Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By admin on September 13, 2020

Rising fears about a second wave of coronavirus cases in New York Citys Orthodox communities appear to be coming to pass, with the proportion of tests turning up cases of the disease more than four times the citywide rate in one heavily Orthodox neighborhood in newly released data from late August.Meanwhile, rising cases in New Jersey, Baltimore and other areas with large Orthodox populations represent a threat to in-person instruction at local Jewish schools, many of which reopened last week, as well as plans for in-person services for the High Holidays.

And even as many Orthodox leaders are exhorting community members to follow public health recommendations to wear masks and avoid large gatherings, others say they intend to flout rules designed to stop the spread of the disease.

In a video taken at a wedding Sunday where unmasked guests appeared in the background, Borough Park activist and radio host Heshy Tischler vowed to attend a wedding every night no matter what restrictions Gov. Andrew Cuomo and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio impose.

Go drop dead, Cuomo, go drop dead, Mayor de Blasio, said Tischler, who this summer cut the chains off local playgrounds alongside local Orthodox politicians in defiance of the mayors orders to keep playgrounds shut. Youre not coming into my neighborhood, were going to do whatever we want.

In recent days, we have observed heightened rates of COVID-19 in many neighborhoods with large Orthodox Jewish populations, Dr. Dave Chokshi, New York Citys health commissioner, wrote in a letter to local Orthodox media outlets Sunday. Chokshi pointed to increased positivity rates in Borough Park, Midwood, and Williamsburg in Brooklyn and Forest Hills and Far Rockaway in Queens.

The neighborhoods experiencing transmission were particularly hard hit in the worst weeks of the pandemic this past spring and we never want to return to those awful days, Chokshi wrote.

According to charts prepared by the citys health department, the spikes in positivity rates in New York Citys Orthodox Jewish neighborhoods appear to begin around Aug. 15.

Thats no coincidence, said Dr. Stuart Ditchek, a pediatrician in the Midwood neighborhood of Brooklyn. The period known as the three weeks, in which Orthodox Jews do not hold weddings, ended after Tisha Bav, a fast day, on July 30. The period between then and the start of the High Holidays is typically a time in which lots of weddings are held in Orthodox communities.

Since Tisha Bav, when the weddings started, we started seeing a large number of cases, said Ditchek.

Many in the neighborhoods spent the summer operating under the assumption that widespread sickness in the spring had conferred some protections going forward. The resumption of weddings and often crowded in-person synagogue services without an accompanying uptick in disease early in the summer reinforced that sense of safety for many.

But the data from New York Citys health department is the latest in an increasingly dense series of warning signs.

Doctors in Orthodox communities started seeing slight upticks in cases last month, with some coming from summer camps, bungalow colonies and weddings. Branches of Hatzalah, the Jewish ambulance corps, issued warnings of increased COVID-related calls and hospitalizations in Rockland County and Brooklyn.

One large Hasidic synagogue in Brooklyn noted many new cases in its Borough Park neighborhood, with some even being treated in the intensive care unit. Several Jewish day schools in Bergen County, New Jersey sent out notices in the first week of school informing parents of students who had been exposed to confirmed COVID patients and were sent home to quarantine.

Rabbinical councils in Baltimore, Maryland; Bergen County, New Jersey; and Cleveland, Ohio have all warned of the effects of large weddings. An open letter from 138 local Jewish doctors in Long Islands Nassau County connected new local cases to large weddings and asked the community to trust in medical professionals.

Compounding the rise of large weddings is the fact that, in some communities, relatively few people attending them wear masks. While some doctors in these communities have noted a sense of fatigue from abiding by restrictions for the past six months, one of the doctors who organized the letter from Long Island physicians noted an anti-mask sentiment rising in some communities.

Ditchek is particularly concerned about his community in Midwood, where the health department noted a positivity rate of close to 4% in part of the neighborhood. A group of local doctors from the Syrian Jewish community, which is concentrated in Midwood and Deal, New Jersey, released a letter last week noting over 100 new infections in Deal last week.

Because of the decrease in number and severity of cases, many of us have stopped keeping the precautions that caused the infections to decrease since the spring, believing that the threat is gone, they wrote. But as we continue to monitor the number of positive cases in our community, we have a dramatic increase in infections over the last two weeks; there have been over 100 new infections in Deal, NJ this week alone.

Ditchek worried that those cases could seed new ones in Midwood as Brooklyn residents with summer homes in Deal return home for the school year.

You can see why this is a conglomeration of events thats really troubling to the health department, said Ditchek.

Ditchek warned that the safe continued functioning of schools was the most important issue at stake in controlling the new infections in New York Citys Orthodox communities.

I think if we are very vigilant, we can still put this thing to sleep, said Ditchek. If the cases continue to accelerate at the rate were seeing this week, its going to make for a very difficult time right around the Yom Tovim [holidays].

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Are weddings behind the COVID-19 spike in NY Orthodox neighborhoods? - The Jerusalem Post

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Posted By admin on September 13, 2020

Denmarks prime minister opposes a bill seeking to ban the nonmedical circumcision of boys, saying Danish Jews must continue to be part of Denmark.

Mette Frederiksen of the ruling Social Democrat party made the statement during an interview Thursday on TV2 about a bill submitted last month in parliament by a leader of the left-wing Forward party, which seeks to outlaw the circumcision of minors without medical reason as done by Muslims and Jews.

Frederiksen appeared to reference the fate of Danish Jews during the Holocaust, when hundreds of boat owners smuggled thousands of Jews to safety in Sweden and beyond the reach of the Nazi occupation.

Several major political parties have said they support a ban, which has widespread popular support in Denmark by those who believe its child abuse and opponents of Muslim immigration.

Rabbi Yitzi Loewenthal, the emissary of the Chabad Hasidic movement in Denmark, wrote in a statement that Danish Jews are grateful to the prime minister and others who have come out clearly against the bill.

