Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By admin on August 22, 2021

Theres little time to catch your breath between summer and the High Holiday season this year. With Labor Day and Rosh Hashana sharing the same date on the calendar, its not too soon to start thinking about festive meals, gatherings with loved ones, and other traditions that go hand-in-hand with the fall Jewish holidays.

Fortunately, weve had another exceptional year for kosher wine production. That means theres an excellent selection of exciting releases to choose from and one less thing to worry about. Theyre ready to serve now, so whether youre planning to host a crowd or be a guest, youre sure to find something deliciously suitable for the holiday table.

Wine expert Gabriel Geller, Director of PR and Manager of Wine Education for Kedem/Royal Wine, has recommendations for wines that offer quality and value across all price points.

Herzog Wine Cellars celebrates the new Jewish year with its first release of the Herzog Limited Edition Chalk Hill Chardonnay 2020 (MSRP: $60). This rich and complex white wine is the result of careful harvest planning and skillful winemaking, led by Head Winemaker Joe Hurliman. The 2020 harvest in California was marked by some of the worst wildfires the Golden State has ever known. However, thanks to Divine Providence the harvest for the Chalk Hill Chardonnay took place before the fires, and yielded fruit of the highest quality.

Geller is also enthusiastic about Herzog Special Reserve Mthode Champenoise Russian River NV (MSRP $60), Herzogs first-ever high-end Champagne method sparkling wine, is made from 100% Chardonnay grapes grown in Sonomas Russian River area.

He also points to Chteau Malartic Lagravire Blanc 2019 (MSRP $100), the first kosher cuve release by the Bordeaux estate. Malartic received elite Grand Cru Class status for both its red and white wines in the 1959 Classification of Vins de Graves. Now owned by the Bonnie family, Malartic has produced several kosher cuves of its red Grand Vin in collaboration with Royal Wine since 2003. Its sister property, Chteau Gazin Rocquencourt, started making kosher runs in 2015.

Another exciting release is Raziel Syrah-Carignan 2018 (MSRP $65), says Geller. Raziel wines scored 97 points by acclaimed wine critic James Suckling the highest rating ever for Israeli wines. Meanwhile, Europes first fully kosher winery, Terra di Seta in Italy, received an unprecedented 97 points and a platinum medal from Decanter magazine for the Terra di Seta Chianti Classico Riserva 2016 (MSRP $35).

While many of this years newcomers are produced by classic, old-world methods, some intriguing surprises are in the mix. They include Nana Estate wines (MSRP $30-$50), grown and produced in Israels scorching, nutrient-poor Negev Desert. Nana earned widespread buzz even before their wines were available in the U.S.; with their innovative viticulture techniques, theyve not only beaten the odds, but theyve crafted a collection of distinctive and popular kosher wines.

Baron Herzog, the entry-level line of value wines from Herzog Wine Cellars retailing between $10-13, are now available with fresh, new labels. Baron Herzog wines were first launched in 1986, following the winerys establishment in California in 1985. The elegant and classy packaging further emphasizes the care and attention the Herzog family crafts each and every wine they produce from top to bottom. The Baron Herzog line includes an award-winning Chenin Blanc, Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, a Ros,White Zinfandel, Pinot Grigio, Old Vines Zinfandel, Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, and a red blend called Aleph. Several of the wines are grown in the Herzogs estate Prince Vineyard in Clarksburg CA, as well as from Paso Robles AVA.

Then theres Bartenura Froscato cocktail pops (MSRP $25 per package of 12). Bartenura is no stranger to bending the rules. After introducing the wildly popular Moscato in blue cans last year, the Italian kosher producer has now released refreshing Moscato frozen wine cocktail pops. Perfect for the warmer high holiday season.

About Royal Wine/Kedem

Founded in 1848, Royal Wine Corp. is owned and operated in the United States by the Herzog family, whose winemaking roots go back eight generations to its origin in Czechoslovakia.

Today, Royal Wines portfolio of domestic and international wines range from traditional wine producing regions of France, Italy and Spain, as well as Israel, New Zealand and Argentina.

Additionally, Royal Wine Corp.s spirit and liqueur portfolio offers some of the most sought-after scotches, bourbons, tequilas and vodkas as well as hard to find specialty items such as flavored brandies and liqueurs.

The company owns and operates the Kedem Winery in upstate New York, as well as Herzog Wine Cellars in Oxnard, California, a state-of-the-art-facility featuring guided wine tours, a fully staffed modern tasting room, gift shop and catering facilities. Additionally, the winery houses the award-winning restaurantTierra Sur,serving the finest, Mediterranean-inspired, contemporary Californian Cuisine. Follow Royal Wine Corp at @royalwinecorp and on FB https://www.facebook.com/RoyalWineCorp

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IN THE SPOTLIGHT: NEW TOP-RATED KOSHER WINES FOR THE FALL HIGH HOLIDAYS - Food & Beverage Magazine - Food & Beverage Magazine

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Posted By admin on August 22, 2021

Editor's Note: This article appeared in the August 2021 issue of SLM.Chatawa and the Grand Pied opened August 18.

One might expect a chef with 20 notches on his restaurant belt to be enjoying a well-deserved retirement. Hardly, jokes Tony Collida. His latest project, Chatawa and the Grand Pied (3137 Morganford), is named after two legendary swamp creatures (grand pied translates to big foot in French).The restaurant and bar honors the cuisine and cocktails of St. Louis and points south, where the beasts supposedly roamed.

