Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By admin on April 20, 2024

On Shabbat, I was on a mountain bike ride south of Boulder, when my 14-year-old cousin texted from Jerusalem. The bombs are coming here, he wrote. I stopped riding and immediately checked the news. Drones and missiles were heading toward Israel. I jumped on my bike to ride home and all the while I stayed on with him. We texted back and forth and eventually, we switched to a phone call and then I could also check in with his parents, Molly and David. I attempted to reassure him, to comfort him with our connection, but truly I mostly tried to distract him. What could I possibly offer from so far away in Colorado? My young cousin was terrified that he and his family would not survive the Iranian attack, or that they would survive, but the house would not. Or that the house would, but Israel would not. And alongside his existential fear, was the very normative disappointment of a kid who was supposed to go on a hiking trip for Spring Break, but now couldnt go. He seethed, Those stupid Iranians ruined our Spring Break, right alongside, We all might be dead in two hours. Meanwhile, his two younger sisters focused their fear on their Dads vulnerability. David was supposed to be headed to Gaza in 8 hours for active duty. He did not enter the safe room. Rather, he stood outside the safe room, gun in hand, to protect the family in case their neighbors attacked. Let me explain. My cousins live in a part of Jerusalem with side-by-side Arab-Israeli and Jewish-Israeli neighborhoods. Before Oct 7, Molly had been working at a start-up incubator, helping her Arab neighbors bring their own start-up companies to fruition. Just six months ago, she was attending their graduation parties and weddings, and now she and David were realistically scared that their neighborhoods might attack them. The explosions grew louder and more frequent. Molly explained that they were both the Arab neighbors celebrating the attack with firecrackers and the Iranian missiles and drones being blown up by the Israeli protective shield. Both were equally terrifying to my young cousin. And then, it seemed the bombing had stopped. My cousins, their house, and the State of Israel had survived. We are all so thankful for the technology, intellect, bravery, and alliances that stopped 99% of the rockets, missiles, and drones. Many of us have similar stories. There is no shortage of them. I have not often shared my thoughts during this terrifying war nor written enough about the hostages facing unimaginable horrors. I find that I write something to send out, and then the situation changes so quickly that it is no longer relevant.

How do I feel today? I, like many of you, remain steadfast in my support of Israel, even if I dont agree with the current ruling coalition. I, like many of you, remain steadfast in the need for a Jewish state, especially amidst the growing antisemitism in the world. I, like many of you, understand that in order for the Jews to live in peace, the Gazans also need to live in peace. There are two peoples on this land, and neither of them is going anywhere. I, like many of you, understand that Hamas must be destroyed, not only for the Israelis future but also for the Gazans future. I, like many of you, NOW understand that many groups who I thought were Jewish allies, such as the progressive left, are not our allies. They do not see us as vulnerable. They see us as oppressors. They do not know the history or the context of the Middle East conflict. They do not know important pieces of our history the Pogroms, the Holocaust, the countries (such as Spain, England, Iran, Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Yemen, Libya, and Morocco,) that evicted their Jews, or the countries (such as the US and Canada) who closed their door on Jews seeking sanctuary during World War II. They know neither the modern nor the ancient history of Israel. They do not understand that Hamas goal is the annihilation of Israel. I, like many of you, NOW understand the latent antisemitism thrums right below the surface, ready to break free. It is ugly. It is scary. It is here. I, like many of you, NOW understand the danger of binary thinking. The war is bad, but ending the war before Hamas is destroyed, is worse. Most Israelis have accepted that this is not a binary situation. Rather it is atragic one. There are only bad options. If Israel does not destroy Hamas, Gaza has no future. Why? Hamas will shoot missiles at Israel and Israel will retaliate. No one will invest in the rebuilding of Gaza knowing it will be destroyed. If Israel does not destroy Hamas, Gazans will have no future.* I, like many of you, NOW understand that Israels survival is not assured. If Israel does not destroy Hamas, what kind of future will Israel have? Micah Goodman, one of the most influential public intellectuals in Israel, explains that if Israel does not destroy Hamas, the Middle East will lose its fear of Israel, knowing that Israel doesnt have the strength to go through to the end, and the Jihadists forces will start bullying Israel. Israelis will lose their trust in Israel to keep them safe, as Israel deteriorates into a civil war of a blame game. Then there will be an economic crisis because who will invest in a country that cant protect itself? The wealthy and educated will leave Israel. Without them, Israel will grow weaker. Then, when only the weakest are left, Iran will come in and destroy what is left.* I, like many of you, NOW understand the incompatibility of the goals Israel must navigate. Israel needs the West to love them so that the West will support the war politically, financially, and militarily. But at the same time, Israel needs the Middle East to fear them. Fear and love? How to do both? Everything that Israel must do to restore fear in the Middle East will lose the love of the West. But without the support of the West, they cannot finish this through to the end and win the war. The West loved Israel after Oct 7, but now, Israel is reviled. Although perhaps the Iranian attacks will remind the world of how vulnerable Israel actually is? I dont know. I, like many of you, feel frightened, shocked, and overwhelmed. But I also feel immeasurable proud of my Israeli family in this case meaning all Israelis for their bravery and fortitude. The final words of the Passover seder are, Next year in Jerusalem. For two thousand years, while the Jewish people lived in exile from Israel our homeland, these words reflected our hope that someday our people would return to Zion, to Israel, to our ancient ancestral birthplace. This year, let us read Next year in Jerusalem, as an expression of hope that next year, a new paradigm will thrive in Israel. We pray for a future in which Gaza is rebuilt and money goes not to tunnel building but to schools and health care. We pray for a future in which Israelis no longer have to fear their neighbors not because they are hiding in safe rooms but because they are living in a safe country in a safe region. We pray for a future in which a 14-year-old boy calls his cousin to talk about biking rather than bombs and mountains rather than missiles. We pray for a future in which Israelis and Gazans live in peace.

We pray, Next year in Jerusalem. Rabbi Jamie Korngold, DD

Rabbi Jamie Korngold is the founder of Adventure Rabbi and Adventure Judaism. She holds a DD and MHL from Hebrew Union College, and a BS from Cornell University. She is the author of 11 books and these days can often be found skiing or biking. For more about her work, please visit http://www.AdventureRabbi.org

*From Micah Goodmans conversation with Amanda Borschel-Dan on the Times of Israel podcast What Matters Now

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Rabbi Korngold's Thoughts: Pesach and the War Boulder Jewish News - Boulder Jewish News

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This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.

AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. Im Amy Goodman, with Juan Gonzlez.

We end todays show with journalist Peter Maass, who has written an opinion piece for The Washington Post headlined Im Jewish, and Ive covered wars. I know war crimes when I see them, unquote. Until recently, Peter was a senior editor at The Intercept. Hes the author of Love Thy Neighbor: A Story of War. He covered the Bosnia war for The Washington Post and the U.S. invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq for The New York Times Magazine.

Peter, welcome to Democracy Now! You begin your piece in The Washington Post by saying, How does it feel to be a war-crimes reporter whose family bankrolled a nation thats committing war crimes? I can tell you. Lay it out for us.

PETER MAASS: Well, my great-great-grandfather was Jacob Schiff, who was a financier at the end of the 19th century and early 20th century, one of the wealthiest people in the country probably, who donated a lot of money and organized the movement of Jews, persecuted Jews, from Europe, largely from Russia but also from other countries and Russia, to any safe haven that would have them, including America, but also, significantly, British-controlled Palestine. And then, his son-in-law, my great-grandfather, Felix Warburg, who married Jacob Schiffs daughter, continued that process of supporting and helping to organize the migration of persecuted Jews from Europe to British-controlled Palestine. This is before World War II, the Holocaust and the establishment of Israel.

AMY GOODMAN: Yet you say they were anti-Zionists. Can you explain?

PETER MAASS: Well, they were non-Zionists, which was actually different, significantly different, from being anti-Zionists. There was a movement amongst American Jews and Jews elsewhere, in Europe, that was called non-Zionism. And for them, the non-Zionists, the point was Jews should be able to go to British-controlled Palestine. They need to go to British-controlled Palestine because they need refuge from the persecution theyre suffering in Europe.

But they were against the establishment of a Jewish state, for two reasons. One is that they were concerned that if there were a Jewish state, then all of the antisemites, in America and elsewhere, would look at Jews who are not living in this Jewish state and say, Ah, you know, your loyalty is actually to this other country. And that would kind of increase suspicions of Jews and make them seem lesser citizens in the countries that they were living in. And then, the second concern, which was one that a lot of people had but that non-Zionists also had and pronounced, was they were concerned about violence between Arabs and Jews. They just kind of said, Look, you know, if one side, the Jews or the Arabs, for that matter, try to exert total control over a state thats going to be established there because, remember, at this time, Palestine was under the control of the British Mandate then its going to be really violent. My great-grandfather referred to it as a shooting gallery.

JUAN GONZLEZ: And, Peter, you also covered the wars in Croatia and in Bosnia. And could you talk about how your journalism there helps inform your perspective of whats going on? Because many, of course, of our listeners and viewers are not familiar with those wars and the war crimes committed there.

PETER MAASS: In the early 1990s, Yugoslavia, which was a kind of conglomeration of different republics, five or six I forget the precise number, actually began to fall apart. And instead of falling apart peacefully, it fell apart violently. And there was first a war when Slovenia, one of the republics, seceded. And then there was an even larger war when Croatia, another one of its constituent republics, seceded. And then, when Bosnia did the same this was in 1992 this was, unfortunately, the largest war of all.

There were a significant number of Serbs who lived in Bosnia. And Slobodan Miloevi, who was the leader in Belgrade of kind of all Serbs in the country, organized the kind of provisioning of military materiel and soldiers, guerrilla fighters, paramilitaries, to go in and basically fight against the Muslims and Croats in Bosnia who wanted to have an independent state and who voted in a referendum for an independent state. And the war there, which I went to cover, it was not your ordinary war of army against army. It was a war of paramilitaries committing atrocities against defenseless civilians, largely Muslims, some Croats, and it also consisted of sieges against the few cities that were able to resist the onslaught. Sarajevo was one of these cities. Srebrenica was another one of these cities.

And so, I was there covering this war, seeing terrible things happen that are not supposed to happen in war. I mean, wars are violent. Civilians get killed in wars. But its not always illegal. In this case, there were civilians right under my window in Sarajevo getting shot by snipers, and I wrote about that. There were civilians whose houses were getting bombed. There were civilians who were standing in bread lines who were getting bombed and killed. There were aid shipments of medicine and food that were being prohibited from entry into these so-called safe areas, because they were supposed to have been protected by the United Nations but were not. And so, I was there reporting on this.

And in 1993, a year after this war began, there was an international criminal tribunal that was set up to investigate war crimes and possible genocide that was occurring at the time in Bosnia. And that tribunal subsequently did hold a number of trials, including of senior Bosnian and Serb leaders the military leader Ratko Mladi, the political leader Radovan Karadi and the Serbian leader Slobodan Miloevi in which the charges included genocide. And both Karadi and Mladi are now in jail for the rest of their lives on charges that include genocide. So I was reporting on this genocide.

AMY GOODMAN: As you compare what you saw in Bosnia to what you saw in Gaza, you write in that piece, When I reported from besieged Sarajevo, I stayed in a hotel that was smack on the front line, with Serbian snipers routinely firing at civilians walking under my window. On a spring day in 1993, I heard the familiar crack and whistle of a snipers bullet, followed by an awful scream. I went to my window and saw a wounded civilian trying to crawl to safety. Writing in The Post more than three decades ago, I described the mans desperate shouts as 'a mad howl of a person pushed over the edge. It came from the lungs, from the heart, from the mind,' you write in The Washington Post. You also write about disturbing video footage from Gaza that shows Hala Khreis walking on a so-called safe route in January with her grandson, 5-year-old Tayem Abdel, who was holding a white flag when she was shot and killed by an Israeli sniper. Talk about the comparisons, or what you call the rhymes.

PETER MAASS: Yeah. I mean, God, I remember those stories so well. This is the most there are so many disturbing things going on in Gaza now and in the West Bank. But as the Israeli attack began, after the Hamas attack on October 7th against Israel, you know, we began seeing these videos and reports emerging from these very brave journalists in Gaza of what was happening and, for example, that video of this grandmother being shot, obviously quite intentionally. And everything that I was seeing flour line massacres in Gaza, for example, airdrops of humanitarian aid that killed some of the people they were intended to help because they landed on top of these people also happened in Bosnia. I began seeing just the same kinds of incidents, that were the constituent elements in Bosnia of genocide, also happening in Gaza, but kind of most disturbing in a way at a scale that was larger than Bosnia. I mean, for example, you know, in Bosnia, over the course of its four-year war, there were something like 7,000 or 8,000 children killed, which is terrible. In Gaza, over the course of just six months, there have been more than 13,000 children killed. So, you know, I just could not help but see not only the parallels, but also how what seems to be unfolding in Gaza is even worse than what I saw in Bosnia.

JUAN GONZLEZ: And we have less than a minute left, but Im wondering your perspective on how the U.S. media has been covering the war in Gaza.

PETER MAASS: Its been a real mixed bag. And it was a real mixed bag in Bosnia. And were all kind of captives of our experiences. And so, I covered the war in Bosnia, and I also covered other wars. So, you know, I may be talking too much about Bosnia, but I think it is relevant. In Bosnia, there was exceptionally good coverage, I think and Im biased on this, but I think from the journalists who were on the ground, largely foreign journalists, but also a lot of Bosnian journalists really good coverage of actually what was going on. But then, in the foreign capitals, in Washington, D.C., but also London and France France and Britain were very important elements of the international community at the time the reporting was terrible, because it reflected the kind of briefings that the journalists were getting from all their government sources and all the think tank people, and they were just saying, Oh, its a mess there. These people

AMY GOODMAN: We have 15 seconds, Peter.

PETER MAASS: plan to kill each other. So, we have the same problem now, where theres a lot of bad coverage coming out of the capitals, such as Washington, although from the ground itself, reporting is quite excellent.

AMY GOODMAN: We want to thank you so much for being with us, Peter Maass, journalist, former senior editor for The Intercept, author of Love Thy Neighbor: A Story of War. Well link to your latest piece in The Washington Post. He also covered U.S. invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq for The New York Times. Im Amy Goodman, with Juan Gonzlez. Thanks so much for joining us.

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Posted By admin on April 20, 2024

(New York Jewish Week) When Jewish comedian Michael Hirsch took the stage in the Catskills last month, he quickly realized that the crowd was much older than his typical audience people who may have gone to shows back when the area was a hotbed of Jewish comedy.

It was really people who were there for the original run of that, when it was in its heyday, Hirsch told the New York Jewish Week about the audience at Shadowland Stages in Ellenville, New York. And me, coming in as a 26-year-old, like, How can I relate to these people? was really interesting.

Comedy used to be a mainstay in the Catskills, a mountainous region once filled with resorts and vacation bungalows across New Yorks Sullivan, Ulster and Orange counties. Nicknamed The Borscht Belt, the area attracted throngs of Jewish visitors in the mid-20th century. Along with copious amounts of food and family-friendly activities, entertainment especially comedy was a central part of the experience: Comedians including Jerry Lewis, Mel Brooks, Joan Rivers, Jackie Mason, Woody Allen and Jerry Seinfeld performed there early in their careers.

The good times didnt last as times and tastes changed, the resorts closed. Today, many of the remaining structures are in disrepair and several have recently caught fire. As the areas economy faltered, its comedy circuit disappeared.

Perhaps improbably, however, thats starting to change: Hirschs performance last month was the first in a new series of comedy shows organized by the Borscht Belt Museum that aims to bring comedy back to the Catskills.

The movement to re-invigorate Catskills comedy started in earnest last summer with the museums inaugural Borscht Belt Festival, which included well-received comedy shows and inspired the museum to host standalone comedy events this year in partnership with the New York Comedy Club, a Manhattan venue with locations in Midtown and the East Village. The first two Borscht Belt Comedy Club shows, as they were called, were scheduled back-to-back on March 16 at Shadowland Stages, and both sold out.

During his set, Hirsch tailored his material to his audience. He dropped terms like swag and Roblox but decided to leave in the dirty jokes, including a quip about impotence among older people. The crowd went for it, said Hirsch. He got into a back-and-forth with an audience member, likening the exchange to the crowd work that distinguished Borscht Belt comedy in its prime, when comics would engage with audiences during their performances in resort dining rooms.

This is a room filled with people in their 60s and 70s and 80s and Im talking about this, he said. Making a bunch of old Jewish people laugh from a joke like that was like, Oh yes, that was satisfying.

The Borscht Belt Museums programming explores the legacy of the regions comedy and its impact on mainstream American culture, said Andrew Jacobs, the president of the museums board. The museum opened a pop-up exhibit in Ellenville last summer, and a full opening is slated for next year.

Thats one of the themes of the museum, is tracing that evolution and helping people understand that these comedians from the 50s, 60s and 70s really laid the groundwork for the comedians that we know and love today, he said. Theyre the inheritors of that tradition so we want people to see how that actually plays out.

The comedy shows popularity demonstrated an interest in contemporary living comedy, Jacobs said. We said, This is something we should really pursue.

The next Borscht Belt Comedy Shows in Ellenville are scheduled for April 27 and May 11, and the second Borscht Belt Festival will feature a comedy show presented by the New York Comedy Club on July 29. Meanwhile, the standup pipeline is also working in reverse: The Borscht Belt Comedy Club will make its New York City debut on June 2nd and 3rd at Theater 555 in midtown.

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Both comedians and organizers said this new spate of shows which mirrors a broader re-emergence of stand up in the region are an opportunity to celebrate an iconic era in American comedy. Emilio Savone, a co-owner of the New York Comedy Club, said it was a real thrill to collaborate with the Borscht Belt Museum on the stand-up shows.

For us it was a no-brainer, he said.

Most of the comedians booked for the shows are Jewish, like Hirsch, or have connections to the region. We want to be mindful this is a proud, rich history of a Jewish community and we definitely want to provide solid comics that will connect with them and we think strong Jewish comedians will be able to do that, Savone said, adding that the shows will bring in other viewpoints as well.

At the end of the day, he said, funny is funny and people want funny.

One of the comedians in the March show, Eitan Levine, said he often performs at Jewish institutions including Hillels, Chabad houses and synagogues, making his routines a good fit for the Borscht Belt. His sets include jokes about his Holocaust survivor grandmother, his dating life as an Ashkenazi Jew, and how Jewish law firms dont use jingles in their advertisements.

Every single Jewish law firms radio ad is just some dude yelling, My name is Josh Lowenfeld and youre entitled to compensation! They all sound like Bernie Sanders at every debate, he said. That feels kind of Jewy, kind of Borscht Belt-y.

Of course, comedy has undergone a sea change since the 1950s. Savone said that Borscht Belt comedians typically took a traditional approach, with performers doing typical set up, punch lines. Today, however, many podcast comics, as he calls them, use a more personal and longform approach.

The Borscht Belt style of going out there like Rodney Dangerfield and doing one-liners that dont really feel super connected to the comic, I think that is definitely done, Levine said. I think that audiences want to see material that doesnt just feel like someone is reading off a script that they took out of How to be Funny 101, the textbook. They want material that is connected to the person.

There is a way to merge those two things, he added. There is still room for a new generation of comics, Jewish comics who identify and storytell in a specific way.

Hirsch cited Jewish comedian Andy Kaufman, who performed in the Borscht Belt, as an inspiration, but agreed that comedy has since evolved into different styles like a river delta with a bunch of tributaries. He described his style of comedy as kind of like if Spongebob came to life. Weird, goofy, fun, high energy. The Catskills shows could provide a new outlet for younger comics from the city to get on the road and try their material in front of new audiences, he said.

Hirsch, who grew up in a Jewish household in suburban Detroit, said Jewish audiences tend to be more involved than others and for comics, crowd work harkening back to to the Borscht Belt era was a necessary skill.

It just keeps the crowd engaged and it makes it more personal for them, he said.

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The forthcoming Borscht Belt Comedy shows are curated by comics Alejandro Morales, Anddy Egan-Thorpe and David Lonstein, who all grew up in the region and will perform at the April show alongside Christian Finnegan, a well-known comic who has appeared on Comedy Central, VH1 and Chappelles Show.

Morales was born to immigrant parents from Chile who met while working in the dining room at the Nevele Grand, one of the more prominent resorts that has since been abandoned. He grew up in Ellenville and worked at the hotel in the 1990s and early 2000s as a busboy, bellhop and at the front desk.

At the time, the live entertainment of the heyday of the region was done, he said. Live comedy was only on television, and the nearest club was a venue called Bananas in Poughkeepsie, over an hour away.

Despite missing out on the eras peak, Morales rattled off a list of Jewish Borscht Belt performers that he looked up to: Mel Brooks, Joan Rivers, Lenny Bruce, Sid Caesar, Jackie Mason and Carl Reiner.

Stand-up comedy really gestated in the Borscht Belt, he said. Stand-up comedy as it exists today only exists because of all the artistic fires that blazed in the middle of the 20th century, so I think we owe a great debt to that region.

Though Morales now lives in Philadelphia, he sees the Borscht Belt series as a homecoming, as well as an opportunity to reinvigorate the local economy.

I feel hugely privileged to be able to take part in restoring the Hudson Valley, the Catskills, the Borscht Belt to its previous glory, he said. It would be such a dream come true to sort of reinvigorate the region to what it was before I was even around.

Morales said that, as a queer Catholic-raised atheist from a South American family, he identifies with the Borscht Belt as a refuge for outsiders. Jews began traveling to the area because many hotels at the time barred Jewish visitors, and other groups also found refuge in the region a bungalow colony called Casa Susanna hosted LGBTQ people in the 1960s, and the Peg Leg Bates Country Club catered to Black Americans.

In that vein, while most of the comics in the upcoming shows are Jewish, Morales is also seeking to bring in more diverse viewpoints.

One of the aspects of the Borscht Belt that really resonates with me is that it started as an outpost for outsiders, he said. Jewish folks were not allowed to vacation anywhere else so they created a home for themselves, to feel welcome, to have their own entertainment and I love that idea of featuring and supporting outsiders.

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New stand-up shows aim to revive the Borscht Belt's Jewish comedy legacy - JTA News - Jewish Telegraphic Agency

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Posted By admin on April 20, 2024

The days and weeks following October 7thwere some of the most difficult in the lives of Jewish educators. Those of us who had spent the past three years adapting our programs for Zoom learning, hybrid learning, pandemic learning, and any other effects of COVID-19 were now faced with the need to adjust once again, to provide both comfort and information to our learners and their families. We fielded countless calls about antisemitism in schools, planned programs, and lessons to reflect the ever-changing reality in Israel, and gave space to students to mourn and ask questions.

Many Jewish educators watched as missions were put together, for congregational rabbis, federation executives, and lay leaders. Even as we were being told how critical our work was to ensure the Jewish future, most missions were not geared towards educators. We heard stories about what was happening on the ground and were asked to translate that into meaningful learning experiences for our students, but very few educators had been able to see for ourselves.

That is why I, and so many of my fellow educators, embarked on a mission to Israel with The Jewish Education Project and UJA-Federation. We spent 3.5 days on the ground walking through destroyed communities in the Gaza Envelope, meeting with survivors living in hotels, honoring the dead at Har Herzel, meetingwith the family of a hostage in Hostage Square, and connecting with the Bedouin community at an Iftar. In a very short time, we were able to see a slice of what is happening on the ground, hear from a diverse group of Israelis, and start to have conversations about how we might bring this picture of Israel back to our students.

I am incredibly grateful that I got to be in Israel and see firsthand what Israelis are living with day in and day out. On the one hand, I want to share all of it with my students, because they are connected to what they hear on the news, and they have many questions about what things are like in Israel right now. On the other hand, so much of what we saw was deep pain and trauma, and we have to be careful, especially with younger students, about what images and stories we share.

Two moments stood out to me as stories that both represent what is happening in Israel and that our students will connect with based on their own experiences. On our third day in Israel, we went to one of the hotels that is housing evacuees from some of the kibbutzim in the south. The woman who gave our tour spoke with us about all that the community went through to create as much normalcy for the children as possible, including setting up preschools in hotel rooms. When you walk in there, nothing looks normal. Hotel beds and dresses sit out on the porch to make room for books and toys and when you open the closet, it is full of snacks and other storage items that tell you this room is being used by young children. We visited a group of children going about their day in Purim costumes; same as our students in New York.

These are kids who are used to running free in a kibbutz, who are now confined to a hotel, and are making the best of the situation along with their teachers. By explaining these stories to our students and showing them the pictures, they will see and feel what we saw and felt that life in Israel is continuing but that beneath the surface there is so much that is not as it should be.

The second moment was a graffiti tour we did in Tel Aviv of the street art that popped up since October 7th. From depictions of the victims to renderings of Inbal Liberman, who saved her whole kibbutz, to a birthday drawing of Kfir Bibas, we saw the full range of emotions and reactions on display through this artwork. Through the expert guidance of our guide Maya Yehezkel, we all saw the ways in which this art could serve as a window into Israeli life for our students. This will allow us to show, not tell, our students what we saw, and draw them into the experience.

Many of our students, and their families, will not go to Israel in the near future and many of them will not have the chance that I did, to see the aftermath of October 7thwith their own eyes. This trip helped me continue to try to answer the questions of how Israel education should change, and how to connect students to a reality that feels simultaneously close and far away. This will continue to be the project of educators, and this first-hand experience is an important tool in starting to answer those questions.

Rabbi Rebecca Rosenthal is Director of Youth & Family Education at Central Synagogue in Manhattan. She traveled on one of 13 Mishlachot Areyvut Israel trips organized by The Jewish Education Project in partnership with The iCenter.

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Why Jewish Educators Must Go to Israel Now - The Times of Israel

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Ashkenazi chief rabbi calls for unity at Tel Aviv's Hostages' Square: 'We all want to see them home' - The Times of Israel

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Judaism is famous for its dietary restrictions, but Passover takes it to another level by prohibiting the consumption or even any benefit derived from hametz. But while this is universal among observant Jews, there is another restriction that is far more divisive and continues to this day: kitniyot.

Hametz is a very specific prohibition, referring to foods made from five grains rye, wheat, oats, barley, and spelt and become leavened, meaning they mix with water and are left to rise.

But then theres kitniyot. The word itself means legumes but has expanded to cover a wide range of foodstuffs such as peas, sunflower seeds, rice, and corn.

While the prohibition against kitniyot never really took hold in Sephardi communities, it flourished among Ashkenazi Jews, and to this day remains an ironclad fixture in Ashkenazi Jewry.

But what about in Israel? A large number of Jews here are Sephardi, and Judaism has a long tradition of minhag hamakom, of adopting the prevailing custom of the community. Many Ashkenazim do, in fact, consume kitniyot on Passover in Israel, but it is by no means prevailing. And still, many Jews who come to Israel for Passover often struggle to find kosher-for-Passover food in stores and restaurants that dont contain kitniyot.

Growing up in New York, I remember being despondent over yet another bland matzah brei breakfast. My sister and I voiced our complaints, and our father vowed that if we ever made aliyah, we would eat kitniyot. Years later, after finally moving to Israel, we reminded our father of this. His response: You werent supposed to remember that.

To this day, my father denies this exchange took place, though my sister and I both remember it. But regardless, he still insists on refraining from eating kitniyot on Passover.

Polling different Jerusalemites, it seems many are still divided about kitniyot. Some who were born Ashkenazi have taken up the practice of eating kitniyot, pointing out that it is the predominant minhag in the country. Others, however, stick to their original customs.

With that in mind, In Jerusalem decided to take a look at the history of the kitniyot prohibition, what exactly constitutes kitniyot, and why the prohibition persists to this day.

There are a few opinions as to why this custom developed, but here is what we do know.

All sources tend to agree that the prohibition against eating kitniyot on Passover originated in Western Europe in medieval times, first cropping up in France in the 13th century before spreading across the Rhine River into what is now Germany.

Where they differ is the reason this custom developed.

Two commonly cited explanations are as follows:

It turns out, it has always been a bit of a mystery as to why this prohibition exists in the first place.

The earliest known records of the kitniyot prohibition were in the writings of a few rabbinic scholars, namely Rabbi Asher of Lunel, Rabbi Samuel of Falaise, Rabbi Barukh Hayyim, Rabbeinu Manoah, Rabbi Eleazar of Worms, and Rabbeinu Peretz. And none of them could properly agree on why Ashkenazi Jews dont eat kitniyot on Passover.

Rabbi Asher of Lunel is perhaps the earliest source, writing in 1210 CE in Sefer Haminhagot that certain foods (understood to mean kitniyot) cant be eaten on Passover because they become leavened (i.e., they rise and become bread-like). This is later contradicted by Rabbeinu Manoah, who wrote that the prohibition couldnt be for that reason, since kitniyot by definition do not become leavened.

Rabbeinu Peretz wrote that it was to make sure Jews dont accidentally eat food made of grains on Passover, since they are cooked in the same utensils as kitniyot, as well as the fact that one can make bread out of kitniyot, so if one does so, they might mistakenly think wheat bread is acceptable, too.

Rabbi Barukh Hayyim reportedly said that during the rest of the year, people are accustomed to mixing grain flour with kitniyot and might accidentally do the same on Passover.

Rabbeinu Manoah gave an alternative explanation: One is required to rejoice and celebrate on Passover, and according to him, there is no joy in eating kitniyot.

However, early rabbis also gave numerous objections to the practice regardless of the reason, and none of these reasons explains why Ashkenazim adopted this practice but Sephardim didnt. But lets consider some other, more modern understandings of kitniyot, rabbinic literature, and history.

One popular idea is to link the prohibition to advancements in agriculture. According to Rabbi Elli Fischer, the prohibition against kitniyot was linked to the development of three-field crop rotation in Europe.

We have good evidence for this, he told In Jerusalem. The kitniyot custom emerged specifically among Ashkenazi communities in the Middle Ages due to the development of three-field crop rotation. Each year, a third of the land would have grains planted in the fall, and another third with legumes, which have the means to replenish the soil with nitrogen. The third field would stay fallow. Nowadays, we dont use this system, since we have a way to pull nitrogen from the air to replenish the soil.

The reason this makes sense is that three-field crop rotation was exclusive to a European-like climate. In the Middle East and Mediterranean regions, where it was much drier, farmers would use two-crop rotation. One field would be planted, and the other field would be left fallow, meaning there would always be a two-year gap. In the fields in Ashkenazi territory, one would plant legumes one year and then grains the next year, which would result in some legumes being mixed in with the grains. This wouldnt have happened in Sephardi communities, though, where there would be a two-year gap. Hence, this would only occur in Ashkenazi communities.

Fischer elaborated on this idea in a 2016 Mosaic magazine article, writing: Initially, both the spring and autumn plantings were grain: generally wheat in the autumn and barley in the spring. Gradually, however, the spring planting came more prominently to feature oats and legumes. Oats were needed to feed the horses that were fast becoming the areas primary beasts of burden. Legumes the family that includes peas and beans replenished soil with their nitrogen-fixing properties, and balanced diets with their high concentration of proteins.

Not only are there academic sources backing up Fischers claims, but there are also rabbinic ones. One of the early rabbinic sources on the custom, Rabbi Eleazar of Worms, specifically cited the three-field crop rotation.

Another possibility was put forth by Rabbi Dr. Elisha S. Ancselovits, an expert in medieval Jewish history and lecturer at Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies and Yeshivat Maale Gilboa.

Ancselovits points out a few interesting facts about kitniyot. First, its link to what can be made into matzah. Regardless of what counts as kitniyot or ones thoughts on it, rice and legumes are not permitted to be made into matzah only the five grains are allowed for that. This reason, he argues, is due to equality. Bread made from legumes cant be properly leavened, which means it is of poor quality. This, he says, is the food of the destitute.

Reducing the options of ingredients with which one may make matzah requires the wealthy to provide for the poor, something that would create a sense of equality among the socioeconomic classes of Jewish society.

How did this extend to a general prohibition against kitniyot among Ashkenazi Jews? Ancselovits says that the level of poverty among these Ashkenazi communities at the time was relatively low, and legume-bread was considered, as Rabbeinu Manoah argued, unenjoyable. This, and the fact that matzah wasnt allowed to be made from legumes, could have contributed to the custom of eschewing kitniyot altogether.

With that out of the way, which foods are actually kitniyot? As mentioned, the word means legumes, though it is mostly associated with rice. These foods are ancient and were known to the Jewish people throughout history, so it makes sense that there are customs associated with them.

Where it gets tricky is with New World foods.

For example, corn is a cereal grain unique to the New World. Botanically speaking, it doesnt qualify as a legume, as its seeds are different and its roots lack the soil-replenishing nitrogen bubbles. And yet, it is classified as kitniyot. Why is that?

According to Fischer, the reason is the language.

Corn was included as kitniyot because in most languages, corn is known as Turkish wheat, so they thought it was like wheat, he explained. And indeed, corn was first introduced to Europe through the Ottoman Empire, so it became known as Turkish wheat.

But does that mean the only reason we dont eat corn on Passover is because people didnt realize that what Europeans were calling Turkish wheat wasnt actually wheat? Is it really down entirely to linguistics?

Yes, Fischer said. Youre talking about average Jews in the 1600s. What did they know about corn?

He further said that this linguistic confusion wasnt unique to corn. The German word for potatoes is similar to the word for truffle, so many Jews thought potatoes were like mushrooms and thus made the appropriate blessing on them as opposed to the blessing for vegetables.

Then there are peanuts. Though ostensibly legumes, there are Jews, such as Rabbi Moshe Feinstein, who contend that peanuts do not count as kitniyot because they were only introduced to Europe in the 16th century. However, the custom to refrain from eating them persists to this day.

Where things get really contentious is kitniyot derivatives. For instance, many Jews who eschew peanuts on Passover will still use peanut oil.

And this controversy is rather old, too.

In 1909, a major controversy erupted in Jerusalem regarding Rabbi Avraham Yitzchak Kook.

He seemingly broke from tradition and, despite many objections at the time, ruled that sesame seed oil is permissible on Passover, even though sesame seeds themselves are kitniyot. This is because since they changed into oil, it is impossible for anyone to even consider the possibility that it could be prohibited, since oils cant become hametz, and in fact anything cooked cannot become hametz.

Rav Kooks ruling has stood the test of time, in theory. In practice, however, many people refrain from using kitniyot-derived oil on Passover. It is why kosher-for-Passover sodas dont contain corn syrup.

Another major and very controversial kitniyot-related ruling was made in 2007 by the rabbis of the Shilo Institute, led by David Bar-Hayim, Yehoshua Buch, and Chaim Wasserman. This ruling said that Israeli Jews were a new identity unto themselves, rather than Ashkenazi or Sephardi, and should therefore follow the customs of Israel. Taking it further, it means that all Jews in Israel should be allowed to eat kitniyot.

We can see the following points are evident:

So why has the custom to not eat kitniyot on Passover persisted all this time, even if there is no need for it, and even if prominent rabbis have said that certain foods are acceptable?

In all my personal research for this article, the best explanation I could find came from Rabbi Chaim Jachter in his book Gray Matter: Discourses in Contemporary Halachah. There, he writes the following: The general practice to be very strict about kashrut on Pesach seems to have taken hold with kitniyot, despite the rulings of such eminent authorities as Rav Kook and Rav Moshe.

Perhaps things will change, but regardless of how absurd the circumstances regarding the kitniyot prohibition may appear to be, according to Rabbi Fischer, the same can also be said of those who oppose it.

People turn it into a crusade, he explained. Let me tell you a story. I had a friend from the States who was staying at a Jerusalem hotel for Passover, and he invited me over for breakfast. There was a big breakfast spread, absolutely gorgeous and delicious. But the whole time, he was complaining about kitniyot. I said to him, Youre having a better meal than your grandparents could have ever imagined, and youre complaining about your beans?

Theres a real heritage behind it, and I think ultimately as Ashkenazi and Sephardi communities sort of amalgamate together into one Israeli identity, the custom will fall by the wayside. But I dont understand the people who turn it into a crusade. It just seems very unserious.

Looking into kitniyot led me to another question: Why is it that everyone agrees coffee is totally acceptable on Passover?

Sure, there is the joke that its because Maxwell House makes Haggadot, but whats really going on?

Botanically speaking, coffee isnt exactly a bean, per se. Its actually the seed of the coffee cherry. But it certainly looks like a bean far more than corn looks like wheat.

One might expect there to be a long rabbinic debate on the subject. After all, the history of coffee and Jews is vast, as are the halachic arguments. Many rabbis in the 1500s questioned if coffee even counted as a food or if it should be medicine (it chases away sleep), though ultimately ruled that it was, in fact, food. There were debates about where one should even have coffee (at home or at a coffeehouse?) and whether non-Jews were allowed to produce coffee for Jews.

Coffee had a profound influence on Judaism and Jewish life, and Jews in turn were instrumental in helping spread coffee throughout the world.

But if it looks so much like a bean, and is even called a bean linguistically, and many Jews did seem to think it was kitniyot, why is it not considered as such today?

While the Maxwell House reference seems like a joke, that company is actually the answer.

In the 1920s, Maxwell House ran numerous advertisements in the New York Jewish publication The Forvets (now The Forward), thanks to the help of advertisement manager Joseph Jacobs.

Jacobs is one of the most influential people in the history of kashrut branding and is extensively documented in the book Jewish Mad Men by Kerri P. Steinberg. Jacobs reportedly came up with the idea of hechsher (kashrut supervision) labels on boxes. His idea for Maxwell House was to have them use the Passover shopping season to market themselves to Jews, and he did this by getting a prominent rabbi to verify that coffee beans are not actually beans.

To seal the deal and, as Steinberg noted, to make up for how Maxwell House coffee was more expensive than competitors Jacobs came up with The Maxwell House Haggadah and got stores to lower the price.

Speaking to the Marketplace news outlet in 2018, Elie Rosenfeld, CEO of Joseph Jacobs Advertising, referred to this as the original content marketing.

Now, Maxwell House Haggadot are the most popular in the world, and coffee remains drinkable on Passover and Israelis might just riot if that werent the case.

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Kitniyot in Israel: The most heated debate around Passover - The Jerusalem Post

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Posted By admin on April 20, 2024

The Hebrew Universitys Professor Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian was arrested by police on suspicion of inciting against the State of Israel two weeks after the Israel Police appealed to the court to issue an arrest warrant against her, Ynet learned Thursday. An additional search warrant was also issued against Shalhoub-Kevorkian, who has been taken in for further questioning.

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Prof. Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian, Hebrew University

(Photo: Hebrew University, OPIS Zagreb / Shutterstock)

The lecturer was suspended from the university after she published a petition blaming Israel for committing genocide in Gaza. "It's time to cancel Zionism," she also said, and cast doubts about reported cases of rape on October 7, saying that Israel was fabricating facts to push a narrative.

"They started with babies, they continued with rape, and they will continue with a million other lies. We stopped believing them, I hope the world stops believing them, she said.

In practice, the university's decision determined Shalhoub-Kevorkian would be suspended from teaching until the end of the semester, but since it had already ended the punishment was in effect equal to a four-day suspension. After news of the short suspension became known, a group of 100 students organized a demonstration on campus, waving Israeli flags and calling for Shalhoub-Kevorkian's dismissal.

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Hebrew University student protesting against Prof. Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian

(Photo: Roni Green Shaulov)

In October, Hebrew University President Professor Asher Cohen and Rector Tamir Sheafer wrote that they believed it was appropriate for the lecturer to consider leaving her position. "Accusing Israel of occupying Palestine for 75 years essentially attempts to undermine the basis for Israels existence. Theres no need to exaggerate in the harshness and absurdity of this claim," they wrote.

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Police arrest Hebrew U professor who denied October 7 atrocities - Ynetnews

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Posted By admin on April 20, 2024

(April 19, 2024 / JNS)

Jerusalem police on Thursday arrested Nadera Shalhoub-Kevorkian, a professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, after she called into questionatrocities committed by Hamas terrorists on Oct. 7.

Shalhoub-Kevorkian, a dual Israeli-U.S. national, last month accused Israel of committing genocide in Gaza and questioned reports of rape and other sexual crimes during the terror groups cross-border attack.

These statements led to her arrest at her residence on Thursday, where police also confiscated her computer and photographs of Mahmoud Darwish, who authored the Palestinian declaration of independence.

Shalhoub-Kevorkian was taken to the police station in Mevasseret Zion for further questioning,Israel Hayomreported.

A lawyer representing the professor decried the move as another chapter in the series of harassment and incitement.

The attorney highlighted a pattern of threats and violence, including a previous detention at the airport upon her return from a lecture in the U.K. and a temporary suspension from her teaching position at the university last montha decision that was later reversed.

While initially suspending Shalhoub-Kevorkian, the administration faced internal and external pressures, leading to her reinstatement.

The decision further fueled discontent among students and faculty. Hundreds of students protested, calling for her permanent dismissal over her denial of the sexual assaults attributed to Hamas and her accusations against Israel.

Israeli Justice Minister Yariv Levin has advocated for legislation that would criminalize the denial of Hamas atrocities, a move that aligns with broader governmental efforts to counter misinformation.

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Posted By admin on April 20, 2024

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Court orders release of Hebrew University professor suspected of incitement - The Times of Israel

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