Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By admin on October 18, 2020

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As the world around us turns pink for breast cancer awareness month, your children, teens and young adults may have some questionsand we are here to give you some answers to these common questions. First the basicsbreast cancer is the second most common cancer among women, with some 250,000 new cases per year.

Can young women get breast cancer?While most breast cancer cases occur in women over the age of 50, younger women (even in their 20s) can and do get diagnosed with breast cancer (about 11% of all cases). In fact, younger women (those who have not yet reached menopause) tend to have more aggressive variants of the disease. Sometimes, breast cancer can be trickier to diagnose in young women because it is more unexpected and younger women tend to have more dense breasts which can be harder to fully evaluate during a mammogram.

Does breast cancer run in families?Yes and no. If there is a strong family history of breast cancer, especially in pre-menopausal women, and you are of Ashkenazi Jewish descent, there are genetic mutations (BRCA1 and BRCA2) that can increase your risk.

Are there any ways to prevent breast cancer?When it comes to cancer, our strategy should be to reduce riskeven those who do everything right may still be at risk. Cancer is never anyones fault! If you are looking to minimize your risk, here are a few tipsmaintain a healthy diet and regular exercise regimen, avoid smoking and excess alcohol use, and consider breastfeeding your babies. Women who are on hormonal replacement therapy or estrogens may also be at higher risk its important to speak to your doctor to see whats best for you.

The other thing you can do to protect yourself is to be vigilant about looking for signs and symptoms, even if you are too young for a mammogram (under 40 years old). Breast cancer does not have to present just as a lump in the breast or underarm. Women may notice changes in the skin of their breasts, including thickening, swelling, flaking, or dimpling. Signs of breast cancer can also include nipple discharge, pain in the nipple or breast, or any change in size or shape of the breast. Encourage your children and teens to get to know their bodies, learn how to do self-exams and bring concerns to you and their health care team.

One of my family members was just diagnosed with breast cancer. How do I explain this to my kids?First, be honest. When kids must fill in the blanks when they are worried, they often come up with scarier ideas than we can imagine. Explain in an age-appropriate way that their loved one has a disease called cancer. Remind them that cancer is not contagious and their loved one is going to have good care, which might include surgery or strong medicines that might make them lose their hair or feel sick. Encourage your kids and teens to send cards, visit (either virtually or in-person), or even fundraise and volunteer in honor of their loved one.

Is it true that I can get breast cancer from underwire bras, antiperspirants, or an injury to my breast?Nope! These are all myths. The type of bra you wear has no bearing on your breast cancer riskneither does breast size or shape. Antiperspirants, despite a lot of hype, have never been proven to increase the risk of breast cancer and are completely safe to use. And, although an injury or bruise to your breast will hurt, it will not cause cancer to develop. Remember to check out the facts with a reliable source and your health care team!

Dr. Rina Meyer is a board certified pediatric hematologist-oncologist at Stony Brook Childrens and Assistant Professor of Clinical Pediatrics at the Renaissance School of Medicine at Stony Brook University. Her views are her own and do not necessarily represent the views of Stony Brook Childrens and the Renaissance School of Medicine.

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Talking to Your Kids About Breast Cancer - Dan's Papers

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Posted By admin on October 18, 2020

EXCLUSIVE: HBO Max has struck a deal for world rights to Valley Of Tears, Israels biggest-budget TV series ever made, in a major deal for London-based sales and production org WestEnd Films.

The show marks WestEnds first foray into TV, through its banner WeSeries. It is producing and co-financing the project, which debuted in official competition at Series Mania earlier this year.

Valley Of Tears was created and co-written by Israeli-American TV and film writer Ron Leshem (HBOs Euphoria),Amit Cohen (False Flag), Daniel Amsel and Yaron Zilberman (A Late Quartet); the latter also directed the entire series.

The series will be branded a HBO Max original when it launches on an as-yet unspecified date. Inspired by true events, the ten-part show depicts the 1973 Yom Kippur War through the eyes of young combatants. It tells four emotional and highly personal stories of individuals swept away from their loved ones by the ravages of war, four parallel plotlines, intertwined together into one climactic battle.