Your parents owned the Piccadilly at Manhattan. How long had they owned it before you started there? They actually bought into it later in life. My dad was a retired grocery store manager, and my mom had several jobs. My great-grandfather started the restaurant in about 1900, and it passed down to different relatives, but it was my mom and dad who were the first family members to actually want to run the restaurant. My sister Molly, who runs it now, has always wanted to be part of it, too. She and I were the fourth generation to get involved. My second cousin works there nowhes the fifthand he just had a daughter, so well see.

What was it like in those days? Even though it was called the Piccadilly Buffet back then, it was more like a neighborhood dive bar. I remember seeing my grandmother in back flipping burgers. I remember the older regulars sitting at the bar with their quarters; theyd stack up 15 of them, which means they intended to drink 15 glasses of beer.

When did the renovation into The Piccadilly at Manhattan begin and end?My parents bought the building in 2002, lived upstairs, and took five years to renovate and reopen the restaurant, along with several uncles, and myself. I was in my early twenties. When we reopened as The Piccadilly at Manhattan, I was working full-time at Red Moon at night and Balabans full-time during the day. I had to quit both in order to do it.

Any crazy stories from your early days? When we upgraded to one of the large, charcoal-fired rotisserie smokers, we loaded it wrong one dayyou had to balance the load, or the shelves would catch each other, which they did. To save what at the time was a fortunes worth of pork, I got in there to rebalance the loadpast my hipswith my dad holding onto my feet to keep me from tumbling in. It was a classic save the meat or else move.One other time, I was cooking a whole Berkshire hog for a partybut didnt think how Id get that 110-pound hunk of hot meat out of the smoker. A buddy and I managed to hug that thing out, covering ourselves in pork fat, and all we could do was laugh.

How long did you work at The Piccadilly?Two separate stints, three and a half years total, the second time waiting tables. Having family running the front and back of the house is difficult. We all certainly knew it and sometimes the customer ended up hearing a little too much, too. At one point, I decided to leave. I was 31 at the time.

What recipes were you responsible for at The Piccadilly?I learned to smoke and grill from my dad, but I did introduce a rib rub thats still the one they use.

At one time, you took issue with someone calling you a chef.I thought I wanted to be a chef, but once you learn all that actually entailsmanaging schedules, crunching numbers, managing others personal problemsyou look at it differently. The cooking aspect is a minor part of being a chef, and that was the part that appealed to me.

Are your parents retired?They have a place in Florida, so yes. But they still live upstairs, so the complete answer is yes and no. Over the years, they took the time to get to know everyone who came through the doors. They are the reason that The Piccadilly became as successful as it was.

Your rsum is quite long, extending both before and after the Piccadilly. I wrote down every place once and came up with, like, 20. Id been in the industry seven years before I started at the Piccadilly. My first job, I think, was at a Jewish deli, where I was the prep cook, busser, and dishwasherand I stayed in the industry after that!

What are a few of the places you worked and notable takeaways?

Duffs: A collection of uniquely weird peopleand I mean that with all due respectthat really knew how to operate a restaurant. Karen Duffy, Brendan Kirby, Jimmy Voss, all of them. Right out of high school, it was a transformative experience for me.

Ronnies Ice Cream: I delivered to all of Ron Ryans restaurant accounts, which is what spurred me to get back into the industry. Good thing, too, since I was late to work almost every single day.

The Crossings Grill: The former Two Nice Guys in Webster is where I met Chris Lee, which was another turning point in my life.

Mlange: I was handed my first chef coat by Chris Lee, who co-owned the corner restaurant in the CWE [now Evangelines Bistro]. Chris was classically trained. We bonded, and I became connected to all that tradition.

I have a feeling were just getting started In a four-year period, I worked at Red Moon, Balabans, Johns Town Hall, came to the Piccadilly to run the kitchen, Mangia Italianothe Block and Ces & Judys were in there somewhereand then I worked with Chris Lee again when he ran the kitchens in Dr. [Gurpreet] Paddas restaurants: Caf Ventana, Sanctuaria, Chuys, Hendricks After that, I came back to the Piccadilly, to work the floor this time, and stayed several years. Then I quit the industryI thought for goodwhich is when Andy Kohn approached me to run WildSmoke in Creve Coeur.

WildSmoke was a more upscale barbecueexperiencefast-casual service butserved on china plates, at regular tables, with decent flatware. Why didnt that catch on?What was pitched as a 60-seat concept ended up being 160, which changed everything. On a Saturday, at lunch and dinner, wed sell 600 plates of food, and managing that big machine was difficult. That was not my style and was never going to be. And they had good managers thereall except me.

Then it was on to the Civil Life? Their chef, my friend Brendan Kirby, called me to ask if he could hire my ex-wife, who had applied for a job. I said, No problem, and in talking to her about it decided that I should take the job instead. It ended up being the best of all the places I worked. Jake [Hafner], Brendan, Chris Valier, Joe Mooneythe best people Ive ever worked with in the industry. To be invited into that group was an honor. I felt like I had arrived.

Talk about the food there.The sandwiches were great,but it was Soup Sunday that had a cult following. We had two induction burners and a big pot, so wed prep stocks and soups all week just to be able to handle the hundreds of bowls wed sell on that one day. I stayed five years there and I was happy. But I was also at the top of what Jake could pay, so I moved on.

Then where? Brendanwho was now at Seed, Sprout, Spoonwas planning a catering expansion, and we did well for a year until the pandemic furloughed me. I was able to decompress and to take the sabbatical I didnt know I needed.Cooking at home polished my skills. It made me more confident to try things Id never tried.

