Jews in odd places: Turkey: That there are still Jews there is not as bizarre as the story of how most of them left:
Baki Ozmen, a self-described historian of the Jews of the remote Turkish city of Sanliurfa, pulled down the neck of his brown turtleneck sweater with one hand and made karate-like chops at his tan-colored flesh with the other.
“The Jews used sharp metal objects to cut the neck of their brethren. Only the Jews kill that way,” he told JTA. “They were the city’s best smiths; that’s how we know it was the Jews who killed that Jewish family in 1945. This is what our elders tell us.”
To create a pretext that would enable them to immigrate to Palestine, the Jews of Sanliurfa, an ancient city known in the Bible as Ur, hatched a plan to hack to death a local Jewish family and then blame it on their Muslim neighbors. Or so goes local lore.
Since then, said Ozmen, a bear-like man with a jowly, bearded face, there have been no Jews in the stalls that once belonged to Jewish artisans pounding out copper pots or finjans deep in the city’s labyrinthine bazaar — or anywhere else in the city, for that matter.
But Ozmen’s information isn’t quite accurate: About 10 Jewish families still live in Sanliurfa, clandestinely celebrating certain Jewish holidays in the privacy of their homes.
To stay alive, the Jews of Sanliurfa — the ancient town where Abraham stopped to water his camel train, according to the Bible — conceal their yarmulkes and Jewish books in hidden corners of their homes, according to several sources, including Kadir Celikcan, the director of Sanliurfa TV.
Like their neighbors, they dutifully head to the city’s ancient mosques to pray, finger worry beads, and wear the traditional baggy pants and red-checkered Kaffiyeh of the Kurds — yet they remain Jews.
More up-beat, Nicole Argo, in the Jerusalem Post, has a
thoughtful column on how Turkish Jews get long with their Islamic government these days.
And more off-beat, JTA also looks at Turkey's
Hesed L’Avraham synagogue, which is located on the island of Buyukada, part of a small chain of islands an hour’s ferry ride from Istanbul, where all cars are banned.
(Now, if someone wants to take a horse carriage — the fastest mode of transportation on the island — to synagogue, that’s a different matter.)
Called the Princes’ Islands, the isles have, over the last several decades, become an important and unique feature of Istanbul Jewish life — essentially the summer home of a large part of the city’s Jewish community. Many Turkish Jewish families stay on the islands all summer long, with husbands commuting to work on the ferries that ply the waters between the islands and the city.
Dept. of excellent spam. I usually don't post and fisk my spam, but this one is the most twisted I have ever received and I'm wondering if anyone else has gotten it?
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"Press no" and "press yes"
in an email? And tell me, bozos,
which credit card number do you want?
You are all invited to complain to the contact info given above.
Sauce for the Goose. One more reminder why I am a strict civil-libertarian: restrictions on free speech will
always rear back and bite you in the ass.
How do I know if an animal is kosher to eat? Ask Moses has a good summation:
... Look at the kosher animal rules, and you'll notice something--there's no permissible predator: no shark steaks, no carnivore corned beef, no predatory poultry.
... ... kosher animals are of the domesticated, docile variety-- sheep, cattle, goats, and most species of deer and antelope, while the non-kosher beasts are lions and tigers and bears and the like. Kosher animals are what you would have for lunch. Non-kosher animals would have you for lunch.
... Kosher animals are governed by the two rules of Positive Mitzvah #149: they must have completely split hooves, and they must be ruminants. What's a ruminant? Let's walk through this. Since most beasts don't have hooves in the first place, that leaves us with a limited selection, ruling out canines, felines, pachyderms, primates, simians and anything with claws or paws--basically, most animals.
Now, of the remaining hoofed animals, many leave a flat, rounded footprint, indicating a one-surface hoof, like horses and zebras. Of the ones that have the requisite two-section hoof, some aren't completely two-sectioned--they're joined at one end, like the camel. What does that leave us with? Mostly cows, deer, or animals otherwise tame or timid, like sheep or antelopes. And of these split-hoofed animals, some are not ruminants--they don't bring their chow back up into their mouths for further chewing, such as the greater pig family. A hugely whittled-down representation of the animal kingdom is the result--the kosher animals.