Related Story'Generation': Lena Dunham Series Adds Seven Recurring To Cast

Cast features Israeli star Lior Ashkenazi (Foxtrot) alongside Aviv Alush (The Shack), Lee Biran, Shahar Taboch, Joy Rieger and Ofer Hayoun (Euphoria), Maor Schwitzer (Shtisel) and Imri Biton.

Valley Of Tears is a co-production between WestEnd Films, United King, Israeli Broadcaster KAN 11, Endemol Shine Israel and HBO Max. Exec producers on the series are Sharon Harel-Cohen, Maya Amsellem, Moshe Edery, Amir Ganor, Eldad Koblenz, Leshem and Cohen.

WestEnd previously worked with director Zilberman, following A Late Quartet and Israeli Oscar entry Incitement. Leshem, who was an EP on HBOs hit show Euphoria, also penned the 2007 Oscar-nominated picBeaufort.

WestEnd is also producing a second Israeli series, the thriller-drama Traitor, with Ron Leshem and Amit Cohen; the show is in post-production.

Valley Of Tears is a smart and thrilling series that goes way beyond the war drama genre. It will keep viewers on the edge of their seats while they become emotionally invested in the lead characters stories. HBO Max is truly the perfect home for the series and we cant wait to share it with audiences worldwide, said Maya Amsellem, managing director of WestEnd Films.

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HBO Max Swoops On Global Rights To Israels Most Expensive TV Series Valley Of Tears In Deal With WestEnd - Deadline

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Posted By admin on October 16, 2020

Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi was a Jewish sage who lived in Palestine in the third century of the Common Era. While he was no doubt historical, in the legends of the Talmud and midrash, he became an otherworldly figure, the travelling companion between the worlds of Elijah the Prophet, who entered Paradise while still alive and defeated the Angel of Death in a duel of wits.

Rabbi ben Levi, known in Jewish tradition by the acronym of his name, the Ribal, was buried in Tzipori, which the Romans called Sephoris, a center of Jewish learning where sages edited the Mishna and began to compose the Talmud. But it was also a thriving cosmopolitan trading town Nazareth was just an outlying village of Tzipori. And it housed a community of amazing mosaic artists, whose creations, from decorative patterned sidewalks to large realistic depictions of Biblical themes and Greco-Roman myth, draw thousands of visitors every year, even in this time of plague.

Mitch Pilcer, of the Zippori vacation village, discovered Ribals tomb several years ago while digging a swimming pool. Unlike other anonymous ancient tombs, this one was empty of human remains, but it bears an inscription in Hebrew letters almost modern in their style: This is the resting place of Rabbi Yehoshua ben Levi. Pilcer commissioned me to design a three-meter mural, to be executed in mosaic of course, telling the story of the rabbis encounter with the Angel of Death.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

He is also mentioned in the poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow yes, he of Hiawatha and Paul Revere. It was in 1863, in the midst of the bloody Civil War and two years after his beloved wife Frances died of burns incurred in an accident at home, that the great American poet put the legend into English verse.

It all came together the rabbi who defeated Death by stealing his sword, the empty tomb, the bearded poet, the art of mosaic and the result is my new book, a reimagining of the Longfellow poem and the legend of Ben Levi in mosaic style.

Only after I had finished all the art for the book, the newspapers reported that a visitor to the Tzippori National Park had stumbled upon a round stone sphere, the size of a bowling ball, engraved with an open-mouthed face.

Archaeologist call it an animal head, perhaps a lion; but I immediately recognized the Angel of Death shouting Give me back my sword! So a third century artist was inspired by my 21st century depiction. Or perhaps both of us were in contact with the same original. Strange but then, anything connected with the Ribal is free of the usual constraints of time, mortality and other dimensions.

Avi Katzs drawings, ranging from the realistic to the caricature and comics, have appeared in various magazines and newspapers in Israel and around the world. He has illustrated hundreds of books; the JPS Illustrated Children s Bible won the National Jewish Book Award, and his books have received the Hans Christian Andersen Award four times.

