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Item Saidye Rosner Bronfman(Canadian Encyclopedia, 2019-08) Raymond, KatrineAn article about philanthropist and art patron, Saidye Rosner Bronfman (1896-1995). Married to liquor magnate Samuel Bronfman, Saidye Bronfman was a generous supporter of charities and the arts. She organized the Montreal Jewish branch of the Quebec division of the Red Cross, for which she was awarded Order of the British Empire in 1943. In 1952, she and her husband founded the Samuel and Saidye Bronfman Family Foundation, which "gives grants to education, the arts, heritage preservation and Jewish community initiatives." The couple also made a significant contribution to the arts in Canada, founding the Saidye and Samuel Bronfman Collection of Canadian Art at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. In recognition of Sadyie Bronfman's passion for the arts, her children founded theater and arts complex, the Saidye Bronfman Centre for the Arts in 1967. Click on the link to read the article.Item Aaron Lansky, who rescued 1.5 million Yiddish books and founded the Yiddish Book Center, is retiring(The Forward, 2024-02-27) Harpaz, BethAn article about Aaron Lansky, who founded the Yiddish Book Center in Amherst, MA. Lanksly, and who is retiring as president of the Center. As a 23 year old graduate student in Jewish Studies at McGill University, he was trying to locate Yiddish books to help him with his research in Eastern European Jewish studies. He found many books that were being discarded by libraries and private collections. He took a 2-year leave of absence from his studies and set upon a mission of saving as many of these Yiddish books as possible. He is credited with saving 1.5 million volumes that would otherwise have been discarded and destroyed. His work at the Yiddish Book Center helped to spur a wider appreciated of Yiddish language and culture. Click on the link to read the article.Item Dorot Jewish Division(2024) New York Public Library Dorot Jewish DivisionThe Dorot Jewish Division of the New York Public Library hosts one of the world's most extensive collections of Hebraica and Judaica, documenting the religious and secular history of the Jewish people. The link provided here is to the digital collections of the Dorot Division, featuring a wide-ranging collection of digital artifacts. Click on the link to visit the web site.Item The Borscht Belt Was a Haven for Generations of Jewish Americans(Smithsonian Magazine, 2023-09-18) Herrmann, MicheleThis article is about an "pop-up" exhibition at the Borscht Belt Museum in Ellenville, NY. The article, however, is about more than the exhibition. It provides a brief history of the Borscht Belt--named after the beet soup popular in Eastern Europe. In addition to offering welcoming vacation spots for Jews, these hotels in the Catskills were a venue for such prominent entertainers as Milton Berle, Henny Youngman, Red Buttons, Joan Rivers and Jackie Mason. Click on the link above the read the article.Item Want to Fight Antisemitism? Embrace Jewish Traditions(New York Times, 2023-09-14) Lipstadt, Deborah E.An opinion column in the New York Times by Deborah Lipstadt, a professor of Jewish history and Holocaust studies at Emory University, and currently serves as special envoy to the State Department charged with combating antisemitism abroad. In this column, Lipstadt contends that the fight against antisemitism is most effective when, rather than reacting to an antisemitic attack, Jews fully and openly embrace Judaism's values of ethics and justice. Written as Jews prepared to observe the High Holy Days, just prior to Rosh Hashannah, she exhorts Jews to celebrate their own culture and demonstrate solidarity with all persecuted groups and to focus on "how Jews, and anyone confronting persecution, live rather than how they suffer." Click on the link above to read the column.Item “You’re So Not Invited To My Bat Mitzvah” Exudes Jewish Pride(Jew in the City, 2023-08-30) Josephs, AllisonAn article about the Netflix film by Adam Sandler, "You're So Not Invited to My Bat Mitzvah." The author notes that what distinguishes this film from so many others about Jews, is that it portrayed a positive image of Judaism and conveyed a sense of pride in being Jewish and recognition that the Bar/Bat Mitzvah ceremony is about Torah and about the Jewish faith and tradition, rather than simply the party. The film is also distinguished by the fact that--unusual in many films with Jewish characters--the Jewish characters were played by Jewish actors. Click on the link above to read the article.Item Jewish Initiative for Animals(2023) Jewish Initiative for