Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By admin on July 13, 2021

For 67 years, key documents in the history of the Israeli LGBTQ community were tucked away in the countrys state archives. One of them, bearing the unusual title Castration Surgery, is a legal opinion submitted by Attorney General Haim Cohen to the Health Ministry in 1954. In it Cohen declared that it would not be permissible for Rina Natan, the countrys first known transsexual woman, who'd petitioned the Health Ministry to undergo sex-reassignment surgery (once referred to as sex change surgery), to undergo the operation. Due to his opposition, she kept harming herself while attempting to carry out the surgery eventually causing life-threatening injuries and forcing a hospital to carry out the procedure.

In the decades that followed, Cohen was perceived as the bad guy in this story, since because of his legal opinion the full text of which was previously unknown transgender women were not permitted to undergo sex-reassignment surgery locally and had to travel abroad for it. The regulations were changed in 1986 to permit such surgery in public hospitals in Israel, subject to the approval of a special committee.

But now, thanks to pioneering research by a B.A. student of history at Tel Aviv University, which also uncovered a letter by Cohen, the full picture is being revealed. And it actually is a surprisingly positive one, in terms of the LGBTQ community, reflecting the approach of the then-attorney general, who went on to become a Supreme Court justice and a human rights activist.

These documents change everything we had thought in existing historical research, whereby Haim Cohen was perceived as a very negative figure in transgender history, says the student, Lilla Attar.

This is a very significant discovery. Attar located documents that weve been searching for, for a long time, adds Prof. Iris Rachamimov, a transgender historian and scholar of gender and LGBTQ history.

A review of the archival documents unearthed by Attar, revealed here for the first time, raises several interesting points. First and foremost, the fact that Cohen wrote that, although the existing law did not permit Rina to have the surgery, he was working to amend it so that the operation could be performed in the future. While the change of legislation was never made, the documents show that he intended for it to happen.

I believe that this needs to be remedied and in the new criminal code, which we are now drafting, we will strive to ensure that all of these problems find their legal solution, he writes in a letter under the heading aesthetic operations, which was sent to various professional bodies at the end of 1954. Cohen explained that the reason he could not approve the operation for Natan was not due to any personal or professional opinion, but because he sought to abide by the existing law which, as he noted, was outdated and not suitable for the current times.

Our criminal law, whose source is in a codex written by a judge in England 70 years ago, is almost entirely built upon precedents from what was standard English law even before it was drafted, he explains in the letter that was discovered. Needless to say, in those days they did not yet know what aesthetic surgery was, and from then until now, if my memory does not deceive me, the question of the legality of this operation never once came up in court in England or in Israel.

For her part, Attar, the student, says Cohen was indeed concerned that there was no justification for such a procedure according to the 19th-century English criminal statutes that still applied in Israel but he also worried about the bodily injury the surgery could cause. The surgeons would be committing a criminal offense if they performed the operation, she says.

But what is truly noteworthy here is the attorney generals presumption that Rina Natan did not suffer any physical or mental illness a very progressive attitude for that time, which only became accepted decades later around the world in cases of persons seeking what is referred to as gender affirmation surgery.

The patient does not suffer from any organic illness, neither physical nor mental illness. But his mental suffering is due to not having been born a woman, and that suffering is to the degree of impairing his ability to work, Cohen writes in the letter, later adding, the patients desire to have the appearance of a woman has not been satisfied The proposed surgery is not required in the name of curing the patient of his illness or preventing the illness from affecting his general health, for we dissent from the assumption that the patient in question suffers from any illness.

Having said all this, in concluding his legal opinion, he still declined to approve the requested operation: According to the law, no doctor in Israel is permitted, in this case, to castrate him and operate on him as proposed, even with his consent.

Rina Natan, the person behind these legal discussions, was a tragic figure who went on to become one of the symbols of the LGBTQ community in Israel. Born in Germany in 1923 as Gershon Natan, she described herself as feeling an emotional imperative to wear womens clothing and act like a woman in every way.

After World War II, she immigrated to Israel and moved from one kibbutz to another, after being banished because the members refused to house her in either the mens quarters or the womens quarters. During the War of Independence, she served as a medic. Subsequently, she struggled to fit in, in society and the labor market. Her name made headlines in 1953 when she was arrested for being dressed as a woman.

A young man, 29 years old, wearing elegant womens clothing and all dolled up, was arrested by the Tiberias police, who suspected him of having criminal intentions, Haaretz reported at the time. I am a woman in my soul and my feelings, Natan told the police detectives, according to the article. I was only born a man due to a physiological error.

The Haaretz writer met Natan detained in a cell, standing before a mirror in a green silk dress and shaving. From the time he was a child, he felt an emotional need to wear womens clothing and to act like a woman in every way and even once tried to correct the mistake by self-surgery, but the operation did not succeed, he reported.

Natan waged a tenacious battle against the state authorities for five years and paid a very high price, including being committed to a psychiatric institution, being forced to receive testosterone injections and being arrested for disturbing public order, Prof. Rachamimov explains.

Natans struggle to obtain permission for sex-reassignment surgery in those years was unsuccessful. She wrote to the Health Ministry and asked them to allow her to have the operation, Attar says. A committee of mental health experts concluded that she should receive approval for the operation for reasons of spiritual hygiene. But then when the case came before Haim Cohen, he ruled that the procedure could not legally be performed.

In 1956, Natan was rushed to Assaf Harofeh Hospital after she cut her genitals. Nothing will be of help this time, and you are obligated to perform surgery on me to take away the unnecessary organs and make me a woman, she told the doctors.

And thus Natan entered the history books as the first transgender woman in Israel to undergo a operation. Local newspapers at the time described her as a man-woman.

In 1958, she returned to Germany. As she boarded the plane, she reportedly said: Dont pay attention to the fact that my passport says Mister I am a woman. Back in her native land, she drifted away from Judaism and married a man. She died in 1970 at age 56.

The discovery of this historical documentation improves Haim Cohens image in the eyes of the local LGBTQ community. It is also in keeping with his liberal legal attitude toward the issue of mishkav zakhar (homosexual intercourse) at the time. In the 1950s, Cohen directed the state prosecution and the police not to investigate and/or charge men of legal age for having homosexual intercourse in private and by consent, even though such relations were outlawed at the time by criminal law. This directive was brave and innovative for its time, legal expert Ayelet Levin wrote in an essay published as part of the 2019 documentary project Shorashim Bamishpat (Roots of Law), initiated by former Deputy Attorney General Dina Silber.

Years later, Cohen explained what was behind his unusual approach: As attorney general, I gave the infamous directive that the police should not handle such cases [i.e., of homosexual relations], even though the law is the law. Of course, it is not desirable for the attorney general to issue a directive to not uphold the law. But I had tried earlier to get legislation to this effect passed in the government and I did not succeed, and I thought that it was my duty not to uphold a law that I felt was immoral.

We called upon German judges not to carry out the Nazis laws that they deemed to be anti-moral, and I think it is the duty of a judge and an attorney general not to lend a hand to the execution of laws that, in the best assessment of their conscience, are immoral, he said.

Levin wrote that the ability, by means of one brave decision, to bring about such a dramatic change in peoples lives, and to give weight to considerations of justice and morality in the framework of an administrative judgement, in order to protect individual liberty and human rights, attests to the tremendous power held by the attorney general and the great importance of wielding this power wisely and cautiously, but also with a large degree of courage.

