Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By admin on February 16, 2021

As someone who is Jewish, has family members in addiction recovery and now works for a treatment center for alcoholism and addiction, I wanted to learn more about Purim and the commandment to drink. How serious is this commandment, and what does it mean for the recovery community and their loved ones?

Fortunately, I had the opportunity to learn from Rabbi Dr. Chaim Meyer Tureff, the founder and director of STARS in Los Angeles, which helps individuals struggling with addictive behaviors. He is also the school rabbi for Pressman Academy and a spiritual guide on the Sobermans Estate team, where I work.

Purim is one of the they tried to kill us; we won; lets eat holidays. We learn the Purim story from the Megillah, also known as the Book of Esther, recorded around the fifth century BCE. In short, King Achashverosh of the Persian Empire had a secondhand man, Haman, who initiated a decree to eliminate the Jewish people. Meanwhile, Queen Esthers religious identity was hidden throughout her marriage to Achashverosh, but she realized that courageously revealing her Jewish faith just may save her people. When she told the king she was Jewish and that Hamans plan would result in the demise of herself and her people, the king sentenced Haman to death. Although the king could not annul Hamans original decree, he let Esther and her cousin Mordechai write a new decree of their choice, allowing the Jewish people to fight back and defend themselves.

In remembrance of this salvation, we feast and celebrate different activities specifically from the Megillah. Mordechai charged the Jewish people to observe the 14th and 15th of Adar every year as days of feasting and merrymaking, of sending gifts to one another and the poor (Esther 9:22). The word (feast) can also be translated as drink, drinking, banquet or board. Based on this, in the Babylonian Talmud, Megillah 7b, Rava said: A person is obligated to become intoxicated with wine on Purim until he is so intoxicated that he does not know how to distinguish between cursed is Haman and blessed is Mordecai.

This obligation excludes individuals with the disease of addiction, which was recently proven to be 12.7% of American adults. For those who avoid drinking because it can progress their disease or simply because they dont enjoy it this obligation may negatively distract from the core of the holiday, which is, according to Tureff, unity, salvation, connection and giving back, which is why we give gifts to the poor and give gifts to friends and acquaintances; its about showing gratitude.

He continued, The Rambam codified laws for everything. In the Mishneh Torah, hes got a whole section on Purim and Chanukah. He says any holiday that youre celebrating where you are not giving back, that is not a real celebration. If youre only thinking about the food or the fun you will have, rather than what you can give back to others, youre not really celebrating correctly.

How significant is the obligation to drink, anyway? It is debated whether or not drinking is a minhag or a halacha. A minhag is a communal practice or a custom. Minhagim are different than Halacha, which is Jewish law grounded in Torah or later rabbinic rulings. However, all agree that if drinking will make you sick or cause danger, you should not do it.

I would say drinking falls into a strong category, and its codified that we drink, but its not if you dont drink, youre breaking a mitzvah. For example, not eating pork is a commandment; drinking doesnt fall into that category at all. Neither is it one of the four mitzvot that are specific for Purim, Tureff said.

When I go to Purim meals, I dont drink; some people do. Some people will just drink more than they normally do. If theyre not drinkers, they might have a drink; if they normally have a drink, say at a Shabbat meal, theyll have two; some get drunk. Ive been to places where people drink quite a bit. They dont get in a car and drive or anything like that, but they definitely drink a lot. Depending on where youre at, some people encourage you to drink, and some people dont.

Jewish teachings provide contrasting opinions on alcohol consumption. On one hand, there is a Yiddish saying that Jews dont get drunk. Yet another concept is a farbrengen. I remember in Yeshiva they would have farbrengen, which is a Chabad gathering where you learn deep mystical things, and many of the people would do shots of vodka. The idea is sometimes, when we have physical constraints, we dont allow ourselves to hit a certain element spiritually because sometimes spiritual elements are [harder to connect with]. You have to be in a certain frame of mind. Drinking was a way to open up your portal or open up your soul, said Tureff.

Jewish teachings also recognize the risks and consequences of taking alcohol consumption too far. Eighteenth-century codifier R. Abraham ben Yehiel Michal Danzig said it is better not to get drunk on Purim if one knows it will lead to the likeliness of them acting in a lightheaded way or neglecting other mitzvot, such as praying and hand washing. In fact, Megillah 7b states, The Gemara relates that Rabba and Rabbi Zeira prepared a Purim feast with each other, and they became intoxicated to the point that Rabba arose and slaughtered Rabbi Zeira. The next day, when he became sober and realized what he had done, Rabba asked God for mercy and revived him. The next year, Rabba said to Rabbi Zeira: Let the Master come and let us prepare the Purim feast with each other. He said to him: Miracles do not happen each and every hour, and I do not want to undergo that experience again.

Jewish teachings recognize the risks and consequences of taking alcohol consumption too far.

As Jeffrey Spitzer said, a car can be like Rabbas sword, and one cannot count on a miracle. Tureff volunteered as an EMT for Hatzalah, a Jewish volunteer emergency ambulance organization, and remembers materials sent out for Purim reminding people, especially young people, to drink responsibly. Youre supposed to be having this good time and happiness, and then it gets marred by alcohol poisoning or somebody having a drunk driving accident, passing out or worse.

Rabbi Dr. Abraham Twerski (zl), world-renowned addiction expert, doctor and author, said, Experience shows that particularly young people who drink to excess on Purim are likely to engage in shameful and dangerous behaviors. Hatzalah cannot keep up with the calls to take these young men to hospital emergency rooms! Can anyone conceive that this is a mitzvah?

If you are one of the many people choosing not to drink whether based on recovery or personal preference on Purim, you can still celebrate the holiday with full meaning and joy. Here are a few of Tureffs tips to celebrating a sober Purim:

There are a number of shuls in Los Angeles that do not allow alcohol on the premise for Purim and Simchat Torah, another drinking holiday, and value being a model for the communitys young people. There are other synagogues you go to, and when you walk in, you can smell the alcohol, Tureff said. For those not drinking, the latter wouldnt be the one you necessarily should go to. You can hear the Megillah and be part of the festivities, and not put yourself in a situation fraught with danger.

Tureff noted, It can be tough, when you see other people, as recovering addicts, sometimes doing things, things that are legal, and all kinds of people are doing it, you might think why cant I do that? Why put yourself in that situation? You can focus on the wrong thing about the holiday. The holiday doesnt need to be about drinking at all. Like a Bar or Bat Mitzvah, the party is great, but its not the essence of the event.

You can find a synagogue where the spiritual practice lines up with your own spiritual practice, where the essence is about the strength of Purim and not necessarily about how many shots you can do or how drunk you can get, said Tureff.

It depends on where somebody is at in their recovery, but I would always encourage a sober Purim. Theres no reason not to have a sober Purim. There are specific mitzvot for Purim, including giving gifts to the poor, sending gifts to friends or acquaintances, eating the Seudah (Purim feast) and hearing the Megillah reading. These are the four commandments of Purim. Drinking is not included in this category. [Drinking] is like a side dish. Without that side dish, it doesnt mean I cant enjoy the meal, said Tureff.

