Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By admin on September 19, 2021

JNS.org We have witnessed a remarkable development as a result of the publication of an article by Rabbi Meir Soloveitchik in Commentary titled The Real Truth About the Temple Mount, which suggested that the government of Israel owes it to its citizens, and thousands of years of Jewish history, to state unequivocally that the Temple Mount, and not the Western Wall, is the locus of Jewish longing. He also expressed sympathy for those seeking to ascend to the Temple Mount, enclosed within the Muslim Haram A-Sharif compound, so that they could continue to pray, writing, For those who care deeply about the Jewish connection to the Mount, and who desperately desire to pray there, it may well be that today it will be achieved first and foremost with finesse.

For Soloveitchik, what is important is foremost Jewish visits.

The development? He caused the public-affairs director of Agudath Israel of America, Rabbi Avi Shafran, to unite in common cause against Rabbi Soloveitchiks views with Rabbi Eric Yoffie, president emeritus of the Union for Reform Judaism. A true only Jewish accomplishment. Both were united in their negative reactions. Both, however, displayed in their reasoning misrepresentations, misreadings, lack of historical context and even partisan theology.

The first to respond was Yoffie, whose view was encapsulated in the title How and where to start a holy war between Jews and a billion Muslims, characterizing Soloveitchiks article as deeply disturbing and ominous and idiotic and potentially catastrophic. He asserts that the article calls for freedom of worship on the site for Jews. But it does not; surely, not explicitly. It does note that that right, by the way, one enshrined in law and in many decisions of Israels High Court of Justice an institution Yoffies activists turn to as an instrument to gain recognition was missed, beginning in 1967 when a new form of the old status quo was adopted.

September 19, 2021 9:13 am

He deceptively accuses Soloveitchik of undermin[ing] longstanding agreements between Jordan and the State of Israel, while ignoring Jordans commitment in its 1994 peace treaty with Israel to act to promote interfaith relations freedom of religious worship. In reality, Jordan has been the one to ignore its responsibilities, tolerating and even encouraging disruptive and violent acts at the site and sabotaging security measures, such as surveillance cameras, that could pacify the situation. And if Yoffie is concerned about not only a confrontation between Arabs and Israelis but to holy war between Jews and more than a billion Muslims, I suggest that he work harder on getting the United States under this administration to halt Irans plans for a new Holocaust.

For Yoffie, in an odd reversal of religious semantics, the rules set by [Moshe] Dayan have since been sanctified by the Muslim world, as if Holy, Holy, Holy. He then proceeds to praise Orthodox halachah, a legal formula he normally finds disdainful, which has a consensus that Jews were not to ascend to the Mount. That consensus, of course, is to be disregarded when Yoffie writes of the rights of women at the Western Wall. The position of the Haredi world is obscurantist for the Reform, but Yoffie wants Muslims to benefit from that outlook. He then lowers himself to unseemly verbiage, calling those who struggled for freedom of worship weirdos and crackpots.

As if he ignores his own thoughts, he then doubles back on his argument, writing, And the humorous part of this whole affair is that if the American Orthodox community cares the least little bit about freedom of worship in Israel, it is news to me. Yoffie perhaps misses that the joke is on him.

From the other extreme, Shafran was of the opinion that Israels decision not to let Jews pray on the Temple Mount after its capture in 1967 shows sensitivity and wisdom, and therefore, in NBCs News Digital Think section, published On Yom Kippur, Jerusalems most sacred piece of property must be a place of peace.

He justifies the restriction on all but Islamic prayer on the Temple Mount as born of compelling practical concerns. Those concerns were a result of conquest and occupation of Jerusalem by Arab tribes spurred on by a new religion (one that considered non-Sabbath-observing Jews as apes, but that may be more Yoffies problem), which facilitated for Muslims an exclusive [] control of the site. Any change, Shafran reasons, would be a gross affront to the Muslim world, thus joining, as it were, Yoffies minyan but adding an emotional disrespect as well.

For Shafran, that Jews would push the prayer envelope on the Temple Mount is to be a provocation without a justification. Why does he adopt such an unctuous, obsequious and even servile attitude? Can he not point out that there is but one mosque there Al-Aqsa? In blatant disregard for that status quo, Shafran and Yoffie ignore the three new mosques that have been added since 1967.

Shafran acknowledges that as a Haredi Jew, he believes that Jews today are forbidden by religious law from ascending the Temple Mount and that until the Temple is rebuilt, it is prohibited. And a rebuilt Temple is something that can only happen with the arrival of the messiah.