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

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A Talmudic duel with Death comes to life in mosaic form in new book - Forward

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Posted By admin on October 16, 2020

Before addressing Shabbat Minchah, letsunderstand which days of the week the Torah is read and why.

The Talmud tells us that Moses instituted that the Torahbe read three days a week, Shabbat, Monday and Thursday, so that three dayswould not pass without a public Torah reading.This is alluded to in the verses describing how the Jews traveled for threedays and then thirsted for water. Torah isoften allegorically referred to as water, thus indicating that after threedays of travel, the Jews yearned for Torah.

However, the Talmud also cites a tradition that Ezra theScribe and the Men of the Great Assembly introduced the practice of reading theTorah on Mondays and Thursdays. So how are these two traditions reconciled?

The Talmud explains that in Moses' times, only threeverses were read on the weekdays. Ezra, together with the Men of the GreatAssembly, lengthened this quota to a minimum of 10 verses.

We can now return to our question regarding the Torahreading at Minchah on Shabbat.

In addition toinstituting the additional verses that are read on Mondays and Thursdays, Ezra also instituted that there bean additional communal reading every Shabbat during the afternoon Minchahservice.This was to accommodate those who would occupy themselves in commercethroughoutthe week and couldnt come to hear the Torah reading on Mondays and Thursdays.

The Deeper Reason

Beyond accommodating those who are busy with business,there are additional, deeper reasons for the Shabbat Minchah Torah readinghaving been established.

The Zoharand the mysticsexplain that on a regular day, the afternoon time, especially as eveningapproaches and darkness intensifies, is a time of spiritual severity and harshDivine judgment. Although on Shabbat there is no judgment, this time is stillordinarily connected to negativity. Thus, by reading the Torah, whichsynthesizes both chesed (kindness)and gevurah (severity and judgment),at this special opportune time, we are able to sweeten the judgments andseverity.

This time is thus referred to by the mystics as rava dravin,desire of all desires, when we experience a revelation ofGdliness from a level that is higher than all of the ten sefirot (attributes), a time when a glimmer of the revelation ofthe World to Come shines forth. As the kabalistic hymn found in many prayerbooks and sung by many after Mincha of Shabbat titled Bnei heichalah puts it:

... Exult,rejoice in this gathering together with the angels and all supernal beingsRejoice now, at this most propitious time, when there is no sadnessDraw near to Me,behold My strength, for there are no harsh judgments. For this timeof Minchah is a time of joy for Z'eirAnpin.

May we merit the time when this glimmer will become ablazing light with the ultimate revelation in the World to Come.

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Why Is the Torah Read at Shabbat Minchah? - Chabad.org

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Posted By admin on October 16, 2020

Ifyou look closely at the letters of a seferTorah (Torah scroll), you will see that many of the letters are topped bysmall spikes, called tagin or ketarim, the Aramaic and Hebrew wordsfor crowns. At times, they are also called zayins, since they resemble the Hebrew letter zayin (), coming out of the top of the letter.

Thereare generally three categories of letters in terms of tagin.

Letterswithout tagin. This is the default.

The Talmud mentions the letters making up themnemonic (ShATNeZ GaTz)have 3 tagin, or crowns, coming outof the top left of the letter.

Additionally it is customary to make a single tag,or crown, on top of the letters making up the mnemonic (BeDek ChaYaH),as well as certain other specific letters and words that have tagin in specific places.

All three kinds of letters can be seen in this detail of a mezuzah, provided by Rabbi Yosef Y. Rabin, Craft Sofer.

Asfor why they are there, Moses himself had this very question. As the Talmudrelates:

Rav Yehuda says that Rav says: When Moses ascended onHigh, he found the Holy One, Blessed be He, sitting and attaching crowns to theletters of the Torah. Moses said before Gd: Master of the Universe, who ispreventing You [from giving the Torah without these additions?] Gd said tohim: There is a man who is destined to be born after several generations, andAkiva ben Yosef is his name; from each and every point of these crowns, he isdestined to derive heaps upon heaps of halachot.[It is for his sake that the crowns must be added to the letters of the Torah.]