Cohen was not able to bring about that sort of change in legislation regarding transgender people. However, the recently discovered documents at least show that he wished to bring about such change. Attar says it is also interesting to trace how attitudes toward this subject have evolved in the Justice Ministry and Knesset over the years. For example, in the wake of the work by a governmental committee on the advancement of transgender community in Israel, also headed by Dina Silber guidelines have been formulated that will permit transgender people, even if they have not undergone sexual reassignment surgery, to change their gender as listed in the Population Registry. Moreover, a recommendation was made to add the category other in addition to male/female on government forms.

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The story of Israels first trans woman, who resorted to operating on herself - Haaretz

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Posted By admin on July 13, 2021

For Orthodox Jewish feminists in Israel and abroad, the past few months have been something of a roller-coaster ride.

They cheered in April when Rabbanit Shira Marili Mirvis became the first Israeli woman to be appointed spiritual leader of an Orthodox congregation for all intents and purposes, the senior rabbi at her shul.

But they suffered a devastating blow two months later when freshly ordained Rabba Lindsey Taylor-Guthartz was sacked from her teaching position at the London School of Jewish Studies. Her decision to pursue smicha (rabbinical ordination), the popular instructor was told, went against the established position of mainstream Orthodoxy across the world, as well as that of Britains Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis, who oversees the school.

Neither the institution nor the chief rabbi could have foreseen the backlash that would ensue. Bowing to pressure from the Orthodox community, LSJS announced last week that it had decided to reinstate Taylor-Guthartz, who had taught there for 17 years before acquiring smicha. In an official statement, LSJS noted that it had not changed its position on female ordination. Rather, it had reached the conclusion that since Taylor-Guthartzs appointment was academic rather than religious, there was no reason to let her go. Orthodox feminists declared victory once again.

If I look back at the past 50 years of feminist revolution in Orthodoxy, I would say that its always been two steps forward and one step back, reflects author Blu Greenberg, widely hailed as the founding mother of Orthodox feminism in the United States. Thats a very healthy evolutionary process. Maybe now with Rabba Lindsey, weve gone three steps forward.

'Final frontier'

Founded in 2009, Yeshivat Maharat in New York was the first institution to ordain Orthodox women and remains the only such institution in North America. It has since granted smicha to 49 women. Maharat the Hebrew acronym for "female, spiritual, halakhic and Torah leader" was co-founded by Rabba Sara Hurwitz, often described as the world's first Orthodox female rabbi, and Rabbi Avi Weiss, who ordained her. The institution is affiliated with the Open Orthodox movement, which has its roots in Modern Orthodoxy but is more liberal.

Indeed, the Rabbinical Council of America, the main professional association of Modern Orthodox rabbis in the United States, does not recognize Maharat and continues to prohibit both the ordination of women and the hiring of women to fill rabbinic positions in Orthodox institutions.

About half-a-dozen Orthodox institutions in Israel, known as midrashot, have in recent years started certifying women as leaders and advisers of halakha (traditional Jewish law). Although participants in these programs do not receive ordination upon graduation, their curriculum is very similar to that of male rabbinical students. To date, about 25 women have graduated from such programs.

In addition to these formal frameworks, a handful of rabbis in Israel and the United States, affiliated with the more progressive streams of Orthodoxy, are known to ordain women privately.

Taylor-Guthartz, 61, a member of the most recent graduating class of Maharat, calls smicha the final frontier for Orthodox women. Weve seen this enormous burst of talmudic learning for women, particularly in Israel, over the last two decades, and the question is where do women go after that, she says, in a phone conversation from her home in London. If they were men, the obvious place would be smicha because thats what you do when you get to that level of education.

It was never her lifes dream to become a congregational rabbi, Taylor-Guthartz admits. What prompted her, rather, was a desire to gain an insiders view of the religious establishment so that she could be of greater assistance to others.

I wanted to learn more about how the halakhic system works in practice, because that is information that is very hard for women to obtain, she says. I figured that even if I didnt turn out to be an amazing and incredible rabbi, I would at least have a much better working knowledge of how halakha functions.

Mirvis, 41, is scheduled to complete a five-year program at Jerusalem-based Midreshet Lindenbaum at the end of this month, when she will officially be certified as a halakhic leader. The product of a traditional Orthodox upbringing, she says, she never even considered becoming a congregational leader an option. But after years of studying Talmud, she says, she felt a yearning to delve into halakha in an organized fashion and, therefore, enrolled in the Lindenbaum program one of the first in Israel to offer women the equivalent of rabbinical training.

Mirvis and her family were among the founding members of Shirat Hatamar, an Orthodox congregation established three years ago in the West Bank settlement of Efrat.

People there knew that I was studying at Lindenbaum, and so they would often come to me with halakhic questions. Eventually, I found myself delivering the weekly dvar Torah [thoughts about the weekly Torah portion] at the synagogue and holding classes for the congregants. Basically, I was filling the role of a rabbi, she says.

A few months ago, she relays, Shlomo Riskin, the American-born founding rabbi of Efrat, approached her with a proposition. He said he knew that in practice I was the spiritual leader of the congregation, and he thought it would be a good idea to make it official, says the mother of five.

No shared spotlight

Mirvis, who is married to the nephew of Britains chief rabbi, is not the first Orthodox Israeli woman to hold the title of spiritual leader. Five years ago, Carmit Feintuch was appointed to a similar position at the renowned Ramban synagogue in Jerusalem. The difference is that Feintuch (who has since moved on) was appointed to serve alongside Rabbi Benny Lau, then senior rabbi at Ramban, whereas Mirvis does not share the spotlight with anyone.

Like most Israeli women who have gone through similar religious training, Mirvis uses the title rabbanit. Some might consider it strange given that rabbanit is also the term used in Hebrew for a rebbetzin, or rabbis wife. Taylor-Guthartz, for example, uses rabba, the Hebrew feminine form of rabbi, as do many graduates of Maharat in New York. But Orthodox women in Israel tend to avoid it, Mirvis explains, because it is also the title used in Israel by female rabbis affiliated with the Reform and Conservative movements.

I definitely respect these other denominations, but its just not me, she says. And besides, Mirvis insists, nobody who knows her would ever mistake her for a rebbetzin. My husband runs a startup company he is not a rabbi, and thats common knowledge, she says. I know that people once associated the rabbanit with matchmaking and kugel-making, but those days are long gone.

Among Maharat's graduates, some still use the maharat title once bestowed by the institution on its graduates, but growing numbers in recent years have started calling themselves rabbi, plain and simple.

Dasi Fruchter prefers rabbanit. A graduate of Maharat, she is the founder and spiritual leader of the year-and-a-half-old South Philadelphia Shtiebel one of a handful of ordained Orthodox women in the United States who run their own congregations.

She didnt always call herself rabbanit, though. Upon her ordination, Fruchter was hired as an assistant spiritual leader at a large Modern Orthodox synagogue in Potomac, Maryland, where initially she used the title maharat.

About midway into my work there, she recounts, the team decided that shifting the title to rabbanit would get more people to relate to it and use it. It also made me feel more connected to my sisters in Israel, who were using it. What I noticed when I changed the title was a marked increase in people relating to me. Even if they werent sure about how they felt about my position in the community calling me rabbanit seemed to reassure them that they didnt have to decide just yet.

'Doctor' or 'doctoress'?

Rabbi Daniel Landes, the former director of the nondenominational Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies in Jerusalem, was among the first, if not the first, Orthodox rabbi in Israel to ordain women privately. Since blazing the trail about five years ago, he has given smicha to about a dozen women and has another eight in the pipeline. Most of these women call themselves rabbi, and a few call themselves rabba, but none use the term rabbanit, Landes says. I mean, why demean it? Its an important enough job in its own right, and you dont call a female doctor a doctoress do you?