While he insists that it is God alone that can herald a new era of history, is he sure that the reuniting of Jerusalem and the return of Mount Moriah to Jewish control was not Gods doing? That God was not heralding a new historical era? Shafran knows that the sacred Temple Mount is much smaller than the current precincts of the Haram A-Sharif. He knows that the Rambams opinion was challenged and that Haredi rabbis beginning with the Chatam Sofer, Akiva Eiger and others some two centuries ago sought to renew sacrifices and even to permit entry into the area within the constrictions of halachah. Why can he not be practical and work towards solving the problems the Agudah has with their interpretation?

Soloveitchik states plainly that certain parts [of the Mount] cannot be entered in a state of ritual impurity.

His op-ed was initiated by Israeli politicians who voiced the view, one quite wrong, that if Jews wish to pray, the holiest place for Jews is a few meters from there the Western Wall. If the wall possesses any holiness, then it is due to it being an outside retaining wall of the Temple. Soloveitchiks main concern was the denying of historical fact, which gives ammunition to enemies of Israel, who seek to lie about Jewish history provid[ing] propaganda to those who seek to negate the Jewish connection to Jerusalem.

Both the Reform Yoffie and the Haredi Shafran still have to confront their failings to history, human rights and the value of Judaism, and their lack of caring deeply about the Jewish connection to the Mount and not sufficiently acknowledging in an unequivocal manner the Jewish relationship with the Temple Mount.

Yisrael Medad is an American-born Israel pundit and opinion commentator.

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Posted By admin on September 19, 2021

By Philissa Cramer

As his fellow Jews around the world prepared to annul their vowsduring Yom Kippur, Colorado Gov. Jared Polis got busy making some new ones by marrying his partner of 18 years.

Polis announced his marriage to Marlon Reis, with whom he has two children, in social media posts late Wednesday afternoon, just hours before Yom Kippur. Pictures showed the two men wearing kippahs and breaking glasses beneath a brightly colored chuppah, or wedding canopy, allhallmarks of traditional Jewish marriage ceremonies.

Rabbi Tirzah Firestone, the founding rabbi of Congregation Nevei Kodesh, a Renewal synagogue in Boulder, officiated. The synagogue is one of three thatPolis told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency in 2017, when he was running for governor, that he and Reis belonged to in Boulder.

The men were engaged last year after contracting COVID-19 and picked Wednesday to be married because it was the 18th anniversary of their first date.

The greatest lesson we have learned over the past eighteen months is that life as we know it can change in an instant, the couple wrote on social media. We are thankful for the health and wellbeing of our family and friends, and the opportunity to celebrate our life together as a married couple. After eighteen years together, we couldnt be happier to be married at last.

The marriage makes yet another first for Polis, who became both the first openly gay governor of any state andthe first Jewish governor of Colorado when he was elected in 2018. Now he has become the first governor to be married in a same-sex wedding while in office,according to CNN.

Polis grew up in a Reform Jewish home, told JTA that he identifies as in between Conservative and Reform, and counts a prominent Orthodox rabbi in Washington, D.C., among his cousins. Last spring, hebecame emotional when rejecting comparisons of his extended stay-at-home public health order to Nazism. Two years ago, heposted on Facebookthat he had broken his Yom Kippur fast with the traditional pueblo chile on gefilte fish.

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The deli will open next year at 808.5 Main Street in downtown Buffalo near the medical campus

BUFFALO, N.Y. A few years ago, a blossoming new food enterprise called Bloom and Rose started carving out a niche for knish in Buffalo.

"Knish is basically like a nice flaky pastry on the outside, stuffed full of filling on the inside. We have roughly 20 flavors that we do," J.B. Pagels, one of the co-owners of the business, told 2 On Your Side.

"The knish itself has kind of been our little beacon of, would Buffalo accept the idea of a really high-quality Jewish deli?" Zach Rosenblum added.

The five-person team bakes the little balls of dough at their commissary kitchen in Chandlerville and sells them at local farmer's markets, grocery stores, and online.

"Ideally we were going to just stick with knish and go more retail," Pagels said. "Try and see if we could produce them en masse."

That was before they entered the Make It on Main Contest this summer, to win a year of free rent at a little building sandwiched in between two others on Main Street in downtown Buffalo.

"Sort of dilapidated, hasn't seen a tenant in many years," said Eamon Riley, director of development for Character: A Property Company. Character owns the building and launched the contest to help a local business recover coming out of the pandemic.

"We thought, you know what, let's give back. Let's have this contest so we can fill this with a really cool tenant."

"I think we submitted at 4:59 when the deadline was 5:00 on a Friday," Pagels said of Bloom and Rose's application. "So we didn't really think anything was going to come of it."