Inother words, there are many laws and parts of the Oral Torah that are hinted atby way of these small crowns.

(Formore on this incident with Moses and Rabbi Akiva, as well as its implications,see Is It Really the Torah, Or Is It Just the Rabbis?)

Themystics explain that the acronymShATNeZ (comprising the letters shin, ayin, tet, nun, zayin)forms the words , Satan Az, the namesof two great, harmful forces. The acronym , GaTz, (comprising gimmel and tzadi) is alsothe name of an evil force. Therefore, taginare added to these seven letters, for they are like a sword and a spear againstthese harmful forces.

Sowhy is it that Rabbi Akiva merited to uncover many secrets of the crowns of theTorah? His revelations were both due to his lofty soulas well as the fact that his teachings were destined to be the basis for theparts of the Oral Torah that would be written down as the Mishnah and Talmud(see What is the Talmud? and Whats the Big Deal About the Death of Rabbi AkivasStudents? ).

Inaddition, the Kabbalists explain the reasons behind some tagin. Yet for the most part, their meaning remains hidden. Theheaps of laws that Rabbi Akiva derived from the tagin remain hidden as well. The mystics explain that for the timebeing, only the meaning of the actual letters and words of the Written Torahare revealed through the Oral Torah. However, the deeper meanings behind thecrowns (as well as vowels and cantillations) will only become revealed withthe coming of the Moshiach.

Thus, every time you see a crown on a letter,it not only hints at the secrets of the Torah, but our longing for a time whenthese secrets will finally be revealed.

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Why Do Some Letters in the Torah Have 'Crowns'? - Chabad.org

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Posted By admin on October 16, 2020

1. Its Known as Tefilat Haderech

Known as Tefilat Haderech (Prayer for theWay), the travelers prayer is a single paragraph that we say when setting outon a journey. In it, we ask for a peaceful and successful trip.

While many versions of the prayer exist, theycan all be traced back to the Talmud, where it is recorded as follows:

May it be Your will, Lrd my Gd, to lead me to peace, direct my stepsto peace, and guide me to peace, and rescue me from the hands of any enemy orambush along the way, and send blessing to the work of my hands, and let mefind grace, kindness, and compassion in Your eyes and in the eyes of all whosee me. Blessed are You, Lrd, Who hears prayer.

Read the FullText of the Travelers Prayer

Although the text in the Talmud is written inthe singular first person (with words like me and my), the common textfound in prayer books today is in the plural (with words like us and our).This can be traced back to the Talmud, where the sage Abaya taught that it isbest to pray not just for oneself but for anyone else who may also be in need.

Interestingly, in many versions, there is onephrase which is still said in the singular: andlet me find grace, kindness, andcompassion in Your eyes.

Why is that? A mysterious work of Kabbalah,Sefer Hakanah, provides a mystical spin on the prayer. According to thisinterpretation, we use plural language to include the angels who accompany andassist us. However, the prayer for grace is said in the singular, since it isonly we humans who actually exert effort to serve and please Gd.

Read: What Are Angels?

The ideal time to say the prayer is after onehas left the city limits, defined not according to municipal boundaries butwhen the houses are far apart. In modern cityscapes this happens once one hasleft the suburbs and entered rural countryside.

When traveling by plane, it is proper to saythe prayer before or after takeoff.

If you forgot to say the prayer, say it whenyou remember, provided that you are not yet close to your destination city.

If you plan to return that same day, many(including Chabad) add and return us in peaceto the prayer, thus covering the return trip as well.

If you are taking a multi-leg trip, you shouldsay the prayer every morning as you set out.If you are staying at your destination for some time before returning, theChabad practice is to say the prayer every morning but without mentioning Gdsname.

Read: When to Say Tefilat Haderech?

