Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By admin on October 9, 2021

(JTA) When Elana Johnson was shopping for a synagogue three years ago, the mother of four approached a Conservative congregation in Lincoln, Nebraska, to ask about joining.

For most synagogues, such an inquiry would have been a no-brainer. But Johnson had elected not to circumcise her three sons, departing from one of Judaisms most widely practiced traditions, and she was concerned about whether that would be a problem.

Johnson says the synagogue told her she was welcome to enroll her sons, but that without circumcision they would not be allowed to celebrate their bar mitzvah. That decision was in line with a position adopted by the Conservative movements Jewish law authorities in 1981 that recommended including non-circumcising families in synagogue life but denying uncircumcised boys a bar mitzvah.

Johnson didnt feel included: Her family joined a nearby Reform synagogue instead.

I want to be more observant and in a more observant community, she said. But I also just want my kids to be happy and welcome and feel as little judgment as possible no matter where we go.

A new organization launching this week aims to make that more likely. The group, called Bruchim (literally blessed, but part of a Hebrew phrase that essentially means welcome), is seeking to normalize the decision not to circumcise Jewish boys, a venerable religious rite that goes back to the Bible and which is widely practiced across the spectrum of Jewish observance, even by otherwise non-observant Jewish families.

Families who are making this decision shouldnt feel marginalized and they shouldnt feel like they have to be secret about it, said Lisa Braver Moss, Bruchims co-founder and president.

Bruchims website includes ways for Jews who object to circumcision to connect with each other and congregations. (Screenshot)

The group is an outgrowth of advocacy that Moss and Bruchim co-founder and executive director, Rebecca Wald, have been doing for decades. Moss first argued against Jewish circumcision in a 1990 essay, and together they outlined an alternative ceremony, brit shalom (literally covenant of peace) in a 2015 book and distributed flyers at that years Reform movement convention outlining ways for synagogues to be more welcoming for families that had opted out of circumcision.

Now, in Bruchim, they have a volunteer staff, including Johnson as social media strategist, as well as a four-member rabbinical advisory board. The team includes people with professional backgrounds in all of Judaisms non-Orthodox movements, as well as several people who grew up Orthodox.

Among its objectives, Bruchim wants to see synagogues make proactive statements of welcome for non-circumcising families similar to those that have become common toward Jews of color and LGBT+ Jews. They also hope rabbis will offer one of several alternative welcome ceremonies for newborns in place of the traditional bris.

I see circumcision its described as a sign, a sign of the covenant and there are many options for signs, said Rabbi Elyse Wechterman, executive director of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical Association and a member of Bruchims rabbinic advisory board. I actually dont think that it is an option [not] to bring your child into the covenant. I think you must bring your child into the covenant, or you should bring your child into the covenant. I want to push that as an expectation. How its done there are many equally valid options.

Whether Bruchims requests will find a ready reception within American Jewish communities is uncertain.

The Reform movement does not have a policy about how to handle families who are considering or have decided not to circumcise. But the movements leader, Rabbi Rick Jacobs, said in a statement that ritual circumcision remains something his movement will always advocate for even as other choices are accepted.

As one of the oldest rituals in the Jewish faith, we will always advocate and educate our community about the beauty and meaning of brit milah, Jacobs said. But he added, Connecting oneself to the Jewish community may take many forms, and we understand that some families and individuals are making the choice to not circumcise as part of the brit ceremony. There will always be a place for everyone in the Reform community, regardless of how they or their family choose to express their faith.

Rabbi Elliot Dorff, the leading bioethicist in the Conservative movement and the chair of its top Jewish law authority, said there is no basis in Jewish law for denying an uncircumcised man access to religious life, including bar-mitzvah. But his movement has not made any formal statements since the 1981 opinion taking bar mitzvah off the table for uncircumcised children.

And Dorff said that advertising openness to non-circumcising families, one of Bruchims main asks, is not something that he would endorse.

Do I want to say publicly, even though its certainly true, that people who violate Shabbat publicly are welcome in our community? Dorff said. Of course theyre welcome in our community. But I dont want to say publicly that its wonderful that you violate Shabbat.

Jerusalem resident Alexandra Benjamin and her son at his bris, or circumcision, in 2016. (Yitz Woolf)

One Bay Area Conservative rabbi who asked not to be named out of fear he would become the target of hate mail, said he has turned away about a half-dozen non-circumcising families in 20 years leading his synagogue.

Its a covenantal mitzvah, the rabbi said, referring to circumcision. Its the sign of the covenant, which is about as basic to Judaism as you can get. By not circumcising, youre saying that youre outside the covenant of Judaism. And bar-mitzvah is saying youre part of the mitzvah-observing community. Youre starting with the basic idea that youre not going to observe one of the most fundamental mitzvot of Judaism.

No reliable statistics exist on the percentage of American Jewish men who are circumcised, though the vast majority are believed to be. In part, thats because circumcision is performed on the vast majority of American boys some 90% of non-Hispanic whites, according to a 2014 study, making the U.S. a global outlier on this issue. But that figure appears to be dropping.

Critics of circumcision object to the practice on a number of grounds, including the physical and emotional trauma inflicted on children, a conviction they lack the right to modify someones body without permission and a belief that there is no medical benefit for the child. The position of the American medical establishment is that the benefits of circumcision outweigh the risks.

The broad societal trend, coupled with the fact that 72% of American Jews who married between 2010 and 2020 chose a non-Jewish spouse, according to the 2020 Pew study, means that while the numbers of Jewish parents who choose to leave their children intact is almost certainly a tiny minority, their numbers are likely to be growing.

I looked into the medical reasoning. I thought a lot about the ethics of it all. And my conclusion was, I dont think I feel so good about this, said one Jewish mother who sits on Bruchims board but asked not to be named due to the sensitivity of the subject. Am I the only Jew that doesnt feel so good about this? And I started to realize that I wasnt, but everyone felt the need to be very quiet about it.

