Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By admin on April 8, 2017

Jewish center in Sweden decides to close after anti-Semitic threats

(JTA)A Jewish center in northern Sweden will close after receiving anti-Semitic threats.

The members of the Judisk Freningen, or Jewish Association, in Umea, decided Sunday at a meeting to shut down its building and end its activities, The Local-Sweden reported.

The association has received threatening emails, and the building was vandalized with stickers of swastikas and spray-painted threats such as we know where you live, The Local reported, citing the Swedish-language SVT News Vsterbotten.

Too many things have happened lately which mean that Jewish parents dont feel safe having their kids at the schools, Umea Jewish Association spokeswoman Carinne Sjberg told SVT. Our children shouldnt live in a world where they have to be ashamed for what they are, but its not possible to operate if people are scared.

Holocaust survivor, 91, celebrates her bat mitzvah in Buenos Aires

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (JTA)Eugenia Unger, who usually displays the number tattooed on her arm by the Nazis, covered it with her Shabbat clothes and her tallit as she celebrated her bat mitzvah eight decades late.

Unger, 91, a Poland native who survived the Majdanek and Auschwitz concentration camps and often talks about her experiences at the Buenos Aires Holocaust Museum and in schools, was called to the Torah on Saturday at the Herzliya Jewish community center and temple in Buenos Aires

She told the Argentine radio program Radio Cultura on Thursday of her upcoming celebration that the culmination of my whole life is my bat mitzvah. It is a ritual that is very important in Jewish life.

The temple also organized a birthday celebration for Unger, a co-founder of the Holocaust Museum of Buenos Aires in 2000, on Friday night.

Unger, born Eugenia Rotsztejn in Warsaw, lived in the Warsaw Ghetto as a teen and was later taken to the two Nazi camps with her family, including her parents, two brothers and a sister. Unger is the only member of her family who survived the Holocaust. When she was liberated by Soviet forces, she weighed slightly more than 59 pounds.

After a journey across central Europe, she lived for two years in a refugee camp in Modena, Italy, where she met her future husband, David Unger. Both immigrated to Argentina in 1949.

She was part of the group that founded the

Unger now has two sons and six grandsons, and has written three books about her experiences. In 2011, she was declared Outstanding Personality by the Buenos Aires city parliament.

Jewish descendants can sue Germany for return of Nazi-looted collection, US court rules

(JTA)A U.S. court has cleared the way for descendants of Jewish art collectors to sue Germany in the United States over objects allegedly obtained from their ancestors under duress during the Nazi era.

In what lawyers for the complainants are calling a landmark decision, the District Court for the District of Columbia ruled March 31 that claims regarding a collection known as the Guelph Treasure can be filed in a U.S. court.

Three years ago, a German investigative commission found that the original owners of the collection, which the Dresdner Bank purchased on behalf of Hitlers deputy, Hermann Goering, in 1935, were not forced to sell it by the Nazis.

It is the first time that a court has held that Germany can be sued for the return of Nazi-looted art and artifacts under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act.

For several years, heirs to the consortium of Jewish collectors that bought the 82-piece collection in 1929 as an investment have been demanding the return of the portion sold to Goering. They have estimated its value at approximately $227 million.

The collection is on display at Berlins Bode Museum.

Attorneys filed the suit in the United States in February 2015 against Germany and the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation, one year after the Limbach Commission, the German advisory board for Holocaust-related claims, rejected the plaintiffs contention that the 1935 sale had been forced.

In its ruling last week, the court rejected the German defendants contention that the Limbach Commission recommendation bars later litigation in a U.S. court. It also agreed with the plaintiffs that the sale may be considered a taking of property in violation of international law.

Reacting to the ruling, Hermann Parzinger, head of the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation, said in a March 31 statement that he did not believe the case belongs in a U.S. court. He said the foundation would look at the decision carefully and consider further steps.

Parzinger also emphasized that the foundation does not believe evidence shows that the sale was forced.

Rasmea Odeh, Linda Sarsour slam Zionists at Jewish Voice for Peace summit

(JTA)A Palestinian woman who is being forced to leave the United States for not telling immigration authorities that she was imprisoned in Israel for two terror attacks told a U.S. Jewish group that they must stop the Zionists from their land grab.

Rasmea Odeh was the keynote speaker on Sunday in Chicago at a summit of the Jewish Voice for Peace, a group that backs the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against Israel.

Odeh, 69, accepted a plea bargain last month that forces her to leave the country and strips her U.S. citizenship. She had been fighting in the courts for years.

Also speaking at the conference was the Palestinian-American activist Linda Sarsour, who raised hackles among liberal American Jews recently by saying that women who are uncritically pro-Israel cannot be feminist because they are ignoring the rights of Palestinian women.

Meanwhile, during Odehs address, the Israel advocacy group StandWithUs held a memorial ceremony at the same hotel for Edward Joffe and Leon Kanner, the two men killed in the 1969 bombing in Jerusalem for which Odeh was convicted by an Israeli military court. The group had been denied a request to rent a conference room at the insistence of Jewish Voice for Peace.

Odeh spoke about having to leave the United States.

I thought when I came to the U.S., and made it my second home, it would be the last station in a journey of struggle that I shared with my Palestinian people in response to the Nakba [catastrophe] and the occupation of 1967, she told the audience of about 1,000, referring to the Palestinians perception of Israels founding, including their forced and voluntary displacement to neighboring countries.

She added: Now I face a similar Nakba, forced to leave the country and the life that I built for myself over 23 years in the U.S., but I will continue my struggle for justice for my people wherever I land.

Odeh, a leader of the grassroots International Womens Strike, told the audience that Americans are in the streets resisting President Donald Trump every day.

She continued: Of course, Zionists arent going to stop their land grab in Palestine either. The Palestinians there and the Palestinians and our supporters here have to stop them with our resistance and our organization.

In 1970, Odeh was sentenced to life in prison for two bombing attacks on behalf of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and spent 10 years in prison before being released in a prisoner exchange in 1980.

In 2015, she was sentenced in the U.S. to 18 months in prison for covering up her conviction and imprisonment in Israel when she entered the country in 1995 and applied for citizenship in 2004, but the conviction was later vacated to allow Odeh to show that she suffered from post traumatic stress disorder over her alleged mistreatment while in prison.

In a statement welcoming Odeh as a speaker at the conference, JVP officials said that the accusations against her were the result of persecution by Israel and the United States.

We are eager to hear from Odeh, a feminist leader in the Palestinian and Arab-American community in Chicago, precisely because she has survived decades of Israeli and U.S. government persecution and oppression, and also because she lives and breathes the essential work of community organizinghaving spent her life as both a lawyer and organizer for the empowerment of Arab women, according to the statement.

Sarsour, an organizer of the Womens March on Washington who recently raised thousands of dollars to repair anti-Semitic vandalism at three U.S. Jewish cemeteries, told the crowd: If what is being asked of me by those who pronounce themselves and call themselves Zionist is that I, as a Palestinian American, have to somehow leave out a part of my identity so you can be welcomed in a space to work on justice, then thats not going to be the right space for you.

We, as Palestinian Americans, as Arab Americans, as Muslim Americans, we will not change who we are to make anybody feel comfortable. If you aint all in, then this aint the movement for you, she said.

StandWithUs rented a regular hotel room and held its memorial there.

