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Former Brooklyn resident gets 25 years for attempted murder, arson after setting fire to Rabbi’s home – 1010 WINS

Posted By on March 21, 2024

NEW YORK (1010 WINS/WCBS 880) -- A 46-year-old man was sentenced to 25 years for intentionally setting fire to the home of a Brooklyn rabbi in 2019, District Attorney Eric Gonzalez announced on Monday.

Matthew Karelefsky, a former Brooklyn resident, was convicted of first-degree attempted murder, second-degree arson,six counts of second-degree assault, and two counts of fourth-degree arson on Feb. 7.

At approximately 3:50 a.m. on June 13, 2019, a rabbi at a local yeshiva and his wife awoke to a fire in their three-story multi-family home at 1492 East 17thStreet in Midwood, prosecutors said.

The fire spread to homes on either side of the property, causing 13 residents to evacuate. Several people, including a six-week-old infant and two NYPD officers were treated for smoke inhalation.Additionally, one firefighter was treated for bruising suffered while responding to the fire.

Fire Marshals determined the fire at 1492 East 17thStreet was intentionally set and that it spread to the adjacent properties. Investigators also determined the fire began underneath the rabbis front porch, where K9 dogs identified the smell of an accelerant and fire marshals discovered remnants of a Kingsford charcoal bag, charcoal, a plastic milk carton, empty lighter fluid containers, lighter boxes and several rags believed to have been drenched in lighter fluid.

Video surveillance taken from across the street from the victims homes shows Karelefsky setting the fire. Additionally, video surveillance from a Midwood grocery store captured the day before the incident shows the defendant purchasing Kingsford charcoal and matches.

Police arrested Karelefsky in Manhattan on June 15, 2019. At the time of his arrest, he was wearing a pink shirt with a white collara shirt he was seen wearing walking near the victims homes before and after the incident, officials said.

Karelefsky has a tattoo on his forearm that reads, Never let go of the HATRED KILL Rabbi Max. He also wrote numerous social media posts expressing his animosity for and intention to harm the victim, authorities said.

"This defendants actions destroyed the homes of several families and put numerous people in harms way. I am thankful that there were no life-threatening injuries. With todays sentence, this defendant has been brought to justice," DA Gonzalez said.

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Former Brooklyn resident gets 25 years for attempted murder, arson after setting fire to Rabbi's home - 1010 WINS

RABBI DAVID YOSEF: Charedim Should Refrain from Public Purim Celebrations to Avoid Chillul Hashem – VINNews

Posted By on March 21, 2024

ISRAEL (VINnews) Rabbi David Yosef, a leading Sefardi Rav, says that this Purim, due to the war, people should refrain from public celebrations. He said that while people should celebrate privately, public celebrations would convey an appearance that those who are celebrating are not feeling the pain of people who are suffering, and it would thus create a chilul Hashem.

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The Arutz Sheva website quoted Rabbi Yosef saying. We are in a situation where this is adifficult war against our enemies. Every day, we receive more bitter news about fallen soldiers. The situation is not at all easy.

I think that this year it is very important that everyone celebrates Purim in their homes and fulfills the mitzvot of Purim. But when it comes to public celebrations we have to be very careful not to show joy and dance in the streets. Be very wary of this.

He added that the general public sees how the religious people celebrate and are happy on Purim as if Israels pain didnt touch them it doesnt look good. It is a desecration of Hashems name.

Rabbi Yosef pleaded with Roshei Yeshiva and Rabbanim to refrain from public celebration as well, to show a sense of solidarity.

He said, Therefore, I ask also that the Roshey Yeshiva, the Rabbis, and the entire public do everything possible so that Purim this year keeps a low profile. Dont celebrate in public. Everyone in their own home with their family should eat the Purim seudah, send Mishloach Manot to relatives and friends but dont show as if whats going on here has nothing to do with us. We are part of the public. We also feel the terrible pain of whats happening to our soldiers, whats happening to the hostages.

He said, We feel that Hashem is with us in our trouble. It is all of our trouble, we are part of the people who sit in Zion and therefore it is unthinkable that we would celebrate and rejoice as if nothing happened. With Hashems helpon the one hand, we can really fulfill the mitzvot of Purim and on the other hand, feel that we are part of the people of Israels great trouble.

Rav David Yosef is the head of the Yechaveh Daat, the son of Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, and brother of Sefardi Chief Rabbi, Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef.

Last week, VIN reported that Rav Shaul Alter, the Gerrer Rosh Yeshiva, said that people should be bsimcha on Purim, because it is not beneficial for people to refrain from celebration. However it is not clear if he meant to include public celebration, or if he was referring to private celebration, but would agree with Rav Yosef that if it is public it can be misconstrued.

In addition, Rav Alter made it clear that it was a personal decision, and that others would likely have a different opinion, and seemed to suggest that there was not a definitive correct answer.

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RABBI DAVID YOSEF: Charedim Should Refrain from Public Purim Celebrations to Avoid Chillul Hashem - VINNews

Great Neck recalls Rabbi Wolf on 20th yahrzeit – The Jewish Star

Posted By on March 21, 2024

By Paul E. Brody, MD

The 13th of Adar, erev Purim, marks the 20th yahrzeit of our dear Rabbi Dr. Ephraim R. Wolf, Rav Ephraim Reuven ben Nachum Chaim, ztl. The Modern Orthodox community in Great Neck was shaped by him.

When Rabbi Wolf became the spiritual leader of the Great Neck Synagogue in 1956, the strong denominations on the peninsula were Reform and Conservative. At the time, Orthodoxy was perceived to be outmoded and declining, out of touch with modern society.

Through his force of personality, Rabbi Wolf was able to give a legitimacy to Orthodoxy that Great Neck might otherwise not have had, according to Rabbi Dale Polakoff, who in 1988 succeeded Rabbi Wolf as rabbi of the Great Neck Synagogue.

Rabbi Wolf was devoted with all his heart and soul to our Holy Land. Everyone from Great Neck who traveled to Israel became a shaliach mitzvah, whether they were asked by Rabbi Wolf to deliver tennis balls for underprivileged kids to play with, or letters for posting (with the stamps affixed already), or to take much-needed dental supplies. Rabbi Wolf always referred to his congregants as You beautiful people, and he meant it with all his heart.

The Great Neck community grew rapidly. Rabbi Wolf, with the capable assistance of his wife, Rebbetzin Elaine Wolf, established the North Shore Hebrew Academy and a mikveh (which, in order to gain village approval, was initially referred to as a wading pool) and worked countless hours gaining approval for the Great Neck eiruv. All of these achievements helped shape Great Neck into the bastion of Orthodoxy that it is today, eventually serving as home to the Young Israel of Great Neck as well as to many Sephardic congregations, including Israeli, Persian, and Iraqi synagogues.

