In general, I am a very organized person. I need to know the night before what I am going to do the next day and of course it needs to be planned to the minute, but life happens and you need to recalculate your organizational plan.

Today is the last Friday of the month and we will have a column regarding Jewish Historical Arkansas as we have been doing for the past 3 months. Today we will have a beautiful piece written by Phillip Spivey, Senior Lecturer of Philosophy and Religion of the University of Central Arkansas.

But I cannot pass over what is happening in Eastern Europe. With the Russian invasion happening now in Ukraine, we are concerned about the wellbeing of our Jewish brothers and sisters in that part of the world.

Did you know - over 200,000 Jews live in Ukraine? For years, the Jewish Federations of North America (JFNA) and its partners in the US, Israel, and around the world have provided assistance to the Jewish community in Ukraine. Now this assistance is more urgent than ever before.

In response to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, JFNA has launched a $20 million emergency campaign to provide humanitarian assistance to vulnerable Jewish populations living in Ukraine. Funds will be allocated through Jewish Federations’ core partners, The Jewish Agency for Israel, The Joint Distribution Committee and World ORT, and others who are on the ground in Ukraine, and will provide critical welfare where it is needed most and support to protect and safeguard Ukraine's Jewish community as well as Jews in neighboring countries. I encourage you to visit JFNA’s dedicated Crisis in Ukraine website to donate and keep updated on our combined efforts.

Shabbat Shalom and Shavua Tov

Jewish people have been an integral part of Arkansas' diverse cultures before and after Arkansas statehood in 1836. As central European Jews immigrated to 18th century and 19th century US, some of the brave few slowly began to establish homesteads along the Arkansas and Red Rivers. By end of the 19th century, Arkansas Jews began responding to a multitude of social issue haunting the US American South: Jim Crow laws, religious intolerance, and open discrimination against LGBTQA communities.

Early Arkansas Jews were greatly affected by living far away from larger Jewish communities in New York City, Charlotte, and Philadelphia. They experienced the quiet, solitude of rural Arkansas. Many US Southern Jews wanted to be treated fairly by their new neighbors in small towns, and blend into the overwhelmingly Christian population. Arkansas's first Jewish settlers traveled from New Orleans to Washington, Arkansas seeking a community with commercial and social opportunities. Abraham and Fanny Block (1824) founded and operated general stores along Arkansas River towns from Fulton, Arkansas to Little Rock. While somewhat religiously observant, the Block family seemed to have been more concerned about getting along with their Christian neighbors rather than openly expressing their distinct Jewishness. Many Arkansas Jews began to privately observe Jewish holidays and, at the same time, be socially-active citizens in public. As Jewish merchants began establishing homes along Arkansas and Red Rivers, they also enjoyed some social and political freedoms found in the new State of Arkansas: Freedoms from centuries of anti-Semitic persecution. Stemming from desires to be equally treated as US and Arkansas citizens, organized Arkansas Jewish communities began to emerge as ways of Jewish life most conducive to the tumultuous American South after the US Civil War (1861- 1865).

Arkansas Jewish history has evolved as one of the most diverse and dynamic features of Arkansas life. Volunteer with your local Jewish history archives and let the treasure hunt for historical artifacts begin!

What could be better than sunrise hikes, delicious Israeli food, connecting with their Judaism and...we won't spoil the rest! A 10-day trip to Israel this summer is closer than you or your student might think!

The deadline for Jewish college students to apply for a Hillel: Birthright Israel trip this summer is quickly approaching, and we don't want your college student to miss out! They can travel to Israel with friends from their college campus or discover Israel with students from across the country on one of our national trips. Whichever way they choose to travel, they will return home with friends and memories that will last a lifetime!

Do you have an event you'd like to publicize to the greater Jewish community? Please let us know so we can include it in future emails.