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May 26, 2016

Democrats Said to Be Debating Ouster of Wasserman Schultz as Party Chair

Skverer Rebbe Employee Accused of Secretly Filming Nude Couples at NJ Motel

Coexistence Group Raises Over $18,000 for Beaten Bedouin Israeli

Israel Opposition Issues Dire Warnings on ‘Dangerous’ Avigdor Lieberman

Looking at the News

Creating a cover

Editor's Note

Israel and Paris: Shoulder to Shoulder

Globetrotting

When in Rome

Musings With Maury

Word Power

Zionist Dialogue

Tevye and His Daughters

By Herbert Belkin

Fresh Ideas from HBI

The 21st Century Agunah Problem: A Reaction Against Women’s Equality Gains?

By Lisa Fishbayn Joffe

From Scalding to Prodding: Is This Any Way to Get Divorced?

By Amy Sessler Powell

Israel’s Photoshop Law Exposes the Body Image Fantasy

By Bethany Wolfe Barnett

An Interview with Israel’s Ambassador to the U.N.

Danny Danon, Israel’s ambassador to the U.N., speaking at the Security Council.

Kim Haughton

“When I take the podium [at the U.N.] I feel I am representing not only Israel. I am representing the Jewish people.”

Dial “M” for Joel

Joel on Skype, his primary platform for holding meetings, surrounded by graphics from his animation for Bose.

Joel Markus is a one-man visual branding expert based in Salem, whose slients include ESPN, Bose, Discovery and The Home Depot.

More Swastika Grafitti in Mass.

A 19-year-old from Winthrop was arrested, accused of vandalizing a school and committing a hate crime – painting swastikas on white classroom boards. The image was taken from a surveillance camera inside the school.

Anti-Semitism, with swastikas playing a starring role, has been making news of late in Greater Boston. Multiple incidents have occurred recently in local communities.

JCC Infant Toddler Program Gets its Name Back

Ursula Block was the co-founder and director of the Infant Toddler program at the JCC.

Ursula Block, the co-founder of the Infant Toddler Program at the JCC, was the director of the program for the first 7 years.

The Evolution of Matisyahu

In recent years, Matisyahu has shed much of his Chasidic appearance.

Paul Citone

Major Jewish Rapper to appear at Congregation Shirat Hayam on June 2.

Alisan Porter Wins ‘The Voice’

The Last of the Seltzer Men

One Boy’s Bar Mitzvah a Big Victory

By Todd Feinburg

Sam Stein decided last year, all by himself and without pressure from his parents, that he wanted to have a Bar Mitzvah.

Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung developed a method of psychotherapy called Jungian analysis.

Getting Jung: What Are Your Dreams Telling You?

By Mary Markos

Jungian analysis is a method of psychotherapy developed by Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung, who was mentored by Sigmund Freud but would break with the father of modern psychology.

Salem State University students and veterans Jason Goulet of Newburyport (left) and Kevin Kneeland of Salem (right) spoke with Israel Defense Forces Officer Yonas (center) at an event sponsored by the University’s Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies and Combined Jewish Philanthropies.

Israeli Officers and U.S. Vets at Salem State Event

By Amy Forman

Six IDF officers joined four Salem State students who have served in the U.S. military on the panel.

Seniors

Youth

Food

Letters to the Editor

Forward Columnists

John A. Oswald

Gal Beckerman

Paul Berger

Sarah Breger

Anne Cohen

Larry Cohler-Esses

Mychal Copeland

Maia Efrem

Jane Eisner

Dan Friedman

Thea Glassman

Ezra Glinter

J.J. Goldberg

Anna Goldenberg

Nathan Guttman

Adam Langer

Jay Michaelson

Ruby Namdar

Josh Nathan-Kazis

Abigail Pogrebin

Sigal Samuel

Liza Schoenfein

Sarah Seltzer

Judith Shulevitz

Elissa Strauss

Seth Wax

Lior Zaltzman

Naomi Zeveloff

#antisemitism at Temple B'nai Abraham in Beverly last weekend. Learn more on our Facebook page. #vandalism
Anti-Semitic Graffiti at Temple B'nai Abraham-Conservative The words “Merry Christmas” and a dollar sign were spray-painted in green on the back walls of Temple B’nai Abraham in Beverly on Saturday night, May 21. The police were called immediately, according to Rabbi Alison Adler. “We see this as an opportunity to deal with larger underlying issues,” said Rabbi Adler of the possible hate crime. “We want to have a community conversation with the ADL about anti-Semitism because I don't think it’s just about this.” That conversation will be held at the temple and moderated by the Anti-Defamation League on June 2. According to president Alan Peirce, a non-temple member was at TBA on Saturday night to pick up some materials and he saw the graffiti, took a picture of it and sent it to a friend who then posted it on Facebook. As a result the event became public before the Temple was informed and had a chance to decide how to respond. The non-temple member called Executive Director Deborah Schutzman upon finding the graffiti, and according to the police report submitted by Officer Michael Backstrom of the Beverly Police Department (BPD), Schutzman called it in to the police. Crime Analyst and Operations Officer Michael A. Boccuzzi of the BPD displayed evidence of other vandalism in the area within three days of each other. “Hokey is better” was spray-painted in red across a Beverly basketball court. “I h8t kids and don't do drugs” was spray-painted on the Sea Wall, along with “Salem 16” and some vulgarity regarding Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, along with other crude language. “I don't believe they were done by the same people,” said Officer Boccuzzi, despite the fact that in each instance, red, green, or black spray paint was used with what appears to be similar handwriting. Over a three-day span, there were several “tagging” events in a half-mile area. "It's probably a seven on the Richter scale of stupid," said president Pierce. "It's hateful, it's hurtful, and it's something that needs to wake up the community as to why this happens." The vandalism was immediately painted over. “There are some people that are very upset… they wanted to leave it up there,” said president Pierce. “We covered it over but we didn't intend to cover it up,” he added. Rabbi Adler appeared distraught, defending the decision to paint over the vandalism. “I don't want to walk into the building and see that,” she said. Rabbi Adler and president Pierce met with Mayor Mike Cahill on Monday, May 23 to discuss the anti-Semitic incident. A photo and a response from Rabbi Adler and president Pierce were posted on the TBA website. The response said, “As far as hate crimes go, this ranks up there with “stupid” rather than vile… But it hits home.” The vandalism gives the community a chance to have an honest conversation, in Rabbi Adler’s mind. “People have fears. I mean I do, I’m up at night worrying about what we’re sending our kids into,” said Rabbi Adler. She sees this as a signal to have a larger conversation about anti-Semitism that is happening in the larger community. Rabbi Adler believes that the community should talk about this event in the context of anti-Semitism in our country. “It’s an over due conversation in some ways, and this is a trigger.” And Alan Pierce added, “And it’s too bad it took a trigger.”
A 19-year-old from Winthrop is under arrest, accused of vandalizing a school and committing a hate crime – painting swastikas on white classroom boards. The image was taken from a surveillance camera inside the school. Read more: http://boston.forward.com/articles/189523/swastikas-winthrop-joins-newton-georgetown-marble/#ixzz49VBxNGIK http://boston.forward.com/articles/189523/swastikas-winthrop-joins-newton-georgetown-marble/
Check out the Jewish Journal exclusive interview with Danny Danon - דני דנוןn, Israel's Ambassador to the U.N.! http://boston.forward.com/articles/189555/an-interview-with-israel-s-ambassador-to-the-uni/
Looking for Shabbat services? You are in luck. Chabad of North Shore is holding Shabbat services in not one but TWO locations the weekend of May 13-May14. It may be the first time two shuls partnered on a Shabbat - but don't quote us on that. Erev Shabbat, May 13th, please join us in Everett: 6:30 PM Congregation Tifereth Israel 34 Malden Street, Everett, MA Shabbat Dinner Prepared by Chef Dovi Weiner Shabbat Morning Services, May 14, please join us in Chelsea: 10:00 AM Walnut Street Synagogue, Congregation Agudas Shalom. 145 Walnut Street, Chelsea, MA A Kiddush meal to follow services..you know the drill! The Jewish Daily Forward Chabad of the North Shore Hipster Jew The Vilna Shul, Boston's Center for Jewish Culture Discover Chelsea City of Chelsea MA -Government Jewish Journal MA #shabbat #shabbos #chelsea #everett #northshorechabad #jewishboston
How Swampscott reacted to anti-Semitic acts; how Newton did the same but came up empty. http://boston.forward.com/articles/189456/a-tale-of-two-jerusalems/
Israeli Soldiers Tour visited Temple B'nai Abraham-Conservative where Ilana and Itai shared their touching stories about combat, IDF training, and their engagement on duty! http://boston.forward.com/articles/189395/israeli-soldiers-tour-temple-b-nai-abraham/
The Passover Haggadah Graphic Novel https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/the-passover-haggadah-graphic-novel#/
Special Guest Presentation by Dr. Itzhak Brook: The Yom Kippur War and the Role of Hadassah Medical Organization