Which brings us up to Chatawa, which I understand is pronounced CHAT-uh-wuh. Thomas Crone, who has extensive experience writing about and running bars, came up with the idea. Chatawa is a city in Mississippi where a creature allegedly roamed the nearby woods and swamps. Chatawa is the bar component. I came along and called the kitchen part Grand Pied, French for big foot. So yes, I am the monster in the kitchen.

How big is Chatawa/Grand Pied? Forty seats inside and 30 outside on a former driveway that well convert into a patio with a street-facing bar. Hours will be 311 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday and, keeping with the brunch tradition at that address, 9:30 a.m.3p.m. Sunday.

What does the interior look like? Thomas picked up some regional artwork on his trip down south. Joe Allhoff of Trader Bobs Tattoo Shop will paint signage in the two front windows. When I saw this sculpture of a bigfoot at Tamm Avenue Bar, I told owner Bob Brazell, I sure wish I owned that. Knowing what we were planning, he smiled and said, Take it.

Whats on the menu? A big part is what I call modular charcuterie, where people pick and choose different options from a large selection: cheese and crackers or a warm olive salad, pita, and pickles, if thats what theyre in the mood for. Well have small plates and different beignets, including a special St. Louisstyle sweet beignet that Ive been working on, finished with a honeysuckle rock candy. Theres a nod to St. Louis and NOLA that Im calling the St. Paul Prudhomme sandwich, with thin-sliced crispy andouille, sweet pickles, flavored mayo, and an egg patty with the trinity [onions, green bell pepper, celery]. I put the St. Louisstyle tag on a lot of the things I do, because I can. Well, Im from St. Louis, and Ive been making chili this way for 20 years, so

Do you read cookbooks?In my twenties, I was engrossed in food literature, of all kinds, high-end and low-end cookbooks. I love the vintage Better Homes & Gardens, Betty Crocker, Joy of Cooking stuff. My recipe for pancakes that people go crazy over closely resembles one in one of those books.

Can you pigeonhole the cuisine at Chatawa/Grand Pied? If I had to, Id call it food for the people, but its basically a collection of the items Ive had success with over the years. I might do a fried soft-shell crab with coleslaw, a cobbler, and savory beignets, which might become a signature dish. The first will be served with a Prairie Breeze cheese sauce. Sodium citrate can be used to convert any cheeseeven the hard onesinto a sauce, so youll see more variations on that theme.The menu will be fluid and flexible, depending on what proteins, fruits, and vegetables are available fresh that week.

Did the menu change as the pandemic changed the industry? Going into this, I envisioned a couple spending $30 on food, and wrote a menu and set up a kitchen staff based on that. With food and labor costs increasing, I had to rework all the numbers. Now I see that same couple spending $40 or $45. On the backside of the pandemic, restaurants prices are going to have to rise, industry wide. We just dont know yet by how much.

What beverages will be offered? Several house cocktails, batched punches, spirits, beers, and natural wines, a lot of it based on what Thomas discovered on a trip along the I-55 corridor south, from St. Louis to New Orleans. He found a boutique hard seltzer in New Orleans, for example, and a sweet potato vodka from Delta Dirt, a new distiller in Arkansas.

Will the emphasis be on cocktails, wine, or beer?Thats for the customers to decide. At The Civil Life, we sold way more wine than we ever thought, for example, and that was at one of the best craft breweries in the area.

Do you have plans beyond Chatawa/Grand Pied? To give Chatawa some additional recognition, Id like to sell beignetsand maybe boozy coffee drinksnext year at Tower Grove Farmers Market.

Do you have plans for the future? Id like to run something like a wholesale commissary, not just to supply a single restaurant but several. I already know of several things I could produce that many restaurants and chefs would be interested in. And I dream about buying some land with room for some rescue dogs and a few chickens. Maybe buy a few goats to keep the grass cut low

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A conversation with Tony Collida of Chatawa and the Grand Pied - St. Louis Magazine

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Posted By admin on August 22, 2021

Rabbi Richard G. Hirsch, a Cleveland native and a towering voice for the international Reform movement for decades, died in Boca Raton, Fla., Aug. 16. He was 94.

Hirsch was founding director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, the social justice arm of the Reform movement, from 1962 to 1973 in Washington, D.C. He marched with the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in Selma, Ala., and is credited with helping pass the landmark 1964 and 1965 Civil Rights Acts.

In 1973, Hirsch relocated to Jerusalem to become the executive director of the World Union for Progressive Judaism, a move he orchestrated and was instrumental in building the campus of Hebrew Union College on Jerusalems King David Street. He led the international Reform movement organization for 26 years and was named honorary life president upon his retirement in 1999.

Rabbi Ammiel Hirsch told the Cleveland Jewish News Aug. 18 his father was profoundly influenced by Rabbi Abba Hillel Silver, Clevelands leading Reform rabbi in the early 20th century and an ardent Zionist.

He founded the two great ideological institutions of the second half of the 20th century of Reform Judaism, his son said. He founded the Religious Action Center, which set into motion the future of the Reform movements social justice agenda, and one of the key decisions of the 20th century of the Reform movement was his decision to move the International headquarters of the Reform Movement to Jerusalem.

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Interviewer and Videographer: Joshua Faudem

October 29, 2018

Boca Raton, FL

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29.10.2018

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https://www.toldotyisrael.org

Born Sept. 5, 1926, the son of Bertha (Gusman) and Abe Hirsch, he graduated from Cleveland Heights High School and from the University of Cincinnati. He was ordained at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion.

At age 13, prior to the establishment of Israel, he entered and won a national Young Judaea oratory contest. He was one of the youngest contestants.

I saw a little clipping of this in a 1939 Cleveland paper, Hirsch said. He won first prize and Abba Hillel Silver was so delighted. The topic of his speech was why the Jewish world should invest in the settlement in Palestine.