According to Hurwitz, who serves as president of Maharat, eight graduates of her institution currently serve in congregational roles, mostly in assistant leadership positions. In that sense, Orthodox women in the United States are pretty far ahead of those in Israel, she says, noting that Mirvis appointment was unprecedented. While institutions like Lindenbaum have been educating Orthodox women at high halakhic levels for a good number of years, she says, it took them quite some time to come out publicly and say what they were actually doing, as opposed to Maharat, which was founded specifically for the purpose of ordaining women.

Rabbi Kenneth Brander, the president of the Ohr Torah Stone network of institutions, which includes Lindenbaum, cautions against comparing the United States and Israel in this regard. In Israel, he notes, Orthodoxy is by far the leading denomination very unlike the situation in the United States, where the Reform and Conservative movements predominate. Thats the reason people arent that concerned in Israel about women assuming leadership roles theres not that same fear of the slippery slope, he says.

Or as Rabbanit Devorah Evron, director of Lindenbaums halakhic leadership program, notes: I dont want to sound judgmental, but whats happening here in Israel is happening within mainstream Orthodoxy, and thats not the case in the United States. Our graduates work in regular Orthodox communities, not the type that call themselves egalitarian or inclusive. That could explain why, contrary to whats happening in the United States, this is not something that is tearing the Orthodox community apart. Earlier this year, Evron was appointed spiritual leader of Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan the first woman to hold such a position on an Israeli campus.

Taylor-Guthartz cant say whether Israel is ahead of the United States or vice versa. What she can say is that Britain is trailing behind them both. Indeed, this newly minted rabbi is hard-pressed to name one Orthodox woman in the U.K. who has been ordained and is gainfully employed in an Orthodox congregation.

Were always 10 to 15 years behind Israel and the United States, she says.I mean, this is a country where they still call women ladies.

She adds with a laugh: I cant tell you how many people have told me how wonderful it is that Im a lady rabbi.

In 1984, Blu Greenberg, who is today 85, wrote a seminal essay titled Will There Be Women Rabbis? Her answer to her own question was that there would be in her lifetime. Before submitting the essay for publication (in Judaism, a now-defunct journal), as she often did, she went down to her husbands office and asked him to have a look at it.

Ill never forget his reaction," she says. "He gave me a big kiss and said that if my prediction is correct, wed be living forever.

In that article, I never imagined that women would end up being pulpit rabbis," Greenberg adds, "so this has gone much further than even I anticipated."

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Orthodox, female and running their own shuls just dont call them rabbis - Haaretz

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Posted By admin on July 13, 2021

Rabbi Leibel Miller, director of the Chevra Kadisha society of Florida, has been working around the clock since the Champlain Towers South collapsed on June 24, and his body is beginning to show it. During an interview with the Forward Thursday evening, he yawned and coughed and admitted his health was faltering from a lack of sleep.

Miller coordinates about 60 volunteers who help prepare Jewish bodies for burial, a process that typically involves a thorough cleaning and ritual washing of the body known as tahara; constant accompaniment of the body by a shomer, or guard, who recites Psalms; and the wrapping of the body in a burial shroud called tachrichim.

But the preparation of the Surfside disaster victims less than half of whom have been recovered to date has posed unique challenges to the Chevra Kadisha, as Jewish law prioritizes recovering and burying every part of the body. And for Miller, 65, a resident of South Broward who was raised in Surfside, the work is deeply personal, too.

Miller said nothing less than a body has been buried so far, and he anticipated that the vast majority of the missing will be found in the next week or two. The Forward asked him to share his thoughts on the recovery efforts, the halachic implications of partial remains and how he has found meaning in the work.

This interview has been edited for clarity and length.

Can you describe what youve been doing today?

I just got a list of seven people, from their families, who were notified that rescuers found at least parts of the bodies. And Im currently working to try to figure out when to get the bodies or the parts from the medical examiner. One of the issues were having in particular is, for example, in one case we found partial remains, which the family wants me to pick up and bury. I dont want to pick up part of a body when we think the rest of the body will be discovered soon.

Courtesy of Leibel Miller

Rabbi Leibel Miller.

Why not bury part of a body?

If they finish their shiva, and then open the grave to add additional remains, that could start the whole process again for them for mourning. Everyone wants closure, even if its only a part of the body, but we cant take a chance on that. Were hoping to recover entire bodies and if we dont, we still want to get as much as we can.

So far, were mainly getting whole bodies. But as the days go on, thats obviously going to be less and less, right? Theres a reality of the fact that on the tenth floor, theres a lot less rubble to clear than someone who was on, say, the third floor. So the situation is more dire. And then we also have the decomposition thats going on, which Id rather not talk about.

Who is helping you with this work? Have you received assistance from other Chevra Kadisha groups?

No. Halachic authorities, yes. Ive had calls from Chevra Kadishas in Panama, New York, asking if I need help. But what are they going to do? My job is to make sure that once the body has been recovered, once its been released, to intercede with the medical examiner as soon as possible to prepare the remains for burial.

I dont want to get into details, but sometimes the condition is so bad, we cant go through the normal process of tahara, the preparation of the body, but we always try to put the shroud on, and sometimes that can be quite a horrendous situation. Not everybody can be involved in that. The issues of decomposition can be something that only the strongest of our members can be involved in.

You mentioned receiving halachic guidance. What questions have come up?

For example, should we bury part of a body and then open the grave again to add a part? If we did, do we have to restart the shiva? If we have a large part of the body and were only expecting another small part to come, but it will come immediately, do you wait? What if youre not sure it will come immediately?

Very complicated questions, and the answers vary on a case by case basis. And we always seek rabbinic authority we never make decisions on our own. Weve had input from local rabbis, from rabbis from New York who were involved with 9/11 and from rabbis in Israel.

With a debris pile in which we know there are victims, and officials transitioning to search and recovery, what are the halachic considerations with respect to shmira the guarding of the body and more generally speaking kavod hameis (respect for the dead)?

We had hope everyone always had hope and prayers, were a people of faith but lets be honest: from the condition of the first bodies we received a week ago, we could pretty much tell this was a recovery situation, not a rescue.

Obviously, we always have to have kavod hameis. We always have to have shmira on site. Theres been shomrim reading tehillim on site the entire time, in shifts partly through Chesed Shel Emes [a volunteer organization that provides after-death services] and partly through the Shul of Bal Harbour. On every Sabbath Ive kept someone at the funeral home, because we dont know when remains are going to come in, so weve had a shomer there almost constantly. To say that I have someone at the medical examiner would not be accurate its a closed facility, theyre not letting us poke around, walk around the halls. But we can be near the building, so we do the best we can.

We try to do as much as we can in every case to make sure remains have the proper Jewish respect. When possible, a tahara is done on a body. It cant be done on a foot, right? Its just not done that way. We place the remains in the casket as much as possible, in the traditional burial garments the tachrichim and say the proper prayers.

Ive not yet had the situation in this disaster where Im dealing with anything less than a body. It hasnt happened yet. What will happen in the future, I dont know.

The discovery of remains has accelerated since the demolition on Sunday.

Big time. I believe the next week or two the majority of the larger pieces of the remains, enough to do burials, will start to come to the surface. The question is, and I still dont have the answer, is what part of a body do we wait for to do a burial? Obviously, if we have head torso arms, but were missing a leg, were not going to wait for a leg unless we imagine its coming immediately. But obviously some loss could happen through decomposition in time of parts. But say a foot was found, the Orthodox tradition is you have to open the grave and put it inside.

Now in New York, sometimes what theyve done is put a piece of piping down to the casket so parts can be added later. Im not sure if its going to be legal to do it here. More than likely and some of the Jewish cemeteries here have said that theyll have reduced labor charges for it theyll reopen the grave and put that part in.

