1.No Doubt About the Motive
This was an attack on Jews in America at a Kosher market where the customers are Orthodox Jews. This was in a Jersey City neighborhood where Ultra Orthodox-Satmar Jews live together with low income immigrants.
Brooklyn has become too costly for them
so they tried to build a community just a few miles away.
Jewish communities everywhere have of course condemned the attacks and joined in support of this Northern New Jersey community. Our community stands with them as we do with Jews and victims of terror and hate crimes everywhere. This is the new normal we live in. When I think of 2019, anti-Semitism and attacks on Jews have been most dominant - even in a world where articles of impeachment are on the agenda for the president of the United States and in Israel a third election cycle in less than a year has just begun.
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2.Third Time - Hardly the Charm
For the third time in under a year, the Israeli Knesset voted to hold new elections. This next one is to be held on March 2nd.
Attempts to form a coalition of right, or left, with center, with Arab parties, without them, with Orthodox parties or without them all failed. The price is of course paid daily by a country stuck in limbo led by a prime minister who was, since the last election, indicted on three separate counts of bribery, fraud, and breach of trust. One must hope this ends. One must hope regardless of political view that "time" will finally be called on Netanyahu’s term. (It’s been too long whether you like him or not).
As the date for the next election was confirmed Avigor Lieberman (former defense minister) called for a pardon to be offered to Netanyahu should he agree to retire. In the grand scheme of things that may not be a bad idea. Some voices (very few, but some) among Netanyahu’s Likud members have begun to challenge his leadership. This brings some hope because Likud without Netanyahu can easily join with Blue and White and form a strong coalition. Here’s to that hope while yet again we start following what seems like an endless election year. Maybe because it has been or still is. Sigh.
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3.Rhyming Offense
Am I surprised that anti-Semites find ways neither clever nor cute to disparage Jews? Nope. But I have to admit that this one rose above the predictable noise and spewing. Florida pastor Rick Wiles, the founder of TruNews, last month called the impeachment inquiry against Trump a "Jew coup." Really?
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4.Continental Divide
How has Israel's relationship with the diaspora changed over the past decades?
"In the diaspora, the 1967 war was a watershed moment. It created an avalanche of Jewish identity. Jews, who had been flirting with assimilation, suddenly discovered they were Jewish. At the same time, in the U.S., the idea of one's own identity became increasingly important. Israel's strength embellished American Jewish identity, and also the desire to get engaged in Israel.
"Now as Israel is becoming increasingly right-wing and chauvinistic, many Americans ask, "Can I live without the other part of the tribe if this part is moving away from me? Should I disassociate from Israel?" At the same time, it is not clear what Judaism for liberal or progressive Jews in North America will look like, especially considering large scale intermarriage. Can Diaspora Judaism be maintained solely through ideology and universalistic beliefs rather than religious practice and observance? I am not sure that Tikkun Olam, a core component of U.S. Judaism, is enough to ensure the continuation of liberal American Judaism."
[Yossi Shain is a professor of political science at Tel Aviv University and a professor of comparative government and diaspora politics at Georgetown University. His most recent book, The Israeli Century and the Israelization of Judaism, is currently a bestseller in Israel and will come out in English in 2020.]
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5.Happy Holidays?
Writer Corinne Engber was raised by a Catholic mother and Jewish father. Elements of both religions were incorporated into the family's life. Only now, as an adult, does she struggle with the conflict.
"There's a certain benefit to going with the flow, particularly within an Ohio suburb, and I wasn't going to forgo a veritable tidal wave of presents for my religious integrity as a child, but now I feel differently. Christmas as an institution rankles me. Its reach is overarching and complete, somehow convincing non-Christians that it is a purely secular holiday, even though it isn't," she says.
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6.'Tis Not the Season
Hallmark Channel, like Peloton, may have misjudged the public's reaction to its most recent marketing and programming efforts. Hallmark Channel's Countdown to Christmas Holiday Movies lineup includes two Jew-ish storylines this year. Not everyone is happy about that.
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Wednesday, December 18, 4:30 - 10:00 PM
Celebrate with free admission.
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Shabbat Shalom,
Amir
The Bulletin is a weekly email from Amir Cohen, executive director of the Jewish Federation of Greater New Bedford. I welcome your feedback at [email protected].
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Jewish Federation of
Greater New Bedford
508.997.7471
467 Hawthorn Street, Dartmouth, MA, 02747
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