Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By admin on October 25, 2020

Lately, Ive been thinking about hope. Because Im fresh out.

The ills of humanity turmoil, strife, jealousy, hatred, sickness and death have flown out of Pandoras box all at once, it seems. Hope, The thing with feathers, as Emily Dickenson wrote, that perches in the soul, is the only thing that remains within.

Its hard to feel hopeful when there is a pandemic in its second deadly wave and winter is on the way, making a third wave probable. Worldwide, there have been more than 1 million deaths from COVID, and we are still months if not a year away from finding an effective vaccine.

My life partner does not share my sense of hopelessness. In fact, he is implacably optimistic. So much so that sometimes I wonder if we are watching the same news on TV. Thats not the only difference we have. He is 29 years older than me and is from the former Czechoslovakia. He is a Holocaust survivor, a former kibbutznik and dairy farmer and the father of six. I am from the 80s; I rode a Vespa, had bleach-blonde hair, went to photography school and loved The Cure.

I met Gidon Lev three years ago when he was looking for someone to help him write a book about his life. Although I found him very charming, I turned the project down. First of all, I had no experience working with life stories. Secondly, as an editor with an eye on the market, I doubted whether his story would grab the attention of readers during such tumultuous, gloomy times. Yet I knew that Gidons story was important maybe even imperative. I took a leap of faith and wrote The True Adventures of Gidon Lev: Rascal. Holocaust Survivor. Optimist, which came out this year. I had no idea what I was getting into; in the writing of the book, I fell in love with Gidon and I also found a master teacher of the practice of hope.

Gidon was born in Karlovy Vary (or Carlsbad) in 1935, about six months after Hitler was elected Fhrer in Germany. When Hitler annexed the Sudetenland in 1938, Gidon and his family fled to Prague. In 1941, the family was transported to the Theresienstadt ghetto and concentration camp. Gidon was 6 years old. The camp was liberated by the Red Army in May 1945. It took almost a year before Gidon and his mother, the only two surviving family members, discovered the fates of their loved ones. Gidons father was 45 years old when he died on a transport from Auschwitz to Buchenwald.

When Gidon was a child, the whole world was ending, over and over, every hour of every day. Hope was the only thing that could not be taken away from him.

As I worked on The True Adventures, I realized that it was an oversimplification to think that Gidons experience in a concentration camp is what makes him hopeful. Long after he was liberated at age 10, Gidon has gone through many difficult and heartbreaking experiences. His first marriage ended tragically, and he suffered from cancer twice. He lost his second wife after 40 years. Gidon has experienced loneliness, despair and hopelessness many times.

For Gidon, sadness, loss and suffering are unavoidable facts of life that are layered between other life facts like joy, adventure, laughter and change. Over his 85 years of living, he has pushed, pulled, worked, succeeded, failed and risked over and over again. Gidon sees what is in front of him, whatever set of circumstances, as a challenge that he might be able to overcome or a pleasure that he will probably enjoy. This, to me, is the essence, the real power of positive thinking.

Gidon isnt always cheerful nor does he overcome every challenge. But to him, hope, laughter and gratitude are old-fashioned good habits like exercising or brushing your teeth. In other words, hope takes practice and repetition. In Gidons life, hope has been the difference between living and dying.

You dont get the life that you want, Gidon once told me. You get the life that you get. Gidon understands, through lived experience, that the fact that we are alive at all is evidence of hope, realized, over and over again. Hope doesnt just grow on trees; it must be planted and nurtured regularly.

A native Californian living in Tel Aviv, Julie Gray has been published in The Times of Israel and the Jewish Journal among other publications.

See the original post here:

How a Holocaust survivor helped me find love and hope during the pandemic - New York Post

Category: Holocaust | Comments Off on How a Holocaust survivor helped me find love and hope during the pandemic – New York Post
Tags:

Posted By admin on October 25, 2020

Palm Beach Post

Anti-Semitisms lengthy history is built on ignorance and the perpetuation of lies by people who hate Jews. Its a disease far more incurable than a pandemic.

Over the centuries, despots disliked a people whose theology introduced a code of morality and justice that flipped civilizations. From pharaohs to Hitler and too many others to name, rulers responded with force and power, mostly sentencing Jews to slavery, ghettos and death.

Today, people continue to foment hate fueled by ignorance and lies, and still targeting Jews. The weapon of choice for ignorance and lies is a platform of recklessness called social media. Oh sure, when used responsibly, social media is a very productive tool. Such responsible behavior is not common these days.

But on Oct. 12, Facebook, with its users representing one-third of the worlds 7.8 billion people, decided to do something really bold about this recklessness by simply acting responsibly the social media platform decided not to allow people to lie about the Holocaust.

Days later, Twitter announced its hateful conduct policy issued its own prohibition of attempts to deny or diminish violent events, including the Holocaust. Twitter has taken aim primarily at white supremacists and neo-Nazis.

Facebooks Monika Bickert announced in a blog a hate speech policy update, specifically to prohibit any content that denies or distorts the Holocaust.

The companys decision was prompted by the recent rise in anti-Semitism, not just vandalism or insults, but shootings and physical attacks, and an alarming level of ignorance about the Holocaust. Bickert noted a recent survey that showed that one in four American adults between ages 18 and 39 believed the Holocaust is a myth.

One might wonder how on earth is this ignorance possible in the United States?

