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Pittsburghers reflect on the experience of virtual services – thejewishchronicle.net

Posted By admin on October 28, 2020

Like many in the Jewish community, Daniel Mosse typically would have spent much of the last few weeks in a synagogue. The Congregation Dor Hadash member would have marked the High Holidays among friends with festive meals, somber reflection and religious services.

I would go to shul for all of the services, said Mosse. During Yom Kippur, I would have been in shul all morning, gone for a walk with some friends and then come back for afternoon services. I would have shared meals with a bunch of people, probably 15 or more.

This, though, is anything but a typical year.

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The COVID-19 pandemic has caused Conservative, Reconstructionist and Reform congregations to stream their services on a variety of platforms sometimes utilizing more than one at the same time including Facebook Live, YouTube and Zoom.

Mosse spent both Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur watching services on Zoom while trying to find ways to make the holidays special.

I had a few people over to my house for pre-Rosh Hashanah dinner, he said. We were on the back porch at two different tables, speaking very loudly, on one hand, so we could hear one another, but not very loudly, on the other hand, because we didnt have an issue hearing each other over the 20 other people not there.

Without having to be in Pittsburgh to attend in-person services and no prospect of bumping elbows at a table full of guests sharing kugel or brisket, Mosse was able to take a New Years road trip and view Dor Hadashs live services from his daughters house in Detroit, Michigan. Viewing the services on Zoom together allowed the pair to add some normalcy to an abnormal experience.

That was nice because we were able to talk through services, making little comments like we normally do, but we didnt have to whisper, said Mosse.

He also was able to participate as the cameraman at the congregations Yizkor service, which he viewed as a special honor.

And yet, despite the accommodations Mosse made, the Brazilian-born immigrant still found this year difficult, especially on Yom Kippur when he typically would have helped set up break-fast for his congregation.

Its really significant for me to be in shul with like-minded people that are fasting and praying, he said. I did not have that.

Like Mosse, Deborah A. Baron normally shares the High Holidays with her community. In addition to attending services at Congregation Beth Shalom, she normally would have been a guest at a friends house to break the fast.

Instead, Barons daughter and fianc spent the High Holidays at her home, where they shared a virtual dinner with Barons mother in Florida.

Unlike Mosse, Baron actually attended more of the services offered than in pandemic-free years.

We had services on in our family room all day, Baron said, which was kind of cool, because usually, we dont spend the entire day in services. It gave us the opportunity to be there all day, but in a more relaxed way.

Despite the convenience of being able to view services from the comfort of home, Baron, a life coach, missed the sense of community. Loneliness isnt the right word, she said, but there was more a sense of aloneness to them.

Holiday communal activities extend beyond religious services for Baron and her husband. The pair dont construct their own sukkah, preferring to visit with friends to observe Sukkot. However, the possibility of confronting an airborne illness in a tight sukkah worried Baron. Friends accommodated her anxiety, allowing her to sit in the sukkah while they sat outside.

The Squirrel Hill resident said that, for her, the virtual High Holiday experience both subtracted from and added to her holiday observance.

It took away the sense of community, the social aspect, Baron said. It took away the festiveness. Even though Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur are somewhat solemn, theres something festive about getting dressed up. We didnt have that. And yet there was something just very relaxing about it and that allowed it to touch the soul in a different way.

Beth El Congregation of the South Hills streamed its services live but also offered them recorded on YouTube, offering an asynchronistic option.

Dr. Myles Zuckerman typically attends the Conservative congregations High Holiday services. This years digital programs allowed him to appreciate Marshall McLuhans axiom, the medium is the message, from the comfort of his home.

The South Hills resident said he took full advantage of the technology. For instance, he went back and forth between gallery and speaker view on Zoom, allowing him to create a sense of community, and watched alternate parts of the service offered concurrently to the traditional service, creating a more personal, if less social holiday experience.

Because Zuckerman is so comfortable with technology, he didnt feel that having to attend services virtually impeded his holiday observances.

I did not feel isolated, he said. I may not be the typical person, but Ive taken to Zoom in a big way. Ive taken to that way of connecting to people. I know its not the same, but I dont feel cut off. I really feel that it does connect us in a different but meaningful way.

A few miles down the road from Beth El, Penny and David Abrams attend Temple Emanuel of the South Hills. The Reform congregations High Holiday offerings included a combination of prerecorded and live segments.

To maintain a sense of tradition, the Abrams got dressed up and hosted their daughter and her family for Yom Kippur. We tried to make it feel like the holidays and had some family connections, said Penny.

For David, the couples High Holiday experience is summed up by one word: distant.

Its the difference between watching a concert on TV or being there, he said. Most people would want to be at the concert but its the best we can do given the circumstances.

Temple Sinai member Jen Silver used the virtual experience as an opportunity to create community that would not have otherwise been possible.

You cant really replace being in person, but I thought they did a really good job of executing it, she said. It was professional. I thought it was cool, because we were able to travel to different locations and watch with some friends who arent Jewish.

