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Israel Matters!

Israel Matters! – April 2021

The View From Dalyat El Carmel

Israel is of course best known as the Jewish state, but there are also many non-Jewish citizens of Israel. Of singular stature and importance to Israel are the Druze. To help our readers better understand Druze history and culture, Israel Matters (IM) interviewed Dr. Hussein Naseraldin (HN), the Head of the M. Sc. Program in Industrial Engineering and Management at ORT Braude College in Karmiel, and a lifelong resident of Dalyat El Carmel, the largest Druze village on Mount Carmel. (more…)

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President's Message

March 2021: President’s Message

As we heard last month from Jacqui Schulefand’s UConn Hillel students, there is an Elephant in the room that is demanding attention. We need to address this Elephant in the room. This Elephant has been around as long as the Jewish people, but it has gotten a lot meaner and obvious lately. The Elephant is anti-Jewish hatred. There is the familiar white supremacy movement that hates everyone who doesn’t look like them, the subtle I-don’t-really-mean-it-when-I-talk-badly-about-Jews kind and a relatively new and insidious form of hostility directed at Israel, which crosses the line to anti-Jewish hate many times. (more…)

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Odds & Ends

Haredim drift further from Israeli mainstream

This is the second in an in-depth series of articles examining key aspects of haredi society and its role in and influence on the country today.

BY  VIVIAN BERCOVICI – MARCH 4, 2021

SIMMERING ANGER: The torched bus burns in Bnei Brak in late January. (photo credit: ISRAEL POLICE SPOKESMAN)

SIMMERING ANGER: The torched bus burns in Bnei Brak in late January.
(photo credit: ISRAEL POLICE SPOKESMAN)

 The burning bus. Torched and aflame on a main street in Bnei Brak a haredi enclave abutting Tel Aviv, the bus was seen around the world in late January. It has become an iconic image, seen by some to reflect the lawlessness and autonomy among haredim in Israel that has become somewhat regular in the COVID era. Not even the firefighters would rush to douse the blaze without a police escort. (more…)

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Odds & Ends

Haredi impunity and autonomy: Tantamount to insurrection?

By VIVIAN BERCOVICI    FEBRUARY 26, 2021

A typical street scene in the bustling modern-day shtetl of Jerusalem's Mea She'arim neighborhood. (photo credit: YONATAN SINDEL/FLASH90)

A typical street scene in the bustling modern-day shtetl of Jerusalem’s Mea She’arim neighborhood.  (photo credit: YONATAN SINDEL/FLASH

This is the first of an in-depth series of articles in the run-up to the March 23 election looking at key aspects of haredi society and its role in and influence on the country today.

“If we face the choice of transgressing the laws of Moses or the laws of the state, we will violate the laws of the state, not those of Moses.”

– Yitzhak Meir-Levin, haredi welfare minister, addressing his cabinet colleagues at a meeting, July 12, 1950 (more…)

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Israel Matters!

Israel Matters! – March 2021 – More Than News

The Abraham Accords

The last quarter of 2020 witnessed a remarkable Middle East peace offensive with the launch of the Abraham Accords, a series of agreements between Israel and several Arab countries. Signing the first declaration on September 15 were the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain. This was followed by Sudan on October 23, and one month later with Morocco on December 22. So, what are the Abraham Accords about, and why are they so significant? (more…)

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Rabbi's Corner

Pride Goes Before The Fall

There is a Midrash about Pharaoh meeting Moses at the edge of the Nile River, before G-d
turned the water to blood. Why would Pharaoh, King of Egypt, be at the water’s edge at the crack of dawn? Kings like to sleep late. The Midrash explains that Pharaoh went early in the morning to meet his bodily needs, before other people awoke. He saw himself as a g-d, and he did not want people to see that he was merely human, with the same needs as every other human. (more…)

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President's Message

February 2021: President’s Message

During these unusual times, our synagogue continues to function on a positive level. Our daily minyans continue as well as our Shabbat services. And our Adult Ed Committee, Sisterhood and Men’s Club are continuing to have interesting programming. Hinda Piscitelli and her committee are hard at work making sure we have a wonderful Temple Beth Sholom 75th Anniversary Celebration. Make sure you get your memories in. It will add so much more to your decade Shabbat service. You can email them to: TBSHamden75@gmail.com. Passover is just a few short weeks away. Passover is the most observed holiday of all Jewish holidays. It is also my favorite holiday, with all its story, its foods and its songs. When I was growing up, we would go to my Grandmother’s house with all my aunts, uncles and cousins. My father and his three brothers would sit at one end of the table with…

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Book of Memories

Albert Harary – Avram ben David ve-Mazel – 2019

I am so sorry that we’re here today. Hanukkah should be a time of happiness and family. Instead, Al’s family, both his biological family and his synagogue family and his community family, have to deal with this terrible sadness. Meri has been there for every second and she has been explaining things to me along the way, and I have to tell you that I still don’t understand part of what happened and why. You could say it doesn’t matter, but Al mattered very much in our lives. (more…)

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