Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By admin on December 5, 2020

Facebook is reportedly looking to overhaul its approach to hate speech, in order to better detect and address 'the worst of the worst' cases, as opposed to treating all hate speech incidents equally.

According to The Washington Post, Facebook has shared an internal overview of its 'WoW Project', which will put increased focuson removing hateful comments directed at Black people, Muslims, people of more than one race, the LGBTQ community and Jews.

Facebook has confirmed that it has made changes to its hate speech approach, but it hasn't detailed the specifics.

"We know that hate speech targeted towards underrepresented groups can be the most harmful, which is why we have focused our technology on finding the hate speech that users and experts tell us is the most serious. Over the past year, we've also updated our policies to catch more implicit hate speech, such as content depicting Blackface, stereotypes about Jewish people controlling the world, and banned holocaust denial."

The update comes after Facebook saw major backlash earlier this year over its inaction on perceived hate speech shared by US President Donald Trump.

Amid the #BlackLivesMatter protests, following the murder of George Floyd at the hands of police, President Trump posted this comment, which many viewed as incendiary.

That then lead to civil rights activists calling for a boycott of Facebook ads, which saw many big brands pausing their Facebook ad spend in July. Facebook met with various groups at the time, and vowed to make changes to its policies.

Reportedly, Facebook then began outlining its new 'worst of the worst'hate speech approach to staff in October, incorporating key elements of its learnings based on these meetings.

The change in approach could help Facebook better address some key areas of concern, while also working to further align the platform with the incoming US leadership. Facebook has walked a fine line when dealing with President Trump and his comments on the platform, but with Trump set to move on next month, Facebook may need to evolve its policies to better move in-step with President-elect Joe Biden, who will be looking to take a more progressive approach than the Trump administration.

That could see Facebook come under more pressure - in a recent interview with The Atlantic, for example, former US President Barack Obama, to whom Biden served as VP, noted that misinformation shared on social media was'the single biggest threat to our democracy':

"Now you have a situation in which large swaths of the country genuinely believe that the Democratic Party is a front for a pedophile ring. This stuff takes root. I was talking to a volunteer who was going door-to-door in Philadelphia in low-income African American communities, and was getting questions about QAnon conspiracy theories. The fact is that there is still a large portion of the country that was taken in by a carnival barker."

That could indicate that a Biden-lead White House will look to increase pressure on Facebook - which could be why Facebook's looking to update its policies now, in order to get ahead of the game.

Facebook will need to better align itself with the sitting President in order to enact key changes, and advance its own agenda. Indeed, Facebook is already spending big on Washington-based lobbyists as it seeks to maintain ties, and avoid increased scrutiny on various fronts.

Given this, we could see a lot of policy shifts from The Social Network over the next four years.

Maybe, then, this is just the start of a new approach from the company.

The rest is here:

Facebook's Updating its Approach to Hate Speech to Combat 'The Worst of the Worst' Cases - Social Media Today

Category: Holocaust Denial | Comments Off on Facebook’s Updating its Approach to Hate Speech to Combat ‘The Worst of the Worst’ Cases – Social Media Today
Tags:

Posted By admin on December 5, 2020

Earlier this week, a group of 122 prominent Palestinian and Arab scholars and intellectuals signed a petition about antisemitism. In it, they took on the question of whether anti-Zionism is inherently antisemitic, taking aim at the definition of antisemitism used by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance. Among other things, the IHRA working definition holds that denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination is antisemitic, a proposition which, the letter writers argue, leads to the suppression of Palestinian rights. The suppression of Palestinian rights in the IHRA definition betrays an attitude upholding Jewish privilege in Palestine instead of Jewish rights, and Jewish supremacy over Palestinians instead of Jewish safety, they argue.

No doubt, many in the Jewish community will dismiss a group of Palestinian intellectuals as unqualified to weigh in on antisemitism. After all, they are not its primary targets or victims, so what gives them the right to express their views on such a sensitive issue?

But Palestinians and their supporters are deeply implicated in the swirling controversy over antisemitism and anti-Zionism, for it is their criticism of Israel at which the formulators of new definitions of antisemitism take aim. The equation of opposition to Israel with antisemitism is actively and often opportunistically advanced by American politicians at national and state levels in order to target Palestinian activists, including President Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who has consistently focused on the BDS movement as undeniably antisemitic.

In this regard, Palestinians have standing to be heard on the subject of antisemitism.

The 122 petitioners begin by making clear that no expression of hatred for Jews as Jews should be tolerated anywhere in the world. Nor, they declare, can Holocaust denial, which has reared its head in the Palestinian world (including, infamously, in Mahmoud Abbas dissertation), be tolerated.

