In this episode, Shmuel Rosner and Dr. Shlomo Fischer discuss the 2020 Pew reports and its implications for the Jewish community in the United States.
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Dr. Shlomo Fischer: Discussing the 2020 Pew Report Read More »
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Four Jewish House Democrats have called out party colleagues who accused Israel of apartheid and terrorism, as well as a Republican who has likened coronavirus restrictions to the Holocaust.
Their rebuke was part of a letter condemning the rising antisemitism sparked by the Israel-Hamas war earlier this month — the latest plea to President Joe Biden to make a priority of tackling the phenomenon.
One congressman who signed the letter, Dean Phillips of Minnesota, was chastising a fellow Democrat, Ilhan Omar, in a neighboring district, though Phillips did not use her name.
“Elected officials have used reckless, irresponsible antisemitic rhetoric,” said the letter sent Tuesday.
Along with Phillips, the other signers are Reps. Josh Gottheimer of New Jersey, Elaine Luria of Virginia and Kathy Manning of North Carolina. They do not name their targets but include direct quotes of their controversial comments.
“These include repeated, unacceptable, and blatantly antisemitic statements made by a Member of Congress comparing facemasks and other COVID-19 public health measures to ‘what happened in Nazi Germany’ during the Holocaust,” the letter said, referring to Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., who has drawn condemnations from leaders of her own party for her remarks.
“We also reject comments from Members of Congress accusing Israel of being an ‘apartheid state’ and committing ‘act[s]’ of terrorism,” the letter said. “These statements are antisemitic at their core and contribute to a climate that is hostile to many Jews. We must never forget that less than eighty years ago, within the lifetime of our parents and grandparents, six million people were murdered by the Nazis in the Holocaust because they were Jews. Israel has long provided the Jewish people with a homeland in which they can be safe after facing centuries of persecution.”
Omar and Reps. Rashida Tlaib of Michigan and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York have accused Israel of apartheid, and Omar has said “Israeli airstrikes killing civilians in Gaza is an act of terrorism.”
Phillips’ district covers the suburbs of Minneapolis; Omar’s includes part of Minneapolis. Phillips has criticized Omar in the past for her Israel statements, but has also defended her.
Omar’s spokesman said her terminology was merited, and accused the letter writers of conflating Israel with Jews.
“If we rightly condemn Hamas’s indiscriminate firing of rockets at civilian populations—which is a war crime—how can we ignore Israeli military bombs that terrorize the Palestinian population?” the spokesman said.
“Additionally, human rights organizations in Israel and around the world have released detailed reports concluding that the Israeli government is guilty of the crime of apartheid — as clearly defined under international law in the 2002 Rome Statute,” he said, referring to findings that Israel has criticized as baseless. “We are all horrified by the rise in antisemitic incidents. Equating legitimate, well-sourced criticism of Israeli actions with antisemitism conflates the activities of a government with an entire faith and does nothing to make Jews safer.”
There are 25 Jewish Democrats in the House. The letter comes as Republican leaders who have criticized Greene have lambasted Democratic leaders for sparing Omar, Tlaib and Ocasio-Cortez.
Conservative filmmaker Ami Horowitz released a new video on May 24 showing students at Portland State University signing up for a faux Hamas group.
Horowitz approached students and claimed to work for American Friends for Hamas – a group that does not exist – and asked for their donations. “We’re not your father’s terror organization. We’ve kind of evolved beyond that, still kind of what we do but we’ve kind of rebuilt and rebranded ourselves, and you know, Hamas is where it’s at!”
He also told students that American Friends for Hamas is looking to bankroll attacks against Israeli “cafes, schools, you know soft targets” and said that all they’ve got is “suicide bombers,” calling them the “poor man’s F-15.” Horowitz also told students that “we’re looking to wipe Israel off the map” and “we’re looking to destroy Israel.”
Several students, all of whom had their faces blurred out, can be seen making donations to the fake American Friends for Hamas group. One student said, “I’ve actually been learning in this last school year about everything that’s going on over there, so I like the sound of what you’re doing. It sounds like it’s the right thing to do.” Another student said he was “totally against the Israeli genocide.” Other students said “good luck” and that it would be “wonderful” to check out the fake Hamas group’s website.
“Think the woke are not antisemitic? Think again,” Horowitz wrote in his tweet of the video. “Watch me raise money for Hamas to kill Jews from students in Portland!”
Think the woke are not antisemitic? Think again.
Watch me raise money for Hamas to kill Jews from students in Portland! pic.twitter.com/osIVUKNk80— Ami Horowitz (@AmiHorowitz) May 24, 2021
Filmmaker Gets Portland Students to Donate to Fake Hamas Group Read More »
One verse, five voices. Edited by Salvador Litvak, the Accidental Talmudist
For all the firstborn among the children of Israel are Mine whether man or beast since the day I smote all the firstborn in the land of Egypt; I have sanctified them for Myself. And I have taken the Levites instead of all the firstborn of the children of Israel. -Num. 8:17-18
As a “Bat Levi” (daughter of a Levite) and an “Eshet Kohen” (wife of a Kohen), I have wondered what this “yichus” (Jewish pedigree) means. From the fact that this tradition has been passed down for generations, we must deduce that it has been of value. In Orthodox circles, there are ritual tasks reserved for these groups, in memory of their service in the Temple. For my father (z”l) and father-in-law, these designations have been a source of pride. Still…
In many Conservative synagogues, and certainly in Reform synagogues, the ritual responsibilities of the priests have been discontinued. As Rabbi Nevins of the Jewish Theological Seminary explains, “The notion of hereditary holiness—that one segment of the Jewish people is set apart from others, given ceremonial privileges—conflicts with our egalitarian ethos.” Still…
Why does the Torah distinguish a path of greater responsibility and closeness to God for one group above the others? The Levites were originally chosen because of their abstention from the sin of the Golden Calf, but history has unfortunately made abundantly clear that electing the Levites instead of the firstborn males did not ultimately resolve the problem of corruption or abuse of power.
Today, while we can still be embraced by the priestly blessing if it is recited by our friends and family members in our synagogues, we can also turn to the words of Rabbi Meir (Avodah Zara 3a) who stated that “even a gentile who engages in Torah study is considered like a High Priest.”
The Torah is a revolutionary work. It upended the prevailing values of the ancient world. The tenth plague, death of the first-born, served not merely to instill terror in the Egyptian populace and convince Pharaoh to release the Israelites. It directly attacked the societal structure of the ancient world’s greatest power. Egypt’s strength rested on a stratified society, where birth determined fate. The first-born son of a king became king, but the children of slaves were doomed to remain slaves. God destroys Egypt’s first-born, thereby destroying a social structure predicated on injustice.
Since God spared the Israelite first-born, their lives were sanctified to God, not for special privilege, but to serve Him. The Torah describes the first-born as “petirat rechem,” opening the womb. The word rechem implies rachamim, which in Hebrew means mercy and in Aramaic means love. A first-born child opens its parents’ capacity for love and mercy, as their loving and protective instincts for their newborn awaken their realization that they exist not solely for themselves. Accordingly, God called upon the first-born to serve Israel.
Alas, the Israelite first-borns failed to internalize this message. They, like their fellow Israelites, sinned with the Golden Calf. Only the Levites resisted. The Levites, descendants of Jacob’s third-born, demonstrated that merit is not a function of birth-order but of moral character, thus bringing God’s revolution against the ancient world-order full circle. The value of a human being stems not from accidents of birth but from the moral dignity imbued in every individual.
A revelatory idea that emerges from these verses is that to be acquired by God is to be made holy. When God saves the firstborn Israelites from the plague of the firstborn, they become His and are thereby sanctified to Him. The Levites who are taken in place of the firstborn are likewise rendered a holy tribe whose only occupation is God’s service. This dynamic is also apparent in the language describing the building of the Tabernacle, a portable sanctified space. The verse specifies that the donated offerings of materials for the Tabernacle be “for me,” i.e. specifically for God, so as to become “my offerings” (Ex. 25:2). The Tabernacle gains its holiness by belonging to God, the source and defining principle of all that is holy.
In light of this, we must understand the various phrases found in scripture and liturgy asserting God as the “possessor of all” to mean that all of existence is in fact holy. If this is so, what differentiates the pigeons and their perches from the Levites and the Tabernacle? How is the profane world not in fact holy? The answer is that nothing is truly profane except in our recognition of it as such. Everything we experience and come in contact with is holy because it represents a potential mitzvah. Even evil becomes holy in our rejection of it. We must look for opportunities to make the world God’s world, to render manifest the holiness inherent in ourselves and in the world around us.
My life changed when my sons were born. When I heard the mohel call their names, I heard myself called as the father to sons rather than as a son to my own father. For all first-time parents, this inner change is radical. We recognize that our actions have consequences for generations, take on a different sense of responsibility as teachers for our children, and think of those children before ourselves. Or at least, we should.
We are taught that when God dictated that the first-born Egyptians were to die, those elder sons went to their fathers and to Pharaoh, pleading to let the Hebrews go, for the sake of their lives. (Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Bo 18:1). But they were turned away, and ultimately died. An extreme example of father/son relationships gone wrong, all starting with fathers not thinking of their sons first.
Conversely, the Levites joyously sanctify their sons to God, teaching them the values of the priesthood as commanded. The fathers gratefully pass on the Divine obligation of service, and the culture prospers as a result of the priority being placed on children.
Father’s Day is only a few weeks away, and these verses remind us to reject Pharoah’s self-indulgent hatred; and rather to be like Levites, always placing our children first, teaching them righteousness, and leading them to serve God joyously.
May we all be righteous parents raising responsible children, and may we love our children more than we ever hate enemies. And as a result, may we have true peace between father and son, and between nations. L’dor V’dor, from generation to generation.
To be a Levite! What if you carried the burden of the Jewish People across a vast wilderness? Broke it down, set it up, schlepped it up hills, over bluffs and marched across rock-beds of dried-up streams? Levites knew how to set up the portable tabernacle where Jews prayed in the wilderness.
I imagine they passed that wisdom onto later generations even when the Temples stood. Give an ear – listen for the parents of our past, those of levitical children, whispering to their kin how the Kehatis, the Gernshonites, the Meraris embraced their parts so devotedly. When they put their children to sleep they sang liturgical lullabies, to teach them how to become part of the sacred choir.
Those stories and songs of wilderness worship must have inspired Temple-time Levites to complete their daily tasks with holy kavannah, deep intentionality. Their hearts and niggunim and psalms created sacredness within our ancient, sacred Jewish precincts. Those songs of the Levites’ youth then accompanied worshippers as they brought their ritual offerings, and the Kohens kindled incense and cleaned ashes.
The Levites were at the heart of the multi-sensory experience of Israel’s longing and loving God. They raised their voices to praise God’s name and to offer hope and condolences, to validate fears, to fortify hearts. Then the First Temple was destroyed. Then the Second. Prophetic warnings and teachings were ignored. Baseless hatred erupted. Idolatry seduced us. Bloodshed increased. And we blamed it on others. Oh, when will the Levites song return?!
Table for Five: Beha’alotecha Read More »
The Cambridge City Council in Massachusetts unanimously passed a resolution regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that removed a provision promoting the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement.
According to StandWithUs and the American Jewish Committee (AJC), the resolution initially called on the city to “review corporate contracts and identify any companies that are in violation of Cambridge’s policy on discrimination, including (but not limited to) Hewlett Packard Enterprise and Hewlett Packard Incorporated over their role in abetting apartheid in the Middle East,” even though the city hasn’t had a contract with Hewlett Packard since 2014. The Cambridge Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) were among those pushing the initial resolution as an effort to make Cambridge “the FIRST city in the country to END city contracting with companies complicit in Israeli apartheid.”
TOMORROW, give public comment at the 5:30pm City Council meeting in support of our policy order for Cambridge to become the FIRST city in the country to END city contracting with companies complicit in Israeli apartheid. Talking points here: https://t.co/3acu2gcfJZ pic.twitter.com/Bc6nK927Y8
— Cambridge DSA 🌹 (@Cambridge_DSA) May 17, 2021
The final version of the resolution states: “The City Council affirms Israel’s right to exist and to defend its citizens from attacks, such as those launched by Hamas, but the City Council also recognizes that the Netanyahu government has directed unconscionable, destructive attacks against the Palestinian people, and our community should not be willing to play even a minor role in allowing these actions to continue.” The resolution also says that the city will “review Cambridge’s corporate contracts and purchases to identify any vendors or manufacturers whose products are used to perpetuate violations of International Human Rights Laws and Cambridge’s policy on discrimination.” An amendment to reinsert the pro-BDS language into the resolution failed.
Some Jewish groups lauded the amended resolution.
“The vote is a message of comfort and support to the people who expressed fear of living in Cambridge had the measure passed,” Anti-Defamation League New England Regional Director Robert Trestan said in a statement to the Journal. “Like so many in Cambridge, we are deeply concerned by the violence and loss of Israeli and Palestinian lives these past few weeks, and the trauma that the crisis has caused and continues to cause for everyone in the region. We hope that moving forward, Cambridge residents can remain united in seeking a path forward that provides both Israelis and Palestinians with the security, self-determination, and dignity that is so desperately needed.”
StandWithUs Northeast and New England Regional Director Avi Posnick said in a statement,
“At a time when Jewish communities around the world are being attacked by pro-Hamas racists, it is especially important that a majority of Cambridge City Council members said no to this campaign of hate. Just this week, BDS-supporting ‘protestors’ have assaulted Jews in New York, Los Angeles, Toronto, and elsewhere. We applaud Council members who recognized that BDS would harm their community and only fuel more conflict between Israelis and Palestinians.”
AJC called the vote “a constructive step that we hope will cool extreme rhetoric and contribute to a more constructive and productive climate where difficult issues can be discussed,” but AJC New England Regional Director Rob Leikind said it’s regrettable “that the City of Cambridge allowed itself to become an agent for the proponents of the BDS movement” in the first place. “This is the agenda of those who reject compromise and co-existence. Hardly the place for the governing council of a racially, ethnically and religiously diverse city.”
Jack Saltzberg, president and founder of The Israel Group, argued, “For all who think the defeat of the BDS resolution in Cambridge is a victory for Israel, it isn’t. As long as Israel is the only country being targeted for human rights violations, it is a massive loss for Israel. In fact, the BDS movement doesn’t mind ‘losing.’ It gives them many more months to spread their anti-Israel lies and propaganda.”
BDS activists claimed that the vote was still a win for them. Tala Berro, a Palestinian activist affiliated with BDS Boston, said in a statement that the resolution “isn’t enough, but this is an important step toward ending Cambridge’s complicity in Israeli apartheid. Now Cambridge must follow through, by ending city contracts with every company profiting from settler colonialism and violence against Palestinians. We also want to see Boston, Somerville, and municipalities across the state follow in Cambridge’s footsteps and pass human rights screens of their own as soon as possible. Palestinians cannot wait.”
Cambridge DSA similarly tweeted that while the final resolution was “watered down,” “we still managed to move Cambridge towards a more just future where Palestinians are liberated from Israeli apartheid & will truly be free.”
While the original language & intent of the PO was watered down by @PattyNolan1 @E_DeniseSimmons @Marc_C_McGovern's substitute order, we still managed to move Cambridge towards a more just future where Palestinians are liberated from Israeli apartheid & will truly be free 🇵🇸✊
— Cambridge DSA 🌹 (@Cambridge_DSA) May 26, 2021
StandWithUs said that they are going to work to ensure that the city manager’s review of contracts “is not used to further promote discrimination against Israel.”
Cambridge City Council Removes BDS from Resolution on Israel-Palestinian Conflict Read More »
(The Media Line) A cease-fire in place between Israel and Hamas may have stopped the rocket attacks, but Sigal Ariely has already lost almost everything.
The 59-year-old mother of three is still picking up the pieces after a rocket fired from Gaza hit her home in Ashkelon, a southern Israeli city located about 25 miles from the Gaza border.
“I couldn’t believe my eyes,” Ariely, director of the Baltimore-Ashkelon Partnership, told The Media Line. “There was no corner in the house that hadn’t exploded. Windows, doors, air conditioners. I found things in places and I don’t know how they got there.”
Disaster struck the Ariely household on May 20, a few hours before a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas, the terrorist group that rules over the Gaza Strip, went into effect.
Ariely was in the midst of preparing lunch for her son and getting ready to join a Zoom meeting when a red alert siren sounded, warning that an incoming rocket from Gaza was about to hit. Residents of Ashkelon have only 30 seconds to run to the nearest bomb shelter or reinforced room once the siren is activated.
I couldn’t believe my eyes. There was no corner in the house that hadn’t exploded. Windows, doors, air conditioners. I found things in places and I don’t know how they got there.
