Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By admin on February 18, 2021

Note: Due to COVID-19 concerns, events are subject to change. Check with venues for updates.

Alasdair Fraser & Natalie Haas: 8 p.m. Feb. 19, online, The Ark, Ann Arbor,theark.org/shows-events/calendar, $20+.

Todd Rundgren: geo-targeted multi-city Clearly Human Virtual Tour through March 22, routed for Detroit, Feb. 23, ToddRundgren.NoCapShows.com, $35+ each.

Nothin But the Blues: DSO Digital Concerts: 7:30 p.m. Feb. 25-26, dso.org, streaming, $12 each.

Jazz from Detroit-Virtual Music Marathon-DSO Digital Concerts: 2 p.m. Feb. 27, dso.org, streaming,$9+.

A Tribute to Duke Ellington: Candlelight Jazz showFeb. 27, The Masonic Temple Fountain Ballroom, 500 Temple Ave., Detroit, 313-832-7100, themasonic.com/events.php, $100+ for two.

Chantae Cann: Online through Feb. 28, Detroit Institute of Arts, dia.org/BlackHistoryMonth.

Music of Florence Price: DIA @ Homethrough March 1, dia.org/events, free.

DSO Digital Concert: 7:30 p.m. March 5, Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra Septet with Wynton Marsalis, dso.org.

Dan + Claudia Zanes: Through March 6, streaming, Macomb Center for the Performing Arts, Clinton Twp., bit.ly/36x2UWB, free.

Birmingham Musicale: "The Social Voices of American Music-Stories for All People" virtual music concert via YouTube, recorded for later viewing, thebirminghammusicale.org.

Conversations & Cocktails: Spoken word and drums 7:15 p.m. Feb. 19, part of the Southfield Celebrates Black History Month, virtual program on the Southfield Parks and Recreation Facebook page, hosted by Ber-Henda Williams.

Nationtime: Film, Feb. 19-21, DFT @ Home, Online, Detroit Film Theatre, dia.org/events, free.

Just Mercy (PG-13): Moonlight Movie Night pop-up drive-in7:30 p.m. Feb. 20, Southfield Parks & Recreation Department Building parking lot. Bring your own refreshments (no alcohol), cityofsouthfield.com, limited to 40 cars, register at 248 796-4620,or at apm.activecommunities.com/southfieldparks.

Examining Voting Rights-Past, Present & Future: Noon-1 p.m. Feb. 22, virtual program hosted by ADL Michigan, Urban League of Detroit & SE MI, Black and Jewish Coalition for Unity, and JCRC/AJC, register at bit.ly/3poDqAY.

Wednesday Night Virtual Storytelling Series: 6 p.m. Wednesdays, Detroit Association of Black Storytellers presents selection of personal and historical narratives for youth and families, The Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History, thewright.org.

Excellence in Black Cinema Series: Black films, Thursdays in February, at The Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History, 315 E. Warren Ave., Detroit, 313-494-5800, thewright.org. Films run at 9:30 a.m., noon, and 2 p.m., Thursdays, free.

Capturing a Culture Change Motown through the lens of Jim Hendin-1968-1972: exhibit at Motown Museum, 2648 W. Grand Blvd., Detroit, motownmuseum.org. New hours 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday.

Stories of Pride & Prejudice:The Secret Society of Twisted Story Tellers presents at 7 p.m. Feb. 26, via Zoom, Southfield Parks & Recreation Department, bit.ly/3iY8pSw or call 248-796-4620, $10, adults.

The Blackness Project-Identity And The African American Community: Documentary through Feb. 28,The Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History, thewright.org.

Michigan in the Civil War: traveling exhibit from the Detroit Historical Society, through Feb. 28 at The Oxford Public Library, 530 Pontiac Street, Oxford, miopl.org.

Films of the Rev. Solomon Sir Jones: Online through March 1, DIA at Home, Detroit Film Theatre, dia.org/events, free.

Walk Through History display: Through March 1, along the walking path on the front lawn of the Southfield Municipal Complex, 26000 Evergreen Road, Southfield, display featuring influential African Americans of Southfield and world history, cityofsouthfield.com.

DSO Digital Concert and Classical Roots Celebration: 6:30 p.m. March 6, Detroit Symphony Orchestra with the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra Septet with Wynton Marsalis, celebrates African-American composers and musicians, Orchestra Hall livestream, dso.org/classicalroots, $100+ for 2. Concert only, 7:30 p.m., $12+.

Detroit 67 Perspectives exhibit: opened in 2017 to recognize the 50th anniversary of Detroits civil unrest, will become a permanent exhibition at the Detroit Historical Museum.

Teen Arts Council Film Fest 2021: Call for filmmakers ages 13-20 to share short films by Feb. 19, bit.ly/2YmRcIZ.

Art on Auburn: The City of Rochester Hills accepting art submissions forAuburn Road community artwork project open to all K-12 students attendingRochester Hills, Rochester or Avondale public schools. Register by Feb. 28, pccart.org/exhibitions/art-on-auburn.

Motown Mic-The Spoken Word Competition: ages 16+, apply online by March 5, motownmuseum.org.

Ehnes-Brahms for Six:DSO Digital Concert7:30 p.m. Feb. 19,dso.org, streaming concert, $12 each.

Mike Armstrong: Feb. 18-20, One Night Stans Comedy Club, 4761 Highland Road, Waterford Twp., COVID-19 restrictions include a 10 p.m. curfew, 25 percent capacity, Onenightstanscomedyclub.com, $20+.

Dean Edwards: Feb. 18-20, Mark Ridleys Comedy Castle, 310 S. Troy St., Royal Oak, comedycastle.com, prices vary.

Gildas Laughfest Festival: March 11-14, presented by Gun Lake Casino, 30 events, plus social media content and contests, laughfestgr.org.

Mosaic Arts International exhibition: Featuring Huntington Woods resident Michelle Sider. View at mosaicartsinternational.americanmosaics.org, free.

Annual #HeartsForArt: Visitors pick up a decorative heart at front desk during February, take a photo of the heart in front of their favorite artwork and post on social media, tagging #HeartsForArt and #CranbrookArtMuseum, health safety measures in place,cranbrookartmuseum.org.

History of American Architecture: 11 a.m. or 7 p.m. Mondays, through Feb. 22, virtual five-week lecture series by Cranbrook Center for Collections and Research. Register at bit.ly/2Oz2isP, $75 adults, $25 full-time students, free for Cranbrook Academy of Art and Cranbrook Schools students.

Michigan Annual XLVIII: Exhibit available in person and online, through Feb. 23, facebook.com/AntonArtCenter, theartcenter.org.

Conversations with Cranbrook: Laura Mott, Senior Curator of Contemporary Art and Design, 4:30-5:30 p.m. Feb. 25 via Zoom, virtual tour of her personal art collection, free for Cranbrook ArtMembers and academy students,cranbrookartmuseum.org.

The Body Eclectic: Exhibit through Feb. 26, Lawrence Street Gallery, Ferndale, lawrencestreetgallery.com. See exhibit at the website and in-person at the gallery, open Thursday-Sunday, 248-544-0394.

Hum & Glow of Winter: Michael Polakowski installation 6 a.m.-10 p.m. through Feb. 28, 1903 Grand River Ave., Detroit, empoweringmichigan.com/event/hum-glow-of-winter-art-installation-2, Playground Detroit in partnership with DTE's Beacon Park, free.

Virtual Field Guide to Renowned Detroit Architectural Sculptor, Corrado Parducci, hosted by the Ferndale Area District Library is 7 p.m. March 2 via Zoom, register at tiny.cc/parducci.

