Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By admin on June 12, 2020

All of last week and into this one, Americans grieved and demonstrated and were beaten in the streets by police as we protested George Floyds murder. It is an emotional time, with the wins of the Black Lives Matter movement making change seem, finally, possible. Yet existing communal tensions remained.

All week, Ive been asked the same question: Can I financially support the fight for racial justice while refusing to compromise on my stance on Israel?

The answer is an unequivocal yes.

First, some context: In August of 2016, the Movement for Black Lives put out its policy platform. Among a list of social justice initiatives, it included an inflammatory, deeply anti-Zionist policy brief which put forth an ahistorical and lopsided version of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The platform was immediately met with widespread condemnation from the Jewish community. Even those who are deeply critical of the Israeli government felt the platform had gone far too far, and that when they spoke up about it, the movements leaders completely dismissed their concerns in a way that left lasting pain and anger.

Ever since, the conversation on the relationship between supporting racial justice, Black Lives Matter, and support for Israel has remained explosive. I have heard from countless people this week that they feel they are in an impossible moral quandary, forced to choose between their love of Israel and the fight for justice for black Americans including their neighbors, friends, and family. Others expressed rage at the idea that any Jew or any person for that matter could have any doubts at this moment that they must open their wallets, put on their sneakers, and fight for justice. And many felt caught between these positions, torn in two.

I am here to tell you that you can absolutely support racial justice while supporting Israel.

For starters, Black Lives Matter has no campaign goals around Israel in 2020. Israel policy does not appear on its website.

Certainly, there are people in the racial-justice movement who hold views that are anti-Zionist and inflammatory on Israel. Black Lives Matter is a diffuse and decentralized movement. There are debates and disagreements. There are substantive tensions and disagreements within Black Lives Matter about whether the movement should be pushing policy at all, and what exactly the movement is.

The guiding principle behind the movement is the fight for a world free of anti-blackness, an umbrella which includes many. There are anti-Zionists and proponents of Boycott, Divest, Sanctions who are part of this movement. There are also champions of Israel, like civil rights hero Representative John Lewis and Mayor Muriel Bowser, who lead a trip with JCRC from D.C. to Israel promoting trade and partnership just last year.

And they are not marginal characters. Representative Lewis and Mayor Bowser both stood together at the newly named Black Lives Matter Plaza declaring their support for the movement. Mayor Bowser changed the name of Lafayette Square to Black Lives Matter Plaza and had an enormous Black Lives Matter mural painted on the ground, largely aimed as a provocation towards the White House.

This bottom-up, raucous, debate-infused structure may be confusing to many in the organized Jewish community, as most of our influential communal organizations are well-known for being hierarchical and centralized, especially on an issue as flammable as Israel. But those organizations that declare Black Lives Matter often include diverse views and many viewpoints on achieving black liberation and dont always agree even within themselves, whether the issue is Israel, defunding the police, or what police reform and criminal-justice reform will lead to real change.

Just like many people with many different views can identify as pro-Israel, many people with varying views can be in favor of Black Lives Matter.

Its also important to remember that the Movement for Black Lives and Black Lives Matter are not one and the same. The Movement for Black Lives is a coalition of organizations fighting for a variety of causes under the larger umbrella of racial justice. Meanwhile, Black Lives Matter is its own individual movement, with its own website and its own campaign goals. That isnt meant to excuse the language in the 2016 platform, or to excuse rhetoric from Black Lives Matter leadership or individual activists; its merely to clarify the current situation.

And its worth noting that Back Lives Matter doesnt lobby, and therefore has never lobbied on Israel. If you donate to Black Lives Matter, you are donating to a protest movement that is not pushing anti-Israel policy on the Hill or in any of its 2020 campaigns (you can read about their 2020 plans here).

Crucially, choosing to take yourself out of the racial justice movement, Black Lives Matter or otherwise, because you are pro-Israel actually hurts Israel. Its often said in politics that if you arent at the table, youre on the menu. If people who love Israel decide they are going to stay home, close their wallets and take off their shoes, refusing to participate in the entire racial justice movement because some people within it support BDS or are anti-Zionists then the only people fighting for the lives of black Americans will be those who support BDS and those who are anti-Zionists._ This will make the pro-Israel movement less powerful, to say nothing of what it will do to our own Jewish communities to abandon a struggle so important to us. It would mean turning our backs on the black Jews among us, and abandoning our own values for equality.

The truth is, we should stand for racial justice because of our morals, because we believe everyone was created Btzelem Elohim, because no ones child deserves to be choked for eight minutes and 46 seconds by a police officer in the street until they die while other officers watch.

This moment simply isnt about Israel. People are still grieving George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery. Thats what this moment is about. Their lives. They deserved to live. They were innately worthy of life and it was taken from them.

Lastly, I recognize that many American Jews still feel deeply uncomfortable donating to the Black Lives Matter movement. Many people I deeply respect want to give their money to organizations that are pro-Israel or fully neutral on Israel. The good news is, most racial justice organizations fit those criteria, including the two oldest and largest civil rights organizations in America, the NAACP and the National Urban League. You can also choose to support the Innocence Project, Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, the National Black Justice Coalition, the Jews of Color Field Building Initiative, Campaign Zero, or the Bailout Project.

It is a fallacy that you must choose between standing up for racial justice and supporting Israel. Dont fall for it.

Carly Pildis is an organizing and advocacy professional living in Washington, D.C.

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

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Posted By admin on June 12, 2020

Israel has occupied Palestinian land for over 50 years and Europe has barely mustered more than a few terse statements in opposition.

As Israels looming annexation could result in greater humanitarian problems for Palestinians living under occupation, speculation has also grown over risks to Israels diplomatic standing. Yet Europe, succumbing to US and Israeli pressure, and its own divisions on the continent, may be left powerless in opposing Israels plans.

Europe has historic and political ties with Israel, ties which shape its policies today. They go back to the 1916 Sykes-Picot Agreement between Britain and France, which mapped out what we now call the Middle East. During London and Paris carving up of the region, Palestine was designated under the British Mandate during the 1920 San Samo conference based on the framework of Sykes-Picot - this violated the UKs previous promise of the land to Sharif Hussein of Mecca.

