Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By admin on July 21, 2021

When Nazi tanks surrounded Warsaw, my father related in a rare moment of frustration, the Jews were in shul arguing over who should get shlishi (the honor of being called up third to the Torah).

It was a story I thought about often on Sunday, on Tisha bAv. The day marks the destruction of our Temple in Jerusalem and the beginning of exile, the day our sages teach was brought about by our anger at each other. And its a story I couldnt shake from my head this past month as our small team of organizers worked nonstop to inspire Jews and our allies to join us in Washington, D.C., for a rally against antisemitism.

Critics and doubters awaited us at every turn.

Get The Jewish Chronicle Weekly Edition by email and never miss our top storiesFree Sign Up

We were criticized for asserting that anti-Zionism was a form of antisemitism. How dare we include groups who praised Donald Trump, many asked. How dare we exclude groups who call for an end to the Jewish state? Cynical left-leaning Jewish publications ran articles claiming that this rally would be a right-wing gathering, warning their readers to stay away.

We were criticized for having a diversity and inclusion statement. Certain right-leaning Jewish leaders circulated concerns by email and social media, arguing that the rally had been compromised by the left. How dare we include groups who use terms like occupation, they asked. How dare we exclude groups who call for hatred or violence?

And those were just the ideological battles. Every day we received grief for giving not enough kavod, or honor, to one group, for giving too much to another. And we were warned turnout would be low perhaps a few hundred or fewer in the intense summer heat.

I understood that some would choose to stay away. But we were determined to take that first step even if it was imperfect and on July 11, under the banner of the American Jewish Committee, the Anti-Defamation League and dozens of other organizations, some 3,000 Jews and allies came together in front of the U.S. Capitol to demonstrate Jewish solidarity.

I never wanted to organize a rally. I just wanted to attend one.

When Hamas rockets started falling in Israel, and Jews found themselves being attacked on New York and Los Angeles city streets, I agitated for someone to scale the local rallies run by the Israeli-American Council, like one I attended in New York, into an in-person national rally in Washington. I made many calls. How many Jews would have to die or be threatened, in Israel or here at home, before our anger overflowed into the streets?

At first, nobody raised their hand. I vowed to help whoever did.

That group was the relatively unknown Alliance for Israel. Within a couple weeks, we had partnered with the ADL and AJC, and brought together the vast majority of the Jewish world from right to left, Orthodox to Reform, to stand with us as sponsors. Together we created a platform for powerful testimony that needed to be put on the record for the thousands who attended and the many more who watched at home.

Rabbi Jeffrey Myers described reciting the Viddui (the deathbed confession) while a murderer stalked his congregants at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh. Just out of the hospital, Rabbi Shlomo Noginsky of Boston drove eight hours with his arm in a sling to tell us how his attacker sought to slash the many children behind him. Matthew Haverim shared how his parents fled Iran, and how he was beaten for declaring his Jewish identity to a group of anti-Israel protesters in an L.A. restaurant. Talia Raab from Illinois described how an anti-Israel mob screamed kill the Jews as they attacked her familys car. These testimonies could not wait another day.

Rabbi David Saperstein, a light within the Reform movement who feels Israel needs to withdraw militarily from Judea and Samaria, spoke moments after Dan Raab quoted Menachem Begin and announced his upcoming enlistment in the Israeli army. Both received respect and applause from the audience. Ron Klein of the Jewish Democratic Council of America and Norm Coleman of the Republican Jewish Coalition former members of the House of Representatives and Senate, respectively jointly declared that antisemitism was a bipartisan problem and that both parties need to work together to stop it wherever it emerges. Their on-stage embrace is a refutation of everything partisan we have heard for the past eight years.

In a profound demonstration of allyship, Joshua Washington, the director of the Institute for Black Solidarity with Israel, sang Gesher Tzar Meod (The World is a Narrow Bridge) with Rabbi Menachem Creditor of UJA-Federation of New York and reminded us that we do not stand alone.

On Tisha bAv, I reflected on all the anger sent my way. We had tried to build a broad coalition among those who agree on the Jewish peoples right to exist in peace and security here, in the Jewish State of Israel and around the world. The cynics insisted that this unifying belief was not enough given how much disagreement there is among American Jews on Israeli policy and how best to combat antisemitism.

But I believe the cynics are wrong. There is another way.

Imagine the possibility that your ideological opponent is not an enemy but is a champion of something rooted in Judaism.

If you believe in land for peace, can you see someone who is committed to holding onto territory for Israels security as a champion of saving Jewish lives? And if you believe a continued Israeli military presence beyond the Green Line will be needed for the foreseeable future, can you see someone who is committed to Palestinian self-determination as a champion of Jewish values?

Yesterday was Tisha bAv.

Yesterday we mourned 2,000 years of exile, brought about by our hatred for one another.

Yesterday many of us mourned what is happening now.

Yesterday I felt the sense of loss for our divided community. I am done being angry at Jews with whom I disagree. I am saving my anger for the antisemites who threaten our safety in the Diaspora and in Israel, who lie about us in the halls of Congress and in American universities, who work within social, published and broadcast media to spread bias against us.

Today is the day after Tisha bAv. It is time to rebuild.PJC

Elisha Wiesel is the son of Marion and Elie Wiesel. This piece first appeared on JTA.

Originally posted here:

I helped organize the Washington rally against antisemitism. - thejewishchronicle.net

Category: Jewish | Comments Off on I helped organize the Washington rally against antisemitism. – thejewishchronicle.net
Tags:

Posted By admin on July 21, 2021

Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore has reportedly concluded its investigation into the actions of a teaching assistant who asked in a tweet last Nov. 15 if she could lower the grade of Zionist students because of their support for ethnic cleansing. But the university has not disclosed its findings nor replied to those asking what is being done to prevent future incidents.