Some efforts to bar circumcision in San Francisco, where Moss lives, and elsewhere have been criticized as antisemitic. Bruchim is limiting involvement to Jews, advertising that anyone who is Jewish may donate and come to meetings, in an effort to make parents like the board member feel comfortable discussing their wrestling with tradition.

We need almost a safe space to have these conversations without that sort of outside interference, where people can be really negative, even hateful, or just simply not get it even with the best intentions, said Johnson. Its a conversation that Jewish people should only really be having with other Jewish people. And having Bruchim means that were able to offer that support and community in a way that has not really existed until this time.

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These Jews want to normalize not circumcising and they want synagogues to help - JTA News - Jewish Telegraphic Agency

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Posted By admin on October 9, 2021

After a 22-year run, the bagel as a staple of McDonalds is no more. At the start of the pandemic, the fast-food chain pivoted to focus on drive-thru and takeout service, removing over 100 menu items. As dining rooms in the United States reopened in the summer of 2020, many items returned. The bagel, however, did not make the cut.

McDonalds wasnt the first to mass-produce bagels when in 1999, it debuted Ham, Egg & Cheese; Bacon, Egg & Cheese; and Spanish Omelet bagels. The Lenders factory had churned out frozen bagels for decades, and two years before, Dunkin convinced the masses that a blueberry bagel was a healthy substitute for a doughnut. But given the size of McDonalds 39,000-plus locations in 120 countries the burger giant spread the Jewish bread wider and farther than ever before.

The McDonaldization of the bagel is either the acme or the nadir of Jewish food. Once only hand-rolled and boiled in Jewish enclaves, the niche nosh reached world fame, albeit as a dull steamed alternative to a hamburger bun. But even if you recoil from the Boston Bagel filled with bacon, egg, cheese, and avocado found in Australian McDonalds, how do you interpret it being canceled? Is the bagel no longer worthy of cultural appropriation?

The appetite for bagels hasnt waned during COVID-19.

Bagels had a very nice year, said John Unrein, the editor of the trade publication Baked Magazine. What changed is that workers stayed home.

Breakfast out got real slammed, Unrein explained, but people kept eating bagels. Moreover, he found that in June 2021, domestic supermarket bagel sales had increased by 16 percent over the previous year, and artisanal bagels had fared well. Still, he sees the end of the McBagel as significant. McDonalds, when they do make a decision, he said. Its enormous. It has a tremendous influence on the world. Theyre the leader. Indeed, Chick-fil-A discontinued their bagels earlier this year.

With the fast-food bagel in retreat, the Jewish breakfast is at a crossroads. Does it return to its hard-boiled immigrant roots or remain an empty vessel for crispy bacon and mysterious breakfast sauce? But before I ponder the McBagel as a metaphor, I must admit I have never tried one. I had thought the brief 22-year window of opportunity had passed. Then I found McDonalds bagel fan groups on Facebook.

Courtesy of KeShanna Brooks

Taking Matters Into Their Own Hands: Many disheartened McBagel fans are sharing recipes so they can make their own version of the discontinued sandwich.

In the group Bring Back The Steak, Egg and Cheese Bagel, 1700 loyalists post screenshots trolling McDonalds official social media, link to YouTube videos of copycat recipes, and most important, share intel on sightings of the near-extinct sandwich. According to McDonalds, restaurants in select markets, including Chicago, Washington and Baltimore, can choose to carry bagels. Internationally, Canadian, German, and Taiwanese McDonalds hang on to their bagel options. The rest of the world is a McBagel void.

I asked the group what made the steak bagel so special. Since this was the internet, one person digressed into a conspiracy theory that the chains only Jewish food items disappeared because of the Jews before another poster pushed back. In the end, six dozen people across the country sang the praises of the peppery white breakfast sauce, the sauted onions, and the quality of the beef.

It is their best sandwich, hands down, wrote one poster from Illinois, and two expecting mothers bonded over their shared pregnancy craving.

Online McDonalds bagel support communities began to crop up five years ago when the fast-food chain let individual restaurants decide what bagels to offer. The following year, an Ohio man pulled a gun at a drive-thru that didnt have the steak sandwich. Steak, Egg, & Cheese Bagel fervor is real. Still, I wasnt convinced enough to buy a New York-Baltimore bus ticket and give it a try.

Im picky with New York bagels. The term bagel sandwich makes me uncomfortable. A bagel must be boiled and should be topped with cream cheese, smoked fish and not much else. This might make me an elitist, but its different from not eating a Big Mac or only drinking third-wave coffee. For millennia, Jewish cuisine was born through the blending of local traditions and biblical rules. Food no longer has to be kosher to be Jewish, but there are unwritten rules and McDonalds bagels, like the New York Bagel Supreme found in the Netherlands violates them. Its not a religious conviction. Its that double beef patties, bacon, cheese, and coleslaw on soggy bread just doesnt feel Jewish (or sound any good).

My commitment to bagel orthodoxy might sound superficial or nostalgic. Its what Irving Howe in the 1970s called bagel and lox Jewishness. He defined it in World of Our Fathers as a residual attachments to foods, a few customs and a garbled Yiddish phrase. Still, Id rather be a bagel-and-lox Jew than a bagel-and-steak Jew. Like many, my Jewishness boils down to a boiled bagel.

For Peter Reinhart, a chef-instructor at Johnson & Wales University, the preference for a tough-to-chew boiled bagel is not necessarily a principled choice. A traditional bagel with its hard, blistered crust is something you have to grow up with to appreciate, said Reinhart, whose bagel recipes have appeared in The New York Times, Epicurious and National Geographic.

Steamed bagels, like those sold at chains, are lighter and airier, making for a more marketable product. Once bagels became softer and easier to eat, they became much more sandwich-friendly, said Reinhart, who is also a James Beard award-winning baker. In this country, people are used to having their bread be soft and a good carrier for whats inside the bread.

