meet that need in the future, and that there are many people in Cleveland who own their home, but can still be considered poverty-stricken.

Following up Wackers comments, Harkins discussed how faith- and community-based organizations can be engaged in the work surrounding poverty and housing insecurity, and HUDs priorities going into the fiscal year.

Its no secret that the fiscal budget is still very much a topic of discussion, he said, explaining that the monies HUD has to distribute to in-need communities depends on the ongoing budget debates. Out of our $68.7 billion budget, we are talking about $30.4 billion for housing choice vouchers. That really represents the mainstay of how HUD stabilizes individuals in need much more so than many decades ago when major and massive housing projects were constructed. We seek to facilitate for individual families the ability to find, within the private sector, housing that meets their needs by way of emergency housing vouchers.

Touching on how housing needs vary within any given community, Harkins said its important for housing stock to be accessible to anyone in need.

We have also committed nearly $4 billion to provide housing and services to individuals and families experiencing homelessness, including survivors of domestic violence and youth experiencing homelessness, he said.

Following the individual presentations, Kendrick facilitated a question-and-answer session with the two speakers, touching on the definition of housing insecurity and poverty, the process for ensuring there is enough affordable housing in communities where market rates are soaring yet residents bring home lower incomes, and the public policy solutions that would help close the gap.

This is just the beginning for many people who are wanting to make a continued conversation, Kendrick said in closing. The most important thing to take away here is that all of us who are part of faith-based communities and community-based organizations, we have the opportunity to work. ... Its important to just begin the conversation.

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'Building Home' talk explores options to address housing insecurity - Cleveland Jewish News

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Posted By admin on October 20, 2021

Rabbi Jason Weiner, the senior rabbi at Cedars Sinai Medical Center, found himself on the front lines of the COVID-19 surge in Los Angeles in January. He still remembers the pain he felt when praying in the hospital rooms of those who had died from COVID, as body bags piled up in the hospital morgue.

While experiencing that devastation, Weiner continued to serve as a rabbi at Knesset Israel, a local Orthodox congregation. Juggling these two roles one involving exposure to immense trauma, the other requiring him to support his congregation by delivering weekly sermons meant to instill hope took its toll.

I was trying to be uplifting and positive. But at the same time, I was seeing so many dead bodies, and suffering, and family members crying, Wiener said. As a rabbi and clergy, you see horrible things, and its inside of you and it stays there. If you dont talk about it, it makes it even more difficult.

By Yossi Percia

Rabbi Jason Weiner, the senior rabbi at Cedars Sinai Medical Center, puts on latex gloves.

Wiener is far from alone in struggling with the emotional and spiritual burden of the last year. Rabbis and other Jewish clergy, whose jobs involve supporting congregants in times of despair, have reported heightened strain on their mental health since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. In this new phase, as vaccine hesitancy and variants force clergy to make contentious decisions about vaccine requirements and mask mandates, theyre facing new backlash and with it, new sources of stress.

The flood of grief and bereavement that rabbis face in typical times has intensified during the pandemic, said Rabbi Adir Posy, director of the Orthodox Unions Synagogue Initiative. Even as pandemic restrictions have eased up, clergy members are grappling not just with the stress of supporting their communities through loss for months on end, but also with that of navigating rapidly changing public health measures.

Posy, who is also the associate rabbi at Beth Jacob in Los Angeles, said he personally has struggled with maintaining an inclusive community while prioritizing public health in this most recent stage of the pandemic. Considering imposing vaccine requirements, in particular, was challenging because it made us feel like our goal of being as welcoming of a congregation as we wanted to be ended up being stymied, he said. Posy has been involved in setting up vaccine drives, and his congregation now mandates vaccines for many in-person events.

For many clergy, challenges posed by the question of vaccine requirements came to a head last month with the High Holidays. Rabbi Benny Berlin of the Orthodox BACH Jewish Center in Long Beach, New York said that his congregation has not issued a vaccine mandate, which made Yom Kippur a holiday that draws in larger crowds than usual, including, this year, many guests whose vaccination status was unknown particularly stressful for synagogue leadership.

With safety in mind, Berlins congregation decided to hold Kol Nidre services outdoors, which was a challenge psychologically for some members of the congregation. I think its difficult for people to accept that were still not done, Berlin said.

Berlin and others are emphasizing the stress of prioritizing safety while ensuring a meaningful spiritual experience.

It does create a special type of stress, and is one space where you really have to care for yourself before you go out and care for others, said Rabbi Jacob Blumenthal, CEO of the Rabbinical Assembly, the international association of Conservative rabbis.

Courtesy of Rabbi Jacob Blumenthal

Rabbi Jacob Blumenthal, CEO of the Rabbinical Assembly, the international association of Conservative rabbis.

Many rabbis, Blumenthal said, are performing two or three times the number of funerals they would in a normal year. Ive had many conversations with rabbis where I hear them struggling struggling to balance their personal situation with their responsibilities to the community, struggling to meet the needs of their congregation through new technology, struggling to make decisions quickly enough to be able to respond, and then struggling again when those decisions have to change.

In response, he said, the Rabbinical Assembly began to offer new mental health resources during the pandemic, including workshops for rabbis to meditate, sing and pray in community. These workshops are ongoing; this month, the association organized two days of online programming on self care including meditation, group singing, art and writing workshops. The association has also received grants to make other forms of self care available to rabbis, such as meetings with a social worker or psychologist.

For Berlin, being a rabbi in a pandemic has been a 24/7 job. The heightened emotional burden on rabbis, he said, has extended far beyond leading Jewish rituals for those who died during the pandemic.

One part of it: Handling an increase in mental health concerns within their communities. Isolation and various forms of loss have caused new challenges for congregants, meaning that at the same time rabbis have been balancing their own new needs, they have also been tasked with supporting an increasingly high number of congregants requesting emotional and spiritual support.

OK Clarity, an online mental health platform for the Jewish community, has seen a notable increase in engagement with its anonymous mental health forums and social media. Fay Brezel, the organizations CEO, said that engagement with the OK Clarity WhatsApp rose from about 200 people before the pandemic to more than 3,000 today.

But while organizations like the Rabbinical Assembly and OK Clarity have made some resources available to rabbis experiencing stress, emotional fatigue and more, the rabbis we spoke to say much remains to be done.

Weiner noted that weekly Zoom meetings organized by the Board of Rabbis of Southern California have served as a chance for colleagues to be open and vulnerable with each other. Hearing the challenges other rabbis have been facing, Weiner said, helped him feel validated in his own struggles. But, he said, not every rabbi is a member of a rabbinical organization that provides this type of support, which means many face barriers to access.