We are frustrated by the lack of public transparency by the university on the outcome of this investigation, said Howard Libit, executive director of the Baltimore Jewish Council.

In a letter July 9 to Sunil Kumar, the universitys provost, and Shanon Shumpert, its vice provost, two national organizations asked the university to disclose the steps it has taken to comply with Title VI of the Civil Rights Act to end the harassment, eliminate any hostile environment and its effects, and prevent the harassment from recurring.

If the schools investigation found that the threat of the teaching assistant, identified as Rasha Anayah, to fail her Zionist students was merely an empty one, they wrote, her actions constituted harassment of those Jewish students for whom connection to Israel is a critical and deeply held component of their Jewish ancestral and ethnic identity. And by inviting others to agree with her, the TA actively sought to foster an environment hostile to these students at Johns Hopkins.

Courtesy of LinkedIn

In a November 15 tweet, Johns Hopkins University teaching assistant Rasha Anayah wondered if she could lower the grades of Zionist students.

Neither Anayah nor the university responded to emails from the Forward seeking comment.

The joint letter was written by the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, a nonprofit organization that promotes the civil and human rights of the Jewish people, and StandWithUs, an international nonprofit that supports Israel and combats antisemitism.

In it, they expressed concern that the universitys understanding of privacy laws may limit its efforts to end the harassment and hostile environment generated by the TAs conduct.

Not only did she threaten to fail these students, she encouraged her audience to join her campaign of hatred by purporting to take a poll in favor of carrying out her threat, the letter said of Anayah.

The groups called on the university to issue a public statement recognizing that for many students at Johns Hopkins, Zionism is an integral component of their Jewish ancestral and ethnic identity, and any efforts made by faculty and staff that demean, marginalize, ostracize, harass or discriminate against students on the basis of the Zionist component of their Jewish identity will not be tolerated.

In their letter, the two groups noted that the University of Michigan admonished a professor in 2018 who refused to write a letter of recommendation for a student after learning he wanted to study in Israel. They told him that he had an obligation to support your students academic growth and should not use his request as a platform to express your own personal views.

The joint letter called on Johns Hopkins to send an equally strong message to its faculty and teaching assistants. Doing so in no way violates the privacy rights of any individual faculty or staff member but is a necessary step toward remedying the hostile climate this incident has created.

Roz Rothstein, chief executive officer of StandWithUs, said that although the university issued a statement in January saying it does not tolerate any link between academic grading and bias, it failed to mention that the TA was targeting Jewish students.

Since this was a direct threat to Jewish students, why wouldnt the university be specific and address the issue of discrimination against Jewish students at the school? she asked. I cant imagine if this was an LGBTQ or African American or a womans group that there would be this treatment.

Asked what steps the two groups might take next, Alyza Lewin, president of the Brandeis Center, said it all depends on how the university responds.

I am concerned with what will happen in the fall, she said. I hope the university will take its responsibility seriously and issue a public statement designed to ensure that does not happen.

Whatever happened to that John Hopkins teaching assistant who wanted to punish Zionist students?

Link:
Whatever happened to that John Hopkins teaching assistant who wanted to punish Zionist students? - Forward

Category: Zionism | Comments Off on Whatever happened to that John Hopkins teaching assistant who wanted to punish Zionist students? – Forward
Tags:

Posted By admin on July 21, 2021

Schimmel is a human rights lecturer and researcher at University of California Berkeley. He lives in Berkeley.

Since May, dozens of attacks on Jews have been documented globally and in San Diego, where two women vandalized the Chabad House at San Diego State University. Many of these have been violent assaults targeting Jewish people eating at restaurants, going to synagogue for prayer, gathering to celebrate life events and holidays, at home, walking around their neighborhoods or simply existing and being a part of society. I have found myself deeply pained by the lack of solidarity with and support for Jewish people.

Nazi swastikas have been painted on Jewish communal centers and Holocaust memorials in one state after another, a rabbi was stabbed in Boston, and Jews have been assaulted from Los Angeles to New York. Abuse of Jews is becoming normalized.

Social media is replete with hate speech against Jews, some of it invoking the Holocaust in the most violent and vicious ways, seeking to demean, devalue and dehumanize Jews. Jews are routinely attacked online in ways that deny their human rights, dignity and history.

We provide this platform for community commentary free of charge. Thank you to all the Union-Tribune subscribers whose support makes our journalism possible. If you are not a subscriber, please consider becoming one today.

Yet here in the United States and in Europe as well, Jews have been overwhelmingly abandoned by progressive activists, particularly at the grassroots. The same community of conscience I marched with and supported to advance social justice and human rights is not coming together to defend my rights quickly, forcefully, passionately and unapologetically, or to take anti-racist action in defense of the human rights of Jews.

Is it because many progressives do not take racism against Jews as seriously as other forms of racism? As Rep. Dean Phillips, D-Minnesota, tweeted on May 24, Ill say the quiet part out loud; its time for progressives to start condemning antisemitism and violent attacks on Jewish people with the same intention and vigor demonstrated in other areas of activism.

Is it because increasingly Jews are denied the right that progressives recognize for other minorities to articulate and define their identity including their collective identity and to defend their collective rights as a people, including their right to political self-determination and the freedom, safety and equality such self-determination confers? The pursuit of political self-determination has been fundamental to every anti-colonial struggle and basic to international human rights law, yet it is often denied to Jews by illiberal progressives.

Or is it because despite having spoken for years about our experiences of anti-Jewish abuse, Jews are routinely denied the right to define anti-Jewish racism for themselves and are condescendingly told that others must define anti-Jewish attitudes and actions for us and belittled when we speak out about our experiences of anti-Jewish racism?

The reasons for this illiberal progressive exclusion of Jews from the promise of solidarity and equality are multiple, complex and intersectional.