Where they depart from the discourse on antisemitism as formulated by the IHRA is on Zionism and Israel. The scholars argue against the identification of all Jews with the Zionist project. This is, as an empirical matter, true, especially if we focus on the population of Haredim who have traditionally been opposed to or agnostic about Zionism, though that is weakening over time.

Still, it is reasonable to assume that a majority of Jews in the world, including in the U.S., have a strong and positive identifications with Israel. And its a tactical mistake for Palestinians to deny this statistical reality, or to lapse into the business, as sometimes happens, of telling Jews what the real basis of their identity is (religious versus national). These moves play into the same game in which Jews tell Palestinians that they arent really a people but rather a scattered patchwork of tribes and clans. No good will come of this shared denialist project.

And yet, their critique of the IHRA definitions overreach cannot be ignored, especially with regard to the clause about denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination. The matter is far less straightforward than it seems, for there is no consensus in international law what the term self-determination means. It could mean nation-state sovereignty, but it also could mean other forms of political organization for example, a federation or national cultural autonomy that reflect a groups nationalcharacter.

In light of this, one could readily imagine a binational state in Israel/Palestine that recognized the national character of the Jews alongside a Palestinian nation as a fulfillment of the standard of self-determination. And yet, adherents to the IHRA definition would almost certainly deem it antisemitic.

What about the recurrent calls for the state of Israel to become a state of all its citizens, which is a different model of governance than a binational state. Is this antisemitic?

Here it is necessary to perform the same act of empathy that Jews demand of the nations of the world. What does the question look like through the eyes of Palestinians? They have been subjected to the major trauma of the Nakba and have had their self-determination consistently denied. Nearly five million Palestinians live in the West Bank and Gaza under some form of Israeli military control without political rights. Nearly two million Palestinians are formal citizens of Israel, but often feel disenfranchised in a state that repeatedly affirms, as did the 2018 Nation State Law, that it is built of, by, and for Jews.

Is it antisemitic to express the desire for full political enfranchisement by defining Israel as a state of all its citizens including Jews and Arabs alike? Or, as the Palestinian letter writers ask, is it forbidden to espouse support for all non-Zionist visions of the future of the Israeli state, such as the advocacy of a binational state or a secular democratic one that represents all its citizens equally?

I think here of a recent Palestinian-American student of mine. He possesses the same connection to his familys homeland that many American Jews toward Israel do except that hes never had an opportunity to visit Palestine. He is as open-minded and open-hearted as any student Ive met and has nary a shred of antisemitism in him.

Is it reasonable to deny him the right to advocate for a state that defines itself as democratic rather Jewish? Is his preference antisemitic? Should we also subject him to some form of formal or informal punishment because he believes that Israel is a racist endeavor?

This, according to the IHRA, merits designation as antisemitic. But what is my student to think when he calls to mind the occupation regime under which his relatives in the West Bank live the Wall, the constant electronic surveillance, the restrictions on movement, the separate roads and infrastructure, and the denial of equality? What is he to think when he compares his familys status to the 650,000 Israeli Jewish settlers in the West Bank?

The disparate condition of Jews and Palestinians in the West Bank, as prominent Israeli human rights lawyer Michael Sfard has carefully documented, amounts to a regime of apartheid.

Under such conditions, it is understandable why one would use the language of racism with respect to the occupation of Palestinians in the West Bank. One could argue that not only is it not antisemitic to use such language, but that it is a Jewish obligation to do so.

On different grounds, the Palestinian letter writers make a strong point: To level the charge of antisemitism against anyone who regards the existing state of Israel as racist, notwithstanding the actual institutional and constitutional discrimination upon which it is based, amounts to granting Israel absolute impunity. Israel can thus deport its Palestinian citizens, or revoke their citizenship or deny them the right to vote, and still be immune from the accusation of racism.

This is not to deny that the accusation of racism is deeply wounding to Jewish ears. It is. But offense of this sort does not necessarily mean antisemitism. To stigmatize as antisemitic those who imagine Israel as a state of its citizens or who regard its policies as racist is effectively to deny them the right to advocate for justice for Palestinians.

And to equate these advocates to antisemites who plot and execute murderous attacks on Jews is a dangerous deflection, as well as an injustice both to the fight against antisemitism and to the struggle for justice for Palestinians.

David N. Myers teaches Jewish history at UCLA, where he directs the Luskin Center for History and Policy. He is the president of the board of the New Israel Fund.

The views and opinions expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect those of the Forward.