She appreciated that the virtual services allowed the opportunity for her and her wife to take care of a few housekeeping issues while at home.

We actually did a haircut during the service, which was interesting, Silver said. Some people say you should do it beforehand, but we did it during, which was cool.

Silver attended a Sukkot event in person at Temple Sinais Rabbi Keren Gorbans home, but the socially distancing required by COVID-19 created an unusual situation.

We were hanging with our friends, but it wasnt normal in the sense that we were really far away from each other, she said.

For Simchat Torah, congregations got creative. Temple Emanuel created a video showing a Torah being passed between members. Careful editing meant that families who werent in the same room appeared to pass the Torah from person to person.

Beth Shalom took its observance outside, according to Rabbi Seth Adelson, singing and dancing while following social distancing precautions.

David Abrams believes that the Pittsburgh congregations did the best they could with a unique situation.

Thats all you can do, right? he said. If you were in the military, and you were stationed in some country and you were Jewish, you would try and do the best you could. And, you know, there might not be a rabbi or a synagogue, but you would try and do the best you could do. I think, given the circumstances, thats what they tried to do this year. PJC

David Rullo can be reached at drullo@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.

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Survey: Nearly Half Of Americans Arent Familiar With The Term Anti-Semitism – CBS Pittsburgh

Posted By admin on October 28, 2020

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) The results are in from the American Jewish Committees very first public survey asking people if theyre familiar with the term anti-Semitism.

The people who live in Squirrel Hill know hate and anti-Semitism all too well as Tuesday marks two years since the attacks inside the Tree of Life synagogue. The AJCs first-ever State of Antisemitism in America report discovered what it calls a disturbing lack of awareness among the general public of the severity of anti-Semitism in the United States.

While 53 percent of U.S. adults say they are familiar with the term anti-Semitism and know what it means, nearly half of Americans do not, with 21 percent saying they have never heard the word and 25 percent saying that, while they have heard it, they are unsure what it means, according to survey results.

Anti-Semitism is not only a hostility towards Jews or a hatred towards Jews, although that is at its core, said Holly Huffnagle, director of combating anti-Semitism at the American Jewish Committee.

Familiarity with the term anti-Semitism is linked to education levels, according to the AJC.

Seventy-eight percent of college graduates know what it means, compared with 58 percent of those with some college experience and just 27 percent of those with a high school diploma or less education.

Huffnagle told KDKA the AJC also surveyed American Jews and discovered an upsetting statistic.

American Jews are hiding their Jewishness. So almost 1 in 3, or 31 percent, of Jewish Americans have avoided certain places or situations out of fear for their safety or comfort, said Huffnagle.

But the surveyed American Jews felt safer with increased security measures happening nationwide.

We did find that over 50 percent, I believe 56 percent, of American Jews said that their synagogues and Jewish institutions have actually taken measures since what happened in Pittsburgh to secure their facilities so that they feel safe going to worship, said Huffnagle.

Still, 24 percent of those surveyed say theyre still avoiding wearing, carrying, or displaying any items that might identify them as Jews since the attack at the Tree of Life Synagogue.

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Virtual Friendship Circle walk finds success in return to old Jewish neighborhood – Cleveland Jewish News

Posted By admin on October 28, 2020

Instead of hundreds of community members gathering together at a starting line for Friendship Circle of Clevelands 11th annual My Walk 4 Friends, more than 500 people created their own 2-mile route to separately participate in the organizations annual fundraiser Oct. 25.

The walk, normally held over Labor Day Weekend, was altered due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but despite numerous changes, the fundraiser raised more money on its walk day than in its history due to a first dollar-for-dollar grant matched by Pam and Craig Kahn and the communitys dedication to the Friendship Circle, said Rabbi Yossi Marozov, executive co-director of Friendship Circle in Pepper Pike.

The walkathon was over-the-top beautiful, uplifting and very hopeful for the future, he said.

The walk raised $408,715 of its $500,000 goal, as of Oct. 27. The funds go toward the current and future operations of Friendship Circles programs that assist children with special needs, including the daily virtual offerings the organization performs throughout the pandemic.

This years goal, Marozov said, was set to be more modest compared to years prior due to the pandemic.

I was concerned going into this campaign that because of all the uncertainty, people would be more apprehensive to support it, Marozov said. Boy, was I wrong, and Im happy about that. People have been amazingly supportive during this period. It just warms my heart and blows me away.

Five individuals found a special way to show their devotion to the Friendship Circle by combining the walk with their personal history.

Harley Cohen, board chair of the Friendship Circle, created a 13-mile path tracing the eastward migration of Clevelands Jewish community starting in Clevelands Glenville neighborhood and ending at the Friendship Circle. The walk took Cohen, Friendship Circle board member Michael Stovsky, and Friendship Circle supporters Larry Kupps, Jordan Kaminsky and Marc Terman to former synagogues and Jewish buildings along the way and following the movements of their prior generations.

Cohens idea for the symbolic path stemmed from Friendship Circle recently completing its strategic plan after a year-and-a-half that addresses the organizations mission, vision and future plans.

