SHABBAT SHALOM, GESHER SHALOM!


 
May 4th, 2018
 
  [  HOME ] [ MESSENGER ]  [  CONTACT RABBI STERN]
Shabbat Times: 
Candle Lighting
Friday Night Service
Morning Service
Minha
7:37pm
6:30pm
9:30am
7:30pm
 
  Forecast: 75/partly cloudy

IN THIS ISSUE...
Shabbat Kiddush
Join us for Kiddush on Shabbat. This is the perfect opportunity for us to experience community and get to know each other better.
 
 
Birthdays & Anniversaries 
Daniel Kraut
Richard Levy
Richard Schiff
Peter Bloch
Jordan Leon
Jane Koch
Solomon Arbeiter
Adrian Osian
Jean Burnick
Marc Rosenberg
 
Phyllis & William Lowe
 


   UPCOMING EVENTS
Saturday 5/5
Morning Service 9:30 am
Minha, Meal, Maariv & Havdalah 7:30 pm
Tuesday 5/8
Musical Lecture: Jewish American Composers 12:30 pm
Thursday 5/10
Rabbi's Class 10:30 am
Friday 5/11
Bible study 11:30 am
Shabbat together musical Service 6:30 pm
 
 
Important Reads
The first thing that a Jewish community does is it establishes a cemetery. Unfortunately, the Masorti community in Madrid has been excluded from the only Jewish cemetery. They have tried and exhausted all options.

THEY NEED OUR HELP:
Masorti Olami
Emergency Campaign


In 2009, 13 year-old Gai Ben-David was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer and died shortly after celebrating his bar mitzvah. As Gai was born to a Jewish father and underwent his conversion to Judaism with a Conservative Rabbi, he was refused burial in the Jewish cemetery in Madrid, run under Orthodox auspices. Under pressure, the Orthodox Chief Rabbi finally relented, but adding insult to injury, they buried him in a separate corner of the cemetery, his grave walled off from all the others by a fence, in order to make their position on his conversion crystal clear.

Madrid's Masorti community resolved to build a cemetery of their own which would accept all Jews, including anyone with a halachic conversion and not split up families. However, they soon learned that a modest section in a private cemetery would cost 2 million Euros-far beyond the reach of this community of 200 families.

Public plots in municipal cemeteries were even more difficult to come across, as authorities in Madrid insisted that the community should use the existing Jewish cemetery, and suburban cemeteries refused to allocate space on grounds that they had no Jewish residents who would benefit such a cemetery.

Years of tireless work by  members of the Bet El community and its President Gabriel Prisiallni finally secured a 1000 square meter (quarter acre) extension that would be divided into 120 burial plots adjacent to the existing cemetery in the village of La Cabrerra, 40 miles outside of Madrid. For a sum of €160,000 the municipality agreed to allow the construction of a Masorti Jewish cemetery, and issued all the relevant permits.

Following a campaign to raise funds for this project, the community succeeding in raising €60,000-just over the amount needed to secure the deposit. The community's attempt to get a bank loan has so far been unsuccessful, and without private donations or loans, the project will die in its tracks. The permits stipulate that work must commence by June, 2018 or they forfeit the permits and the location.    

You can help use ensure that all Jews receive a dignified and halachic Jewish burial.
Please donate generously to ensure that the Kehillah in Madrid is able to build its cemetery and not be cast once more into cruel political wrangling with the Chief Rabbinate in times of deep personal and communal pain. Your support is crucial to this effort, and time is of the essence. Your donation will enable work on the cemetery to begin-without it, the permits and the plot are lost to us.
Click here to support the Masorti Jewish Cemetery in Madrid





Torah Reading 722      Haftarah 735
EMOR
Because of their unique status as ritual functionaries, the priests had to maintain a high standard of purity. As contact with the dead was a source of ritual defilement, the priests were only permitted to attend the funerals of their closest relatives. The High Priest was held to an even higher standard: he was not permitted to attend anyone's funeral.
 
Any physical defect disqualified a priest from functioning in an official capacity, just as any physical defect in an animal rendered it unfit for sacrifice. Sacred food (donated, dedicated or sacrificed) could only be eaten by those members of the priests' families who themselves were in a state of ritual purity.
 
The holidays: Shabbat, Passover, Shavuot, Rosh Hashannah, Yom Kippur and Sukkot - are enumerated.
 
The people are reminded of their obligation to provide olive oil for the Sanctuary's menorah to keep it burning continually. The showbread, changed each week, was to be made of twelve loaves arranged in two rows.
 
During a quarrel a man blasphemes God. He is placed in custody until his penalty is disclosed: blasphemy, like murder, is punishable by death.
 




Another thoughtful article penned by our tour guide of Hasidic Williamsburg, Frieda Vizel:

CAN THE HASIDIC COMMUNITY EVER CHANGE?       
Yes, but only if we proceed respectfully and pay attention to what has worked in the past  






AT THE NATIONAL MEMORIAL FOR PEACE AND JUSTICE IN ALABAMA, A LESSON IN MEMORY AND RESPONSIBILITY
Individual acts of violence are horrifying, but coordination of violent action and inaction necessitated the infrastructure that allowed it to happen     





Any interest in going "On the Road:" to see these photographs (and maybe a tour of Temple Emanu-El, too)? LMK...

Finding a Home in Israel, Again  
From young Arab women to elderly Holocaust survivors, a photographer takes another look at her homeland 
Words Invisible to Naked Eye Discovered on Dead Sea Scrolls                                                           
 
A Jewish Writer Kept a Secret Diary During the Nazi Occupation of France. It Offers an Important Lesson About History      

A Few "On the Road" Pictures 









Tonight at 6:30pm
Tomorrow morning at 9:30am
Tomorrow Mincha, S'uda Shlishit, Ma'ariv and Havdalah at 7:30pm
During S'uda Shlishit we will be reading an excellent piece by Bret Stephens-exactly what I was looking for to explain Hamas' and Israel's actions along the Gaza Border-and it also ties in anti-Semitism and Israel's 70th anniversary: Jewish Power at 70 Years
Copies of recent articles that we have studied during S'uda Shlishit (the third meal) are posted on a Board outside the Sanctuary under the heading Without Commentary.You can take them and read them, but you're not getting the commentary and discussion...unless you join us, and see why we consistently get such a good turnout for these services, light meal, discussion and Havdalah.
 
Talmud and Tangents
We did it! It only took 3 years! We finished the entire Tenth Chapter of Tractate Pesachim yesterday (on the semi-holiday of La"g ba'Omer! Congratulations to us!
Next week (and maybe for a few weeks after that) we will begin to examine and analyze Biblical texts that Christians use to "prove" the divinity and messiahship of Jesus-and we will refute them!
Why not join us?














Anti-Semitism

Controversy Over Anti-Semitic Comments by DC Councilman Worsens
Josh Rosen Says He Gets Called Anti-Semitic Slurs During Games
Rosen, who was taken in the first round of Thursday's NFL draft, said he gets comments about his nose from fellow players.                                                                                                   

How Should Germany Deal with Islamic Anti-Semitism?  
In the midst of all this serious stuff an entertaining and somewhat light digression. (And besides, I couldn't figure out where else to place it!):
The true story of one of Yiddish's most misunderstood words     
Is Germany Capable of Protecting Its Jews?                                                                                                                    
The nation's recent intake of migrants from places where anti-Semitism is ubiquitous has produced a scary tension-and one that's not easy to resolve.                                                                        

What Is Tamika Mallory Doing In Israel?  
The ADL Gets Kicked Out of Leading Starbucks' Diversity Training                                                                                     
Following pressure from Women's March leader and Louis Farrakhan acolyte Tamika Mallory                                        
 A major defender of Jewish interests is facing heat from the left and the right, writes JTA's editor in chief, Andrew Silow-Carroll.  
 The coffee giant said it continues to view the Jewish group as a valuable partner in future training.                      
  






US and Israel Relations
Pompeo and Palestinians Have "Nothing to Discuss" Amid Gaza Crisis                                                   

Former U.S. Peace Negotiator, Alan David Miller: Conditions for Israeli-Palestinian Peace Are Not Present      
He articulates 3 requirements: 1. leaders who are masters of their political houses, not prisoners of them and their respective ideologies, and have vision and pragmatism. 2. a sense of real urgency - pain and gain - which makes the benefits of changing the status quo more attractive than the risks of maintaining it. 3. a third party, likely the U.S., that has the will and skill to serve as a broker if both sides are willing to get serious.   






                                                 
Israel and Iran
Iranians Killed in Alleged Israeli Strike on Military Site in Syria                                                             
With reference to then next item: the Iranian drone infiltrating Israeli airspace may have been the Iranian attempt at revenge for the breached nuclear files:

Exposing Iran's Nuclear Archive: A Fantastic Intelligence Feat                         
Bret Stephens: The Iran Deal Is a Lie          
TEHRAN TERRIFIED, EX-PENTAGON OFFICIAL SAYS 
The Iranian regime is "humiliated" after a daring Mossad operation seized scores of secret documents, the former Pentagon official said.      
The above article referenced the discovery of a mummified body near the (destroyed) tomb of the Pahlavi Dynasty founder.... The article below fleshes it out and helps to explain a video I saw of a soccer match in Iran where a segment of the crowd boldly breaks into chants "Reza Shah" (the first Shah)  
-a clear rebuke to the Ayatollahs. The Regime's faltering economy (the Iranian Rial is low and falling), infighting, debate over the IRGC's adventurism in Syria and elsewhere, Mossad's daring raid in Teheran-all point to its vulnerability. The question is, is this (including unrest in many cities and towns), the beginning of the end, or will increased brutality save the Regime, as it has done before?
And this showed up, belatedly, in todays' NYT:
                                                       
 Most of the info revealed during Netanyahu's dramatic presentation was already public knowledge, and was key in shaping the nuclear deal's inspections regime                                                          
Olli Heinonen, the former deputy director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said "There were some pictures that were quite familiar to me. But at the same time, there was also new information." Specifically, Heinonen mentioned evidence regarding Iranian hardware previous unknown to authorities. This new information has serious consequences, he implied. "They must have manufactured pieces of equipment in Iran," Heinonen said. "Where are those pieces? Who is keeping them?"                                                      
Germany Calls to Broaden Framework of Iran Deal                                                                          
Morocco Cuts Ties with Iran for Sending Weapons to Polisario                             













I don't quite know where to place or how to title this article. I have no choice but to let it stand alone...
I had no idea that this was the UNIFIL mission in Lebanon, but this Sein Fein leader thinks it is "to stop Israeli forces attacking Lebanon again and killing Lebanese and Palestinian citizens in the area." Really?????
Sinn Fein Criticizes Irish UNIFIL Commander's Attendance at Israel Independence Day Event in Jerusalem  
      






And this is another stand-alone:
This is from the Washington Free Beacon, which makes me suspicious of its accuracy and its slant. But the Report, if it is true, was prepared under the Obama Administration, which would give it tremendous credibility and make it difficult to sweep under the rug! And if it is true, it has huge implications for UNRWA funding/legitimacy and could become the basis for a settlement to the Palestinian Refugee issue, making them furious, but also more forthcoming:
     






Campus BDS and Anti-Semitism
Comes days after City Council band Police Training with Israeli Experts                         

Two Student Protestors Arrested at Rave for Israel's 70th Birthday in Washington Sq. Park
GW Alumni Respond to Action by Student Council                                                    
Jewish Students Refuse to be Silent at GW                                                                          
     












Pop culture
I got mine yesterday, as did Richard Schiff, and Orlando from the maintenance crew!
A Visit to the Barbershop on La"G Ba'Omer  
A reporter takes a trip to Lower Manhattan on the day many observant Jews are finally allowed to get a haircut again                                                                                                     
Yiddish Fiddler: July 4th through August 26 at the Museum of Jewish Heritage in Manhattan. Another
On the Road possibility!
Can you sing? Dance? Speak the mamaloshen? Welcome to Anatevka. 
It's the opposite of 'Fiddler on the Roof.' New York City Ballet's new production opens this week.                          

Tony Nominations Are Out-and Great for the Jews!
'Angels in America,' 'The Band's Visit' fare excellently  
Sebastian Lelio, the film's director, on understanding his characters' insular community and mastering the nuance of Jewish observance                                                                             
It has so many superheroes! Most of them created by Jews!                                                         
'RBG' Filmmakers Hope to Inspire Ruth Bader Ginsburg's Millennial Fans 
The film looks at the personal and professional life of the 85-year-old Supreme Court justice and pop culture icon.                                                                                                                      





 





 



 


 






























 

Israeli Culture in North America
ISRAELI FILMS
TRIBECA FILM FESTIVAL
Directed by Keren Ben Rafael
Teenage Lana whiles away the hours in her hometown Kiryat Yam, a run-down beachside community on Israel's Mediterranean coast. She hangs out with a trio of shiftless boys, keeps an eye on her precocious cousin Tamar, and dreams up an impending move to Tel Aviv, all while waiting for the moment when her mother's café finally bankrupts her family. But the sudden arrival of an attractive writer, Tchipi, may present solution for both boredom and bottom lines: He spins a local myth into a news report of a mermaid sighting offshore-bringing people back to the city's beaches. Now, the locals just need to turn this mermaid mania into an event big enough to bring hope and excitement back into their lives.

for screening hours: click here
Directed by  Yuval Shafferman
On the Spectrum follows three 20-something roommates, all on the autism spectrum, as they navigate the day-to-day concerns of work, friendship, and romance.

for screening hours: click here
Directed by  Atara Frish
When Noa finds a special love letter in her locker, she struggles to reconcile her safe, restrained world and her urge to feel-at least for a brief moment-loved.

for screening hours: click here