Corrado Parducci: Virtual Field Guide to Renowned Detroit Architectural Sculptor,7 p.m. March 2, hosted by the Ferndale Area District Library via Zoom, register at bit.ly/3dlkSz9, 248-546-2504, ferndalepubliclibrary.org.

Boom Town-Detroit in the 1920s: The Detroit Historical Museum, 5401 Woodward Ave., Detroit, detroithistorical.org.

Winter Wednesday: Private group visits Wednesday afternoons at Cranbrook Art Museum, 39221 Woodward Ave., Bloomfield Hills. One-hour time slots available at 3, 4 and 5 p.m. for up to six (including galleries and shop). Staff will provide brief overview of exhibitions, $50 per group, cranbrookartmuseum.org.

Detroit Style-Car Design in the Motor City, 1950-2020: Exhibit through June 27. Access Detroit Institute of Arts online to view collections, online resources for children and adults, dia.org/athome, dia.org/education/resources, dia.org/videos. The DIA open Wednesday-Sunday; timed entry tickets at dia.org.

Experience and Expression: Through Oct. 3. The DIA open Wednesday-Sunday; timed entry tickets at dia.org.

Art Bytes-Detroit Style Car Design in the Motor City, 1950-2020: DIA gallery teacher Crystal Palmer takes viewers through the exhibition, DIA School Field Trip from Home, bit.ly/35x8cAA.

Art-Making: Luminaries using recycled glass jars and tissue paper for a stained-glass effect, Art Access Online, bit.ly/2K6YH3k.

Monroe Street Drive-In: Hidden Figures 7 p.m. Feb. 19, Kung Fu Panda Feb. 20 and Back to the Future Part 2 Feb. 21,Powered By Emagine movie theater, 32 Monroe St., Detroit. Films and showtimes Thursdays-Sundays through spring, $20 per vehicle, Deckedoutdetroit.com.

Minari": Through Feb. 25, Landmark Main Art, 118 N Main St, Royal Oak, landmarktheatres.com, $10+.

The Father: Feb. 26, The Maple Theater, 4135 W. Maple Road, Bloomfield Hills, themapletheater.com, $12+.

M.C. Escher-Journey to Infinity: Online through March 4, DFT @ Home, Detroit Film Theatre, dia.org/events, $12.

A Glitch in the Matrix: Online through March 5, DFT @ Home, Detroit Film Theatre, dia.org/events, $12.

Lapsis: Online through March 5, DFT @ Home, Detroit Film Theatre, dia.org/events, $6.99.

Live ice carving: 4-7 p.m. Feb. 19, ice sculptures by Finesse Ice, Festival Park, The Village of Rochester Hills, Rochester Hills, TheVORH.com/Events.

Twenty-Onederland Block Party-Mardi Gras celebration: noon-2 p.m. Feb. 21, Prestige Entertainment will have a DJ playing New Orleans music, The Village of Rochester Hills, Rochester Hills, TheVORH.com/Events.

Skating sessions: Through March 7, The Rink at Campus Martius Park, 800 Woodward Ave., Detroit, register at DowntownDetroitParks.com or call 313-963-9393.

Dino Stroll: May 20, animated dinosaur-themed stroll, opening day proceeds benefit Jays Juniors, to support chronically and terminally ill children, Canterbury Village, 2325 Joslyn Ct., Lake Orion, facebook.com/canterburyvillagelakeorion. $9.99+, free for children younger than 2, military and veterans. Parking $5.

Butterflies Are Blooming:Annual Fred & Dorothy Fichter exhibition March 1-April 30, thousands of butterflies fly inside Lena Meijer Tropical Conservatory at Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park, 1000 E Beltline Ave NE, Grand Rapids, COVID precautions in effect with wait times, meijergardens.org or bit.ly/2NBBlEE, $14.50 for ages 14+; $7 for ages 5-13; $4 for ages 3-4; free for 2 and younger.

Meadow Brook Hall: weekend self-guided tours. Guests may explore all three levels of the house and wander the wooded pathways with the help of a new app. Admission is $10 per adult, $7 for ages 62+, $5 for ages 6-12. Free for ages 5 and younger, guests must wear a face covering in enclosed spaces and maintain physical distancing. Tickets are available at bit.ly/2YJbcWo, meadowbrookhall.org.

Rosa Parks Bus exhibit: The Henry Ford-Museum of American Innovation, 20900 Oakwood Blvd., Dearborn, exhibit included with museum admission, $25+, youth (5-11), $18.75+, free to ages 4 and younger. COVID-19 precautions, Greenfield Village closed for the season, thehenryford.org. Ford Rouge Factory Tours are open Monday-Saturday, purchase tickets online.

Deadly Medicine-Creating the Master Race: Through July 11 in-person exhibit at Holocaust Memorial Center Zekelman Family Campus, Farmington Hills, holocaustcenter.org, 248-553-2400.

Michigan Science Center: Reserve museum visits onlineThursday-Sunday, 313-577-8400, Mi-Sci.org, $18, free for younger than 2. IMAX Theater reserved tickets extra cost. COVID-19 safety measures in place.

Rochester-Avon Historical Society: Illustrated new heritage tour book, History in the Heart of the Hills: A Rochester Area Heritage Tour, available for purchasefor $13 at rochesteravonhistoricalsociety.org/store.

The Brave Little Tailor: Through Feb. 20, streaming, Macomb Center for the Performing Arts, Clinton Twp., bit.ly/3beFasZ.

Scott Silven's The Journey:Live virtual theater and storytelling Feb. 23-28, a2sf.org/scott-silvens-the-journey, $46-$56.

4 Genres: 8 p.m. Feb. 24, second in series, performed live on Zoom, Theatre Nova, Ann Arbor, $10 each month, or $30 for a series pass, TheatreNova.org. Email a2theatrenova@gmail.com.

Maltese Falcon: a radio play 8 p.m. Feb. 26, premiering on our YouTube Channel, presented by Rosedale Community Players, via Youtube, RosedaleCommunityPlayers.com, donations welcome.

The Magic Science Lab with Bill Blagg: March 1-May 28, virtual, Macomb Center for the Performing Arts, Clinton Twp., streaming, macombcenter.com, free.

Doktor Kaboom! It's Just Rocket Science: streaming through April 2, Macomb Center for the Performing Arts, Clinton Twp., macombcenter.com, free.

DIA At Home: Family art projects Neighborhood Collage and Art-Making-Stabiles, freestanding geometric sculptures. Access the Detroit Institute of Arts online to view collections and online resources for children and adults, dia.org/athome, dia.org/education/resources, dia.org/videos.

Michigan History for Kids: For third- and fourth-graders, exploring history and heritage of all Michigan peoples, michigankids.org/home.

Submit events online at bit.ly/1iUM73e.

Read the original here:

Southeast Michigan entertainment calendar Feb. 19 and beyond - The Oakland Press

Category: Jewish American Heritage Month | Comments Off on Southeast Michigan entertainment calendar Feb. 19 and beyond – The Oakland Press
Tags:

Posted By admin on February 18, 2021

It may be tempting to describe The Vigil as The Exorcist meets Borough Park. But making the comparison can be glib and detract from the originality of this one-of-a-kind Jewish horror film. Tickets for the film, screening through Feb. 22, are available from Boston Jewish Film.

Never miss the best stories and events! Get JewishBoston This Week.

Jewish themes do not usually drive horror films. But The Vigil has blazed a trail for the way it introduces Yiddish dialogue and combines supernatural elements with Jewish mourning rituals. There are plenty of jumpy scares, along with flickering lights and unsettling appearances. All of it happens in a setting where things literally go bump in the night.