It occurred to me that the best way to ever do a future for anything is to first look at where you came from, because I think thats critical, said Cohen, a resident of Orange and member of Park Synagogue in Cleveland Heights and Pepper Pike. Looking in the past, to me, is the best way of determining where you want to go. If were going to look in the past, lets go back to the neighborhoods and see what it was like where we came from.

The nicknamed Circle Team had been filmed previously visiting three synagogues to be shown in the walks opening ceremony on Facebook Live. When 9:30 a.m. came on the official walking day, the five had their walking shoes and coats on, ready for what Cohen estimated to take three-and-a-half hours to complete.

Curious onlookers waved as they drove by or stopped and talked to the men, interested in their quest. Early on, the Circle Team befriended a pastor housed at one of the former synagogues, and minutes later they stood on the steps of an old Park Synagogue building sold years ago.

This history is so deep and so rich its just unbelievable, Cohen said. So many of these buildings are there. It just was amazing.

Friendship Circle threw a tailgate party for the families of the children it serves Oct. 25, where people remained in their cars and enjoyed a live band, a juggling show and raffles.

While it was different, Marozov knew the opportunity for its children to dance and see friendly faces outweighed anything.

Children with special needs have been hit especially hard with isolation, and theres great need for social interaction for friendship, Marozov said. Hopefully, things will be back to normal soon, and not only will all our programs resume, but well have to compensate and add more creative programs in the months and perhaps years ahead in order to address the regression of social stimulation.

With the success of the walk and seeing the support from the community, Marozov remains strong in his fight to continue Friendship Circles mission.

This year more than ever, we can all relate to the importance of social activity, connection and feeling part of a whole, Marozov said. Thats our job. Every child deserves a friend.

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Europes Jewish population down 60% since 1970, as low as it was 1,000 years ago – The Times of Israel

Posted By admin on October 28, 2020

AMSTERDAM (JTA) Jews share of the population of Europe is as low now as it was 1,000 years ago and is declining even further, according to a landmark new demographic study.

The study published Wednesday by the London-based Institute for Jewish Policy Research found 1.3 million people who describe themselves as Jewish in continental Europe, the United Kingdom, Turkey and Russia.

That figure has declined by nearly 60% since 1970, when there were 3.2 million Jews in the same area, wrote the reports authors, Daniel Staetsky and Sergio DellaPergola.

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That decline, which follows the death of about 6 million European Jews in the Holocaust, owes mostly to the emigration of more than 1.5 million people following the collapse of the Iron Curtain, their data shows.

Men wearing kippas are seen at the synagogue in Halle, eastern Germany, on October 10, 2019, one day after the anti-Semitic attack where two people were shot dead. (Ronny Hartmann/AFP)

But Western Europe, too, has lost 8.5% of its Jewish population since 1970. It is home to just over a million Jews today compared to 1,112,000 in 1970.

In particular, the Jewish community of Germany is in a terminal state because more than 40% of its 118,000 Jews are above the age of 65, whereas less than 10% are under 15, the study says. This reality, which exists also in Russia and Ukraine, foreshadows high death rates and unavoidable future population decline, according to the study.

The project is arguably the most comprehensive survey of Jewish demographics ever completed in Europe, more far-reaching than a 2018 European Union survey although the new survey uses some information from the 2018 EU project. It is also based on official census data and figures provided by individual Jewish communities, which are often organized into organizations with official membership tallies.

Illustrative French police officer guards the synagogue of Biarritz, southwestern France, Jan. 13, 2015 (AP Photo/Bob Edme)

The proportion of Jews residing in Europe is about the same as it was at the time of the first Jewish global population account conducted by Benjamin of Tudela, a Jewish medieval traveler, in 1170, the authors wrote.

The study also notes that there are an additional 2.8 million people in Europe today who are entitled to immigrate to Israel based on their ancestral Jewish roots at least one Jewish grandparent but who are not necessarily Jewish themselves or identify as such.

The demographics of European Jewry would have been totally different without the impact of the Holocaust, DellaPergola told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency in an interview about the report. But that was 75 years ago, and some of the trends were seeing today, which are driving the decline, have little to do with the genocide, he added.

Among those trends is an increasing intermarriage rate and a decline in the reproduction rate of Jewish couples, which is part of the broader drop in birthrate throughout Europe in recent decades.

Jews in Europe had grown to constitute 83% of world Jewry in 1900. They now account for merely 9% of the total number of Jews worldwide, according to the study.

Young immigrates from France, South Africa, United Kingdom and Russia hold up their new Israeli IDs at a ceremony held at the Jewish Agency in Jerusalem on October 14, 2009 (Photo: Miriam Alster/Flash 90)

The new reports figures diverge significantly from membership numbers provided by organizations such as the European Jewish Congress and the World Jewish Congress, which are often cited in research and reporting.

The European Jewish Congress website speaks of 1,929,650 Jews in Europe today nearly 33% more than the number arrived at in the new report. The World Jewish Congress counts 1,438,000 Jews in Europe.