More here:

Yes, Palestinians have the right to speak about antisemitism - Forward

Category: Holocaust Denial | Comments Off on Yes, Palestinians have the right to speak about antisemitism – Forward
Tags:

Posted By admin on December 5, 2020

Jessica Cohen| Times Herald-Record

PORT JERVIS - Temple Beth El was a working, thriving community when Julius Greenberg joined 42 years ago, he said. With 200 member households, they had a sisterhood, a mens club and a Hebrew school at their synagogue at 88 E. Main St.

But in the last 15 years membership declined, as has happened with churches in Port Jervis and beyond. After the death of their regular rabbi, Burton Mindick, in 2017, the congregation had part-time rabbis who came primarily for holiday services.

But membership declined drastically, Greenberg said. Two years ago, only 27 came for the Yom Kippur service, one of the most important Jewish holidays.

For the last couple of years, the synagogue had no rabbi. A lay person helped to lead services, and then the 10 people traditionally required to have a service would be lacking, and services stopped.

The synagogue was put up for sale, and now Project Discovery, part of Easter Seals, is buying the building. They have been renting space there for the past 12 years, Greenberg said.

If they werent there, we couldnt have afforded the building, he said. Theyre waiting for refinancing of other loans to complete the sale. Were merging with Temple Sinai in Middletown, and the sale money will go to them. Our members will have lifetime membership there.

What happened to the congregation, said Greenberg, was that children in the many households that had been synagogue members left Port Jervis.

They had nothing to stay for, he said. Some who did come back wanted Hebrew school for their kids, but beginning seven or eight years ago, we couldnt train them. They had to go to Temple Sinai. The last two kids were trained there.

Longtime member Michael Weinstein agreed.

Without a Sunday school, a synagogue cant survive, he said. Young Jews are not moving to the area. Its not an assault on religion. Its a demographic challenge. If Jews leave Port Jervis and theres no population influx, who goes to services?

Many in the congregation saw their membership decline as a consequence of the decline of Port Jervis, Greenberg said. So, he is encouraged by signs of new life in the city.

I love to see new businesses popping up, he said.

But after 42 years in the same house, he is moving to be closer to his two sons.

Continue reading here:

Synagogue to be sold due to decline in membership - Times Herald-Record

Category: Synagogue | Comments Off on Synagogue to be sold due to decline in membership – Times Herald-Record
Tags:

Posted By admin on December 5, 2020

Hanukkah, also referred to as the Festival of Lights, celebrates the Maccabees win over the Syrian Greek army and the subsequent miracle of rededicating the holy temple in Jerusalem and restoring its menorah, or lamp.

This year, it will start at sundown Dec. 10 and end at sundown Dec. 18, and local synagogues and temples will celebrate the holiday with numerous services and events this month. However, with the COVID-19 pandemic still in effect, these activities will be in person and virtual.

Though most local Jewish synagogues and temples will host events and services throughout the week of Hanukkah, the Neighbor is only listing the main events per house of worship.

Here is a list of local Hanukkah celebrations, according to each house of worships website:

Ahavath Achim Synagogue, 600 Peachtree Battle Ave. in Buckhead, cancelled Sparks of Light, its Hanukkah celebration, this year. But it will host the Chanukah Workshop with Rabbi Sandler, a free virtual event, Dec. 9 at 7 p.m., and the study topic will be The Eternal (and Internal) Light of Chanukah. Attendees can register through the synagogues website.

Congregation Bnai Torah, 700 Mount Vernon Hwy. in Sandy Springs, will host Eight Inspiring Nights, eight free online candle-lighting events and discussions Dec. 10 through 17. Each night will be devoted to a different group within the synagogue. It will also host a Hanukkah virtual healing service Dec. 6 at 4:30 p.m.

Congregation Beth Tefillah, 5065 High Point Road in Sandy Springs, will host Chanukah at Heritage, an in-person event at Heritage Sandy Springs, Dec. 10 at 4:30 p.m. It will include a DJ, dinner provided by the Fidama food truck, roving entertainers, Chanukah activities and a menorah lighting. Admission to the event is free, but a $10 per-person donation is recommended.

Congregation Or Hadash, 7460 Trowbridge Road in Sandy Springs, will host the virtual Songs of Light Hanukkah Concert Dec. 10 from 5:30 to 7 p.m. via Zoom. It will include a communal candle lighting at 5:45 p.m. The event is free but registration is required by visiting https://bit.ly/2VuWPU1.

Congregation Or VeShalom, 1681 N. Druid Hills Road in Brookhaven, will host its Light Up the Night Hanukkah at OVS event Dec. 12 from 6:30 to 9 p.m. The in-person affair for both adults and children will include celebrations of Hanukkah and Havdalah, bonfire activities including singing and roasting marshmallows, plus childrens activities and more. Masks are required and social distancing will be observed.

