Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By admin on August 8, 2020

In the Jacobs home, Shabbat has become synonymous with two things: Facebook Live and Shira Averbuch, the ukulele-playing, golden-voiced singer who serves as the artist-in-residence at B'nai Jeshurun, a nearly 200-year-old synagogue on the Upper West Side of Manhattan.

"Shabbat Shalom!" she begins, warmly greeting each of the children listening from home. "I'm so happy you're all here. Should we start getting ready for Shabbat? What do you think?"

Avery Jacobs, 3, often sings along to the "Bim Bam" song in her family's Manhattan apartment or in the patio of her grandparents' home on Long Island. When Averbuch tells the kids that she's feeling "that Shabbat feeling" in her heart, their parents respond in the comments: They feel it in their head. Their hair. "Avery feels it in her feet!" writes Lindsay Jacobs, 33, Avery's mother.

Weeks later, she said, "Seeing Shira's face has been the one piece of comfort we've had through this whole thing."

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Shabbat, the seventh day of rest in the Jewish tradition, is a time of joy, relaxation and worship. Likewise, Eid al-Adha, the Muslim feast of the sacrifice held at the end of July, is a celebration. And on Sundays, Christians gather to pray, sing and receive sacraments.

AS THEY USUALLY DO

But none of those rituals have played out as they usually do.

One of the cruelties of the coronavirus is that it has led places of worship to not only strip away in-person religious traditions, but also modify or eliminate community gatherings all at a time when the faithful -- still reeling from the effects of an unrelenting pandemic -- need them most.

For families with young children, this presents an especially big challenge: Without in-person religious education or volunteer activities, how do parents keep kids engaged in their religion? How can a family "love thy neighbor as thyself" in a world where close social interaction is discouraged?

Carrie Willard, 42, an administrator at Rice University in Houston, said that for her two boys, 12 and 9, the "big-C challenge" is the ability to see God in other people rather than casting judgment because they aren't making the same choices. But what she and many other families continue to grieve is the loss of their in-person community, especially during the holidays.

"Easter was this weird but not terrible thing," Willard said. Their church was closed, so her family lit a fire pit in their yard and her husband, who is the rector at Palmer Memorial Episcopal Church in Houston, read a sermon.

"It was really lovely," she said. "And I think that's what we'll remember, I hope."

Willard's family and others are finding new ways to express their faith and imbue their children with notions of grace and giving, even if the circumstances aren't ideal.

"Nothing can fully take the place of the communal face-to-face gatherings of religious communities," said Dr. Tyler VanderWeele, an epidemiologist and co-director of the Initiative on Health, Religion and Spirituality at Harvard University. VanderWeele and his colleagues have examined how religious upbringing and religious service attendance can shape the lives of adolescents. Their 2018 study found that among the adolescents studied, attending religious services at least once a week was associated with greater life satisfaction, lower probabilities of marijuana use, greater frequency of volunteering and fewer lifetime sexual partners.

A MORAL FOUNDATION

In-person services are also meaningful for parents. A 2017 Pew Research Center survey found that of those U.S. adults surveyed who attended church at least once a month, two-thirds said they did so to give their children a moral foundation, to become better people, and for comfort in times of trouble or sorrow.

Asma Uddin, 40, an author and religious liberty lawyer, said having community events, such as celebrating Eid together or attending Muslim summer camp, "gives you a sense that there are people like us."

Uddin, who lives in Rockville, Md., described how slowing down during Ramadan this spring was "spiritually uplifting," but if there continues to be fewer traditional in-person gatherings, she is concerned that her children might not learn how essential religious community is to their Muslim identity.

Victor Rodriguez, 55, and his wife, Juana Rodriguez, 46, members of the Church of the Ascension, a Roman Catholic Church in Manhattan, have similar worries. He and his family of six attended church in person every Sunday, but now only he and his wife watch Mass on YouTube at 9 a.m. on Sundays.

Their four children, ages 14, 13, 8, and 5, used to volunteer at the church's food pantry, which was mainly staffed by kids. But when the pandemic hit, it was no longer considered safe for them to participate and the adults took over.

"It's real difficult," said Victor Rodriguez, an unemployed carpenter. Even so, he added, "we have to learn to live with this right now. We have to take precautions for us and others."

PROTECT THEIR COMMUNITY

Ed Brojan, 53, a member of the Chesapeake Ward of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Baltimore, said his family has opted out of the small, in-person gatherings permitted by their church because he and his wife are nurses who want to help protect their community by remaining socially distanced. But they and their two children, 15 and 13, hold a sacrament service at home, something male members of the church can do if they become a priesthood holder.

"I definitely miss the feeling of community, the feeling of fellowship," Brojan said, referring to the services of yore.

The lack of community also has been tough for Holley Barreto, 40, a baker and cooking instructor, as well as her husband and their two children, who are 11 and 10.

"That's been a real loss for us when we can't physically gather with church members," said Barreto, whose family has participated in activities at Nassau Presbyterian Church in Princeton, N.J., throughout the week. "That's taken away a lot of what we really leaned on."

About a month ago, Catholic churches were permitted to reopen in New York City, and churches have fought to reopen in other parts of the country, too. Some families did not hesitate to return.

"I am kind of honestly tired of doing all this online stuff," said Robert Farina-Mosca, 54, who is now attending in-person services at Holy Trinity, a Roman Catholic church in Manhattan, with his 11-year-old son.

'I STILL CARE ABOUT YOU'

In the absence of any formal religious education, his son has been making cards that are delivered along with food donations. On one of the cards, he drew a platter with two chicken legs and wrote "Enjoy your meal." Then, on the inside: "Even though I don't know you, I still care about you."