But the Bloom and Rose crew performed so well at the interview and the final food truck battle held outside the space last month, that they won.

"It was just an ecstatic feeling for a while," Pagels recalled.

Now they'll finally get to open the Jewish deli they've been dreaming of since they started making knish.

For Rosenblum and his wife Lois, the sole Jewish partners of the business and the inspiration behind its name, it's a labor of love.

"It gives us an opportunity to take something traditional like Jewish cuisine that has such a long past, and do something new and funky," he said.

The deli is set to open sometime in 2022 after they knock the existing structure at 808.5 Main down and rebuild it to Bloom and Rose's specifications.

More information is available here.

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Under a perfectly blue sky, the campers gathered around Lillian Feldman-Hill as she showed them how to create a combustible mixture using water, soap and butane. Then she demonstrated how to blow huge fireballs with just cornstarch and a blowtorch.

Held on Labor Day weekend just before Rosh Hashanah, the camp drew some 100 adults in their 20s and 30s from throughout North America to have fun, make new friends and do Jewish stuff.

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The camp, whose session over the holiday weekend marked its first in-person experience since the onset of the pandemic, was born in 2017 in an effort to find ways to get young adults more involved in the Jewish community. The camp targets those in the age range with the lowest levels of affiliation with Jewish community life.

Camp Nai Nai Nai represents a unique part of the year, said Ira Markowitz, who was participating at camp for his third year. Its a place where the ordinary limitations of life are effectively suspended. You have more time to focus on the stuff you want to do as opposed to the stuff you have to do.

This session, held Sept. 3-5 at a lakeside retreat in rural Waynesboro, Pennsylvania, featured the typical camp activities like a mud obstacle course, slip n slide kickball, zip lines, color war and sing-alongs, as well as more adult offerings such as alcohol, fire play and a workshop on being kinky.

There were also three varieties of Shabbat services and plenty of Shabbat-friendly play shops, such as Israeli dancing and a session called Funny They Dont Look Jewish, which focused on Jewish characters in superhero comics.

The campers came from as far as Texas and Canada. Some were Moishe House residents; others were regulars at Moishe House events. But plenty are not active in their Jewish communities back home and were looking for an opportunity to connect with Jewish peers in a fun, non-stressful environment.

Its nice to be around something familiar and being able to connect with people who share the same kind of identity with you, said Joel Ravitz, 32, who traveled to the camp from New Jersey with his younger brother, Lloyd.

The campers came from a variety of races, genders, sexual identities and Jewish backgrounds.

There arent obstacles here to being yourself and exploring who you are, said Cleo Daniels, a nonbinary Mizrahi person of color with disabilities. Its so accessible for anyone to tap into anything and to be supported. Nobody is asking me to be anything less than authentic.

I feel the wider Jewish world needs to learn from here about creating affordable and engaging ways of uplifting our inner child and making it a package for all sorts of people. Theres no agenda here. Theres no fundraising. You can come with whatever interests you have.

Due to COVID-19, the camp had to make some changes: There were 100 campers rather than the usual 300, and the retreat was moved to Labor Day weekend from its traditional time on Memorial Day weekend.

All campers and counselors had to be vaccinated against COVID and present a negative PCR test upon arrival. The camp also ended a day earlier than normal so campers could return home before Rosh Hashanah. Many campers expressed disappointment at the abbreviated session they wanted to stay longer.

On the final morning, the campers participated in a Survivor-themed color war in which they had to complete an obstacle course, build a raft to cross the swimming pool and take on multiple rounds of challenges that ranged from freestyle rapping to yoga. The points were made up and the winner didnt matter: The idea was to cement new friendships and, as with regular Jewish summer camp, leave the campers with a positive experience and lifelong memories.

What were doing here at camp is pretty special: Its three or four days, but people develop really deep connections with one another and have a very special time here, said Ben Suster, 27, a third-year counselor and former Moishe House resident.

Camp Nai Nai Nai is planning additional camp experiences in 2022 on the East and West coasts, as well as in the Midwest.

The camp has been hugely popular since its inception. This year, spots filled up within a week of the dates being announced. There was no camp in 2020 due to the coronavirus, though Nai Nai Nai did hold several online activities. But it was clear campers were aching for in-person contact.

We know people are just itching to get together, and with precautions we can do it all safely, said Lisa Klig, the camp director. Its a very valuable experience for everyone involved.

This article wassponsored by and produced in partnership with Camp Nai Nai Nai, the ultimate Jewish summer camp for adults in their 20s and 30s, powered byMoishe House. This article was produced by JTAs native content team.

