KS1 Spring Cycle B Judaism & Christianity
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Office of Rabbi Sacks
Dear Sir / Madam, Please find the text below of a speech Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks made on the subject of antisemitism. This was the keynote address of “The Future of the Jewish Communities in Europe” Conference held at The European Parliament on 27th September 2016 in Brussels. I believe you might find the speech useful as you consider your report. Kind regards, Dan Sacker (on behalf of Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks) Office of Rabbi Sacks Dan Sacker Postal address: The Office of Rabbi Sacks, P.O. Box 72007, London NW6 6RW www.rabbisacks.org | ********************************************************************************* The hate that begins with Jews never ends with Jews. That is what I want us to understand today. It wasn’t Jews alone who suffered under Hitler. It wasn’t Jews alone who suffered under Stalin. It isn’t Jews alone who suffer under ISIS or Al Qaeda or Islamic Jihad. We make a great mistake if we think antisemitism is a threat only to Jews. It is a threat, first and foremost, to Europe and to the freedoms it took centuries to achieve. Antisemitism is not about Jews. It is about anti-Semites. It is about people who cannot accept responsibility for their own failures and have instead to blame someone else. Historically, if you were a Christian at the time of the Crusades, or a German after the First World War, and saw that the world hadn’t turned out the way you believed it would, you blamed the Jews. That is what is happening today. And I cannot begin to say how dangerous it is. -
Conversion to Judaism Finnish Gerim on Giyur and Jewishness
Conversion to Judaism Finnish gerim on giyur and Jewishness Kira Zaitsev Syventävien opintojen tutkielma Afrikan ja Lähi-idän kielet Humanistinen tiedekunta Helsingin yliopisto 2019/5779 provided by Helsingin yliopiston digitaalinen arkisto View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk CORE brought to you by Tiedekunta – Fakultet – Faculty Koulutusohjelma – Utbildningsprogram – Degree Programme Humanistinen tiedekunta Kielten maisteriohjelma Opintosuunta – Studieinriktning – Study Track Afrikan ja Lähi-idän kielet Tekijä – Författare – Author Kira Zaitsev Työn nimi – Arbetets titel – Title Conversion to Judaism. Finnish gerim on giyur and Jewishness Työn laji – Aika – Datum – Month and year Sivumäärä– Sidoantal Arbetets art – Huhtikuu 2019 – Number of pages Level 43 Pro gradu Tiivistelmä – Referat – Abstract Pro graduni käsittelee suomalaisia, jotka ovat kääntyneet juutalaisiksi ilman aikaisempaa juutalaista taustaa ja perhettä. Data perustuu haastatteluihin, joita arvioin straussilaisella grounded theory-menetelmällä. Tutkimuskysymykseni ovat, kuinka nämä käännynnäiset näkevät mitä juutalaisuus on ja kuinka he arvioivat omaa kääntymistään. Tutkimuseni mukaan kääntyjän aikaisempi uskonnollinen tausta on varsin todennäköisesti epätavallinen, eikä hänellä ole merkittäviä aikaisempia juutalaisia sosiaalisia suhteita. Internetillä on kasvava rooli kääntyjän tiedonhaussa ja verkostoissa. Juutalaisuudessa kääntynyt näkee tärkeimpänä eettisyyden sekä juutalaisen lain, halakhan. Kääntymisen nähdään vahvistavan aikaisempi maailmankuva -
A Fresh Perspective on the History of Hasidic Judaism
eSharp Issue 20: New Horizons A Fresh Perspective on the History of Hasidic Judaism Eva van Loenen (University of Southampton) Introduction In this article, I shall examine the history of Hasidic Judaism, a mystical,1 ultra-orthodox2 branch of Judaism, which values joyfully worshipping God’s presence in nature as highly as the strict observance of the laws of Torah3 and Talmud.4 In spite of being understudied, the history of Hasidic Judaism has divided historians until today. Indeed, Hasidic Jewish history is not one monolithic, clear-cut, straightforward chronicle. Rather, each scholar has created his own narrative and each one is as different as its author. While a brief introduction such as this cannot enter into all the myriad divergences and similarities