Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By richards on July 4, 2017

Donald Trump gets the crowd pumped up prior to the start of the WrestleMania 23 at Detroits Ford Field, April 1, 2007. (Leon Halip/WireImage/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON (JTA) The anonymous Reddit user who is claiming responsibility for the altered videodepictingPresident Donald Trumpbody slamming someone with CNN superimposed over his head has a history of racism, anti-Semitism and incitement to violence, according to theAnti-Defamation League.

White House spokesman Sean Spicer said in a one-sentence email to a JTA request for a response to the ADL report on the gif, The video did not come from Reddit. He did not say where the video came from.

Trump tweeted the gif, or graphics interchange format a short video that is friendly to multiple platforms on Sunday. It was drawn from a staged encounter years ago between wrestling impresario Vince McMahon and Trump, who are friends.

The presidenthas feuded with the media generally and CNN specifically in recent days. He has seized on CNNs retracting of a report linking a Trump ally to a Senate investigation, calling the news networka purveyor of garbage journalism. He taggedthe gif#FraudNewsCNN, and the official White House account, @POTUS, retweeted it.

Jared Yates Sexton, a political commentator who has criticized Trump, was the first on Sunday to trace the gifto a user of the Reddit social media platform and identified racist and anti-Semitic postings by the same user.

ADL in its analysis was more careful, stopping short of confirming that the Reddit user, who goes by the handle HanAssholeSolo, was behind the clip, saying instead that he appears to have created the version of the edited clip tweeted by the president and posted it on a sub-Reddit commonly used by President Trump supporters.

It noted that the Reddit user on Monday celebrated Trumps use of the gifas a personal victory and that other Reddit users congratulated him or her.

ADLs analysis tracked other memes or internet themes launched by the user, including a chart of CNN personalities with the purported Jews among them marked with stars of David and other intimations of Jewish media control.

In another post, the Reddit user, using the pejorative for African-Americans, said: I just like dancing when n****** are getting beat down by the cops. He or she also said that the liberal Jewish philanthropist George Soross dead bloated corpse being dragged through the streets would be my satisfaction.

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Trump's CNN wrestling video traced to online anti-Semite, ADL says - Jewish Telegraphic Agency

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Posted By simmons on July 3, 2017

More and more, Israel views global, Bible-based support from Christians as a strategic asset in its struggle for survival.

The annual Herzliya Conference is Israel's premier forum on security and diplomacy, and is regularly addressed by the nation's top political and military leaders.

This year, it was also addressed by two representatives of the Christian Zionist movement.

Dr. Jrgen Bhler, executive directory of the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem (ICEJ), and Dr. Jerry Johnson, president and CEO of the National Religious Broadcasters, were both invited to deliver keynote speeches.

Israeli and Jewish attendees made note of the fact that Bhler's was the only speech at the conference that was opened with prayer.

After ICEJ spokesman David Parsons thanked God for the opportunity to stand there in defense of Israel, Bhler challenged his hosts to "think about the strategic opportunities that the evangelical world can offer to the State of Israel today and in the future."

Dr. Johnson added during his time at the podium:

"The Jewish people have been a blessing for Christianity. Christianity came out of Judaism. Freedom is an ultimate value in Christianity, and when you read the Hebrew scriptures you read about liberty, freedom and the rule of law. Israel stands alone in this region in defense of liberty, freedom and the rule of law."

h/t Kehila News

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Israel Recognizes Christian Zionism as a Strategic Asset - Israel Today

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Posted By richards on July 3, 2017

More than half a dozen U.S. presidents have come from New York, including Theodore Roosevelt and Donald Trump. Some have compared the two due to their populist stances.

One of Roosevelts biggest domestic priorities was focusing on the need to balance development with conservation. This led him to support and sign into law the Antiquities Act, the anniversary of which we celebrate in June. This important conservation law gives the president the power to create national monuments from public lands to protect significant natural, cultural, or scientific features.

When Roosevelt spearheaded the Antiquities Act, he wanted to preserve the history, culture and landscape of the United States for future generations and to pass on the privilege of learning and benefitting from these lands. The movement for the conservation of wildlife and the larger movement for the conservation of all our natural resources are essentially democratic in spirit, purpose, and method, he wrote in 1916.