Temple Emanu-El, 1580 Spalding Drive in Sandy Springs, will host its Chanukah Shabbat service Dec 11 at 7:30 p.m. and its Virtual Coffee House Songs of Light: Chanukah Sing-Along with Cantor Adesnik Dec. 12 at 7 p.m.

Temple Sinai, 5645 Dupree Drive in Sandy Springs, will host its Sinai Chanukah Drive-Thru Dec. 17 from 4:30 to 6 p.m. The event will include a chance to bless the menorah with clergy, hear familiar Chanukah songs from Beth Schafer and participate in activity stations. Activities are for all ages, and attendees are asked to wear Chanukah pajamas or tacky sweaters. Preregistration is recommended and can be done by visiting https://bit.ly/2JpFIRi. The event is free but donations will be accepted.

The Temple, 1589 Peachtree St. in Midtown, will host events throughout Hanukkah, including a Dec. 10 drive-thru candle-lighting ceremony, a Dec. 15 virtual Chanukah Gourmet cooking demonstration with Michael Twitty and a Dec. 17 virtual candle-lighting ceremony and concert with Shira Klein. Most events require preregistration.

Read this article:

Want to celebrate Hanukkah? These Atlanta and Sandy Springs synagogues and temples are hosting events - MDJOnline.com

Category: Synagogue | Comments Off on Want to celebrate Hanukkah? These Atlanta and Sandy Springs synagogues and temples are hosting events – MDJOnline.com
Tags:

Posted By admin on December 5, 2020

The coronavirus pandemic, which has shut down or slowed down so many aspects of Jewish life, may have sped up another: synagogue mergers.

In one of the biggest consolidations of recent years, University Synagogue, a Reform congregation with declining membership in the West Los Angeles neighborhood of Brentwood, struck a deal this month with Wilshire Boulevard Temple, a historic congregation of 2,000 families and two campuses that has been seeking added space for its early childhood and elementary schools.

The merger comes about as synagogues everywhere have been forced to move religious services, class lessons, adult programming and camping activities to Zoom and other online platforms. Left with virtual membership, congregants are asking why they have to pay their usual full amount of annual dues.

Image by Wikipedia

That has left many synagogues large and small exploring mergers and other strategies to stay in operation.

Mergers have typically been a last-resort strategy for Jewish institutions seeking to maximize assets and cut costs. And not all are the same. Sometimes both of the merged locations stay open, as in the Wilshire-University arrangement. Sometimes one site closes as Temple Or Elohim in Jericho, N.Y. last year absorbed the Community Reform Temple of Westbury.

Two Lake Tahoe area congregations, North Tahoe Hebrew Congregation and Temple Bat Yam, began sharing a rabbi several years ago. In San Francisco, Congregation Beth Israel Judea has shared its space with Or Shalom Jewish Community since 2014. In Los Angeles, Temple Emanuel of Beverly Hills and a nearby congregation, Temple Isaiah, co-run a synagogue-based village for aging adults under what they call ChaiVillageLA.

Among other congregations exploring change this year, Union Temple and Congregation Beth Elohim in Brooklyn entered into merger talks, and so did Temple Shaarey Shalom of Springfield Township, N.J. and Congregation Ohr Shalom.

The Wilshire-University deal reflects a confluence of contemporary issues affecting many Jewish institutions: the virus, declining membership and a growing number of Jews who identify more as spiritual than religious and do not have a need for synagogue membership.

Rabbi Rick Jabobs, president of the Union for Reform Judaism, reported earlier this year that more than 200 of 850 Reform congregations in North America sought the organizations help in getting federal emergency aid. And just this month, the Metropolitan New York District of the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism held its fourth conference on collaborations and mergers.

Image by Robert A. Cumins/JFNA

Rick Jacobs

I feel deeply for my colleagues everywhere serving congregations, said John Rosove, who retired last year as senior rabbi at Temple Israel of Hollywood after 40 years. This is a tough period. Most have stepped up and are doing what they have to do to address the needs of their people.

Under terms of the Wilshire-University merger, Wilshire is assuming Universitys debt in exchange for prime real estate that includes added classroom space in a celebrity-rich neighborhood with lots of young families eager for their children to get a Jewish education at a convenient location.

In a cost-benefit analysis, Wilshires leadership concluded that the ability to bring a Jewish education to a larger number of children outweighed taking on debt of about $1 million.

How can we allow a synagogue to fail in the heart of one of the most important Jewish neighborhoods in Los Angeles? said Steve Leder, Wilshires senior rabbi. How could we look the other way when that opportunity presents itself? I am just not built that way. We embrace opportunities to bring more people in, even when it involves real sacrifice.