We need to analyze those reasons and change and correct these hurtful and harmful behaviors.

But right now, and in the months ahead, what Jews in the U.S. and globally need urgently is substantive solidarity and support for their fundamental human rights, their freedoms and their security.

We need allies to stand by us. To eat with us at kosher restaurants and restaurants with many Jewish clientele and to shop at kosher grocery stores. To visit and show support for Jewish schools and synagogues and cultural centers.

We need self-reflection, self-criticism and self-correction on the part of those who have shown indifference and abandoned us to ask themselves why and how in language and ideology Jews have experienced rejection and exclusion that is now enabling a dangerous global wave of anti-Jewish attacks and increasing anti-Jewish discrimination and hate.

For many Jews deeply involved in social justice and human rights work, we have struggled for years with our voices and experiences being marginalized by some in the progressive community. We have experienced a lack of willingness to show empathy for our history and heritage, perspectives and memories, concerns and suffering.

We are tired of covering up who we are. We are tired of having to hide our identities and deny them. We are tired of having to explain all the ways in which we experience discrimination and persecution, both historically and today. We are tired of being doubted, of the ignorant comments that reflect a lack of knowledge of Jewish diversity in color, ethnicity and background.

We are experiencing escalating attacks on our bodies, our freedoms, our ability to gather in community, our identity and our heritage. We deserve active solidarity, and serious soul-searching as to why we are so alone, not the parsimoniousness of spirit, silence and exclusion we are now experiencing.

More:

Opinion: The Jewish community is being abused and assaulted. We need allies to stand by us. - The San Diego Union-Tribune

Category: Jewish | Comments Off on Opinion: The Jewish community is being abused and assaulted. We need allies to stand by us. – The San Diego Union-Tribune
Tags:

Posted By admin on July 21, 2021

It was 16 years ago Monday the 10th of Av in the Hebrew calendarthat more than 8,000 Jews were evicted from their homes in the Gaza Strip in what was officially known as the disengagement. The Seventh Annual Katif Conference of National Responsibility, which brings together those who wish to remember that evacuation, along with politicians, religious leaders and journalists, took place at the Menachem Begin Heritage Center in Jerusalem on July 13.

The Jewish residents of the Gaza Stripthe vast majority of whom were Religious Zionistslived in 21 settlements collectively known as Gush Katif (or Harvest bloc). They had turned sand dunes into a world-beating agricultural area, growing everything from cucumbers to tulips, much of it in state-of-the-art greenhouses.

It came as a severe shock when the man who had been their champion, then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, decided to end their lifes work. Two Jewish settlements in northern Samaria were also marked for demolition.

National responsibility is a theme reflected in every Katif conference.

Mordechai Better, director of the Gush Katif Commemoration Center, told JNS this is the approach the residents took to fight the eviction plan. He explained that he lived in the Gaza Strip for 26 years managing the settlements education system. There was talk at the time of civil warof shooting, of violencebut our public said we wont raise a hand against soldiers. We wont be violent. We wont shoot. We will do everything we can to convince through words, he said.

Israeli homes in Neve Dekalim, Gush Katif. Credit: Yakov Ben-Avraham via Wikimedia Commons.

The nonviolent approach to the eviction plan at first appeared to be effective. Gush Katif residents conducted a national campaign to enlist public support. They went door to door talking to Likud delegates.

Tzvi Hendel, who lived in Ganei Tal, one of the Gush Katif settlements, and was a Knesset member at the time of the disengagement, attended the conference as a private citizen. He told JNS that Sharon didnt have a majority in his own Likud government. Finally, he realized he didnt have a majority, and he called a referendum in the Likud. He thought with the referendum hed succeed and the Likud would vote for him, but he lost big. What was not foreseen was that he would ignore the results.

Tzvi Hendel. Photo by David Isaac.

Through the lens of national responsibility

Among those attending the conference were Religious Zionism Party leader Bezalel Smotrich and Knesset member Amichai Chikli of Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennetts Yamina Party. Chikli has become popular on the Israeli right for refusing to support forming the current government, which includes left-wing and Arab Islamist elements. He argued that Bennett was breaking numerous promises to his voters.

Attempting to explain Sharons decision, Chikli said he wanted to buy quiet, a temporary truce from Israels day-to-day struggles with Palestinians. What the State of Israel really bought was an Iranian division in the service of the Revolutionary Guard in the Gaza Strip that knows how to shut down Ben-Gurion Airport and Tel Aviv for a months time.

Chikli said the fight now is for Judea and Samaria. The European Unions biggest project at the moment in connection with us is to expel the State of Israel from Area C, he said, referring to part of the territories that fall under Israeli sovereignty but in which the Palestinian Authority is making illegal inroads, often with the help of European funding. What stands against it, he said, is a weak central authority that doesnt know how to stop the illegal building.

Yamina Knesset member Amichai Chikli. Photo by David Isaac.

As with other Gush Katif conferences, panels focused on internal conflicts. Every year, we try to find the conflicts within the nation of IsraelArabs vs. Jews, religious vs. secularand then speak about them through the lens of national responsibility, said Better.

One panel dealt with the Arab riots in Israels mixed cities during Operation Guardian of the Walls in May. Panel members included Rabbi Israel Samet of Lod and Rabbi Ezra Heyman of Jaffa.

Samet said a watershed moment for the Jews of Lod involved a Jewish woman from the citys Ramat Eshkol neighborhood who often helps her Arab neighbors. A day after she helped one neighbor, she learned that the neighbors wife had pointed out cars that belonged to Jews so that vandals would know which ones to burn. That moment marked a change in the relations between the populations, said Samet.

From left: Lod activist Noa Mevorach; Rabbi Israel Samet of Lod; Rabbi Ezra Heyman of Jaffa; and Yifat Ehrlich, moderator and Israel Hayom writer. Photo by David Isaac.

