Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By richards on August 22, 2017

Today, from 9:05 a.m. Pacific Time to 4:09 Eastern, the United States will be treated to a solar eclipse for the first time in 38 years. And while well all be looking up to glimpse the celestial wonder, anyone harboring ill-will towards the Jews better beware: a solar eclipse is a very bad omen for anti-Semites.

Its right there in the Talmud. Tractate Sukkah 29a brings us this nugget from Rabbi Meir: When the heavenly lights, i.e. the sun and the moon, are eclipsed, it is a bad omen for the enemies of the Jewish people, because they are experienced in being beaten. This is similar to a teacher who comes to the school with a strap in his hand. Who worries? The child who is accustomed to being beaten each and every day.

In other words, when they see the shadow falling on the sun, our foes should stop and reflect that no plot to exterminate the Jews ever ended well for the perpetrators.

But that doesnt mean that we should rejoice: According to a new and fascinating article by Dr. Jeremy Brown in Hakirah: The Flatbush Journal of Jewish Law and Thought, its precisely the ominous nature of the eclipse that drove some rabbis to warn against saying a berachah, or blessing, when the sky goes dark.

Menachem Mendel Schneerson, for example, the Lubavitcher Rebbe, argued that when we see the eclipse, we should pray instead for those whove stirred Gods wrath. There is a well-established principle that it is forbidden to institute a blessing that is not mentioned in the Talmud, he wrote. And some say that the reason that no blessing was instituted is because the eclipse is a bad omen. To the contrary, it is important to pray for the omen to be annulled, and to cry out without a berachah.

And if all this strikes you as too much extrapolation on what is essentially a natural occurrence, youd probably find much to dislike about the Talmuds explanation of why solar eclipses happen in the first places. The Sages taught that on account of four matters the sun is eclipsed, reads Tractate Sukkah. On account of a president of the court who dies and is not eulogized appropriately, and the eclipse is a type of eulogy by Heaven; on account of a betrothed young woman who screamed in the city that she was being raped and there was no one to rescue her; on account of homosexuality; and on account of two brothers whose blood was spilled as one.

Whats the common thread tying these four together? Rashi, Dr. Brown wrote, asked himself the very same question. His answer? I do not know of an explanation for this.

So as you look up tomorrow, you could see the eclipse as a metaphor for sin, as the famous Maharal of Prague, he of the Golem fame, had done. You could see it as the universe taking its course. Or you could see it as an invitation, coming right at the cusp of the Hebrew month of Elul, which begins on Tuesday, to reflect and repent and change your ways. Whatever you decide, at least get the right pair of glasses.

Liel Leibovitz is a senior writer for Tablet Magazine.

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Posted By simmons on August 22, 2017

Teresa Manning, a deputy assistant secretary at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, praised Joseph Sobran, who had a long history of negative statements about Jews and their alleged influence in the U.S.

WASHINGTON -- An official appointed by the Trump administration to a senior position at the Department of Health and Human Services at one time praised a defender and politicalally of Holocaust deniers, according to a report published on Monday by Mother Jones magazine. Teresa Manning, a deputy assistant secretary at HHS, who was a vocal anti-abortion activist and is now responsible for family planning policy, once called Joseph Sobran, a writer who strongly defended Holocaust deniers, the finest columnist of his generation and a national treasure,Mother Jones reported.

The quotes attributed to Manning are from 2003, when she hosted a panel at aconference of anti-abortion activists. Sobran, who was one of the speakers at the conference, was a leading voice on abortion issues and also had a long history of negative statements about Jews and their alleged influence in the United States.

In introducing Sobran, Manning reportedly said: He has been called the finest columnist of his generation as well as a national treasure. I wholeheartedly agree with both statements.

The report publishedon Mondaynotes that just a few months before thatevent, Sobran was a speaker at a conference organized by the Institute for Historical Review, an organization devoted to denyingthe historical facts of the Holocaust and promoting research that calls the number of Jews murdered by the Nazis, the methods used to exterminate the Jews and other core elements of the Holocaust into question.

Sobran praised the anti-Semitic organization on multiple occasions and wrote in an article in 2001 that the group was being threatened by Jewish thugs who are narrow-minded and refuse to hold a debate on the true nature of the Holocaust.