Ariely managed to make it to the shelter located outside her living room in the nick of time.
“I heard a boom and I realized it was close,” she recounted. “It sounded like thunder. We’re used to hearing rockets and interceptions, but this time it sounded horrible.”
Ariely’s 26-year-old son, Ron, who was also at home at the time, grabbed the family dog as soon as he heard the siren and barely had enough time to take cover in the stairwell behind the couch in the living room, seconds before the rocket hit.
He was injured by the blast.
“It landed about 3-4 meters (9.9 feet-13 feet) away from me,” Ron Ariely, who works as a security guard, told The Media Line. “At first, I wasn’t sure what was going on.”
“I heard a very loud noise and then I couldn’t hear almost anything from my right ear,” he said, adding that his hearing still has not fully recovered.
Sigal Ariely’s home in Ashkelon was completely destroyed after a Hamas rocket struck it on May 20, 2021. (Maya Margit/The Media Line)
When Ariely realized that her house had been hit, she was overwhelmed.
“First of all, I said, ‘Thank God we’re OK,’” she said. “We’re safe; nothing happened to us and then I looked around me and I said, ‘Wow, that’s a lot,’” referring to the damage.
Shards of broken glass and metal beams littered the floor; shrapnel holes peppered the home’s ceilings and walls. The explosion ripped through the walls of one side of the house, leaving a gaping hole into the backyard beyond. Lighting fixtures hung haphazardly from the ceiling and everything inside appeared to be covered in a thick layer of dust and soot.
Against this otherwise monochromatic display of destruction, Ariely and her son, who were wearing brightly colored clothes, stood out in stark relief as they waded through the debris.
I still say that this is only property and it’s something that we can rebuild and renew. With life, you can’t.
Though she will not have to pay for the reconstruction – since the Israeli government is tasked with financing these efforts, the damage is so extensive that the family will have to live elsewhere for at least a year until their house is rebuilt.
“I still say that this is only property and it’s something that we can rebuild and renew,” Ariely said, looking around at the place she called home for 19 years. “With life, you can’t.”
In her role as director of the Baltimore-Ashkelon Partnership, Ariely has worked closely with the Baltimore Jewish community for the past 17 years. The partnership is a program of The Associated: Jewish Federation of Baltimore. Since 2003, Ashkelon and Baltimore have been sister cities and have undertaken numerous projects together aimed at building ties between the Jewish communities of both places.
Sigal said she has received an outpouring of support from the community in Baltimore since the incident.
“They love Ashkelon and they love Israel,” she said.
During the latest round of fighting, Hamas and the Islamic Jihad in Gaza fired over 4,000 rockets into Israeli territory over 11 days.
While Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system was able to stop the vast majority of the rockets, 11 civilians and one soldier were killed as a result of the attacks. On the Palestinian side, more than 200 were killed in Israeli airstrikes on Gaza.
The Egyptian-mediated cease-fire, in place since Friday, appears to be holding for now and a fragile quiet has been restored.
However, for residents of Israel’s south, who have already lived through several periods of fighting over the years, the next war is not a question of if, but when.
“I’m not naïve,” Ariely said. “I know that this is not going to be solved [just] like that. My hope is that maybe it will be a longer period of time before this craziness starts [again].”
“The [Palestinians] have families and children. We all want to live our lives,” she added.
Israeli Woman Vows to Rebuild After Home Destroyed By Rocket From Gaza Read More »
What do you do when your number one passion is taken away? What do you do when you always travel, and then you can’t travel? It’s easy to be despondent during the great pause that is Covid-19. But some travellers see opportunity and positivity in the situation. Lisa Niver from We Said Go Travel brings her positive energy and great advice in today’s episode. She gives tips on how to use this time productivity and stay upbeat for when travel can return.
YouTube Videos with 1.3M views
Lisa on KTLA TV in Los Angeles in her classroom:
Lisa on KTLA TV talking about travel–first segment about Napa Valley
Lisa on KTLA TV talking about Ogden, Utah: skiing and where the East and West Coast sides of the train met:
Lisa’s articles for Teen Vogue, AARP, American Airlines, Delta Sky, United Airlines, Wharton magazine, Smithsonian Magazine and many other places!!
You can also listen on LISTENNOTES:
Kated Travel Podcast: Stephen Bailey and Lisa Niver Read More »