Courtesy of Courtesy of AMC

The Apex or Nadir of Jewish cuisine: The McDonalds bacon, egg and cheese bagel is going the way of the McDLT.

Indeed, die-hard online McDonalds bagel fans rarely discuss the actual bread. When they do, they praise it as soft and fluffy, which they find a better fit for a sandwich than the crumbly McMuffin. Nothing like the beloved hard-crusted New York bagel I teethed on as a toddler.

This phenomenon isnt limited to the United States. Rachel Moeller, the owner of the Parisian bakery Rachel Cakes, told Vice magazine in 2017 that her French customers disliked her traditional boiled bagels. They asked if they could be more like a baguette! For them, bagels are synonymous with over-stuffed American-style sandwiches. In France, and most elsewhere, a bagel is a lunchtime indulgence, not a breakfast food. Perhaps this is a result of the fact that many peoples first encounter with the Jewish bread is a McDonalds bagel burger.

It didnt have to be this way.

The names of the first bagel cafes were meant to evoke Jewish life, wrote food writer and scholar Darra Goldstein in her 2005 article, Will Matzoh Go Mainstream, which traces the history of corporate bagels. Earlier chains like Noahs Bagels gave vast swaths of Americans their first taste of Jewish food, even if not the most authentic. Later chains, however, presented the bagel not as Jewish but as quintessentially New York. Dunkin, for instance, rolled out their low-fat bagels in 1997, with former mayor Ed Koch showing viewers how to schmear like a New Yorker.

By Getty Images

Cultural Appropriation? The McDonalds bagel is far from the only instance in which the fast-food chain co-opted a cultures cuisine. For example, Frances McBaguette.

McDonalds followed the lead of their competitor, Burger King, which in 1987 first put ham in their soft bagel not something authentically New York or Jewish. A Burger King representative at the time explained to the Los Angeles Daily News, We dont see bagels as an ethnic product at all anymore.

With McDonalds, the Americanization of the bagel would be complete. It would join the Big Mac as a symbol of America around the globe. Still, more people eating bagels, even bad bagels, doesnt have to be a bad thing.

McDonalds and others helped elevate awareness. People now know what a bagel is, Unrein said. This exposure has helped not just the squishy supermarket bagels, but also high-quality artisanal ones.

Were seeing a resurgence of traditional boiled bagels, said Reinhart before heaping praise on Korshak Bagels in Philadelphia, which opened in 2020 one of several new bakeries around the country that he thinks can compete with New Yorks best. The author of a dozen bread books sees this as the natural progression. The steam bagel plateaued 10 years ago, he said. It accomplished what it needed to accomplish.

Andrew Silverstein writes about New York City and is co-founder of Streetwise New York Tours.

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Is the death of the McDonalds McBagel good for the Jews? - Forward

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Posted By admin on October 9, 2021

When Zebulun Simantov, the last Jew in Afghanistan, was evacuated from Kabul, initial reports failed to mention that his wife had been waiting for a get, a Jewish divorce, for more than 20 years.

Various rabbis had tried and failed to get him to agree to a get and it appeared that she would remain an agunah, chained to the dead marriage forever.

Jewish law requires the husband voluntarily to grant his wife a divorce and he cannot be pressured to do so.

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Women cannot initiate the divorce process, and the imbalance of power means that women can spend their entire lives legally still chained to the marriage, or are extorted to give up their rights in order to gain their freedom

The process of Jewish divorce begins in the Bible with the injunction that if a man no longer wishes to be married, he must write his wife a sefer keritut (document of release), place it in her hand and send her away from his house.

On this short passage in Deuteronomy (24:1-4), the raft of rabbinic legislation for both the marriage contract and divorce is constructed. The clear intent of the rabbinic marriage contract is to protect women, who are the more vulnerable partner economically.

So why has the effect of rabbinic divorce been to make her even more vulnerable?

Rabbenu Gershom amended the law to ensure that she cannot be divorced against her will, but until now no one has risen to the challenge that the divorce process can leave women legally tied to abusive men, unable to move on in their lives.

Instead, Orthodox Batei Din wring their hands and claim they cannot cut the ties without the husbands agreement.

Blu Greenberg famously wrote that where there is a rabbinic will there is a halachic way. But many halachic ways have been posited, and still, the Orthodox world prevaricates.

The wedding liturgy can be amended to prevent the problem, as can the text of the Ketubah.As we enter 5782, what is the Orthodox world waiting for?

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Progressively Speaking: Why are we married to a Jewish law that fails to protect women? - Jewish News

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Posted By admin on October 9, 2021

The conflict between Israelis and Palestinians continues to smolder and periodically ignite with terrible consequences. Those of us concerned about the region feel powerless to have any influence. But there is new legislation in the U.S. House sponsored by Andy Levin, D-Mich., that could help, and I would urge Rep. Chellie Pingree to support it.

A two-state solution has always been the best hope for a path out of the conflict, moving toward the promise of safety, self-determination and statehood for both populations. Unfortunately, through the processes of creeping annexation, settlement expansion and home demolitions, forces in Israel have been conspiring to make this resolution increasingly impossible.

The Two-State Solution Act embraces a number of key actions that the U.S. government can take in order to truly support and encourage a peaceful, two-state solution: Declares settlements to be a violation of Palestinian human rights and international law. Restricts US aid to Israel, so it can only be used for legitimate security needs and not for purposes of increasing the annexation. Supports critical people-to-people programs for Palestinians and Israelis.

Through these measures, the Two-State Solution Act can help revitalize and reset the U.S. commitment to resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and ending the occupation. It can help enact policies designed to advance U.S. interests, secure Israels future as a democratic homeland for the Jewish people, and defend Palestinian rights, including their right to self-determination.

As a longtime champion of peace and human rights, I hope that Chellie Pingree will support it.