If youre invited somewhere to a meal, I think its a fair thing to ask [about the alcohol]. Maybe its a Los Angeles thing, but people have no problem when theyre invited to a meal to say if they are vegetarian or gluten-free. Nobodys embarrassed to say that at all, so whats wrong with saying, Thank you so much for inviting me to Purim; Im so excited. I just want to know is there going to be drinking and, if so, what does that look like? Thats advocating for yourself, said Tureff.

I wish you a meaningful, joyful and safe Purim; Chag Sameach!

Hannah Prager is the Community Relations Specialist for Sobermans Estate, and a volunteer for Moishe House. Sobermans Estate is a treatment center for men with alcoholism, substance use disorders and co-occurring issues, and provides kosher food accommodations and rabbinical support. To learn more or for personalized resources, call the Admissions Director at 480-595-2222 or visit http://www.SobermansEstate.com.

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Posted By admin on February 16, 2021

Last month I met my team face to face for the first time. Not a very surprising statement coming from a newcomer to an organization. However, in my case, it happened exactly on my 10th month anniversary of joining the company.

For me, starting a new position always meant spending a lot of time in joint breaks and random discussions in the hallways, until I got to know everyone. This usually also included quite a bit of traveling, visiting my remote teams, to personally experience the different sites.

This time I started a new job without ever leaving home, never having a chance to meet even my local team, not to mention visiting other sites.

The Challenges

Humans are social animals. Social distancing helps in controlling the spreading of diseases but it's bad for teamwork. This is especially felt when you are new to the team and trying to build knowledge and relationships from scratch.

Non-verbal communication - To be an effective leader, you have to connect with your people on a personal level, and empathize with them. A lot of this is based on non-verbal cues, which, even over video conferencing, are often lost on the digital medium.

Free flow of information - Development work is creative work. Innovation is associative in nature. A lot of great ideas come up unintentionally by overhearing a technical conversation. A lot of problems are solved at random ad-hoc discussions. All of this is significantly impacted by the fact there is no office and all conversations are planned and pre-scheduled video conferencing calls.

Dont say it cant be done, be adaptive, and find another way to do it - When everything changes, keep your focus on achieving the results and adapt your methods to the new situation. I was lucky to get a team of fighters. We worked closely remotely, got to know each other through the camera, learned with a virtual whiteboard, brainstormed along with network connection problems, pushed changes by communicating through google excels and slides, improved, and showed success.

There is no substitute for visual contact - Audio calls or emails do not fill the gap of not being able to look somebody in the eyes. Video calls are not a perfect replacement to face to face meetings but it is a significant improvement. In this case, the video part really saved me.

Good vibes and a bucket full of energy - Keeping a good atmosphere is especially important in hard times. A mixture of openness, trust, and a sense of humor can help overcome the fact that our only communication is currently, through digital media and make it feel less cold and more real.

A lot of 1:1s - Under normal circumstances, you get to meet your local colleagues on a daily basis, for coffee, lunch, or just walking past them in the hallways. In these times, the only people you meet are those you Zoom with. And so, if you don't set up a meeting with someone, you are not going to talk to them at all.

Business as usual - At Imperva, we kept up the focus - we recruited and built a new R&D site, without ever visiting it, we made a significant acquisition and we kept running at full speed as if there was no pandemic.

We are already entering 2021 and Covid-19 is still not behind us, but hopefully, this is the beginning of the end.

Although I joined at a difficult time, I am very happy with the choices I made along the way.

I have certainly learned a lot from it all: Striving for success despite the challenges, adapting to changes, and keeping a positive energy and a can-do attitude at rough times.

A good runner is someone that knows how to run when he has hurdles in hteir way. When they recognize a hurdle, they quickly calculate a new path. Team - thank you for this run.

Liat Ashkenazi is the Senior Director Of Engineering and Data Security at Imperva

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What I learned from starting a new job during the pandemic - CTech

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Posted By admin on February 16, 2021

On Inauguration Day, I was very emotional, not only because Kamala Harris became the first African American and Asian American and woman to serve as vice president, and not only because her husband, Doug Emhoff, is the first second gentleman. But also because Emhoff is the first Jewish spouse of a U.S. president or vice president.

I even wrote and performed Jew in the White House to celebrate. Check it out at tinyurl.com/jew-whitehouse.

Surprisingly, the video sparked a stream of hate, with fellow Jews calling me a stupid cow or psycho for deigning to call Emhoff a Jew (his Jewish mother be damned), considering that he does not follow their brand of Jewish practice (apparently Ashkenazi ultra-Orthodox).

I advise you to pick up a [T]anakh, one person advised me, not bothering to ascertain I had grown up Orthodox so I picked it up plenty of times, thank you very much.

Then the Forward ran a Jan. 22 article headlined Ella Emhoff isnt Jewish (and she doesnt want to talk about it)after her social media manager released a statement: Ella, Dougs daughter, is not Jewish.

The writer focused mainly on religious practice, but I wanted to know more. Does Ella perceive Jews as being a religious group only? If so, why? What experiences led to that perception?

Does she recognize Jews as being an ethnic group, a people, a tribe, whatever? Does she identify on that front? Is her lack of identification rooted exclusively in the fact she is not an adherent of Jewish theology? Does it come from somewhere else internalized racism, maybe?

I am interested in knowing not only because I wrote about her in my song Ella rocks a JewFro. Makes me proud. Turning up the Jew, in the D.C. crowd but because of the Jewish obsession with pegging other Jews according to formulaic notions of family, religious observance and so forth.

This especially happens in Orthodox circles, and it has sent me running from any number of synagogues and community organizations over the years. In one incident, following a particularly strident interrogation, it even sent me running to the bathroom of a synagogue, in tears.

The central question raised by all this: To what extent do we get to define ourselves, and to what extent do other people, or circumstances of fate, get to define us?

Lets start with the JewFro. The Jewish people hail from the Middle East, and therefore historically share the physiological traits of others in the Mediterranean region. Through mixing with Europeans over the generations, the skin and eye color of Ashkenazim got lighter, but other traits remained, such as the JewFro and so-called Jewish nose (in actuality shared by Arabs, Italians, etc.).

A nose job has been a rite of passage for Ashkenazi girls for years. Similarly, African American women, including those with lighter skin due to generations of ethnic blending, sometimes alter their appearance, most commonly by straightening their hair, thereby erasing a physical mark of their African roots.

While these alterations might be matters of personal preference, that preference might be the result of internalized racism like when I kept buying blonde Barbie dolls as a kid because they were prettier than the darker ones.

Now lets talk identity. A mixed-race Black woman may personally identify as white; perhaps she grew up in a white neighborhood, never knowing her Black side. And yet, she may boast African features. So can she outright dismiss that side of her? Who gets to decide that?

As a corollary, can Black people (including Black Jews) be proud of her, as one of theirs, if she rises to a position of power, leadership and visibility? White supremacists certainly wouldnt let her forget her Black side.

A friend of mine notes, if you have a drop of Black in you, and the rest of you is white, youre considered by others to be Black. But if youre Black with a drop of white in you, youre still considered to be Black.

