Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By richards on September 9, 2014

ST. PETERSBURG Sometimes people loathe each other because they're supposed to. But do they really know why?

"I don't understand why I wanted to kill you," one boy tells another after braining him with a baseball. "It's really bothering me."

Maybe it's worth it to try to understand. The Chosen, a life-affirming play opening a new season at American Stage in St. Petersburg, attempts to unearth the humanity behind the unsteady walls humans build around each other.

The play, which Aaron Posner and Chaim Potok adapted from Potok's 1967 novel, is hefty and meditative with a thread of sweetness that moves it along. The sumptuous set by Jerid Fox establishes the paradigm, twin offices on either side of the stage divided by the Brooklyn Bridge.

We're in Brooklyn in the 1940s. Two Jewish boys live five blocks apart, but their realities couldn't be more different. Reuven is Orthodox and dresses in current American styles. Danny is Hasidic and wears traditional garb of a black hat and suit with white threads at the waist.

The boys had never spoken before the baseball blunder, but discover they have things in common. They love studying the Talmud, the book of Jewish law. And Danny surprises Reuven with his interest in Freud and Hemingway, secret joys he keeps from his father.

Enter the complications. Danny's father (Joseph Parra) is an emotionally unavailable religious leader who expects the same life path for his son. Reuven's father (David Sitler) is an emotionally available scholar who wants his son to be a professor.

T. Scott Wooten, an American Stage veteran who has since moved to Washington, D.C., returned to St. Petersburg to direct The Chosen. It's a sort of companion piece to Potok and Posner's My Name is Asher Lev, which Wooten directed last year at American Stage.

The Chosen unfolds over a backdrop of World War II and the horrifying realizations of the Holocaust. It explores Zionism and fundamentalism but never feels overwhelming. And while the play's driving message of overcoming differences is almost too obvious, it stops just short of hitting us over the head.

The adults handle their roles forcefully with compassion. Dan Matisa plays an adult Reuven, tying the plot together with narration and wistfully watching his younger self grow. Parra and Sitler both feel powerful in different ways.

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Review: 'The Chosen' teaches valuable lessons at American Stage

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Posted By richards on September 9, 2014

Kahal Shalom Synagogue in Rhodes
This video is about The Kahal Shalom Synagogue in Rhodes.

By: Amuya1

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Kahal Shalom Synagogue in Rhodes - Video

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Posted By richards on September 9, 2014

In 2009, archaeologists working in the heart of Berlin excavated the foundations of what is thought to be one of the city's first churches, St. Peter's Church, built in the early 12th century, in what is now the Petriplatz area.

The church was destroyed during WW II and in its aftermath. The site where the once-grand Romanesque building stood is now little more than a wastelandbut that is set to change.

Due to the religious significance of the site, city planners asked local Protestants if they would like to be involved in the sites redevelopment. But representatives of the Protestant community thought that another church was not necessarily the way to go.

It became clear that we didn't want to build another church, said Anna Poeschel, member of the local Protestant community. We have two big churches in our parish already, the Jewish population has exploded in the last 20 years, and the Muslims in the city need a mosque.

What emerged instead was the the House of Onean idea for a new building hosting a church, a mosque, and a synagogueall under the same roof. If all goes according to plan construction will begin next year and the doors will open in 2018.

Pastor Gregor Hohberg first put forward the idea of multifaith building, and Rabbi Tovia Ben-Chorin and Imam Kadir Sanci have now joined him in the project.

Each religion will have its own practice space, all equally sized but with different designs. There will also be a central room connecting the prayer rooms and providing an area where Christians, Muslims, and Jews can all meet, along with those of other faiths.

We can see all over the world that faith can divide people, said Markus Drge, a Protestant bishop in Berlin. We want to show that faith doesn't divide Jews, Christians, and Muslims, but instead reconciles them.

In 2012, local architect Wilfried Kuehn won a competition to design the building. To raise money for construction a crowdfunding campaign is under way, with a target of $58.6 million. So far donations amount to just over $47,000 from more than 600 donors. But failure to reach the project's goal will not deter planners, who say a basic version of the building could be built for $13.5 million. If planners are unable to raise that, they still plan to fund smaller projects that promote understanding between religions.

The project in Berlin is exciting and beautiful, but in no way the first to go this direction, said Paul Chaffee, editor of The Interfaith Observer. There are lots of sanctuaries serving more than one tradition. You could write a whole book on the experiments to date.