Mergers often take time to complete. University had been seeking a partner for several years before Wilshire stepped up in the spring to begin talks. A deal was finalized this month.

Amy Asin, vice president of Strengthening Congregations at the UJR, said the coronavirus can accelerate merger talks that were already underway.

Most mergers take years to happen, years and years, she said. I think congregations that have been in conversations for years, this might speed it up.

Synagogues that will survive, Rosove said, are those where congregants have a strong motivation to support their community.

The greatest challenge right now is economic, he said. I know at my own congregation, there was a massive fundraising effort when COVID hit and they really delivered, those who could afford it, because there is a strong commitment to the congregation.

Image by Courtesy: Kuglercast.com

Rabbi Steve Leder

Wilshires Leder said he believes early childhood centers are the key everywhere to sustaining synagogue life, shaping Jews at a young age. Driving the merger with University, he said, was gaining classroom space at the University campus, which is less than two miles from Wilshires at-capacity westside campus. University also has a sanctuary for weddings and bnei mitzvahs; Wilshires west side campus has a large meeting hall with a mobile ark for Torahs.

Cami Gordon, a member of University Synagogue for 16 years and a former board member, said the merger allows University to retain its building, its staff and a familial identity.

The challenge for University going forward, she added, will be holding onto its identity after fully integrating with Wilshire, a process expected to take about three years. She expressed confidence that the two communities will complement each other.

We reached out to others and the one that responded and fit with us and also allowed us to stay in our building was Wilshire Boulevard Temple, she said. The friends I have who are members of Wilshire Boulevard are similar to me and my friends and my family. I think most of our congregants will find like-minded people they can connect to. Philosophically, our synagogues are very much aligned.

Asin envisioned an arrangement in which University members would become a distinct group within Wilshire.

I can imagine a scenario where the University Synagogue campus is a distinct personality within the Wilshire Boulevard system, she said even though Wilshire members will be free to participate in all University-based programs.

University Synagogue

For Wilshire, one of the largest congregations in the West, the merger is the latest transaction that has drastically increased its footprint in Los Angeles. The current sanctuary has operated in its mid-city location since 1929 when much of the financing came from the heads of the major Hollywood studios. In 1998, a west side campus opened, giving families who live far from the main sanctuary a more convenient location for services, schools and other programs.

In 2016, Wilshire opened a family social services center along the block just north of the main sanctuary to provide local residents access to a food bank, eye care, dental care and legal services. In April 2021, a newly constructed social hall, designed by Rem Koolhaus, is scheduled to open in a massive structure alongside of the main sanctuary.

In some respects, Leders desire to take on the financial debt of another building, which initially will be called the Wilshire Boulevard Temple University Campus, runs counter to the way Judaism has been forced by the coronavirus to relocate online.

But if coming together in a physical space feels like a distant memory as the pandemic grinds on, Leder said he is confident people will return to their congregations home spaces when it is safe to do so.

I am not convinced the era of brick-and-mortar synagogues is waning, especially when dealing with families with young children, he said. We know online education has serious limitations, particularly for young children. We know parents [of young children] are the lifeblood of synagogues. As long as we continue to run a warm and haimishe early childhood center and programs for young families, we will need more space, not less.

Rosove agreed, saying the pandemic has only reinforced the importance of coming together to worship and experience community.

This is really an anomaly in Jewish history, he said, speaking of the pandemic. People want their sacred spaces. People identify with a place. I dont see that need being addressed without the building.

How people access Judaism has changed and willcontinue to change, Rosove added, insisting that a pandemic is not enough to kill off a faith-based, communal tradition that has survived thousands of years.

Its a new world, he said. Every synagogue, based on where it is, who the rabbis are and who the congregants are, creates community and cultures. Hopefully those are sustainable and meet the needs of their members.

Wilshire Blvd. Temple and University Synagogue merge

Read the original:

In LA, a high-profile merger prompts questions over the future of the synagogue - Forward

Category: Synagogue | Comments Off on In LA, a high-profile merger prompts questions over the future of the synagogue – Forward
Tags:

Posted By admin on December 5, 2020

By Katie Boyden

The Cliftonville synagogue on Godwin Road in Margate, Kent is 91-years-old and plays a huge part in the community's Jewish history.

However, it is set to go under the hammer at Savills in London on December 16 and local residents fear they could lose the building.

So, Save Our Shoul - a group made up of Margate-based artists and educators of Jewish heritage - has launched a fundraising campaign in a bid to buy back the building.

They need to raise 300,000.

The historic building is no longer used as a place of worship, but it's still an important landmark.