Experts say small, simple gestures like those can help guide children in the tenets of their faith.

Corrie Berg, the director of educational ministries at Nassau Presbyterian Church, is empathetic to the many responsibilities parents are shouldering right now.

"I just don't think our parents particularly have the bandwidth to be creating -- or even just following -- at-home Bible studies or devotions or simple readings," Berg said. "All of that requires uploads, downloads, links, clicks, print outs -- and as a parent, especially with littler ones, you're just like: 'I can't even. There's no way.'"

'DO LESS, BETTER'

Her philosophy is to "do less, better."

David Zahl, a young adult minister at Christ Episcopal Church in Charlottesville, Va., agrees.

Zahl, the author of "Seculosity," a book about how parenting, career and other worldly things have become like a religion, said parents often tell him how they feel guilty for missing religious services online. "It's a mix of anxiety and deep fatigue," he said.

Zoom church for young kids, with a few exceptions, is pretty much a nonstarter, he acknowledged.

"The first thing I want to say to them is, 'It's OK. Cross that off your list. God is not mad at you,'" Zahl said.

David Carey, 48, a hospice chaplain, said that before the pandemic he regularly attended services at The Refuge Church where he lives in Windham, Maine, and his twin boys, who are 5, went to Sunday School. But now everything is online and they're "Zoom-ed out," he said.

'TRANSCEND A LOT OF THINGS'

So he started playing Christian children's songs at home and singing them when he and his family spend time outside.

"I remember thinking, and even praying, 'Lord, how will they ever get to know any of this stuff?' And then all of a sudden they start singing this on their own," he said. "I've learned music is a way to transcend a lot of things."

In some respects, Zahl said, the pandemic could be considered an opportunity to help children better understand their religion.

"For parents who see things like prayer, spiritual conversation, asking for forgiveness, and overall modeling of grace in practice as the heart of their faith, well, the pandemic has been something of a gold mine," he said.

Lindsay and Robert Jacobs, and their daughter, Avery, watching a virtual Shabbat service hosted by Shira Averbuch.(The New York Times/Andrew White)

The Barreto family (from left) is Holley, Elena, Eric and Nico. They have held small socially distant gatherings in their backyard in Princeton, N.J., to see some of their friends from church.(The New York Times/Hannah Yoon)

Ten-year-old Nico Barreto (center) and his sister, Elena, 11, pray with their family. During the pandemic, they have also started saying what they are thankful for, like workers at grocery stores and small businesses.(The New York Times/Hannah Yoon)

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Grace and remembrance - Arkansas Online

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Posted By admin on August 8, 2020

Isnt that Franny from Fire Island? my husband asked as a well-dressed woman stepped up to the bimah to greet the rabbi. I looked closer. Indeed it was Franny, looking great. Just please dont tell me that you dont recognize her with her clothes on, I said, before he could.

That nasty beach joke was older than Jack Benny. What was new was that we were watching Franny get her Yom Kippur synagogue honor on our laptop, via livestream.

This was Yom Kippur 2019 B.C.E. (Before the Covid Era). Before I and every other Jew in the world had participated in Zoom Shivas, Zoom Mitzvahs, Zoom Seders and the rest. Like some kind of prescient time traveler, my husband and I observed last years Yom of all Yoms virtually, and as we approach these Covid-Era High Holidays, I have a suggestion or two to help enhance the experience.

First let me explain how I came to star in my own personal Back to the Future observance. It was, of course, not a pandemic that kept me from the pews, but inertia caused by an emotional brew of recent grief and long standing ambivalence.

Last year was my first Jewish New Year year after the death of both of my parents. It was a time for reflection about loss, a time to think about my complicated Jewish identity, and yes, a time for shul-shopping. Instead of organizing holidays around my mother and father, as I had always done, I now had the opportunity to choose my own synagogue. I was not driven by a need to pray, but a desire for continuity and community.

Which meant I had to answer the question: where did I belong?

For Rosh Hashanah, we attended a nearby synagogue at the invitation of a friend. Then for Kol Nidre, I cooked a vat of soup and matzo balls, braised the supersized brisket, and went with my family to a different service near our home in Manhattan.

Neither place felt right. So the next morning, I decided to find a service online. As the digital pioneer who built nfl.com and streamed the Super Bowl in 1995, I knew a thing or two about technology and live events. Now, I figured I could find a way to do my atoning in jeans and a sweatshirt instead of pantyhose and a suit, with no need to whisper or stifle a laugh or a yawn or a sob.

I was a bit embarrassed to share this experience publicly last year, lest I invite disapproval of my unorthodox choice. But that was B.C.E. Now, after months of turning to Zoom as the default way to share and communicate, it all seems almostnormal.

Even back then, there were already a few livestreams for the holidays. I quickly compiled a list of links that included some Id heard of, plus a few random hints from Google. I was agnostic as to denomination, so my list included Conservative, Reform, and Reconstructionist I figured the Orthodox did not stream given the prohibition against electricity on the holiday. I stuck to New York-based sites: perhaps, I thought, I would find the synagogue of my dreams right in my own neighborhood.

And so I clicked my way through the long day of davening.

Call me superficial, but I found that spiritual uplift came faster when presented with good production values.

It helped when the scene did not look like a converted high-school gym and the ark did not look like it fell off a Home Depot truck. I had little patience for terrible sound systems and dismal lighting. In one synagogue, every time someone moved a chair along the wooden floor, the screech competed with the prayers; then again the rabbis voice was as bad as the screech.) Some videos were so dark that the light from the bimah turned the clergy into spectral presences.