In addition, his son said he found a letter Silver wrote to Hirsch in 1949, the year Hirsch was studying in Israel at Hebrew University.

He was the first rabbinical student that studied in the newly formed state of Israel, Hirsch said of his father. He said, Silvers letter stated, Its our pleasure to offer you a $500 scholarship to continue your studies at the Hebrew University.

Hirsch met his wife-to-be, Bella Rosencweig, in 1954 when he was head of Shwayder Camp in Denver and he was looking for a nurse to hire. She had immigrated from Russia to Israel and later came to Denver to see the remnants of her family who survived the Holocaust.

He hired her sight unseen, just the idea that there would be a nurse from Israel, Hirsch said of his father. Six weeks later they were married.

He called Hirsch an exciting father and said, There were constantly people in our home and that the discussions at the table were something to behold.

Rabbi Richard Block, who succeeded Hirsch at the World Union for Progressive Judaism, called Hirsch, one of the most monumental rabbinic figures in the 20th century.

Block said the Hirsches were warmly hospitable to his wife, Susie, and to him while they lived in Israel.

They had an extraordinarily close, loving and respectful relationship, wrote Block, who went on to lead The Temple-Tifereth Israel, where he is rabbi emeritus. Bella was a formidable person in her own right intuitive, thoughtful, frank and kind.

Hirsch returned to Cleveland occasionally for speaking engagements at local synagogues.

Rabbi Daniel Roberts, rabbi emeritus of Temple Emanu El which was in University Heights and is now in Orange, said he first met Hirsch when he was a rabbinical student in Jerusalem.

He was a guy with vision and a deep sense of social justice, Roberts told the CJN Aug. 17 from his Denver residence. The fact that he started the Reform Action Center in Washington, is just an example of both of those his deep commitment that justice is at the heart of Judaism and at the heart of life itself.

He said Hirsch believed, we have a responsibility to do something and not just accept life for what it was. So I had a lot of positive feelings about Richard. I knew him but so did a lot of other people. I have lots of admiration for him.

Hirsch maintained ties to his Cleveland relatives and officiated at bar mitzvah ceremonies for three of the four boys in the Haas family of Shaker Heights and made similar arrangements for the one child he missed because he was in Russia at the time.

Jordan Haas said Hirsch told family stories at his 1991 bar mitzvah in the chapel of Hebrew Union College in Jerusalem.

He spent a long time telling family stories and talking about his life and how it related, Haas told the CJN Aug. 18. It was special for me.

Haas said Hirsch told his family that when he was a child, his family played a game of when we go to Jerusalem. Each person, he said, would add an item. The Haas family spent its travels in Israel playing that same game, Haas said, adding that it was a way of engaging his youngest brother. It all started when cousin Dick talked about it during my bar mitzvah.

Hirschs wife, Bella, died in 2019. He leaves four children, Dr. Ora Hirsch (Dan Walsh) Pesovitz in Detroit, Dr. Raphael(Jodi) Hirsch in San Francisco, Rabbi Ammiel (Alison) Hirsch of New York City, Dr. Emmet (Arica) Hirsch in Chicago; 11 grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.

Hirsch will be buried in Israel at a later date.

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Posted By admin on August 22, 2021

Courtesy of YouTube Screenshot

Rabbi Yaakov David Klar speaking at a 2011 Chai Lifeline event in Boro Park about coping with trauma.

A New York rabbi sexually assaulted children while he was supposed to be treating them for mental health issues, and the prominent Jewish institutions he worked for covered it up, claims a lawsuit filed August 13 in New York.

Rabbi Yaakov David Klar allegedly carried out his abuse while he was a social worker at Chai Lifeline, a national Jewish social services provider, and as a teacher at the Yeshiva Kehillath Yaakov in Monsey, N.Y., also known as Cheder Chabad, Yeshiva Tzion Yosef or Pupa. Klar allegedly began years of abuse of the plaintiff in 2002, when the lawsuit alleges the yeshiva already knew or should have known of the rabbis predatory history.

After other people at those institutions reported earlier assaults, the lawsuit alleges, the defendants continued to allow Klar to be around children.

Only later did they enter a secret arrangement to allow Klar to leave quietly and they never reported his suspected actions to the authorities, according to the lawsuit.

The lawsuit says the plaintiff, identified as John Doe, has suffered physical, emotional, and psychological damage as a result of Klars actions, and seeks monetary compensation from Klar, Chai Lifeline and the yeshiva.

The lawsuit was filed under the Child Victims Act, which extends the statute of limitations for child sex crimes and established a look-back window for survivors whose statute of limitations had previously expired. The window for filing on CVA cases closed Aug. 14.

While the lawsuit does not say when the institutions parted with Klar, a 2016 article in the New York Jewish Week identifies Klar as the co-associate director of Project C.H.A.I., Chai Lifelines crisis intervention, trauma and bereavement hotline.

The lawsuit says Klar used his position of trust to take advantage of children he knew were especially vulnerable.

Doe had serious mental health issues at the time, according to the lawsuit, which is why he was receiving treatment from Chai Lifeline.

Despite [Klar]s full knowledge and awareness that the Plaintiff had serious mental health issues, [Klar] criminally sexually assaulted the Plaintiff, and exposed the Plaintiff and other children and personnel to an increased risk of harm, all in a wanton and reckless disregard of the childs, students, and/or patients safety, the lawsuit says.

While the schools willful ignorance of prior assaults has not been demonstrated the way it might with a full discovery process, the plaintiffs attorney, Darren J. Epstein, said that abusers in other cases frequently receive such shelter from their institutions.