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House of One: a mosque, synagogue, and church under one roof

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Posted By richards on September 9, 2014

One of Manchesters best-known synagogues is to be demolished and rebuilt as part of ex-United star Gary Nevilles latest property development.

Manchester Reform Synagogue is the second oldest of its kind in the country - but its Rabbi says it must move with the times.

The Jacksons Row building has been a place of worship for hundreds of Reform Jews since 1953, when it was built to replace a previous synagogue destroyed in the Second World War.

But as the M.E.N. revealed last month, a 140m redevelopment - bankrolled by the council and Reds defender-turned-property guru Neville - is now set to transform the landscape around it.

As part of that the synagogue is expected to be knocked down and replaced with a new one.

Rabbi Dr Reuven Silverman, who has been a minister of the synagogues congregation for more than three decades, said: I feel sad, because Ive spent half my life here - Ive been here 37 years and our congregation loved the building.

Eddie Garvey

Inside the historic Manchester Reform Synagogue which is facing the bulldozer

But we need to change and we need to move with the times. We need a new 21st Century synagogue and thats exciting.

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Inside the historic Manchester synagogue to be demolished in Gary Neville's luxury hotel and shops plan

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Posted By richards on September 9, 2014

OFFICERS STILL TRYING FIND THAT ONE OTHER SUSPECT THEY BELIEVE WAS INVOLVED. Calvin: TONIGHT POLICE ARE INVESTIGATING AFTER NOT ONE BUT TWO PLACES WERE HIT BY VANDALS. THESE SYMBOLS OF HATE WERE FOUND IN WEST MIAMI AND IN SURFSIDE AND NOW POLICE WANT TO KNOW IF THEY'RE CONNECTED ON YOU LOCAL10 NEWS CRIME SPECIALIST JOHN TURCHIN IS LIVE IN WEST MIAMI TO SHOW US. Reporter: AT THIS POINT AT LEAST TALKING TO THE POLICE THERE IS NOTHING TO INDICATE THAT THE TWO CRIMES THAT WERE COMMITTED ARE ANYTHING ALIKE. IN FACT, THEY ARE MILES APART FROM EACH OTHER. IF YOU LOOK AT THE MATERIALS AND THE SCRIBBLES, DON'T LOOK LIKE THINKING HAVE THEY HAVE ANYTHING IN COMMON. TAKE A LOOK AT OVER MY SHOULDER. THAT IS WHAT WAS DONE OUTSIDE OF THIS PARTICULAR ENTRANCE AT THIS TEM PEM AND IT'S BECOME A BIT A CONCERN FOR MANY HOUSES OF WORSHIP IN THE AREA. IT'S UNACCEPTABLE THAT IN THE 21ST CENTURY YOU HAVE HATE CRIME LIKE THIS. Reporter: THE WORDS OF HATE ARE HARD TO READ, BUT THE MESSAGE IS STILL VERY EASY TO MAKE OUT. A SWASTIKAS AND THE WORD "IRAQ" POSSIBLY FINGER PAINTED THE ON WALL AT THE ENTRANCE TEMPLE BETH TOV-AHAVAT SHALOM. THE MESSAGE OF CONCERN TO THE CONGREGATION MADE UP OF PRIMARILY HISPANIC JEWS. THAT'S A HATE CRIME. TO DO THAT IN A SYNAGOGUE OR ANY ANY, YOU KNOW, MANY, YOU KNOW, READJUST PLACE IS A HATE CRIME. SO WE DON'T DO NOTHING TO HARM THE PEOPLE, SO WE ONLY COME HERE TO, YOU KNOW, PRAY. Reporter: ACROSS THE COUNTY IN SURFSIDE VANDALS VIEWING SPEWING MORE HATE, THIS TIME TARGETING WALL AT THE RAE OFF PUBLIX ALONG HARDING AVENUE. UNIVERSITY OF HATE MEDICAL CENTER, ANTISEMITIC SYMBOLS OF RACISM THAT ARE JUST HURTFUL AND THEY HAVE NO PLACE IN THIS COMMUNITY. Reporter: THIS IS NOT THE FIRST TIME RECENTLY POLICE ARE FORCED TO DEAL WITH THIS SORT OF THING. WHO COULD FORGET THE DAY MIAMI BEACH POLICE DISCOVERED FOUR PLACES DESECRATED, INCLUDING A JEWISH RITUAL BATHHOUSE AND THE BUSES NEXT DOOR AT THE STACY YOUTH CENTER, AND MOST RECENTLY RESIDENTS DISCOVERED SWASTIKAS AND THE WORD "HAMAS" SPRAY-PAINTED IN RED ON TWO COLUMNS AT THE FRONT OF A AN ORTH. OKAY IN NORTH MIAMI BEACH. PEOPLE KNOW WE'RE JEWISH AND WE LIVE HERE, BUT TO BE TARGETED LIKE THAT IN AMERICA IS VERY SCARY. Reporter: THAT CAME AFTER I FAMILY IN MIAMI BEACH HAD TWO OF THEY ARE VEHICLES VANDALIZED 2 THE WORDS "HAMAS" AND "JEW" WRITTEN ON ONE OF THEM. POLICE LABELED THAT WORK A HATE CRIME. GIVEN THE CONTINUED UNREST IN THE MIDDLE EAST, SOME PEOPLE FEEL UNEASY KNOWING THAT SOMETHING LIKE THIS CAN HAPPEN SO CLOSE TO HOME. IT'S A BIG DEAL. YOU'VE GOT TO REMEMBER 6 MILLION JEWS BEING KILLED BY, YOU KNOW, THE NAZIS. Reporter: AND THAT SENTIMENT LIKELY TO BE ECHOED THIS EVEN WHEN SERVICES BEGIN AT 7:30, AND MANY MEMBERS OF THE THIS

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Police search for swastika vandals in Miami-Dade County

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Posted By richards on September 9, 2014

First Hasidic Jewish NYPD Officer Joel Witriol Promoted To Sergeant
A police officer who the NYPD says was its first Hasidic Jewish officer when he joined the department in 2006 was promoted to sergeant on Friday. NY1 #39;s Dean Meminger filed the following report....

By: JewsOnTelevision

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First Hasidic Jewish NYPD Officer Joel Witriol Promoted To Sergeant - Video

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Posted By richards on September 9, 2014

shmulik ashkenazi photographer - jo jo #39;s yamin moshe jerusalem
shmulik ashkenazi photographer - jo jo #39;s yamin moshe jerusalem.

By: Shmulik Ashkenazi Photographer

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shmulik ashkenazi photographer - jo jo's yamin moshe jerusalem - Video

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Posted By richards on September 9, 2014

shmulik ashkenazi photographer - jo jo #39;s genesisi land
shmulik ashkenazi photographer - jo jo #39;s genesisi land.

By: Shmulik Ashkenazi Photographer

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shmulik ashkenazi photographer - jo jo's genesisi land - Video

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Posted By richards on September 9, 2014

1 in 40 Ashkenazi Jews Carries Gene Mutation By JTA

Published September 08, 2014.

All women of Ashkenazi descent should be screened from age 30 for the BRCA gene mutation that causes breast cancer, an Israeli study recommends.

The study, by a research team headed by Ephrat Levy-Lahad of Shaare Zedek Medical Center, was published Friday in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

Until now, Ashkenazi women have been tested for the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes only if a close blood relative had breast or ovarian cancer or were identified as carrying the gene.

The research was conducted on a random group of Jewish women of Ashkenazi origin who did not necessarily have a family history of the disease.

Many of the women identified during the study as being mutation carriers would not have known otherwise, according to the study. The mutation can be handed down to women through their fathers.

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New Study Recommends All Ashkenazi Women Be Screened for BRCA

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Posted By richards on September 9, 2014

Image via Shutterstock.com

All women of Ashkenazi descent should be screened from age 30 for the BRCA gene mutation that causes breast cancer, an Israeli study recommends.

The study, by a research team headed by Ephrat Levy-Lahad of Shaare Zedek Medical Center, was published Friday in thejournalProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

Until now, Ashkenazi women have been tested for the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes only if a close blood relative had breast or ovarian cancer or were identified as carrying the gene.

The research was conducted on a random group of Jewish women of Ashkenazi origin who did not necessarily have a family history of the disease.

Many of the women identified during the study as being mutation carriers would not have known otherwise, according to the study. The mutation can be handed down to women through their fathers.

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Study: Test all women of Ashkenazi descent for BRCA defect

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