Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By admin on June 3, 2021

CLEVELAND HEIGHTS, Ohio Park Synagogue, a prominent Northeast Ohio Conservative Jewish congregation, is offering for sale its architecturally significant main synagogue, designed in 1947-50 by architect Eric Mendelsohn.

A listing on the website of the real estate firm, Allegro Realty, describes the building as one of several structures on a large, park-like, 28.25-acre commercial parcel at 3300 Mayfield Road.

The listing casts into question the future of a building considered by architectural historians a masterpiece of Mendelsohns expressionist style, rooted in inter-war Germany.

The building features a distinctive domed sanctuary set atop a wedge-shaped structure with a chapel at its narrow northern tip, a central court, and a religious school at its southern side.

Allegro listed the offering a week ago. The listing states that interested purchasers must register with Allegro in order to receive access to due diligence material, schedule a tour and submit an offer.

No price or future use for the property is suggested. Officials at Allegro could not be reached late Friday. Two staff members at Park Synagogue were not immediately available late Friday.

The Cleveland Encyclopedia describes the synagogue as the largest and most ambitious of four synagogues and community centers designed by world-famous architect Eric Mendelsohn' between 1947 and 1953 in the United States.

Mendelsohn (1887-1953) contributed to the evolution of the popular streamline modern style of architecture, which he explored in Germany in the 1920s through designs for Schocken department stores in Stuttgart and Chemnitz, and other projects.

He fled Germany in 1933 to escape Nazi persecution of Jews, moving first to Brussels and then later London, and the U.S., where he won the commission for Park Synagogue, Anshe Emeth Beth Tefilo Congregation.

Park Synagogue, which celebrated its 150th anniversary in 2019, completed its Park East Building in Pepper Pike in 2005.

At the time, the Park East building was viewed as an acknowledgment that many of the synagogues 1,800 families had spread eastward to suburbs including Solon and Twinsburg.

After Pepper Pike voters approved a rezoning of a portion of Park Synagogue's campus on Tuesday, it will move ahead with plan's to add to it main temple building. In this drawing, the extension is the rectangular building to the left.

Earlier this month, voters in Pepper Pike approved a rezoning that would allow the synagogue to build a 10,000-square-foot expansion of its facility there to be used as a community hall. The project would also include additional parking, a patio, a veranda, and a publicly accessible walking trail.

The synagogue would like to break ground in July or August on the project, Executive Director Stuart Deicher told cleveland.com.

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Park Synagogues offer to sell its main building raises questions about the future of an architectural master - cleveland.com

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Posted By admin on June 3, 2021

IT IS USUALLY bad news when multiple religions claim the same place of worship. It can lead to conflict, as illustrated by the recent violence at Jerusalems holiest site. Or it can be a sign that flocks are dwindling, forcing congregations to share space. But Berlins House of One intentionally puts a church, mosque and synagogue under a single roof.

The cornerstone of the 47m ($57m) place of worship was laid last week near Alexanderplatz. In four years time, it will be a structure housing three separate prayer rooms and a 46m-high domed hall for the faiths to mix. We are building the House to make a statement, says Rabbi Andreas Nachama, one of the projects leaders.

The idea has been in the works for a decade, since local leaders from the three Abrahamic religions came together to think up a plan for a religiously significant spot: the former site of one of Berlins oldest churches.

An interfaith project made more sense than another church, says Father Gregor Hohberg, a Protestant pastor whose congregation once worshipped at the site. In Berlin we have a lot of very wonderful churches, he points out. And all of these churches are not full of people on Sunday mornings. Berlin, after all, is better known for sex clubs and party drugs than piety. Still, another 120 people have already joined Father Hohbergs congregation, years in advance. Supporters can also sponsor bricks for 10 each.

An ecumenical mega-sanctuary comes with disagreements. In the synagogue, Orthodox Jews insisted on separate seating for men and women. In the church, the big debate was whether the altar should face east or west.

Even before the doors have opened, the House of One is yielding revelations. Archaeologists have discovered around 4,000 skeletons at the site, dating back to the middle of the 12th century, suggesting Berlin is a century older than previously thought.

This article appeared in the Europe section of the print edition under the headline "One roof, three faiths"

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A Christian, a Jew and a Muslim walk into the same house of worship... - The Economist

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Posted By admin on June 3, 2021

(JTA) Rabbi Adar, is it dangerous to wear my Jewish star?

In 12 years of teaching Introduction to the Jewish Experience through HaMaqom|The Place in the San Francisco Bay Area, no student ever asked me that question in those words.

This year three students have asked it of me. The first student who asked it was a young woman, a conversion candidate, and she made an appointment to talk to me outside of class.

I answered with a question: Why are you asking this right now? She talked about reading about attacks on Jews in New York City, and in West Hollywood. She talked about the fact that the synagogue she attends was vandalized a few months ago. She talked about how Jewish friends are concerned about safety.

Am I being silly? she asked. Do I need to worry about this on the streets of Oakland and Berkeley?

Yes, I said, this is real. We are living through a time of increasing antisemitism. As far as the jewelry is concerned, I said, it is like any other item of personal safety: Trust your instincts. If you dont feel safe, leave it off or put it out of sight.

Then I asked another question: This happens to the Jewish People from time to time. Are you sure you want to pursue conversion? I assured herthat I would not think badly of her if she chose the safer path. Confronting fears like those is how we sort out who we want to be, what we want for our children, what we want for our descendants. There is no single right answer, only the answer deep in each individual heart.