France, which has the second largest Jewish diaspora population after the United States, is responsible for much of the decline In Western Europe. France currently has 449,000 Jews compared to 530,000 in 1970, according to the report, and since 2000 alone, 51,455 French Jews have moved to Israel, by far more than any other Western European nation. Belgium is at a very distant second, with 2,571 making that move.

A member of the Jewish community looks at broken tombstones after a ceremony at the Jewish cemetery in Sarre-Union, eastern France, on February 17, 2015, following the desecration of around 300 tombs. (AFP/Patrick Hertzog)

At the current rate of decline, Canada which according to the World Jewish Congress currently has about 391,000 Jews will soon overtake France as home of the worlds second largest Jewish diaspora community behind the United States, DellaPergola said.

The well-documented reasons for the French Jewish exodus include economic opportunity and fear about anti-Semitism.

France today is a place where a history teacher can get beheaded on the street, DellaPergola said, noting a suspected Islamists alleged actions near Paris on Friday. Of course many Jews, including French ones, find Canada more hospitable.

The report also shows that Turkey, which used to have 39,000 Jews in 1970, now has only 14,600 of them. That drop is the product of a low reproductive rate and a high emigration rate amid what many local Jews call the rise of government-supported anti-Semitism.

Turkey is not alone: Low fertility is characteristic of Jews in Europe, with the exception of those countries possessing large populations of strictly Orthodox Jews. Intermarriage, operating on the back of low fertility, complements the picture these two factors in combination create a situation where the reproductive capacity of many European Jewish populations is low and conducive to future numerical decline, the report states.

Intermarriage rates are lowest in Belgium, where just 14% of Jews are estimated to be married to non-Jews. They are highest in Poland, where the equivalent proportion is 76%. The figure was 24% in the United Kingdom, 31% in France and above 50% in Hungary, the Netherlands, Denmark and Sweden.

The reports findings on Germany are remarkable because it had seen an influx of about 200,000 Jews from the former Soviet Union following its collapse in 1990. That wave, as well as the immigration of about 10,000 Israelis, had revitalized German Jewry. But the newcomers have failed to change the communitys demographic trajectory because many of them and their children intermarried, stopped considering themselves Jewish, emigrated elsewhere or died, the study shows.

There are some exceptions to the picture of decline, and all are occurring in countries where the Jewish community has a large Orthodox contingent.

The Jewish populations of Austria, Belgium, the United Kingdom and Switzerland, all with sizeable strictly Orthodox communities, may be growing, or at least, not declining, according to the report, which is based on official census data, community figures and the 2018 EU survey.

A woman carries a poster reading I am a Jew during a march to honor an 85-year-old woman who escaped the Nazis 76 years ago but was stabbed to death in her Paris apartment, apparently targeted because she was Jewish, in Paris, France, March 28, 2018. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)

In Belgium, where more than half of the countrys 29,000 Jews are Orthodox, 43% Jewish households have at least four children, the study shows. In the Netherlands, where Orthodox Jews make up only a tiny minority of that countrys similarly-sized Jewish community, only about 18% of families have that many children.

Still, Belgium is seeing what some Jewish community leaders there are calling a silent exodus, which is marked by the sale of former synagogues and the closure of Jewish educational institutions in Brussels.

In the United Kingdom, the Jewish minority has declined by 25% from 1970, down to 295,000 members, the study said. But the community is displaying potential for growth, as 33% of its households have at least four children. (For comparison, that figure is 26% in Germany and France, 25% in Hungary and 21% Denmark.)

The reports findings on the number of Israelis living in Europe are also surprising, and they contradict estimates that there are tens of thousands of them living in Berlin alone. The survey claims there are only about 70,000 Israel-born individuals living on the entire continent, with more than half residing in the United Kingdom (18,000), Germany (10,000), France (9,000) and the Netherlands (6,000).

An Israeli flag flies above pro-Israel demonstrators protesting against an al-Quds Day rally in Berlin, July 25, 2014. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)

Still, Israelis have been a stabilizing force for the Jewish communities of countries with very small Jewish communities for example, they account for over 40% of all Jews in Norway, Finland and Slovenia; 2030% in Spain, Denmark, Austria and the Netherlands; and over 10% in Luxembourg.

Overall, though, the declining trend reshaping European Jewry is not likely to be reversed, according to the study.

Only under exceptional circumstances do demographic trends radically modify their course, the authors wrote. But, they added, such modifications have actually occurred more than once in European Jewish demography during the last hundred years alone.

The Victims of Trumps Family Separation Policy Will Not Be Fine – Slate

Posted By admin on October 28, 2020

Thionville, France, 1945, and McAllen, Texas, 2019.Photo illustration by Slate. Photos by AFP via Getty Images and Office of Inspector General/Department of Homeland Security via Getty Images.