Similarly, Nazis will unequivocally define as a Jew anyone with the faintest shade of Jewish lineage. In fact, people responding to Jew in the White House pointed out that while ultra-Orthodox Jews might not consider Emhoff a Jew, Nazis would. (But wait. Does that mean haters, through targeting whomever they hate, are the definers of identity?)

Who gets to define us as Jews is complicated by mass ignorance and confusion about who the heck we are to begin with. I think of us a nation in a knapsack, hailing back to the motherland of Israel or, more precisely, the southern Kingdom of Yehuda (Judah), from where we get our name.

Through our history, we have consolidated the elements of our national identity (land, culture, language, temple, ritual, etc.) and made it mobile, adaptable heck, virtual, if you will so that it survived, and thrived, through millennia of persecution and exile.

We fled from one place to another, blending with locals in new lands, adapting our traditions, integrating local customs with ours and regulating religious practice according to what was safe (or fashionable). Thus, we shape-shifted our individual and collective identity, and today, we are an international, multiracial, multiethnic people spanning from atheists to the devoutly religious.

Regardless of how Ella identifies herself or how anyone else identifies her Im grateful for her visibility and the complexity of her identity, if only to catalyze public discourse about what it means to be a Jew. And who gets to decide that.

Come to think of it, given the onslaught of additional questions that have arisen from the singular question of her identity, one might say that Ella is, in this way, very Jewish.

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Harris' stepdaughter accidentally highlights the complexity of Jewish identity J. - The Jewish News of Northern California

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Posted By admin on February 16, 2021

The Jewish communities in six Persian Gulf countries announced on Monday the establishment of the regions first communal organization, complete with a rabbi and Jewish court, the Beth Din of Arabia.

The Association of Gulf Jewish Communities (AGJC), which brings together Jews in Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates, will be headed by Rabbi Dr. Elie Abadie and president Ebrahim Dawood Nonoo.

The AGJC is creating a Jewish court, called the Beth Din of Arabia, to preside over issues of civil disputes, personal status, inheritance, and Jewish ritual. It will also run the Arabian Kosher Certification Agency throughout the six Gulf countries.

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The announcement comes in the aftermath of UAE and Bahrain establishing diplomatic ties with Israel in September as part of the Abraham Accords. Israel subsequently also reached normalization agreements with Sudan and Morocco.

We thought that as the future has been changed in the last six months here, as this region is opening up to the presence of Jewish people As communities we ought to get together and try to have the infrastructure necessary to service the local Jewish community and all those Jews who are passing through, Abadie told The Times of Israel.

Some countries, like UAE and Bahrain, have relatively established Jewish communities, whereas others have foreign Jewish diplomats, businessmen, military personnel and employees living there.

There is a handful in Saudi Arabia, Abadie explained. There are others that do not yet publicly live a Jewish life, but we do know of people living there that are members of our association.

Rabbi Elie Abadie with Emirati social media personality Loef el-Shareef (courtesy)

The AGJC will serve both Ashkenazi and Sephardi Jews who come from countries across the globe. Abadie will seek to incorporate historic traditions from the Gulf region into the religious life of the organization. He will preside over circumcisions, bar/bat mitzvahs, and weddings. Jewish ritual slaughter is planned as well in the coming months.

Three rabbis are needed for the Beth Din, and when it meets, rabbis will fly in to join Abadie as judges. Offers have come in from Israel, Europe, and the US.

We will provide educational services in the forms of shiurim, lectures, conferences, classes, Abadie said. Some will be given in person I will travel to different places and some will be given via Zoom.

The AGJC intends to slowly build a Jewish educational system as well, starting with early childhood programs.

On Passover, which begins in late March, the AGJC will provide mahzor prayer books, matzah, and other foods for the Seder meal.

The association is funded by private donors and local community members. At this stage, it has not received any money from state governments.

Abadie said that the Emirati authorities have been extremely supportive. They have told me that whatever I need, they want to be there for me and for the community.

Members of the Jewish community of Dubai holding a Torah scroll that they brought to Abu Dhabi to mark the importance of the arrival of Israeli and American delegations to finalize a normalization deal with Israel, at a hotel in Abu Dhabi on August 31, 2020. (NIR ELIAS / AFP)

Abadie has not yet been in touch with Saudi authorities. Local Jews are handling contacts with their governments at this stage.

In recent years, the UAE has made great strides in presenting itself as an open country that respects all religions. President Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan declared 2019 to be the The Year of Tolerance in the UAE. In this context, the country announced the building of a massive interfaith compound in Abu Dhabi that will also include a synagogue.

The so-called Abrahamic Family House isslated to open in 2022, and it is currently unclear who will be invited to move into the building.

Beirut-born Abadie, a prominent rabbi and scholar of Sephardic Judaism who was living in New York City, began serving as the head of the UAE Jewish community in November.

The Abadie family, Beirut, Lebanon (photo credit: courtesy)

Abadie was born in Beirut to Syrian Jewish refugees who fled Aleppo amid riots in the wake of the 1947 UN Partition Plan for Palestine. My family witnessed firsthand how the mobs entered the synagogue, ransacked the synagogue, pillaged it, took Torah scrolls out and burned them how they dumped the rabbi in the street. And they went into many Jewish businesses and ransacked them.

An estimated 75 Jews were killed in the Aleppo riots.

Abadies family lived in Lebanon for 22 years, until they understood that the country was headed toward civil war.

He grew up in Mexico City and later moved to New York to attend Yeshiva University, where he was ordained as a rabbi in 1986. Four years later, he obtained an MD degree, and still maintains a private gastroenterology practice.

For many years, Abadie served as the spiritual leader of the Edmond J. Safra Synagogue. He also founded the School of the Sephardic Academy of Manhattan and headed the Jacob E. Safra Institute of Sephardic Studies at Yeshiva University.

He is an officer of the Rabbinical Council of America and co-president of Justice for Jews from Arab Countries, a group advocating for Jewish refugees from the Middle East.

Abadie said that he has received only positive reactions while walking around Dubai wearing a yarmulke, and has even been stopped by Emiratis who want to show off their Hebrew and knowledge of Israeli songs to him. That has been a very pleasant surprise.

He will continue his medical practice at a hospital in the UAE in addition to his rabbinical duties.

Ebrahim Dawood Nonoo of Bahrain will be the AGJCs president. His family moved in the 1890s from Basra, Iraq to Bahrain, joining hundreds of Jews moving from Iraq to seek economic opportunity in Bahrain.

Ebrahim Dahood Nonoo (Courtesy of Nonoo via JTA)

A smaller number of Jews also settled in Bahrain from Iran at around the same time. At its height in the 1920s and 30s, the community had about 800 members, according to Nonoo, though others have said the number was as high as 1,500. Though community members mixed socially with Bahraini Muslims, they mainly married within the community and lived close to each other in Manama. Members continued to speak Basrawi, a Jewish dialect of Iraqi Arabic and still do.

The synagogue in Bahrain was built in 1935, and the community flourished until the 1947 UN partition vote. A group of rioters, who some claim were foreign workers, burned the synagogue to the ground and stole the countrys only Torah scroll. Most of the community left after the attack or in the decade and a half following, settling in Israel.