... For food that flaps or flies, the rules of Positive Mitzvah #150 are the same as with land-bound animals--if a bird kills other animals regularly for its own food, eats meat, or is known to be dangerous, it's not kosher. The grim taking of other lives makes a bird a predator, and kosher makes a predatory bird unfit to eat. So, rule out raptors, eagles, hawks, owls and other hunting birds, vultures and other carrion-eating birds, and storks, kingfishers, penguins and other fish-eating birds. Ostriches and other giant fowl, which are capable of killing you or otherwise ruining your day, are forbidden. Harmless little quacks like ducks, geese, turkeys, and, let's not forget, the immortally obsequious chicken, are perfectly fit for your plate.
... [For fish,] the Torah lays down two simple laws in Positive Mitzvah #152: the creature must have fins, and the creature must have scales. Obviously, this cancels out crustaceans, shellfish, squid and octopi, which have neither. Less obvious are sharks, whales, and dolphins, which have fins but not scales. However, this includes virtually all fish, so don't worry about your favorite salmon steak.
Stalking Cynthia McKinney: I know, we here at Kesher Talk can't let this one go. Her is something from today's Congress Daily on our favorite Israel-hater:
Supporters of former Democratic Rep. Cynthia McKinney have vowed to appeal a federal court's ruling that upheld an August 2002 Democratic primary in which McKinney was defeated by now-Rep. Denise Majette. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that the decision dismissed allegations that GOP voters engaged in a "malicious crossover" to defeat McKinney and elect Majette -- whom McKinney supporters charge is a Republican in disguise. The suit alleged that the state's open primary system discriminated against black voters -- an allegation that U.S. District Court Judge Charles Pannell said plaintiffs failed to prove. The Aug. 1 decision rebuffed allegations that as many as 45,000 ballots had been cast to throw the results of an election that McKinney lost by 20,000 votes. An investigation by the newspaper, meanwhile, found only 3,118 clearly identifiable Republicans who cast Democratic ballots in the primary. McKinney has set up a 2004 campaign committee with the FEC, possibly setting up a rematch with Majette. There also have been reports that McKinney -- whose outspokenness landed her in political hot water throughout her congressional career -- may seek the 2004 presidential nomination of the Green Party.
Nazi hunter says: "My work is done": Simon Wiesenthal, the world's best-known Nazi hunter and concentration- camp survivor, says he is
retiring after more than half a century of tracking down those responsible for the Holocaust.
"My work is done. I found the mass murderers I was looking for. I survived all of them... Those whom I didn't look for are too old and sick today to be pursued legally."
Another religious war. This Jesus flick is not
in Latin or Aramaic, no one gets scourged or crucified, and nothing is blamed on the Jews. And you can watch it on your monitor. And it's cute. But it does fan the flames of a
constantly simmering religious war.(via
Holy Weblog)
Trying out new synagogues: My wife and I somehow rousted ourselves from bed early Saturday morning to attend Shabbat services at a new shuel,
Adat Reyim. We have intended to start shuel shopping for a while now -- while there is no immediate need for us to belong until we have kids (we won't be working on that for at least a few more months), it would be nice to identify in advance where we might like to end up.
I must say that Adat Reyim might do the trick. It is not exactly close to us, being located in Springfield, south of D.C. However, it has a more relaxed brand of conservative Judaism than we found at
Olam Tikvah, which swings towards conserva-dox. Both synagogues are egalitarian and both have services primarily in Hebrew.
However, Adat Reyim's service includes more explanations for newcomers--something which made initial visits to Olam Tikvah so daunting. Adat Reyim also benefits from a very friendly rabbi with a great sense of humor. Olam Tikvah has a great rabbi, who seems very nice, but has little humor to speak of. Oh, and while we are on the topic of speaking, his voice puts you to sleep, which annoys me quite a bit. If I wanted to sleep, I would have stayed in bed on Saturday morning!
Adat Reyim should also have the benefit of being a lot cheaper to belong to. Olam Tikvah costs a fortune, because it can and because it is expanding dramatically all the time. Adat Reyim is smaller, unaffiliated with the Conservative movement, and should cost a lot less.
Anyhow, there is no rush to choose a synagogue. But for now, Adat Reyim is at the top of the list.
Jews in odd places: India: The artist in question, Siona Benjamin, is a Jew from India:
Even among working Jewish artists, Benjamin holds a unique position. She is one of a very small number of artists and writers who are creating contemporary expressions of Indian Jewish identity.