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Danish PM opposes bill banning circumcision, cites her promise to Jews - The Jerusalem Post

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Posted By admin on September 13, 2020

Sixty five years after mobs in Istanbul killed dozens, destroyed thousands of stores and homes and sought to eradicate the Greek minority in Turkey, commemorations are taking place. This was the often forgotten 1955 pogrom, one that conjures up memories of attacks on Jews across Eastern Europe in previous eras.The attacks targeted Greeks and other minorities, including Jews and Armenians. It was part of the nationalist extremism that underpinned what was then an ostensibly secular Turkey. Sixty years later, Ankaras far-right extremist governing party has once again used history to fan flames of tension with Greece, even as Turkish-backed extremists in Syria ethnically cleanse Kurds and Yazidis.Aykan Erdemir at Politico writes that the attacks on Greeks in Turkey were planned by the Turkish government to cleanse Istanbul of the approximately 100,000 Polites [Greeks]. These were some of the remaining Greek minority in Turkey after the conflict of 1915-1924, which saw most Greek and Christian minority communities ethnically cleansed from the country. This mass expulsion was part of a wider series of ethnic cleansing of minorities across Eastern Europe and the world in the first half of the 20th century.However, the 1955 pogrom has generally been lost to memory. This may be because Ankara was needed as a Western NATO ally against the Soviets, and mentioning the crimes against minorities would tarnish its image. This was a time when in the US there was segregation, so Ankaras abuses were not out of step with similar abuses by France and Algeria and the UK in suppressing the Mau Mau uprising during those years.Erdemir links the attacks of 1955 to other incidents that were swept under the carpet in Turkey. For instance, he mentions the attacks on Jews in Thrace in 1934 and attacks on minority Alevis over the years in Turkey. Turkey now has a plethora of organizations and initiatives dedicated to uncovering past atrocities and making amends with persecuted minorities, whether its the Armenians, the Greeks, the Syriacs, the Jews or the Alevis, he wrote.According to the report, the current Turkish government seeks to continue to use minority rights in Turkey to wring concessions abroad, for instance, trading the use of a historic Greek Orthodox seminary for a new mosque in Athens.THE ATTACK on the Greek minority, which also impacted Jews, is now being commemorated and recognized more on social media as well. The 1955 looting and massacre also comes on the anniversary of the 1986 attack on the Neve Shalom Synagogue in Istanbul, when Palestinian terrorists murdered 22 worshipers after they entered the shul on Shabbat and opened fire. cnxps.cmd.push(function () { cnxps({ playerId: '36af7c51-0caf-4741-9824-2c941fc6c17b' }).render('4c4d856e0e6f4e3d808bbc1715e132f6'); });Like the 1955 pogrom, the attacks of 1986 are generally ignored because they do not fit the narrative that Palestinian terrorists seek Israeli targets, when, in fact, the 1986 attack was a mass murder in Istanbul of Jews with no connection to Israel.Seven rabbis were killed in the 1986 massacre. Bizarrely, the perpetrators of the attack were so mangled by grenades and no identification found that questions remain about whether a state such as Libya, Iran or Syria sent them, or if the Abu Nidal group or others were solely behind it.These twin anniversaries are among the many bitter memories for minorities across the Middle East. Whether it is the 2007 bombings by Islamists against Yazidis in Iraq, or attacks on Shiites, Ahmadis and Christians in Pakistan, or attacks on Kurds in Syria, the Middle East over the last century has generally been one massacre after another against minority groups. This culminated in the ISIS genocide of Yazidis and ethnic cleansing of Christians, dissident Bedouin tribes and others in Iraq and Syria in 2014-2015.Two Yazidi children who were kidnapped by ISIS and trafficked through Iraq to Syria and Turkey were repatriated with the support of the Kurdistan Regional Government from Turkey this week. This illustrates that while the region remembers the 1955 pogrom, there are ongoing attacks on minorities, including against women and minorities in Turkish-occupied Afrin.Some countries in the Middle East have attempted to turn a corner on these attacks. For instance, greater coexistence and tolerance initiatives are being pushed by Jordan and the United Arab Emirates. However, the flames of sectarianism, the excuses used for attacks by extremist groups and the general lack of justice for victims has meant there are open wounds across many countries.

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Locals commemorate pogrom against Greeks and Jews in Turkey in 1955 - The Jerusalem Post

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Posted By admin on September 11, 2020

Its been a campaign of ups and downs for Madison Cawthorn.

Ever since winning the second Republican primary election by a landslide to make it race to replace Mark Meadows as the 11th Congressional District representative, the 25-year-old political newcomer has faced both praise from the highest levels of his own party and mounting scrutiny.

Learning the ropes

Cawthorns meteoric rise during the first primary was fueled partially by a massive $281,000 donation from his personal funds to his own campaign. He caught many off guard, including N.C. District 50 Sen. Jim Davis, who many considered to be a front runner in that race. In the end, it was Cawthorn and Lynda Bennett who emerged as the top two vote getters.

In the second primary, it seemed that Cawthorn was facing an uphill battle against Bennett, who received more than $1 million from super-pace, including the House Freedom Caucus, as well as high-profile endorsements from President Donald Trump and Meadows, who resigned to serve as White House Chief of Staff.

Cawthorn said the same knock and drag strategy that led to success in the primaries will be deployed in the General Election against Democrat Moe Davis, who some have called the best candidate that party has put forward since former Congressman Heath Shuler.

With this strategy, Cawthorn said a massive force of volunteers on the ground would knock on as many doors as possible and drag as many people as possible to the polls to cast a vote for the young upstart.

Our strategy is tested, he said. Its all about voter turnout.

You can poll 20 points ahead of me. I will turn out 100 percent of the vote while other people normally turn out 70 percent of the vote, he added.

Such is one of the advantages of enduring the arduous process of campaigning during a second primary as the underdog.

It made me an exceptionally better candidate, he said of the runoff election.

Long-awaited debates

Cawthorn and Davis squared off to debate three nights over the last week. The first two nights were hosted by Mountain Xpress, Blue Ridge Public Radio and Smoky Mountain News while the most recent debate was hosted by Southwestern Community College.

The Mountaineer spoke with Cawthorn following the first two debates but prior to the third. Cawthorn said he believed he had a stronger performance during his second debate than his first.

I think it was a bloodbath the first night, a lot of partisan politics, but then I felt stronger, he said.