Amy Asin, Vice President of Strengthening Congregations at the Union for Reform Judaism, said she would not be surprised if some clergy take leaves of absence in the near future due to pandemic fatigue. Our clergy and our synagogue professionals are spent. They are exhausted and we need to give them a break, Asin said. They have held so much for us over the last 18 months.

For any position, especially one where youre doing community work, you can give more when youre taking care of yourself, Rabbi Berlin said. If youve depleted yourself, youre at a point where you have nothing to share.

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Rabbis are fighting vaccine battles, pandemic fatigue and a new set of mental health challenges - Forward

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Posted By admin on October 20, 2021

JERUSALEM

The man known as the last Jew of Kabul could soon be heading to Israel, after agreeing to grant his estranged wife a religious divorce in a Zoom call a precondition for smooth entry to the Holy Land.

Zebulon Simentov, who fled Afghanistan last month after the Taliban takeover, landed Sunday in Turkey on what his rescuers say is a final stop before traveling to Israel, perhaps as soon as this week.

It caps a weeks-long odyssey that included an escape from his homeland as well as a videoconference divorce procedure meant to ensure he will not run into trouble with Israeli authorities.

Under Jewish religious law, a husband must agree to grant his wife a divorce, something he had refused to do for many years. Facing the prospect of legal action in Israel, where his ex-wife lives, Simentov, after resisting for years, finally agreed to the divorce last month in a special Zoom call supervised by Australian rabbinical authorities.

The Associated Press viewed part of the proceeding. During the sometimes chaotic discussion, conducted through an interpreter who struggled to explain the procedure, Simentov agrees to sign a divorce document known as a "get" after receiving assurances that he will not face trouble in Israel.

Rabbi Moshe Margaretten, whose nonprofit group Tzedek Association funded the journey, said Simentov had spent the last few weeks living quietly in Pakistan, an Islamic country that does not have diplomatic relations with Israel.

He said his group had looked into bringing Simentov to the U.S. but decided that Israel was a better destination both because of difficulties in arranging a U.S. entry visa and because Simentov has many relatives, including five siblings and two daughters, already in Israel.

"We are relieved we were successful in helping Zebulon Simentov escape from Afghanistan and now into safety in Turkey," said Margaretten, whose group has helped evacuate several dozen other people from Afghanistan. "Zebulon's life was in danger in Afghanistan."

Rabbi Mendy Chitrik, chairman of the Alliance of Rabbis in Islamic States, greeted Simentov at the airport in Istanbul on Sunday.

He said he had an appointment to take Simentov to the Israeli consulate on Monday to arrange his entry into Israel. Under Israel's Law of Return, any Jew is entitled to Israeli citizenship.

Chitrik said he had been working with Margaretten and other volunteers for several months to get Simentov out of Afghanistan.

"I'm happy this issue is finally coming to rest," he said.

How long that will take remains unclear. The Israeli Foreign Ministry said it was unaware of the request and Simentov could also be delayed by coronavirus protocols restricting entry to Israel.

Simentov, who lived in a dilapidated synagogue in Kabul, kept kosher and prayed in Hebrew, endured decades of war as the country's centuries-old Jewish community rapidly dwindled. But the Taliban takeover in August seems to have been the last straw.

Moti Kahana, an Israeli-American businessman who runs a private firm that organized the evacuation on behalf of Margaretten, told The Associated Press last month that Simentov was not worried about the Taliban because he had lived under their rule before. He said that threats of the more radical Islamic State group and pressure from neighbors who were rescued with him had helped persuade him to leave.

Hebrew manuscripts found in caves in northern Afghanistan indicate a thriving Jewish community existed there at least 1,000 years ago. In the late 19th century, Afghanistan was home to some 40,000 Jews, many of them Persian Jews who had fled forced conversion in neighboring Iran. The community's decline began with an exodus to Israel after its creation in 1948.

In an interview with The Associated Press in 2009, Simentov said the last Jewish families left after the 1979 Soviet invasion.

For several years he shared the synagogue building with the country's only other Jew, Isaak Levi, but they despised each other and feuded during the Taliban's previous rule from 1996 to 2001.

The Taliban arrested both men and beat them, and they confiscated the synagogue's ancient Torah scroll, which went missing after the Taliban were driven from power in the 2001 U.S.-led invasion.

When his 80-year-old housemate died in 2005, Simentov said he was happy to be rid of him.

Reporters who visited Simentov over the years and paid the exorbitant fees he charged for interviews found a portly man fond of whiskey, who kept a pet partridge and watched Afghan TV. He observed Jewish dietary restrictions and ran a kebab shop.

Born in the western city of Herat in 1959, he always insisted Afghanistan was home.

The Taliban, like other Islamic militant groups, are hostile to Israel but tolerated the country's miniscule Jewish community during their previous reign.

Link:

Last Jew of Kabul Making His Way to Israel, Rescuers Say

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Posted By admin on October 20, 2021

JERUSALEM -- The man known as the last Jew of Kabul could soon be heading to Israel, after agreeing to grant his estranged wife a religious divorce in a Zoom call a precondition for smooth entry to the Holy Land.

Zebulon Simentov, who fled Afghanistan last month after the Taliban takeover, landed Sunday in Turkey on what his rescuers say is a final stop before traveling to Israel, perhaps as soon as this week.

It caps a weekslong odyssey that included an escape from his homeland as well as a videoconference divorce procedure meant to ensure he will not run into trouble with Israeli authorities.

Under Jewish religious law, a husband must agree to grant his wife a divorce, something he had refused to do for many years. Facing the prospect of legal action in Israel, where his ex-wife lives, Simentov, after resisting for years, finally agreed to the divorce last month in a special Zoom call supervised by Australian rabbinical authorities.

The Associated Press viewed part of the proceeding. During the sometimes chaotic discussion, conducted through an interpreter who struggled to explain the procedure, Simentov agrees to sign a divorce document known as a get after receiving assurances that he will not face trouble in Israel.

Rabbi Moshe Margaretten, whose nonprofit group Tzedek Association funded the journey, said Simentov had spent the last few weeks living quietly in Pakistan, an Islamic country that does not have diplomatic relations with Israel.

He said his group had looked into bringing Simentov to the U.S. but decided that Israel was a better destination both because of difficulties in arranging a U.S. entry visa and because Simentov has many relatives, including five siblings and two daughters, already in Israel.

We are relieved we were successful in helping Zebulon Simentov escape from Afghanistan and now into safety in Turkey, said Margaretten, whose group has helped evacuate several dozen other people from Afghanistan. Zebulons life was in danger in Afghanistan.