For decades, survivors have made presentations. Newsreel footage starkly shows the horrifying, shocking images. Books on the subject fill libraries. Two-thirds (34) of the states in the U.S. mandate some form of Holocaust or genocide education.

About the same number of states have impressive museums, mostly in major population centers, or monuments seen by many others. The 16 U.S. states without such mandates have less population cumulatively than California.

There are 43 countries in the world with Holocaust museums or memorials. In Europe, Germany boasts 22 memorials and museums. France has 13 Holocaust memorials or museums. Greece has 10 museums and monuments. Those numbers dont include memorials and displays in synagogues and temples.

Yad Vashem The World Holocaust Remembrance Center makes available ready to print exhibitions. Auschwitz-Birkenau is widely visited, but the solemnity of this hallowed earth is lost with eye-catching signage that welcomes tour buses.

The Simon Wiesenthal Center has exhibitions ready for travel. Steven Spielbergs Shoah Foundation has created captivating holographic interviews of survivors that will give life to eyewitness accounts long after survivors take their final breaths.

The United Nations and its agencies, notably UNESCO (the United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization), with all of its flaws, embraces Holocaust education with permanent displays of art and various publications.

In May, the latest Holocaust-related legislation passed in Congress was the Never Again Education Act. More than 30 countries have adopted the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of anti-Semitism.

Despite all of the access to information, what has the world learned? It has learned that ancient hate thrives in the modern world.

So, Facebooks banning of Holocaust denial is an important, courageous act of media leadership.

Its been a long time coming and Bnai Brith International has long advocated such a move. CEO Mark Zuckerberg is to be commended, though the company admits that enforcing the policy, policing the platform, will be quite a challenge.

Twitters announcement is equally welcome. But if the bright Facebook and Twitter coders can write algorithms and direct users with hashtags and other tools, they should be able to identify keywords that will curb the volume of hate posts before they hit the digital universe.

Germans worked hard to keep the Holocaust secret.

Rumors swirled as work camps becoming death camps Dachau, Chelmo, Treblinka, Sobibor, Belzec, Auschwitz were shockingly real. But the Nazis own record-keeping carefully lays out the horrific truth of the Holocaust.

Nazis even documented mass shootings, starvations, experimental surgeries, the crematoria, the piles of skeletal bodies. Thousands of camps dotted Nazi-controlled European countries. Eleven million people, more than six million Jews, were systematically murdered.

Of course anti-Semitism didnt begin, or end, with the Holocaust, and rulers have been complicit in Jew hatred for thousands of years.

With the modern Jewish State of Israel maturing nicely at 72, the lies that generated anti-Semitism continue today from across the political spectrum, from extreme Islamists and with U.N. resolutions denying any ancient Jewish connection to the Western Wall, not to mention any Jewish roots there in general.

The United Nations could and should learn from the example of Facebook. Resolutions that deny undeniable Jewish history insult the U.N. mission. As for other media all media they should learn from the Facebook and Twitter examples.

For a media platform that could never police itself adequately from lies, rage baiting and hate all things wrong Facebook got this one right. And Twitter followed.

Charles O. Kaufman is president of Bnai Brith International. He wrote this forInsideSources.com.

See the original post:

Point of View: Facebook, Twitter on the right side of history with bans on Holocaust denial - Palm Beach Post

Category: Holocaust | Comments Off on Point of View: Facebook, Twitter on the right side of history with bans on Holocaust denial – Palm Beach Post
Tags:

Posted By admin on October 25, 2020

By Jennifer Corr

Before staff members and volunteers gathered for socially distanced tour guide training at the Holocaust Memorial and Tolerance Center of Nassau Countys Childrens Memorial Garden on Friday, Oct. 9, Meryl Menashe walked up to a stanchion in which the name Vladka Meed was etched, along with some of her words.

I will make you proud, Menashe said, patted the stanchion.

Menashe, a member of the Childrens Memorial Garden Committee and a longtime educator at the center, in Glen Cove, knew Meed, who died at age 90 in 2012. She was a member of the Jewish resistance in Poland who smuggled dynamite into the Warsaw Ghetto and helped children escape. Meed is one of 14 victims and survivors of the Holocaust who are memorialized on stanchions throughout the garden.

In the past couple of years, the Childrens Memorial Garden, which was dedicated in 2003 to the 1.5 million Jewish children who died in the Holocaust, has undergone a number of renovations, including the installation and etching of the stanchions.

Tours designed by the Childrens Memorial Garden Committee will lead groups through this dark chapter of history, reading the words of those like Anne Frank, who was 15 when she died, leaving behind her diaries, and Janusz Korczak, a Polish educator, childrens author and doctor who worked at an orphanage in Warsaw and was killed at the Treblinka extermination camp. Anne Frank, Menashe said, wanted to live after her death, Menashe said. And she did.

The point of this garden tour, designed by Meryl and the garden committee, is to really highlight voices of the Holocaust, said Helen Turner, the centers director of education.

The tours, which must be booked three days in advance, will run through Nov. 15, and will take groups on a 45-minute journey of quotes from before, during and after the Holocaust, all etched onto the 14 stations. As we go through, you have the warning signs, you have Jewish resistance, you have rescue, Menashe explained. The last one was also a childs voice, which was also deliberate.

We want the voices of the Holocaust to come alive, she added. If it didnt give me chills, I didnt put it in.