Now, Trump has the opportunity to take up the mantle of land conservation so important to his predecessor. But instead, he signed an executive order that calls for a review of these public lands. I urge the president to focus his efforts not on decreasing our public lands, but instead on enhancing them, preserving the lessons of American history and heritage they can provide for future generations.

As a rabbi, I find deep connections between my religious faith and protecting the sanctity of our precious lands. A story in the Talmud talks about a man planting a carob tree, knowing that he wont live long enough to eat the trees fruit. When a passerby asks why he is planting a tree of which he will not eat the fruit, he responds, I found a fruitful world because my ancestors planted such trees for me. Likewise, I am planting them for my children and grandchildren. It is indeed a Jewish value to plant seeds for our future generations.

Public lands are for the benefit and enjoyment of all people, including future generations. Since the Antiquities Act was signed in 1906, 16 presidents, both Republicans and Democrats, have used the powers of the Act to protect Americas most special landscapes and significant historic and cultural sites that are situated upon lands owned or controlled by the Government of the United States. As someone who has lived in New York for more than a decade, I see that significance reflected in local national monuments such as Governors Island and the Statue of Liberty.

The Antiquities Act helps proclaim our morality as a nation. It helps us preserve both our rich history and Gods creation, and ensures that our progeny will enjoy the same. Jewish tradition teaches us that we do not own the land but rather hold it in trust for God and for future generations. I urge all members of Congress to defend our public lands to ensure that our national monuments, the shrines that guard our history, are neither diminished nor degraded. We must do all we can to ensure that national monuments across the nation are protected for future generations.

Rabbi Steve Gutow is the former president of the Jewish Council for Public Affairs and the chair of the National Religious Partnership for the Environment.

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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On This Fourth Of July, Trump Must Protect Our Public Lands - Forward

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Posted By admin on July 3, 2017

Iranian cartoonist Hadi Asadi won the first prize Monday at Iran's International Trumpism Cartoon and Caricature Contest. Asadi's work was one of thousands competing in the new competition, which ran the gamut from funny to insulting to downright apocalyptic, and followed in wake of the Islamic Republic's infamous annual Holocaust cartoon contest.

According to the Teheran Times, artists from over 70 countries submitted over 1,600 works to the competition, which organizers said sought to acknowledge Trump since he represents the real image of America.

Trumps behavior clearly sets out Irans reasons to distrust the U.S., consequently, we decided to use arts capacity for displaying the behavior, the competition's deirector, Ali-Asghar Jafari, said.

Another organizer is Masud Shojaei-Tabatabai, who was also among the leaders of the country's International Holocaust Cartoon Contest. Indeed, some of the Trump cartoons echoed the competition, which is infamous for showcasing anti-Semitic works which border on Holocaust denial.

This contest considers Trump as a symbol of U.S. capitalism and hegemony that many intellectuals compare with Nazism, Shojaei-Tabatabai said.

Indeed, one of the cartoons showed Trump corralled within a swastika-shaped wall.

Others focused on the U.S. president's social media habits, with Twitter featuring in a number of works.

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This Cartoon Just Won First Prize at Iran's 'Trumpism Cartoon and Caricature Contest' - Haaretz

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Posted By simmons on July 3, 2017

Every Fourth of July, competitive eaters head to Coney Island in Brooklyn and stuff their faces to see how many hot dogs and buns they can consume. But did you know that the world of competitive eating has lesser known contests, including ones with kosher food? Were talking matzo balls and hamentaschen.Really. Which begs the gluttonous, super-American question: Whatisthe toughest kosher or culturally Jewish food to eat in mass quantities? I asked the kosher culinary expertsand some comediansto weigh in.

At first, comedian Elon Goldconsidered a meat dish but then went with what might seem like an obvious answer. What comes to my head right away is flanken, which by the way, is flanken delicious,he said. But just the bones would be a problem. He considered the question again.Maror.Wheres the maror eating contest where everybodys eyes start tearing up. Thats it. Because you know what Ive said about a Seder plate:You can throw up on a Seder plate and no one would noticeit would look and smell exactly as it did before.

Elan Kornblum, president and publisher of Great Kosher Restaurants magazine, picked a different Passover food. He said shmurah matzo would be the toughest to eat.After a while, it would be very dry, he said. I think I could eat maybe three of four.

Mike Gershkovich, owner and executive chef of Mikes Bistro, on East 54th Street in New York City,said shmurahmatzomight be too dangerous anddoesntthink itshould everbe allowed in an eating contest. Instead he went withyapchik, a dish with heavy potato kugel and flanken or other meat. Talk about some heavy lifting

Ari White, owner and pit-master of The Wandering Que, who won the Brisket King of New York title in 2016, said hed go withptcha, an Ashkenazi dish made from jelliedcalvesfeet, or chopped liver.I wouldnt want to be the guy that put seven years of cholesterol in my body in one sitting, he said.

Mendy Merel, owner of the Mendys, which became famous onSeinfeld, said it would be funny to see how much charif, or the spicy sauce put on falafel, someone could eat. He also mentioned a classic.We did have amatzoball eating contest before, Merel said. One guy ate 20 and I think he didnt go to the bathroom for two weeks.

Joy of Kosherchef Jamie Gellersaid it is a joy to eat cholent, but not too much of it.One time I was judging a contest and after having a spoon or two of 12 different cholents, and I was already dying, she said. I think a normal person at most could eat three bowls. I dont know how many a competitive eater could eat.

Chef Isaac Bernstein, culinary director of Pomegranate in Coney Island, saidgribenes would be tough to eat in a large quantity.A pound of it would kill you, he said.

But maybe the most simply and digestible answer comes fromComedian Mike Fine, who said:The hardest thing to eat would be a bagel and cream cheese that didnt have any lox on it. I couldnt eat a single sesame seed, if the bagel didnt have lox on it.

Alan Zeitlin is a journalist living in Manhattan.

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Really. Which begs the gluttonous, super-American question: What is the toughest kosher or culturally Jewish food to ... - Tablet Magazine

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Posted By simmons on July 3, 2017

July 3, 2017 11:17 AM

MARBLEHEAD (CBS) A large crowd gathered on Riverhead Beach Monday morning to say Marblehead was no place for hate after anti-Semitic graffiti was found on a nearby seawall.

Police arent sure how long the graffitiwhich included the Star of David with lines through it, The KKK was here, and Make America Great Againwas there.

The writing on the causeway seawall could only be seen from the water, as it was by the kayaker who called Marblehead Police about it Friday evening.

Similar graffiti was also found in a nearby park.

State Rep. Lori Ehrlich, State Sen. Tom McGee, and Marblehead Police Chief Robert Picariellospoke Monday morning at the rally, which was hosted by the New England Anti-Defamation League.

I want to thank the members of this community, who by coming here today, by celebrating tomorrow, we are sending a critical, critical message that the community is united against all forms of hate and bigotry, said the ADLs Robert Trustin.

Chief Picariellosaid a thorough investigation into the graffiti, which has been removed, is ongoingand offered a $3,000 reward for information leading to an arrest.

WBZ NewsRadio 1030s Carl Stevens reports

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Marblehead Residents Denounce Anti-Semitic Graffiti - CBS Boston / WBZ

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Posted By richards on July 2, 2017

Holocaust survivors arrive in Israel in 1945. (Wikicommons)

(Wikicommons)

The BBC was condemned for an inaccurate report claiming the State of Israel was founded because Holocaust survivors had settled there to the detriment of Muslims.

The BBC has come under fire for stating in one of its articles, The Holocaust is a sensitive topic for many Muslims because Jewish survivors settled in British-mandate Palestine, on land which later became the State of Israel. It later retracted that sentence, which had caused an uproar.

The sentence appeared in anarticleaboutGerman Muslim schoolgirls who had visitedconcentration camps in Poland and suffered racist abuse from locals.

Following protest from the Campaign Against Antisemitism (CAA), a British volunteer-led charity dedicated to exposing and countering anti-Semitism, the sentence was removed.

The Holocaust is indeed a sensitive topic for many reasons, not least because six million Jews were systematically massacred. It should not be a sensitive topic to Muslims, or anybody else, because of the foundation of the State of Israel. Zionism, the movement to create the modern State of Israel, began decades before the Holocaust, and had the country existed at the time of the Holocaust, millions of innocent Jewish civilians may have lived, the CAA stated.

For the BBC to lend credence to the notion that it is legitimate to be sensitive about the Holocaust because of the existence of the State of Israel invokes anti-Semitic notions that the existence of the State of Israel is in some way racist, and it is offensive to tar many Muslims in this way, the CAA underscored.

