Kibbutz, Gush Etzion, 1945

The Romance of Gush Etzion

 

The modern return of the Jewish people to their homeland succeeded thanks to the extraordinary tenacity of pioneering individuals who, in a dangerous environment, created new communities from scratch. One such community, or rather series of communities, is the Etzion district—in Hebrew, Gush Etzion—located along the ancient mountain route between Jerusalem and Hebron. The first three communities built by Jewish settlers were completely destroyed by Arabs. The fourth still stands today.

The Death and Rebirth of Kfar Etzion  Yair Sheleg,  Haaretz.  A (Hebrew-language) book attempts to come to grips with the story of the orphaned children of Etzion Village.  SAVE

An Ideal Leader  Alan Brill,  Edah Journal.  Aharon Lichtenstein's essays offer a consistent vision of life reflecting their author's lifelong dedication to Torah study as an expression of the Divine.  SAVE

Remembering the Catastrophe  Aljazeera Magazine.  International peacemakers speak of including parts of the Gush Etzion settlement bloc in an agreement, but the Arab press routinely brands all settlers and settlements as illegal.  SAVE

Ronald S. Lauder.

World Jewish Congress

 

In a show of solidarity with Israel, leaders of the World Jewish Congress (WJC) will be gathering in Jerusalem at the end of the month. Not to be confused with the American Jewish Congress, of which it was originally an outgrowth, or the World Zionist Congress, founded by Theodor Herzl, the WJC is an umbrella group of Diaspora organizations (including the European Jewish Congress, the Latin American Jewish Congress, and others) that defines itself somewhat grandly as "the diplomatic arm of the Jewish people." If you haven't heard of it, there's a reason.

Records of the World Jewish Congress  American Jewish Archives.  A complete inventory, including (in a file labeled Day Book of the WJC 1939-1940) confidential reports of actions on behalf of European Jews during World War II. (PDF)  SAVE

Yossi Vassa

It Sounds Better in Amharic

 

In his one-man play, It Sounds Better in Amharic, the Ethiopian-born Israeli actor Yossi Vassa humorously contrasts life in the old world and the new, mulling over the differences between traditional and modern ways of dating and the respective virtues of traveling by donkey or Lamborghini. He also narrates his family's 400-mile journey from Ethiopia to Sudan—from where, in 1984, the Israeli air force flew 8,000 Ethiopian Jews to Israel. Vassa's family covered the 400 miles on foot, in three months. "Not to brag," he comments, "but it took the children of Israel 40 years."

Operation Moses  Edward Alexander,  Commentary.  The rescue of the starving and impoverished Ethiopian Jews was high drama; the welcome they received in Israel was equally dramatic, as well as generous and enthusiastic.  SAVE

It Sounds Better in Amharic  Yossi Vassa,  Nephesh Theatre.  Selected scenes from a one-man play. (Video; introduction in Hebrew)  SAVE

Ras Deshen  YouTube.  Abatte Barihun and Yitzhak Yedid combine the ancient feel of Ethiopian music with the modern spirit of free jazz. (Video.)  SAVE

Digging King Herod

 

King Herod was a Jew of doubtful origin who ruled Israel in the years 40-4 B.C.E. During this same period, the Roman republic was being replaced by the Roman Empire with its vast expansionist aims. Relying on Roman support for his power, Herod was, in effect, Israel's little Roman emperor. And he played the part, bringing administrative order and economic prosperity to the country and creating hugely ambitious architectural projects. In the Roman way, he was also cruel, paranoid, and thorough, killing his wife, three sons, and an assortment of other relatives and confidants.