A spokesman for Save Our Shoul said: "Now that the Margate Synagogue has ceased to function as a place of worship, we want to prevent it from being snapped up for commercial use and instead, for it to become an inclusive arts and cultural space for the entire local community - a cultural hub which reflects the diversity of Cliftonville's residents, whilst also celebrating and retaining the integrity of the building's Jewish origins.

"There is no multi-arts space of this of this scale in the Thanet area - the nearest is in Canterbury, Whitstable or in Folkestone.

"We want the repurposed space to bring people together to enjoy music, theatre and dance performances, exhibitions and film screenings, food events and workshops. Above all, it will be a place which reflects the diverse roots of the area's residents."

The campaign to save the synagogue has received celebrity endorsement from the likes of actor Miriam Margolyes, musician Imogen Heap, and Oscar-award winning graphic designer and filmmaker Arnold Schwartzman OBE.

Mr Shhwartzman said: "Today I find that at my ripe age of 85 I'm perhaps one of the oldest surviving members of Margate's past thriving Jewish community, an age just a few years short of the laying of the building's foundation stone in 1928.

"With the recent knowledge that the building is to be sold the very institution where my late father was honorary treasurer I feel compelled to champion the efforts being made to assist in procuring the structure for a much needed l

To support the fundraising appeal, visit crowdfunder.co.uk/save-our-shul-margate.

Shine a spotlight on your neighbourhood by becoming an Area Ambassador.

Click here to learn more!

Here is the original post:

Margate community comes together to try and buy back historic synagogue - In Your Area

Category: Synagogue | Comments Off on Margate community comes together to try and buy back historic synagogue – In Your Area
Tags:

Posted By admin on December 5, 2020

The seven-day average test positivity rate in Westchester has climbed to about 5 percent, far higher in some areas: In Peekskill and Ossining, the rate among those who have been tested is about 10 percent. In November, the state designated Port Chester, on the Connecticut border, as an orange zone, shutting down in-person schooling and closing certain businesses.

The first time through we didnt really realize how severe it would get, so we were learning as we went along, George Latimer, the Westchester County executive, said. There was a sense that we took the best shot that Covid could give us, but we survived it, and things got better but the virus isnt done with us.

Parts of New Rochelle, as well as parts of Yonkers, Sleepy Hollow and Tarrytown, have been labeled yellow zones, requiring measures like weekly coronavirus testing for 20 percent of the student population, among other steps. As of Friday, there were 5,968 active cases countywide more than double the number two weeks ago and over 290 people were hospitalized; numbers on par with what they were in May.

Controlling the spread, which is dispersed across the region, is particularly problematic in Westchester. During the viruss recent resurgence, about 70 percent of infections have been tied to private gatherings, according to the states contact-tracing efforts.

When the virus is contained to one geographic area, or one source of spread that is easily controllable, it is easier to close the valve, either geographically or by industry, said Gareth Rhodes, the states deputy superintendent of financial services and a member of Mr. Cuomos coronavirus task force.

Now, with six cluster zones scattered across the county, he said, the virus is geographically more dispersed than just one area, and the ability to conduct enforcement of gatherings in private homes is much more limited.

There are other striking differences from the pandemics earliest days here: Where the initial outbreak was first detected among a middle-class community connected to a local synagogue, the disease is now afflicting the predominantly blue-collar workers in the denser pockets of Westchesters towns. And as hospitals fill up again, doctors in the area have learned new treatment strategies, like delaying the use of ventilators.

Originally posted here:

One of the First Virus Hot Spots in the U.S. Is Under Siege Again - The New York Times

Category: Synagogue | Comments Off on One of the First Virus Hot Spots in the U.S. Is Under Siege Again – The New York Times
Tags:

Posted By admin on December 5, 2020

By David Brand

Got $50 million to spare? You could be the next owner of the historic Forest Hills Jewish Center.

The block-long building at 106-06 Queens Boulevard is now on the market, ending a fringe effort to get the site landmarked by the city.

Forest Hills Jewish Center Executive Director Deborah Gregor said the congregation will thrive in a new location or, perhaps, in a space carved out on the existing site by whoever purchases the property.

Our goal is to keep our services running for the community every day, she said. Its not about a building. Its about the congregation and the community.

The congregation was founded in 1931 in a home on Kessel Street, later the site of a small synagogue. The existing Forest Hills Jewish Center, which stretches along 69th Street from Queens Boulevard to Austin Street, was constructed in the late 1940s.

The sale of our property is just the way our congregation is doing for future generations what the congregation in the 1940s did for us, Gregor said. We want to take that asset that they left us and convert it to what will be a new Forest Hills Jewish Center for future generations.