Not just in yeshivas were talking about Catholic churches, Episcopal churches, public schools, Epstein said. In all these scenarios, we have found that there have been complaints that have been made about individual perpetrators and nothing was done about it.

When the Forward called Klar at his home for comment, the person answering the phone said he was unavailable. Calls to Chai Lifeline and the yeshiva on Friday afternoon went to voicemail.

With the lawsuit filed, the defendants now have time to put in an answer or a motion. If the case is not settled or dismissed during that period, it will proceed to the discovery phase.

Lawsuit: Monsey rabbi sexually assaulted children and his bosses covered it up

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Lawsuit: Monsey rabbi sexually assaulted children and his bosses covered it up - Forward

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Posted By admin on August 22, 2021

AL DHAFRA AIR BASE, United Arab Emirates A rabbi, a priest and a pastor walk in to your office What sounds like the opening of a good joke, is the unique reality of the service members who are deployed to this Southwest Asia base.

With countless service members deployed to Al Dhafra Air Base, it is a challenge to tend to everyones likes and needs and ensure mission readiness across the board.

Of course the 380th Air Expeditionary Wing provides a large variety of food, fitness and entertainment options to fit anyones lifestyle. But what about their spiritual needs?

Its relatively common to find a catholic priest and a protestant pastor on any given deployment. However, with only twenty rabbis in the U.S. Air Force, nine of which are on active duty status, ADABs chaplain corps team is a one-of-a-kind combination of all three.

The fact that we have three types of services offered weekly (Protestant/Catholic/Jewish) and we are able to accommodate so many service members is quite unique, stated Chaplain (Maj.) Tony Repic, wing chaplain and pastor, 380 AEW, who leads the team of six for the base.

In fact, its so unique, that Ch. (Capt.) Saul Rappeport, who is the wings rabbi, mentioned it had been years since an Air Force rabbi has deployed, and that no other deployed location is able to provide these three denominations like ADAB is doing today.

Having a diverse chapel team is more efficient and better suited to fit the needs of almost everyone looking for spiritual support while away from home.

Ch. (Maj.) Thomas Duston, deputy wing chaplain and priest, 380 AEW, explained how chaplains not only provide worship services for their primary denomination, but are also trained to lend support as needs arise regardless of faith. When they are unable to provide the necessary support, can refer members to other local religious organizations if they exist.

The chaplain corps is tasked with providing the services we can, and providing for access to services that we cannot provide, Duston stated.

ADABs small chapel, known locally as Seven Sands Chapel, is designed to accommodate a variety of denominations and the chapel team uses this to their advantage to create the perfect situation when it comes to supporting the community.

Religious Affairs Airmen, who were previously referred to as chaplains assistants, and who comprise the enlisted side of the team, can convert the chapel in a matter of moments for any worship service, religious holiday, or faith-based event with a Catholic priest, a Jewish rabbi or a Protestant pastor throughout the week.

To allow chaplains to conduct spiritual counseling, religious worship services and invocations, RAA absorb most of the behind the scenes administrative duties that keep the chapel team running smoothly, stated Master Sgt. Earl Scott, chapel office superintendent, 380 AEW.

Apart from the few places, like the U.S. Air Force Academy, Colorado Springs, Colo., rarely do chaplain teams exist with such religious diversity.

As an RAA, this experience has been key to learning more about multiple recognized faith groups, and has helped me develop a better understanding of how to accommodate more Airmens spiritual needs, said Staff Sgt. Vincent Hyatt, RAA, 380 AEW.

Ch. (Capt.) Paul Walker, who is also a pastor at ADAB, emphasized the vital role of the RAAs when it comes to a multi-denominational deployed team.

Not only do the RAAs transition the sanctuary, but they also record and post every service to the Chapel YouTube channel so that any Airman so that was not able to attend in-person, will still have the opportunity to do so. he said.

Recognizing the unique characteristics of their team at ADAB, the staff found a way to piggyback off one of their COVID-19 mitigation measures and expand their teams abilities around the U.S. Air Force Central Command area of responsibility.

Several times during the pandemic, the chapel was not able to support in-person worship services, explained Repic, so they decided to record and even livestream their services.

This advantage gave us the ability to share all the services with our community, Repic said, and even offer the Jewish services to all of AFCENT locations, giving everyone the ability to have access to a military chaplain (Rabbi).

The clashing of religions goes back as far as any history book, yet ADABs chapel corps team sets a new example for the world of mutual tolerance and support.

Rappeport closed out by exclaiming, God Bless America Where else do I get to conduct Hanukkah services where the Priest is reciting Christmas liturgy in the adjacent room? For centuries people have killed each other over theology, now we help each other out and are teammates, wingmen, colleagues and friends. I cannot think of a greater accomplishment and could not be prouder to be a part of this institution.

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News - A rabbi, a priest and a pastor - DVIDS

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Posted By admin on August 22, 2021

The USC Shoah Foundation is will present two nights of film screenings and discussions in Aspen on Monday and Tuesday.

The feature film My Name is Sara will open the events Monday at the Isis Theatre. Based on the true story of 13-year-old Sara Gralnik, who, after escaping a Jewish Ghetto in Poland and losing her family at the outset of the Holocaust, hides in plain sight, passing as an Orthodox Christian.

The 7 p.m. screening will be followed by a panel discussion with producers Mickey Shapiro, Andy Intrater and producer/director Steven Oritt, moderated by Shoah Foundation executive director Stephen D. Smith.