The young woman said, No, rabbi, I want to be a Jew! I recognized the passion in her voice, a passion that I still feel after 25 years as a naturalized Jew my word for a Jew by choice. We love the Jewish people and we are not going anywhere.

Conversion to Judaism is more complex than a change of creed. Judaism is not only a religion; it has elements of culture, ethnicity and peoplehood as well. To become Jewish is to become heir to a history and a way of being in the world. It is different from conversion to Christianity in that it means becoming a target for antisemitism. In the earliest description of a rabbinical court, orbeit din, for conversion, the Sages warned proselytes of the dangers inherent in becoming a Jew:

The Sages taught in a baraita: With regard to a potential convert who comes to a court in order to convert, at the present time, when the Jews are in exile, the judges of the court say to him: What did you see that motivated you to come to convert? Dont you know that the Jewish people at the present time are anguished, suppressed, despised and harassed, and hardships are frequently visited upon them? (BT Yevamot 47a)

Every convert to Judaism makes a journey across the religious, cultural and emotional frontiers of Judaism. One of the milestones on that journey is the moment when antisemitism ceases to be theoretical, when it is felt in the kishkes, in the gut.

I have never regretted becoming a Jew. I give thanks every morning that God has made me a Jew, and that the Jewish people were willing to have me. I feel sure, listening to my student, that she will say the same thing after 25 years, no matter what history brings, so I give her advice:

Go sit with the Jews, when you feel shaky. You will see, when there are frightening things on the news, synagogue services fill up, gatherings fill up, we all show up somewhere to be with the Jews. As a people, we draw strength from one another. When bad things happen, theres nowhere I would rather be than with my Jewish family.

Whether in my synagogue, or someone elses synagogue, or at the Jewish Film Festival, I feel better when I am surrounded by our people.

The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of JTA or its parent company, 70 Faces Media.

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Conversion students are asking me if it's safe to become Jewish. This is what I tell them. - JTA News - Jewish Telegraphic Agency

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Posted By admin on June 3, 2021

When the Conservative movement censured an upstate New York rabbi in 2019 for a problematic relationship with a woman who had received his rabbinic guidance and attended services, there was no public written record of the offense or the punishment.

There was no announcement to the congregation, Temple Beth-El in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., indicating any problem with its senior rabbi, Daniel Victor, according to three current and former members of the synagogue and a former member of the board. The movements Rabbinical Assembly required that Victor have a rabbinic mentor and therapist for two years, these members said. The former member of the board, who resigned over the matter, said in a recent interview that other members still dont know the full story that Victor, according to the three current and former members, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation in the community, pursued a member of the community, initiated sex and then abruptly dumped her.

It was handled incredibly badly, said one of the current members. Because of the way that its been handled, its a really big thing.

The fallout at Temple Beth-El has dragged on for years. The current and former members and the former board member said that at least five families have left the synagogue over the matter and more are staying away from services. Two members of the board resigned over Beth-Els handling of the complaint. The woman from Victors relationship, who declined to be interviewed for this article, has left Jewish communal life altogether, the synagogue members said. (She was never officially a member of the congregation.)

The synagogue, through its president, Donna Gordon, declined to comment, but the executive board sent an email to congregants ahead of this articles publication that said the board dealt with the issue in a confidential and appropriate manner.

Victor said in an email to the Forward that he acted like a gentleman throughout the relationship but would have made different choices if he could do things over again.

The internal process within my synagogue and the R.A. in addressing the issue were in my view fair, which provided some relief, he continued. The larger challenge I faced was from the few individuals who were refusing to forgive me. I continue to seek forgiveness and promote healing, understanding, and reconciliation.

Of course, I regret that there were hurt feelings and acknowledge that I could have handled it better, but I adamantly reject the notion that I used my position of rabbi in any way to take advantage of the person with whom I had the relationship, he added.

While there are unique factors to the situation in Poughkeepsie a small town, an unmarried rabbi, the thorns and roses of a close-knit community the Conservative movement broadly has a checkered record of handling misconduct complaints, according to interviews with Conservative congregants and leaders, complainants and ethics experts.

Within the Conservative movement specifically, people have not been heard, people have been re-traumatized or further traumatized, and felt like they had nowhere to go, said Nicole Nevarez, the national director of Taamod, an organization that works with Jewish organizations to improve their workplace cultures. The Conservative movement is, in general, in a state where theres a tension between traditionalism and progressivism, and so I think that that is likely whats going on.

As many organizations, religious and secular, grapple with boundary issues and abuses of power, the Rabbinical Assembly is in the midst of a formal examination of the limits of its code of conduct and how it handles complaints. It has hired an outside firm,Sacred Spaces, to audit its policies, talk to people who have gone through the complaint process and ultimately make recommendations. People close to the revision process say its sincere that R.A. leadership really wants things to change for the better.

We may indeed learn that we missed the mark in the past, said the R.A.s CEO, Rabbi Jacob Blumenthal, in a statement. Our ownteshuvah [repentance] means being accountable for and learning from any past mistakes and creating a plan for excellence going forward that brings all our current and future work to a higher and more present-day standard, he said.