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Jewish adult summer camp includes color war, fire breathing and shabbat - The Jerusalem Post

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JTA Police in France have arrested one suspect in connection with the gang beating of a Jewish man on a Lyon street.

Five men ganged up on the victim after calling him a dirty Jew, the Actu 17 news site reported. The Jewish man, who was wearing a kippah while walking down the street, suffered minor injuries.

The alleged assailants had ordered the Jewish man to leave the Gabriel-Peri square in the citys 7th District. He confronted them verbally and challenged them to make it physical, according to an account that police believe reflects the occurrences of the incident on September 8 at approximately 8 p.m., Actu 17 reported.

The suspect is a teenager under the age of 18.

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When Justin King opened his Roseway neighborhood bagel shop, Ben & Esthers, in 2019, it was designed as a traditional Jewish deli. The shop, named for Kings grandparents, served matzo ball soup, lox, and whitefish salad, as well as bagels slathered with smoked salmon schmear. King wasnt eating any of those things, however. Ive been plant-based for a long time, he says. When I opened Ben & Esthers, I was very business-minded, and I thought that opening a traditional Jewish deli would be good for business. After a year, I couldnt reconcile that with my principles.

So, a year into owning his business, in the midst of the pandemic, King slowly but surely started taking the meat off his menu. The Ben & Esthers team started making lox with salt-roasted carrots, swapped the whitefish for brined-and-smoked hearts of palm, and began baking babka and rugelach with Earth Balance instead of butter. The shift ended up being a hit, especially among Portlands vegans.

Now, King is looking to expand: first, with a new shop and bakery on NE Alberta, followed by a deli in San Diego. From there, King hopes to bring Ben & Esthers to the East Coast, to spread the gospel of vegan knishes and not-lox bagels. I want to make vegan Jewish food accessible to everyone, he says.

Portlands new Ben & Esthers will open in the former Random Order Pie Bar this fall, and will serve as the companys commissary bakery, churning out rugelach, hamantaschen, babka, and black-and-whites. The deli will have an identical menu to the original location: deli salads by the pound, bagels with shmears made using a Tofutti base, deli sandwiches like vegan corned beef Reubens and tofu egg salad, and chicken-free matzo ball soup. The shop is currently around 85 percent vegan, but King says hes weeks away from releasing a fully vegan menu dialing in the egg-noodle-free kugel, the vegan matzo ball soup. By the time the Alberta deli opens, both Ben & Esthers will be 100 percent vegan.

Vegan Jewish delis are rare not just in Portland, but in the country as a whole. There are vegan delis, like NoButcher in Las Vegas and Orchard Grocer in New York, and there are Jewish delis with vegan items, like the mushroom Reuben at Wise Sons in San Francisco and Los Angeles. But when it comes to 100 percent vegan Jewish delis, the options are slim. Traditionally Jewish food is all egg, King says. I think the reason you dont see (more vegan Jewish delis)... is probably a combination of people not knowing how, and being unwilling to, experiment. But more so, I dont think people put principles before profit.

For that reason, King is looking to open more Ben & Esthers, and not just in Portland. While King is preparing to open the Alberta shop, hes also working on a deli in San Diego with barber Marc Bennett. I used to own barber shops, and I have a friend from the industry down there, he says. Bennett, enamored with the original Ben & Esthers, mentioned that hed love to open one with King in San Diego. Theres good vegan and Jewish populations in San Diego; it seemed to make sense, he says. And [Bennett] has the same work ethic as me.

The San Diego shop will be something of a beta test, before King pursues more expansions and franchising in other parts of the country. King, who grew up in a New York Jewish family, is particularly excited to bring Ben & Esthers to the East Coast, if possible. My whole family warned me against switching to a vegetarian menu. I was admittedly scared, but I just figured I have a responsibility as a business owner, he says. Im already creating more waste and destruction by having a business Im using more energy than your average household, packaging, stuff like that. I just want to operate as ethically as I can.

Ben & Esthers will open this fall at 1800 NE Alberta Street.

Ben & Esthers [Official] Bagels, Matzo Ball Soup, and Egg Salad Are Coming to NE Sandy Boulevard [EPDX] Portland Bagel Shop and Jewish Deli Coming to the College Area [ESD]

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Posted By admin on September 19, 2021

Yom Kippur and Rosh Hashanah: The Jewish High Holy Days, explained

Yom Kippur and Rosh Hashanah are the Jewish High Holy Days. They're the two most important holidays of the year, and are very differently observed.