The few who remained or their descendants make up the 50 or so Jews living in the country. There is an active Jewish cemetery, but the synagogue rebuilt by Nonoos father in the 1990s never officially reopened and most of the community continues to pray at home. Until recently, the community relied on the US Navy base in Bahrain for kosher food and ritual items, but that arrangement no longer exists.

Manamas still functioning Jewish cemetery. (Courtesy of Ebrahim Nonoo via JTA)

Most Jews now live in the Umm al-Hassam neighborhood in Manama, Bahrains capital.

Most of the community members today are financially successful and continue to be represented in the Shura Council, which has designated a seat each for representatives of the countrys Jewish and Christian populations. In 2001, Nonoo became the first Jew appointed to serve on the countrys Shura Council, the upper chamber of its National Assembly. He was succeeded by Houda Nonoo, who later went on to serve as Bahraini ambassador to the United States. She was replaced by Nancy Khedouri, a relative of the powerful Kadoorie family, a Hong Kong-based Jewish family of Iraqi origin that went on to become one of the wealthiest families in Asia (and transliterated the surname differently). Houda Nonoo and Khedouri are Ebrahim Nonoos cousins.

Nonoo spent 15 years studying in the UK, thenreturned to Bahrain to go into his fathers money exchange business.

The rebuilt synagogue will reopen when COVID-19 restrictions are rolled back. The community will use a Torah scroll from Israel.

Nonoo looks forward to having a new experience in Bahrain during Jewish holidays. We can handle the weekly prayers on our own. but we do need a rabbi for the festivals.

He is optimistic that the establishment of the AGJC will absolutely lead to a revival of Jewish life in the kingdom. If were going to be doing bar mitzvahs here, if were going to be teaching the kids here, if were going to be able to give them a religious education here, itll make a big difference.

Houda Nonoo, Bahrains former envoy to Washington. (screen capture: YouTube/icdchannel)

Jewish life in the Gulf has increased dramatically over the last decade, said Houda Nonoo, who now works in Bahrains Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Bahrain, home to the only indigenous Jewish community in the Gulf, has seen growth in Jewish tourism over the last few years. In June 2019, we held the first minyan in decades in our synagogue during the Peace to Prosperity Workshop and two years later, we receive inquiries almost every day from Jews around the world asking about kosher food and to visit the Jewish sites in the kingdom.

In the last decade, we have seen more Jews move to the GCC for business reasons. Additionally, we have all read or experienced the boom in Jewish travel in the UAE in the last few months. As a result, we are creating the Association of Gulf Jewish Communities so that we can support each other, she said.

Ebrahim Nonoo said Bahrainis have been approaching him seeking business opportunities with Jewish and Israeli companies. Thats a good sign, too, he said. There is a bit of movement, but its very slow. In a way, its a good thing that its slow. Because to make people aware and accept the changes that are going on, its better to take it at a slower pace.

Bahrain Jewish Community Leaders with Rabbi Marc Schneier. (R- L) Current member of Bahraini parliament Nancy Khedouri, former ambassador of Bahrain to the United States Huda Nonoo, Rabbi Marc Schneier and community leader Michael Yadgar, February 2018. (courtesy)

Abadie foresees a blossoming of Jewish life in the region. I definitely see a growth for communities here in the Gulf for several reasons. He cited tourism and business opportunities. He also expects some Jews looking to move away from countries experiencing a rise in anti-Semitism to relocate to the region.

For Abadie, starting a new life as a rabbi in the Middle East is deeply personal.

Coming back to a country, where walking down the streets, I feel almost like my childhood in Lebanon. Hearing Arabic, Arabic music, smelling Arabic cuisine, hearing the inspiring prayers of the mosque, he said.

It is in a sense closing the circle of Jewish history in Arab and Islamic countries that existed for millennia.

JTA and Raphael Ahren contributed to this report.

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Beth Din of Arabia: Jews in Gulf countries announce first communal organizations - The Times of Israel

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Posted By admin on February 16, 2021

If this interview aired on television, Andr Aciman would have earned himself a perfect score on Room Rater.

The novelist, memoirist, essayist and scholar greeted me from the Upper West Side study where he spends most of his time. Its the kind of home office about which most of us only fantasize: an Oriental-carpeted study lined with floor-to-ceiling bookshelves housing his basic collection of English literature. (Books in French, Italian, and several other languages are exiled to his office at the City University of New Yorks Graduate Center, where he teaches). Appealingly disordered, with no cloying color-coordination or conveniently displayed copies of his own work, it was the kind of background that garners kudos from the viral Twitter account famous for dunking on the chattering classs interior design skills.

But I dont think Aciman was trying to win the Zoom aesthetics game. He avoids television, tweets infrequently, and is one of the only people to ever tell me that work is going apace during the pandemic. He spends most of each day writing, with occasional breaks for interviews. Ours was his third of the day.

Things werent always like this. Born in 1951 in Alexandria, Egypt, to a Sephardic Jewish family, Aciman fled the country as a teenager when the government began to systematically expel noncitizens. After living for some time in Italy, Aciman moved to America, where he eventually received a doctorate in English and comparative literature from Harvard and established himself as a scholar of Marcel Proust. Besides academic work, he published novels, essays, and the critically acclaimed memoir Out of Egypt. But it was the film adaptation of his debut novel Call Me By Your Name by director Luca Guadagnino that made him a household name.

Acimans latest book, Homo Irrealis, takes its title from the linguistic category of verbal moods, including the conditional, subjunctive and imperative, used to discuss events that have not and may never occur. Touching on the work of writers like Cavafy, Sebald, and Pessoa, the collection explores the way memory, even when it represents a constructed or altered version of the past, controls our perception of the present and future. A moody and deeply introspective collection, it initially seems like a departure from the lush Mediterranean tableaus that made Call Me By Your Name a cultural touchstone.

Yet the ineffable and surprisingly forceful character of nostalgia is a constant preoccupation of Acimans, hovering at the fringes of even his most sensual novels. In a way, Homo Irrealis functions as a guidebook to the perspective that has informed the authors storytelling for decades.

I spoke with Aciman about human psychology, the case against contemporary literature and what lessons Prousts life has to offer us. (Spoiler: None.) The following conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity.

Tell me a little about how youve been working during the pandemic.

Image by Chris Ferguson

Andr Aciman.

Well, I basically exist on Zoom at this point. I teach on Zoom. My physical therapist is on Zoom. Youre on Zoom. Its very hard to have anything going on thats not fundamentally displacing, even though were all remaining in place.

Its funny you mention feeling displaced, because thats such a prominent theme in your work although not precisely in this sense.

Well, one is displaced because the places one goes to have folded or closed, or one doesnt want to go there because one is afraid of running into others. I feel like Im in one place, and yet at the same time the places I normally go to are not open to me. As far as writing is concerned, this is ironically a blessing, all distractions are rescinded.

Is there anything you need to have on hand while youre working?

I used to have dictionaries: French, English, Italian, even a thesaurus. And I used to have an encyclopedia. All this is gone now because I can get it online. So provided I have internet access, Im OK.