For Heyman in Jaffa, the key event, he related, was when he saw several hundred young people come out of the mosques with murder in their eyes. That was the moment that I knew something had changed.

Heyman pointed out that every country in the world collects statistics about anti-Semitic attacks, but not Israel. No one counts them, so they dont exist. He said it was incredible that one of the men who attacked Rabbi Eliyahu Mali in Jaffa in April wasnt even accused of carrying out a nationalistic or racially motivated attack, despite having supportive references to Hitler on his Facebook page and yelling during the attack, There wont be one Jew in Jaffa.

Heyman offered a bleak view of the future: Theres a lack of acceptance in principle [among Arab Israelis] of the existence of the state. And this is only the start.

Rabbi Ezra Heyman. Photo by David Isaac.

The left became anti-Zionist

Another panel dealt with internal conflicts within individuals, featuring three public figures who had changed their political identification. They included Brig. Gen. (res.) Amir Avivi, director of the Habithonistim (or The Security Experts) movement; Irit Linur, an Israel Hayom columnist (Israel Hayom was a media partner for the event); and Shabtai Bandat, who works for Peace Now.

Avivi said he came from a Mapai family. Mapai was the Socialist party of Israeli founding father and first Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion. Although initially he supported the Oslo Accords, he subsequently observed the complete dissonance between what the media was reporting and what was happening on the ground. Here comes [PLO leader Yasser] Arafat and says the first day he arrives: In blood and fire, Palestine will be redeemed.

Peace Nows Bandat moved in the opposite direction. He grew up in the Religious Zionist world, moved to Samaria, worked in institutions in Elon Moreh (an Orthodox Jewish settlement in Samaria) and ran the yeshivah in Homesh, one of the two northern Samaria communities evacuated during the disengagement. He said he went through a long process in which he lost his religious faith. As his faith underpinned his political views, he said he began to question those as well, eventually moving to the left. He noted that his children remain Religious Zionists and strong supporters of the settlements.

It was much harder for them to deal with my political change than with my religious one, he said.

Irit Linur said her apparent move from left to right was deceptive for she hadnt changed at all. The left moved. The left became anti-Zionist. My basic sentiment always was and remains very Zionist, she said.

Irit Linur. Photo by David Isaac.

Another panel featured three Religious Zionist Knesset members belonging to different political parties, reflecting the varying viewpoints within Religious Zionism itself.

Enlivening the day-long conference, interspersed between the panels and speakers, were three plays. One featured a young religious girl immersed in the day-to-day fight against disengagement. Another portrayed the internal conflicts of a Gush Katif resident and an Israeli soldier as they struggle with how best to confront one another. A third dramatized a Supreme Court debate about whether or not to allow the destruction of synagogues in Gush Katif by the Israeli Defense Forces.

The plays were researched, written and directed by Tzvya Margaliot. There isnt a single word thats mine, she told JNS.

She said the soldiers words came from an official IDF document, the young girls speeches from a diary and the Supreme Court debate from hundreds of documents. I took all the documents and made it look as if it took place in 15 minutes, she said. (In the end, the court did give the IDF permission to destroy the synagogues, but the defense minister at the time, Shaul Mofaz, couldnt bring himself as a Jew to give the order. The synagogues were quickly destroyed by the Palestinians once the Israelis left.)

Can a Gush Katif-type evacuation be repeated in todays Israel? Hendel said the Israelis have learned from their mistake. Indeed, he thinks that Israel will one day return to the Gaza Strip. Its not the in thing right now, but theres no solution to the Gaza Strip except as part of Israel. It may take another year, another 20 years. I dont know that Ill get to see it. But theres no other solutionGush Katif will rise anew.

The post Gush Katif conference relives loss of Gaza communities, studies rifts in Israeli society appeared first on JNS.org.

More here:
Gush Katif conference relives loss of Gaza communities, studies rifts in Israeli society - Cleveland Jewish News

Category: Zionism | Comments Off on Gush Katif conference relives loss of Gaza communities, studies rifts in Israeli society – Cleveland Jewish News
Tags:

Posted By admin on July 21, 2021

There are several good reasons to return to a review of the outlook and proposed policies on the matter of Arabs and the Jewish homeland of Zeev Jabotinsky, the founder of the Revisionist wing in Zionism whose memorial ceremony last week was addressed by President Isaac Herzog.

Among the good reasons are Benjamin Netanyahu deliberating whether to include Raam, the political wing of the Southern Branch of the Islamic movement, in his future coalition. Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid eventually did include the party in their current government coalition. There were outbreaks of severe violent and murderous riots by Arabs in mixed towns such as Lod, Acre and the northern Negev in May and June, as well as yet another round with Hamas in Gaza despite the 2005 territorial disengagement.

Accusing Netanyahu of stigmatizing the Left, who employs the term the Left as a pejorative code word for anyone who was not one of us, Podeh then railed against Netanyahu (and Ehud Barak) for speaking of Israel as a villa in the jungle.

Podeh then reached back a century and asserted that the term, not only reflects [on] both mens perception of Israels place in the Middle East but that in many respects, it also echoes Zeev Jabotinskys 1920s concept of the Iron Wall which should separate the Jews from their Arab neighbors.

cnxps.cmd.push(function () { cnxps({ playerId: '36af7c51-0caf-4741-9824-2c941fc6c17b' }).render('4c4d856e0e6f4e3d808bbc1715e132f6'); });

This is either a complete misreading of Jabotinskys article, a total ignorance of Jabotinskys writing on the subject in general, or possibly an intended subversion with the intent of misleading his readers.

Back in 2013, Mordechai Kremnitzer and Amir Fuchs published a booklet at the left-of-center Israel Democracy Institute (IDI) on Jabotinskys views on democracy, equality and individual rights, including his attitude toward the Arabs of Eretz Yisrael.