The synagogue fits more than 1,200 people, but the congregation has decreased to around 600 members, according to the Forest Hill Jewish Centers website.

A small group of community members had advocated for landmark status for the building, a proposal initially backed by Assemblymember Andrew Hevesi.

But by October, Hevesi changed his mind. An aide sent an email to the Historic Districts Council indicating that Hevesi would be withdrawing support of landmark designation for the Forest Hills Jewish Center site and the nearby Parkside Chapel.

After discussions and careful considerations with the community leaders involved, our office does not believe the Forest Hills Jewish Center would be a good fit for landmark designation, the aide wrote in an email shared with the Eagle. Civic and religious leadership who utilize the building have relayed their concerns that the current infrastructure of the building no longer meets the needs of the congregation.

Hevesi instead recommended seeking landmark status for the Lefferts Boulevard Bridge between Grenfell and Austin Streets. His office did not respond to requests for comment about the email.

A spokesperson for Councilmember Karen Koslowitz said she too opposed landmark status for the decades-old building. So did Rep. Grace Meng and State Sen. Toby Ann Stavisky.

The firm B6 Real Estate Advisors is handling the sale and Gregor said a few developers have already expressed interest. A 2018 plan to demolish the weathered building and construct a new 10-story tower fell through last year.

One outspoken community member has long crusaded to save the physical building, citing its stunning stained glass windows, Holy Ark sculpture and modern architecture, as well as its decades-long importance to Holocaust survivors in Queens.

"I will say that it would be a sin to witness its needless destruction in the name of the wrongful definition of progress, he said.

But Gregor, the executive director, said members of the congregation overwhelmingly support the sale.

Our membership is concerned with preserving the future of the Forest Hills Jewish Center and the preservation of the building itself is not the issue, she said. The issue is maintaining a synagogue that serves the community.

Additional reporting by Rachel Vick

Here is the original post:

Got $50 million? The Forest Hills Jewish Center is on the market - Queens Daily Eagle

Category: Synagogue | Comments Off on Got $50 million? The Forest Hills Jewish Center is on the market – Queens Daily Eagle
Tags:

Posted By admin on December 5, 2020

In an empty lot near the Oakland Coliseum, a fence of blessings is going up in a mlange of bright 2-by-4s painted all colors of the rainbow, with words like peace, love and justice adorning them.

The fence is the border of a new compound of tiny houses that, come January, will provide shelter for 22 homeless youth ages 18 to 25. It was created by the young people of Youth Spirit Artworks, a Berkeley-based art and job training program, and built with the help of an interfaith coalition that includes Congregations Beth El, Beth Israel and Netivot Shalom in Berkeley, Temples Beth Abraham and Sinai in Oakland, Kehilla Community Synagogue in Piedmont, Temple Isaiah in Lafayette, and organizations including Berkeley Hillel and Repair the World.

Two thousand volunteers built a tiny-house village! said YSA executive director Sally Hindman. And many of them were from the Jewish community.

Each of the 26 homes in the tiny-house village is about 70 square feet, with a living area, a Murphy bed and a closet, all mounted on a trailer. The village also will have communal kitchen and bathroom facilities, plus four on-site managers in addition to the 22 residents.

This is like an urban kibbutz, Hindman said.

These really cute pitched-roof mini houses are set in what looks like a neighborhood, and connected by wooden boardwalks, said David Rothenberg, executive director of Beth El. Like others, he has been volunteering at the site for months to build the houses and set up the facility. I was doing anything from painting, to carpentry, to wrapping hot and cold water pipes in a ditch with insulation, he said.

The Jewish communitys roots with the project are deep. Beth El played a leading role starting early last year when, after a deep-dive conversation on where to direct its social-justice efforts, the congregation chose the tiny-house project, partly because of how involved the young people at YSA are in decision-making.

Beth El, under the leadership of Rabbi Rebekah Stern, brought a model tiny house to the synagogues courtyard as inspiration during a week of learning around the subject. Stern said the relationship between Beth El members and YSA youth leaders helped bridge the gap between groups of people who, while sharing the same East Bay, hardly overlapped.

Driving home, I drove past some people on the street and I had this feeling of looking for the people that I knew, Stern said. And how different that is from driving past an encampment thats anonymous.

Hindman said Beth El volunteers, including Stern, worked more than 20 hours each week since January building houses. Other synagogues also sent volunteers and have been adopting houses. Kehilla member Alex Madonik saw the model tiny house at Beth El and arranged for it to be brought to Kehilla. The synagogue had already been involved in earlier construction volunteering in Oakland and Madonik said it was a good fit for the community. Volunteers worked on various aspects of construction over the summer, from nailing to installing insulation to painting.