As the R.A. begins its revision process, a parallel soul-searching is happening in the Reform movement. Last month, a probe by Manhattans Central Synagogue found that its senior rabbi in the 1970s and 1980s,Sheldon Zimmerman, had engaged in sexually predatory behavior with at least three female congregants and employees, including a teenager. The Central Conference of American Rabbis which suspended Zimmerman in 2000, forcing him to step down as president of Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion along with several other Reform movement institutions are investigating their own processes for handling misconduct.

For those who have witnessed or directly experienced ethical violations by Conservative rabbis including financial improprieties and sexual misconduct the process of reporting them can be fraught.

Each synagogue is different, but most have no obligation to bring transgressions to the attention of the R.A., which serves as both a quasi union representing rabbis and an investigatory body through its ethics committee, theVaad Hakavod. Members of the R.A. are asked to report transgressions if a colleague is confronted and the problem isnt addressed. For other professional associations, like the Reconstructionist Rabbinical Association, such reporting is mandatory.

The process can take months in the Poughkeepsie case, multiple complaints were made in April 2019, and theVaad Hakavoddid not deliver a censure and recommendation until December.

I honestly believe there are glaciers that move more quickly than the ethics committee of the R.A., said a current member.

In the meantime, people in Poughkeepsie who voiced concern about the relationship to the rabbi or the synagogue said they faced hostility and intimidation. The R.A. updates the accused rabbi in writing at every step of the process, but only delivers news of the outcome verbally.

I unequivocally did not engage in any form of intimidation or express hostility to anyone that voiced displeasure regarding my relationship quite the opposite, Victor said. Since the relationship ended, I have repeatedly apologized, asked for forgiveness, and proactively sought counsel to improve myself and better understand the ethical issues at play.

People who have reported other complaints described a bungled investigation process led by people without proper training.

I honestly believe there are glaciers that move more quickly than the ethics committee of the R.A.

One woman, who worked at a Conservative movement organization and spoke on the condition of anonymity out of concern it could hurt her career, said her ex-husband is a rabbi and Jewish educator who abused her and her children. She was ultimately granted sole physical and legal custody.

When she reported what she described as her then-husbands physical, verbal, emotional and financial abuse to the R.A. in 2018, she said, the Vaad Hakavod asked her to rehash the same episodes of physical violence and manipulation over and over.

It felt very wrong that they would always forget. I would always have to repeat things, she said. No one said, Im so sorry you experienced that.

When theVaad Hakavodultimately did issue a ruling on her husbands case, she said, the body declined to tell her the punishment.

In another widely publicized case, back in 1999, theR.A. agreed to retain as a member Rabbi Arthur Charles Shalman, who was found to have violated rules against improper touching and improper suggestions after his synagogue, Temple Shaarey Zedek in Buffalo, voted to keep him on the bimah. Shalman was ultimately expelled in 2008 after the R.A. finished a second investigation into an inappropriate relationship with a congregant.

Shalman, when reached by phone, declined to comment.

The then-synagogue president, Iris Zackheim, called the second investigation a shock to most people in the congregation in an interview with the Forward in 2008.

A lot of people are devastated, she said at the time.

The R.A. does not publicize the names of rabbis who have been disciplined, unlike the Reform movements C.C.A.R, which only began doing so in 2017. The Reconstructionist Rabbinical Association also lists disciplined rabbis, though its not clear when the policy began.

But Rabbi Sheryl Katzman, the senior director of member-engagement at the R.A. and an ex-officio member of theVaad Hakavod, said the R.A. is planning on changing that policy so that the community and other denominations are aware of which rabbis have been sanctioned.

The R.A. established a Gender and Power committee in 2019 to study issues related to sexual harassment and gender inequity. That committee and theVaad Hakavodfound that its code of conduct needed to be updated. The revision of the code started in April, and is in the first of three phases.

Other Conservative organizations have started their own looks inward: the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism, the synagogue association, launched a tip line in2017after allegations surfaced on Facebook that one of its employees had molested a youth member in the 1980s.

In 2017, the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies, a Conservative-aligned seminary at the American Jewish University in Los Angeles, introduceda course to train rabbinical students how to handle experiencing sexual harassment.

Katzman said the R.A. is zeroing in on guidance about rabbi-congregant dating. Right now, the code of conduct simplyadvisesrabbis to be alert to the temptations that may arise, be especially sensitive to the delicate nature and possible adverse consequences of such a relationship and proceed with caution.

Dating as a rabbi can be complicated. Single rabbis often want to marry and start families, but potential mates may be synagogue members or potential members. Carefully navigating issues of power and consent can yield healthy, long-term relationships, but secrecy and impulsivity can send individuals and whole congregations into disarray.

(Rabbi Daniel Pressman, the chair of theVaad Hakavod, is engaged to a former congregant, but in a statement to the Forward, Blumenthal of the R.A. said that Pressmans understanding of rabbinic boundaries is highly developed and that hes a strong proponent of re-examining our Code of Conduct and our procedures, including issues surrounding gender and power dynamics.)

Its much too much right now left to their discretion and I think our rabbis are asking for more guidance, Katzman said.

Another issue that will be addressed, she said, is the complex roles of the R.A. as both prosecutor and defender of rabbis accused of wrongdoing, which is true of other denominations rabbinic associations as well.

TheVaad Hakavodis there to ensure the safety of individuals and ensure the safety of rabbis, Katzman said. Its absolutely one of our questions what does it mean to play both roles?

Ethics experts suggested that even the appearance of a conflict of interest could make it harder for theVaad Hakavod or any rabbinical association to do its job.