USA TODAY, Wochit

Every member of my synagogue knows where to find my family during Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. We always sit in the front row of the extended seating section of our New Jersey temple, far enough away so we can lightly talk during services but not sofar back that we can't see anything. Mostly we sit there because it's the preeminent, prestigiouspeople-watching spot. What can I say? The Oliver family likes being in-the-know.

I live in Washington, D.C. The last time I went home for Rosh Hashanah the Jewish New Year was in2019. I couldn't tell you anything meaningful about the service that year. Consider methen a jaded Jew: Bring on the customs (and food, especially the food), spare me your thoughts and prayers.

But something changed during the pandemic. Because everything changed during the pandemic.

When I waltzed into Rosh Hashanah services fully vaccinated and masked up, as you should betoo I felt something I didn't expect.

Like I belonged. Like I was home.

ImDavid Oliver, an entertainment reporterfocusing on diversity and equalityat USA TODAY, and Id like to welcome you to this weeks "This Is America,"a newsletter about race, identity and how they shape our lives. If you're observing Yom Kippur today, I hope you have an easy and meaningful fast. If you don't know what the heck I'm talking about, read this (and the rest of this newsletter).

Don't say 'Happy Yom Kippur': How to greet someone observing the Jewish Day of Atonement

A special note: USA TODAY is collaborating with Tougaloo College for a free virtual event on the roles law enforcement, media, government and education leaders serve in civil rights movements. This is the first of three virtual events USA TODAY will host as part of the Seven Days of 1961 project. The event is scheduled for Wednesday, Sept. 29, at 7 p.m. EDT. Register here. Read more about the event.

I neverwantedto go to Hebrew school growing up. It was just something I did. Like clearing my plate after dinner, feeding my pet fish or taking out the trash. A chore.

Sure, I was proud to be Jewish. I didn't know any other way to be.

The years skated by and my Jewish identity faded further into the background. My identity as a gay man solely shaped me in my early 20s, and while I appreciated Jewish customs,I didn't feel a deep connection to my faith.

But then I suddenly couldn't go home because of the pandemic. My family and I threw together alarge Zoom seder for Passover in 2020, followed by a less enthusiasticone in spring 2021. The Jewish traditions I took for granted slipped out of my fingers.

Conversational chaos, prayers and hope: My Passover seder on Zoom in the time of coronavirus

When the time came to make plans for Rosh Hashanah this year,I knew exactly where to go:back to New Jerseyand back to temple.

But would the delta variant prevent my fully vaccinated familyfrom feeling safe enough to attend services in-person? We went back and forthbut ultimatelyfelt comfortable attending a fully vaccinated and masked service.

My grandfathersaved our people-watching spot for us,and I spotted faces old and new my Hebrew school education director,family friends,a new rabbi.

The rabbi's sermon focused on how easy it could be to infuse our day-to-day lives with Jewish rituals. Say a prayer before you go to bed, for example. While the prayers may not be for me, I'm findingother ways to practice. For starters: writing about it.

In case you missed: What is Rosh Hashanah? Here's what you need to know about the Jewish New Year

My colleague Lindsay Deutsch eloquently wrote about ignorance among younger generations about Judaism late last year particularly regarding the Holocaust.One survey found 63% of millennials and Gen Zwere unaware 6 million Jewish people were killed. Anti-Semitism regularly pops into pop culture.

I have receivedhate mail for being Jewish and reported an incident to the police after someone threatened my life. Sickening, vile, evil.

It's not that I didn't care about any of this before. But sitting there in temple, signing the ketubah (Jewish wedding contract) at a close friend's wedding recently and sitting at my desk now, I must speak up. Louder than before can you hear me screaming off this page? I AM SPEAKING UP.

I don't feel scared about someone hating me for being Jewish. I feel proud in a way Ididn't know possible. Proud of my family, of my community, of my identity.

I usually fast on Yom Kippur, the Jewish day of atonement. This year I'd like to apologize for many things, one of which is my passive take on being Jewish. Time for more action.

Will 2022 be the year I finally join a synagogue in Washington? Maybe. But I know that no matter where I go, my heart is a Jewish one.

This is America is a weekly take on current events from a rotating panel of USA TODAY Network journalists with diverse backgrounds and viewpoints. If you're seeing this newsletter online or someone forwarded it to you,you can subscribehere. If you have feedback for us, we'd love for you todrop it here.

Read up: This is America: Anti-Semitism is not a punchline

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The 16th-century kabbalist Moshe Cordovero and the Jewish philosopher Nachmanides both compared the universe to the size of a mustard seed. The biblical commentator Rashi who lived 100 miles from Dijon, France believed that Abraham served tongue with mustard to the three angels who visit him in the 18th chapter of Genesis.