Through the Balfour Declaration, the British Mandate of Palestine served the European Zionist Movement. This - in legal terms - directly contradicted the League of Nations Charter.

Within the concessions the British made in the 1939 White Paper, there was assurance that an independent Palestinian state would be established within 10 years. The UK, however, backtracked on this promise, too. In 1948, it withdrew from the territory after violent opposition from Zionist militias, handing the problem over to the United Nations. This left the door open for the Nakba (or catastrophe), where around two-thirds of Palestines population was expelled to make way for Israels creation that year.

For two decades, Palestine was treated as merely a humanitarian issue, involving refugees. However, the 1967 war, and the later foundation of the Palestine Liberation Organization, challenged this. The United Nations Security Council passed Resolution 242 in 1967, which later became the basis for the two-state solution - it received European endorsement. The PLO, however, pushed for a unified state for all citizens in the Holy Land. The PLO eventually let go of its ambition and accepted the two-state framework from the US-backed 1993 Oslo Accords.

Meanwhile, Europe moved away from its individualistic imperialist ambitions from the pre-World War II period, and instead publicly backed the upholding of international law. This left it trailing behind the USA, which took more of a leading foreign policy role. At least on the surface, Europe and Americas stance focused on supporting resolution 242, while avoiding having to threaten their relations with Israel.

Trumps presidency, however, has shattered this harmony. The incumbent American president, who has been openly supportive of Benjamin Netanyahus right-wing agenda, announced that "things have changed" and hence we should "move on" and "deal with the reality the way it is".

Last January, Trump announced his so-called peace plan with Netanyahu - this was without Palestinian consent. It, in effect, gives Israel the green light to pursue annexation. The EU and the UK reacted with mixed signals. While Britain expressed indirect support for the deal, the EU took a more nuanced approach, saying that it provides an occasion to re-launch the urgently needed efforts towards a negotiated and viable solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

How Europe views the conflict

European divergences from Americas shift in policy did not come out of the blue. The factors that determine the European position towards the conflict seem to vary, and may either prove a hindrance or an aid in its achieving of sanctions.

Firstly, Europe is geographically adjacent to the Middle East, and the region's dynamics impact its member states and thus, its policy. Its desire to contain Syrian refugees fleeing the countrys war demonstrates this perfectly. Additionally, Israel is an important arms client and strategic regional partner for many European states, while the EU and Israel also have extensive trade relations.

Finally, Europe and particularly the UK and Germany, feel that they have historic and moral sentiment towards Israel: the British, of course, played a large part in establishing the country, while Germanys role in the Holocaust may sway policies. Moreover, Israeli society may be diverse and made up of various nationalities, including the Middle East and North Africa, yet the European origins within the Zionist movement, influence the states Western-centric identity - that was, at least, until Netanyahu stepped in.

European and Israeli relations are based on several mutual interests and considerations, most importantly a historical one; related to the outcome of WWII and the holocaust Mansour Abbas, Deputy Speaker of Israeli Knesset from the Joint Arab List, told TRT World.

Yet, with Israel eyeing up annexation, this drastic policy ambition leaves open the question over how Europe will revise its traditionally relaxed stance, especially as sanctions are widely supported among some governments on the continent.

On the surface, the EUs mood towards Israel has transformed over the prospect of annexation. It is a result of it directly going against past policies. The three major European states, the UK, France and Germany, have called for a two-state solution, yet have not taken the necessary step of recognising Palestine.

There is an undeniable lack of coherence within Europe. The UK has repeatedly criticised Israeli settlements as a breach of international law, and also says that it opposes Israels annexation plans. It has never taken any action to support a two-state solution, however, which is similar to the inactivity of both the European Union and the United States - despite taking mediating roles, they have often taken Israels side against the PLO.

The former Labour Party leader, Jeremy Corbyn, is considered to have changed the debate on Israel and Palestine in Britain, after he pledged to recognise Palestine as a state in his manifesto before his defeat in the UK General Election last December.

In May, around 130 British members of Parliament signed a letter calling for Prime Minister Boris Johnson to impose sanctions on Israel, should it proceed with annexation. This was an unprecedented move, given that sanctions had not yet been widely proposed.

Johnson has demonstrated his committed friendship with Israel, and along with pressure from the US, the current UK government would be seemingly limited in its actions over the annexation situation.

Highlighting that the UKs response would likely be lacklustre, Chris Doyle, Director of Council for Arab-British Understanding (CAABU), toldTRT World, Britains preferred scenario would be to see annexation cancelled or delayed. If a small Israel annexation proceeds, a standard declaratory condemnation will follow but no action.

The real question is what happens if Netanyahu pushes forward with a sizable annexation, backed inevitably by the Trump administration. Until February, British Ministers said such an annexation could not go unchallenged, added Doyle.

Meanwhile, Luisa Morgantini, former vice-president of the European Parliament and a leading member of the Italian Peace Movement, believes that Brexit has further weakened the EUs foreign policy clout, undermining its decision making. Brexit seems to have pushed Britain further towards Israel.

France has led the EUs calls - along with other states like Ireland, Belgium and Luxembourg - for punitive measures on Israel should it proceed with its land grab of the West Bank.

Meanwhile, EU foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, saidon 19 May that the bloc would not recognise Israels annexation.

When these things like annexation are announced officially, they make a lot of noise, impose temporary sanctions if any at all, but then everything comes back to normal, Ilan Pappe, Israeli historian and Professor at the University of Exeter, told TRT World.

While there is growing opposition, the right-wing also boosts Israel. As well as the far-right, governments in Eastern and Central Europe, like Victor Orbans Hungary, populist and anti-Islam parties within Germany AfD and Italys North League, have all pledgedto recognise Jerusalem as Israels capital.

Israels courtingof such European actors also seeks to thwart any opposition towards it, including Austria, Hungary and Czech Republic, which help Israel build a consensus of friendly voices within the EU. And with the UK seeking greater trade ties with traditional allies like Israel in a post-EU future, it could prove limiting for Johnsons pro-Brexit governments willingness to challenge Israels policies.