In a statement, the Joffe family described Jewish Voice for Peace as another deeply misguided so-called Jewish organization.

She will soon be forgotten by her supporters who have so misguidedly championed her, the statement said of Odeh, but the memory of Edward and Leon will live on forever.

Dutch couple drops lawsuit for removal of Holocaust memorial

(JTA)A Dutch couple who sued the municipality of Amsterdam over the placing of a postcard-sized Holocaust memorial plaque near their home have dropped their motion as a result of harsh criticism.

The couple, who live in the upscale Old South neighborhood of the Dutch capital, told the Volkskrant daily on Sunday that the suit prompted criticism in the Dutch media and beyond ever since it was reported Friday.

Were shocked by the way in which the publicity regarding this issue has led to misunderstandings, wrote the couple, who requested anonymity. They added that because of the death of our child, the stumbling cobblestone is too emotional.

They were referring to the 4-square-inch brass plaque that city workers put in the sidewalk near their doorway in 2014 bearing the name of Joachim Elte, a Jewish accountant who lived in the couples building on 3 Sint Maes St. before he was deported to a Nazi concentration camp during World War II and murdered in 1945.

Amsterdam has approximately 400 memorial cobblestonespart of over 50,000 artifacts installed since 1996 by a German artist in 18 countries across Europe in front of the former homes of the Holocaust victims whose names are engraved on the cobblestones.

The City of Amsterdam recently moved Eltes cobblestone farther from the couples doorway at their request, but declined their requests to have it removed. Subsequently they sued the city; a judge had referred their lawsuit to a civil court.

Eltes grandson also lives on Sint Maes Street, according to the Volkskrant.

Approximately 75 percent of the 140,000 Jews who lived in the Netherlands when Germany invaded the country in 1940 were murdered in the Holocaust. The Netherlands had the highest death rate in Nazi-occupied Western Europe.

Jewish parents pull son from Berlin school over anti-Semitic harassment

(JTA)Allegations of anti-Semitic harassment of a Jewish student in Germany that forced him to leave his school has spurred demands for a federal investigation by Germanys top Jewish leader.

The students parents said they pulled their 14-year-old son from the Friedenauer Community School in March after four months of verbal and physical harassment, culminating in a brutal attack. The parents had chosen the school because of its multicultural student body, and the harassment came from students of Arab and Turkish background, they reported.

In March, according to the parents, he was attacked and almost strangled, and [one of the pupils] pulled a toy gun on him that looked like a real gun. And the whole crowd of kids laughed. He was completely shaken.

Early on, when some pupils learned the boy was Jewish, one who had been friendly told him they couldnt be friends anymore because Jews are all murderers.

Josef Schuster, head of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, demanded on Monday that the education ministry investigate the incident and the response of the school, and state clearly where any failings might be. He also asked Muslim leaders in Germany to combat anti-Semitic tendencies in their ranks with all the determination they can muster.

The school leadership said on its website that the alleged perpetrators in the incident would be held accountable. Principal Uwe Runkel told the London Jewish Chronicle that he deeply regrets the incidents and wishes the student had not left the school.

The boy told the newspaper that the latest incident was shocking, but I didnt have time to think whats happening at the time. Now when I look back, I think, oh my God.

His parents had contacted an organization that brings Jews and Muslims into public schools, and the fathers parents, who are Holocaust survivors, had met with pupils at the school. None of this helped improve the atmosphere, they said.

The boy, whose mother is British, has been enrolled in an English-language high school.

Columbia student council votes down adding BDS referendum

NEW YORK (JTA)A student council at a Columbia University college voted not to add a question asking about support for the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement to a student referendum.

The Columbia College council decided Monday that it would not include the resolution, which was proposed by the student group Apartheid Divest, to the ballot, according to The Columbia Spectator.

Critics of the resolution said its wording would divide students, especially using the term apartheid, to describe Israel. Proponents said it was not intended to change anyones opinion but rather that the results would provide information that could be used to encourage divestment from Israel, the Columbia Spectator reported.

Prior to the vote, council members heard presentations from various student groups, including Columbia University Apartheid Divest, Students Supporting Israel, Students for Justice in Palestine and Jewish Voice for Peace.

Students at Toronto university vote to adopt broad definition of anti-Semitism

(JTA)The student union at Ryerson University in Toronto has voted to adopt a broad definition of anti-Semitism.

The definition adopted last week includes the denial of the Jewish right to self-determination, the application of double standards to the State of Israel, the comparison of contemporary Israeli policies to that of the Nazis, and the use of symbols or imagery associated with classic anti-Semitic tropes, according to Bnai Brith Canada.

The definition is in line with the one used by the governments of Canada and Ontario.

After all of the shameful incidents to occur on campus this year, it was especially important for the RSU to adopt a robust definition of anti-Semitism, said Tamar Jaclyn Lyons, vice president of communications for Students Supporting Israel at Ryerson. This definition will prove critical in holding bigots accountable for their actions and preventing these hateful acts from continuing in the future.

Students Supporting Israel had attempted to convince the Ryerson Students Union to adopt a similar definition in 2014, but was rejected.

The Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs said it was not aware of any other university student union in Canada to adopt the Ottawa Protocol as its definition of anti-Semitism, the Canadian Jewish News reported.

At the Ryerson unions semiannual general meeting in November, a resolution to commemorate Holocaust Education Week sparked a walkout led by the Students for Justice in Palestine and the Muslim Students Association to stop a vote. The student board approved the resolution less than a month later.

The union voted to join the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against Israel in April 2014 with a resolution that prohibits the student group from having ties with companies that do business in Israel, including Home Depot, Costco and Sears.

Singapore deporting imam who spoke against Jews, Christians

(JTA)An Indian imam in Singapore who was ordered deported after speaking against Jews and Christians during a sermon visited a synagogue to apologize for his remarks.

Nalla Mohamed Abdul Jameel pleaded guilty last week in a state court to a charge of promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion or race for his remarks made at a mosque in January. He was fined $2,860, which he paid, and ordered deported, the Ministry of Home Affairs said in a statement, the news agency AFP reported.

During a prayer session, the imam said in Arabic, Grant us help against the Jews and Christians, citing the Quran as his source, according to court documents, AFP reported.

Recent events abroad have highlighted how the build-up of anger and resentment among different religious groups can lead to social friction and violence, the Home Affairs statement said. The government has the responsibility to act quickly and firmly to repudiate divisive speech, even if the course of action is sometimes difficult.

On Saturday, the imam visited the Maghain Aboth Synagogue and apologized for his remarks. Rabbi Mordechai Abergel accepted the apology, the Straits Times reported. He also apologized on Friday to a gathering of leaders of several faiths, according to the report.

Abergel said the Jewish and Muslim communities here have a very harmonious relationship.

This sends a message that these bonds are not affected, and we share so much more than what divides us, the rabbi said.

Bob Dylan gets his Nobel Prize in Stockholm ceremony without media

(JTA)American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan has received his Nobel diploma and gold Nobel medal in Stockholm.

On Saturday, the Swedish Academy with Dylan in a private ceremony in order to present him with the trappings of his Nobel Prize for Literature, according to a blog post the following day by Sara Danius, secretary of the Swedish Academy.

Spirits were high. Champagne was had. Quite a bit of time was spent looking closely at the gold medal, Danius wrote.

Dylan, who shuns the spotlight, had requested the small and intimate ceremony without the media.

Danius and several other members of the Swedish Academy attended one of Dylans two sold-out concerts on Saturday night at the Waterfront concert house in Stockholm.

Dylan must deliver a Nobel lecture by June or forfeit the $927,740 prize, though he will still be considered the laureate. Danius said in a blog post last week that he will likely send a taped version of his lecture to the academy at a later date.

After the announcement in October that he had been awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature, Dylan told the academy that he would be unable to travel to Stockholm for the December ceremony to receive his Nobel Prize, citing pre-existing commitments.

Dylans prize was announced on Oct. 13 for having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition. The academy said later that after five days of trying to contact Dylan to inform him of the award, it had given up. Dylan acknowledged the prize two weeks later.

Born Robert Allen Zimmerman and raised Jewish in Minnesota, Dylan wrote some of the most influential and well-known songs of the 1960s. His hits include Blowin in the Wind, Like a Rolling Stone and The Times They Are a-Changin.

Dylan, 75, was the first artist seen primarily as a songwriter to win the literature award, a fact that has stirred debate in literary circles.

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Weekly roundup of world briefs from JTA - Heritage Florida Jewish ... - Heritage Florida Jewish News

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Posted By admin on April 8, 2017

The Anti Defamation League is now calling 'Pepe the Frog' a form of hate speech. Time

Pepe the Frog, a cartoon character turned Internet meme, has been added to the Anti-Defamation Leagues database of hate symbols.(Photo: Screenshot)

Pepe the Frog, a cartoon character turned Internet meme, has been added to the Anti-Defamation Leagues database of hate symbols.

The character was added to the database Tuesday, after Pepe the Frog was depicted as a slew of racially charged caricatures including Hitler and a Klansman, according to the group.

Once again, racists and haters have taken a popular Internet meme and twisted it for their own purposes of spreading bigotry and harassing users, Jonathan A. Greenblatt, Anti-Defamation League (ADL) CEO said in a statement.

Greenblatt said many had abused the image to harass and spread hatred on social media.

But Pepe the Frog wasnt always considered a hate symbol.

The frog first appeared in Matt Furie's Boy's Clubcartoons in 2005.

Known as the sad frog, Pepe was often depicted as a mellow characterwith the slogan feels good, man, among others. Just a year ago, celebrities like Katy Perry shared the meme alongside many other Americans.

ADL notes that Pepes Internet meme famedomtook a turn for the worstwhen the character spread to the websites4chan, 8chan and Reddit, where a subset of memes came into existence promoting anti-Jewish, bigoted and offensive ideas.

The meme was also recently dragged into politics. Two weeks ago, Donald Trump's sonposted aphotoshopped photo depictinghis father and Pepe the Frog as The Deplorables. He later said he didn't know there was a negative connotation to the character.

In response to the photo, Hillary Clinton's campaign posted anin-depth explainer on Pepe the Frog and his ties to white supremacy.

Furie recently told the Atlantic the politicalization of Pepe and Clinton's explainerdownplaythe importance the mellow character holdsfor many young people.

He believes the demonization of Pepe will be a "passing phase."

"Pepe is more than, whatever is happening in the news today, especially to younger people and to teenagers," he told the Atlantic."For example, I get emails pretty regularly, from kids, from high schools, who need my permission to use Pepe in their senior shirts, or their clarinet club, or their photography clubs, and I tell them to go ahead as long as they sell me a shirt."

Follow @MaryBowerman on Twitter.

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Pepe the Frog declared a hate symbol by Anti-Defamation League

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Posted By admin on April 6, 2017

Members of Jewish Voice for Peace at a Hanukah action. (Photo: Jewish Voice for Peace)

Im learning how my bare body can help the world, Una Aya Osato said at the conclusion of her workshop, Self-Loving Anti-Zionist, moderated by Dan Fishback, at the JVP National Members Meeting this past weekend in Chicago. Osato is a performer, writer, and educator based in New York. Shes a burlesque dancer, too, and her political beliefs are incorporated into her art. How do politics come into the body? she asked, putting her clothes back on after her burlesque showwhich featured her dancing with an Israeli flag and revealing the letters BDS pasted on her bare bodyand was performed in one of the otherwise staid conference rooms at the Hyatt McCormick Place in Chicagos South Loop.

JVP member Una Osato. (Photo: Jewish Voice for Peace)

All In was the theme for this years meeting. Over one thousand people from different racial and religious backgrounds came to the JVP meeting that was filled with dozens of amazing speakers and workshops. Much of the weekend was organized so that participants could gain a deeper understanding of the connection between Zionism, white supremacy, and antisemitism. The meeting also encouraged JVP members to envision a future based on justice and compassion beyond Zionism, and was, for participants like me, an opportunity to find camaraderie with other Jews who have been marginalized from Zionist families. I experienced a range of feelings that surprised me during the weekend as I took it all in.

During the Friday night opening plenary, Ready to Fight: JVPs Role in This Political Movement, the renowned cultural theorist Judith Butler said, So many of us have been called antisemites because we criticize Israel. Now, the antisemites are Zionists, she continued, referring, namely, to Steve Bannon, explaining that Bannons antisemitism doesnt get in the way of his Zionism. As a former Zionist turned anti-Zionist, I have found it difficult to wrap my head around this emergence of Zionist antisemitism (though many have been writing about this connectionthis symbiotic interdependence, reallyfor a long time). I see Zionists around me, like my family, struggle with this dilemma even though they cannot name it. My parents, for example, scoff at Bannons antisemitism, but when I push them and ask how they can be both antisemitic and Zionist, they shrug and say, Its a new world, Liz, as though the current political scene is so far out of our understanding that its better not to try to figure it out. When my father says things like this, I remember Woody Allens 1989 film, Hannah and Her Sisters, when Allens character asks his father why there were Nazis. How the hell do I know why there were Nazis? his father replies. I dont know how the can opener works!

At the plenary, Butler provided language to better understand this connection. Bannons affinity for white supremacy and anti-Semitism, she said, are both in relation to his support for Zionism. Butler explained that racists love Israel because Israel maintains its own dominance through white supremacy. It carries out their dream of being racist, Butler argued. Bannon supports keeping Israeli Ashkenazic structuresi.e. the foundation of the countrys white supremacyin place. He and Israel share the same goal, according to Butler.

Efrat Yerday, an expert on Ethiopian history in Israel and abroad, also discussed the connections between Zionism and racism during the Saturday plenary, Lets Talk About Zionism. Like Butler, she explained Israels efforts to maintain white supremacy at the expense of Jews of Color and Arabs. Yerday referred to UN Resolution 3379, passed in 1975, which declared Zionism a form of racism. Israel offered Ethiopias Jews the opportunity for aliyah so Israel wouldnt look racist, Yerday explained. Even so, it still took Israel ten years after the UN Resolution to airlift the Ethiopians in 1984 in Operation Moses. They werent really interested in black people even if they were Jews, Yerday said. I remember Operation Moses in 1984 and its follow-up, Operation Solomon, six years later in 1991. Both Operations are chronicled and celebrated in the textbook I used when I taught Hebrew several years ago, in chapter seventhe section where I taught past tense verbs. In this textbooks account, Israel was the benevolent white father who brought the Jews of Color to their spiritual home. As Yerday was talking, I felt ashamed for having taught that story to my Hebrew classes. I was complicit in perpetuating Israels myth, and, now, angry at the accolades I received for doing it from so many family members.