In the early days, Rabbi Wolf drove the bus to make sure students got to school. On snowy days, he shoveled snow off sidewalks, recalled Sharon Goldwyn, a congregant and a student at the North Shore Hebrew Academy in its early days, whose parents were among the founders of both the school and the synagogue. When snow got in her boots, Rabbi Wolf went back to her home to make sure that she had dry socks and shoes. She couldnt learn Torah if her feet were wet and cold, Rabbi Wolf told her!

When my wife Drora and I and our family moved to Great Neck in 1993, Rabbi Wolf already had assumed the position of rabbi emeritus of GNS. I observed that both Rabbi and Rebbetzin Wolf would modestly try not to intervene in the daily goings-on of the synagogue, so as not to give the appearance of still running the shul. But one thing that Rabbi Wolf couldnt resist was trying to make newcomers or strangers to the synagogue feel welcome.

On many occasions, Rabbi Wolf would say to me, Paul, youre a friendly guy. Why dont you go over and say Shalom Aleichem to that gentleman over there and make him feel at home! To this day, when somebody comes to the shul whom I do not recognize, I try to follow Rabbi Wolfs sage advice, which invariably gives me the impetus to go over and welcome him. This is just one striking example that exhibited Rabbi Wolfs sensitivity and caring for others.

I used to greet Rabbi Wolf every Shabbos with a jocular Thanks for coming, Rabbi I know its your day off! This always made him chuckle. But in all seriousness, my dear rabbi, thanks for coming!

May Rabbi Wolfs neshamah have an aliyah and may his memory along with that of his wife, Rebbetzin Elaine Wolf, ah be a blessing for us all, his children Shimon and Hennie of Kew Gardens, and Dr. Dahvid and Leah Wolf of Meitar, Israel, and his many grandchildren and great-grandchildren, ken yirbu.

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Great Neck recalls Rabbi Wolf on 20th yahrzeit - The Jewish Star

Dennis Prager and Ben Shapiro Defend Antisemite Candace Owens – The Times of Israel

Posted By on March 21, 2024

Before I address the epic battle Ive had with Americas foremost female antisemite, Candace Owens, over the last few week, first let me share a story.

Every Friday night, we host guests at our Shabbat table and I challenge them with questions. Last weeks was this.

Youre in the Warsaw Ghetto, struggling to survive. June 1942 arrived and youre ordered to Umshlagplazt with your family and the SS tells you to get on the train. You have no idea its going to Treblinka where youll be murdered within a half hour. Rather, youre told that youre being deported to the East to a work camp where youll have food or shelter. Question? Do you get on the train?

Half the guests said, Yes. We have no choice. Theyll kill us otherwise, and our children. The other half said, No, I would resist, even if it meant that Id die on the spot.

My answer: Its a trick question. There are no two options. Both lead to certain death. Rather, the objective was to always stay as far away from the cattle cars as possible. Once youre on the train platform, youre a corpse.

The time for the world to resist was when Hitler first started his campaign of defamation in the 1920s. And then, in the 30s, when he passed the Nuremberg race laws. And then the laws forbidding consumers to buy from Jewish shops. And then cancelling all the Jewish professions, etc. etc., culminating in the Kristallnacht of November 1938 and the start of the Holocaust.

The tsunami of antisemitism that has been unleashed worldwide since October 7th comes with one principal lesson. Stay as far away from the train as possible. Fight now. Fight just as soon as the defamation starts. To paraphrase Winston Churchill, fight on Twitter (X), fight on Instagram, Fight in Times Square, Fight in the New York Times, Fight on Fox News, Fight on the campuses, and Fight in the streets of your own communities, like Teaneck, New Jersey, which has seen three anti-Israel demonstrations in three weeks. If you dont fight back, youll be slowly pushed to the train. And then its two late.

With that in mind, we at the World Values Network in general, and I as its founder and director in particular, have taken the vow to fight the leading antisemites in America just as soon as they raise their putrid, poisonous heads, none more so over the past few months than Candace Owens, the Republican conservative political pundit who, remarkably, is employed and given her odious platform by Ben Shapiro, a yarmulke-wearing Orthodox Jew who founded the Daily Wire.

The story begins on October 10, 2022. Candace responds to Kanye Wests infamous Tweet that and from here till the end of the column Im quoting directly from West and Owens, so please ignore spelling and punctuation Im going Deathcon 3 on jewish people and says, If you are an honest person, you did not think this tweet was antisemitic. You did not think that he wrote this tweet because he hates or wants to genocide jewish people. This is not the beginning of a holocaust. Watch here.

Thus began a bizarre and obsessive defense of the Hitler-loving Kanye whom even the German footwear giant Adidas immediately canceled.

I should add that in December 2018, Owens famously said, If Hitler just wanted to make Germany great and have things run well ok, fine. Owens says she was simply defending nationalism, as opposed to defending the most evil man that ever lived.

Yet, on November 8, 2022, Candace again defended her best friend Kanyes new antisemitic meltdown, by insisting that loving Hitler does not make you an antisemite. Watch here

Ben Shapiro shockingly defended both her and Kanye, writing, On a personal level, I get Candance defending her friend. He also tweeted that while Wests comments are clearly antisemitic and disturbing, the rappers moves toward pro-life, faith, and family conservatism are encouraging.

Dennis Prager, a dear friend and mentor to me for over 30 years, whose parents lived next to us in Englewood, New Jersey, was instrumental in Candaces rise and may even be said to have discovered her as the rare African-American conservative. When I reached out to him and pleaded to denounce his antisemitic protg, he shocked me by penning a column that actually defended her. He wrote, Candace Owens has now been charged with antisemitism for defending and not condemning her friend West after his antisemitic outbursts. Ideally, she would have. She could have said something like what Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres said about President Ronald Reagan when, during the Cold War, in a show of support for West German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, Reagan visited Bitburg, a World War II German military cemetery where 49 Nazi Waffen-SS soldiers were buried. Peres said, When a friend makes a mistake, he remains a friend but the mistake remains a mistake.

Firstly, was Dennis really comparing Owens to Peres and West to Reagan? Second, is Wests repeated description of Jews as slave masters and parasites merely a mistake? And third, How could Dennis Prager, as world-class Jewish activist, not have foreseen the rest of the story.

Here is how it has unfolded.

On October 7, 2023, Candace Owens refused to condemn the Hamas massacre of 1,200 Jews.

Two days later, on her show, Candace said that she didnt post anything about October 7th because when it comes to this particular issue, I myself have received pressure to post something, which is strange of course because if you follow this show, you know that we follow culture, that we talk about politics as it relates to America, you never see me weigh in on various wars that are happening overseas. Watch here

On October 14, 2023, she found her voice, suddenly tweeting, It should be without saying that if you think it somehow means less when a Palestinian child is murdered, or if it somehow means less when an in Israeli child is murdered, it is likely because the media has transformed you into a monster. Innocent children should be protected. Her equation of Palestinian children dying because Hamas uses them as human shields and the Jewish children burned to death on October 7th was revolting.

On October 15th, Candace went on a rant that the university students who applauded the Hamas massacre, specifically the Harvard students, should not be blacklisted. She tweeted to Megyn Kelly saying, Oh stop it. This is incredibly disingenuous, Megyn. You know that many of those students are not out there because they want babies to be murdered. College kids are stupid. I used to be radically pro-choice. Glad I didnt get put on a conservative black list for wanting babies murdered. Then she engaged in a favorite trope, where she consistently blames Jews for antisemitism. Ill ask the obvious question here. Do people believe that in the future moves like this will increase or decrease feelings of antisemitism? Do you think these students are going to shut down and think wellguess we have to support Israel now? This is a serious question.

On October 19th, Candace defended antisemite Kyrie Irving and says that the backlash that he got for sharing a documentary about Jews and black slavery would lead the world to believe that Jews have too much power. Watch here

On October 23, Candace responded to Charlie Kirks tweet about Israel bombing a Greek Orthodox Church and said, Well said, Charlie. I have been disgusted by propagandists pretending a Christian church was not bombed. Later that day she tweeted, Respectfully, if you think its antisemitism to notice that innocent Christians were killed in an IDF bombing then you need to log off of the internet and have your brain examined. Respectfully.

The next day, in response to Florida removing students from Pro-Palestine groups from two college campuses, she tweeted, Ill ask the obvious question here. Do people believe that in the future moves like this will increase or decrease feelings of antisemitism? Do you think these students are going to shut down and think wellguess we have to support Israel now? This is a serious question.

She continued, This is obviously what is going to happen. It will backfire. Its already backfiring. Ive never seen less support for Israel in my life despite virtually everyone agreeing that the terrorist attack was horrific. No one is being honest that hustling foes students groups, banning protests, etc will work only to further sentiments again jewish people.

On November 6th, Owens interviewed a pro-Israel comedian and lied outright when she said that Muslim Israeli citizens are forced to live in certain quarters in Israel. Watch here

On November 11, after a Jewish pro-Israel protester was murdered, Candace tweeted, The pro Israel protester who was horrifically killed was also in Antifa?

On the same day she tweeted, I agree with Queen Ranias assertion that antisemitism is being weaponized in order to silence critics and bully people into compliance. That Charlie Kirk, Elon Musk and Thomas Masie have recently been smeared as antisemites is proof of this charge.

That same day, November 11th, she shocked her Jewish followers when she no government anywhere has a right to commit a genocide, ever. There is no justification for a genocide. I cant believe this even needs to be said or is even considered the least bit controversial. When Dave Rubin responded to her harshly, she responded, In short, if the blanket statement that genocide is wrong upsets you in any way then you need to check yourself. I said exactly what I meant and I wont be backing down or apologizing of further clarifying my statement.

On November 17th she gave a platform to Americas foremost Jewish antisemite, Norman Finkelstein, without anyone to rebut him, as Piers Morgan did with me and Finkelstein in an hour long debate. Watch here.

On February 7, 2024, Candace attacked Bill Maher for not airing Kanye Wests full interview because Maher said it was too antisemitic and he didnt want people to see it. Watch here.

On February 12th she called two Super Bowl commercials about the Israeli hostages propaganda then said, and actually last night, in case you were wondering, while the Super Bowl was on, Netanyahu bombed a refugee camp. Earlier in the video she said abortion clinics are concentration camps and Holocaust museums. Watch here.

Two days later, in her increasing paranoia about murderous Jews that would culminate in her actually saying last week that I, Rabbi Shmuley, am seeking to kill her, she fulminated about monster, Washington, DC Jews who are coming after her. Watch here

On February 23, 2023: Owens, attacking pedophiles and perverts, took aim at a 1930s Jewish sexologist, and suggested world-famous Jews like Sigmund Freud were associated with pedophilia. Watch here

On March 4th, she aired a YouTube video insinuating that Jews run child sex, drugs, and murder rings in Hollywood that killed Michael Jackson, and tried to kill Kanye and P Diddy. She implied that I, Rabbi Shmuley, had a hand in murdering Michael Jackson. I responded by stating that this blood libel would lead to her being bankrupted. And Im serious. Watch here.

A few days later, on March 13th, she implied that I, Rabbi Shmuley might kill her. Watch here

On March 14th Candace blamed Congress TikTok ban on Jews, specifically the ADL, saying, the TikTok ban will lead to more antisemitism whether its right or wrong, what youre gonna have is a scenario where Israel and quote unquote, powerful jews are going to be blamed, if TikTok is banned, please heed my warning on this, that narrative is already building. Watch here.

What Owens specializes in more than anything else in incitement against Jews. I and especially my daughter Rochel Leah Taktuk, who has emerged as the most formidable opponent against Owens in the United States, wake up every morning to thousands of most the vile threats against us by Owens army of Jew-hating trolls.

And while all this has happened, while Owens diabolical hatred of Jews has defamed Jews to the point of possible and serious violence, the silence of Dennis Prager and Ben Shapiro has been deafening. Two committed Jews who love Israel have provided a platform from one of the most virulent antisemites to arise in our time and have nothing to say about it. Through their silence an inaction, they have not only endangered their own communities but have undermined their once serious reputations as champions of their people.

Continued here:

Dennis Prager and Ben Shapiro Defend Antisemite Candace Owens - The Times of Israel

Happy horses (part 2/2) | Reuven Chaim Klein | The Blogs – The Times of Israel

Posted By on March 21, 2024

Towards the end of the Story of Purim, the Persian king Achashverosh overturned his awful decree against the Jews, sending out messages throughout his kingdom to announce that the Jews had permission to fight back against their enemies. As the Bible reports, and he sent scrolls in the hands of the runners withsusim, the riders of therechesh, theachashtranim, sons of theremachim (Est. 8:10). In Part One of this essay, we focused on the words susandrechesh,which both mean horse. This second installation is dedicated to the wordsachashtranimandremachim,which also seemingly mean horse.After discussing those words, we still have one more matter related to the wordrecheshthat we spoke about last week, and with that we will conclude this two-part essay.

When it comes to the phrase theachashtranim, sons of theremachim, the Talmud (Megillah18a) already comments that we do not know what this means. That comment itself actually implies that wedoknow whatrecheshmeans, hence the above-mentioned commentators offered their respective takes on the meaning ofrechesh. But does the Talmuds comment mean that there is no known way of understandingachashtranimandremachim?

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Rabbeinu Nissim of Gerona (13201380) thinks not. He explains that the Talmud only meant that themassesdo not know what these terms mean, but that theTorah Scholarsdo know, or at least could know, what these words mean (Teshuvot HaRan79, also cited inTeshuvot Rivash390391).

Menachem Ibn Saruk (920970), Yonah Ibn Janach (9901050), and Radak (11601234) all trace the wordachashtranimto the six-letter root ALEPH-CHET-SHIN-TAV-REISH-NUN. Actually, Ibn Janach asserts that the NUN is extraneous to the root, and elsewhere implies that the ALPEH is also extraneous, so for him the real root ofachashtranimis only four or five letters, not six. Ibn Ezra writes in general that four- (quadriliteral) or five- (pentaliteral) letter roots in Hebrew are typically either compound roots comprised of multiple roots fused together, or are loanwords borrowed from a language other than Hebrew. Both of these approaches are taken by various scholars with it comes toachashtranim.

Many commentators explain thatachashtranimrefer to mules that were born from the union of male donkeys and female horses (as opposed to hinnies, which are born to male horses and female donkeys, and are typically weaker beasts). This explanation is offered by Rabbi Saadia Gaon (to Est. 8:10), Ibn Ezra (to Est. 8:10), Radak (Sefer Shorashim, s.v. ), Rabbi Moshe ben Yitzchak Ibn Chalava (to Est. 8:10), and Ralbag (to Est. 8:10). In line with this, Rabbi Yosef Kimchi (11051170) inSefer HaGaluicites Rabbi Saadia Gaon as explaining the etymology ofachashtranimas derived from a portmanteau of the Persian wordachash(big) and the Aramaic wordtrein(two), alluding to the fact that theachashtranimwere large beasts born out of the merger of two species. According to this,achashtranimare not actually horses, but rather half-horses. As an aside, Rabbi Yosef Kimchis son Radak (to I Kgs. 5:8) writes that the wordrechesh(also?) refers to these mules. Indeed, Ibn Janach writes that it is not too farfetched to presume thatachashtranimrefer to the same thing asrechashim.

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Rabbi Tuviah ben Eliezer (an 11thcentury exegete) writes inMidrash Lekach Tov(also known asPesikta Zutrata) thatrecheshmeans horses (like we saw earlier), andachashtranimis an adjective that describes the type of horses in question. He parses the wordachashtranimas related to CHET-SHIN (speed/quickness) and TAV-REISH (spying/scouting), as these animals were able to travel quickly and were used by international spies to scout out other lands. Rabbi Shlomo Pappenheim (17401814) similarly sees the wordachashtranimas a portmanteau of the biliteral CHET-SHIN and TAV-REISH (jumping). According to him, the very name of this animal tells us that its swift abilities stem from its ability tojump(as opposed to its ability torunvery fast). [For more about TAV-REISH as spying, see my earlier essay Spy versus Spy (June 2017).]

Interestingly, Rashi (to Est. 8:10) writesachashtranimare fast-runningcamels. In this case, he is somewhat an outlier because most of the other commentators relate the term to horses (or at least partial horses). Another outlier is Rabbi Ernest Klein (18991983), who writes that the wordachashtranderives from the Old Persian wordkhshathrana/khshathra(dominion, government, province). According to this, the term has nothing to do with horses, mules, camels, or any other animals. It is just a common adjective that tells us thatrechashimin question were government-owned.

As mentioned above, the animals by which Achashveroshs messages were delivered are described as sons of theremachim (Est. 8:10). This is the only instance in the entire Bible in which the wordremachim and indeed the triliteral root REISH-MEM-KAF in general appears. However, the singular form of remachimactually appears in the Mishnah (Kilayim8:5), when ruling that one is allowed to interbreed a horse with aramach.The Jerusalemic Talmud (Kilayim8:4) already makes the connection between the Mishnaic wordramachand the Biblical termremachimmentioned in Esther.

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Maimonides (in his commentary to the Mishnah there) identifies theramachwith a type of frigid horse that one might have thought should be considered a different species than regular horses, when it comes to the prohibition of interbreeding animals. Elsewhere, Maimonides (Laws ofKilayim9:5) writes that theramachis a wild horse (as opposed to asus,which is a domesticated horse). Without explaining why, Rabbi Shlomo Sirilio (14851554) comments that he thinks that theramachis none other than what we call a zebra.

Rabbi Tuviah ben Eliezer (mentioned above) explains that the term sons of theremachimsimply means that whatever animals are being described wereyoung. This explanation is also implied by Rashi (toTaanit23a, see alsoShenot EliyahutoKilyaim8:5 andGilyonei HaShas).Ibn Yachya (to Ext. 8:10) also explicitly claims that sons of theremachimwere small horses.

Alternatively, Rabbi Tuviah explains sons of theremachimas a term used to describe the jockeys who rode the horses. He justifies this understanding by deconstructingremachimas a portmanteau of the roots REISH-MEM (raising/lifting) and MEM-KAF (hitting/whipping). Together, those two roots provide an apt description of how a horse-rider might lift his arm to whip his horse when encouraging it to move faster.

According to those who explainachashtranimas mules born from female horses, the termremachimrefers to those female horses, or mares (see Radak inSefer HaShorashim). There is apparently an Arabic cognate that is similar toremachimthat also means female horse.

When the Bible relates that Hashem created animals on the sixth day of creation, it saysvet habehemah,using the extraneous wordet. Peirush HaRokeach(to Gen. 1:25 and Est. 8:10) explains thatetserves to include the otherwise unmentionedachashtranim. He explains that theseachashtranimare eight-legged animals that run with one set of four legs until they get tired, whereupon they would lift those four legs into their body and lower down the other set of four legs.Peirush HaRokeachalso adds that the wordhaachashtranimingematria(=1014) equals the numeric value of the phraseshel shemonah raglaim(of eight legs).

AlthoughPeirush HaRokeachdoes not explicitly state exactly what sort of animal were theseachashtranim(whether equestrian or otherwise), a similar tradition is recorded by Rabbi Yosef Kara (10651135) in his commentary to Esther, who explains that sons of theremachim refer to flying camels that had eight legs (also noting that they had two sets of four legs, such that when they get tired, they would lift up one set of legs and lower the other). This is similar to Rashi, who likewise explainedachashtranimas camels.

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There is a fascinating tradition that provides us with the personal name of Achashveroshs horse. Both Targum Sheini (to Est. 6:10) andPeirush HaRokeach(to Est. 9:4) write that his horse was named Shifrigaz, or as Rabbi Eliyahu HaBachur (14691549) inMetrugamanvocalizes it, Shfargaz. [My friend Rabbi Yehuda Spitz points out that this tradition regarding the name of Achashveroshs horse differs from what was depicted in C. J. Kramers animated renditionMegillas Lester, wherein the kings horse was named Hangover.]

Rabbi Yaakov Daniel Amash writes that Shifrigaz derives from a portmanteau ofshapir(beautiful) andgaz(transporting, see Rashi to Ps. 90:10). Apparently, Achashveroshs steed was a very beautiful horse in appearance, and the main role of a horse is to transport its rider from place to place. Hence, the name Shifrigaz. Based on his understanding of the Persian language, Dr. Alexander Kohut (18421894) inHaAruch HaShaleimtranslates the name Shifrigaz into German asrothweisses Pferd(literally, the red-white horse).

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Dr. Dan Shapira (a linguist and philologist at Bar Ilan University) wrote to me that he thinks this name for Achashveroshs horse is derived from the Persian wordsshap/shab(black/night-color) andrechesh(horse). In doing so, he assumes the interchangeability of KAF and GIMMEL, as well as SHIN and ZAYIN. Interestingly, Dr. Shapira compared this to a different horse in Persian literature: A famous Persian king named Khosrow Parviz (590-628), who reigned in the early Geonic period, apparently had a horse named Shabdiz, who was said to be the fastest horse in the world. Perhaps the name Shifrigaz associated with Achashveroshs horse is somehow related to or conflated with this later horse.

RABBI REUVEN CHAIM KLEIN is a researcher and editor at the Veromemanu Foundation in Israel. His weekly articles about synonyms in the Hebrew Language appear in the OhrNet and are syndicated by the Jewish Press and Times of Israel. For over a decade, he studied at preimer Haredi Yeshivot, including Yeshiva Gedolah of Los Angeles, Yeshivat Mir in Jerusalem, Beth Medrash Govoha of America. He received rabbinic ordination from multiple rabbinic authorities and holds an MA in Jewish Education from the London School of Jewish Studies/Middlesex Univeristy. Rabbi Klein authored two popular books that were published by Mosaica Press, as well as countless articles and papers published in various journals. He and his wife made Aliyah in 2011 and currently live in the West Bank city of Beitar Illit. Rabbi Klein is a celebrated speaker and is available for hire in research, writing, and translation projects, as well as speaking engagements.

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Happy horses (part 2/2) | Reuven Chaim Klein | The Blogs - The Times of Israel

5 steps to save Jewish marriage | Shoshanna Keats Jaskoll | The Blogs – The Times of Israel

Posted By on March 21, 2024

When Adina Sash, aka Flatbush Girl, called for a sex strike to help free Malky, a 29-year-old woman who has been chained to a dead marriage for four years with no hope for a divorce in sight, the big news was the idea of the strike. Malky is locked in the marriage not only by her husband, Volvy, and his family, but by the community that does not demand her freedom, even as it allows her husband all communal rights. Full disclosure: five different rabbinic courts have given orders that Volvy be ostracized until he gives Malky a get, but that hasnt gotten in the way of his participation in the community. Within moments or so it seemed and for the next week or so, rabbis took to social media to make statements against Sashs initiative, podcasters lambasted her, and even Rabbi Herschel Schachter, preeminent rosh yeshiva at Yeshiva University who usually reserves his opinions for behind the scenes, weighed in against this plan. The claim against the strike was that it could destroy marriages by using intimacy as a weapon.

Frankly, Im pained that so many rabbis in positions of leadership in the Orthodox world went public with shock and dismay at women choosing a sex strike to spotlight the plight of a woman chained in marriage when they rarely express public shock or dismay for the many women chained in Jewish marriage. It should not take sex to raise public rabbinic statements about agunot. But I am not surprised. Over the 12 years that I have worked to free agunot, this has been my experience. Many women await their divorces for years, stuck in endless cycles of negotiations (read: extortion) for their freedom. Some are dragged from court to court, or spend years waiting for court dates to which the husband does not show. In most cases, the women wait and wait and are still waiting.

Ironically, it is only when women take matters into their own hands and use their own agency that anything really shifts in the establishment.

In some cases, women decided they would not wait any longer. After years of pleading for their freedom, of begging the courts to investigate ways to void their marriages, they began to walk away. In pain and betrayal, they chose to move on with their lives, outside of the system of Jewish law that let them down, and they began dating. Lo and behold, as it became known that the women were moving on with their lives, the rabbis turned to those halachic solutions that they had previously declined to use.

Suddenly, the processes were viable. Suddenly, they did look into the marriages (often discovering a history of abuse and even deceit, which under certain criteria establishes the voiding of the marriage). And those same rabbis who had been content to let women live their lives alone managed to find halachic reasoning to free them.

I am not (yet) advocating for agunot to begin dating nor I am even advocating that they tell the rabbinic courts that they are doing so, as one woman I know did so that the court would exert pressure on her husband for a divorce (it worked). But, I am proposing something else. It is time to decide that ours will be the last generation of agunot,that our daughters will be safe. And it is up to us to make it happen because salvation isnt coming top down.

I dont want to discount the importance of rabbinic leadership in the Orthodox Jewish community and with regard to freeing agunot especially. For the most part, rabbis have dedicated their lives to their communities and believe in the sanctity of Jewish law. Turning to them to free agunot makes sense.

But I have tried. For years. I have written. I have spoken. I have begged.

And I have given up.

It was one rabbi in particular who broke my faith in the establishment coming to save us.

A number of years ago, I asked a particular rabbi (he is considered an authority by many in the Orthodox world; I cant name him, as our meeting was off-the-record) to help me and others I work with to make this the last generation of agunot. I explained how I wanted to bring dignity back to Jewish marriage and divorce.

He responded by telling me the following story:

A young woman came to him after a few weeks of marriage, saying that her husband would not consummate the marriage and was apparently homosexual. It was discovered that the young man had been gay in high school, and that he had not shared that fact with the young woman. She asked to be freed from the marriage.

(A lack of consummation over time due to undisclosed homosexuality is often treated by the rabbis as grounds not for divorce, which is not necessary, but for declaring the marriage invalid to begin with.)

Instead of relying on this halachic reasoning, the rabbi consulted with three therapists as to whether it is possible for a man to have been gay, then for him to have stopped being gay, and then for him to be gay again (interpreting the young mans homosexual journey since high school). One of the three therapists said that what the rabbi had posited was possible, and, on that basis, the rabbi decreed that the man could have been heterosexual on the day of the marriage, thus making it valid. The young woman was locked into a sexless, loveless marriage for years even bearing the young mans children (I believe through IVF). Eventually, she paid her husband $50,000 to entice him to divorce her, so she could be free of him and the sham marriage.

I asked the rabbi why he had left the young woman in this terrible situation.

He told me: We dont end Jewish marriage so quickly. Devastated, I replied: This, you call Jewish marriage?!

He was proud of what hed done. He felt hed kept a Jewish marriage together, while I felt my last hope in the rabbinic establishment shatter my heart.

In that moment, I understood: tothe establishment, womens happiness, fulfillment, and dignity are subservient to an ideal of marriage that depends on women but does not consider them.

Since then, I have encountered far too many stories that demonstrate that this rabbi is not alone in his approach.

Like the woman whose husband hit her in the yichud room (the couples seclusion after the chuppah). She left the room and went straight to her parents. She never went home with the man, and the wedding was never consummated. She never needed a get, as the marriage was not completed and he had hid his abusive nature. Three rabbinic judges supported her and wrote her the legal decision (psak din) to free her, but her community rabbis did not accept the judges decision, insisting that she needed a get. After five long years she chose to pay him off and receive a get.

How is this Jewish marriage?

Traditionally, Jewish law has pushed rabbis to be lenient when it comes to agunot. Unfortunately, that principle is too often shunted aside in our own day. But famous rabbis in history would be appalled: Rabbenu Tam (1100-1171) said: Whoever acts stringently in the matter (agunot) is nothing but a sinner. The Maharam Alashkar (1466-1542) presents the same aspersions in a more vivid way: One who fosters iggun and forbids a woman to marry and is stringent, of him the verse states: His donkey will instruct him.

Classical agunot were tied to husbands whose whereabouts were unknown, not because the husbands simply refused to grant a Get. But the rebuke at chaining a woman to an impossible marriage is the same.

People claim that prenups prevent agunot. No doubt, they do, to some large extent and in that way, they are a wonderful addition to the toolbox (everyone should sign one!). However, they are not used universally, which diminishes the protection they offer, and they are not foolproof. For anyone with enough money, hubris, and the ability to disappear, the document can be ignored and the spouse trapped.

So what do I suggest? How can the Jewish community help those who are trapped right now, unable to move on, to live as Jewish women? How can we make this the last generation of agunot?

Steps 1 4 would prevent (in my estimation) 80 percent of get-refusal. For the last 20%, Step 5 must come into play.

In the worst cases of get-refusal, after trying (and often succeeding) to achieve a freely given get, rabbis turn it and turn it, as the Hebrew idiom goes, to dig into millennia-old sources on voiding marriages until they find a solution.

They may determine that the witnesses to the wedding were invalid, deceit was employed, hidden significant defects, abuse, ownership of the ring used, etc. They then issue a psak din a halachic determination that the marriage was never a marriage, thus no divorce is needed, no get to be given. Often, due to the cancelling of the husbands leverage, this leads the man to give the get, allowing the parties to separate and go on with their lives.

Taking the lead from the establishment, the community has not always accepted these decisions. But we must. We must honor and accept these decisions given to women by honorable, seriously religious rabbis who know Jewish law.

Women who find themselves in this position need to know that we will accept them. They need to know:

We will become their community. We will dance at their weddings. We will accept their future children as full-fledged Jewish children, and not mamzerim (children born from an illicit union)! For there is nothing illicit about their relationships to the contrary, it is their previous liaison that is rejected as never-a-marriage.

If we do this, if we show the establishment that we will no longer tolerate the chaining of Jewish women that we will accept the halachic solutions they are granted, then a systemic solution that will end the agunah crisis and the mockery of Jewish marriage is just around the corner.

It is time for us to take stand.

Join me in making this generation the last that has agunot add your name here!

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5 steps to save Jewish marriage | Shoshanna Keats Jaskoll | The Blogs - The Times of Israel

According to Donald Trump, I’m a Rabbi Who Hates Judaism – The Daily Beast

Posted By on March 21, 2024

Donald Trumpwho pals around with white supremacists; who invented fictitious very fine people marching beside neo-Nazis in Charlottesville; who has endorsed a Holocaust denier for governor of North Carolina; who has committed fraud, sexual assault, and defamation, and who stands accused of even more grievous crimeshas informed me that I hate my religion.

By way of background, in addition to working as a journalist, I am a rabbi with a Ph.D. in Jewish Thought from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. I lived in Israel for three years. I have written half a dozen books on Jewish spirituality and mysticism. And, as part of how I understand Jewish values, I have criticized the Israeli government, joined the call for a bilateral ceasefire in Gaza, and used whatever platform I have to support those working for peace, coexistence, and a just, two-state solution in Israel/Palestine.

My tradition teaches that we must pursue justice, that we must not oppress the stranger, and that it is holy to work toward a more peaceful world. So, rooted in those values, I have also supported those working toward a more equitable society here in the United States, toward addressing the existential threat of climate change, and toward promoting greater freedom and equality for historically marginalized communities, including people of color, women, LGBTQ people, immigrants, and others.

But, quoth Trump, Jews who support Democrats and question the wisdom of Israels far-right government hate their religion.

For the record, thats around 70 percent of American Jews, depending on the year.

It is in this context that Trumps despicable, insulting, false, ignorant, self-serving, vulgar, incendiary, and, yes, antisemitic tirade arrives.

Of course, as with everything Donald Trump says, its best not to take these words too seriously. Hes not playing three-dimensional chess here, triangulating how to peel off votes of moderate Jewish voters. He was shooting from the hip, as always, this time on a podcast hosted by his former aide, and longtime member of Hungarys antisemitic far-right, Sebastian Gorka. And really, compared with calling immigrants not people, maybe Trump saying that 70 percent of American Jews hate their religion isnt so bad.

But of course, it is bad, because this is a particularly fraught moment for American Jews. Like many others (inclding Muslims and anyone with a connection to Palestinians), we are traumatized and torn apart by the massacres, rapes, and kidnappings of Oct. 7; by the continued plight of over 100 innocent civilians being held hostage in hellish conditions by Hamas; and by the horrifying suffering of over a million innocent Palestinians in Gaza.

We are also terrified by the rise in antisemitism, a fear that is constantly being exploited by politicians and pundits with their own interests and agendas.

And we are divided. Many of us are demanding an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, while many others support Israels right to defend itself and argue that Israel has done what any nation would do under similar circumstances.

Still others oppose the Zionist project entirely, while many have worked hard to reconcile our support of the Jewish state with our strong opposition to some of its policies, including the way this war has been prosecuted.

And truth be told, we have not done well in navigating these disagreements. We are attacking one another, even as others are attacking us, and some have made the same outrageous claim that Trump made: that the people I disagree with arent Jewish at all, or are engaged in antisemitism, or are in some way less than human.

This happens on the far left and the far right: Zionists are genocidal colonizers, Anti-Zionists are hateful antisemites; Zionists are Nazis, Anti-Zionists are Nazis; Zionists have no human decency, Anti-Zionists have no human decency.

Mostly, we are exhausted.

It is in this context that Trumps despicable, insulting, false, ignorant, self-serving, vulgar, incendiary, and, yes, antisemitic tirade arrives.

Perhaps a bit more context is relevant.

After Oct. 7, Trump did not display one iota of empathy. Rather than blame the Hamas murderers, he blamed Israel for not having stopped the attack, and said it would never have happened under his watch. While our dead were still uncounted, while partygoers lay raped and murdered in an open field, Donald Trump was making the tragedy about himself, exploiting it for his selfish gain.

This is the man who, according to around twenty percent of Americans, God has chosen for leadership. This repugnant piece of filth who thinks only of himself, who dares to question the sincerity of my faith and that of millions of other American Jews, for whom there is no insult too debased, no boast too vulgar, no lie too outrageous to utter.

Trump is clearly gifted in summoning the worst, darkest aspects of human nature and alchemizing them into cult-like devotion to himself; like all con men and demagogues, he is a kind of intuitive genius. But he has no moral center, no spiritual core. The man is an empty shell of grasping, egoic dementia.

So, in a sense, I forgive him these latest offenses. One might as well blame the wolf for killing the lamb; hes just following his nature.

But I also know this: that while there are millions of people who think that such behavior is to be tolerated or even cheered, there are millions more who have had it with his depravity, with his endless incoherent tirades, with his extremism and inhumanityan inhumanity most clearly on display when he is dehumanizing others.

Which is why, uncharacteristically for me, I remain optimistic about the coming election. Even through the gauzy fog of the right-wing infotainment universe, a whole lot of ordinary Americansfolks who are just trying to hold it together and live their livessee Trump for who and what he is.

That includes these latest remarks. According to Trump, any Jew who disagrees with him is a bad Jew who hates their religion. According to Trumps diehard followers, hes absolutely right.

But according to decent Americans, the kind of people who swing presidential elections? I think they know a scoundrel when they see one.

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According to Donald Trump, I'm a Rabbi Who Hates Judaism - The Daily Beast

Doctor from ‘Hand of hope’ converted to Judaism and making Aliyah: ‘I’m coming home, at last’ – Ynetnews

Posted By on March 21, 2024

Dr. Joseph Bruners famous photo which depicts an in-utero fetus squeezing his hand while he operates was publicized worldwide in 1999. Since then, he has saved countless lives, married Yafa, undergone circumcision and soon expects to immigrate to Israel. When asked if he perceives this as dangerous, he responded: Dangerous? I feel safer in Israel than in Chicago and in fact each time I visit Israel I feel extremely secure.

Each time Dr. Joseph Bruner shares his story, he has a hard time holding back his tears. Sometimes he doesnt even try, and just breaks down crying. Dr. Bruner describes himself as someone who throughout his life had searched for something missing and for the longest time has no idea what that was. In the end, he found it within Judaism and a love of the land of Israel. And so, at age 69, Dr. Bruner who was born and raised as a Catholic Christian in Nebraska, decided it was time to undergo a circumcision. Now - about a year later - he is planning to immigrate to Israel with his wife, Yafa Bruner Klarich.

3 View gallery

Dr. Joseph Bruner and wife Yafa

(Photo: Shahar Azran )

This is the fulfillment of my lifes journey, a dream that has finally become a reality, Dr. Bruner says. A hole in my heart has been filled through spiritual fulfillment, as well as my joining the Jewish nation.

And it's not that Dr. Brunner's life was devoid of meaning. He has an extensive career behind him, and one historic photo that will remain part of his legacy. It was taken in 1999, during open fetal surgery, and was named "The Hand of Hope.

The story of the photo begins with Samuel Alexander Armas, a 21-week-old fetus, who was diagnosed in-utero, as suffering from Spina Bifida (a severe birth defect in the spine). Dr. Bruner, who was then working at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, initiated a groundbreaking solution which included performing a Caesarean section during which a small incision was made on the fetus, after which the pregnancy would continue as planned.

Samuel's mother, Julia, heard about the groundbreaking surgery that could save her son, and immediately contacted Dr. Bruner who performed his 54th procedure of this kind together with Dr. Noel Tulipan. What made this one so special was the moment Samuel's hand emerged from his mother's womb and "squeezed" Dr. Bruner's hand, as if the fetus (Samuel) had thanked the doctor for saving his life.

Following the surgery, Dr. Bruner admitted that the fetus, like its mother, was sedated during the operation. He explained that he simply re-inserted the fetus's hand back inside the womb, after it had suddenly come out, before concluding the procedure. The image has become etched in the public consciousness and the method Dr. Bruner developed has to date saved many more children.

Although this success filled Dr. Bruners life with much meaning, which he acknowledges as incredible, but it did not bring him the greater satisfaction he was looking for. He explains that for years he searched for the right spiritual experience for himself in many different places, a search which concluded when he met Yafa and discovered the Jewish world.

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Wikipedia page showing Dr. Bruner shaking the hand of an embryo

(Photo: Wikipedia )

Although I grew up Catholic, I didn't feel like I knew God, so I tried additional ways, he says and immediately begins to cry. "I apologize, it's very emotional for me, as I felt a lack of fulfilment and I knew from then on that I had to become a Jew."

We met Dr. Bruner and his wife at Nefesh BNefeshs MedEx event in New Jersey, which was coordinated with Israels Ministry of Immigration and Integration and Ministry of Health, The Jewish Agency for Israel, alongside the Israeli Medical Association, during which an International Medical Aliyah Program (IMAP) was launched. The goal of it is to streamline the immigration process for medical professionals, ensuring they can integrate into Israels medical workforce upon arrival in Israel. This first-of-its-kind program was made possible thanks to the sponsorship of The Marcus Foundation, an organization committed to making a difference in the lives of countless individuals and communities. MedEx offers medical professionals an all-encompassing array of resources, services, and personal consultations and will now be offered around the world in various locations.

The goal of the International Medical Aliyah Program is to encourage the immigration of approximately 2,000 doctors from around the world over the next five years. Dr. Bruner is expected to be one of them.

Yafa and I were friends for a while, but she moved to Israel with her children, and we lost touch, Dr. Bruner says about his relationship with his wife and attributes a large part of the change that he has undergone to her. After some time, we reconnected, and three years ago, we got married in Texas.

Dr. Bruner explains that in the early stages of his decision to convert, he met with a Rabbi to discuss the process, but due to various difficulties he was unable to complete it. "When Yafa and I met again, I realized that I had to complete what I had already started - and become a Jew.

When we asked Yafa what lead to her husbands conversion, she emphasizes that it was not important to her if he became Jewish, but when he chose to convert, he chose to do it entirely as possible, including undergoing a circumcision. Yafa does not maintain a religious lifestyle, but Jewish tradition and values, such as Friday night meals and holidays, opened a new world for her and Dr. Bruner.

Thats why we also joined a Reform synagogue, and he became more familiar with Jewish tradition and religion, Yafa continues. Dr. Bruner also started putting on tefillin every day, after learning how to do so from YouTube videos, and explains that for him it is a spiritual experience. "Israel is probably the most spiritual place there is," he says. Dr. Bruner also proudly says that he likes to both have fun in Tel Aviv while also enjoying the religious atmosphere of Jerusalem.

On October 7, Dr. Bruner and Yafa were in the United States, but Yafas sister, Vered, was trapped in a bomb shelter inside her home in Kissufim, hiding from terrorists, while her husband was fighting terrorists that had broken into their Kibbutz. While she was in labor, Vered spent long hours in the bomb shelter with her children, waiting with a knife for the moment when the door could potentially open, and terrorists could enter. The following day, she gave birth to a son.

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Destruction at Kibbutz Kissufim after the Hamas massacre

(Photo: Menahem Kahana / AFP)

The couple recently visited Vered and her family at the hotel they were evacuated to in the Dead Sea and remained with them for two weeks. At a time like this it is even more important that I come to Israel, Dr. Bruner continues.

