Thursday, March 31, 2022
Yeshiva enrollment points to huge Hasidic growth outside New York City
Yeshiva enrollment in Rockland County grew more than 63% in the past decade, underscoring rapid Hasidic population growth in counties north of New York City where these families have increasingly settled in recent years. The data, gathered by the Orthodox Jewish Public Affairs Council, also showed enrollment at Brooklyn schools ticking up a more modest 12% over the same period.
"The growth in Rockland has been insanely high," said Yossi Gestetner, a co-founder of OJPAC, which shared the enrollment figures gathered from New York State data with the Forward. "It has been felt in limited space in schools and on the roads."
The yeshiva enrollment figures show steeper growth than that reflected by Census numbers, which found that the overall population increased 8.5% between 2010 and 2020, while the youth population in Ramapo –- a Hasidic center –- increased by 30%.
Gestetner said Hasidic residents are now expanding beyond Ramapo in a search of housing. Rockland and adjacent Orange County, which saw a 53% increase over the last decade, are becoming crowded enough that Gestetner said some families are looking for more room elsewhere.
"I do think it's a situation where people feel -– I don't want to say squeezed out, but they did hit a wall and decided they'd rather go to New Jersey," he said. "The growth over there is also astonishing."
The size of yeshivas — Orthodox Jewish days schools — is an important gauge of population growth in the Hasidic community, where more than half the members are under 18-years-old and almost all children attend private schools.
Overall enrollment in New York State yeshivas reached 163,000, compared to 98,000 in 2001, but much of that increase is centered in Rockland and Orange counties, which are northwest of New York City along the northern border of New Jersey.
And even as Brooklyn yeshivas saw their numbers rise in the past decade, those for Manhattan yeshivas were down slightly.
The growth of the Hasidic community, concentrated in particular towns, boroughs and regions, has political implications, with voting patterns shifting to the right in recent years, including strong support among many for former President Donald Trump.
Yeshivas themselves have also become a flashpoint, with critics noting that many fail to meet government standards for secular education and calling for government officials to intervene.
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Wednesday, March 30, 2022
Russia denies striking Jewish Uman site, says synagogue used by Ukraine army
Russia denied on Wednesday a claim by Ukraine that it had struck the town of Uman, visited by tens of thousands of Hasidic Jews each year, and showed pictures of what it said were Ukrainian forces loading arms near a synagogue there.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told Israeli lawmakers on March 20 that Russia had struck Uman on the first day of the invasion in February.
"I want to underscore that the Russian armed forces do not strike civilian targets as part of the special military operation," Russian defense ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said of Zelensky's remark.
Russia, Konashenkov said, had not hit any religious buildings or other places of public worship.
Tens of thousands of Hasidic Jews descend on Uman every Jewish New Year to visit the grave of Rabbi Nachman of Breslov, who revived the Hasidic movement and died in 1810.
Konashenkov also showed March 21 pictures of what appeared to be Ukrainian forces loading arms near a synagogue in the town. Reuters was unable to independently verify the photographs.
Russia, he said, had struck fuel depots in eastern Ukraine with air-launched missiles and used tactical missiles to destroy two large rocket arsenals in eastern Ukraine.
"High-precision air-launched missiles destroyed large fuel depots in the Starokonstantinov and Khmelnitsky districts that supplied fuel for the armored vehicles of Ukrainian troops in the Donbas," Konashenkov said.
Konashenkov's remarks were heavily disputed by the local Jewish community, who said claims that Ukrainian military forces using their synagogues were completely untrue.
All synagogues and Jewish sites in Ukraine are used exclusively for their intended purpose, the Jewish community said on their official Telegram channel, according to Pravda.
They also took umbrage with the Russian photo of Ukrainian forces supposedly loading arms into the synagogue, noting that in the photo, it is "obvious" that the gates are closed and no one is inside.
This was confirmed by the Rabbi Nachman Foundation, which stated that the synagogue hasn't been used since Rosh Hashanah back in September, according to Pravda.
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Tuesday, March 29, 2022
US Jewish Community Gears Up to Assist Absorption of 100,000 Refugees from Russian Invasion of Ukraine
The US Jewish community is primed and ready to assist with the absorption of 100,000 refugees from the Russian invasion of Ukraine around the country, a senior official at the Jewish Federations of North America (JFNA) has said.
"Refugees from Ukraine will be going to places all over the country," Elana Broitman, a senior vice-president at the JFNA, told The Algemeiner on Monday. "Our federations are everywhere, along with various agencies, synagogues and individual lay people as well."
President Joe Biden announced last Thursday that the US would welcome 100,000 refugees fleeing from the Russian onslaught, now in its fifth week. Nearly 4 million Ukrainians have fled across the country's borders since the invasion, with another 6.5 million displaced internally.
Biden's announcement came on the heels of intensive advocacy by the JFNA and other humanitarian organizations for the US to open its borders to those fleeing the war in Ukraine, Broitman pointed out. In addition to accepting 100,000 refugees, the US has committed more than $1 billion for humanitarian assistance for Ukraine and an additional $320 million in funding for "democracy and human rights" projects in Ukraine and neighboring states.
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Monday, March 28, 2022
Nachum Segal Network’s New York Studios Destroyed in Electrical Fire
The studios of Jewish New York's voice and top Jewish radio personality Nachum Segal burned tragically in an electrical fire Sunday afternoon.
The Nachum Segal Network, based on the Lower East Side, had used the office, studio and headquarters space since 2002.
An emergency crowdfunding campaign has been launched to rebuild and keep the network broadcasting.
The network is continuing its programming remotely.
Segal has hosted his Jewish Moments in the Morning – JM in the AM – radio program since September 1983 every weekday and non-holiday morning from 6 to 9 am local time.
The show first aired on FM radio but has since transitioned onto an app and online stream which includes a variety of different talk show programs throughout the day.
The walls of the studio were adorned with pictures illustrating the network's – and Jewish New York's – history through photos of notable interviewees over the last few decades.
Hana Julian has broadcast Israel News on the network's JM Sunday program with Mattes Weingast every Sunday for the past eight years at 8 am local time.
Leading rabbis, Jewish politicians at the forefront of New York and national politics, major league sports stars, a handful of Israeli cabinet ministers and leaders of countless Jewish world nonprofits have shared their views on the Nachum Segal Network.
Unfortunately, all were destroyed.
It was in the very same headquarters that Segal and his team founded the Jewish Unity Initiative, a nonprofit which seeks to amplify Jewish voices and promote religious identity and unity in areas that have experienced disasters.
"Our studio served as a home for the Jewish community to come and share with our listeners about their organizations and the top news impacting the American Jewish community," Segal said.
"It is where we planned several missions to Jewish communities impacted by disasters such as hurricanes.
"We have an important mission in providing information and entertainment to the Jewish community and we are hoping to build quickly. With the help of our listeners here and across the globe, we hope to build a stronger NSN than ever before," he added.
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Friday, March 25, 2022
Staten Island JCC evacuated after bomb threat
The JCC of Staten Island briefly evacuated its buildings on Manor Road and Arthur Kill Road Friday following a bomb threat.
Communications Director Allison Cohen told the New York Jewish Week that the JCC received a threatening email, in what may be the latest in a spate of such false threats sent into JCCs and other Jewish institutions around the country.
"We have to take every threat seriously," Cohen said. "The NYPD evacuated two of our buildings. They did a thorough investigation and found it safe to return."
She said the evacuation happened at 8:53 a.m., as parents were bringing their children to preschool.
"Our staff had to talk with the parents and explain things to them," Cohen said. "We always try to calm everyone down and make sure we're working hand in hand with law enforcement. It's really that partnership that keeps us safe."
She and David Pollack, associate executive director and director of public policy & security at the JCC, declined to share details about the email.
"It is unknown if this is related to the current spate of bomb threats," Pollack said in an to members.
The Anti-Defamation League and the Secure Communities Network, a consultancy that works with national Jewish groups, are both tracking fake bomb threats that have recently been leveled at JCCs in Oklahoma, Arizona, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Missouri, among other places.
The two most recent threats in Missouri and Pennsylvania came in through the JCCs' online contact forms and included a message that said, "I'll be there at 12 to bomb your facility you ukranian jew filth i got bombs there now."
Cohen called the threats a "horrible reality," but the JCC is always prepared for it.
"We spring right into action," she said. "We know exactly what to do because we've had them before."
Cohen added that there have been a couple threats at the Staten Island JCC over the last few years and none of them have been credible.
"This is a pure terror tactic," Pollack said. "These are just threats, but they are making Jews live in fear."
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Thursday, March 24, 2022
Delta, KLM Discriminated Against Hasidic Flyers, Suit Says
Delta Air Lines Inc. and KLM Royal Dutch Airlines acted jointly to harass and discriminate against a group of Orthodox Jewish women on an international trip, ultimately delaying their return home, according to a new suit filed in federal court in New York.
"After spending two weeks on a religious and educational tour to pay tribute to their Jewish heritage, to remember the atrocities of the Holocaust, and to honor the millions of Jewish families who perished or whose lives were destroyed at the hands of antisemitic murderers, Plaintiffs suffered a devastating reminder..."
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Tuesday, March 22, 2022
Jewish students demand Virginia Tech to cancel upcoming speech by known anti-Semite
Jewish students are demanding that the administration of Virginia Tech cancel a March 23 speech by a known anti-Semitic and anti-Zionist speaker.
Steven Salaita, a former professor at the University of Illinois and the Said Chair of American Studies at the American University of Beirut, is scheduled to be the keynote speaker at the 2022 Graduate and Professional Student Senate Research Symposium (GPSS).
According to Canary Mission, which tracks anti-Semitic and anti-Zionist activities online, Salaita was removed from his tenured position at Illinois in 2014 after a series of anti-Semitic tweets were discovered. One of them, posted after three Jewish teenage boys were kidnapped and brutally murdered that year by Hamas, read: "You may be too refined to say it, but I'm not: I wish all the f***ing West Bank settlers would go missing."
Briana Schwam, president emeritus of Hillel at Virginia Tech and a GPSS senator, first learned about plans to bring in Salaita earlier this month once everything was already signed.
"Steven Salaita does not promote respectful or healthy dialogue," she told JNS. "[His] public statements threaten my identity as a student because he promotes hate and violence towards individuals who share my identity or who do not share his exact perspective."
Schwam and fellow GPSS senator Amir Gazar, who have started a petition to get the school to intervene, claim that the student senate executive board has been unwilling to listen to those who, in Schwam's words, "disagree with their decisions or have a different point of view.
"Last semester, some Jewish students and Jewish alumni were blocked from the GPSS public Instagram account. The GPSS exec also deleted their comments," said Schwam. "This action is a clear example that the GPSS exec will not converse with or listen to any individuals with different perspectives."
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Monday, March 21, 2022
Jewish Agency launches ‘Aliyah Express’ to expedite Ukrainian move to Israel
In anticipation of a massive wave of immigration from Ukraine, the Jewish Agency for Israel has launched its "Aliyah Express" program to expedite the immigration process resulting in thousands of Ukrainian Jewish refugees arriving in Israel.
Since Russia's onslaught into the country last month, some 4,000 Jewish Ukrainian refugees have come to Israel. That number is expected to dramatically increase, especially as the situation worsens. As such, the express program will significantly reduce the timeline for aliyah eligibility checks, and with assistance from the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, private donors and foundations, those fleeing the country will be able to board flights to Israel faster.
The Jewish Agency will also assist in absorbing immigrants when they arrive in Israel. Dozens of employees are being recruited to assist the Ministry of Aliyah and Integration with housing new immigrants in hotels upon their arrival, as well as working with an emergency program that will enroll young Ukrainians in Masa, a program co-founded by the Jewish Agency.
Following a request from the Israeli government, the Jewish Agency will also help establish a situation room to coordinate organizations working on the ground in the region.
"The Jewish Agency continues to be at the forefront of aliyah mobilization efforts, in particular when it comes to Ukrainian refugees," said its acting chairman and chairman of the World Zionist Organization Yaakov Hagoel. "Combining our organization's forces with other formidable bodies that facilitate aliyah will help resolve this emergency crisis facing Ukrainian Jewry. Now, they can be rescued and absorbed much faster so they can settle into their new home in Israel."
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Wednesday, March 16, 2022
A Freilichen Purim!
Monday, March 14, 2022
The Hasidic Israeli Alpine Skier Making History on One Leg – and in a Skirt
Sheina Vaspi sees herself as an ordinary 20-year-old who is enjoying life. But her life, particularly her athletic achievement, is far from routine. Last Friday, she became Israel's first athlete to compete in the Winter Paralympic Games, when she skied – on one leg – down the Olympic slopes (she ended up on 15th place).
Vaspi was three years old when she lost her left leg in a traffic accident. "I don't remember life with two legs," she tells Haaretz, speaking from the Paralympic Village in Beijing before her big event. "It's all I know and I'm happy with what I have."
She grew up in a Chabad Hasidic family in Yesud Hama'alah, a small community in northern Israel's Hula Valley. "I had an amazing childhood," she said. "More or less normal." After the accident in which Vaspi was injured, her family suffered another tragedy. When she was 7 her 18-month-old sister died. "But we're still five girls, even though she's not here."
Growing up in the Upper Galilee, one might think she engaged in winter sports from an early age. "I can see the snow [on Mount Hermon, in the Golan Heights] from my house, but I never knew what skiing was," she says, adding that she learned about the sport from a relative who volunteers with Erez, a nonprofit that was established to help disabled veterans to ski. "I was the organization's first girl," as she puts it.
"I connected with the idea and really loved the sport – the speed," she says about her first time on the slopes, at 15. "I really enjoyed it and caught on relatively quickly. It really wasn't that long ago. I really feel new at it, and I'm opening up to that world." Other children with disabilities soon followed. "It gives them so much and contributes to their faith in themselves and their self-confidence. It's amazing to observe."
Vaspi stresses that she would never have made it to Beijing without Erez, and is hopeful that she won't remain the only Israeli to compete in the Winter Paralympics.
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Friday, March 11, 2022
Devout Ukrainian Jews hunker down in Uman as they await ‘apocalypse’
In a synagogue in the western Ukrainian city of Uman, two people are worshipping in the cold and darkness.
They carefully lay down their "tefillin" prayer boxes before heading into another room for the morning service, where their voices compete with the sound of air sirens outside.
"We spend the whole day in the synagogue, praying, studying the Torah," says Odele, 46, who asked to withhold her surname.
She left Israel a year ago to live here, some 200 kilometers south of Kyiv, to be close to the grave of the revered rabbi, Nachman of Breslov, who founded a Hasidic movement that settled in this town in the early 1800s.
She leans over her prayer book, lit with a pocket torch. Her son, one of her nine children, is glued to her side.
The war, she says, is "a sign from the messiah."
"It was written. It will start with war, then will come the apocalypse," says Odele.
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Thursday, March 10, 2022
New York City grapples with sharp rise in hate crimes targeting Jewish people
Hate crimes against Jewish people in New York City surged last month, more than quadrupling in February compared to same month last year, according to New York Police Department statistics.
Police logged 56 suspected antisemitic hate crimes citywide in February, up from 11 in February 2021. In January there were 15 such crimes recorded by police. The spike in antisemitic crimes comes amid rising hate incidents against multiple groups in New York, including increases in anti-Asian and anti-Black attacks, as well as crimes targeting people for their sexual orientation.
Eric Dinowitz, the chair of the New York City Council's Jewish Caucus, said the crimes resonate beyond their immediate victims.
"When antisemitic hate crimes are on the rise, the entire Jewish community feels it. The entire Jewish community feels the pain, they share in the pain and they share in the anxiety," Dinowitz said. "That's what hate crimes do, we see it with our, Asian American brothers and sisters, as hate crimes are on the rise in that community as well."
Dinowitz said he plans to propose legislation that would expand the information the NYPD is required to publish each month, including the results of hate crime and bias arrests.
In one such attack, CBS New York reports police launched a hate crimes investigation after a man dressed in traditional Hasidic clothing was punched in the face while walking down the street in Brooklyn on February 4. In another incident on February 11, a Brooklyn man said a person got out of a car and asked him for directions, before lunging forward to swipe the man's yarmulke off his head.
That incident was denounced by another City Council member, Farah Louis, whose district includes the location of the attack.
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Wednesday, March 09, 2022
Jewish Non-Profit Launches ‘Hollywood Bureau’ for More Accurate Portrayal of Jews on Screen
A Jewish non-profit based in New York will open later this month a new "Hollywood Bureau," with a focus on promoting better representation of Jews in the media, the organization announced on Wednesday.
Launched in 2007, Jew in the City (JITC) is the only non-profit "dedicated to changing negative perceptions of religious Jews and making engaging and meaningful Orthodox Judaism known and accessible," according to its website.
JITC's new bureau will provide consultants to work directly on TV and film productions, sponsor impact studies, build a "writers' lab," and give out awards for positive Jewish representation in the media, the non-profit said. JITC's first Media Awards on March 21 also mark the bureau's launch.
"We recently learned that virtually every other minority group has a mechanism for authentic and fair depictions in Hollywood," JITC's founder and executive director Allison Josephs told The Algemeiner on Wednesday. "We'd been relying on social media and news articles all these years because we didn't know that there was something more official. Once we discovered that this whole space exists, it was the rational next step for our organization."
She added, "While we were founded to combat negative perceptions of Orthodox Jews, many non-Orthodox Jews have asked us to make the fight broader, to ensure that antisemitic stereotypes and cartoonish depictions of Jews have no place in modern media. As antisemitic attacks are up in recent years, how we are shown in media is an angle we must not ignore."
The bureau's team has already met with several existing groups that also focus on better representation as well as inclusivity, including the NAACP, the National Association of Latino Independent Producers, the disability-focused non-profit RespectAbility and MPac. Leaders of those groups have made introductions between JITC representatives and top entertainment executives and networks, with progress already being made in building those partnerships. JITC also said it had "very positive meetings" with NBC and CBS, "with more meetings being set up."
JITC is currently filming a documentary with PhilmCo Media examining the issues behind Jewish portrayal and representation in Hollywood since its founding and until today, and how these problems can fuel antisemitism.
JITC's Media Awards in New York City will include the New York premiere of "Rock Camp: The Movie," a new film starring David Fishof, an Orthodox Jewish music agent who started the famous Rock' N' Roll Fantasy Camp. Fishof will receive the first-ever JITC Media Awards at the event for his "authentic and positive portrayal as a religious Jew."
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Tuesday, March 08, 2022
Israel will allow 25,000 non-Jewish Ukrainian refugees to stay in country
Israel will allow 25,000 Ukrainians who are not eligible for immigration to stay in the country as refugees amid Russia's invasion of their nation, Interior Minister Ayelet Shaked announced Tuesday.
The minister said 20,000 of those had been in Israel before the outbreak of hostilities, and an additional 5,000 would be accepted from the time the invasion began.
This in addition to tens of thousands it expects to arrive in the country as part of Jewish immigration in the wake of the war, Shaked said.
Shaked announced the new policy for absorbing non-Jewish Ukrainian refugees as the war was on its 13th day, with no end in sight.
"The sights of war in Ukraine and the suffering experienced by its citizens rattle the soul and don't allow us to remain indifferent," she said in a press conference held at the Knesset on Tuesday evening.
She said Israel will "temporarily host" 20,000 Ukrainian citizens who were already in the country before the war broke out, mostly illegally, and won't take action to deport them. An additional immigration quota for 5,000 Ukrainian citizens seeking refuge in Israel after the war broke out was approved, the minister said.
According to Ynet, some 3,400 non-Jewish Ukrainians have arrived in Israel since Russian troops invaded the country on February 24, 150 of whom were not allowed entry.
Shaked said that under the new rules, any Ukrainian citizen entering Israel will receive a temporary permit to remain for 3 months. She added that if the situation in Ukraine does not improve, they will be allowed to apply for local work.
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Monday, March 07, 2022
Jewish Ukrainian Footballer Killed in Kyiv Bombing
A Jewish Ukrainian footballer has been killed during the Russian assault of Kyiv.
Dmitry Martynenko, a 25-year-old professional footballer, was killed alongside his mother when Russian forces bombed their home in the suburbs of Kyiv.
His father and sister are believed to have survived the explosion and are currently recovering in a nearby hospital.
Martynenko was killed on the same day as another Ukrainian footballer, Vitalii Sapylo of Karpaty Lviv.
In a statement responding to the deaths of the two players, the International Federation of Professional Footballers said: "Our thoughts are with the families, friends and teammates of young Ukrainian footballers Vitalii Sapylo and Dmytro Martynenko, football's first reported losses in this war. May they both rest in peace."
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Friday, March 04, 2022
Jewish Groups Commend House Committee for Advancing Bill Authorizing More Funding for Synagogue Security
The US House Committee on Homeland Security on Wednesday advanced a bill that would authorize $500 million in annual funding for the Nonprofit Security Grant Program (NSGP), which provides funding to bolster security for targeted non-profit institutions such as places of worship, day schools, museums and community centers.
The Nonprofit Security Grant Program Improvement Act (H.R. 6825) was introduced by committee chair Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) and ranking member Rep. John Katko (R-NY) in the wake of the Jan. 15 hostage situation at Congregation Beth Israel in Colleyville, Texas, as well as deadly attacks at other houses of worship in recent years.
Since NSGP was passed 15 years ago with urging from major Jewish communal organizations, funding had steadily increased to $180 million last year. Still, this amount was not nearly enough to cover the applications the grant received.
Jewish organizations and lawmakers, including Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), have long called for funding for the grant to be increased to $360 million, with calls for the increase gaining steam after the recent hostage situation in Colleyville.
"We already are aware that limited funding for the Nonprofit Security Grant Program left more than half of eligible organizations who applied for the grants empty-handed in 2021," Nathan Diament, executive director of the Orthodox Union (OU) Advocacy Center, said in a news release Thursday.
Diament commended the leaders of the bill and urged its passage in the Senate.
The bill would also direct the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which administers the NSGP, to establish a dedicated office within the agency to administer the grants as many non-profit organizations have complained about the difficulty of applying or getting assistance with the application process.
"We at the Orthodox Union are constantly seeking new avenues to protect and increase safety for our community and all faith communities," OU President Mark Bane said in the release. "We cannot wait for another attack such as the one we just witnessed at Congregation Beth Israel in Colleyville, Texas, or the horrific killing of innocents at Pittsburgh's Tree of Life synagogue four years ago, before we as a nation take the necessary actions to protect Jewish people in America."
The bill further simplifies the application process for the grant, which is often cited by smaller organizations, including by Congregation Beth Israel's Rabbi Charlie Cytron-Walker, as a significant hurdle.
"As we most recently saw in Colleyville, Jewish and other faith communities need support to ensure their safety and security, and the Nonprofit Security Grant Program is a critically important piece of that puzzle," said Elana Broitman, senior vice president of the Jewish Federations of North America, which also worked with lawmakers to develop the bill. "Jewish Federations appreciate the committee's work in advancing this authorization, and hope for its swift passage in both chambers of Congress."
The act is only an authorization to appropriate funds, so the final number at which the program will be funded will be determined through the appropriations process to fund the government for 2022.
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Thursday, March 03, 2022
Local Jewish community prays for Ukraine
In a video message sent across the world, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy asked anyone watching to "shout, not remain silent" if you support him and his people.
It's a message people at the Jewish Community Center in Kingston are taking to heart.
"We as Jews know historically the world was very quiet during the Holocaust during World War II, and a lot of the Holocaust took place, unfortunately, in that area of the world, and the Ukraine has a place called Babi Yar, which has a Holocaust memorial which was destroyed by the Russians," said Rabbi David Kaplan.