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Obviously, something disastrous happened to the Jews during World War II; even the revisionists dont deny that, he wrote. But does the word Holocaust accurately sum up the Jewish misfortune? Maybe so; maybe the secular Jewish-Zionist thugs and pressure groups are essentially right. But thats a conclusion Id want to reach as a free man, not because a different conclusion might result in my kneecaps being broken. And in this controversy, I know which side is appealing to my mind, and which is going for my kneecaps.

Sobran also defended David Irving, the Holocaust denier whose libel suit against historian Deborah Lipstadt was the subject of a book that she wrote as well as the film Denial. In his2001 article, Sobran called Irving brilliant and added that Irving has been fined $18,000 in Germany for arguing that an Auschwitz cyanide chamber was a mere replica. He was correct, but he had to pay anyway.

Sobran also remarked: The Holocaust controversy is so bitter that it cant even be called a debate. One side refuses to debate, denying that there is anything to debate.

At the 2002 conference that took place just months before Manning praised him at the anti-abortion event, Sobran came to the defense of the Institute for Historical Review, saying in my thirty years in journalism,nothing has amazed me more than the prevalent fear in the profession of offending Jews, especially Zionist Jews. The Holocaust, he said, has become a device for exempting Jews from normal human obligations.

In 1993, he wasfired as a columnist for the conservative National Reviewby editor William F. Buckley, who had once mentored Sobran and now disparaged his contextually anti-Semitic writing, Mother Jones noted.

Sobran died in 2010. His anti-Semitic rhetoric was mentioned in his Washington Post obituary, and according to the Mother Jones report, he had been well-known in right-wing political circles as early as the 1990s, long before Manning praised him as a national treasure in 2003. The magazine said Manning failed to respond to a request for comment for its article.

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Posted By richards on August 22, 2017

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A pro-life activist whom President Trump appointed to run the Department of Health and Human Services family planning programs once praised a controversial writer who repeatedly defended Holocaust deniers and was once fired for writing columns that his own editor called anti-Semitic.

Teresa Manning, a new deputy assistant secretary at HHS, edited a book of pro-life essays in 2003, and moderated a panel discussion in Washington that year to promote it, Mother Jones magazine recounted on Monday. In her remarks, she praised Joseph Sobran, who was also speaking and had contributed to the book, saying that Sobran has been called the finest columnist of his generation as well as a national treasure. I wholeheartedly agree with both statements.

However, Manning could have been aware that a few months prior, Sobran had spoken at the annual conference of the Institute for Historical Review, a prominent Holocaust denial organization. In his remarks to the IHR, Sobran claimed that The only discernible duty of Jews, it seems, is to look out for Israel. He said that he was not himself a Holocaust denier, but, he asked, Why on earth is it anti-Jewish to conclude from the evidence that the standard numbers of Jews murdered are inaccurate, or that the Hitler regime, bad as it was in many ways, was not, in fact, intent on racial extermination?

Because of this, The American Conservative magazine co-founded by Pat Buchanan withdrew an offer for Sobran to write a column.

Sobrans extreme views should not have been a surprise to Manning or anyone else: In 1993, he was fired by National Review, the most prominent right-wing magazine of its time, for writing articles that editor William F. Buckley called contextually anti-Semitic.

Contact Aiden Pink at pink@forward.com or on Twitter, @aidenpink.

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Posted By admin on August 22, 2017

Donors have shown greater interest in supporting the Anti-Defamation League since the August 12 violence at a neo-Nazi rally in Charlottesvile, Virginia (AFP Photo/CHIP SOMODEVILLA)

New York (AFP) - Donations to the Anti-Defamation League, one of the oldest anti-discrimination, anti-Semitic organizations in the United States, have spiked sharply since the violence in Charlottesville, the group said Monday.

ADL spokeswoman Betsaida Alcantara said donations like the one from James Murdoch -- head of Fox News, who last week announced a million-dollar donation -- as well as those from corporations like Apple, Uber and MGM Resorts yielded a rise of "1,000%" last week, compared to the weekly average donations since the beginning of the year.

The ADL, headquartered in New York, did not specify to which dollar amount this surge had led.

On Monday, the big bank J.P. Morgan also joined the ranks of the donors, Alcantara said.

The bank announced a million dollar-gift to be shared by the ADL and the Southern Poverty Law Center, a center for studies of extremist movements, according to US media.

Donors have shown greater interest in supporting the ADL since the August 12 violence at a neo-Nazi rally in Charlottesvile, Virginia.