Youre a scholar of Proust, who is famous for (among other things) staying home a lot. Have you taken any pandemic-era lessons from his life?

No, because he did nothing but write for the last 15 years of his life. He didnt live. We dont know much about his private life, if there was one. He was basically trapped, and I dont like that feeling. I dont think theres anything to learn from that.

I am very Mediterranean, I like the things life gives us. At the same time, as a writer I am very withdrawn and I examine myself all the time. Im sure that once Im dead, people will look at my books and say, This guy didnt live at all. So theres a contrast between the life I live and the life that appears to have been lived in my books.

What parts of your life would surprise people who only knew you through your books?

That I have wonderful friends, that social moments are very important to me. That I like to party. This is something that isnt transparent in my books. It seems more that Im isolated, that Im not friendly, that I dont cultivate people.

Maybe we should go back to Proust in that respect. Here was a man who was extremely social, who had entre into all kinds of clans and milieus, and who at the same time wrote one of the most private novels ever written. He had to stop being social because he found it was getting in the way of his other life, his scriptorial life. But Ive never had to make that compromise.

You never had trouble balancing?

I think I had trouble when I was a graduate student, I had to read, I had to work on my dissertation, I had to study. But frankly, as soon as I got a call Were at such-and-such a place, would you want to come and join us absolutely I would drop everything to go.

I want to go back to Proust. Youre both fascinated with memory and nostalgia. Were you drawn to Proust because he shares this interest? Or did you develop it by studying him?

When I was 14 years old, my father bought me my first volume of Proust. I immediately sensed it was too close, too intimate. It was my voice. Thats the genius of Proust, whenever you read him you feel its you speaking, not him. I liked that a lot, it made me feel at home. But I felt that Dostoevsky gave me more space, and allowed me to encounter sensibilities besides my own. Eventually, I went back to Proust and found I was reading him as if I was reading myself.

So, yes, Proust allowed me to justify who I was. And I acquired skills I didnt know I had; the moment I saw them in Proust I said, Yeah, I know how to do this. The whole bit about memory, I had lived that long before knowing the word Proust. I also had this ability to examine people. I always wanted to understand why people were the way they were. Of course, I was an incurable gossip and would criticize people all the time behind their back not because they were malevolent, but because I found something about them missing. I think that is true of Proust: Hes constantly excavating who the real person before him is, because he doesnt trust that other person. How many of us truly accept others the way they are? Wouldnt we be saints if we knew how to do that?

Youve said you dont watch movies, go to plays, or read magazines, which sets you apart from writers who see artistic production and consumption as symbiotic. Why do you think that is?

Theres something about contemporary culture which I feel is facile, easy. Whereas I find Im drawn to that which is bygone, older, classical. Im always drawn to older writers, writers who are not even alive. Fundamentally my favorite writer is Thucydides. I dont accept contemporary society yet because its too present, it hasnt been ratified by time. I always feel that I should wait some more before I accept someone. For example, the French critic Roland Barthes was writing a lot of books in the late 60s and early 70s. Everyone was consuming him, and I said, No, I dont want to consume him just yet. When he died, thats when I discovered him. I always feel that a piece in a magazine bears its time stamp on it. You wrap fish with it at the end of the day.

How do you square that skepticism with the fact that you yourself are a contemporary writer, and a popular one at that?

When people tell me, I loved your book, I say You are an educated person. Why arent you reading Edith Wharton instead? In other words, it doesnt square with me that someone writing today should be read by people today. I should be read in 40 years. But of course I want to be read today. Im in a state of total contradiction.

Do you think were in a uniquely bad cultural moment, or that art now will be more rewarding to consume in a few decades?

When a new book comes out and is very successful, people are buoyed by it. Everyone wants to read the book that has been raved about in the New York Times Book Review, because that book tells a story that speaks to us today, it deals with issues that are germane to todays issues. I dont want to read something thats germane about todays issues. Id much rather read something thats totally not germane to any issues. Id much rather read about two individuals on a beach who are having an illicit affair, and experience some of their pangs and timidities, than to read a novel about two guys who are attracted to each other but are in danger because of intolerance in the society they live in. Im interested in human psychology and motivation, the inner life of people, as opposed to the outer life.

Cant you write about the individual relationships and outer life at the same time?

It is possible, I think many people are doing it. Its not that I dont know how to do it although thats a good claim to make its that Im not libidinally moved by it. Theres a kind of creative libido that has nothing to do with sex. What arouses my creativity is what goes on between two individuals. The social aspect of it does not arouse me. I cant even dwell on it for more than two sentences. Out of Egypt is about a social catastrophe for Jews, but you barely sense that. What youre dealing with is personalities, the wills of people, the stupidity, the spite. Thats what interests me.

What is it you like about Thucydides?

Oh gosh. In an undergraduate class we were made to read the beginning of The History of The Peloponnesian War, and I was bowled over. Every speech that was given, Im on that side. Even if two people are arguing with each other, Im always persuaded by the first speech and the contrary one. I know of no other writer who has cut open the human motivation, and human spite, and idiocy and fanaticism like Thucydides.

Irene Katz Connelly is a staff writer at the Forward. You can contact her at connelly@forward.com. Follow her on Twitter at @katz_conn.

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Posted By admin on February 16, 2021

This article appears in ourFall 2020 Housing Issue.Subscribe nowto getJewish Currentsin your mailbox.

DRAWING ON THE RHETORIC of the socialist workers movement, representatives of the Jewish housing projects on the outskirts of Salonica (Thessaloniki), Greece, convened a congress in 1924 demanding justice from the local Jewish community, the city, and the state. In a manifesto in Judeo-Spanish (Ladino), the language of the the citys Sephardic Jewish proletariat, the new Federation of Residents of All the Popular Neighborhoods of Salonica articulated demands on behalf of the vulnerable, exploited, and unseen that still resonate today: for housing, healthcare, education, access to clean water and sanitation, coal for heat in the winter, and infrastructure like paved roads and public meeting spaces. Organizing across seven disparate neighborhoods, the citys Jewish poor placed their faith in solidarity: a boulder of iron that cannot be broken (un penyasko de fiero ke non se rompe).

The rise of industrial enterprise in the late 19th century turned Salonica into a major commercial entrept in the eastern Mediterranean for flour, tobacco, bricks, and other goods. A cadre of wealthy Jewish families owned many of the factories, while a vast, mainly Jewish working classwomen as well as mentoiled in poor conditions. With the introduction of a new Ottoman constitution in 1908, Jewish workers united with their Greek, Bulgarian, and Turkish counterparts to form the Socialist Workers Federation of Salonica, which initiated strikes and demonstrations and won major concessions in the name of workers rights. During his 1911 sojourn in the city, David Ben-Gurion characterized Salonica as a Jewish labor town, the only one in the world.

