International

Jewish Infighting Contributed to Fall of Jerusalem in 70 CE

Intrigue, maneuvering, scheming, plotting, and murder highlight the years from Herod’s reign to the Jewish rebellion against Rome, beginning in 66. Herod, the Great, acting more like the King of the Jews than a Jewish king, ascended to the throne in 37 BCE. His rule lasted forty-one years. [Fred Reiss, Ed.D]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Fred Reiss, EdD, International, Jewish History, Middle East

Blessings and Borscht: Superstitions of My Ancestry

The first time my parents took me on a trip with them I was eight years old and living in Chicago. We were going to Mexico, where I would see, hear, and feel the ocean for the first time (for those that know me, the ocean is one of my favorite temporal experiences in life). But my first memory of this trip — and every trip, henceforth — was sitting before we left. [Danielle Levsky]

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International, Lifestyles

Antisemitism Is Wrong, Whether Coming from the Right or Left

Published by The Moderate Voice by Joe Nalven We know right-wing antisemitism by shouts of “you will not replace us.” Left-wing antisemitism is carefully couched in criticism of Israel for “human rights violations.” Left-wing advocates deny antisemitism by citing free speech to criticize another nation; however, the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s examples of antisemitism reveal

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USA

Israeli PM says Iran has crossed nuclear ‘red lines’; Tehran calls it ‘full of lies’

Published by Reuters By Michelle Nichols, Matt Spetalnick and Stephen Farrell NEW YORK (Reuters) -Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said on Monday that Iran had crossed “all red lines” in its nuclear program and vowed that Israel would not allow Tehran to acquire a nuclear weapon. In his first speech to the United Nations General

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Middle East

ADL, L’Oreal Partner in Holocaust Education Program

In response to the rise of antisemitism and other forms of discrimination in the United States, ADL (the Anti-Defamation League) and L’Oréal USA are partnering on an education initiative designed to raise awareness and promote understanding about the Holocaust among thousands of students in American classrooms. [ADL News Release]

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International, Jewish History, Science, Medicine, & Education, USA

Antisemitism in the ‘New West’

Do you worry that Jew-hatred might affect your comfortable American life? Do you think that Jew-haters will ignore you because your “Jewishness” is unimportant for you? If not, why not? Does this worry – if you feel it – fall below your concern for abortion legislation, diversity and gender issues, climate change policies, etc.? With this in mind, it’s time to wake up to the “new” West. [Steve Kramer]

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Middle East, Steve Kramer, USA

Big and Small Controversies in Israel

Do you want to think big? Focus on what Mahmoud Abbas said in a recorded speech delivered to the United Nations in New York. If Israel doesn’t withdraw completely from the West Bank and East Jerusalem (he also said Gaza, but Israel has already withdrawn from there) within a year, Palestine will charge Israel with heinous crimes before the International Criminal Court. Meanwhile, he’s volunteering to negotiate final borders. The 1967 lines, wherever they are, figure in his threat. [Ira Sharkansky, Ph.D]

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International, Ira Sharkansky, Lifestyles, Middle East

Jewish Tales of the Old West: A Butcher on the Comstock

During the 1870’s, the population of Nevada’s legendary Comstock Lode, then at the height of mining fever, surged to nearly 25,000. In the canyons and down the slopes, housing was scarce, the noise was unceasing, the air nearly unbreathable and the violence endemic.1 Between them, the towns of Virginia City and Gold Hill were a crowded jumble of miners’ cabins, stamp mills, luxury mansions, hotels, restaurants, saloons, stores and stables, all built over an underground city of mining tunnels, adits and shafts. These underground works ultimately produced over 300 million dollars’ worth of precious ore that built the city of San Francisco and made fabulous fortunes for the fortunate. Among this crowd of fortune-seekers lived a Jewish community of about 500, and one of its most influential members was a butcher from Germany named Mark Strouse (1845-1898). [Susan E. James, Ph.D]

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Business & Finance, Jewish History, Travel and Food, USA

‘Squirrel Hill’ Portrays Pittsburgh Community Where Tree of Life Massacre Occurred

This journalistic tour-de-force tells the story of October 27, 2018, the day an antisemitic gunman snuffed the lives of 11 congregants at the three small congregations that occupied the Tree of Life Synagogue in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It is not simply a depiction of the carnage, but also a portrait of the community in which it happened.  Author Oppenheimer, a former religion columnist for The New York Times, methodically tells us the stories of the victims, including those who barely escaped with their lives, and of the diverse reactions in the community to the shooting.  There were those who organized vigils; those who protested a photo-op visit to the synagogue by then President Donald Trump with his wife, Melania, daughter, Ivanka, and son-in-law Jared Kushner.  Additionally, there were trauma tourists, compelled perhaps like moths to a flame, who wanted to see the site.  There were also presumptuous would-be helpers, who felt they knew better than Squirrel Hill’s residents how the victims should be mourned.   And there were fundraisers, who through various appeals including a Go-Fund-Me effort, raised millions of dollars for the families of the victims and for the congregations themselves. [Donald H. Harrison]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison, Jewish History, Jewish Religion, Travel and Food, USA

Birds of a Feather

By Dorothea Shefer-Vanson MEVASSERET ZION, Israel — Under the title “Early Birds: Soaring with the Ancients,” the Bible Lands Museum in Jerusalem has put together an exhibition of archaeological items from the Land of Israel and the Ancient Near East depicting birds of various kinds. Upon entering the exhibition area and before inspecting even one

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Dorothea Shefer-Vanson, Jewish History, Middle East, Science, Medicine, & Education