He could have read there that Jabotinskys firm stance was that Israels Arabs have the right to full civil, cultural and collective equality including absolute [political] parity and in the allocation of state benefits. But what, to return to his 1923 Iron Wall and the second part, The Ethics of the Iron Wall articles, was Jabotinskys thinking on separation, as asserted by Podeh?

There was none. Quite simply, Podeh is acting with no little charlatanry.

FOLLOWING ARAB riots in April 1920, May and November 1921, Jabotinsky responded to the new reality and wrote, As long as the Arabs feel that there is the least hope of getting rid of us, they will refuse to give up this hope. Yet Jabotinsky expressed his own hope that the [extremist] leadership will pass to the moderate groups, who will approach us with a proposal that we should both agree to mutual concessions. Note: mutual; no dictating of conditions.

To reach that stage, Jabotinsky wrote that the Jews in the Mandate territory required a wall. Was that wall, a la Podeh, one of a separation of populations? One of apartheid? One of suppression? No. He explained, The only way to obtain such an agreement is the iron wall, which is to say a strong power in Palestine that is not amenable to any Arab pressure.

Jabotinskys Iron Wall was part of a defensive mechanism that would convince Arabs engaged in a terrorist campaign that they would fail. A century later, they have not yet surrendered their campaign of violence, negation and rejection of Jewish national identity.

Jabotinskys outlook on the Arabs in Mandate Palestine was based on his early promotion, from 1906, on behalf of national rights of minorities in Europes multi-ethnic empires. His dissertation was on Karl Renners concept of national cultural autonomy.

His 1929 poem, Two Banks has the Jordan, contains the line, There the son of Arabia, of Nazareth and my son will find fulfillment. In a 1930 essay, he wrote, He can produce documentary evidence of always having been a staunch adherent of the binational, even the multi-national state idea.

Gil Rubin, in his 2019 study, notes that Jabotinsky, despite writing in 1937, From a Jewish perspective it [population transfers] is a crime, did consider the idea of a transfer proposal of Arabs out of Palestine in an outline of an article jotted down in November 1939. His thinking was influenced by the Peel Commissions recommendation to relocate 300,000 Arabs, and also based on his belief that no ethnic minorities would remain in Eastern Europe after the war. Up to twenty million minority peoples, he foresaw, would be forced to leave their homes or assimilate into the majority population.

Nevertheless, as Jabotinskys The Arab Angle Undramatized proposal shows, he believed once a firm Jewish majority was in place, it would convince the Arab residents that Jewish primacy was the reality and normalcy. The article outlined in detail his view that wide-ranging autonomy rights could be then granted. His thinking formed the basis of Menachem Begins 1977 autonomy proposal.

It is unfortunate that we are a witness to Elie Podehs own legacy of falsehood.

Link:
Jabotinsky, Arabs and the Jewish homeland - opinion - The Jerusalem Post

Category: Zionism | Comments Off on Jabotinsky, Arabs and the Jewish homeland – opinion – The Jerusalem Post
Tags:

Posted By admin on July 21, 2021

Im all for the idea of baking yummy things into a hand pie.

Growing up in a French-Canadian family, I sort of felt left out on when it came to hand pies. People always talk and write about how every culture has some version of a hand pie, spotlighting treats like the Cornish pasty in England, empanadas from all over South America, Jamaican patties from the Caribbean and samosas from south and central Asia. A Jewish version is the knish, famously made and sold on streets or in the delis of New York City, among other places.

But, as far as I know, French-Canadians have only pies some pretty awesome ones filled with ground pork but not cute little hand-held models.

So I was intrigued when I heard a bakery focusing on knishes BenReubens Knishery in South Portlands Knightville neighborhood had opened in May. I have had very limited knish experience. I vaguely remember eating a cold one in the car driving home from New York City, but I remember little else.

I can tell you I remember a whole lot about the warm, flaky and flavorful knishes I brought home to my family from BenReubens the other day. My favorite was the BenReuben, filled with pastrami and sauerkraut and a slice of Swiss cheese on top, for $6.25. My wife, whose grandmother grew up on New Yorks Lower East Side and knows far more about knishes than I do, loved the Everything, which featured potato, cream cheese and scallions, plus a variety of seeds on top, for $5.50. We also tried the Spring Pea with green garlic, chickpeas and roasted mushrooms, for $5.50.

The pastry on all three was really nice, easy to chew and flavorful. The knishes are mostly sold cold. We ate them warm because the exceptionally helpful woman who served me wrote on the box that I should heat them in a toaster oven at 350 degrees for 10 minutes, which was perfect. She also said people could have them heated there and take them warm to go. I had ordered our knishes online the day before and picked them up at lunchtime on a Friday.

Each knish comes with a sauce of your choice. We tried the garlic mayo, horseradish sauce, onion jam, smoked salmon-aise and Thousand Island dressing. I especially liked the onion jam on the Everything knish.

The knishes at BenReubens make a very affordable lunch, as one is probably enough to fill most people. We each had one and a half and were stuffed. We also had some inexpensive sides, including a house-made deli pickle and a small serving of potato salad with mustard and pickled onion, for $4.75, which we all agreed was great, with fresh dill and a mustardy tang.

The family running BenReubens wrote on their website that they hope to bring new life to old family recipes and traditional Jewish dishes with seasonal inspiration from Maine. So keep that in mind, knish purists, if youre thinking that the knishes you had in New York City didnt have pastrami or green garlic in them. As I said, I dont know much about knishes, but I know these tasted great.

Another savory knish on the menu when I went was a Casco Bay White Fish with lemon, mixed herbs and potato. Sweet knishes included a Cheesecake version with blackberry, lemon and cream cheese and a Cinna-Knish with citrus icing and rotating flavors.

