Palestinians in the city of Nablus in the West Bank burned an effigy of U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo last week in protest of his visit to Israel on Wednesday and against the Trump administration’s Mideast peace plan.
Footage of the incident was posted by the London-based Al-Araby Al-Jadeed on Thursday.
Palestinians in West Bank Burn Effigy of Secretary of State Pompeo Read More »
Thousands of Israelis packed the country’s beaches this weekend even though regulations to control the spread of the coronavirus forbid it.
Israel’s beaches are set to reopen on Wednesday with social distancing rules in place. But when temperatures in Israel rose above 100 degrees on Friday and Saturday, Israelis headed to cool off in the water anyway, appearing to pack them much closer than regulations will allow. No lifeguards were present, and pictures show few people wearing masks.
Police patrolled the beaches in Tel Aviv but did not hand out any fines, as they had threatened. Loudspeakers called on swimmers to get out of the water.
“The city doesn’t have the manpower to enforce these regulations due to the large number of citizens who are confused by all the changing rules,” the Tel Aviv municipality said in a statement, Haaretz reported. “The government’s announcement that beaches would open in a few days contributed to people going to the beach sooner.”
This week’s beach openings are part of a phased reopening that Israel is undergoing after beating back local coronavirus infections. As part of the reopening, more Israeli students returned to school Sunday.
Israelis Crowd Beach During Heat Wave Despite Coronavirus Restrictions Read More »
China’s ambassador to Israel was found dead in his home Sunday in the central Israeli city of Herzliya.
The death of Du Wei, 58, who arrived in Israel just three months ago to take up his position, is not being treated as suspicious, according to Israeli media reports. He was found dead by staff in his bed, Haaretz reported. Magen David Adom emergency services, which responded to a call for assistance, reportedly said the ambassador appeared to have suffered a cardiac incident.
His death comes less than a week after US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, during an hours-long visit to Jerusalem, pressed Israel to reconsider its relationship with China, which is investing in Israeli national infrastructure projects. Pompeo criticized China for not being transparent during the coronavirus pandemic in remarks that drew a sharp response from Beijing.
Du, who previously served as China’s ambassador to Ukraine, arrived in Israel Feb. 15 and immediately self-isolated for two weeks due to Israel’s coronavirus restrictions.
China’s Ambassador to Israel Found Dead in His Home Read More »
Twelve lawmakers representing key Senate and House of Representatives committees called for continued U.S. support of the international peacekeeping force in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula in a bipartisan letter last week.
The chairmen and ranking members of the House and Senate committees on foreign relations, armed services and appropriations wrote to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Defense Secretary Mark Esper, saying that the international force, a lynchpin of the 1979 Israeli-Egyptian peace treaty, “has been vital to the peace treaty’s durability.”
Esper reportedly has been pushing for the withdrawal of American troops from the U.S.-led force, despite opposition from Israel and the U.S. State Department. He has called for the withdrawal as a cost-cutting measure and because the soldiers are at increased risk.
The letter’s signees include Sen. Lindsay Graham and Reps. Eliot Engel and Nita Lowey.
Troops from some 13 countries serve in the 1,100-member MFO, including 400 Americans.
The Islamic State has increased its presence in the northern Sinai in recent years.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the U.S. will “exact consequences” on the International Criminal Court if it “continues down its current course” of attempting to “assert jurisdiction over Israel.”
Israel has for years been accused of committing war crimes in the West Bank, eastern Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip. Last month, ICC lead prosecutor Fatou Bensouda ruled that Palestine is a state and the International Criminal Court has jurisdiction involving its cases. A three-judge panel must now affirm Bensouda’s decision.
Israel is not a member of the ICC, but the Palestinian Authority is, even though it is not a full member state of the United Nations.
Pompeo issued a statement on the matter on Friday, two days after a whirlwind visit to Israel to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Benny Gantz and Israeli security officials.
Pompeo wrote that the U.S. does not agree that the Palestinians qualify as a “sovereign state.” He also called the court a “political body, not a judicial institution.”
Senators and members of the U.S. House of Representatives from both parties called on Pompeo to protect Israel from ICC prosecution in a letter last week.
For centuries, Jewish life revolved around a glorious piece of real estate—the Holy Temple in Jerusalem. Jewish holidays, holy rituals, sacrifices, prayers, priestly blessings, communal gatherings, etc., all happened at the Temple.
When the Second Temple was destroyed in 70 A.D., Judaism and the Jewish people were forced to adapt. We became wandering Jews. In time, we replaced sacrifices with prayers, brought Temple rituals to the Shabbat table and put a major emphasis on Torah study, among other evolutions.
We also lost our obsession with real estate. We prayed for the return of the Third Temple, certainly, but we left that mostly to God. On the ground, while other religions were building spectacular monuments, we invested in education.
Our focus on “mind estate” and “soul estate” rather than real estate was reinforced by our insecurities. Long periods of persecution and being guests at the mercy of foreign rulers were not ideal conditions for Jewish construction booms.
When we discovered America, we built with a vengeance. Finally, we had found a place where ownership of property was protected by enforceable laws. For a people traumatized by its past, the idea of owning land and buildings was irresistible. It’s not called “real” estate for nothing.
This impulse to build on your own land wasn’t limited to real estate magnates. It became prevalent throughout the Jewish world, from synagogues, museums and community centers to schools, Holocaust memorials and cultural institutions. Groundbreaking and ribbon-cutting ceremonies in the presence of wealthy donors became a Jewish ritual in its own right, a sign that you had made it.
Of course, the essential ritual that enabled these ceremonies was the selling of “naming opportunities” to potential donors. You will hardly see a Jewish building without countless donor names featured on its walls, right down to the elevator. All told, over the decades billions of Jewish philanthropic dollars have been invested in these structures, some of them architectural marvels.
Today, those buildings lie mostly empty.
Let’s not mince words: this is a shock to our system. The notion that a beautiful Jewish space has become a potentially dangerous place is not something anyone can easily process.
Like virtually all commercial spaces throughout the country that depend on crowds to survive, pretty much every Jewish place in America is on lockdown, closed for business.
They haven’t been confiscated by ruthless leaders; they have been attacked by a lethal virus.
Let’s not mince words: this is a shock to our system. The notion that a beautiful Jewish space has become a potentially dangerous place is not something anyone can easily process. The heart and soul of these places is to bring people together—physically. Once proximity to other people becomes a threat to our health, how much is the space worth?
Don’t be fooled by the Zoom craze. It’s wonderful that so many prayer services and classes and events have moved online, but behind those lively digital screens lies an exceedingly uncomfortable question: What will happen to all these empty spaces?
Many Jewish institutions that rely on attendance, membership dues and other sources of revenue may not be able to hold on until the crisis is over.
As the COVID-19 crisis continues indefinitely and experts warn of future outbreaks and a leading World Health Organization official says the coronavirus “may never go away,” this question will take on an added urgency.
The longer these buildings stay empty, the greater the costs of carrying them. And as people get more and more comfortable replacing on-site experiences with the online safety of their homes, how many will risk venturing back into crowds, even after a vaccine is eventually found in a year or two or three?
I haven’t met too many rabbis who are confident that synagogues will re-open in time for the High Holidays. The irony is that because being outdoors is safer than being indoors, even if services do come back, congregants will presumably prefer not to have roofs over their heads.
The fear of a virus is no longer the only fear among Jewish leaders. Now, it is the fear that many Jewish institutions that rely on attendance, membership dues and other sources of revenue may not be able to hold on until the crisis is over, whenever that will be.
I know, there are always silver linings, such as “more Torah learning than ever” and “our community’s amazing ability to adapt” and “it’s bringing out the better angels of our nature.”
Our Jewish buildings, like them or not, have served as crucial gathering places that have kept our communities together and nourished our friendships and sense of peoplehood. Hard to do all that on Zoom.