The transfer of Salonica from the Ottoman Empire to the Greek nation-state during the Balkan Wars (19121913) transformed the city. In 1917, a fire destroyed two-thirds of downtown, leaving over 70,000 people homeless, including 52,000 mostly poor Jews. The new Greek authorities used the fire as a pretext to remake Ottoman, Jewish, oriental Selnik into Greek, European, modern Thessaloniki: They did not permit poor Jews to return to the city center, instead relegating them to shanty towns, military barracks, and housing projects. According to the manifesto, the Jewish communal institutions that administered most of the housing projects did not adequately address the residents own needs. Jews in the popular neighborhoods charged communal leaders with displaying a hostile attitude toward the associations of the quarters, and called on them to embrace the principles of mutual aid rather than charity.

The housing crisis was compounded by the influenza pandemic of 19181919, and then by the arrival of 100,000 Orthodox Christian refugees from Turkey in 1923. Refugees from Turkey settled in districts adjacent to those inhabited by the Jewish victims of the fire. Tensions mounted over access to scarce resources, and rising nationalism provoked violent confrontations. With no other recourse, some refugees began to occupy Jewish schools, impeding their operationhence the manifestos demand that the squatters be removed at all costs. This demand reveals the limits of the Congresss commitment to solidarity, as nationalist antagonism trumped class solidarity between these two vulnerable populations.

Jews in the popular neighborhoods organized for their rights until the bitter end. Their efforts help to explain why 39% of Salonicas Jews voted for the Communist Party in the Greek parliamentary elections in 1926, in a dramatic repudiation of the liberal middle and upper classes in charge of both the Jewish community and the Greek government. The manifestos demand that new housing be allocated to Jews in the shantytown of Teneke Maale prior to its planned demolition also bore fruit: In the 1930s, the Jewish community and state authorities transferred many of the families to other districts, including one with new, modern apartment buildings.

The German occupation of the city (19411944) resulted in the deportation of a quarter of the citys residentsnearly 50,000 Jews, the plurality of whom were rounded up from the neglected Jewish districts. Fewer than 2,000 survived. Those who returned discovered that the Greek state had transferred abandoned Jewish properties to Orthodox Christiansespecially Nazi collaborators. Eventually, some of the Jewish survivors managed to reclaim their properties. While they waited, these Jewsthe poor and formerly wealthy alikeslept on the benches of the only two synagogues that survived.

To read the full translation of the manifesto, click here.

Devin E. Naar is an associate professor of Jewish studies, Sephardic studies, history, and international studies at the University of Washington in Seattle and the author of Jewish Salonica: Between the Ottoman Empire and Modern Greece.

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Residents of all the neighborhoods: Unite! - Jewish Currents

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Posted By admin on February 16, 2021

Since the publication more than half a century ago of a landmark article that referenced the vanishing American Jew, its been hard to shake that idea as the dominant narrative of American Jewish life.

Yet the U.S. Jewish community is the largest in the world, with an estimated 7 million Jews slightly more than Israels 6.8 million.

And despite a low birthrate, American Jews actually are growing in number, primarily due to three factors: immigration, intermarriage and education.

Over the past three decades, Jewish immigrants have come in large numbers from the former Soviet Union, Latin America and Israel. Intermarriage, rather than acting as a net negative for Jewish population, actually has resulted in more Jews, as the children of intermarried parents increasingly identify as Jewish and some spouses convert. And Jewish education has helped retain the numbers of Americans who identify as Jews and drawn some Jews by choice into the fold.

The narrative of the Jewish community that we are a disappearing people Look magazine famously referred to us [in 1964] as the Vanishing American Jew is not true, said Leonard Saxe, a demographer at Brandeis Universitys Cohen Center for Modern Jewish Studies. What we know is that the American Jewish population is growing substantially, and we know where they are living, how old they are and their political attitudes. We also know that American Jews are increasingly diverse, both in their demographic characteristics and how they enact their Jewish identities.

The increasing diversity of American Jewry is apparent in myriad elements, including national origin, race and ethnicity.

We are not just descendants of European Jews, said Arnold Dashefsky, director of the University of Connecticuts Center for Judaic Studies and Contemporary Jewish Life. Therefore, planners need to reflect on how their policies can accommodate the diverse nature of American Jewry.

Dashefsky estimates that 10 percent of American Jewry is Sephardic and another 5 percent is comprised of non-white Jews from Poland, Russia and Ukraine, such as Bukharian Jews. Jews of color a broad term that encompasses African-American Jews, Ethiopian Jews and others may constitute 12-15 percent of American Jews, according to researchers at Stanford and the University of San Francisco who in 2019 examined 25 population studies of American Jews and found that most likely undersampled nonwhite Jews.

The Jewish community has consistently been inconsistent with respect to how it attempts to account for Jews of color within the American Jewish community, Ari Kelman, an associate professor of education and Jewish studies at Stanford, told JTA last year.

The United States also has an increasingly vocal, visible and vibrant Israeli population. A landmark study of the nations Jewry in 2013 by the Pew Research Center estimated that 100,000 Israeli-born Jews are living in the U.S., similar to the estimate of the National Jewish Population Survey in 2000-01.

But according to an analysis of American Community Survey data conducted by Ira Sheskin, director of the University of Miamis Jewish Demography Project and author of dozens of Jewish population surveys, there actually are some 350,000 Jews with Israeli roots in America. Many are concentrated in communities with large Hebrew-speaking communities, including Northern and Southern California, New York and New Jersey, South Florida and Boston, but plenty of Israelis are scattered elsewhere across the country.

America has other sizable Jewish communities where the native tongue is not English. Russian-speaking Jews live in large concentrations in New York City. Spanish-speaking Jews reside in large numbers in South Florida, including immigrants from Argentina and Venezuela who have arrived during the past two decades. Los Angeles has a large Persian-speaking community, the result of an exodus of Iranian Jews following the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

The increase in Americas Jewish population comes despite the low fertility rate among American Jews, which has been in decline since the 1970s and generally is lower than Americans.

During the baby boomer generation of 1946 to 1964, most Jewish households had two or three kids, according to Sheskin.

But now, Jewish women are averaging 1.9 children each and not all are raising them as Jews, he said. As a result, the effective Jewish fertility rate is 1.4 per woman.

The majority of U.S. Jews live in four states: New York, California, Florida and New Jersey, according to the American Jewish Year Book. The states with the fastest growing Jewish population are Florida (up 200,000 in the past 40 years) and New Jersey (up 100,000 over 40 years).

U.S. Jews are highly educated: About 60% have a college education, compared with 32% of the general public, according to surveys. And among those aged 25 to 34, Sheskin said, 85% either have a college degree or have started college.

One major factor contributing to American Jewish growth is changes in attitudes toward intermarriage.

Intermarried families are, for the most part, accepted in the community, Saxe observed. I like to say that intermarriage no longer requires that they have to give up their Jewish passport.

After the 1990 National Jewish Population Survey alarmed Jewish leaders with its finding of an intermarriage rate of 52% among American Jews (subsequent scholarship revised the figure down to 43%), the community was galvanized into action.

Jewish education programs were revamped. Jewish summer camps, hailed as a highly successful Jewish engagement mechanism, multiplied. Philanthropists created Birthright Israel, which has provided free trips to Israel to more than 700,000 young American Jews. Such initiatives and investments have helped Jews develop greater interest in their Jewish identity, Saxe observed.