By Louis Keene

Dust from the demolished Champlain Towers South accumulated on the street and on plants near the site July 5.

Im guessing you were already behind on sleep prior to the demolition. What have the last 14 days been like for you?

Basically calls all hours of the night. In all honesty, the real all-nighters are the ones who are working with the families and doing the digging. But if you want to get a funeral for the same day out of town, that means getting on the flight at six in the morning. And you have to be at the airport two or three hours in advance, so it could involve being four in the morning at the funeral home making sure everything is packed up properly for the shomer to make his flight. So that could be quite disturbing of your night.

There is a line recited before shacharit, about how the mitzvah of accompanying the dead yields fruit to the performer in our world and in the World to Come. Im wondering if you have felt that these two weeks. Is there an aspect of your work that has brought you comfort amid such sadness?

Every death is tragic, but the fact that this is sudden in one sense, and then so prolonged, makes this especially painful. Personally, I knew a lot of these people. Theyre friends and family of people in my community, and members of groups that I affiliate with. I personally knew the guys, and its shocking. To be able to help them in this process of transition from physical to spiritual provides me comfort, but it does not necessarily help in the loss. The loss is still the loss.

In the past, Ive had difficulties when someone was my friend, that I didnt want to be involved in the tahara because its too close to home. And especially in these situations, to see people in such a terrible condition, its very painful. So maybe there is a reward for me, but Im certainly not feeling it in this world.

Is there anything else youd like to add?

We all realize that this is holy work, work that we really would rather not have to be doing. I worked with many of the children who were killed in the shooting in Parkland, and that was tragic; I went to Arica, Chile, to bring the bodies back when that bus went over [in December 2019]. Of all the projects, this was most like 9/11. Its the most monumental, tragic event that we could ever imagine. Theres no explanation for it.

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Broken bodies and grieving souls: A rabbi cares for the dead in Surfside - Forward

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Posted By admin on July 13, 2021

Rabbi Sid Schwarz. Photo by David Stuck

By Lori Silberman Brauner

Ithink about synagogues as containers that use Judaism as a toolkit to advance human flourishing, says Rabbi Sid Schwarz. I dont think the job of the synagogue is exclusively to get people to keep kosher and do Shabbat.

Since becoming founding rabbi of Adat Shalom Reconstructionist Congregation in Bethesda, in 1985, the 67-year-old Schwarz has gone on to launch one Jewish organization after another.

Im kind of a serial entrepreneur, he says. I keep creating things.

Schwarz, a Rockville resident, has overseen many passion projects and held roles within both established legacy organizations and more start-up Jewish projects. That includes Kenissa, which connects individuals who are leading efforts to reimagine Jewish life and community; and Clergy Leadership Incubator (CLI), a two-year program to support and encourage rabbis serving congregations or other spiritual community models in the areas of innovative thinking, change management and institutional transformation.

He was offering retreats for rabbinical students from across the denominational spectrum, and I was noting that as they went out into the field to take fairly conventional jobs, within a few years, a lot of them were crashing and burning because the gap between the vision of the rabbinate that I was putting out and the synagogues that they were being hired to lead was so vast. They didnt know how to bridge that gap.

Through CLI, a team of 20 senior rabbinic fellows mentor the 20 selected rabbis, who are charged with developing an innovation project that can change the communal culture of the institution that theyre serving.

Studies such as those conducted by the Pew Research Center tell you that Jews are not running to classic worship services, especially during the COVID era when they can log onto Zoom and watch a program in a half or third of the time, he says.

The message, therefore, needs to be let me see what you need and help you grow as a human being and as a Jew as opposed to services next Shabbat are at 9:30 in the morning, please be here.

The creation of Kenissa followed the publication of Schwarzs Jewish Megatrends, which argued that Judaism is more than simply a religious phenomena. There are many ways that people express their Judaism. And in fact, the few studies told us that more and more Jews are engaging in their Jewish identity outside of synagogues than inside.

But Schwarz needed more data to flesh out these conclusions, and secured foundational funding to essentially create a laboratory to explore what was out there. And that included mapping the phenomenon of Jewish start-ups that were reinventing Jewish life and community.

Now we have a database of over 400 organizations that cluster around the six sectors that we identified in Kenissa social justice, Jewish learning, spiritual practice, arts and culture, and Jewish environmentalism which attract next-gen Jews in ways that legacy organizations fail to do.

He stresses that hes not looking to undermine or sabotage legacy Jewish community Ive come out of that community, it does a lot of wonderful things. But its way behind the curve in terms of reaching the next generation of American Jews. What were working on is building bridges between the legacy sector and these start-ups. Because I think each has something that the other one needs. The legacy sector has expertise, and organizational know-how and resources and the Kenissa network and groups like it essentially have an approach to Jewish life that is far more compelling to Jews in their 20s and 30s. Together, it could be a powerful combination, he says.

The way the Jewish mainstream thinks is that we have this great tent called the organized Jewish community. It does great stuff. If people outside the tent simply knew what they did, they would come into the tent, and we welcome them to come in, on our own terms, which means that Jews who have experienced a sense of exclusion because of their sexual preferences, gender or attitude toward Israel can feel alienated.

There are tens of thousands of Jews who are doing Jewish outside the tent of the organized Jewish community today. Theyre doing amazing things, he says, adding,When are the people in the tent going to take down the flaps, walk out of the tent, look around a little bit and realize that Jewish life can be reinvigorated if we didnt have those boundaries?

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Stepping outside the big tent with Rabbi Sid Schwarz - Washington Jewish Week

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Posted By admin on July 13, 2021

NEW YORK The Orthodox Union (OU), the nations oldest and largest umbrella organization for the North American Orthodox Jewish community, said that its 20th annual Tisha BAv program on Sunday, July 18th will not only focus on the traditional themes surrounding the destruction of both temples and other historical tragedies, but this year will also mourn the recent worldwide tragedies that have impacted the Jewish community.

Kinot available live online has been a hallmark of the OUs Torah programming for over two decades and the OU continues to adjust the Tisha BAv programming to fit a changing world. This year, the event will feature two live kinot sessions, the first of which will broadcast from the Orthodox Unions Seymour J. Abrams Jerusalem World Center beginning at 9 a.m. Israel Daylight Time. The second will broadcast live at 9 a.m. Eastern from Congregation Keter Torah in Teaneck, NJ. Both sessions are also open to in-person attendance, free of charge to the public following their current local COVID-19 guidelines for religious gatherings. They can also be viewed live online at http://www.ou.org/tishabav.

The session broadcasting from Israel will be led by renowned author and lecturer Rabbi Menachem Nissel, who will address Sowing Seeds with Tears, and will focus on the kinot that are most applicable to our current perspective.

The session broadcasting from Teaneck will be led by renowned author and lecturer Rabbi Steven Weil, who will focus on A Covenant that has Transcended the Millenia, a reflection on the tragedies that have befallen the Jewish people throughout history.

OU Executive Vice President Emeritus Rabbi Dr. Tzvi Hersh Weinrebs shiur will be available all day for those in different time zones. Titled Ever to Remember, Never to Despair, Rabbi Weinreb will explore the recent tragedies that have befallen the Jewish community internationally including the collapse in Meron, rocket attacks in Israel, the Surfside condominium collapse and other calamities. The lecture will connect these disasters to the themes of the kinot and discuss grief and mourning from Torah and psychological perspectives. He will conclude with words of inspiration and hope. Rabbi Weinrebs shiur will also feature ASL translation facilitated by Yachad, the OUs leading organization for individuals with disabilities in the Orthodox community.