between these stories, what I will attempt to do here is to incorporate and compare an array of different views in order to summarise the history of Hasidism and provide a more objective analysis, which has not yet been undertaken. Furthermore, my historical introduction in Hasidic Judaism will exemplify how mystical branches of mainstream religions might develop and shed light on an under-researched division of Judaism. The main focus of 1 Mystical movements strive for a personal experience of God or of his presence and values intuitive, spiritual insight or revelationary knowledge. The knowledge gained is generally ‘esoteric’ (‘within’ or hidden), leading to the term ‘esotericism’ as opposed to exoteric, based on the external reality which can be attested by anyone. 2 Ultra-orthodox Jews adhere most strictly to Jewish law as the holy word of God, delivered perfectly and completely to Moses on Mount Sinai. -
Orthodoxy in American Jewish Life1
ORTHODOXY IN AMERICAN JEWISH LIFE1 by CHARLES S. LIEBMAN INTRODUCTION • DEMOGRAPHIC CHARACTERISTICS OF ORTHODOXY • EARLY ORTHODOX COMMUNITY • UNCOMMITTED ORTHODOX • COM- MITTED ORTHODOX • MODERN ORTHODOX • SECTARIANS • LEAD- ERSHIP • DIRECTIONS AND TENDENCIES • APPENDLX: YESHIVOT PROVIDING INTENSIVE TALMUDIC STUDY A HIS ESSAY is an effort to describe the communal aspects and institutional forms of Orthodox Judaism in the United States. For the most part, it ignores the doctrines, faith, and practices of Orthodox Jews, and barely touches upon synagogue hie, which is the most meaningful expression of American Orthodoxy. It is hoped that the reader will find here some appreciation of the vitality of American Orthodoxy. Earlier predictions of the demise of 11 am indebted to many people who assisted me in making this essay possible. More than 40, active in a variety of Orthodox organizations, gave freely of their time for extended discussions and interviews and many lay leaders and rabbis throughout the United States responded to a mail questionnaire. A number of people read a draft of this paper. I would be remiss if I did not mention a few by name, at the same time exonerating them of any responsibility for errors of fact or for my own judgments and interpretations. The section on modern Orthodoxy was read by Rabbi Emanuel Rackman. The sections beginning with the sectarian Orthodox to the conclusion of the paper were read by Rabbi Nathan Bulman. Criticism and comments on the entire paper were forthcoming from Rabbi Aaron Lichtenstein, Dr. Marshall Ski are, and Victor Geller, without whose assistance the section on the number of Orthodox Jews could not have been written. -
1 Antisemitism Rosh Hashanah 5780 September 29, 2019 Rabbi David
Antisemitism Rosh Hashanah 5780 September 29, 2019 Rabbi David Stern Tonight marks my thirty-first High Holidays at Temple Emanu-El, a huge blessing in my life. In thirty-one years of high holiday sermons, you have been very forgiving, and I have addressed a diverse array of topics: from our internal spiritual journeys to Judaism’s call for justice in the world; relationship and forgiveness, immigration and race, prayer and faith, loving Israel and loving our neighbors; birth and death and just about everything in between in this messy, frustrating, promising, profound, sacred realm we call life. Except -- in thirty-one years as a Jewish leader, I have not given a single High Holiday sermon about antisemitism.1 References, allusions, a pointed paragraph here and there, yes. But in three decades of High Holiday sermons spanning the end of the twentieth and the beginning of the twenty-first centuries, not a single one about antisemitism. I’m hoping that doesn’t constitute professional malpractice, but it is strange. So I’ve asked myself why. Reason #1: I had almost no experience of antisemitism growing up. With one limited exception, I never even experienced name-calling, let alone any physical incident. All four of my grandparents were born in America, and our story was the classic trajectory of American Jewish integration and success. 1 Professor Deborah E. Lipstadt makes a compelling argument for this spelling. Lipstadt rejects the hyphen in the more conventional “Anti-Semitism” because it implies that whatever lies to the right of the hyphen exists as an independent entity. -
RABBIS and SYNAGOGUE ADMINISTRATION Practice and Problems MEL MOGULOF Berkeley, California
RABBIS AND SYNAGOGUE ADMINISTRATION Practice and Problems MEL MOGULOF Berkeley, California A study of synagogues in the San Francisco area revealed several trends in synagogue administration: the emerging role of the rabbi as the CEO of the congregation and its leader in matters both spiritual and profane; the development of a professional position of synagogue administrator; and greater efforts to rationalize dues negotiation and collec tion procedures. The extent to which synagogues deepen their relationships with federa tions in efforts to enhance Jewish continuity will partly depend on their effective manage ment n pursuing its commitment to Jewish Hfe THE ADMINISTRATIVE ROLE OF THE In the San Francisco Bay Area, the Koret RABBI Foundation has recently made major grants In their rabbinic education, rabbis do not re in support of synagogues. One of these ceive much preparation for their role of pro grants makes available technical assistance viding administrative leadership and yet lay on issues related to synagogue administra congregational leaders seem increasingly tion. In preparation for this techrucal assis ready to see their rabbis as the chief execu tance Koret invited several congregations to tive officers (CEOs) of their congregations. participate in an effort to determine patterns Reference to the rabbi as CEO was made re of synagogue administration and to identify peatedly in my interviews with lay leaders. perceived administrative problems. Four And the larger the congregation, the more synagogues agreed to participate in this ef likely was the reference made. fort. These congregations range in size Occasionally reference was made to a from under 200 membership units to over model of rabbinic leadership in which the 1,000 and include the three major syna rabbi's domain is the religious life ofthe gogue movements. -
Guide to Reading Nevi'im and Ketuvim" Serves a Dual Purpose: (1) It Gives You an Overall Picture, a Sort of Textual Snapshot, of the Book You Are Reading
A Guide to Reading Nevi’im and Ketuvim By Seth (Avi) Kadish Contents (All materials are in Hebrew only unless otherwise noted.) Midrash Introduction (English) How to Use the Guide Sheets (English) Month 1: Yehoshua & Shofetim (1 page each) Month 2: Shemuel Month 3: Melakhim Month 4: Yeshayahu Month 5: Yirmiyahu (2 pages) Month 6: Yehezkel Month 7: Trei Asar (2 pages) Month 8: Iyyov Month 9: Mishlei & Kohelet Month 10: Megillot (except Kohelet) & Daniel Months 11-12: Divrei HaYamim & Ezra-Nehemiah (3 pages) Chart for Reading Sefer Tehillim (six-month cycle) Chart for Reading Sefer Tehillim (leap year) Guide to Reading the Five Megillot in the Synagogue Sources and Notes (English) A Guide to Reading Nevi’im and Ketuvim Introduction What purpose did the divisions serve? They let Moses pause to reflect between sections and between topics. The matter may be inferred: If a person who heard the Torah directly from the Holy One, Blessed be He, who spoke with the Holy Spirit, must pause to reflect between sections and between topics, then this is true all the more so for an ordinary person who hears it from another ordinary person. (On the parashiyot petuhot and setumot. From Dibbura de-Nedava at the beginning of Sifra.) A Basic Problem with Reading Tanakh Knowing where to stop to pause and reflect is not a trivial detail when it comes to reading Tanakh. In my own study, simply not knowing where to start reading and where to stop kept me, for many years, from picking up a Tanakh and reading the books I was unfamiliar with. -
May a Conversion Obtained Through Deceit Be Annulled? RABBI STEVEN SALTZMAN
May a Conversion Obtained Through Deceit Be Annulled? RABBI STEVEN SALTZMAN This paper was adopted on June 14, 1989 by a vote of eleven in favor and eight opposed ( 11-8-0). Members voting in favor: Rabbis Amy Eilberg, Dov Peretz Elkins, David Feldman, Arnold Goodman, David Lincoln, Mayer Rabinowitz, Avram Reisner, Joel Roth, Steven Saltzman, Israel Silverman, Gordon Tucker. Members voting in opposition: Rabbis Kassel Abelson, Ben Zion Bergman, Richard Eisenberg, Howard Handler, Lionel Moses, Joel Rembaum, Seymour Rosenbloom, Morris Shapiro. The director of the Center for Conversion to Judaism has requested that the Committee on Jewish Law and Standards address a problem as described by the following excerpts from a letter. In November 1985 a couple came to see me with regard to conversion. The man, A, told me that he was an Israeli Jew of Georgian origin who had worked for the border police. The wife B told me she was an Arab Muslim from the West Bank. They had apparently met when she was in Jerusalem on a visit to her family. She said that she had been divorced from an Arab man after living in Brooklyn with him for many years and had, I believe, five children. They studied with me for a year, Mr. A attending most classes. Despite a long sojourn in the United States, her English was very poor and Mr. A would translate into Arabic ... Mrs.B was converted in October 1986. A few weeks after our program began, Mr. A ... told me he had met an Arab man who was fed up with Arab nationalism. -
Lecture Transcript: Karaites in Egypt
Lecture Transcript: Karaites in Egypt: The Preservation of Jewish-Egyptian Heritage Sunday, September 13, 2020 Louise Bertini: Hello, everyone, and good afternoon or good evening, depending on where you are joining us from. And welcome to our special September lecture, titled, "Karaites in Egypt: The Preservation of Egyptian-Jewish Heritage." I'm Dr. Louise Bertini, the executive director of the American Research Center in Egypt. ARCE is a nonprofit organization composed of educational and cultural institutions, professional scholars and members alike whose mission is to support research on all aspects of Egyptian history and culture, foster a broader knowledge about Egypt among the general public and to strengthen American-Egyptian cultural ties. I want to extend a special welcome to any ARCE members who are joining us today, and if you are not already a member, I encourage you to visit our website, arce.org, where you can find further information on how to join. I want to direct your attention to the Q and A button, to which you can pose questions at the end of the lecture. Today's lecture is also done in partnership with the Drop of Milk Association, whose mission is to promote interfaith tolerance through the preservation of Egyptian-Jewish heritage and promotion of its history through cultural events. I will shortly be introducing Magda Haroun, the head of the Egyptian-Jewish community in Cairo. In 2019, ARCE, in partnership with the Drop of Milk Association, was awarded a grant from the US Ambassadors Fund for Cultural Preservation to document the remaining areas of the historic Bassatine Cemetery, as well as pilot a conservation project in the two burial grounds belonging to the Menasha and Lichaa families, who are prominent members of Egypt's Karaite community. -
Making the Biblical Books of Prophets Accessible
From Joshua to Malachi Making the biblical books of Prophets accessible • RIVKAH LAMBERT ADLER ost Jews have never read the entire Hebrew Bible. The Steinsaltz Center in Jerusalem would like to change that. A Hebrew-English edition of The Steinsaltz Ne- vi’im, with commentary by Rabbi Adin Even-Is- Mrael Steinsaltz, recently published in partnership with Koren Publishers, is a companion to The Steinsaltz Humash and The Steinsaltz Ketuvim. Rabbi Steinsaltz was born into a secular home in Jerusalem in 1937. In 1988, writing for Time magazine, journalist Richard N. Ostling called Steinsaltz a “once-in-a-millennium scholar.” Steinsaltz is best known for opening up Talmud study to people outside the walls of a traditional yeshiva. He’s spent a good part of his life making classic Jewish texts accessible to the non-He- brew-speaking world. In late 2016, Steinsaltz suffered a stroke, leaving him unable to speak, but his son and executive director of