Briefs

ISRAELI-AMERICAN JOSHUA ANGRIST SHARES NOBEL PRIZE

Professor Joshua Angrist, an economist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with dual Israeli-American citizenship, was named one of three winners of the 2021 Nobel Prize in Economics for his work on how public policy developments impact society.

Angrist and Stanford University’s Guido W. Imbens shared half of the roughly $1 million in prize money for their joint work on these so-called “natural experiments,” and University of California, Berkeley professor David Card received the other half. Natural experiments, which track societal cause and effect, are far more difficult to conceptualize than scientific ones, which compare physical outcomes in highly controlled settings.

For example, Angrist and Imbens have recently studied the sociological effects of mask mandates and other COVID-19 public health measures, according to NPR.

Born in Columbus, Ohio, Angrist earned his master’s degree and doctorate from Princeton before living in Israel for a few years in the 1980s. Angrist then taught at Hebrew University from 1991 to 1996 before becoming a professor in the economics department at MIT.

He has written several papers about labor conditions in Gaza and the West Bank and served as a member of Israel’s Finance Ministry Working Group on Israeli-Palestinian Labor Market Relations in 1994. (JTA)

GAVIN NEWSOM LAUNCHES COUNCIL TO BOOST CALIFORNIA HOLOCAUST EDUCATION

California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced the formation of a council on Holocaust and genocide education this month at the Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles.

The council will provide educational resources regarding the Holocaust and other instances of genocide to students at California schools and “provide young people with the tools necessary to recognize and respond to on-campus instances of anti-Semitism and bigotry,” according to the governor’s office.

“We find ourselves in a moment of history where hate pervades the public discourse,” Newsom said. “National surveys have indicated a shocking decline in awareness among young people about the Holocaust and other acts of genocide.”

In the 2021 state budget, California allocated $10 million to the Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles as well as $2.5 million for an expansion of the Holocaust Museum in Los Angeles. It also allocated $1 million for the renovation of the Tauber Holocaust Library and Archives at the Jewish Family and Children’s Services Holocaust Center in San Francisco. (JTA)

US REJOINS UN HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL 3 YEARS AFTER TRUMP LEFT OVER ISRAEL CONCERNS

The U.S. rejoined the United Nations’ Human Rights Council on Thursday, Oct. 14, three years after former President Trump pulled out of it over what his administration deemed a “shameless” bias against Israel.

President Biden’s envoy to the U.N., Linda Thomas-Greenfield, argued in a statement that the move will not mean the U.S. does not stand with Israel.

“We will oppose the Council’s disproportionate attention on Israel, which includes the Council’s only standing agenda item targeting a single country,” she said.

The council, which investigates alleged human rights abuses in U.N. member countries, has for decades routinely singled out Israel in reports and resolutions, particularly in the wake of the country’s many armed conflicts in Gaza.

Nikki Haley, former envoy to the U.N. under Trump, said in 2018 after the U.S.’ pullout that the council “was not worthy of its name.” Then Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu applauded the decision.

The pullout split Jewish lawmakers at the time, including Democrats.

The council, formed in 2006, held an internal election of its slate of 47 countries on Oct. 14, as it does every three years, and several countries with controversial human rights records made the cut— including China, Russia, Cuba, and Eritrea.

Hillel Neuer, the head of UN Watch, a watchdog group that often calls the council and other U.N. bodies out for its Israel critique, lamented to the AFP that so many of what he calls “oppressive regimes” were elected. (JTA)

ISRAEL’S NATIONAL LIBRARY TO DISPLAY NOTEBOOKS OF MYSTERIOUS SCHOLAR WHO TAUGHT ELIE WIESEL, EMMANUEL LEVINAS

He knew some 30 languages, taught some of the greatest scholars of Jewish studies in the 20th century and is buried in Uruguay under a tombstone that champions his wisdom—but his identity was never known.

Now, what sounds like the beginning of a riddle is the description of an author whose notebooks are set for display by the National Library of Israel.

“Mr. Shushani,” or “Monsieur Chouchani,” was a wanderer and scholar who counted Elie Wiesel and the philosopher Emmanuel Levinas among his students. A brilliant teacher who was said to possess a photographic memory and knew the Bible, Talmud, and other Jewish texts by heart, he traveled around the world teaching while keeping his real identity secret. Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook, the scholar and spiritual leader of Mandatory Palestine, called Shushani “one of the most excellent young people… sharp, knowledgeable, complete and multi-minded.”

Shushani was born in Imperial Russia around the turn of the 20th century and died in 1968 in Uruguay. But few details about his life, including his real name, were known even to his closest students.

The notebooks were donated by Shalom Rosenberg, an Israeli professor of Jewish thought who was a student of Shushani’s at the time of his death. Shushani’s writings are difficult to decode and contained everything from his thoughts, to memory exercises, to mathematical formulas and original ideas in the field of Jewish thought. While a small group of scholars has been working through the notebooks for several years, they were made available to the public for the first time last week.

Yoel Finkelman, curator of the library’s Judaica collection, celebrated the opportunity to introduce more people to Shushani’s writings and their place at the National Library of Israel in a statement.

“We consider it of paramount importance to bring to the public’s attention the story of one of the most mysterious and influential figures in 20th-century Jewish thought,” Finkelman said. (JTA)

LONDON LAWMAKERS REJECT PLAN FOR HIGH-RISE BUILDING NEXT TO HISTORIC SYNAGOGUE

City council members in London voted against a controversial plan to build a high-rise building near an 18th-century synagogue.

The plan by developers would have replaced a seven-story building adjacent to the Bevis Marks synagogue in central London with a 48-story tower. The plan was rejected by a vote of 14–7, the BBC reported.

The custodians of the synagogue, which today serves the Spanish and Portuguese Jewish community of London, argued the envisioned building would block sunlight to the synagogue, though the developers disputed this.

As in other large synagogues of communities of Sephardi Jews who left the Iberian Peninsula after the Spanish Inquisition, which began in the 15th century, Bevis Marks depends for lighting on candle and sunlight.

“We already find it difficult at times to read prayers and carry out a normal service due to poor light conditions,” Shalom Morris, a resident rabbi at Bevis Marks, told the BBC. He said he was “delighted” that the plan was canceled.

Several thousand people signed a petition against the plan, including prominent British Jews such as Simon Schama, a renowned historian, author, and television presenter.

“Saving the light for Bevis Marks is a matter of the deepest historical and cultural significance,” the Jewish Chronicle quoted Schama as saying. (JTA)