Just last year, Blumenthal, the head of the R.A., became the head of the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism, a network of 600 Conservative Jewish communities in North America. Now, the organization defending and investigating rabbis, the R.A., is led by the same person leading the organization representing the synagogues.

The structure of rabbinic associations is deeply problematic, said Nevarez of Taamod, the nonprofit serving Jewish workplaces. It gets very blurry and challenging to be truly successful.

But Rabbi David Teutsch, the the founding director of the Center for Jewish Ethics of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College, said shared leadership might lead to more coordination between the USCJ, which provides support to synagogues dealing with misconduct, and the R.A., which issues recommendations.

It certainly is a sign of real progress that they want to revise the code of conduct, he said.

Despite these challenges, Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg, a scholar in residence at the National Council of Jewish Women who serves on the R.A.s Gender and Power committee described thoughtful and careful research by the R.A. as it considers other denominations policies and best practices.

I feel proud of this work and it makes me feel hopeful, she said. It really does.

But for some in the Conservative movement, hope is in short supply.

Arnie Draiman, a nonprofit consultant based in Israel and a formerUnited Synagogue Youth adviser, said even well-intentioned Jewish communities have to fight the impulse to guard their own and close ranks.

There have been terribly shocking episodes among rabbis of various movements, and you tell me I havent seen much significant change, he said. Show me the change. I dont see it.

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For Conservative Judaism, an overdue audit of sexual ethics policy J. - The Jewish News of Northern California

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Posted By admin on June 3, 2021

ONLY days after a ceasefire was announced in the latest conflict between Israel and Hamas, the NSW Jewish Board of Deputies (JBOD), in partnership with the Zionist Federation of Australia, the Zionist Council of NSW and the Executive Council of Australian Jewry (ECAJ) proudly held a rally in peace and solidarity with Israel. I had started in my role at JBOD four days earlier just after Shavuot.

Collectively, a decision was made to hold a rally at the largest available and safe location, which was Central Synagogue.

While we were mindful of images from similar rallies overseas, the collective decision was based on ensuring that the rally conveyed effective messages to both our own community, and the broader NSW community.

Representatives from the Aboriginal, Assyrian, Catholic, Chaldean, Christian, Ethiopian, Greek, Indian both Hindu and Sikh, Korean and Kurdish communities, alongside bipartisan state and federal members of Parliament were able to proudly attend and participate along with our own community.

The attendance and support of our diverse and multicultural NSW community is something we should all be proud of.

At the rally, Dave Sharma, Federal Liberal Member for Wentworth said, Israel absolutely and undeniably has a right to defend itself against rocket attacks directed against its civilian population.

Dr Marjorie ONeill, State Labor Member for Coogee stated, Democracy and freedom are principles that have guided modern societies. Israel is the only democracy in the region and it must be protected Political leaders in western democracies must always call out those forms of antisemitism which include boycotts, divestments and sanctions against the State of Israel. I will stand firmly against BDS and call it out when I see it.

Two critical messages not only delivered to our community, but to the broader NSW population.

Our friends talked about Israel, its challenges against a terrorist organisation and, not only spread a message to our community that we stand for peace, but to their own political parties and constituents. The same is true to the leaders from other multicultural communities.

Our actions, and the image we portray, should be consistent with our messaging. Our peaceful, respectful, engaging, appropriate and inviting approach is a message to all of NSW, and indeed Australia.

While the rally stood for peace and solidarity for Israel, it also represented how grateful, appreciative and thankful that we all are that we live in an Australian society that is tolerant, multicultural and diverse.

International issues should not be imported, or localised into our Australian culture. Our community, like so many other minorities, should be championing the inclusion and safety we enjoy to openly and proudly practise our faith.

Jillian Segal, president of ECAJ said it best: The leadership of this community is working tirelessly with great passion and dedication to ensure that our voice is, and will be heard in the media, online, in government, and in every sector of society.

This is what I have witnessed from my first days in the role.

And while a ceasefire had been declared, the communal leadership together with our community proudly filled Central Synagogue to a COVID capacity crowd (the maximum number allowable under current Health Orders). The rally was live-streamed and is now available to watch or replay. It was also covered by the mainstream media and on social media.

The passion in which people have given their feedback online, in emails and via phone calls is what makes our community truly incredible. It gives me great comfort to know that people want to contribute and provide input and I thank everyone for that. I invite anyone who wants to participate further to join JBOD and be part of the process.

Operationally, we will be modernising our engagement, building new capabilities, ensuring we are listening more, resolving concerns faster, and supporting our broader community.

Hearing from you matters. The Board of Deputies is here to support you, and while we will not always get it right, we will take the important steps to modernise and improve.

Darren Bark is CEO of the NSW Jewish Board of Deputies.

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'The rally at Central was an event we can be proud of' - Australian Jewish News

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Posted By admin on June 3, 2021

Toronto Mayor John Tory is speaking out against a rise in anti-Semitism in the city in the wake of increased reports of incidents targeting Jews.

I want to be very clear that anti-Semitic acts are absolutely unacceptable and will not be tolerated in our city, Tory said in a statement Wednesday. I have heard the valid concerns of the Jewish community and I stand with them against this hatred.

Tory met Tuesday with members of the citys Jewish community, along with councillors James Pasternak, Josh Colle, Josh Matlow and Police Chief James Ramer to discuss the uptick.

There have been multiple reports about harassment targeting Jews in the city recently, including a Jewish store owner in Kensington Market who recently had his business vandalized with anti-Semitic graffiti referencing the Holocaust.