Our sages tell us that we are directed to spend the day of Tisha BAv reflecting on the destruction of two Holy Temples, and other communal tragedies which have occurred throughout our time in the exile, said Orthodox Union Executive Vice President Rabbi Moshe Hauer. The mourning of Tisha BAv is communal and doing so together is core to its observance. This Tisha BAv we look back on the past two millennia as well as the tragedies that have taken place in our community over the last 18 months and hope that we will come together to mourn as a community and remind ourselves of the redemption that we confidently anticipate and pray for.

Throughout the last year and half, we have looked for ways to support Jewish communities around the country. Our annual Tisha BAv program is consistently accessed by thousands of individuals, in addition to its serving as the centerpiece of the days program in many shuls, said Managing Director of OU Torah Initiatives Rabbi David Pardo. Rabbi Weinreb, Rabbi Weil, and Rabbi Nissels messages are always profoundly relevant, instructive and inspiring, and their focus on our communitys recent tragedies will undoubtedly help us to emotionally connect with the atmosphere of the holiday and thus benefit us all.

Founded in 1898, the Orthodox Union, (OU), serves as the voice of American Orthodox Jewry, with over 400 congregations in its synagogue network. As the umbrella organization for American Orthodox Jewry, the OU is at the forefront of advocacy work on both state and federal levels, outreach to Jewish teens and young professionals through NCSY, Israel Free Spirit Birthright, Yachad and OU Press, among many other divisions and programs.

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Orthodox Union's Annual Tisha b'Av Program Will Address Recent Tragedies Across the Jewish World - Orthodox Union

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Posted By admin on July 13, 2021

By Jeff Parrott, Genevieve Redsten and Greg McKenna| South Bend Tribune

The Westcott Apartments were supposed to be a second chance. But after just one monthin his new home, run by the Housing Authority of South Bend, James was already looking to move.

In early May, his toilet was backingup, his door wouldn't open or close properlyand he sawmice scurrying through the building. Many of the mailboxes didn't have working locks, he said, making him worry that his mail wasnt secure.

James wasone of 112 people forced outof the authoritys Rabbi Shulman Apartments, on Western Avenue, because of gas leaks in the six-story building in February.

For the seven months that James lived in Rabbi Shulman, he couldnt turn on his gas stove because of the leaks.

But if he had the choice to leave his new unit in Westcott, on Alonzo Watson Drive, and return to Rabbi Shulman, he saidhed gladly go back.

That building (Rabbi Shulman)is better than this one, said James, who asked that his last name not be used because he feared retaliation. Why they [close] that one down and leave this, I don't know.

The problems at Westcott and Rabbi Shulman are not uncommon.

In fact, all of South Bends public housing properties failed their most recent inspections in March 2020. A "property"includes several public housing buildings and hundreds of units.

2012-2021: A timeline of problems, controversies at South Bend housing authority

In prior years, for inspections conducted in 2017 and 2018, 75% of South Bend properties failed their building inspections. That wasthe worstfailure rate in that period ranging from 2015 to 2018 among allhousing authorities in Indiana with more than one property, according to an analysis of U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Developmentrecords.

The analysis was conducted for The Tribune by Notre Dame'sGallivan Program in Journalism, Ethics, and Democracy.

Gary, which has seven more public housing properties than South Bend, wasthe only other Indiana housing authority with a comparable failure rate, at 55%.

Put another way, although South Bends housing authority only manages 5% of Indianas public housing properties, the city was home to 20% of the states failing properties in HUD's database.

Hundreds of violations found in South Bend include those classified as "life-threatening" by HUD, such as fire and electrical hazards. In 2020, inspectors foundexposed electrical wiring, missing smoke detectors and sprinklers, bed-bug infestations and roaches, among other issues.

In addition, the housing authority is still under the cloud of a federal investigationafter a 2019 FBI raid of its offices.

Catherine Lamberg, executive director of the Housing Authority,said she sees little value in comparing her agency to others around the state. Butshe wasnt surprised by the poor inspection scores.

Is it a surprise to you or anyone else that South Bend is a troubled agency with failed developments? said Lamberg, who was hired in late 2020. "I was brought here...to look at how we address the longstanding issues that face this housing authority … fix those issues and move the agency forward.

Lamberg said the authority is commissioning an in-depth study of building needs, thefirst such study in 15 years. The authority also isidentifying business practices to help recover from its HUD-designated troubled status.

Lamberg also said housing authorities are too unique to compare.

What Im not going to dignify is lumping everything into one, disregarding the individual aspects of an agencyand trying to answer a question that serves no purpose, she said.

The Housing Authority owns and runs nine public housing complexes, as well as scattered-site apartments and rental homes. More than 1,900 peoplelive in 808units across South Bend.

The authority has a $4 million annual budget from HUD, which inspects complexes every year if their score falls below a certain level.

A failing inspection grademeans a property is deemed indecent, unsafe or unsanitary, or was found to be in bad repair. Fire hazards, fall hazards, electrical hazards and certain toxins are all examples of life-threatening hazards, according to HUDs criteria.

Inspectors in 2020 projected that if all 808 units in South Bend had been inspected, 1,816 health and safety hazards, or 2.25 per unit, would have been found. Inspectors projected that 497 of these hazards would have beenlife threatening.

The problems are apparent in the halls of the Westcott Apartments, which share a wall with the housing authoritys main office.

In early May, for example, reporters observed vacuum tubing stretched across a first-floor hallway, sucking water out of residents apartments after a flooding incident. Exposed pipes stuck out of holes in the halls walls. Exposed wires hung out of the ceiling.

During an inspection, HUD examines a building's exterior, common spaces and systems, and a sampling of units.

In its inspection database, a property score represents hundreds of units, and sometimes even dozens of addresses scattered across the city. South Bends worst-performing property, Property 2, includes the Westcott Apartments and the now-closed Rabbi Shulman Apartments.

Inspectors deduct points for, among other issues, mold; roach or vermin infestation; exposed electrical wiring;inoperable smoke detectors; tripping hazards; broken bathroom or kitchen appliances; and missing ceiling tiles.

In March 2020, inspectors found exposed electrical wiring and three missing fire-safety sprinklers in the Westcott Apartments. Five smoke detectors in the building were missing or inoperable.

Three separate bed-bug infestations were found in the building, and inspectors observed live roaches in a hallway and in one units kitchen. In another unit, inspectors noticed a dead roach in a residents salt shaker.

Live roaches were also crawling through two units that inspectors visited in Rabbi Shulman. Similar to Westcott, Rabbi Shulman had missing fire sprinklers. Inspectors also found missing electrical covers and evidence of water leaks or corrosion in the buildings electrical system.

In at least one building among every property, inspectors found a growth of mold greater than one square foot in size. In at least two units in every property, inspectors saw roaches, either dead or alive. In two properties, they saw evidence of mice infestation.

This past week, aWestcott Apartment resident, Henry Renolds, showed The Tribune several problems in hissecond-floor unit:water damage visibleon the floor and brown dots visible from leaks in the ceiling; a brokentoiletand air conditioning unit; extensive rust in the shower; a non-working stove.

The most serious issuefor Renolds, however, was the moldaround the stove and around the doorway, whichhe saysexacerbates his asthma and chronic pulmonary disease.

Renolds, 64, has lived in the unit for more than three years. He said he hadcomplained many times but repairs, if they occurred, were only quick, short-term fixes.

Unless you keep hounding them," he said, "and they wont listen to me.

After a particularly serious episode of asthma recently, Renolds daughter, ZoeRandle, visited the unit and made another complaint to the property manager.That complaint resulted inmaintenancecleaning up water outside the apartment last week, she said, withHousing Authority management later agreeingto move Renolds into another property.

Rodney Gadson remembers when his grandfather lived in the Rabbi Shulman Apartments.

