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Briefs
PENNSYLVANIA GOVERNOR: $6.6 MILLION IN STATE FUNDS TO REDEVELOP TREE OF LIFE SITE
Pennsylvania will allocate $6.6 million in funding for the redevelopment of the Tree of Life synagogue campus where 11 people were killed in an antisemitic attack in 2018.
Speaking at a press conference outside the synagogue Monday, December 6, the last day of Hanukkah, Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf called the state’s contribution to the renovation “a Hanukkah present.”
“Tree of Life is undertaking a project to remember the past, to inform the present, and promote healing for the future,” Wolf said, according to the Pittsburgh PostGazette. “And I am so proud to support the communities’ efforts to reimagine this space, to create a welcoming place for residents, for visitors in Pittsburgh to reflect, and to learn, and to grow.”
Rabbi Jeffrey Myers, rabbi of the Tree of Life synagogue, also acknowledged the holiday in his remarks and with the menorah he presented to Wolf as a gift.
“Hanukkah means rededication,” Myers said. “And that is indeed the journey that we are on.”
The money from the state will be used to renovate the synagogue’s main sanctuary as well as to replace the synagogue’s chapel, which was where several of the victims of the attack were killed. The synagogue will also build a garden outside the synagogue as a memorial to the 11 victims of the attack. (JTA)
THE GRADE-SCHOOLER WHOSE AVINU MALKEINU WENT VIRAL IS BACK WITH A HANUKKAH SONG
Last year, when he was 6, Bibi Shapiro broke the Jewish internet with his impassioned performance of Avinu Malkeinu, the plaintive poem that is recited on Yom Kippur.
This year, the Australia grade-schooler is making a more subtle—but more harmonious—splash for Hanukkah.
Shapiro’s viral fame in 2020, which came as Jews around the world were isolated because of the pandemic, generated an invitation to sing at Yom Kippur services at one of the biggest Reform synagogues in the world and plaudits from Jewish musicians around the world. One of them, a popular singer in Shapiro’s native South Africa named Choni Goldman, even joined him for a Zoom song session.
At the time, Goldman, whose stage name is Choni G and who was the winner of an international Orthodox music competition in 2012, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that he hoped to sing with Shapiro again.
“We’ll definitely do more collabing together,” Goldman said at the time. “Happy to grow or nurture his talent— although I’m not sure he needs my help!”
Their new duet dropped last month. Goldman posted a video of himself and Shapiro singing Hanukkah, Oh Hanukkah in harmony. Shapiro is sitting at his kitchen table in front of a multicolored menorah, so his enthusiasm isn’t expressed in the full-body movements of the earlier video. Still, his radiant smile—with a slightly different set of teeth this year—and passion for music are clear as he sings the familiar lyrics; Goldman accompanies with multiple virtual tracks.
“Happy 5th night of Chanukah” Goldman wrote. “Bibi’s back!” (JTA)
ANTI-VACCINE AD BY ORTHODOX GROUP BRIEFLY TOOK OVER A CROWN HEIGHTS BUS STOP
Compared to the rest of New York City, the residents of Brooklyn’s Crown Heights neighborhood have both been hit harder by COVID-19 and more reluctant to vaccinate themselves against the virus.
Those statistics have prompted a group called the Jewish Orthodox Women’s Medical Association to put up a series of ads encouraging their neighbors—including a large population of Hasidic Jews—to get the shot.
But last month, that effort briefly spawned another public-health challenge: an imitation of the ad campaign that instead advocated against vaccination with false and misleading data. The false ads were put up by another Jewish group that opposes the vaccines, based on misinformation. It was not approved by the MTA and was quickly removed once photos of it surfaced on social media, according to The New York Times.
The anti-vaccine ad copied the diction and format of the pro-vaccine campaign, listing the “Top Ten reasons NOT to get vaccinated against COVID-19.” The first reason reads (again, falsely), “It could kill you.”
The ad by the anti-vaccine group is part of a years-long effort by a small group of haredi Orthodox Jews to advocate against vaccines—first against the measles vaccine and, recently, against COVID immunization.
Many leading Orthodox authorities and umbrella groups across the spectrum of Orthodoxy have urged their communities to get vaccinated, producing public messaging campaigns and issuing Jewish legal rulings.
But the anti-vaxx movement in the U.S. has found Orthodox backers. Instead of the shot, the anti-vaccine group’s website promotes unapproved treatments like hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin, which the FDA cautions against.
The group’s website says its members are “Standing for Truth, Medical Freedom, and G-d Awareness.”
They’re not the only Orthodox activists to oppose vaccination in the name of Judaism. Earlier this year, a Florida rabbi offered to give religious exemptions to anyone—Jewish or not—hoping to sidestep a vaccine mandate. (JTA)
Tel Aviv is now the world’s most expensive city to live in—and the reason why is tied in part to Israel’s successful COVID19 vaccine rollout.
The Israeli city rose from No. 5 to No. 1 in the annual Worldwide Cost of Living index compiled by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), the research arm of The Economist Group. The Londonbased media company also publishes The Economist magazine.
The 2021 report explains that Israel’s world-leading pace in vaccinating its population helped the shekel reach a “soaring” value against the U.S. dollar, leading to steep local inflation rates in dollar terms. By Jan. 1, 2021, Israel had vaccinated over 10% of its population, earning international praise and attention.
The price of about one out of every 10 everyday goods found in Tel Aviv, especially grocery items, “increased significantly,” the report said. The city is also the second-most expensive place in the world to purchase alcohol and public transportation, the report added. The increased prices of household goods, cars, and fuel are noted, too.
Tel Aviv’s real estate property prices also rose in 2021, but the EIU index does not factor those into its research.
After Tel Aviv, the EIU ranking lists Paris, Singapore, Zurich, and Hong Kong as the other most expensive cities in the top five. (JTA)
THE NEW YORK TIMES UPDATES STYLE GUIDE TO ‘ANTISEMITISM,’ LOSING THE HYPHEN
The New York Times has updated its style guide and now favors the use of the spelling “antisemitism” over “anti-Semitism.”
The change was made in August but was not announced publicly at the time. Jewish Insider reported the change Tuesday, Dec. 7.
The spelling of the term has been the subject of debate for years. One of the loudest voices for dropping the hyphen has been Deborah Lipstadt, the historian who was recently nominated by the Biden administration as the State Department’s antisemitism envoy. Lipstadt has argued that keeping the hyphen and capital “S” implies the existence of a racial category called “Semite” that obscures actual hatred of Jews. The International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance and the Anti-Defamation League also support the hyphen-less version.
Earlier this year, the Associated Press updated its style guide, which is used by media around the world, including this one, to adopt the hyphen-less version of the word. The Jewish Telegraphic Agency followed suit and The Times adopted the change in August, which it announced in a memo to editors at the paper. Jewish News made the switch in June.
“We are dropping the hyphen and lowercasing the S, which is now the style of The Associated Press and is preferred by many academics and other experts. Those who favor antisemitism argue that the hyphenated form, with the uppercase S, may inadvertently lend credence to the discredited notion of Jews as a separate race,” the memo stated. (JTA)
