Volunteers seek Jewish way to serve in Africa

:: jpost :: Here in this humid and leafy village in eastern Uganda 20 minutes from the Kenyan border, 16 American college students sit in a circle. They are protected by the shade of a straw thatch structure adjacent to the complex where they have been living for the past month.

It is the afternoon of Tisha B'Av, the summer fast day marking a series of Jewish calamities, and the students are contemplating the meaning of hunger, of suffering. This year, however, it means something different now that they have witnessed such things firsthand: extreme poverty, rampant (and often curable) disease, hunger, a lack of education, employment opportunities and hope.

"I have had a hard time comprehending what we read in Eicha and what we are seeing in Uganda," says Judith Frank, 22, a Mount Holyoke College political science major, referring to the tract about ancient Jerusalem's destruction that the group read the previous night. "I have a hard time connecting it to what we are seeing here, that people are suffering."

But connecting Jewish texts, Jewish philosophy and Jewish identity to suffering in the developing world is all part of the mission of the American Jewish World Service, which sends about $13 million overseas each year to fund 400 grantees in 36 countries in Africa, the Americas and Asia. Readmore

Holocaust survivor now lives on Tel Aviv park bench

:: haaretz :: For the last eight months, a 71-year-old Holocaust survivor has been sleeping on a bench in a downtown Tel Aviv park.

Yevgeny Bistrizky was three years old when he was taken to the killing fields at Babi Yar. His father was murdered. His mother was shot before his eyes, but survived. He has no recollection of how they escaped; he only knows that no one else from his family did. He remembers the long march through the snow, the hunger, the bodies piled up all around him. But he survived, married, had a family, earned a living.

And now, at age 71, he is homeless again. Every night, after finishing his job as a janitor, he comes to the park in the luxury Beeri Nahardea housing project, not far from Ichilov Hospital, to sleep. Early each morning, he leaves. He said he chose this park because of its ritzy location: Should anyone attack him, he said, the neighbors would surely call the police.

All his belongings are in one satchel - a rolled-up mattress, two shirts, two pairs of pants. In a plastic bag, he has soap and some food. It is very important to him that he not look like a bum: He shaves every day; his shirt is neatly tucked in. He washes himself and his clothes at a tap in a nearby building.Readmore

Involve clientele in choosing Jerusalem's chief rabbi

:: ynet :: It has been widely reported that rabbis identified with the Orthodox Zionist camp are busy working to choose a chief rabbi for Jerusalem. At the head of the search commission is a presidium made up of three prominent rabbis, none of whom are residents of Jerusalem.

I strongly recommend that the three rabbis - Yaakov Ariel, Aaron Lichtenstein and Chaim Druckman - listen attentively to Ms. Rachel Azariah, who called for involving women in the search process, and to Rabbi Yisrael Rosen who called for appointing more Jerusalemites to the search commission.

In addition I would like to suggest that the commission formally include representatives of the "clientele" in the process. Is it conceivable that in a country where the citizens have voted for the prime minister (at least once), vote for mayors and municipal council members, vote for their neighborhood leadership (as in Jerusalem), determine a good deal of the curriculum taught in their children's schools, the constituency, should be excluded from choosing their own chief rabbi?Readmore

Who still wants to learn about Judaism?

:: ynet :: The festive atmosphere at the 15th World Congress on Jewish Studies held last week at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem was accompanied by an air of sadness. This was due to the sense that Israel perhaps is not the focal point of Diaspora Jewry, despite being home to the largest database in the world on Judaism and Jews.

Discussions were dedicated to the crisis plaguing Jewish studies departments - namely, that every year the number of students choosing to study Bible, Jewish history, or Hebrew language gets smaller and smaller. It is possible that this phenomenon is linked to the shrinking endowments of humanities departments in general, to the materialism of the younger generation that prefers to study fields that will bear speedy economic returns on investment.

In addition, throughout the world, universities are losing their status as knowledge and information providers as the Internet becomes an increasingly dominant player, even in researching the past.Readmore

Negev 'summer school' brings cultures closer

:: ynet :: An original "summer school" that invites Jews to learn Arabic and stay with local families has been held in the last three years in the Negev Bedouin village of Darijat.

The initiative is based on the assumption that by learning the language, becoming acquainted with the life and cultural customs of the other and through direct dialogue with the villagers, a close bond and understanding can be formed between the Jewish participants and their hosts.

Each day at 9 am the students meet for several hours of Arabic studies. In the afternoon they return to their hosts' houses, where they eat their meals and spend time with the families.

On some of the days short tours of the area, lectures and gathering are held.

The project is the brainchild of Tomer Kahana, head of the Desert Sights Company, and Ishak Abu Khamed, school principal and village chairman of Darijat, an agricultural Bedouin village.Readmore

US survey: Number of religious Jews drops sharply

:: ynet :: The number of American Jews who consider themselves religiously observant has dropped by more than 20% over the last two decades, as the share of Jews who consider themselves secular has risen, according to a survey.

The 2008 American Religious Identification Survey found that around 3.4 million American Jews call themselves religious - out of a general Jewish population of about 5.4 million.

The number of Jews who identify themselves as only culturally Jewish has risen from 20% in 1990 to 37% last year, according to the study. In the same period, the number of all US adults who said they had no religion rose from 8% to 15%.

Jews are more likely to be secular than Americans in general, the researchers said.

About half of all US Jews - including those who consider themselves religiously observant - claim in the survey that they have a secular worldview and see no contradiction between that outlook and their faith, according to the study's authors.Readmore

One state for two peoples - both secular and religious

::By Michael Handelzalts::

I read Nehemia Shtrasler's two belligerent pieces on the ultra-Orthodox ("End of the Third Temple" and "End of the Third Temple Part II" on July 27 and August 3, respectively) as a completely secular person who sees himself as Jewish in every way, and also Israeli - a non-believer who nevertheless lives according to his beliefs. Shtrasler sees me and other secular people like me as naive for failing to understand that this is a war for home and country.

I cannot refute the facts Shtrasler presents regarding the existence of independent educational streams run by Shas and Agudat Israel, nor on the exemption of yeshiva students from military service, or even on the groups of ultra-Orthodox Jews buying apartments in secular neighborhoods - with the secular inhabitants then moving out. Nor can I argue with the accounts of yeshiva students promising hard-working secular families cheap day care, or tempting secular youths to become religiously observant.Readmore

American Survivors Reject Israel Finance Ministry moves vs. Holocaust survivors

::By Jeanette Friedman::

Representing more than 85,000 survivor families in North America, The American Gathering of Jewish Holocaust Survivors and Their Descendants rejects the attempts of the Israeli Ministry of Finance to demand that thousands of Israeli Holocaust survivors give the government control of their bank accounts. A Ministry cover letter sent to Israeli survivors makes it clear that if they do not sign power of attorney forms and return them to the Finance Ministry by August 31, they will no longer receive their benefits.

In 2007, a law was passed granting benefits of NIS 1,000 a month to survivors who were not receiving other pensions. While the Ministry budgeted for 8,000 such survivors, benefits were only granted to approximately 3,000. Other survivors who believe they are eligible have applied--only to find themselves caught in a delaying morass of red tape.

Rafi Pinto, who heads the Holocaust survivors department at the Finance Ministry, told Haaretz that all of the approximately 40,000 survivors living in Israel who receive benefits- and not just those qualifying under the 2007 law - are required to submit a similar form.Readmore

Law of Moses or law of Israel?

::By Susie Becher:: Likush and Cphir were born in Israel, pay taxes, abide by laws, but can't wed here

A few weeks ago, my daughter Likush came bouncing into the car and, with a grin from ear to ear, announced that she is getting married. Although I have considered myself a diehard feminist since I first heard of Germaine Greer in 1970, I must confess to experiencing a wave of joy at the thought of Likush and Cphir declaring their love before their friends and family and formalizing their commitment to each other in the eyes of society and the state. And therein, to quote the bard, lies the rub.

Likush and Cphir come from very similar backgrounds. Both their fathers were born here shortly after the establishment of the state and served in the IDF as paratroopers in the Nahal Brigade. Likush's dad spent a couple of years on a kibbutz before leaving for the city, and Cphir's dad ended up growing bananas in Bet Hanania. The two men met Anglo-Saxon women - one Canadian and the other British - whom they eventually married. The women immigrated to Israel where both couples settled down and started families. Likush and Cphir were born here, went to school, completed their army service, and, after doing the traditional backpacking route, began studying at the marine sciences college in Mikhmoret to which they were drawn by their love of the Mediterranean and where they met and fell in love."Readmore

Toronto Jews rally around museum taking flak over Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit

::JPost:: A coalition of pro-Palestinian organizations is demanding that the Royal Ontario Museum close a Dead Sea Scrolls exhibit that opened last month, saying Israel looted the "Palestinian artifacts" during the Six Day War.

Toronto's Palestine House and the Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid say the "Words that Changed the World" presentation is illegal.

When the museum refused to cancel the exhibit, which runs through January 3, the NGOs instead asked it "to release to the public and publish on its Web site the legal opinion that it obtained and on the basis of which it decided to go ahead with this exhibit," Palestine House said in a statement

The organizations are asking the museum to seek an opinion from UNESCO on the legal and ethical issues involved in the exhibit.

"We do not object to the Dead Sea Scrolls being accessible to the public," the statement continues. "The issue we raise relates to Israel's looting of Palestinian artifacts and the ROM's complicity by lending legitimacy to it by hosting the exhibit."Readmore