A Seder In Simferopol By Cindy Skrzycki I was at a table of 20 or so family and friends for the first night of Passover. There were the traditional, beloved prayers, blessings and thanks for liberation. The bitter and the sweet. The communal Seder. I am no stranger to this: It was probably my 35th year at a Seder table. My daughter, a first-year rabbinic student, is in Crimea where she is a stranger and can’t communicate without a translator. But, with another Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion classmate, she helped conduct and Seders for Jewish communities in Crimea. Called the Pesach Project, students from HUC studying in Israel annually raise money for this trip and fan out to Belarus, Ukraine and Crimea. This year, after a class visit to Lithuania, she headed to Simferopol, Yevpatoria, Kerch and Sevastopol. There were multiple Seders and much of a day was spent planting a tree alongside a highway and memorial where Jews faced mass execution. They walked the field, trying to imagine the horror that lay below their feet. There was a meeting with the Russian Jewish Youth Congress in Simferopol, a place where there are no rabbis. With translators, they will led educational programs and learned a new culture, seeing the remnants of life in the former Soviet Union. That’s what is on the official schedule but some of the real learning has already taken place--for my daughter, the aspiring rabbi, and for me, her Catholic mother. In one very broken up conversation with my daughter, she talked about experiencing the emptiness of standing in a shell of an old synagogue in Lithuania. The walls were peeling; dust and mildew prevailed in a building more than 100 years old that could tell stories. Worlds apart, yet the same prayers, same plagues, same questions. As the Catholic in the family, I have taken the Passover holiday for what it is—an intense, quick escape from Egyptian masters who used Jews for slaves. Christians note the meal but never celebrate it. There is deliberation about whether this is Jesus keeping Passover in Jerusalem. Whatever you believe, the most remarkable thing about this time is the lengths to which Jews will go to have everyone at the Seder table—even non-Jews. President Obama’s Seder table in the White House was celebrated national news. Many Christians who get invited to a Seder wonder at the complexity and length of this meal and why matzot suddenly becomes the center of the Jewish diet. It’s not so different in Crimea. They try to get everyone to come to the table and the Jewish community there considers the visitors role models. They want help from the visiting students and they want to show that women can be rabbis and that rabbis are needed. The visit comes as welcome relief to the Jews in Simferopol who don’t have a synagogue and rely on a young woman of 25 to handle questions about tradition and ritual. She's learning what it means to be a rabbi, and finding it isn't a bowl of charoset, the apple, walnut and wine concoction scarfed up at Passover. But when the students completed visits to the the Holocaust memorials, Orthodox Shabbat services, and the preservation of a shtetl and synagogues that were spared, they were ready to celebrate multiple times the meal that marks freedom. What better place to proclaim this? The bitter herbs had a bit more of an edge this year, remembering Jews who could not pray from the Haggadah and ask the Four Questions under Soviet oppression. Now as a progressive Jewish culture begins to flower in those places, the prayers, food and open community celebrating liberation seems sweeter for the students and the communities they visited. So, as I sat as a guest in an observant home, I thought about how this holiday should be marked in Crimea, as everywhere else: “This is a day you are to commemorate; for the generations to come you shall celebrate it as a festival to the Lord—a lasting ordinance.” For this group of student rabbis, cantors and educators, next year is not likely to be in Crimea. This learning and service excursion might, however, give another meaning to Passover in that the story of liberation is read differently in every part of the world where Jews live. -Cindy Skrzycki, a former Washington Post columnist, is senior lecturer in the English Department of the University of Pittsburgh.
Hadassah Author Series Features Joanna Rakoff, Author of "My Salinger Year" Hadassah Northeast hosted a 2016 Author Series presentation featuring the novel, "My Salinger Year" with author Joanna Rakoff on Thursday, April 14. After leaving graduate school to pursue her dream of becoming a poet, Rakoff took a job as assistant to the storied literary agent for J.D. Salinger. Keenly observed and irresistibly funny, "My Salinger Year" is a memoir about literary New York in the late nineties. During her presentation, Rakoff discussed how a long weekend of reading all of Salinger’s books was a turning point in her life. Salinger’s books “made me grow up and become less judgmental . . . I was humbled and more open to all sorts of literature.” Featured from left to right in the photograph are Hadassah Boston President Varda E. Farber, Author Joanna Rakoff, and Hadassah Northern New England President Rhonda Saunders.
Happy Passover! http://boston.forward.com/articles/189392/another-passover/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EEschiDOGEo Meet Kol Esperanza - new Israeli opera-pop group :) Chag Sameach!
Would you host an international exchange student? International coordinators at Educatius International provide an inside scoop on what its like to be a host family. http://boston.forward.com/articles/189362/hosting-international-exchange-students/
Read about how Nantucket locals help editor Todd Feinburg to see Nantucket Through Nantucket Eyes. http://boston.forward.com/articles/189357/seeing-nantucket-through-nantucket-eyes/

By Todd Feinburg

By Mary Markos

By Amy Forman

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