Jerusalem’s New Vibrant Culture Center: Mt. Of Olives By Hillel Fendel and Chaim Silberstein and Here are the first 10 Jewish documentaries funded by Steven Spielberg’s new foundation and Manchester’s Jewish community is growing — so why is its oldest kosher certifier in deep financial trouble? BY CNAAN LIPHSHIZ and Sierra Club reschedules Israel trips that it canceled under pressure from pro-Palestinian groups BY GABE STUTMAN and In Melbourne, a massive project aims to bring Jewish organizations, museums, communal groups, and restaurants to a new, one-stop destination and The Portion of Bereisheet"Who covers Yourself with light as with a garment" (Psalm 104;2)

View in browser Yehuda Lave is an author, journalist, psychologist, rabbi, spiritual teacher, and coach, with degrees in business, psychology and Jewish Law. He works with people from all walks of life and helps them in their search for greater happiness, meaning, business advice on saving money, and spiritual engagement. Love Yehuda Lave Join my blog by sending me an email to YehudaLave@gmail.com Jerusalem's New Vibrant Culture Center: Mt. Of Olives By Hillel Fendel and Chaim Silberstein / KeepJerusalem.org Jerusalem's New Vibrant Culture Center: Mt. Of Olives | The Jewish Press - JewishPress.com | Hillel Fendel and Chaim Silberstein / KeepJerusalem.org | 29 Elul 5782 – September 25, 2022 | JewishPress.com The Three Musketeers at the Kotel The Three are Rabbi Yehuda Glick, famous temple mount activist, and former Israel Mk, and then Robert Weinger, the world's greatest shofar blower and seller of Shofars, and myself after we had gone to the 12 gates of the Temple Mount in 2020 to blow the shofar to ask G-d to heal the world from the Pandemic. It was a highlight to my experience in living in Israel and I put it on my blog each day to remember. The articles that I include each day are those that I find interesting, so I feel you will find them interesting as well. I don't always agree with all the points of each article but found them interesting or important to share with you, my readers, and friends. It is cathartic for me to share my thoughts and frustrations with you about life in general and in Israel. As a Rabbi, I try to teach and share the Torah of the G-d of Israel as a modern Orthodox Rabbi. I never intend to offend anyone but sometimes people are offended and I apologize in advance for any mistakes. The most important psychological principle I have learned is that once someone's mind is made up, they don't want to be bothered with the facts, so, like Rabbi Akiva, I drip water (Torah is compared to water) on their made-up minds and hope that some of what I have share sinks in. Love Rabbi Yehuda Lave. The Portion of Bereisheet "Who covers Yourself with light as with a garment" (Psalm 104;2) In the beginning of the creation of the world G-d created heaven and earth and light. The earliest time in the morning that one may don his tallit is when he can differentiate between the color "techelet" (pale blue) of the sky and white (Mishnah, Tractate Brachot). The following is found in Midrash Raba: Bereisheet Raba (Vilna), portion of Bereisheet, portion 3: Rabbi Shimon ben Yehotzadak asked Rabbi Shmuel bar Nachman: since I have heard that you are an expert in Aggadah (non-halachic rabbinic literature), are you able to tell me from what was light created? He answered that we learn that the Holy One, Blessed Be He, enwrapped Himself as with a garment and spread the light of His glory from one end of the world to the other. The light is the garment, as it were, the garment which covers the Creator and this is the source of the light which brought light to the world during Creation. It is for this reason, therefore, that we say the verse "Who covers Yourself with light as with a garment, who stretches out the heavens like a curtain" (Psalm 104;2). An allusion to this is found in the letter "reish" in the words "or" (light) which is written with a special addition to remind us of the proper time for donning the tallit exactly at the moment of the source of the creation of light. (Sefer Tag'i of Rabbi Elazar from Germaizah) All Together Now In Melbourne, In Melbourne, a massive project aims to bring Jewish organizations, museums, communal groups, and restaurants to a new, one-stop destination BYNOMI KALTMANNAUGUST 16, 2022TABLET MAGAZINE Melbourne, Australia, is home to a vibrant Jewish community. More than 60 synagogues, 10 Jewish day schools, and a dozen kosher restaurants serve some 60,000 Jews, from Bundist to ultra-Orthodox. There's a lively Yiddish scene and an eclectic Jewish arts scene, including a Jewish film festival, a Jewish comedy festival, a festival of Jewish books, and a festival of Jewish arts and music. Each of these Jewish cultural organizations and festivals currently operates independently, often with a small number of staff and volunteers. However, if one of the most ambitious building infrastructure projects in Australia's history can get off the ground, things in Melbourne may soon