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A key Democratic congressman said Friday he is backing the nuclear deal with Iran after President Barack Obama wrote him a personal letter saying the U.S. has options to curb Iran if it violates the agreement.

Representative Jerrold Nadler, a New York Democrat, said in a statement he will support the deal. Nadler, who wrote an opinion piece on his reservations for the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, said the Aug. 19 letter from Obama allayed his worries.

“Although we know that Iran will remain a major menace to the region and the world, even without nuclear weapons, a nuclear armed Iran would represent an unacceptable threat to the United States, to Israel, and to global security,” Nadler said in the statement. After studying the pact and the arguments from all sides, he concluded that the deal “gives us the best chance of stopping Iran from developing a nuclear weapon. Accordingly, I will support the agreement and vote against a Resolution of Disapproval.”

http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/articles/2015-08-21/n-y-congressman-in-most-jewish-district-said-to-back-iran-deal
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If the 2016 presidential election were held today, Jewish voters nationwide would probably split 70-30 for the Democratic candidate, much as they did in 2012. Including the undecided respondents, 58 percent of American Jews prefer the Democrat, 18 percent the Republican, and 24 percent are not sure whether they lean one way or the other.

These results emerge from the Los Angeles Jewish Journal Survey conducted under my direction by Social Science Research Solutions (SSRS) between July 16 and July 20. SSRS interviewed 501 Jews by phone (almost a third of which were cellphones). Researchers weighted the sample to reflect chances of being called and socio-demographic targets drawn from the 2013 Pew Research Center Study of Jewish Americans. The margin of error is 6 percent (to see methodology description, visit jewishjournal.com/iransurvey).

Regarding presidential preference, interviewers asked, “If the 2016 presidential election were held today, do you think you are more likely to vote for the (Democratic) candidate or the (Republican) candidate [order was rotated], or are you not sure if you’re leaning one way or the other?” (See the full questionnaire at jewishjournal.com/iransurvey.)

Younger Jews are more Democratic than older Jews. The details: Those younger than 40 are more firmly in the Democratic camp (69 percent to 12 percent, with 19 percent undecided) than Jews age 65 and older (56 percent for the Democratic candidate, 24 percent for the Republican, the rest undecided).

The most highly educated are the most highly Democratic. That is to say: The Democratic-Republican gap is truly huge among Jews with a post-graduate education (76 percent versus 8 percent, Democrat versus Republican), contrasting sharply with those who have no college degree (49 percent  to 25 percent).

The most affluent are more Democratic. The Democrat-Republican presidential preference gap is higher among those earning $150,000 annually or more (61 percent Democratic, 9 percent Republican) than among the least affluent: those earning less than $50,000 per year (49 percent, 24 percent).

And family matters. As in the larger population, the unmarried without children at home are especially prone to lean Democratic (60 percent to 17 percent), as compared with married people with children at home (57 percent to 26 percent, for the Democrat and Republican respectively).
As might be expected, self-identifying Democrats almost uniformly prefer the Democratic candidate. Self-identifying Republicans express similarly favorable views of the Republican candidate. Among Jewish Independents, the Democratic candidate outpolls the Republican 32 percent to 24 percent, with 44 percent undecided.

Israel attachment is modestly correlated with Republican preference, although the Democrat continues to lead even among the more Israel-connected. The Democrat-Republican divide is 54 percent to 22 percent among those who have been to Israel. But it is somewhat wider — i.e., more Democrat-leaning — at 61 percent to 15 percent, among those who have not. Similarly, among those “very attached” emotionally to Israel, the Democratic candidate leads 51 percent to 26 percent, but the lead is wider among those only “somewhat attached”: 63 percent to 15 percent.

A more striking pattern emerges when questions about Israel shift specifically to “the dispute between Israel and the Palestinians.” Among those who sympathize with Israel “a lot,” the Democratic-Republican split is 55 percent to 24 percent. But for those who say only “some,” the split is 64 percent to 5 percent. Similarly, among the few Jews who most sympathize with the Palestinians, none voiced support for the Republican candidate. Among the many who said “not at all” to the question on sympathizing with the Palestinians, the Democratic-Republican divide was 47 percent to 27 percent.

Certainly, much can happen to change the overall results between now and Election Day 2016. But the findings do point to the persistence of Jewish voting patterns heading into the next presidential election. The current level of support for the theoretical Democratic candidate over the theoretical Republican candidate matches that recorded in recent elections. Moreover, the socio-demographic variations mirror those in earlier elections and the American population generally.

Of particular interest is the pattern of weaker support for the Democrat among those more closely attached to Israel. They are consistent with previously noted differences among Orthodox,

Conservative, Reform and nondenominational Jews, in that the more religious and more traditional evince higher attachment to Israel and more support for its policies (the two are not the same). And the results seen in this most recent survey of American Jews are consistent with an emerging trend that bears close watching: The increasing political polarization of Israel support, be it among political elites, the American public or among American Jews.

Most broadly, the political polarization in the United States, marked by greater partisan divides on more numerous and potentially incendiary issues, is also coming to characterize views related to Israel. Post-baby boomers may not remember that, at one time, left-leaning Americans held more favorable views of Israel than their conservative and Republican counterparts. Today, poll after poll shows Israel doing better among conservatives, Republicans and the religiously committed. As goes America, so — in some measure — goes American Jewry. An Israel that is more popular on the right and less popular on the left is an Israel that is especially appealing to Jewish conservatives,

Republicans and traditionalists, but one that is less attractive to Jewish liberals, Democrats and less religiously engaged. The end-point of these processes is still murky and undecided. But the current trends are far clearer to all who pay attention.

http://www.jewishjournal.com/election2016/article/for_now_jews_still_leaning_democratic
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Traditional Hasidic Jewish music is typically mournful. The kvetchy tunes and OY reverberations are meant to awaken the Jewish soul, to inspire piety and spiritual yearning. Enter Lipa Schmeltzer, the Hasidic superstar whose music has earned him titles like “The Jewish Elvis Presley” and “The Hasidic Lady Gaga”

That last one has something to do with Lipa’s impressive collection of outlandish eyewear. In the realm of the ultra-Orthodox, he’s different, even revolutionary, and he embraces it.

Lipa has amassed a tremendous loyal following, but he has also been the subject of controversy and rabbinical bans ever since he popped onto the scene over a decade ago.

His music and concerts are routinely banned in many hardline Hasidic communities, and he has faced hostility at every step of the way.

Lipa grew up in New Square, a small, insular Hasidic enclave in upstate New York. This isolated village, less than 50 miles from Manhattan, is a relic of pre-Holocaust European shtetl life. There’s one road leading in and out of the densely populated village. Its suburban streets are exclusively inhabited by Hasidim of the Skverer sect. Their spiritual leader, or “Rebbe,” is revered and keeps a tight control over the village. Anyone who doesn’t follow his rules risks expulsion from the village; members loyal to the Rebbe have resorted to violence to keep nonconformists in line.

In New Square, boys and girls attend sex-segregated religious schools, typically marry at a young age through arranged marriages, and have an average of eight to ten children. There are no TVs and no access to the internet, or any outside influence that religious authorities deem a potential threat to impressionable minds.

The 11th child in a family of 12, Lipa showed great musical talent from a young age. Like all the boys from the community, he attended the village’s cheder, or boys’ school, where Yiddish is the primary language; English studies are almost non-existent. It’s limited to one hour of basic math and vocabulary in the afternoon. When they leave for yeshiva (essentially high school), many of the boys are illiterate in English. That was true for Lipa.

He admits he wasn’t a good student. He struggled to sit still for hours and read from the ancient Hebrew texts, and he often found himself on the receiving end of the rebbe’s (teachers) spanking stick. He was on the same course as the other boys — to study Talmud, get married and find a job that doesn’t require a good command of the English language, or a secular education.

But Lipa wanted something else. At first, he yearned to be a wedding singer at Hasidic weddings, conservative enough for the powers that be. But as his taste in music evolved, he ached to color outside the lines — to be creative and push the boundaries.

When Lipa got his first car as a married man, he started playing around with the radio dial, listening to tunes by musicians like Faith Hill and Shania Twain. He drew inspiration from their lyrics and beats, and created kosher versions of pop music.

http://www.pri.org/stories/2015-08-14/meet-hasidic-lady-gaga
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Two young female teachers from Borough Park were killed in a car crash while sightseeing in Arizona on Monday night, devastating their Brooklyn Jewish community.

The dead women were identified as Hindy Spira, 27, and Raizel Morgenstern, 24, who were on a weeklong vacation in the rugged wilderness with two other Brooklyn teachers, Miriam Meyer and Suri Mayerovitz, 26, cops said.

Their rented Jeep Cherokee was broadsided by a tractor-trailer near Holbrook around 11:30 p.m. after turning into its path, police Lt. Jack Arend told The Post on Tuesday.

“They misjudged the distance between the tractor-trailer and themselves,” Arend said.

Morgenstern, who was driving, and Spira, who was in the front passenger seat, were pronounced dead at the scene, he said.

Meyer was taken to Flagstaff Medical Center and Mayerovitz to Little Colorado Medical Center in Winslow with unspecified injuries, Arend said.

Meyer’s dad, Rabbi Yanky “Jack” Meyer, is the founder of the Brooklyn-based Misaskim Organization, which assists victims of tragedies in the Jewish community. It arranged for a private jet to pick up the bodies.

The driver of the 18-wheeler, a 46-year-old man from Whiteriver, Ariz., suffered neck and back injuries.

The four women had rented the Jeep on Aug. 5 at Los Angeles International Airport. They then set off on their sightseeing jaunt, which included a stop at the Petrified Forest, a picturesque park covering almost 150 square miles east of Holbrook, Arend said.

Morgenstern was making a left turn from Route 377 onto Route 77 just south of Holbrook when she entered the path of the southbound tractor-trailer, which struck the Jeep on the left side.

Spira taught at the Bais Yaakov School in Brooklyn. Mayerovitz also teaches at Bais Yaakov. Morgenstern’s and Meyer’s schools were not known.

A fellow teacher who declined to give her name said Spira “was really sweet, very organized and capable.

“She ran the after-school program; she was very energetic. Her students loved her and her songs.”
Morgenstern’s brother said the four women were on a “very simple nature trip.”

“They wanted to travel, just to see Arizona, the Grand Canyon, just to see the sights, the desert, just seeing nature,” said the brother, who also declined to be named.

“She wasn’t the party type or the wild type,” he said of his sister. “She was just a good teacher, a kind person.”

Rabbi Meyer asked for prayers for the victims.

http://nypost.com/2015/08/11/brooklyn-teachers-killed-in-car-crash-while-sightseeing-in-arizona/
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Adela Dworin, whose parents came from Eastern Europe after World War I, sounds a lot like a Borscht Belt comedian. Even if only a part of a conversation she had with Fidel Castro some years ago is true (it’s impossible to verify), what you quickly realize is that, at 70-something, she isn’t afraid to say anything.

As president of Havana’s Casa de la Comunidad Hebrea de Cuba, the Jewish community in the capital, Dworin was one of six Jewish leaders invited to meet with Castro after 40 years of watching him on TV. Here’s how she tells it.


Dworin: “Why you never visit our synagogue? You visit churches.”

Castro: “You never invited me.”

Dworin: “I know he likes revolutions, so I said, ‘We’ll have a revolution of Jews.’ ”

Castro: “I’ll come!”

This was last spring and she was talking to 35 travelers from Temple Israel of Boston, a group that included Senior Rabbi Ronne Friedman and Cantor Roy Einhorn, who were in Cuba to visit synagogues and the people who run the institutions and lead its services. Those are typically lay people, since there are only visiting rabbis in Cuba, mostly from Argentina, and none who work there full time. Rabbi Friedman writes in an e-mail that there is a Talmudic principle “Kol Yisrael aravin zeh bazeh” (“All Jews are responsible for one another”). Also, he adds, church groups visit Cuba, and he sees both as “a source of pride.”

Dworin, who has counterparts in other cities, meets us at Bet Shalom Synagogue, also known as El Patronato, of which she is also the president, and tells us that Jews in Cuba exist on the kindness of strangers, who send prayer books and the ritual foods for holidays like Passover (“Canada sends so much matzo, we eat it all year,” she says). Outsiders also bring clothing, toys, vitamins, and medicines, which go to clinics that the Jewish community has set up for themselves and a wide cross-section of people who come for medical help.

Our tour was organized by Batia Plotch of New York-based travel company Global Gallop (www.cubawithbatia.com). Plotch works with Cuban guide Alexis Rodriguez (think Desi Arnaz), who manages to keep up a weeklong running commentary on his country, its history, historical sites, and translates simultaneously for anyone we’re meeting who does not speak English.

Cuba at its peak, when casinos and showgirls were commonplace, was a magnet for high rollers and pleasure seekers. Now you see beautiful buildings crumbling, the famous cars – in intense colors of eggplant, metallic navy, bittersweet chocolate, bottle green, aqua — and very skinny men and women with swollen abdomens. You also hear music on every street. Two people stop on a sidewalk and someone playing music becomes a third. We hear everywhere about President Obama’s decision last December to restore diplomatic relations. The people seem hopeful, though at this point they do not know about the flights or cruise ships that will be coming.

The Jewish community was never large — 15,000 before the Cuban Revolution that culminated in 1959 — and now numbers about 1,500. Dworin oversees a poor and aging population, and she worries about getting them enough food and basic services. Cubans are paid little; there are no taxes, rents, or tuitions. Citizens use coupon books for rations, such as rice, sugar, beans, coffee, eggs, cooking oil, and pork. (Jews get beef, which is hard to come by here.) Half the population was born after the revolution and raised in a make-do society, where artwork can be fabricated from old photographs or discarded equipment, and families engage in a barter system for food.

https://www.bostonglobe.com/lifestyle/travel/2015/08/08/cuban-jews-manage-with-kindness-strangers/74lbT3XhUjMGTr05WxfOlO/story.html
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In what’s been called an extraordinary find, Israeli archaeologists have discovered a wall full of drawings and inscriptions believed to have been created during the Second Temple period.

The Hebrew and Aramaic script was found in an underground cave housing an ancient ritual bath, uncovered under a Jerusalem construction site planned for a preschool.

The discovery, announced Wednesday by the Israel Antiquities Authority, was made two months ago during an archaeological inspection before the preschool’s construction could begin. Such inspections are routine practice in Jerusalem, given the thousands of years of history on which the holy city sits.

Researchers believe the ritual bath dates to the first century A.D., the Antiquities Authority said:

The walls of the miqwe [bath] were treated with ancient plaster and were adorned with numerous wall paintings and inscriptions, written in mud, soot and incising. The inscriptions are Aramaic and written in cursive Hebrew script, which was customary at the end of the Second Temple period. Among the symbols that are drawn are a boat, palm trees and various plant species, and possibly even a menorah.

“There is no doubt that this is a very significant discovery,” excavation directors Royee Greenwald and Alexander Wiegmann said in a joint statement Wednesday. “Such a concentration of inscriptions and symbols from the Second Temple period at one archaeological site, and in such a state of preservation, is rare and unique and most intriguing.”

“On the one hand, the symbols can be interpreted as secular, and on the other as symbols of religious significance and deep spirituality,” the excavations chiefs said.

The Antiquities Authority raised some intriguing questions about the inscriptions:

What is the relationship between the symbols and the inscriptions, and why, of all places, were they drawn in the ritual bath? Who is responsible for painting them? Was it one person or several people? Was it someone who jokingly wanted to scribble graffiti, or perhaps what we have here is a desire to convey a deeply spiritual and religious message, perhaps even a cry for help as a result of a traumatic event (the destruction of the Temple and the catastrophic war of 66-70 CE [A.D.])?

While the meaning of the message remains unclear, the themes of the drawings reflect those seen during the Second Temple period.

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2015/08/05/archaeologists-find-mysterious-2000-year-old-jewish-message-tucked-away-in-secret-chamber-a-very-significant-discovery/
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