The EU maytake minor measures, like excluding Israel from research and innovation framework Horizon Europe, due to be held between 2021 and 2027. That said, there are an increasing number of voices like that of Morgantini, who argues that Israels overall opposition will be limited.

Israel has occupied Palestinian land for over 50 years and Europe has barely mustered more than a few terse statements in opposition, Antony Loewenstein, an independent journalist and filmmaker based in Jerusalem, told TRT World.

Regarding opposition in Europe, he added in many European countries, including France and Germany, BDS is illegal so the options are limited, though activists should keep challenging these absurd laws.

The most likely scenario

Europe now has three options for its approach to Israels annexation: uphold the two-state narrative, support the prospect of a bi-lateral one-state solution, or passively accept the apartheid regime as legitimate.

The EU fundsvarious Palestinian aid and state-building initiatives, showing it should engage with Palestinians in the event of an annexation.

Yet given Europes divisions, and the US and the far-right empowering Israel, it will likely sit back helplessly and be a mere spectator in whatever Israel eventually chooses to do.

Any annexation large or small must be fully challenged. Israel should know, now that Britain and EU states will not allow business to proceed as usual, just as the EU took swift action against Russia for the annexation of the Crimea, said Doyle.

It should stand up for the rules-based international system or else states the world over will start pursuing their ambitions through force of arms not force of law.

Pro-Palestine activists and academics like Pappe have often argued that, with Israels de-facto control over the West Bank, the focus should be on pushing for a one-state solution where Israelis and Palestinians have equal rights under the same state. This debate will become more relevant in the near-future, especially if Israel goes ahead with annexation.

There is the question of what it should do. The only way it can play a constructive role is to treat Israel as it did at the time approach the situation in apartheid south Africa, said Pappe.

Loewenstein adds, theres too many vested interests in keeping the EUs two-state delusion alive, from think-tanks to politicians to journalists.

In time though, a one-state campaign, with full rights for all, will grow power in Israel, Palestine and the rest of the world.

Therefore, as Mansour Abbas agrees, unless a strong popular movement emerges and pushes for tougher action, there can be no obvious effective role for Europe in the near future. This, of course, may one day all be turned on its head.

Source: TRT World

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Could Europe revise its relations with Israel over annexation plans? - TRT World

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Posted By admin on June 12, 2020

At Night I Dream of Peace is the collection of diaries a young Jewish girl, Carry Ulreich, wrote during World War II in the occupied Netherlands. Ulreich, who moved to Israel after the war, became Carmela Mass and died in her nineties last year, has a fascinating story to tell: When the transports to the camps began during the war, she and her family (her parents, her older sister and her sisters fianc, who organized the hiding place) found refuge with a Catholic family, the Zijlmanses. Until the end of the war, the two families, who hadnt known each other previously, lived together in a small apartment in Rotterdam.

The Zijlmans family was recognized as Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem in 1977, but Mass only decided to publish her diaries a few years ago. The book became a best-seller in her native Netherlands in 2016 and was recently translated into Hebrew. As yet, there is no English version.

Its no surprise that the Dutch embraced the book, which ended well and portrays the good Holland. But even without that, readers particularly those in Israel will find the book an interesting and significant document.

The young Carry Ulreich documents all the occurrences and news reports they heard starting from December 1941, around a year-and-a-half after the Nazis first occupied the Netherlands, until the end of the war in 1945. Her diary takes the reader on a journey toward already known destruction, yet at the same time documents a miracle that went against the grain and gravity of history.

Comparison with The Diary of a Young Girl is of course inevitable not just for the obvious reasons (Mass herself told a Dutch newspaper in 2016 that her story was like Anne Franks, but with a happy end), but primarily for historic reasons. Both were Jewish teenagers from middle-class families, writing while in hiding in the center of a major city in the occupied Netherlands. But their backgrounds were quite different: While Frank grew up in a secular family with weak Jewish or Zionist ties, Carry Ulreich, who was born in 1926, came from an observant, Zionist family that was involved with the Jewish community.

As a result, aside from the personal testimony, Carrys diary testifies to what was happening in the community and what information they were getting from Poland in real time. According to her diary, they knew or had at least heard about the Nazi death camps as early as 1942.

Carry wasnt a brilliant or charismatic writer like Frank, nor was she rebellious or radical as Frank was. Her writing talent is pretty average, and Carry herself emerges as an introvert with modest ambitions, so its hard to find any exceptional literary or poetic value in her diaries.

The books impact actually comes from the opposite direction: As history was threatening to consume her, Carry holds onto her dry, chronological daily reporting, like a ticking metronome that gradually speeds up. Her writing is restrained, sometimes laconic, even when writing about the most personal subjects as if she was an archivist.

Nerve-racking chronicle

Here and there we see a flash of gentle humor or raging emotion, but these are always in the background. What is important to the author are the minutes she takes of each days events, both large and small. These on their own accumulate into a thorough, nerve-racking chronicle of the danger gradually closing in, of ever more stringent decrees, of body and soul on the verge of breaking and the diminishing sweetness of her routine. But at the same time, these all become part of the other story of the palpable and unique human miracle taking place in the small apartment of refuge.

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Naturally, this retrospectively created tension between the laconism of the storyteller and the historical developments she is confronting (of which the reader has foreknowledge) is more distinct at the beginning of the book, before the family goes into hiding. It sometimes reaches absurd heights, particularly given Carrys volunteer work with the Jewish Council that organized the transports, which meant her own deportation was postponed.

So, for example, she writes with restrained pain of the Jews who couldnt get off the lists gathering under the batons and rifles of the SS men. But just a few days later she can write: Last Monday I went to school again. It was very nice, because we were only three in the class. It was like a private lesson. Before that I strained my back.

With the move into hiding in the Zijlmans home, the diary takes on a different character. The Zijlmanses are an interesting bunch: the parents, Adriaan and Maria a bank clerk and housewife, respectively are devout Catholics who go to church regularly but maintain a bohemian, open atmosphere in their home. Their oldest son, Aad, was drafted into the army (according to Carry, they believed if they were good to others, God would protect their soldier son), but there are three children still at home daughter Mies and son Bob (the older children), and Canis, who is Carrys age.