The film is written and directed by Keith Thomas, a rabbinical school dropout who brings out eerie elements lurking during a night spent watching over a dead body. Jewish tradition calls for a shomera watchpersonto guard the body in this period of aninut, the time between death and burial.

The shomer for this particular night is Yakov, played to perfection by Dave Davis. A scene at the beginning of the film shows Yakov in a support group for those who have also stepped off the derechoff the path of ultra-Orthodox Judaism. Yakov, emotionally fragile, desperately needs rent money and accepts his cousin Menashes offer to watch over the body of Mr. Litvak, a Holocaust survivor. Menashe is played by the excellent Menashe Lustig, a practicing Hasid, who was the subject of the lightly fictionalized 2017 film Menashe.

Suffice it to say that Yakov is in for a frightful night where he has to contend with the disturbing Mrs. Litvak, played by the late Lynn Cohen, an exceptional actor who had a recurring role as Magda in Sex and the City and played Golda Meir in Munich. Giant lamps eerily illuminate the Litvaks cramped living room with its yellowing wallpaper and shabby furniture, and Yakov is left with a dead body that eventually reacts to the dybbuk, or demon, that haunted it in life.

Davis, along with producer Raphael Margules, met with JewishBoston over Zoom to chat about the film. They discussed everything from speaking Yiddish in the film, understanding Yakov in light of his mental health struggles, considering the horror genre in combination with Judaisms more esoteric mourning rituals and the intergenerational trauma associated with the Holocaust.

Davis said that learning Yiddish to play Yakov was a revelation. Brought up as a Reform Jew, he said: I didnt realize how much Yiddish I knew until I started studying it for the film. The more I learned about the Hasidic community, the more I realized I could have been part of that community if my grandparents hadnt decided to take a different path toward Americanization.

In his research for the role, Davis also met with people at various stages of leaving the ultra-Orthodox community. I came to appreciate their struggles, he said. For many, leaving meant it was their first interaction with English, secular life, American films and music, and popular culture in general. I kept in mind how those interactions could inform Yakovs character. The film also addresses antisemitism. To bring those experiences to life as an American Jew was another way for me to bring that community to life.

Margules, an Orthodox Jew, runs BoulderLight Pictures with a friend he met in Hebrew school. Margules said he was determined to bring his sensibilities as an observant Jew to the films aesthetic. The intention was to tell a very scary, intimate personal story within the Hasidic community and to portray that community in very human ways, he said. We brought the audience into this community organically with someone who has left that world and was pulled back literally and figuratively to face the issues he left.

To that end, Yakov spends the first part of his vigil reading psalms in Hebrew. The gesture not only reflects Yakovs fragile state of mind but the fact that he suffers from a form of PTSD after witnessing antisemitic thugs murder his younger brother. It was important that the fear in the film be grounded in the reality of the emotion, Davis noted. Being afraid of the boogeyman or the monster under the bed comes from the internal demons we all struggle with, whether it be mental health, familial issues or community trauma. Yakovs challenges come from all three of those things.

While death is a natural subject for a horror film, Margules and Thomas took things a step further by focusing on the trauma of the Holocaust for survivors and second-generation survivors. Marguless four grandparents were imprisoned in concentration camps, and he said their experiences are intertwined in my DNA. When I got Keiths script in 2018, my grandmother in Borough Park had recently died at age 90. The movie is a tribute to her and that generation. I recognize that its an ambitious move to tackle the Holocaust when making a low-budget horror movie. We had to handle it delicately and organically.

The horror, coupled with the trauma of the Holocaust, comes together in the demon of the Mazzik. The dybbuk latched on to Mr. Litvak in Buchenwald and never let go, even in death. At one point, Yakov confronts the Mazzik and sees a distortion of his face projected onto the demon. Davis considers that scene a turning point in Yakovs convoluted relationship to faith. How does Yakov grapple with his Hasidic roots? he asks. Does distancing himself mean he doesnt believe in God? In a supernatural story like The Vigil, the implications are that there are profound things to deal with, like Jewish suffering through the generations and personal spiritual journeys.

Join a live conversation with writer/director Keith Thomas, producer Raphael Margules and actors Dave Davis and Malky Goldman on Feb. 22 at 7 p.m. Admission is included in the price of a screening ticket.

Never miss the best stories and events! Get JewishBoston This Week.

View original post here:

New Jewish Horror Film Steeped in Ancient Jewish Lore and Demonology - jewishboston.com

Category: Hasidic | Comments Off on New Jewish Horror Film Steeped in Ancient Jewish Lore and Demonology – jewishboston.com
Tags:

Posted By admin on February 18, 2021

Martha Gendonou receives communion from Deacon Tony King at Saints Peter and Paul Catholic Church in Atlanta. REUTERS/Chris Aluka Berry

Kimberly Hendricks will usher in the somber Christian period of Lent on Ash Wednesday from the parking lot of her Sacramento church instead of its sanctuary thanks to COVID-19 restrictions.

She and the other congregants of St. Johns Lutheran Church in California will listen to the familiar prayers from their car radios before marking their own foreheads with a cross using ash and oil they mixed themselves.

Its not perfect, but its what we can do right now, said Hendricks, 50.

Nearly a year since the pandemic curbed large gatherings, communities of faith have grown more creative to reach congregants hungry for spiritual and social connections.

In many Catholic communities, ashes will not be worn on the forehead as is traditional in America as a symbol of mortality and penance in advance of the Easter holiday on April 4. Instead, most churches are following guidance from the Vatican to sprinkle the ashes on the congregants head. Others are applying them with Q-tips or cotton balls in a drive-through setup.

With the actual wearing of ashes not required by the Catholic church, some parishes are skipping application of ash entirely or holding only digital services due to safety concerns.

Online services and Zoom meetings now are mainstays of distance worship. But congregants like Hendricks say they need more to fill the void created by the lack of in-person interaction.

Religious or secular, there is a certain amount of Zoom fatigue, said Bryan Visitacion, a spokesman for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Sacramento.

In suburban Atlanta, the COVID-era changes do not bother Fred Maxwell, 75, a congregant at Saints Peter and Paul Catholic Church who has not missed an Ash Wednesday Mass since he was old enough to participate.

Its not the ritual thats important, Maxwell said. Its how you turn inward and try to be a better Christian, a better person.

They could put the ashes on my nose for all I care.

Jewish synagogues will celebrate the festive holiday of Purim on Feb. 25 and 26 with drive-through carnivals, outdoor services and holiday-in-a-box packages that congregants can open at home.

The Temple Beth Hillel synagogue in Los Angeles typically holds a large community carnival for Purim a celebration of the Jews salvation from genocide in ancient Persia with amusement park rides, food vendors and crafts.

But this year, costume-clad families instead will drive through a series of games in the synagogues parking lot, including a coin toss for charity, Rabbi Sarah Hronsky said.

At the end of the ride, everyone will get hamentaschen, traditional Jewish cookies eaten on the holiday, and have their photos taken, Hronsky said.

Hronskys more liberal Jewish tradition allows for the religious aspect of Purim, which includes reading from the biblical scroll of Esther, to be conducted through online services.

Worshipping via Zoom has brought unexpected blessings, Hronsky said, allowing congregants who have moved away or elderly members who have difficulty coming to the synagogue to participate.

But I think there is a huge desire to want to be together, she said. Nothing will replace the power of a hug.