It was nice, Gadson said. That was back in the 80s.

As president of the South Bend Tenant Association, Gadson now advocates for low-income tenants, many of whom live in South Bends public housing properties.

In the 1950s, 60s, and 70s, public housing was a popular option for lower- to middle-income Americans.

But those properties werent built to last, according to Robert Collinson, an assistant professor of economics at the University of Notre Dame who researches housing policy. Developers, he said, maximized profit margins with low-quality construction and by placing the buildings in poor and segregated neighborhoods.

Nationally, as properties have decayed, public housing has become a housing of last resort for very vulnerable households, Collinson said.

And since the 1980s, he added, policymakers have favored privatized, market-based solutions, such as Section-8 housing choice vouchers.

Despite the issues, Collinson believes public housing still servesa critical function.

It is this important backstop for a lot of very vulnerable households, to ensure that they dont fall into homelessness, or that they arent circling through shelters, he said.

But many remaining public housing properties, including those in South Bend, are now on the brink.

2018: Audit reveals South Bend Housing Authority's financial problems

The funding that we get over the years from HUD is inadequate and perhaps has not been spent effectively as it could or as efficiently as it could be to keep up these 40- and 50-year-old buildings, said Judd McNally, a Housing Authority board member.

South Bend Mayor James Mueller agreed, but also pointed to management failures.

Theres really been decades of neglect and mismanagement of our housing authority, Mueller said. When we did make a lot of these investments back about 50 years ago, you cant let something go on autopilot or erode funding sources for a long time and not expect to have a backlog of maintenance and other issues.

In October 2018 six months before declaring his presidential candidacy then-Mayor Pete Buttigieg arrived at a Housing Authority board meeting, unannounced. He aired a list of grievances.

The housing authoritys problems, Buttigieg told the board, had gotten to the level that has prompted me to decide that working to support and improve the housing authority will be in the top tier of priorities for my administration for as long as Im mayor.

But its not entirely clear whos responsible for the failures. The oversight structure is arcane, according to Collinson.

Public housing authorities are subsidized and managed by the federal government, but local governments have some oversight. In South Bend, the mayor appoints the housing authoritys board of six commissioners, who overseethe agencys strategic direction, according to McNally.

The boardappoints anexecutive director, who is responsible for day-to-day operations.

McNally, whom Buttigieg appointed to the board in 2019, said he hasstruggled to hold the agency accountable. At his first board meeting, McNally realized the agency wasnt even producing financial statements.

When you're not involved in the day-to-day, you're putting a lot of trust in individuals to do the right thing, McNally said.

In 2015, after a federal audit found that the housing authority had improperly awarded contracts and misspent money, Buttigieg replaced all six members of the board.

Then, in July 2019, the FBI raided the housing authoritys office and a home the agency owned. Federal authorities have yet to announce any criminal charges. That September, the housing authority briefly suspended then-Executive Director Tonya Robinson and laterchose not to renew her contract.

2019: South Bend Housing Authority fired director after FBI allegations

In December 2020, about ayear and a halflater, the board hired Lamberg. Her 32-year career includesstints as acting director of HUD's Richmond, Va., office, director of HUD's Troubled Agency Recovery Center in Memphis, and most recently, as public housing director in the Indianapolis field office.

Mueller and McNally say Lamberg isa promising candidate to right the ship.

Shes just got incredible experience, McNally said. She knows what shes doing, and I think in the 120 days shes been here, weve moved lightyears ahead of where we were. The challenge is we still have a long way to go.

Under Lambergs direction, McNally noted, the agency has begun producing financial statements again a move that McNally hopes will allow for more transparency and accountability.

Lambergsaid once the authority decides what to do with its dilapidated properties, such as Rabbi Shulman and Westcott, it will look to both HUD and the city for money to help.

The authority in February moved Rabbi Shulman tenants out after the gas leaks were found and haspaid their costs to stay in hotels while helping them find other rental housing.

Earlier this month, the city brought Notre Dame architecture students to a meeting with displaced Rabbi Shulman tenants, and the students produced drawings of how the building could be redesigned.

Its the housing of the city and were housing your citizens, absolutely, Lamberg said when asked if the city should contribute funding for Rabbi Shulman. Theres been an outpouring of support, and I anticipate it will continue.

Mueller said the city, which has yet to determine how to spend $63million in federal money from this year's American Rescue Plan Act, want(s) to be a partner and are open to helping in some way.

Our team is looking at various options, not just for Rabbi Shulman but other units that the housing authority oversees, Mueller said. Having some sort of city participation in moving some of these units forward is on the table, for sure.

Lamberg said the board has yet to decide whether to demolish and rebuild Rabbi Shulman or renovate it, a decision she would like made by years end.But she said there's consensus that the authority should maintain housing at the site.

We have a tremendous opportunity in the original footprint where Rabbi Shulman sits, and it is the interest of the board to maintain a development in that location as affordable housing, Lamberg said.

The board expects to soon hire Mishawaka-based Forum Architectsto assess the buildings needs. Based on her own preliminary assessment, renovation of the building would cost about $70,000 per unit.

At 127 units, that would amount to nearly $9 million, which could approach the cost to demolish and build new, Lamberg said.

Lamberg said the boarded-up Rabbi Shulman is a priority for now over the occupied Westcott Apartments, though she acknowledged that Wescotthasserious problems that need to be addressed.

2020: Mayor urges South Bend housing authority to release plans for displaced tenants

She said HUD wont scorehousing authorities on inspections this year because of the pandemic, but she expects more failing scores in the future.

It is not possible at the next inspection that we will pass, whether we have a big infusion of federal dollars or not, Lamberg said, adding that HUD is transitioning to a more stringent inspection system. The housing is what it is and its in bad shape, and its been in bad shape for a very long time. But you know what I can do, is I can look forward to see how it got there, not to make those same mistakes again, come up with a plan to resolve the issues and move the agency forward."

While Gadson credits Lamberg with making some headway, he said South Bend public housing tenants still live in a state of fear and frustration.

And actually, theyre being robbed, Gadson said. Theyre being robbed of their rights and some of their dignity.

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From fire hazards to roaches: South Bend Housing Authority sites are among Indiana's worst - South Bend Tribune

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Posted By admin on July 13, 2021

Palestinian businesses and shops in central Samaria have been ordered by the Palestinian Authority to remove all signs written in Hebrew.

The order was issued by Abdullah Kmeil, governor of the Salfit District in the Palestinian Authority-controlled territories.

The actual town of Salfit is situated adjunct to the large Jewish settlement of Ariel. Many of the Palestinian businesses in the area rely on Israeli customers and clients.

Kmeils order would seem designed to drive an economic wedge between Israelis and Palestinians, which will ultimately do far more damage to the livelihoods of local Palestinians.

In an official statement, Kmeil explained in vague terms that the measure comes in light of a decision that was taken previously and confirming that the occupation is exploiting the scene of the signs in Hebrew for purposes that serve its racist and fascist policy.

The governor went on to warn that shop owners have one week to replace their Hebrew signs with ones in Arabic, after which Palestinian Authority security forces will begin making round to enforce the decision.

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Palestinian Businesses Ordered to Remove Hebrew Signs - Israel Today

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Posted By admin on July 13, 2021

Yamina MK Yomtob Kalfon moved to Israel from France at age 18. He advises young Jews around the world who are considering aliyah to emulate him and immigrate before starting their careers, so that can avoid Israels infamous bureaucracy.

Kalfon pointed out that one of the top issues for many olim aged 30-55 from what he called wealthy western countries like the US, UK and France, is Israels lack of recognition of their foreign degrees.