Yafa has two children, a 17-year-old daughter and 22-year-old son, whom Dr. Bruner calls his own. One of the main reasons for doing so was that he had previously been married to Yafas sister-in-law, who passed away and he didnt want to lose his connection to her family. Today the Bruners reside in Midland, Texas, and are planning to immigrate to Israel together, and through that, Dr. Bruner seems to have found the answer he was looking for all his life.

Israelis are like one big family, he says, and does not give much emphasis to the divisions and polarization currently affecting Israeli society. This is a period in history where many countries are facing extremism on both sides of the political spectrum, fighting over ideology, this is not unique to Israel, including the US, Germany, the Netherlands and Sweden. Israel, according to Dr. Bruner, is not particularly different in this sense. For him, in any case, the feeling is one of his coming home.

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Doctor from 'Hand of hope' converted to Judaism and making Aliyah: 'I'm coming home, at last' - Ynetnews

Report reveals ‘deep animosity’ towards Jews and Judaism in Iraqi curriculum – Jewish News

Posted By on March 21, 2024

A report on the Iraqi school curriculum reveals deep animosity towards Jews and Judaism and presents violent jihad and martyrdom as key values.

The report, conducted by London based Institute for Monitoring Peace and Cultural Tolerance in School Education (IMPACT-se), evaluated 71 textbooks taught in national school curriculum, dated 2015-2022, for grades 1-12.

It found deep hostility towards Jews and embracing antisemitic tropes in humanities subjects, such as history, Arabic language, Islamic Education, and social studies.

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Textbooks employ antisemitic tropes, connecting Jews with excessive wealth and power while negative traits such as treachery, cowardice and immorality are portrayed as intrinsic characteristics of Jews.

The report gives an example from a 8 grade textbook where Jews are described as greedy, corrupt, tyrannical, and deviant and includes a story about a Jew selling water to Muslims at inflated prices.

Iraqs millennia-old Jewish community is not mentioned. The Holocaust and the contemporaneous Farhoud massacre of Jews in Iraq are not acknowledged, but Iraqs allegiance to Nazi Germany in WWII is defended as serving the Palestinian cause Nationalist violence against Jews and Israel is glorified, historical peace treaties between Israel and Arab states are ignored, and peace is not entertained as an option for Iraq, the report said.

Israel is not recognised on maps and Zionism is deemed as racist and dangerous. Students are also taught that the media and the economy were in the hands of American Zionists which influenced the US presidential elections. Nationalist violence against Jews and Israel is glorified, historical peace treaties between Israel and Arab states are ignored, and peace is not entertained as an option for Iraq.

Military service and death in battle are glorified, presenting violent jihad and martyrdom as key values.

The Iraqi curriculums perpetuation of antisemitic tropes and virulent hostility towards Israel is in flagrant violation of UNESCO standards of peace and tolerance. Worryingly, the textbooks also teach children that martyrdom and violent jihad are desirable.It is perhaps therefore no surprise that there is evidence of possible Iranian influence in the curriculum, reflecting the wider dynamics of the region, IMPACT-se CEO, Marcus Sheff, said.

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Report reveals 'deep animosity' towards Jews and Judaism in Iraqi curriculum - Jewish News

Responding to Hatred, On Purim and Today – My Jewish Learning

Posted By on March 21, 2024

The Jews are different. The Jews dont follow the laws of the land. The Jews should be eliminated.

This formula, with only minor variation, could describe the situation of Jews in ancient Persia, whose deliverance we celebrate this weekend on Purim. But it arguably also describes the plight of the Israelites in Egypt, the long history of the Jewish question in medieval and modern Europe, or even some of the events of the last few months.

This troubling phenomenon has been much discussed and studied. An entire subfield is now dedicated to understanding the nature and causes of antisemitism, as well as how it might be rooted out. These are important questions, but I want to ask a different one: How do Jews respond to these acute outbreaks of discrimination and hatred?

Obviously, the first and most immediate response is self-preservation typically fighting back (when feasible) or fleeing. Jewish history has a long history of the latter, and a shorter history of the former. But what happens after a Jewish community preserves itself physically? How does it change in response to the persecution it endured?

There would seem to be two possible models. One is to burrow ones identity further underground subduing Jewish practice, maybe moving to a new place and finding new friends and a new identity in the hopes the next wave of Jewish persecution will pass you by. This was the approach taken by the conversos, Spanish and Portuguese Jews who were forcibly converted and maintained their Jewish identity under cover. Many other Jews presumably tried a similar approach over the generations, but we lack any account of their story precisely because they were so successful in expunging their Judaism.

The Purim story highlights a different approach. Rather than responding to Jew hatred by running or hiding from ones Jewish identity, the Jews of Persia leaned into it. In the Book of Esther, Mordechai and Esther do this by creating a holiday to commemorate their miraculous victory over Haman and those who sought to kill the Jews. They ordained that Jews in every generation, wherever they are in the world, should not fail to observe the holiday in perpetuity, commemorating not only their Jewishness but its very precarity, the risks of living as a Jew.

This was by no means the safe option, as it highlighted the tensions between Jews and non-Jews and provided a playbook of sorts for how to marginalize and attack Jews. Leaning in to ones Judaism following an attack on Jews is not an act of prudence, but an expression of Jewish identity reawakened, of the will to stand defiantly in the face of attack rather than hiding.

The ancient rabbis extended this reassertion of Jewish identity in the Purim story well beyond the creation of a single holiday commemorating Jewish survival. The Talmud (Shabbat 88a) entertains the view that the Jews accepted the Torah at Sinai only under coercion, to which one sage responds that even if that is so, during the time of Mordechai and Esther, the Jews accepted the Torah willingly. As proof, he cites the passage in the Book of Esther describing how the Jews chose to make Purim an enduring holiday.

This reading suggests that the reaffirmation of Jewish identity following persecution wasnt simply about one holiday, but about the full and willing acceptance of the Torah. Hamans persecution awakened in the Jews a spark of defiance, a motivation not to hide their Judaism but to feature it in their lives. This constitutes the greatest acceptance of the Torah not acquiescing to the Torah in order to safely avoid a threat, but rather choosing the Torah despite the risks that being Jewish may entail.

There has been a similar response in the face of more recent attacks on Jews, both physical and verbal. Increased synagogue attendance and a greater willingness to publicly identify as Jewish (even among non-Jews!) reflects a similar commitment not to be cowered in the face of attack, but to live proudly and loudly as a Jew.

As we celebrate Purim, let us remember how the Jews of Shushan responded to persecution not only by ensuring their physical survival, but also by embracing and reaccepting their Judaism in the face of those threats.

This article initially appeared in My Jewish Learnings Shabbat newsletter Recharge on March 23, 2024. To sign up to receive Recharge each week in your inbox,click here.

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Responding to Hatred, On Purim and Today - My Jewish Learning


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