The Talmud tells us that some sages wereparticular to stand in one place when saying this prayer, while others werenot. Thus, whileit would be ideal to stop ones vehicle to say the prayer at the start of aroad trip, one may do so while driving (in a safe manner)if stopping entails inconvenience. This isespecially so when traveling by air, when stopping the plane is impossible.

Read: How to Say Tefilat Haderech

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7 Facts About the Traveler's Prayer Every Jew Should Know - Prayer - Chabad.org

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Posted By admin on October 16, 2020

Proposition 18 would amend the state constitution to allow all California citizens who will be 18 years old by a general election to vote in the preceding primary. This is already the law in many states both red and blue as well as in the District of Columbia.

Prop. 18 keeps the voting age at 18 for a general election. But it gives first-time voters who are almost 18 the opportunity to participate in a full election cycle (primary plus general election) instead of just getting half a vote.

Young people can enlist in the military, work and pay taxes before turning 18. They deserve the option to vote in a full election cycle.

From a Jewish perspective, the Mishnah, a compilation of Jewish oral laws, teaches us that young people are ready for a growing level of responsibility during their teen years. According to Pirkei Avot 5:21 (the Teachings of the Sages), Judah ben Tema taught:

At 5, a person is ready to study Torah.At 10, one is ready to study Mishnah.At 13, one is ready to be responsible for the Mitzvot.At 15, one is ready to study Talmud.

Youth activists (like the students in Parkland, Florida) and teen environmentalists have a tremendous amount to say.

The youth should be given a voice, not just when it comes to a general election, but also when its time to decide which candidates should be on that years general ballot. Election issues such as climate change, minimum wage and gun reform are incredibly important to young people, and young people are greatly affected by election outcomes. They deserve to have a say.

Politicians across the United States are trying to make it harder to vote. We need to help protect our democracy by giving older teens a fair opportunity to determine their elected representatives.

Research shows that voting is habit-forming. If we expand the right to vote with this slight adjustment, we create more opportunities for long-term civic participation, a necessity for a sustainable democracy.

Prop. 18 has wide support among Californias elected officials, veterans, students, teachers, major newspapers and essential workers. Lets honor our states newest voters by giving them that growing level of responsibility mentioned in Pirkei Avot. Lets allow them to vote in a full election cycle.

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Prop. 18 is vital for teens who want and deserve to vote - The Jewish News of Northern California

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Posted By admin on October 16, 2020

The Conference Center rooftop of Temple Square in Salt Lake City during the October General Conference held Oct. 3-4. | The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

SALT LAKE CITY (Deseret News) Yes, Latter-day Saint leaders chiefly use footnotes to their general conference talks to cite scriptures they used, but they also make personal observations, share data about the church, refer to research or describe details about church policies and practices.

There is a lot to learn in these apostolic asides. Here are 29 brief observations culled from the footnotes of the talks by leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints at last weekends 190th Semiannual General Conference.

1. Among the publications cited by church leaders in their footnotes for this conference, in addition to the scriptures and church magazines, were The Wall Street Journal, Foreign Affairs, the Economist, The Atlantic, Christianity Today, the Babylonian Talmud, The New Strongs Expanded Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, the Deseret News, CNN.com and the European Journal of Population and Church News.

2. President Russell M. Nelson wrote one of the footnotes that best qualifies as an apostolic aside: I have spoken of Israel in at least 378 of the more than 800 messages I have delivered during my 36 years as an apostle, he wrote in the first footnote to his Sunday morning talk, Let God prevail.

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Apostolic asides: 29 brief insights from footnotes Latter-day Saint leaders added to conference talks - East Idaho News

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Posted By admin on October 16, 2020

When does life actually begin? Some conservatives Supreme Court Justice candidate Amy Coney Barett among them believe that it begins at fertilization. That poses a potential challenge not only to abortion advocates, but to the one in eight American couples suffering infertility and many Jewish organizations and fertility advocates are concerned about Coney Barretts stance on IVF (in vitro fertilization).