... artistic expressions of Jewish ethnic diversity are rare. “I’ve read everything I can find, everything I can get a hold of,” Benjamin told the Jewish Week. Included in her research are numerous histories, anthropological studies, descriptions of ritual art and customs, and historical biographies.
“I’ve had no luck finding contemporary [Indian Jewish] artists,” Benjamin said. “There are very few of us Bene Israel anyway,” she added, referring to one of three communities that make up Indian Jewry.
The Bene Israel trace their history back some 2,000 years to a shipwreck that deposited 14 survivors onto India’s Konkan coast. The refugees had fled either Hellenistic oppression in Palestine (according to one version of the story) or the conquering Assyrians (according to another). A second Indian Jewish community, the Jews of Cochin, is said to have descended from traders. The third, Iraqi Jews, came from the Middle East about two centuries ago.
These three communities found safe haven in India, where Jews were welcomed and lived in complete religious and cultural freedom. Many Jews began moving to Israel in the 1950s, for Zionistic reasons or in search of economic prospects. Benjamin’s relatives left too, but her immediate family stayed on. Today about 5,500 Jews live in India, according to one recent estimate.
“I was raised in a Jewish bubble,” Benjamin said of her young years in the “Bollywood” suburb of Bombay, the heart of the Indian film industry.
While she spoke the local Marathi language, attended Catholic school — where white-clad nuns led students in daily “Hail Marys” — and Zoroastrian high school, Benjamin’s childhood memories are steeped in Jewishness.
She recalls pots of sweet coconut-milk halwa made for the High Holidays, Sabbath prayers, ornate synagogues and Malida, a festival for the prophet Elijah, who has special significance for the Bene Israel.
Other youthful visions appear in her paintings: her mother’s Sabbath oil lamp with its handmade wick, her female relatives preparing matzah by hand.
Don't miss the rest of this article in
Jewsweek, or the picture in it of one of Benjamin's funky paintings.
This week's Pintele Yid recommendation - For our gentile friends and Jews who want to rediscover their heritage - recommending quintessentially Jewish cultural works (books, TV specials, CDs, Torah teachers, poets, websites, and more) which transport you inside a Jewish skin and show you the world through Jewish eyes.
Last week's recommendation.Week 5 recommendation.Week 4 recommendation.Week 3 recommendation.Week 2 recommendation.Introduction to the series and first recommendation.The Talmud and the Internet, Jonathan Rosen.
Talmud is as central to creating the Judaism we recognize today as
Tanakh, but intimidating to most Jews as well as gentiles. There is no sweeter introduction to Talmud than this little book, and the Internet analogy is surprisingly apt.
In the Internet's "world of unbounded curiosity, of argument and information, where anyone with a modem can wander out of the wilderness for a while, ask a question and receive an answer" Rosen finds a real parallel to the Talmud, "a place where everything exists, if only one knows how and where to look...." And the Internet suggests to Rosen "a similar sense of Diaspora, a feeling of being everywhere and nowhere. Where else but in the middle of Diaspora do you need a homepage?"
There is something Victorian about the scope of this book, which encompasses the creation and emendation of the Talmud; the career of the traitorous Jewish-Roman historian Josephus; the sly and symbolically rich story of a famed rabbi's attempt to sneak out of newly Roman Jerusalem; the author's personal family saga; a visit to Chartres; Odysseus' journey to the land of the dead with buckets of blood; and a summoning of the ghost of the eminent Victorian Henry Adams. . . .
"The core of the Talmud is the Mishnah, a statement of Jewish law. Surrounding the Mishnah are blocks of commentary . . . giving the appearance that a rabbi in the 2nd century is directly commenting on something one of his peers had to say in the 11th. The Internet is similar, in that a page you're currently viewing may have links to jaw-dropping associations of widely varied material. . . . Both become economical metaphors for serendipity, openness, connection, and knowledge."
If your curiosity is piqued by Rosen's book, many Jewish adult education centers offer an Intro to Talmud class (although there are now good English translations, it is meant to be studied aloud in groups and needs a knowledgeable guide), and here are some
websites. In the Simpsons episode, "Like Father Like Clown" Bart and Lisa actually learn some Talmud in order to do a mitzvah. You can follow their arguments via
a parody of a page of Talmud and commentary.Anti-semites often misquote Talmud to smear Jews -
this site is a good corrective.
The Sages often compared studying Talmud to
swimming in a great sea - grab your life vest and dive in!
Week 8.
Latest from Israel. Good.