Improvements in demographic methods for finding and counting American Jews also have helped researchers acquire a more accurate picture of the Jewish community, he added.

We are applying new statistical tools to understand it and we are looking at different ways people are Jewish not just membership in synagogues but culturally, through membership in Jewish community organizations, advocacy groups and the study of Jewish literature and texts, Saxe said.

About 60% of American Jews identify with one of the three main U.S. Jewish religious denominations: 35% as Reform, 18% as Conservative and 10% as Orthodox. Orthodox Jews comprise the fastest-growing of these denominations, owing largely to their birthrate of 4.1 children per family, according to the Pew Research Center. A landmark 2011 study of Jews in New York, by far the countrys largest community, found that 61% of all area Jewish children were being raised in Orthodox households.

This article was sponsored by and produced in partnership with the Z3 Project and the Oshman Family Jewish Community Center in Palo Alto, CA.

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Immigration, intermarriage and education making US Jewry larger and more diverse - jewishpresstampa

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If you quickly scan the list of the 16 artists and groups nominated to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, only one name jumps out as Jewish: Carole King. But a deeper dive into each nominee reveals some surprising or unlikely Jewish stories.

First, a little more about King. How, you might ask, is Carole King not already in the Rock Hall? Her landmark 1971 album, Tapestry, virtually created the genre of sensitive singer-songwriter, gaining critical praise, multiple Grammy Awards, and setting a contemporaneous record for most time on Billboards Album chart until it was surpassed by Pink Floyds Dark Side of the Moon. It still holds the record for most consecutive weeks at number one by a female solo artist and regularly places high on lists of the greatest albums of all time.

King is indeed already in the Rock Hall, but only as one-half of the Gerry Goffin-Carole King songwriting duo, which supplied dozens if not hundreds of hit songs to other artists beginning in 1960, when King was still in her teens. They certainly deserve their place in the Hall as songwriters. But only now is King being recognized for her solo career, 51 years after she released her first solo album.

King is not the only nominee this year who is finally being recognized for long-overdue admission to the Hall as a solo artist. Like King, Tina Turner has been in the Hall for decades, but only as one-half of Ike and Tina Turner. Turners years with Ike Turner were a veritable horror story of physical and emotional abuse, such that when the duo was inducted into the Rock Hall in 1991, Tina Turner did not attend the ceremony. Out of the clutches of Ike Turner by the late-1970s, Turner rose to superstardom in the 1980s, but only now is she being considered for a place of her own in the Hall. Ike Turner converted to Judaism in 1994. But whats Ike got to do with it? Tina is not Jewish she is an adherent of Buddhism but that didnt stop vandals from defacing a mural of Turner with a red swastika outside a North Carolina record store in December 2019.

By Getty Images

Tina Turner: Though the artist considers herself a Buddhist, that didnt stop vandals from defacing a mural of Turner with a red swastika outside a North Carolina record store in December 2019.

Chaka Khan is being considered again for a place in the Hall. In 2012, the one-time lead singer of Rufus became something of a Jewish hero when she stepped in to replace Stevie Wonder after the music legend, bowing to pressure from pro-Palestinian activists, backed out of a scheduled performance at a benefit for the Israel Defense Forces in Los Angeles. Ironically, Rufuss biggest hit, 1974s Tell Me Something Good, was written by Wonder.

Superstar R&B singer Mary J. Blige, a candidate for admission this year, is almost as well known for her philanthropy as for megahits including Whats the 4-1-1? and a version of Sweet Thing, first recorded by Rufus featuring Chaka Khan in 1975. Blige used some of her earnings to fund the Mary J. Blige Center for Women at Westchester Jewish Community Services.

Another long-overdue candidate for the Hall, Dionne Warwick, whose most fruitful musical collaboration was with Jewish-American composer Burt Bacharach, who recognized her unique talent while she was singing backup for The Drifters. Warwick and Bacharach worked together on 39 chart records from 1962 to 1972. Seven of them became Top 10 hits, including Walk on By, I Say a Little Prayer, Do You Know the Way to San Jose? and Ill Never Fall in Love Again. Bacharachs writing partner, Hal David the son of Austrian-Jewish immigrants wrote the lyrics to most of these hits. In May 2015, Warwick had a public spat with Roger Waters, rocks most active anti-Zionist, who seems to care more about enforcing a cultural boycott of Israel than he does about making music. Upon announcing an impending concert in Tel Aviv, Warwick issued a statement saying she would never fall victim to the hard pressures of Roger Waters, from Pink Floyd, or other political people who have their views on politics in Israel. In response, Waters called Warwick profoundly ignorant of what has happened in Palestine.

L.L. Cool J cant seem to catch a break this years nomination to the Hall is his sixth. The Queens, N.Y.-born actor/rapper once reminisced fondly to a reporter from the Jerusalem Post of his New York City upbringing, saying My grandfather was from the Bronx and he came home with gefilte fish every week.

Afrobeat pioneer Fela Kuti received his first nomination to the Hall this year. Guitarist Jon Madof makes no bones about his debt to the late Kuti, who was the inspiration behind Madofs band, Zion80, one of the funkiest Jewish jazz outfits on the downtown scene. The group plays a horn-heavy, spiritual blend of Jewish melodies sometimes inspired by Rabbi Shlomo Carlebach atop a foundation of heavy Afrobeat rhythms. Even the groups name pays homage to Kuti ensembles, including Afrika 70 and Egypt 80.

Jay-Z is also vying for admission to the Hall for the first time this year. Considered to be one of the greatest rappers of all time, Jay-Z got into some hot water during the summer of 2017, when he fumbled a tribute to Jewish self-empowerment in the greater context of calling on African Americans to step up their own entrepreneurial efforts. His song The Story of O.J. included the couplet, You wanna know whats more important than throwin away money at a strip club? Credit / You ever wonder why Jewish people own all the property in America? This how they did it.

Never mind that Jay-Z lit a Hanukkah menorah in 2012 at the inauguration of Brooklyns Barclays Center in a rededication ceremony (he was an original investor in the arena and the Brooklyn Nets basketball team). Nor the fact that in 2006, Jay-Z joined fellow rap impresario Russell Simmons to film a public service announcement explicitly equating anti-Semitism with racism. Nor that on tour in Europe with his wife, Beyonc, Jay-Z visited the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam. Jay-Z got caught peddling a Jewish stereotypeeven though, as he told one interviewer, he knows as well as anyone that Jews dont own everything, because being a billionaire himself, he owns plenty. Of course I know Jewish people dont own all the property in America. I mean, I own things! So I know that they dont own all of the property in America. It was an exaggeration, he said.

Like Tina Turner, guitarist Jane Wiedlin of the early-1980s New Wave pop group the Go-Gos up for admission this year is not Jewish, but that hasnt stopped her from falling victim to antisemitic hate speech. Wiedlin once told an interviewer from the Riverfront Times, I made the mistake of Googling myself once. Ill never do it again. It was so horrifying. The first thing that came up was a white supremacist site, and they had me on one of their hate lists. And its for being Jewish. And Im not even Jewish! So its like, God, not only do these people hate me, but they hate me for something Im not even! I mean, I would be happy to be Jewish, but Im not. Its really bad.