Rabbi Mendy Chitrik, chairman of the Alliance of Rabbis in Islamic States, greeted Simentov at the airport in Istanbul on Sunday.

He said he had an appointment to take Simentov to the Israeli consulate on Monday to arrange his entry to Israel. Under Israels Law of Return, any Jew is entitled to Israeli citizenship.

Chitrik said he had been working with Margaretten and other volunteers for several months to get Simentov out of Afghanistan. Im happy this issue is finally coming to rest, he said.

How long that will take remains unclear. The Israeli Foreign Ministry said it was unaware of the request and Simentov could also be delayed by coronavirus protocols restricting entry to Israel.

Simentov, who lived in a dilapidated synagogue in Kabul, kept kosher and prayed in Hebrew, endured decades of war as the countrys centuries-old Jewish community rapidly dwindled. But the Taliban takeover in August seems to have been the last straw.

Moti Kahana, an Israeli-American businessman who runs a private firm that organized the evacuation on behalf of Margaretten, told The Associated Press last month that Simentov was not worried about the Taliban because he had lived under their rule before. He said that threats of the more radical Islamic State group and pressure from neighbors who were rescued with him had helped persuade him to leave.

Hebrew manuscripts found in caves in northern Afghanistan indicate a thriving Jewish community existed there at least 1,000 years ago. In the late 19th century, Afghanistan was home to some 40,000 Jews, many of them Persian Jews who had fled forced conversion in neighboring Iran. The communitys decline began with an exodus to Israel after its creation in 1948.

In an interview with The Associated Press in 2009, Simentov said the last Jewish families left after the 1979 Soviet invasion.

For several years he shared the synagogue building with the countrys only other Jew, Isaak Levi, but they despised each other and feuded during the Talibans previous rule from 1996 to 2001.

At one point, Levi accused Simentov of theft and spying and Simentov countered by accusing Levi of renting rooms to prostitutes, an allegation he denied, The New York Times reported in 2002. The Taliban arrested both men and beat them, and they confiscated the synagogues ancient Torah scroll, which went missing after the Taliban were driven from power in the 2001 U.S.-led invasion.

When his 80-year-old housemate died in 2005, Simentov said he was happy to be rid of him.

Reporters who visited Simentov over the years and paid the exorbitant fees he charged for interviews found a portly man fond of whiskey, who kept a pet partridge and watched Afghan TV. He observed Jewish dietary restrictions and ran a kebab shop.

Born in the western city of Herat in 1959, he always insisted Afghanistan was home.

The Taliban, like other Islamic militant groups, are hostile to Israel but tolerated the countrys miniscule Jewish community during their previous reign.

Continue reading here:

Rescuers: Last Jew of Kabul making his way to Israel - ABC News

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Posted By admin on October 20, 2021

Sections on this Site:How to Keep Shabbat The Basics of Being JewishLearning About JudaismBecoming Religious, and Your FamilyThe Jewish Cycle of LifeFrequently Asked QuestionsWho Is a Jew?Life, the Afterlife, and the SoulThe Jewish G-d: Whats He Like?History of our TraditionsThe Unchanged Tradition of JudaismThe Commandments of the TorahConversion IssuesThe Jewish Holidays of the YearAre Non-Orthodox Jews Still Jews?With Hashems help, more to come!How to Keep Shabbat

Shabbos: A Personal ContractShabbos (Shabbat) as a sign. The delight of Shabbos. More than just a part of our lives. The value of Shabbos.

The Reason For ShabbosSome of the reasons that Hashem gave us the gift of Shabbos (Shabbat/Sabbath). Spiritual benefits and physical rest.

Find a Place to stay and/or eat for ShabbosLinks to websites that can help you find places to eat and/or stay for Shabbos.

The Weekly Portion of TorahHow to study the Weekly Portion of the Torah. Preparing for Shabbos. A Deeper Understanding of Reviewing the Parshah. When to Study the Parshah.

Preparing for ShabbosHow the Children of Israel prepared for Shabbos in the Desert, and how we prepare for Shabbos today. Shopping for Shabbos. Cooking and Cleaning. Personal Preparations. Final Preparations.

Erev Shabbos (Friday) Check-Off ListErev Shabbos To-Do List. Organize your Fridays! Print out and attach to your refrigerator or bulletin board, and check off each item as its done.

Lighting CandlesThe Procedure and Blessing for Lighting the Sabbath Candles

Friday Night KiddushDeclaring the holiness of Shabbos by honoring it with a cup of wine.

Washing for ChallahBeginning the Sabbath Meal. (Challah is the special Shabbos bread.)

Benshing (Birchat Hamazon)The Grace after Meals

Sholosh SeudosThe Third Shabbos Meal

HavdalahRemembering Shabbat as it ends

After HavdalahThe Blessing after the Wine

What is Being Jewish?Judaism is not a quick-fix religion. It takes total immersion, and it lovingly encompasses all of a persons life.

What Does Judaism Believe?The religion of life. The primary beliefs of Judaism are touched upon here, and some major myths about Judaism, G-d, and life in general are debunked.

The Path of RepentanceHow to repent. Repenting a bit at a time. What if you sin again? Sinners that go to Heaven.

The New Moon, and the Power of JudaismThe importance of the New Moon in Judaism. How it was inaugurated in ancient times, and how it was set for the future. A beautiful Midrash that speaks of the power of Judaism in the spiritual realm. The relationship and difference between Shabbat and the Holidays.

Why Did G-d Create the World?What purpose do we have in life? Why are theretwoworlds, this one and the next?

Does Judaism Believe in Satan?Is there a guy in a red suit and a trident? Is Satan, if he exists, a rebellious angel? Does Satan bother us? If so, why? This article should be read after the above article,Why Did G-d Create the World?

Are YouSureTheres a Satan?Yes, Virginia, thereisa Satan. And theres a Purgatory too. The Jewish Bible says so, the Talmud says so, and even our Prayers mention them.

Torah: The Blueprint of CreationWhat the Torah means to us and the world. Why study Torah? How to combat the Evil Inclination.

Whats the Point of Prayer?G-d, I dont ask You for much. Is that a compelling prayer? * The most important creation in all the universe. * How is life like a wedding feast? * What does prayer accomplish?

Partners In TorahFind a personal trainer for your Torah study! Run by Torah Umesorah, this is available all over North America. This is the program with which I am involved.

Learn HebrewLinks to online websites with programs and games for learning Hebrew and other Jewish subjects.