Menashe said she was proudest of the fact that every voice included in the garden is somehow connected to the Holocaust. We wanted [the quotes] to be balanced; we wanted to represent everything, she said, and I have to say, it was a great committee. Everyone respected everybody, and there was a lot of give and take.

The history of the Childrens Memorial Garden

According to the Holocaust Memorial and Tolerance Center website, the Childrens Memorial Garden is the first in its kind on public grounds in New York state. In the early 1900s, the property, today known as the Welwyn Preserve, was a 204-acre parcel given to Harriet and Harold Pratt as a wedding gift.

In the 1910s, Harriet Pratt asked the renowned landscape architects the Olmsted Brothers to design the layout of the estate as well as a garden, which was subsequently developed by Martha Brown Hutcheson and James Leal Greenleaf.

Harold Pratt died in 1939, and Harriet in 1963. In 1975 the property was bequeathed to Nassau County, and become the Welwyn Preserve.

In 1996, the Million Pennies Project, the brainchild of Holocaust survivor Irving Roth, was launched with the purpose of creating a Childrens Memorial Garden. By the end of 1998, according the HMTC website, students from Nassau and Suffolk counties to Queens had accumulated $12,000 in pennies, each representing a child who died, for the garden.

Volunteers hacked through the brush that covered the garden created almost 100 years earlier. On April 29, 2003 Holocaust Remembrance Day the Childrens Memorial Garden was officially dedicated as a living tribute to the 1.5 million Jewish children who died in the Holocaust.

In 2019, an amphitheater for outdoor workshops and events, and the stanchions, were completed. Its a beautiful project, Menashe said.

To schedule a tour of the garden, contact Rachel Cara, the centers education programming coordinator, at (516) 571-8040 or rachelcara@hmtcli.org. For more information about the garden or the center, go to http://www.hmtcli.org.

See the original post:

Garden honors young victims, survivors of Holocaust - liherald.com

Category: Holocaust | Comments Off on Garden honors young victims, survivors of Holocaust – liherald.com
Tags:

Posted By admin on October 25, 2020

TribLIVE's Daily and Weekly email newsletters deliver the news you want and information you need, right to your inbox.

When Harry Knights went to war in Europe, he picked up a camera.

His photographs captured the aftermath of a German massacre of concentration camp prisoners near the end of World War II.

He was a witness, and he recorded what happened around him, said James Knights, Harry Knights son. He was drafted, and fate put him there with a camera in his hands.

The public now can view those photographs for the first time through a series of free online presentations over the next month organized by the Seton Hill University National Catholic Center for Holocaust Education.

James Knights, a retired FBI agent and Cranberry resident, inherited more than 200 of his fathers photographs after his death in 2002.

Last year, he approached the center at the Greensburg university and offered to donate the photos.

The many photographs Harry Knights took document Nazi war crimes and also offer insights into the experiences of the average American soldier as they uncovered the horrors that had occurred in concentration camps, center Director James Paharik said in a statement. The Knights Collection is a tremendous resource for Seton Hill students and scholars of the Holocaust as they study the human response to these atrocities.

In April 1945, SS guards evacuated prisoners from the Dora-Mittelbau camp and subcamps in outlying areas onto trains in an effort to move them further into the interior of Germany as Americacn troops advanced, according to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum.

More than 4,000 prisoners arrived in the Gardelegen area, where the trains were forced to stop because air raids had destroyed the rail lines. Prisoners were forced from the freight cars, with more than 1,000 herded into a barn. Guards locked the doors and burned it, setting fire to gasoline-soaked straw, according to the museum account.

The victims were mostly Polish prisoners. Nearly all died either in the fire or from being shot while trying to escape.

Knights and the 102nd Infantry Division found the remains of the barn the next day. Inside the smoldering barn and in nearby trenches, soldiers found the remains of 1,016 prisoners, the Holocaust museum reports.

Knights photographs show American soldiers walking among the bodies.

James Knights said he hopes his fathers photographs educate people about one of the wars lesser-known atrocities.

Its about education, and its about understanding, he said. I think Gardelegen is kind of in the shadows compared to the rest of the Holocaust.

He hopes the photos stand as a memorial for the victims, about whom little is known.

Seton Hills series of presentations about the collections started Friday with a conversation with James Knights.

All of the online events are free, but those interested in attending should register online at setonhill.edu/centers-community-programs/holocaust-center/knights-collection.

Upcoming events

A Conversation with James Knights, Friday at 3 p.m.

The State of Art During WWII, Oct. 30, 6 p.m.

Curator Docent Tour, Nov. 6, 6 p.m.

The Death Marches and Gardelegen, Nov. 13, 6 p.m.

The Knights Collection: Start to Finish, Nov. 20, 6 p.m.

Jacob Tierney is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Jacob at 724-836-6646, jtierney@triblive.com or via Twitter .

Categories:Local | Westmoreland

TribLIVE's Daily and Weekly email newsletters deliver the news you want and information you need, right to your inbox.

More Westmoreland Stories

View original post here:

Seton Hill to display never-before-seen photos of Holocaust massacre - TribLIVE

Category: Holocaust | Comments Off on Seton Hill to display never-before-seen photos of Holocaust massacre – TribLIVE
Tags:

Posted By admin on October 25, 2020

It was all Sharons fault.