Tuesday night will feature Final Account, a documentary filmed over the course of 10 years that shares never-before-seen interviews with the last living generation of people to have participated in Adolf Hitlers Third Reich. A Q&A with Smith will follow the screening.

This is the fourth summer weve brought USC Shoah Foundation key programs like this to Aspen, Shoah executive committee member and longtime Aspen resident Melinda Goldrich said. I have been moved each time by the communitys interest and understanding of the mission to use testimony to build empathy and understanding to counter hate. I am so pleased that we have two powerful films for this years activities, especially during a time where the subject matter is unfortunately increasingly relevant.

The events are free but registration is required, along with proof of COVID-19 vaccination at the door. More info at aspenfilm.org.

Readers around Aspen and Snowmass Village make the Aspen Times work possible. Your financial contribution supports our efforts to deliver quality, locally relevant journalism.

Now more than ever, your support is critical to help us keep our community informed about the evolving coronavirus pandemic and the impact it is having locally. Every contribution, however large or small, will make a difference.

Each donation will be used exclusively for the development and creation of increased news coverage.

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USC Shoah Foundation and Aspen Film host two-night event - Aspen Times

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Posted By admin on August 22, 2021

In a momentous ruling in the ongoing debate over Polish complicity in the horrors of the Holocaust, a Polish appeals court overturned a verdict that had ordered two historians to publicly apologise for part of their research into a Holocaust pogrom.

In their 2018 book Night Without an End, historians Jan Grabowski and Barbara Engelking wrote that that Edward Malinowski, the late mayor of the village of Malinowo, told Nazi officers where a group of Jews were hiding in a forest. The group of dozens were all killed, the researchers wrote.

But a relative of Malinowski, who was acquitted in a postwar trial of collaborating with Nazis, sued the historians for violating the honour of her uncle, citing some factual errors in the research and conflicting testimonies. A Warsaw court ordered the academics to publicly apologise in February.

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The Warsaw Appeals Court overturned that verdict on Monday, as a judge argued that the apology could have a chilling effect on academic research in Poland.

This is of particular importance in matters that constitute an important element of public debate, raising important social issues regarding the history of a given state and nation, the judge said, according to Reuters.

Malinowskis relative, Filomena Leszczyska, has said that she will appeal and take the case to the Supreme Court.

Grabowski told Reuters the new ruling is a huge thing not only for myself and my colleagues, but for the entire profession of humanities in Poland.

Debates about Holocaust history and Nazi collaboration have become commonplace in Poland, which passed a law in 2018 that makes it illegal to blame the Polish nation for Nazi crimes. Critics of the law said it risks stifling historic research into Second World War.

On Saturday, Polish President Andrzej Duda ratified legislation that critics say strips Holocaust victims and their descendants of recourse to claim property stolen from them in Poland during and after the Holocaust. The new law has sparked a diplomatic crisis with Israel and the United States.

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Polish scholars will not have to apologise for research into Shoah pogrom, court rules - Jewish News

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Posted By admin on August 22, 2021

The Talmudic tractate Chagigah tells the tale of Rabbi Meir and his teacher Elisha ben Avuyah. Despite his teachers abandonment of Judaism and Elishas descent into heresy, Rabbi Meir would not abandon his mentor. Elisha was branded as Acher "Other by a Jewish community in the Land of Israel that had shunned the apostate and rebel.

One Shabbat, as Elisha rode his horse in violation of the seventh days sanctity, Rabbi Meir walked behind his teacher to learn from him words of wisdom. When they reached the techum Shabbat, the maximum of 2000 cubits that one may walk from his home without violating Torah law on the Shabbat, Rabbi Meir told his teacher not to proceed beyond the limit. Despite his students urging, Acher continued riding, thus doubly violating Shabbat. Rabbi Meir was often scolded for following the heretic and attempting to learn from his former teacher. Meir responded that when he finds a pomegranate, he eats the seeds and discards the peel. There were still lessons to be learned from the renegade.

Why did Elisha ben Avuyah abandon Judaism and descend into the heresies of the Greco-Roman world? Rabbinic literature provides a number of answers. The one explanation that I find compelling is that in the wake of the persecutions of Jews by Roman Emperor Hadrian persecutions associated with the Bar-Kochba rebellion of 132-135 Rabbi Elisha ben Avuyah witnessed the tongue of Jewish martyr Chutzpit the Interpreter being carried by a pig in its mouth. That the vehicle for the teaching of beautiful words of Torah to be debased in such a disgusting manner convinced Rabbi Elisha that God had abandoned His teaching and His people. The sight shocked him into a rejection of God and into the embracing of foreign teachings.

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What Elisha ben Avuyah saw drove him over the edge. He could not repent. The God he believed in was no longer a God of Justice. He could no longer believe in that God. It reminds me of a lecture I delivered in a senior community in south Florida more than a decade ago. A Jewish man in his 80s approached me before the lecture.

Rabbi, I was a liberator of Dachau in WWII. When I approached the barbed wire fence of the camp I was overcome by the stench of rotting flesh. As the smell of rot entered my nostrils I lost my faith in God. I could no longer believe. I have since been an atheist.

I could not judge this man. Perhaps if I were in his boots on that day I would have lost my faith in God too. I told him that and he shook my hand and thanked me. My father was a heavy-machine gun sergeant in the American 97th Infantry Division in the last weeks of the war in Europe German sniper fire was a constant danger as the American troops moved from building to building to destroy the last fanatics yet his encounters with Holocaust survivors and his discovery of a synagogue destroyed in Kristallnacht only served to strengthen his will as a Jew. He billeted American troops in German homes and the first thing he told the civilians while carrying a carbine, before throwing them out, was I am a Jew. They shuddered with fear and ran out as quickly as possible.