Aleph-Bet ChartLearn to read Hebrew in just a few lessons! Its worth your time.

A Beginners Reading ListTwo reading lists for those who wish to learn about Judaism.

Your First Visit to a SynagogueWhat to expect in a synagogue, what to do there, and how to find one to go to.

Coming soon, Hashem willing:

Becoming Religious: Where do You begin?You were raised Christian, but you just found out your mother is/was Jewish (which means thatyouare). What now?

Sudden Changes: Is Orthodox Judaism Driving Our Family Apart?Is your child becoming Orthodox? Are you worried that you will lose your child, or that your family will be torn apart? What can you do about this?

Sudden Changes: How Do I live With My Parents?For the Baal Tshuvah Son or Daughter. How do I explain that I dont want to hurt anyone? How to keep a happy family life after Tshuvah.

Is Judaism a Cult?Jewish parents worry, when their children become Orthodox, that perhaps their children are joining a cult. How can we demonstrate that Judaism is not a cult?

Bris Milah: The Covenant of CircumcisionWhy that part of the body? How is circumcision a completion of the human male? Why dont women have a comparable Commandment?

Circumcision and Your Childs HealthIs it safer to have a doctor or a Rabbi circumcise your son? The difference between the two, and which it is better to use.

An Exchange of Holiness: Redeeming the Firstborn SonThe special status of firsts. An act of gratitude. Firstborn and priests. Why a Redemption?

Pidyan Haben: How to Redeem Your Firstborn SonWho Gets Redeemed?When is the Redemption Performed?The Amount of the Redemption.Preparing for the Ceremony of the Redemption.The Ceremony of the Redemption.

The Bar and Bat MitzvahHow does a boy become bar mitzvahed and a girl bat mitzvahed? What ceremony is needed? What does the term mean? What is the history of it? Whats the purpose of it? The right and wrong ways to do it.

The Jewish WeddingThe special status of a bride and groom. What a Jewish wedding really accomplishes. What you should expect to see at a Jewish wedding, and their reasons. The two parts of a Jewish marriage, and the entire procedure.

How to Dress and Act at a Jewish OccasionIs it okay to bring a friend? Expected dress, and a little about the reason for this expectation.

About the Jewish Marital LawsA beginners guide toTaharas Hamishpachah, the Jewish Marital Laws. The Holiness of the Laws, and some basic instructions on how to keep those Laws, as well as some books for suggested reading on the subject.

The Shivah Call: Comforting the MournerWhat do I do? What do I say? The importance of visiting a mourner. The Laws to keep at the home of a mourner.

Connections Are Never LostCan the living help the dead? What can you do for those you have loved who are no longer here?

Birchas Hachamah The Blessing of the SunOnly Once in 28 Years! The Purpose of the Blessing; About Saying the Blessing; When to Say the Blessing; Who Should Say the Blessing

One of these days, hopefully sooner than later, I hope to have articles about the following subjects as well:

Bris Milah (Covenant of Circumcision), The ceremony and celebration.Kiddush for a girls birthFirst haircut for a boyAnything else I may have forgotten.

Part OneWhat does Torah mean? And what do Tanach, Halachah, Mitzvah, Mezuzah, and Tefillin, mean? Why do some people write G-d instead of spelling it out in full? How does Kosher work?

Part TwoWhat is Shabbos/Shabbat? Why dont Jews believe in Jesus? How does the Jewish Calendar work? Why are Jewish Women allowed to wear wigs?

The Chosen PeopleThe history behind it. Is it still true today? Why choose us? Who is included in this?

Men and Women in JudaismIs a Wife the property of her husband, in Jewish Law? Does a Man Inherit his Brothers Wife When the Brother Dies? Does Judaism Consider Women Unclean or Disgusting? Why wont Men Touch Women?

Good and EvilDoes Judaism believe that the world is in a Conflict Between Good & Evil?

Whats With Those Kosher Symbols Anyway?Are those Os and Us really necessary? What are they for? Do Rabbis really bless the food? A lot of hate groups talk about this, without any understanding of the subject. Heres the truth.

Halloween and Jews?Are Judaism and Halloween compatible? Can it fit into Jewish life?

Who Is a Jew?

Who is a Jew, According to the Torah?Is being Jewish passed along by the father or the mother? Has that ever changed? What made our ancestors Jewish? Where in the Torah does it say what makes a person Jewish? Did the Rabbis change this Law?

Was King David Jewish?Does Halachah (Jewish Law) consider King David a Jew, or has Jewish Law changed since then? What is the Torahs definition of a Jew? Were Abraham and Sarah Jewish? Did Abraham know the Torah? Were there converts in Biblical times? Did Ruth convert? Did Moses marry a Gentile woman?

Judaism: Race, Religion, or Ethnicity?Is being Jewish related to being part of a race or a religion? Is it cultural? No matter what position you take in this matter, this is probably not the answer youre expecting.

Life, the Afterlife, and the Soul

The Soul, and What Happens After We DieThe soul is not what you think it is. The multi-faceted nature of the human spiritual essences. What happens to those spiritual essences after death? What goes where, and what comes along with them? Is there such a place as Hell? Is there an Afterlife?

The Messianic Era and the World to ComeHow long will this world last? What do we mean by the resurrection, and when will it take place? What is the World to Come, and what will it be like? What will the Messianic Era be like, and when will it happen?

The AfterlifeIs the Purpose of Life to Aspire to the Afterlife? A brief restatement and outline of the timetable of the future. The advantage and purpose of this world and the Next World.

Body and SoulWhy does Judaism Forbid Cremation? What is the Relationship Between the Body and the Soul?

On the Nature of Free WillDoes Judaism believe that people have free will? What does free will really mean, according to Judaism? Where does the Torah mention free will?

The Jewish G-d: Whats He Like?

G-d: Judge or Teacher?My response to a letter I received which said: The traditional Jewish G-d is too vindictive, vain, and controlling. The truth is that Jews and Judaism consider G-d loving and kind. Read his letter and my response.

Why does G-d Care About the Little Things?Does G-d really care if we rip toilet paper on the Sabbath? Does G-d watch us to see if we are doing sins? Isnt it enough to have a Jewishheart?

The History of the Exodus and the Receiving of the TorahWhatreallyhappened in Egypt and afterwards. This also has a capsule history of the Children of Israel from Noah until The Second Temple.

The Jewish History Timeline ChartA brief chart of the time line of Jewish History, with major events from Creation until the birth of the Bal Shem Tov (1698), with both the Jewish and Gentile dates listed for each. A glance at the names of the eras of Jewish History.

