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Jewish Journal

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May 15, 2012

2d Cir: NY kosher law doesn’t violate First Amendment

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Last week, in ” title=”here” target=”_blank”>here; the court’s opinion ” title=”First Amendment prohibits” target=”_blank”>First Amendment prohibits courts from doing. As ” title=”court said” target=”_blank”>court said:

New York, through the Kosher Act, has not explicitly adopted or endorsed one religion or religious group over another, nor has it encouraged particular religious activities.  The neutral labeling requirement does not define “kosher” or any other religious terms and contrasts with prior situations in which this Court has found a perception of endorsement. …

Therefore, because the amended Kosher Act neither advances nor impedes religion, has a secular purpose, and does not create an excessive entanglement between state and religion, it does not violate the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.

The court also found a Free Exercise challenge in want because Kosher Act is a neutral, generally applicable law that imposes a nonsubstantial burden and has a rationale basis. In other words, none of the key elements for a Free Exercise violation cut against the kosher law.

2d Cir: NY kosher law doesn’t violate First Amendment Read More »

Iran executes man convicted of spying for Israel

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Iran executed a man convicted of spying for Israel and of assassinating an Iranian nuclear scientist.

Majid Jamali Fashi, 24, was hanged early Tuesday morning, according to Iranian news reports. He was sentenced to death in August 2010 for the murder of Ali Mohammadi, a particle physics professor at Tehran University killed by a remote-controlled bomb in a January 2010 attack.

Mohammadi is one of four scientists that Iran has accused Israel and the United States of assassinating in the last two years.

Fashi was accused of traveling outside of Iran to receive special training by Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency.

In April, more than 15 Iranian and foreign nationals reportedly were arrested for carrying out alleged terrorist missions for Israel in Iran, according to IRNA, Iran’s official news agency. The group was accused of spying for Israel, the attempted assassination of an Iranian expert and sabotage.

Iran executes man convicted of spying for Israel Read More »

Michael Siegal nominated to head Jewish federations

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Michael Siegal of Cleveland has been nominated to chair the board of trustees of the Jewish Federations of North America.

The JFNA nominating committee on Monday also announced the nomination of Dede (Diane) Feinberg of Washington, D.C., as chair of the Executive Committee and Stephen Silverman of Jacksonville, Fla., as treasurer.

JFNA’s Board of Trustees will vote on the new officers at the General Assembly in Baltimore in November.

Siegal, the chairman and CEO of Olympic Steel, is the current board chair of the Jewish Federation of Cleveland and has held many leadership positions in his community. Most recently he served as chair of the federation’s 2009 and 2010 annual campaigns, which raised more than $56.5 million during his two-year term. Siegal is a current JFNA board member, a former Executive Committee member and a member of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee board. He also serves as a member of the national Board of Directors and Executive Committee of Israel Bonds.

Feinberg is past president of the Jewish Federation of Greater Washington and co-chair of the 2009 JFNA General Assembly in Washington. She currently serves on the Executive Committee, Board of Directors and as vice chair of the United Israel Appeal, and is a member of the Board of Governors at The Jewish Agency for Israel. In Washington, she chaired the Israel@60: A Capital Celebration on the National Mall. She has served in a range of leadership roles at the Washington Federation, including president and campaign chair, and at organizations including the United Jewish Endowment Fund of Greater Washington. 

Silverman has been chief operating officer of Raven Transport Company in Jacksonville since its inception in 1985. He is an active member of the ITCC, ATA and Chamber of Commerce Committee of 100, as well as past chair and advisory board member for the University of Georgia Transportation Seminar. He is also on the Board of Directors of the Truckload Carriers Association and is a director of the Florida Trucking Association.

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Greek gov’t, Jews slam Golden Dawn chief for Holocaust denial

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The Greek government and Jewish community condemned the leader of the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn Party after he denied there were gas chambers or ovens at Nazi death camps.

Speaking Sunday in an interview on the private Mega TV network, Golden Dawn head Nikolaos Michaloliakos said gas chambers were lies and claims that 6 million Jews were murdered in the Holocaust was an exaggeration.

“There were no ovens. This is a lie. I believe that it is a lie,” said Michaloliakos. “There were no gas chambers either.”

His comments drew condemnation from the Greek government.

This “constitutes a distortion of history and a fierce insult to the memory of the millions of Holocaust victims,” government spokesman Pentelis Kapsis said Tuesday.

“The Greek people have not forgotten that they mourned hundreds of thousands of victims of Nazism, including tens of thousands of Greek Jews,” Kapsis said.

The Central Board of Jewish Communities in Greece called on the Greek government and public to “firmly condemn and isolate the forces seeking the revival of the darkest ideology of European history.”

Some 5,000 Jews live in Greece today. The prewar community of some 78,000, most of whom lived in the northern port city of Thessaloniki, was almost entirely wiped out in the Holocaust.

“It is an insult to the historical memory, the memory of the 6 million Jews, our brethren, amongst whom there were 70,000 Greek Jews, who perished in the death camps of Auschwitz, Dachau [and] Treblinka,” the Jewish community statement said.

The extreme-right Golden Dawn Party, whose flag closely resembles the Nazi swastika, received 21 seats in parliament, the first time it passed the threshold to enter the legislative body. It campaigned heavily on an anti-immigrant platform under the slogan “So we can rid this land of filth.”

Michaloliakos came to prominence when he won a seat on the Athens City Council in 2010 and celebrated by giving the Nazi salute at the first City Hall meeting.

Greek gov’t, Jews slam Golden Dawn chief for Holocaust denial Read More »

Seven Krakow synagogues to open—for one night

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Seven historic synagogues in Krakow that are closed for most of the year will open for one night.

The synagogues will open June 2 as part of the the second annual 7@nite-Synagogues By Night, an evening of exhibitions, music concerts and fashion shows by young artists from Poland and around the world.

The free event is sponsored by the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, JCC Krakow and the Krakow Jewish community.

Among its highlights, Geva Alon, an Israeli singer and songwriter, will play with his band in Tempel Synagogue in his first concert in Poland.

At the Kupa Synagogue, Piotr Kulisiewicz of the Warsaw Jewish community will exhibit his posters from important Jewish events. At the Remuh Synagogue, Slawomir Pastuszka will show his exhibition about Jewish architecture.

The Old Synagogue will host a fashion show titled “Jewish Dress Code,” while “In Motion,” a multimedia trip around the world, will be shown at the High Synagogue.

At the Izaak Synagogue, Majk Hercberg will show his handmade mezuzahs. At the Popper Synagogue, guests will decorate a model of the synagogue.

The Galicia Museum will feature a concert by Jacek Kabzinski, as well as Israeli folk dancing.

The JCC will be open for meals or to meet with local rabbis.

Seven Krakow synagogues to open—for one night Read More »

Orthodox rapper Y-Love reveals he’s gay

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Orthodox Jewish rapper Y-Love has announced that he is gay.

The rapper, who records with the Jewish label Shemspeed, made the announcement in an Out magazine article published Tuesday.

“I feel like I’ve wasted years of my life worrying that it would alienate the community I dedicated my life to as an artist and as a man,” the 34-year-old rapper, whose name is Yitz Jordan, told Out. “But my hope is that it will open their eyes—and hearts.”

Y-Love, who was born to a Puerto Rican mother and Ethiopian father, converted to Judaism and previously identified with Chasidism. He is known for lyrics focused on Jewish religious concepts and sometimes raps in Hebrew and Aramaic.

According to the Out article, Y-Love had a brief, failed marriage to a Jewish woman and had tried a form of so-called reparative therapy in an effort to change his sexual orientation.

“I’ve dealt with racism; I’ve dealt with discrimination,” Jordan told the magazine. “I want to be there at that gay pride festival, for that kid who has a baseball cap over his yarmulke. I know what it feels like to have to hide.”

Y-Love’s new video “Focus on the Flair,” released Tuesday, features shots of him in drag, as well as of him in men’s clothing dancing with a man in Chasidic garb.

Orthodox rapper Y-Love reveals he’s gay Read More »

Cuban official: Cuba is ready to negotiate status of Alan Gross

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Authorities in Cuba are ready to negotiate the status of jailed American Alan Gross, a senior Cuban official said.

“We have made clear to the U.S. government that we are ready to have a negotiation in order to try and find a solution, a humanitarian solution to Mr. Gross’ case on a reciprocal basis,” Josefina Vidal, the top official in the Cuban Foreign Ministry handling North America, said in an interview on CNN on May 10.

Vidal would not offer specifics, but prompted by interviewer Wolf Blitzer, she said the “Cuban Five”—five agents jailed or on probation in the United States for espionage charges—were a concern.

“Cuba has legitimate concerns, humanitarian concerns related to the situation of the Cuban Five,” she said.

Vidal said the Cuban system does not allow for a humanitarian release for Gross, who was sentenced last year to 15 years on espionage charges related to his U.S. State Department-backed project to hook Cuba’s Jews into the Internet.

“It is not conceived in the Cuban system that persons in this situation can be allowed to travel abroad,” she said.

Gross, who is Jewish, has asked to be allowed to visit his 90-year-old mother, who is dying of cancer.

Cuban official: Cuba is ready to negotiate status of Alan Gross Read More »

Why the Proposed CA Cuts Suck

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As certain as the grey, cloudy days of June are coming to us in Los Angeles, so too are the additional cuts proposed by Gov. Brown yesterday as part of the “May Revise” budget, which takes place annually one month after tax day. This time, the gap is $16 billion, a huge, abstract number that is very hard to wrap my brain around. But I have less difficulty in looking at the proposed major cuts which impact children, teens and adults with disabilities, and seeing a one-two-three combined punch:

1) Direct cuts to the Dept. of Developmental services which funds the 21 Regional Centers across the state = $50 million
2) Cuts to Medi-Cal providers, including hospitals and nursing homes, with many of those patients diagnosed with developmental disabilities=$1.2 billion
3) Reducing in-home service hours to the frail elderly and disabled by 7% across the board = $225 million

Taken together, these cuts are body blows to those with the greatest need—people who are poor and have severe disabilities, who often have multiple medical/disability conditions. Their families, and especially those family members who provide care 24/7 will bear the greatest burden, as they have fewer resources and more stress, which can create medical problems for the caregivers.

In this great golden state, why aren’t there more creative solutions to our budget woes than shoving the problems “downstream” to those who are the most vulnerable??? It just sucks.

Why the Proposed CA Cuts Suck Read More »

Browns sign Jewish offensive lineman Mitchell Schwartz

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Offensive lineman Mitchell Schwartz, a second-round draft pick of the Cleveland Browns, signed a four-year, $5.17 million contract with the team.

Schwartz, a tackle from the University of California, Berkeley, was selected 37th overall in April’s draft. The Jewish player was among eight draft picks signed by the team on Sunday.

Browns head coach Pat Shurmur said Schwartz displayed solid technique that could quickly catapult him into a full-time player, according to the Cleveland Jewish News.

“He is very sound in his fundamentals,” Shurmur said. “He’s very detailed with his sets, he is good with his hands, he understands what the defense is going to do by the way they are aligned. He’s a very sharp guy.”

Schwartz, whose older brother Geoff is in his fourth season in the NFL, said he had a “pretty decent understanding of what to expect” coming into camp and wanted to focus on improving daily.

“Obviously whatever your weakness is, you kind of want to make that into your strength,” he said. “At the same time you don’t want to let your strengths become your weaknesses. It’s always a nice little balance. So far, we’ve been doing a little bit of everything. Working different techniques in the run game, different techniques in the pass game with our hands, our feet.”

Schwartz also responded to draft pundits’ assertions that he was “NFL ready,” crediting his coaches at the University of California for giving him a strong foundation.

Browns sign Jewish offensive lineman Mitchell Schwartz Read More »

N.Y. school sued for allegedly failing to act on anti-Semitic taunts

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A suburban New York father is suing his school district over the anti-Semitic taunting of his son.

Robert Slade filed the suit last week alleging that officials at Northport High School on Long Island took no action to stop a group of 20 students from traumatizing his son with taunts such as “Jews are disgusting,” “Being Jewish must suck,” “Hitler was a good person” and “My love for you burns like a thousand Jews in an oven.”

The suit says that 20 students mercilessly teased the boy in person and on Facebook during his freshman year in 2011 until he was forced to leave, the New York Post reported Monday.

“This student was subjected to some awful things,” Slade’s lawyer, Chaim Book, told the Post. “His parents alerted administrators at the school and they were ignored. Nothing was done.”

A lawyer for the school district said officials reacted appropriately to the student’s concerns.

The suit, which seeks compensatory damages, was filed May 3 in U.S. District Court. The superintendent and high school principal also are named as defendants.

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