Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By admin on December 26, 2019

This week as we celebrate Chanukah, a post-Torah holiday, we also study Parashat Miketz. Of course, we remember the story from the Talmud (Shabbat 21b), when the Greeks entered the Temple, they defiled all the oils therein, and when the Hasmonean dynasty prevailed against and defeated them, they made search and found only one cruse of oil which lay with the seal of the High Priest, but which contained sufficient [fuel] for one days lighting only; yet a miracle was wrought therein and they lit [the lamp] therewith for eight days. The fear was that the oil would only sustain the flame for one day; miraculously, it burned for eight. This miracle was not of any persons making. There was neither a special plea to God nor a chemical enhancement of the oil. The miracle is the expectation of scarcity was proven wrong. There was enough oil to last until more could be secured. How delightful to have been proven wrong!

There is also a tale of scarcity and abundance in Miketz. Joseph, now Pharaohs dream interpreter, forecasts seven years of feast and seven years of famine. In this tale, Joseph interprets two sets of Pharaohs dreams. In Genesis 41:17-20, Pharaoh relates, In my dream I stood on the bank of the Nile, and lo seven cows went up out of the river; fat and handsome, they grazed among the reeds. And lo seven other cows poor, truly repulsive, emaciated and repulsive cows then ate up the first cows, the fat ones. He shares a similar dream about ears of grain, first full and good, then dried and scorched. Joseph explains that God is revealing to Pharaoh a prediction of seven years of abundance followed by seven years of famine. In this case, the miracle is that the plan is revealed. Armed with dream-interpretations, Joseph can formulate a plan saving the Egyptians from starvation, providing greater wealth and power for Pharaoh, and setting himself and his family up for success.

In the case of Chanukah, it is a spiritual necessity that leads to the miracle. No one will starve physically without the oil. It represents the thirst for the presence of God, and the miraculous abundance the sustained light lasting long beyond expectation that reminds us that Chanukah is indeed a religious holiday. It focuses on the presence of God and all that God can provide. The miracle of Miketz is Josephs ability to use what will become scarce to the benefit of Pharaoh and, thereby, himself and his family. Without Josephs divinely-given insight, people would have starved. Instead, providentially, they made use of the years of plenty. There clearly is also a political gain to be had based on the need by virtue of the exchange of the peoples land for the Pharaohs stored food, fabulously enriching Pharaoh. The far-sighted planning of Joseph asks us as Jews to be prescient as well regarding our relationship with God.

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Scarcity and abundance impact the way we live our lives. The fear that we will run out may lead us to be mindful of waste and consumption or it may prompt us to become stingy and hoarding. Abundance can lead us to share and provide for others or it can motivate to self-aggrandizement, thinking that we alone deserve all we have. Neither of our examples demonstrates classic glass half-full or glass half-empty situations because we cannot look at our glasses and know that God will provide more water or the insight to determine the true state of the water. Instead, the miracles from our texts push us to consider our very vision. Can we trust our understanding of a cruse of oil? Can we believe our perception of reality? Can we truly identify our place in history?

A miracle of Chanukah is the upending of what we consider possible. In a week of the convergence of miracles in both Torah and Talmud, perhaps we are being compelled to overcome the impossible, to be the miracle. If we understand the world to be one of scarcity, we learn that abundance is possible. If we see the abundance in our own lives, we can be the magnanimous hand of God in the lives of those who cannot conceive of such bounty. Whether our need is physical or spiritual, we can prove Nes gadol hayah sham, a great miracle happened there.

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Miketz: Great miracles in the offing - The Jewish Standard

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Posted By admin on December 26, 2019