How Old is the Torah?Showing that the Torah is at least 3,313 years old. The Periods of Jewish History (in brief). Tracing the Torah back to Moses. Who are the Samaritans, and how do they help prove our case? The Torah was created by Hashem 2,000 years before Creation.

Scripture Only, Please: Asking QuestionsThe relationship between the Written Torah and the Oral Torah. Hownotto ask a Rabbi questions.

The Indispensable Oral LawHow to understand the Torah. Why do we have an Oral Torah? Is it necessary?

Why Did Hashem Create an Oral Torah?Why did it need to be oral, and not written? Its unique properties. The details it contains. Context and changing idioms. The personal touch.

The Oral Law and Our Own OpinionsIs every opinion about the Torah valid? Are there guidelines to interpreting the Torah? Do we need to follow established precedence? What to do in case of doubt. Where did the Oral Law come from?

How the Torah was Taught and TransmittedPart 1: From Moses to Joshua.How Moses taught the Torah to the Generation in the Sinai Desert. What Hashem taught Moses, and what Moses taught the Children of Israel. The types of sections in the Scrolls of the Written Torah. The system of Elders and Leaders. The Sanhedrin and the Lower Courts. The Mosaic Ordination. Who wrote the Written Torah? Moses hands over the leadership of the Torah Nation to Joshua.

How Do We Know Our Tradition is Correct?Should we simply accept the Tradition as true? Who owns the Torah? Who recorded the Torah? How was the Torah taught? How the Rabbis felt about the Tradition. Where is all that information from?

Has Judaism Changed?Has Judaism taken ideas from Gentile cultures? What about styles of clothing? Are the Laws of Judaism still followed?

Sacrifices and the Holy TempleSince Jews live by the Torah, and the Torah commands us to offer sacrifices, why dont we still offer sacrifices today?

Rebuild the Temple?The Holy Temple was built, destroyed, and built again. Then it was destroyed again. The Prophets said it would be rebuilt yet again, for a third and final time. Why dont we rebuild the Holy Temple now?

Havent Rabbis Changed the Laws?The nature of the Rabbinical debates. Our authority to decide Jewish Law.

What Cant Jewish Law be Altered?Do People Change? How have we Jews differed? Have we ever fit into the dominant societies? Is Judaism Archaic? Judaism is not static.

The Platforms of Some of the Jewish DenominationsPeople keep asking me about the difference between the various movements. Heres the answer in brief.

The Origins of the Reform, Conservative and Orthodox MovementsAn article by Lawrence Keleman inJewish Actionmagazine, Summer 1999.Please note that I did not write this article. The author, Mr. Lawrence Keleman, was a member of all of these movements at one time or another. None of the claims made in this article are Mr. Kelemans. For every statement he makes about any group he quotes sourcesfrom that very group. So when he tells you what the Reform say, he is telling you what Reform leaders have written in their very own books and periodicals.

Can We Fulfill All the Commandments?Did you know that there really is no such thing as the Ten Commandments? The Commandments mean something else. Is it true that a person cannot fulfill all the Commandments of the Torah? If this is true, what does it mean to each of us? Heres the surprising answer.

How the Mitzvos Protect Us From SinThe Physical versus the Spiritual within us. Why Jewish women are like the Priests in the Holy Temple.

Shatnez: Forbidden Mixtures of ClothingAre all mixtures forbidden? Which are, and which arent. How prevalent is this problem? Do people still keep this prohibition? How to have your clothing checked for shaatnez.

The Mitzvah of TefillinWhat Tefillin are, and a little bit about how they are made. Understanding the Mitzvah. Some of the Laws about wearing Tefillin. How to put on Tefillin, with pictures to help.

Tzitzis: What Are Those Strings Jewish Men Wear?About Tzitzis: four-cornered clothing and Jewish Law. How we have Standards in all our actions. How to remember G-d and the Commandments. The blue thread.

Mezuzah: The Jewish Lightning Rod.What is that little box on the doorposts of Jewish homes? How a Mezuzah is made. What a Mezuzah looks like (includes a gif of a Mezuzah scroll). Who may write a Mezuzah. What sort of door needs a Mezuzah? How to affix a Mezuzah on your door, and the blessing to recite. Where to buy a Mezuzah. The protection a Mezuzah offers.

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Being Jewish | What is "being Jewish"? This web site is ...

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Posted By admin on October 20, 2021

JERUSALEM (AP) The man known as the last Jew of Kabul could soon be heading to Israel, after agreeing to grant his estranged wife a religious divorce in a Zoom call a precondition for smooth entry to the Holy Land.

Zebulon Simentov, who fled Afghanistan last month after the Taliban takeover, landed Sunday in Turkey on what his rescuers say is a final stop before traveling to Israel, perhaps as soon as this week.

It caps a weekslong odyssey that included an escape from his homeland as well as a videoconference divorce procedure meant to ensure he will not run into trouble with Israeli authorities.

Under Jewish religious law, a husband must agree to grant his wife a divorce, something he had refused to do for many years. Facing the prospect of legal action in Israel, where his ex-wife lives, Simentov, after resisting for years, finally agreed to the divorce last month in a special Zoom call supervised by Australian rabbinical authorities.

The Associated Press viewed part of the proceeding. During the sometimes chaotic discussion, conducted through an interpreter who struggled to explain the procedure, Simentov agrees to sign a divorce document known as a get after receiving assurances that he will not face trouble in Israel.

Rabbi Moshe Margaretten, whose nonprofit group Tzedek Association funded the journey, said Simentov had spent the last few weeks living quietly in Pakistan, an Islamic country that does not have diplomatic relations with Israel.

He said his group had looked into bringing Simentov to the U.S. but decided that Israel was a better destination both because of difficulties in arranging a U.S. entry visa and because Simentov has many relatives, including five siblings and two daughters, already in Israel.

We are relieved we were successful in helping Zebulon Simentov escape from Afghanistan and now into safety in Turkey, said Margaretten, whose group has helped evacuate several dozen other people from Afghanistan. Zebulons life was in danger in Afghanistan.

Rabbi Mendy Chitrik, chairman of the Alliance of Rabbis in Islamic States, greeted Simentov at the airport in Istanbul on Sunday.

He said he had an appointment to take Simentov to the Israeli consulate on Monday to arrange his entry to Israel. Under Israels Law of Return, any Jew is entitled to Israeli citizenship.

Chitrik said he had been working with Margaretten and other volunteers for several months to get Simentov out of Afghanistan. Im happy this issue is finally coming to rest, he said.

How long that will take remains unclear. The Israeli Foreign Ministry said it was unaware of the request and Simentov could also be delayed by coronavirus protocols restricting entry to Israel.