While Cawthorn has often adopted far-right platforms when it comes to many of the hot-button issues, he seemed to soften his tone on some issues during the debate. For example, he said Black lives matter during each of the debates last weekend. When asked whether he supports Black Lives Matter, he said he supports the message.

They respond all lives matter, but if all lives matter then Black lives dont matter, he said. Right now the conversation is about Black lives mattering.

However, he does not approve of the movement that has emerged.

The Black Lives Matter Movement is a radical Marxist movement, he said.

During the debates, Cawthorn also voiced his concern for the environment and said that more needs to be done to stem the detrimental effects of climate change, which he has also mentioned in the past. However, he admitted that hes received some flak from conservatives for espousing those more moderate positions.

Im not saying Im brave, but it took a little bit of courage to say that as a Republican candidate, he said. A lot of people on the right might say thats not conservative enough.

There are policies where Im hard-right, he added. For example, if were talking about firearms and abortion and the role of government in our lives.

The good and the badOver the last couple of months, Cawthorn has gained national recognition. Beginning with a Presidential phone call straight from Air Force One on the night of his second primary win. In a Mountaineer story following his victory, Cawthorn recalled what the President had told him.

I was honored to be speaking to one of the most powerful men on the planet, Cawthorn said in that story. We had a long conversation about what the future is going to look like, how this election is going. I said anything I could do to help him would be great. Were hoping well be able to get him down here for an event, and I will also get to go to D.C. soon to get to meet him in the Oval. Thatll be a fun experience, to see the inner workings of the most powerful house on the planet.

Before long, that came to fruition, and Cawthorn met with Trump in the Oval Office. During the Presidents recent visit to Henderson County, he sung Cawthorns praises onstage during a brief speech.

If I had a face like that, I would have been President 20 years ago, he said, adding that Cawthorn will be a star of the party.

Perhaps Cawthorns biggest moment so far has been speaking at the Republican National Convention, which he said was Rudy Giulianis idea.

I mentioned Trump just one time, and I tried not to talk about Republican values or Democratic values, he said. I wanted a message most people would believe in.

While Cawthorn has been in the spotlight within his own party since his win over Bennett, hes also been at the center of numerous small controversies that could add up in the mind of voters to paint a concerning picture.

First, a story posted by World Magazine, a Christian publication, aired complaints from three women about uncomfortable sexual situations they said Cawthorn put them in. In that story, the friend of one woman accusing Cawthorn of impropriety said [her friend] was upset because he was forcefulwasnt letting her out of the car and he kept saying, no one would find out. She had a boyfriend at the time, she was freaking out.

We were friends a long time ago, Cawthorn said of the women who made the accusations. I know they are very far-left leaning. I have never acted sexually inappropriate.

In addition, AVL Watchdog, a newly formed nonprofit comprised of numerous Pulitzer Prize winning journalists, has published a few stories that call Cawthorns character and judgment into question. For example, one story focuses on Cawthorns claim that his plans to go to the Naval Academy were derailed after a car accident left him paralyzed.

However, that story references court records following the crash that explicitly state he was denied admission from the prestigious academy.

Others have aroused suspicion that Cawthorn may have white supremacist leanings, specifically citing his business name, SPQR Holdings, LLC. SPQR, which is an abbreviation for Sentus Populusque Rmnus (The Senate and People of Rome), and refers to the government of the ancient Roman Republic. However, in recent years, it has been co-opted by white supremacists.

I even had CNN and the Anti-defamation League come to my defense over the SPQR thing, Cawthorn said.

Cawthorn admitted hes been frustrated by the bad press hes received and accusations that diminish his character in the eyes of the public.

Its very frustrating because it makes you wonder what is the use of being a good person, he said. Just knowing that they are lies, its deceit from the other side, makes it easier to deal with. My character, my heart, is very singularly focused. I want to be helpful in this world. Thats all we want to do.

Cawthorn said he believes the negative stories which in AVL Watchdogs case have been thoroughly vetted and explained boil down to Democrats doing what they can to gain the congressional seat, something he said isnt going to happen.

Moreover, Cawthorn said that because he doesnt plan on toeing the party line and joining the Washington establishment or the cowards in Congress, some who are already in power may be trying to put a thumb on the scale.

Ill be my own man. I wont be a foot soldier, he said. At the end of the day, I kind of want to burn it down I think a lot of people in Congress kind of welcome it because they think there are a lot of problems in Congress.

(Coming Wednesday: Watch for an interview with Democratic congressional candidate Moe Davis.)

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Catching up with Cawthorn | News | themountaineer.com - The Mountaineer

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Posted By admin on September 11, 2020

The president of Palau has invited the U.S. military to build bases and ports and runways in the republic made up of hundreds of islands in the Philippine Sea. The request came during a visit [to Palau] last week by Defense Secretary Mark Esper, the Wall Street Journals Gordon Lubold reported Tuesday morning.

The request aligns nicely with the White Houses 2018 National Defense Strategy, which calls for enhanced steps to meet security challenges posed by China, Lubold writes.

Palaus request to the U.S. military remains simplebuild joint-use facilities, then come and use them regularly, reads a letter Palauan President Tommy Remengesau Jr., reportedly handed to SecDef Esper. There arent many more details in the letter, according to Lubold.

U.S. Navy Seabees are already extending a runway in Palau so it can support a greater number of C-130 arrivals in the future. Read more, here.

From the region: After Chinese officials questioned them over an unspecified national security problem, two Australian journalists are back in their home country at last on Tuesday. Bill Birtles, the Australian Broadcasting Corp.s Beijing-based correspondent, and Michael Smith, based in Shanghai with the Australian Financial Review, had initially been informed by Chinese state security officials they were banned from leaving China, the WSJ reports from Sydney and Melbourne.

Whats going on: Birtles and Smith were told they were persons of interest in an investigation into a third Australian journalist, Cheng Lei, a news anchor for state broadcaster China Global Television Network, who has been detained in Beijing since mid-August, the Journal writes. Ms. Chengs detention comes as Australias federal government reacts to local concerns about growing Chinese influence by trying to secure veto power over deals between state and local officials and foreign governments, the Journal reported eight days ago. The legislation, expected to be introduced this week, doesnt specifically target Chinait would apply to all foreign governmentsbut it comes at a time when relations between Beijing and the federal government are especially chilly, and China is asserting itself around the world. More from Aug. 31, here; and from Tuesdays reporting from Australia, here.

