Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By richards on January 30, 2015

A Georgetown rabbi accused of secretly videotaping women in a ritual bath is refusing to vacate the house owned by his former synagogue, and a religious court is being convened to deal with the dispute, the synagogue said Thursday.

News of the dispute was sent to Kesher Israel synagogue members via an e-mail from their president, Elanit Jakabovics. In the e-mail, she lays out a bit of the legal stalemate between Rabbi Barry Freundel, once a leading figure in the national Orthodox community, and Kesher, a small synagogue dotted with prominent Washingtonians.

The synagogue had set a Jan. 1 deadline for Freundel to move out of the Georgetown house where he and his family have lived since the late 1980s, but he did not, the e-mail said. We were informed in late December that Rabbi Freundel did not have plans to leave the house, Jakabovics wrote.

Freundel and his attorney, Jeffrey Harris, could not immediately be reached Thursday, but a member of the Kesher leadership said the rabbi whose salary has been suspended since his October arrest had asked for more time. The two sides talked, the person said, but they made unreasonable demands, and we walked away.

The terms of Freundels contract with Kesher Israel require that he a civil law professor up until his arrest deal with legal disputes through a religious court, called a beth din. He had been a national and regional leader of a type of beth din that oversees conversions. Orthodox Jews, and people of other faiths, sometimes try to deal with non-criminal issues through their own dispute resolution systems before going to a secular judge.

Jakabovics said Kesher opened the case against the synagogues former rabbi Wednesday with a national body called Beth Din of America.

The dispute over the house is just the latest detail in the sudden fall of a man who a few months ago was considered a leader in the modern Orthodox world.

In October, he was arrested on charges that he had been planting a video camera in a ritual bath mostly used by women. Freundel had unique access to the operation of the bath, called a mikvah, because of his status as the rabbi who guided and approved of converts including their immersion in the mikvah as part of their conversion ritual.

Freundel has pleaded not guilty to the charges. Prosecutors in the case were granted extensions in November and this month. Freundel is due back in court Feb.19.

Several longtime Kesher Israel congregants said Freundel recently agreed to give his wife, respected D.C. Jewish educator Sharon Freundel, a religious divorce called a get. No one could name a single congregant who is communicating with Freundel.

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D.C. rabbi accused in videotaping scandal refuses to leave synagogue-owned home

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Posted By richards on January 30, 2015

ST. LOUIS (AP) Last year, as Congregation Temple Israel was renovating its sanctuary, one of the bigger challenges was what to do with the old pews the largest ones 28 feet long.

At the same time, Karen Kalish, a St. Louis philanthropist who focuses on improving public education, stumbled upon an article online stating that students who live in homes with bookcases do better academically. She previously founded a teacher home visit program now in 27 schools, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch (http://bit.ly/1BrnYpW ) reports.

"We know from teacher home visits that many of our families don't have bookcases, and some don't have tables for kids to do their homework on," Kalish said.

Over the coming weeks, Kalish's desire to create at-home study spaces for students would converge with the synagogue's need to unload a set of pews.

It started when Kalish first took her idea to Kelvin Adams, superintendent of St. Louis Public Schools.

"Do you have any wood shop classes?" Kalish asked. Adams told her there was one at Roosevelt High School. He loved the idea of students building desks and bookshelves but he told Kalish she would have to find the wood.

Kalish sent out about 100 emails and called lumber yards seeking donations. Her efforts got noticed by the St. Louis Jewish Light newspaper, which ran an item. Rabbi Amy Feder at Temple Israel called Kalish.

"We have pews that we would love to donate," Feder said.

On May 2, 79 pews were delivered to the school.

The students in teacher Bart Adastra's construction trades class met the moving truck outside the south St. Louis school, and hauled the pews inside, to an unused classroom. With the summer break quickly approaching, turning the pews into desks and bookshelves would be saved as a project for the new school year.

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Synagogue pews find new life in high school project

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Posted By richards on January 30, 2015

Five centuries after burning thousands of Jews at the stake, forcing them to convert to Christianity or expelling them, Portugal is granting citizenship rights to their descendants as part of an attempt to make amends.

The Portuguese Cabinet on Thursday approved a law offering dual citizenship to the descendants of those Sephardic Jews the term commonly used for those who once lived in the Iberian peninsula.

The effective date of the law will be made public soon and similar legislation in Spain is awaiting final legislative approval.

The Portuguese rights will apply to those who can demonstrate "a traditional connection" to Portuguese Sephardic Jews, such as through "family names, family language, and direct or collateral ancestry."

Like Spain, Portugal says its sole reason for granting citizenship is to redress a historic wrong.

"There is no possibility to amend what was done," Portuguese Justice Minister Paula Teixeira da Cruz said. "I would say it is the attribution of a right."

The measure is the latest step in Portugal's modern efforts to atone for its past harsh treatment of Jews, whose ranks once numbered in the tens of thousands, but have been reduced to only about 1,000 today.

In 1988, then-president Mario Soares met with members of Portugal's Jewish community and formally apologized for the Inquisition. In 2000, the leader of Portugal's Roman Catholics publicly apologized for the suffering imposed on Jews by the Catholic Church, and in 2008 a monument to the dead was erected outside the Sao Domingos church where the massacre of thousands of Jews began at Easter in 1506.

Jose Ribeiro e Castro, a lawmaker who was involved in drafting the legislation, sees the persecution of Sephardic Jews as a "stain" on Portuguese history.

He said he was contacted on social media by Sephardic Jews abroad who suggested granting citizenship rights to descendants of their persecuted ancestors.

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Portugal Approves Citizenship Plan for Sephardic Jews ...

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Posted By richards on January 30, 2015

LISBON, Portugal (AP) Five centuries after burning thousands of Jews at the stake, forcing them to convert to Christianity or expelling them, Portugal is granting citizenship rights to their descendants as part of an attempt to make amends.

The Portuguese Cabinet on Thursday approved a law offering dual citizenship to the descendants of those Sephardic Jews the term commonly used for those who once lived in the Iberian peninsula.

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Portugal approves Sephardic Jew citizenship plan

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Posted By richards on January 30, 2015

Giroux was living on a street that is heavily populated by Hasidic Jews and the presence of those neighbours got him wondering about the culture that was so foreign to him.

Every day, wed take a caf in the neighbourhood and wed see these women and men walking by and we just didnt know anything about them, said Giroux, in an interview this week in a caf in a part of Outremont that also has a significant Hasidic population. Wed look at a woman and say Wow shes cute. Is it possible for guys like us to fall in love with that woman? And we said Thats a great story. What would happen if a nave French Qubcois guy falls in love with a Hasidic woman?

When he thinks he could (fall in love with a Hasidic woman), interjects Luzer Twersky, a Los Angeles-based actor who grew up in a Hasidic community in Brooklyn and has since left that world far behind.

In Flix et Meira, Twersky plays Shulem, the husband of Meira (Hadas Yaron), the Hasidic woman who has an affair with Flix (Martin Dubreuil), a francophone guy who is trying to come to grips with the death of his father.

Flix is immediately attracted to Meira when he meets her at the local diner but unsurprisingly, she initially rebuffs his advances. But the mutual attraction and interest gradually heats up between the two of them.

Flix et Meira, Girouxs third feature, had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival in September and it surprised many by beating out all the homegrown competition, including both Xavier Dolans Mommy and David Cronenbergs Maps to the Stars to win the prize as best Canadian film at TIFF. It also won the Louve dOr as best feature at the Montreal Festival du nouveau cinma and was the closing night film at the New York Jewish Film Festival Thursday.

It opens in cinemas in Montreal Friday, including three copies with English sub-titles. The dialogue is in Yiddish, English and French.

Twersky also acted as a consultant with Giroux, helping make sure he got the details of Hasidic life right, and he admits the story of an Orthodox woman having an affair with a non-Jewish man is not a common one.