Other sides include chicken salad, house bread, house preserved lemons, mixed greens, sweet noodle kugel, spicy pickled cabbage and mushroom wild rice. The place also offers Friday night dinner pickups where you can order a meal with sides. A half-roast chicken dinner is $30 and half-brisket dinner $110. The latter is recommended for four hungry adults. Theres also a roasted veggie dinner. The dinners have to be ordered Sunday through Tuesday for pickup that Friday.

BenReubens location in Knightville, near the Casco Bay Bridge, means its a great place to pick up a picnic lunch or snack when heading out to nearby scenic spots, like Mill Creek Park, Willard Beach or Bug Light Park.

Its easy to carry wherever youre going, because, well, its a hand pie.

Invalid username/password.

Please check your email to confirm and complete your registration.

Use the form below to reset your password. When you've submitted your account email, we will send an email with a reset code.

Previous

Next

Read the rest here:

Eat & Run: Knightville knishery puts a new twist on the Jewish hand pie - Press Herald

Category: Jewish | Comments Off on Eat & Run: Knightville knishery puts a new twist on the Jewish hand pie – Press Herald
Tags:

Posted By admin on July 21, 2021

Hello,

This is the daily Politics Briefing newsletter, written by Ian Bailey. Menaka Raman-Wilms is filling in today. It is available exclusively to our digital subscribers. If youre reading this on the web, subscribers can sign up for the Politics newsletter and more than 20 others on our newsletter signup page. Have any feedback? Let us know what you think.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said that his government will always support the Jewish community at todays National Summit on Antisemitism.

Story continues below advertisement

Were here to continue to fight and reject antisemitism in all of its forms, he said. The rise in hate motivated crimes against the Jewish community in the past few months is not only alarming, its completely unacceptable.

Hosted online by the Department of Canadian Heritage, Wednesdays summit brought together politicians and leaders of the Jewish community. The event was created as part of the governments Anti-Racism Strategy, and will be followed by a National Summit on Islamophobia on Thursday.

Mr. Trudeau was one of several speakers at the virtual event. In his remarks, he referenced how the past few months have been difficult as a result of the distress and tension caused by the conflict in Israel, Gaza and the West Bank.

He then reaffirmed that Canada stands strong in its support for Israels right to live in peace and Israels right to defend itself.

We condemn the indiscriminate barrage of rocket attacks fired by Hamas into populated areas of Israel, putting civilians and children at risk, he said. We remain committed to supporting progress towards a two-state solution, and continue to oppose unilateral actions that jeopardize the prospects for peace.

Speaking to reporters earlier on Wednesday, Green Party Leader Annamie Paul expressed frustration that she wasnt invited to speak at the summit.

The choice of the Minister and the Prime Minister not to invite the only Jewish federal leader to attend, and someone who, it pains me to say, is a regular target of antisemitic attacks, to participateI think is a loss to the conversation.

Story continues below advertisement

On Tuesday, Ms. Paul said on Twitter that she had not been invited to the summit. Today she Tweeted that she had since been sent a link to watch the summit, but was not invited to speak. She then shared a video statement encouraging people to speak out and end the silence around hate.

Shadow ministers for the NDP and Conservative parties are attending the summit.

TODAYS HEADLINES

MAY SAYS SHES NOT INVOLVED IN PARTY TURMOIL - Former Green Party leader Elizabeth May says she can provide no insights into recent events with the party, and that she is not involved in the turmoil that has been a challenge for current leader Annamie Paul.

SINGH MORE POPULAR FOR PM THAN OTOOLE IN NEW SURVEY - More Canadians believe that NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh would make a better prime minister than the Conservatives Erin OToole, according to a new survey by Leger and the Association for Canadian Studies. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was still the most popular pick for the top job amongst those surveyed.

TOXIC ENVIRONMENT IN CROWN-INDIGENOUS RELATIONS OFFICE - Ex-staffers have said that Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Carolyn Bennetts office was a toxic work environment, according to reports from the CBC.

Story continues below advertisement

REVIEW OF EI SYSTEM WILL GO AHEAD DESPITE POTENTIAL ELECTION - An upcoming election wouldnt change plans for a review of the employment insurance system, according to Employment Minister Carla Qualtrough. After the COVID-19 pandemic exposed issues with the EI system, Ms. Qualtrough said consultations on how to modernize it will start next month.

PRIME MINISTER'S DAY

The Prime Minister spoke at the National Summit on Antisemitism early this afternoon. Later today, an interview with Mr. Trudeau will air on the radio station Rock 95 in Barrie, Ont., and another will air on Omni News: Arabic Edition.

LEADERS

Bloc Quebecois Leader Yves-Franois Blanchet meets with mayors and business leaders in the Abitibi region of western Quebec today. This evening he is scheduled to speak at an event in the region for two local MPs.

Conservative Party Leader Erin OToole is in Ottawa this week.

Story continues below advertisement

Green Party Leader Annamie Paul held a virtual news conference Wednesday morning where she called on the government to reverse the reduction made to the Canada Recovery Benefit.

NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh held a news conference Wednesday morning and then attended a caucus meeting at noon.

OPINION

Gary Mason (The Globe and Mail) on how Jason Kenney is praying for an Alberta Renaissance, but there are obstacles: While Calgary is a city that will continue to be identified with the oil and gas industry, it wont be defined by it in the years to come. It will not be the source of exponential economic growth in the way it once was.

The Globe and Mail Editorial Board on how carbon taxes could ensure a level playing field for environmental standards: The absence of such tariffs has long led to carbon policy pretzels. Canada has had no choice but to largely exempt some trade-exposed industries from carbon pricing. The lack of international carbon pricing on, for example, cement or steel, meant that Canada has had to go very light on taxing emissions from those industries. Carbon tariffs could change that story.

