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Jewish Journal

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January 11, 2016

Charlie Hebdo caricature by Israeli artist removed from Tel Aviv exhibit

Leave a Comment / Israel /

An Israeli artist’s caricature marking the one-year anniversary of the Charlie Hebdo terror attack in Paris was removed from a Tel Aviv exhibit.

Also, another Israeli artist had his caricature censored in the monthlong exhibit titled “Apres Charlie” (“After Charlie”) at the French Institute.

The French Embassy in Tel Aviv expressed concern over how the two works portrayed the Muslim Prophet Muhammad, the Israeli business daily Globes reported Sunday.

A work by Vladik Sandler showing the prophet posing as a nude model for the five cartoonists murdered in the Jan. 7, 2015 attack was removed from the exhibit, according to Globes. A work by Roy Friedler was censored, with a sticker placed over the caricature of Muhammad.

“The conclusions and calculations of winners and losers, people can do for themselves,” Sandler wrote on Facebook about the removal of his piece, according to the Times of Israel. “But I have been left with a feeling of terrible sourness that those people, whose only crime was dark humor, died for naught and that any symbolic heritage that they might have wanted to leave behind — has gone to the trash or is hiding behind red stickers of censorship.”

The attack by Islamists on Charlie Hebdo, a satirical magazine, killed 11 staff members.

Charlie Hebdo caricature by Israeli artist removed from Tel Aviv exhibit Read More »

At 92, Shimon Peres is very much alive — and busy as ever

Leave a Comment / Israel /

Last month, rumors flooded the Internet that former Israeli President Shimon Peres was dead. True to form, the man who tirelessly trumpets his country’s high-tech sector took to Facebook to clear the air.

“I wish to thank the citizens of Israel for the support, concern and interest, and wish to clarify that the rumors are false,” wrote Peres, a Nobel Prize winner. “I’m continuing with my daily schedule as usual to do whatever I can to assist The State of Israel and its citizens.”

Having fought for Israel before the state even existed, leading its military through its formative years and founding two of the nation’s first kibbutzim, Peres, now 92, is the last man standing from the generation that built Israel. Appointed director general of the Defense Ministry in 1953 at the age of 29, Peres’ political career has spanned seven decades, ending just over a year ago with the conclusion of his seven-year stint as president.

Yet when Peres announced he was still alive, he meant very much alive — and very much still in action. On a typical day, he is up at 4:30 a.m. to read and “do sport” (he walks on the treadmill). By 8:30 he is at his office, and he often works until 11 p.m.

Speaking to JTA from the Peres Center for Peace, the nonprofit he founded in 1996 to promote coexistence, Peres discussed why he’s busier than ever — and why he still hasn’t given up on peace.

JTA: It’s been over a year since you left politics. How do you fill your days now?

Peres: The Peres Center for Peace is working for peace and innovation all over the world. The center is already 20 years old and it has a brilliant record. One of our programs is called Saving Children. I found out that there were 2,000 Palestinian children wounded during the intifada. We decided to bring all of them to Jerusalem and all of them were cured. Once that was done, other parents of Palestinian children came to us and said, ‘My child wasn’t wounded in the war, but he has a problem with his heart or his brain. Please help us.’ So our record now is 11,000 children cured in hospitals in Jerusalem on our account.

Two months ago marked 20 years since the murder of Yitzhak Rabin. If you could speak to him now, what do you think he would say about the state of Israel today?

We would continue to do what we did. We started making peace. We started with Jordan, made peace with Jordan. We made peace with the Egyptians, and we started with the Palestinians. It wasn’t completed, but we must continue to do the same thing. I think that our security, well-being and our Jewish character demands peace. If we will not achieve peace, we will always be engaged in war and terror. And I think it’s possible. I think we can achieve peace.

In spite of the terror attacks, we shouldn’t lower our efforts to make peace. You cannot answer a knife with a knife. I don’t think we can live if we continue just trying to destroy each other. Many Arabs understand this, too, and we see it now. For many years the Arab attitude was reflected in the Khartoum Resolution, naming three laws: not to recognize Israel, not to negotiate with Israel and not to make peace with Israel. That’s over. Now there are Arab peace projects. There’s a Saudi project, there’s an Arab League project. They’re talking about peace and that’s a major change. Maybe their plans are not exactly what we are seeking, but it’s a big difference from being an organized refusal to making peace with Israel, to an attempt to see how to bridge the divide.

Does Israel have a partner for peace?

We do have a partner. But we have to decide — do we want a partner for peace or a partner for war? I’m speaking about Abu Mazen [Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas]. He talks about peace, he talks against terror. He doesn’t talk the Zionist language, but I don’t expect him to. He has in his police force 15,000 people and they in fact are fighting against terror.

Do you think Israel hasn’t done enough to take advantage of this partner for peace?

I’m not going to look at who to blame. I’m not interested in this. I’m more interested in seeing who to moralize for peace. I know peace is hard to achieve. I speak from experience. People come to me and say, ‘You’re right, we need to make peace. You’re right, we need to pay a price.’ But, they say, ‘Why are you paying so much? Why are you so naive to trust them so much?’

There are two things in life that if you really want to achieve, you have to close your eyes a bit, and that is peace and love. With eyes wide open, I’m not sure anybody would fall in love, and I’m not sure anybody would make peace. But when you compare what is better, living in peace and living in love, even if it’s not perfect, is by far the right choice.

What do you think the rise in attacks by Arab-Israelis says about Israel today?

They have equal rights. There is no apartheid in Israel. But they feel discriminated against because the standard of living for Israelis is higher than the standard of living for Arabs. What we have to do is promote their standard of living. I think we can do it and we should do it, and that’s what we are doing at our center.

Israel was once a clear bipartisan issue in the United States, but there is some evidence today that Republicans are more likely to support Israel when its interests diverge from America’s. What could be done to change that?

I think we have to stick to the bipartisan support. We shouldn’t take sides in internal American issues. We have to appreciate that the U.S. friendship with Israel is bipartisan, so we cannot show an involvement in American politics, just as Americans are careful not to show involvement in Israeli politics.

At 92, Shimon Peres is very much alive — and busy as ever Read More »

Iranian media reports final nuke deal obligation fulfilled

Leave a Comment / Iran Deal, Worldwide /

Iran reportedly has completed the obligations required before sanctions could be lifted under the nuclear deal reached with world powers.

According to the state-sponsored Fars News Agency, Iran finished taking out the core of its heavy water nuclear reactor in Arak and filling it with cement on Monday, thus fulfilling its responsibility under the agreement reached over the summer with six countries, including the United States.

Citing an unnamed “informed source,” Fars reported that the International Atomic Energy Agency is expected to confirm the operation in the next few days.

“Following the IAEA approval, Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and EU Foreign Policy Chief Federica Mogherini will issue a joint statement to declare that Iran has met its end of the bargain,” the source told FARS, adding, “And then it will be the six world powers’ turn to comply with their undertaking and remove the sanctions.”

The deal, vehemently opposed by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Republicans in the U.S. Congress and many American Jewish organizations, lifts economic sanctions in exchange for Iran curbing its nuclear program.

Iranian media reports final nuke deal obligation fulfilled Read More »

Michael Bloomberg commissioned poll to test presidential run

Leave a Comment / Election 2016, United States /

Former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg commissioned a poll to test how he would perform in the 2016 presidential election against Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton.

The poll was commissioned by the media CEO last month, The New York Times reported Sunday in an article about a possible split in the Republican Party. It is not the first time the billionaire media executive and erstwhile politician has flirted with a possible run for the presidency, the Times noted.

CNN reported that a source close to the mayor confirmed the poll, but neither CNN nor the Times discussed the poll’s findings.

In August, media mogul Rupert Murdoch called on Bloomberg to throw his hat in the ring for the election.

Bloomberg, who is Jewish, served as mayor of New York City from 2001 to the end of 2013. In 2014, he returned as CEO to Bloomberg L.P., the multibillion-dollar firm he co-founded.

Michael Bloomberg commissioned poll to test presidential run Read More »

660,000 Jewish-Israelis can’t legally marry in Israel

Leave a Comment / Israel /

Prohibitions on civil and non-Orthodox weddings in Israel prevent 660,000 Jewish-Israelis — including 364,000 immigrants from the former Soviet Union — from marrying in the Jewish state, according to a nonprofit promoting religious freedom in Israel.

Hiddush presented the information in a report Monday to a Knesset conference on “alternatives to marriage through the [Chief] Rabbinate,” according to a news release the group issued Monday. It also reported that 20 percent of weddings registered in Israel took place overseas — a way of circumventing the prohibition on non-Orthodox weddings stateside — and that 70 percent of secular Israelis say they would have non-Orthodox wedding ceremonies if the state permitted them.

The nonprofit attributed its statistics to opinion polls and Israel Central Bureau of Statistics data.

Rabbi Uri Regev, who heads Hiddush, told the Knesset conference that growing numbers of Israelis “wish to be free of the Rabbinate’s shackles” and that the “monopoly of the Rabbinate” hurts Judaism because it “leads the general public to hate Judaism and identify it with dark, ugly extremism.”

In addition to many immigrants, those unable to wed in Israel because civil and non-Orthodox Jewish weddings performed there are not legally recognized include 284,000 gays and lesbians, 13,000 non-Orthodox converts to Judaism and various others, according to Hiddush.

A poll conducted for the group found that 64 percent of Jewish-Israelis supports “official recognition of all types of marriage,” including same-sex partnerships.

Hiddush reported that only 45 countries in the world, most of them Muslim, have marriage policies as restrictive as Israel’s.

660,000 Jewish-Israelis can’t legally marry in Israel Read More »

Turkey unsettled by ‘anti-Islamic’ messages in U.S. presidency race

Leave a Comment / Worldwide /

Turkey is unsettled by “anti-Islamic” messages in the U.S. presidential campaign, Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Monday, citing the 2016 race for the White House that has seen the Republican front-runner advocate a ban on Muslim immigration. 

Donald Trump, the businessman-turned-politician leading the polls ahead of the November 2016 election, last month said that all foreign Muslims should be temporarily prevented from entering the United States, a proposal he repeated in his first TV ad last week.

In November, Trump said he saw thousands of Muslims in New Jersey cheering the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on New York's World Trade Center, an assertion fact-checkers have not supported.

“It's election year in the U.S., we're disturbed by anti-Islamic remarks by some of the candidates,” Cavusoglu told a conference of ambassadors in Ankara. 

Over the weekend, a Muslim advocacy group called on Trump to apologize after a Muslim woman who silently protested at one of his rallies was removed by security personnel.

Another Republican presidential candidate, retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, has said Muslims are unfit for the U.S. presidency, although he later said he would be open to a Muslim candidate if they renounced Sharia law.

Candidates have also raised questions about Syrian refugees, but few have directly challenged Trump's Muslim proposal.

Representatives of the Republican National Committee and Trump could not be immediately reached for comment.

NATO allies Turkey and the United States are part of a Washington-led coalition to fight Islamic State in Syria and Iraq. But differences of opinion over which opposition groups should be backed in Syria have recently caused tensions, with Ankara summoning the U.S. ambassador last October over support to Kurdish groups.

REGIONAL CHALLENGES

In a wide-ranging policy speech to the annual meeting of Turkish ambassadors, Cavusoglu defended Turkey's deployment of a force protection unit to Bashiqa in northern Iraq, a move which has caused a diplomatic row with Baghdad.

He repeated that Ankara respects Iraq's territorial integrity and said the deployment was made after security deteriorated at Bashiqa, where Turkish soldiers have been training an Iraqi militia to fight Islamic State.

Cavusoglu also said Turkey was ready to make “every effort” to help resolve tensions between Saudi Arabia and Iran, which have worsened since the execution of a high-profile Shi'ite cleric by Saudi Arabia earlier this month.

But he appeared to dash any hopes of an imminent normalization in ties with Israel, saying there was no agreement yet on Turkish demands for compensation for the deaths of 10 Turkish activists on an aid ship in 2010 or for an end to the Gaza blockade.

An Israeli official said last month Israel and Turkey had reached a preliminary agreement to normalize relations. 

Cavusoglu also said Ankara would fulfill its responsibilities to ensure the resolution this year of the dispute over Cyprus, split since a 1974 Turkish military intervention.

Turkey unsettled by ‘anti-Islamic’ messages in U.S. presidency race Read More »

David Bowie was into kabbalah and other Jewish facts about the late icon

Leave a Comment / Hollywood /

It was clear long before the Internet swelled with heartfelt tributes to David Bowie that the late musician was an artistic legend. The 69-year-old Englishman, who passed away Sunday after an 18-month battle with cancer, reinvented himself countless times over a five-plus decade music career that also included stints as a Broadway and Hollywood actor.

From his Ziggy Stardust alter ego period to his latest album — a jazzy, avant-garde rock release called “Blackstar” released just two days before his death —Bowie racked up some interesting Jewish connections. Below, we give you five of them.

1. He was into kabbalah, and sang about it

“Here are we, one magical movement from kether to malkuth,” Bowie sang in his 1976 song “Station to Station.” “Kether” and “malkuth” are two of the 10 elements of the kabbalistic tree of life — the highest and lowest parts, respectively. Despite being high on cocaine for most of the “Station to Station” album’s recording process and describing it years later as the work of “an entirely different person,” Bowie was fascinated with kabbalah during this period (decades before Madonna made it cool). The back cover of the “Station to Station” album features Bowie drawing the kabbalistic tree of life in chalk.

2. His first manager was Jewish

Les Conn, born to a Jewish family in Stamford Hill, a traditionally Jewish part of London, failed to make much headway in the music business before 17-year-old Bowie (then still going by his birth name David Robert Jones) connected with him in 1964 through through a mutual acquaintance, washing machine magnate John Bloom. Conn managed to get Jones’ first band some gigs, but he couldn’t sell his talent to The Beatles’ publisher Dick James. When Conn’s contract with Jones expired, the rocker left for a new band and changed his name to Bowie — and the rest is history.

3. He was close to Jewish rockers Lou Reed and Marc Bolan (in different ways)

Bowie connected with Lou Reed, of the Velvet Underground, and pop artist Andy Warhol on a trip to the U.S. in 1971. He later produced Reed’s breakthrough solo album “Transformer” in 1972. When Reed passed away in 2013, Bowie called him “a master.”

Marc Bolan, the lead singer of glam rock band T-Rex, had a more complicated and competitive relationship with Bowie. The two teenagers became close friends early on in their careers when they were both managed by Conn.

Tension ensued when Bolan (who was born Mark Feld and ate Jewish soul food after concerts) found success years before Bowie did. But Bolan’s producer, Tony Visconti, eventually began devoting more of his time and energy to Bowie’s albums, which began climbing the charts as Bolan went the opposite direction into alcohol and drug addiction. Nevertheless, according to the Daily Mail, after Bolan died in a car crush at age 29 in 1977, Bowie quietly gave financial support to Bolan’s wife and son.

4. He went through a bit of a Nazi phase

In a drug-induced state leading up to the release of “Station to Station,” Bowie was criticized for saying in an interview that Adolf Hitler was “one of the first rock stars.” In the same month, he said that Britain could “benefit from a fascist leader.”

Bowie later assumed a persona called the “Thin White Duke,” which has been described as an “emotionless Aryan superman.” In 1976, when he drove up to London’s Victoria Station in a Mercedes convertible and gave what was reported to be a Nazi salute. Bowie denied those reports and later attributed his behavior to the copious amounts of drugs he was taking at the time.

5. He performed in Israel during one of the happiest stages of his life

“I think I would have to be squeezed real hard to be happier,” Bowie said in 1996, fresh off of a performance in Israel’s Hayarkon Park in Tel Aviv. He explains in a series of videos that he and his band were in the midst of one of the best tours of his life. He had recently released the experimental album “Outside” and had several other creative projects in the works. “I’ve been trying to go here for years,” he says in one of the videos with a smile shortly after getting off his plane

David Bowie was into kabbalah and other Jewish facts about the late icon Read More »

Chelsea Clinton, Ivanka Trump declare election 2016 truce

Leave a Comment / Election 2016, United States /

Chelsea Clinton and Ivanka Trump reportedly have decided not to let the 2016 presidential election ruin their friendship.

However, they have agreed not to see each other until after the November vote, the New York Daily News’ Confidenti@l column reported Saturday.

Confidenti@l had reported Jan. 1 that the relationship between the two high-profile women, who exchanged baby gifts and had a frequent text messaging relationship, was strained over the attacks by their parents – Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, the Democratic and Republican front-runners, respectively – on each other as the campaign heats up.

Both women are married to Jewish men and are expecting babies this year. Trump has converted to Judaism.

The column cited a source close to the situation as saying that Chelsea Clinton called Ivanka Trump after a particularly bad exchange between their parents.

“Because Chelsea is more experienced in politics, she wanted to move forward,” the source reportedly said. “She knows not to take these things personally.”

During the phone call, Chelsea Clinton wished Ivanka Trump a Happy New Year and they agreed not to let the election ruin their friendship.

“They’ve agreed there won’t be any secret meeting or lunches and neither is going to try and broker a truce between their parents,” the source also said.

Chelsea Clinton, Ivanka Trump declare election 2016 truce Read More »

NJ Orthodox shul announces hire of woman using ‘rabbi’ title

Leave a Comment / Judaism /

An Orthodox synagogue in New Jersey has hired Lila Kagedan, the first Yeshivat Maharat graduate to go by the title “rabbi.”

Mount Freedom Jewish Center, in Randolph, New Jersey, announced in a news release Monday that Kagedan is joining its “spiritual leadership team.” The news release did not use the word “rabbi,” instead referring to Kagedan as a “Yeshivat Maharat graduate.”

Kagedan, a native of Canada, was ordained in June by the New York-based seminary training Orthodox female clergy. Most graduates there have eschewed the title rabbi, opting instead for “maharat” or “rabba.” Kagedanannounced at a Jewish conference in December that she had accepted a job with an Orthodox American synagogue but declined to identify it.

Mount Freedom Jewish Center describes itself on its website as “open orthodox,” a nascent movement in modern Orthodoxy that believes in greater religious leadership roles for women, among other things.

According to the synagogue’s news release, Kagedan’s responsibilities will be “to teach Torah, encourage greater love and celebration of mitzvoth and to provide learning opportunities for adults and children, connect with young families in and around the community and participate in lifecycle and pastoral needs alongside Rabbi Menashe East.”

As of June, Yeshivat Maharat has ordained 11 students. Six are serving in Orthodox synagogues across North America. The remaining five graduates are working at schools, international educational institutions and other community organizations.

In October, the Rabbinical Council of America, America’s main modern Orthodox rabbinical association, voted to ban the hiring of clergywomen by its members.

NJ Orthodox shul announces hire of woman using ‘rabbi’ title Read More »

Adina Porat freed from ‘chained’ marriage after 8-year struggle

Leave a Comment / Judaism /

DAYTON, Ohio (Dayton Jewish Observer/JTA) — After more than eight years of waiting, an Israeli woman was freed from her marriage after an unprecedented campaign to pressure her husband to grant her a Jewish writ of divorce, or get.

Adina Porat’s former husband, now known as Eli Shur (he went by David Porat when the couple were married), signed the get in late December, nearly two months after the New York-based Organization for the Resolution of Agunot, or ORA, held a rally near Shur’s Dayton-area home to ramp up the pressure. The divorce became official on Jan. 7.

Agunot is the Hebrew term for so-called “chained women,” wives whose husbands refuse to grant them a religious divorce.

The New York organization, which pressures husbands that refuse to grant their wives religious divorces, launched a website featuring a video about Porat that was viewed more than 68,000 times. More than 80 demonstrators — primarily from Orthodox communities across Ohio and Michigan — showed up for the Nov. 8 rally near Shur’s home in Kettering.

Though ORA has staged rallies and social media campaigns in the past, its executive director, Rabbi Jeremy Stern, said this was the first time the organization has produced a video as part of its strategy.

“The video that we created went viral on Facebook and YouTube, followed up by the rally, and all the publicity of the rally,” Stern said. “All of that pressure led to the issuance of the get.”

Stern said that as part of the settlement, the group took down the website and the video and promised not to rally against Shur.

“In my life, I’m stuck in a prison,” Adina Porat said in the video. “I can’t move on, I can’t continue. The kids never had a chance to have a stepfather, a new family, and to continue on with their lives.”

According to ORA, Shur and Porat were married in Israel in 1990. He left her and their children in 2007 but refused to provide a get. He departed Israel for the United States a year later.

In 2009, the Israeli Chief Rabbinate ruled that Shur was required to give his wife a get. The following year, Shur arrived in Dayton to serve as ritual director of Beth Jacob Congregation. He had presented himself as a single man with no children.

Nearly six months into his work at Beth Jacob, ORA volunteers showed up at one of his evening classes there and urged him to sign a get for his wife. He refused. In short order, Shur was no longer employed by the synagogue. He reportedly now works as a life coach in the Dayton area.

After Shur departed Beth Jacob, the Chicago Rabbinical Council confirmed the Israeli Rabbinate’s ruling that Shur was obligated to provide his wife with a get.

ORA currently has 70 active cases, Stern said. The group has held rallies since its founding in 2002, but began employing social media a few years ago. Stern said he anticipates ORA will employ the video tactic again.

“We usually resolve about 25 cases every year and take on about 25 new cases every year,” Stern said.

The Porat case, Stern said, is the 253rd the group has resolved since its founding.

“We are elated,” Stern said. “And we are tremendously grateful to the hundreds, if not thousands of people who became active in this case — those who came to the rally and all the people who were involved in promoting this case.”

Michelle Tedford and JTA Israel correspondent Marcy Oster contributed to this story.

Adina Porat freed from ‘chained’ marriage after 8-year struggle Read More »