Simentov, who lived in a dilapidated synagogue in Kabul, kept kosher and prayed in Hebrew, endured decades of war as the countrys centuries-old Jewish community rapidly dwindled. But the Taliban takeover in August seems to have been the last straw.

Moti Kahana, an Israeli-American businessman who runs a private firm that organized the evacuation on behalf of Margaretten, told The Associated Press last month that Simentov was not worried about the Taliban because he had lived under their rule before. He said that threats of the more radical Islamic State group and pressure from neighbors who were rescued with him had helped persuade him to leave.

Hebrew manuscripts found in caves in northern Afghanistan indicate a thriving Jewish community existed there at least 1,000 years ago. In the late 19th century, Afghanistan was home to some 40,000 Jews, many of them Persian Jews who had fled forced conversion in neighboring Iran. The communitys decline began with an exodus to Israel after its creation in 1948.

In an interview with The Associated Press in 2009, Simentov said the last Jewish families left after the 1979 Soviet invasion.

For several years he shared the synagogue building with the countrys only other Jew, Isaak Levi, but they despised each other and feuded during the Talibans previous rule from 1996 to 2001.

At one point, Levi accused Simentov of theft and spying and Simentov countered by accusing Levi of renting rooms to prostitutes, an allegation he denied, The New York Times reported in 2002. The Taliban arrested both men and beat them, and they confiscated the synagogues ancient Torah scroll, which went missing after the Taliban were driven from power in the 2001 U.S.-led invasion.

When his 80-year-old housemate died in 2005, Simentov said he was happy to be rid of him.

Reporters who visited Simentov over the years and paid the exorbitant fees he charged for interviews found a portly man fond of whiskey, who kept a pet partridge and watched Afghan TV. He observed Jewish dietary restrictions and ran a kebab shop.

Born in the western city of Herat in 1959, he always insisted Afghanistan was home.

The Taliban, like other Islamic militant groups, are hostile to Israel but tolerated the countrys miniscule Jewish community during their previous reign.

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Rescuers: Last Jew of Kabul making his way to Israel

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Posted By admin on October 20, 2021

Allison Josephs has had it with Hollywood's portrayal of the Orthodox Jewish community, and believes "My Unorthodox Life" is the latest contributor to negative stereotypes she calls downright dangerous.

We got the "Jew in the City" founder outside the Peninsula Hotel in NYC, and she had some stern reactions to the controversial new Netflix series about Julia Haart -- CEO of modeling agency Elite World Group -- who left her Haredi community in 2013.

Josephs has several issues, first and foremost with Julia ... who she accuses of co-opting someone else's story and not being entirely truthful. She also blasts Haart for generalizing her former Jewish community as "fundamentalist" at a time when hate crimes against Jews are on the rise.

Allison goes on to say these recurring negative portrayals of the Orthodox community on TV and film are devastating ... and she's pleading with Hollywood execs to do better.

"My Unorthodox Life" is far from the only culprit of this, according to Allison ... just listen to her rattle off several other examples, including a brand new movie.

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'Jew in the City' Founder Rips 'My Unorthodox Life' for ...

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Posted By admin on October 20, 2021

When my dad was growing up in Leningrad in the former Soviet Union, hed beat up the neighborhood kids for calling him a zhyda pejorative term for Jew thats akin to kike. His flair for fighting was prophetic, as he grew up to be a professional boxer. When he and my mom started dating, she was enthralled with his brawn. But her dadmy grandpawas not.

A Jew fights with his pisk (mouth), not his fists, hed mutter.

This was certainly true for my grandpa. He and my grandma grew up in Chernivtsi where they were persecuted by both the Romanians and the Soviets. Pogroms left them homeless and some of their relatives dead. Though my grandpa eventually found work managing a supermarket, at heart he was a satirist who published an underground newsletter in Russian and Yiddish that poked fun at Jew-killing goyim.

When my family immigrated to New York, my grandparents spoke only Yiddish in the house. To me it was a hilarious language with the best insults in the world. In what other language do you wish for an umbrella to open in your enemys stomach? But to my grandparents, Yiddish was much more than mere entertainment; it was as resilient a language as Jews were a people, they told me. Though five million of the six million Jewish people murdered in the Holocaust spoke Yiddish, the language survivedthe ultimate act of resistance against Jew hatred.

My grandparents kvelled because I spoke some Yiddish as a child. But if they were alive today, theyd be heartbroken to know that I barely remember any of it.

Compared to my relatives and other Jews who fought with both their mouths and their fists, my own resistance to antisemitism has been rather tepid: I dont straighten my Jewish curls, I wear a Star of David from time to time, and I support Israels right to defend itself. But as I think about the skyrocketing antisemitic attacks were seeing, I want to become bolder.

In 2018 eleven Jewish people were murdered at a synagogue in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. In 2019 a Jewish woman was killed at a synagogue in Poway, California during Passover. Later that year five Jews were stabbed at a Hanukkah party at a rabbis home in Monsey, New Jersey; one man died. Furthermore, hate crimes surged in the U.S. after the Israel-Hamas war in May 2021, according to the ADL. Several Jewish men dining at a sushi restaurant in Los Angeles were kicked, punched, and attacked with bottles, while in Manhattan, a Jewish woman and her friends strolling near Central Park were pelted with eggs, causing the woman to suffer a concussion.

Jew hatred has infested every town, every segment of society, every industry. A public school administrator in Southlake, Texas told teachers to balance Holocaust books with opposing views. A mezuzah was ripped off a students door at Tufts University. A doctor at Phoenix Childrens Hospital posted on Facebook: Hey #israelyour end is coming sooner than you think.

Furthermore, the ice cream mavens Ben & Jerry are boycotting Israel, as is the novelist Sally Rooney. But Ben & Jerry & Sally arent boycotting China or Russia whose governments are also accused of human rights abuses. Not to be outdone, Dave Chappelle joked about world-conquering Space Jews in his new Netflix special, The Closer. The joke is a case of Holocaust inversion, the claim that Jews in Israel are behaving like Nazis, Diplomatic Correspondent and Senior Contributing Editor at the Jerusalem Post Lahav Harkov explained in the Forward.

Despite it all, or maybe because of it, a Yiddish renaissance is in full bloom. I was delighted to discover that one of my grandparents favorite films, the 1975 Carol Kane triumph Hester Street about Yiddish-speaking immigrants on the Lower East Side at the turn of the century, has been restored and is now playing at select theaters. In the spring, a revival of Funny Girl, about the Yiddish-accented comedian Fanny Brice, will open on Broadway. The musical, which catapulted Barbra Streisand to stardom decades ago, will star the up-and-coming Jewish actress Beanie Feldstein.