We all have different reactions to severe trauma. Some Jews lose their faith. Others are strengthened by it. But as we end Elul and approach the High Holy Days, we must realize that after the Shoah and the founding of the State of Israel nothing will ever be the same. Those Jews who go to shul on Yom Kippur and fast till they are on the verge of fainting, have learned nothing about faith and doubt in God in such perilous times if they fail to grapple with the watershed events of Jewish history. It cannot be business as usual for Jews in the first quarter of the 21st century. We seek teshuvah (repentance) but we should ask God to seek repentance for violating the Sinai Covenant. For those who observe the High Holy Days, there must be so many difficult questions to ask and so few answers. There is nothing wrong with celebrating Rosh Hashanah and observing Yom Kippur. But there is something not right if we do so as automatons. When I lead my congregation in the El Maleh (Memorial Prayer) for millions of Jews murdered by the Nazis and their collaborators, I will not forget the Jew I met who liberated Dachau.

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Acher and the difficulties of teshuvah - The Jerusalem Post

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Posted By admin on August 22, 2021

The crucial film in the retrospective of the Polish director Andrzej Munk that opens online today at Film at Lincoln Center is Passenger, one of the very few fiction films about Nazi death camps that neither vulgarizes the subject nor presumes easy dramatic access to it. Munk (who was born in 1920 or 1921) didnt live to complete the film; he died in a car crash in 1961, with much of the movie already in the can. His associates (principally Witold Lesiewicz) completed the film, or, rather, finished it in a way that reflects its fragmentary state while calling attention to Munks plans and ideas, and emphasizing the effort to realize them. The result is a movie that dramatizes the very difficulty of filming the Holocaust. The films self-questioning of its dramatic form both conveys and respects the experience of its victims, and it does so in a bold, risky way: Passenger depicts Auschwitz from the point of view of a Nazi official.

Liza (Aleksandra lska) is a German woman who has been living as an migr for many years after the end of the Second World War and hasnt returned to Europe since; shes travelling by ship with her husband, Walter (Jan Kreczmar), a German man who had left the country before the war started. As the ship docks at a British port, Liza surveys the shore and, on the gangway, notices another woman whom she thinks she recognizes and whose presence sparks Lizas need to confess to her husband that, during the war, she hadnt been a concentration-camp prisoner, as shed claimed, but, rather, a guardalbeit, she says, a benevolent one, who saved the life of the woman she glimpsed. As Liza launches into the tale that she tells Walter, its dramatized onscreen, with her voice-over narration endowing it with her own perspective.

In the summer of 1943, Liza was conscripted to work as a wardeness in Auschwitz, where she was given the relatively easy job of supervising the warehouses next to the camp where the possessions of arriving prisoners were stored for use by the Third Reich. Along with piles of shoes and hats, baby carriages and toiletries, the gathered loot included jewelry, furs, silverware, glassware, and other luxurious furnishings. Ordered to select a clerk from among the camps inmates, Liza chooses Marta (Anna Ciepielewska), a Polish political prisoner, who, she says, aroused her compassion. Liza treats Marta benevolentlywhen she learns that Martas fianc, Tadeusz (Marek Walczewski), an artist, is also an inmate, she calls him to the warehouse on an ostensible mission so that the couple can meet. When Marta gets sick, Liza saves her life with medicine from the S.S.yet that assistance comes with a perverse twist that the wardeness signals in her account to Walter: I didnt expect gratitude. But I deserved some trust.

The audacity and the brilliance of Munks methods are signalled in an explanatory voice-over: the story that Liza tells Walter is only one version of the story, and its a gappy and intentionally vague one, which breaks off, and, after some action aboard the shipwhich Munk never lived to filmLiza then summons her own memories of Auschwitz, ones that she doesnt dare relate to Walter or anyone else. Lizas inner story, which is also dramatized and also features her narration (her interior monologue), is far more troubled. It brings to the fore several of the psychological elements that her account for Walter only hinted at, involving fear and power, and inflictions of carceral brutality that she doesnt dare admit.

In Munks depiction of daily life in Auschwitz, the element of fear is both ubiquitous and pointedly underplayedchimneys from which black smoke pours are left unexplained, and, without a word about a gas chamber, children wearing Star of David armbands are marched down a ramp into a brick bunker above which, in a single chillingly poised and framed take, an officer wearing a gas mask and thick rubber gloves empties the powdered contents of a large canister into a hopper. Kaposessentially, foremen and -women from among the prison population charged with policing other inmatesdisplay fearsome and brutal energy in rousting the prison population, because they themselves fear appearing, to their own German overlords, inefficient and inappropriately gentle. There are no piles of corpses; theres a tall wagon, seen from afar, with a limp arm dangling over its top edgeand a Kapo, noticing the untidy detail, uses his stick to tip it back inside. A horrific beating is a mere and unexceptional bit of backdrop; an organized tournament of cruelty and murdera circle of guards brutalizing a group of naked female prisoners for sport, and other prisoners given hooked sticks to grab them by the neckis depicted in sufficient distance to avoid prurience, in sufficient intimacy to convey sadism, terror, and murder.

Meanwhile, the daily deceptions of the Nazi authorities proceed apace: prisoners who are musicians are forced to perform classical selections, such as the overture to Carmen, in order to provide a cheerful welcome to newly arrived prisoners being marched into the camp and toward their death. Another concert by prisoners (performing in their striped uniforms) features a noble rendition of a Bach violin concerto as several officers display their culture by following along with the score while the music is partially drowned out by the whistle of a train arriving with new prisoners. When an international commission shows up to inspect the camp, officials arrange a Potemkin tour that will justify a favorable report on conditions thereand Liza chooses Marta to provide (in the face of the camps wider realities) a positive account of her treatment.