In the orthodox Jewish community, where tradition holds that the story of Purim should be read in person, some synagogues are hosting numerous small events so congregants can gather without being in a large crowd. Others are holding services outdoors.

In the Hasidic Chabad movement, several synagogues in cold locations are having outdoor Purim in the Arctic services and parties, said Motti Seligson, a spokesman for the movement. Congregants will don winter coats and hats as their masquerade costumes.

Chabads across the country are encouraging people to really get into it, Seligson said. If we ever needed a shot in the arm of joy around Purim, it would be this year.

Show comments

View post:

Americas Christian and Jewish Faithful Observe Socially Distanced Ash Wednesday and Purim - Times of San Diego

Category: Hasidic | Comments Off on Americas Christian and Jewish Faithful Observe Socially Distanced Ash Wednesday and Purim – Times of San Diego
Tags:

Posted By admin on February 18, 2021

JTA Three times on Sunday, January 31, Orthodox men carried the body of a beloved Torah scholar wrapped in a black and white prayer shawl through the streets of Jerusalem to a freshly dug grave.

First there was Rabbi Meshulam Dovid Soloveitchik, the 99-year-old heir to a vaunted tradition of Talmud study. A few hours later it was Rabbi Yitzchok Sheiner, the 98-year-old leader of a prominent yeshiva. And in the evening they took Rabbi Dr. Abraham J. Twerski, a psychiatrist and scion of multiple Hasidic dynasties, to his final resting place near Beit Shemesh.

By nightfall, the Orthodox world could count three fewer rabbinic scholars than when the day began. All died of COVID-19, the disease that has killed well over 2.3 million people around the world, including more than 400,000 in the United States and nearly 5,000 in Israel. In Israel, 1 in 132 Haredi, or ultra-Orthodox, Jews over 65 had died of COVID-19 by the end of 2020.

Get The Times of Israel's Daily Edition by email and never miss our top storiesFree Sign Up

The weekends losses were relentless in their pace, but they reflected a cruel fact of life in the Orthodox world over the past year. A long list of Orthodox rabbinic leaders have died, leaving communities reeling from their losses and at times wondering who will emerge to fill their shoes. The deaths from COVID and from other causes during a pandemic that curtailed the mourning rituals that usually follow the deaths of major rabbis spanned the range of the Orthodox community, from Modern Orthodox to Lithuanian (non-Hasidic Haredi) to Hasidic.

In some cases, the deaths of major rabbis signaled the end of an era in which men who attained high levels of secular education also joined the ranks of the generations leading rabbis, something that has become more rare as time goes on. And in others, the rabbis who died were symbols of connection to a past era of Orthodoxy in which the quality of Torah study was deemed to be higher and holier.

The rabbis leave behind many disciples who have dedicated their lives to study, so their deaths do not signal the demise of traditions, as may be the case, for example, for some Native American tribes whose elders have been hit hard by the virus. Still, the rabbis symbolized a connection to the past that is highly valued in a community based on the transmission of a tradition said to date back to the giving of the Torah to Moses at Sinai.

Thousands of ultra-Orthodox Jews participate in funeral for prominent rabbi Meshulam Dovid Soloveitchik, in Jerusalem, January 31, 2021. (AP/Ariel Schalit)

It represents periods of real Jewish glory in terms of Torah scholarship, said Rabbi Menachem Genack, chief executive officer of the Orthodox Unions kosher division. Were looking for that link to what was.

The losses began early in the pandemic. In the United States, there was the Novominsker Rebbe, Rabbi Yaakov Perlow, a member of the rabbinical council for Agudath Israel, a Haredi advocacy group. Perlow died of COVID in early April, just a few weeks after he exhorted the Haredi community to take precautions to stop the spread of the coronavirus.

The loss to [the Jewish people], and Agudas Yisroel, is incalculable, Agudath Israel said at the time in a statement, using an alternate spelling of its name not yet knowing how much greater the losses would be.

Deaths piled up in the Haredi community in New York during the spring, though few who died were as prominent as Perlow.

The late Rabbi Yaakov Perlow speaks at Agudath Israel of Americas 2019 convention in Stamford, Connecticut. (Courtesy/Agudath Israel via JTA)

Meanwhile, the Modern Orthodox world suffered a series of devastating losses. Rabbi Norman Lamm, a former president of Yeshiva University who had used his post there to promote his vision of Modern Orthodoxy, died at age 92 in May. His wife, Mindella, died the month before of COVID-19 at 88.

In August, Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz, a scholar whose expertise ran the gamut from Jewish mysticism to prayer to theology to ethics, but who became more famous for his translation of the Talmud into modern Hebrew, died at 83. Steinsaltz did not die of COVID.

Pope Francis meets Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz at the Vatican, December 5, 2016. (LOsservatore Romano/Pool Photo via AP)

Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, the former chief rabbi of the United Kingdom who became an eloquent spokesperson for Judaism to the world, died in November at 72 of cancer. His death, a major blow not only to his community in the United Kingdom but to the Modern Orthodox community in the United States and others across the entire Jewish community, was mourned in a torrent of essays and tributes.

Illustrative: Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, set to present the Humanitarian Award to IsraAids Meira Aboulafia at the TOI Gala in New York City, January 2015. (Blake Ezra/Courtesy)

Just a few days later, Rabbi Dovid Feinstein, son of the most famous Orthodox Jewish legal authority of the 20th century, Rabbi Moshe Feinstein, died at 91. In December, Rabbi Gedalia Dov Schwartz, a longtime judge in Jewish legal courts, died, in Chicago at 95, as did Rabbi Yehuda Herzl Henkin, a pioneer in the world of Orthodox Jewish feminism, who died in Jerusalem at 75.

Those who died were sometimes mourned for what they symbolized as much as for their individual accomplishments.

A crowd of yeshiva students attend the funeral of late Rabbi Dovid Feinstein on November 9, 2020 in Jerusalem. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90 )

Rav Dovid was the last surviving son of the Brisker Rav, Genack said of Soloveitchik. The Brisker Rav, Rabbi Yitzchak Zev Soloveitchik, moved the Brisk Yeshiva from Poland to Jerusalem in the 1940s and helped promote the Brisker method of Talmud study, which has since become popular throughout the Orthodox world.

You feel that loss in the sense of that living link that we had to Brisk before is gone, Genack said.

Soloveitchik, at the age of 99, also was one of the dwindling number of rabbis who was born in prewar Poland, another link to the yeshiva world that thrived in Eastern Europe and was almost entirely wiped out during the Holocaust.

In the United States, Feinstein formed that link, if not to the world of prewar Europe then to the decades when his father was the leading Orthodox rabbi in America. Moshe Feinsteins mastery of Jewish law commanded respect from nearly every sector of the Orthodox community.

Rabbi Abraham J. Twerski. (CC-BY-SA-3.0/ Latkelarry)

Twerski, a Milwaukee native, represented another connection to a way of living as an Orthodox rabbi that has become rare. He was the son of a Hasidic rabbi who attended public school and later medical school in addition to learning in yeshiva and becoming a rabbi. Twerski became known both for his contributions to the field of psychiatry as well as his writings on Jewish subjects. And he combined the two in some of his 60-odd books, and in appearances at academic conferences where he presented papers dressed in Hasidic garb.

He was a great believer that there was no contradiction, said Rabbi Dr. Tzvi Hersh Weinreb, a psychologist and former executive vice president of the Orthodox Union. A person could be a person of great faith and a rigorous scientist.

Few people who attain Twerskis level of recognition in the Orthodox community today also have graduate degrees, particularly in the sciences, with many forgoing a college education.