In 2006, Barrett signed a letter urging the overturning of Roe vs Wade: We the following citizens of Michiana oppose abortion on demand and support the right to life from fertilization to a natural death. She has not addressed personhood in the Senate confirmation hearings this week. When Sen. Diane Feinstein asked Coney Barrett about her views, the jurist declined to comment. My policy views, my moral convictions, my religious beliefs do not bear on how I decide cases nor should they, she responded.

The phrase from fertilization concerns IVF advocates and fertility experts because it infers support of personhood legislation, laws that would define human life as beginning at the moment an egg is fertilized, according to RESOLVE, The National Infertility Association, which urged the Senate Judiciary Committee to question Ms. Barrett on her beliefs about embryo personhood and IVF. Personhood laws grants embryos full legal protection under the U.S. Constitution, including the right to life from the moment of fertilization; many Personhood organizations call embryos pre-born children. RESOLVE, which advocates for patients, staunchly opposes personhood because it would, by its very logic, restrict IVF and other medical treatments that enable people to build families.

During in vitro fertilization, multiple embryos are created in a laboratory to increase the chance for infertile couples to have a baby. If an embryo indeed has rights, it cannot be tested for genetic abnormalities, discarded, or, essentially, created in the first place. (It also presents problems in custody cases.)

I dont think people get it: access to abortion is only one part of reproductive justice, said Rabbi Idit Solomon, founder and CEO of Hasidah, an organization that provides financial assistance to Jewish families seeking infertility treatment. I think people are missing the connection between IVF and abortion law; people like Amy Coney Barrett view it through a Catholic lens: If you define life as beginning with conception which has no grounding in Judaism IVF becomes almost impossible.

Fertility experts nationwide are sounding the alarms around Barretts support of personhood legislation. Fertility and Sterility, a journal that has never commented on the seating of a U.S. Supreme Court Justice, released an unusual editorial on Sunday, expressing the editors distress over Barretts views. In addition to restricting or overturning abortion, her seating threatens those who seek to build a family through in-vitro fertilization.

Is Amy Coney Barrett the beginning of the end for IVF? asked Ellen Trachman, an attorney specializing in reproductive technology law, in the pages of Above the Law, a legal online journal. Most concerning to assisted reproductive technology attorneys like myself is the potential that a Justice Barrett, on the Supreme Court, might someday have occasion to rule that embryos are entitled to the same constitutional rights as people who have been, like, born.

Personhood legislation is one of the most dangerous political movements in America, according to Dr. Brian Levine, founding partner and director of the Colorado Center for Reproductive Medicines New York location. Giving rights to embryos will inevitably limit how people use them.

The worlds religions have different positions about when life begins and therefore whether fertility treatment is permitted. The Catholic Church forbids IVF; Muslims generally allow it (with restrictions on how the mans sperm is obtained); and most Jewish deciders across denominations, including the ultra-Orthodox permit, and even encourage fertility treatment. In the Orthodox community, millions of dollars are routinely raised to assist in the financial costs of treatment for families who need it.

In Israel, the worlds fifth IVF baby was born, in 1982, and the country offers free treatment for women up to age 45 for their first two children with their current husband. Whether due to the Biblical commandment to be fruitful and multiply or the traumas of the Holocaust and perennial wars, reproduction has been a central goal in Israel, some would say a pre-occupation, since its foundation, wroteUniversity of HaifasProfessor Daphna Birenbaum-Carmeliin a 2016 study.

The Jewish community is extraordinarily supportive of IVF to build Jewish families, regardless of the denomination or affiliation, said Dr. Batsheva Maslow, a reproductive endocrinologist and director of research at Extend Fertility in New York City, and medical director for Nishmats Yoetzet Halacha program. This support has real-world legal implications, she said, posing questions like what should people do with their leftover embryos? Or what happens if the power goes out in an embryo lab on Shabbat? (For the record, a Jew is not allowed to violate the Sabbath in order to save the embryos.)

Fertility treatment would be significantly affected by the change in personhood laws in this country, Dr. Maslow said. The Talmud states that an embryo is considered to be halachically equivalent to water (fluid) for the first forty days after conception, according to Puah, a religious organization that often rules on Jewish law and fertility treatment.