Mustard is in almost every religion and every culture, said Barry Levenson, the founder, curator and CMO (chief mustard officer) of the National Mustard Museum in Middleton, Wisconsin. Theres a passage in the New Testament about the 1/8-inch of a mustard seed. Theres also something in the Quran about how the balance of your future could be determined by a mustard seed. Mustard is universal, not only as a condiment but in terms of its legends.

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Founded in 1992, the mustard museum is often listed as one of the most unusual museums in the United States, typically drawing around 35,000 visitors a year. But last year it closed for six weeks due to COVID-19. Both the museums revenue and Levensons mental health took a hit.

It was devastating, Levenson said. We have a donation box because we dont charge admission at the museum, so the donations totally stopped. It was very hard, but were recovering.

To distract himself, he focused on his part-time teaching position as an adjunct professor of food law at the University of Wisconsin Law School, where he has taught for seven years.

Fortunately the museum is recovering. Since May, its had a steady stream of visitors, and Levenson is relieved to welcome back the crowds. He describes the museum and its visitors as his congregation.

Levenson first started collecting mustards after his favorite baseball team, the Boston Red Sox, lost in the 1986 World Series. Despondent, he went grocery shopping after the game and was drawn to the bottles of mustard.

It was just something about the mustards, he said. I heard a voice coming from them, Collect us and they will come.

Today, the nonprofit museum contains some 6,090 mustards from over 70 countries along with a gift shop and exhibits about mustards history. Levenson also hosts the annual World-Wide Mustard Competition, which judges the condiment in 17 categories.

Levenson loves mustard on everything, even doughnuts and ice cream. He suggests a sweet variety like cranberry and raspberry for desserts and says that pecan-flavored mustard is delicious on ice cream.

There are other uses besides putting it on a sandwich, he said. Its good in sauces and dressings. Mustard is really versatile.

Levenson has created his own concoctions, too. His most recent experiment was a mustard pudding, and hes working up to a crme brulee.

Ive tried just about everything, different ingredients, flavors and spices, he said. Im kind of a mustard mad scientist.

But Levenson is a purist when it comes to deli sandwiches, only using brown mustard. Ten years ago he did an informal survey of several New York delis about what makes a good mustard. Some said it needed to have horseradish, while others preferred garlic. In Levensons opinion, a really good brown mustard will have a horseradish bite because both contain the compound allyl isothiocyanate, which provides the pungent flavor in both brown mustard seeds and horseradish root. Many delis serve both brown and yellow mustard to appease varying tastes.

The delicatessen originated in Germany in 1700 as a shop that sold exotic items, like bananas, mangos and plums. When Ashkenazi Jews immigrated to America, they brought the deli with them. Katzs Delicatessen in New York one of the worlds most famous is credited as the first in the U.S., established in 1888. Around that time, delis expanded into offering lunch, creating a lunch break staple of sandwiches filled with corned beef or peppery pastrami.

Those fatty meats may not be healthy, but mustard is. It has few calories and contains antioxidants and other beneficial nutrients, akin to broccoli and brussels sprouts, which are members of the same plant family. It can even help with respiratory and muscular pain. Fun fact: Runners sometimes carry packets of yellow mustard to relieve leg cramps.

While he never became a rabbi, Levenson is active in the Jewish community and attends several synagogues. At Temple Beth El in Madison, he led the youth group and taught at its religious school.

Its not a very large Jewish community, but we do what we can here in Madison, he said.

Even though he doesnt keep kosher, carrying kosher mustard was important to Levenson, who insisted on selling dozens of kosher varieties in the museum gift shop. Some are premium offerings, like Silver Spring Foods Deli-Style Mustard, which was crowned grand champion and won several other awards at the World-Wide Mustard Competition in 2008. Its a brand that Levenson uses himself, which is high praise in the condiment world.

The only thing Levenson dislikes about mustard is its relationship with ketchup. The popular, royal red condiment is much younger than mustard and sometimes steals its spotlight.

This seeming slight on his favorite ingredient is blasphemy to Levenson: You never hear anything about ketchup in the Torah, right? No, nothing!

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JTA A rally in Washington, DC planned for Saturday in solidarity with those who stormed the US Capitol on Jan. 6 has local and Jewish officials on high alert.

The Justice for J6 rally, which is being organized by former Donald Trump campaign staffer Matt Braynard, plans to gather in front of the US Capitol and demand an end to what it callsthe tyrannical and inhumane treatment of the January 6 political prisoners.

Rather than a group intent on breaching the Capitol to reverse a democratic election, Braynard has said that all but a few bad apples in the insurrection were nonviolent offenders who didnt think they were breaking the law.