be changing. The proposed Jewish Arts Quarter (JAQ) will create a new, one-stop arts and cultural destination in Melbourne. With an estimated $40 million price tag, the project is centered around the creation of a hub that will include museums, education facilities, food, festivals, and open public spaces. Anchored by the Holocaust Museum, the Kadimah Jewish Cultural Centre and National Library, and the Jewish Museum of Australia, the JAQ will host Jewish theater productions and performances, art exhibitions, street busking, and literary events as well as lectures, film nights, and street festivals. JAQ will be centered in the suburb of Elsternwick, which has a large Jewish population, and is one of three main Jewish suburbs in Melbourne. Elsternwick already has some Jewish infrastructure, but to date, many buildings have been underutilized, with some sitting on land worth millions of dollars that are only being used five to six hours per week. "At the moment, many people in our community don't fully appreciate our facilities because they don't go there," said Joe Tigel, a director of JAQ, who is also the president of Kadimah Jewish Cultural Centre and National Library. "When we raised the idea of JAQ with [the local suburban] council, they were excited. The suburban council is looking for evocative spaces and better ways of attending without everyone having to drive everywhere. The council thought it would be great for us to build a great gathering place while preserving culture. We know if we get this right, people will come in from the margins to participate." The construction of the JAQ will take place in two phases, with phase one relocating the Jewish Museum of Australia to 7 Selwyn St. in Elsternwick, so that it shares a building with the Kadimah Jewish Cultural Centre and National Library, which has been located in Elsternwick since the 1960s. This phase will involve selling off assets of the Jewish Museum from the space it has occupied since 1995, and rebuilding Kadimah to include both institutions in one combined, refurbished building. As a result of this move, the Jewish Museum will double in size, and Kadimah will have a new performing arts space. Next door to this new joint museum will be a refurbished Holocaust Museum, which has been located in Elsternwick since 1984 and, independent of the JAQ project, is currently undergoing major renovations. These facilities will cater for increased capacity for educational and communal programs. The newly combined site "will be transformed into a purpose-built, multi-use facility—the epicenter for Jewish arts, culture, and life in Melbourne," said Kylie Appel, the head of engagement at JAQ. "JAQ will increase participation and allow both organizations to reimagine the future of arts and culture in a new state-of-the-art facility to cater for the growing demands and needs of the community." Phase two of the project will involve the creation of new restaurants and cafes (some of them kosher) as well as the establishment of coworking and performing-arts spaces in the streets surrounding the newly refurbished museums. All the organizations that are part of JAQ will continue to remain independent, but the hope is that the proximity of so many organizations and the combination of two museums next door to a refurbished Holocaust Museum will lead to a great deal more collaboration, resource sharing, and joint programs. An exterior rendering of the proposed Jewish Arts Quarter in Elsternwick, MelbourneCOURTESY JAQ Here are the first 10 Jewish documentaries funded by Steven Spielberg's new foundation The Jewish Story Partners foundation, which Steven Spielberg and wife Kate Capshaw helped found to fund Jewish-themed documentary films, announced its first slate of grantees on Wednesday. The 10 projects received a total of $225,000 from Jewish Story Partners, which has received its initial funding from Spielberg's Righteous Persons Foundation, the Maimonides Fund and the Jim Joseph Foundation. Here are the films, first reported by Deadline: "Coexistence My Ass!" – Directed by Amber Fares The film follows Israeli comedian Noam Schuster, who is bent on using her standup routine to get Israelis to question their biases. "The Conspiracy" – Directed by Maxim Pozdorovkin The film looks at the history behind the lie "that a dangerous cabal of powerful Jews controls the world." "Meredith Monk: Dancing Voice, Singing Body" – Directed by Billy Shebar and David Roberts The groundbreaking composer and choreographer, who has won the National Medal of Arts and a MacArthur grant, gets her own film. The pop legend Bjork is a co-producer. "Rabbi" – Directed by Sandi DuBowski "Rabbi" chronicles the story of pioneering Rabbi Amichau Lau-Lavie "from drag queen rebel to rabbinical student to founder of Lab/Shul, an everybody-friendly, God-optional, artist-driven, pop-up experimental congregation." "South Commons" – Directed by Joey Soloway The Jewish creator of "Transparent" takes a hard look at the racial tensions in the Chicago community in which they grew up. "Untitled Spiritual Care Documentary" – Directed by Luke Lorentzen Mount Sinai hospitals in New York appoint interfaith chaplain residents each year — this film follows four of them. "The Wild One" – Directed by Tessa Louise Salomé It's the story of Jack Garfein, an Auschwitz survivor who went on to play a key role in the Actors' Studio group and taught the craft to some of the last century's biggest stars. "Heroes" – Directed by Avishai Mekonen and Shari Rothfarb Mekonen The tale of a group of Ethiopian-Jewish activists who fought to keep their community alive in the 1970s to 1990s, a time of harsh dictatorship. "Joyva" – Directed by Josh Freund and Sam Radutzky The 100-plus-year-old Joyva company is among the most recognized Jewish-American candy companies, whose delicacies often end up at holiday celebrations such as Passover. The film focuses on the founder's great-grandchildren, who are fighting to keep the business afloat. "Walk With Me" – Directed by Heidi Levitt Levitt tracks her husband's battle with early-onset Alzheimer's disease. Manchester's Jewish community is growing — so why is its oldest kosher certifier in deep financial trouble? BY CNAAN LIPHSHIZ (JTA) — The Jewish community of Manchester, England, is one of the few in Europe that is growing dramatically. Since 2011, the city's Jewish population has increased about 20%, to a total of 30,000 people, mostly due to an influx of haredi Orthodox Jews, many of whom having left London for a lower cost of living. But last week, in what seems on paper like a contradiction, the Jewish Chronicle of London reported that Manchester's oldest kosher meat provider, MBD Shechita Services, is being dissolved after incurring debts of well over $400,000. The company is looking to consolidate in a more financially viable way and hopefully reopen, Rabbi Daniel Walker, one of the directors of MBD Shechita Services, told the Chronicle. But the reason for the closure highlights the wide-scale demographic and social shifts reshaping the Jewish community in Britain and beyond. MBD Shechita Services, which has operated under the auspices of the Manchester Beth Din, or rabbinical court,does not meet the stringent kosher requirements for the city's haredi residents, who seek supervision from rabbis affiliated with their highly observant circles, according to a kosher meat professional who declined to be identified by name in this article. Rising meat prices and the rise of London-based kosher businesses that deliver have also hit MBD hard. MBD was still satisfactory to thousands of Modern Orthodox Jews of the greater Manchester region, home to a diverse community with 40 Jewish schools and 50 synagogues of multiple denominations. But local haredi Jews prefer to buy meat from butchers and meat providers licensed by Machzikei Hadass, an international association of very strict haredi communities that is represented in Manchester and London. Currently, haredi Jews account for about 25% of British Jewry, or about 74,000 people out of a total of approximately 300,000, according to a 2022 report by the London-based Institute for Jewish Policy Research, or JPR. That makes the United Kingdom one of the places where the haredi Orthodox have the largest share of the Jewish population. Haredi Jews constitute 14% of the entire global Jewish population, according to the 2022 report. (In the United States and Israel, they account for about 12 and 17% of the general Jewish population, the report showed.) By 2031, haredi Jews will have become the majority group within British Jewry, a 2015 JPR report projected. That trend is distinguishing the United Kingdom from the rest of European Jewry, whose share of the population of Europe is as low now as it was 1,000 years ago and is declining even further, according to a 2020 study by JPR. In an era when former synagogues and schools are being sold off in Brussels amid what one former community leader is calling a "silent exodus of Jews" from that country, Britain, and England especially, are seeing new haredi communities striking root in such unlikely locations as Gateshead, a former mining town, and the former fishing village of Canvey Island. A man wearing haredi attire walks past Jews celebrating Purim in Manchester, UK, March 17, 2022. (Oli Scarff/AFP via Getty Images) At the same time, many non-haredi British Jews have seen their communities decline, especially in such northern cities of Leeds and Newcastle, whose once-vibrant Jewish communities have become graying shadows of what they used to be. According to JPR, household synagogue membership figures in the U.K had by 2016 declined by 20% since 1990, to 20,166 households. In Manchester, Jewish life is on full display in dozens of kosher restaurants, bakeries, supermarkets and Judaica stores. "The vibrancy can be seen in quite a number of restaurants. So those eateries pretty much show that there are people wanting to socialize together, go out to eat together, there are bakeries. There are delis and there is Jewish life on the streets, if you like," said Jonny Wineberg, a former chair of the Jewish Representative Council of Manchester. But there are also growing pains, he added. The haredi community's insularity means that their schools have multiple issues complying with the requirements of Ofsted, the British education ministry. Multiple haredi schools consistently refuse to teach secular subjects either because they prioritize Jewish scripture or deem some subjects, particularly social science and biology ones, inappropriate. "We need far better secular schooling within some of those schools, that are just failing kids and ensuring they remain in poverty instead of preparing them for society," said Wineberg, a 56-year-old father of three who is not haredi and who had moved to Manchester from his Native Leeds in 1985, to study. "That's our biggest problem long term." Sierra Club reschedules Israel trips that it canceled under pressure from pro-Palestinian groups BY GABE STUTMAN Five months after canceling its planned trips to Israel, and then — following outrage from Jewish organizations — apologizing days later and saying the trips would be reinstated, the Sierra Club has quietly posted a new excursion to Israel for next year. Called "Natural and Historical Highlights of Israel," the two-week trip in March 2023 will include many of the same activities the Sierra Club offered before activists convinced the environmental nonprofit to cancel two Israel outings: snorkeling, bird watching, nights on a kibbutz and a visit to Tel Aviv. Participants also will be meeting with Palestinians working on conservation to hear "first-hand about their daily and ongoing challenges," according to the itinerary that was posted Friday. The itinerary additionally lists a visit to the Arava Institute, which brings Israelis, Palestinians, Jordanians and students from around the world together for environmental studies and research, and whose motto is "Nature knows no political borders." The planned trip is the latest development in a saga that saw one of the country's oldest and most influential environmental groups — which traditionally avoids politics in favor of a big-tent approach to environmental conservation — embroiled in a public controversy that drew ire from large Jewish organizations and prompted intervention by California politicians. Jesse Gabriel, a California Assembly member who chairs the California Legislative Jewish Caucus, joined a virtual meeting with Sierra Club Executive Director Dan Chu along with other members of the caucus after J. broke the story March 11 that the Sierra Club had indefinitely postponed its trips to Israel at the urging of groups who claimed Sierra Club was "greenwashing" the conflict. The Sierra Club is headquartered in Oakland. "It immediately caught my attention, as it did for a number of my colleagues in the [caucus]," Gabriel said. "A lot of us do work in the environmental space and have good relationships with the Sierra Club. People were obviously very upset by that, and very disturbed by it." Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt also met with Sierra Club leadership in March and said he was "encouraged" by those conversations. "Experiencing Israel through its environment, geology, history and people does not negate, nor 'greenwash,' the pressing reality of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict," he wrote in an open letter to Chu. Among the organizations that urged Sierra Club leadership to scrap its planned Israel outings were the U.S.-based Palestinian advocacy group the Adalah Justice Project, the Indigenous rights group the NDN Collective, the Movement for Black Lives coalition and the anti-Zionist group Jewish Voice for Peace. The groups leveled claims that Sierra Club was supporting an apartheid regime and providing cover for Israel's mistreatment of Palestinians by celebrating its environmental stewardship. Sierra Club, in general, has said it does not get involved in foreign policy matters, and it offers outings to a host of countries, from Tanzania to China. The advocacy groups, many of which support boycotts of Israel, celebrated after Sierra Club decided to scrap its Israel trips and removed all mention of them from its website. JVP called it a "positive step forward for environmental justice and Palestinian freedom." Later the groups soured after Chu published a statement March 15 apologizing for Sierra Club's decision, saying it was made "hastily," and that new trips to Israel would be on offer "soon" and would involve "input from a wide range of partners." Internally, the episode created uncertainty and tension within the Sierra Club. Its leadership was split on the decision, which alienated some longtime members and volunteer leaders. David Neumann of Oregon, who has led outings since the 1970s, saw the decision as indicative of a pendulum swing left at the nonprofit, which he said was off-putting to a number of longtime members he knew. Neumann is Jewish and said the news hit him hard: "I