Theinternational definition of Anti-Semitismincludes denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination by claiming that the creation of the State of Israel was a racist endeavor, the CAA noted.

TheBBC has been criticizedon multiple occasions for its anti-Israel and even false reporting on events in Israel.

In June, the BBCreported that Israeli security forces killed three Palestinians, when in fact they were terrorists shotwhile committing an attack. The broadcaster later apologized after receiving complaints.

By: Aryeh Savir, World Israel News

anti-semitismBBCCampaign Against AntisemitismHolocaustMedia Bias

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BBC slammed for offensive report on Holocaust and Zionism - World Israel News

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Posted By admin on July 2, 2017

Thousands of pupils are at risk in unregistered faith schools, according to the new Ofsted boss.

Amanda Spielman has called for new powers to protect children who are forced to study religious writings from the Koran, the Talmud and Torah and the Bible full time.

It is clear that weaknesses in current legislation allow some organisations to teach school-aged children religious texts full time and avoid proper scrutiny, Ms Spielmantold The Sunday Times.

Since January 2016 my inspectors have visited numerous establishments that they believe should be registered as schools. The fact that such places are able to operate and remain unregistered leaves pupils at risk.

Inspectors have discovered 286 unregistered schools in England over the past 18 months.

Less than half of them have been inspected, 36 have been issued warnings and the inspectors have not managed to gain access to the rest, The Sunday Times reported.

We will do everything we can to make sure they comply with the law or are closed. But action is also needed to protect the children who attend these places, said Ms Spielman.

Up to 6,000 pupils are taught in unregistered centres. Some schools have closed, but none of the places Ofsted recommended for prosecution have come to court.

In one Hasidic Jewish school in Stamford Hill in North London, Talmud Torah Tashbar, former pupils told the newspaper about being hit with a stick for asking questions, having a finger broken or being forced to stuff chalk or soap in their mouths.

Many pupils are registered as home-educated but attend the school during the day.

The Department for Education said: We have given Ofsted resources to step up investigations, identify them and work with us to take whatever action is required, including closing the school or working with the police and Crown Prosecution Service as necessary.

There are already powers in place for local authorities and the police to safeguard children and intervene where they are not receiving a suitable education. We will support them in using these powers.

Ms Spielman, speaking last month atWellington College after the spate of terrorist attacks in London and Manchester,said pupils should be taught British values.

They should, she said, be given the knowledge and resilience to combat violent rhetoric from hate preachers who "put hatred in their hearts and poison in their minds".

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Pupils 'at risk' in unregistered religious schools where children are 'beaten and study religious texts all day' - The Independent

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Posted By admin on July 2, 2017

Dvar Torah Parashath Chuqqath (Numbers XIX, 1 -- XXII, 1)

In this weeks parasha we find recorded the deaths of Moshes sister, Miriam, and his brother, Aharon. The Talmud (Moed Qatan 28a) learns from each of these events that the death of tzaddiqim atones for the sins of Israel.

Despite the fact that the Talmud thus links the two events, the contrast between the two reports could not be more striking.

In the case of Miriam, a laconic partial verse suffices: Vayavou bnei Yisral kol hada Midbar Tzin vayshev haam bQadsh vatamoth sham Miriam vatiqqavr sham (And the bnei Yisral, the entire community, came to the desert of Tzin and the people settled in Qadesh, and Miriam died there and was buried there, XX, 1).

The death of Aharon, on the other hand, is covered much more elaborately, seven verses being devoted to the account (ibid., 23-29). This dichotomous treatment is highlighted as we read the account of Aharons passing. Ha-Shem tells Moshe: Vayasf Aharon el ammav ki lo yavo el haaretz ... al asher mrithem eth pi lMei Mriva (And Aharon will be gathered to his peoples, for he will not come to the land ... because you rebelled against My word at the Waters of Strife, ibid., 24).

In addition to this, as Rashi notes, v. 23 tells us that Aharon died at Hor hahar al gvul eretz Edom (Hor, the mountain on the border of the land of Edom) because the bnei Yisral came together here to approach sav the wicked (ancestor of Edom); their deeds were breached and they lost this tzaddiq (Aharon).

In other words, the fact that Aharon would suffer an early demise was the result of one incident, the Water of Strife. The precise time and place of his death were fixed by the second incident, the approach to sav the wicked. Such details, where we read nothing of the kind concerning Miriam, are part of the reason for the more extensive account of Aharons death.