In the Lithuanian, or yeshivish, world, encompassing the Haredi community that is not Hasidic and centers around yeshivas like Soloveitchiks Brisk yeshiva, most of the rabbis lost this year were in their 80s or 90s. Rabbi Aaron Kotler, CEO and president of the Beis Medrash Govoha in Lakewood, New Jersey, the largest yeshiva of the non-Hasidic Haredi community in the United States, said that was no coincidence.

We venerate age and wisdom, Kotler said. So the advanced age doesnt minimize the feeling of loss. In some way it magnifies the feeling of loss.

Yet the fact that so many Orthodox leaders have died of COVID-19 has not spurred their followers to pay greater heed to public health advice meant to slow the virus spread. Thousands attended the Sheiner and Soloveitchik funerals in Jerusalem, with few wearing masks, in violation of Israels lockdown.

Thousands of ultra-Orthodox men attend the funeral of Rabbi Yitzchok Sheiner, who died from COVID-19, in Jerusalem, January 31, 2021. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

Genack said the fact that many of these leaders were elderly made it easier to ignore the fact that COVID-19 had killed them.

Most of the leaders are in their 80s and 90s, so its relatively easier to detach yourself from [attributing it to] COVID. A person of 89 or 99 passes away, you know that can happen without COVID, Genack said. So in that sense its not a game changer.

Not only have the deaths of beloved leaders from COVID not encouraged the community to take greater precautions in stopping the spread of the virus, they have even galvanized some to double down, according to Kimmy Caplan, a professor of Jewish history at Bar-Ilan University in Israel who studies Haredi communities.

They take the loss and the mourning and it gets a twist in educational terms, Caplan said. It becomes a trigger for enhancing the community and for strengthening the community.

In the Modern Orthodox community, the losses of Sacks, Henkin, Steinsaltz and Lamm registered as the rapid disappearance of rabbis who combined serious study with thought leadership.

Norman Lamm (Yeshiva University via JTA)

Rivka Schwartz, an associate principal at SAR High School in the Bronxs Riverdale neighborhood and a research fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute who writes frequently about politics and the Orthodox community, said she found Lamm to be the voice she missed most.

He articulated a philosophy, Schwartz said of Lamm, thinking back to the sermons on race in America that he delivered in the 1960s. The loss of somebody doing that for the community, I think the Modern Orthodox community feels very acutely.

The loss of Sacks left the community without its most articulate spokesperson, even if he was often speaking to an audience that included non-Jews in many of his popular writings. In contrast to the yeshivish community, where yeshiva leaders who die are generally replaced by another elderly scholar, the Modern Orthodox community does not have a clear succession plan for someone to fill the shoes of a Rabbi Lamm or a Rabbi Sacks.

I do think that is a gaping hole, Schwartz said, and thats not going to be filled by somebody else sitting in the rosh yeshivas chair.

Yehuda Meshi-Zahav at the grave of his mother Sarah, after the funeral on October 18. 2021 (courtesy of Yehuda Meshi-Zahav)

Schwartz said another gaping hole has gone largely unacknowledged: the deaths of untold numbers of Orthodox women who have died during the pandemic and rarely rose to prominence for their contributions because they were kept out of the rabbinate in all but the most progressive Orthodox communities. Typically they are memorialized in obituaries as the wife or mother of a rabbi rather than for their own accomplishments.

Thats structural if no woman is ever a public figure, they wont be on the lists, said Schwartz, who grew up in the Haredi community and wrote an obituary for her teacher, Chaya Ausband, who died in May at 96. The people who taught me and who are important in that community dont speak in public, so even people who play important roles are not remembered in public in the same way.

Few expect the deaths to end with these rabbis, as the virus continues to spread. And younger rabbis, some trained by the rabbis who died, will eventually fill the absences they left behind. But for now, the years losses continue to weigh heavily on the community.

I dont mean to say that these people are irreplaceable theyre not irreplaceable, people can go on, Genack said. But this corona has taken a huge toll.

Read the rest here:

A year of grief: Orthodox Jewry reels as COVID-19 hastens the loss of its rabbis - The Times of Israel

Category: Hasidic | Comments Off on A year of grief: Orthodox Jewry reels as COVID-19 hastens the loss of its rabbis – The Times of Israel
Tags:

Posted By admin on February 16, 2021

Scrolling through images of the white nationalists who overran the US Capitol last month, I was horrified, if not entirely surprised, to see so much flagrant Nazi paraphenelia. One man wore a sweatshirt reading Camp Auschwitz; another wore a T-shirt printed with the slogan 6MWE, which stands for 6 million wasnt enough, referring to the number of Jews murdered in the Holocaust. Theres no denying Trumps presidency stoked a profound resurgence of antisemitism in this country. Even with a new administration in Washington, antisemitism remains a real and growing threat in America, and the world.

A broad coalition of progressive organizations, activists, and faith communities are working to dismantle antisemitism along with all other forms of racism and oppression. I was incredibly moved by the Muslim communities that lovingly guarded synagogues in a circle of protection and raised money to repair vandalized Jewish cemeteries. Im heartened by those who do the work of rejecting racist politicians who rely on division and fear for their political power. Over and over, its been made clear: we are not alone in this struggle.

But not everyone claiming to work against antisemitism has Jewish safety at heart.

The Israeli government and its rightwing allies are using this moment to double down on their campaign to equate all forms of anti-Zionism the moral, political or religiously based opposition to an ethnic Jewish nation-state in historic Palestine with antisemitism. This is not a sincere attempt to end anti-Jewish bigotry and violence. It is a breathtakingly cynical gambit to limit our ability to hold Israel accountable for its ongoing human rights abuses against Palestinians. And Facebook might take the bait.

In response to pressure from the Israeli government and its supporters, Facebook is currently reaching out to stakeholders to ask if criticizing Zionists falls within the rubric of hate speech per Facebooks community standards. In particular, Facebook is weighing whether Zionist should be considered a proxy for Jew or Israeli.

Facebooks hate speech policy prohibits attacks based on protected characteristics including race, nationality and sexual orientation. Political ideologies, like capitalism, socialism or Zionism are not protected. But if Facebook names Zionist a proxy for Jew or Israeli, Zionism would become a de facto protected category, which would have far-reaching and dangerous ramifications for Palestinians and Jews.

Under this policy, valid attempts to hold the state of Israel accountable through constitutionally protected political speech could be labeled as hate speech and removed from the platform. Palestinians would be prevented from using Facebook like everyone else to talk about their daily experiences, histories and lives because their realities are shaped by Zionist apartheid policy. This policy would censor Palestinian speech, discriminate against Palestinians as a class, and silence nuanced conversation about Zionism.

The discriminatory implications for Palestinians are more than reason enough to reject this policy. But theres another important reason to denounce it. To conflate Zionism with all Jews many of whom are anti-Zionists struggling alongside Palestinians for their freedom and equality is itself a harmful assumption. It is premised on the antisemitic notion that Jews are uniform in our beliefs and political commitments. Even worse, it suggests that all Jews, in America and elsewhere around the world, are fundamentally loyal to a foreign government, and that the real home for all Jews is Israel playing into the vile notion that we are unable to fully become part of the societies we inhabit, that we do not truly belong in our home countries and communities.

This troubling move by Facebook is part of a much larger trend. The tech giants definition of antisemitism takes cues from the working definition formulated by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA), which conflates antisemitism with all forms of anti-Zionism, including boycott and divestment campaigns in support of Palestinian freedom and human rights. While Facebook claims that its current policy is narrower in scope than IHRA, its COO, Sheryl Sandberg, is on record with Adam Milstein a leading proponent of IHRA and rightwing donor who is so extreme, even Aipac distanced itself from him saying that IHRA has guided Facebooks approach, and that their policy indeed goes even further than the IHRA definition.