While there are differing opinions in the Jewish community on abortion at what point in a pregnancy it is allowed, if the mental state of the mother is a factor, etc rabbis of all denominations agree that an embryo is not deemed alive.

Thats not the Jewish approach, said Rabbi Elan Segelman, rabbinic advisor for the Orthodox organization Puah. Halacha recognizes life upon implantation, he said about Jewish law regarding pregnancy beginning at the stage when the embryo attaches itself to the uterine lining.

Dr. Maslow said that implantation is the earliest stage recognized in halacha as pregnant, with others ruling that the Talmuds 40 days is more applicable. (Interestingly, 40 days is often when one can hear a heartbeat.)

Judaism does not conflate its stance on IVF with abortion, although other religions might.

The reality in the United States is that personhood and abortion rights are very much intertwined politically and culturally, Dr. Maslow said.

Many Jews who have experienced infertility have gone on to form advocacy organizations, advocating for awareness and communal support.

As a fertility warrior whose family would not exist today without the advent of modern science, and as an advocate on behalf of other fertility warriors, the value of bringing life into this world is far greater than denying the possibility of their existence, said Gila Muskin Block, executive director of Yesh Tivka. Fertility treatments are the manifestation of men and women willing to go to the ends of the world physically, financially and emotionally to bring more children into being.

People need help starting families because of the disease of infertility or because of their biology, says Andrea Syrtash, founder of Pregnantish, a media site devoted to infertility. I cannot understand how anyone would block people from building their families with the help of science. These people are bringing children into the world who are so so wanted.

Amy Klein is the author of The Trying Game: Get Through Fertility Treatment and Get Pregnant Without Losing Your Mind.

Amy Coney Barrett may threaten access to IVF, and Jewish fertility advocates are worried

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Amy Coney Barrett may threaten access to IVF, and Jewish fertility advocates are worried - Forward

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Posted By admin on October 16, 2020

The restoration of the Kadavumbhagam synagogue at Mattancherry, which was a place of worship for the Malabari Jews, is caught in a tussle between the State Department of Archaeology and local residents.

After a portion of the roof of the synagogue and its facade collapsed last year, the Archaeology Department had decided to erect a temporary roof to prevent the structure from crumbling further and avert an erasure of history. The work was to have been completed by June, before the rains set in, but pandemic-related restrictions kept it from progressing.

When work on the roof of the 16th century structure began last week, residents put a halt to it, said a senior official of the department, who asked not to be named. Since a full-blown restoration of the synagogue would be a painstaking process that could involve reconstructing it from existing images, the department had settled on mending the roof temporarily. Besides, the property itself remains in private hands, and the process of acquiring it is still under way, keeping a complete conservation in cold storage, the official said.

While some residents argued that the work cannot proceed without the Kochi Corporations permission, the department has not received any official notice from the corporation or the owner of the building to stop the work, the official added.

According to T.K. Ashraf, councillor representing Mattancherry, residents in the area are worried that declaring the structure a monument will bring with it restrictions on construction around it.

K.M. Sajeer Majid, a resident of the area, said work would not be allowed to resume unless the residents were promised that declaring the structure a protected site would not hinder any construction or repair work on houses nearby.

The official of the Archaeology Department said that no restrictions on construction existed around sites protected by the department. Specific restrictions are in place only for structures protected by the Archaeological Survey of India. Their fears are baseless, he added.

The synagogue was in use till most of the Malabari Jews in the area moved to Israel in the 1950s, and the property was turned into a privately owned warehouse.

A primary notification declaring it a historically rich structure protected by the Archaeology Department was issued in 2015, and the process of acquiring the property was initiated. A final notification protecting it is yet to be issued, pending complete acquisition. Over 91 lakh was initially paid to acquire it, followed by another 75 lakh, which was put together and is being paid to the owners, the official said.

A public hearing was held close to the synagogue before the purchase of the land, the official added.

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Locals bring restoration of Kadavumbhagam synagogue to a halt - The Hindu

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