Preceding the restored Hester Street and the revived Funny Girl was a revival of Fiddler on the Roof directed by Broadway legend Joel Grey and performed in Yiddish. A hit off-Broadway, it may have inspired people to sign up for Yiddish classes. According to the Jerusalem Post, the New York-based 120-year-old Workers Circle reported a 65% spike for Yiddish classes during the 2019-2020 theatrical season.

This reflects the fact that Yiddish is gaining in popularity in secular households as Jews search for connection and identity, as the Forward reported. Yakov Blum, a co-founder of the immersive Yiddish-learning group Yiddish Farm in Upstate New York, where he also teaches, said that learning Yiddish has given him a much more palpable and deep understanding of relatives who were killed by Nazis. Agi Legutko, the director of the Yiddish language program at Columbia University, pointed out that Yiddish offers an alternative Jewish identity that doesnt come from faith or Israel, where the official language is Hebrew.

By taking a Yiddish class at Columbia, high school student Naomi Handwerger was able to connect to some of her familys culture that was lost through assimilation, she wrote in the Forward. Though Handwerger supports Israel, shes afraid to express it to her schoolmates because they regularly post antisemitic statements on Instagram, such as Dear Jews, its time for you to stop crying and blaming the Holocaust for all of your problems. While she remains silent for fear of being bullied, she encourages other teenagers to be brave in expressing their beliefs. Her advice can apply to adults too.

Ive called out friends who tweet about every prejudice except antisemitism. Ive confronted acquaintances who reduce Jews to the simplistic white people who have white privilege, thereby erasing our centuries of struggle against persecution.

But thats not enough of a resistance against Jew hatred.

Since I inherited none of my dads flair for fighting with my fists, Im going to be like my grandpa and fight with my pisk. Im going to learn to speak Yiddishand then I will speak it loudly and proudly. Join me.

The views and opinions expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect those of the Forward.

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Learning to speak Yiddish is the ultimate act of resistance to Jew hatred - Forward

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Posted By admin on October 20, 2021

This article is part of our latest Fine Arts & Exhibits special report, about how art institutions are helping audiences discover new options for the future.

NEW ORLEANS Some of the artifacts may seem mundane for display in a museum: a steamer trunk, a peddlers cart, a cash register from a mens clothing store.

But they reflect the little-known 350-year history of Jews in Americas Southern states, which is the focus of the new $5.5 million Museum of the Southern Jewish Experience here.

This all about how Jews came to the South, where they might have experienced a difficult welcome and where they succeeded at building loving relationships with their largely Christian neighbors, said Jay Tanenbaum, an Atlanta-based investment banker and the chairman of the museums board. Its about toleration and acceptance.

Kenneth Hoffman, the museums executive director, said the Southern immigrants had very different experiences from their Northern counterparts.

Were excited to tell our story to non-Jewish people and to Jews who dont know Southern Jewish history, said Mr. Hoffman, a Tulane-trained historian. Ours is a universal story about how people navigate whatever environment they find themselves in.

Though a small minority, Jews played a key role in the economic development of the South, creating businesses and shops in hundreds of rural towns. Today, many of their descendants have moved to large urban centers like New Orleans and Atlanta, with many involved with the arts, philanthropy and civic life.

As newcomers to America, theirs was not the Ellis Island and Lower East Side narrative usually associated with the migration saga. Some came to the South as early as Colonial times and later from Germany, France and Eastern Europe. Instead of working in sweatshops and living in crowded urban ghettos, the newcomers frequently moved to the frontier, supporting themselves as itinerant peddlers.

In the loneliness of the rural South, the vendors were welcomed for much needed goods and news. Some settled into hospitable communities and established shops or bought land, something that had often been prohibited in the old country. Often, they would be the only Jews in the region.

Today, Jews represent less than 1 percent of the Souths population, Mr. Hoffman said.

The museums first gallery, From Immigrants to Southerners, tells the settlement story. Front and center is the steamer trunk that Rachmeil Shapiro brought with him in 1905 as he journeyed from Russia to Germany to Galveston, Texas.

Nearby, is a peddlers cart, filled with typical merchandise bolts of cloth, pots, tools, childrens toys.

Next to it is a composite recreation of a small-town retail shop at the turn of the last century. The clock once hung at Rosenzweigs in Lake Village, Ark. The hat press comes from Flowers Brothers in Lexington, Miss. There is an elaborate gilded cash register from Galantys Mens Wear in Lake Providence, La.

But the Southern Jewish story also has a dark side. While some Jews stood with abolitionists, others were slaveholders. In a gallery centered on the antebellum period and the Civil War, there is a bill of sale for a 12-year-old named Harriet, a slave for life, sold for $1,000 to an Arkansas woman named Clara Wiseberg. The transaction was witnessed by E.E. Levy.

A large mural shows a photograph of the 19th century abolitionist Rabbi Max Lillienthal. Superimposed over his image is an 1861 screed by Jacob Cohen of New Orleans, denouncing the rabbis antislavery stance.

Mr. Cohen would die wearing Confederate gray at the second Battle of Bull Run.

One visitor to the museum, Michael Brown, an African-American from Berkeley, Calif., said he was taken with the way the museum is willing to talk about the conflict that comes up for all humans the challenge of empathy.

He added, I like how they show how Southern Jews played both a progressive and regressive role.

Creating a new institution addressing controversial topics wasnt easy. An earlier version of the museum had been established at a camp in Utica, Miss., and sponsored by a Jewish communal organization, the Institute for Southern Jewish Life.

The Utica museum held 4,000 documents, photographs, letters and religious objects. Though the collection was of interest to scholars, it didnt draw many visitors. In 2012, the materials went into storage.

At the time, Mr. Tanenbaum, whose great-grandfather settled in Dumas, Ark., was chairman of the institutes board. He said he saw the need for the museum to continue, though in different form and different place.

Though he had little professional museum experience, Mr. Tanenbaum assembled a team that included the philanthropists Morris Mintz, whose family were liquor distributors in Louisiana, and Russell Palmer, a real estate investor. Together, they raised almost $9 million enough to jump-start a new institution.

Gallagher & Associates, the museum planning and design firm, prepared a feasibility study. The firm was later hired as the lead designers of the museum.

This was always going to be a best museum practices venue, Mr. Hoffman said. It was never going to be like Mickey Rooney and Judy Garland, Hey kids, lets put on a show.