These people dont want charity, they want to work, Kalfon told The Jerusalem Post in an interview. If they have a diploma, let them work with that diploma. If they have talents, dont place roadblocks that prevent them from exercising their talents here.

Thats exactly Dr. Jonathan Wiesens story. He graduated from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in 2009, completed his residency in the Cleveland Clinic -- the second-best hospital in the world according to Newsweek -- and is triple board-certified in internal medicine, pulmonary diseases and critical care.

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Wiesen, whos in his early 40s, moved to Israel in 2015, but Israel hardly recognized any of his accolades. The easy part was transferring his medical doctor certification, allowing him to work as a family doctor or physician.

However, Wiesen was required to complete a cumbersome observership/acclimation that would essentially be a repeat of his residency in the US. He hasnt completed it yet because of the amount of time it would take.

Its frustrating for a lot of reasons, Wiesen said. Number one it seems sort of random. Number two, why should I, coming from a top institution or even any good institution thats recognized, have to go through a whole new certification process?

Wiesen completed his first observership for internal and pulmonary medicine in three months. Afterwards, he became the director of the cardio-pulmonary exercise test program at Soroka Medical Center in Beersheba. However, he still needs to do almost a full-year observership in critical care, but he said it isnt financially worth it at this point.

When Wiesen complained that the observership he hasnt done is too long, it was shortened by a month. He felt that was proof the extra month was just bureaucracy at work.

It didnt make any sense, Wiesen said. I spent a year building up this whole practice, specialty, clinic and expertise and then what theyre basically telling me is that Id have to give that entire thing up just because I need to do an acclimation in critical care because they decided for whatever reason that doing a fellowship in the Cleveland Clinic wasnt enough.

It helps that the new government seems focused on this issue. On July 6, prime minister Naftali Bennett, Finance Minister Avigdor Liberman, Justice Minister Gideon Saar and MK Abir Kara (Yamina) presented their plan for reducing regulation and bureaucracy in government.

Two components of the plan are to set up a regulatory authority to examine, measure, coordinate and report on regulations, and to audit existing regulations. These have the potential to support olim and make their transitions into Israel easier.

Additionally, in 2019, Interior Minister Ayelet Shaked posted Yaminas party platform on Facebook, which stated that they want to promote Jewish immigration to Israel and remove unnecessary barriers to immigration absorption.

Kalfon wants to work with the Ministry of Aliyah and Absorption and its minister Pnina Tamano-Shata (Blue and White), as well as the Interior Ministry to advance legislation for olim. He said he feels Tamano-Shata, who is an Ethiopian immigrant, has good intentions for the ministry. Hes also working with organizations like Yad LOlim to help olim navigate Israeli bureaucracy.

Wiesen did mention that Israel could have a legitimate concern about foreign doctors not speaking Hebrew. He said hed be open to legislation requiring immigrants to pass a Hebrew fluency test before practicing in Israel.

Kalfon said that the challenge to passing legislation is getting his fellow MKs on board. Hes concerned that many of them dont consider aliyah and immigration as one of their top priorities. But he felt that prime minister Bennett, who is the son of American immigrants, takes these issues seriously.

Aside from the bureaucracy, some adult olim face a culture shock when making aliyah. Israels mandatory army service has a significant impact on the countrys culture, and immigrants like Wiesen who didnt serve feel left out.

There are a lot of cultural things that I dont understand because I didnt go to the army, Wiesen said. Language issues [are] for sure more pronounced because I never went into that environment where all I [would do] is speak Hebrew quickly [like] my life depended on it for two years.

Even though Kalfon is an advocate of moving to Israel at a young age, Wiesen said the decision of when to make aliyah isnt always clear cut.

I think that everything is a question of balances, priorities, [as well as] pros and cons, Wiesen said. I knew I wanted to go into medicine. My opinion is that its better to train in America, [or] go to school in America because the opportunities that are open to you as an American-trained physician are much better.

Despite wishing they lived in Israel, Kalfon sent his love to Jews who decide to remain in the diaspora.

I, as a religious Jew who believes that Israel is the beginning of the sprouting of the redemption, think that every Jew should live in Israel, Kalfon said. But I wont judge Jews who live outside Israel. Ill embrace them and work so that when they want to come to Israel, theyll have good lives. I prefer [that] people come here out of a desire to be here, not because theyre running from antisemitism.

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Making aliyah as an adult can be hard. This MK is working to change that - The Jerusalem Post

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Posted By admin on July 13, 2021

(JTA) In May, as the latest violent Israel-Gaza conflict heated up, Ty Kelly did something he could never do in any other professional baseball dugout: He turned to some teammates to learn more about the situation.

Kelly, a 32-year-old currently playing for the Tacoma Rainiers in the Seattle Mariners minor league system, was in Arizona for a training camp with the Olympics-bound Team Israel squad.

Most of the 24 men on the team are, like Kelly, American Jews who have obtained Israeli citizenship to play for the team in Tokyo and in other international tournaments. Four, however, are Israeli-born players who have emerged from the countrys nascent baseball scene and Kelly, who was feeling caught between sides of the public discussion of Israel, wanted to hear from them.

Kelly, who has spent most of his professional career in the minor leagues but had major league stints with the New York Mets and Philadelphia Phillies, approached his teammates before practice with a question: How did they feel about the continual Israel-Gaza violence, as people with personal stakes in it?

Some of Kellys fellow American teammates gathered round to hear the discussion. Most of the Israeli players criticized Hamas the militant group that rules the Gaza Strip that the United States and Israel consider a terrorist organization but at least one also criticized some of Israels actions. They also talked about hearing from their families, who were in and out of bomb shelters.

Youre only going to get the side of whoever youre going to. So I wanted to talk to the Israelis, Kelly said on the phone from a hotel lobby in Las Vegas, where the Rainiers had traveled for a series of games. It is nice to hear that there are multiple sides, even from Israelis, and that its not, you know, always just that whatever Israelis do is perfect and they can do no wrong. But obviously it also doesnt mean that liberal outlets are covering everything that is truthful, or whatever. So I think it was really good for everyone to hear.

The moment underscored Team Israels unique power. Beyond being one of just six national teams competing in the Olympics and having a decent chance to medal, thanks in part to the presence of Ian Kinsler, a former major league All-Star, the team has also bound together different types of Jews from the baseball diaspora into a tight-knit group and pushed several of its American members to get more in touch with their Jewish identities.

Kelly, for example, was born to a Catholic father and Jewish mother in Dallas and grew up playing CYO (Catholic Youth Organization) basketball, eventually attending a Catholic school. His family celebrated both Christian and Jewish holidays, but he didnt feel a strong connection to either, or to religion in general.

I never put together that there was anything conflicting in there just because I assumed that every person in the world was American and lived exactly like I did, he said.

Kelly is one of several players with at least one Jewish parent whom Israel Baseball Association President Peter Kurz has scouted over the past decade as candidates for the team. His trip to Israel, the process of obtaining citizenship (which involves providing family history records to prove ones Jewishness) and becoming close friends with many of the Jewish players on the team have all made him feel a lot more connected to Jewish culture.

His moms side of the family, some of whom live in Florida, has kvelled over his participation on the team.

Getting to sort of rediscover everything and kind of get closer to Israel and to Judaism, to the Jewish people its been so cool, he said. Hanging out with my moms side of the family everybody has stories of either Hebrew school or friends in Israel, like you have to go see this person the next time youre in Israel. I think its been really cool because theyre all so proud of me. And [theyre] so happy to have more of a tie to Israel. Theyre all so proud to be Jewish I think its very cool for them, whic, in turn makes it even cooler for me.