To review what we mean when we talk about China here in 2020, dont miss this Defense One Radio episode from the summer.

Happening this morning: U.S. Army Chief Gen. James McConville speaks with Defense One Executive Editor Kevin Baron in a livestream that begins at 11 a.m. ET. Its the first in our new series of virtual conversations about the future of each U.S. military service starting with the Army before turning to the Air Force on Sept. 22; the Marine Corps on Sept. 24; Space Force on Oct. 1; and the Navy on Oct. 2.

Shortly after McConvilles conversation, Baron will moderate a panel discussion, which includes former Deputy Director of National Intelligence Karen Gibson, a retired Army three-star; former three-star commander of U.S. Army Europe Ben Hodges; and Tom Karako of the Center for Strategic and International Studies. More info, here; or register for your spot, here.

Also happening at noon ET today: Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy sits down for a firechat side with the Reagan Institutes Director Roger Zakheim. Read more or register for that virtual event, here.

Trump's Reported 'Loser' Remarks Give Biden an Opening // Katie Bo Williams: The remarks fit into the Democrat's existing strategy of painting the president as unsupportive of U.S. troops.

Trump: Americans Who Died in War Are Losers and Suckers // Jeffrey Goldberg, The Atlantic: The president has repeatedly disparaged the intelligence of service members, and asked that wounded veterans be kept out of military parades, multiple sources tell The Atlantic.

Fearing Satellite Hacks and Hijacks, White House Issues Space-Security Directive to Industry // Patrick Tucker: Manufacturers need to build in better defenses and even ways to regain control of hijacked spacecraft, directive says.

Pentagon to Employees: How Can We Boost Diversity? // Courtney Bubl, Nextgov: The request is part of Defense Secretary Mark Espers overhaul of personnel practices.

Herd Immunity Is Not a Strategy // James Hamblin, The Atlantic: What the term actually means, and what it doesnt.

Pentagon Awards JEDI Cloud Contract to Microsoft, Again // Frank R. Konkel and Aaron Boyd, Nextgov: The decision follows a months-long legal challenge filed by Amazon Web Services.

Welcome to this Tuesday edition of The D Brief from Ben Watson with Bradley Peniston. Send us tips from your community right here. And if youre not already subscribed to The D Brief, you can do that here. On this day in 1978, Iran experienced whats now called Black Friday, when at least 100 protesters were shot and killed by soldiers from Irans U.S.-backed Pahlavi monarchy. The incident galvanized the Iranian protest movement and ended any hope of compromise with the ruling Shah, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, who fled to the U.S. four months later. By December 1979, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini was named Supreme Leader of the newly Islamic republic and the Iranian Revolution, as its remembered, was complete.

At least 37 million people have been displaced by America's "War on Terror," and thats an admittedly conservative estimate from analysts at Brown Universitys Costs of War project (PDF). More than a half dozen scholars counted up refugees, asylum seekers, and internally displaced persons in eight of the countries that the U.S. has concentrated most of its airstrikes since Sept. 11, 2001. They calculated the high-end estimate to be closer to 59 million displaced people, rais[ing] the question of who bears responsibility for repairing the damage inflicted on those displaced, the authors write.The countries of origin include Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Somalia, Yemen, Pakistan, the Philippines and Libya. And Millions more have been displaced by other post-9/11 conflicts involving U.S. troops in smaller combat operations, including in: Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Mali, Niger, Saudi Arabia, and Tunisia.FWIW, 25.3 million people have returned after being displaced, according to the reports authors, who add that return does not erase the trauma of displacement or mean that those displaced have returned to their original homes or to a secure life.For a historical comparison, World War II is the only conflict that displaced more people over the past 120 years. Read over the full 30-page report from the Costs of War project, here.Reminder from Capt. Obvious: Wars often have awful and unpredictable consequences. Consider the rise of far-right violence in just the past couple of years, as we did in our latest Defense One Radio podcast. That increase especially in the U.S. didnt emerge simply out of the blue. We did see an increase in the number of attacks [from far-right extremists] sort of coinciding with the election of Donald Trump; but it's not just that, Erin Miller, program manager for the Global Terrorism Database at the University of Marylands National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism, told us.The sort of refugee crisis, for example, has led to a lot of backlash against refugee populations, [and] immigrant populations, said Miller. And so many of the attacks, particularly in Western Europe, that we're seeing that are racially or ethnically motivated, are really driven by an anti immigrant sentiment. And so you can imagine that all of these sort of types of violence, or phenomena of violence. The result of the wars that have been going on in Iraq and Afghanistan and Syria, for many years now, has created a refugee crisis. And that has an impact that has sort of broader results in terms of the way that the people have responded to the refugee crisis in places like the United States and Western Europe. Catch the rest of that conversation, here.Another thing: The contemporary upsurge in white nationalism in the U.S. echoes a historical pattern, scholars told Reuters late last week. The pattern: any expansion of civil rights for a minority group leads to a rise in intolerance. For the U.S., this involved America electing its first Black president in 2008, followed by the expansion of LGBTQ rights shortly afterward.And this year, the Anti-Defamation League has documented at least 3,566 "extremist propaganda incidents" and events across the U.S. for 2020 so far. Thats compared to 2,704 such events in 2019, which is more than a 30% increase. And four out of every five of those 2020 cases involve white nationalist ideology. Read more, here.

President Trump will spend the day campaigning in Florida before flying to Winston-Salem, N.C., for a speech scheduled at 7 p.m. ET.The White Houses goal for the first leg of todays trip: to remind voters [in Florida] of his conservation and environmental protection efforts in the Everglades region, the Associated Press reported in a preview of two battleground states. Tiny bit more, here.

Russia has a new influence operations front for Africa, and perhaps unsurprisingly its partnered with a host of racist and fascist activists in Europe to stir up, of all things, purportedly anti-colonialist politics in sub-Saharan Africa, The Daily Beast reports.Its called the Association for Free Research and International Cooperation, and it was founded two years ago as a a community of independent researchers, experts and activists. It just so happens to run a side hustle in election monitoring, TDB writes.Bigger picture: Its part of a century-long Russian battle for influence in Africa. And this time around, The aim is not necessarily to decide who wins [an election], but to entice and secure a relationship with whoever does. Read on, here.