I was dreading yizkor, longing for the days when my mother would order me out of the womens section of the sanctuary, her eyes already moist in preparation for the memorial service. So it was with some relief that by then, my surfing was over: I had found a service that was congenial, inspiring, downright heimische.

What made Park Avenue Synagogue the one for me?

First, someone media-savvy was paying attention to the invisible audience. There was more than one camera position, and as it switched between the bimah and the packed hall, it gave the remote audience a sense of participation and immediacy. The interior itself was magnificent, a well-lit synagogue stage from central casting.

And, best of all, the service resonated with me intellectually and emotionally. I was captivated by the lively, warm banter between the rabbi and the cantor, whose mutual affection and respect came right through the screen. I cried more than once at the soaring music.

I am confident that the Jewish New Year 5781 will ring in many more creative digital solutions. Last year, streaming video was probably an afterthought, maybe even a gimmick intended to reach new audiences at a time when every physical seat would be sold. This year, at least in non-Orthodox congregations, remote services will be essential because most people will be watching from home.

With these larger audiences, synagogues might want to do some trial runs with congregants, to keep problems to a minimum during the live services. Who wants to call tech support during the vidui? We may also see interesting hybrid strategies Cong. Rodeph Sholom, on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, is offering to book time slots for those who want to limit their overall in-person attendance but still show up for a private moment in front of the ark.

Some synagogues are limiting their online audience to current members in the name of cybersecurity, an unnecessary and unfortunate trend. As the ADL and others have reported, there are many other ways to protect from Zoombombing and unwelcome guests.

Livestreaming is not a scarce commodity like seats in the auditorium. This is a moment to welcome new prospective congregants, to expand and experiment with building community in new ways. Synagogues can go beyond last years one-way formats by adding interactivity to deepen the audience engagement. Zoom rooms or streaming on Facebook, Twitter, or YouTube can handle a nearly infinite number of participants and support any amount of backchannel kibitzing.

None of these are expensive technologies, by the way. But they do require planning and some dedicated creativity and support. Last year I used my own timeworn machzor; this year I am delighted to see that many synagogues are already offering free downloads of their preferred texts.

Weve come a long way from the dreary services of yore, where my rebellious teenage self used to daydream about toppling the mechitzah. Or, perhaps Ive just substituted one barrier for another, as even now, something always seems to hold me back from a synagogue membership.

What will I do this year? Id like to promise right here and now that I will join a congregation very soon. Then again, this is not the season for vows that I may not keep. Good news is that Rosh Hashanah 2020 A.C.E. falls on a weekend. Im thinking about pulling together some similarly-situated friends for a shtible of our own. Maybe we will meet outside. Maybe one of our neighbors will preside or maybe we will join a live online service that we choose by consensus.

Ill bring the brisket.

Ann Kirschner is the author of Salas Gift and Lady at the OK Corral and a strategic advisor in media, technology, and education.

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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On the internet, no one knows if youre atoning - Forward

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Posted By admin on August 8, 2020

By Ben Cohen

At high school, he made no friends and didnt belong to any clubs. He liked girls, but having a girlfriend was beyond his abilities. Academically, he was undistinguished, doing well in biology but failing in English. When it came to his free time, most of that was spent on the Internet.

Once he graduated, he left home for a spell of military service. He lasted six months, dismissing the experience as exhausting, stupid, and not a real army. From there, he enrolled as a student in a local college, but he quit that, too, after, as he put it, falling ill.

For the last five years, he had done nothing at all. The day that ended with his name and awful deed inscribed in headlines across the world began with him as an unknown 27-year-old, unemployed and living at home with a mother whose doting couldnt quite quell the anger rising within him.

This is the portrait of Stephan Balliet the German neo-Nazi who mounted an armed attack on a synagogue in the city of Halle last Yom Kippur that has emerged from German media accounts of his trial, which began last week at the high court in Magdeburg.

Balliets act, which he livestreamed over the Internet, shocked Germany and left its law-enforcement agencies heaving sighs of relief when it transpired that he failed to penetrate the synagogues heavy doors that stood between the 51 worshippers inside the sanctuary, and his bullets and grenades. But there was a death toll of innocents nonetheless: a 40-year-old female passerby who remonstrated with Balliet and a 20-year-old male customer at a Muslim-owned kebab restaurant targeted by Balliet after he sped away from the synagogue in his car.

It is a macabre irony that neither of his victims was Jewish or Muslim.

As horrifying as this attack was to outside observers, by the standards Balliet set for himself his stated purpose was to kill as many Jews as possible it was a colossal failure. Balliet speaks of himself like a loser, noted the correspondent of Der Tagesspiegel on the trials second day. And indeed, much of the reporting bolstered that impression as the details of Balliets schooling, his home life, his record of anti-Semitic and racist utterances, and his conviction that the Jews were to blame for both Germanys systemic failure and his own deadbeat existence were unveiled in the courtroom.

But the proceedings also revealed another side to Balliet: haughty, cruel and utterly without regret or remorse.

When the video of his outrage that he livestreamed was replayed to the court, he grinned throughout like a Cheshire cat.

When asked whether he would have slaughtered the children inside the synagogue had he managed to penetrate the sanctuary, he readily answered in the affirmative. And when given the opportunity to explain his act, he embraced it: What mattered, he said, was that other lone white men considering similar atrocities should take heart from the attention garnered by his attack, just as he had taken heart from the massacre a few months earlier at a mosque in Christchurch, New Zealand, by a white-supremacist shooter. (Not to mention the slaughter by another deranged lone-gun white supremacist at Pittsburghs Tree of Life Or LSimcha congregation in October 2018.)

One question that arises from Balliets trial is whether we will learn anything new about the intersection of political extremism with an individuals personal crisis, or whether, as the reporting thus far suggests, much of what we already know is being confirmed.

I have questioned a hundred people on the reasons for their anti-Semitism, wrote the French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre in 1946, sharing some of the various answers he received. A young painter told Sartre that Jews encouraged insubordination among domestic servants because of their critical habits. A young woman told him that she had been continually cheated by furriers, all of whom were Jews. An actor insisted that he would have enjoyed a glittering career in the theater had the Jews not confined him to supporting roles. A former schoolmate complained that Jews were being favored by examiners, who deliberately gave them higher grades than non-Jews. And so it went on.

Similar prejudices about Jews persist today in America and Europe, alongside newer tropes about Zionism or Israel. However, not everyone who believes them will admit to doing so, and of those who do, very few are going to engage in the acts of deadly violence witnessed in Pittsburgh and in Halle.

It is only on the basis of this last observation that faith in tolerance education teaching our children from an early age that differences should not be cause for enmity among humans becomes possible. But by the same token, we know that there are those, like Balliet, who reject these notions as a modern form of Jews poisoning wells, and who are perversely reinforced in their worldviews when they encounter Jews (or those they perceived as Jews) speaking about the Holocaust, or the evils of racism, or the difficulties faced by immigrants in their host societies. No conventional form of education is going to work in these cases.

If we have learned anything from Balliets trial so far, it is that we should assume that such attacks are always a possibility, in good times and in bad, and that our resources are best invested in preventing them.

When it came to the synagogue in Halle on Yom Kippur last year, that challenge was as basic as stationing a police car outside the building a measure that was, incredibly, not taken by the authorities in that city, despite the fact that it was Judaisms holiest, and therefore busiest, day.

The analysis of the lonely pathology that Balliet represents will continue, as it must, but it has taken more than enough lives already.

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A lonely, angry and deadly anti-Semite - The Jewish Star

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Posted By admin on August 8, 2020

At high school, he made no friends and didnt belong to any clubs.

He liked girls, but having a girlfriend was beyond his abilities.

Academically, he was undistinguished, doing well in biology but failing in English. When it came to his free time, most of that was spent on the internet. Once he graduated, he left home for a spell of military service. He lasted six months, dismissing the experience as exhausting, stupid, and not a real army. From there, he enrolled as a student in a local college, but he quit that, too, after, as he put it, falling ill.

For the last five years, he had done nothing at all. The day that ended with his name and awful deed inscribed in headlines across the world began with him as an unknown 27-year-old, unemployed and living at home with a mother whose doting couldnt quite quell the anger rising within him.

This is the portrait of Stephan Balliet the German neo-Nazi who mounted an armed attack on a synagogue in the city of Halle last Yom Kippur that has emerged from German media accounts of his trial, which began two weeks ago at the high court in Magdeburg.

Balliets act, which he live streamed over the internet, shocked Germany and left its law-enforcement agencies heaving sighs of relief when it transpired that he failed to penetrate the synagogues heavy doors that stood between the 51 worshipers inside the sanctuary and his bullets and grenades. But there was a death toll of innocents nonetheless: a 40-year-old female passerby who remonstrated with Balliet and a 20-year-old male customer at a Muslim-owned kebab restaurant targeted by Balliet after he sped away from the synagogue in his car. It is a macabre irony that neither of his victims was Jewish or Muslim.

As horrifying as this attack was to outside observers, by the standards Balliet set for himself his stated purpose was to kill as many Jews as possible it was a colossal failure. Balliet speaks of himself like a loser, noted the correspondent of Der Tagesspiegel on the trials second day. And indeed, much of the reporting bolstered that impression as the details of Balliets schooling, his home life, his record of anti-Semitic and racist utterances, and his conviction that the Jews were to blame for both Germanys systemic failure and his own deadbeat existence were unveiled in the courtroom.

But the proceedings also revealed another side to Balliet: haughty, cruel and utterly without regret or remorse. When the video of his outrage that he live streamed was replayed to the court, he grinned throughout like a Cheshire cat. When asked whether he would have slaughtered the children inside the synagogue had he managed to penetrate the sanctuary, he readily answered in the affirmative.

And when given the opportunity to explain his act, he embraced it: What mattered, he said, was that other lone white men considering similar atrocities should take heart from the attention garnered by his attack, just as he had taken heart from the massacre a few months earlier at a mosque in Christchurch, New Zealand, by a white-supremacist shooter. Not to mention the slaughter by another deranged lone-gun white supremacist at Pittsburghs Tree of Life congregation in October 2018.

One question that arises from Balliets trial is whether we will learn anything new about the intersection of political extremism with an individuals personal crisis, or whether, as the reporting thus far suggests, much of what we already know is being confirmed. I have questioned a hundred people on the reasons for their anti-Semitism, wrote the French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre in 1946, sharing some of the various answers he received.

A young painter told Sartre that Jews encouraged insubordination among domestic servants because of their critical habits. A young woman told him that she had been continually cheated by furriers, all of whom were Jews. An actor insisted that he would have enjoyed a glittering career in the theater had the Jews not confined him to supporting roles. A former schoolmate complained that Jews were being favored by examiners, who deliberately gave them higher grades than non-Jews. And so it went on.

Similar prejudices about Jews persist today in America and Europe, alongside newer tropes about Zionism or Israel. However, not everyone who believes them will admit to doing so, and of those who do, very few are going to engage in the acts of deadly violence witnessed in Pittsburgh and in Halle.

It is only on the basis of this last observation that faith in tolerance education teaching our children from an early age that differences should not be cause for enmity among humans becomes possible. But by the same token, we know that there are those, like Balliet, who reject these notions as a modern form of Jews poisoning wells, and who are perversely reinforced in their worldviews when they encounter Jews (or those they perceived as Jews) speaking about the Holocaust, or the evils of racism, or the difficulties faced by immigrants in their host societies. No conventional form of education is going to work in these cases.

If we have learned anything from Balliets trial so far, it is that we should assume that such attacks are always a possibility, in good times and in bad, and that our resources are best invested in preventing them. When it came to the synagogue in Halle on Yom Kippur last year, that challenge was as basic as stationing a police car outside the building a measure that was, incredibly, not taken by the authorities in that city, despite the fact that it was Judaisms holiest, and therefore busiest, day. The analysis of the lonely pathology that Balliet represents will continue, as it must, but it has taken more than enough lives already.

Ben Cohen is a New York City-based journalist and author who writes a weekly column on Jewish and international affairs for JNS. To read more of Cohens columns, visit cjn.org/cohen.

Letters, commentaries and opinions appearing in the Cleveland Jewish News do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the Cleveland Jewish Publication Company, its board, officers or staff.

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The lonely, angry anti-Semite rises - Cleveland Jewish News

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Posted By admin on August 8, 2020

Rosh Hashanah is one of the holiest days of the year for Jews. It is the Jewish new year, and it is a major time of prayer, reflection on the year that's just passed, and setting intentions for the year ahead. Many Jews spend a large part of Rosh Hashanah in synagogues praying with their community, but if you want to spend some time praying this Rosh Hashanah and you can't make it to a temple service or you're weary about attending due to COVID-19, then there are definitely Rosh Hashanah prayers you can say at home. As the pandemic makes interacting with your community evermore difficult, reciting the basic Rosh Hashanah prayers at home alone or with your loved ones can be a great way to recreate that sense of community.

Lighting candles is a major part of all Jewish holidays. There are many reasons why candlelight is important in Jewish tradition, and a lot of it comes from the Torah. "The process of imposing order on chaos begins with the divine command, 'Let there be light' (Genesis 1:3)," said Ismar Schorsch, a professor at the Jewish Theological Seminary. As you light candles this Rosh Hashanah, you can say the following prayer:

Baruch atah Adonai, Eloheinu Melech haolam, asher kid'shanu b'mitzvotav v'tzivanu l'hadlik ner shel (Shabbat v'shel) Yom Tov.

The English translation is: Blessed are You, our God, Ruler of the world, who sanctifies us with mitzvot and calls upon us to kindle the lights of (Shabbat and) the Festival day.

The Kiddush is a blessing to sanctify the beginning of the holiday. It is said over a glass of wine or grape juice.

Baruch atah, Adonai Eloheinu, Melech haolam, borei p'ri hagafen.

Baruch atah, Adonai Eloheinu, Melech haolam, asher bachar banu mikol-am, vrommanu mikol-lashon, kid'shanu b'mitzvotav. Va-titen-lanu Adonai Eloheinu, bahavah et-yom ha-zikaron ha-zeh, yom Truah, mikrah kodesh, zacher li-tzi-at Mitrayim. Ki vanu vacharta, v'otanu kidashta, mikol haamim, udvrachah emet vkayam la-ad. Baruch atah, Adonai, Melech al kol ha-aretz, mikadesh Yisrael vyom hazikaron.

The English translation is:

Praise to You, Adonai our God, Sovereign of the universe, Creator of the fruit of the vine.

Praise to You, Adonai our God, Sovereign of the universe, who has chosen us from all the peoples, hallowing us with mitzvot. In Your love, Adonai our God, You have given us this Day of Remembrance, to hear the sound of the Shofar, to unite in worship, and to recall the Exodus from Egypt. For You have chosen us from all the peoples, consecrating us to Your service, and Your word is truth eternal. Praised is the Sovereign God, Sovereign of all the world, who hallows the House of Israel and the Day of Remembrance.

The Shehecheyanu is a prayer that Jews say to mark special occasions. It is said on especially holy days, but it is also said as a celebration and thank you for blessings that occur in everyday life such as the birth of a child, getting a new job, or achieving something you worked very hard for or didn't think you could. As Rosh Hashanah is one of the holiest days on the Jewish calendar, it is an important time to say the Shehecheyanu.

Baruch atah, Adonai Eloheinu, Melech haolam, shehecheyanu vkiymanu vhigianu lazman hazeh.

In English: Praise to You, Adonai our God, Sovereign of the universe, for giving us life, for sustaining us, and for enabling us to reach this season.

On Rosh Hashanah, Jews eat apples dipped in honey to signify the sweet new year. If you're enjoying the special new year treat, then you can say this two-part prayer before enjoying the sweetness.

Baruch atah Adonai, Eloheinu melech ha-olam, borei pri ha-eitz.

In English: We praise You, Eternal God, Sovereign of the Universe, Creator of the fruit of the tree.

Yhi ratzon milfanecha, Adonai Eloheinu vEloheiavoteinu vimoteinu, shetchadesh aleinu shanah tovah umtukah.

In English: May it be Your will, Eternal our God, that this be a good and sweet year for us.

Whether you're celebrating Rosh Hashanah in a synagogue or at home this year, these prayers can provide comfort and celebration as you reflect on the past year and prepare to enter the new one. Happy Rosh Hashanah and Shanah Tovah!

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Celebrate Rosh Hashanah With These Prayers to Welcome the New Year - WomansDay.com

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Posted By admin on August 8, 2020

Pincus Orlander

My great-great-uncle, Rabbi Levi Yitchok Gruenwald, fled Vienna after the Anschluss in 1938 and came to New York City with my grandparents where he started his own congregation. His Williamsburg-based synagogue included a yeshiva with dual curriculum within its education system, focusing on the faith as well as skills to live in New York. Rabbi Gruenwald was able to form his congregation and its educational extension because of the religious freedom that America prides itself on.

The yeshiva system is the best of both worldsit allows for a cultivated religious education coupled with academic skills to help its students become productive members of society. It prioritizes the philosophy and values of Jewish heritage and religion to play a major role in our childrens educational experience and personal development by relying on rigorous Talmudic study to continue to be the primary source of guidance and inspiration of the Jewish people. Yet the New York State Education Department is trying to sanction yeshivas because their curriculum is different.

The yeshiva system requires students to read, speak and learn in multiple languages, a skill that is proven to improve memory and concentration in young people. This allows students to develop an analytical brain to really grasp a wide variety of information. All of my children are currently in yeshiva schools and they are becoming intelligent, valuable members of society through an education rooted in their faith.

I attended the yeshiva Belz Elementary and High School in Brooklyn, New Yorkthe same school as a critic of yeshivasand then went on to receive my degree in speech pathology from Touro College. My experience with yeshiva education guided me on this path and allowed me to become the successful professional that I am today. It put me in a position to create a practice focused on multiculturalism, helping children of all backgrounds improve their speech, reading, writing and overall educational experience. My yeshiva education taught me to give back to the community which has provided me with so much.

Freedom of religion and cultural diversity are cornerstones of the American experience. That is why my great-uncle fled to New York: he knew he would be able to live as who he was and practice what he believed in. The NYS Education Department stepping in and taking away our rights to lawfully teach our pupils ethnic, religious and moral values beneficial to their personal development and their communities is nothing other than wholly un-American.

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Yeshiva Education - The Best of Both (OPINION) - BKLYNER - BKLYNER

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Posted By admin on August 8, 2020

For my thirteenth birthday, my stepfather gave me a camera. I had just arrived in New York City without any spoken English, but his gift enabled me to begin to communicate with the world through images. It was the beginning of a lifelong passion.

Now, I am a professional photographer, one who has spent her life in a mix of cultures. I work primarily in the Ultra-Orthodox Jewish community as a wedding photographer.

During a Hasidic wedding, as in most of their daily activities, men and women are separated; it is my job to photograph the women.

Though the Hasidic community inspires the curiosity of outsiders, I cannot display my pictures publicly; concealment of femininity is integral to their lives. Therefore, I find creative ways of showing these images. To maintain their modesty, I use artful methods of concealing the womens faces. I am put in the awkward position of representing this invisible group, simultaneously concealing and revealing the lives of Hasidic women who are not allowed to be seen in the outside world, or within their own community.

Separation of the sexes is the basis of their way of life, and although I am uncomfortable around such extreme inequality, I feel privileged to be allowed into this exclusive world. As a secular Jew, Hasidism has always been foreign to me, but as I record one of the most important moments of their lives, being accepted by them however briefly has been a revelation.

Weddings are central to the communitys life. In the secular world, people socialize at bars, clubs etc. all places forbidden to this group. Weddings are celebrated everyday, except on the Sabbath and are gathering places where men and women, separated by the mechitzah (movable wall), dance, drink and enjoy themselves. An unspoken sexual tension fills the air. A boy is to become a man, and a virginal bride, a woman.

A striking element in the wedding is when the bride is covered by an opaque veil by her future husband before the ceremony, which is removed after she is married. My series on the veiled bride portrays her most vulnerable moments I have wondered what she is thinking, hidden and alone during those twenty minutes that mark her transition from girlhood to a wife, married to a man she hardly knows.

My series on hands emerges from the same issue of concealment/revelation. I discovered the fascinating effects of hands communicating feelings and, however unconsciously, sensuality.

In their separation from men, women develop close relationships. I have illustrated this woman-to-woman closeness and noted that these intimate moments of women clinging to one another goes beyond the Hasidic world. By removing all specific context from the images, I illustrate the primal connection between all women.

In those rare quiet moments, I talk to the children, the brides friends older teens often engaged to be married and their mothers, and have published these bits of conversation on my blog. They reveal a different world hidden, vulnerable and yet their celebrations are exultant. Their joys and deep connections are essential to their way of life.

Ghila Krajzman was born in Israel and moved to Belgium at age 3. She has been working full time as a photographer in the Hasidic community for the past 10 years.

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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Photos reveal the hidden side of Hasidic weddings - Forward

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Posted By admin on August 8, 2020

Here is a sampling of the weeks events and how to tune in (all times are Eastern). Note that events are subject to change after publication.

Lincoln Centers annual Mostly Mozart Festival, a summer tradition that celebrates the composers talent, moves to the airwaves this year. Every hour of airtime on WQXR radio this week is dedicated to the classical legend. (You can also tune in at WQXR.org.) Listeners are treated to performances of Mozarts oeuvre, as well as readings of his letters, musical homages from other artists and even trivia.

When Until Aug.16Where wqxr.org/story/mostly-mozart

Have an evening filled with poetry, courtesy of the Whiting Foundation, a nonprofit that recognizes and supports emerging writers. Aria Aber, Diannely Antigua, Jake Skeets and Genya Turovskaya each a winner of this years Whiting Award read their poems at a digital event co-hosted by Books Are Magic, a Brooklyn bookshop.

When 7 p.m.Where booksaremagic.net

Take a master class in ballet taught by Benjamin Millepied, a choreographer and the artistic director of L.A. Dance Project. The companys digital platform also offers virtual workouts as well as a video library containing wellness tips, performances and interviews. There are a handful of unlocked options or you can sign up for a free one-week trial.

When Anytime

Where now.ladanceproject.org

The owners of Gefilteria, an Ashkenazi Jewish food company based in New York City, share their secrets to pickling because surely you're sick of all that sourdough bread-baking. The $25 program includes a culinary lesson and an introduction to Jewish history and cuisine.

When 7 p.m.Where eventbrite.com

Take a closer, entirely different look at the brain. Tatiana Mitra, an artist based in New York, and her husband, Partha Mitra a physicist and neuroscientist studied gray matter from humans, octopi, zebra finches, mice and turtles to create gigapixel photographs and ink drawings. The works, collected for an exhibition at the New York Hall of Science, are as detailed as they are astounding.

When AnytimeWhere nysci.org/home/exhibits

Remember OK boomer? Jill Filipovic, a lawyer and contributing opinion writer for The New York Times, turns the retort into a rallying cry in her book, OK Boomer, Lets Talk. In an online discussion with the cultural critic Baratunde Thurston for Politics and Prose, a bookstore in Washington, D.C., Ms. Filipovic explains how millennials livelihoods are threatened by the decision-making of older generations.

When 8 p.m.Where politics-prose.com/events

Drift away with David Zwirners At Sea digital exhibition, which features more than 30 works by the likes of Gustave Courbet, Diane Arbus and Cecily Brown. Each of the paintings and photographs be it a product of 19th-century Realism or a contemporary performance piece ruminates on one of arts oldest muses.

When AnytimeWhere davidzwirner.com/viewing-room/at-sea

Put your imagination and knowledge of physics to the test with Rube Goldberg Inc.s 2020 challenge. Using a cat, a domino set and anything else you have at home, the goal is to water a plant in 10 to 20 steps; film your working contraption (horizontally, please) and submit your footage for a chance to win bragging rights and $200.

When Submissions accepted until Aug. 21 at 12 p.m.Where rubegoldberg.com

Catch a recent film made by an East or Southeast Asian director on Filmatique. The streaming platform, which offers a free monthlong trial, has uploaded the first two selections from its latest themed series, Contemporary Asian Voices: Phuttiphong Aroonphengs 2018 drama Manta Ray and Jia Zhangkes 2015 romance Mountains May Depart, a Times critics pick.

When AnytimeWhere filmatique.com/curated-series

Celebrate dance from the Middle East. The Annual Battery Dance Festival presents pieces by Hoedy Saad, who took the ballroom scene to Beirut; Project TAG, a company from Iraqi Kurdistan; and Tanin Torabi, a choreographer and performer from Iran. The program also commemorates the life of Ayman Safiah, a Palestinian dancer who drowned in May.

When 7 p.m.Where batterydance.org

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Perfect the Art of Pickling and Ponder a Night of Poetry - The New York Times

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Posted By admin on August 8, 2020

Peace Now on Sunday urged Alternative Prime Minister Benny Gantz and Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi to put a halt to the controversial east Jerusalem Jewish GIVAT HAMATOS housing project before it destroyed any possibility of a two-state resolution to the conflict.This is a destructive plan that, if implemented, will fatally block the possibility of creating territorial contiguity between east Jerusalem and Bethlehem, Peace Now wrote in a letter to the two top Blue and White politicians. The left-wing NGO added that the plan would stop any possibility of achieving peace. The tender for 1,077 new homes was published in February, but the details necessary for project submissions have yet to be posted on the Lands Authority website. Initially, the tender was slated to be opened from May 3 to June 20. That date, however, was pushed back to Sunday, August 2 until September 7. According to Peace Now, as of Sunday evening, no such details had been posted on the Lands Authority site.Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promoted the project during the last election as an essential component of a united Jerusalem. The Palestinians are opposed to all Jewish housing projects such as this one, which is located over the pre-1967 lines in Jerusalem. They regard east Jerusalem as the future Palestinian capital even though Israel formally annexed that territory in 1980.But the Givat HaMatos project is viewed as particularly problematic because it is located near the Jewish Har Homa neighborhood in an area that borders Jerusalem and the nearby Palestinian city of Bethlehem, thereby helping cut off easy contiguity between Arab neighborhoods of Jerusalem and Bethlehem.Last week, 15 European countries and the European Union issued a formal diplomatic complaint against the Givat HaMatos project and a second controversial project, known as E1.The countries signed on the complaint are: France, Germany, Italy, Spain, the UK, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Ireland, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia and Sweden.The E1 project calls for the construction of 3,412 homes in an unbuilt area of the West Bank Maaleh Adumim settlement near Jerusalem.That E1 project is advancing through the Higher Planning Council for Judea and Samaria, where the objection period is slated to end on August 18. Palestinians hold that this project also harms contiguity of their future state, thereby making it unviable.According to US President Donald Trumps peace plan, both the Givat Hamatos project and the E1 project are in territory designated for sovereign Israel.Peace Now and the Palestinians hold that both those areas will be part of a future Palestinian state, baseD on the pre-1967 lines.PLO Executive Committee member Hanan Ashrawi said on Saturday that the European objection was not enough and that concrete action must be taken.Rhetorical opposition has not deterred Israel. In fact, Israel is emboldened to escalate its criminal actions precisely because it is confident that opposition will not move from the verbal to the practical, Ashrawi said.If implemented, these Israeli plans would completely sever occupied Jerusalem from its natural Palestinian surrounding and cut the occupied West Bank in half, she added.While the international community is concerned with the "possibility" of annexation, Israel is implementing its annexation scheme on the ground without any deterrence, Ashrawi said.Lahav Harkov contributed to this report.

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Peace Now asks Blue and White to halt east Jerusalem Givat Hamatos homes - The Jerusalem Post

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Posted By admin on August 8, 2020

Hollywoods long-held August ritual dumping all the mediocre movies into theaters to get them off the studios slates has been disrupted this year, for a simple reason: Movie theaters, by and large, arent open. Couple that with the ever-evolving release schedule and you get an unusually eclectic month of films, albeit mostly on digital platforms and in drive-in theaters.

There are a whole lot of good films out this weekend, but one worth highlighting is An American Pickle, which stars Seth Rogen and ... Seth Rogen:

Its a light, sweet comedy, adapted by Simon Rich from his 2013 serialized New Yorker story Sell Out (which you can read in four parts) and directed by Brandon Trost. Rogen plays an impoverished Ashkenazi Jew named Herschel Greenbaum, who, in the 1920s, marries a woman named Sarah (Sarah Snook) and immigrates to New York City. He gets a job in a pickle factory and promises Sarah that their descendants will be wealthy and successful.

But unfortunately, Herschel falls into a vat of pickles and wakes up, perfectly preserved, in modern-day New York City, 80 years later. There, he discovers his only living relative is Ben Greenbaum (also Rogen), an app developer in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. The two go searching for the family cemetery plot where Sarah is buried, and they find it. But its surrounded by highways.

As you might imagine, this does not please Herschel. Finding the burial plot kicks off the great-grandfather and great-grandsons series of mishaps, and along the way they learn a lot. An American Pickle is about many things family, ambition, wondering if your ancestors would be pleased with you but its at its best when illustrating how hard it is, and has always been, to just scratch out a living. Whether youre a pickle maker or an app coder or anything in between, just affording the rent in 2020 can be a cause for worry, let alone starting a business. And in the midst of that anxiety, your friends and family can be your best support ... or your worst enemy. (You can watch An American Pickle exclusively on HBO Max.)

An American Pickle isnt the only new movie that centers on anxiety this week. I can hear you saying, Oh, great! Just what I need. But the good news is theres a film for every way of dealing with whatever it is youre anxious about.

Well, A Thousand Cuts wont exactly comfort you, but it will arm you to fight back by understanding the slip from democracy into autocracy in the Philippines under the violent rule of Rodrigo Duterte. Director Ramona S. Diaz follows the story of journalist Maria Ressa, CEO of the independent press outlet Rappler, who has been jailed, arrested, and harassed by the government, as well as influencers and candidates who support Duterte. Its a chilling and daring film, and essential viewing. (You can watch it in virtual cinemas or on an August 9 live stream; more details at the films website.)

Check out I Used to Go Here, starring Gillian Jacobs (best known as Britta Perry from Community) as a Chicago writer named Kate Conklin. Her first novel is coming out, but her life is falling apart: Shes split from her fianc, her publisher just canceled her book tour, and shes beginning to worry shes a fraud. So when a former professor (Jemaine Clement) calls to ask her to give a reading at her alma mater, she jumps at the chance. The film, which was supposed to premiere at South by Southwest before the festival was canceled this year, is a sweet, funny coming-of-age-in-your-30s story from director Kris Rey (Unexpected) and producers Andy Samberg, Akiva Schaffer, and Jorma Taccone, better known as the Lonely Island. (You can watch I Used to Go Here on streaming platforms such as Apple TV and Google Play.)

She Dies Tomorrow is a brilliant, atmospheric drama about a young woman named Amy (Kate Lyn Sheil), a recovering alcoholic, who becomes convinced shes about to die the next day. Shes not suicidal; she just knows its going to happen. But her premonition is not hers alone it starts to spread to her friends. She Dies Tomorrow is designed to infect you, too, at least a little colored lights, unidentifiable soundscapes, and a heavy pace cast a spell of existential dread. The mood is catching. She Dies Tomorrow challenges both what we pretend to be and what we really are by forcing us to remember that were real, living in bodies that wont last forever. (You can watch She Dies Tomorrow on digital services such as Apple TV and Google Play and at select drive-in theaters.)

Im not entirely sure why we needed a new movie version of Frances Hodgson Burnetts 1911 novel The Secret Garden, but Im not mad about it. This one is moody and a little mystical. It tells the story mostly through the eyes of Mary Lennox (Dixie Egerickx), who moves into the palatial English manor occupied by her bereaved and cold widower uncle (Colin Firth) after her parents die of cholera in India. Left to her own devices, Mary discovers both a sickly cousin hidden away in a wing of the house and a garden she believes to be magical on the property. Its a relatively faithful adaptation of the classic book, but even if youre familiar with the story, its a bit bewitching. (You can watch The Secret Garden on digital and on-demand platforms; a full listing is on the films website.)

Look, the cure for any malaise is a dance competition movie. Everyone knows this, including Netflix, and thats where Work It comes in. Starring Sabrina Carpenter and Liza Koshy (who are both pretty great), the movie follows the saga of high schooler Quinn Ackerman (Carpenter), who accidentally tells the admissions offer at Duke that shes part of her high schools champion dance team. Quinn is emphatically not a dancer, but she has to figure out a way to become one to get into Duke, and thus the antics begin. So brilliantly does Work It understand the formula for a dance movie that scarcely 10 minutes in, theres already a wholly unmotivated dance-off. Also, Alicia Keys is one of the producers. (Work It is streaming on Netflix.)

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Seth Rogen in An American Pickle, She Dies Tomorrow, and 4 other great new movies - Vox.com

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