Herod Inspires New Controversy  Samuel Sockol,  Washington Post.  The discovery of Herod's tomb stirs up a hornet's nest of political passions.  SAVE

Herod Revealed  Tom Mueller,  National Geographic.  Israelis are reckoning with the questions raised by Herod's life and architectural achievements.  SAVE

Insight & Analysis

Access  Associated Press.  Yad Vashem has been given access to Poland's World War II-era archives, including files produced by Nazi authorities that will aid in identifying Holocaust victims.  SAVE

Defiance  ToldotYisrael.  YouTube.  Six men who flouted a 1930 British law and blew the shofar at the Western Wall tell their story. (Video).  SAVE

All Too Human  Ron Rosenbaum.  Tablet.  According to his latest biographer, Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal wasn't perfect. So what?.  SAVE

Culture and Agriculture  Wallace Karbe, Gayle Danis Rinot.  Hadassah.  Ancient Israelite farming methods have been reconstructed at Sataf, a 250-acre eco-park near Jerusalem.  SAVE

A Jerusalem Childhood  Miriam Gross.  Standpoint.  The longtime literary editor of the (London) Sunday Telegraph recalls her years as the child of German Jewish refugees in 1940's Jerusalem.  SAVE

Partners in Apartheid?  James Kirchik.  Commentary.  A serious attempt to reconstruct the historical relationship between Israel and South Africa is marred by manipulative, irresponsible, and offensive speculation.  SAVE

Classical Islam and the Jews  Hagai Mazuz.  Hudson New York.  The root of the Israel-Arab conflict is not territorial but religious. Part I; part II is here.  SAVE

Jerusalem Letter

Tzanaa

 

Aryeh Tepper

At a Yemenite synagogue in Jerusalem, a group of men sit down at 5:30 every Saturday morning to study the weekly Torah portion. The custom is hardly extraordinary; but the curriculum is.

Continue Reading "Tzanaa"  Aryeh Tepper,  Jewish Ideas Daily.  SAVE

Torah, Tzanaa-style  A video of a weekly portion in Hebrew, Aramaic, and Judeo-Arabic, together with an audio recording of Tzanaa-style recitation.  SAVE

SAVE "Tzanaa"

Q & A

Left in Zion: A Conversation with Elhanan Yakira

 

Elhanan Yakira, professor of philosophy at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, has all the credentials of a man of the Israeli Left: born and raised in Tel Aviv as a Zionist and socialist , a lifelong secular Jew, an opponent of West Bank settlements, an advocate of government intervention in economic policy. Yet many of his colleagues on the Left denounce him as a right-winger and a traitor. 

Continue Reading "Left in Zion"  Elliot Jager,  Jewish Ideas Daily.  A philosopher who did not set out to be a Zionist polemicist stirs anger and debate.  SAVE

SAVE "Left in Zion: A Conversation with Elhanan Yakira"

Jerusalem Letter

The Sephardi Turn

 

Aryeh Tepper

The stagnation of Jewish tradition is hardly a new story. In a sense, it's a modern Jewish trope. In the 19th century, both the Reform and Conservative movements emerged as responses to this perceived atrophy. Leading Orthodox rabbis, some of whom agreed with the reformers' critique, devised their own attempts to revive the tradition—if, naturally, along more traditionalist lines. Unfortunately, none succeeded in arresting the decline.

Continue Reading "The Sephardi Turn"  Aryeh Tepper,  Jewish Ideas Daily.  SAVE

SAVE "The Sephardi Turn"

Q & A

But for the Grace of Babylon: A Conversation with Irving Finkel

 

On the way to work from his home in south London, Dr. Irving Finkel often finds himself sitting on a bus reading the Hebrew Bible while surrounded by black church ladies studying their Bibles. "If they only knew what I was thinking," he muses.

Unlike his fellow passengers, what the Assistant Keeper of Ancient Mesopotamian Inscriptions at the British Museum is thinking is that the Bible is not the literal word of God, but that it was crystallized during the sixth-century B.C.E. Babylonian exile by a displaced people from Judea who had lost their country, whose deity was invisible, abstract, and unforgiving, and whose monotheism had gone wobbly. Their decision to create "scripture," something that had never before been attempted, saved the refugees' civilization and enshrined their religious identity. The result was Judaism.

Continue Reading "But for the Grace of Babylon"  Elliot Jager,  Jewish Ideas Daily.  A British Museum scholar offers a Darwinian explanation for Judaism's survival.  SAVE

SAVE "But for the Grace of Babylon: A Conversation with Irving Finkel"

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