Yet another such reason is featured elsewhere in the Talmud (Bava Bathra 17a), where Rabbi Elazar remarks: It is said here and Miriam died and it is said elsewhere (Deuteronomy XXXIV, 5) and Moshe died by the mouth of Ha-Shem. Since in Deuteronomy it states by the mouth of Ha-Shem, so here Miriams death was also by the mouth of Ha-Shem. But why is by the mouth of Ha-Shem not said concerning her? Because it would be indelicate to say it.

In short, Miriam died the death of a tzaddeqeth, a mitha binshiqa (death by a Divine kiss), unmediated by the angel of death (as we learn elsewhere on the same page in Bava Bathra), reserved only for the very greatest of Israel.

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This Week's Torah Portion: The Deaths of Aaron and Miriam - PJ Media

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Posted By simmons on July 2, 2017

The Dura-Europos synagogue (or "Dura Europas", "Dura Europos" etc.) is an ancient synagogue uncovered at Dura-Europos, Syria, in 1932. The last phase of construction was dated by an Aramaic inscription to 244 CE, making it one of the oldest synagogues in the world. It is unique among the many ancient synagogues that have emerged from archaeological digs as the structure was preserved virtually intact, and it had extensive figurative wall-paintings, which came as a considerable surprise to scholars. These paintings are now displayed in the National Museum of Damascus.

Dura-Europos was a small garrison and trading city on the river Euphrates, and usually on the frontier between the Eastern Roman Empire and the Parthian and finally the Sassanid Empires of Persia. It changed hands at various points but was Roman from 165 CE. Before the final Persian destruction of the town in 256-257 CE, parts of the synagogue which abutted the main city wall were apparently requisitioned and filled with sand as a defensive measure. The city was abandoned after its fall and never resettled, and the lower walls of the rooms remained buried and largely intact until excavated. The excavations discovered also very important wall-paintings from places of worship of Christianity, at the Dura-Europos church, and Mithraism, and fragmentary Christian texts in Hebrew.

In the Syrian Civil War, the site was occupied by ISIL, and what was left there appears to have been destroyed.

Because of the paintings adorning the walls, the synagogue was at first mistaken for a Greek temple, though this was quickly corrected by the vice-director of excavations Robert du Mesnil du Buisson in Les peintures de la synagogue de Doura-Europos (Rome, 1939). Mesnil also made detailed comparisons of the friezes from the Dura synagogue with those of the mithraeum, the Christian baptistery, and the temple of the Palmyrene gods.[1]

The synagogue contains a forecourt and house of assembly with painted walls depicting people and animals, and a Torah shrine in the western wall facing Jerusalem. The paintings cover the walls of the main "Assembly Room", using three levels of pictures over a dado frieze of symbols in most places, reaching a height of about 7 metres. The scenes depicted are drawn from the Hebrew Bible and include many narrative scenes, and some single figure "portraits"58 scenes in total, probably representing about 60% of the original number. They include the Sacrifice of Isaac and other Genesis stories, Moses receiving the Tablets of the Law, Moses leading the Hebrews out of Egypt, the visions of Ezekiel, and many others. The Hand of God motif is used to represent divine intervention or approval in several paintings. Scholars cannot agree on the subjects of some scenes, because of damage, or the lack of comparative examples.

Stylistically they are provincial versions of contemporary Graeco-Roman style and technique; several different artists seem to have worked on them. Technically they are not fresco (paint fused into wet plaster) but tempera over plaster. Earlier parts of the building have decorative painting with no figures. Some of the paintings have figures whose eyes have been scratched out, especially those in Persian costume. (See the figure on the white horse in the picture at right.)

Scholars think the paintings were used as an instructional display to educate and teach the history and laws of the religion. Some think that this synagogue was painted in order to compete with the many other religions practiced in Dura Europos; the new (and considerably smaller) Christian church (Dura-Europos church) appears to have opened shortly before the surviving paintings were begun in the synagogue. The large-scale pictorial art in the synagogue came as a surprise to scholars, although they already suspected that there was a tradition of Jewish narrative religious art at this period, which had all been lost, leaving only traces in later Christian art. The discovery of the synagogue helps to dispel narrow interpretations of Judaism's historical prohibition of visual images.

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Dura-Europos synagogue - Wikipedia

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