According to a recent report by UJA Federation of Greater Toronto, there have been more than 50 anti-Semitic incidents reported around the GTA in May a fivefold increase compared to the previous few months.

The incidents, according to the report, included mock eviction notices being placed on Jewish homes in The Annex and Jewish families being harassed and called baby killers.

Asked about reports of a rise in anti-Semitic incidents in the city, Toronto police told CP24.com in a recent email that in response to recent global events, high visibility uniform patrols are being conducted across the city to provide reassurance to all community members that may feel vulnerable to crimes motivated by hate or bias.

The statement added that Chief Ramer has been clear that the Toronto Police Service will investigate every alleged hate crime and lay charges when warranted.

Incidents coincided with uptick in fighting between Israel, Hamas

The uptick in incidents targeting Jews coincided with fierce fighting that broke out between the Israeli military and Hamas, which rules the Gaza strip.

The fighting escalated on May 10 when Hamas launched a barrage of rockets at Jerusalem following weeks of clashes in the city over the possible eviction of several Palestinian families from their East Jerusalem homes.

Hamas fired over 4,000 rockets toward Israeli cities during the fighting, while Israeli warplanes struck around 1,000 targets in Gaza.

More than 250 people were killed in the fighting, the vast majority of them Palestinians living in Gaza, which also saw much of its critical infrastructure damaged.

While Israels Iron Dome defence system intercepted most of the Hamas rockets, some got through, killing 12 Israelis.

Conflict sparks local tensions

The fighting sparked large protests around the GTA and some of them saw clashes between pro-Israeli and pro-Palestinian supporters.

The UJA report emphasized that while criticism of Israel is not necessarily anti-Semitic, it often veers into anti-Semitism.

There is a clear correlation between anti-Israel activism and antisemitism in Canada. Though criticism of a particular Israeli government policy or decision is not necessarily antisemitic, we have seen time and time again that anti-Israel agitation can lead to attacks on Jewish community members verbally, physically, and online, the report stated.

CNN recently broke ties with a freelancer who declared during the fighting that the world today needs a Hitler.

Many of the local incidents targeted homes, synagogues and individuals because they were identifiably Jewish.

We will not let hatred take root in our city and we will not let it grow, Tory said in his statement. This is why our Toronto For All public education initiative this year will target anti-Semitism and why we have worked to put in place policies to stop hate rallies in our city.

A 2020 report by Toronto police found that while Jews make up just 3.8 per cent of the citys population, they were targeted in approximately 30 per cent of all hate crimes in the city last year, the highest proportion of any one group.

Tory said the local rise in anti-Semitism also comes amid a deeply concerning global increase in polarized discourse that includes a disturbing rise in racist and discriminatory behaviour.

He said that includes but is not limited to Islamophobia, anti-Asian, and anti-Black racism, and hatred directed at Indigenous and 2SLGBTQ+ communities.

As Mayor of Toronto, I am the Mayor of all of the wonderfully diverse communities who call our city home. That is why I have met with and will continue to meet with members of the Black community to address their concerns about anti-Black racism, Tory said. In the coming days, I also plan to meet with members of the Muslim and Asian communities to hear their concerns about incidents of Islamophobia and Anti-Asian racism in our city.

- With files from The Associated Press

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'Unacceptable': Tory speaks out against rise in anti-Semitic incidents - CP24 Toronto's Breaking News

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Posted By admin on June 3, 2021

May 27, 2021

Gibson Dunn strongly condemns acts of violence, hatred and bigotry of any kind. In recent weeks, we have seen a disturbing rise of anti-Jewish hate erupt in communities around the world. These attacks rooted in anti-Semitism have no place in society, and we denounce anti-Semitism in any form, and in any context.

It has been a difficult year for many, and we know that many of our colleagues, friends and family members have been impacted by the recent attacks on the Jewish community and are struggling on a very personal level with these heinous acts of bigotry and prejudice. These horrific acts of physical violence in our communities and explicit anti-Semitic messages are deeply disturbing.

If we have learned anything from this past year, it is that we must not be afraid to condemn acts of hatred and violence wherever, and whenever, we see them in our communities. As Elie Wiesel said, I swore never to be silent whenever human beings endure suffering and humiliation. Silence is complicity and Gibson Dunn has never been silent. At Gibson Dunn, we have always and will always defend the rule of law, civil liberties, and equal justice for all. Our lawyers have been encouraged to take up that mantle, through pro bono efforts, charitable giving, or otherwise. The firm is proud of our longstanding partnerships with organizations committed to fighting anti-Semitism, including the Anti-Defamation League and the American Jewish Committee, which recently issued a groundbreaking survey on anti-Semitism in America. We are proud of the pro bono work that we have done in collaboration with organizations like Bet Tzedek and so many others, and we commit ourselves to further engaging in these important efforts.

Indeed, we have always prided ourselves on being on the frontlines of all major social justice and human rights issues of the day. Whether fighting for marriage equality; protecting those impacted most directly by the Travel Ban; fighting to reunite families separated at the southern border; standing up for the Dreamers and ultimately saving the DACA program; tackling police reform and criminal justice reform; defending the rights of peaceful protestors demanding racial justice in the wake of the murder of George Floyd; or advocating for victims of anti-Asian hate, we have actively taken a leadership role in righting such inequities. And this has never been more true than over the past year Gibson Dunn has repeatedly reaffirmed our commitment to fighting hatred, injustice and inequity in our communities particularly when these acts of hatred are rooted in discrimination against race, religion, color, sexual orientation, or national origin. We continue to stand with our colleagues and will fight prejudice and bigotry as we continue to advocate for tolerance, inclusion and understanding.

Gibson Dunn is committed to doing our part to combat anti-Semitism and hate in all of its forms. We encourage you to read this OpEd published in The American Lawyer from law firm leaders that we are proud to co-sign.

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A Statement in Support of the Jewish Community - Gibson Dunn

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Posted By admin on June 3, 2021

CRYING IN H MART A Memoir By Michelle Zauner 239 pp. Knopf. $26.95.

If this coming together in diaspora involves the daily realities of eating and mourning, Zauners gutting account of coming to terms with her mothers death, and coming into her own as a Korean American, is peerless. I never thought a book could have me rushing to the pantry for snacks one moment and ugly-crying the next, but here we are. For the musician behind Japanese Breakfast, memories flutter around every bite and crunch she eats.

Food is Zauners lifeline to her Korean mother, Chongmi, who died of cancer in 2014. At the time, Zauner had just emerged from a tempestuous adolescence, spent feeling half in and half out as a second-generation immigrant in suburban America, and was finally beginning to appreciate the delicate trans-Pacific bonds that held her and her mother together. You know what I realized? Chongmi says on one of her daughters visits home from college: Ive just never met someone like you. The line is heartbreaking not only because it captures the disorientation of raising a child an ocean away from home. It also makes Zauner feel as if I were a stranger, as though mother and daughter wandered lost without a reference point, each of us unintelligible to the others expectations, until these past few years when we had just begun to unlock the mystery, carve the psychic space to accommodate each other.

Confronted with the incommensurability of loss, Zauner finds a new language for unsettling the complicated desire for whiteness that closed in on her from an early age. As for Lomnitz, so too does Zauner find that the vertigo of being suspended between cultures brings at once confusion and clarity. But Zauners memoir makes a powerful case for a new language: the language of archive. She painstakingly and tenderly assembles the flavors of love and grief for fermentation in a kimchi refrigerator, to weather time as a memorial to parental devotion. She was my champion, she was my archive, Zauner writes of Chongmi. She had taken the utmost care to preserve the evidence of my existence and growth, capturing me in images, saving all my documents and possessions. She had all knowledge of my being memorized. Of course, an archive only survives if you work to preserve it.

MY BROKEN LANGUAGE A Memoir By Quiara Alegra Hudes316 pp. One World. $28.

For those whove come of age within the Caribbean diaspora that runs along Americas I-95, Hudess memoir of growing up in North Philadelphia with a Puerto Rican mother and a Jewish father will ring absolutely true. A Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright, Hudes brings this world alive in all its glory, ping-ponging between the linguistic multiplicity of urban immigrant life and the zombie enclosures of monolingual whiteness. Theres breathing holy in the slot to bring a Nintendo cartridge back to life. Blasting Juan Luis Guerras album Bachata Rosa, bought at Sam Goody, with its clarion trumpets, power-synth hits, Afropop vocals the old world, new world and middle passage braided like cornrows. And, at the heart of it all, an immigrant mother who moves between the worlds of community activism and the inner life of the spirit.

In Not Like a Native Speaker: On Languaging as a Postcolonial Experience, the literary critic Rey Chow poses the question: Does having a language mean coming into possession of it like a bequest from bona fide ancestors and/or being able to control the languages future by handing it down to the proper heirs?

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Three New Memoirs Reveal the Vertigo of Life in the Diaspora - The New York Times

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Posted By admin on June 3, 2021

By Jeffery Giesener

CARLSBAD, California Jan Landau started The Butterfly Project in 2006 at the San Diego Jewish Academy (SDJA). Jan had been inspired by the Holocaust poem The Butterfly. After World War 11, the butterfly became a symbol of hope for survivors, that there can be renewed life, that there can be hope and transformation.

Jan had also been inspired by a documentary film called Paper Clips, about a Holocaust memorial created in Whitwell, Tennessee where students learn about the Holocaust and try to quantify the staggering number of six million Jews that were murdered in the Shoah. They committed to collecting one paper clip for each of the six million people who perished during the Holocaust. They wrote letters to individuals all over America to ask for paper clips while also getting their entire community of only 1,600 people involved. Whitwell is a tiny southern town in Tennessee with zero Jews, only four Blacks and one Hispanic.

Today more than 20 years from the inception of the project over 30 million paper clips have been collected in Whitwell. The fact that this community of only 1,600 members would conceive, create and execute a Holocaust educational project that would reach the level of support from around the world is a testament to Linda Hooper who at the start of their project in 1998 was the Middle School principal. The Paper Clips Project ended up receiving paper clips from all over the world, filling an actual Holocaust rail car with 11 million paperclips representing the six million Jews, along with 5 million Romas, homosexuals, political prisoners, and other victims of the Holocaust. The rail car and the Paper Clips Museum stand as a permanent memorial in the Whitwell Middle School schoolyard.

Cheryl Rattner Price, a ceramics artist, was SDJAs artist-in-residence at the time when Jan approached her about doing a project at first for only the SDJA. The lessons of The Butterfly Project are not scary, and they do not shut kids down in the awful way that Cheryl said her generation was taught about the Holocaust. The Butterfly Project creates a way to teach children about the history of the Holocaust in a way that lets them feel hope. Lets them feel that prejudice, hate, and bullying can be overcome.