The Orthodox Jewish community of Gateshead, England, is thriving in sharp contrast to many British communities, thanks to outstanding Jewish education, a dynamic New York rabbi and cheap housing. Like most northern English cities, Gateshead, located on the River Tyne, has struggled since the 1980s with the loss of the manufacturing industries that once made the region Britain's economic powerhouse. But whereas in most northern towns formerly vibrant Jewish communities drifted away along with the jobs and economic prospects, leaving a wasteland of deprivation, Gateshead is reversing that trend. It's Orthodox community has doubled over the last decade. This is the only [strictly Orthodox Jewish] community outside London and Manchester that is growing, thriving, dynamic and forward-looking. Its expanding day by day, Joseph Schleider, the communitys historian and Gateshead native, told British daily The Guardian. The regular community of several thousand Jews is augmented each semester by 1,500 students who flock to the city for its outstanding Jewish education. Gateshead is the Oxbridge of the UK Jewish community, said Rabbi Shraga Feivel Zimmerman. Around 350 young men between the ages of 16 and their mid-20s attend the Gateshead Talmudical College, the most prestigious of the city's religious educational establishments. There, they study Talmud in pairs for around 12 hours a day, living in dormitories on site with no access to smartphones, mainstream newspapers or television, and limited internet access. This is a serious time of study, said Rabbi Gershon Miller, a senior member of staff. There are prayers at 8am and study [in English, Yiddish and Hebrew] goes on until 10pm or later. Dovid Belovski, 19, a Londoner in his second year at the yeshiva, said: Its intense, I cant deny that. But I came here to be challenged, I never expected it to be easy. Its the foundation for my life.Although the study is intense, Miller says poor behavior is rare. No one is being watched or monitored. You get a little fraying at the edges from time to time, but for most this is the lifestyle they want to pursue.For those for whom yeshiva life is not a good fit, there are other avenues available. Not everyone is cut out to be a rabbi or a teacher," David Schleider, who runs a youth club for boys in the community, told The Guardian. "We want to encourage those who arent to be skilled up while maintaining a full religious lifestyle. We have a very good relationship with Gateshead College, which provides culturally sensitive and accessible training.Meanwhile, bright girls, who cannot become rabbis under Orthodox Judaism, are encouraged to go into teaching. Around 450 girls aged 16 upwards, of whom a quarter hail from abroad, study at the Jewish Teachers' Training College in Gateshead. The college offers A-level qualifications in a range of subjects from math and biology to art to biblical Hebrew, as well as teacher training. There is also a girls seminary in the city with a more vocational bent, offering courses in health, childcare and information technology. Low-cost housing has also benefited the community greatly, helping to grow the community. Housing here is significantly cheaper than in London or even Manchester. But lots of families are low-income households, in receipt of benefits, and we tend to have bigger than average families. So there is a big demand for large affordable homes, Shlomi Isaacson of the Jewish Community Council of Gateshead (JCCG) told The Guardian. One local man who moved from London was able to buy a six bedroomed house in the city for 150,000. It would have cost him over a million pounds in the capital. The JCCG meets regularly with representatives of Gateshead council to ensure the needs of the community are met. We recognized the culture and lifestyle of our Orthodox community is quite different to other communities, said Dave Andrew, who has met with the community on behalf of the council for the last decade. Communication is the key, given that many households dont engage with mainstream or social media, so we need to ensure they get to hear whats happening. This is not an insular community, but the reason for that perception is that its a community that helps itself at every life stage from the cradle to the grave.Rabbi Zimmerman agreed, rejecting the idea that the community is insular. Rather, he said, it was merely self-sustaining. In former times, children grew up and left, they moved on to a larger world, he said. Now its a realistic option to stay.The rabbi, known to his followers as "The Rov," arrived in the city in 2008 from his native Brooklyn. Gateshead is quite a distance in miles, culture and mentality from his home town, Zimmerman told The Guardian, but he was drawn by the unique opportunity to lead a community. England is a very conservative place and resistant to change in many ways. If you come from the outside, you have a fresh perspective, he said. Zimmerman has been credited as being the drive behind the community's growth, thanks to his focus on engagement with wider society. It is under his leadership that the strong links with the council, educational establishments, and the wider world have been forged. But he is keen to retain the sense of community currently enjoyed by Gateshead's Jews. One seeks a positive dynamic while still retaining a sense of community. Everyone here still knows each other, shares in each others celebrations, grieves together. We dont want to keep doubling every 10 years, he said.

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Gateshead's Orthodox community bucks declining trend to double in decade - The Jerusalem Post

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Posted By admin on December 26, 2019

Alvin Reinstein of Teaneck and his son, Sam, made history several years ago as the first father-son pair ever to study simultaneously for rabbinic ordination in the history of Yeshiva Universitys Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary.

Now they have a new collaboration.

Its a book, Seven Years of My Fathers Shabbos Table, containing more than 450 pages of questions and answers on the weekly Torah portion the parsha that Alvin Reinstein compiled. It started as a labor of love for the bulletin of Congregation Beth Aaron, the Teaneck shul to which he belongs.

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Its a treasure trove of material, Sam Reinstein said. Over the past year I collated the questions and answers and edited them into a book that I self-published. (Its available on Amazon for $18.)

During the seven years that Alvin Reinstein produced this material adding more and more questions and answers on each parsha every year his family was a direct beneficiary of his efforts. His wife, Esther Lauber, and their children, Sam and Margot, looked forward to lively discussions prompted by the material at Sabbath mealtimes, often together with guests.

We would go through some of the questions every week at our Shabbos table, Sam Reinstein said. Intense parsha questions were the one warning I gave friends, and eventually girlfriends, when they came over.

Now 30 years old and a husband and father, Sam Reinstein is an actuary at Prudential and has a weekend pulpit as assistant rabbi of Congregation Kol Torah in Brooklyns Prospect Heights neighborhood.

Alvin Reinstein explained how it all began.

In 2008, he noticed that the Beth Aaron weekly newsletter contained schedules and announcements, but it rarely had any Torah-related content. I had the idea to make up some questions about each weeks parsha that could go into the newsletter, he said.

He got a green light from the shuls rabbi, Larry Rothwachs, to start providing 10 questions and answers on the weekly parsha culled from sources including the Midrash, the Talmud and mostly classic and medieval commentators, such as Rashi. Positive feedback from fellow members encouraged him to continue.

The next year I added questions and changed questions, and this went on for seven years, Alvin Reinstein said. We ended up with a full cycle of questions for each parsha that covered all of its major topics.

That translates to about 50 questions (and sometimes as many as a dozen different answers for each question) related to each weekly and holiday Torah portion plus a few bonus questions on the weekly haftarah.

Here are some examples from the books chapter on the portion of Vayeira (Genesis 18-22):

1. The Midrash describes how Hashem caused an unbearable heat to surround Avrahams tent. Why did He do this (two reasons)?

Answers: The hot air (i) would soothe the wound of Avrahams circumcision; (ii) would prevent guests from visiting Avrahams tent, saving him the effort of having to wait on them (Bereishit Raba).

2. What reward is learned from the heat in fulfilling the mitzvah of bikur cholim (visiting the sick)?

Answer: One who visits the sick will be saved from the judgment of Gehenim (Nedarim 40a).

3. According to the Gemara, what were the names of the angels, and what was each of their missions?

Answer: (i) Michael, whose job was to inform Avraham that Sarah would give birth to a son; (ii) Gavriel, whose job was to destroy Sedom and the other cities; (iii) Rafael, whose job was to cure Avraham and save Lot (Bava Metzia 86b).

4. How do we know that Avraham was a tzadik who said little but did much?

Answer: Avraham offered the men pat-lechem (a bit of bread) but served an extravagant feast (Rashi).