Also at Fridays opening plenary, Fadi Quran, Palestinian activist and Senior Campaigner for Avaaz in Palestine, gave a realistic and moving portrait of Palestinian life under Israeli occupation. There is a deep sense of loneliness in Palestine, Quran said. The Palestinian Authority has become the governing body of the occupation, he explained, calling the PA postmodern Uncle Toms. Even as he acknowledged the positive energy in the ballroom at the conference, Quran soberly admitted, Not all liberation movements have been successful. Not all indigenous communities have survived. Palestinian families dont have time to mourn their children, Quran said, because of collective punishment. Quran asked, What is the future we want together? He listed three things: dignity, having control over ones destiny, and being able to achieve ones dreams. No one during the first intifada thought occupation and colonialism would last for so long, he said. We must transform the agents of power.

Like Quran, StefanieFox, Deputy Director at JVP, also critiqued the power structures that drive Israeli politics in her opening remarks at Saturdays plenary. Fox talked about her own process of getting past the layers of denial, and moving to the place where she could acknowledge what had been stolen. Quoting from Adrienne Richs poem, Diving into the Wreck, Fox read, I came to explore the wreck, and she beautifully connected Richs poem to her own understanding the wreck of Zionism.

While Fox was talking, I was making connections in my own life to an increased awareness of the wreck of Zionism. I have felt so much shame in having been a Zionist. When I first joined JVP years ago, I went to meetings and actions and feigned a false comfort in pretending that I had always been an anti-Zionist against the occupation. Other Jews seemed so much more comfortable than me talking about Palestine. Now, with language, Im able to understand that I was simply at the beginning of the process of undoing my Zionism. At the time, I even faked it, yelling, Free Palestine! with others as we protested. My face would get red and hot as I mouthed the words Palestine around others, as though I had committed some sort of transgression.

It was an offense to use the word Palestine in my family. Now, when Im with them and I comfortably say Palestine, Im met with the same awkwardness that I used to have. Its getting harder to remember that it was difficult for me to say it, or even, that I didnt see it. When I stayed with Palestinians in Jenin years ago, I remember looking out the window of my hosts home. Palestinian homes dotted the landscape with giant olive trees. The apartheid wall was out of vision. I could see, for the first time, finally, in the dusky twilight, the land of Palestine as it was meant to be for Palestinians. This is not Israel, I thought. Israel has colonized this indigenous land. Its all Palestine. The West Bank, Tel-Aviv, Jerusalem, all of it, I thought. This understanding has come in stages, in an undoing of the Zionist layers of propaganda that were deep in my unconscious. On Saturday at the JVP meeting, Fox talked about her need to remove her own Zionist layers of denial, to take on the truth as one whole storya patching together of what was torn apart.

Something shifted inside of me as Fox spoke. I think I finally understood what Fox was trying to say. I moved past the false comfort of mythology, Fox said. I think what opened inside of me was a permission to stop shaming myself for having believed the mythology of Israel and to acknowledge the importance of my own narrative as I work to untangle my own layers of denial alongside Palestinians storiesthat I havent fully given myself before. Being part of the oppressing group, I have noticed wanting to silence my embarrassment and shame at having been a Zionistand my subsequent, privileged epiphany that Israel is actually all Palestineto move my voice out of the way to make room for the oppressed voices. This is important to do, of course, and has its place, but even as Im writing this now, I realize that my silence hasnt done anyone any favors. The wreck is there whether we notice it or not, Fox said. Once she began to acknowledge what was really happening in Palestine, she was able to understand it Not as someone elses story to feel sorry for, but as my own story.

Friday night, when I was deciding which workshops to go to, I was intrigued when I saw Osatos Self-Loving Anti-Zionist as one of them. Even then, though, I felt a twinge of shame as I texted my husband, joking, Maybe Id go if it was called Self-Loathing Anti-Zionist. In her burlesque show, Osato dancedher own complicated and beautiful storythe wreck of Zionism. In the middle of her show, as she chronicled her narrative while changing outfits behind an open suitcase, she exclaimed, You mean, this place that was minethat I didnt really care that was mineisnt mine? At the end of the workshop, Osata pulled out some t-shirts she brought to the JVP meeting. Self-loving anti-Zionist, is written in all the colors of the rainbow, dotted with delicate little stars against a cityscape. I dont want people to just love a piece of meits my whole self, she said. Later, when I got home, I re-read a part of Richs poem, and lingered on the weekend: the thing I came for: / the wreck and not the story of the wreck / the thing itself and not the myth. Before I left the workshop, I bought one of her t-shirts. I doubt Ill be performing burlesque any time soon, but on Sunday, the last day of the national meeting, I wore the t-shirt home.

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'I came to explore the wreck of Zionism': A report from the 2017 JVP National Member Meeting - Mondoweiss

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Posted By admin on April 6, 2017

Ken Livingstone will face a new investigation into his recent comments that Hitler supported Zionism, as Jeremy Corbyn criticised his old ally for refusing to apologise for causing deep offence to the Jewish community.

Labours ruling body will now launch a fresh disciplinary process against Livingstone, who was suspended from the party for a further year but not expelled over his original comments made in April 2016.

The decision not to expel Livingstone has caused an outcry among senior Labour politicians such as Tom Watson, the deputy leader, who said the party had failed the Jewish community and brought shame on us all.

Sadiq Khan, the Labour mayor of London, said it was deeply disappointing that the suspension did not reflect the severity of the verdict, while Keir Starmer was one of several shadow cabinet ministers who said the sanction should have been expulsion.

Labours national executive committee is facing calls from MPs to force the disciplinary body to reconsider Livingstones punishment, but Corbyn said he respected the independence of the process.

Ken Livingstones comments have been grossly insensitive, and he has caused deep offence and hurt to the Jewish community, he said.

It is deeply disappointing that, despite his long record of standing up to racism, Ken has failed to acknowledge or apologise for the hurt he has caused. Many people are understandably upset that he has continued to make offensive remarks which could open him to further disciplinary action.

Since initiating the disciplinary process, I have not interfered with it and respect the independence of the partys disciplinary bodies. But Kens subsequent comments and actions will now be considered by the national executive committee after representations from party members.

Shami Chakrabarti, the shadow attorney general who oversaw Labours review of antisemitism, also backtracked on her position on Wednesday night, in which she said the party had demonstrated an ability to hold a mirror up to itself.

Ken Livingstone was fairly and rightly found guilty of bringing the Labour party into disrepute, she said. The punishment of suspension was thought inadequate by some members of both the Labour party and the Jewish community that Livingstone has so offended.

However, his remarks since yesterdays decision have overtaken those arguments. I am horrified by Ken Livingstones lack of contrition and repeated offence which could be potential grounds for further investigation by the party. In the meantime I can only implore Livingstone to maintain a silence and to please stop further damaging community relations, the party to which he has given so much of his life and himself.

The fresh investigation into Livingstone may not satisfy many in the party, given the first disciplinary inquiry about his comments has taken a year.

Tulip Siddiq, a Labour MP for Hampstead and Kilburn, who has many Jewish constituents, warned that members were contacting her in despair and terminating their membership.

I am writing to you personally, because I do not believe you wish to lead a party where manipulations of the Holocaust are allowed to stand, she wrote in a letter to Corbyn. I believe the insufficiency of the punishment means that the party must explore all options available to it. This includes asking the NEC to convene an emergency session to review the decision.

Livingstone, a former mayor of London who has been a Labour member for almost 50 years, was censured by the party for suggesting that Hitler at one point supported Zionism, and for defending the Labour MP Naz Shah over an antisemitic Facebook post for which she has apologised.

Afterwards, he refused to apologise and said the panel decided not to expel him because of his long history of contributions to the party.

It is understood new complaints about Livingstones conduct relate to his comments last week when he suggested there was real collaboration between the Nazis and some German Jews at one point in the 1930s.

Referring to Hitler, Livingstone said: He didnt just sign the deal. The SS set up training camps so that German Jews who were going to go there could be trained to cope with a very different sort of country when they got there. When the Zionist movement asked, would the Nazi government stop a Jewish rabbi doing their sermons in Yiddish and make them do it in Hebrew, he agreed to that.

He passed a law saying the Zionist flag and the swastika were the only flags that could be flown in Germany. An awful lot. Of course, they started selling Mauser pistols to the underground Jewish army. So you had right up until the start of the second world war real collaboration.

His comments refer to the Haavara agreement signed by the Nazi government, which facilitated the relocation of some Jews to Palestine in 1933, before the Third Reich began its mass extermination.

However, Livingstones claim that the agreement had meant Hitler was supportive of a Jewish homeland has been widely disputed by historians including Prof Richard Evans, the expert witness for the defence in the high-profile libel case brought by the Holocaust denier David Irving.

The decision not to expel Livingstone permanently was met with widespread dismay in the Jewish community. Jonathan Arkush, the president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, said relations between the Labour party and the Jewish community had reached an all-time low.

Britains chief rabbi accused Labour of failing the Jewish community by not expelling Livingstone. This was a chance for the Labour party to show that it would not tolerate wilful and unapologetic baiting of the Jewish community by shamefully using the Holocaust as a tool with which to inflict the maximum amount of offence, said Ephraim Mirvis.

Worryingly, the party has yet again failed to show that it is sufficiently serious about tackling the scourge of antisemitism. The Labour party has failed the Jewish community, it has failed its members and it has failed all those who believe in zero tolerance of antisemitism.

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Posted By simmons on April 6, 2017

In his first public appearance here since he stepped down as U.S. ambassador to Israel at years end, Dan Shapiro said President Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu deserve more credit than they received for maintaining and strengthening the U.S.-Israel alliance, despite their well-publicized differences at times.

Now living in Israel, the Hebrew-speaking Shapiro said he plans to write about his experience as ambassador for five years, during which a mythology arose that portrayed the U.S.-Israel relationship in dark terms. True, there were disagreements, he acknowledged, but said it was a period when the relationship between the two countries was strengthened, particularly in terms of security, missile defense technology, shared intelligence and economics.

He also noted that in spite of President Trumps campaign pledges to shake up Washingtons approach to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, things are not that different today.

Speaking at a forum sponsored by The Jewish Week and Hadassah, the womens Zionist organization, last Wednesday evening at Park Avenue Synagogue, attended by more than 350 people, Shapiro pointed out that so far the Trump administration has been looking for an opening for negotiations between the parties and trying to tamp down settlement activity, similar to the goals of past presidents.

I have a lot of serious differences with this administration, but on Israel I have less difference than on anything else, said Shapiro.

Rabbi Elliot Cosgrove, the senior rabbi at Park Avenue and co-participant in the conversation, said he felt Obama suffered from a perception problem in the Jewish community and that Trump has done a better public relations job in telling Israelis, weve got your back.

Most of the evenings discussion, moderated by Hadassah magazine editor Lisa Hostein, focused on the topic, America, Israel and the future of American Zionism.

Rabbi Cosgrove, referring to an Opinion piece he wrote recently for The Jewish Week, spoke of the tension for Jews today in having both prophetic values, like being a light unto the nations, and the protective impulse to first take care of ones own.

As a father, he said he sees his young daughter questioning Israels treatment of Palestinians, and he recognizes the importance of explaining to her the need for a Jewish state. At a time when some on the Israeli right are calling for a one-state solution, he characterized a two-state solution as not a betrayal but an actualization of Zionism, while appreciating that there are multiple expressions of Zionism.

As for the heated left-right debate within the Jewish community over Israel, Rabbi Cosgrove said toxicity doesnt help. He stressed that those in the sane center cant abdicate our role. There is no better way to help Israel, he said, than to make it a sane conversation.

The rabbi and former ambassador agreed that Zionist education for young people is critical, and worried the community is not doing enough. We are woefully under-preparing our children, said Rabbi Cosgrove, adding: One of the greatest dangers to the relationship between American Jews and Israel is an American Jewry that no longer cares about Israel. The challenge is heightened, he said, when Israeli policies, including its resistance to religious pluralism, clash with Western values.

In response to a question on whether Zionism can be discussed outside of the realm of politics, Shapiro said no, not today, its the real world and you cant escape it. Calling on diaspora Jews to add a sense of humility in their discussions on Israel, he said that what is required is taking steps that may lead to peace in the future, perhaps in Rabbi Cosgroves daughters generation.

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Posted By simmons on April 6, 2017

The former Mayor of London mentioned the Nazi dictator 12 times during his interview with Iain Dale on LBC after Jeremy Corbyn suspended him from the party pending an investigation.

The Labour politician went on to defend his controversial remarks which sparked an anti-Semitism row within the Labour Party.

He said: The literal fact about all of this is that if you go on the Holocaust Memorial website in Jerusalem, I dont think anyones going to accuse it of anything anti-Semitic, theyve actually got a document about the agreement between Hitler and the Zionists in the 1930s.

They acknowledged it was controversial and the Zionist leader who signed it was assassinated within a few weeks but I didnt even criticise it, I just stated it was there as a fact.

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The art of politics is to tell the truth

Ken Livingstone

Dale ripped into Mr Livingstone and asked: But the party clearly disagree with you, surely part of the art of politics is to know when to shut up.

But the former Brent East MP disagreed and said an expulsion would not have been justified.

He said: Well no, the art of politicsisto tell the truth.

I mean the only reason I wasnt expelledyesterday,because the panel had been set up keen to do that, was Im certain that when they went off to make their decision in private their barrister and their lawyer was saying look if you expel Livingstone and it goes to judicial review, you havent got a chance.

Reuters

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Britain's opposition Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn speaks at an anti-racism rally in London

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What judge is going to say you should discipline someone for telling the truth.

In a statement, Mr Corbyn said people were understandably upset by Mr Livingstones remarks.

He said: "It is deeply disappointing that, despite his long record of standing up to racism, Ken has failed to acknowledge or apologise for the hurt he has caused.

"Many people are understandably upset that he has continued to make offensive remarks which could open him to further disciplinary action.

"Since initiating the disciplinary process, I have not interfered with it and respect the independence of the party's disciplinary bodies.

"But Ken's subsequent comments and actions will now be considered by the National Executive Committee after representations from party members."

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Posted By simmons on April 6, 2017

It takes tremendous courage to recognize that the political views that you have held for your entire adult life have been at least partly mistaken. Larry Derfner, a prominent American-turned-Israeli journalist now in his mid-60s, has such courage.

Derfners new memoir, No Country for Jewish Liberals(Just World Books, $26.95)is a brave analysis that will help change history. No liberal Zionist who reads this 260-page, sprightly-written book will be able to close it with their complacency intact. And among what Derfner calls the right-wing chickenhawks of organized American Jewry, there will be teeth-gnashing and a dilemma: should they ignore Derfner and hope that few notice him, or should they launch a campaign to try and smear him?

There is so much in this vital new book that this review is in two parts. First, we will summarize some of Larry Derfners courageous insights, which will shake liberal Zionism to its foundation. In Part 2, we will look more closely at his compelling personal evolution, in which he explains how he was a liberal Zionist himself during his first two decades in Israel, until he changed in his mid-50s.

Here is some of what Larry Derfner believes today. Let us remember that he is no marginal figure, but a successful, respected journalist, who has contributed to American media since 1985 and had a long-running column in the Jerusalem Post until he was fired for his changing views.

Israel is not the victim, but itself provokes the regular conflicts in Gaza and the attacks in Lebanon and Syria. Derfner did successfully place a short versionof this well-reasoned argument in the NewYork TimesOp-Ed section. It is a sharp break with liberal Zionists, who contend Israel is forced to fight, and is also a brave stand for a man who himself served in the Israeli army and whose two Israeli sons are subject to military service.

Israel is a segregated society. Derfner explains that he and his family live in the middle-class town of Modiin, a place with 85,000 residents which includes not a single Palestinian Israeli family, even though a fifth of the Israeli population west of the green line is Palestinian. He says, The way I live now, in a city thats 100 percent Jewish, is the Israeli norm.

Both the 1993 Oslo agreement and the negotiations in 2000 led by Prime Minister Ehud Barak were fatally flawed, and no Palestinian leader could ever have accepted either agreement. Here is another deep disagreement with liberal Zionism, which blames the Palestinians for turning down reasonable deals.

The occupation is not just a flaw, but a morally fatal flaw. Derfner adds, It is different from apartheid, different from Jim Crow, but the same in one overriding way: It is a species of tyranny, a system of government in which the strong trample the weak. The system Israel runs on the three million people of the West Bank is military dictatorship.

The purpose of the occupation isnt security; its conquest. He goes on, If Israel had only been interested in the West Bank and Gaza for security reasons, it wouldnt have built civilian settlements colonies for 600,000 people and counting. Instead, it would have built only military installations. Residential neighborhoods, schools, shopping centers, and parking lots dont give you security. Liberal Zionists are far too squeamish to agree especially when he accurately uses the word colonies.

Israels problem is not what it may become, but what it already is. Derfner argues convincingly that the Israeli right and far-right have already won, that only a small, powerless percentage of Israeli Jews agree with his views: Liberals who for years on end warn Israel about the future are just afraid to admit that the future has long since arrived. Here he is correcting one of the most dangerous examples of bias in the New York Times and the rest of the US mainstream which go to tortuous lengths to cover up the viciousness, violence and the power of the Israeli far right, some of whom are already influential members of the government.

No Country for Jewish Liberals, by Larry Derfner, from Just World Books

Stop blaming both sides equally. Here is another view that should cause liberal Zionists to lose sleep. Derfner writes, . . . if all the influential liberal politicians, diplomats and writers were to suddenly tell the truth about who they think is mainly, if not fully, to blame for the conflict, the pressure on Israel would skyrocket.

US diplomacy is not the solution; its a central part of the problem. Professional Peace Processors like Dennis Ross will turn pale with fear on reading, Negotiations that go nowhere take international pressure off Israel, which is why Netanyahu almost always wants to negotiate.

Boycott Divestment and Sanctions is a necessary part of the solution. Here is where Derfners moral courage shines especially brightly. He lives in Israel, and he may actually be breaking Israeli law by endorsing BDS. He says, Not that I like the idea of advocating the boycott of my own country, but since it is now clear that Israel will not change of its own accord and that America is unwilling to force it to change, theres no way left but the South Africa model to end the occupation, and so BDS seems the lesser of two evils, the greater one being occupation forever.

Liberal Zionists distract by asserting that some BDS advocates actually want to end Israel as a Jewish state. Derfner quotes his own rebuttal, from a piece he wrote in the (excellent) online publication +972:

I have no problem supporting BDS because I know that if Israel ever gets to the point where its ready to concede to international pressure, it will be responding not to the small left-wing groups calling for it to give up Jewish statehood, but to the powerful forces in the democratic world calling for it to give up the occupation alone.

Larry Derfners excellent publisher, Just World Books, is starting to put together a publicity visit to the US. Of course Jewish Voice for Peace will want to hear this courageous and accomplished writer. But other organizations, from J Street to AIPAC all the way over to the Zionist Organization of America, should be eager to book him. College Hillels and synagogues from coast to coast should invite him to speak, just as they have always welcomed Israeli Zionists like Ari Shavit.

But if the liberal Zionists and others do boycott this remarkable man, they should at least read what he has to say about moral and intellectual courage (on page 199):

So often Ill be writing a piece, or thinking about writing one, and Ill become aware that theres something Im afraid to say, something Im even afraid to think. Then Ill dare to think that thought (because once you realize theres something youre afraid to think, you either have to think it or admit that youre a coward).

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New book by Larry Derfner, the American-turned-Israeli journalist, crushes liberal Zionism - Mondoweiss

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Posted By simmons on April 6, 2017

Jewish Chronicle

Social media users share image of coin bearing swastika and Star of David Jewish Chronicle The post claimed "Zionism cosied up to fascists well before the war and that even though they were a tiny minority among European Jewry, they were given a lead vocal role in implementing the purge of Jews from their European home using the exact same ...

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Posted By simmons on April 6, 2017

Date: July 18, 2016

Students receiving achievement awards at annual Academic Recognition Program

New York, N.Y. More than 400 students, faculty, staff and family members of graduating students gathered recently at the 92nd Street Y for the Touro College Graduate School of Social Works (GSSW) 2016 Academic Recognition Program.

The happy event, imbued with warmth and humor, celebrated the graduates academic achievements, outstanding community service and inspiring personal triumphs.

In addressing the gathering, Dr. Steven Huberman, GSSWs founding dean, focused in part on the schools overarching philosophy, which is rooted in the Jewish value of tikkun olam, or perfecting the world.

While we may not be able to complete the task, said Dr. Huberman, the Torah says that we should keep on trying.

Patricia E. Salkin, provost for Touros Graduate and Professional Division, expressed gratitude to the faculty training a new generation of social workers, and applauded the graduates for their service to others. There was something inside you that said, I can do more, contribute more and I can make a difference, said Provost Salkin.

In her congratulatory remarks to the graduates, Nadja Graff, vice president, Division of Graduate Studies, hailed the students for their idealism and courage. You are not afraid to be the rock when people are in need, she said. You came with a dream and I urge you to keep that idealism and spirit alive. Dont judge the day by the harvest but by the seeds you plant, and you will plant many seeds each day.

The event highlighted several individual students, including Alina Kheyson, who achieved a 4.0 GPA and was voted valedictorian by the faculty and her peers. Ms. Kheyson also received the Graduate Student of the Year Award from the New York State Social Work Education Association.