There are periodic tensions and arguments between the families over the housework and other small material matters, but in general the atmosphere is lively and full of affection, fraternity and mutual concern.

Political, philosophical and theological arguments fill the home, and Christian and Jewish holidays are celebrated together. Bob, a flirt, occupies a central role in Carrys diary and her life their relationship gets closer until the end of the war (when it emerges that he was active in the resistance, which explains his lengthy absences). In between, the neighborhood in Rotterdam is portrayed under occupation and war, while we also get a picture of daily life in the house.

A lot of small, almost casual reports actually tell thrilling stories: about a search that took place without incident; about the rare instances when Carry and her sister ventured out of the house with some cover story; of the days of hunger and shelling.

According to the introduction, the editors of the original Dutch edition, as well as the translator himself, Simon Suzan, were careful and rightfully so not to tinker with the text, so here and there one finds sentences that are confusing.

What is not justified is the way the interesting afterward by Dutch historian Bart Wallet was translated, where the reader is informed that Rotterdam had a community of some 13 Jews at the beginning of the war, or that the Jewish Brigade was a Palestinian-Jewish division in the British Army. These are small but aggravating errors, especially when no fewer than five people were involved in editing the translation. Nevertheless, the Hebrew translation flows well and is readable.

Will young people read it? You can bet that this depends on the schools and their ability to embrace the universal and multicultural story, along with the Jewish and Zionist narrative. This isnt a given, especially nowadays, when universal values are considered traitorous and even the memory of the Holocaust is exploited for cheap nationalist propaganda.

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What if Anne Frank had survived the war and moved to Israel? - Haaretz

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Posted By admin on June 12, 2020

America is experiencing another episodic paroxysm; this time triggered by the tragic death of George Floyd, at the hands and knees of a policeman. Most everyone is united in genuine outrage at this dreadful act committed by someone charged with protecting everyone. However, the contrived reaction by some, who committed violent crimes, including assault and battery, homicide, looting and arson, as well as, antisemitic acts, is unjustified and abhorrent.

Justice must be done and, in the case of George Floyd, this appears to be occurring. As to the criminals who perpetrated the other crimes noted above, it seems that in some locales, a conscious effort is being made by some elected officials to minimize or ignore their lawbreaking activities for political reasons. This is indeed unfortunate. Their anarchic and destructive melees were flagrantly displayed on television and it appeared in many locales little or no attempts were made by law enforcement to intervene and stop them. It is reported that this was because of policies or political considerations designed to let protestors vent, without interference, even as a few reprehensible individuals used the protests as a cover or pretext for committing villainous crimes. The net effect was to breed distrust in our government institutions and their ability to enforce the law, which is the bedrock of our society and civilization. Perhaps, this was the insidious intent of a few reprobates reported to have incited and fueled these nefarious activities.

The Bible[i] recognized the need for a system of laws, judges and police. It, thus, commanded[ii] that judges and police be appointed to judge and enforce[iii], respectively, righteous laws. The Talmud[iv] explains that this includes local police in every region and city[v]. The Midrash[vi] adds in every town, as well. Rashi[vii] notes that the police are to be armed so as to be in position to compel obedience to the law. The Midrash[viii] pithily summarizes this ethic, as absent law enforcement officers there are no judges. In essence, our system of laws and justice and by extension society is dependent on having police; it is a foundational element in civilization.

The position of police officer is sacred and revered. To appreciate the sanctity of the role, for a time, it was reserved only to the Levites[ix]. With the investment of authority come duties, as well. Thus, the Talmud[x] enjoins a police officer to be extremely circumspect and careful with the use of force and the weapons at his or her disposal. Tosafot[xi] posits that a law enforcement officer may not cause dread in the community or use excessive force; patience and restraint are required. Those who might flatter themselves by flouting what they imagine to be their own new and enhanced sensitivity to issues of police brutality should consider that these thoughts were penned in the Talmud more than fifteen hundred years ago.

The Talmud[xii] cautions that judges and law enforcement officers must be honest and faithful in the performance of their duties. It describes how the Divine presence will not rest until bad judges and cops are eliminated. These are sacred positions of trust and corruption or malfeasance cant be tolerated.

The policing function includes not only actually enforcing the law, but also deterring violations. This includes patrolling areas where people gather on the holidays[xiii] and, in general, so as to prevent crimes[xiv]. In this regard, Rav Elimelech of Lizhensk[xv], the Chassidic master, describes how police officers are associated with the good impulse in people. This is because they are able to engage a person before any harm is done. This is unlike a judge who only deals with the crime after the fact. In essence, a police officers verbal warnings or even forceful actions can serve to prevent a person from sinning. They are able to provide a wake up call before a wrong is committed and thereby enable a person to reflect on his or her own deficiencies.

Dont be misled by those purporting to promise heaven on earth by eliminating the police entirely. We live in this world and the Torah prescribes having police officers. Ironically many of the politicians and celebrities touting the myth of no police are personally being protected by police officers or private security. The commandment to appoint police officers is unconditional; as is the requirement they act properly. Holding our public officials to account for their misdeeds is the very essence of justice. However, the movement to defund and eliminate the police is antithetical to our traditions.

We can and should always strive to be better and to play a peaceful role in improving society as a whole. After all, no person is immune from sin and neither are our public servants. Seeking to correct our mistakes is a part of our life mission. We are fortunate to live in a free country where this is possible. The civil rights, equal protection, equal opportunity and other benefits afforded under our system based on rule of law should not be taken for granted. Lets not destroy it in exchange for a baseless promise of some mythical utopia. The efforts being made by some to undermine and dismantle it do not serve any useful purpose and only cause needless suffering.

May G-d bless and protect the United States of America and the overwhelming majority of law enforcement officers, who faithfully and diligently serve us and, as G-d intended, help keep us safe and secure. Defend them; dont defund them. May true justice triumph and reinforce our trust in and respect for the rule of law. We are united because we care.

[i] Deuteronomy 16:18.

[ii] See also Mishne Torah, The Sanhedrin and the Penalties within their Jurisdiction 1:1.

[iii] Ibid and see Ibn Ezra, Rashbam, Rosh, Chizkuni, Ralbag, Daat Zekeinim, Rabbeinu Bachya commentaries thereon. See also Or HaChaim commentary thereon, who notes that having law enforcement officers are a pre-requisite to an effective judicial system.

[iv] BT Sanhedrin 16b.

[v] See also Sifrei, Devarim 16:18.

[vi] Sifrei, Davarim 144:3. See also Rashi commentary on Deuteronomy 16:18.

[vii] Ibid, s.v. Shotrim.

[viii] Midrash Tanchuma, Shoftim 2:1.

[ix] BT Yevamot 86b.

[x] BT Sanhedrin 7b.

[xi] Ibid, Tosafot s.v. Tehei Zariz.

[xii] BT Shabbos 139a.

[xiii] See Shulchan Aruch, Orach Chaim 529:4.

[xiv] Ibid and see Mishna Brurah 529:22 thereon.

[xv] In his work the Noam Elimelech, Sefer Devarim, Shoftim 1:2.

Leonard Grunstein, a retired attorney and banker, founded and served as Chairman of Metropolitan National Bank and then Israel Discount Bank of NY. He also founded Project Ezrah and serves on the Board of Revel at Yeshiva University and the AIPAC National Council. He has published articles in the Banking Law Journal, Real Estate Finance Journal and other fine publications.

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The Sacred Policing Function May Not Be Profaned - The Times of Israel

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Posted By admin on June 10, 2020

Jewish protesters are putting their own spin on the signs they carry to Black Lives Matters rallies across the country.

In Brooklyn, home to the largest Jewish community in the United States, signs have included religious and secular tropes, generally sharing a common theme invoking Jewish identity.

Here are just a few of the images I snapped while covering some protests in Brooklyn in recent days.

John Kunza

Orthodox Jews hold signs at a Black Lives Matter rally at Grand Army Plaza in Brooklyn, Thursday, June 4, 2020.

John Kunza

Jewish demonstrators take part in a Black Lives Matters protest at Grand Army Plaza, Brooklyn, Thursday, June 4, 2020.

John Kunza

A Jewish protest holds up a tikkun olam sign at a protest in Brooklyns Grand Army Plaza, Thursday, June 4, 2020.

John Kunza

A Jewish demonstrator takes part in a Black Lives Matters march through downtown Brooklyn on Thursday, June 4, 2020.

John Kunza/The Forward

A Haredi man cheers the protesters in Williamsburg on June 3, 2020.

John Kunza

A demonstrator holds up a sign during a Black Lives Matters protest on Eastern Parkway in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, Saturday, June 6, 2020.

John Kunza

Zach Schaffer, wearing a Jews for Black Lives sign, speaks with an Orthodox man in Crown Heights during a protest on Saturday, June 6, 2020.

John Kunza

Rosa Lander holds a sign along Eastern Parkway, Crown Heights, Brooklyn during a Black Lives Matters protest, Saturday, June 6, 2020.

John Kunza

A rabbi works as a de-escalator during a Black Lives Matters protest in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, Saturday, June 6, 2020.

John Kunza

An Orthodox Jewish woman takes part in a Black Lives Matter protest in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, Sunday, June 7, 2020.

John Kunza

An Orthodox woman holds a sign during a Black Lives Matters march in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, Sunday, June 7, 2020.

John Kunza

A Jewish demonstrator holds up a sign at a Black Lives Matters protest in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, Sunday, June 7, 2020.

John Kunza

An Orthodox Jewish family takes part in a Black Lives Matters protest in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, Sunday, June 7, 2020.

John Kunza

An Orthodox woman takes part in a Black Lives Matters protest in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, Sunday, June 7, 2020.

John Kunza

A Jewish family takes part in a Black Lives Matters march in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, Sunday, June 7, 2020.

John Kunza

A Jewish protester holds up at a sign at a Black Lives Matters march in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, Sunday, June 7, 2020.

John Kunza is the news director of the Forward, you can follow him on twitter at @johnkunza.

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Tikkun olam to the Talmud, Jews double down on identity at protests - Forward

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Posted By admin on June 10, 2020

Yesterday I was invited to a webinar called How to make sure you are not raising the next Amy Cooper. It is one of countless calls in the past few days about how to not be or not raise a racist. These lessons are essential. White America is just now beginning to learn how to be anti-racist.

For many years I resisted the language of anti-racist. Why define myself in the negative? I dont want to think of myself as anti anything. I want to be pro-peace, pro-equality, pro-love. But in the past decade, I have come to understand that considering myself anti-racist is actually the only option. Racism is too pervasive; slavery built this country and racism is woven into the very foundations. The only way for a white woman like me to resist is to actively swim upstream, and to swim hard.

But what does it look like to resist something as pervasive as racism in the United States? One model for such resistance can be found in the Talmud. Our tradition offers us a full tractate of Talmud called Avodah Zara, (literally strange worship), and the entire book is a guide to living as a Jew in a world surrounded by idolatry. The rabbis understood that living in a society permeated by a toxic ideology requires us to actively and frequently negate the culture. Living as a committed Jew is not enough. We have to be anti-idol.

The requirement to reject the surrounding ideology can be applied to racism too. If we swap out idolatry for racism, the entire tractate can be read as a guide to living an anti-racist life. How should we behave when the bathhouse has a statue of Aphrodite? The answer to that question can help us assess how to enter a building that has been named after a slave owner. Should we destroy an idol by smashing it, or do we keep it whole so that we can point to it and verbally nullify its power? This question can help us assess what to do with confederate monuments built to valorize slave ownership. Idolatry was as pervasive then as racism is today. Can we show our rejection of racism without totally removing ourselves from society? The Talmud reflects on this struggle and teaches us that if we dont actively demonstrate our objection through our behavior, we uphold the status quo.

Lets unpack one example: The Talmud offers the following scenario in which a person must first acknowledge the ways that their personal property has been directly supported by idolatry literally sharing a wall and then find a way to disconnect from it: One whose house was adjacent to [a house of] idol worship and [the dividing wall] fell, it is prohibited to rebuild it. What should he do? Withdraw into his own property four cubits and build there. Metaphorically, the image is powerful: how many of our homes today share a supporting wall with a structure of racism? It is incredibly hard to dismantle the house of racism because racism is actually propping up the walls of our homes.

This underlying racism exists in even the most banal ways. Purchasing my apartment was fairly simple. I was easily able to secure a bank loan, and the co-op board approved my application quickly. That is often not the case for Black families.

Of course, my whiteness led to so many of the opportunities in my life: the schools I attended, the jobs that were available to me, and even the way I am treated in public have all been dictated by my race. The same racial discrimination that blocks Black Americans from opportunities like these makes way for white people like me.

To dismantle racism, we must learn how to do what the Talmud suggests and not rebuild the wall where it was, reinforcing the toxic ideology. Instead, we have to move the wall back. We have to find a new way to rebuild our metaphorical homes.

As the Talmud acknowledges, this will make our homes smaller. And that is a price we must pay. True racial justice requires that white people give up privilege a much bigger ask than simply not being a racist.

Trying to resist a harmful cultural norm through individual actions can feel futile. What difference does it make if I, as one white woman, commit to never calling the police on a person of color? That commitment can change me, and it can change the life of that one person, but the racist system remains intact. The next Amy Cooper can still threaten the life of a Black man with one call to the police. Dismantling the system feels endless and maybe hopeless.

And yet, when we look at history, we see that idolatry a primary concern and fear in the lives of our ancestors is not our primary concern today. Somehow, society did shift. And if idolatry can fade into the background, maybe racism can too. But not without a lot of anti-racist work.

Rabbi Avi Killip is VP of Strategy and Programs at the Hadar Institute. She was ordained from Hebrew Colleges pluralistic Rabbinical School in Boston and holds degrees from Brandeis University in Jewish Studies and Women & Gender Studies. She was a Wexner Graduate Fellow and is a current Schusterman Fellow.

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

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By Rabbi David Etengoff

Remember what the L-rd, your G-d, did to Miriam on the way, when you went out of Egypt (Devarim 24:9) is one of the Six Remembrances that many people recite at the end of Tefilat Shacharit. It is a brief reminder of a famous narrative in our parasha, Behaalotecha, that recounts the incident of Miriam and Aharon having spoken lashon harah against their beloved brother, Moshe Rabbeinu.

It must be noted that while both Miriam and Aharon slandered Moshe, Miriam began this action. This is clear from the initial verse depicting this woeful incident wherein her name is mentioned first: Miriam and Aaron began speaking against Moses because of the dark-skinned woman he had married. (Bamidbar 12:1) As a result, it is Miriam, rather than Miriam and Aharon, with whom this negative behavior is associated.

What caused Miriam, one of our seven great prophetesses (Talmud Bavli, Megillah 14a), to speak lashon harah against Moshe? It appears that she was overcome by her heartfelt emotions on behalf of her sister-in-law, Tzipporah, although this certainly does not exonerate her behavior,

According to Talmud Bavli, Shabbat 87a, Moshe ceased to fulfill his conjugal obligations to Tzipporah following the Revelation at Mount Sinai. This is something that he initially decided on his own, since at this point, he was in constant contact with the Almighty and needed to maintain a total state of taharah. It should be noted, however, that Moshe subsequently received Hashems approbation for having acted in this manner.

How did Miriam become aware of such a private change in Moshe and Tzipporahs marriage? Rashi, basing himself on Midrash Tanchuma to Parashat Tzav (13), relates how Miriam discovered what Moshe had done and the heartbreaking pain and suffering it had caused Tzipporah: Miriam and Aaron spoke: She spoke first [and was, therefore, the one who was punished]. Therefore, Scripture mentions her first. How did she know that Moses had separated from his wife? R. Nathan says: Miriam was beside Zipporah when Moses was told that Eldad and Medad were prophesying in the camp. When Zipporah heard this, she said, Woe to their wives if they are required to prophesy, for they will separate from their wives just as my husband separated from me. From this, Miriam knew [about it] and told Aaron.

Although Miriam and Aharon had no intention of harming Moshe, their actions directly diminished his status in the eyes of the nation. Rashi further explains: Now if Miriam, who did not intend to disparage him [Moses] was punished, all the more so would someone who [intentionally] disparages his fellow [be punished].

Rashis words should be viewed as a spiritual wake-up call to each of us. If Miriam and Aharon, two of the greatest leaders in the history of the Jewish people, could err so grievously, certainly we must redouble our efforts to refrain from speaking and listening to lashon harah especially in those scenarios wherein we convince ourselves we are doing the right thing. Rationalizations regarding the propriety of speaking lashon harah are completely worthless. As Rav Chisda in the name of Mar Ukba declared: Anyone who speaks lashon harah, Hakadosh Baruch Hu Himself declares: He and I are unable to dwell in the same world. (Talmud Bavli, Arakin 15b)

May the Almighty give us the wisdom to recognize the dangers of lashon harah and the endless pain and sorrow it brings in its wake. Moreover, with His help and our fervent desire, may we change our behaviors in this crucial area and do our best to avoid its many pitfalls. Vchane yihi ratzon.

Shabbat Shalom, and may Hashem in His great mercy remove the magafah from klal Yisrael and from all the nations of the world.

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When Sheri Hellers husband nearly died in 2014 after doctors found that a quarter he had swallowed decades earlier had perforated his small bowel, Heller decided that the episode was a case of God banging on our door.

An attorney from Potomac, Maryland, Heller had attended Hebrew school as a child but had not really done much Jewish learning as an adult.

So she decided to go to Israel on a womens program. She returned with a newfound interest in Judaism and an actionable recommendation for how to cultivate her curiosity: a one-on-one Jewish learning program that matches Jewish mentors with people like Heller interested in deepening their Jewish knowledge.

Heller was paired with Sima Kirscher, an Orthodox woman from Far Rockaway, New York, a mentor who signed up for the program, called Partners in Torah, as a way to honor the memory of her recently deceased mother. The learning happens online, which was perfect for Heller, a mother of four who was intimidated by the idea of meeting in person.

My first goal was to learn to daven fluently and with understanding, Heller recalled, using the Yiddish word for pray. I was nervous at first. I didnt think an Orthodox person would actually want to teach me and learn with me.

But that quickly changed.

I realized that I was judging myself and that Sima was only about unconditional love and support and really wanted to guide me and help me learn and reach my goals, said Heller, now 56.

Today the study partners are close friends and Heller prays every day.

The goal of Partners in Torah is simple: To have Jews learn together using the time-tested model of one-on-one Jewish learning known as chavrutah. The organization, which has helped build more than 76,000 partnerships across 29 countries since its founding in 1993, uses a variety of criteria to match students with the right mentors. The learning is done remotely, with partners meeting by phone, Zoom, WhatsApp or other virtual communication tools.

Now, with so many Jews around the world mostly staying home due to the coronavirus pandemic, there is a great hunger for meaningful human connection, says Moe Mernick, chief operating officer of Partners in Torah.

We are creating an Airbnb-like, two-sided marketplace whereby there are two people who are looking to study and we are a platform in between connecting people, Mernick said, noting that the program is free.

The focus is on paired study rather than video classes or developing online educational curricula for solo study because the programs leaders believe that chavrutah learning is the ideal way of engaging not just with Jewish texts but with people.

The Torah and Talmud are intended to be analyzed and challenged in a very critical way, and you cant do that alone, Mernick said.

Computer scientist David Magerman remembers the moment when he decided he wanted to deepen his Jewish life. When visiting religious family in Jerusalem years ago, he noticed that people streamed in and out of the familys home all day, every day.

I didnt feel like I had that kind of community back home, said Magerman, who lives outside Philadelphia.

But intense work at a hedge fund didnt leave him much time. A friend recommended the partners program, highlighting the flexibility of the setup and time commitment. Magerman agreed to try it and was interviewed by a staffer who asked about 30 questions to find Magerman the right study partner.

He was matched with an attorney from Teaneck, New Jersey, and the two began studying the Kitzur Shulchan Aruch, a book of Jewish laws.

He was stunned that I wanted to go through the laws one at a time and learn them, Magerman said. He thought it was the most boring thing around, but I said thats what I wanted to do, so we did it. He accepted my challenging tone. He wasnt put off by my questions.

Magerman eventually added two more weekly study partners.

The Talmud states, When two people learn Torah together, they begin as enemies, as foes, and they end up as beloved friends, said Rabbi Dovid Bashevkin, director of education for the National Council of Synagogue Youth, part of the Orthodox Union. I think what makes Partners in Torah remarkable is it connects people from deliberately different experiential backgrounds in Jewish learning, and I think the more disparate the background, the more impactful the bond.

Nikki Schreiber, the founder and editor of Humans of Judaism, a Jewish media company, has participated in the program as a mentor.

Your arm is not being twisted in any sort of way, Schreiber said. Its really an environment where people are coming together with the same effort and goals.

About a year after Heller and Krischer began learning together, they met for the first time at a Partners in Torah Shabbaton retreat in Connecticut.

I was a nervous wreck, Krischer recalled with a laugh. And then she came, and we were just screaming and hugging.

Their families have become close in the years since. Heller traveled to Krischers sons weddings in New York and New Jersey, and their two daughters currently study Torah together.

Now the initiative is being taken up by another generation: Hellers 82-year-old mother recently signed up to learn.

The post This remote Jewish study buddy program is finding its moment in the COVID era appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.

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Anyone who can protest against the transgressions of ones household and does not, is liable for the actions of the members of the household; anyone who can protest against the transgressions of ones townspeople and does not, is liable for the transgressions of the townspeople; anyone who can protest against the transgressions of the entire world and does not is liable for the transgressions of the entire world. (Talmud Bavli Shabbat 54b-55a)

The human was created from a single person so that no one can say to another, My father is greater than your father. (Mishnah Sanhedrin 4:5)

On June 3, thousands of Angelenos mostly but not all young, and in every shade of human skin came together to demonstrate angrily and nonviolently that we will not stand for the killing of black people, whether by police or by racist vigilantes. We met at the Hall of Justice and marched toward City Hall to accommodate the thousands who arrived. People were careful and kind with one another. Volunteers brought bottles of water and flowers to give away. We walked through downtown without molesting a single business, calling out the names of the dead.

We expressed respect for the incalculable value of each irreplaceable human life. A Torah value, certainly. The best way to manifest that value is to insist, in the face of systemic racism, that Black Lives Matter.

The deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery and countless others were not isolated incidents and were the result of social structure. There has not been a time in American history when the hierarchy of rights and privileges was not racialized (race being a socially construed idea, not a fact, because there is only one human race). The conquest of this continent was justified with the notion that European colonizers were better fit to be in power than indigenous people.

When it became clear enslaved Africans and white indentured servants, especially in Southern states, might band together to improve their lot (see Bacons Rebellion), legal differences between white and black people became law, custom and ideology. Blackness and slavery became equivalent conditions.

Our Torah aligns with our urgent political interests.

After the Civil War, Jim Crow laws institutionalized racial discrimination in employment, housing, marriage and every other facet of life. These were not overturned until the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was passed after years of activism. But racist institutions and beliefs were and are not confined to the South nor are they in the past. The effects remain. Caucasian average wealth now is 6.7% greater than black average wealth. Black bodies are policed differently and more lethally than are white bodies as they have been since our countrys founding.

Which brings us back to our stake in all this. Our Torah is clear. Every person is an instantiation of the image of God, created to be equal in Gods eyes. Any violation of that principle ought to spur us to action.

And in this case, our Torah aligns with our urgent political interests.

Those of us who are white or pass as white and not all Jews are white have privilege to leverage in support of those who are persecuted.

Our enemies were in the streets, too, in recent weeks. Multiple sources have documented the movement of Proud Boys, the boogaloo crowd and other white supremacist groups toward the protests. They seek to disrupt and discredit. They also hate us.

Eric K. Ward of JCPAs Gender, Racial, and Ethnic Justice team analyzed the indispensable role anti-Semitism plays in the ideology of white supremacy. Those who believe in the intellectual inferiority of people of color need a scapegoat to blame for the emergence of people of color into national leadership and the fight for their own rights. They need the figure of the supernaturally clever Jew who must be conspiring to replace white people with people of color, whom the racists deem malleable to Jewish ends. Adherents of this movement already have come to our synagogues and killed.

All Jews need to unite with people of color to defeat this common enemy. Our Torah and our survival demand it.

Rabbi Robin Podolskyteaches at Cal State Long Beach andblogs.

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If you buy a new car, you will find in the glove compartment a thick paperback book called an owners manual. It will tell you everything you need to know to operate your car what the knobs on the dashboard do, how to adjust the mirror, turn on your brights, engage the cruise control. Its job is to make operating the car as simple as possible.

But if the carburetor goes out or the fuel pump fails or a part is recalled, youll probably need to bring the car to a shop, where a mechanic will pull out a different thick paperback book, called a repair manual. Unlike the operators manual, which goes to great lengths to conceal the inner workings of the car, the repair manual shows its reader exactly how the car works in all of its complexity, with detailed drawings of each system and expanded views of every screw, washer, pin, and gear assembly.

Jewish tradition works the same way. The Jewish owners manual consists of those texts that help us use the tradition in everyday life. They are meant for consumers. These include the prayer book, the Passover haggadah, the High Holiday machzor, and even the Bible.

The Jewish repair manual are those texts that help us fix the tradition when it stalls on the side of the road. Like all technical manuals, these were initially intended not for the masses, but for the relative few who would devote their careers to getting under the hood of the tradition. For Judaism, that repair manual is the Talmud.

The Talmud is not a code of Jewish law, though theres plenty of law in it. Nor is it a collection of Jewish wisdom, though theres a lot of wisdom in it, too. Nor is it a compendium of Jewish lore, though its chock full of stories. The Talmud is a manual for repairing, modifying, upgrading, and improving the Jewish tradition when components of it are no longer serving us well.

The Talmuds creators understood that religious traditions exist to answer our basic human questions and to help us create frameworks to fulfill our basic human needs the most important of which is the need to grow into the fully human beings we have the potential to become. They also understood that people grow and change faster than traditions do, so our traditions will inevitably stop working unless we have ways of tweaking them along the way sometimes radically.

The Talmud is a curriculum for educating and empowering those who will do this kind of upgrading in every generation. It is the gift of the sages of the past to the sages of subsequent generations. Listen, theyre saying. This is how we took the parts of the tradition we inherited that no longer worked for us and made them better. We dont know what parts of the tradition will stop working in your generation, but we trust you to know that. Stand on our shoulders. Use our methodology. Be courageous and bold, like we were, and know that what you are doing may seem radical, but is deeply Jewish and deeply traditional.

This is the meta-message on every page of the Talmud. But to access it, you have to learn how to read deeply. Much of the discussion in the Talmud revolves around intricate cases of Jewish law, but thats just the surface content. Whats being pointed to is not the details of the cases, but the legal principles and methodologies derived from them.

The Talmud, in fact, is no different from any legal casebook. In law school, students are required to buy casebooks thick anthologies, elegantly bound, with gold lettering on their covers, that contain hundreds of historic, precedent-setting cases. Theres the well-known case in which a locomotive struck and killed a pedestrian at an uncontrolled street crossing, and the case of the tugboat that broke free of a dock and killed a sailor. But the point isnt to teach about locomotives and tugboats, and no law student would think that it is. The particulars of these cases arent what ultimately matters. What matters are the legal principles derived from the cases. The goal is to teach the lawyers of the future how to think like lawyers how to deduce principles that can be used in new cases, how to think in complex ways about new complex problems. The Talmud is doing exactly the same thing.

That might lead to the conclusion that the Talmud is the product of religious insiders, but in fact the Talmud records the voices of those who were on the margins of Jewish life during the late Second Temple and post-Temple periods those who were both critiquing a Judaism that was failing and creating one that would work better. To do so, they invented and put into practice a system of mechanisms, principles, and rules-of-change that would guide them and future generations in the project of upgrading the tradition according to their new insights and lived experiences, one which might better serve the world of the future.

The core innovation that made this new system possible was the concept of svara moral intuition. The sages of the Talmud named svara a source of Jewish law equal to the Torah in its power to overturn any aspect of the received tradition that violated their moral intuition or that caused harm that they could no longer justify, rationalize, or tolerate even if it was written in black-and-white in the Torah itself. The sages trust in svara is what drives the evolution of the entire tradition and can be found on every page of the Talmud if you know to look beneath the particulars of the locomotives and the tugboats.

And it is the refinement of the Talmud learners svara which is the Talmuds ultimate goal. To paraphrase the philosopher Moshe Halbertal, the Talmud is not a normative document, but a formative document. It is designed not to tell us what our behavioral norms should be, but rather to form us into a certain kind of human being.

The text of the Talmud is intentionally pieced together in such a way that the very act of learning it becomes a spiritual practice unto itself, one which was designed to shape the learner into a morally courageous, empathic, resilient, flexible human being, one with the capacity to tolerate contradiction, paradox, complexity, and uncertainty. The act of learning Talmud is the Jewish traditions core spiritual technology designed to help the learner become this kind of person.

For two millennia, only Judaisms mechanics and engineers had access to this technology. Only a small fraction of our community was empowered to utilize the spiritual, moral, and intellectual resources of Talmud study to become the kinds of people the Jewish tradition would have us be, and to bring our insights and life experiences to bear on the project of upgrading the tradition itself.

Today, for the first time in Jewish history, we have the opportunity, every one of us, to roll up our sleeves and participate in the creation of the Jewish future. The Talmud is a gift entrusted to every one of us by our Jewish ancestors who hoped we would find within it the tools to make ourselves, our tradition, and the world around us, better. So consider this an invitation to take a seat at the table where the tradition of the future will be created. By all of us.

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