A woman was killed and 19 people injured during those clashes between anti-racism demonstrators and white supremacists. President Donald Trump was the target of fierce criticism for not clearly condemning the extreme right.

Another organization to combat racism and anti-Semitism, the Los Angeles-based Simon Wiesenthal Center, has also recorded major donations since then. One came from California actor and former governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.

An estimated 40,000 anti-racism demonstrators flooded Boston on Saturday to counter another rally by far-right groups.

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Posted By richards on August 21, 2017

This previous Thursday, white nationalist leader Richard Spencer went on Israel's Channel 2 and told Israelis that his movement is just another form of Zionism, but for white people.

"You could say that Im a white Zionist in the sense that I care about my people. I want us to have a secure homeland that for us and ourselves just like you want a secure homeland in Israel. Spencer told Channel 2 reporter Danny Cushmaro.

As an Israeli citizen, someone who understands your identity, who has a sense of nationhood and peoplehood and the history and experience of the Jewish people, you should respect someone like me who has analogous feelings about whites. Spencer said.

Journalist Yair Rosenberg responded by releasing a video explaining why Spencer is totally wrong and how the false and superficial equation of White Supremacy and Zionism allows the left to justify its anti-Zionism. Whites are not a minority as Jews are, and they did not suffer the persecution that led to the rise of Zionism and the need for a reestablishment of the Jewish homeland in Israel.

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Posted By admin on August 21, 2017

Judaism's central rabbinic text says today's solar eclipse is nothing to celebrate

CHARLESTON - Across the United States, Jews are gathering in anticipation of the historic Great American Eclipse, particularly in cities known as ideal spots to experience the phenomenon.

But at the downtown Brith Shalom Beth Israel synagogue Sunday evening, nestled in the historic southern city perfectly positioned for the Monday event, Dr. Jeremy Brown had bad news for a group who had gathered for a kosher meal on Eclipse Eve: in traditional Judaism, an eclipse is nothing to celebrate.

>>How ancient Babylonians could have predicted the 2017 eclipse>>

Eclipses happen because people sin, he said. Theres no getting around it, Brown says. The Talmud - the central text of rabbinic Judaism - is unambiguous in its interpretation of eclipses - both lunar and solar, as a form of divine punishment - a curse to be dreaded and feared, rather than a miraculous wonder of nature.

If that isnt bad enough, Brown told his audience of Charleston locals and Jews who had come to the city for the big event, the four sins specifically blamed by the Talmud plunging the earth into eerie darkness are so notably bizarre and politically incorrect, that nobody really wants to talk about them.

What are they?

1. The failure to properly bury the leader of a Rabbinic Court

2. If a betrothed girl cries out as she is being raped and there is no one to save her

3. Homosexuality

4. If two brothers were killed at the same time.

If these reasons sound random and unrelated with no possible connection, fear not - said Brown. Even the great medieval rabbi, Rashi, normally relied upon for his clear and concise Talmudic explanation of just about everything, was uncharacteristically clueless in the case of eclipse-triggering transgressions, writing I have not heard any explanation for this.

Brown, a doctor, who wrote the book New Heavens and a New Earth: The Jewish reception of Copernican Thought and recently published an article on halachic and philosophical aspects of the 2017 eclipse traveled from his home in Silver Spring, Maryland to Charleston to fully experience the eclipse first-hand.

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For centuries, he notes, rabbis have wrestled with the Talmudic attitude towards eclipse. It contains, he notes, an inherent illogic in the Jewish approach that was clear even hundreds of years ago. Eclipses are a natural occurrence that is utterly predictable, they will take place no matter what any human being does. So how in the world, rabbis and scholars have asked, could they possibly be a result of sin or any form of human behavior?

As far back as 1609, Brown said, the Maharal of Prague, Rabbi Yehuda Loew tried to justify the Talmudic text by theorizing if we lived in a world without sin, no eclipses would happen. In his view, since human fallibility and sin are both inevitable, so was an eclipse. That attitude, however, leans closer to the Christian concept of original sin than to the traditional Jewish beliefs.

Another big problem with the Maharals theory as far as Jews are concerned, he observed - if there were never any eclipses, it would have to mean that the moon wouldnt ever be able to orbit in the same plane as the sun and the earth.

