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Sinai Temple in Los Angeles Launches Program to Help Jewish Students Combat Antisemitism
Beren Scholar fellows attending a seminar provided by the program. Photo: Sinai Temple
A new “intensive” seminar based in the Sinai Temple in Los Angeles and described as the “first of its kind” will prepare Jewish high school students to withstand and resist campus antisemitism, The Algemeiner has learned.
Announced in the shadow of the one-year anniversary of Hamas’s Oct. 7 massacre across southern Israel, the Beren Scholars Program will educate cohorts of students in 11th and 12th grade about the history of antisemitism across the ages and its latest manifestation in higher education, steeling them against a wave of hatred that university administrators have failed to stop.
A key component of Beren Scholars is a lecture series featuring the world’s leading Jewish and non-Jewish antisemitism experts, including Jonathan Greenblatt of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), Dr. Pastor John Paul Foster, and Sarah Idan, a former Miss Iraq winner and leading Muslim supporter of Israel. Connecting Jewish students with leaders drawn from every culture and faith will, Sinai Temple says, expand their network of support and hone their ability to serve as ambassadors of the Jewish community on and off campus.
“The program will culminate with a trip to Sacramento where students will practice their news skills, meeting with state lawmakers to advocate for Jewish causes,” Sinai Temple said earlier this month.
The establishment of the Beren Scholars Program comes amid an eruption of antisemitism on college campuses unlike any in US history.
According to a recent report by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) published last month, there was a “staggering” 477 percent increase in anti-Zionist activity involving assault, vandalism, and other phenomena during the 2023-2024 academic year. The report revealed a bleak picture of a higher education system poisoned by political extremism and hate, noting that 10 campuses alone accounted for 16 percent of all incidents tracked by ADL researchers, with Columbia University and the University of Michigan combining for 90 anti-Israel incidents — 52 and 38, respectively. Violence was most common at universities in the state of California, where, for example, anti-Zionist activists punched a Jewish student for filming him at a protest.
It is this harrowing reality which prompted Sinai Temple and the Robert M. Beren Family Foundation to equip Jewish students with the tools they will need to overcome a hostile world, Rabbi Erez Sherman, co-senior rabbi of the synagogue, told The Algemeiner during an interview.
“What might have began as a defensive idea will be turning into a proactive vision,” Sherman said. “Looking back now post-Oct. 7, it’s clear that programs like this should have been with us many years before, but we became a bit too complacent. They used to say ‘we have to teach our college students’ and then they said ‘we have to teach our high school students.’”
Sherman added that numerous incidents going back years portended the crisis Jewish students face today. But he explained that Oct. 7, its suddenness and cruelty combined with the higher education establishment’s indifferent response to it in some cases, convulsed the Jewish community, forcing it to accept that even institutions reputed to be the most tolerant and diverse can, either through intentional neglect or incompetence, become bastions of antisemitism. Moreover, he explained, the community recognized the urgency of mobilizing allies in non-Jewish communities.
“Little things were creeping up,” he continued. “But I don’t think we understood the magnitude of what lied beneath the surface. When it exploded on Oct. 7, we realized that we had to address it, and Sinai Temple and this community was very fortunate to, number one, already be in a space of Israel activism — so we didn’t have to recreate anything — and two, to also be in a space of allyship creation, wonderful relationships with our Catholic Church, Faithful Central Bible Church, the Mormon Church.”
Sherman hopes the work in which the Beren Foundation and Sinai Temple is engaged will spread to synagogues across the country.
“What’s unique is that this is coming out of a synagogue and not any other organization that’s just fighting antisemitism or just working on college campuses,” he said. “We want people to realize that their own houses of worship have value beyond just worship and praying to G-d. They can also take action.”
Julie Platt — the daughter of the late Robert M. Beren, a generous supporter of the Orthodox community who died last August — called it a “great blessing to carry on our father’s legacy knowing that our work will support the next generation of Jewish students.”
She added, “In a world where Jews are thinking to retreat, our Beren Scholars will not hide. Instead, they will stand tall, speak out, and create a world of empathetic, intellectual, strong, joyful Jewish leaders.”
Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.
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Treasure Trove spotlights a menorah designed in the early years of the State of Israel
This laurel branch Hanukkah menorah, designed by artist Maurice Ascalon (1913-2003), won first prize at the 1950 Tel Aviv Design Competition. Between 2,000 and 4,000 of these were made by the Pal-Bell factory in Israel, and they were sold not only in Israel but in select department stores around the world, including Macy’s in New York and Harrods in London.
The shape of the oil containers resembles ancient Roman lamps, while the large pitcher is a reference to the single jug of oil that lasted for eight days that is at the heart of the Hanukkah story.