haven't had a lot of sleep lately," he said at the time. The Sierra Club last week warned its employees about the new trips to Israel and the challenging feelings they might engender, according to a note obtained and published by the Adalah Justice Project. "On Friday Sierra Club will announce details of an upcoming outing to Israel and Palestine," said the note, which was addressed to Sierra Club managers. "We have created optional spaces tomorrow and Friday to equip managers to support their teams and support people on their teams as well as managers who have identities related to Palestine and Israel." The group did not respond to requests for comment. But it addressed the Israel controversy in a public statement last week that situated the episode within the Sierra Club's efforts to examine its own role "in perpetuating white supremacy." Founded in 1892, the group was "basically a mountaineering club for middle and upper-class white people" in its early years, it has said in previous public statements. Recently, amid a national reckoning over race, the group has made internal changes designed to increase equity and oppose racism, including by rethinking, for example, its veneration of Sierra Club founder John Muir, the turn-of-the-20th-century naturalist who made derogatory comments about Black and Indigenous people. The controversy over the Israel trips became "a critical inflection point in our journey to becoming an organization that fully illustrates anti-racism, balance, collaboration, justice and transformation," the Sierra Club said in a statement published late last week, titled "Toward Just and Transformative Outings." In the statement, the Sierra Club again apologized for its abrupt decision to cancel the trips, both for derailing planning that had already taken place by trip leaders and participants and because of anger from "some of our Jewish community members who perceived our decision as a political statement." The decisions to cancel and then plan new trips "were perceived as conflicting, were made in quick succession, and ultimately perpetuated harm and confusion throughout our entire community, especially our our Palestinian, Indigenous, Arab, Middle Eastern, Muslim, and Jewish staff, volunteers, members and partners," the statement said. "While we intended to satisfy our various and valued partners, our execution caused an adverse reaction that lead us on a path of repairing and rebuilding with key members of our community — including our volunteers, our staff, our partners, our members, and our donors — who were deeply harmed and frustrated by not only the original trip, but by the non-consultative process that ensued." Pro-Palestinian groups exploded with public statements late last week excoriating what they called the nonprofit's "apartheid tours." "In February, we demanded Sierra Club cancel Israel outings greenwashing Israeli colonization and its disastrous impact on the Palestinian people," a joint statement from the Adalah Justice Project and the NDN Collective read. "Sierra Club canceled two trips but backtracked after pressure from racist anti-Palestinian groups. "We condemn Sierra Club's upcoming trips to apartheid Israel that green light Israeli colonialism and harm Indigenous Palestinians," the statement said. Along with Jewish Voice for Peace, the groups urged a social-media campaign to push back at the Sierra Club on Instagram and Twitter. "Demand that Sierra Club cancel their upcoming apartheid tours!" an Instagram post from Adalah said. "There can be no environmental justice without Indigenous sovereignty and Indigenous people leading the way," another post read. The San Francisco-based office of the ADL welcomed the news. "As the itinerary highlights, Israel is rich in history and home to many natural wonders and initiatives of interest to anyone who is concerned about the environment," said Seth Brysk, the ADL's regional director. "Experiencing Israel through its environment, geology, history and people provides essential opportunities for first-hand enriching engagement into the many complex issues that must be globally addressed." The two-week trip is scheduled to depart March 14 and has a capacity of 15 people. It costs $5,455 per person, and will include floating in the Dead Sea, a hike up Masada and a visit to Eilat, one of the world's most important stop-over sites for migratory birds. The itinerary also includes visits to a Druze village, the Bahai Temple in Haifa and an "eco village" where Palestinians and Israelis work together on water conservation issues. The trip leader is Shlomo Waser, a Bay Area resident who was born in Israel and holds a life membership in the Sierra Club. Waser did not respond to a request for comment. See you Sunday bli neder Shabbat Shalom We need Mashiach now! Love Yehuda Lave Yehuda Lave, Spirtual Advisor and Counselor Jerusalem, Jerusalem  Israel 972-585043210 YehudaLave@gmail.com You received this email because you signed up on our website or made a purchase from us. Unsubscribe