The next task was finding the right location. A planning committee considered Atlanta, Little Rock and Memphis. New Orleans was selected, according to the museums website, because it was a city with a vibrant Jewish population, one with a healthy tourism economy, and one that did not already have a Jewish-themed museum or other cultural attraction. The museum is in the Arts-Warehouse District.

Once planning was underway, Anna Tucker, a curator at Kennesaw State University, was hired as curator. She began by rummaging through the Utica collection.

It was daunting to go through the boxes, she recalled. People have asked me how is it possible to cram 350 years of history into 13,000 square feet of museum space? The answer is: theres no way. All we can do is start conversations.

One problem was that artifacts had been collected rather randomly. The new museum was to have a narrative based on defined themes: immigration, the Civil War, religious practices and the civil rights movement. Ms. Tucker needed objects supporting specific exhibits.

She decided to reach out to the Jewish community. The gambit proved fruitful, particularly for finding original materials from more recent events.

For the World War II and Holocaust installation, Susan Phillips Good and Rose Marie Phillips Wagman sent the 1936 diary written by their mother, Elsa Hamburger Phillips. The journal, now on display, details how 13-year-old Ilsa Hamburger escaped Nazi Germany and settled with relatives in McGehee, Ark.

Next to it is a German language Haggadah, the Passover prayer book. It belonged to Ernest Marx, who was studying for his bar mitzvah when he was swept up in Kristallnacht, the first of a series of harrowing episodes he endured during World War II. After the war he settled in Louisville, Ky. Judith Bradley, his stepdaughter, sent the prayer book to the museum.

For the Civil Rights and Activism gallery, Stephen Krause, a Californian, offered a series of oral history recordings that his father, Rabbi P. Allen Krause, made in 1966 for his seminary graduate thesis. Rabbi Krause interviewed 13 Southern rabbis about their congregations response to the civil rights movement. Visitors to this exhibit can listen to portions of the interviews.

Launching a new museum in the midst of a pandemic has presented challenges. A shortage of raw materials delayed exhibit construction. Fund-raising was hindered because some potential donors wouldnt travel.

A formal opening scheduled for October 2020 was canceled because of Covid. Instead, the museum opened quietly in May.

A second attempt at a public launch was scheduled for early October with a formal dinner for donors and a street fair. But with the resurgence of the virus in Louisiana, it has been postponed until spring. Then came Hurricane Ida. Backup generators saved the collection, but the museum had to shut down for two weeks.

With a projected annual operating budget of $1.1 million, the museum hopes to attract 30,000 visitors a year.

We want to expand peoples understanding of what it means to be a Southerner, a Jew and ultimately an American, Mr. Hoffman said. This is an American story. We think everybody can learn something about our great nation by exploring our experience.

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A Museum in New Orleans Tells the Story of Jews in the South - The New York Times

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Posted By admin on October 20, 2021

Those who speak "Tacheles" get straight to the point. This is a common definition of the Yiddish term, which has its origins in the Hebrew tachlit (meaning "goal" or "purpose"). In the documentaryTacheles: The Heart of the Matter (German: EndlichTacheles) by renowned Berlin filmmakers Jana Matthes and Andrea Schramm, people also speak plainly.

"Why am I the least Jewish Jew in the world?" asks Yaar in the movie. He is ayoung Jew from Berlin and the film's main protagonist. "Let's start with the fact that I'm not circumcised. We never celebrated festivals, never ate kosher. My girlfriend is German.I don't know anything about Judaism, don't even know the prayer that's said on Shabbat," he answers, adding, "and yet I was sometimes the Jew pig in school."

These frank words are what prompt the viewer to think about Yaar, his ancestors, the Holocaust and, in the end,about guilt, responsibility and reconciliation. What do young people of the third generation have to do with the Shoah today? That is the precarious question that the film explores in a way that is as unusual as it is emotional.

Yaar and his grandmother, Rina, journey to the past

Yaar was born in Jerusalemand came to Germany when he was 5 years old. In Germany, his divorced parents constantly confronted him with their past and that of his grandparents. He accuses his father who is still traumatized of suffering from the Holocaust, although he did not experience it personally.Now, the 21-year-old wants to become a computer game designer.

Out of rebellion, he and his friends Sarah and Marcel plan to create a computer game called "When God Slept." In it,the roles are reshuffled: the player acts as a Jewish girl as well asa Nazi who protects Jews. The girl in the game is the alter ego of Yaar's grandmother, Rina, and is supposed to defend herself against her fate. Her antagonist is an SS officer inspired by a relative of Marcel. The unique element: Yaar aims to give him the role of a "human Nazi"a "good Nazi"who saves Jews by opening upthe train doors while en route to a concentration camp.

Yaar visited the grave of his great-uncle

Yaar, as a young Jew, banks on the storyto help free himself from his ancestors' experience of the Holocaust. "Provocation is my way of dealing with it," he says. He feels he has nothing to do with the history that happened over 80 years ago. In the course of developing the game, he traveledto Israel and Poland specifically, to Krakow, the city where his grandmother, who lives in Israel, came from. There, he got caught up in his own family history.

For the directing duo Schramm and Matthes, this very conflict was food for thought for a film they had been wanting to make for several years on the subject of contemporary Jewish life in Germany. Yaar, who was interning at their film company, was the ideal candidate for the film.

In Israel, protagonist Yaar confronts his past

"At first, he was supposed to research the topic. From the beginning, however, we noticed that there was a tremendous amount of pressure on him and that he was struggling with his Jewish heritage. When he then told us his story, it quickly became clear that his own story was much more interesting," explainsMatthes. "Yaar also realized that he could not free himself from the history until he had processed it himself; once he had graspedand understood it."

The story took on greater dimensions and was the reason why the originally planned short TV feature became a 104-minute documentary. There is also a 50-minute educational film version available to domestic and foreign educational institutions for teaching purposes, which includes English subtitles. After a long production period of four years, which was confounded by funding constraints and the COVID pandemic, the film premiered at the DOK.fest in Munich in May 2020 and was nominated in June as one of 12 films for the German Documentary Film Award. It has now been released in German cinemas.

Father and son clash in the film in more than a mock fight

Meanwhile, Yaar is finishing his studies as a game designer. He has since moved on from his original idea for the game "When God Slept."

"One would have to see if a story like that could be created without idealizing Nazis," says Matthes, referring to a potential computer game remake. After all, an interactive game as a new form of remembrance is an appealing way to introduce young people to this significant topic.

This text was translated from German by Louisa Schaefer.

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Wrestling with the past: The burden of the Jewish legacy - DW (English)

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