As a Twitter addict and committed news junkie, I was spending a bitter cold Montreal night in late February sipping a steaming decaf Ispirazione Venezia Nespresso coffee while hunched over my iPhone scrolling through my Twitter feed. Like I do for hours on end any day with a D in it, I was yet again anxiously seeking the intermittent reinforcement of breaking news not involving the president of the United States.

The phone beeped. A notification of a text message from Sharon, a friendly neighbour who had once joined my partner Harold and I on a trip to Europe.

She knew Harold and I were heading off to Italy again for a two-week stay at a magnificent antique-laden Airbnb apartment near the San Marcuola vaporetto stop in Venice.

Her text was simple enough: Saw on the news COVID really getting bad in Italy.

Impossible. Cant be. She must be wrong. A quick Google search, however, indicated that there was indeed a problem in Veneto.

Read more:

Tommy Schnurmacher: My parents survived the Holocaust I can get through a pandemic - Montreal Gazette

Category: Holocaust | Comments Off on Tommy Schnurmacher: My parents survived the Holocaust I can get through a pandemic – Montreal Gazette
Tags:

Posted By admin on October 25, 2020

David Adjaye has told the public inquiry into his controversial Holocaust Memorial proposals, earmarked for a site in the shadow of the Palace of Westminster, that the scheme deliberately creates a busy crescendo of the moment effect.

The architect was giving evidence for a second day at the inquiry into the proposals created by his practice, Ron Arad Architects and landscape specialists Gustafson Porter & Bowman who won a design competition in 2017, beating a stellar shortlist.

Barrister Meyric Lewis, representing scheme opponents the London Parks & Gardens Trust and Save Victoria Tower Gardens, suggested to Adjaye that there would be a lot going on for people looking towards the grade I-listed Palace of Westminster from the south if the memorial were built.

Ones got the landscaping treatment, ones got the fins, ones got the glimpses of Victoria Tower over behind, Lewis said. Ones got the Buxton Memorial behind the retaining wall with the fence on top. Theres quite a lot visually to take in going on, isnt there?

Adjaye replied: What youre looking at is a crescendo of the moment, where you see a monument, you understand parliament behind it and you see some of the elements of the park next to you, so its kind of a moment where were using this focal point to make the point about what the memorial is saying about the world in which you see, and how you see it. So its not just a picturesque idea, it is also an intellectual idea about context and memorials.

Lewis noted that architecture critic Rowan Moore had described the proposals as a cacophony.

Planning inspector David Morgan asked Adjaye if it was fair to say he was transforming the setting of the park into the landscape for the memorial.

The landscape is being drawn in, Adjaye replied. But the intention is not to change the uses of the park as a place of respite and enjoyment. We believe thats essential for our narrative to work.

Were working with shifting the landscape to make the memorial, but its not at the expense of the use.

Earlier in the day Adjaye was asked about the memorials impact on the grade II*-listed Buxton Memorial Fountain, which commemorates the Slavery Abolition Act of 1833 and is located in the gardens.

Adjaye said he believed the memorial would be enhanced by the proposals, but accepted that its presence would be obscured in some views.

I think they come into a union, which is what this is really about, he said of the planned interaction between the Buxton Memorial Fountain and the Holocaust Memorial.

Adjaye said the proposals created a new path in the gardens and that the Buxton Memorial revealed itself in a different way.

The design decision was to leave it in place and create a relationship with the monument. Thats very clear, he said. There were discussions about relocating it and we rejected that.

Adjaye also argued that raising the landscape to create a kind of amphitheatre next to Parliament would enhance events held in the park and give more visitors a view of the Thames over the river wall.

He was also questioned about the size of the scheme, with some objectors criticising it for dominating the park while others argue the learning centre element is too small to do justice to its subject.

Christopher Katkowsi, barrister for the Secretary of State which is promoting the scheme, quoted Adjayes words back to him: Scale doesnt equate to success.

The architect agreed saying it was a monuments context that was key. For instance the smaller Cenotaph gained its gravitas from its position on Whitehall and proximity to Downing Street, he said.

The inquiry is set to last five weeks.

Originally posted here:

Adjaye says Holocaust Memorial is a 'crescendo of the moment' - Building Design

Category: Holocaust | Comments Off on Adjaye says Holocaust Memorial is a ‘crescendo of the moment’ – Building Design
Tags:

Posted By admin on October 24, 2020

NEW YORK, Oct. 21, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- With a new initiative called YOUR FAMILY-BUILDING STORY,Hadassah, The Women's Zionist Organization of America, Inc. (HWZOA),theJewish Women's Archive (JWA)andUprooted: A Jewish Communal Response to Fertility Journeys (Uprooted)are joining forces to strip away the taboos that often accompany family building in the American Jewish community. Offering all individuals, however they define themselves and their families, the opportunity to share their stories, the collaboration aims to raise awareness of the emotional, physical and other challenges people face when dealing with infertility.

Using Story Aperture, a mobile app developed by JWA, women, men and nonbinary participants can record their stories, interview, or be interviewed by, friends and loved ones. A series of suggested questions will help guide the conversations. (To download the app and see the complete list of questions, click here.)

According to a 2018study by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), 13 percent of women of reproductive age, or about 9.5 million women aged 15-49, have trouble conceivingor sustaining a pregnancy.The numbers are higher among American Jews, according to the Jewish Fertility Foundation,with as many as one in six Jewish couples facing infertility (compared to one in eight for the general population).Jews start families at an older average age and have a higher rate of certain genetic conditions that increase the need for fertility treatments. (For more information about the causes of infertility in the Jewish community, and for facts and figures about infertility, click here.)