Animals (JIFA)JIFA describes its mission as being to support "innovative programs to turn the Jewish value of compassion for animals into action while building ethical and sustainable Jewish American communities in the process." JIFA explores ways of aligning traditional, ancient Jewish values with racial and food justice and the climate crisis. They provide educational support non-profit groups such as camps, synagogues, community centers, and schools on integrating Jewish ethical values in our interaction with animals. An area of critical importance for JIFA is food. They interrogate the meaning of the term "kosher," which identifies food fit for the consumption of the Jewish community, by looking at how animals slaughtered according to kosher laws are subject to the same farming industrial processes as those not slaughtered according to kosher laws. JIFA seeks to end industrial farming, claiming that it is antithetical to Jewish values. Click on the link to see the web site.Item A Jewish Farmers Movement: Revolutionary or Ridiculous?(The Forward, 2016-02-16) Friedman, DanAn article about a Jewish farmers conference in San Diego--their “second annual convening.” A niche within the niche of the sustainable farming movement, the group sees itself as instantiating the traditional values of Judaism. As a member, Aaron Gross said, in describing the connection between farming and Judaism, “the Judaism of the Bible and the ancient rabbis is quintessentially agrarian — a religion of herding and harvesting, of seed and soil.” Attendees, who came from different locations in the United States, Canada and Israel shared a "commitment to three intersecting areas: Jewish values, social justice and environmental sustainability" and the goal of creating a "world in which each generation gives the next an earth renewed by a care that is guided by ancient Jewish values." Click on the link to read the article.Item Jewish Vacation Guide: Hotels, Boarding and Rooming Houses where Jews are Welcome(Federation of Jewish Farmers of America, 1917) Federation of Jewish Farmers of AmericaPublished as part of the annual "Farm Almanac and Buyers' Guide," "The Jewish Vacation Guide," provided in both a Yiddish and an English version, was a guide to services and facilities where Jews would be welcome and could vacation safely. While antisemitism is not explicitly mentioned, the Foreward to the Almanac describes the Vacation Guide as "...the first time in the history of Jewish farming that attention is called to hundreds of up-to-date Jewish boarding houses all over the country where all classes of Jews seeking a vacation will find places suitable to their needs." "The Jewish Vacation Guide" is widely considered to be the inspiration behind the "Negro Motorists Green Book," which served as a guide for African Americans to restaurants, hotels and other facilities that would serve them. Click on the links to see the cover and Foreward to the English Vacation Guide as well as the Foreward to the Almanac, and the cover to the Yiddish version.Item Out from the Ashes: My life story(American Jewish Archives, 2001) Mermelstein, Joan FeuremanIn this memoir, Mermelstein, who was born in Carpathia (what became Chekoslovakia) in 1917, describes her life-story from childhood to the rise of fascism in Chekoslovakia to her deportation to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, to her immigration to Cincinnati, Ohio. She observes that the importance of her story is less in the personal memories and more in the act of rememberance, which presrves not only the spiral of persecution and tragedy to which has plagued the Jewish people, but the vibrant life of the Jewish community in Europe. "The Holocaust," she states, "not only wiped out six millionvlives, but it destroyed a whole way of life, and changed, forever, the lives of those who survived."Item The Yosl and Chana Mlotek Yiddish Song Collection at the Workers Circle(The Workers Circle, 2023) Mlotek, Yosl, Mlotek, ChanaA collection of five anthologies of Yiddish songs, each one organized around a specific theme and compiled by Yosl and Chana Mlotek. Each book includes information about the collection and the lyrics and music of the songs. On this site, you can also access performances of music from the collection.Item Introducing the Forward 125: The American Jews who shaped our world(The Forward, 2022-12-23) Harpaz, Beth; Rudoren, JodiIn celebration of the 125th anniversary of "The Forward," this article lists, with brief descriptions, 125 of the most notable Jews--in "The Forward" staff's estimation--beginning with the paper's launch in 1897 through 2022. There is one entry for each year. Click on the link to explore the selections.Item Hallmark's latest Jewish offering: An order of "Hanukkah on Rye" piled high with racial pandering: All the dreidels, latkes and Yiddish feels less like representation and more like reinforcing antisemitic tropes(Salon Magazine, 2022-12-19) Nussen, GregIn this review of the Hallmark movie, "Hanukkah on Rye," Greg Nussen, while recognizing its resonance for diaspora Jews, that by treating the American Jewish community as a monolith, it reinforces old antisemitic tropes about Jews. To watch the movie,, Nussen argues, "is to experience a racial othering in real time, as if Jews are perennially stuck in some manufactured bubble in which we're all badgered by overbearing parents, we all eat Chinese food on Christmas Eve while we watch a movie, and the only thing we disagree on is the proper way to dress up a bagel with lox and capers." Click on the link to read the article.Item German Refugee Rabbis in the United States of America 1933-1990(German Research Foundation (DFG), 2019-04-25) Ludiwg Maxamillions-Universität MünchenFunded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) documents the migration and careers of German rabbis who came to the United States to escape Nazi persecution. It aims to "explore their impact on American Judaism, American Jewish communities and their travels or returns to post-war Germany." It points to resources for conducting research both in the United States and Europe. Biographical and professional information is provided for each rabbi listed. Click on the link to see this database.Item Table 4 Police-reported hate-motivated crime, by detailed motivation, Canada, 2020 to 2021(Statistics Canada, 2022-08-03) Staticstics CanadaTable produced by Statistics Canada showing police-reported hate crimes in Canada between 2020 and 2021, as part of the full report, "A comprehensive portrait of police-reported crime in Canada, 2021" (https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/daily-quotidien/220802/dq220802a-eng.htm). The table shows that of the 884 hate crimes targeting religious minorities, 487--or 55%--were targeted against Jews. Click on the link above to see the table.Item Antisemitic Hate Rising in Canada(The Jewish Express, 2022-08-12) Levi Julian, HanaThis article discusses the finding of a report from Statistics Canada on the rise of hate crimes in Canada, which have risen by 72% between 2019 and 2021. Specifically, according to the report, Canada's Jewish population was the largest minority group targeted for hate crimes in 2021. The article states that, although Jews make up 1% of the Canadian population, they were the target of 14% of hate crimes, a 47% increase from 2020. Click on the link above to read the article. To see the relevant table from the Statistics Canada report, click on the link below.Item The Yiddish Philharmonic Chorus(The Yiddish Philharmonic Chorus, 2022) Bleaman, Isaac IThe Yiddish Philharmonic Chorus, formerly the Jewish People’s Philharmonic Chorus , is a group of forty singers spanning multiple generations, who are "committed to promoting Yiddish language and culture through beautiful four-part harmony." They situate themselves as part of the "twenty-first-century Yiddish renaissance." The chorus performs at a variety of locations. Click on the ink above to see their homepage. See the links below for some of our entries on other venues for Yiddish music, plays and culture in the United States as well as Canada.Item Vorwärts/Forward(Vorwäts/Forward, 1903, August 22) Vorwärts/ForwardThe complete issue of the Saturday, August 22, 1903 edition ofVorwärts/Forward written entirely in Yiddish and sold for 1 cent. This issue was downloaded from the National Library of Israel. Click on the icon to look at or read the issue. See also the link below for the contemporary English edition of The Forward.Item Museum of Yiddish Theater(2021) Museum of Yiddish TehaterThe purpose of The Museum of Yiddish Theater, located in New York City, is to "preserve and document the historic legacy of Yiddish Theater, radio, recordings and films or future generations and scholars." Its collection includes everything related to Yiddish theater from scripts, music, newspaper articles, books, photographs, costumes, etc. The Web Site includes links to a variety of resources related to Yiddish theater. Click on the link above to visit the site.Item Stephen Wise Free Synagogue(2022) Stephen Wise Free SynagogueFounded by Rabbi Stephen Wise as the Free Synagogue, the Stephen Wise Free Synagogue still adheres to the values of its founder, committed to social justice and to close ties to Israel. Click on the link above to see the Synagogue's homepage.