Any definition of antisemitism that includes anti-Zionism would threaten scholarly inquiry, constitutionally protected political speech, and the ability of non-profits to support projects in and for Palestine, as many human rights defenders, free speech advocates, and academics have publicly stated. This danger isnt theoretical the IHRA definition has already been wielded in attempts to shut down educational events and cancel university classes. Legislators have attempted to codify it into law; a few have attempted to attach criminal penalties to the simple act of speaking out against Israeli apartheid. This definition is becoming a favorite among Christian Zionists, including the former secretary of state Mike Pompeo, who believe that Israels occupation of Palestinian land will hasten the second coming of Christ, at which point Jews must convert to Christianity or die. Theres hardly a more antisemitic idea than that, and its shared by at least 10 million Christian Zionists in the US.

Its imperative that we dismantle antisemitism in all its manifestations, but conflating Zionism with the Jewish people only entrenches it. Facebook should not allow governments to blur the lines between hate speech and political speech, and it must prioritize revisiting existing policies that disproportionately censor Palestinians and other marginalized voices posting about their experiences of racism and state violence. We must all be able to talk about our lives and the issues that are most important to us, while never losing sight of the fact that Palestinians and Jews deserve safety wherever we are.

See original here:
Facebook might censor criticism of Zionists. Thats dangerous - The Guardian

Category: Zionism | Comments Off on Facebook might censor criticism of Zionists. Thats dangerous – The Guardian
Tags:

Posted By admin on February 16, 2021

In the letter, the pre-Communist era leader venerated until today as the father of the Chinese nation calls Zionism "one of the greatest movements of the present time," continuing that, "All lovers of Democracy cannot help but support whole-heartedly and welcome with enthusiasm the movement to restore your wonderful and historic nation" The message, dated April 24, 1920, was sent to N.E.B. Ezra, founder of the Shanghai Zionist Association.

Dr. Sun Yat-sen served as the first provisional president of the Republic of China, established in 1912 following the fall of the last imperial dynasty, prior to the Chinese Civil War and Communist Revolution. While his support of Zionism is well-documented and the letter's text was previously known, the original signed copy has only now been rediscovered, over a century after it was written.

The letter recently surfaced as part of a major National Library of Israel initiative, supported by the Leir Foundation, to review and describe millions of items in its archival collections, including personal papers, photographs, and documents from many of the 20th centurys most prominent figures. The initiative is part of the Librarys current renewal, which includes next year's opening of a new campus adjacent to the Knesset (Israeli Parliament) in Jerusalem.

Born in Lahore (modern-day Pakistan), the letter's recipient, N.E.B. Ezra, was a Jewish scholar, writer, publisher and activist who lived most of his life in Shanghai. In addition to founding the Shanghai Zionist Association, he edited its mouthpiece, Israels Messenger, for decades.

According to Prof. Gao Bei, an expert on Shanghai's 20th century Jewish community, It is very exciting that this original letter from Sun Yat-sen to N.E.B. Ezra has been unearthed. It is one of the seminal documents that illuminates the Chinese Nationalist governments early support for the Zionist cause.

Dr. Sun Yat-sen and other members of the Chinese leadership had warm relations with local and international Jewish communities and figures, many of them cultivated during years of exile prior to the ultimate fall of the Qing dynasty. Their support of the Zionist movement stemmed from both ideological and practical considerations.

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

Read more:
Lost letter on Zionism from Father of the Chinese Nation surfaces - The Jerusalem Post

Category: Zionism | Comments Off on Lost letter on Zionism from Father of the Chinese Nation surfaces – The Jerusalem Post
Tags:

Posted By admin on February 16, 2021

A group of liberal Zionists based in Solano County is organizing against what its members see as an effort within the progressive wing of the state Democratic Party to ostracize supporters of Israel.

The Progressive Zionists of California announced Jan. 26 that it had launched a petition and letter-writing campaign imploring the states Democratic Party leaders to oppose what it called dangerous litmus tests.

PZC is a three-year-old activist group whose co-founders are residents of Vallejo and Fairfield.

The groups latest actions follow a controversial statement and questionnaire sent out in December by the Progressive Delegates Network to delegate hopefuls. The document focused unduly on the Israel/Palestine conflict, PZC activists said.

The PDN document sent in advance of a since-completed election of delegates for each of the states 80 Assembly districts devoted two of its five affirmations to topics related to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, as reported in J. last month.

Critics have called the form a step in pushing the Democratic Party to the far left, and are afraid efforts like it will erode historic support for Israel in a manner some said is anti-Jewish. Some compared it to what former Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn, a longtime supporter of Palestinian rights and critic of Israel, attempted to do to his party in Britain.

We, in the California Democratic Party, spend more time on Israel/Palestine resolutions than on any other issue and have been doing so since 2017, said Susan George, one of PZCs co-founders. Though the Vallejo resident is not Jewish, she said she is concerned about a growing anti-Israel narrative in the party.

In a statement, the PZC said its efforts were a necessity in response to demonizing anti-Zionist rhetoric that has become a central organizing principle in the Progressive Caucus.

California Democrats should know, the PZC statement said, that since 2017 more time has been spent in the resolutions and platform committees on Israel and Palestine than on any other issue of importance, including climate change, economic and racial justice, health care, housing and womens rights.

Democrats for Israel Los Angeles also has been critical of the PDN of late, issuing a statement last month opposing candidate forums that have been organized by groups such as PDN, Jewish Voice for Peace and Muslim Allies.

The L.A.-based groups statement called JVP, which is headquartered in Oakland, a fringe group that is the only self-identified national Jewish American organization that has called for the destruction of Israel and removal of any Jewish character from Israel by creating a single Jewish-minority state.

As for the candidate forums, the statement said, Rather than reaching out and building bridges, these events do little other than reinforcing confirmation biases of activist echo chambers.

Despite supporting many PDN policy aims, Oakland City Council member Dan Kalb said he was taken aback by the forms apparent focus on Israel. Kalb, in his ninth year on the council, said he planned to forward the issue to the California Legislative Jewish Caucus in Sacramento.

The form asked potential progressive delegates to pledge to never restrict the right to boycott, divest from or sanction countries that engage in routine human rights violations. Another affirmation referenced refugees right of return to their ancestral homelands, a call often made by Palestinians and their supporters. Those seeking to become delegates agreed, by signing the form, that they would support those stances and vote to endorse candidates that support these issues (though a comment box was provided for those who had any concerns regarding your ability to adhere to the affirmations).

It seemed so very odd that we had a questionnaire two-fifths of which concentrated on the Israel-Palestinian conflict, said Kalb, a progressive state Democrat Party delegate for more than 25 years. The Progressive Caucus is supposed to promote a broad range of progressive policies to work on, and are picking one international issue to spend 40 percent of their work time on. That seems very odd and it doesnt make sense to me.

Other local Jewish delegates, such as Soli Alpert of Berkeley, disagreed. A delegate in the 15th District who has been endorsed by PDN, Alpert said he saw nothing wrong with the questionnaire. The 23-year-old also said theres nothing unusual about California Democrats engaging in discussions about foreign policy.

We endorse federal policies, he pointed out. The debate over what our relationship with Israel should be is totally relevant and one we should have. We spend more money on Israel than on nearly any other country in the world.

While he acknowledged the existence of antisemitism on the left and that maybe we spend more time on [the Israel/Palestinian issue] than we should, he said they do so because its an important one.