Those silver linings won’t mitigate the disruptions about to hit our community. A Jewish world where people are encouraged to stay away from one another for their safety is a challenge unlike any other. Our Jewish buildings, like them or not, have served as essential gathering places that have kept our communities together and nourished our friendships and sense of peoplehood. Hard to do all that on Zoom.
Harvard Professor Lawrence Summers, writing in the Financial Times, calls the COVID-19 pandemic a “hinge in history” that “will still be considered a seminal event generations from now.”
It will be a hinge in the story of American Jewry as well. Yes, we will do our very best to adapt. When the time comes, buildings still in operation will reconfigure their spaces and establish guidelines to minimize safety risk, while some may give more prominence to the great outdoors. In the meantime, we will strive to maintain our communal bonds and we will put our most creative minds to work imagining a new and better normal.
But before we rush into glib prophecies, let us take a moment to absorb what is happening. After a century of continuous building, our Jewish temples in America are suddenly shaking, suddenly empty, and none of us can quite see where we will be wandering next.
Suddenly, Our Jewish Temples Are Shaking Read More »
“Self-Made: Based On The Life Of Madame C.J. Walker” is a new Netflix series, and it stars Octavia Spencer, Tiffany Haddish and Carmen Ejogo. Its score was commercially released by WaterTower Music by last month, as helmed by Grammy-nominated composer, keyboardist, and songwriter Larry Goldings. But “Self-Made” is far from Goldings’ first major credit.
A bandleader and former Warner Bros. recording artist in his own right, Los Angeles-based musician Larry Goldings has been touring as James Taylor’s keyboardist for around 20 years. His touring and/or recording credits also include John Mayer, Lea Michele, Beck, Elton John, Norah Jones, Sia, and Maceo Parker. His first foray into film scoring with the 2013 Jeff Garlin film “Dealin’ With Idiots.”
I had the pleasure of speaking with Larry Goldings by phone on May 12, 2020 about “Self-Made: Based On The Life Of Madame C.J. Walker,” his multi-faceted career as a simultaneous composer, session player, touring musician and the leader of a jazz trio, whether he has ever played on a metal album, and even Jews in jazz. The full interview is embedded below for your listening pleasure – the Judaism-related jazz question starts around the 15:00 mark of the recording – while a link to his new Patreon page is linked below our chat’s audio.
Larry Goldings on Scoring Netflix’s ‘Self-Made: Based On The Life Of Madam C.J. Walker’ Read More »
The South African Jewish Board of Deputies has established a fund to feed communities throughout the country that are most affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The fun of 9 million rand, about $500,000, was set up with a large donation from an anonymous donor as well as from Jewish organizations and Jewish community members, the board said in a statement.
The money will be distributed in rural and urban areas in six provinces.
“It is our hope that this fund will inspire others to contribute to those in need during these very troubled and testing times in our country,” the statement said.
Throughout the lockdown in South Africa, the board has established several Community Action Networks directly linking donors with communities in need.
Jewish-Backed Fund Will Help South Africans Most Affected by COVID-19 Read More »
Prospective Jewish immigrants to Germany from nations of the former Soviet Union will have an easier time under relaxed regulations announced by the German government.
The new rules will primarily impact older and handicapped Jews. Jewish immigrants 60 and older, as well as disabled adults of any age, will soon no longer be required to partake in an “Integrationsprognose” – a prognosis or forecast of integration into German society. Regulations pertaining to family reunification for parents and Jewish spouses also will be relaxed.
Germany has long been a popular destination for Jewish immigrants from the former Soviet Union, counting more than 200,000 Jewish immigrants since 1990. Although immigration to Germany has been made easier since that time, leaving some of the former Soviet nations remains challenging. Over recent decades, an increasing number of families have been separated due to strict immigration rules.
“With the new rules for Jewish immigrants, the federal government has come to a socially responsible decision, fulfilling its historical responsibility,” Josef Schuster, president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, said in a statement Wednesday. “For that, the Jewish community is very thankful.”
More than half of new arrivals to Germany join Jewish communities there, the Jüdische Allgemeine reported. According to the Central Council, the number is as high as 90 percent in some cases.
They are welcomed in a community that, according to Deutschlandfunk, loses approximately 1,000 members every year.
By Joe Baur, JTA
Germany Relaxes Immigration Rules for Jews Coming From Former USSR Read More »
At the beginning of her day, Tal Lee will see as many as hundreds of cars snake around the church parking lot where she is helping to conduct coronavirus tests.
Dressed in two face masks, a face shield and scrubs, Lee works alongside doctors, nurses and medical students like herself to conduct as many as 300 coronavirus swabs a day in predominantly African-American neighborhoods in Philadelphia. They are brought together by the Black Doctors COVID-19 Consortium, an initiative founded by a local surgeon to combat the coronavirus pandemic’s high death rate among African-Americans.
Signing onto the initiative was a natural choice for Lee, a fourth-year medical student at the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine who plans to work as an OB-GYN treating underserved populations.
Before beginning medical school, she spent a year working on a mobile medical van through Avodah, a Jewish social justice fellowship in New York, providing street-side health care, including preventive treatments and HIV testing, to homeless people and undocumented immigrants.
Lee, 28, said Jewish values inspired her to take action when her in-person rotations were canceled due to the pandemic.
“It’s one of the biggest reasons why I am doing this,” she said. “I think living your values and beliefs is very important. It’s something to talk about it, to learn about it, but it’s another thing to actually put beliefs and values into action.”
Jewish communities were among the first hit by the coronavirus pandemic in the United States. But as the pandemic has worsened, it has become clear that African-Americans are far overrepresented among cases and deaths across the country.
Jewish communities were among the first hit by the coronavirus pandemic in the United States. But as the pandemic has worsened, it has become clear that African-Americans are far overrepresented among cases and deaths across the country. In Philadelphia, African-Americans represent 54% of coronavirus deaths despite making up 40% of the population.
Many factors contribute to those disparities, but unequal access to coronavirus testing is likely playing a role. So Dr. Ala Stanford decided to take things into her own hands and has raised more than $150,000 online to cover the cost of testing, personal protective equipment and educational materials provided by the consortium. Many who come for the free testing do not have health insurance or access to a primary care provider.
Stanford said she was inspired to found the consortium after hearing officials talk about the high death rates among people of color without taking action.
“I got tired of watching it,” she told the Philadelphia Inquirer, “so I called local officials, I called the state and said, ‘What are we doing in our hard-hit communities? I want to help.’ I got crickets. Because there was nothing happening.”
Lee helps patients fill out paperwork, talks to them about their symptoms and helps prepare the nasal swabs before a doctor or nurse conducts the test.
The team works eight-hour days — rain or shine — wearing multiple layers of protective gear. Lee initially worried about potentially contracting the virus from her patients.
“This person standing in front of me could have coronavirus,” she remembers thinking. “It is nerve-wracking, I’m not going to say it’s not.”
She recently helped test a mother and her four daughters, several of whom had preexisting health conditions that put them at greater risk of contracting and sustaining complications from the coronavirus.
But Lee says patients’ relief at being able to get tested more than makes up for the worry. She recently helped test a mother and her four daughters, several of whom had preexisting health conditions that put them at greater risk of contracting and sustaining complications from the coronavirus.
“Just seeing how happy the mom was to just know the status of her children, it’s very nice to be able to give that to someone,” Lee said.
In addition to volunteering with the initiative once or twice a week, Lee has also been helping with a local multi-faith initiative to deliver food to local people in need.
“This is my time,” she remembers thinking when she heard about the Black Doctors COVID-19 Consortium. “This is what I’m wanting to do and it’s presenting itself.”
This Jewish Medical Student Is Helping Reduce Racial Disparities in Coronavirus Testing Read More »