Braynard has said his rally will not be violent, but police in the capital are on high alert and have mobilized all their personnel. But while local Jewish institutions are also bracing themselves for the possibility of violence, security officials say that Saturdays rally is likely to be far smaller and less dangerous than the insurrection at the Capitol, which resulted in five deaths andmore than 500 arrests.

I dont think its going to be like Jan. 6, not even close, said Heidi Beirich, co-founder of the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism, though she added that we have no idea about lone actor violence.

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The crowd is going to number roughly 700, according to the official rally permit and police estimates a far cry from the tens of thousands who showed up to rallies on Jan. 6. Unlike in January, when extremist groups organizedto attendin groups, this time extremist groups are using messaging apps like Telegram to tell their followers to stay away, fearing arrest.

Trump supporters clash with police and security forces as they try to storm the US Capitol, in Washington on January 6, 2021. (Joseph Prezioso/AFP)

In January, then-president Donald Trump egged the rioters on, telling rallygoers to fight like hell and to walk down to the Capitol prior to their march on the Capitol. This time, hes no longer in the White House, and is sending mixed messages. He said in an interview that Saturdays rally could be a setup in which attendees will be harassed. But in a statement on Thursday, he endorsed the rallys message, saying, Our hearts and minds are with the people being persecuted so unfairly relating to the January 6th protest concerning the Rigged Presidential Election.

But just in case violence breaks out, police say theyre taking extensive precautions, and have erected a security perimeter around the Capitol. After the January Capitol riot, police were faulted for not adequately responding to the threat, and the chief and second-ranked official of the Capitol Policestepped down. In March, one officer wassuspendedafter a copy of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion was found near his work area.

The chatter we heard prior to Jan.6, many of those threats turned out to be in fact credible, so were not taking any chances, said J. Thomas Manger, the new chief of the Capitol Police. But regarding extremist groups, he added later, Were seeing mixed messages about whether folks are coming or not coming.

US Capitol Police Chief Tom Manger holds a news conference to discuss preparations for a weekend rally planned by allies of Donald Trump who support the so-called political prisoners of the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, Friday, Sept. 17, 2021, at the Capitol in Washington, (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Jewish security officials and extremism watchdogs say the same thing: That theyre concerned about potential violence, but that they arent aware of any specific threat to any Jews or Jewish institutions. A memo from the Department of Homeland said plans for the rally have included discussions of using the rally to target local Jewish institutions, elected officials, and liberal churches.

Some of the online chatter has suggested that because the police force has been so tied up, it presents an opportunity to go after Jewish organizations or other houses of worship, said Michael Masters, CEO of the Secure Community Network, which coordinates security for Jewish institutions. Masters added that there are currently no credible antisemitic threats that he knows of, but said, Theres a general sense that we need to be enganged and proactive.

For months before the Jan. 6 rally, security officials within and outside of the Jewish communityissued a string of warningsabout violence connected to the election and its aftermath. Immediately before Jan. 6, Jewish security groups worried about possible violence, though then they also said there were no credible threats toward Jewish institutions. And while Jews were not the target of the attack, it did attract neo-Nazis and other far-right extremists, as well as signs with a range of hate symbols.

Robert Keith Packers shirt, right, was one of many hate symbols present at the storming of the Capitol. Other rioters constructed a noose. (Andrew Caballero-Reynolds / AFP Images and screenshot from Reddit via JTA)

When you have organized groups that are basically telling people to stay home, thats going to have an impact, said Oren Segal, who heads the Anti-Defamation Leagues Center on Extremism. That doesnt mean self-identified members of those groups wont show up. Its still possible, but unlike the chorus of voices we heard before Jan. 6.

Even if it doesnt lead to violence, Segal says Saturdays rally still has troubling long-term implications.

This is an event that is essentially portraying individuals who attacked the Capitol and our democracy as political prisoners, he said. When youre talking about political prisoners and government overreach and the illegitimacy of accountability, those are all animating narratives for extremists.

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DC rally to support those who stormed Capitol has Jewish officials on high alert - The Times of Israel

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Posted By admin on September 19, 2021

In many observant Jewish homes, there are mezuzahs affixed to door frames. The narrow, ornate cylinders contain a small prayer scroll and are touched upon entering or leaving. This signifies both the calming presence of faith and the journey across a threshold, a moment spent between two spaces.

At 75-year-old Jewish institution Diamond Bakery on Fairfax, new owners Doug Weinstein and Brian Hollander are at their own kind of transition point. The friends and business partners are reckoning with the everyday demands of running a bakery and the need to modernize an aging operation without alienating long-time clientele in a community that has seen so much upheaval.