Kate Bush got her second nomination to the Hall this year. Bush was reportedly a volunteer at Kibbutz Kissufim during the winter of 1977-78. Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour was a mentor to Bush early in her career; somehow Gilmours bandmate Roger Waters wasnt able to derail her career over her Zionist sympathies.

Glam-punk pioneers the New York Dolls hope to enter the Rock Hall this year. The groups guitarist, Sylvain Sylvain (who died last month), was born Sylvain Mizrahi to a Jewish family in Cairo, eventually making their way to New York City by way of France and Buffalo. Sylvain also worked in the rag trade as a side gig; he ran a clothing company called Truth and Soul.

New Wave art band Devo, best known for their hit Whip It and their cool yellow jumpsuits, are nominated this year. According to a childhood friend, the groups drummer, the late Alan Myers, was in a Jewish youth group, where his nickname was Aleph Ernie. The friend explained, Aleph was a title of respect, and we called him Ernie because he resembled the be-spectacled Ernie on [the TV show] My Three Sons.

Dave Grohl, already a member of the Rock Hall as a member of grunge-rock avatars Nirvana, is up for membership again for his group Foo Fighters. The group shocked fans this past December with an eight-night series of new releases, one for each night of Hanukkah, each a cover of a song by a famous Jewish artist. Although Grohl is not Jewish, the bands producer Greg Kurstin is, as is the groups keyboardist, Rami Jaffee, who was a founding member of Jakob Dylans band, the Wallflowers. Grohl announced the Hanukkah Sessions with this Yiddish-inflected statement: With all the mishigas of 2020, Greg and I were kibbitzing about how we could make Hanukkah extra-special this year. So hold on to your tuchuses because weve got something special coming for your shayna punims. Lchaim! The sessions included songs by Lou Reed, Justine Frischmann of Elastic, Peaches, Leslie West of Mountain, Drake, Bob Dylan, and, of course, the Beastie Boys.

Along with his career as a musician, Todd Rundgren nominated for the second time has also enjoyed success as an engineer and record producer, having worked with such Jewish artists as Robbie Robertson of the Band; Daryl Hall, a convert to Judaism; and the New York Dolls (see above).

It may surprise some to learn that several members of nominees Rage Against the Machine boast Jewish ancestry. Singer-lyricist Zack de la Rocha of the politically inclined hard-rock group claims Sephardic descent through his Mexican-American father. And drummer Brad Wilk, who cofounded Rage with de la Rocha and guitarist Tom Morello, is of Polish-Jewish descent.

Perhaps the biggest surprise of all is to learn that Bruce Dickinson, the non-Jewish lead singer of heavy-metal pioneers Iron Maiden garnering their first nomination this year has been outspoken against Nazi imagery in heavy metal; talks passionately about the horrors of Auschwitz; and has no truck with the likes of Roger Waters over performing in Israel.

Dickinson and Iron Maiden visited Auschwitz in 1984. Its a very spooky place, Dickinson told Newsweek. It really did my head in. You can smell the evil of the place. In his memoir, What Does This Button Do?, Dickinson wrote about Auschwitz: It is the banality of industrial execution planning contrasted with the screams of the gas chambers that is the true measure of the terror. That terror, I believe, is the secret fear that we may all be such monsters deep down. It makes me shudder even to think it. I cried a lot after the visit. After an incident at a Vancouver concert, Dickinson told the CBC, Nazi salutes have no place whatsoever in any kind of music community I want to belong to. I think people need a little bit more of a lesson in history, rather than a lesson in ignorance, which seems to be dished out far too often. Iron Maiden first performed in Israel in 1995 and had been scheduled to perform again last year before the COVID-19 virus shut down concerts across the globe.

This years Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductees will be announced in May.

Seth Rogovoy is a contributing editor at the Forward. He often mines popular culture for its hidden Jewish stories.

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Posted By admin on February 16, 2021

The man is charged with "knowingly and willfully" aiding and abetting the murder of prisoners at the Sachsenhausen concentration camp in Oranienburg, north of Berlin, from January 1942 to February 1945, according to the prosecutor's office in Neuruppin, Brandenburg.

The charges include involvement in the shooting of Soviet prisoners of war in 1942, and aiding and abetting the murder of prisoners through the use of the poison gas Zyklon B, as well as other shootings and the killing of prisoners by creating and maintaining hostile conditions in the Sachsenhausen concentration camp.

Sachsenhausen was established in 1936. Of the roughly 200,000 prisoners who passed through it, around 100,000 are thought to have died there. During World War II, the camp's inmate population fluctuated between about 11,000 and 48,000 people.

The prosecution considers the man fit to stand trial despite his advanced age, Cyrill Klement, the Neuruppin court's senior prosecutor, told CNN.

Klement told CNN that the Neuruppin Regional Court consulted with a forensic psychiatrist and found the man able to attend the trial, though only for a few hours a day, with breaks.

The court is now considering whether to go ahead with the trial. The defendant first has the opportunity to respond to the indictment.

German prosecutors are investigating several other cases connected to the concentration camps of Buchenwald, Sachsenhausen, Mauthausen and Stutthof, according to the Central Office for the Investigation of Nazi Crimes.

An estimated 6 million Jewish people were killed in Nazi concentration camps during World War II. Also killed were hundreds of thousands of Roma people and people with physical or learning disabilities.

CNN's Nadine Schmidt contributed reporting.

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100-year-old former Nazi concentration camp guard charged with Holocaust atrocities - CNN

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LOS ANGELES (AP) Lucasfilm says Gina Carano is no longer a part of The Mandalorian cast after many online called for her firing over a social media post that likened the experience of Jews during the Holocaust to the U.S. political climate.

A spokesperson with the production company said in a statement on Wednesday that Carano is not currently employed by Lucasfilm with no plans for her to be in the future.

Nevertheless, her social media posts denigrating people based on their cultural and religious identities are abhorrent and unacceptable, the statement read.

Carano fell under heavy criticism after she posted that Jews were beaten in the streets, not by Nazi soldiers but by their neighbors. even by children.

The actor continued to say, Because history is edited, most people today dont realize that to get to the point where Nazi soldiers could easily round up thousands of Jews, the government first made their own neighbors hate them simply for being Jews. How is that any different from hating someone for their political views?

Carano, who played the recurring character Cara Dune on the Star Wars series, deleted the post but it was widely shared online and spurred the #FireGinaCarano hashtag to trend. Her character appeared in several episodes of the second season of The Mandalorian, a series about a bounty hunter and his quest to unite a powerful, young user of the Force with a Jedi Knight.

Dune, who in the second season is a lawperson on a frontier planet, frequently teams up with the title character to fight an old nemesis: remnants of the evil Galactic Empire.

Carano, a former mixed martial artist whose Dune character used a mix of heavy weapons and her fists to best opponents, had been criticized for social media posts that mocked mask wearing during the pandemic and voter fraud during the 2020 presidential election. She also mocked the use of gender pronouns, listing beep/bop/boop in her social media bio.

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