They are so well taken care of. Theyre in facilities that were so clean, President Donald Trump said during last weeks presidential debate, of the children his administration ordered separated from their parents at the southern border. As my colleague Jeremy Stahl points out, this isnt the first time that an administration official has argued that because the separated childrenover 500 of whom are still being kept from their parentshave (supposedly!) been physically taken care of, they should be just fine. But if the life histories of children forced to be parted from parents for years of their childhoods are any indication, these periods of separation will have long-lasting, devastating, and unpredictable effects.

Ive been reading historian Rebecca Cliffords new book, Survivors: Childrens Lives After the Holocaust, which is a painful history of Jewish kids who somehow made it through World War II when they were very small, and had to figure out how to forge a life afterward. Combining analysis of survivors testimonies recorded over the years, documents from the archives of organizations that came into contact with these children, and oral histories Clifford herself collected, the book shows how many of these survivors struggled with the act of making sense of their liveseven the lucky ones, who didnt witness violence, and whose material needs were well met during the period of conflict and persecution. Clifford calls the work fundamentally a book about the history of living after, and living with, a childhood marked by chaos.

Survivors is, of course, about a group of children whose lives were marked by the Nazi regime, not about children fleeing violence in Central America, who were then separated from their families by Border Patrol agents. But its also fundamentally concerned with the human consequences of childrens separations from parents. In the group of survivors in Cliffords history, there are kids who were sent to live with host families, who hid them until the war was over; kids incarcerated in different labor camps from their parents; kids who wandered the forests alone, tended only by older siblings.

Asking the historical record, and the grown-up survivors she interviewed, how this period of separation had affected the childrens lives in the long term, Clifford found things that she described as not only unexpected, but shocking. One such finding was the fact that for many of the kids, the war years were fine; it was liberation that was traumatic. Children are adept at treating the exceptional as normal, and because they had no other life to compare it with, the years of persecution did not necessarily feel dangerous, fraught, or chaotic to young survivors, Clifford writes. But after liberation, as well-meaning adults did everything they could to bring the kids back together with their surviving family members, or to find them places in Jewish homes, many of the separated survivors were profoundly destabilized. My war began in 1945, not in 1940, one such survivor said.

The German Jewish parents of Felice Z., who was born in October 1939, put their 1-year-old daughter in the hands of aid workers in early 1941, and the girl spent the war years hidden by farmers in France. Felice Z. remembered in later interviews that she loved her host parents, and in particular her host mother, Madame Patoux: All they were interested in was taking care of me. She basically saved my life. She was always ready to run. I took it for granted that she was my mother, I called her meme (nana) and it was really the first close relationship that I had with another human being. I became very attached to them. Very. At the end of the war, Felice got no joy out of being reunited with her sister, who had become a stranger. Soon after that reunion, she was removed from the family where she had grown up; as she remembered it, nobody bothered to explain why.

Family reunions could be among the most difficult and distressing experiences that children went through after the war, Clifford writes. The youngest children might have no memory of their parents or relatives at all, and were effectively returned to strangers. Not one child in this study who was returned to his or her family found this process easy or joyful. The reunions brought up feelings of anger and terroreven if, as Clifford points out, the kids could rationally understand the reasons their parents had put them in safer places for the duration of the war. They had spent years suppressing childish impulsesthey had had to be obedient, quiet, and good to stay safe during the war, whether they were in hiding, in ghettos or in campsand often became explosive and difficult to manage after the separation was over.

Some of these kids were so alienated from their parents that the bond could not be repaired. Clifford finds stunning stories about siblings who actively conspired with one another to hide evidence that their parents were still alive from placement agencies, since children who had living parents could not be adopted. One girl sent letter after letter to her birth family, begging them to relinquish their claim on her, so that she could stay with her foster family in Canada. All of this is deeply uncomfortable, threatening our picture of children who will always, always prefer their birth parents over others.

The survivors knew their emotions made people uncomfortable. Clifford shows how they understood very well that some adults might write them off if they were honest about what the experience of an early childhood spent this way had meant to them. Right after the war, adults debated whether those children could ever be rendered normal. Social workers and psychiatrists called war orphans mal-adjusted, war-damaged, war-handicapped, de-normalized. The children, in turn, had, as Clifford puts it, often developed a deep suspicion of adult motivations and behavior. Adults working with children in group homes noticed that they trusted one another much more than any adult authority figure. In fact, they often preferred to stay in those group homes rather than be adopted into more traditional family settingsa preference that was not often honored, since care homes were supposed to be transient settings, and adults assumed adoption should be the end goal.

The survivors life stories show that they knew that people pitied them, and feared them; they werent sure which was worse. Robert, who was born in 1936, spent the war in Budapest. He remembered being left at a safe house by his mother, where she visited every Sunday, until one Sunday she didnt make it: I remember the feeling of being let down, the loneliness. I sat and sat in the window and I watched [for her], I remember the cold. It was becoming fall. After the war, he was never reunited with his mother, who was presumed to have died. He was moved from aunt to aunt before his family put him in a care home; then, transported to Canada via a program aimed at finding homes for Jewish war orphans, he ran through foster families in the same way. I had this feeling that I belonged nowhere, that I didnt belong to anyone special, he said. It manifested itself in my behavior. There was this wildness, this uncontrollable behavior, and it kept on showing up.

When young survivors of the Holocaust became adult survivors much sought after to tell their stories, they remained in the bind they had been in after the war. If they were to dwell on the emotional fallout of being separated from parents at a young age, rehearsing constantly every sad detail of their plight, the survivors risked being branded as broken. If they were to tell a story of resilience, such a story might not be quite true, or might cover up the way emotions about childhoods of chaos could shift over a lifetime.

Childhood memories, Clifford writes at the end of her book, provided an insistent percussion over the span of a life: chiming away in the background, sometimes barely heard, sometimes deafening. For some children who had been separated from parents at a young age, having their own children helped them. For some, the birth of children could awaken latent fears, Clifford writes. Paulette S. reflected on how profoundly her daughter turning 4the age she was when her mother left her with a host family in the French countrysideaffected her:

Every time I picked [my daughter] up, I felt how upset my mother must have been when I was her age, and not knowing what was going to happen to me. It reached the point when I couldnt pick her up at all. I couldnt kiss or touch her. It seemed completely beyond my control to fight these feelings. I bought her books, games, anything she needed, but I could not play with her.

As Cliffords book, full of the ambiguity, confusion, and variability of survivors stories, shows, its impossible to generalize about what the experience of being separated from family for the past two years will mean to the kids our government took in 201718 and hasnt yet returned. But, responding to the news of those 500-plus kids who had yet to be reunited, Los Angeles Times journalist Esmeralda Bermudez wrote a Twitter thread about her relationship with her mother; they had been separated when Bermudez was 2.

By the time I met her at age 5, Bermudez wrote, she was a stranger to me. Every day, since then, our relationship has suffered deeply, painfully due to our time apart. My mom and I have learned along the way that nothing seems to make it go away. Not her prayers. Not my American Dream success. Not any logical explanation of how governments work or dont work. My mothers touch will always feel foreign to me.

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The Victims of Trumps Family Separation Policy Will Not Be Fine - Slate

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US Holocaust Museum Reopens to Public With Reduced Visitation – The DC Post

Posted By admin on October 28, 2020

The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum is reopening to the public on Monday, October 26 with limited capacity and a number of safety measures in place against the coronavirus pandemic.

To enhance safety for our visitors, you will notice changes to how you visit the Museum, such as required face coverings, free timed-entry tickets with a $1 transaction fee per person, and other safety requirements and measures, the museum said in a statement last week.

There will also be temperature checks and health-related questions to be asked prior to entry, as well as required social distancing. The questions include whether the visitor was experiencing any symptoms of COVID-19 and whether they recently interacted with anyone who was infected.

In order to enter the building, visitors can reserve tickets online at ushmm.org/visit beginning today. Timed-entry tickets are restricted to groups of six people or less.

As we reopen the Museum, the health and safety of our visitors, staff, and volunteers is our highest priority, said Sara J. Bloomfield, the Museums Director in a release. With that in mind, we look forward to welcoming back visitors so they can see the first-hand evidence of the Holocaust and learn how and why it happened. And for those unable to visit us in person, we will continue to offer virtual programming and online educational resources.

The museum will be open from 11 am through 4 pm six days a week, and closed on Wednesdays.

Every visitor who is aged two and up must wear face coverings adhering to CDC guidelines.

Enhanced cleanings will be conducted throughout the museum and hand sanitizers were made available around the building, whose Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning (HVAC) system has been updated with enhanced filtration.

For further information on the museums visitor guidelines and safety measures, click here.

A living memorial to the Holocaust, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum inspires citizens and leaders worldwide to confront hatred, prevent genocide, and promote human dignity. Its far-reaching educational programs and global impact are made possible by generous donors, the museums website says.

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World attention towards holocaust in Kashmir sought – The News International

Posted By admin on October 28, 2020

Islamabad : Speakers at virtual contest sought worlds intervention to stop modern day holocaust in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK).

They demanded the United Nations Security Council to implement its resolutions on Kashmir in true letter and spirit as the humanity is at stake in Jammu and Kashmir.

The dispute was not a bilateral issue between Pakistan and India but an internationally recognized disputed territory.

They feared that the imposition of presidential rule in occupied Kashmir could further escalate the situation which can trigger a nuclear conflict between the two rivals.

Around 29 students including 18 from world renowned universities, studying in the discipline of international relations, history and political science, virtually participated in the International Declamation Contest to sensitize the world community about ongoing human rights violations in IIOJK.

Around 11 students from the top universities of Pakistan and Azad Jammu and Kashmir also participated in the contest and highlighted various aspects, including the international legal and human rights dimension, of the Kashmir dispute.

Umama Tanveer of International School, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia clinched the first position, Neisbe Yavas of Yildrim Beyazit University Ankara, Turkey secured second, while Arqam of Al Hadeed University, Edinburgh, United Kingdom and Muhammad Abdullah from National University of Modern Languages (NUML), Pakistan stood at third.