Agent of Change

Jonathan Benedek received the National Association of Social Workers-New York City Chapter Student Award from Candida Brooks-Harrison, president-elect of the NASW-NYC Chapter, for his leadership and compassion, as well as his commitment to helping advance the profession. Ms. Brooks-Harrison called him an agent of change.

Mr. Benedek also received the inaugural Ohel Distinguished Community Service Award from the organizations CEO, David Mandel, chair of the Graduate Schools Professional Advisory Committee, who applauded him for going to great lengths to make a difference. Mr. Benedek was also among those students who achieved a 3.9 GPA in their studies.

Annabel Amir and Martina Rodriguez were honored with the Dr. Bernard and Sarah Lander Distinguished Social Work Tikkun Olam Award, which memorializes the legacies of Touro Colleges founder and his wife while paying tribute to students who are striving to make the world a better place for all people, said Professor Allison Bobick, director of student advancement and organizer of the event.

As a college student who advocated for oppressed women, children and families, Ms. Amir fled Kyrgystan, a former Soviet Union state, fearing for her life. In the U.S., she was granted refugee status and provided for herself and her young daughter with low-paying jobs. She worked for UNESCO, the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization, which enabled her to return to Kyrgyzstan, and amid a changing political climate, advocate for people in need. As a single mother with four children, Ms. Amir returned to the U.S., worked as a home health aide, and then enrolled at Touro to become a social worker while holding down a full-time job.

Ms. Rodriguez grew up in the Dominican Republic to a single mother raising three children. At 21, her family made it possible for her to visit the U.S. on a six-month visa. To remain in America, she became an undocumented immigrant and worked long hours in sweat shops and factories. She enrolled in college and completed her B.A. in seven years. She began working as a para-professional at the New York City Department of Education and in 2014, enrolled at Touro, continuing to work 10- to 12-hour shifts, seven days a week. Today she has established Esperanza, or Hope - a not-for-profit organization that provides clothing and school supplies to children in the Dominican Republic.

Also honored was Dr. Larry E. Davis, dean of the University of Pittsburgh School of Social Work and director of the Center on Race and Social Problems, who was presented with the National Distinguished Social Work Leadership Award. In his acceptance speech, Dr. Davis noted racial conflict represents a major problem in America and a development that social workers with their training and racial and economic diversity are in the best position to assist society in overcoming. He asked graduates to advocate for change and build coalitions with police, city planners and developers. The world needs your talents more than ever. Work to make this a more perfect union, he said.

About the Touro College and University System

Touro is a system of non-profit institutions of higher and professional education. Touro College was chartered in 1970 primarily to enrich the Jewish heritage, and to serve the larger American and global community. Approximately 18,000 students are currently enrolled in its various schools and divisions. Touro College has 29 branch campuses, locations and instructional sites in the New York area, as well as branch campuses and programs in Berlin, Jerusalem and Moscow. New York Medical College, Touro University California and its Nevada branch campus, as well as Touro University Worldwide and its Touro College Los Angeles division are separately accredited institutions within the Touro College and University System. For further information on Touro College, please go to: http://www.touro.edu/news/

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Touro Social Work Recognizes Student Achievement, Community Service - Touro College News

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Posted By admin on April 6, 2017

For Christians worldwide, Resurrection Sunday, or Easter, is the most important celebration of the year. Yet quietly, almost unnoticed by the mainstream media, theres a revolution taking place in the evangelical community.

Believers are increasingly celebrating the biblical festival of Passover and it could change the way Christians view the events of that time forever.

Though Easter is a bedrock of Western culture, it has undeniably pagan origins.

For some evangelicals seeking to recapture the culture of the early church, celebrating Passover like the first followers of Jesus (or Yeshua) is a way to reconnect to the primal roots of the faith. Whats more, a careful reading of Scripture has led many pastors to conclude Jesus was crucified on Passover, thus establishing a deep connection between the Jewish holiday and Holy Week. It also leads to the uncomfortable conclusion many Christians are celebrating the Resurrection on the wrong day.

It has always struck me as strange that the vast majority of Christians in the U.S. and around the world do not observe Passover week, which represents the most important, spiritual and historic actions of Jesus performed for His people from dying on the cross to rising from the dead, said Joseph Farah, author of The Restitution of All Things: Israel, Christians and the End of the Age. In addition, it was the holiest of weeks for Jesus and all of His Apostles and nearly 100 percent of His followers for decades after His resurrection. Its a shocking example of how church tradition has overcome the biblical record and the explicit Hebrew foundation of Christian faith.

In my book, I deal with how harshly Jesus Himself judged those of His generation who put their faith in tradition over the Word of God, said Farah. But isnt that exactly what most Christians, their pastors, teachers and leaders are doing when they create their own holy days and ignore Gods? Im greatly encouraged that more Christians are beginning to deal with this disconnect and recognizing Passover as a very Jewish and very Christian and very biblical holiday.

Its the book that gives you tomorrows news today! Get your autographed copy of The Restitution of All Things: Israel, Christians and the End of the Age.

One of the Christians leading the effort is Bill Cloud, author of Esau Rising and the head of Shoreshim Ministries, which is dedicated to reconnecting Christians with the Hebrew roots of their faith. Cloud claims his message is becoming increasingly accepted among evangelicals.

Ive seen this interest grow dramatically over the last 20 years to the extent that it has given birth to a movement, Cloud told WND. Among the gateways people have used to come into this understanding is the observance of Passover. In my opinion, this is the logical first step for believers in understanding the roots of their faith because this is the festival that focuses on the sacrificial lamb whose blood secured redemption for Gods people. Paul said that Messiah has become our Passover, meaning that He is the Lamb sacrificed for us. It was Yeshua who, within the context of Passover, said, As often as you do this (observing Passover) do it in remembrance of me.'

Paula White, pastor of New Destiny Christian Center in Florida and a speaker at President Donald Trumps inauguration, is among those urging Christians to celebrate Passover. The Israeli newspaper Haaretz quoted a letter from Paula White to her congregants in which she tells them Passover is part of your special heritage that God designed as His own Holy Days with specific instruction given for their observance.

He set the divine appointment, Passover, with His people at a time of release from past bondage and freedom of new life, the letter said.

The concept of divine appointments has been championed by Pastor Mark Biltz of El Shaddai Ministries, another pastor who emphasizes reconnecting Christians with their Hebraic heritage. He received widespread notice by discovering the Blood Moons phenomenon. In his newest book, Gods Day Timer, Biltz explains how certain holy days on the Jewish, or biblical, calendar mark times God has set aside to intervene in human history.

Among the most important is Passover, which Biltz calls essential for Christians to celebrate because it marks when Jesus Christ actually died. According to Biltz, incorporating Passover provides an entirely new way of understanding how Jesus fulfilled prophecy by serving as the Lamb of God.

We find in Luke 22:15 that Jesus said to them, I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer,' Biltz explained. So we see the Last Supper was actually a Passover Seder meal that Jesus was keeping. In Luke 22:19, we find how Jesus took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and gave to them, saying, This is my body which is given for you. Do this in memory of me.

When He said, Do this in memory of me, He was talking about how every year when Passover is commemorated we are now to remember His death. This is confirmed by the Apostle Paul when he writes in 1 Corinthians 11:26, For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do show the Lords death till he come. For Jesus to be the Messiah, He had to die on the very day the Passover lambs were to be sacrificed. In Leviticus 23:5 we find that it was to be, In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month in the evening, is the Lords Passover.'

