Where Everybody Knows Your Hebrew Name: In eJewishPhilanthropy’s sister publication Jewish Insider, Gabby Deutch profiles the newly opened Lehrhaus, a combination pub and Jewish house of study in Somerville, Mass. “Since announcing their plans last summer, Lehrhaus founders Rabbi Charlie Schwartz and Josh Foer had sparked a wave of interest across Boston and throughout the Jewish world among people excited by the prospect of a kosher restaurant that takes an inventive approach to craft cocktails, food and Jewish learning… ‘Most kosher restaurants don’t appeal to people outside of kosher dining. This place does. Most restaurants don’t have a distinctive Jewish identity outside of kashrut,’ [founder Rabbi Charlie] Schwartz told Jewish Insider in a recent interview at Lehrhaus. ‘What we’re actually doing here is defining Jewish food’… Lining the walls are more than 3,000 books, ranging from volumes of Talmud to Judy Blume novels to treatises on Zionism. In a beit midrash, or Jewish library and study room, Lehrhaus offers classes on topics ranging from Judeo-Arabic literature to Jewish history in the Roman era, and discussions of Jewish text…” [JewishInsider]
The Frontline in the Fight Against Antisemitism: In The New York Times, Campbell Robertson visits the Secure Community Network’s command center and explores its efforts to protect Jewish synagogues and other institutions from antisemitic attacks. “In a dimly lit conference room on an upper floor of a Chicago mid-rise, an intricately detailed snapshot of American peril is being taken, minute by unsettling minute. Reports from around the country — of gunshots, bomb threats, menacing antisemitic posts — flash across more than a dozen screens. A half-dozen analysts with backgrounds in the military or private intelligence are watching them, ready to alert any one of thousands of synagogues, community centers or day schools that appear to be at risk. Often, the analysts are the first to call. This is the headquarters of the Secure Community Network, the closest thing to an official security agency for American Jewish institutions. There are other organizations that specialize in security for Jewish facilities, but none as broad as this group, which was created by the Jewish Federations of North America after 9/11. It has grown exponentially over the past five years, from a small office with a staff of five to a national organization with 75 employees stationed around the country.” [NYTimes]
A Blue Ridge Welcome for Jewish GIs: In Asheville, N.C.’s Mountain Xpress, Jerry Sternberg recalls the creation of the city’s Jewish Community Center, which was built just at the start of World War II and was used extensively by Jewish servicemen passing through the nearby military bases. “The community bought a very large, spooky-looking, two-story house overlooking Charlotte Street… The members pitched in to do some remodeling, but it was an old house, and the furnishings were used and somewhat shabby. For us kids, however, it was a magical place where the members of both the liberal and conservative local synagogues could come together in a secular Jewish environment. Here we could overcome the loneliness of being a very small minority in Asheville and come together for great activities such as singing Jewish songs, dancing to Jewish music, putting on plays, participating in sports and Jewish holiday activities, and just hanging with other Jewish kids. In December 1941, the U.S. entered World War II, and our new JCC became a host for the local Jewish Welfare Board, a sort of USO for Jewish servicemen stationed at installations such as Camp Croft in the Greenville-Spartanburg, S.C., area, as well as for patients in our local military hospitals.” [MountainXpress]
On Eagles Wings: New York Times columnist Bret Stephens travels from Addis Ababa to Israel with a group of Ethiopian immigrants, highlighting the history of the community’s immigration to Israel and the challenges it now faces. “With us on the plane were 111 Ethiopian immigrants to Israel, who are among the very last of the 5,000 Ethiopians that the Jewish state has agreed to welcome since 2020 in the name of family reunification, with the requirement that they have at least one first-degree relative (parent, sibling or child) already in Israel. By June, this chapter of aliyah, Jewish immigration to Israel, will end, and this door to Ethiopians will be closed, at least for now. The problem is, there are still anywhere from 9,000 to 12,000 people in Ethiopia who practice Judaism and believe themselves to be Jews — even if the state of Israel believes their familial ties to Judaism are too weak… Even after 32 years, it’s hard to be unmoved by old footage of [Operation Solomon] — the best possible reminder that Israel, whatever else is said about or against it, has been a refuge for the vulnerable and a beacon for the oppressed. It was hard to be unmoved again as our flight touched the ground and the passengers spontaneously broke into singing ‘Am Yisrael Chai’ (‘The Nation of Israel Lives’).” [NYTimes]
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