Im sure it happens but its incredibly rare, Twersky said. It happens much more that a Hasidic man falls in love with a secular woman. (The women) dont have the freedom of just coming and going. But its not impossible. Im sure it has happened.

The intriguing twist for Twersky personally is that hes playing a character who wants to remain within the Orthodox community, kind of the polar opposite of his own experience. At 22, he decided he wanted out, divorced his Hasidic wife and, the way he tells it, was basically shunned by his community. Oddly enough, Twersky has more in common with Meira than he does with Shulem.

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Flix et Meira: love across the cultural divide

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Posted By richards on January 30, 2015

Chirshi, a well-seasoned Libyan pumpkin paste, is traditionally served as an appetizer. (Courtesy of Gil Hovav)

From Givatayims renowned Sabich Shel Oved a simple eggplant-sandwich shop with lines snaking around the corner to lesser-known places like Chachaporia Georgian cuisine in Jerusalem, the new e-book Israels Top 100 Ethnic Restaurantsprovides the English-speaking tourist a window into the delectable, folksy Israeli foods that locals have raved about for years.

Israel has been on the culinary ascent of late, with dozens of food blogs, new high-end restaurants, cooking shows and celebrity chefs, and a fascination with everything foodie. But theres no need for catchphrases like local and fresh in a place famed for its bountiful produce piled high in open-air markets, from Tel Avivs Carmel Market to Mahane Yehuda in Jerusalem.

As noted in the book, which was published by The World Jewish Heritage, a nonprofit that promotes tourism to heritage sites, both markets also house restaurants and after-hour bars in addition to the daily fruit, vegetables and tchochkes they cacophonously hawk.

Many of the tastiest morsels arent served up in white-cloth establishments or by rising stars. Rather they are offered at nondescript holes in the wall and unadorned booths by old-school traditionalists, like Savta Eva on Allenby Street in Tel Aviv, serving classic Ashkenazi fare such as chicken soup with matzah balls and farfel, or Rita Romano of the Libyan buffet at Ritas Kitchen in Herzliya.

That raises the question, what exactlyisIsraeli ethnic food?

Its Moroccan, Russian, Polish, Bukharian, Ethiopian, Syrian, Lebanese you name it, says famed Israeli food critic, TV personality and chef Gil Hovav, who served as a consultant on the book. In the foreword, he writes, While terroir may be too big a word to apply to Israeli street food, we are definitely loyal to whatever grows in our sun-drenched part of the world, where everything seems to be in season all year round.

At a book launch event this month at Israeli chef Einat Admonys Lower East Side restaurant Balaboosta, Hovav told a story of coming to New York after 9/11 to film his show, but instead being recruited to cook breakfast for 500 Ground Zero workers at5:30 a.m.in conditions he said were more rustic than his days in the Israeli army. After feedingshakshuka to the hungry hordes, the sated workers marveled, How interesting that in Israel you eat Mexican food for breakfast!

Its Moroccan! Hovav wanted to tell them.

The chef, who came to New York for two days for the event, will return in March for three days to host a Yemenite Pop-Up dinner with food writer and Israeli cuisine expert Adeena Sussman on the Upper West Side in collaboration with the websiteEatWith.

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Exploring Israels ethnic cuisine

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Posted By simmons on January 30, 2015

officer In Hezbollah converted to Judaism officer In Hezbollah converted to Judaism . By:

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officer In Hezbollah converted to Judaism - Video

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Posted By simmons on January 30, 2015

ISRAEL CHALLENGE By: Marlboro Usy

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ISRAEL CHALLENGE - Video

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Posted By simmons on January 30, 2015

Kenny Russell from Israel, Tonight Only! Join us Live at House of Israel in Charlotte NC, at 1334 Hill Rd. at 11AM or join us Live on the Internet @www.arthurbaileyministries.com/TV. By: Arthur Bailey

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Kenny Russell from Israel, Tonight Only! - Video

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Posted By simmons on January 30, 2015

palestine soul and land ... By: M.A.R

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palestine soul and land - Video

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