These hanukkiyot were manufactured out of cast bronze with a green patina that was created using reactive chemicals, a process developed by Ascalon, resulting in an antique verdigris look.
Ascalon, who was born in Hungary and originally named Moshe Klein, immigrated to Palestine in 1934 after training in Brussels and Milan. He started the Pal-Bell Company in the late 1930s for the production of ritual and secular decorative items. “Pal” is short for Palestine and “Bell” is short for bellezza, Italian for beauty and an allusion to his time in Milan where the artist learned and perfected his sculpting skills. During Israel’s War of Independence in 1948, Ascalon designed munitions for the Israeli army and, at the request of the Israeli government, retrofitted his factory to produce arms for the war effort.
Ascalon closed Pal-Bell and moved to the United States in 1956, where he taught sculpture at the University of Judaism in Los Angeles and opened Ascalon Studios, which produces large-scale sculptures for public spaces and houses of worship.
The studio, which is now run by Ascalon’s son David and his grandson Eric, was retooled during the COVID pandemic to manufacture safety boxes that allowed health-care workers to assist a patient on a ventilator while minimizing exposure.
Treasure Trove wishes you a happy Hanukkah , which starts on Dec. 25. This year, as Peter, Paul and Mary sang, “Light one candle for the terrible sacrifice, justice and freedom demand. Don’t let the light go out!”
The post Treasure Trove spotlights a menorah designed in the early years of the State of Israel appeared first on The Canadian Jewish News.
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Germany: 5 Killed, Scores Wounded after Saudi Man Plows Car Into Christmas crowd
Magdeburg Christmas market, December 21, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Christian Mang
i24 News – A suspected terrorist plowed a vehicle into a crowd at a Christmas market in the German city of Magdeburg, west of the capital Berlin, killing at least five and injuring dozens more.
Local police confirmed that the suspect was a Saudi national born in 1974 and acting alone.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz expressed his concern about the incident, saying that “reports from Magdeburg suggest something bad. My thoughts are with the victims and their families.”
Police declined to give casualty numbers, confirming only a large-scale operation at the market, where people had gathered to celebrate in the days leading up to the Christmas holidays.
The post Germany: 5 Killed, Scores Wounded after Saudi Man Plows Car Into Christmas crowd first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Syria’s New Rulers Name HTS Commander as Defense Minister
A person waves a flag adopted by the new Syrian rulers, as people gather during a celebration called by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) near the Umayyad Mosque, after the ousting of Syria’s Bashar al-Assad, in Damascus, Syria, Photo: December 20, 2024. REUTERS/Ammar Awad/File Photo
Syria’s new rulers have appointed Murhaf Abu Qasra, a leading figure in the insurgency which toppled Bashar al-Assad, as defense minister in the interim government, an official source said on Saturday.
Abu Qasra, who is also known by the nom de guerre Abu Hassan 600, is a senior figure in the Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group which led the campaign that ousted Assad this month. He led numerous military operations during Syria’s revolution, the source said.
Syria’s de facto leader Ahmed al-Sharaa discussed “the form of the military institution in the new Syria” during a meeting with armed factions on Saturday, state news agency SANA reported.
Abu Qasra during the meeting sat next to Sharaa, also known by the nom de guerre Abu Mohammed al-Golani, photos published by SANA showed.
Prime Minister Mohammed al-Bashir said this week that the defense ministry would be restructured using former rebel factions and officers who defected from Assad’s army.
Bashir, who formerly led an HTS-affiliated administration in the northwestern province of Idlib, has said he will lead a three-month transitional government. The new administration has not declared plans for what will happen after that.
Earlier on Saturday, the ruling General Command named Asaad Hassan al-Shibani as foreign minister, SANA said. A source in the new administration told Reuters that this step “comes in response to the aspirations of the Syrian people to establish international relations that bring peace and stability.”
Shibani, a 37-year-old graduate of Damascus University, previously led the political department of the rebels’ Idlib government, the General Command said.
Sharaa’s group was part of al Qaeda until he broke ties in 2016. It had been confined to Idlib for years until going on the offensive in late November, sweeping through the cities of western Syria and into Damascus as the army melted away.
Sharaa has met with a number of international envoys this week. He has said his primary focus is on reconstruction and achieving economic development and that he is not interested in engaging in any new conflicts.
Syrian rebels seized control of Damascus on Dec. 8, forcing Assad to flee after more than 13 years of civil war and ending his family’s decades-long rule.
Washington designated Sharaa a terrorist in 2013, saying al Qaeda in Iraq had tasked him with overthrowing Assad’s rule and establishing Islamic sharia law in Syria. US officials said on Friday that Washington would remove a $10 million bounty on his head.
The war has killed hundreds of thousands of people, caused one of the biggest refugee crises of modern times and left cities bombed to rubble and the economy hollowed out by global sanctions.
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