More than 189,000 Americans have died of complications from the novel coronavirus, according to the New York Times tracker, which now splits its state-by-state status reports into four categories, which includes Where new cases are higher and staying high (thats across 15 states and territories), Where new cases are higher but going down, (just three states), and Where new cases are lower and staying low (28).Hows Operation Warp Speed going? STAT News looks at the White House-led effort to do the unprecedented: find a safe and effective vaccine in less than a year. Among its innovations: the government is paying manufacturers to begin producing vaccines before testing is done; if a vaccine candidate proves out, distribution can start immediately. The report also looks at therapeutics, diagnostics, and materiel. Read it, here.

New in town: Theres a new progressive think tank called FP21, which claims to be dedicated to transforming the process and institutions of US foreign policy, since the culture of policymaking at organizations like the Department of State is stuck in a previous century.FP21s stated goal: draw a sharp contrast between the failing status quo foreign policy infrastructure and our vision for a better foreign policy driven by evidence, integrity, and innovation. To this end, our nascent team of experienced policymakers, academics, veterans, technologists, and NGO practitioners are recommending pragmatic reforms for the next administration.The group is launching its inaugural report of new ways to approach U.S. policymaking today. Find the full report here; or the executive summary, here.

And lastly: The U.S. military is busy today evacuating California residents from extreme wildfires sweeping through the state. That includes more than two dozen people just since 3 a.m. local, according to Fresno-based ABC30.In perspective: Two of the three largest fires in state history are [now] burning in the San Francisco Bay Area, AP reports. More than 14,000 firefighters are battling those fires and about two dozen others around California.More than 200 people were airlifted out of harms way over the holiday weekend, AP adds. And On Monday evening, officials said more than 60 people were trapped at Lake Edison and China Peak, and a rescue operation to retrieve them was unsuccessful, according to ABC30. A Chinook aircraft piloted by a team of military personnel tried to land and rescue the trapped people, but the smoky conditions made it impossible for the team to approach safely. More, here. Or read APs separate reporting, here.

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Today's D Brief: US Army chief, live; New Pacific bases?; Russia in Africa; Wildfire rescues; And a bit more. - Defense One

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Posted By admin on September 11, 2020

Forget the Emmys, Tonys, and Grammys.

This years new award is the Shuly my brother Arnes invented word -- in honor of synagogues and how they will be presenting High Holy Day services during the COVID crisis. In many cases, synagogues with significant resources were able to get really creative with their worship offerings.

We have been fortunate in being able to get some advance predictions on these awards.

Best appearance by a Jewish celebrity. The synagogue in Las Vegas that hired the comedian Gilbert Gottfried to read the Yizkor service. In that voice.

Best appearance by a non-Jewish celebrity who everyone thinks is Jewish: This was a tie.

One synagogue in Los Angeles engaged Rachel Brosnahan preaching about the binding of Isaac in full character as Midge Maisel:

Where the ______ was that kids mother in all this? Let me see if I got this straight. Shes Jewish; the kids Jewish and she lets him go into the desert for three days. What is that like, camping? No. No, no, no. I dont care what the Torah says these people were not Jewish. A Jewish father taking his kid into the desert? Without a Whole Foods anywhere for, what, a hundred miles? Give me a break."

Not to be outdone, a synagogue in Beverly Hills hired Kathryn Hahn to do the overflow Zoom service in her role as Rabbi Raquel Fein on Transparent.

No one guessed that Ms. Hahn is not Jewish.

In fact, the board was so impressed that they met in emergency session during the Yom Kippur martyrology (Said the treasurer: Let's see. I have a choice between a board meeting and listening again to how Rabbi Akiba died slowly. I will take the board meeting.") and unanimously decided to offer her a contract as an associate rabbi.

Kathryns reaction: Wait. Tell me about that parsonage thing again. I get to do what?

Best posthumous appearance by a Jewish actor during a prime time worship service. A synagogue in Portland channeled the late Kirk Douglas and brought him back for a few moments. (It was a mens club project). Kirk did an admirable job of telling kids to stay in religious school and continue their Jewish education before he faded back into the olam ha-ba.

Best original score for a High Holy Day service. No contest. A synagogue in New York managed to hire Lin-ManuelMiranda to do a hip hop version of the entire Yom Kippur service.

They got Jonathan Groff to play God, singing:

Youll be back, wait and see,

I cant wait til you return to Me.

You have sinned, thats OK,

I will wait until your dying day

Empires rise, empires fall,

We have seen each other through it all,

And when push comes to shove,

I will send pestilence and plagues and pogroms and all that Unetaneh Tokef stuff

To remind you of My love.

Best use of politics in a worship service. A cantor in Nebraska came up with the idea that rather than have an election, Biden and Trump would blow the tekiah gedolah at the end of Yom Kippur with the winner of the election being the candidate who offered the longest blast.

Mayhem ensued when, forty minutes into his blast (and everyone nervously looking at their watches, because they were overdue for the Zoom break the fast at their mothers house, which they could not have entered anyway), President Trump collapsed.

For a split second, Vice President Pence took over the blowing and perhaps even the presidency -- with people screaming that he had not properly sanitized the shofar.

Whereupon, Joe Biden kept blowing, until Trump, reviving, claimed that there would be mail in blasts in subsequent days, and that "the whole ram's horn blowing thing" (his words) was rigged from the beginning.

Most creative uses of current language fads in a worship service. The prize goes to the rabbi in Wisconsin who included the following over the course of the holy days: For those of you who are privileged in body, please rise.We call upon the president of our youth group, who is lung-privileged, to blow the shofar.For those who are sin-privileged, please rise."

The rabbi also invented new euphemisms for various items:

Most creative editing of services for the sake of avoiding Zoom fatigue. The rabbi in Ohio who totally ditched the machzor. She got up on erev Rosh Ha Shanah and said: Its been a really crappy year. Am I right, or am I right? Next year will be better. Probably. We rise for Aleinu.