The movie reflects Munks powerful aesthetic sensibility, a style that fuses documentary and psychology, as in the extended shot that tracks a convoy of trucks along a strip of road, past a concrete assembly point, and tilting up to reveal one of those smoke-spewing chimneysin effect, the entire deportation and extermination process in a single imageand in the commanding gaze, from below, that Liza casts at Marta while standing obliviously in front of a barbed-wire fence and a pair of chimneys, a hard stare that both ignores and embodies the monstrous machinery behind her. Passenger is a film about horrors but not a horror filmit conveys the idea of the horrors without presuming to be able to depict them in any way that would do them moral, psychological, or, for that matter, mere representational justice.

The dramabased on a novel by Zofia Posmysz, who co-wrote the screenplay with Munkis coiled tight with psychological and moral tangles, centered on the two womens relationship of mutual need and mutual distrust. What Liza needs from Marta is a display of recognition for her generosityand when Marta remains distant and wary, Liza conceives and enacts cruel manipulations intended to assert her mastery over the prisoner without physically harming her. Yet Marta takes grave risks, on her part, to preserve a measure of dignity and pride in her oppressed positionand it entails putting Liza, too, at risk, in a mutually mortal maneuver that brings to the fore the fear that also grips Liza. On the one hand, she engages in the appalling banality of ordinary careerism as if service at a death camp is just another day in the office, aspiring to a promotion and even to a transfer back to the German homeland. On the other, shes also subject to the absolute power and cruel whims of the camp commander. When Marta pushes the boundaries of Lizas compassion in an effort to save another person, Liza is no less imperilled than is her prisoner. Lizas presumption to sympathy and benevolence within the machinery of absolute evil is both a delusion and a distraction from the main business at handwhich is why the apparition of Marta is more than the jogging of a memory, its the rending of the very fabric of existence.

All the more powerfully, the drama of Passenger, sticking with Lizas perspective, reflects the restraint and the dignity with which Munk approaches the incommensurable depths of outrage and agony endured by Marta and, by extension, other victims of the Nazi death machine. By identifying himself and viewers with Lizas dubious and compromised point of view, Munk also suggests the limits of drama in presuming access to her, and their, experience. Martas point of view, Passenger suggests, is accessible only where fiction ends, in victims actual first-person accounts. Even if the movies centering of Polish political prisoners reflects the Soviet-backed regimes official line, it also has the effect of awaiting the chance for Jewish victims to speak for themselves. Munks movie is a self-critical work of fiction that posits a world of documentary to come; as the connecting commentary affirms, Munk had intended lengthier sequences aboard the ship, which would have posed the very reasons and conditions for a summoning of memory about Auschwitz. In the specifics of its drama and the self-defining framework of its own limits, Passenger is the only concentration-camp drama Ive seen that approaches the moral and psychological complexity ofthe documentaries of Claude Lanzmann, starting with the epochal Shoah and including his related films, such as A Visitor from the Living and The Four Sisters.

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Passenger Depicts the Holocaust from the Point of View of a Nazi Official - The New Yorker

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Posted By admin on August 22, 2021

Al Tapper, the entrepreneur behind the hit documentaries "Broadway: The Golden Age" and "Broadway Musicals: A Jewish Legacy" announced he will be opening a new Off Broadway theater at 354 West 45th Street. The 99 seat house will be called The AMT Theater and will bring a new level of excitement to the Broadway area, focusing on new musicals, children's theater, new play development and cabaret. The composer/lyricist of the original musicals Sessions, An Evening at the Carlyle, National Pastime, All Aboard, The Paparazzi and Upside Down will also seek to strengthen international artistic ties between the United States and Mexico. Tapper has already had three shows run successfully in Guadalajara.

Tapper sees the rebirth of the space as important for the midtown Broadway area, hoping that artists and audiences will flock to see new works after almost a year and a half of laying dormant due to Covid. "It's vital that theater not only survive but thrive," Tapper says. "People are hungry for live performances again and artists are eager to provide that service. We want to be among the first to bring the excitement and thrill of going to live theater back to the Broadway area."

Tony Sportiello will be the Artistic Director and Operating Manager of the theater. He and Tapper have worked together since 2003, producing shows not only in New York but around the country. "Al has a passion for theater, as we all do, but he also has the means to make that passion a reality. Since we've started we've employed hundreds of actors, directors, musicians and tech people, entertaining literally thousands of audience members. Covid stopped us for about two years but we're ready to get back on the saddle," Sportiello says.

Construction begins on the new space in August and Tapper hopes to have shows running in the early part of 2022. "We're not going to rush into anything," Tapper says. "We're going to take our time, we want this to be as gorgeous an Off Broadway house as any in the city. But the moment we open our doors you're going to see a beehive of activity that won't stop."

The advantage Tapper brings to the new space is a lifetime of business experience. Early in his career he and his older brother Charles purchased a variety of businesses that manufactured everything from plastic cutlery and tumblers to paper and steel wool. His business acumen brought him fortune and his financial success has helped him support his passion. His musicals have been performed all over the United States and Mexico. His documentaries have received praise and a prestigious Peabody Award for "Broadway Musicals: A Jewish Legacy." His philanthropic efforts extend to funding college scholarships for underachieving youths, college fellowships and the Shoah Foundation.

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Al Tapper to Open New Off Broadway Theater, The AMT Theater - Broadway World

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