5. What three miracles does the Midrash describe constantly occurred at Avrahams tent as long as Sarah was alive?

Answer: (i) The Shechina rested above the tent; (ii) the candles that Sarah lit on Erev Shabbat were never extinguished; (iii) the food in the household was blessed with abundance (Bereishit Raba).

Putting these questions and answers together gave me really superior knowledge of each parsha, because I had to spend time researching each one, Alvin Reinstein said. I hope and I think, based on feedback I got that it increased others understanding and knowledge of the parsha too.

Retired from the New York City Housing Authority, Alvin Reinstein began attending classes at RIETS with Sam in 2012. Since receiving his ordination, he has continued attending Torah classes on a regular basis at venues including the Jewish Center of Teaneck.

Though many books have been published exploring the weekly portion, Sam Reinstein felt that his fathers compiled material could provide a uniquely comprehensive source book.

No parsha book has that many questions and answers, he said. I thought it was something worthy of a real publication. When I first started compiling it, I saw it as something nice for my dad. But its a valuable resource for people who want to review the parsha because its very thorough not simple stuff, but understandable. Im using it is a resource for my sermons every Shabbos.

Due to the abundance of material, the book project took Sam Reinstein quite a long time to compile. He decreased the size of the font and margins as much as possible to keep the tome at less than 500 pages.

I am somewhat amazed and a little humbled that my son did this, Alvin Reinstein said.

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Father, son, and parsha - The Jewish Standard

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Posted By admin on December 26, 2019

After that, I will pour out My spirit on all flesh; Your sons and daughters shall prophesy; Your old men shall dream dreams, And your young men shall see visions. Joel 3:1 (The Israel Bible)

(Photo: GraphicStock)

The signs clearly say, as so many rabbis and experts have confirmed, that we are living in prophetic times preceding the messiah. Indeed, many extraordinary events signal the miraculous times in which we are living.Breaking Israel Newslooks back on these prophetic moments and suggests five further prophecies that could be fulfilled in 2020.

Catch us the foxes, The little foxes That ruin the vineyards For our vineyard is in blossom. (Song of Songs 2:15)

In a graphic materialization of the prophecy in Zechariah as explained in the Talmud, foxes are now being seen playing at the Temple Mount.

And you shall declare to them: Thus said Hashem: I am going to take Bnei Yisrael from among the nations they have gone to, and gather them from every quarter, and bring them to their own land. Ezekiel 37:21

The Sanhedrin held a conference for the emerging Organization of 70 Nations. The conference culminated in an animal sacrifice made by representatives of the nations on the Mount of Olives in which they renewed the covenant made by Noah upon leaving the Ark.

I will make of you a great nation, And I will bless you; I will make your name great, And you shall be a blessing.Genesis 12:2

Once again, President Trump attached himself to the words of the Bible by passing an executive order which explicitly enacts Gods promise to Abraham; the Jews are a nation. One prominent American Israeli rabbi noted the sole Biblical character who referred to Judaism as a religion; Haman.

This historic act was recognized by over 200 rabbis who signed a declaration thanking the president for fulfilling the prophecy of Jeremiah.

What the cutting locust left, the swarming locust has eaten. What the swarming locust left, the hopping locust has eaten, and what the hopping locust left, the destroying locust has eaten.Joel 1:4

Saudi Arabia, in particular the location of Islams holiest sites, Mecca, was inundated by swarms of locusts, crickets, and cockroaches.

And it shall come to pass that fishers shall stand by it from En-gedi even unto En-eglaim; there shall be a place for the spreading of nets; their fish shall be after their kinds as the fish of the Great Sea exceeding many.Ezekiel 47:10

For those who have visited the lowest point on the face of the earth, Ezekiels end-of-days prophecy of the Dead Sea coming to life seems impossible, yet recently, scientists have been shocked to discover that the sinkholes appearing around the sea are quickly filling up with fish and other forms of life previously unseen in the inhospitable region.

Mystics and end-of-day experts are predicting that the third round of elections will be a replay, resulting inconclusively with no coalition being formed. End-of-days experts and mystics have been predicting this outcome for months while noting that the dissolution of the government is a necessary precondition for the resurrection of the Davidic Dynasty.

Before them earth trembles, Heaven shakes, Sun and moon are darkened, And stars withdraw their brightness.Joel 2:10

Avid readers of Breaking Israel News should not have been surprised byearthquakes in California: Thats becauseBIN published an article in December of 2018, citing a rabbinic source pointing to the super blood moon over Washington D.C. as a sign that the upcoming year will be marked by increased volcanic activity. In this article, BIN revisits that source to investigate what the earthquakes themselves portend.

An esoteric Jewish source predicted that the lunar eclipse that passed over Jerusalem portended the sudden death of a sultan followed by great confusion and tragedy. The source, written over one hundred years ago, was proven to be shockingly accurate in the past, presaging the California earthquakes.

They prepared a net for my feet to ensnare me; they dug a pit for me, but they fell into it. Selah.Psalms 57:6

The Syrian army launched missiles at Israel but a video released on Twitter shows that at least one missile changed course after launch, striking inside Syria.

I will say to the North, Give back! And to the South, Do not withhold! Bring My sons from afar, And My daughters from the end of the earthIsaiah 43:6

A catastrophic attack in Saudi Arabia by Iran-backed Yemenite Houthi rebels shook the world, destroying the facilities that produce five percent of the entire worlds oil. If the U.S. picks up the gauntlet thrown at their feet by the Iranians, the confrontation in Yemen predicted by Isaiah as preceding the pre-Messiah War of Gog and Magog may suddenly appear, as one rabbi said, much sooner than anyone thinks.