David FinkelhorScarborough

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Letter to the editor: Pingree should back bill to ease Israel-Palestine conflict - pressherald.com

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Posted By admin on October 9, 2021

EAST PALESTINE, Ohio (WKBN) The East Palestine City Park has been renovated. Its now more accessible for children with wheelchairs or other mobility devices and also offers play options for children of all abilities.

Its called the Rainbow Dreamland Playground.

The renovations were made possible thanks to the community coming together and raising $23,000.

There are two new swings designed for children with disabilities, and theres an omni spinner that allows for an easy transfer from a mobility device and makes spinning fun for all children.

Theres a metallophone, which is similar to a large xylophone.

Also a chain bridge and older balance board were removed to make the playground accessible to all children.

Village Manager Mark McTrustry says the only part of the project not complete is a new pathway into the playground from the community center parking lot. McTrustry says he believes the path will be completed by the end of October.

He says its great that children of all abilities can use the park now.

During the pandemic, we ended up focusing on what was best for the community, what was safest for the community, but it was also a top-priority project. We wanted to make sure were providing access to kids of all abilities, McTrusty said.

He says he appreciates people raising money to make the village a better place.

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East Palestine park renovated to be more accessible to all kids - WYTV

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Posted By admin on October 9, 2021

The city of Palestine has changed the locks on the historic Reagan Building, home of the Museum of East Texas Culture, after meeting with members of the board and spelling out their terms to move forward in a lessor/lessee relationship.

The building is closed and no activities will be taking place at the Reagan Building, said Teresa Herrera, Palestine city manager. We want to work with Museum of East Texas Culture, but they need to figure out who the board is.

Hererra explained that per the museum's bylaws, that even though four of their members voted to keep the museum closed for now, they did not resign.

They are still acting board members, Herrera said. So this new board theyve created is against their bylaws.

The city is not trying to take sides, said Gary Saunders, city attorney. But with members of both sides having keys to the building, were not really sure who should have access.

Herrera said that until earlier this year, the city did not even have a key to the building, which they own. After receiving the key, they always let someone know when they would be entering the building for maintenance purposes.

You may have noticed the current council and city manager are trying not to be the absentee landlord anymore, Saunders said.

We are in favor of them reopening the museum, there are just steps that must be taken first in order to proceed, Herrera said.

Saunders said members of the museum provided the city with a copy of the boards bylaws and based on those bylaws, the proper procedure was not followed to elect a new board.

The confusion in the community and for the city and the council began after Charles Steen made several accusations on social media and then shared new developments about the museum with the Palestine City Council during is meeting on Sept. 13.

Steen, a past president of the museum, and a current board member, informed the council that on Sept. 1, Bonnie Woolverton, the former president, made a motion by email to permanently close the museum including dispensing items and storing locally what they could at the Anderson County Historical Societys office.

Steen said four of the board members Woolverton, Ben Campbell, Martin Lawrence and Gary Williams, voted in favor of closing the museum and he took these votes as their voluntary resignation from the board. Board members Steen and Garland Cotton voted to remain open and Bela Hafner did not vote. According to Steen, the board members who voted to close basically abolished their position by implying resignations and he was accepting their resignations and a new board of directors would be formed.

Steen called a museum meeting on Tuesday, Sept. 14 to establish new officers for the board. The new board of directors for the museum are Charles Steen, president, Garland Cotton, vice-president, Joy Phillips, secretary/treasurer and board members Stuart Whitaker, Calvin Nichols, Dan Dyer and Bela Hafner. Dyer was hired to continue in his previous position as museum director with Calvin Nicholson as curator.

On Monday, Sept. 4, the city, in a letter to inform all persons involved with or interested in the use of the Reagan Building by the Museum for East Texas Culture, lined out its stance on the property and what their role will be moving forward.

The letter states that after the newspaper article, in the Herald-Press, that since the museum improperly deposed a majority of its board with a new board, the city is forced to take action to determine which group or persons can speak with the authority of the museum in order to reopen it.

The letter spells out that the Reagan Building is owned by the city of Palestine and there is no lease or current authority granted by the city.

The building is not currently in compliance with federal law, the American with Disabilities Act, which requires there be a reasonable and achievable compliance plan in place by the owner and any lessee before it can be opened to the public. The city states there must be a lease and accompanying ADA Compliance Plan in place before any activity involving the public accessing the Reagan Building can occur.

The letter further reports that the city recently obtained preliminary information suggesting that the estimated cost of bringing the Reagan Building into ADA compliance would be around $10 million and there are not city funds through the budget or any other bond or borrowing program available at this time.

The city explained that before there could be a lease between the city and museum that would permit the opening to the public, the museum would be required to discuss and agree with the city how the building could be brought into compliance with the ADA using funds provided by the museum. The museum would need to provide financial information verifying needed funds were reasonably available.

The city is using the Bylaws of the Museum for East Texas Culture dated May 10, 2018. The bylaws provide a specific process for the creation of the board. According to the city attorney, this process was not honored in recent action including the acceptance of the resignation of board members who had not officially resigned.

According to the bylaws, three board members could not depose the majority other four members. And based on this, all future contact and discussions regarding the handling of museum property that is currently located in the city-owned Reagan Building would require the consent of at least a majority of the current seven member board, not one board spokesperson or even the two museum staff persons who had been handling past contact with the city.

Due to the continuing disagreement among board members, resulting in the city receiving contradicting information and requests, the city attorney recommended Hererra and the city council contact the previousseven-member board to determine if there was an official majority of at least four board members who would be authorized to speak on behalf of the museum.

In the meantime, it was also recommended by the city attorney that the city notify all of the museum board, as well as their staff, to return any keys to the building to the city.

The city has changed all the locks on the building and the security service was notified that all future contact will be handled by the city.

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One step back: The city of Palestine urges Museum of East Texas Culture to regroup and form a plan of action - Palestine Herald Press

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Posted By admin on October 9, 2021

Taken fromthe autumn 2021 issueof Dazed. You canbuy a copy of our latest issuehere

On May 10, 2021, Radio Alhara, the Palestinian online radio station, went silent. The plan was simple: broadcast nothing but static for 24 hours in protest of the eviction of families in the occupied district of Sheikh Jarrah and the ongoing ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people.

Within days, messages of solidarity began ooding in from other sound platforms and artists across the globe. Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands ocked to the streets of major cities to protest the Israeli regime. There was an urgency to come together collectively and reject all forms of injustice and oppression, explains co-founder Elias Anastas. The station suspended its regular programming and opened up its airwaves to anyone who wanted to share in the act of sonic revolt. We received enough contributions to run the radio for over a month.

As global protests spread, so did the sound of resistance. From Cape Town to London, Armenia to India, community radios disrupted their daily programming to mirror the stations hourly takeovers.

Soon, this global act of solidarity became known as the Sonic Liberation Front. The asymmetric relationship between those who give orders and those who must obey is always demonstrated by who controls access to the soundscape, read a statement on Radio Alharas website. In a state of occupation where movements are policed by checkpoints and words are silenced by bullets and teargas anything that goes against the regime is innately political. With the words No one is free until we are all free underscoring each broadcast, sound became Radio Alharas most valuable form of ammunition.

Founded by Elias and his brother Yousef, Yazan Khalili, Saeed Jaber, and Mothanna Hussein, the radio launched in March 2020 under the name Alhara (the neighbourhood). Initially, the project was meant to stave off quarantine boredom but quickly amassed a cult following when people across the world were con ned to their homes. Its experimental programming meant that listeners could tune in to everything from pre-revolution Iranian pop to Afro-funk and Bahraini wedding songs. Talk shows hosted chefs who discussed the making of Palestinian bread, while academics debated the wild boar epidemic in the city of Haifa. The most beautiful thing about the radio is its capacity to adapt to different programmes, explains Yousef. Its entire structure is built around collectivity, and that makes it very inclusive.

Yousef compares our current state of global con nement to the intermittent lockdown Palestinians have faced over the past 30 years. The lockdown in the West Bank looked very similar to curfew contexts that we faced during the last decades in Palestine, he says. Maybe what was special this time was that the lockdown wasnt only happening here, but globally. It was the first time we didnt feel lonely the whole world shared the lockdown with us.

The pandemic offered Radio Alhara a unique opportunity as clued-up music lovers from across the globe rushed online in search of a digital community. Their neighbourhood became the entire world, with shows in Arabic, English, and French and a public Dropbox folder inviting anyone from the community to upload a show and have it scheduled for broadcast. We were very interested in blurring the line between listeners and producers from the beginning, says Yousef. We feel that there is a family that keeps on growing, that is bringing in new forms of content and culture every day.

Radio has been a potent tool for Palestinians and their Arab neighbours, who share the same culture and language but are divided by physical and colonial borders. Since day one, I couldnt shake the need to contribute and work with the team in Palestine, says Moe Choucair, a resident DJ with the station and co-founder of Beirut club The Ballroom Blitz. Being Lebanese, you dont get the chance to collaborate with your neighbours so much. Palestinians hold Israeli phone numbers, and those lines are heavily monitored in Lebanon. Talk to the wrong person and you might get someone knocking on your doorstep the next day. Luckily, I got Elias.

The lockdown in the West Bank looked very similar to curfew contexts that we faced during the last decades in Palestine. Maybe what was special this time was that the lockdown wasnt only happening here, but globally... the whole world shared the lockdown with us Yousef Anastas

Beirut has got a lot of opinions about everything, Choucair explains. I was brought up by sympathisers and Ive always found a way to surround myself with friends and co-workers who support the cause. We never had an issue while programming, though: perhaps musicians see things differently.

Underpinning Alharas grassroots approach is the desire to shift focus away from cultural institutions towards a more inclusive way of thinking. Cultural institutions have become very dependent on donor economy and proposal writing, says Khalili. They have lost their ability to be authentic, both in their programming and towards the communities they work with. This applies to online spaces, too: Social media has become a space that is controlled and exploited by the companies that own it. Many digital platforms are corporate and algorithm-led.

In contrast, says Khalili, the radio is fuelled by the content brought in by its listeners, who also happen to be its producers. This gives the platform an authenticity, where programming isnt dictated by algorithms, clout and follower counts, but rather, a shared love of music.

The richness of the content [our station] has been diffusing comes from our very diverse community throughout the Middle East and the world, says Elias. As the world opens up, Radio Alhara is moving into the physical realms, with the rst edition of its pop-up station taking place at Germanys Folkwang Museum next spring. As the family grows, the radio evolves, says Elias. [We want to] gather a community without having any particular prede ned shape, but by adapting, transforming and interacting with the world or, with alhara.

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Radio Alhara: the online station that prompted a global movement - Dazed

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Posted By admin on October 9, 2021

SILVER SPRING, Maryland (JTA) The Star of David pendant comes exactly 15 minutes into the 16.5-minute documentary.

It bounces against the chest of a guy with big hair whos prancing in front of his girlfriend, who has equally big hair. Hes wearing suspenders over a bare torso, and he has something to say about this moment in 1986, in a suburban Maryland parking lot, where fans of the rock band Judas Priest are waiting to get f**ked up, as several documentary subjects and one of the filmmakers put it.

Lets rock, OK, all right! says the big-haired guy, as the Jewish symbol bounces in and out of the frame.

Thirty-five years later, that man, who was once known as Robbie Ludwick, has a different take.

When I listen to heavy metal, I dont see the hand of God, says Zev Zalman Ludwick, a member of the Breslov Hasidic sect who lives a quiet life in the Maryland suburbs. Instead of pregaming in parking lots, Ludwick now mends damaged violins and tends koi fish in his backyard about a 20-minute drive from the long-demolished Capital Centre, where he saw Judas Priest perform on Memorial Day weekend in 1986.