The only way for there to be no solar eclipses in the Maharals imaginary sin-free universe would be for the moon to orbit the earth at 90 to the sun-earth axis. Then it would never come between the sun and the earth, says Brown. This would wreak havoc with the Jewish calendar, which is based on lunar patterns - preventing Rosh Chodesh the beginning of the Hebrew month, that Jews consider a kind of a holiday.

The conundrum continued in the modern era, with famed Lubavitcher Rebbe Menachem Mendel Schneerson positing in 1957 that while a solar eclipse was predictable, the local weather was most certainly not. So presumably, if it was a cloudy day and the eclipse wasnt visible, people hadnt been sinful, but if it was clear and the sight was eerily abnormal - that meant the sins had taken place.

Schneerson was emphatic when it came to those who might be inspired to bless the event, writing that it is forbidden to institute a blessing that is not mentioned in the Talmud. And some say that the reason that no blessing was instituted is because the eclipse is a bad omen. Brown says that the rebbe believed that if Jews should pray for anything - it would be that the eclipse shouldnt happen. Or maybe they should just cry gevalt!

But, over the years, he notes it seems attitudes have softened. When Israels current Chief Rabbi David Lau was asked in 2006 was asked whether it wasnt perhaps possible to view such a cosmic occurrence in a positive light and even say a blessing when it occurs if they feel a religious stirring. In his response, Lau admitted that he himself had also been awed when witnessing an eclipse, but that because the rabbis of the Talmudic era had not prescribed a blessing over an eclipse, it was not possible to institute such a blessing today. He added, however, that there was nothing wrong with reciting an appropriately celebratory and worshipful psalm, and even recommended a few for the occasion.

Brown, an observant Jew himself, endorses Laus approach, as do, he says, most of todays rabbis. Even though an official eclipse prayer may technically be out-of-bounds for the faithful, he thinks a memorable celestial event is indeed an occasion joyful attention and wonder - no matter what the Talmud says.

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Posted By richards on August 21, 2017

A Torah scroll. Photo: Rabbisacks.org.

There will be a solar eclipse on August 21, which will be visible across parts of the United Statesfor the first time since 1918. Solar eclipses occur when the moon blocks the rays of the sun from reaching the earth.

There are more lunar eclipses and planetary eclipses, butthe solar eclipse is the big one. Until a few hundred years ago, this predictable phenomenon was regarded as a sign of impending dooma message of displeasure from the gods, and a cause for mourning and despair.

In ancient China, for example, people would bang drums and pots and shout to scare off the dragon that was eating the sun.

The earliest example we have of this connection between eclipses and fear goes back to clay cuneiform tablets from 2300 and 1800 BCE, which were found in Mesopotamia.They told of how a king would temporarily abdicate the throne in order to save his life during a solar eclipse.

August 21, 2017 10:56 am

In Greece during the fifth century BCE, the philosopher Anaxagoras was the first to correctly explain that eclipses were just the sun casting the shadow of the moon on the earth. But superstition won (as it often does today). The Athenians put Anaxagoras on trial, accused him of sacrilege, and exiled him.

In 413 BCE, the Athenian general Nicias was preparing to capture Syracuse in Sicily. There was an eclipse, which Nicias saw as a bad omen. He therefore delayed his fleets departure. Seizing the opportunity, the Syracuse navy destroyed the fleet of 200 ships and killed or enslaved the 29,000 Athenian soldiers.

Over time, the ability to predict eclipses spread around the world. People began to fear less. But the association of eclipses with bad omens or religious signs has continued for centuries.

So what do our ancient sources tell us about eclipses?

The Talmud (Sucah 29a) uses the term striking the sun to describe an eclipse. Of solar eclipses, it says:When the sun is eclipsed, it is a bad sign for the whole world. It is like when a human king made a feast for his subjects and placed a lantern before them. When he grew angry with them, he told his servant, Take away the lantern and leave them in darkness!

The Talmud goes on to argue about whether thisis a bad sign for Jews or non-Jews or both. There is also a debate in the Talmud as to whether we should pay any attention to signs.

Despite those opposed to finding any significance in signs, the idea of symbols is deeply entrenched in Judaism. That is why, for example, we have all those signs at the Rosh Hashanah table for a successful, happy and sweet new year.

But in Jewish law, the Talmud focuses on praising God rather than worrying about bad things. It gives a list of blessings for lightning, thunder, a rainbow, the ocean, earthquakes, comets, etc.

Rabbis have often been asked about making a blessing over an eclipse. As youd expect, they dont all agree.

RabbiYaakov Yisrael Kanievsky(18991985), known as the Steipler Gaon, was one of the two greatest authorities of his day. He said that no blessingshould be recited on a solar eclipse, because it is aSiman Raa bad omenas mentioned in the Talmud in Sucah.

On the other hand, Rabbi Jonathan Eybeschutz (16901764), who was one of the two greatest rabbis of his own generation, said(Yaarot Devash2:12)that the Talmuds termlikuy ha-chamah(literally the striking of the sun) referred not to solar eclipses but to sunspots. There was no reason to think that either solar or lunar eclipses were bad signs. (Although he did worry about sunspots.)

As someone who doesnt believe insuperstition, I go with Rabbi Eybeshutz. But I also think that peopleshould say at least an abbreviated blessing to recognize the occasion. I would go for the one we say over comets and other exceptional physical phenomena: Baruch oseh maaseh bereishit.Thisroughly translates to: Thank you, God, for such an amazing universe we live in.

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Posted By admin on August 21, 2017

Count me among the thousands of people who enjoy visiting southern Florida. On my first trip to Boca Raton, about an hour's drive north of Miami, I remember walking along the reef of South Inlet Park, waves crashing on the rocks, as local fishermen hailed me with friendly smiles and hellos. The city residents were welcoming overall, but I was there to expose how, for a decade, a vocal few have fought to keep the Chabad of East Boca Raton from building a synagogue.

I saw the empty plot of land on which the Chabad has received permission to build, overgrown and quiet; it is an eerie reminder of the decade-long opposition the Chabad has faced from a handful of its future neighbors. As I ambled by the plot, a woman walking home stopped me in my tracks. With surprise in her voice, she asked, "Oh, are they still building this?"

"Yes they are working on it," I answered. She raised her eyebrows and sidestepped me, walking quickly down the street.

Since 2007, the Chabad of East Boca is an Orthodox Jewish Synagogue that had been searching for a place to call home for its growing congregation. In 2008, the Chabad found the perfect location and started the process of obtaining building permits, which culminated in the Chabad receiving unanimous city council approval under a zoning law that gave all houses of worship equal rights to build.

But instead of commencing construction, the Chabad was met with a firestorm of opposition accompanied by vandalism, assault, and anti-Semitic bullying. One of the congregation's members, a teenage boy, was physically assaulted on a public street and told to "go back to Auschwitz."

This is especially ugly considering that, after New York City, Boca Raton is home to the second-highest population of Holocaust survivors in the United States. Local newspapers report that opposition to the synagogue has made this building project the most contentious in the city's history. It is unclear what could make a two-story synagogue so unwelcome in a location that already features 22-story high-rises, strip malls, and 7-Elevens.

When I met Rabbi New, the leader of the Chabad, he described the prolonged battle for religious liberty. He was hopeful but weary tired of the decade-long fight to build his synagogue, but determined to see it through. Solomon's temple was built in seven years, and the Chabad one has taken nearly 10. The opposition that the Chabad still faces comes from a small but loud minority, despite overwhelming support from the community, including the city council members who had unanimously granted the building permit.

Becket, a religious liberty law firm that defends people of all faith and is best known for Supreme Court cases Hosanna-Tabor and Little Sisters of the Poor, is defending the Chabad and its right to build. They've won twice, but are now in their third round of legal battles, hoping to end a decade of obstruction and claim long-overdue justice for the synagogue.

The members of the Chabad need and deserve an expanded place to worship. They desire the unity that a new synagogue would bring to their community. The new synagogue will be a beautiful addition to Boca Raton, a place where families and the community can come together. Members of the Chabad want to unite Boca for occasions like Bar Mitzvahs or Yom Kippur.

Just like other houses of worship built recently by Protestants, Latter-Day Saints (known colloquially as Mormons), and Muslims, the Chabad has a right to be there. The attacks on the Chabad not only threaten Jews that want it built, but all houses of worship. As a Mormon myself, I am all too familiar with discrimination that can follow a religion trying to worship in peace. Other religions cannot be safe if the rights of one are taken away. This opposition depreciates, devalues, and diminishes our nation's commitment to true religious freedom for all.

When the Chabad is finally built in Boca Raton, the residents will at last be relieved from years of conflict to practice their religion in peace. And when this happens, they will not only have won their own fight, but a fight for minority faiths throughout America living according to conscience. And what's more American than that?

Madison Brown was a 2017 intern at Becket, a nonprofit law firm for religious liberty, and is a pre-law public relations student at Brigham Young University.

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Posted By admin on August 21, 2017

Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy. During the last week, the leaders and community at Congregation Beth Israel in Charlottesville have met Dr. Kings high bar of moral leadership.

I had the privilege to worship and spend time with this extraordinary congregation less than a week after the Shabbat that shook this community and most of our world to its core. I brought the love, support, and admiration of the entire Reform Jewish Movement almost two million strong across North America -- and bound with unbreakable solidarity to Charlottesville.

With uncommon wisdom, courage, and love, Rabbis Tom Gutherz and Rachel Schmelkin led this community through a sea of hate and danger as neo-Nazis and white supremacists, guarded by fully armed militias, marched around this historic synagogue spewing anti-Semitic taunts. No one would have balked had the leaders cancelled Shabbat morning prayers last week, but they didnt; thats not what this community is about. Rather, they prayed earlier than usual to be able to join the counter protests, faithfully standing up against roving bands of haters. Rabbi Dan Alexander, Congregation Beth Israels rabbi emeritus, planted so many seeds of compassion and commitment that have fully flowered during these dark days. The congregations president, Alan Zimmerman, helped guide this community through those fear-filled days and then graciously shared his reflections in a blog post that has reached hundreds of thousands of readers. To CBI member Mayor Mike Signer, as well, a debt of gratitude for the steadfast way he led this entire community.

The opening word of this weeks Torah portion is also its name: Reih. It means to see. Everyone in this congregation will long remember what they saw last week: Nazi flags and tiki torches reminiscent of Hitlers Germany and KKK rallies of years past. Tragically, those indelible images were not from newsreels.

In tractate Berachot 34b of the Babylonian Talmud, we are taught that one may only pray in a house with windows. Why? One answer is that even when we need to huddle together for spiritual strength, we must never shut out the sights and sounds of the world beyond our doors. Last week those sights and sounds were both terrifying and impossible to ignore. But windows also make sure that the deepest yearnings of our hearts radiate outward from our prayer place, helping to heal the brokenness throughout the world. Last Shabbat, the historic and beautiful windows of this, the oldest continuously used synagogue in Virginia, painfully connected the loving spiritual world inside to the seething hatred enveloping the surrounding streets.

In this perplexing and fractured world, so many people yearn to be a part of congregations of depth, purpose, kindness, and backbone. Congregation Beth Israel is such a place, a shining beacon of what we can be at our best. Through these days of trauma, this congregation and its members showed the world how our faith can shape who we are as we uphold our traditions enduring vision of a just and compassionate world.

Those who marched last weekend hate who we are. They hate that we are Jews. And they hate our Reform Jewish communitys radical inclusivity. A hallmark of our Reform Judaism is our audacious hospitality. Our embrace of LGBTQ individuals, interfaith families, and Jews of color, strengthens us. Those who marched last week hate our diversity; they hate our deep alliances with communities of color fighting for racial justice and civil rights. But our ranks continue to grow and we continue undeterred to partner with the Holy One to shape the world as it ought to be.

Our Torah portion helps us to discern moral clarity. See, this day I set before you blessing and curse (Dt 11:26). Sometimes differentiating the blessing from the curse, right from wrong, can be challenging, but not in these opening verses from Parashat Reih: When God brings you into the landyou shall pronounce the blessing at Mount Gerizim and the curse at Mount Ebal (Dt 11:29). Mt. Gerizim is lush with green while Mt. Ebal is desolate and barren. These mountains are geographic visual aids for blessing and curses, right and wrong. You cant confuse them; they couldnt be more different. But somehow the President of the United States is not able to discern hate from love, racism from tolerance, as he repeatedly has articulated a moral equivalence between neo-Nazi white supremacists spewing bigotry, racism, anti-Semitism, and xenophobia and those who stood faithfully against them. The moral distinction is as plain as Mt. Gerizim and Mt. Ebal, but, sadly, our president cant tell them apart.

Nonetheless, presidents can lead with moral clarity. In President Abraham Lincolns first inaugural address, he appealed to the better angels of our nature, and he built his leadership by urging all to tap into the best qualities we humans can exhibit. Thats what presidential leadership can be.

Its not just words or symbols that are at issue. White supremacy is embedded in policies such as the voter suppression laws that make it difficult for people of color to vote in too many states, as well as in the many inequities people of color encounter in the criminal justice system. The problem extends far deeper than a rally in Charlottesville, and we will not rest until we become a land in which justice and liberty truly are for all and there are no exceptions.

Elaborate preparations are underway for Mondays solar eclipse. But it was last weekends moral eclipse in Charlottesville that threatened to block out the most essential light of all. That full moral eclipse never happened because, thankfully, this congregation joined with Charlottesvilles other faith communities and many decent people of conscience, refusing to sit idly by and choosing instead to be present lovingly and firmly as up-standers in the face of demonic hate.

Above the holy ark in this jewel of a sanctuary is a quote from Psalms: By Your Light do we see light. (Ps 36:9). Our tradition often depicts God with light metaphors, reminding us that our sacred work is to spread the light of God throughout the dark places in this world.

Our Reform Jewish Movement has asked individuals, families, and congregations across North America to take photos of themselves holding candles so that we can flood the internet with #BeTheLightForJustice images. This is one of six tactical actions we are suggesting that not only will help advance constructive solutions, but also represent the interfaith response to the hate and vitriol dividing our nation.

Congregation Beth Israel has been doing more than its share of spreading the light and it is not alone. Its members are part of something much larger than just this historic gem of a congregation. During this last week, they have been the focus of our Reform Movement and of Jews of all practices and beliefs here in North America, in Israel, and around the world. And of course, the bonds of our interfaith partners and the congregations partners elevate our ability to stand against the hate.

On the day after the solar eclipse, we will observe Rosh Chodesh Elul, when we will see the sliver of the new moon that signals we are one month from Rosh HaShanah, the new year. Although the light of the moon will barely be visible, it will grow day by day. And so it is with our holy work.

Like our ancestors before us, we must be able to see the stark contrast between Mt. Gerizim and Mt. Ebal, between blessing and curse, between love and hate, between pluralism and racism. May we continue to be inspired by Congregation Beth Israel to turn darkness into light, to turn fear into resolve, to turn xenophobia into acceptance, and to turn hatred into hope.

Rabbi Rick Jacobs is the president of the Union for Reform Judaism (URJ), the largest, most diverse Jewish movement in North America, with almost 900 congregations and nearly 1.5 million members.

Adapted from a sermon delivered on Friday, August 18, 2017 at Congregation Beth Israel, Charlottesville, Virginia.

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Seeing Through the Darkness: Inside Charlottesville's Synagogue One Week Later - HuffPost

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Posted By simmons on August 21, 2017

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Remains of a newly excavated mikvah that was used by congregants at the former Great Synagogue in Vilna. Photo: Israel Antiquities Authority.

JNS.org A team of Israeli, Lithuanian and American archaeologists has unearthed the remains of two mikvahs (ritual baths) used by congregants at the Great Synagogue in Vilna, which is the modern-day capital of Lithuania.

The synagogue, which was at heart of Vilnas large Jewish community for hundreds of years, was completely destroyed in the Holocaust, but evidence of underground spaces discovered in a study carried out last year led to the excavation of the site and the exposure of the ritual baths.

The Great Synagogue of Vilna, built in the 17th century in Renaissance-Baroque style, was a large community center and a hub for Torah study. The facility included 12 different synagogues and study halls; mikvahs; the community council building; kosher meat stalls; and the school of famed Rabbi Elijah ben Solomon Zalman, who is more commonly known as the Vilna Gaon.

During the Holocaust, Germans looted and burned the synagogue complex. Any remains were completely obliterated after the war by the Soviets, who built a modern school at the site.

August 21, 2017 11:27 am

The Israeli-Lithuanian-American team discovered the mikvahs in July. The sections of the ritual baths that the archaeologists uncovered date to the early 20th century, and feature tiled walls and floors, steps leading to a pool, and an auxiliary pool in which water is collected for the mikvah.

These discoveries add a new dimension to the understanding of the daily lives of the Jews of Vilna, and will certainly provide a new focus for understanding the lost cultural heritage of the Jewish community of Vilna, the Jerusalem of Lithuania, the researchers explained.

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Ritual Baths Excavated at Destroyed Great Synagogue of Vilna - Algemeiner

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