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Top Ten Prophecies of 2019 - - Breaking Israel News

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Posted By admin on December 26, 2019

Are we celebrating Hanukkah or Chanukah this week? Neither the English language nor American Jews would seem to have decided which way to spell the word. One sees it in both its H- and Ch-forms, and while its my impression that the former is steadily gaining, the contest shows no sign of ending soon.

The problem lies in the English transliteration of the first letter of the Hebrew word . The name of this letter is usually spelled het in Englishunless its spelled chetalthough sometimes its etexcept if the Hebrew in question is that of Ashkenazi (Central and East European) Jewry, when its often khes. And the sound the letter stands for has been a subject of contention, too.

While the arguments over it now belong to the past, its with the past that we need to begin.

Biblical Hebrew, like Arabic and other Semitic languages, had several sounds, or phonemes to use the linguistic term, that most English speakers have trouble with. One of these is what linguists call a voiceless uvular fricative. Produced at the rear of the oral cavity by contact between the uvula and the root of the tongue, it is a scraping sound similar to that made when clearing the throat of phlegm.

This phonemeas well as its close cousin, the voiceless velar fricative (a softer sound, made slightly closer to the front of the mouth)exists in many European languages, once existed in English, and still exists in the Scots pronunciation of a word like loch, a lake or inlet. One hears it in the ch of German Dach, roof, and Polish chop, peasant; in the Russian letter or kha, as in khorosho, good; in the Greek or Chi of , time; in the g of Dutch gebak, pastry; in the j of Spanish jardin, garden; and in still other languages. One of these is Yiddish, in which it is ordinarily represented by the Hebrew letter , known as khaf and usually transliterated in English as kh. (In professional linguistic discourse, this is often replaced by .)

But biblical Hebrew also had another phoneme: a voiceless pharyngeal fricative not found in any European language. Its symbol is the or et, and it is articulated by tightening the pharynx, the muscular tissue at the top of the throat behind the uvula, so as to constrict the flow of air exhaled through it. (When unconstricted, this flow produces an ordinary h.) The result is a breathy rasp that might cause one to think the speaker is choking were it not that it lasts but a fraction of a second.

And it is with this rasp that, in ancient times, the Hebrew word anukah began. In linguistic notation it is commonly represented, as I have just spelled it, by an h with a dot under it, a usage you have often seen in this column.

Nor is it just a matter of ancient times. The phoneme is found to this day in all dialects of Arabicand for that reason it continued to exist in the Hebrew of all Jews living in Arabic-speaking lands, including the over 600,000 of them who immigrated to Israel in the years after 1948. Jews from Iraq, Yemen, Egypt, Algeria, Morocco, and elsewhere pronounced the etand thus, the word Hanukkahwith the same voiceless pharyngeal fricative used by their biblical ancestors.

In Europe, however, this was not the case. No European language has such a phoneme, and therefore it was lost by European Jews, whose Hebrew pronunciation was affected by the languages of the countries they lived in. In nearly all cases, the was assimilated in Europe to the voiceless uvular fricativethat is, to the khaf. Thus, for example, if one takes the Hebrew word for wise, its first two consonants were kept distinct by Middle Eastern and North African Jews, who said akhm, but were pronounced identically by European Jews, whether as khakhm in southern Europe or khokhm in Eastern Europe, which in Yiddish became khkhem.

Were now in a better position to understand what happened with H(Ch)anukkah. Though spelled with a et, the name of this holiday was pronounced with a khaf by the Ashkenazim who constituted the overwhelming majority of Jewish immigrants to the United States from the mid-19th century on. And because, in languages known to these immigrants like German and Polish, the khaf phoneme was represented by ch, they adopted the spelling of Chanukah in English, which then became general usage.

But this posed an obvious problem. Ch in English is pronounced tsh, and while American Jews knew better than to say Tshanukah, non-Jews often embarrassingly did not. By the mid-20th century, therefore, Chanukah was increasingly being replaced by Hanukkah. True, Hanukkah, when pronounced with an initial h, is not the way Jews say it, either, but the h phoneme is far closer in sound to kh than it is to tsh, and Hanukkah does not sound laughable or absurd to a Jewish ear in the same way that Tshanukah does.

Why, then, does the spelling of Chanukah persist in many places? Force of habit would seem to be the only reason. English is a language notorious for its strange and seemingly illogical spellings, and its speakers are more willing to tolerate such aberrations than are speakers of other languages. If gh can be pronounced f (as in laugh), ti can be pronounced sh (as in nation), and wo (as in two) and u (as in tune) can be pronounced the same way, why cant Chanukah be pronounced Hanukkah?

In Israel no one says hanukah, but one hears anukah less and less frequently, too. Khanukah is the norm. The biblical voiceless pharyngeal fricative, which survived in the Hebrew of Middle Eastern and North African Jews for thousands of years, has all but disappeared as their Israeli-born descendants have switched to the voiceless uvular fricative of standard Israeli speech, whose phonetic rules were laid down by European Jews arriving in Palestine in the first waves of Zionist immigration in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

For a while after Israels establishment, a coalition of language purists and anti-Ashkenazi ideologists fought to keep the alive, and as late as the 1970s it still could be heard, not only from immigrants from Arab lands and some of their children but also from radio newscasters and occasional public speakers. Those days, however, are now gone.

A happy H(Ch)anukkah to all!

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Why There Are So Many Ways to Spell Hanukkah - Mosaic

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Posted By admin on December 26, 2019

Many modern-day Jewish-Latinos are descended from families who fled Europe to evade persecution for their religious practices and beliefs, largely of Sephardic and Ashkenazi origin. While many of their traditions were lost or suppressed for fear of attracting danger in their new homelands across the sea, Jews thrive today in cities across Latin America. One of the most compelling traditions for Jewish and non-Jewish Latinos is the culinary one, where traditional Jewish recipes have taken on Latin American sensibilities, and vice versa.

If youre lucky enough to be celebrating your holidays in one of these four cities, make sure to observe Hanukkah by making a pitstop at one of these Jewish-Latino restaurants.

Miami

Southern Florida is home to a solid community of Latino Jews from all over Latin America, approximately 13,000 people strong according to the Jewish Federation of Broward County, including from Cuba and Mexico. Some of those who attend our events are new arrivals from South America, Manny Synalovski, the chair of the federations Latin Initiative, told the Miami Sun-Sentinel in an interview. Others have been living in South Florida for 20-25 years.

Paying homage to the culinary melting pot that is the Miami food scene, Zak Stern of the eponymous Zak the Baker cafe in Wynwood is serving up a drool-worthy treat over Hanukkah: churros with strawberry sauce, reminiscent of the flavors of sufganiyot, a jam-filled donut served through the eight-day festival. In Israel, sufganiyot is the dessert of Hanukkah, Stern recently told the New York Times. Now, churros will become an alternative. He said

Buenos Aires

Buenos Aires is a hub of Latino Jews, with the largest Jewish population in all of Latin America. The city also holds the seventh-largest Jewish population in the entire world and has the only kosher McDonalds outside of Israel. But thats not where you should eat to observe a memorable Hanukkah-inspired meal.

The place to go is Mishiguene, a fine dining establishment headed by Toms Kalika, where Jewish-inspired dishes get the Argentinian treatment including pastrami, prepared over a proper Argentinian parrilla. Every Friday night, the establishment hosts a shabbat dinner, complete with a klezmer band. Mishiguene has been named one of the top 50 best restaurants in Latin America over the past couple of years, with Chef Kalika taking home the Chefs Choice Award this year.

Mexico City

Frida Kahlos father may not actually have been Jewish, despite her claims that he was of Hungarian-Jewish descent, but Mexico is home to a thriving community of approximately 40,000 Jewish people, most of home live in Mexico City. Mexico Citys current mayor Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo, the first female ever to hold mayoral office, happens to be Jewish.

In operation since 1962, Kleins is a Mexican-Jewish establishment that tops its pastrami tortas with avocado, its bagels with salsa, and its tacos with kosher salami. Its comfort food served up in a retro deli setting that pays homage to the cultural exchange between American Jewish cuisine and Mexican flavors.

So Paulo

This Brazilian metropolis is where most of the countrys 120,000 Jews are situated, where in recent years the demographic has grown as people are rediscovering their roots; in the past, many of the Portuguese and Spanish who had immigrated to Brazil had been forced to renounce their Jewish faith in favor of Catholicism. Today, Bnei Anusim communities are helping Brazilians to reclaim their Judaism.

In So Paulo, stop through Kasher da Barros for a hearty plate of pork-free feijoada, Brazils national dish adapted for Kosher dietary restrictions. Finish your meal with a slice of banana strudel, a tropical twist on a European classic pastry. The only thing is that Kasher da Barros is closed for most of Hanukkah, shuttered from Christmas through New Years Day, so plan accordingly.

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Four Places Around the World to Nosh on Jewish-Latino Fare This Hanukkah - BELatina

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Posted By admin on December 26, 2019

Photo Credit: Mrs. Sarah Karmely

Born in India, raised in England, and married in Italy, Mrs. Sarah Karmely currently lives in America where she teaches Persian Jews Torah.

Mrs. Sarah Karmely is also an international lecturer and the author of two books Words to Hear With Your Heart and Stories to Hear With Your Heart and the producer of two CDs on shalom bayis and taharas hamishpacha. She recently spoke with The Jewish Press.

The Jewish Press: How would you describe your background?

Mrs. Karmely: Im a Persian Jew from Mashad, which was a special community that was very different from [the rest of Persian Jewry].

In Mashad 180 years ago, there was a pogrom called the Allahdad. The Muslim clerics got up and told the Jews: Either convert to Islam or well kill you. Forty Jews were massacred until the chachamim got up and said, Enough, were going to tell them that were converting but it was just a fake conversion.

They kept everything in secret. They would buy non-kosher meat and throw it to the dogs while secretly shechting and eating their own meat. Store owners would get young non-Jewish boys to sit in their stores on Shabbos and say, The boss isnt here, come back tomorrow.

If a Persian boy came with his parents to ask for a Jewish girls hand in marriage, they couldnt say, No, were Jewish. So what they did was and this is a historical fact they betrothed their daughters from birth. If somebody was pregnant, they would say, If its a girl, shell marry so and so usually a cousin. That way, they could tell anyone interested in her, Sorry, shes already betrothed.

You werent born in Iran, though.

No, I was born in India. My father had business over there. When I was two years old, India achieved independence, so my parents moved to London. I grew up and was educated in London and then moved to Italy because my husband, whos also a Mashadi Jew, was from there.

In 1979, we immigrated to the United States, which, bhashgacha, was the year of the [Islamic] Revolution in Iran, when much of our community escaped Iran and moved here. I decided I was going to help them because they didnt know the language; they were basically refugees. I also started a Talmud Torah for the children because they werent going to Jewish schools.

At the time, the Lubavitcher Rebbe took me under his wings, so to speak, and encouraged me to teach woman and brides about taharas hamishpacha.

How did a Persian Jew come to have anything to do with the Lubavitcher Rebbe?

When I was in Italy, I didnt know who the Rebbe was. We basically were just traditional Persian Jews. But one day my husband came home from a trip he used to go to the Far East for business and I saw he wasnt feeling well. Long story short, he became paralyzed from head to toe. I took him to the hospital, but after a whole month, they still didnt know why he was paralyzed or how to help him. It really was very frightening.

One night, Rabbi Moshe Lazar the father of Rabbi Berel Lazar, the chief rabbi of Russia called to ask me how my husband was. He had called me a few times before, but that day I had gone to the hospital to see my husband, and he was crying. My husband never cries, but he couldnt even talk. I went to the doctor and said, Whats going on? They said, Signora, we dont know.

So when Rabbi Lazar called that night, I just burst out crying. He very kindly asked me, Would you like a beracha from the Lubavitcher Rebbe? I thought to myself, How could a man in New York help my husband here in Italy? but I figured no harm would be done, so I told him my husbands name, and Rabbi Lazar said he would get a beracha for me.

The next day, as usual, I went to the hospital, and I got the shock of my life. My husband was walking towards me in the corridor. I said, What happened?! He said, I dont know. The paralysis just went away miraculously.

So you began drawing close to Lubavitch after that.

Yes, I started learning, and when I moved to the States and met the Rebbe, my whole life really changed.

I used to drive from Queens to see the Rebbe every single day at Minchah time when he came out of his office. In 1980, about six months after I started teaching taharas hamishpacha to Persian Jews at the bequest of our communitys rav, Rabbi Eliyahu Ben Haim, I got very nervous. Its a big responsibility. What if I teach something wrong? So I told the Rebbe, I cant do this.

He looked at me and replied with a smile, Not only can you do this, but you must do this, and I want to be partners with you. He gave me 15 dollars for the brides coming that night for my class. I didnt know how many people would show up, but ultimately 14 women did, plus myself which made 15.

Do you teach Persian Jews because you speak Farsi?

I speak Farsi, but I dont just teach Persian women. I teach all different types.

Most Ashkenazi Jews arent very familiar with the Persian Jewish community in America. What can you say about it?

In New York, theres a huge community in Great Neck [on Long Island] and a small community in Queens. In California, theres a huge community in Beverly Hills, but you also have many non-Jewish Persians in Beverly Hills. In Great Neck, theyre all Jewish.

How big are these communities?

There are at least 7,000 Persian Jews in Great Neck and even more than that in Beverly Hills.

How would you describe these Jews?

There are two types. There are Mashadi Jews and non-Mashadi Jews. Mashadi Jews usually stick to themselves. They dont usually marry out [because of their history of persecution in Iran]. This is the community I belong to, and its growing, baruch Hashem, by leaps and bounds.

Baruch Hashem, its also changed a lot. When they first moved here from Iran, they didnt want to be told about driving on Shabbos, for example. But now the young people grow up learning much more. So we have fervent Jews as well as some who are traditional but not observant. The good thing is that everyone mingles together. We dont have separate communities.

Were Persian Jews not fully observant in Iran?

A relative of mine told me, Sarah, its a good thing that [the religious] Khomeini came [to power in 1979] because otherwise we would have been totally assimilated.

In Iran, Persian Jews didnt have the opportunity to learn. When they came here, they actually wanted to celebrate Iranian non-Jewish holidays because thats what they knew. Now, though, theyre learning and growing, baruch Hashem. There are three Mashadi shuls lined up one after the other in Great Neck now and each one is just thriving. In addition, there are maybe six other non-Mashadi shuls.

You write in Stories to Hear with Your Heart that the Lubavitcher Rebbe often told couples you knew with shalom bayis problems to keep the laws of taharas hamishpacha. Can you elaborate?

I used to take people to see the Rebbe every single Sunday, and he would tell me what to tell them because most of them didnt speak English. Ninety-nine percent of the time when a woman was having shalom bayis issues or couldnt have children, the Rebbe would say, Tell her to keep the laws of taharas hamisphacha bdiyuk (exactly).

Im ashamed to say that many times I doubted the Rebbe. How could taharas hamishpacha help a woman whose husband is betraying her or [mistreating her in some other way]? But honestly, I really saw miracles. If I wouldnt have seen it, I wouldnt have believed it, but I saw miracles mamash for women who started keeping taharas hamishpacha.

What other pieces of advice did the Rebbe share with you over the years?

When I was growing in Yiddishkeit, my husband didnt like it because he thought I was becoming a fanatic. So the Rebbe would always tell me to do things bofen diplomati. Dont fight with your husband, he said. Do it slowly. And it really worked.

Approximately 10,000 Jews still live in Iran today. Do you know anything about them?

I do. Most Mashadi Jews have all moved here, but the ones still in Iran say, The [non-Jews] dont bother us. They dont know English and are afraid they wont get a job if they move here. At least here we have food and a roof over our head, they say.

But its really frightening whats going on over there. They have to keep to themselves and arent allowed in any way to say theyre connected to Israel. Theyre very low key. They have shuls, but they live in fear. Its mostly older people who live there.

And you also have many young girls marrying older men because there are no young boys to marry since the young boys leave the country to avoid being conscripted in the army.

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Mashadi Brides, The Lubavitcher Rebbe, And Shalom Bayis: An Interview with Author and Lecturer Mrs. Sarah Karmely - The Jewish Press - JewishPress.com

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Posted By admin on December 26, 2019

A Pennsylvania man accused of ransacking a Beverly Hills synagogue and damaging several Jewish relics has been charged with felony vandalism and accused of a hate crime, prosecutors said Monday.

Anton Nathaniel Redding, 24, pleaded not guilty to one count of felony vandalism, one count of second-degree burglary and denied his role in the alleged hate crime, officials said.

If convicted on all charges, he faces a maximum of six years in state prison.

According to Beverly Hills police, on Dec. 14 Redding forced his way into the Nessah Synagogue and ransacked it, shredding prayer books, overturning chairs and tossing blue and white tallits and kippahs on the floor. The vandalism was discovered by a synagogue employee.

When my husband came home and told me what happened, I was shocked. The whole community was shocked, Simin Imanuel, a longtime congregant, told The Times after the incident.

The attack came at a time when the community is especially alert to anti-Semitic violence.

Hate crimes in Los Angeles County have reached their highest point in nearly a decade, according to an annual report by the L.A. County Commission on Human Relations. Although religious crimes overall declined slightly, anti-Jewish crimes rose 14% and constituted 83% of religion-motivated crimes.

Earlier this month, two shooters killed three people at a Jewish grocery store, in addition to a police officer at a cemetery about a mile away. In April, a shooting at the Chabad of Poway synagogue in San Diego County came exactly six months after 11 people were killed at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh.

At a community town hall at the Beverly Hilton last week after the vandalism, police received a standing ovation when they announced Reddings arrest. He was located in Hawaii.

Redding is due back in court Jan. 30.

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Man pleads not guilty in vandalism of Beverly Hills synagogue - Los Angeles Times

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Posted By admin on December 25, 2019

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Once a minor holiday for observant Jews, Hanukkah has become a major celebration in the U.S. Why? Here's everything you need to know:

What is Hanukkah?Hanukkah commemorates the rededication of the Second Temple in Jerusalem after a successful Jewish revolt against the Seleucid Empire in 160 BCE. The Seleucid dynasty, founded by one of Alexander the Great's generals after the Macedonian Empire was divided upon Alexander's death, spread Greek culture, ideas, and religion throughout the ancient Middle East. The Jews were initially granted a measure of autonomy within this empire. But in 175 BCE, King Antiochus IV Epiphanes instituted a program of forced assimilation in Judea, outlawing the Jewish faith and desecrating the Temple by sacrificing a pig and erecting an altar to Zeus. After a years-long campaign of guerrilla warfare, Jewish rebels known as the Maccabees defeated the Seleucids. Tradition holds that when the Maccabees recaptured the Temple, there was only one vial of undefiled olive oil, enough to light the seven lamps of the Temple menorah for just one day. Miraculously, the lamps kept burning for eight days, enough time to press and consecrate more oil. That's why Hanukkah is celebrated for eight days and is called the Festival of Lights.

How is it celebrated? Hanukkah begins on the 25th day of the Hebrew month of Kislev, which falls on Dec. 22 this year. But because the Hebrew calendar is on a different cycle than the Gregorian calendar, the holiday can begin anywhere from late November through December. Households gather together each night to light today's menorah, a nine-branched candelabrum, while saying special blessings. The shamash, or "attendant" candle, is lit first and used to light one other candle on the first night of Hanukkah, with one more candle added every night. Dreidel, a game of chance with a spinning top, is often played after the candles are lit, with players seeking to win a small number of coins, nuts, candies, or trinkets. Instead of actual money, foil-covered chocolate coins called gelt are often used. Each side of the top is inscribed with a Hebrew letter nun, gimel, hei, and shin with the letters standing for "a great miracle happened there."

Is Hanukkah a major holiday? For most of Jewish history, Hanukkah was considered a minor festival. The Hanukkah story does not appear in the Tanakh, the Hebrew Bible, which is the basis of the Christian Old Testament. Unlike biblically established holidays such as Passover and Yom Kippur, Hanukkah has no special dietary restrictions, and work is still permitted. The book of 1 Maccabees, which was written around 100 BCE, tells the story of the Maccabean Revolt and the eight-day celebration of the rededication of the Temple. But it does not describe the miracle of lights, which first appears in writing nearly 600 years after the Maccabean Revolt, in the collection of Jewish laws and teachings called the Talmud. Some historians believe Hanukkah celebrations evolved alongside other winter solstice festivals incorporating fire and light amid the darkest days of the year. "Although Hanukkah today is one of the most popular and recognizable of Jewish holidays in the minds of non-Jews, this is only a relatively recent development," writes Tatjana Lichtenstein, director of the Schusterman Center for Jewish Studies at the University of Texas. "For centuries, Hanukkah remained less religiously and culturally significant than almost any other of the Jewish holidays."

When did that change?Hanukkah began to take on more importance in the mid to late 19th century, amid large-scale Jewish immigration to the U.S. Many Jewish immigrants embraced American customs as a way of fitting in, including Christmas, which during the Victorian Era had begun its transformation into the highly commercialized holiday we know today. Alarmed by the number of Jewish families decorating Christmas trees and waiting for Santa Claus, religious leaders started to play up Hanukkah as an alternative. Cincinnati-based Reform Rabbis Max Lilienthal and Isaac M. Wise are credited with popularizing Hanukkah by developing special Hanukkah synagogue services focused on children, with candle-lighting, songs, and gift-giving, which they promoted in the Jewish press. "We must do something, too, to enliven our children," Lilienthal wrote in an editorial in 1876. "[They] shall have a grand and glorious Chanukah festival nicer than any Christmas festival."

How has Hanukkah evolved since then?Hanukkah has become one of the most widely observed Jewish holidays in the U.S. Because it does not involve many of the strict religious requirements of other holidays, it's become a way for secular Jews to express their heritage and identity during the holiday season. It is also popular in the growing number of interfaith households, which celebrate both Hanukkah and Christmas. Hanukkah has become a powerful public symbol of religious freedom. The New Yorkbased Hasidic movement Chabad-Lubavitch promotes public menorah lightings around the world, including the National Menorah in Washington, D.C. Hanukkah has also been growing in popularity in Israel, although it is not a national holiday. Hanukkah is "a minor holiday that America has elevated into something much more," says Josh Plaut, head rabbi at the Reform Metropolitan Synagogue in New York City. "Jews have been part of that magnification of Hanukkah. It suits our purposes."

The commercialization of HanukkahHanukkah sparks a seasonal debate in America over whether it's become too much like Christmas. Kitschy products such as the Elf on a Shelf have found counterparts in the Mensch on a Bench and the Maccabee on the Mantel. Kosher foods manufacturer Manischewitz sells Hanukkah House kits that use vanilla cookies instead of gingerbread and come with blue and white icing. The Hallmark Channel this year added two Hanukkah-themed movies to its lineup of nonstop Christmas fare. "In New York you cannot go into a shop without seeing a menorah next to the Christmas tree, so people tend to think they are related, and Hanukkah is easily obscured by the holiday spirit," said Adam Goldmann, a freelance journalist now living in Germany. "Here, I feel free to enjoy Hanukkah for what it really is, a secondary Jewish holiday. There's no commercial aspect whatsoever."

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Posted By admin on December 25, 2019

by Asa Winstanley

You have to hand it toDonald Trump, he knows which side his bread is buttered.

Spewing out disgusting remarks that some of the commentariatdeemed onlycontroversial at worst,Trump attendedthe Israeli-American Councils (AIC) national summit earlier this month.

A major pro-Israel lobby group, the IAC, is bankrolled by anti-Palestinian casino billionaire, Sheldon Adelson.

By complete and utter coincidence, Adelson is also Trumps top election donor.

Trump used his speech at the summit to back Israeli crimes and racism to the hilt, as per usual, for all American presidents from either party.

But, those were not his controversial comments.

Those comments, in fact, were open and disgusting anti-Semitism. But, the crowd of Israel lobbyists did not respond to Trumps anti-Jewish racism with condemnation instead they clapped and applauded.

Speaking to the largely Jewish audience, Trump announced a lot of you are in the real estate business and that youre brutal killers, not nice people at all, but you have to vote for me. You have no choice. Youre not going to vote for Pocahontas, I can tell you that. Youre not going to vote for the wealth tax!

Trump managed to combine some of the worst anti-Semitic stereotypes into a handful of sentences: that Jews love money and are all wealth hoarding, greedy landlords. He also managed to throw in a racial slur against Native Americans for good measure, in the course of deploying his usual attack on Elizabeth Warren and her wealth tax proposal.

But Trumps open anti-Semitism wasexcused, justified and minimisedby Israels supporters in the US.

The condoning of anti-Semitism by Israels propagandists, is a reminder that Zionism has a long history of collusion with anti-Semitism one which goes right back to Zionisms founder,Theodor Herzl.

This truth was raised when the infamousBalfour Declarationof support for the aims of the Zionist movement was being debated by the British cabinet at the time by the only Jewish cabinet member, Edwin Montagu.

Montaguwrote in 1917 to his colleaguesthat: Zionism has always seemed to me to be a mischievous political creed.

He wrote: I assert that there is not a Jewish nation. The members of my family, for instance, who have been in this country for generations, have no sort or kind of community of view or of desire with any Jewish family in any other country, beyond the fact that they profess to a greater or less degree the same religion.

He had a warning for the rest of the British government: When the Jews are told that Palestine is their national home, every country will immediately desire to get rid of its Jewish citizens you will find a (Jewish) population in Palestine driving out its present inhabitants.

It is a tragedy that Montagus warnings were not heeded, and that the Balfour Declaration did indeed begin the process of submitting Palestine to the Zionist settlers, driving out the indigenous Palestinian inhabitants by force.

Trumps recent actions to help the Israel lobby and attack the movement for justice in Palestine, as well as being wrong in themselves, are also anti-Semitic by implication.

Hisrecent executive orderattacking the Palestine solidarity movement on US campuses, was a case in point.

It wastrailed in the mediaas, in effect, redefining Jewishness or Judaism as a nationality a worryingly anti-Semitic move with frightening historical parallels. Theactual text of the order is not quitethat.

But there is no doubt that, in embracing and entrenching Israels favoured, bogus, working definition of anti-Semitism, the order makes it harder for any genuine anti-racist efforts against anti-Semitism.

Director of the civil rights groupPalestine Legal, Dima Khalidi,calledthe executive order a bald-faced attempt to silence the movement for Palestinian rights on college campuses.

She continued that rather than providing any new protections to Jewish students against the rampant and deadly anti-Semitism of a resurgent white nationalism, the order aims to define the contours of what we can say about Palestine and Israel.

We wont abide, and it will be challenged, Khalidi declared.

It is yet another reminder that anti-Palestinianism and anti-Semitism are closely related. A markedly large number of supporters of Zionism want Jews to leave Europe, so that they will no longer have to live in close proximity to them.

This is part of the reason why Joseph Massad, associate professor of Modern Arab Politics and Intellectual History at Columbia University,has calledthe Palestinian people and anti-Zionist Jews the last of the Semites, the heirs of the pre-WWII Jewish and Palestinian struggles against anti-Semitism and its Zionist colonial manifestation.

Asa Winstanley is an investigative journalist living in London who writes about Palestine and the Middle East. He writes for The Electronic Intifada where he is an associate editor and also a weekly column for the Middle East Monitor. ~ Days of Palestine

(photo: President Donald J. Trump greets the crowd in Chicago, Illinois, United States on 28 October, 2019 Kyle Mazza/Anadolu Agency)

Opinion/Analysis 12/30/19 Report: UN Body Criticizes Israels Racial Segregation Policies

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Trump Demonstrates Again Why Zionism Is Anti-Semitism - International Middle East Media Center

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