The often difficult road to parenthood takes a huge toll on those involved. Within the Jewish community, that toll is often exacerbated by a powerful sense of shame. Since "family" is an increasingly elastic term, infertility need not bring with it feelings of embarrassment, failure and isolation.

The collaboration among HWZOA, JWA and Uprooted reflects the organizations' shared commitment to give voice to family-building challenges Jews and others face, and to provide the support they need to take charge of their health and their lives.

Your Family-Building Storycomplements reConceiving Infertility,a national information and advocacy campaign HWZOA launched in April 2020. The objective of the campaign istodemystify infertility and the inability to conceive. Infertility also encompasses pregnancy loss, adoption, foster parenting, becoming a single parent by choice, LGBTQ+ family-building and blended families. It's about redefining what it means to be a family.

As part of the reConceiving Infertility campaign, HWZOA is organizing community programs, hosting training sessions to help women advocate for insurance changes and empowering women tospeak openly about their infertility journeys and their pathways to parenthood,or their decision to live child-free. The initiative considers the feelings of the entire family, including parents who may never be grandparents and siblings who may never be aunts or uncles. (To learn more about this broad-ranging initiative, click here.)

Said Rhoda Smolow, President, HWZOA: "Our goal is to shed light on infertility, long a taboo subject in the Jewish community. And while this particular initiative focuses on that community, the issues we're raising are relevant to everyone trying to figure out what kind of family they want and what 'family' means to them. We are thrilled to partner with the Jewish Women's Archive and Uprooted on this important project."

Said Judith Rosenbaum, Chief Executive Officer of JWA: "Oral history teaches us again and again that there is such power in telling one's story and being heard. We are proud to participate in this important initiative to give voice to experiences that have too often been silenced and to create space to explore fundamental questions of family, identity, embodiment and community."

Said Dalia Davis, Founder and President of Uprooted: "Even those whose fertility challenges are in the past may carry with them emotional trauma and painful memories decades later.One meaningful method of healing from the trauma of these experiences is to speak about them.Doing so in a public setting can be daunting, which makes the opportunity to do so through Story Aperture invaluable."

About Hadassah,The Women's Zionist Organization of America, Inc.Hadassah, The Women's Zionist Organization of America, Inc. (HWZOA), is thelargest Jewishwomen'sorganization in the United States. With nearly 300,000 members, Associates, and supporters,Hadassah brings women together to effect change and advocate on such criticalissues as ensuring the security of Israel, combating antisemitism, and promoting women's health. Through the Hadassah Medical Organization's (HMO) two hospitals in Jerusalem, Hadassah delivers exemplary patient care to over a million people every year and supports world-renowned medical research. HMO serves without regard to race, religion, or nationality and earned a Nobel Peace Prize Nomination in 2005 for building "bridges to peace." Additionally, Hadassah supports several Youth Aliyah villages that set at-risk children in Israel on the path to a successful future. For more information, visit http://www.hadassah.org.

About the Jewish Women's Archive The Jewish Women's Archive documents Jewish women's stories, elevates their voices, and inspires them to be agents of change.JWA is a national organization dedicated to collecting and promoting the extraordinary stories of Jewish women. JWA explores the past as a framework for understanding the issues important to women today; inspires young people with remarkable role models; and uses Jewish women's stories to motivate actions toward a more equitable future. Jwa.org is the world's largest collection of information on Jewish women, and draws more than 1.6 million visitors a year seeking information, inspiration, community, and a sense of identity. For more information, visit http://www.jwa.org.

About Uprooted: A Jewish Communal Response to Fertility Journeys Uprooted: A Jewish Response to Fertility Journeys provides support and healing through a Jewish lens to those on difficult fertility journeys. By raising awareness within the Jewish community, educating Jewish leaders and providing direct support to those struggling, Uprooted is shifting the culture so that the community is more inclusive for those who face family-building challenges. Uprooted is committed to pluralistic ideals and has established a responsive, community-wide approach that provides opportunities for emotional and spiritual healing for anyone on a fertility journey. By sharing Jewish teachings and spiritual traditions, creating new rituals and forging connections among Jews negotiating this difficult road, Uprooted is establishing itself as a resource and a beacon of support to those struggling to grow their families.For more information, visit https://weareuprooted.org/.

SOURCE Hadassah, The Womens Zionist Organization of America, Inc.

Original post:
Hadassah, Jewish Women's Archive and Uprooted Collaborate to Strip Away Taboos Associated with Infertility in the American Jewish Community -...

Category: Zionism | Comments Off on Hadassah, Jewish Women’s Archive and Uprooted Collaborate to Strip Away Taboos Associated with Infertility in the American Jewish Community -…
Tags:

Posted By admin on October 24, 2020

Dear Professor Andy Schofield,

Re the request by the British Secretary of State for Education that Lancaster University adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliances definition of antisemitism.

Im writing to you as a Jewish student studying at Lancaster University in the hope that youll resist the pressure being put on you by the government to adopt what I, and many other Jews in the UK and around the world, believe to be a flawed and deeply problematic document on antisemitism.

First of all though, may I congratulate you on your appointment as Vice Chancellor earlier this year. Youve arrived in the post at an extraordinary time and I dont envy you the task of navigating the many challenges of COVID-19 for both your students and staff. I was also glad to see thecommitment youve madeto widening participation and championing equality, diversity and inclusion at Lancaster.

I applied to study at Lancaster University in the spring and was pleased to be offered a place despite a thirty-year break from higher education. Im taking a part-time MA in the department of Politics, Philosophy and Religion, and fitting my studies around a full-time job. Im fortunate to have found an upside to the pandemic, and have turned my old routine of office commuting into study time.

Whats been good about my course so far, is the academic rigour, frameworks and models Im learning to apply to my political thinking and in particular to my long-time interest and concern about Israel/Palestine, which as Im sure you know, can be a highly controversial area of study, full of contested and competing viewpoints. Which brings me back to the reason Im writing to you.

A document worthy of study, but not adoption

The letter from Gavin Williamson, Secretary of State for Education in Boris Johnsons government, to all UK Vice Chancellors, requests that every university adopts the IHRAs definition of antisemitism. I believe its a document which is certainly worthy of study, especially within the academic department Im now a part of. Its an excellent illustration of how contemporary identity politics can be blended with history, religion and political ideology. It may appear reasonable to the less well-informed, but it has detrimental consequences (intended or unintended) for freedom of speech, academic study, and the achievement of inclusion and diversity on university campuses.

The documents definition of antisemitism is itself confusing and muddled in its wording never a good starting point for an academic definition which needs clarity and precision. And it sets the antisemitism bar too high, talking only of hatred without referencing prejudice or discrimination.

The IHRA itself describes its wording as aworking definition, in other words, not to be considered final or definitive in any way. And it certainly does need a lot more work. You have to wonder why, with such a clear caveat attached, is this wording being pushed so strongly for adoption by universities? Wouldnt it be better to spend some more time knocking it into better shape?

However, its clear from his letter to you, that Mr. Williamson wants Lancaster to adopt not only the work in progress definition but the illustrations offered by IHRA as well.

While some of the eleven illustrations are clear and uncontroversial, others (those relating to the State of Israel and Zionism) should raise numerous questions and concerns for any academic, especially students of politics and ethics. To its credit, the document points out that applying the examples should also take into account the overall context. But theres no guidance on how to evaluate any context or how to decide if a viewpoint being expressed is reasonable, proportionate or defendable. At which point, you have to question how helpful the Israel related illustration will be in adjudicating actual cases of alleged antisemitism. I wouldnt want to be a Vice Chancellor having to take disciplinary action against students or staff based only on this document for guidance.

Illustrating the problem

Let me take just one of the illustrations to illustrate the problem.

Denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination, e.g., by claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavour.

Unpacking this wording can take quite some time. Again, that in itself should call into question its value as a practical guide to managing debate on campus.

Is national self-determination a protected right for every individual? What happens if its application denies another group its own national self-determination? Are we confusing categories by making criticism of Jews and criticism of a nation state synonymous? To change the context, would we be comfortable saying its wrong for a native American to describe the creation of the United States as a racist endeavour? And if they did, would it automatically mean they are being racist towards individual Americans?

These are all areas of legitimate and lively academic inquiry. But this is far from being a purely academic debate. If youre a Palestinian student studying at a British university this is about your right to express your lived history and that of your family and people. Denying the expression of that experience would seem to go against any ambitions to be truly diverse, inclusive and welcoming institution.

Understanding of Zionism and the creation of the State of Israel cannot be the exclusive right of Jewish people. For a rounded understanding of what Zionism has meant, and what it means today, you need to include Palestinian testimony and Palestinian academic writing. I cant imagine any serious educational institution, especially Lancaster, to expect anything less.

Critiquing this illustration alone ought to be enough to point out to the Secretary of State why his enthusiasm for the IHRA document is misplaced.

Kenneth Sterns concerns

Even Kenneth Stern, the American Jewish author of the original IHRA text, is worried about how its being applied and politicised.

In the Guardian last year, Stern wrote about how right-wing advocates for Israel (such as Donald Trumps son-in-law and advisor on the Middle East, Jared Kushner) were looking to give the IHRA document a legal standing which was entirely inappropriate.

Im a Zionist. But on a college campus, where the purpose is to explore ideas, anti-Zionists have a right to free expression. I suspect that if Kushner or I had been born into a Palestinian family displaced in 1948, we might have a different view of Zionism, and that need not be because we vilify Jews or think they conspire to harm humanity. Further, theres a debate inside the Jewish community whether being Jewish requires one to be a Zionist. I dont know if this question can be resolved, but it should frighten all Jews that the government is essentially defining the answer for us.

These debates are even more toxic in the United States than there are here in the UK, but we appear to be heading in a similar direction.

The more immediate danger is that academics and students begin to censure themselves to avoid even the possibility of antisemitic accusations being made, or that public debates are cancelled or never organised for fear of falling foul of the IHRAs potential application. In fact, this has already been happening, as this report aboutUCLan in Preston, just down the road from you, shows. Of course, this kind of application of IHRA may be the very reason why the document is being so actively championed in the first place, particularly by professional advocates for the State of Israel around the world.

There are many other concerned Jewish voices on this matter, and they write with considerable authority and expertise. I would direct you and your colleagues toDr. Brian Klugg at Oxford University;Antony Lerman,an expert in modern European antisemitism;Professor David Feldman, Director of the Pears Institute for the study of antisemitism; and for adetailed critique of all elements of the IHRA document, take a look at the Canadian branch of Independent Jewish Voices.

Difficult decisions

Professor Schofield, I understand how difficult this situation is for you and your peers in higher education. The Secretary of State is behaving like a bully and using genuine concerns about rising incidents of antisemitism on campus to push a flawed document which will do little to help the situation.

Mr. Williamson says hes frankly disappointed at the reluctance of universities to adopt the IHRA which he describes as a straightforward way to demonstrate clearly that you do not tolerate antisemitism. As I hope Ive shown, theres nothing straightforward about this document. Not adopting IHRA ought to be clear evidence that you understand the complexities of antisemitism, Zionism and Israel (and the dangers of their conflation) rather better than the Secretary of State does.

It doesnt help you that the Union of Jewish Students has also beencampaigning for IHRA to be adopted by all universities, despite the fact that the text itself only aggravates disagreements about Israel and Zionism on campus. As a Jewish student, I find the UJS position poorly thought out and deeply regrettable. Until it can accept that Zionism has not been an entirely innocent endeavour, it will struggle to build effective alliances with other minority groups on campus.

Finally, I wish you well in your conversations with the Secretary of State and with the development of your policies on equality and inclusivity. If you think I can be of any assistance, please do get in touch. In the meantime, I have every confidence that you will continue to uphold the highest standards of academic life at Lancaster University.

Sincerely,

Robert Cohen

MA student, Graduate College, Lancaster University

This post first appeared on the Patheos site on October 17.

Visit link:
Dear Vice Chancellor, Don't get bullied into adopting the IHRA definition of antisemitism - Mondoweiss

Category: Zionism | Comments Off on Dear Vice Chancellor, Don’t get bullied into adopting the IHRA definition of antisemitism – Mondoweiss
Tags:

Posted By admin on October 24, 2020

Recreating the historic protests at the 1968 Democratic National Convention, Aaron Sorkin's 'The Trial of the Chicago 7' sketches out how a bunch of activists and organizers were charged with conspiracy to incite a riot in one of the most notorious trials.

With a brilliant star cast including Eddie Redmayne, Sacha Baron Cohen, Jeremy Strong, Jerry Rubin, Alex Sharp, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Mark Rylance, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Frank Langella, Kelvin Harrison Jr and Michael Keaton the movie drives the message home with a powerful and authentic portrayal. Inspired by a true story, it makes you wonder who were the real Chicago Seven?

Eight activists Tom Hayden and Rennie Davis of the Students for a Democratic Society, counter-culture Yippies Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Rubin, MOBE organizers David Dellinger, John Froines and Lee Weiner, and Black Panther Party Chairman Bobby Seale are brought on trial at first. What began as the Chicago Eight Trial soon became the Chicago Seven when Seale was at first bound and gagged in the courtroom after disrupting the trial and then his case was declared a mistrial.

Here's a look at the seven activists who were part of a landmark moment in the history of the civil rights movement in the US. Steal a glimpse of their life and take a look at where they are now.

A political activist, author and politician, he was known for his Port Huron Statement and standing trial in the Chicago Seven case. Born in Royal Oak, Michigan, to parents of Irish ancestry, he went from being the leader of the SDS to a respected California senator. He ran for political office numerous times, winning seats in both the California Assembly and California Senate. Towards the end of his life, he was the director of the Peace and Justice Resource Center in Los Angeles County.

First married to Jane Fonda for 17 years, the pair gave birth to their son Troy Garity. After their divorce in 1990, he got hitched to actress Barbara Williams and the couple adopted their son, Liam. At 76, he died in Santa Monica, California, after battling a long period of illness and stroke.An author and editor of 19 books, his book 'Hell No: The Forgotten Power of the Vietnam Peace Movement', completed in the months before his death in October 2016, was published in 2017.

Born in 1941, Rennie Davis was raised by parents Mary and Richard Davis in Berryville, Virginia. An active member who helped form the Students for a Democratic Society, he also helped organize protests and related events before and during the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago for the National Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam (MOBE).

A close friend of Beatles singer John Lennon, Davis suggested him to take a 42-city tour to help reinvigorate the anti-war movement. Although the first event was held in Ann Arbor, Michigan, in 1971, the tour was abandoned after former President Richard Nixon tried to get Lennon deported. In his later years, he became a devout follower of Guru Maharaj Ji (Prem Rawat) and hisDivine Light Mission.

Born as Abbot Howard Hoffman, he co-founded the Youth International Party (YIP), whose members were known as Yippies. A leading proponent of the Flower Power movement, he was was raised in Worcester, Massachusetts, studied at Brandeis University and became one of the most visible counterculture protestors of the era, having performed theatrical stunts like throwing dollar bills onto the floor of the New York Stock Exchange and leading a group to "levitate" the Pentagon.

In the 1970s, he continued his activism and remained an icon of the anti-war movement and the counterculture era. Summed up in a 13,262-page long file, his personal life drew a great deal of scrutiny from the Federal Bureau of Investigation. In 1980, Hoffman was diagnosed with bipolar disorder. At the age of 52, he took his own life on April 12, 1989, after swallowing 150 phenobarbital tablets and liquor.

One of the co-founders of the Youth International Party (YIP), Rubin was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, to a truck driver. According to several reports, he got over 20 percent votes when he ran for mayor of Berkeley, California, on a ticket opposing the Vietnam war, supporting Black power and the legalization of marijuana. In 1970, he said, "Smoking pot makes you a criminal and a revolutionary. As soon as you take your first puff, you are an enemy of society."

In January 1973, he held a post-election party at his place in New York which was attended by John Lennon and Yoko Ono. By 1980s, Rubin retired from politics and became a well-known businessman. An early investor in Apple Computer, he soon became a multimillionaire. At the age of 56, Rubin was struck by a motorist as he attempted to cross Wilshire Boulevard in front of his penthouse apartment in the Westwood area of Los Angeles, California.

A radical pacifist and an activist for nonviolent social change, Dave Dellinger was born in Wakefield, Massachusetts, and was a graduate of Yale University and Oxford University. A classmate of Walt Rostow, Lyndon B Johnson's National Security Advisor between 1966 and 1969, he was also reportedly friends with Martin Luther King Jr, Ho Chi Minh and former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt.

Post the 1968 trial, he was seen at the December 1971 gathering of music and political views in favor of the then-jailed John Sinclair. He wrote in his Yale class book at the 50th reunion: "Lest my way of life sounds puritanical or austere, I always emphasize that in the long run one can't satisfactorily say no to war, violence, and injustice unless one is simultaneously saying yes to life, love, and laughter."

In 1992, he was awarded the Peace Abbey Courage of Conscience on September 26, 1992, for serving as a spokesperson for the peace movement. Four years later, he was arrested along with his grandson and eight others. He continued to stay active in organizing protests and peaceful events. At 88, he died in Montpelier, Vermont, in 2004 after an extensive stay at Heaton Woods Nursing Home.

Little is known about John Froines' early life, but he studied at Yale University and holds a PhD in Chemistry. Reportedly, Froines was on the faculty at Goddard College in Vermont where he taught chemistry in the 1970s. In January 1990, he was named director of UCLAs Occupational Health Center. He later served as the Director of Toxic Substances at the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration as well.

Reports say Froines served as chair of the California Scientific Review Panel on Toxic Air Contaminants for nearly 30 years before resigning in 2013. He retired in 2011 from the UCLA School of Public Health in the Department of Environmental Health Sciences.

Born on September 7, 1939, and raised on Chicago's South Side, Weiner was a doctoral candidate and teaching assistant at Northwestern University. He studied at the University of Illinois, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and earned a master's degree in social work from Loyola University's School of Social Work in Chicago.

In his later years, he got an offer to teach in the sociology department of Rutgers University and moved to Brooklyn, NY with his girlfriend at the time, Sharon Avery. People magazine reported that he was spotted at a birthday party for Black Panther leader Bobby Seale in 1972 and joked he was "starting a new Communist Party in New Jersey". After the news circulated all across America, his teaching contract at Rutgers was retracted.

The vice president for direct response at the AmeriCares Foundation in Stamford, CT, he also worked for the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith in New York and participated in protests for Russian Jews and more funding for AIDS research.

On February 18, 1970, the seven defendants were acquitted of conspiracy. While Froines and Weiner were not charged, the remaining five were convicted of crossing state lines with the intent to incite a riot. Sentenced to five years in prison, they were fined $5,000 each. Two years later, the convictions were reversed by the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit on the basis that the judge was biased. However, the Justice Department decided against retrying the case.

'The Trial of the Chicago 7' will start streaming on Netflix this October 16, 2020.

More:
'The Trial of the Chicago 7': Where are the real Chicago Seven now and what happened to them after the trial? - MEAWW

Category: B'nai B'rith | Comments Off on ‘The Trial of the Chicago 7’: Where are the real Chicago Seven now and what happened to them after the trial? – MEAWW
Tags:

Posted By admin on October 24, 2020

Twitter will now ban posts that deny the Holocaust.

Bloomberg News reported Oct. 14 that a Twitter spokesperson said posts that deny or distort violent events including the Holocaust would be banned.

Twitter is the second major social media network to ban Holocaust denial this month. Facebook announced on Oct. 12 that it would ban posts that deny or distort the Holocaust, two years after Mark Zuckerberg said Holocaust denial should be allowed in the name of free speech.

We strongly condemn anti-semitism, and hateful conduct has absolutely no place on our service, the Twitter spokesperson said in a statement. We also have a robust glorification of violence policy in place and take action against content that glorifies or praises historical acts of violence and genocide, including the Holocaust.

The moves come as social media networks make a series of moves to crack down on hateful content ahead of the presidential election, and as activists have called on social media companies to do more to combat hate and misinformation. Facebook also recently banned content related to the QAnon conspiracy theory, as well as a range of hateful posts including those that say Jews control the world. YouTube likewisebanned QAnoncontent, and Twitterremoved thousands of QAnon accountsthis summer.

Twitter has taken an especially tough stance on disinformation recently,appending warningsto tweets by President Trump sharing false information, violent content or conspiracy theories. The network also recentlyblocked an unsubstantiated articleabout Joe Biden from the New York Post, before saying similar content would be allowed with a warning attached.

Read the rest here:

Following Facebook, Twitter will now ban Holocaust denial J. - The Jewish News of Northern California

Category: Holocaust Denial | Comments Off on Following Facebook, Twitter will now ban Holocaust denial J. – The Jewish News of Northern California
Tags: