AFTER 70 YEARS, THE UNITED NATIONS RECOGNIZES YOM KIPPUR AS AN OFFICIAL HOLIDAY

By Yair Rosenberg for Tablet Magazine   

On Friday, 70 years after its founding, the United Nations finally recognized the holiest day of the Jewish calendar as an official holiday. The designation ensures that no official meetings will take place on Yom Kippur, and that U.N. employees can choose not to work on it. Previously, Jews who wished to observe the penitential fast day were given no such dispensation, even as New York—the home of the U.N. headquarters—had long declared Yom Kippur to be a school holiday.

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Was Dead Man Too Jewish To Be Cremated?

Josh Nathan-Kazis for The Jewish Daily Forward   

When Martin Mendelsohn died in September, his brother’s plans to have the remains cremated ran into some surprising opposition: The Hasidic owner of the dead man’s retirement home sued to have the body buried instead.

Philip Schonberger, who runs the Evergreen Court Home for Adults, in Spring Valley, New York, thought Mendelsohn’s brother, Steven, was making a terrible mistake by opting for cremation.

“Why would a person who loved Judaism and practiced to the best of his ability want to be cremated?” Schonberger said. Cremation is strictly banned under Orthodox law.

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The Russian Jewish Ethnographer Behind A Trove of Stunning Historic Photographs

By Leah Falk for Jewniverse

The Vitebsk-born Shloyme Zaynvi Rapoport — better known by the moniker S. An-sky — was many things: publisher, playwright, tutor. But his most enduring legacy is twofold: his play The Dybbuk, which comprises what most people know of Yiddish literature outside the Singer family, and the exhaustive ethnographic expedition that inspired that play. With the expedition, An-sky aspired to chronicle the entirety of Jewish life in the Pale of Settlement in the early 1900s.

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Why Jews Used to Spit in Shul

By Zachary Solomon for Jewniverse   
The list of what you cannot do in a synagogue is prodigious—from clapping and smoking to futzing with the change in your pocket. But what you won’t find on that list is spitting. In fact, in many Orthodox congregations, spitting is quite encouraged, and we can thank a certain prayer for that.

Aleinu, the prayer that marks the end of the daily prayer services, is an intense one: the first paragraph praises God, “who has not made us like the nations of the world…who has not designed our destiny to be like theirs…for they bow to vanity and emptiness and pray to a god who cannot save.”

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A view from the women’s section on Orthodox spiritual leadership

by Julie Gruenbaum Fax for JewishJournal

I have a vivid memory of sitting in my yeshiva high school principal’s office, imploring him to start teaching the girls Mishnah and Gemara, to offer a little more respect to our intellects and our souls by giving us access to all the Jewish texts that form the basis of our heritage, of what we were expected to live every day. He said no, for four years. Did he quote sources at me stating that women’s minds are too feeble for it? Say that it wouldn’t interest me anyway? That it’s simply not done? I’ve shut those details out of my memory, but my mission was clear: If I wanted access to the heritage that is rightfully mine, I was going to have to get out of the principal’s office. And I did. After I graduated from yeshiva high school, I started taking adult Gemara classes, and I continue to do so today.

Last week, the Rabbinical Council of America (RCA) made a proclamation saying that female spiritual leaders are outlawed, and it seems they want to put me back in that principal’s office. They want to sit us down, we renegades who want more than mere wisps of tradition, and to tell us what we can and can’t do.

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The 6 Genders of the Talmud

By Leah Falk for Jewniverse

If you want to smash the gender binary (by, for example, giving transpeople a comfortable place to pee), Judaism can feel like an odd fit. The obligation to observe commandments is traditionally divided along male/female lines: men pray three times daily, while women don’t have to; men put on tefillin, while women do not. Some women’s recent efforts to observe the religious privileges they’re exempt from have made ripples in the Jewish world, and even the news.

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Is It Ethical to Eat Pig Meat?

by Rabbi Goldie Milgram JewishValuesCenter.org

The other day at breakfast five of the six Jews present ordered bacon with their eggs. I was torn about saying something, as it disturbed me. Prosp​ectively speaking, Judaism got it totally right --​ ​it is unethical to eat pig meat. Listen to neuroscientist Lori Marino of Emory University and The Nonhuman Rights Project: “We have shown that pigs share a number of cognitive capacities with other highly intelligent species such as dogs, chimpanzees, elephants, dolphins, and even humans. There is good scientific evidence to suggest we need to rethink our overall relationship to them.”

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On Being Jewish

By Erika Davis on RitualWell
If you ask any convert to Judaism, they will likely tell you that as daunting as the conversion process can sometimes be, actually being a Jew can be harder that becoming one.

Picking a rabbi and a community to anchor my conversion was the first step. After several months of shul shopping and ongoing conversations with rabbis about conversion, I settled on the rabbi that made me cry when I left her office. She posed hard questions about my commitment to Judaism, and challenged me to think long and hard about how my relationship with my partner might change after my conversion. After I attended my first conversion class, I knew that I'd made the right decision.

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The Star Symbol

From Jewish Treats

Looking for a nice piece of Judaica? Why not go for something really Jewish, like a Star of David. This ancient symbol of Judaism is...well, actually, although the Star of David is a popular Jewish symbol today, it isn’t an ancient Jewish symbol at all

The Star of David, also known as the Magen David (Shield of David), is supposedly the shape of the shield that was carried by King David. However, there are no Biblical descriptions of King David’s shield, nor have any archeological artifacts of such a shield ever been found. While there have been some ancient Jewish sites discovered with designs similar to a modern day Star of David, interlocked triangles were not an uncommon symbol in the ancient Middle East and North Africa.

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In defense of Jewish circumcision

by Dennis Prager for JewishJournal

This past week, I was in Miami for the bris (or brit), the Jewish ritual circumcision, of my grandson. It’s a good time to offer a defense of the Jews’ most ancient ritual.

According to various reports, there are Jews — and not only Jews who have forsaken their Jewish identity — who oppose circumcising their sons. They are still a minority, but they are vocal and, I suspect, growing.

Their primary arguments are that circumcisions, whether for religious or medical reasons, are unnecessary; that they are a form of mutilation; and that the act inflicts serious pain on the 8-day-old for no good reason.

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In Germany, a Turkish Muslim educates immigrants not to hate Jews

Aycan Demirel’s nonprofit Kiga fights rising national prejudices by teaching the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in classrooms

BY MIRIAM DAGAN for The Times of Israel

BERLIN — Dervis Hizarci is a practicing Muslim, a German citizen of Turkish origin, and a guide in Berlin’s Jewish Museum. His services aren’t available to just anyone: Hizarci’s job is to guide teenagers from the surrounding Kreuzberg neighborhood, one of Berlin’s main migrant districts. Today, his visitors are a class of mostly Muslim students from a nearby high school.

Hizarci begins the tour with a question: How long does German-Jewish history span? For reference, he adds that Turkish-German history is about 50 years old. A student volunteers: 350 years? Hizarci tells them the answer: 2,000 years.

Next, he talks about another number: six million Jews killed in the Holocaust. To give the students a sense of scale, he adds that today there are around three million people of Turkish origin living in Germany. The teens seem surprised and moved.

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Send a Salami to Your Boy in the Army

How WWII changed the way America thought about deli

By Ted Merwin for Tablet Magazine

The entrance of the United States into World War II in December 1941 ultimately transformed the relationship of many Jews to their religion. Obliged to eat Army rations, Jewish soldiers found it almost impossible to keep kosher on a regular basis. In G.I. Jews, Deborah Dash Moore’s book about Jews in the Army, Moore discusses the ways in which many Jewish soldiers, especially those raised in kosher homes, were compelled to modify their eating patterns in order to survive on army rations. “Eating ham for Uncle Sam” became, Moore has found, a patriotic act of self-sacrifice. But not all servicemen were obliged to subsist on nonkosher food; the practice soon developed of sending hard salamis, which keep for a long time without refrigeration, to sons who were serving abroad. For the most part, however, Jews learned that they could do without familiar foods and still maintain their Jewish identity.

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Whatever Happened to Gut Yontif? Why Jews Started Saying Ḥag Same'aḥ

The history of holiday greetings.

Philologos, for Mosaic

The eight days of Sukkot (seven in Israel) are, like those of Passover, of two kinds. The first, second, seventh, and eighth days of the holiday (the first and seventh in Israel) resemble the Sabbath in their festive meals with kiddush, the blessing over wine; their additional prayer service of Musaf; and their restrictions on work, travel, commerce, and other things. In Hebrew, they are known as yamim tovim, literally, “good days,” the singular of which is yom tov. The intermediate four days (five in Israel) lack these elements and are called ḥol ha-mo’ed, “the non-sacred part [ḥol] of the festive [literally, “appointed”] time [ha-mo’ed].”

Which raises the question: when two traditionally minded Jews meet on a yom tov of Sukkot or Passover, and then again on ḥol ha-mo’ed, do they exchange the same holiday greeting on both occasions, or two different ones?

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Ukrainian Jews demand protection for Holocaust sites

From JPost.com

Babi Yar has been vandalized six times since the beginning of the year, most recently on the sixteenth, when unknown assailants piled tires around a memorial menorah and lit them on fire.

Ukrainian Jewish leaders on Tuesday demanded that their government protect Holocaust sites throughout the country, during a pre-Yom Kippur ceremony memorializing the more than 33,000 Jews killed at Kiev’s Babi Yar ravine.

Babi Yar has been vandalized six times since the beginning of the year, most recently on September 16, when unidentified persons piled tires around a memorial menorah and lit them on fire.

While the number of violent anti-Semitic incidents was low in Ukraine in 2013 compared to Western Europe, anti-Semitic vandalism spiked in the Eastern European nation last year, according to the Euro-Asian Jewish Congress.

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The High Holidays are upon us, check out our High Holidays Spotlight Kit

Kapparot ritual allowed in New York

(JTA) — The Yom Kippur ritual of kapparot can proceed in New York, a state Supreme Court judge ruled.

Justice Debra James ruled Monday in Manhattan that there was not enough evidence to prove that the ritual is a public nuisance, the New York Post reported. The decision was in response to a lawsuit filed in July by The Alliance to End Chickens as Kaporos.

Kapparot involves swinging a live chicken over one’s head three times and reciting a prayer to cast sins to the bird. The chicken is then slaughtered and donated to the poor. In recent years, money has replaced the chicken in the rite for many Jewish groups.

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The High Holidays are upon us, check out our High Holidays Spotlight Kit

How Moishe House is helping turn social lives into Jewish life

by Aron Chilewich for Jewish Journal

 “Are you all from Moishe House?” Ben Zauzmer asked as he approached a circle of about 15 young adults, all in their early to mid-20s, who were eating sandwiches on the lawn of the Silver Lake Recreation Center on a recent Saturday morning. They were, so he joined the group, appearing a bit nervous doing so.

Andrew Cohen, 23, immediately and warmly introduced himself, and asked how Zauzmer had heard about the “Shabbat Picnic in the Park” event.

“My sister was a resident of the Moishe House in Washington, D.C., and since I just moved to L.A., she suggested I check it out,” Zauzmer said, adding he had recently graduated from college and has a job doing data analytics for the Dodgers.

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On Greek isle of Rhodes, Jews return to celebrate ancient community all but wiped out

RHODES, Greece (JTA) – Each summer, tens of thousands of tourists descend on Rhodes, Greece’s easternmost island. They are drawn by the sandy beaches, the turquoise waters of the Aegean Sea, the casino resorts and the prospect of exploring the medieval walled old city that was built by Crusader knights. On a clear day, you can see Turkey in the distance.

But for a few, it’s an annual pilgrimage, a homecoming that commemorates the Jews of this Mediterranean island who lived here for 2,000 years — up until July 23, 1944, when the last among them were deported to Auschwitz. This annual gathering, including Holocaust survivors and descendants, is a testament to the success of efforts to keep alive the spirit and identity of the community.

“What is it about Rhodes that is so attractive that we were driven to create the same community wherever we went — to Congo, in Rhodesia, in Seattle and California? What is it that was so special, that unites all these people?” said 91-year-old Stella Levi, who survived Auschwitz and later settled in New York. “I think it was because we were all one family, and that’s what we are trying to pass on to the new generation.”

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Ask the Expert: Why are High Holiday tickets so expensive?

Affordable alternatives inside and outside the synagogue.

By MJL Staff

When is Rosh Hashanah 2015? Find out here. Or wondering when is Yom Kippur 2015? Click here to find out!

Question: My wife and I decided not to buy High Holiday tickets this year because they’re so expensive. What can we do to mark the holidays at home, on our own?
–Norman, Chicago

Answer: Every year as the High Holidays approach I hear people grumbling about the price of tickets. And it’s true, at some synagogues it’s upwards of $500 a head. But why is it so expensive? It’s only a few hours, right?

First of all, in most synagogues, High Holiday tickets are included in membership fees. So, if you join the synagogue as a member, there’s no need to pay for tickets. It’s only if you want to go without paying membership fees that your tickets are so costly. Think about it like a membership to a gym, or health club. If you only go three times a year, then yes, what you pay is a lot per visit. But if you regularly visit your gym, then the monthly fee probably breaks down to only a dollar or two per visit. And the gym needs your membership fees to pay for machines, classes, maintenance, etc.
 
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Susan Talks About Saying Goodbye with Poetry - A Jewish Mourning Story

When Susan’s husband, Morton, passed away, a group at her synagogue stepped up and offered support during an incredibly difficult time. People from the Jewish community gathered together, read his poetry - his prayers - as they all remembered him together. It was a beautiful, nontraditional farewell.

Berlin Just Hosted the Biggest Shabbat Meal Ever

By Zachary Solomon for Jewniverse

The logistics of a big Shabbat meal can be a bit daunting—especially so when over 2,000 Jewish men and women attend.

On a recent evening in Berlin, exactly 2,322 Jews converged for what is now, officially, the world’s largest Shabbat meal of all time. So speaks the holy scripture of the Guinness Book of World Records. That’s right: Berlin beat out Tel Aviv, which last summer fed a mere 2,226 hungry souls.

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I Don't Care About Jewish Tribal Loyalty — And That Doesn't Make Me Anxious

Paul Golin, Opinion for The Jewish Daily Forward

The angst some American Jews feel over Jewish identity is captured beautifully in a recent essay by Gal Beckerman . As the outgoing opinion editor for the only national Jewish newspaper, he’s certainly had his ear to the ground. But it’s a very specific section of the ground: those who bother reading and debating in Jewish newspapers.

I know those folks. I work regularly with synagogue leaders, Jewish clergy, and others at Jewish communal organizations, and don’t disagree with the description of a “gut-churning, fraught, panicked and uncomfortable state…. of not really knowing anymore what it means to be a Jew.”

But that’s not how I feel. And I don’t think it describes how the majority of American Jews feel. Perhaps it’s just the majority of the 30% who are deeply engaged in the organized Jewish community.

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What Makes Wine Kosher?

From coffeeshoprabbi.com

Periodically I will hear someone say that a food is kosher because “a rabbi said a prayer over it.” Not true. Kashrut is a complex topic, so I’ll tackle in it manageable “bites.”

Since Shabbat is coming, let’s start with wine.

•     Kosher wine is wine that has been produced and handled only by Sabbath-observing Jews, and for which all ingredients were also kosher.
•     You can tell if wine is kosher by looking for the hecksher (rabbinical mark) on the label.
•     The rules for kosher wine go back to ancient times, when wine was used to worship idols. To avoid wine that has been tainted by idol worship, kosher wine must be handled only by observant Jews. This includes the servers who pour the wine.

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Less than 2% of the US population is Jewish. So why is 41% of the country’s packaged food kosher?

