by Joshua Runyan and Tamar Runyan As an international effort representing 70 countries and a host of non-governmental organizations directs aid to the troubled island nation of Japan, locals who survived an initial 8.9-magnitude earthquake and devastating tsunami only to face the prospect of the worst nuclear disaster since the 1986 Chernobyl meltdown are living in a near constant state of fear, doing what they can to make it through the day. Electricity and water shortages, spotty telephone and cellular service, and scores of aftershocks as high as 6.2-magnitude underscored the fact that the tragedy continues to unfold. At the Tokyo home of Rabbi Mendel and Chana Sudakevich, each shockwave that thundered through their building sparked wails and whimpers from some of their six … Continue Reading
Deadly Tsunami Appears to Have Spared Tokyo Jewish Community
by Joshua Runyan and Tamar Runyan One year after the tsunami that wasn’t, a massive shockwave spawned by an afternoon 8.9 earthquake off the coast of Japan slammed into the island nation Friday with 13-foot seas and sent tourists and locals almost 4,000 miles away in Hawaii scrambling for higher ground. With news outlets reporting that upwards of 300 people perished in the wall of water - as opposed to few in the quake itself - Japanese authorities warned that the death toll could likely rise. All over the world, friends and family members of anyone in the wave’s path, whether in Asia, in Pacific islands, or along a swath of North American coast stretching from Alaska’s Aleutian Islands to just north of Los Angeles, jammed phone lines to ascertain the condition of their loved … Continue Reading
Explorations in Contemporary European Jewish Philanthropy
The Center for the Study of Philanthropy in Israel has published Explorations in Contemporary European Jewish Philanthropy: The Italian case in context (by Luisa Levi D’Ancona, PhD). Abstract The purpose of this paper is to start exploring the under-researched area of European Jewish philanthropy. Because of the difficulty of thinking of European Jewish philanthropy as a monolithic phenomenon, the paper focuses on one country, Italy, as a starting point to examine challenges and developments of contemporary European Jewish philanthropy, with a vision of further research on Jewish giving in other European countries. This paper explores Italian Jewish giving both diachronically and synchronically. The background on the history of giving by Italian Jews explores the long-term dynamics of … Continue Reading
From Jewish Evacuee to Bosnian Breast Cancer Advocate
Nela Hasic: From Jewish Evacuee to Bosnian Breast Cancer Advocate In 1992, when civil war broke out in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Nela Hasic received a call from a leader in the Jewish community. "We are under attack, and the JDC is airlifting members of the Bosnian Jewish community to safety," she recalls hearing. "You have to be at the airport in half an hour." Nela, whose family roots in Bosnia date back 500 years to the Spanish Inquisition, was reluctant to leave her home and the life she knew. "I did not want to go … I did not want to leave," she said. But her father insisted. Having watched his entire family perish during the Holocaust simply because they were Jews, he felt that waiting was not an option. "War has started," my father told me. "You do not have the right to stay here and … Continue Reading
How I Moved to India and Rediscovered My Judaism
by Jeanine Buzali When I sat down to try to write a short reflection piece about my year in Mumbai as a JDC Jewish Service Corps (JSC) volunteer, I shuddered slightly. The thought of condensing everything I learned there, along with the deep personal connection I developed with members of the Indian-Jewish community, seemed impossible. Being in this line of work, I often found myself explaining what it’s like to be a foreign volunteer entering a community in a country you barely know and getting a ‘job done’ in a cultural setting that is so very different from yours. It requires an acute sense of adventure, fearlessness in the face of the unknown, adaptation, and the willingness to accept that the truths you grew up with turn out to be completely wrong. You also need the ability to laugh … Continue Reading
Chavura CHAI: A Training Event and Beyond
by Ariel Lifac On February 16 and 17, the 18th Meeting of Latin American Jewish Educators - on this occasion called Chavura CHAI was held in BAMÁ - “Home of the Jewish Educator”. In fact, the letters representing number 18 also make up the Hebrew word chai, meaning life. This is why, together with more than 800 educators (teachers, professors and headmasters of all educational levels) from Jewish schools of Buenos Aires, the provinces of the country and abroad - Uruguay, Paraguay, Brazil, Chile and Peru - who participated in this event, we decided to celebrate the continuity of the educational task that BAMÁ has been developing for the last 10 years. But we not only celebrated the past, in this Chavura and in all the programs developed by BAMÁ, we keep on working toward its future growth … Continue Reading
Devastated Christchurch Population Urged to Relocate After Aftershocks
by Joshua Runyan Like the rest of Christchurch’s scarred population, Jewish community members in New Zealand’s second-largest city are being forced by a seemingless endless stream of aftershocks to head as far away as possible from the epicenter of yesterday's 6.3-magnitude earthquake. With the historic city center, including the headquarters of Chabad-Lubavitch of New Zealand, in shambles and at least 65 people killed, citizens were either finding shelter in tent cities established on the outskirts of town, or with kindhearted countrymen on the North Island or in Wellington and Auckland. Food is scarce; running water is in short supply; electricity is all but nonexistent. “The entire community is in shock,” reported Tzippy Friedman, who was in the Christchurch Chabad House with … Continue Reading
Jewish Educators Conference Opens in Buenos Aires
"In the beginning was the Word. And the Word became flesh. This is how it was at the beginning and how it is now as well. Language, the word, entails history, culture, tradition, the entire life of a people, the essence. Language is people. No people is conceived without a language, and no language is conceived without a people. Both are one and the same. Knowing one means knowing the other." Sabine Ulibari Yesterday, over 500 educators from all over Latin America attended the opening of a Jewish educator's conference being held in Buenos Aires. The two day program, called Chavura Chai, celebrates the continuity of the educational work that BAMÁ (a Spanish acronym for Beit Hamechanech Hayehudi or Home of the Jewish Educator) has been developing for the past 10 years. The agreement signed with … Continue Reading
In Buenos Aires, Jewish Life Full Circle
by Fernando Rubin When I was 10 years old, I used to celebrate Kabbalat Shabbat with my youth group at Hebraica, which was and is one of the largest JCCs in Buenos Aires. During the late 1970's, at the time of the military dictatorship in Argentina, Hebraica was one of the few havens for open thought and free speech not only for Jews but also for other cultural and artistic communities. At these gatherings in the semi-darkness, our madrich (youth leader) lit the candles and asked each group member to share with the others the best thing which had happened to him or her during that week, and to express a wish for the next. Then, each of us opened and offered the bag of food we had brought to share, and we began to eat and talk all together, in an atmosphere full of friendship and community and … Continue Reading
Zionism: Made in China
by Erica Lyons It's true. My Zionism was made in China. I grew up in New Jersey in a town that was nearly one third Jewish. Everyone on my street was Jewish. Half my soccer team was Jewish. In Synagogue, my Cantor infused every message with Zionism, as did his wife and children. To my parents this was pure mishugas. My parents loved Israel for the refuge it provided for those other Jews who were desperate for a place to go. They spoke of how it saved Holocaust victims who had been turned away at every port in the world. They sent money to aid the Russian Refusniks as they looked toward Zion. They answered pleas to help African Jewish refugees, settling in Israel, who also had nowhere else to go. It was a refuge for others, not for us. Our family legends were of settlers who made it to … Continue Reading
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