Shimon Koffler Fogel (contributor to The Globe and Mail) on why combating antisemitism will require action beyond a single days national summit: The national summit goes beyond acknowledging anti-Semitism it is about advancing proposals to combat it. Among the recommendations the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA) offers are proposals related to education, which remains the most constructive approach to addressing and diminishing hate.

Story continues below advertisement

Blake Murdoch (contributor to The Globe and Mail) on why the downsides of vaccine passports have been exaggerated: One issue raised by critical commentators is that vaccine passports would be unfair to individuals who cannot get vaccinated for medical reasons. In reality, the vast majority of eligible but unvaccinated individuals do not have a medical reason. They are vaccine hesitant, opposed to vaccination or simply complacent.

Send along your political questions and we will look at getting answers to run in this newsletter. It's not possible to answer each one personally. Questions and answers will be edited for length and clarity.

Got a news tip that youd like us to look into? E-mail us at tips@globeandmail.com. Need to share documents securely? Reach out via SecureDrop

Read more:

Politics Briefing: Trudeau says his government will stand with Jewish community at anti-Semitism summit - The Globe and Mail

Category: Jewish | Comments Off on Politics Briefing: Trudeau says his government will stand with Jewish community at anti-Semitism summit – The Globe and Mail
Tags:

Posted By admin on July 21, 2021

Nahuel Prez Biscayart stars in Persian Lessons, screening Saturday, July 25, as the in-person opening night selection of the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival. Photo: Cohen Media Group

One of the things San Francisco Jewish Film Festival Program Director Jay Rosenblatt missed most during the long pandemic timeout was live events.

A filmmaker in his own right, his latest short, When We Were Bullies, premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January, but that and subsequent screenings have been virtual. He misses the energy and participation of a live audience. And while the majority of the 41st Jewish Film Festival, set to run Thursday-Sunday, July 22-Aug. 1, is online, he welcomes a return to the Castro Theatre on Saturday-Sunday, July 24-25.

We have guests coming in, and Im just so excited to see filmmakers, Rosenblatt told The Chronicle in a recent video interview. Im going to get a vicarious thrill watching these filmmakers, to see them see their films on the Castro screen.

This year is kind of a transition year, he added. A lot of people were clamoring to get back into the theaters and the sense of community, you could just feel it. People really want to see each other. So, we decided to do a hybrid and see how it goes. Hopefully, by Winterfest next year well be back to a live festival.

Rosenblatt admits to being nervous about what this year would bring before he and his team dived into programming it. His biggest fear was that, given how COVID-19 idled so many filmmakers and put onerous limitations on those that went forward with their projects, there might not be enough quality films to fill an 11-day event.

That was not the case, he said. We have amazing films. I am proud of this program.

The hybrid nature of the 2021 festival translates to two opening night films. The festival kicks off online Thursday, July 22, with Misha and the Wolves, a documentary about the unraveling of a bestseller after questions arise over Misha Defonsecas tale of survival as a 7-year-old alone, but for the mammals of the title, during World War II.

Its one of those films where you expect one thing, but things are revealed that change your whole outlook about what went on, he said of the film, which also screens at the Castro on Sunday, July 25. Its overwhelming.

On Saturday, July 24, the Castro will kick off its opening night with Vadim Perelmans Persian Lessons: a drama about a man who saves himself from the concentration camp death chamber by pretending to be Persian and not Jewish only to have a Nazi officer demand Persian language lessons.

Another film highlights Debra Chasnoff, a Bay Area documentarian and Academy Award winner in 1992 for her short film Deadly Deception: General Electric, Nuclear Weapons and Our Environment. She became her own subject after she was diagnosed with stage four breast cancer, documenting the journey that ended in her death in 2017. Finished by co-director Kate Stilley Steiner, Prognosis: Notes on Living, is in the festivals local spotlight, screening at the Castro on Sunday, July 25, with Steiner and the films production team, including Chasnoffs widow, producer Nancy Otto, in attendance.

Its a remarkable, courageous film, Rosenblatt said. That will be an emotional event. Hopefully, the whole Bay Area filmmaking community will come out for it.

On a lighter note, Rosenblatt is high on A Kaddish for Bernie Madoff, an adaptation of Alicia Jo Rabins one-woman show, in which Rabins witnesses the discovery of Madoffs crimes and the financial meltdown of 2008 from her studio in a run-down Wall Street office building. A mix of musical, memoir and fantasy, Rabins and director Alicia J. Rose updated the narrative, connecting Madoffs ugly past with our murky present.

Its really something else. I was surprised by how much I enjoyed it, Rosenblatt said. The two Alicias, as well as the producer of the film, will be on stage with me at the Castro for a Q&A and to introduce the film.

One of the festivals signature initiatives, its Freedom of Expression Award, is planned as an online affair this year, with the prize going to Polish director Agnieszka Holland, whose films include Europa, Europa and In Darkness. The award presentation is set for Tuesday, July 27, and will include a prerecorded conversation between the auteur and Aspen Film co-director Laura Thielen. In addition to the award, the festival plans to screen Hollands latest work, Charlatan, a drama drawn from Cold War history about an herbalist suspected in the death of a Czech president.

Proud of this 41st program, Rosenblatt overflows with highlights. Among them are Marek Edelman and There Was Love in the Ghetto, a documentary-drama hybrid, co-written by Holland, limning a Holocaust survivors memories of love and lust in the Warsaw ghetto; the festivals Take Action Spotlight, Not Going Quietly, about how an amyotrophic lateral sclerosis diagnosis transformed activist Ady Barkans life and career; and the festivals two centerpiece films; the documentary The Conductor, about trailblazing symphony conductor Marin Alsop; and the narrative 200 Meters about a Palestinian fathers taut attempt to reunite with his family.