He insisted there is no effort within the state party to squeeze out Zionists.

Theyre not trying to exclude any Jews from the party. Its not a conspiracy against Jews, Alpert said. I understand peoples concerns. But to not endorse people who disagree with you politically, well, thats politics. Atrocities done against Palestinians by Israelis in my name as a Jew have to be opposed.

As of Feb. 8, the PZCs petition had received 177 signatures, according to its website. The petition is called Act Now: Tell CADEM leadership to oppose dangerous litmus tests. CADEM stands for California Democratic Party.

The PZC also sent letters to California Democratic Party leaders (such as current chair Rusty Hicks and chair candidate Delaine Eastin), executive board members of the partys Progressive Caucus and a number of organizers within the Progressive Delegates Network.

George and fellow PZC co-founder Matthew Finkelstein said the possible erosion of Democratic support for Israel represents a wider threat.

They say, As goes California, so goes the nation, George said. Thats where theyre trying to steer the national party as a whole in this direction. Because so many people are silent and afraid to engage on the issue, the whole party is vulnerable. Its time for the party leadership to act.

Kalb fumed at the thought that support for Israel could blacklist someone from liberal politics in California.

No one is going to tell me Im not progressive just because I believe in a two-state solution, and no ones going to push me out of the progressive wing of my party because I want to see a fair resolution to the Israel/Palestinian issue, he said.

Though he said he agrees with the Progressive Caucus on a number of issues, Kalb acknowledged the existence of a subset of people who are hyper-focused on attacking Israel. It takes away from the items the state party should be focused on.

Read more:
California progressives get pushback on Zionism 'litmus test' J. - The Jewish News of Northern California

Category: Zionism | Comments Off on California progressives get pushback on Zionism ‘litmus test’ J. – The Jewish News of Northern California
Tags:

Posted By admin on February 16, 2021

Over the last year, significant progress has been made in pushing back against online antisemitism.

One of the most notable initiatives, which I began campaigning for in January 2020, is for social media companies to adopt the International Holocaust Memorial Association definition of antisemitism a widely accepted educational framework which explains classical and modern antisemitism.

From a successful social media campaign (#AdoptIHRA) to a newly announced set of policy recommendations from the Israeli government, the pressure continues to mount on digital platforms to deal with hate speech against Jews.

But instead of getting on board in the fight against bigotry, fringe Jewish groups like Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP), IfNotNow, and the New Israel Fund are using the discussion to politicize antisemitism.

Dealing with antisemitism today requires acknowledging that anti-Zionism can be used as an excuse to justify hate speech (and hate crimes), something Facebook has stated it now takes into consideration in its community standards.

For example, multiple times in the last year alone, synagogues around the world were defaced with free Palestine graffiti. In another example, a pro-Palestinian student heckled a Holocaust survivor speaking on a campus and demanded he condemn Zionism and the policies of Israel, simply because he was a Jew.

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

With the onset of COVID-19, social media saw a massive wave of antisemitic posts blaming Zionists for the virus, including neo-Nazi David Duke suggesting the global Zionist elite was behind coronavirus. Already in 2021, a Canadian synagogue was defaced with antisemitic graffiti, with the perpetrator being an anti-Israel BDS activist. In thousands of other social media posts, anti-Israel activists use classical antisemitic tropes such as Jews with hooked noses to depict Zionists, and use the word Zionist to demonize and attack Jews.

THE RESPONSE from extremist groups like JVP has been to demonize the IHRA definition, claiming it shuts down free speech and silences Palestinian voices. Perhaps most ridiculously, IfNotNow claimed the IHRA definition is a right-wing tool. This is not only untrue, it is disingenuous and intellectually dishonest. First of all, the idea that Palestinians cannot criticize the policies of Israel, or Zionism, without being antisemitic is both absurd and condescending to the Palestinians. Discussion and critique of Zionism is not antisemitic as per the IHRA framework but it is antisemitic to demonize Zionists, hold Jews to a double standard, or call for death to Zionists.

Second, the IHRA definition does not call for any form of censorship even of antisemitic speech. It calls for education and acknowledgment. As one of the founders of the #AdoptIHRA campaign, and as an expert in the field who proposed social media policy reform via IHRA to both the Knesset and the Strategic Affairs Ministry (and who worked with them on the policy recommendations released by the ministry this month) I can attest to the fact that the adoption of IHRA on social media would foster genuine dialogue, not shut it down. The recommendations call for labeling antisemitic speech and providing educational resources, not censorship.

Third, IHRA explicitly states that criticism of the State of Israel or its policies is not antisemitic speech. The only conceivable reason these groups would be lobbying so hard against this definition is that they wish to protect modern antisemitism, not free speech.

It is important to note that even facing social consequences for antisemitic speech isnt weaponizing the IHRA definition IHRA doesnt call for any consequences or concrete actions against antisemitic speech. However, it is the very essence of free speech to state that anyone has a right to say unsavory things, while at the same time anyone else has a right to call them out on it.

The attempts by these political groups to advance their agenda by twisting the purpose of the IHRA framework is in fact an attempt to legitimize antisemitism and embolden one of the most dangerous forms of hate speech that exists today against Jews: antisemitism in the name of anti-Zionism.

The IHRA definition is widely accepted by the consensus Jewish community, dozens of academic and civil institutions, 30 countries, and even the European Union and it isnt because all of them agree with every policy of the modern State of Israel. It is because antisemitism today has two toxic forms, and to fight it, we must define it online or in person.

The writer is the CEO of Social Lite Creative and a research fellow at the Tel Aviv Institute.

Read the original here:
Why are Jewish groups fighting the IHRA antisemitism definition? -opinion - The Jerusalem Post

Category: Zionism | Comments Off on Why are Jewish groups fighting the IHRA antisemitism definition? -opinion – The Jerusalem Post
Tags:

Posted By admin on February 16, 2021

As Joe Biden prepared to take office as the new US president last month, mainstream US Jewish organisations sent him a letter urging him to follow his predecessors and adopt the 2016 International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism as the operative one for US government agencies, which the State Department had already done since the Obama years.

This uniform US Jewish organisational support for the IHRA definition contrasts with the fact that US Jews are divided over it. The IHRA definition deems the targeting of the state of Israel, conceived as a Jewish collectivity and denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination, egby claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavour to be antisemitic.

A legal adoption of the IHRA definition means governmental and institutional targeting, censorship and persecution of anyone who deigns to attack the establishment and the continued existence of the Israeli settler-colony as racist.

As the US Anti-Semitism Awareness Act of 2016, which uses the IHRA definition, has passed the Senate but not the House of Representatives - something that former President Donald Trump remedied by issuing an executive order that adopted the IHRA definition in December 2019 - the letter urges Biden to follow in Trumps footsteps.

European countries, including Germany, France and Britain, along with the European Union, have already adopted the IHRA definition. Opponents of the IHRA definition in the US, including some of the Jewish organisations that would later support it, focused on its violation of the right of free speech.

The tragicomedy of the IHRA definition is that, according to it, most of the world would have been judged as 'antisemitic' in 1975 and 'philosemitic' in 1991

But why would Israel and its western supporters suddenly be interested in legally prosecuting western citizens for criticising Zionisms racist ideology and the Israeli states racist policies, when they had historically fought them with rhetorical delegitimisation, not to mention through effectively preventing most from questioning official Israeli propaganda in the western media?

It is true that pro-Israel views had always dominated the western media and western government policies and declarations, but much of the rest of the world was still free to express its assessment of Zionism and Israeli policies - at least until 1991.