For that reason, Biltz believes it is not just encouraged but incumbent upon Christians to celebrate Passover. How are we to preach Christ and Him crucified if we dont even remember or honor His death or the day He died? he asked.

The Bible story is more miraculous and astounding than you could have imagined. See the incredible proof of the unchanging nature of God and the exciting clues to what awaits at the end of days in Gods Day Timer by Mark Biltz, available as a book or documentary now in the WND Superstore.

Biltz says his own congregation has done a corporate Passover Seder every year for the last 16 years, as well as encouraging families to host their own celebrations.

We have had probably one of the worlds largest Seders with over 1,500 people, he said. Christians from every denomination come and you can go to our website and watch some of our past Seders.

Biltzs ministry is not the only church organizing official Passover celebrations. Countless churches around the country are marking the biblical holiday around the country.

For example:

Arkansas

First United Methodist Church is hosting a traditional Passover Seder table with all the articles of the Jewish celebration to be followed by a presentation called Messiah in The Passover, which will show how Jesus fulfilled the ancient feast of Passover. A spokesman told the Pine Bluff Commercial: Messiah in The Passover gives the Christian community insight into Jewish traditions so that the Jewish roots of Christianity can be better understood. This program also helps the Jewish and Christian communities understand their common heritage.

California

Mountain Bible Church in California is hosting a traditional Passover dinner on April 9.

Becky Mason of Mountain Bible writes: The Seder dinner is indeed a meal, but everything about it is also symbolic. Showing the redemption of the Israelites from bondage, it also illustrates how Christ rescues us today when we trust and obey Him. It is important to understand the foundation of what we believe.

Georgia

Several Christian and Jewish congregations are joining forces to host a Community Seder at College Place United Methodist Church in Brunswick, Georgia. The Brunswick News reports Temple Beth Tefilloh, Atlama Presbyterian Church, Christ Church Frederica, College Place United Methodist Church, First Presbyterian Church of Brunswick, First United Methodist Church of Brunswick, St. James Lutheran Church, St. Simons Presbyterian Church, Unitarian Universalists of Coastal Georgia and FaithWorks will all be participating.

Idaho

St. Theresas Parish in Orofino is hosting an annual interdenominational Christian Seder-Passover Meal on April 12, in cooperation with the Orofino Methodist Church and Ascension Lutheran Church.

Ohio

First Presbyterian Church in Paulding will host a Christ in the Passover presentation by Peter Blitshteyn of Jews for Jesus. David Brickner, executive director of Jews for Jesus, stated: We exist to make the Messiahship of Jesus an unavoidable issue to our Jewish people worldwide.

Controversy

Jews for Jesus has reportedly hosted the Christ in the Passover presentation at over 38,000 churches. The Jewish newspaper Forward, in an article covering how evangelicals are adopting Passover, described Messianic Jews as a sort of bridge, introducing Jewish rituals or appearing as ambassadors of sorts. The Forward sneered Jews who believe in Messiah are seen as apostates by most mainstream Jews, [though] Messianics still identify as Jewish

Some Jews have long opposed efforts by Christians to celebrate Passover, calling it an example of cultural appropriation. Rabbi Mark Miller of the Houston Rabbinical Association expressed concern about Christian churches independently hosting Seders.

If a non-Jewish group wants to celebrate a Seder, Id prefer they do in a Jewish setting, he told the Houston Chronicle in 2010.

The Forward repeated Rabbi James Rudin of the American Jewish Committees charge from 1997 that Christians celebrating Seders completely distorts the meaning of the practice.

However, pastor Bill Cloud says such objections dont hold up.

Christians should embrace Passover, not as a Jewish holiday, but as a biblical feast that acknowledges the suffering of the Messiah, he told WND. Furthermore, with all due respect to our Jewish friends, though they have faithfully kept the Passover for 3,500 years, it is not an exclusively Jewish feast. According to Scripture, God ordained Passover as one of His memorial feasts so why wouldnt believers in the Messiah of Israel want to participate in this as well?

Rabbi Jonathan Cahn, who heads one of the largest Messianic ministries in the world in the Beth Israel Worship Center, said the entire debate should be reframed. After all, God never actually mandated Easter.

But he mandated Passover.

Passover is the communion, the Lords Supper, in its original form and riches, he told WND. Its what the disciples celebrated throughout their lives, at the Last Supper, and undoubtedly after that in remembrance of the Lord. The Lord never gave a holiday called Easter, but He did specifically give a holiday called Passover. And it was Passover on which He chose to die.

Cahn, the New York Times bestselling author of The Harbinger and his newest title, The Book of Mysteries, argues the celebration of Passover provides a systemic way of understanding Christs death and resurrection. The entire Good Friday/Easter cycle is really Passover, he explained. In fact, for centuries, the early Christians celebrated Messiahs death and resurrection at Passover.

Take the first step on a journey which will transform your life. The keys to spiritual knowledge are presented as you embark on an incredible yearlong quest in The Book of Mysteries, the latest cant miss book by messianic rabbi Jonathan Cahn. Makes an incredible gift! Available now at the WND Superstore.

Passover is filled with amazing riches and revelations about God, Messiah, and each of us. Each element holds a mystery and a revelation several of these mysteries appear in The Book of Mysteries. The mysteries of the Passover Seder include that of the Afikomen, the mysterious piece of matzah that is wrapped in a cloth and hidden away, the mystery of the Four Cups, the mystery of the Zeroah, the object on the plate that has to do with the creation of the universe, the mystery of the Dipping and much more. Even the Psalms that are read at the Passover, the same Psalms that were read two thousand years ago and by Messiah and the disciples, contain the mystery of His death.

Rabbi Cahn argues Passover isnt just about understanding the past, but the future. And he believes it can be a powerful tool for witnessing.

The Passover Seder also contains the mystery of the second coming, as the door is opened symbolically for the prophet Elijah whom we know is the precursor of that day, he said. Passover is filled with the message of salvation. So it becomes a witnessing tool of the Gospel to those who dont yet believe, Jew and Gentile. And for the believer, its an amazing revelation of our salvation.

Cahns own ministry celebrates Passover with a massive celebration every year.

At the Jerusalem Center/Beth Israel, on the Friday night approaching Passover we hold a Passover Seder/Last Supper Celebration, which is free and open to all, that all may experience the beauty of the Lords Supper in all its fullness, he said. And we literally have hundreds of people from all walks of life, all nations and backgrounds, and all denominations rejoicing together in the Lords wonders, presence, and blessings. Thus, the Passover is a gift not only to the Jewish people, but to all believers. How could it be otherwise? The day of our salvation, the day Messiah died for each of us was Passover.

Bill Cloud also says his own family and his church celebrates the holiday. And he urges all believers to do the same.

As for our family, this will be the 27th year we have observed Passover in remembrance of the Messiahs sacrifice, he told WND. Needless to say, it has become an integral part of our life (as are the other biblical feasts). Coming to understand the Hebrew roots of my faith has been one of lifes most enriching experiences. It has helped me to better understand the words of Yeshua and to appreciate the depths of Gods Word. I enthusiastically recommend that Christians participate in a Passover Seder this year it just might change your life.

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Passover (not Easter) is real reason for the season - WND.com

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