Its very pointed, Rosenblatt said. They actually live only a few miles away from each other, but they are separated by the wall between Israel and Palestine.

San Francisco Jewish Film Festival: Thursday, July 22-Sunday, Aug. 1. Online and in person. $15-$245. For tickets and more information, go to https://jfi.org/sfjff-2021

See the original post:

What to expect from this years San Francisco Jewish Film Festival - SF Chronicle Datebook

Category: Jewish | Comments Off on What to expect from this years San Francisco Jewish Film Festival – SF Chronicle Datebook
Tags:

Posted By admin on July 21, 2021

I have not watched the new Netflix series My Unorthodox Life, a show supposedly about how fashion executive Julia Haart lives her life in freedom from the repressive Orthodox Judaism in which she was raised.Im not boycotting the show because it attacks Judaism. This has become weirdly common on Netflix. Indeed, youd think its executives would at least have come up with a name more creative than the exact same title as the 2020 series Unorthodox.Less so am I skipping the show because of Haart herself. Ive never met her, and I have nothing against her. Many people who are raised with religion abandon it, and that is their choice. I am utterly opposed to religious coercion of every variety, and if Haart feels that Orthodoxy is an oppressive downer, thats her choice.And even less so am I skipping the series because of the hypocrisy of how Netflix would never even contemplate doing a series of how, say, an American Muslim woman rebels against wearing the hijab and her perceived oppression by Islam.One more thing. Im not even skipping the series because of its perceived exploitation of Haarts children, something Ive been extremely careful about in my own TV series. When I did Shalom in the Home for TLC, many producers pushed us to do an entire series about my own family. They said it would be a positive portrayal of a religious Jewish family. But some of my kids were opposed, so we dropped the entire idea.

cnxps.cmd.push(function () { cnxps({ playerId: '36af7c51-0caf-4741-9824-2c941fc6c17b' }).render('4c4d856e0e6f4e3d808bbc1715e132f6'); });

As for Judaisms rules about sex which, she so derisively dismisses, the interesting thing is this: Judaism has almost no rules about sex, something I highlighted at length in my book Kosher Sex. Every position and every pleasurable interaction is allowed. Indeed, about the only things that are forbidden are pornography, because youre being excited by strangers and not each other; and having sex during menstruation, because Judaism wants the erotic barrier of sexual forbiddenness of several days each month to magnify lust and desire. Husbands and wives need a period of sexual separation in order to hunger for each others bodies again.

Indeed, the Orthodox Jewish marriage is based far more on lust than love, a point easily demonstrated by the 10th commandment. It expressly forbids lusting after your neighbors wife, which by direct implication means you sure as heck ought to be lusting after your own.

Orthodox Jewish couples have not only great sex but the best sex. Sensuality is constant and eroticism is deeply encouraged, which is why Orthodox Jewish women dress so beautifully and elegantly, a point that Haart completely misrepresents.

Dont believe me? Go to any of the Orthodox communities in Brooklyn or Manhattan and be amazed at how gorgeous and striking the religious Jewish women are.

The writer is author of the international best sellers Kosher Sex, Kosher Lust, and Lust for Love, coauthored with Pamela Anderson. His daughter Chana started the Kosher.Sex company which seeks to enhance passion and intimacy in marriage. Follow him on Instagram and Twitter @RabbiShmuley.

Read the original here:

Orthodox Jews have the best sex - opinion - The Jerusalem Post

Category: Jewish | Comments Off on Orthodox Jews have the best sex – opinion – The Jerusalem Post
Tags:

Posted By admin on July 21, 2021

Local high school students will have a chance to learn about business issues from a Jewish perspective while earning college credits this fall.

A new course created by Yeshiva University and Chabad will be offered in person at three local sites beginning in October.

This is a class for Jewish teenagers to learn about Judaism and get college credits from Yeshiva University. There will be opportunities to socialize with other 10th-to 12th-graders, explains Rabbi Menachem Caytak of Chabad of Troy.

The class was developed by a Chabad Jewish teen network and Yeshiva University (cteenu.com). It is open to any Jewish student in 10th-12th grades; prior Jewish education is not required. The class will meet weekly for 60-70 minutes over 14 weeks, enabling students to earn two college credits with an optional seven-week extension for an additional credit.

Yeshiva University is a highly regarded educational institution based in New York City. Its credits are transferable to many other colleges and universities. This course has been offered in other cities with a recent pilot version in the Detroit area.

Ella Dotan, 15, a sophomore from Rochester Hills, learned about the program from her mother. She is interested in the course because I would like to learn more about Judaism and business and because of the opportunity for college credits while in high school. Dotan has had a bat mitzvah and formerly attended services at The Shul in West Bloomfield. She will be a student at Avondale High School in Auburn Hills this fall.

In addition to Rabbi Caytak, instructors will include Mushky Dubov, who codirects Chabad of Bloomfield Hills, and Rabbi Yarden Blumstein, teen director of the Friendship Circle, located in West Bloomfield. Classes will include a lot of group discussion of contemporary ideas in the Jewish tradition. Students will be able to develop great Jewish relationships, learn about their heritage and get a head start on college, Rabbi Caytak says.

Examples of curriculum topics include socialism and capitalism from a Jewish viewpoint; whether unions reflect Jewish values; philanthropy; the myth of the self-made man; and economic ethics from a Torah perspective.

Course fees start at $999 for two credits for those registering by Aug. 10. Rabbi Caytak stresses that scholarships are available so cost should not be a barrier to participation. Registration is available at cteenu.com and closes on Oct. 19.

Read the original post:

Course Offers Jewish Guide to Issues in the Commercial World Detroit Jewish News - The Jewish News

Category: Jewish | Comments Off on Course Offers Jewish Guide to Issues in the Commercial World Detroit Jewish News – The Jewish News
Tags: