Judaism

The Tower of Babel ‘Trial’

Virtually the entire Bible is either obscure or ambiguous. This not a criticism. Some scholars and I have noted that all very good literature is obscure or ambiguous. This enhances what is written. It gives the reader an opportunity to interpret what is being read. It is as if there are two writers of what is written both the original author and the reader. As a result, the reader gets more out of the writing than the writer composed. In addition, in regard to biblical law, it gives the religious leaders of the Jews an opportunity to reinterpret the obscurity to correspond to modern times [Rabbi Dr. Israel Drazin]

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Israel Drazin-Rabbi Dr., Jewish Religion

The Sage Hillel Guides Our Choice of Stories

With antisemitism on the rise, it is tempting to stay laser focused on stories that impact our community, but we must resist the temptation.  Those who complain how few people helped Jews during the Holocaust (although the Righteous Among the Nations surely did), need to follow the same moral high road that we wish others would have followed during our time of peril.  [Donald H. Harrison]

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Donald H. Harrison, International, Jewish History, Middle East, USA

Jewish Unity and Antisemitism, Part VIII

The egoism that had plagued the Hellenists did not subside simply because they had lost the war. The Hasmoneans, who were now the masters of Judah, had soon fallen prey to the same power of increasing self-centeredness, and the moral and social decline continued. “In becoming rulers, kings and conquerors,” writes historian Paul Johnson, “the Hasmoneans suffered the corruptions of power. …Alexander Jannaeus [ruled 103-76 BCE] … turned into a despot and a monster, and among his victims were the pious Jews from whom his family had once drawn its strength. Like any ruler in the Near East at that time, he was influenced by the predominant Greek modes.” [Michael Laitman, Ph.D]

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Jewish History

IBM and the Holocaust, 20 Years of Corporate Denial

Twenty years ago my book, IBM and the Holocaust exposed with crystal clarity—backed up with a literal tower of physical documentation—that IBM knowingly organized all six phases of the Holocaust: identification, exclusion, confiscation, ghettoization, deportation, and even extermination, all under the micromanagement of its celebrated CEO, Thomas Watson, Sr., operating from his New York office on Madison Avenue, and later through European subsidiaries. [Edwin Black]

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Business & Finance, Edwin Black, International, Jewish History

Vaccine Denial, Medical Apartheid Are Blood Libels

An egregious lie has been making the rounds lately. It is a timeworn smear against the Jewish people in a modern guise. The ancient blood libel—“Jews are poisoners,” stoked antisemitic violence through the ages, from the Black Death to tainted wells, has reappeared. This time, it is the claim that Israel is denying COVID-19 vaccinations to its non-Jewish citizens and to the residents of the not-yet-sovereign Palestinian Authority. This lie is the same as all the predecessor lies. [Edwin Black]

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Edwin Black, International, Jewish History, Middle East, Science, Medicine, & Education

Jewish Unity and Antisemitism, Part VII

At the time when the Jews were in their prime, their ego rose to such levels that they could not overcome it. As a result, many of them began to shun the way of unity, the way of their fathers, and began to lean toward the cultures of their neighboring countries, namely Hellenism. The Hellenistic culture, with its gymnasiums, amphitheaters, grand statues and impressive architecture, seemed more appealing than Judaism, which demanded that the individual would strain to love others. Contrary to loving others, the Greeks extolled the self, the individual, and offered gods that were much more humanlike than godlike, which appealed to people’s growing self-absorption. [Michael Laitman, Ph.D]

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Jewish History

A Word of Torah: The Final Day(s) of Passover

We are in the home stretch! Most of Passover is already behind us. Yet we contemplate the final part of the “King of the Holidays,” which also coincides with the holy Shabbos. Here, in the Diaspora, we celebrate and observe Passover for eight days, as opposed to Israel where it is celebrated for seven days. The Promised Land has a superior level of ‘organic’ holiness. The Sages found a way to somewhat compensate for that by adding an extra day of holiness outside the borders of Israel. Therefore, instead of having a single, climax-of-the-holiday day, we have two. One additional day of mundanity transformed into a day of holiness (nothing to sniff at). [Rabbi Yeruchem Eilfort]

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Jewish Religion, Yeruchem Eilfort-Rabbi

Yiddish writer’s play finally to be performed in Yiddish

National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene (NYTF) kicks off its Yiddish Women Playwrights Festival with a virtual reading of Chava Rosenfarb’s play The Bird of the Ghetto (Der Foygl fun Geto), the first time the play will be presented in the language in which it was written, Yiddish. Audiences can stream the event at 11 a.m. (Pacific Time),  Sunday, April 18 through 11 a.m. Thursday  April 22 at 2:00 PM ET. [National Yiddish Theatre Folksbiene (NYTF) press release]

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Jewish History, Theatre, Film & Broadcast

Haftorah Reading for April 3, 2021

This is a short, entirely prose, sequence of events during the early reign of King David. It involves the ups and downs of moving the desert Ark to Jerusalem, to be housed in a tent at the City of David. The Temple, the ultimate house for the Ark, was to be built later by King Solomon. There are episodes of intrigue and hostility in this story, including within David’s relationship to Michel, daughter of the deceased King Saul, who is David’s wife. God, who punishes actors in these scenes, for innocent unavoidable setbacks, does not come across as loving or reasonable, though he ultimately blesses David and promises loyalty to his throne and successors. [Irv Jacobs, M.D.]

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Irv Jacobs, MD, Jewish Religion

Adventure story is gentle introduction to the Holocaust

This graphic novel is a relatively gentle introduction for children to the Holocaust, wherein two Polish Jewish children escape from their ghetto to the woods, where they are found by a Gentile farmer who has been working with the resistance.  In fact, the farmer has been hiding from a German search party three Partisans who blew up a train that was headed with weapons and supplies to the Russian front.  Among the brave Partisans is none other than the children’s aunt, who had left home before the Jews of their town had been moved and restricted to  a ghetto. [Donald H. Harrison]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Donald H. Harrison, International, Jewish History

Rabbi Dosick provides advice on ‘Radical Loving’

Radical Loving: One God, One World, One People,  written by Rabbi Wayne Dosick, begins with the statement, “What an incredible time it is to be alive!”  Immediately the reader is asked to question the author’s opinion “Is it really?”  We turn the page and so begins an anecdote of a village of rice growers and how wonderful their lives are.  Then in an instant, a terrible storm causes a flood that completely destroys their village and their food supply of rice fields. Thanks to one of the village elders, the people were warned ahead of time and were able to escape to higher elevation and were saved.  The anecdote ends of course with a message:  “The village and the fields can rise up again. And the villagers can forever tell the tale.”  Rabbi Dosick is calling on the world to band together and to not forget that we are “One World, One People” and stronger together.  We the readers are the villagers and as my Aunt Nancy has told me, my generation and the next,will be retelling our tale of the 2020 pandemic to our grandchildren for years to come. [Heather Z. Rothstain]

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Books, Poetry & Short Stories, Jewish Religion, Travel and Food, USA

Being Seen on Trans Day of Visibility

They only number about 0.7% of the general population of the United States, and yet they are everywhere. Maybe you’ve noticed them. Something about that woman on the bus seemed a little off. Maybe that young man’s voice in the market seemed curiously high. Or maybe they sat right next to you in shul, or across the dinner table, suffering in silence, and you had no idea. [Eric George Tauber]

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Eric George Tauber, Jewish Religion, USA