The Butterfly Project database of biographical cards is one of the largest databases detailing photos and tributes of Jewish children lost in the Shoah.

Beth Licha, the projects database program manager, together with Holocaust survivors and their descendants created lasting tributes to those innocent children, who were so cruelly struck down by hatred and bigotry. Beth said that throughout the process, I have learned the stories of our families and have developed new and meaningful connections with people from around the world. Although researching the details needed for their biographies has been emotionally taxing for all involved, there is great comfort in knowing that those young lives will be remembered through the thousands of students who will read their biographies and paint butterflies in their honor.

As well, its gratifying to family members to know that the biographies will act as truly impactful examples for students to learn about the real dangers of bullying, bigotry, prejudice, and discrimination. Hopefully inspiring those students to become Upstanders for justice.

So many of the 1.5 million children who perished in the Holocaust had no surviving relatives or friends to tell their story, so it is very powerful to know that each child Holocaust victim for whom we create a The Butterfly Project biography card will now stand as a lasting ambassador to represent the thousands of other child Holocaust victims for whom we have no biographies.

Jan, Cheryl, and the dedicated Holocaust education team at The Butterfly Project also have created lectures that teach and educate youth through adult audiences the lessons of #NeverAgain, anti-bullying, and the hateful bias of prejudice.

During 2020/2021 during the COVID-19 pandemic, all of The Butterfly Projects lesson plans were digitized giving the organization the ability to educate on a global level. This is a significant advantage moving forward as The Butterfly Project has the ability to educate and teach using ZOOM and leverage other digital educational tools to electronically deliver Holocaust education to any school or organization anywhere in the world.

The whole team at The Butterfly Project fell in love with the process of helping to educate Jews and non-Jews alike while using the creative arts to spread butterfly memorials to many parts of the world. The connection between the butterfly, the creative arts, and the importance of sharing #neveragain education enables each of us in our very own individual way to express ourselves in a subject matter that is deeply personal to all of us, Cheryl and Jan continue. Youre breaking childrens hearts when you share what happened in the Holocaust and its many tragic family stories. Children feel powerless, hopelessness and extreme sadness.

The quintessential idea that gives The Butterfly Project both its universal positive and motivational appeal is the use of the symbol of a singular butterfly, the hope it represents, and joining this imagery to that experienced voice (s) that individuals can make a difference by being an Up Stander when somebody else is being hurtful.

The Butterfly Project through it newly created digital lesson plans and its new technology enhancements with the help of its many donors and sponsors are now enabling valuable Holocaust education to be delivered directly into the classroom through the use of the Internet.

California and 18 other states now require Holocaust education as part of their secondary school curricula.

As one student says in Not The Last Butterfly: I learned that if I dont do anything, then nothing will change.

It makes us so motivated. Its so important. We need to help our young generation to know everything they can about Holocaust history and learn when we come together around a common idea, we can not only honor and pay tribute to those lost but also change lives.

Rattner Price calls herself an obsessive photographer and since 2006 has documented every step of The Butterfly Project through photos and video from the installation at SDJA using boxes of ceramic butterflies received from all over the country and world, The Butterfly Project has spread the project to schoolchildren, overseeing Holocaust education and art installations in many communities both domestically and abroad.

All of these cities are now teaching the lessons of the Holocaust while also memorializing the memory of the 1.5 million Jewish children lost in the Shoah. Cheryl continues I felt responsible to share those stories. As a mosaic artist, I collect bits and pieces and keep everything and thats how I started making the documentary film Not The Last Butterfly.

She noted one particularly moving experience of filming the education and installation butterflies installed at a school in Warsaw, Poland. As an artist, I got in way over my head, not realizing how difficult it is to make a documentary film.

Featured in Not The Last Butterfly, is the story of 86-year-old Holocaust survivor Ela Weissberger. While an inmate in the Terezin Concentration Camp in the Czech Republic, Weissberger remembered a teacher, Friedl Dicker-Brandies, who inspired the children to express their pain and deal with the shock and trauma of the camp through secret art projects.

The filmmakers were able to take Weissberger back to Terezin, where she left a butterfly in memory of Friedl Dicker-Brandies, who helped thousands of children at Terezin before being transferred and then murdered at Auschwitz.

To viewNot the Last Butterflyin its entirety, email beth@thebutterflyproject.now for the password.

*Jeffery Giesener, former CEO of SourceMob, has both public and private company experience. Today, retired and enjoying life in Carlsbad, hes a freelance writer who has a passion for both cinema and baking his Moms (Of Blessed Memory) European recipes.

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Documentary Explains The Butterfly Project - San Diego Jewish World

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Posted By admin on June 3, 2021

Referring to someone as a shanda fur die Goyim literally, a shame before the goyim [non-Jews], is not to be taken lightly. Jews use the Yiddish phrase to describe other Jews that reflect poorly on the Jewish people, who reaffirm the most harmful stereotypes about us and give ammunition to those who would see us destroyed. It is not a phrase that I use or think about frequently, though it best describes what I have heard from some of my fellow Jews over the past two weeks regarding the Israeli occupation of Palestine.