All the different bits and pieces that make a house not fall down the next day, said Madonik, a member of the synagogues economic justice committee,

Volunteers also are fitting the houses out with items such as lamps, curtains, rugs, household necessities and what Hindman called darling little things to make every resident feel loved.

Camp Kee Tov in Berkeley came on board during the summer of 2020. Campers in fifth grade and older spent one day a week on site making planters and the prayer fence, which was a really special experience for some of our campers, said director Beckett Sheeder. All of those 2-by-4s came together to form this big wall of messages, he said, adding that the result was beautiful.

For Kee Tov kids, he said, it was a great learning experience, and the project also helped the camp, which was pinched for physical space in order to follow social-distancing parameters.

Justin Jones, 23 and part of YSA leadership on the project, said volunteers have been instrumental for the full length of the project.

Theyve been the entire infrastructure making things possible, he said.

While the target date for the village opening is Jan. 10, Hindman said she hoped it could be moved up by a week. YSA has just begun selecting residents through existing protocols in Alameda County for getting homeless youth into housing (the village will have 11 youth from Oakland and 11 from Berkeley).

YSA owns the houses and the Housing Consortium of the East Bay will manage the property. Oakland, which owns the land, pitched in $360,000 to YSA to provide services to the residents, including paid YSA training programs in leadership, arts and job skills, and $150,000 toward utilities.

Getting the village to completion has been a long process. Even with deep community support, there were delays.

A lot of politics, coding restrictions wherever you looked, said Reginald Gentry, 25, who handles social media for YSA.

With land a premium in the hot real estate of the Bay Area and neighborhood resistance complicating several options, finding a place for the village was the hardest part. A budget of more than $1 million, including $12,500 per house and $250,000 for things like installing utilities, had to be met (the organization is still raising money). Then, of course, the pandemic hit and the opening date had to be postponed.

We had to move the date three or four times because of Covid and the weather, Gentry said.

But finally the village is close to throwing open its doors to young people who have nowhere else to go. It may be the first of its kind in the country.

Its very exciting, Stern said. And its a relief.

Housing for 22 people may not seem like much, considering the number of homeless young people there are the Department of Housing and Urban Development estimated the number of unaccompanied young adults, aged 18 to 24, in California at around 12,000 as of January 2019. And Stern said that while the impact for each young person who will find a home at the village is huge, she also knows that its helping only a small fraction of those who need it.

Its such a drop in the bucket in terms of the systemic effort, she said.

But YSA hopes the village will be a vision of independent living that will catch on. Hindman said the organization is already getting calls.

Weve been approached by a group in Romania, weve been approached by Cal State East Bay, weve been approached by the city of Alameda, and I got a call from Denver Monday, she said.

And thats really the mission behind the village, YSAs Gentry explained. While YSA and its interfaith partners may not be able to solve the youth homelessness crisis, they can provide a shining and colorful example.

Its a model project, for not just the nation, but anywhere in the world, Gentry said.

See the original post here:

Tiny colorful houses for homeless Oakland youth almost ready J. - The Jewish News of Northern California

Category: Synagogue | Comments Off on Tiny colorful houses for homeless Oakland youth almost ready J. – The Jewish News of Northern California
Tags:

Posted By admin on December 5, 2020

By Rabbi Marc Mandel| Newport Daily News

Can Hanukkah teach us anything about COVID- 19? Can we find inspiration and solace during these challenging times from a holiday that was established 2,000 years ago when the Maccabees lit the candles in the Temple?

The lights of Hanukkah take us back to the beginning moments of the universe and the creation of light. And God saw this light and it was good.For us, lighting a candle is a simple act. It only takes a few seconds. But, the lights remind us that its the small acts performed by regular people that change our world. Its the determination of everyday people to do good, and to be good, that transforms our society into a better world. Its not always the big events of our world that make the biggest change, but rather, like the increasing number of lights on Hanukkah each night, the steady accumulation of smaller acts that lead our world towards betterment. The message that Hanukkah can give to us during Covid 19 is not to be overwhelmed by the darkness that persists during this plague. We should have faith, like the Maccabees, that we will soon turn the corner on this dark year and we will succeed in fulfilling the original purpose of Creation, to bring light and progress to the world.

Happy Festival of Lights!

Rabbi MarcMandelis the rabbi at the Touro Synagogue in Newport, the oldest synagogue building in the United States. For more information please visitwww.tourosynagogue.org.ClergyCorner appears each week in The Daily News and online atnewportri.com.

Continued here:

CLERGY CORNER: Shine the light - newportri.com

Category: Synagogue | Comments Off on CLERGY CORNER: Shine the light – newportri.com
Tags: