Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By admin on September 17, 2018

Central Synagogue (Congregation Ahawath Chesed Shaar Hashomayim)[3] is a Reform synagogue located at 652 Lexington Avenue, at the corner of East 55th Street in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. It was built in 1870-72 and was designed by Henry Fernbach in the Moorish Revival style as a copy of Budapest's Dohny Street Synagogue.[6] It has been in continuous use by a congregation longer than any other in the state of New York,[4][7][8] and is among the oldest synagogue buildings still standing in the United States.[9]

The building was designated a New York City landmark by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission in 1966[4] and was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1970.[1] It was then designated a National Historic Landmark in 1975.[5][7]

On Wednesdays at 12:45p.m. a docent conducts a free tour, which begins at the front entrance.

The Ahawath Chesed congregation was founded in 1846 on Ludlow Street in Manhattan by German-speaking Jews from Bohemia. It merged in 1898 with Congregation Shaar Hashomayim, which was founded by German Jews in 1839 on Albany Street.[4][2][10] The combined congregation bought the lot at Lexington Avenue and East 55th Street and engaged Henry Fernbach, the country's first prominent Jewish architect, to design it.[3]

The dramatic style of the building was the subject of much debate during the construction. Some felt its excess would inspire envy and stand in the way of assimilation.[11]

After a fire in 1886, the building was restored by Ely Jacques Kahn.[3]

The building was restored in the original style after an accidental fire in August 1998,[12] which occurred just as a major renovation was being completed.[2][10] The fire destroyed the roof and its supports. During the fire, the firefighters' sensitivity for the building saved all but the central pane in the rose window that dominates the eastern (Lexington Avenue) wall. Marble plaques on the north wall of the foyer honor the firefighters of the 8th Battalion of the New York City Fire Department. The restoration of the building was supervised by Hugh Hardy of Hardy Holzman Pfeiffer.[2] Hardy restored some details to the interior that Ely Jacques Kahn had removed in the earlier restoration in 1886. The recent restoration was completed on September 9, 2001[3]

Although the brownstone exterior is "the finest extant example of the Moorish Revival style in New York City", the plan of the interior is Gothic in nature. The exterior is dominated by two octagonal towers topped by globular domes, as well as by the rose window of geometric design. A small row of arches just below the cornice, at the roof line, adds to the richness of the facade. The north facade, on East 55th Street, features six stained-glass windows framed by Moorish arches.[4][2] The interior is "stenciled with rich blues, earthy reds, ocher, and gilt Moorish, but distinctly 19th century American."[3]

Sensitive to the evolving interests and needs of the Reform Judaism community, Central Synagogue explores both traditional and alternative modes of prayer. In addition to daily morning minyan, Shabbat, holiday services, and celebrations of lifecycle events, the synagogue offers "Tot Shabbat" for children, and healing and community services.

Source: [10]

The entrance to the synagogue (2012)

Moorish Revival detail, south tower of the Central Synagogue (2011)

The onion dome and star at the top of one of the towers (2012)

A detail of the interior (2010)

The Coffey Community House at 123 East 55th Street, around the corner from the synagogue (2017)

More here:

Central Synagogue - Wikipedia

Category: Synagogue | Comments Off on Central Synagogue – Wikipedia
Tags:

Posted By richards on September 15, 2018

"In this extraordinary book, Alan Hart has succeeded in elucidating for us the immediate and long term dangers involved in the unconditional Western support for Zionism and its oppressive policies against the Palestinians. The author provides us with a chilling exposure of how this embrace developed and continues to endanger the Jewish existence and fuels the anti-Semitism that refuses to disappear. Motivated by a genuine concern for peace in Israel and Palestine and beyond in the world at large, Alan Hart has written not only a strong indictment of Zionism, based on both research and personal experience, but also provided us with a charter for a better future..." Ilan Pappe, Israel's leading revisionist historian and author of The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine

"In this extraordinary book, Alan Hart has succeeded in elucidating for us the immediate and long term dangers involved in the unconditional Western support for Zionism and its oppressive policies against the Palestinians. The author provides us with a chilling exposure of how this embrace developed and continues to endanger the Jewish existence and fuels the anti-Semitism that refuses to disappear. Motivated by a genuine concern for peace in Israel and Palestine and beyond in the world at large, Alan Hart has written not only a strong indictment of Zionism, based on both research and personal experience, but also provided us with a charter for a better future." Clare Short, MP-UK and International Development Secretary in Tony Blairs government until her resignation over Iraq

"I hope that all who are concerned about the troubles of the Middle East will read this book. It is immensely readable and a magnificent piece of work which reflects Alan Hart's close relationship with Israeli and Palestinian leaders. We are in terrible trouble in the Middle East. The book explains how we got here and how we could move forward. The tragedy is hurting Palestinians, Israelis and the rest of the world. All who wish to engage in finding a way forward will be helped by reading this book." Mark Bruzonsky MiddleEast.org, founder World Jewish Congress, first Washington Representative

"As a principled and historical review it is excellent, of great importance I think in terms of content, and the series when finished may even be considered heroic in effort and scope." Samira Quraishy, researcher, Islamic Human Rights Commission

See the original post here:
Zionism: The Real Enemy of the Jews, Vol. 1: The False ...

Category: Zionism | Comments Off on Zionism: The Real Enemy of the Jews, Vol. 1: The False …
Tags:

Posted By admin on September 14, 2018

Zionism was a nationalist political movement by East European Jews dedicated to reestablishing the Jewish state in the land of Israel, starting in the late 19th century. The goal was achieved with the independence of Israel in 1948, and the term now connotes political support for the continued existence of this Jewish nation. History

Although Jews have been returning to their homeland throughout the last two thousand years, the movement in its modern guise was started in the 1890s.

For many centuries there was talk but no action; Jews did not have their own country, and most were restricted to ghettos. By 1810 the French Revolution and Napoleon liberated most of the Jews of Europe from the ghettos, allowing a new level of mobility. The Romanticism of the 19th century inspired a modern Jewish identity that led to much talk of their own nation. The movement was inspired by the writings of Moses Hess, David Luzatto, Leo Pinsker, Zvi Kalischer, and Yehudah Alkalai; funding came from philanthropists Moses Montefiore, Edmond de Rothschild, and Maurice de Hirsch.

The first wave of settlement began operations in Palestine in the 1880s; Palestine was part of the Ottoman Empire until it collapsed in 1918.[1]

The first Zionist Congress met in Basel, Switzerland in August 1897, attracting 204 Jews from 15 countries. Under the leadership of Theodor Herzl (1860-1904), it resolved that "Zionism aims at the creation of a home for the Jewish people in Palestine to be secured by public law," and encouraged organized emigration and colonization. Herzl formed the World Zionist Congress, making it an effective worldwide political movement. Despite opposition from assimilationist Jews and internal divisions the Zionist organization gathered strength. After Herzl died in 1904, the leadership of the movement passed to the "practicals" notably Dr. Chaim Weizmann, who argued that Zionism should concern itself with the Jewish cultural renaissance and gradual settlement efforts in Palestine as well as with diplomatic efforts to create a legal foundation for the settlements. In 1905 one faction withdrew when the majority rejected a British proposal for establishing a Jewish homeland in Uganda, Africa.

A second, much larger wave of settlement began after the revolutionary upheavals in Russia in 1905. Most settlers supported socialist versions of Zionism, both Marxist and non-Marxist. They pioneered a new type of settlement, the kibbutz (or "kvutzah"), a cooperative in which land was owned and worked communally by the Jewish settlers. These idealistic immigrants had an influence on the development of Zionism and the state of Israel far out of proportion to their numbers. The immigrants were aided by the Jewish National Fund (Keren Kayemeth), established by the Zionist Organization to buy land in Palestine as the inalienable property of the Jewish people. By 1914, 12,000 Jews were cultivating 100,000 acres in 43 agricultural settlements. The total Jewish population was 100,000. Zionists idealized the muscular young Jews tilling the soil of the Holy Land; the heroic self-image of the brave pioneer stood in stark contrast to Gentile stereotypes of the feminized Jewish weakling or the avaricious Jew-as-money changer.

During World War I, the British government sought Jewish support. In 1917 Weizmann secured from the British government the Balfour Declaration, which promised support for "the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people," though nothing was to be done that might "prejudice the civil and religious rights of the existing non-Jewish communities." It did not promise an independent statein Palestine. The League of Nations created a British mandate, with full control over Palestine in 1922.

In a third wave of settlement, tens of thousands of Jews arrived, mostly from Europe. They lived separately from the Arabs, though in close proximity.

The British cooperated with the Jewish Agency, which was responsible for Jewish immigration and development. Financing came from the Zionist Organization, which by the 1920s was largely funded by the large Jewish community in the United States. Institutions of national life developed rapidly. The Jews in Palestine were represented by an elected council (Vaad Leumi); it became the parliament (Knesset) of Israel in 1948. Although most settlers were farm workers, there was a very active trade union movement, the Histadrut, which also provided social welfare services. A military force, the Haganah, became an unofficial army. A new fund, the Keren Hayesod, provided capital for the development of Jewish cooperative and communal villages, which were grouped in federations of all persuasions, from religious orthodoxy to Marxism. New schools were founded, topped off by the Hebrew University, opened in 1926, a scientific center at Rehovoth, headed by Dr. Weizmann, and a Technical College at Haifa.

Hard times in the Great Depression led many to return to Europe or America; the Jewish population fell to 200,000 in 1933. The rise of Hitler, however, set off a wave of immigration, and by 1939 the Jewish population had reached 446,000. The rapid growth intensified the opposition of the Arabs. There were Arab riots against British support of a Jewish national home in 1921 and 1929, and from 1936 to 1939 there was rebellion throughout the Arab areas of Palestine. The British responded with a White Paper in 1939 that attempted to impose final limits on Jewish immigration and land purchases, but the situation of Jews in Europe was so desperate that immigration increased illegally. The British refusal to make further concessions to Jewish demands provoked attacks by Jewish terrorists of the Irgun, an underground organization Zvai Leumi, commanded by Menachem Begin, and its offshoot (from 1940) the Stern Gang.

In 1947, the UN recommended the ending of the British mandate and the partition of the country into Arab and Jewish states; Jerusalem was to be internationalized. Zionists reluctantly supported this proposal, while Arabs rejected it. Fighting broke out and on May 14, 1948, the British high commissioner departed, and the same day the Vaad Leumi declared the independence of the State of Israel, which was quickly recognized by both the United States and the Soviet Union. The next day five Arab countries launched a military attack against Israel. But they were quickly defeated, allowing Israel to annex half of Jerusalem and half of the territory allotted to the Palestinian Arabs, while Jordan annexed the remainder of Palestine except for the Gaza Strip, which was occupied by Egypt.

The next three years 1948-51 saw a mass immigration in which approximately 700,000 Jews emigrated to the new state, mostly Holocaust survivors from Europe, thereby doubling the Jewish population.

see American Jews

Zionism grew rapidly in the U.S. after 1900, based largely among Yiddish-speaking recent immigrants from Russia. The Reform Jews, of German background, largely opposed the movement with the main exception of Louis Brandeis, the Supreme Court justice who became a key leader. There were three main groups in 1918: the Zionist Organization of America had 149,000 members, the Mizrachi religious Zionists had 18,000 and the Labor Zionists ( Poalei Zion) had 7,000. The pro-Zionist Yiddish language daily newspapers of the periodthe Yidishes Tageblat, Morgen Zhurnal, the Maccabaean, and Der Togtogether had a combined circulation in 1917 of over 200,000.

The Labor Zionists, although originally founded in Europe on the basis of socialism, had Americanized and largely abandoned socialism in the 1920s. Membership of all three plummeted during the early 1920s, but soared the after Arab massacres of Jews in Palestine in 1929 and the coming to power of Hitler and the Nazis in Germany in 1933.[2]

World War II marked a decisive watershed. The 1942 Biltmore Conference was a major step toward the activist program of David Ben Gurian and helped turn American Jews away from the pro-British approach of Weizmann. The American Jewish Conference, in August 1943, gave voice to the collective anguish of American Jewry over the full-scale annihilation of the Jews of Europe by the Nazis. The horror of the Holocaust shaped and galvanized American Zionism. It convinced many previously hostile or neutral American Jews that statehood was the best answer to the plight of the Jews of Europe. It catapulted Abba Hillel Silver and his fellow-activists to power and enabled them to transform the Zionist movement into a powerful force not only in the Jewish community but in the wider arena of American politics. For example, the new sensibility was embraced by President Harry S. Truman, who overrode his vehemently anti-Zionist State Department.[3]

The fighting between the Yishuv and the Palestinians, November 1947-14 May 1948, and the war between Israel and invading Arab armies, 15 May 1948-July 1949, represented a total war, as did the Six Day War pf 1967. The life and death of Israel were at stake and required the mobilization of not only the military but also the civilian population, the economy, and the social and political institutions of the Jewish communityas well as mobilizing support from the diaspora in the United States. These crises are a central part of Zionist memories and identity, in combination with memory of the Holocaust, and permanently shaped the Israeli-Arab situation as well as the evolution of the Israeli and Palestinian societies.[4]

Zionism, and Israel, are based on the connection between the Jewish religion and 'Jewishness,' which gives Israel and Zionism 'extraterritorial' power and rights ranging outside the country. This is similar to the ideologies dominant in Ireland, Tibet, and Armenia, where nationalist movements and nation-states are closely linked to religious heritage, a culture of forced diaspora, and the 'extraterritorial' power of their cultural or ethnic identities.

With few exceptions, Muslims around the world are hostile to Zionism and Israel, often to the point of promising the destruction of the state. The Palestinian Arabs, many of whom fled during the unrest that followed the reestablishment of the Israeli state are among those opposed to its existence, as are many other Arabs who are allied with them.

Since the 1960s anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism formed part of a larger ideological package consisting of anticolonialism, anticapitalism, and a deep suspicion of US policies. In the eyes of members of the developing countries, Jews became a symbol of the West and legitimate targets for hatred.

Iran espouses the most radical anti-Israeli or anti-Zionist position in the Muslim Middle East, calling for the elimination of Israel. Drawing on anti-Jewish traditions in Shi`i Islam, Ayatollah Khomeini, founder of the Islamic Republic, maintained that Zionism is the culmination of the Jewish-Christian conspiracy against Islam and undermines its historical mission. Fusing together Islamic and European anti-Jewish and anti-Zionist ideologies, Iran became a disseminator of Holocaust denial in the Middle East and a sponsor of Western Holocaust deniers. Iran's Holocaust denial, which aims at demolishing the legitimacy of the Jewish state, denies Jewish history and deprives the Jews of their human dignity by presenting their worst tragedy as a scam[5]

Zionism is sharply criticized in the U.S. and Europe by non-Jews who believe that Palestinians are poorly treated by Israel. In the U.S. other critics complain that pro-Israeli interest groups such as the American Israel Public Affairs Committee have an excessive amount of influence over US policy. In general, most of the left-wing parties in Europe today oppose Zionism and are hostile to Israel.

In the United States and Europe, until World War II the Reform Jews generally opposed Zionismoften denouncing it because it was the opposite of assimilation and American identity. In the U.S. opposition was centered in the American Council for Judaism.[6] With the establishment of Israel in 1948 the opposition softened, and when the Six Day War in 1967 showed Israel was vulnerable to attack, most previously negative Jews became supportive.[7]

In the U.S., many leftist Jews such as Noam Chomsky are hostile to Israel, and are often very friendly to Hamas and the Palestinian cause.

In Israel a small minority of religious Jews, most prominently the Neturei Karta sect, are anti-Zionist for theological reasons. After the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948, three important secular Jewish groups opposed an all-Jewish nation state because it was too religious. The Jewish Labor Bund retained its long-standing critical view of Zionism. Together with the Communist Party of Israel and the socialist Matzpen organization, it fought against Zionism both outside and inside Israel. The Bund challenged Israel's domination over the Jewish diaspora, its discrimination against Arabs in Israel, and its refusal to grant the Palestinians the right to self-determination. However, because of an understanding with the Communists, the Bund was not able to proclaim its ideas in the Israeli Knesset. The Bund remained a minor organization in Israel that had only limited success in the promotion of the Yiddish language and culture. The most important ideological change in the period 1948-72 was the strengthening of the right-wing and social democratic currents in the party. As regards the Bund's approach to the question of Israel/Palestine, the Bund's most significant shift was from advocating a binational federated state to advocating a federation of two nation-states.

The movement was theoretical and theological until recent decades, when it became the basis for widespread support for Israel among American Fundamentalists.

see Christian Zionism

Continue reading here:
Zionism - Conservapedia

Category: Zionism | Comments Off on Zionism – Conservapedia
Tags:

Posted By richards on September 4, 2018

A brave book. Paul Krugman, The New York Times

Passionately argued. David Remnick, The New Yorker

An excellent, loving, and wise book about Israel... Eminently reasonable. Joe Klein, Time

A sharp and ambitious polemic. Bernard Avishai, The Nation

An important new book that rejects the manipulation of Jewish victimhood in the name of Israel's domination of the Palestinians.... Important and timely for the future of Israel. Roger Cohen, The New York Times

Mr. Beinart has a book.... called The Crisis of Zionism. Chapter five, on 'The Jewish President,' fully justifies the cover price. Bret Stephens, The Wall Street Journal

A terrifyingly frank account of our current state of affairs. Andrew Sullivan

Mr. Beinart thinks America's Jews must redeem both themselves and Israel by rededicating themselves to Israel's ethical character.... The sentiment is noble, and the message deserves to be heard. The Economist

An impressive achievement. Alan Wolfe, The Chronicle of Higher Education

[A] probing, courageous and timely book... [It] marks a significant evolution in the debate over Israel. The National Interest

A passionately argued work that will evoke intense debate. Booklist

An elegant, deeply honest look at the failure of Jewish liberalism in forging Israel as a democratic state Straight talk by a clear-thinking intellectual with his heart in the right place. Kirkus Reviews

Peter Beinart has written a deeply important book for anyone who cares about Israel, its security, its democracy, and its prospects for a just and lasting peace. Beinart explains the roots of the current political and religious debates within Israel, raises the tough questions that can't be avoided, and offers a new way forward to achieve Zionism's founding ideals, both in Israel and among the diaspora Jews in the United States and elsewhere. President Bill Clinton

Peter Beinart has written the outstanding Zionist statement for the twenty-first century. The Crisis of Zionism is a courageously scathing critique of the sorry state of Zionism today and a clarion call to reaffirm the linkage of liberal values, Jewish commitment, and democratic practice that made the creation of the state of Israel possible and is the key to its moral and physical survival. Naomi Chazan, former deputy speaker of the Knesset and president of the New Israel Fund

Progress in the United States has most often occurred when patriotic Americans have insisted on facing our failures head on and holding us to our founding ideals. In that spirit, Peter Beinart has written a brave and important book about Zionism today. Anyone who loves Israel and wishes to see it survive must read this book. Anne-Marie Slaughter, Bert G. Kerstetter '66 University Professor of Politics and International Affairs, and former dean, Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, Princeton University

The Crisis of Zionism is a must read for everyone who cares about the future of Israel. Peter Beinart makes a strong case for a vision of Zionism that encompasses ending the occupation of the West Bank and deepening Jewish education in America. Even if you disagree with him, you should still read this book. Edgar M. Bronfman, president of The Samuel Bronfman Foundation

If you are concerned about Israel's future, you should read this book. It will inform, provoke, and challenge you, as the author, with clarity and grace, lays out the looming dangers to Israeli democracy and appeals for a Jewish state that is both democratic and just to all, including its Arab minority. Lee H. Hamilton, former Congressman and Vice-Chair of the 9/11 Commission

Continued here:
The Crisis of Zionism: Peter Beinart: 9781250026736 ...

Category: Zionism | Comments Off on The Crisis of Zionism: Peter Beinart: 9781250026736 …
Tags:

Posted By admin on August 26, 2018

Our Mission

Bnai Brith International is dedicated to improving the quality of life for people around the globe. We are a national and global leader in advancing human rights; Israel advocacy; ensuring access to safe and affordable housing for low-income seniors and advocacy on vital issues concerning seniors and their families; diversity education; improving communities and helping communities in crisis. Since 1843, Bnai Brith has played a vital role around the world.Making the world a safer, more tolerant and better place is the mission that still drives our organization.

Thus, B'nai B'rith (children of the covenant) was born.

The original members' first concrete action was creating an insurance policy that awarded members' widows $30 toward funeral expenses, and a stipend of one dollar a week for the rest of their lives. Each child would also receive a stipend and, for male children, assurance he would be taught a trade.

It is from this basis of humanitarian aid and service that a system of fraternal lodges and chapters grew in the United States and, eventually, around the world.

Bnai Brith is rooted in these major pillars:

Human Rights and Public Policy:We monitor and combat anti-Semitism and other human rights abuses around the world. Through our office of intercommunal affairs, we play an active role cultivating religious tolerance and cooperation internationally.

Supporting and Defending Israel:We are a staunch supporter and defender of Israel at the United Nations and its affiliated agencies, in world capitals and in a variety of international organizations. Our World Center in Jerusalem is our connection to a wide range of Israeli governmental, academic and cultural institutions. The World Center promotes strong Israel-Diaspora relations. It is the voice of the B'nai B'rith community to the Israeli government, national institutions and the NGO community in Israel. The World Center sponsors cultural programs and interchange. As a founding member of IsraAid, the World Center works with many other Israeli relief organizations.

Senior Advocacy and Housing:We are proud to be the largest Jewish sponsor of federally subsidized housing for the elderly in the United States with 42 buildings in 26 communities. Working in partnership with the Department of Housing and Urban Development, B'nai B'rith makes rental apartments available for senior citizens with limited incomes. B'nai B'rith senior housing is open to all qualified individuals as defined by HUD, without regard to race, color, religion, sex, handicap or national origin. This unparalleled expertise in protecting seniors and advocating on aging issues gives us the ability to also serve as a respected voice on a wide variety of issues affecting seniors, includingbut not limited toSocial Security and Medicare.Helping Communities:Bnai Brith has raised funds to help the victims of disasters around the world since 1865. Our commitment to helping communities lasts long after the first-responders have done their vital work. Additionally, Bnai Brith volunteers are active in their local communities with a wide variety of local projects ranging from distributing holiday-appropriate food for elderly Jewish residents who would not otherwise be able to celebrate the holiday to collecting and distributing day-old baked goods to shelters and schools to feed the hungry and much more.

B'nai B'rith International has been working for you and for all Jews around the world since 1843.

B'nai B'rith was present at the founding of the United Nations in San Francisco and has taken an active role ever since as an NGO (nongovernmental organization) advocating for Israel and human rights at the U.N. and other international organizations.

With the graying of the American-Jewish population, service to seniors became a major focus in 1971. In that year B'nai B'rith opened its first senior residence in what would become a network of 40 senior residences in more than 25 communities across the United States and internationally. B'nai B'rith is the largest national Jewish sponsor of housing for seniors.

B'nai B'rith International has not moved far from its roots, but rather allowed these roots to grow in countries all across the globe. No other Jewish organization can point to a longer, more all-encompassing history of service to Jews and all people around the world.

Since our founding in 1843, B'nai B'rith has been a leader in the fields of human rights, community service and philanthropy. Our vital work around the globe, spanning three centuries, has been recognized by U.S. presidents and other world leaders. From Glover Cleveland to Barack Obama, American presidents have acknowledged that B'nai B'rith's commitment to promoting programs of tolerance and diversity, enhancing cooperation between all races and religions, serving the vulnerable and advancing human rights has enriched not only the Jewish people, but all people.

View post:
About Us - bnaibrith.org

Category: B'nai B'rith | Comments Off on About Us – bnaibrith.org
Tags:

Posted By simmons on August 23, 2018

The Talmud is acollection of writings that covers the full gamut of Jewish law and tradition,compiled and edited between the third and sixth centuries.

Talmud is Hebrew for "learning," appropriate for a text that people devote their lives to studying and mastering.

The main text of theTalmud is the Mishnah, a collection of terse teachings written in Hebrew,redacted by Rabbi Yehudah the Prince, in the years following the destruction ofthe Second Temple in Jerusalem.

Over the next severalhundred years, the rabbis continued to teach and expound. Many of thoseteachings were collected into two great bodies, the Jerusalem Talmud,containing the teachings of the rabbis in the Land of Israel, and theBabylonian Talmud, featuring the teachings of the rabbis of Babylon. These twoworks are written in the Aramaic dialects used in Israel and Babyloniarespectively.

There are manycommentaries written on the Talmuds (mostly on the Babylonian Talmud, which ismore widely studied), notably the elucidating notes of Rashi (Rabbi ShlomoYitzchaki, 10th Century France), Tosafot (a group of rabbis wholived in the years following Rashi, many of whom were his descendants and/orhis students).

These two commentariesare printed together with the Babylonian Talmud, surrounding the main text,having become an part of the study of Talmud. The standard edition of theBabylonian Talmud comprises 2,711 double-sided pages, with many, many morepages filled with the teachings of other commentators.

The first page of Talmud as it appears in standard editions, the text surrounded by the commentaries of Rashi,Tosafot, and others.

The Talmud is divided into six general sections, called sedarim (orders):

Zeraim (Seeds), dealing primarily with the agricultural laws, but also the laws of blessings and prayers (contains 11 tractates).

Moed (Festival), dealing with the laws of the Shabbat and the holidays (contains 12 tractates).

Nashim (Women), dealing with marriage and divorce (contains 7 tractates).

Nezikin (Damages), dealing with civil and criminal law, as well as ethics (contains 10 tractates).

Kodashim (Holy [things]), dealing with laws about the sacrifices, the Holy Temple, and the dietary laws (contains 11 tractates).

Taharot (Purities), dealing with the laws of ritual purity (contains 12 tractates).

As anyone who has learned the Bible can attest, there are certain verses where there is no way of knowing what it refers to by just looking at the verse. Examples include the commandment to circumcise oneself, or to put tefillin on the arm and head, or to take the four species on the Jewish holiday of Sukkot.

There is no way of knowing from the verses alone what exactly are we supposed to cut when we make a circumcision, or how to put on tefillin, or even what it is. The same holds true for almost all other commandments. More details are given in the Written Torah for some commandments than for others, but at the end of the day, there is a glaring lack of detail and information.

This is where the Oral Torah comes in. It is an owners manual and companion guide (so to speak) for the Torah. With it we can understand what the Torah means, and determine the details of the various commandments. Furthermore, we have rules of exegesis so that we can determine the Torahs view on various issues that are not directly addressed. The Oral Torah comprises traditions and extrapolations based on the inscribed Torah, the Bible.

Just before the giving of the Torah on Mount Sinai, Gd tells Moses that He will give him the stone tablets, the Torah and the commandments." By adding the word commandments in addition to the Torah, Gd implies that there commandments that are not included in the Torah. This, among others, is a clear implication of the existence of the Oral Torah.

The Torah itself commands us to keep the Oral Torah:

You shall do according to the word they tell you, from the place the Lrd will choose, and you shall observe to do according to all they instruct you. According to the law they instruct you and according to the judgment they say to you, you shall do; you shall not diverge from the word they tell you, either right or left.

The traditions of the Oral Torah were passed down from generation to generation, from Moses to Joshua, and from there down to the leaders and sages of each generation, until eventually, after the destruction of the Second Temple, they were written down in what is known as the Mishnah, Talmud Bavli (Babylonian Talmud) and Talmud Yerushalmi (Jerusalem Talmud).

The above leads us to the obvious question. If the Oral Torah is so essential to understanding the written Torah, why wasnt the Oral Torah written down to begin with?

Before Moses received the second set of tablets, The Lrd said to Moses: Write down these words for yourself, since it is through these words [lit., by word of mouth] that I have formed a covenant with you and with Israel.

The Talmud explains that this verse implies that there is a prohibition of saying the written word by heart, and of writing down the Oral Torah:

Rabbi Yehudah bar Nachmani, the public orator of Rabbi Shimon ben Lakish, taught as follows: It is written, Write down these words for yourselfimplying that the Torah is to be put into writing; and it is also written, since it is through these words (lit., by word of mouth)implying that it is not to be written down. What are we to make of this? It means: Regarding the written words, you are not at liberty to say them by heart; and the words transmitted orally, you are not at liberty to recite from a written text.

A tanna of the school of Rabbi Ishmael taught: It is written, Write down these wordsthese you may write (i.e., the Written Torah), but you may not write halachah (i.e., the Oral Torah).

There are many different reasons given for the prohibition of writing down the Oral Torah. Among them:

Practically, if the Oral Torah was to be written, including all the laws that govern every possible case that could arise, there would be no end to the amount of books that would need to be written. Therefore, only the parts of the Torah that can be limitedi.e., the twenty-four books of scripturewere to be written down; the rest is supposed to be transmitted orally.

Any written text is subject to ambiguities, multiple interpretations, dissensions among the people, and confusion with regards to what actions to take based on the law. Therefore, Gd also gave a tradition that would be taught orally from teacher to student, so that the teacher could clarify any ambiguities. Had this oral tradition also been put to writing, it would then have required another work of explanation and elucidation to explain that work, ad infinitum. Indeed, this concern was borne out when the Oral Torah was eventually written down.

The oral tradition is the explanation of the Written Torah. When it has to be learnt orally, the student will understand it only from a teacher who teaches the material well; had it been written down, one might be tempted to be satisfied with what is written, even without really understanding it.

Keeping part of the Torah oral ensures that that the Torah remains the private treasure of the covenantal community. Had the entire Torah been written down, any nation could have copied it and claimed it as their own; now that it was only partially written down, any copying done without access to the Oral Torah would be immediately discernible as foreign to the Torah.

For over a thousand years, from the days of Moses until the days of Rabbi Yehudah the Prince (late 2nd century CE), no one had composed a written text for the purpose of teaching the Oral Law in public. Instead, in each generation, the head of the court or the prophet of that generation would take notes of the teachings which he received from his masters for himself, and teach them orally in public. Similarly, individuals would write notes for themselves of what they had heard regarding the explanation of the Torah, its laws, and the new concepts that were deduced in each generation concerning laws that were not communicated by the oral tradition, but rather derived using one of the thirteen principles of biblical exegesis and accepted by the high court. For while there was a prohibition against writing the Oral Torah, it applied only to actually transmitting it through writing; however, one was permitted to write it down for personal use.

With the rise of the Greek and Roman empires and their persecution of the Jews during the Second Temple era, it became increasingly harder to learn and transmit Torah teachings from teacher to student. Additionally, during this era there were disputes in Jewish law that, due to the increase in decrees against Torah learning, remained unsettled, since doing so would require peace and calm.

By the time the schools of Hillel and Shammai became well established in the century before the destruction of the Temple, disputes on the law had become so widespread that there was fear that it would eventually seem like there were really two Torahs. The unsettled conditions prevented the sages of those times from resolving these disputes, or even at least organizing and categorizing them.

It was not until the days of Rabbi Yehudah the Prince, who enjoyed a strong bond of friendship with the Roman emperor Antoninus, that there was some respite from the Roman persecutions. (See here for the story of how their friendship began.)

Rabbi Yehudah and his colleagues, foreseeing future turmoil and the increasing dispersal of the Jewish people throughout the Diaspora, which would then lead to further uncertainties about the Oral Law, used this period of peace to set about collecting all the teachings, laws and commentaries that had been heard from Moses and which were taught by the courts in each generation concerning the entire Torah. After analyzing these teachings, Rabbi Yehudah composed a single authoritative text that would be available to everyone.

As a basis for his text, Rabbi Yehudah used the teachings of Rabbi Akiva and his disciple Rabbi Meir, due to their great capacity to retain what they learned, and the superb and extremely concise and precise way in which they had arranged their own teachings and what they had heard from previous generations. He also added other teachings, leaving some of their original wording, but also at times changing it.

Since there were rabbis who might have heard from other sages minority opinions that were not accepted as halachah, Rabbi Yehudah also included these minority opinions in the Mishnah. This way, should a person claim, I have heard a different tradition from my teachers, we would be able to point to the Mishnah and say, Perhaps what you have heard was the opinion of so-and-so.

He categorized and divided the laws by subject and into different tractates, and then each tractate was further divided into chapters and laws. Each law is called a mishnah, either from the root shanah, meaning teaching and instruction, or from the root sheni, meaning second, as in the second part of the Torah. Thus the entire work in general is called the Mishnah or Mishnayot.

While all classic sources agree that Rabbi Yehudah redacted the entire Mishnah that we have today, there are differences of opinion as to whether he actually wrote it down or continued to teach it orally. Rabbi Sherira Gaon and Rabbi Shlomo Yitzchaki (Rashi) are of the opinion that Rabbi Yehudah merely formulated the entire Mishnah orally, but that it was written down only many years later. Maimonides, on the other hand, writes explicitly that Rabbi Yehudah himself actually wrote down the entire Mishnah. In an attempt to reconcile the two views, some explain that while Rabbi Yehudah did in fact write a personal copy of the Mishnah, in general it was originally taught orally, and it was only later that the written version was used.

Not all of the extant material was included in the Mishnah. For had Rabbi Yehudah attempted to collect it all, it would have been too lengthy and would have been forgotten, thus defeating the very purpose of the Mishnah. Instead, Rabbi Yehudah, with the help of his colleague Rabbi Natan, formulated the essential topics and general rules in an abbreviated and precise language. They were divinely aided in composing the Mishnah in such a way that a single word can be the source for a number of fundamental principles of Jewish law as well as homiletics.

For reasons of brevity, too, the Mishnah does not include many of the laws that were common knowledge, such as the details of tefillin, tzitzit, mezuzah, etc. As an example, the very first mishnah, which deals with the laws of the recital of Shema, does not begin by informing us that it must be recited in the morning and evening, but by asking, What is the right time for saying the Shema? taking it for granted that one already knows the actual obligation of the daily recital of the Shema.

These features of the Mishnah won it general acceptance as the definitive summation of Jewish law; indeed, its compilation (c. 3949/189 CE) marks the end of an era, with the Mishnaic sages being known in Jewish history as the tannaim (instructors, from an Aramaic root cognate with shanah) and the subsequent sages being called amoraim (explainers). The Mishnah supplanted all previous collections and formulations of Tannaitic teachings, which then came to be known as baraitot (sing. baraita), meaning [teachings] outside [the Mishnah]. The most prominent collection of baraitot is that of Rabbi Chiya (a student of Rabbi Yehudah) and Rabbi Oshaya, known as the Tosefta. It follows the order of the Mishnah and supplements it, elaborating somewhat more on the laws.

In a broader sense, the term baraita includes other collections of material containing teachings by the tannaim, such as Megillat Taanit, Mechilta, Sifra, Sifri, Seder Olam Rabbah and Zohar.

The sages of the Talmudic period, known as amoraim, continued to study, expound, clarify and elucidate the Mishnah, as well as developing their own new insights based upon the rules of extrapolation.

Shortly after Rabbi Yehudahs death, attacks and persecutions against the Jews living in Israel intensified and the migration of Jews to Babylonia increased. This migration included many of the leading sages of the time, including Rabbi Abba Aricha (better known as Rav), one of Rabbi Yehudahs leading disciples. Other sages and students of Rabbi Yehudah, such as Rabbi Chiya and later Rabbi Yochanan bar Nafcha (who as a young boy attended Rabbi Yehudahs lectures), remained in Israel. Thus for a while there were major centers of learning, yeshivot, in both Babylonia and Israel, and some amoraim regularly traveled back and forth between them, bringing the teachings of each center of learning to the other center.

Rabbi Yochanan (d. approx. 4050/290 CE) became the leading Talmudic authority in the Land of Israel. He began gathering the teachings and explanations of the post-Mishnaic sages, and this became the basis of what later became known as the Talmud Yerushalmi (Jerusalem Talmud). Subsequent generations of amoraim in Israel continued to add various teachings, especially aggadic (homiletic and non-legal) ones. However, work on the Jerusalem Talmud was halted somewhat abruptly when the Roman ruler Gallus, in the year 4111/351 CE, attacked and devastated the Land of Israel, instituting harsh decrees against the Jews. Most of the remaining sages fled to Babylonia, and the Jerusalem Talmud remained in its rudimentary form.

Meanwhile the centers of learning in Babylonia continued to flourish, and it was not until around the year 4152/392 CE that Rav Ashi, together with his colleague Ravina I, undertook the editing of what was to become the Talmud Bavli (Babylonian Talmud). They gathered the teachings of the earlier sages, organized and clarified their statements about the Mishnah and the discussions of the amoraim on these, and presented these in a logical and comprehensible way.

Both Talmuds contain many of the same teachings, and each one quotes sages from the other center. However, because the Jerusalem Talmud was never fully redacted while the Babylonian Talmud was, and furthermore because the latter was completed some 150 years later, the Babylonian Talmud is much more widely learned and considered more authoritative. In fact, any unspecified reference to the Talmud almost always refers to the Babylonian recension.

(There are also differences in stylethe Jerusalem Talmud is written with less back-and-forth than the Babylonian Talmudand in language: the amoraic discussions in the Jerusalem Talmud are written in Western Aramaic (Syriac), while in the Babylonian Talmud they are in the Eastern Aramaic dialect. See Why is The Talmud in Aramaic?)

After Rav Ashi and Ravina I died, their colleagues and students who had helped redact the Talmud completed their monumental task. The death of Ravina II (son of Rav Huna and nephew of Ravina I) on the 13th of Kislev in the year 4236/475 CE (or, according to some, 4260/499 CE) is considered the end of the Talmudic era.

After the death of Ravina II and the completion of the Talmud, no further additions to the Talmud were made, and the Talmud was not to be disputed. The sages of the succeeding era (known as the Rabbanan Savorai), however, added some slight editorial touches, such as subheadings from the Mishnah in places where the Talmud begins a new subject.

The sages who taught the teachings, ordinances and decrees which make up the Talmud represented the totality of the sages of Israel, or at least the majority of them. Because of this, and because the Talmud was accepted as binding by almost the entire Jewish people at the time, its laws are considered binding on all Jews no matter when or where they live. And it is precisely this binding that has kept our Jewish identity strong for thousands of years throughout this long and bitter exile. May we merit the ultimate redemption speedily in our days!

See more here:

What Is the Talmud? - How and why was the Oral Torah written ...

Category: Talmud | Comments Off on What Is the Talmud? – How and why was the Oral Torah written …
Tags:

Posted By richards on August 16, 2018

Sephardi Jews (Yahadut Sfarad) Total population Sephardi Jews2,200,000up to 16% of world Jewish population Regions with significant populations Israel 1.4 million France 300,000400,000 United States 200,000300,000 Argentina 50,000 Turkey 26,000 United Kingdom 8,000 Colombia 7,000 Morocco 6,000 Greece 6,000 Tunisia 2,000 Bosnia and Herzegovina 2,000 Panama 8,000 Languages

Historical: Ladino, Arabic, Haketia, Judeo-Portuguese, Berber, Catalanic, Shuadit, local languages Modern: Local languages, primarily Hebrew, French, English, Spanish, Turkish, Portuguese, Italian, Ladino, Arabic.

Judaism

Ashkenazi Jews, Mizrahi Jews, other Jewish ethnic divisions, Samaritans, other Levantines, other Near Eastern Semitic people, Spaniards, Portuguese and Hispanics/Latinos

Sephardi Jews, also known as Sephardic Jews or simply Sephardim (Hebrew: , Modern Hebrew: Sfaraddi, Tiberian: Spradd, lit. "The Jews of Spain"), are a Jewish ethnic division whose ethnogenesis and emergence as a distinct community of Jews coalesced in the Iberian Peninsula around the start of the 2nd millennium (i.e., about the year 1000). They established communities throughout Spain and Portugal, where they traditionally resided, evolving what would become their distinctive characteristics and diasporic identity. Their millennial residence as an open and organised Jewish community in Iberia was brought to an end starting with the Alhambra Decree by Spain's Catholic Monarchs in the late 15th century, which resulted in a combination of internal and external migrations, mass conversions and executions.

Historically, the vernacular languages of Sephardim and their descendants have been:

More broadly, the term Sephardim has today also come to refer to traditionally Eastern Jewish communities of West Asia and beyond who, although not having genealogical roots in the Jewish communities of Iberia, have adopted a Sephardic style of liturgy and Sephardic law and customs imparted to them by the Iberian Jewish exiles over the course of the last few centuries. This article deals with Sephardim within the narrower ethnic definition.

The name Sephardi means "Spanish" or "Hispanic", derived from Sepharad (Hebrew: , ModernSfard TiberianSpr ), a Biblical location.[1] The location of the biblical Sepharad is disputed, but Sepharad was identified by later Jews as Hispania, that is, the Iberian Peninsula. Sepharad () still means "Spain" in modern Hebrew.

In other languages and scripts, "Sephardi" may be translated as plural Hebrew: , ModernSfaraddim TiberianSpraddm; sefard or Spanish: Sefardes; Portuguese: Sefarditas; sefardita or Catalan: Sefardites; Aragonese: Safards; Basque: Sefardiak; French: Sfarades; Galician: Sefards; Italian: Sefarditi; Greek: Sephardites; Bulgarian: Sefaradi; Template:Lang-bs; Serbian: Sefardi; Turkish: Sefarad, Judaeo-Spanish: Sefaradies/Sefaradim; and Arabic: Safrdiyyn.

In the narrower ethnic definition, a Sephardi Jew is a Jew descended from the Jews who lived in the Iberian Peninsula in the late 15th century, immediately prior to the issuance of the Alhambra Decree of 1492 by order of the Catholic Monarchs in Spain, and the decree of 1496 in Portugal by order of King Manuel I.

In Hebrew, the term "Sephardim Tehorim" ( , literally "Pure Sephardim") is used to distinguish Sephardim proper "who trace their lineage back to the Iberian/Spanish population" from Sephardim in the broader religious sense.[2] This distinction has also been made in reference to genetic findings in research on Sephardim proper in contrast to other communities of Jews today termed Sephardi more broadly[3]

The modern Israeli Hebrew definition of Sephardi is a much broader, religious based, definition that generally excludes ethnic considerations. In its most basic form, this broad religious definition of a Sephardi refers to any Jew, of any ethnic background, who follows the customs and traditions of Sepharad. For religious purposes, and in modern Israel, "Sephardim" is most often used in this wider sense which encompasses most non-Ashkenazi Jews who are not ethnically Sephardi, but are in most instances of West Asian origin, but who nonetheless commonly use a Sephardic style of liturgy.

The term Sephardi in the broad sense, thus describes the nusach (Hebrew language, "liturgical tradition") used by Sephardi Jews in their Siddur (prayer book). A nusach is defined by a liturgical tradition's choice of prayers, order of prayers, text of prayers and melodies used in the singing of prayers. Sephardim traditionally pray using Minhag Sefarad. The term Nusach Sefard or Nusach Sfarad does not refer to the liturgy generally recited by Sephardim proper or even Sephardi in a broader sense, but rather to an alternative Eastern European liturgy used by many Hasidim who are in fact Ashkenazi.

Additionally, Ethiopian Jews, whose branch of practiced Judaism is known as Haymanot, have recently come under the umbrella of Israel's already broad Sephardic Chief Rabbinate. Furthermore, in modern times, the term Sephardi has also been applied to Jews who may not have even been born Jewish, but attend Sephardic synagogues and practice Sephardic traditions.

The divisions among Sephardim and their descendants today is largely a result of the consequences of the royal edicts. Both the Spanish and Portuguese edicts ordered their respective Jewish populations to choose from one of three options:1) convert to Catholicism to be allowed to remain within the kingdom,2) remain Jews and be expelled by the stipulated deadline, or3) be subjected to death without trial for any Jew who did not convert or leave by the deadline.

In Spain, the Jews were only given four months from the time the decree was issued before the expiry of the set deadline. Under the edict, Jews were promised royal "protection and security" for the effective three-month window before the deadline. They were permitted to take their belongings with them except "gold or silver or minted money". It has been argued by British scholar Henry Kamen, that "the real purpose of the 1492 edict likely was not expulsion, but compulsory conversion of all Spanish Jews. Yet in giving Jews a choice and three months to think about it, the plan backfired; many opted to leave the country rather than convert",[4] which ultimately was to Spain's detriment. Between a third to one half of Spain's Jewish origin population opted for exile, many flooding into Portugal.

Foreseeing the economic aftermath of a similar Jewish flight from Portugal, King Manuel's decree five years later was largely pro-forma to appease a precondition the Spanish monarchs had set for him if he wished to marry their daughter. While the stipulations were similar in the Portuguese decree, King Manuel then largely prevented Portugal's Jews from leaving, by blocking Portugal's ports of exit. This failure to leave Portugal was then reasoned by the king to signify a default acceptance of Catholicism by the Jews, and the king then proceeded to proclaim them New Christians. Actual physical forced conversions, however, were also experienced throughout Portugal.

Sephardi Jews, therefore, encompasses Jews descended from those Jews who left the Iberian Peninsula as Jews by the expiration of the respective decreed deadlines. This group is further divided between those who fled south to North Africa, as opposed to those who fled eastwards to the Balkans, West Asia and beyond. Also included among Sephardi Jews are those who descend from "New Christian" conversos, but then returned to Judaism after leaving Iberia, largely after reaching Central and Northern Europe. From these regions, many would again migrate, this time to the non-Iberian territories of the Americas. Additional to all these Sephardic Jewish groups are the descendants of those New Christian conversos who either remained in Iberia, or moved from Iberia directly to the Iberian colonial possessions across what are today the various Latin American countries. The descendants of this group of conversos, for historical reasons and circumstances, were never able to formally return to the Jewish religion.

All these sub-groups are defined by a combination of geography, identity, religious evolution, language evolution, and the timeframe of their reversion (for those who had in the interim undergone a temporary nominal conversion to Catholicism) or non-reversion back to Judaism.

It should be noted that these Sephardic sub-groups are separate from any pre-existing local Jewish communities they encountered in their new areas of settlement. From the perspective of the present day, the first three sub-groups appeared to have developed as separate branches, each with its own traditions.

In earlier centuries, and as late as the editing of the Jewish Encyclopedia at the beginning of the 20th century, they were usually regarded as together forming a continuum. The Jewish community of Livorno acted as the clearing-house of personnel and traditions among the first three sub-groups; it also developed as the chief publishing centre.Template:Synthesis-inline.

The relationship between Sephardi-descended communities is illustrated in the following diagram:

Read the original:

Sephardi Jews | Familypedia | FANDOM powered by Wikia

Category: Sephardic | Comments Off on Sephardi Jews | Familypedia | FANDOM powered by Wikia
Tags:

Posted By admin on August 8, 2018

For the last 1,000 years the Jewish people have, for themost part, been grouped into two categories: Ashkenaz and Sepharad.Contemporary Ashkenazim are Yiddish-speaking Jews and descendants ofYiddish-speaking Jews. Sephardim originate in the Iberian Peninsula andthe Arabic lands.

While there are differences in culture, language, genetics,and nuances of ritual observance, the commonalities between the two groups aremuch stronger than what divides them. Thus, a Sepharadi from Morocco and anAshkenazi from Moscow would immediately find common ground in a prayer servicethat is 95% identical, in mitzvah observance, and of course, the Hebrew language.

The Cordoba synagogue was built by Sepharadic Jews in 1315. After Jews were expelled from Spain in 1492, it was converted to a hospital.

Sepharad is the Hebrew name for Spain. Thus, the Jewishpeople living in Spain and the Iberian Peninsula becameknown as Sephardim. The earliest recorded Jewish settlements in Spain dateback to the 3rd century, and Jews may have been living in Spain since the FirstTemple period. King Solomons taxcollector was said to have lived the end of his life there. Having grown inprominence under Muslim rule, they were arguably the most illustrious Jewishcommunity in the world. Spharad produced Torah scholars, scientists, financiers,and thought-leaders whose works are still being studied today, including IsaacAbravanel, Nachmanides, Maimonides and others. The Jews in Sepharad developedtheir own language, Ladino (Judeo-Spanish).

Ferdinand and Isabella expelled practicing Jews from Spain, forcing those who remained to worship in secret. The Spanish exiles formed a Sephardic diaspora that stretched from London to Aleppo.

In 1492, the Catholic king and queen of Spain, Ferdinand andIsabella, expelled all Jews from their lands (this was not the firsttime Jews had been expelled from Spain). Only those who converted toCatholicism were permitted to stay. Spanish Jews poured into Portugal (fromwhence they were soon expelled as well), North Africa and anywhere else theycould find a safe haven.

In many placesfrom Amsterdam to Aleppothey became thedominant Jewish culture in their new host communities. This explains why Jewsfrom lands far from Spain are known as Sepharadim. Since the big-tent Sepharadincludes many more Jews than just the Spanish refugees and their descendants, amore accurate term for Jews of eastern provenance that has gained popularity inrecent years is Eidot Hamizrach (Communities of the East).

A large and lively Sepharadic community once lived in Salonica, Greece.

While legends abound, it is not entirely clear when Jewsbegan populating the Rhine Valley, or where they had come from. Details inliturgy and other clues point to the Holy Land as a possible point of origin.Beginning around the 10th Century, the Jewish communities straddling France andsouthern Germany rose to prominence as a learned and vital center of Jewishlife.

The ancient staircase leading down to the mikvah in Cologne, site of early Ashkenazi settlement.

Ashkenaz is the Biblical name of a grandson of Japhet, theancestor of the Romans. Perhaps because the area had been part of the RomanEmpire, the region, its language, and its (non-Jewish) inhabitants wereassociated with that name. In time, the Jews living there became known asAshkenazim as well.

As Jews in Ashkenaz suffered successive waves of murderouscrusades, Talmud burnings, massacres and severe repression, they made their wayto the more welcoming lands to the east. There, Ashkenazi life flourished, and Yiddish(a Jewish concoction of German, Yiddish, Aramaic and more) became the dominantlanguage of the Jews of Eastern Europe until the double scourges of Nazism andcommunism conspired to kill millions of Jews and squelch the Jewish identity ofmillions of others.

Jewish merchants in 19th century Warsaw.

While the essentials of Judaism are the same for all Jewishpeople, there are some differences in Ashkenazi and Sephardic observance. Hereare some of the more pronounced differences (in no particular order):

Top: a Ashkenazi synagogue with the seating facing east. Below: A Sephardi synagogue with the seating facing the center.

There have been thousands of great Sepharadic and Ashkenazicrabbis, sages and teachers. Here we will list some of the most prominent rabbis, focusing on those who directlyinfluenced the development of halachic tradition for their respectivecommunities.

Rabbeinu Gershom Meor Hagolah (Ashkenaz,960-1040): Known as the light ofthe exile, the first prominent rabbi in Ashkenaz, he is well known for hisenactments, including bans on reading other peoples mail and polygamy.

Rif (Sepharad, 1013-1103): A native of Fez, Morocco, Rabbi Yitzchak Alfasisummarized the entire Talmud, highlighting salient points and resolvingundecided issues.

Rashi(Ashkenaz, 1040-1105): Rabbi Shlomo Yitzchaki was the foremost commentator on theTorah and Talmud and the leader of the Jewish community in Alsace-Lorraine.

Rabbenu Tam (Ashkenaz, 1100-1171): A grandson of Rashi, RabbiYaakov Tam was the most prominent of a group of scholars who wrote the Tosafot(Additions), commentaries to the Talmud. Rabbeinu Tam narrowly escaped deathat the hands of the crusaders. Many of his peers were sadly not so lucky.

Rambam (Sepharad, 1135-1204)Born in Spain and perhaps the most influential teacher of Torah in the pastthousand years, Rabbi Moses ben Maimon (also known as Rambam or Maimonides) ofEgypt wrote extensively on Jewish law, medicine, philosophy and Jewish beliefs,mostly in Arabic.

Rosh (1250-1327) Rabbi Asher ben Yechiel was born in Germany and flourished inSpain. He drew from both the Ashkenazic and Sepharadic traditions in hishalachic commentary on Talmud.

Tur (1275-1349): The son of the Rosh, Rabbi Yaakov ben Asher used theteachings of his father, Rambam, and Rif to determine the rulings in his magnumopus, Arba Turim (Four Towers), which established the template upon which theCode of Jewish Law is based.

Mahril (Ashkenaz, 1360-1427): Longtime rabbi in his hometown of Mainz,Germany, Rabbi Yaakov Moelin wrote many responsa, which establish the customsof Ashkenazic Jewry, especially in matters relating to prayer and synagogueprocedure.

Beit Yosef (Sepharad, 1488-1575): Rabbi Joseph Caro is the author of the Code of Jewish Law. Born inToledo just before the Spanish expulsion, he settled in Safed, Israel. Anaccomplished Kabbalist, he was considered by Sephardic Jewry to be the ultimateauthority in halachah.

Rama (Ashkenaz, 1525-1573): The rabbi of Cracow, Rabbi Moshe Isserles wrote glosses on the Code ofJewish Law, adding in rulings of the great Ashkenazic teachers, allowing thesingle, amalgamated text to be used in the entire Jewish community.

Baal Shem Tov (Ashkenaz,1698-1760) Rabbi Israel ben Eliezer founded the Chasidic movement, whichtaught that Gd is to be accessed through sincerity, joy and love. Histeachings, and those of his successors, have spread to both Ashkenazic andSepharadic communities, breathing vitality into Jewish life everywhere.

Of course, people rarely fit into the boxes we try to fitthem into, and many cultures that are mistakenly (and conveniently) placedunder the rubric of Sepharad are actually not Sepharadic at all.

A Yemenite Jew blows shofar (circa 1930s).

A case in point would be the Yemenite Jews, whose uniqueJewish tradition is even more ancient and did not come by way of Spain. Asimilar argument could be made for Persian Jews, who speak Judeo-Farsi andtrace their lineage to the Babylonian exiles.

The Jews of Italy and Greece once had thriving cultures oftheir own, with customs and languages that were uniquely theirs. Today, otherthan some small pockets, their traditions have almost disappeared (mostpractitioners were killed by the Nazis), having been supplanted by Ashkenaziand Sepharadi Jews who now live in these Mediterranean countries.

There were also once large numbers of Mustarabim, Jewsnative to Arabic lands. In time, they were overshadowed by and merged into theSephardic majority.

From the very start, our people were divided into 12 tribes.After the death of King Solomon, this was divided into Judea inthe south and Israel in the north. The northern kingdom (which comprised of 10tribes) waseventuallyexiled and lost to history.

During the Second Temple era, the rabbis were grouped intothe Houses of Hilleland Shamai. Where the students of Hillel were lenient, the studentsof Shamai were stringent. The law was almost always decided in accordance withthe teachings of the House of Hillel.

Following the destruction of the Holy Temple, two distinctacademies developed: one in the Land of Israel and the other in Babylon. Thetraditions of each were preserved in two Talmuds, the Jerusalem Talmud and theBabylonian Talmud.

In those days, there were some communities that werefaithful to the directives of the scholars in the Holy Land and others who wereinfluenced by the sages of Babylon.

Not unlike the Sephardim and Ashkenazim, these groups didhave differences in rite and custom, but the fundamentals of Judaism were thesame.

As the Jews in the Holy Land suffered under Christianrulership and their communal structure crumbled while the Babylonian academiescontinued to flourish, almost all Jewish communities gradually adapted theBabylonian traditions, which are now universally accepted.

The two major centers of Ashkenaz and Sepharad developedprimarily after the center of Jewish life crossed over the continental dividedfrom Asia to Europe around the turn of the second millennium. This happened onthe heels of the diminishment of the Geonic leadership in Babylon, which hadlong been the primary center of Jewish learning.

A boy wearing Sephardi tefillin reading from an Ashkenazi Torah.

Here is a fascinating (and somewhat confusing) aspect of theAshkenaz-Sepharad cross-pollination. The traditional liturgy of AshkenazicJewry is known as Nusach Ashkenaz (Ashkenazic Rite). With the rise of theChasidic movement, many began to incorporate various elements of the Sephardicrite into their prayers, since the Sephardic tradition was favored by theKabbalists and more in tune with the Kabbalistic meditations behind theprayers. This new Chasidic hybrid came to be known as Nusach Sepharad (orNusach Arizal, since it conformed to the meditations of the Arizal).

Thus, a Nusach Sepharad synagogue is most likely populatedby Ashkenazi Chassidim, and Sepharadim prefer to refer to their rites as EidotHamizrach or Sepharadi (with the added i) just to keep things clear.

This is just one example of how Ashkenaz and Sepharad arenot two distinct streams but two pillars upon which Judaism is firmlyensconced, rooted in tradition and anchored in dedication.

The distinctive garb of the Jerusalmite Chasidim includes elements of both Ashkenazi and Sepharadic traditions, which existed side by side in the Holy Land for centuries.

View original post here:

Ashkenazim and Sephardim - Jewish History

Category: Sephardic | Comments Off on Ashkenazim and Sephardim – Jewish History
Tags:

Posted By admin on August 8, 2018

Ward Churchill has achieved an unparalleled reputation as a scholar-activist and analyst of indigenous issues in North America. Here, he explores the history of holocaust and denial in this hemisphere, beginning with the arrival of Columbus and continuing on into the present.

He frames the matter by examining both "revisionist" denial of the nazi-perpatrated Holocaust and the opposing claim of its exclusive "uniqueness," using the full scope of what happened in Europe as a backdrop against which to demonstrate that genocide is precisely what has been-and still is-carried out against the American Indians.

Churchill lays bare the means by which many of these realities have remained hidden, how public understanding of this most monstrous of crimes has been subverted not only by its perpetrators and their beneficiaries but by the institutions and individuals who perceive advantages in the confusion. In particular, he outlines the reasons underlying the United States's 40-year refusal to ratify the Genocide Convention, as well as the implications of the attempt to exempt itself from compliance when it finally offered its "endorsement."

In conclusion, Churchill proposes a more adequate and coherent definition of the crime as a basis for identifying, punishing, and preventing genocidal practices, wherever and whenever they occur.

"Ward Churchill opens the X-Files of American history to examine the phenomenon of genocide in eight essays. . ." Susan A. Miller, University of Nebraska-Lincoln

"Churchill relates the history of genocide and the struggle for a definition of the term sufficiently accurate and comprehensive, to prevent the watering down of the concept, and to cut through the misleading rhetoric which now obfuscates debate, thereby permitting this and other genocides to continue. . ." A. Clare Brandabur, Purdue University

"Churchill paints the whole picture here from Columbus onwards, the major and significant struggles between an ignorant but brutal Conquistadores and the all-too-vulnerable American Tribes are analysed in a context of deliberate genocide. In terms of effectiveness, it surpasses the holocaust delivered upon European Jewry by the Nazi's." Schnews.org.uk

Ward Churchill (enrolled Keetoowah Cherokee) is Professor of American Indian Studies with the Department of Ethnic Studies at the University of Colorado-Boulder. A member of the American Indian Movement since 1972, he has been a leader of the Colorado chapter for the past fifteen years. Among his previous books have been Fantasies of a Master Race, Struggle for the Land, Since Predator Came, and From a Native Son.

Read the original:

A Little Matter of Genocide: Holocaust and Denial in the ...

Category: Holocaust Denial | Comments Off on A Little Matter of Genocide: Holocaust and Denial in the …
Tags:

Posted By richards on August 8, 2018

Another day, recipe pfizer and another questionable quotation drops in my lap. And this time its offered as a compliment to the attributed author, rehabilitation and to a much more praiseworthy author at that:

Get it all on record now get the films get the witnesses because somewhere down the track of history some bastard will get up and say that this never happened.

General Dwight D. Eisenhower, medications on future Holocaust denial

Still, I had to raise an eyebrow to this. It seems a little too colloquial, a little too punchy, to have come from the pen of one of our greatest WWII heroes. The blog I found the quote cited Wikipedia as its source, and Wikipedia citedDominican Today. And here I was expecting maybe, oh, a book about Eisenhower, and not a foreign newspaper article.

Plus, as is the warning sign of many a spurious quotation, even Wikipedias source doesnt offer up when Eisenhower supposedly said this. In fact, Dominican Today hedges its own bets by prefacing the quote by saying Eisenhower said in words to this effect Its all but confessing its a paraphrase, and not an actual quote.

The quote doesnt turn up in a single book indexed on Amazon or Google Book Search, so it might still be early enough to nip it in the bud. Some quick web searches fail to turn up any uses of the quotation prior to December 2007, with wider citation beginning in early 2008. Not a good sign for a supposed author who died in 1969. The earliest use Ive seen is in Oregon Magazine on or just before December 1, 2007. And even it uses the paraphrase-hinting words to this effect language.

So the literal quote is bad. But did Eisenhower say something to that effect? As luck would have it, he did. As related on page 223 of Dear General: Eisenhowers Wartime Letters to Marshall, (available on Google Books) Eisenhower wrote:

The visual evidence and the verbal testimony of starvation, cruelty and bestiality were so overpowering as to leave me a bit sick. In one room, where they [there] were piled up twenty or thirty naked men, killed by starvation, George Patton would not even enter. He said that he would get sick if he did so. I made the visit [to Gotha] deliberately, in order to be in a position to give first-hand evidence of these things if ever, in the future, there develops a tendency to charge these allegations merely to propaganda.

Similar sentiments, but not quite as soundbite friendly. Hopefully by tackling the bad quote this early it wont make it into actual books, which makes it that much harder to kill. Which would be a pity, because the real quote paints a much richer picture of Eisenhowers true distress and concern for posterity.

View original post here:

Eisenhower, on Holocaust Denial - Loren Collins

Category: Holocaust Denial | Comments Off on Eisenhower, on Holocaust Denial – Loren Collins
Tags: