Interestingly we don’t talk very much about Hassidic Dynasties in NYC other than Chabad. The other major dynasty is that of the Satmar’s. Their populations, in NYC, can be found in Williamsburg and Boro Park.
Quick Facts:
They originated from Hungary (and surrounding areas).
They are Anti-Zionist….believe it or not.
They have been locked in a succession (blood) feud for decades.
Satmar communities are hierarchical.
U.S. Satmar populations exist in Williamsburg, Boro Park, and Upstate New York.
Here is what Wikipedia has compiled on the Satmar Hassidim:
Satmar (or Satmar Hasidism or Satmarer Hasidism) (חסידות סאטמאר) is a Hasidic movement comprising mostly Hungarian[1] and Romanian Hasidic Jewish Holocaustsurvivors and their descendants. It was founded and led by the late Hungarian-born[2] Grand Rebbe Yoel Teitelbaum[1] (1887-1979), who was the rabbi of Szatmárnémeti,Hungary (currently Satu Mare, Romania).[1] The town’s name in German is Satmar. The name Satmar was also used by the Yiddish-speaking population, Yiddish being then the common language of the local Jews. Members of the movement are usually referred to as Satmar Hasidim or Satmarer Hasidim.
The two largest Satmar communities are in Williamsburg, Brooklyn and Kiryas Joel, New York. There are also significant Satmar communities in Borough Park, Brooklyn andMonsey, New York. Smaller communities can be found in North American cities such as Los Angeles, Montreal and Toronto; European cities such as Antwerp, London andManchester; Argentina; Australia and numerous cities and towns in Israel. The late Satmar Rebbe, Rebbe Yoel Teitelbaum, also held the title of the Chief Rabbi of Jerusalem’sEdah HaChareidis, although he did not live in Jerusalem after 1946.
Satmar is one of the largest and most influential Hasidic movements in existence today, but formal demographic comparisons with other Hasidim are not available. It is believed to number close to 130,000 adherents (including men, women and children), and is rapidly growing due to the extremely high fertility rates of the group. This population figure does not include a number of smaller and related anti-Zionist Hungarian Hasidic groups who align themselves with Satmar.
To Read The Entire Wiki-Web Satmar Articles, Continue Here.
I also wanted to mention that a film came out recently about certain fringe elements of the Satmar community in NYC.
Holy Rollers (2010), is an actual true story about Satmar kids being used as drug mules. Set in the late 1990s, the height of New York’s rave scene, ecstasy pills were being smuggled by Hassidim.
Holy Rollers stars, Jesse Eisenberg, as a struggling Satmar youth, who was sick of his destiny being decided for him. Now I’m not exactly sure what was in the main characters head, or his motives for taking such risks. Nevertheless, I won’t spoil the film for you. It’s a must see!! I really loved this film.
-David Mirand
Contributing writer and former Program Director of RJI
By Patricia Rice, Special to the Beacon
Posted Sun., 4.17.11
ST LOUIS BEACON
At Passover Seder dinners in Jewish homes across the world, the youngest child will ask “Why is this night different from all other nights?”
Then, the story is told of that spring night when, according to the Book of Exodus, God’s angel “passed over” Jewish first-born sons as the Egyptians’ first-born males died in the 10th plague. Moses then led the enslaved Jews across the parted Red Sea to freedom.
On Passover as St. Louis Jewish grandparents and elders look with loving pride at their young questioners, many will talk about the next generation. Will young American Jews have the desire and support to celebrate their Jewish faith in St. Louis?
“Our numbers in St. Louis are diminishing,” said Barry Rosenberg (right), executive director of the Jewish Federation of St. Louis, a planning and fund-raising umbrella group. It serves all Jewish denominations, including Jews who are not synagogue members. Lower numbers hurt, he said. In January the federation announced that its annual fund-raising campaign brought in less that its $10 million goal. The total of “just under” $9.95 million was the lowest campaign results in 13 years. For each of the previous three years, the total has diminished. In response to reduced numbers – in giving and in members – the Jewish Federation, which has a $100 million endowment, developed an energetic strategic plan to streamline its resources, cut duplication and “sunset” some programs.” For a decade it has urged synagogues with declining membership and high staff and maintenance costs to merge.
April 17, 2011 The dueling deficit-cutting plans presented by congressional Republicans and President Obama both promise to restore the nation’s fiscal credibility. But if they fail to deliver, the result could be still higher deficits and the potential for another devastating economic crisis.
Even if the far-reaching and painful measures like those in the two proposals were adopted, economists say, more drastic action would be required in the years ahead to bring the deficit down to a sustainable level.
The GOP plan, drafted by Rep. Paul D. Ryan of Wisconsin, would reduce government red ink by $4.4 trillion over 10 years. It would cut federal spending by $5.8 trillion, but would offset that by $4.2 trillion in tax cuts. Ryan counts on the tax cuts to stimulate the economy and end up delivering substantially more tax revenues.
Obama would shrink deficits by $4 trillion over 12 years. He would make considerably smaller spending reductions, a total of $2 trillion, but would increase taxes by about $1 trillion, focusing on wealthy Americans. Since his definition of wealthy begins with families earning $250,000 a year, many working couples with hefty salaries but few if any tax shelters could feel the effects of his plan more sharply than the millionaires and billionaires he often talks about.
Obama’s savings rely in good part on future efforts by government regulators to hold down the costs of medical care — a major, but yet untested, element in the healthcare law that does not take full effect until 2014.
Both the Ryan-Republican plan and the one outlined by Obama in his speech last week are opening bids in what’s expected to be a drawn-out battle along partisan lines. But the two approaches agree on one thing: Over time, the nation’s mounting debt threatens the economic stability of the whole country, and the government — along with most voters — will almost certainly have to find ways to do more with less.
Aaron HowardJewish Harold Voice
Jewish community newspaper serving the Houston and Texas Gulf Coast area since 1908
A bill before the Israeli Knesset that would give full authority for conversions to the Chief Rabbinate is causing a huge controversy in Israel and in the United States.The Knesset’s Constitution, Law and Justice Committee approved 5-4, on first reading to plenum on July 12, a bill that would give the Israeli Orthodox rabbinate a monopoly on conversions to Judaism. The bill must go before second and third readings before being brought to a vote in the Knesset and can be revised during the process.
Under current practice, Israel recognizes only conversions performed by Orthodox rabbis inside Israel. But, under the Law of Return, people converted by non-Orthodox rabbis outside the country are automatically eligible for Israeli citizenship like other Jews. The proposed legislation would give Israel’s chief rabbinate the legal power to decide whether any conversion outside Israel is legitimate.
The groups most likely to be affected would be about a half-million immigrants to Israel from the former Soviet Union and those who converted to Judaism abroad and could now be denied Israeli citizenship.
The bill, supported by various religious and right-wing parties, essentially would give the Israeli Orthodox rabbinate the power to decide who is Jewish and who is not. At the same time, it would delegitimize non-Orthodox rabbis outside Israel. Opponents of the bill say that passage of the bill would defeat efforts to promote a more flexible and Halakhic conversion process and would marginalize the non-Orthodox Jewish movements.
The bill has set off a storm in and outside Israel.
“I understand the concern of the Conservative and Reform movement,” said Rabbi Barry Gelman. “From the perspective of Israel, it is already a fact that the rabbinate controls conversions in Israel. They also have retroactively nullified conversions. They have already been notoriously well-known for deciding which conversions are good and which are not good – that is, not acceptable according to Halakha.
”Rabbi Gelman is senior rabbi of United Orthodox Synagogues and president of the International Rabbinic Fellowship, a worldwide organization of rabbis founded to promote Modern Orthodoxy and serious study of Torah and Halakha and to advocate policies and implement actions on behalf of World Jewry and humankind.
“The key here, which is why I’m not so concerned yet, is what this bill does is turn into law what, in fact, is already being done,” said Rabbi Gelman. “So, how much is really being lost in that part of the negotiations? That remains to be seen, which is why I’m not ready to stand squarely behind the bill.
“On the plus side, the bill would allow city rabbis in Israel to perform conversions without the need to work with the Chief Rabbinate’s rabbinical courts. That could help in two ways. One, which is significant, is it could help liberalize the conversion standards so that the close to half-million Russian immigrants who are of Jewish stock – if not Halakhicly Jewish – can convert. The new bill is taking an approach to conversion that would not necessarily require complete mitzvah observance.
“Second, the bill will generally offer a more realistic and, in many cases, a user-friendly process for everybody.
So, there is a lot of plus side.
“The American movements are looking at the bill from the American perspective. There are very few Reform or Conservative conversions done in Israel. This bill could be the answer to the problem that many people in Israel have been complaining about. But, because it may call into question some conversions done in Israel, it has caused an uproar.
”Because of the possible upsides to the legislation, Rabbi Gelman explained that he was not ready to condemn the bill. He was hopeful that Conservative and Reform movement leaders, who have arrived in Israel on Sunday to lobby the bill’s chief sponsor, Israeli Beiteinu MK David Rotem, will find a way to alter the language in a way that is more acceptable to American critics.
One important question raised by Religious Zionists: Does the Chief Rabbinate understand their responsibility toward making conversion a realistic possibility for these half-million Russian Jews?
And, a second question raised by the Conservative and Reform movements in the United States: Does this bill disenfranchise the majority of American Jews?Rabbi Gelman argues there are well-established Halakhic ways to make the conversion process doable for these Russian Jews.
“These are not necessarily methods we would use for individual converts,” he cautioned. “But because the issue of these Russian Jews and the future of their children as well as the future of the state is affected, the rabbinate should be exercising nationalist or Religious Zionist Halakhic thinking. They should realize their decision would affect the entire country.
“We have handed the keys to the kingdom to anti-Zionists.
“But, there are city rabbis who are Zionist. There are city rabbis who understand what needs to be done in regards to converting these Russian Jews. So, that’s why I think the bill has an upside for the state. I understand it has a downside for Reform and Conservative Jews.
”Danny Horwitz, rabbi of the Greenfield Chapel at Beth Yeshurun, has been a Conservative pulpit rabbi for 30 years. He views the conversion bill as a move fraught with political peril.
“Sometimes, power politics takes precedence over what’s best for the citizens – in this case, members of the Jewish people,” said Rabbi Horwitz. “The bill is designed to place total control over the definition of Jewish identity in the hands of the Chief Rabbinate, probably the most extreme ultra-Orthodox element in Israel with any power. Not only will this be a problem in terms of recognizing conversions, but in its current form, it could affect the status of people who want to make aliyah. The rabbinate has the desire to maintain control over conversions. But, they have also retroactively annulled conversions.
“The bill maintains a certain amount of power and employment within the ultra-Orthodox community. But, as we know, the current situation of the ultra-Orthodox community is not sustainable. A majority from the ultra-Orthodox community does not work. So, where does their money come from? It must come from the government. They currently have a certain amount of votes in the Knesset. But, I also foresee a situation in 10 to 20 years where you may reach a point where 50 percent of the people who are 18 years old won’t serve in the army.
”For Conservative and Reform Jews throughout the world, the bill makes no sense, argues Rabbi Horwitz.
“Given Israel’s need to deal with much more existential problems, it doesn’t make sense that Israel would create this kind of slap in the face to the communities of Jews who have stood behind Israel. That’s part of the reason why [Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu came out on Sunday against the bill.
“However, I don’t take it for granted just because he came out against the bill that it may fail.
”Rabbi Horwitz also views the conversion bill as harmful to Modern Orthodox interests. “In general, modern Orthodox have allowed the status quo in Israel to continue,” he said. “They have hoped they would remain legitimized – that their conversions would remain legitimized by the Chief Rabbinate. Now, many of them are having their conversions rejected by the Israeli rabbinate. In my judgment, if they don’t stand up for the rights of those who are being undermined, they will also be squeezed out of the business of conversions.
”What should American Jews do? Rabbi Horwitz suggests that U.S. Jews must make a separation between those existential issues and the conversion bill.
“We have to stand with Israel,” he said. “But, we also have to be willing to say to Israel: This is not the kind of Israel we want to see. You can’t expect young American Jews to support a people whose thinking is the same ilk as the folks in Tehran. When you have women attacked for carrying a sefer Torah at the Western Wall, that’s not going to warm the hearts of American Jews. It’s not realistic for Israel to expect that every Jew will give them a pass for this behavior and allow Judaism to be defined by its most extreme elements.
“Ben-Gurion said in 1939, when the British created the White Paper: ‘We will fight the Nazis as if there was no White Paper and fight the White Paper as if there were no Nazis.’
“I think we ought to fight the enemies of Israel as if we didn’t have this internal problem in Israel. And, we ought to deal with the internal problem of freedom of religion in Israel as if she did not have external enemies.”
By NORMA DAVIDOFF SHULMAN
12/08/2010
Jerusalem Post
Amost intriguing aspect of Vilnius, Lithuania, is that it’s “first you don’t see it, then you do.” You can walk along the winding streets and past small inviting houses in its Old Town, without realizing you are in what was the Jewish ghetto. Yes, it is memorialized by a sign here and there, but unless you know what to look for, you will see nothing. And if you know what to look for, a world awaits.
Vilnius is not what it seems – even its name. This storied city known as Vilna, Wilno, Vilne – however you spell it and say it – was a place of spirituality and learning for Jews. Scholars and religious leaders were so profoundly important to Jewish life here that Vilna was known as the “Jerusalem of the North.” Taken with the city’s charm and vibrant religious life, Napoleon supposedly was the first to pay it that tribute.
Visiting Vilnius can be delightful.
Compact and stylish, it has a medieval castle, intriguing Old World architecture, high-quality concerts and ballet, a variety of restaurants and accommodations in every price range.
It earned its status as a UNESCO World Heritage Site and 2009 European Capital of Culture. But, as on TV’s Betipul, Vilnius has secrets. Peel back the layers, peer into the past and become inspired.
There are fascinating traces beyond the faint Yiddish letters on ghetto buildings. Starting with the Middle Ages, Jews arrived here. By the 1700s, their numbers and influence became significant. Before World War II, Jews made up more than a third of the city.
Then the whole country seemed to disappear for 50 years behind the Iron Curtain; it was the first to break away from the USSR, in 1990. By that time most of its Jews were already gone.
Some had made Aliya, like the Litvak families of Binyamin Netanyahu and Ehud Barak. Shimon Peres lived 100 kilometers from Vilnius.
Before the war, there were a hundred synagogues and study houses.
Fifteen years ago Chabad opened its doors in an apartment house. The city has but one synagogue building: the Choral Synagogue in the heart of the ghetto. This Moorish-style edifice, with its blue letters in Hebrew, had a congregation with a progressive outlook when it was built in 1894. It allowed music, thus the name “choral.”
WHEN I WENT there to Shabbat services, there were initially so few people that services were to be held in a small side chapel. It seemed difficult to get a minyan. But Rabbi Chaim Burnshtein, who commutes between Vilna and Israel, told me they always have a minyan and hold services three times a day. “Vilna’s Jews don’t have strong roots,” he said, “but they have a strong sense of Jewish identity.”
Just minutes before we were to begin, the situation changed. Local tour guide Yulik Gurewich brought in a raft of young Russians to tell them about this beautiful synagogue with its domed ceiling painted with clouds.
The visitors wanted to stay for services, so the congregants switched to the main sanctuary.
As a woman, I was seated behind a lace curtain on the first floor off to the side. The young Russian women sat upstairs in the ornate balcony, also reserved for females. The Russian men prayed along with the locals on the first floor facing the ark and then turning around to face Jerusalem. Again things are not what they seem. The synagogue was used as a warehouse during the war, its contents stolen by both Germans and Lithuanians.
Today it is sparingly furnished.
Finances are a constant problem for this synagogue, as they are for the whole fragile Jewish community, which is subsidized by the Joint Distribution Committee and several other Jewish organizations. As Simonas Gurevicius, executive director of the Jewish Community of Lithuania, explained, “From more than 50 families before the [economic] crisis, now we have got more than 150 young Jewish families who are in need.”
After services, I made my way through the ghetto area. It is charm central! Cobblestone streets, smallscale buildings with folkloric motifs painted on window shutters. Store windows are full of tempting designer pastries, amber and luxury linens, mostly for visitors. Antiques and art galleries make up the rest of the shops.
Vilna’s one kosher restaurant, the Kinneret, sports white tablecloths.
Vilna’s past glories overshadow today’s luxuries. Old Town once was truly Jewish. In fact, one street is named Jew Street (Zydu Street). Another is named for the revered Vilna Gaon who lived here from 1720-1797. The Gaon’s house on Zydu Street was destroyed, along with others. Close by was the Strashun Library, renowned for Jewish scholarship. The Great Synagogue, built in 1572, was nearby. All gone, except for a few plaques! But it is what the plaques don’t say that is most important. During World War II, Jews not from this part of the city, were forced into the ghetto. People lived too many to a room, struggling to get by. The Jewish community was basically in prison, one in which contagion spread easily. These people were cut off from the rest of the city – its schools and culture. What did they do? The Jewish community started its own schools, set up medical clinics, created its own orchestra – even an active lending library. Songs of defiance, songs of hope were composed. (You can hear them once again at the city’s Holocaust museum.) The community held strong.
It kept its humanity and its desire to live. This besieged Jewish community created, lived, studied, taught, and survived– up to a point.
Statues of significant Jewish citizens erected in the last few years can be found throughout the area. One statue is of Dr. Tzemah Shabad, the community leader who, among other contributions, created TOZ, providing much-needed medical services for the poor. Another sculpture honors novelist Romain Gary, who lived here before moving to France. (Strangely enough, there is a statue of rock star Frank Zappa, who has no connection to the city. Citizens liked him so much they honored him.) At the Little Green House in town, more comes into perspective. This unassuming place is a Holocaust museum with a profound impact. Photos on the wall remind us of the talented and famous of Vilna: violinist Jascha Heifetz, painter Chaim Soutine and sculptor Jacques Lifschitz. Prominent artist Samuel Bak was just a boy in the ghetto.
This is where YIVO, the repository of East European Jewish culture and history, now based in New York, started.
Documents present straightforward facts. They are staggering. A German report lists the number of Jews killed in each country: 220,000 Jews were in Lithuania before the war, 3,500 after.
Today, according to the Jewish Community, there are 5,000 in the whole country – 3,500 in Vilnius.
Equally meaningful in the ghetto area is the Tolerance Museum, also known as the Museum of the Vilna Gaon. This building survived from the 1800s. Its incarnations reflect some history of Jewish life here. Early on, it was a soup kitchen for the poor – as the Jewish community always looked after its own. Then it became a small exquisite concert hall – concerts can still be held here. It has been beautifully restored in the last 20 years.
Today its glass and its gleaming floors help create an aesthetic setting for a museum of Jewish culture. You can’t help feeling proud to see what Jews created for their spiritual and daily life.
Strikingly crafted are sterling Torah pointers, colorful painted wooden plaques, memorabilia of the great Romm publishing family – numerous reminders of the rich center of Jewish learning and spirituality that typified Vilna for 600 years. Not just artifacts, but people and ideas, of course, made Vilna great.
SADLY, THE many deaths in this ghetto area was only phase one. One of Vilnius’s beautiful aspects became its ugliest.
Pine forests surround much of the city, peaceful, quiet, lush – so attractive that feature film producers use them for location shoots. But it was to one of these forests, Panaerai, also called Ponar, that the Jews were transported by the Nazis. Some were killed immediately and thrown into death pits. Others were forced to clear the bodies. More than 70,000 Jews were murdered. Large marble monuments attest to those atrocities.
Right by the monuments is a small museum. The exhibits are both edifying and horrific; victims’ shoes, photos, clothing, tefillin, remnants of papers and identification are on display. One story about forced laborers tells how they dug a tunnel to escape from their German captors. Chilling, remarkable accounts, like this one, known as the escape of the burner’s brigade, are still being researched and revealed.
The history of Vilna is sobering, heartbreaking and heartening all at the same time. Although much has been lost, if you go to the “Jerusalem of the North,” there is still much to be found.
WASHINGTON — A federal judge has issued a judgment against the Russian government for its refusal to return a library of historic books and documents to a Jewish group. Royce Lamberth, the chief judge of U.S. District Court in Washington, ruled that taking the material was discriminatory, not for a public purpose and occurred without just compensation to the Jewish religious organization that is suing, Chabad-Lubavitch. At issue are 12,000 religious books and manuscripts seized during the Bolshevik revolution and the Russian Civil War from 1917 to 1925 and 25,000 pages of handwritten teachings and other writings of religious leaders stolen by Nazi Germany during World War II. The documents seized by the Nazis were transferred by the Soviet Red Army as trophy documents and war booty to the Russian State Military Archive. Last year, lawyers for the Russian government argued that judges have no authority to tell the country how to handle the sacred Jewish documents. Under the U.S. Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act, a sovereign nation is not immune to lawsuits in cases where property is taken in violation of international law. Lamberth found that the religious group had established its claim to the material, which he said is “unlawfully” possessed by the Russian State Library and the Russian military archive. According to court papers reciting the history behind the case, Russian President Boris Yeltsin once gave an explicit assurance to President George H.W. Bush’s emissary, Secretary of State James Baker, that the Russian government would return the library of religious books and manuscripts to Chabad-Lubavitch. Lamberth issued his decision on Friday. Nathan Lewin, a longtime Washington lawyer representing the religious group, said that the U.S. government “has always supported the return of these materials. I would hope that the State Department would not interfere with enforcement of this order.” The State Department declined to comment because the issue involves an ongoing legal case.
NEW YORK — The debate over a planned Islamic community center and mosque near ground zero became a court fight Wednesday, as a conservative advocacy group sued to try to stop a project that has become a fulcrum for balancing religious freedom and the legacy of the Sept. 11 attacks. The American Center for Law and Justice, founded by the Rev. Pat Robertson, filed suit Wednesday to challenge a city panel’s decision to let developers tear down a building to make way for the mosque two blocks from ground zero. The city Landmarks Preservation Commission moved too fast in making a decision, underappreciated the building’s historic value and “allowed the intended use of the building and political considerations to taint the deliberative process,” lawyer Brett Joshpe wrote in papers filed in a Manhattan state court. The Washington, D.C.-based group represents a firefighter who responded to and survived the terrorist attack at the World Trade Center. City attorneys are confident the landmarks group adhered to legal standards and procedures, Law Department spokeswoman Kate O’Brien Ahlers said. A spokesman for the planned Islamic center, Oz Sultan, declined to comment on the lawsuit but said organizers were continuing to work toward choosing an architect. The mosque has become a national political flashpoint, pitting several influential Republicans and the nation’s most prominent Jewish civil rights group against New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and others. In one of the latest signs of the issue’s political reach beyond Manhattan, Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick expressed support Wednesday for the proposed mosque. The group behind the $100 million project, the Cordoba Initiative, describes it as a Muslim-themed community center. Early plans call not only for prayer space but for a swimming pool, culinary school, art studios and other features. Developers envision it as a hub for interfaith interaction, as well as a place for Muslims to bridge some of their faith’s own schisms. “We want to create a model that shows the world that you can develop moderate Muslim communities,” Sultan said Wednesday. “We would admonish people to, at least, give us a fair shake.” Opponents, including some Sept. 11 victims’ relatives, see the prospect of a mosque so near the destroyed trade center as an insult to the memory of the nearly 3,000 people killed by Islamic terrorists in the 2001 attacks. Shouts of “shame on you!” erupted from the audience after the city panel voted Tuesday to deny landmark protection to the existing building, saying the 152-year-old structure wasn’t distinctive enough. Big-name Republicans including former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich have criticized the plan — as has the Anti-Defamation League, a Jewish civil rights group known for advocating religious freedom. Former Rep. Rick Lazio, a Republican running for governor of New York, has raised questions about the Cordoba Initiative’s imam, Feisal Abdul Rauf. In a “60 Minutes” interview televised shortly after the Sept. 11 attacks, Rauf said that “United States policies were an accessory to the crime that happened.” But supporters of the planned Islamic center see it as a monument to tolerance and religious liberty. “The World Trade Center site will forever hold a special place in our city, in our hearts,” Bloomberg, a Republican-turned-independent, said Tuesday. “But we would be untrue to the best part of ourselves, and who we are as New Yorkers and Americans, if we said no to a mosque in lower Manhattan.” For now, the court case centers on the legalities of the landmarks commission’s vote, which the lawsuit seeks to overturn. The existing, Italianate building was built for shipping magnates and later occupied by the pharmaceuticals giant Merck & Co., among other businesses. The law center argues it deserves landmark status for its architectural features — and for its newer historical significance as a structure that withstood being hit by debris from one of the hijacked jetliners used in the terrorist attacks. “The building is the only building of its kind that links the growth of American free enterprise to the present-day events and the aftermath of Sept. 11, 2001, events which stand as a testament to economic, social and political freedom in the face of violence,” Joshpe wrote.
, Nonresident Senior Fellow, Governance Studies The Brookings Institution August 4, 2010
The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission announced yesterday that it will not designate the building at 45-51 Park Place in lower Manhattan as an historic landmark. The building, which is two blocks north of Ground Zero, does not have the architectural or historic significance to merit such a designation, the Commission unanimously said. While a decision like this normally would not draw national attention, this one already has because it essentially clears the way for the owners of the property to tear down the existing structure and build an Islamic center there. This decision is one of several in which New York City officials have taken care to treat the planned Islamic center the same way they would treat plans for a YMCA or Jewish community center in this space. In so doing, these officials have honored core dictates of religious freedom. Especially because other local leaders across the nation are facing related issues, it’s worth looking at the excellent example set by New York City’s officials. And with the battle for public opinion over the planned Islamic center still very much in play, an assessment of that debate also is in order. Further, a federal law that specifically deals with religious institutions and land use regulation, the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA), plainly states: “No government shall impose or implement a land use regulation that discriminates against any assembly or institution on the basis of religion or religious denomination.” Whether the entity is Muslim, Mormon, or Methodist, Congress recognized that faith-based discrimination by the government must not be tolerated. Thus, if government officials were to reject or specially burden plans for mosques or other Islamic institutions because of their religious affiliation, it would violate both the Constitution and federal statutory law. This would be true whether the discrimination was plain to see or whether it lurked behind objections about things like traffic, aesthetics, and noise. Of course, a commitment to treat all religions the same does not tie the government’s hands regarding specific and credible threats of violence. To cite a recent example, in March 2010 a federal grand jury indicted members of a Michigan militia group for plotting to attack police and use weapons of mass destruction. The group was known as “Hutaree,” and its members described themselves as Christian soldiers preparing to battle with the anti-Christ. That certainly did not stop law enforcement from taking action, and properly so. When some later suggested the city should take the land around Ground Zero by eminent domain in order to stop the Islamic center, Governor David Paterson’s office saidsuch a move would be “an obvious violation of the First Amendment’s religion clauses, a gross violation of the spirit and intent of the eminent domain provision in state law, and [it could] run afoul of other federal and state statutes and constitutional provisions.” He was right. Others proposed launching a special investigation of the funding sources for this project, even though they admitted there was no evidence of wrongdoing. Attorney General Andrew Cuomo properly rejected it as a bad idea. When the case came before the Landmarks Preservation Commission, many tried to distract the body with issues that were not part of its jurisdiction. The Commission kept its eye on the ball. Elisabeth de Bourbon, a spokeswoman for the body, called the controversy over the Islamic center an issue that was “totally separate” from the Commission’s work. “What we’re looking at it is whether the building has the architectural and historic significance to the city of New York to merit landmark designation.” But the Manhattan figure most identified with these principled, consistent, and no-nonsense stands is New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Whereas former Alaska governor Sarah Palin cited the pain of 9/11 victims and urged Muslims to oppose the project, the mayor noted that American Muslims were among those who were murdered on 9/11. They too are part of the community in lower Manhattan, he said, and they have a right to build there. When Newt Gingrich said “[t]here should be no mosque near Ground Zero in New York so long as there are no churches or synagogues in Saudi Arabia,” Mayor Bloomberg invoked our country’s founding. “If somebody wants to build a religious house of worship, they should do it and we shouldn’t be in the business of picking which religions can and which religions can’t,” he said. Bloomberg continued: “You know, the ability to practice your religion is the- was one of the real reasons America was founded. And for us to say no is just, I think, not appropriate is a nice way to phrase it.” Indeed, every time New York City officials were urged to place special burdens on this project precisely because it is affiliated with Islam, the mayor cried foul. Bloomberg capped off these efforts with a stirring speech yesterday on Governors Island. The mayor said: “This nation was founded on the principle that the government must never choose between religions or favor one over another. “ He deemed battles like this one as “important [a] test of the separation of church and state as we may see in our lifetimes,” and said “it is critically important that we get it right.” Mayor Bloomberg has done so here. If the sponsors of the Islamic center sympathized with the 9/11 hijackers, this argument would make sense. But they have said just the opposite. One of the leaders, Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, has emphasized that project organizers “have condemned the actions of 9/11,” and “[w]e have condemned terrorism in the most unequivocal terms.” According to the Imam Feisal, the sponsors of the Islamic center want “to push back against the extremists,” and help“bridge and heal a divide” between Muslims and other faiths. The FBI has said Rauf assisted its agents in outreach to Muslims in the wake of September 11: “We’ve had positive interactions with him in the past,” a FBI spokesmannoted. Daisy Khan, Imam Feisel’s wife, and a member of an advisory team for the National September 11 Memorial and Museum, has stressed their efforts “to de-link Islam from acts of terrorists.” Sharif el-Gamal, a lead developer of the project, and one who assisted first responders on 9/11, has promised that “[r]adical and hateful agendas will have no place” in this endeavor. In the face of questions about fundraising for the Islamic center, Sharif el-Gamal has said, “We are in the process of establishing a not-for-profit entity, and we have not raised any money from foreign governments.” Moving forward, el-Gamal has promised “to make sure our fundraising and planning involves people from across the city” and to “do so in a way that hears concerns and responds to them.” He told CNN that project organizers “plan on being very transparent throughout the whole process.” El-Gamal has extended an open invitation to Americans, including former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, to visit the community and learn more about the plans. He said: “You know, I’d love it if Sarah Palin came to Park51 to see our community…. We want to welcome everybody who cares about this city and about this country.” Given these kinds of statements, it is unsurprising that a number of New York City religious leaders have spoken in favor of the project. Father Kevin Madigan of St. Peter’s Church said: “I think they need to establish a place such as this for people of goodwill from mainline Christian, Jewish and Muslim faiths so we can come together to talk.” Joy Levitt, executive director of the Jewish Community Center in Manhattan, told the New York Times: “For the J.C.C. to have partners in the Muslim community that share our vision of pluralism and tolerance would be great.” And a host of local religious leaders turned out yesterday to support plans for the Islamic center, including those from the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese, the Jewish Community Council, the Church of St. Francis of Assisi, the National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership, Trinity Church, Church of the Nazarene, the Islamic Cultural Center of New York, the New York City Buddhist Church, the United Jewish Agency Federation, and the Interfaith Center of New York. Having dedicated their project to this spirit, and having made these promises, I would urge Americans to welcome the organizers’ efforts. As noted above, opponents of the project say Islamic symbols and institutions create pain because they associate them with the 9/11 attacks. But many Muslims who condemn terrorism also claim those symbols and institutions — they did before 9/11 and they do today. If Americans rebuff high-profile efforts by Muslims who condemn terrorism to reclaim their faith, we effectively give the 9/11 hijackers and their ilk a monopoly on the symbols and institutions of Islam. This would provide violent extremists with a powerful recruiting tool, and it would be deeply unfair to the vast majority of Muslims who practice their faith in peace. Local officials who are facing related issues also should study New York City’s example. In the face of enormous pressure to do otherwise, city officials held fast to the principle that the government must apply the same standards to all faiths, a linchpin of the American tradition of religious liberty. Adherence to this principle has helped us to make peace and build solidarity in a nation where a stunning array of religions are practiced, often with great fervor, and frequently side-by-side. Contrary to Newt Gingrich’s suggestions, honoring this standard of religious freedom has not made us “weak” or “submissive.” It has made us strong.The First Amendment and RLUIPA
The First Amendment to the United States Constitution bars the state from singling out certain religions for special disabilities. In 1993, for example, the United States Supreme Court said: “At a minimum, the protections of the Free Exercise Clause pertain if the law at issue discriminates against some or all religious beliefs … .” This includes discrimination that “is masked as well as overt.” New York City’s Example
At a tense hearing in May 2010, a New York City community board rejected a motion to delay a vote on the planned Islamic center and backed the project by 29-to-1, with 10 abstentions. New York City Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said there were no security concerns about building the Islamic center in the area, and city officials quite rightly dismissed the notion that all things Islamic pose violent threats. An Affront or An Advance?
Now that the Landmarks Preservation Commission has spoken, opponents of the Islamic center are likely to focus largely on the claim that, while the owners of the property may have a legal right to move forward, the project is unnecessarily provocative and hurtful. Thus, they should pull the plug on their plans, opponents say.Making Peace, Building Solidarity
As other cities and towns consider plans for mosques and other Islamic institutions in their communities, they should read a two-year study of American Muslims and terrorism done by Duke University scholar David Schanzer. Professor Schanzer and his colleagues found that “Muslim-American organizations and the vast majority of individuals who we interviewed firmly reject the radical extremist ideology that justifies the use of violence to achieve political ends.” They also discovered that “Muslim-Americans have taken a number of positive steps to reduce the potential for radicalization.” In addition to publicly and privately condemning terrorist incidents, they have warned congregants against propaganda, performed background checks on proposed speakers at mosques, pre-viewed texts to be offered at Friday prayer services, and barred certain speakers from their communities. They have sponsored anti-terrorism workshops and provided forums for youth to head off potential problems. Muslim Americans also have provided information to law enforcement about individuals who might engage in violence. Thus, thwarting the building of American Muslim communities would often mean thwarting some of our best weapons against terrorist threats.
Op-ed: EU hostile to Jewish State because Israel’s success flaunts Europe’s failure
YNET NEWS
Moshe Dann
Antipathy for Israel among Europeans is increasing and alarming as campaigns of de-legitimization and vilification spread across the world, fueled by Muslim propaganda and money, whetted by the hunger for oil. Even once friendly European countries, those that helped establish the State of Israel and tried to assist Jews during the Holocaust, have become more hostile towards Israel. Europe’s brief love affair with Israel seems over. Why?
Yoram Hazony, director of Jerusalem’s Shalem Center, offers a unique and compelling perspective:
“The path of national self-determination … lies beneath the nearly boundless disgust so many feel towards Israel, and especially toward anything having to do with Israel’s attempts to defend itself… It is driven by the rapid advance of a new paradigm that understands Israel, and especially the independent Israeli use of force to defend itself, as illegitimate down to its foundations.”
Still, this does not explain why the right of self-defense, sacrosanct and enshrined in national and international law, does not apply to Israel.
For Europeans today, who did not experience the Holocaust, Israel is a constant reminder of their complicity and guilt in the genocide of Jews. They want to forget it; Israel can’t.
Before and after World War II, the Soviet Union slaughtered, persecuted and enslaved Jews in gulags, sponsored and trained Arab terrorists, and attempted to wipe out Judaism. Eventually, the barriers fell, Jews emigrated, and the USSR folded and became the FSU.
Every time we force European dignitaries to visit Yad Vashem, we rub their noses in what they allowed; a return to scenes of their crimes. We make them pay when they see how vibrant we are and - the ultimate snub, except for Russia - with an army more powerful than their own!
Deliberately, methodically, Europe became Judenrein; instead it has mosques and veils, and primitive Islamic laws to worry about.
Europe rid itself of most of its Jews - some escaped, built a country, and now Israel has a more stable economy than theirs. What an indignity that those whom you punished and persecuted for so long sing and dance before you, and make you pay to see their heritage revealed in archeological sites.
For 2,000 years, Europe expelled or murdered Jews, stole their property, tried to crush their spirit, and yet, they came back even stronger. Jews are on the cutting-edge of everything, while Europe can’t seem to find the tools. It doesn’t make sense.
Jews were supposed to be finished off in ghettos, gas ovens, and slave labor prisons. That didn’t work. Ok, give them a state and let the Arabs, generously supplied by most European governments and corporations, finish them off; that didn’t work either.
Ok, Oslo, a diplomatic coup, land-for-nothing: still undecided. Welcome Iran to do the job, its nuclear reactors built by Russians, French and Germans, financed by the ever-neutral Swiss; well, maybe that will work.
Israel’s success flaunts Europe’s failure. And, despite European economies going down the tubes, EU countries still fund Arab Palestinian hate groups and rescue terrorists. Having used the most powerful forces in the world to eliminate the Jewish people, Europeans must feel frustrated at the audacity of Jews, not only to defend themselves, but to survive as Jews, forcing their leaders to salute a flag that bears a Jewish symbol, and shake hands with Jewish generals.
Instead of their traditional Jew-hatred, Europeans smile, and slip cash to the Arabs to do their dirty work. Condemning Israel is easier than feeling shame.
Jews in Israel are a traumatized people. Traumatized by the Holocaust and by constant Arab terrorism, we are also traumatized by our own leaders who, in the name of peace, emboldened our sworn enemies and exposed us to their murderous efforts. And many Israeli academics never lose an opportunity to condemn the country that pays their salaries. Israel’s media often operate as propaganda machines for the Left.
How Europeans must relish their bigotry when they see Israeli political cartoons, opinion pieces (as “news”), literature and art that depict Israelis as vicious, Jews as despicable, and Judaism as worthless.
Ach, Europe, how you must shiver with humiliation when you need Israeli-produced technology, science and medicine. What angst overtakes you when you must decide whether to boycott Israeli fruit and vegetables, or enjoy them.
Like a supposedly dispatched victim, Israel comes back to haunt Europe, not only to confront it with its strength, but ablaze with Jewishness. What an indignity for Europeans to see flourishing Jewish communities instead of piled corpses, bones of those buried in mass execution pits renewed in Israeli children.
Europe hates Jews, finally, because it hates itself; it knows what European civilization allowed, permitted, and condoned. “Never Again” is the Jewish password; Europeans know it can.
Then, tendrils of the acrid smoke from the peat-bog fires surrounding the city wafted in, bringing nausea and dry-mouth.
The recommendation of Russia’s top doctor to hang wet sheets at the windows to block the smoke just makes the rooms more stifling. With no end in sight to the misery, another doctor’s advice may be the only one thing that brings relief — think as little as possible.
In my 11 years in Moscow, the most frequent question from friends abroad has been “Aren’t the winters tough?” Maybe so. But Russians handle winter with aplomb — fur hats, afternoons in steamy bathhouses, long evenings gulping warming vodka around the table in toasty kitchens.
The country’s not geared for summer, however.
Air conditioning is rare, many apartments are laid out in a way that discourages air circulation, and their brick and concrete walls tend to hold heat like a pottery kiln.
Even appliances aren’t up to coping with heat: a colleague complained with amused outrage that the ice in her freezer was melting.
Usually these summer snags are little more than a brief irritation; a few days of 30 C (85 F) heat, followed by rains that cool things off to around 23 (75 F). This year is different — several unbroken weeks of temperatures as high as 38 (100 F).
Moscow, a city that has beaten back huge military assaults and survived horrifying terrorist attacks, is under a quiet siege that it seems helpless to repel.
Moscow’s aggressive and autocratic mayor, Yuri Luzhkov, in the past has made headlines by claiming the ability to control the weather, seeding clouds on the city’s outskirts to ensure that rain doesn’t spoil parades and ceremonies. He can’t be a rainmaker this summer — climate scientists say there isn’t enough moisture in the air to create rain artificially.
Subway riders, generally docile even in the system’s appalling crowds, have suddenly grown restive, demanding that authorities start putting air conditioning on the trains. Each day the rides become worse, as trains acting like giant pistons suck smoke from the outskirts’ fires into center-city stations.
The official response hasn’t brought peace of mind. The Emergencies Ministry announced it was buying more firefighting planes — Russian-made Be-200s that the ministry touts as the best in the world for the job — but they won’t be ready for years.
State-controlled television news shows plodding footage of leaders meeting with officials and telling them to work diligently. President Dmitry Medvedev this week pointedly told the country that even though he was in the resort city of Sochi, he wasn’t on vacation.
Relentless heat, thickening smoke, dubious officialdom — it’s a lot to have on one’s mind, and a prominent Russian physician warns that worrying about it all could be dangerous.
“It’s been shown that mental activity in the heat unfavorably affects the nervous system,” Igor Stupakov, deputy director of the Russian Academy of Medicine’s Bakulev heart surgery center, was quoted as saying by the ITAR-Tass news agency.
But it’s hard not to think about it. The usual Russian strategies for escape are dachas and drinking, but neither seem attractive this summer. Dachas can be lovely, but only if the forests around them aren’t on fire. Personal experience suggests that the morning-after effects of a few drinks are significantly aggravated by a night of breathing in peat smoke.
And thinking actually can help Muscovites get through the heat, at least in the cold-comfort sense of realizing that much of the country has it worse. The city’s not in flames. Residents are trudging and griping, but not yet fleeing and weeping like thousands of people in the fire zones.
That point came home this week in the office, when I was sweating and griping after a 10-minute walk from the grocery store. A colleague who had spent the day amid fires about 150 kilometers (100 miles) outside the city came in and exclaimed:
“Moscow smells great!”
it is so weird in Moscow, atmosphere just like in PLANET TERROR.
A Russian couple wear masks to protects themselves against the smog that covers Moscow. A record breaking heat wave that has engulfed Russia has lead to fires across the region which in turn has blanketed many Russian cities in a smog. Today at 4 PM Moscow time, temperatures in Moscow reached over 100 degrees Fahrenheit for the first time in recorded history. The temperature peaked at 102 degrees shattering the previous record of 98.2 degrees Fahrenheit set in 1920. The current forecasts for Moscow show no relief as temperatures are expected to stay in the upper nineties for the next week.
Reuters
12 Hours Ago
The summer heat set a new all-time temperature record in Moscow on Thursday, a leading forecaster said, adding that the unprecedentedly long heat wave could be interrupted already on Friday.
Temperatures hit 37.7 degrees Celsius, beating the previous record set Monday, said the Fobos forecasting center, which provides weather data to the country’s top media outlets.
At Domodedovo Airport outside Moscow, temperatures soared to 38.7 Celsius, Fobos said.
The adverse effects of the severe heat, which has been menacing Muscovites since late June, are aggravated by heavy smog that has blanketed the city and is caused mostly by burning peat in forests surrounding Moscow.
Russia’s chief lung doctor, Alexander Chuchalin, warned on Wednesday that walking in the streets of Moscow is like smoking two packs of cigarettes every few hours because of the large concentration of toxins in the air.
Mineral water and soft drinks are selling like hot cakes in Moscow, while many pharmacies have run out of oxygen sprays.
Elsewhere in Russia, a drought unseen for all 130 years of weather observation has killed crops on an area the size of Hungary, leading the government to impose a state of emergency in 23 regions.
But after suffering from the suffocating heat for nearly six weeks, Muscovites may finally get a breather on Friday when a cold atmospheric front is expected to bring extreme temperatures down to about 30 degrees Celsius, Fobos said.
The fall in temperatures will be accompanied by heavy rainshowers and thunderstorms that are expected to reduce smog.
In Finland, a record temperature of 37 C was measured on Thursday, the Finnish Meteorological Institute said.
“According to preliminary observations, the highest-ever temperature record has been measured today, when the temperature at Joensuu Airport rose at 4 p.m. to 37 Celsius,” the institute said on its web site.
Joensuu is located in eastern Finland, 437 kilometers northeast of Helsinki.
The previous temperature record was 35.9 C from July 1914, in the western coastal city of Turku.
NOVO-OGARYOVO, Russia
A prominent scientist said hundreds of people could die as smog from peat fires blanketed a sweltering Moscow for a second day on Tuesday.
Moscow region chief Boris Gromov asked Prime Minister Vladimir Putin to allocate 25 billion roubles ($827 million) to fight the fires smoldering in the forests around Moscow.
Alexei Yablokov, an internationally renowned biologist who runs Russia’s Green Party, said air pollution caused by the smog’s high amount of carbon dioxide could kill hundreds more people than usual in the Moscow region.
“There will be at least 100 additional deaths per day this time round,” Yablokov told Reuters, referring to the last such smog cloud in 2002 in which he calculated 600 people had died each week.
The Moscow government agency overseeing air pollution, Mosekonomonitoring, said the levels of carbon monoxide in the air on Tuesday shot up by 20-30 percent more than normal levels.
Russia’s senior public health official suggested on Tuesday employers free their staff while the thick smog and record-breaking heat in the Russian capital surged.
“Employers, if there is a possibility, could allow people to not come to work,” Gennady Onishchenko, head of Russia’s health protection agency, told Interfax news agency.
Peat, used in the past to produce heat and electricity, smolders deep underground in winters and summers. Gromov said the only solution to the fires was to pour water over deposits.
“According to preliminary estimates, only in one district where fires are now most severe, over 4.5 billion roubles is needed. We have five such districts,” Gromov told Putin during an emergency video conference.
Putin said he would ask the emergency and economy ministries to examine the request.
The emergencies ministry said that in the last 24 hours there had appeared 58 new fires in the Moscow region, 30 of them at peat deposits.
(Additional reporting by Alexei Anishchuk and Amie Ferris-Rotman; Editing by Angus MacSwan)
NY TIMES
To the Editor:
Alana Newhouse’s compelling Op-Ed article, “The Diaspora Need Not Apply” (July 16), addresses issues arising from proposed legislation regarding conversion in the State of Israel.
The impetus behind this bill, it must be stressed, was humanitarian — to facilitate the conversion of tens of thousands of Israelis, most of them immigrants from the former Soviet Union or their Israeli-born children.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, while supporting this goal, has objected to the bill as it is currently presented on the grounds that it may cause divisions within the Jewish people. The prime minister has reiterated his commitment to engage diaspora Jewish and Israeli leaders in a dialogue to achieve the largest possible consensus on conversion and to strengthen Jewish unity worldwide.
Jonathan Peled
Spokesman, Embassy of Israel
Washington, July 19, 2010
•
To the Editor:
The essay about a bill granting ultra-Orthodox rabbis in Israel authority over conversions to Judaism reminds us that all religions are obsessed with the question of who is the “real” adherent.
But while Jews ask, “Who is the real Jew?” and Christians ask, “Who is the real Christian?” I ask, “Who cares, really?”
If one believes in God, then God knows who we really are without our wearing religious identification tags. And if the point is that God may know who we are but we ourselves need help knowing who our neighbors are, I cannot do better than quote the words attributed to a Jew who became identified with Christianity: “By their fruits you shall know them.” People are defined by their acts, not their membership in this or that religion.
Steven Tiger
Philadelphia, July 16, 2010
•
To the Editor:
As Alana Newhouse points out, “almost no one” will be considered a Jew if Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, passes the bill that seeks to place authority over all Jewish births, marriages and deaths in the hands of a small group of ultra-Orthodox rabbis.
For centuries it was Christian leaders who strove to diminish the numbers and influence of Jews; now, sadly, it’s Jewish leaders.
Seymour D. Reich
New York, July 16, 2010
The writer is past chairman of the International Jewish Committee on Interreligious Consultations.