Lets rock! cries out Robbie Ludwick in a screenshot from the 1986 documentary, Heavy Metal Parking Lot.

Heavy Metal Parking Lot, a mini-documentary that accidentally achieved iconic status via underground word-of-mouth, turned 35 years old this year. It has received no shortage of accolades during that time: the sports website Deadspin once called it the Citizen Kane Of Wasted Teenage Metalness. Professed fans include filmmakers Sofia Coppola and John Waters, and Dave Grohl, the Foo Fighters frontman.

Today its held up as a snapshot of a before-time: before the Internet erased physical presence as a predicate for human interaction a time when, if you wanted to find people who thought like you, you had to get into a car and drive out to a parking lot in a godforsaken suburb and, well, find them.

That search continues today, in a different way. Many of the documentarys subjects, men and women in their teens and twenties in 1986, now see the film refracted through not just nostalgia but the exigencies of aging and experience. And for at least three people involved Ludwick and the films two directors, John Heyn and Jeff Krulik some of the experiences that color their viewing of the film today are Jewish.

In 1986, Krulik, then 25, worked at a public access TV station in Prince Georges County, in Marylands D.C. suburbs. Heyn, 28, had a job duplicating videotapes for internal company use. He heard Krulik wanted to make documentaries and had access to the necessary equipment, so he got in touch. They filmed a local groups rock concert in-house in the studio.

They then cast around for a second idea. Heyn heard there was a Judas Priest concert at the Capital Centre in Landover, and the duos thoughts turned to the types of people who would be in attendance.

Heavy metal fans were a subculture that we didnt really know firsthand, but we were curious about, Krulik said.

We were more into punk and new wave, Heyn said. Krulik and Heyn had become fast friends, with much in common: namely, a suburban Jewish Maryland upbringing. A lot of its just kind of an unspoken bond, said Krulik. Being Jewish is one way we bonded.

But the bonding camemostly through the making of a film that Krulik likened to anthropological research. We had a hunch that it would be entertaining and lively, he said. We just went into it like on some kind of an expedition.

They loaded the car with the necessary equipment and rolled out on a bright May afternoon. The film starts with the two-man crew pulling into the parking lot. They pay the attendant, and then, to the soundtrack of Judas Priests Youve Got Another Thing Coming, they roll by tailgate parties. Inchoate cheers of Prieeeeeest! erupt from the clusters of women, dressed to the nines, and guys, in t-shirts or more often bare-chested.

The next 16 minutes are a mix of eccentric and troubling. A shirtless man posits that they should make a joint so big it fits across America, and everybody would smoke it; a guy in a zebra-print pantsuit damns Madonna to hell; a 20-year-old french kisses a 13-year-old. (That moment has sparked much online disgust, and the man and the girl have since said that it was a one-off for the camera.)

People came to us, Heyn recalled of the shoot. It was like swimming in the ocean, all the beautiful fish that you would see in a coral reef. The gems were there for us to take. Theres just a whole level of innocence and happiness and joy about it, and [none of the] self-consciousness that I think is really prevalent today because cameras are so ubiquitous.

It was infectious, although it took a while to infect: Screenings in the DC area were at first pretty much limited to record conventions. Heyn and Krulik graduated to more mundane jobs until 1992, when a VHS copy of the film landed on the Nirvana tour bus. From there, celebrities including Grohl, then Nirvanas drummer, embraced it, and the rest is history.

This was their bread and butter, Krulik said of the celebrities who embraced the film and who were fascinated by its close-ups of the fans they otherwise kept at a distance. They didnt go into the belly of the beast. Now, its different. Now theres much more contact. You cant be successful unless you have contact with your fans. Back then there was a real separation, a real line that was rarely or never crossed.

Krulik worked for a period in the 1990s at the Discovery Channel and then branched out into short documentary films, at times reuniting with Heyn. The filmmaker continued his fascination with the fraught intersections between cultural phenomena and their consumers.

A sampling: Ernest Borgnine on the Bus tracks the actor who played heavies in the 1950s and 1960s as he travels the country in his later years to meet fans; Go-Go Girls Dont Cry: The Art of Fred Folsom is about a devout Christian artist whose muses were strippers at a club near his home; Led Zeppelin Played Here, with Heyn, is about a 1969 DC-area concert by the legendary band, which a lot of people remember taking place, but for which there is no evidence; and Harry Potter Parking Lot, centered on a J.K. Rowling book signing in Washington DC in 1999.

Kruliks oeuvre also takes periodic detours into Jewish content: Neil Diamond Parking Lot, with Heyn, and with more women, more clothes and fewer hallucinogens than Heavy Metal Parking Lot; Hitlers Hat, about Hitlers top hat, kept for years by a Jewish GI; and I Created Lancelot Link, which reunites two Jewish TV comedy writers in 1999 who created a short-lived 1970s Saturday morning TV show about chimpanzee spies who spoke with Brooklyn accents.

Then theres Obsessed with Jews, a 2000 film which is eight minutes of Neil Keller, a DC accountant, going through his apartment-filling collection of Jewish pop-culture memorabilia. I collect Jews whether theyre good or bad, Keller explains on-camera, setting his Jewish athlete collection aside to talk about the Jewish victim and lawyers in the O.J. Simpson case.

Kruliks forays into Jewish content are just kind of happenstance, he told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. Its not like Im seeking out Jewish-themed projects but you know, Im happy to be pursuing them. Neil [Keller]s kind of channeling things that I was curious about because Im still plugged into my faith.

Heyn, who is a documentary video producer at the National Archives, has not delved as deeply into Jewish content, although he has assisted his brother, a rabbi musician in San Francisco, in making music videos.

Like Krulik, Heyn is fascinated by fans, by the intersection between the producers of entertainment and its consumers.