Most of us by now have seen the footage of the Israeli Defense Forces firing stun grenades and water cannons on Palestinian protestors at Al Aqsa, also known as the Temple Mount, one of the holiest and most significant sites in Islam, Judaism and Christianity. Or you may have seen images from two days later on Eid, the Muslim day of celebration upon breaking the Ramadan fast, of Israeli airstrikes leveling entire buildings and refugee camps in Gaza City. But do not mistake these details as evidence that the conflict in Israel/Palestine is part of some inscrutable, thousand-year-long religious war. Instead, the truth is much simpler: The timing and location of these attacks is meant to inflict maximum fear, pain and terror on the Palestinians. It is terrorism done in the name of securing stolen land.

In 1917, during World War I, the British Empire issued the Balfour Declaration, voicing its support for the establishment of a sovereign state for the Jewish people in the then-Ottoman Empire. After the defeat of the Ottomans, the Levant was partitioned between the victorious French and British Empires, and the British Mandate of Palestine was created. Following the Holocaust and the Second World War, the Mandate was formally turned into the State of Israel. Jews had been making their way to Palestine since the late 19th century, where a significant number of us were already living relatively peacefully alongside the native Palestinians. But the issuance of the Balfour declaration and establishment of the State of Israel began the nationalist conflict and systematic dispossession of Palestinian land that continues to this day. Studying the history shows us a painful truth that we can no longer ignore: Israels founding, and continued existence, has necessitated crimes against humanity.

Palestinians have their own words for the atrocities done to them during this time, just as we do for those done to us only a few years earlier. The forced expulsion of 700,000 Palestinians from their homes in 1948 is known to them as the Nakba, meaning catastrophe. The Biblical Hebrew word for catastrophe, Shoah, is what we call the Holocaust. There are more disturbing similarities: The 1948 Lydda Death March, in which Israeli forces led 50,000 Arabs from their homes at gunpoint, many to their deaths, has uncanny echoes of the brutal treks our own ancestors suffered. In our own time, the story is much the same: #Kristallnacht was trending on Twitter recently, a reference not to the tragic evening in our own history, but the one going on in Israeli neighborhoods that very night, with Jewish mobs destroying Israeli Arab-owned storefronts.

But where did this idea come from that the Jewish people, and only the Jewish people, have an inherent right to their own sovereign nation on someone elses land? Even if this was not the intention of the founders, Zionism has grown into European ethnonationalism for Jews. Zionism began in Europe in the 19th century as an ideology that could offer an alternative to the choice given to Jews at the time: Face persecution, or assimilate. Now there was an appealing third option: Leave, and return to the putative Biblical homeland of our people. But in proposing self-exile from European society as a solution to the Jewish question, Zionism bought into the same premise as the antisemites: that we were biologically racially distinct and were better off somewhere else. As Polish-Israeli historian Zeev Sternhell summarizes, At the beginning of the century, the views of those who sought Jewish political independence and those who sought to purge their countries of the Jewish presence were often quite similar.

Early Zionist literature itself is not always easily distinguishable from antisemitic propaganda, inveighing against the physical, mental and moral deficiencies of the effete European Jew. Writing in 1920, notable Russian Zionist A.D. Gordon put it in no uncertain terms: We are parasites. Zionists were particularly concerned with the racial degeneracy of Diaspora Jews, ascribing the most vicious tropes about us (e.g. grotesque appearance, cowardice) to our displacement. For this strain of Jewish thought shlilat ha-golah, the negation of the diaspora the only hope for Jews was to be reunited with their spiritual home in Israel, where they could be made whole. This alternative vision of the hale and hearty Jew in Palestine became known as Muscular Judaism. Jewish American cartoonist Eli Valley plays on this legacy in his cartoon series, Israel Man and Diaspora Boy.

We do not need to look hard to see that today, the state of Israel is still in league with the very antisemites from which it was theoretically meant to protect us, such as Viktor Orbn of Hungary and Jair Bolsonaro of Brazil. As more and more young American Jews, and Americans in general, see the righteousness of the Palestinian struggle for freedom, American Zionisms real base of support has become clearer: Evangelical Christians, whose only interest in Israel is to bring about the rapture in which all of us Jews will die anyway. It is for this reason that I find it particularly cynical, even shameful, to see other American Jews decry the antisemitism of even the mildest criticism of Zionist crimes. Hiding behind our own history of persecution to cover for the atrocities done in our name is in bad faith and bad taste, and it is bad for the Jews.

All of us in the United States are living through an extraordinary moment, one in which the old Israeli propaganda playbook just isnt working anymore. Zionists know this, and they are left to their last tactic: victimhood. Energized by the Black Lives Matter movement and growing support for decolonial struggles everywhere, a critical mass of people is rallying to the Palestinian cause. Fewer and fewer people find themselves able to pretend that it is one particular right-wing politician or party, and not Israel itself, that is the driver of all this death and destruction. The Jewish people of America have a double responsibility to stand with the Palestinian people: as members of the ethnic group for whom this violence is theoretically committed, and as citizens of the country that plies this apartheid regime with billions in military aid. The Palestinian cause now must have a home and a future in American Jewry.

It is not within our rights to condemn any means the Palestinians use to defend themselves and preserve their dignity, just as we would not condemn our ancestors for doing the same. There is no shame in making this obvious connection between our own history of persecution and the persecutions we see around us today. The only shanda is for us to let it continue in our name.

Aaron Neiman is a PhD candidate in the Anthropology Department.

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From the Community | Jews call 'antisemitism' while new atrocities unfold in our name - The Stanford Daily

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