On Kol Nidre, she said: God, You know how last year we said that we would do stuff and we didnt? Well, thats gonna happen again next year. Deal with it. We rise for Aleinu.

Yom Kippur morning: My bad. Actually, our bad. We rise for Aleinu.

Yizkor: They were wonderful people. We miss them. We rise for El Malei Rachamim and Kaddish.

Best zoom faux pas. We did not want to get into this, but an organist in a synagogue in Pennsylvania had to answer the call to nature, and forgot to mute himself. Or, to turn off the camera.

It has been a very difficult six months.

Shanah tova u'metukah -- a good, sweet, redemptive year to everyone.

May the gods of Zoom and Facebook look graciously upon us.

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Synagogue awards for creative worship on the High Holy Days - Religion News Service

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Posted By admin on September 11, 2020

Rabbi Steve Blane began broadcasting services in 2009, a decade ahead of the times. He has perfected the model of providing services directly to viewers just in time for the current pandemic with the need to stay home and remain socially distanced.

NEW YORK (PRWEB) September 11, 2020

Rosh Hashana is the head of the Jewish calendar and the Jewish New Year. It reminds Jews to ask forgiveness of their fellow man and this year more than ever we need hope that the New Year offers.

Rabbi Steve Blane began broadcasting services in 2009, a decade ahead of the times. He has perfected the model of providing services directly to viewers just in time for the current pandemic with the need to stay home and remain socially distanced.

Special guests joining Rabbi Steve for Rosh Hashana services will be Rabbis Deborah McKenzie (MD) and Miriam Van Raalte (CA), Cantor Nina Fine (FL) and cantorial soloist Evan Kremin.

Rabbi Deborah McKenzie has served as a Jewish spiritual leader and counselor for more than 25 years. She works with all who seek to enhance or add a Jewish spiritual perspective to their understanding and experiences. Ordained through the Jewish Spiritual Leaders Institute and a member of the Union of Jewish Universalists Communities (UJUC), she is one of four JSLI rabbis who stream weeknight Maariv services for Sim Shalom. Congregants remark on the special kavana (spiritual intention) and soulful flare that she adds to traditional services.

Rabbi Miriam Van Raalte has lived the majority of her life in southern California and has a worked in synagogue life since the age of 16 serving as a teacher, principal, executive director and coordinator of engagement and communications. She is a life coach specializing in health and wellness, and was ordained in June 2020 from the Jewish Spiritual Leaders Institute. Rabbi Miriams work deals with integrating body, mind, and spirit, and she seeks ways to engage with those who are at moments of spiritual transition.

We are thrilled to announce that Singer/Songwriter Evan Kremin will be joining us again in 2020 (5781). Kremin has blown shofar at the jazz inspired Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur services for the past four (4) years. Evan performs locally, nationally and internationally and since 2014, Evan has had the pleasure of running the weekly open mic at the historic music club, The Bitter End, in NYCs Greenwich Village, which is where he met and fell in love with Rabbi Steven Blane.

Cantor Nina Fine became a JSLI ordained Cantor after almost two decades of working as a professional vocalist. During her career she has graced the stage in some of the nations most prestigious venues including Carnegie Hall, Avery Fisher Hall, The Kennedy Center and The National Cathedral. Cantor Fine has conducted lifecycle events and led services and especially delights in working with young families leading a multitude of specialty family programming as well as run (and taught at) Hebrew schools.

Sim Shalom Online Synagogue will broadcast "live from Riverside Drive" a full slate of services beginning with Selichot - the beginning of the High Holidays. This year will include services for Erev Ros Hashana, and the first and second days. A purchased ticket will allow participants to attend all services. Two services are streamed free to the world. For a full list of services and our special guests please visit our website.

About Sim Shalom

Sim Shalom is an interactive online Jewish Universalist synagogue which is liberal in thought and traditional in liturgy. Created in 2009 by Rabbi Steven Blane on Manhattan's Upper West Side, Sim Shalom offers a means of connecting the unconnected. Rabbi Blane leads accessible and short Shabbat services every Friday night using a virtual interface and additionally Sim Shalom provides online education programs, Jazz concerts, conversion and life-cycle ceremonies along with weeknight services at 7:00PM EST led by Rabbis and students of this online community.

Rabbi Blane is also the founder and director of the Jewish Spiritual Leader's Institute, http://www.jsli.net, the online professional rabbinical program and the Union of Jewish Universalist Communities, http://www.ujuc.org.

Sim Shalom, a non profit 501 (3) tax-exempt organization, nurtures a Jewish connection through its mission of innovative services, creative education and dynamic outreach to the global community.

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Rabbi Steve Blane and Sim Shalom Online Synagogue bring Jazz-inspired High Holiday services to the world - PR Web

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Posted By admin on September 11, 2020

As a child, the High HolidaysRosh Hashanah (the Jewish New Year) and Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement)were marked with reluctant trips to our family synagogue where the tone was somber and reflective. The gloomy music was as uncomfortable as the blue blazer I reserved only for services and bar mitzvahs. When I was not trying to decipher the purpose of the holiday through incomprehensible liturgy, I was making faces at friends or wandering out to the hallway to meet other wayward Jews, usually the parents of my friends who volunteered as ushers to avoid sitting through services. My once-radical synagogue, which had been on the front lines of the civil rights movement and hosted the likes of Martin Luther King Jr. during the 1960s, had become staid and boring. It offered little to my generation. Not surprisingly, many of my peers drifted away from temple.

While many synagogues struggle with how to bring a new, diverse generation together, a nationwide movement of spiritual communities is creating radically inclusive spaces for Jewish practice, finding new ways to engage people where they are, across the spectrum of identity, background, age, and belief. With the High Holidays starting on Friday, September 18, Mishkan Chicago, a Jewish spiritual community serving over 5,000 individuals annually, will present a unique and engaging High Holiday experience in response to the pandemic.

Rabbi Lizzi Heydemann founded Mishkan Chicago on a Shabbat in 2011 in a living room. Nine years later, they offer weekly Shabbat services, classes, small group gatherings, and holiday celebrations at locations across the city without being tethered to a single location like most synagogues. She notes that every generation of Jews in America brought a sense of revolution, from the turn-of-the-century immigrants creating Jewish community in a new country, to Jewish families in the suburbs creating social change in synagogues that in many ways mirrored churches in their structure and presentation, and now today with groups like Mishkan.

