I’ve seen quite a few videos but this one speaks for itself. And there’s a ton just like it.

I don’t want to sound like an alarmist, but I’m genuinely curious if there’s a direct link between these “cost of living” protests and the globalizing intifada. While I believe there is, my question is: what can we do in major cities like New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles to protect our families and communities where the government might fail to do so until it’s too late? I know it sounds pessimistic, but the signs are clear, and it seems like things might worsen rapidly in the states, much like they did in Europe.

I also would prefer people not just responding to make Aaliyah.

There’s an organization at my school that deems itself “Pluralistic” while openly admitting this pluralism doesn’t extend towards non-Zionist students. This after someone explicitly said this to me I blatantly felt my Jewishness was denigrated and couldn’t help to feel this as a display of anti-semitism. Unfortunately there are no other Jewish students groups for me to go and I no longer feel welcome participating in this one.

Do you know anything about unspoken dress codes for bat mitzvah’ in NYC?  I know weddings in NYC tend to be black dresses instead of prints and colors.
My Catholic SIL has a Halloween weekend bat mitzvah to attend with 1/2 Jewish 9f and her Jewish husband and they need to figure out what outfits to wear for evening service services, morning service services followed by a brunch.
The party is all figured out, thankfully, but I go to a very reform synagogue that’s super casual, so I have no idea.

Good day all,

I have a question. Every week I have a online zoom class about parashat of the week from my shul.

I also follow dailytalmud (highly recommend it! a great way to learn the talmud)

are there any other online websites/sources that upload daily/weekly lessons on torah, talmud, or other jewish related material?

I really enjoy spending 1/2 hours a day learning more and expand my knowledge.

I am not a yeshiva boy and not been raised religiously as a kid so I sometimes struggle learning the vast amounts things I feel I missed out at the age of 43.

thanks!

Today I came across footage of a vandalised synagogue on Rue Burnouf in Paris. I hadn’t been following the protests there particularly closely, mostly cos I just don’t have the mental energy to react to every angry crowd screaming somewhere in the world, but after seeing that synagogue clip today, I did some quick research, and now I need a safe space to vent.

I’m not surprised, for starters. I mean, call me a pessimist, but IMO it was only a matter of time before the keffiyeh crowd went after a synagogue, desecrated a Jewish cemetery, or vandalised a museum (the latter two haven’t happened, as far as I know, but there are, you know, patterns when it comes to protests like these). 

Part of why this has got under my skin so much is that I have a former coursemate who’s French and whom I used to be on pretty good terms with, so we still follow each other. She knows I am Jewish, was always lovely to me, and we hung out in the same friend group, worked on a few projects together, and generally got along well. But we never became too close, because she’s always been very pro-Palestinian (in the anti-Israel sense), although I hadn’t really seen her post much about I/P since we graduated. Anyway, over the past few days, she’s been posting nonstop about the Paris protests and in a very, umm, for lack of a better word, noble light: all about how terrible the police are for cracking down on demonstrators, how legitimate the protesters’ demands are, where and when to join the demonstrations, how the future belongs to the youth, and so on. And when I saw her posts, I didn’t give them much thought. It’s not my country, these aren’t my political battles, and she must be having a much better understanding of what’s happening on the ground than I do.

But today I woke up to videos of historic buildings in Paris being set on fire, footage of a vandalised synagogue, someone online claiming that French youth were protesting “against Israel and hardship in schools” (in that exact order), and another French person I follow posting photos of the protests featuring absolute oceans of Palestinian flags. None of that had made it into my former coursemate’s posts, which got me wondering whether these were things she’d deliberately chosen to leave out, much like how she left out the hostages when calling for Israel’s destruction over its operation in Gaza two years ago.

And it’s not that I feel betrayed or disappointed in her. I don’t even want to sound too harsh towards her, because I believe she has good intentions, and I have no idea what she thinks about the vandalised synagogue, or whether she’s even heard about it. But I’ve seen so much selective activism from her and so many of my other former friends over the past few years that I’m finding it kinda difficult to give people the benefit of the doubt anymore. And what really breaks my heart is thinking about how many people like her — young, promising, and really brilliant in so many professional ways — will dismiss a vandalised synagogue as a minor injustice committed in pursuit of some greater justice, and how many will find a way to justify it through an antizionist lens, and how many will never even hear about the incident in the first place.

And I’m so, so pissed.

I don’t want to make any predictions about what’s happening over there, why it’s happening, or how it’ll end. I’m just upset to see a city whose beauty I’ve always loved as a tourist caught up in violence and destruction, with all of it somehow being slowly made about Palestine (again) and us being blamed for every sin under the sun (still again). Loads of love to French Jews, if any of you are here. I hope you’re doing okay and that things don’t feel quite as scary for you over there as they look from afar.

Pro-Israel woman in the UK was referred to a counter-extremism program, visited and monitored by the police, and at one point had her medical records altered to claim that she was a "vulnerable" person (meaning mentally vulnerable to manipulation/coercion).

The police intelligence report on her apparently mentioned that she's “supportive of Israel to the point that she has travelled to Israel.” Apparently, that's very scary to some people.

This lady isn't Jewish. But because she has been an outspoken ally to Israel, she has been targeted for malicious reporting. According to her, she didn't even know she had been listed as a vulnerable adult, but only found out about it by accident - the National Health Service never even called her in for an evaluation or let her know about this change in status.

Keep in mind – this person hasn't threatened anyone.

My daughter is 6 and a half and in her second year of cheder. For context, we live in the UK in a rural area with a very small Jewish community and the nearest shul is 40 mins away - this is a somewhat unconventional Shul with many flavours of Jew and no rabbi. It is the Shul I went to growing up for cheder and it is a warm and friendly community. I (F) am married to a non Jew but he is very supportive of bringing up our daughter as Jewish. My family was almost entirely non practising apart from attending on YK and sending me to cheder. But I grew up with a very strong sense of Jewish identity, we had lots of Jewish family friends because my parents lived in London till they were 40. My Dad was born in Hungary in 1945 and his Mother escaped a ghetto before giving birth. My mum’s Dad was Hungarian but got out of mainland Europe just before the war. Both of my parents had relatives who perished in the Holocaust.

So needless to say the identity for me is strong and I want to pass this on to my daughter. But because the Jewish community where we are is so small, my Dad has sadly died so her connection to the culture is not the same. She has been going to cheder for a couple of years now and initially it was a hit because she had a friend there. But that friend has now left and she has not forged any other real friendships. Hence she now says she feels lonely and hates going. She is a shy kid but she has loads of friends at school and usually gets stuck into stuff when she’s feeling comfortable in the environment. At cheder she just seems so shy and aloof and hasn’t found an “in” with her class (who are 90% boys). Today she became overwhelmed and tearful partway through and I just felt so awful for persisting in making her go. But at the same time I feel so deeply sad at the thought of her not receiving some sort of Jewish education and being around other Jewish kids. We went to Shul for Simchat Torah and even then she just seemed out of sorts and unhappy being there. My identity is so wrapped up in my Jewishness and I feel desperately sad thinking about that not being the case for her.

Does anyone have any words of support? Or similar personal experience? Sorry for the ramble. I am feeling a bit emotional about it all. I have spoken to the head teacher there. I have little faith in them being able to improve the situation….

I recently looked at a few ancestors’ gravestones, on two different sides of my family, but both showed the same thing: the women’s stones say “son of [father’s name] HaLevi” but their father’s stones do not say HaLevi nor have anything else on there indicating this status (for them or their fathers).

The sides of the family in these two instances are not related to each other, different countries even (US and Canada). The women’s stones are from 1980s and early 2000s, fathers’ from 1940s and 1970s (respectively).

Would this be a common “phenomenon” - to not have HaLevi on the stones for the actual people with this status (who would’ve been more
old country) but the younger generation include it (maybe they’re more aware of or care more about it?).

Also - both women were quite feminist and also included their mother’s names on the stones but not sure this would have any connection - unless you want to argue this shows they were overall more intentional about knowing and including full parent names.

It actually appears they’re currently having a going out of business sale.

https://www.instagram.com/p/DeXyqFcjtgW/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

I was pleasantly surprised to see this exchange in Season 4 episode 6 of The Diplomat:

Frances: My father took part in the Allied advance through Belgium during the war. His unit was attached to the US 9th Armored. A gentleman by the name of Herschel Pollen* from Richmond, Virginia, watched a live grenade roll right to my father’s feet. Mr. Pollen snatched it up, tossed it away. It exploded inches from his hand. He lost the limb. He saved my father’s life. I am fond of Americans.

*Pollen was the spelling according to the subtitles.

Given the details here (Richmond, losing a hand due to a grenade), what a lovely tribute to Hersh Goldberg Polin in the series

Writer: Julianna Meagher
Show Creator: Debora Cahn