Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By admin 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

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Posted By admin 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.

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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

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Posted By admin 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

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Posted By admin 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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Posted By admin on March 21, 2024

Boustan, the historian of Judaism, agrees, adding that the theme of Gods deliverance through human warriors in the face of foreign domination is something that comes across very strongly.

And yet, some generations after it was built, the synagogue was mysteriously abandoned. Given the regions long history of catastrophic seismic activity, its not hard to imagine an earthquake leaving the synagogue so damaged that it was thought to be unsafe even though it continued to stand. Eventually parts of the building collapsed, destroying sections of the mosaics. Another tremor may have delivered the final blow.

It wasnt burned. It wasnt taken apart, says Martin Wells, the projects architecture specialist from Austin College in Texas. My guess is an earthquake.

In any case, some 800 years after the synagogue was constructed, the region came to be ruled by the Mamluks, a Muslim dynasty based in Egypt. A Mamluk road, part of a network connecting Cairo and Damascus, ran right by the village and brought a flow of merchants and pilgrims. As the area became prosperous once again, the Jewish people who remained repaired the fifth-century synagogue while also expanding it and adding a thick, concrete-like basewhich, fortunately, protected the mosaics.

In a scene from the biblical Book of Judges, Samson has used his mighty strength to kill this shield-bearing Philistine soldier, who has collapsed on the ground. Two other scenes also celebrate the legendary leader.

Beginning in the 15th century, commercial traffic in the area slowed. The synagogue appears to have been abandoned again, and it gradually tumbled to the ground. So it remained until the archaeologists arrived.

(Read our original coverage, from 2015, of the mosaic's discovery.)

Twelve years after they first started digging, Magness and her team completed their fieldwork in the summer of 2023. The site remains backfilled to protect the mosaics and has been turned over to the Israel Antiquities Authority and the Jewish National Fund to develop plans for tourism. IAA archaeologist Avni predicts this jewel in the crown of Israels cultural heritage will become one of its greatest attractions.

The digging may be done, but there is much excavated materialnow in storage in Jerusalemto be analyzed, and many mysteries remain to be solved, Magness says. My team and I will be coming back for years.

Photographer and National Geographic ExplorerPaolo Verzone lives in Italy and Spain. His images of the new Grand Egyptian Museum in the November 2022 issue were awarded first prize for science and natural history by Pictures of the Year International.

This story appears in the April 2024 issue of National Geographic magazine.

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An archaeologist suspected something special was buried here. She was right. - National Geographic

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Posted By admin on March 21, 2024

Agent 007, aka James Bond, may soon be changing his number to 018 believed to represent life and luck in Judaism as British Jewish actor Aaron Taylor-Johnson has reportedly been offered the role of the iconic superspy.

According to the UK newspaper The Sun, Taylor-Johnson, best known for his role in the Kick-Ass franchise, has been given the chance to take over from Daniel Craig, who currently plays MI6s most famous fictional agent. The Bond character was created by novelist Ian Fleming and has been portrayed on screen in dozens of movies for over 60 years. Previous James Bond actors include Sean Connery, Roger Moore, and Pierce Brosnan.

According to The Sun, Eon Productions, which makes the Bond films, will start shooting the latest movie this year. It quoted a source who said: Bond is Aarons job, should he wish to accept it. The formal offer is on the table, and they are waiting to hear back. As far as Eon is concerned, Aaron is going to sign his contract in the coming days, and they can start preparing for the big announcement.

The newspaper also quoted Taylor-Johnson as saying last week, I find it charming and wonderful that people see me in that role. I take it as a great compliment.

The 33-year-old actor began his career as a child. In addition to the Kick-Ass franchise, he is known for his role as a drifter in Nocturnal Animals, for which he won a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor. He also starred as a young John Lennon in Nowhere Boy, which was directed by his wife, Sam Taylor-Johnson.

Many see Bond as the epitome of cool. The often tuxedo-clad character is famous for romancing beautiful women, driving fast cars, performing death-defying stunts, and taking his martinis shaken, not stirred.

The next Bond movie has been delayed because of last years Hollywood strikes.

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Jewish actor offered to play James Bond in popular franchise - The Jerusalem Post

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Posted By admin on March 21, 2024

Rabbi Shimon Roth lives in Jerusalems Mea Shearim neighborhood one of the citys most religious neighborhoods.

The conservative atmosphere is visible. Men crowd the streets in a sea of black coats and hats, and Yiddish is commonly spoken. Signs are posted asking women to dress modestly.

We are here in occupied Jerusalem, the original capital of Palestine, Roth explained from across a dining room table that was covered with a white lace cloth and a sheet of clear plastic, common in observant homes.

Roth only agreed to be interviewed with a male translator present. And he refused to make direct eye contact, based on a belief that he shouldnt look at women other than his wife.

Roth is a part of Neturei Karta, a Haredisect that takes an anti-Zionist stance meaning the group doesnt believe in the concept of a Jewish state of Israel. Haredim (the plural of Haredi) are extremely religious and have a very strict commitment to Jewish law and custom.

Haredi translates to "trembling," as in trembling before God.

Not all Haredim are anti-Zionist, and even those who are rarely show it in the same way as Neturei Karta. The group is known for demonstrating against Israel and in support of Palestine. Its members can be seen at protests carrying signs that say things like, "Judaism condemns the state of Israel and its atrocities."

Roth explained that, for him, part of living in Israel as an anti-Zionist means not voting or running for office, not taking assistance from the government and openly supporting the return of all of Israel to Palestinians.

The Zionists say that they act on our behalf. They took the name Israel, which is not theirs to have, Roth said. Our goal is to express [opposition] to the Zionists' crimes.

Zionism, the movement that advocates for a Jewish state, is almost always discussed in political terms. But it can also be fundamentally religious.

Judaism is a covenant with God to uphold God's Torah to be subservient to God.

According to Rabbi Yisroel Dovid Weiss, a spokesman for Neturei Karta in the United States, Judaism is a covenant with God to uphold God's Torah to be subservient to God. Zionism is a transformation to nationalism.

Weiss is famously known for having visited Iran to speak at a conference about the Holocaust alongside then-Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinijad and former KKK leader David Duke.

Weiss does not deny the Holocaust.

He said his grandparents and several aunts and uncles died in Auschwitz.The New York Times reported that he attended the conference to say that the Holocaust is being exploited to justify the Zionist state of Israel.

While many Zionists make the argument that God promised the land of Israel to the Jews, Weiss and Neturei Karta understand it very differently.

It's a materialist concept to have a piece of land to be a nation like other nations. Totally contradictory to what Judaism is. That's the basics, Weiss explained.

The basics hes referring to come from ancient history, and specifically the time of the Second Temple in Jerusalem. That temple was destroyed by the Romans in the year 70 CE, which many understand as solidifying the Jewish diaspora.

We are expressly forbidden since the destruction of the temple 2,000 years ago God told us that we should not reestablish a Jewish sovereignty, Weiss said.

[At] the time when we made the covenant, God said we should go into the Holy Land and make a temple but He warned us if we're not on that extremely high level of holiness, then we will be expelled from the Holy Land.

But many Jews disagree, and find Neturei Kartas efforts destructive.

They don't just go to demonstrations they deny [that] Jews have a right to self determination, said Rabbi Yaacov Behrman. Hes a public relations liaison for Chabad, a Haredi group headquartered in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, in New York, and said he was speaking in his personal capacity.

They deny Jews have a right to self govern, which is basically antisemitism, Behrman added.

They align themselves with Holocaust deniers. They align themselves with those that advocate for the destruction of the Jewish people. Their ideology lacks any religious or moral legitimacy.

While Rabbi Weiss and Neturei Karta say the Jews were expelled from the land tnow called Israel and that it doesn't belong to them, Rabbi Behrman says this misses a very important point.

They don't acknowledge that it's divine providence that allowed Jews to create the state of Israel, Behrman said. The fact of the matter is the state exists and the fact of the matter is that Jews worldwide are safer because of this state. And if something happens to the state of Israel, it's going to endanger Jews worldwide.

To Weiss though, Zionism is heresy.

It's nationalism. It's void of God, Weiss said. They call themselves a democracy. They proudly announced that you don't have to be religious. They have gay rights parades in the middle of the center of Jerusalem. You don't have to keep kosher. Judaism is not a democracy. It's a religion.

Neturei Karta does have a presence in Jerusalem some even have families who lived there since before the creation of the state of Israel.

I used to walk with my grandfather in the Old City of Jerusalem, and he used to tell me, I lived here and here and here, Roth said. As a child, he used to tell me the stories of his childhood from these streets long before the Jewish state.

Today, Roth and so many others look to those stories from the past, even if they have no agreement about the future.

Translation for this story was provided by Yair Leibel.

Related:Israel says no to a 2-state solution

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Neturei Karta: an ultra-orthodox Jewish sect that doesn't believe in the concept of a Jewish state of Israel - The World from PRX

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Posted By admin on March 21, 2024

Rabbi Jonathan Sacks described Judaism as the religion of hope.

Israel is the country of hope after all, our National Anthem is called Hatikva The Hope.

But right now, as I write these words with the tears in my eyes obscuring the keyboard, it doesnt feel like there is any hope.

Our boy, Sgt. Itay Chen, son of our community members and friends Ruby and Chagit Chen, is no longer among the living.

Itay was serving in the Tank Corps and was last heard from on October 7 at 6.40 a.m.

He was declared missing in action.

A few days later, his father Ruby, a man of such strength and integrity that it is hard to believe, came to me in the synagogue and told me there was some good news I desperately wanted him to tell me that Itay was found alive and well and would be joining us very soon but the good news was that he was officially declared a hostage kidnapped by the vile perpetrators of the worst crime against the State of Israel in its history.

Ruby embarked upon a campaign of publicly working to keep the hostages in the minds of the world. As an American/Israeli dual nationality citizen, he flew back and forth to Washington, met with senators, leaders and visited US President Joe Biden in the White House to implore him to do more to bring home the hostages.

Nobody could have done more and all the while, Itays parents and brothers and his extended family in our community never gave up hope.

I sent out a photograph of Itays smiling face that Ruby had prepared with the words Help find Itay. So many of us placed this photograph on our Shabbat tables as an honored guest.

My wife placed the photograph on the wall together with those of our own children above where she lights the Shabbat candles, and each week as she fervently prayed for the peace, health and welfare of our children over the glowing flames, Itay was there too, firmly in our minds and hearts.

But on Tuesday it was announced that Itay had been killed early on that infamous day of Simchat Torah 5784, October 7, 2024, and his body taken captive to Gaza, where it remains in the hands of the heinous terrorists.

The news hit us like a juggernaut out of control. We werent expecting it we remained full of hope that Itay would be returned healthy and well. But it will not be so.

In the words of the Kinnot which we read on Tisha BeAv the saddest day of the Jewish year, when we recall so many tragedies over the millennia, Woe is to us, we are bereft!

Yes, our communitys hope lies shattered, broken and splintered into tiny pieces, never to be gathered together again, like the glass that Itay will now never stamp upon under the chuppah.

How do we react? How can we go about our daily business, work, looking after the children, dealing with the petty nonsense that life inevitably throws up?

HOW DO Itays heartbroken family drag themselves out of bed in the morning?

Right now, in the eye of the storm, the answers escape me I grasp at ideas swirling around in my head, in no particular order.

When the news broke, I was in the middle of a work video conference and a Whatsapp message appeared on my screen. I felt sick and was unable to concentrate on the words being spoken, and I excused myself from the meeting.

Should we, as a community cancel our upcoming Purim celebrations? Should we stop going out to friends? Should we refrain from everyday activities which seem so trivial today?

These are questions we are grappling with now.

The first instinct is to cancel everything, put our collective heads in our hands and just weep.

But we must go on we are obliged to continue the fight, to achieve the victory that Itay was fighting for, to restore some kind of normality to the lives of our people accepting that it will never be the same again without Itay and the hundreds, no thousands of other blameless victims of this horror.

If we dont they win and we lose. This cannot be allowed to happen.

This has been the Jewish way from the time of our beginnings.

In Egypt when the fledgling Israelite nation were enslaved, the men gave up hope and separated from their wives saying that it was hopeless to bring new life into such a terrible world. The women disagreed and ensured the survival of the nation by continuing to procreate and are praised for their strength and foresight.

In the worst years of the Spanish Inquisition, Jews continued to be Jews, albeit sometimes in secret, but they never stopped and even now more than 500 years later the descendants of the Bnei Anusim (Hebrew for the progeny of those who were coerced) are coming home.

Even during the Holocaust, hope was never completely extinguished and Israel itself rose from the ashes.

So, I dont know how I or we will do it but we will continue, we will get up, get dressed, go about our daily lives, and do what is necessary yes, with a heavy heart, but we will do it.

We will celebrate Purim, we will smile for our children and grandchildren when they show us their costumes, and we will never lose hope, because we owe it to Itay and the other brave heroes of our people to remain the People of Hope.

The writer is a rabbi and physician living in Ramat Poleg, Netanya, and is a cofounder of Techelet-Inspiring Judaism.

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Now, as throughout Jewish history, we must be a people of hope - opinion - The Jerusalem Post

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This Shabbat, the Shabbat before the Jewish holiday of Purim, religious Jews all over the world will flock to the synagogue to keep one of the Torahs commandments: to remember Amalek. The commandment in itself is not rare in Judaism. The verb remember appears in the Torah 169 times. Clearly, memory is a critical part of Judaism. What makes this commandment interesting is what we are required to remember.

The National Geographic https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/cultural-memory/ has an interesting article on cultural memory, which they define as the constructed understanding of the past that is passed from one generation to the next through text, oral traditions, monuments, rites, and other symbols. But cultural memory is not simply an understanding of the past. There are other extremely important elements to cultural memory.

Firstly, it is a way to learn from the past. The well-known saying those who do not learn from the past are doomed to repeat it has proven itself again and again. According to the National Geographic article, traumatic memories are some of the most powerful ones. The article brings the example of Russias role in World War Two in which 10 million Russians were killed. This historical event is still a vital part of Russian remembrance. The memory serves to prevent a tragedy like this from reoccurring. It also provides them with feelings of strength, defiance, and survival.

Secondly, cultural memory is an important part of cultural identity. In his book Covenant and Conversation, https://rabbisacks.org/covenant-conversation/ki-tavo/we-are-what-we-remember/ Rabbi Jonathan Sacks discusses the importance of history for Jewish identity. When Moses first encountered God at the burning bush, he asked the question, Who am I?. Seemingly he was asking God, Who am I to stand in front of Pharoah?, but Rabbi Sacks explains that Moses was asking a much more fundamental question. He grew up in Egypt and then in Midian, and now he is being told to become the leader of the Jewish people. Moses actually wanted to know who he really was.

Gods response was telling. He was a descendant of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Moses identity was related to his genealogy, not where he lived. It was the history of his people that defined his essence. God explained to Moses about the promise He made to his forefathers. He explained that He told them He would bring the Jewish people out of slavery to freedom. This is the story that the Jewish people would tell over and over again, through every generation because as Rabbi Sacks puts it, we are what we remember.

According to National Geographic, cultural memory is the longest form of memory, and as collective memory (as opposed to an individual memory) it is preserved in objects, symbols, activities, and books. It provides us with a deep comprehension of the culture, values, and norms of a particular society.

Shabbat is a perfect example of the latter idea. In Exodus 20:8, we are commanded to remember the Shabbat. We do so through prayer, food, song, and refraining from certain activities. Shabbat is more than a remembrance of the six days of creation, it is a reflection of the values and beliefs of Judaism. It celebrates the ideas of monotheism and Gods interaction in the world. It also celebrates the values of family and Torah learning. The Jewish Shabbat reflects the uniqueness of Judaism.

The concept of trauma in cultural memory reminds me of a book called The Giver written by Lois Lowry. In it, Lowry creates a future society that aims to preserve peace and order among its residents. To do so, it has to eliminate certain things. Residents must be protected against strong negative feelings towards one another like anger and jealousy. The society chooses elders to come up with rules that will accomplish this feat. The people must dress the same, wear their hair the same way, and take pills to suppress strong emotions, even good ones which can ultimately threaten the peace of their society, like love. The elders match people with their spouses, whom they choose based on a balance of the two personalities. Children are presented to the family units during a ceremony marking the first year of the childs life. The birth mothers of these children never even meet the child. It is a job within the community to give birth to children so that they can be given to a certain family unit. Memories of the past are also abolished from the society. There are no books, other than their book of rules. Historical memories are perceived as threats to a society that wants nothing to do with the disorderly past.

There is, however, one member of this society who has the important role of remembering the past. He is known as the Giver, and his job is to read books and learn about past generations. But this Giver has special qualities. Not only does he understand the past intellectually, but he can experience it as if he lived through it himself. The book is about a boy named Jonas who is appointed to be the next Receiver of these memories, which he obtains from the Giver.

The memories themselves can be exhilarating, delightful, depressing, and even terrifying, which are all strong emotions that the other residents cannot experience. Ultimately, Jonas decides to abandon this community that suppresses historical experiences. He decides that even things like war and death share important lessons for society. After all, it is human history that ultimately defines us as humans.

This Shabbat we will read about a particularly difficult historical event that we remember every year: the attack of Amalek in the desert. We will read from the Torah:

REMEMBER what Amalek did to you along the way as you left Egypt;how he confronted you along the way, and smote the hindmost among you, all that were enfeebled, when you were faint and weary; and he did not fear God.Therefore, it shall be that when the Lord your God gives you rest from all your enemies around you, in the land which the Lord your God gives you as an inheritance to possess, you shall erase the memory of Amalek from under the heavens; you shall not forget.(Devarim 25:17-19)

The war against Amalek is a crucial event in Jewish history and a perfect example of cultural memory. But why is Amalek singled out? Many nations attacked the Jewish people?

A multitude of reasons have been offered by commentators. Some say that Amalek was the first nation to fight against the Jews after the splitting of the sea when other nations were afraid to do so. This made it more feasible for others to attack the Jews. Others believe that Amalek represents an idea, rather than a specific nation, that is contrary to Judaism and must be contended with. But I believe October 7th has shed some new light on this commandment to remember.

Im fully aware that articles and blogs have been written about the differences between Amalek and Hamas. And while the commandment to wipe out Amalek cannot literally apply to any other nation (as Amalek was a biological nation that no longer exists), the commandment to remember them does apply. And as stated above cultural remembrance is about many things. It is about learning from the past and cultural identity. Unfortunately, Jewish identity is very much associated with nations like Amalek. Our history is replete with nations that have tried to wipe us off the face of the earth. Purim is one example of such an event. October 7th is another.

Hamas took lessons from Amalek. They attacked the rear, the southern cities that were not properly protected. They waited until we were weak, a nation divided both politically and socially over issues like judicial reform. Like Amalek, their goal was simple to wipe out the nation of Israel. They made no secret about it. It is most unfortunate that Jews have become identified with the malevolent plots of their attackers.

But the commandment to remember Amalek runs deeper. The fact that Hamas succeeded in torturing and murdering so many of us on October 7th was the result of the fact that we failed to remember. This led to a dangerous form of complacency. We simply did not believe that Hamas was so evil because we forgot about Amalek. That is why this commandment is so crucial. We must remember Amalek, so this does not happen again and again. We must destroy the evil in our midst so that next year this will become another crucial memory, but no longer a living threat.

And there is still a further facet to this commandment. The stories of Amalek, Purim, and October 7th are not just stories of our failures; They are also stories of our resilience. Amalek no longer exists. The Persian Empire from the time of Purim no longer exists. The Jewish nation outlived both. And this is what will happen with Hamas. Historically Jews have overcome every form of evil that has been thrown at them. This history is also an essential part of our national identity. And Its crucial to remember that as well.

Cheryl Levi is a writer and a high school English teacher who lives with her family in Bet Shemesh, Israel. She has a master's degree in medieval Jewish philosophy and has written numerous articles about faith crisis in Judaism. Her book, Reasonable Doubts, was published in 2010.

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Shabbat Zachor, the Shabbat of Remembrance | Cheryl Levi | The Blogs - The Times of Israel

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Posted By admin on March 21, 2024

As has often been remarked upon, we Jews love to argue. It can be over something trifling or something important: but a broiges is a broiges, right? Occasionally a broiges is something to be treasured, and I think that Rabbi Dr Raphael Zarum, dean of the London School of Jewish Studies, wishes more of us would indulge.

That, at any rate, is part of the message in Rabbi Zarums new and groundbreaking book, Questioning Belief, Torah and Tradition in An Age of Doubt, in which he elevates broiges to a whole new level. This is not a run-of-the-mill argument, but a passionate and forensic examination of the arguments that Jews have with Judaism. Why do we do this or that? Much of Jewish practice is illogical, explained away to children as just because.

But Jewish adults need better explanations. As Rabbi Zarum observes in his introduction to Questioning Belief, there is a risk in mistaking the Jewish tradition for a vast supercomputer. Press a button and a specific, timeless answer to any question just pops out.

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Over the course of 12 fascinating chapters, Rabbi Zarum unpicks the most common questions about Jewish life in the wake of modern scientific discoveries, and endeavours to provide intelligent answers. Was the Flood real, people ask, or the Exodus story? What has Judaism to say about slavery, or collective punishment? (Clue: we dont approve of either.)

And in the five years it took him to write this book, Rabbi Zarum concludes that in the end, my thinking moved me from a defence of Judaism to a re-evaluation of it for the modern age. The question, he says, is did the re-evaluation change Judaism, or change you? He says that the re-evaluation changed him: as someone from a scientific background his PhD is in physics who would usually require detailed proofs, he gently pushes the reader to acknow-ledge that not everything in the Torah is meant to be taken literally.

Many of the stories in the Torah are, says Rabbi Zarum, morality tales to teach human responsibility for the world. And context is key: the rabbis say you mustnt take the Torah literally. The line that the strictly Orthodox rabbis say should not be taken literally is an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. So the question then is, whats literal and whats not literal.

Who is this book aimed at? Ive tried to be what I call middlebrow. Theres highbrow, which is for academics, very intellectual, very hard to read, and everything justified on the highest level. Theres lowbrow, which is not fully grounded its lovely stories but its not quite honest about the complexities of Torah. Ive tried to steer a middle level to admit the difficulties in Torah, try to answer them, but make it relevant to people. So Questioning Belief is as likely to throw in a glancing reference to the Beatles as it is to supreme exponents of Torah commentary.

His audience, he says, is mainstream educated people, who want to live a meaningful Jewish life but cant let go correctly so of their rational understanding of the way the world is. They want to believe, but they find it difficult.

His principle, he says, was that if God made the world, and God made the Torah, they cant contradict. So I would look for an answer. And what I found were many halfway, or apologetic answers so I looked for deeper answers.

Rabbi Zarum is aware that still, in some communities, questions are positively discouraged. But, he says, learning with the late Rabbi Sacks, (whose daughter Gila provides a thoughtful foreword to the book), was like a breath of fresh air and that he and his contemporaries were encouraged to ask questions wherever they could.

Of his own upbringing, he says: My father was a Yemenite Jew and he knew the Bible by heart. He never looked over his shoulder at people from Gateshead or Stamford Hill. My cousins on my mothers side were from Stamford Hill. Wed go to simchas, theyd be wearing black hats and coats and my father would be in a modern suit. They would talk to him and hed be quoting Bible verses by heart it was an equal conversation. So I grew up never thinking theyre better I just thought, theyre different.

One of the most painful and frequently-raised issues is that of God and the Holocaust: how it could have happened, why prayer did not seem to have any discernible effect. Yes, says Rabbi Zarum, pouncing on the point, this comes under the heading of arguing with God God doesnt want us just to accept things, he wants us to fight back.

With some charm, he cites the story of a Chasid who approached his rabbi to say: I dont understand. How could God, who is perfect, create a world which has all these terrible things in it? And the rabbi says, its a good point. Do you think you could do better? The shocked pupil stammers, I could try. And the rabbi says, go! Make it better! Now, from a rational point of view, and my science training, thats not an answer. But it is a way to live. Thats the Jewish answer: that God wants us to argue and rally against the immorality of humanity, and to make good.

Even today, with the horrors of the Hamas attacks and the Israeli response, which has led to global condemnation, Rabbi Zarum still believes that Jewish ethics and values have an effect on the world stage. We are not the only ones, but we are part of the consciousness of the world. I am, in fact, more worried for the West than for the Jewish people right now. Weve got a covenant with God and weve been around for thousands of years. Weve been through a lot of these things and we seem to have survived every time. Im fairly confident of our survival. But Im worried about the deep issues because we are too often the canary in the coal mine.

Intriguingly, Rabbi Zarum cites Rav Kook (Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook, the first Ashkenazi chief rabbi of British Mandate Palestine, and one of the founding fathers of religious Zionism), when he observes: Doubters are more concerned with their doubts, than believers are with their beliefs. Rav Kook might say that the desire to study a work about questioning beliefs implies that you are eager to reflect on your relationship with God, and that this could lead to a renewed and heightened faith.

I leave the London School of Jewish Studies imagining which prominent atheist would benefit from reading this book and smiling at the thought.

Questioning Belief: Torah and Tradition in an Age of Doubt is published by LSJS and Maggid Books, 22.99

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Book elevates the concept of broiges to a whole new level - Jewish News

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