Today people are longing for what serves the needs of the moment, Rabbi Heydemann says, the children and grandchildren of those renegade founders are now feeling like what was progressive and forward thinking two generations ago is now no longer as radical. Questioning why people came to synagogues, how Mishkan can provide that, and how they can improve on that led them to create innovative gatherings that foster community and feed a spiritual need often absent in traditional settings. During the pandemic, they have held anti-racist book groups, weekly services, and other gatherings both spiritual and social to bring members from around Chicago, and even outside Chicago, together.

Realizing that the High Holidays no longer need to be about going to a synagogue, especially this year, Mishkan Chicago has brought together a team of performance and film artists, many who were (unsurprisingly) already connected with the organization, to produce a rare experience that merges the rituals of the holiday with music, film, and theater. They originally planned for services to take place at the Auditorium Theatre after they sold out the Vic Theatre for the past two years, but in the coronavirus era the High Holiday experience will instead be a combination of interactive streaming services online, as well as in-person experiences around Chicago.

The Mishkan team wanted to provide the experience they know people long for this time of year, while also repackaging it in a safe engaging way.This posed a challenge they were up for and excited to produce. There are three basic dimensions of the High Holiday spiritual experience, Rabbi Heydemann points out, one is prayer (tefilah), one is introspection (teshuvah), and one is giving and being part of justice work (tzedakah)." They made sure that this new experience embodies all three of these important aspects.

Rebecca Stevens, Mishkan Chicagos director of strategy and design, welcomed the challenge, noting that limitations are the things that make you creative." Stevens is a theater artist by trade, and after converting to Judaism found a natural fit with Rabbi Heydemann, who she says is the collaborator I was born to work with." Along with more than half a dozen other theater and visual artists at Mishkan, they have been working to produce what Stevens calls a ritualized performance, not unlike other Jewish holidays like the Passover Seder.

The services themselves will be livestreamed, featuring asynchronously recorded prayers and songs from over 200 community members as well as sermons, guest speakers of various faiths and Jewish denominations, family services, and interactive chats. In the spirit of the full accessibility that Mishkan Chicago champions, all services are closed-captioned.

For those longing for in-person celebrations, Mishkan will be holding a Selichot drive-in sing-along for members only at the Davis Theatre pop-up drive-in at Lincoln Yards on September 12, the Saturday night before High Holidays. Slightly inspired by Grease, the event (which begins at 6:30 PM) will feature singing in cars and food available for purchase from Ada Street restaurant. Also, on the afternoon of Saturday, September 19 at 5:30 PM, the traditional blowing of the shofar, or rams horn, will take place in five pop-up locations around Chicagoland. Creative social distancing, required masks, and hand sanitizer will ensure safety. Following the shofar blasts, participants will be invited to partake in Taslich, the symbolic casting off of past transgressions and bad mojo in preparation for the New Year. With High Holidays this joyous and spiritually engaging, Mishkan Chicago might just bring this wayward Jew back into the fold.v

For more information and registration, visit mishkanchicago.org.

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Mishkan Chicago puts an interactive spin on High Holiday rituals - Chicago Reader

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After taking the helm at Temple Sholom of Chicago in July, Rabbi Shoshanah Conover became the synagogue's first female senior rabbi. In fact, she is the first woman ever to hold that title in Chicago proper.

While Conover recognizes the significance of her position, she credits those who came before her for paving the way for female Jewish leaders like herself. "I owe a debt of gratitude to all women in every movement of Judaism who have been dedicated to learning and teaching Jewish text and taking on leadership in synagogue life," she said. "They have opened doorways that could lead to a moment like this."

Conover's appointment at Temple Sholom is a testament to her innovative leadership, extensive knowledge of Judaism, and commitment to the community. Conover previously held the role of assistant rabbi at the congregation for 13 years, and she said she found a great female role model there, as well. "Our Cantor Emerita, Aviva Katzman, was the first female cantor in the city of Chicago," Conover said. "Her spiritual leadership has been an inspiration to me."

The rabbi's love of the Jewish people and Jewish texts, combined with a strong interest in social justice, led her to rabbinical school after earning her B.A. in English Literature and Creative Writing from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. "At a certain point, I thought 'I want to have keys that would access the wisdom of our people in really deep ways,' and I knew that rabbinical school would help me to do that," she said.

As a rabbinic student, Conover's strong character and conscience made a lasting impression, and those qualities continue to make her a beloved Jewish leader. "She stood out as a woman of outstanding potential, gifted academically and pastorally, that unique combination of heart, mind, and soul that all rabbis ought to personify, but that Rabbi Conover really does," said Rabbi Lawrence Hoffman of Hebrew Union College - Jewish Institute of Religion.

Moving forward, Conover will bring that same passion and wisdom to her role as Temple Sholom's senior rabbi. She remains involved with teaching, learning, and justice, areas of focus during her tenure as assistant rabbi, while she undertakes the larger responsibility of leading the congregation. "I want to make sure that Temple Sholom as an entire temple is continuing to be involved in the work of justice and that we continue to be a really strong, intimate community," she said.

"Rabbi Conover brings a wealth of experience as a tireless advocate for social justice," said Rabbi Jonah Pesner, who serves as the Director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism where Conover was a founding rabbinic leader. "She has been an essential founding rabbinic leader of RAC-IL, a key voice for racial justice and criminal justice reform, and advocate for the most vulnerable in society."

In the year ahead, Conover will draw creative inspiration from Temple Sholom's theme, "a time to embrace," to bring the community together despite the challenging circumstances of the pandemic. "In this time of refraining from embracing, we are trying to make sure that people still feel the embrace of Temple Sholom, even when we are not physically together in the same building that we're used to," she said. Conover champions Temple Sholom's variety of new and established programs, including discussion and meditation groups, community service, and advocacy work.

Conover says she is grateful to work in and raise her two sons in the Temple Sholom community. She loves the synagogue's diverse and close-knit congregation, which adds vibrancy to the community.