Umama said India was pushing Hindu extremism in its country, contrary to Mahatma Gandhis philosophy that fostered non-violence.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, She said, was changing IIOJK residency laws for the first time since 1947, in a bid to snuff out any challenge to the occupied territory.

Drawing comparisons with Israels settler tactics in the Palestinian Territories, Modis Hindu nationalist government aims to change the demographic makeup and identity of the Muslim-majority region, she remarked.

If East Timor, Quebec, Sudan and Scotland issues can be settled through referendum, why cant Kashmir issue be resolved? she questioned and urged the UN to take concrete steps on Kashmir dispute.

Neisbe Yavas while expressing serious concern over the continued bloodshed in the territory, urged the international community to help stop systematic genocide of Kashmiri youth by the brutal Indian force.

Arqam Al Hadeed said the situation in Kashmir is a test for the UN and if it failed in resolving the decades long dispute there are possible chance of a nuclear conflict between India and Pakistan that would have consequences far beyond the borders.

He said Pakistan was doing effective diplomacy on Kashmir and the entire Muslim world must wake up from its slumbers and help Kashmiris in exercise their right of self determination.

Minister for Kashmir Affairs and Gilgit Baltistan, Ali Amin Khan Gandapur in his keynote shed light on the Jammu & Kashmir dispute, particularly the post-August 5 situation. He highlighted the heinous crimes being committed by Indian armed forces in ( IIOJK).

He urged the international community to stop India from perpetrating unspeakable crimes against humanity in ( IIOJK)

The Minister underscored the need to hold such international competitions as it gives better idea about the public opinion over the Kashmir issue.

He reaffirmed Pakistans continued and unflinching moral, political and diplomatic support to the people of Indian Illegally Occupied Kashmir.

After Ottawa monument is vandalized, Ontario adopts International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s ‘working definition of anti-Semitism’ -…

Posted By admin on October 28, 2020

The Ontario cabinet has adopted the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliances working definition of anti-Semitism after recent vandalism at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Ottawa.

Government House Leader Paul Calandra said Premier Doug Fords ministers took swift and decisive action Monday to recognize the definition even before the passage of legislation currently before the house.

After a heinous act of anti-Semitism at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Ottawa it is crucial that all governments be clear and united in fighting anti-Semitism and our adoption of the working definition has done just that, Calandra said Tuesday.

The government of Ontario is proud to adopt and recognize the working definition of anti-Semitism. We stand with Ontarios Jewish community in defence of their rights and fundamental freedoms as we always have and always will, he said.

Four years ago, the IHRA, an intergovernmental organization with 34 member nations, including Canada, adopted the definition that reads: anti-Semitism is a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews.

Rhetorical and physical manifestations of anti-Semitism are directed toward Jewish or non-Jewish individuals and/or their property, toward Jewish community institutions and religious facilities, the definition continues.

While MPPs are currently reviewing Bill 168, the proposed Combating anti-Semitism Act, Calandra said the cabinet wanted to move more quickly with a largely symbolic gesture.

Ontario is the first province in Canada to use the working definition.

In a statement, Michael Levitt, president and CEO of the Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center for Holocaust Studies, said we applaud the government of Ontario for joining the dozens of other governments around the world in adopting the IHRA definition of anti-Semitism, a vital tool in the ongoing fight against hatred and discrimination targeting the Jewish community in Ontario.

Jews continue to be subjected to vile rhetoric and propaganda and still remain the minority group most targeted by hate crime, which is nothing less than an affront to our basic democratic values as Ontarians, said Levitt, a former Liberal MP.

Not everyone was happy with the move.

While the New Democrats supported Bill 168, they expressed concern that the government secretly adopted the definition, behind closed doors and passed it by Ford edict instead of by democratic vote.

Anti-Semitism and anti-Semitic acts of hate are growing in Ontario, and we need to take concrete actions as a province to stomp out this growing, racist movement, said NDP MPP Gurratan Singh (Brampton East).

Adopting a new definition of anti-Semitism should be done in consultation with the people of Ontario, and discussed in open and transparent debate. Excluding the voices of community members is no way to build a united coalition against hate.

Others have opposed the implementation of the working definition out of concern it might conflate anti-Semitism with criticism of Israels policies toward Palestinians.

On Oct. 16, a bike-riding suspect scratched hate graffiti onto the Ottawa monument, earning the condemnation of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, among other leaders.

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The anti-Semitic desecration of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier is completely unacceptable, Trudeau said on Twitter.

I strongly condemn this hateful act.

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After Ottawa monument is vandalized, Ontario adopts International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance's 'working definition of anti-Semitism' -...

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Amy Coney Barrett needs a Talmudic view of the Constitution J. – The Jewish News of Northern California

Posted By admin on October 28, 2020

This piece was first published by the Forward and is reprinted with permission.

During the course of her confirmation hearing for the Supreme Court seat left open by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburgs death, Amy Coney Barrett often was asked about her judicial philosophy, which she summed up over and over as Originalism. Its a view of the law which was favored by Judge Barretts mentor, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, which says that the correct interpretation of the law is the interpretation which would have been intended at the time the law was written.

Originalists believe that their way of interpreting the law is the only way to protect the sacred nature of Americas founding document.

But Coney Barrett, and the Republicans who confirmed her, have a thing or two they could learn from the rabbis of the Talmud, who were equally if not more concerned with preserving the sacred nature of the Torah.

Unlike the Originalists, the Talmudic rabbis understood that the divine comes into the world through the tradition of sacred interpretation. For the Talmudists, there was no original text not in the sense that Coney Barrett believes the Constitution to be. They understood that a text is sanctified through time only because we read it, because we bring it into our world, be it through study in the case of the Torah, or through court rulings, performances, and our interpretations in the case of the Constitution, or a Shakespeare play.

Works are not intrinsically sacred but become so through their histories, and the attention we give to them. This is the lesson of the Talmud.

And it is apt here. For Americans and for all those who continue to be inspired by the vision of the Founding Fathers, the legacy of the Constitution is both alive and sacred. Ironically, those who claim to want to preserve its sacred character through Originalism are in fact turning modern democracys foundational work into an antiquarian curiosity.

As any smart undergraduate knows, the idea of an original work found in its pristine purity is a fantasy. This is no irresponsible license for postmodernism or relativism, nor is it the belief that anything goes. Rather, this call for a Talmudic view of the Constitution rests on the rabbis view of themselves as charged with the preservation of the most sacred text to exist, the Torah; they realized that it was in the process of preserving it that they made it sacred.

When the ritual life of the Jewish people was destroyed with the Temple, Rabbi Yochanan ben Zakkai, smuggled out of a besieged Jerusalem in a coffin, led the process which canonized the Hebrew scriptures: Song of Songs and Ecclesiastes, for example, were in, while the Book of Maccabees was out. But what really happened was Yochanan ben Zakkai got out of his coffin and brought Judaism back to life; in choosing what would count as sacred, the rabbis created Judaism; in interpreting those works, they made Judaism live. They gave Judaism a future.

Moreover, when the rabbis affirmed the divine nature of the oral law, they were smashing the idea of Originalism, the very idea that a text has a single, literal meaning. Its true that there are a few ultra-Orthodox literalists today who teach the children that the Talmud was given word-for-word on Mount Sinai. But in denying the historical process of the oral law, they turn a living tradition into a dead one. An originalist view of interpretation removes human freedom from the world, which both the Constitution and the Torah celebrate.

Believing in interpretation does not mean that the author is dead, as most of my professors at Columbia insisted, and many English professors today just assume. For the rabbis, it was precisely the quest for intention that drove the interpretation of Scriptures; the author of the Torah was for them a living God, and the generational mesorah the Hebrew word for tradition that means the activity of passing on is an interpretive one, with later generations striving to understand earlier ones.

In interpreting the Divine, the rabbis committed to understanding the authors intention, asking the question, What does the author mean? But they relied on their own insights as the answer. That they come up with different answers, in different times and different places, does not undermine the sacred nature of the tradition; it affirms it.

The rabbis of the Talmud understood what polemicists on the right reject as the subjective aspect of interpretation. The noted legal scholar of the 16th century, Rabbi Solomon Luria, writes that everyone reads according to their capacities, and that readings reflect the unique character of individual souls. Only the inspired reader understands the inspired work.

There is no objective reading, but a purely subjective reading is not worth our attention. Sacred works Shakespeare, the Constitution and the Torah come to life and reveal their meanings by thriving in our communities, through reading and interpretation. The sacred does not inhere in a work, but becomes present through the activity of reading.

This is not a concession to relativism but the acknowledgement of the human participation in the creation of the sacred.

Today, with the confirmation of Amy Coney Barrett, the world is turned upside-down. In the name of Originalism and preserving the sacred nature of the Constitution upheld by right-wing fundamentalists, the activities of reading and interpretation the very acts which bring the Constitution to life and make America great and a modern light to the nations are being cast aside.

We must remind ourselves that belief in sacred books is idolatrous, and that only the belief in living traditions whether religious, literary or political can be redemptive.

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Amy Coney Barrett needs a Talmudic view of the Constitution J. - The Jewish News of Northern California

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Opinion | What the Talmud can teach Amy Coney Barrett about ‘Originalism’ – Forward

Posted By admin on October 28, 2020

During the course of her confirmation hearing for the Supreme Court seat left open by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburgs death, Amy Coney Barrett was often asked about her judicial philosophy, which she summed up over and over as Originalism. Its a view of the law which was favored by Judge Barretts mentor, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, which says that the correct interpretation of the law is the interpretation which would have been intended at the time the law was written. Originalists believe that their way of interpreting the law is the only way to protect the sacred nature of Americas founding document.

But Coney Barrett, and the Republicans who confirmed her Monday night, have a thing or two they could learn from the rabbis of the Talmud, who were equally if not more concerned with preserving the sacred nature of the Torah.