Whether its sports or music theres almost a religious fervor about it, Heyn said. And that particular cultural or recreational event becomes almost like a religion to people. Youre part of the flock, youre part of the tribe.

Many of the fans featured in the film see things differently in the rearview mirror. For one, Ludwick is not proud of a rant he gave to the camera. It was profane and, he acknowledges, homophobic.

Ian Hill, Im a former bass player, he says in the film, addressing the Judas Priest bassist. Youre an inspiration of mine. Everybody else, youre rocking. Robert Halford, I dont know about you, but everybody else, youre definitely dynamite.

His reference to Halford, he says now, had to do with rumors that the lead singer was gay. (Indeed, Halford would come out a dozen or so years later.)

As a 22-year-old, I was always, you know, macho, whatever you wanna call it, rock and roll, or not tolerant of other peoples lifestyles, you know? Ludwick said.

That bouncy Magen David, though, has a story, and that Ludiwick is proud of.

His mother and her parents got out of Poland at the last minute, he said: They were the last to be selected to board a ship for the U.S.; the ship, returning to Poland to fetch more Jewish families, was sunk by the Nazis.

Talk about a miracle story, Ludwick said. I knew this story when I was little. And so something about that story resonated with me that, wow, Im such a miracle being here. And I had a big Jewish identity even though I was completely secular.

He noticed something about his fellow metalheads. You know, you see all the rock and rollers wearing crosses. Black Sabbath, you know, other bands with a lot of musicians would wear these crosses, so I said, Wheres my Jewish star? he said. So I asked my parents when they went to Israel to find me a gold star. And they did.

Ludwick himself played bass for a metal band at the time. Why heavy metal? Being a little guy, you have little man syndrome, you know, and, and something about that bass is just so you feel it in your chest, you know? You feel like youre really the carrier of thunder.

By that time, he was also deep into addictions. By the time I was 12, I was already addicted to drugs and alcohol, he said. Ludwick, the youngest of six children, described a house of sorrow haunted by the death of his oldest sibling, a girl, from lupus when she was 17.

Then, when he was 31, Ludwick lost his best friend to a blood clot. The tragedy shocked him into seeing he needed to change. He lived for a while with a brother in Hawaii, where he developed an affinity for acoustic music. When he returned to Maryland a few months later, he bought a mandolin and got into bluegrass.

He became close to bluegrass giants like Ralph Stanley and Richard Underwood, and he also became more religious after dunking himself in a freezing cold mikvah in the mystical Israeli town of Safed on the eve of his nephews wedding.

Back in Maryland, Ludwick got married. He and his wife gradually became Orthodox. After they had two daughters, his wife told him he needed to do something more remunerative than playing bluegrass and working part-time at a kosher pizza restaurant. He was good at woodworking and he loved mandolins, so he googled luthiers (craftspeople who work on stringed instruments) until one brought him on to learn the trade.

After a number of years (and a second marriage) Ludwick struck out on his own, contracting out as a stringed instrument repair person. More recently he has taken to building violins from scratch. His studio is in a small building he built in his backyard, and with the midday light streaming in, he attends to the array of wooden instruments on tables and slung from the walls in various stages of repair. Ludwicks House of Violin, where tradition never goes out of style, his website says. Naturally, the logo is a fiddler on a roof.

Zev Zalman Ludwick feeds koi in a pond outside his luthier studio in Silver Spring, Maryland on May 23, 2021. (Ron Kampeas)

He gravitated toward Breslov because an older brother is a devotee, but also because worshipers at the synagogues he would attend told him he looked like a Breslov Hasid, who are known for their beards and joyful dancing. (He doesnt know why. I dont have a long face and my beard was short.) His brother, about a decade ago, invited him to travel to the grave of the movements founder, Rabbi Nahman of Breslov, in Uman, Ukraine around Rosh Hashanah, and he decided to take on the uniform, accentuated by a large white knit kippah.

He gave his Magen David, now a piece of rock-and-roll history, to one of his daughters. Breslov Hasids, he explained, eschew jewelry.

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Jews, drugs and rock n roll: The Jewish stories behind a heavy metal cult classic film - JTA News - Jewish Telegraphic Agency

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Posted By admin on October 9, 2021

(JTA) Asher Lovy was expecting a flood of notifications on Monday morning when he posted information about a sexual abuse case to several WhatsApp chat groups devoted to tracking the work of his organization, which provides support to survivors of sexual abuse within the Orthodox community.

Instead, he heard nothing. WhatsApp, the Facebook-owned messaging app he uses, was down, along with Facebook and Instagram, three of the most widely used social platforms in the world.

I was worried that people who were trying to reach us wouldnt be able to, Lovy said. He began to worry about what would happen if the outage extended later into the week, when Zaakah would ready its mental health hotline for Orthodox Jews who have crises on Shabbat, when many other services are closed or inaccessible.

We have people contacting us on WhatsApp to get referrals for resources for therapists or lawyers, or just to talk and receive support, he said. I get texts at 2 oclock, 3 oclock in the morning from people in crisis who need support or resources, who do they reach out to if not us? The thought of Whatsapp going down on Shabbos is terrifying.

Lovys fears did not come to pass: WhatsApp was back up after eight hours, along with Facebook and Instagram. But the outage, which Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said was the most significant interruption in service in years, brought into sharp focus the degree to which WhatsApp is baked into the communication infrastructure for most of the worlds Jews and how vulnerable that infrastructure may be.

With more than 2 billion users worldwide, WhatsApp is by far the most widely used instant messaging service in the world. Its simple platform, which works even on older flip phones, is the communication standard in many countries in Africa and the Middle East, and its early adoption in Israel and the relative unpopularity of iPhones there means it remains the countrys text messaging app of choice.

In the United States, its dominance is perhaps most clear in the haredi Orthodox world.