By Deena Shanker for qz.com

Considering how few people keep kosher in the US—Jews make up less than 2% of the American population, and only a portion of them follow Jewish dietary laws—it’s fairly astounding that 40% of the country’s packaged food and beverage products are labeled as being kosher. That makes it the top label claim on food and beverages, according to market research firm Mintel, beating out the ever-present “gluten-free” label and even allergen claims.

“Kosher” food meets the broad range of requirements of Jewish dietary laws. The laws define, for example, which animals are and are not allowed to be eaten (cows and chickens are ok, pigs and shellfish are not), as well as how the animals are slaughtered, and how their meat is prepared; the laws also lay out which foods can and cannot be mixed (no meat with dairy, for example), and even, when it comes to wine, who is allowed to touch it.

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Why all Israelis need to know Arabic

The Blogs-- Anat Peled, The Times of Israel
About a month ago I began teaching English to Arab elementary school students in Tira (an Israeli-Arab village). Presenting myself to the class for the first time, I wrote my name in English, Hebrew and Arabic. I explained in Arabic that I’m Jewish and have been studying Arabic for the past few years. There were some whispers and surprised faces.

“Can you write my name in Arabic?” one girl asked. The girl’s eyes grew wide as I wrote her name. Pretty quickly the kids were all begging me to write their names in Arabic with puppy dog eyes as if they wanted candy

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Saudi Sunnis, Indian Shiites, and Israeli Jews Meet in India

A visit to Lucknow, India

BY SHIMON SHAPIRA for The Weekly Standard

In May 2015, I visited the Indian city of Lucknow, the most important Shiite center in India. The visit was exceptional in its composition—an Israeli delegation from the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, headed by Dr. Dore Gold, and a Saudi delegation from the Middle East Center for Strategic and Legal Studies, located in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, chaired by Maj. Gen. (ret.) Dr. Anwar Majed Eshki.

Our hosts were the leaders of the Shiite community in Lucknow, the Raja of Mahmudabad, Amir Khan, his son Ali Khan, intellectuals, and teachers of the local madrassa. It was an extraordinary meeting of Jews from Jerusalem, Saudi Sunnis from Mecca and Medina, and Indian Shiites from Lucknow.

For me the visit to Lucknow was a dream come true. I first heard the name Lucknow at a conference that the Dayan Center convened at Tel Aviv University in 1984. It was during the first Lebanon War and Israel’s various intelligence services were groping in the dark in all matters dealing with Shiites, in general, and Lebanese Shiites, in particular. One of the conference topics was about the Shiites of Lucknow.

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Expensive Dues Aren’t the Only Reason People Don’t Go to Synagogues

Nina Badzin for Kveller

On Monday in the New York Times, Michael Paulson reported on the “Pay What You Want” model some synagogues are implementing to reduce the financial barrier to membership. Paulson estimates about 30 synagogues across the United States are trying voluntary dues.

In Paulson’s words, these changes have come from “an acknowledgement that many Jewish communal organizations are suffering the effects of growing secularization, declining affection for institutions, a dispersal of Jewish philanthropy and an end to the era in which membership in a congregation was seen as a social obligation.”

With those realities, a massive change in the dues structure is necessary, but is it sufficient? Changing the financial requirement for membership without addressing the deeper disinterest in attending synagogue is going to yield more of the same long term: low participation and apathy.

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Ask the Expert: Joint Aliyot

Can two people be called up to the Torah at once?

By MJL Staff-MyJewishLearning.com

Question: I’ve been to synagogues where groups of people are called up together for one aliyah to the Torah. Sometimes it’s a couple who are about to get married, having a joint aufruf. Other times it’s a whole confirmation class, reciting one blessing in unison. Does this practice have any halakhic justification? Where did it come from?

–Charlie, Washington DC

Answer: I used to have a teacher who told me that the answer to every question in Jewish law is, “There’s a mahloket“–it’s up for debate. This holds true in regards to your question, Charlie. Some synagogue rabbis have decided to offer joint aliyot in their congregations, and others have chosen not to. Who’s right and who’s wrong? It depends who you ask, of course!

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For more information about the upcoming holidays, check out our Shavuot & Summer Holiday Kit