Many members of the Jewish community gathered at the JCC to watch Zelenskyy's message and pray for his country.
"He is a grandchild of Holocaust victims himself; the president is Jewish," added Kaplan. "So, therefore, I felt in solidarity with him, I would put on his shirt and just to show that we are with him in the fight, we can't be there militarily. So we can we can show our not only our connection to him, but when you fight a battle, there are different fronts to be fought. And in the Bible, Moses famously did not fight with a weapon. He used the power of prayer."
In addition to watching the video, people prayed, sang, and listened to messages from rabbis currently in Ukraine.
"I'm talking to you from the basement of the five-story building, which was built during the Stalin regime," Rabbi Eric Mollo read from a transcription of a message. "This is the only place where we can hide from airstrikes from bombardments. Kyiv is on lockdown, but today is the last day of winter and spring is coming. Spring usually brings hope."
"I think that the Ukrainian people have taught us as Americans maybe what it means to value what we have our freedom and our ability to invoke prayer and be very publicly assembled to help," added Kaplan.
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Wednesday, March 02, 2022
‘Controlling’ tycoon faces jail for saying no to Jewish divorce
A businessman who denied his wife a Jewish divorce after the couple separated has been found guilty of "controlling" behaviour and could face a jail term in the first case of its kind.
Alan Moher, 57, the millionaire owner of a property company, and his wife of 21 years, Caroline, split in 2016 after she filed for divorce. A decree nisi was granted that year, but the civil divorce proceedings, which were described as "very acrimonious", were not completed until 2019. The couple have three children.
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Tuesday, March 01, 2022
Royal Court Theatre apologises to Jewish community over character’s name
The Royal Court Theatre has apologised "unreservedly" to the Jewish community for naming a fictional, manipulative billionaire Hershel Fink.
It comes as a report by the theatre's board on Tuesday found that the systems in place were inadequate to identify and correct the issue at the appropriate time.
Anthony Burton, chair of the Royal Court, said: "The Royal Court Theatre apologises unreservedly for the pain that has been caused around the production of its play Rare Earth Mettle.
"This incident fell short of the Royal Court's own high ambitions in terms of inclusivity and anti-racism. It is committed to learning from it and clear actions have been put in place including specialist training on antisemitism.
"The Royal Court must and will become a space in which Jewish artists and other professionals can work without fear of antisemitism, as it always should have been."
The play, by Al Smith, originally featured Hershel Fink as the CEO of an electric car company, who in marketing material was portrayed as a grasping billionaire trying to monopolise the earth's resources.
The theatre apologised and changed the name to Henry Finn after it was accused of perpetuating an offensive stereotype.
Theatre management said they were unaware that Hershel Fink was a Jewish name and called the incident an example of "unconscious bias". But it emerged that concerns were raised about the character's name during a workshop discussion two months previously. Two of the theatre's corporate sponsors later withdrew their financial support after the row.
The inquiry conducted extensive interviews and research. It stated: "Systems should have been in place to ensure that any individual error would not prevent the identification and correction of the issue by the theatre. The artistic leadership recognise and deeply regret this and apologise."
It said the play was developed over an exceptionally long period, largely due to Covid, having been originally commissioned in 2015 but only produced in the spring of 2020 and brought back in November 2021. Fifteen drafts were written.
"The choice of the name Hershel Fink was originally underpinned with explanatory narrative context. This context was ultimately excised during the prolonged editing process," it said, adding that the combination of this and aspects of the character's personality "could be an antisemitic trope".
Actions have been agreed to remedy this, it said, including specialist training on antisemitism and organising more opportunities for staff to interrogate and challenge artistic decisions.
The Royal Court's artistic director Vicky Featherstone told the Jewish Chronicle: "The big learning for me has been about how few Jewish artists have felt that they can be out about their Jewishness with their work at the Royal Court, and in other areas of culture.
"That was an absolute shock and something which feel a huge sense of responsibility to be able to make a shift about and do something about."
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