Even as Orthodox rabbis were warning about the dangers to religious life posed by WhatsApp way back in 2014, as Facebook began to consider acquiring the platform, the app became popular in Orthodox communities as an easy way to communicate. The rabbis overseeing divorces say WhatsApp is the No. 1 cause of destruction of Jewish homes and business, the Hasidic newspaper Der Blatt reported in Yiddish that year. Its dominance in the communities only increased over time, with misinformation and anti-mask activism spreading quickly through group-text channels that were already well established before the pandemic.

(Carl Court/Getty Images)

Its not just rumors that take hold on Orthodox WhatsApp chats. We run all our groups of employees on various businesses through WhatsApp, said Mordy Getz, a community leader who owns a health clinic and Judaica store in Borough Park, Brooklyn.

A unique confluence of factors drives the penetration and lasting power of WhatsApp in Orthodox communities.

Many community members have filters on their phones to prevent them from accessing external websites and social media platforms, so they receive all their information through WhatsApp, according to Getz. (This creates its own problems, as misinformation can circulate easily and quickly without the ability to fact-check.)

Whats more, WhatsApps integrated voice notes option allows people with wide-ranging skills in written language to communicate with each other, a potential issue in communities where critics have charged that yeshivas do not always leave graduates with a strong secular education.

And WhatsApp video and phone calls dont carry long distance calling fees. For Jewish families in which some members are Orthodox and others are not, or some members live in Israel and others in the Diaspora, WhatsApp can serve as a vital convening ground.

Every Orthodox Jew has people in Israel and Europe, said Getz. You have to have WhatsApp if you want to talk to them.

When that stops working, the distance can feel greater.

Orli Gal, a Philadelphia nurse, said her family, which includes people in Israel and across the United States, would have been celebrating a milestone in her sisters medical training over WhatsApp Monday when the outage cut off their communications.

Weve got people all over the world, and some of them are pretty elderly. This is the only way they know how to get in touch, she said. WhatsApp is the only thing that connects us all.

Mendel Horowitz, a therapist and teacher in Jerusalem, was suddenly unable to be in touch with his 20-year-old son, Alty, who was vacationing in Egypts Sinai Desert with friends.

I dont want to say I was up all night worried because I wasnt, he said. But it was on our minds that this is the only way to reach him and we cant.

The outage got Horowitz thinking about his own familys reliance on WhatsApp and whether it was wise given the apps vulnerabilities. Its not an emergency, but it gets us thinking about the next time somebody goes somewhere, we should have a plan B, he said.

Horowitz wasnt alone.

If WhatsApp were to disappear, there would be no backup infrastructure for communication within the Orthodox community, said Lovy.

The outage, Gal said, mostly made me rethink: Why did we allow Facebook to buy it in the first place?

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For Orthodox Jews and Israelis, WhatsApp outage highlighted basic community infrastructure and its vulnerability - JTA News - Jewish Telegraphic...

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Posted By admin on October 9, 2021

Editors note: This week starts our new schedule of columnists in the slot thats typically been filled by Arlene Violet. As a reminder, Arlene will now be writing once per month in her retirement, starting next month, and three other columnists will be writing on other weeks, including Marcela Betancur, Tom Ward, and Ricardo Pitts-Wiley.

Since Sept. 15, the U.S. has been celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month. This month-long celebration, running to Oct. 15, was first observed in 1968 under President Johnson and enacted into law in 1988 by President Reagan. Hispanic Heritage Month was established with the goal of commemorating the contributions and history of the millions of Americans of Hispanic descent from places such as Spain, Mexico, and countless other countries in the Caribbean.

As someone from Hispanic descent, I can appreciate that other Americans get to learn and hear a bit more about our cultures, history, and people. However, there have always been a few things that dont sit well with me about this. It might be the strange mix of big companies suddenly displaying a few more colorful faces in their commercials, it might be the increase of white elected officials showcasing the diversity of their communities, or it may even be the complicated use of the term Hispanic vs. Latino.

Dont get me wrong, I think its incredibly important that we celebrate and honor the histories and contributions of our Hispanic and Latino community, every day. In addition to Hispanic Heritage Month, during February, we celebrate Black History Month, May is Asian Pacific Heritage Month, and Jewish American Heritage Month, and November celebrates National Native American Heritage Month. However, assigning a month to the celebration and observance of the history and heritage of groups that have had such deep impacts on American history seems ridiculous and short-sighted.

The performative nature of these heritage celebrations by certain companies and government officials is what really gets under my skin. There is nothing cringier than seeing big-name companies using Hispanic or Latino themes in their advertisements during September and October. Trust me, having salsa music in your commercials wont make us buy more of your product, as highlighted by the 2021 Edelman Trust Barometer. Having leadership positions filled by Latinos within your companies and honest social connections with our community will.

The same happens for government officials. During Hispanic Heritage Month, elected officials go above and beyond to attend or throw events highlighting some of the Latinos in their community, however, some of these elected officials rarely make an effort to have true meaningful connections with this community the rest of the year. Truth is, our community doesnt just need government officials to celebrate us once a year, we need them to invest in us, always.

In Rhode Island, people of Hispanic and Latino descent have been part of our state for decades. In fact, our community has helped save Rhode Islands congressional seats more than once. Nevertheless, without missing a beat, every year during Hispanic Heritage Month countless government officials, nonprofits, companies, and news outlets fall into a performative dance of Look at all the Latinos we have! Where did they come from?

We have always been here. We have been part of the industrial boom of Rhode Island. We have been part of the growth of our state. We have been trailblazers in business and philanthropy. We are essential to the future of Rhode Island.

Simple, we must commit to learning and embracing the vast histories, cultures, and differences that exist among the Hispanic and Latino community. This means including the history of Hispanic Americans into our curriculum and investing in the education and economic stability and growth of the Hispanic and Latino community.

Marcela Betancur is the proud daughter of Colombian immigrants and currently serves as the director of the Latino Policy Institute at Roger Williams University. The opinions expressed in this column are solely the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the Latino Policy Institute or RWU.

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