"We have such a special Jewish community where we work so closely together," she said. "We make sure people are seen for how they want to be seen in this world and really make people feel like they are welcome and that they are appreciated and celebrated in the totality of who they are."

Leslie Hill Hirschfeld is a freelance writer living in the northern suburbs of Chicago.

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JUF News | Rabbi Shoshanah Conover takes the helm of Temple Sholom - Jewish United Fund

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Posted By admin on September 11, 2020

Rabbi Mendel Cohen was not looking to be a hero when he and his wife, Ester, established Chabad-Lubavitch of Mariupol. But as he battles COVID-19 in an Israeli hospital bed, its clear to me that he is one and has been for many years now.

There was nothing glamorous about the mid-sized Ukrainian port city where the Cohens, both originally from Israel, chose to settle back in 2005. Aside from the gray waters of the Azov Sea, which connects to the Black Sea, Mariupols most notable features were the two mammoth steel and iron works that dominate the citys skyline, their countless smokestacks spewing heavy black smoke and making Mariupols air the dirtiest in Ukraine. But none of that mattered to Cohen and his wife. They had come to Mariupol to do a job and serve its Jewish population, and thats what the couple set about doing.

They opened a preschool, Hebrew school and teen club. They gave Torah classes to men and women, operated a soup kitchen and a social-services center. The rabbi, a trained and practicing mohel, established Mariupols only synagogue; Ester ran the mikvah they built. In short, they created a vibrant Jewish life in what could only be described as yet another grimy post-Soviet town.

I remember that Mariupol, the one from before the war. I saw it in 2007, when the Jewish community celebrated the first completion of a new Torah scroll in town since before the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution. At the time, I was a rabbinical student in Kharkov, and the six of us headed south to Mariupol to celebrate the joyous occasion together with the young rabbi, his small community and guests from throughout eastern Ukraine. Locals stared as we danced and sang the new Torah down the streets to its new home in the little synagogue. There was an unmistakable excitement in the air that day. Jewish life was returning not only to the big and famous places, but to the furthest reaches of the former Soviet empire.

That was Mariupol until the war came. And then everything changed.

In February of 2014, amid the turmoil in Ukraine, Mariupol became the scene of street fighting as the city was captured by pro-Russian separatists. In early May of that year, Ukrainian government troops attempted to retake control of the city, culminating in a bloody offensive on a rebel-held police station. The city would only be recaptured in June.

But peace remained elusive. In January of 2015, a Shabbat-morning massive rocket attack left 30 dead. The whole synagogue was shaking, Cohen told me at the time. There were congregants in the room who had come from the neighborhood where the rockets had landed. You can imagine what it sounded like here; there were screams, we had to calm people down.

Mariupol, a strategically important industrial port city, has been a flashpoint in Ukraine's war in the east since early 2014 when heavy street fighting took a toll on the city. In this file photo, Cohen stands outside of the burned out building that served as local police headquarters.

The new Mariupol was a place where masked armed men could roam the streets one day and rockets could land on another. The boom of artillery became a regular feature of life in the city, the orchestra they called it. You hear it every day. Some days, its constant , Cohen told me in 2017. Soldiers are dying every day. How should I explain this? Nobody here wants this war. Nobody knows why we need it.

Nevertheless, there was work to do. Jewish refugees from parts of the country that were even worse off came and went, and the rabbi and his wife were there for them. More of Mariupols Jews needed helpspiritual, emotional and financial. The synagogue became fuller, people coming together to feel the comfort of community. The soup kitchen fed even more people, and more packages of basic staples were being sent out to even greater numbers.

I got a glimpse of all this in the summer of 2015. It was my second visit to the city, but worlds away from the place I had been eight years earlier. Ukrainian military checkpoints dotted the dark highway to Mariupol. The city streets lay deserted at night, while a tension filled the air by day. The burned out remains of the city's police headquarters and a central administrative building served as a vivid reminder of what had just recently occurred, and a warning for what could come next. In the morning, I prayed in Cohens synagogue, then watched as the adjacent dining room filled up with supplicants. That afternoon I saw one Jewish familys homemade missile bunker, a tiny dugout they sometimes had to spend the night in.

We are so busy with the work that there is almost no time to pay attention to the rockets, never mind the politics, Cohen once told me. We have a job to do here.

Over the years, Ive gotten to know him well, and I can tell you that he never wanted any of thisnot the guts, not the glory. Each time Id call him or meet him in Ukraine or New York, hed express his hope that things would finally settle down. The violence, the tension, the feeling of sitting on a powder kegnone of it was for him.

Yet through it all, he has never once considered leaving Mariupol. It is his and his familys home as long as there are Jews who live and breathe there.

Mariupol Jewish community member Natasha Ralko's windows were blown out while she was sitting in the living room of her apartment with her daughter and 8-month-old infant in a January 2015 rocket attack that left 35 dead. (Photo: Jonathan Alpeyrie for Chabad.org)

Mariupol sits mere kilometers from territory under separatist control, and the war in the east, while relatively quiet, is still not over. If that werent enough, just six weeks ago an axe-wielding intruder attempted to break into Cohens synagogue shortly after morning prayers. The security guard posted outside managed to disarm the man, as the rabbi and a few others escaped through a back exit. Baruch Hashem, Gd saved me today, he messaged me that evening. It was a long day .

Last week, he and his wife both fell ill with COVID-19. While his wifes symptoms soon got better, the rabbis grew worseto the point that he was having a very hard time breathing. Prior to Shabbat on Sept. 4, Rabbi Cohen was flown by emergency medical transport to Israel, where he is now hospitalized and in serious but stable condition.

As he battles the coronavirus, Cohen is already thinking about what the future holds for Mariupol. He wants to move the synagogue to a new location, a permanent one, where they can host even more people. The axe attack has also made him determined to find a suitable building in a safer neighborhood.

For there is no doubt in his mind, nor of those who know him, that he and his family will, with Gds help, be back in Mariupol soon. War, terror or pandemic notwithstanding, there is work to do, souls to touch and a mission to complete.

To assist the Cohen family in their time of need please follow this link.

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COVID Isn't the First Heroic Battle This Ukrainian Rabbi Has Fought - Rabbi Mendel Cohen has quietly devoted himself to people in trouble - Chabad.org

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