We cant let this die, says Hollander, sitting inside the long, bright bakery as customers pass through in clusters, picking up slices of honey cake, rich, chocolatey babka, and boxes of Polish rugelach, filled with dabs of apricot and raspberry jam. This is a legacy bakery. Its a landmark.

Indeed it is. Diamond may be the most important Jewish bakery in Southern California. First opened in 1946 and situated directly on Fairfax (a Jewish neighborhood newly rich with restaurants and streetwear labels), the bakery itself supplies bagels, breads, and more to some of greater LAs most prominent Jewish delis and synagogues, including Nate n Als, the now-closed Greenblatts, and the historic Wilshire Boulevard Temple, which dates to the 1860s in Los Angeles. The place is mobbed during key holidays on the Jewish calendar and has a steady clientele of regulars who insist on Diamonds challah, mandelbrodt, and other staple sweets unique to the Jewish diaspora.

The bakery really has this great history, says Hollander, who met Weinstein while volunteering to prepare weekly challah loaves at a Jewish organization in Santa Barbara. It was run by Holocaust survivors for 50 years.

Hollander, an East Coast transplant, had never been to Diamond Bakery before a whirlwind road trip from Santa Barbara in February with Weinstein, who plotted stops at well-known Jewish institutions like Canters up the street. Weinstein, a former Century Plaza Hotel pastry apprentice and artisan baker, grew up in greater Los Angeles; the memory of Diamond, the faith that it would always be there, called him back. They found a business on the brink.

After decades of service, the Lottman and Rubenstein families that had run the bakery stepped away in early 2020, leaving Diamond as a kind of worker-owned cooperative in limbo, weighed down by an aging building, a summer of political unrest, and the crushing lockdowns that kept wholesale clients and customers away. Co-owner Ramon and Raymond Luna and workers eventually turned to a crowdfunding effort to attempt to remain solvent.

Raida Shieban [a Diamond Bakery employee] told me they were about to close if they couldnt figure something out, says Weinstein of his February trip. I called over to Brian and said Hey, you got any money? Want to buy a bakery? A new ownership deal wrapped within months.

If it wasnt for Ramon and Raida and Maggie and Carlos and Guillermo and the whole crew saying Were going to continue working Without them, there would be no more Diamond Bakery, says Weinstein. Though we are stepping in at a crucial moment, if it wasnt for them I would have come down here on that trip and I would have been heartbroken that it was closed.

Together, Hollander and Weinstein have become stewards of Diamond Bakery, largely eschewing the ownership title in favor of a longer view. People say to me, Oh, youre the new owner, says Weinstein. I just pay the bills. Its a community thing, Im just responsible for keeping it going. So too are the Ramons and Raidas of the restaurant. Hollander and Weinsteins new business model now includes shares set aside for employees, with funds from those shares paying out bonuses and retirement packages. Theyve also given everyone a raise. We didnt have it nearly as hard as they had it for a year, says Weinstein. I want them to know that we appreciate them.

Next up: How to shepherd Diamond Bakery toward a prosperous future that integrates customers old and new. The shop itself has gotten some updates, and there are ongoing discussions about what to keep (and what to lose) from the bakerys pastry cases. How do we maintain the tradition, but then start adding stuff so that young people who have no idea what Jewish baking is will see something tasty and familiar, Weinstein says.

Its both an honor and its terrifying, says Hollander of this doorway moment, caught between worlds old and new. We went to the original owners to get their blessing. We wanted them to know that we care about the history and legacy of this place. We also need to give this place the kind of tune-up that will make it successful today, in this neighborhood.

Future plans include pop-ups, new kosher certification, some needed renovations, a slew of family-friendly events, and a renewed bagel program, ideally led by a young, upstart baker. We need to train the next generation of lifelong, committed bakers, says Weinstein. Were eager to give them an opportunity to express their creativity, to give them a platform. Theyre also plotting a non-profit to connect to new, socially-minded customers; the focus will vary, but may include things like a training track where people with disabilities can learn on the job.

Hollander and Weinstein continue to rely on faith, and the collective power of their employees, to guide them over this current threshold, but they see plenty of sunshine ahead. Plus, Weinstein says, theyve got an unbeatable ally at their side: We have the brand: Diamond. Its the pinnacle. We just need to live up to the name and the quality that people expect.

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335 N Fairfax Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90036 (323) 655-0534

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New Owners of LAs Most Important Jewish Bakery Work to Carry on a 75-Year Legacy - Eater LA

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