the Steinsaltz Center, Rabbi Meni Even-Israel, has dedicated himself to finishing his father’s work and getting it published. All content continues to be reviewed and approved by Rabbi Steinsaltz. With this new volume, Steinsaltz turned his attention to the books of Prophets, which begin where the Five Books of Moses leaves off. Regarding the need for yet another commentary, he wrote in the introduction, “To this day, thank God, there are many scholars and students of the Bible raising unique questions and challenges that require attention, analysis and investigation. All these illuminate the eternal words of the Torah RABBI ADIN STEINSTALTZ. -
HM 427:8.2021A Rabbi Micah Peltz Vaccination and Ethical Questions
HM 427:8.2021a Rabbi Micah Peltz Vaccination and Ethical Questions Posed by COVID-19 Vaccines1 Approved on January 1, 2021, by a vote of 18-0-0. Voting in favor: Rabbis Jaymee Alpert, Pamela Barmash, Suzanne Brody, Nate Crane, Elliot Dorff, David Fine, Susan Grossman, Judith Hauptman, Steven Kane, Jan Kaufman, Daniel Nevins, Micah Peltz, Avram Reisner, Robert Scheinberg, David Schuck, Deborah Silver, Ariel Stofenmacher, and Iscah Waldman. Voting Against: none. Abstaining: none. Question: Now that vaccines for COVID-19 are available, is there an obligation to be vaccinated? Can Jewish institutions require vaccination for employees, students, and congregants? What should be the guidelines for their distribution? Response: The Torah commands us to “Be careful and watch yourselves,”2 which is understood by the Talmud to mean that we should avoid danger whenever possible.3 Elsewhere in Deuteronomy, we find the mitzvah of placing a parapet, or guardrail, around one’s roof.4 This is understood to mean that we should actively take steps to protect ourselves and others.5 As Rabbi Moses Isserles clearly articulates in the Shulhan Arukh, “one should avoid all things that endanger oneself, as we treat physical dangers more stringently than ritual prohibitions.”6 The Torah emphasizes that we need to take responsibility for the well-being of those around us when it says, “Do not stand idly by the blood of your neighbor.”7 This is understood to mean that we do everything we can to safeguard the health of others. This is a short summary of the many sources that make it clear that taking preventative measures during this time of pandemic, like wearing masks, washing hands, and maintaining The Committee on Jewish Law and Standards of the Rabbinical Assembly provides guidance in matters of halakhah for the Conservative movement. -
Toras Hadoros Nevi'im Rishonim
NAVI The Navi Journey Toras Hadoros by Rabbi Ilan Ginian by Rabbi Mordechai Menachem Reich Sefer Yehoshua, Sefer Shoftim, Sefer Yonah (with Shiras Mechanchim often find themselves challenged Devorah) by historical technicalities in the materials they or Jewish נביא ,חומש teach. Whether in The Navi Journey is the fine work of Rab- history, there is so much that we need to know bi Ilan Ginian, a mechanech and a magid – but often have no access to information. is presented in Rabbi Reich’s Toras פרק shiur in Navi. Each two components. One is the narrative as Hadoros is a perfect seen through the eyes of the primary solution. Rabbi Reich while the other is an in depth spent years in Eretz ,מפרשים presentation of its themes, again accord- Yisroel compiling a set These texts of 20 astoundingly .מפרשים ing to Chazal and the תלמידים are made such that could informative charts that actually use them in tandem with their present the entirety of The Navi Journey opens vistas for .נביא Jewish history in clear teachers presenting the subject as not and detailed fashion. yet seen in the past. English, hardcover. The generations from until the אדם הראשון present – the dynasties Jewish ,כהונה גדולה and of the נביאים the legacies of the ,מלכים Sefer Yehoshua M870 $15.50 of the through the periods of the מעמד הר סיני from מסורת התורה exile and the it’s all there …תקופת האחרונים all the way through the ,...תנאים אמוראים Sefer Yehoshua Softcover Workbook Edition M870B $10.00 – with dates, basic biographical and other pertinent information.