These days, he lives in Los Angeles in the offseason where there are, in his words, a lot of people to celebrate Jewish holidays with. Shlomo Lipetz, one of the teams few Israeli players and a pioneer of the sport in his native country, noted in an interview that Kellys Hebrew pronunciation, which he practiced on the popular app Duolingo, is spot on. (Kelly has focused recently on Spanish in the app, feeling that he couldnt become fluent in Hebrew without being in Israel more.)

Some Team Israel players are now invested in helping popularize baseball in Israel, a country where few people are knowledgeable about the sport, let alone play it. Kinsler, one of the teams de facto captains and its only former major league All-Star, says thats his main goal in playing for the team.

Medaling for Team Israel would create that buzz, Kinsler said, and obviously bring more attention to the sport. So its exciting to think about all that.

The Jewish National Fund-USAs Project Baseball initiative, which has funded the team for the past several years, is working on building a field complex in the city of Beit Shemesh, which Kurz hopes can host winter leagues in the near future similar to those in Latin American countries, Florida and other warm places where professional players go to hone their skills in the MLB offseason.

Kinsler, 39, was one of pro baseballs best second basemen throughout his 13-year career, which began in 2006. He finished one hit shy of 2,000 an exclusive club with fewer than 300 members. Kinsler is one of the reasons that the team believes it has a decent chance of acquiring a medal in Tokyo competing against the U.S., Japan, South Korea, Mexico and the Dominican Republic. (Many American and Dominican players in the major leagues are not leaving their teams to take part in the games.)

Israels first game, against the U.S., takes place on July 30. It will be the nations debut in Olympics baseball, which is returning to the Summer Games for the first time since 2008.

Kinsler grew up in Arizona with a similar religious background to Kelly he had a Jewish father and Catholic mother, and didnt identify with either tradition, entering synagogues and churches only a handful of times in total. But watching his father compile his Jewish family tree sparked an interest in his Jewish heritage. He learned more about his paternal grandparents, who fled Germany in the 1930s.

My dad was able to contact the temple in New York where he had his bar mitzvah, Kinsler said. It was a lot of work. And it was a lot of phone calls and legwork. But you know, in the end, it was definitely worth it.

Kinsler made it to Israel to finish the application process in March 2020 on one of the last flights allowed into the country hours before it closed off foreign flights due to the rising spread of COVID-19. He was only there for a few days but thoroughly enjoyed the experience photos spread on social media of the player holding a shofar like a baseball bat.

We were up at 6 a.m., and we were going until 10 p.m. Basically the whole week. And we did everything, Kinsler said about the trip, on which he was accompanied by his wife. We went to Jerusalem, we went to the Dead Sea the whole experience was just eye opening and moving. And I want to get back. I want to bring my kids there.

Kinsler said that in the major leagues, his few fellow Jewish players were familiar with each other and felt a certain sense of camaraderie. For example, on a bus at an All-Star game, Jewish slugger Ryan Braun came up to Kinsler and asked, Youre Jewish, right?

But the feeling of being in the Arizona training camp surrounded by only Jewish players was surreal, he said. Kinsler, who said he doesnt follow the news much, added that the Israel-Gaza talk initiated by Kelly was a highlight of the experience.

Theres got to be a better word than exciting it felt right, he said. Its just a group of a bunch of really good guys that are enjoying their time together enjoying this opportunity. I guess you can say it was refreshing.

Some of the players already were more in touch with their Jewishness. Pitcher Jeremy Bleich, a former minor leaguer who played briefly in the majors with the Oakland Athletics in 2018 but now works for the Pittsburgh Pirates front office, helped players understand and digest takeaways from complex analytics. He grew up in a Conservative and kosher home in suburban New Orleans and has been to Israel four times, including one time through Birthright.

Bleich said this team closer than any hes been on because of the sensibility formed from the collective Jewish experiences of the players.

As a professional baseball player, theres like a buffer period of getting to know your teammates. And in this case, we didnt need that buffer period, he said. That familiarity kind of propelled us forward.

Throughout the 2017 World Baseball Classic, the teams mascot a life-sized Mensch on a Bench encapsulated the fun that the team had together. It might not be returning for the Olympics, since the man behind the idea, former player Cody Decker, is no longer on the team. But Kelly said its not too big a deal.

That was very much a Cody Decker thing so I dont know, Kelly said. I feel like everyone probably wants to separate the World Baseball Classic from this, since its so much of a new team also. But I mean, if [Decker] happens to make his way out to Tokyo we can use any support that we can get.

By Gabe Friedman

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Posted By admin on July 13, 2021

The San Diego State Chabad House was vandalized once again on June 25 around 1:40 a.m. This time, two women ripped a Jewish banner hanging on the side of the House and broke a branch of the Menorah that stands in front of the House.

Rabbi Chalom Boudjnah said this time the act appeared to be anti-Semitic and he will be pressing charges.

Boudjnah described how this act of vandalism felt different than the break in that happened just over a month ago.

This is a very different case I think, this wasnt made like a joke, it was more with the intention of destroying something Jewish, Boudjnah said.

Boudjnah described the banners they damaged and the Menorah which he said is very difficult to break. He said it was painful and shocking to see.

He said the vandals did not break windows or damage the property in any other way.

It was specifically and intentionally attacking Jewish symbols on campus, Boudjnah said.

Boudjnah said he still thinks there should be a learning component involved with these two women; however, this incident should be taken more seriously.

This time I will press charges and I will take a different approach than I took last time, Boudjnah said. I still think whatever punishment is coming to them, I think there should be an educational component to it so they can realize the gravity of what theyve done

SDSU responded with a university-wide email and an emergency meeting with Boudjnah on the same day as the attack. In the meeting Dr. J. Luke Wood and Boudjnah discussed ways the university can make the Jewish community on campus feel more comfortable.

According to Boudjnah they also talked about members of SDSUs Task Force on Addressing Anti-Semitism taking a course in anti-Semitism and having a Jewish-American heritage day on campus.

They also said they will make the campus environment more open to Jewish life meaning professors will be made aware of Jewish holidays and will accommodate students who keep those holidays, Boudjnah said.

Boudjnah said one of the main goals that was discussed was implementing more Jewish faculty members so they can be accessible to students since Chabad House is independently funded and is not included in all of SDSUs meetings and events.

Dr. Luke Wood provided a statement for The Daily Aztec.

This is an appalling act of anti-Semitism, said Wood, Vice President for Student Affairs and Campus Diversity and Chief Diversity Officer. With anti-Semitic assault, harassment and vandalism occurring at higher rates across the nation, these incidents do not push us into the ground; they do the opposite. This event is among a series of events that have occurred in recent months. We remain motivated, will continue to be direct in our support of our Jewish community and will continue elevating the lives and experiences of those within our community. As a university and community, we strongly condemn anti-Semitism and hate.

Associated Students President of SDSUs Imperial Valley campus, Carlos Fitch reached out to The Daily Aztec with a letter addressing these recent attacks.

And while the Imperial Valley campus may not be home to a large Jewish community, we have experienced the same lack of empathy toward socially disadvantaged communities and we commit to defend all minorities from outrageous events as the ones that happened directly to yours, Fitch said in the letter. We want to be clear, we stand with you. To our Jewish siblings, we are disheartened and angered that you all have to face another traumatic and dangerous experience while on campus. Your safety and comfortability to be on campus is important and needs to be addressed with action.

His full letter can be found here.

SDSU released a university-wide email addressing the incident and stating their solidarity with Chabad House and the Jewish community.

The University Police Department is reviewing video footage and is asking anyone with details to report information to the department by calling 619-594-4636 or emailing policeinvestigations@sdsu.edu. Please reference Case# 21-393, the email said.

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Chabad House vandalized for a second time, Rabbi Boudjnah will press charges this time - Daily Aztec

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