When the United Nations General Assembly passed Resolution 3379 in 1975, defining Zionism as a form of racism and racial discrimination, and grouped Israeli racism with the racism of the white settler-colonies of South Africa andRhodesia (later Zimbabwe), only 35 out of 142UN members opposed it. The vast majority of the nay voters were European settler-colonies in the Americas and Oceania, and European countries. The Israeli government reacted by accusing UN member states, even though they had clearly condemned other countries for their racism and did not single out Israel, of antisemitism.

As Israel conditioned its attendance at the 1991 Madrid Peace Conference (which ultimately led to the Oslo Accords) on the repeal of the resolution, the UN acquiesced under US pressure, passing Resolution 46/86 in December 1991, revoking the 1975 resolution. Of 166members, 111 countries voted for the new resolution, including all the European countries and settler-colonies.

The tragicomedy of the IHRA definition is that, according to it, most of the world would have been judged as "antisemitic in 1975 and "philosemitic" in 1991. In light of the 1991 resolution, followed days later by the collapse of the Soviet Union (whose subservience to the US in its last days had it voting for the 1991 resolution), Israel and its western allies were triumphant, and felt they could expand their control of speech on Israel to the entire globe with no more opposition.

The relationship of the Zionist movement to antisemitism is as old as the movement itself. Since its inception, the Zionist movement was invested in the European colonial notion of race. Its earliest Jewish critics noted its investment in the European racist claim that Jews were Asiatics, Semites, and certainly not European, let alone Aryan.

Such a commitment manifested early in the thought of the second most important founder of the Zionist movement, Max Nordau, author of the late-19th-century treatise Degeneration. This is what led Zionist Jewish social scientists to establish in 1902 the Association of Jewish Statistics to track the state of the Jewish race through markers that included their death rate, reproductive rate, rate of intermarriage with European Christians and rate of conversion to Christianity, which led them to believe that Jews had degenerated and could only be regenerated in a separate state of their own.

The Zionist endorsement of antisemitic postulates has never waned. The inspirational words of its founder, Theodor Herzl, guide Zionists to this day: The anti-Semites will become our most dependable friends, the anti-Semitic countries our allies. This is what attracted Protestant antisemites to support Zionism and to see it as a product of Protestant millenarian Zionism, which had sought since the Protestant Reformation to restore European Jews to Palestine.

The basis for former British Prime Minister Arthur Balfours sponsorship of the 1905 Aliens Act to ban Eastern European Jewish immigration to Britain, and his infamous 1917 declaration pledging Britains support for the establishment of a "national home"for European Jews in Palestine, was the same. He believed in the strongest terms that Jews were a people apart, and not merely held a religion differing from the vast majority of their fellow-countrymen.

The Balfour Declaration: Enduring colonial criminality

This antisemitic European Christian view, which Orientalised European Jews in the 18th century as Asiatics and racialised them in the 19thas Semites, was fully endorsed by Zionists, whose local German branch defendedAdolf Hitlers 1935 Nuremberg Laws (opposed by all other German Jews) precisely as they agreed that Jews were of a different race and that they should be separated from gentiles in their own state.

After the establishment of the state of Israel, the settler-colonial regime adopted a series of laws that privileged Jewish citizens over others. The July 2018 nation-state law reiterated the racialist foundations of Israel in its insistence on the exclusivity of the Jewish right to self-determination in all of historic Palestine - the same self-determination that the IHRA definition insists on safeguarding from antisemites.

It is this antisemitic legacy to which Europe and the US adhere when they insist, as they have since 1948, that any solution to the Palestinian question, especially the two-state solution, must preserve Jewish racial supremacy in Israel. This includes, among others, the concern that were the expelled Palestinian refugees to return home, this would compromise Israels Jewish character, and the considerable worry that a democratic one-state solution would negate its Jewish nature. In short, such solutions would revoke Jewish racial and religious colonial privileges, something western countries deem unacceptable.

Support for Israels colonial occupation since 1991, for the first time since 1967, has declined among the western European and white American publics, who accuse itof being a racist, undemocratic or apartheid state. Israel - which had always defended its colonial policies by branding any critic of its settler-colonial nature an antisemite - realised that its rhetorical strategies and its hold on western public opinion were no longer as effective as they had once been.

The world's publics, however, have so far proven less malleable than their governments were at the UN in 1991

Emboldened by the continued support it received from Europe and Europes settler-colonies, who effectively silenced the world at the UN in 1991, it decided to move, along with its western allies, beyond media and government rhetoric to the realm of legal threats and prosecution. It is in this context that the IHRA definition of antisemitism has been adopted across the US and European countries.

The worlds publics, however, have so far proven less malleable than their governments were at the UN in 1991. Israels legal strategy, and that of its European and US allies, aims to break their will. The success of the new strategy, however, is far from assured.

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Eye.

Read the original here:
Why the success of Israel's strategy to silence critics is far from assured - Middle East Eye

Category: Zionism | Comments Off on Why the success of Israel’s strategy to silence critics is far from assured – Middle East Eye
Tags:

Posted By admin on February 16, 2021

The original, signed copy of a letter written by Dr. Sun Yat-Sen, considered to be one of the greatest leaders of modern China, expressing support for Zionism has been rediscovered in the archives of the National Library of Israel, the library announced on Wednesday.

The letter, dated April 24, 1920, was addressed to Nissim Elias Benjamin Ezra (N.E.B.) Ezra, and surfaced while the library was reviewing its archived items in preparation for a move to a new location. Ezra was an influential Jewish writer, scholar and publisher who was born in Lahore (now in Pakistan) and lived most of his life in Shanghai. He founded the Shanghai Zionist Association and its official newspaper, Israels Messenger.

Sun Yat-Sens letter, which can now be viewed online, reads, I have read you [sic] letter and the copy of Israels Messenger with much interest, and wish to assure you of my sympathy for this movementwhich is one of the greatest movements of the present time. All lovers of Democracy cannot help but support whole-heartedly and welcome with enthusiasm the movement to restore your wonderful and historic nation, which has contributed so much to the civilization of the world and which rightfully deserve [sic] an honorable place in the family of nations.

Sun Yat-Sen, who lived from 1866-1925, served as the first provisional president of the Republic of China, which was established in 1912 following the fall of the last imperial dynasty. His support of Zionism was well known as was the text of the letter, however, the whereabouts of the original signed copy were unknown until now.

While the letter has been at the National Library since 1938, according to the librarys internal documentation, it was never included in the librarys public catalog.

N.E.B. Ezra passed away in 1936. The fact that the letter arrived in 1938 at latest indicates thatlike many Zionist figures of the periodEzra himself may have bequeathed it to the library, or perhaps someone came across it after his death and sent it to us after determining that the National Library was its rightful home, said Rachel Misrati, an archivist for library.

The librarys blog notes that Sun Yat-Sen and other members of the Chinese leadership had warm relations with local and international Jewish communities and figures, many of them cultivated during years of exile prior to the ultimate fall of the Qing dynasty. Just one example was Suns colorful personal bodyguard and senior adviser, Morris Two-Gun Cohen, a Polish-born Jew and an ardent Zionist.

The post Pro-Zionist letter by father of modern China Sun Yat-Sen resurfaces in Israel appeared first on JNS.org.

View post:
Pro-Zionist letter by 'father of modern China' Sun Yat-Sen resurfaces in Israel - Cleveland Jewish News

Category: Zionism | Comments Off on Pro-Zionist letter by ‘father of modern China’ Sun Yat-Sen resurfaces in Israel – Cleveland Jewish News
Tags: