#jerusalem 1999

[eurovision-revisited]

1999 Jerusalem - Number 10 - Vanessa Chinitor - "Like The Wind"

Remarkably, staying in Jerusalem. It feels like for the past two years, there have been many more songs outside the actual contest than inside.

Like the Wind is a waltz about the erosive forces of nature. It's a geography lesson. By the time the key change hits, the metaphor is apparent. Vanessa is telling us to be like the wind. Eternal, unstoppable. Be the force of nature you truly are. It's almost as unsubtle as Germany's entry.

What sets it apart from that, is the gentle fairground waltziness. The winds here are gentle gusts swirling around your feet and whipping up the leaves at best. No hurricanes or tropical storms. Perhaps an autumnal gust at most. Be an unstoppable force of nature, but be gentle and kind of cute. You may grind down mountains, but make sure you do so in an endearing and elegant manner.

Vanessa won the Belgian national final Eurosong '99 easily. She got maximum points from the juries (two of them), from the public televote and was in equal first with the results of the two Radio polls that were also run. There were some more modern dance tracks in the final, so clearly the whole of Belgium still want traditional and safe music. The country wasn't ready to experiment as a whole yet.

In Jerusalem, Vanessa drew the death slot and went on second. Nevertheless, she still managed to get 38 points which this year were good enough for 12th place. The point distribution was skewed with lots of songs clustered at the bottom with fewer than 40 points. Belgium turned out to be the best of this group.

Vanessa had one more go at qualifying for Eurovision in 2006. Unfortunately this ended in a last place finish in the preliminary heats.

However, Like the Wind managed to do exceptionally well in the Flemish Ultratop top 50 and she continued to release Dutch language music for the next six years. By 2006 her music career was slowing down. She had one more album out in 2010.

[matan4il]

Happy Pride month to all Jews and our true allies.

On this occasion, as someone who used to volunteer for the Jerusalem Open House (the gay community center) let me offer you a bit of info about our country's LGBTQ history (and correct some anti-Israel distortions).

This is Chaim (Herman) Cohen.

He was born in Germany in 1911, and came to Israel in 1930, to study torah at a yeshiva here. Inspired by his Jewish studies, he decided to turn to the study of law, returning to Germany for that goal and to get married. In 1933, with the rise of the Nazis to power in Germany, he decided to move to Israel permanently. In that sense, he's considered a refugee and Holocaust survivor. His younger brother Leo was murdered by the Nazis.

In 1950, he was appointed Israel's attorney general. In this role, he came across an anti-sodomy law passed by the British Mandate in 1936 (which prohibited all oral and anal sex, including between two men), and which the State of Israel automatically inherited once it was founded in 1948 (source in Hebrew). First he wanted to cancel it, but his jurisdiction fell short of that. As it was within his authority to instruct the Israeli police and state prosecution to ignore it, he did so in 1953. He explained his instruction:

"I thought it was my duty not to uphold a law, which I saw as immoral. [...] And if you should ask, in what is the immorality of the law prohibiting intercourse between men, I will reply to you that such a law against any consenting and private contact between adults contradicts the freedom of man over his own body, and depriving this freedom is a grave infringement against one of the basic human rights."

For comparison's sake, in March 1952, Alan Turing (who saved countless lives for the UK and the allies during WWII) was brought to trial for homosexual consensual private acts, was convicted, and his security clearance was revoked.

In 1978, a special committee of the Knesset (Israel's parliament) recommended several changes to laws addressing various sexual acts, including a recommendation to cancel this anti-sodomy law. In 1980, Israel's first right wing government, under the leadership of Prime Minister Menachem Begin, accepted the committee's recommendations with a corresponding bill (which eventually didn't pass). The bill was presented a second time in 1986, and was passed into law in 1988, decriminalizing same-sex intercourse in Israel (source in Hebrew).

For comparison's sake, in 1990, there were still over 110 jurisdictions in the world criminalizing homosexuality in the world. In the 2020's, RIGHT NOW, there are over 60 that still do.

This is Dr. Doron Maizel (may his memory be a blessing) on the left, with his partner Adir Steiner.

Doron was an army doctor. He was married to a woman with whom he had 3 daughters, before coming out to her in the late 1970's, getting a divorce and eventually openly moving in with his partner Adir. They were together since 1983. Being open about his sexual orientation meant that while Doron was allowed to serve, the same notion that gay men are a security threat (which was applied to Alan Turing), and therefore can't be allowed to serve in top/secret posts in the army, was to stop the promotion that he was about to get. Doron went to visit Ariel Sharon (at the time, Israel's right wing Security Minister, who's in charge of the army) in the latter's private home. IDK what was said in that meeting, but after that, Adir underwent the security check that all partners of a high ranking army officer do, and then Doron got his promotion. When Doron passed away in 1991 from cancer, Adir demanded to be and was recognized as an army widower. Doron's official army commemoration page states, "Left behind a mother, three daughters, a brother and a boyfriend."

Here's Adir with Doron's picture during a 2012 interview:

In 1993, the army order that were meant to prevent Doron and other gay soldiers from serving in certain posts was officially canceled. In 1999, a soldier born as male asked to serve as a woman, because that's what she actually was (this would have made this soldier's service shorter, and in that sense "cost" the army). The request was accepted, and since then, trans soldiers serve in the gender they identify with.

The story of Israel's LGBTQ rights isn't only glitter and fairies. Just like I can talk about a lot of progress that the state made in equalizing our rights in many domains (because I have), I could also talk about the rights we still don't have (because I've done that, too). The situation here isn't perfect (though as far as I'm aware, it isn't anywhere in the world, there are at least a few rights denied to the queer community in every country I know of). But when I look at our history, I feel like Israel isn't just one of the more queer-friendly countries in the world, it was also at certain moments at the very forefront of the struggle to recognizing queer people as deserving of equal treatment.

Which is maybe the most instinctual reason for my fury at the form of the Israel's demonization using the false notion of "pink washing." It is DERANGED to think Chaim Cohen, in 1953, gave his pro-gay instruction in relation to an occupation that Israel wasn't being blamed of until after the Six Day War in 1967, and which didn't gain attention from the regular people (as opposed to foreign politicians, who didn't give a shit about Israel's record on gay rights) until the Derben Conference in 2000. Not to mention how the idea that having a good gay rights record is something a country can brag about is probably even younger than that conference.

The pink washing accusation is de-humanizing. It suggests that it can't be that Israelis simply have a set of values which happens to align with the west's when it comes to the gay community (or women's rights, or ecological awareness, or freedom of speech, or any of the other positives Israel has, which position it high in the Freedom Index, and which anti-Israel activists label "washing" with one color or another). No, the history of these fields in the Jewish state is all about what non-Jews will say about us! It's like you can't fathom that we have an existence of our own, and minds of our own, and desires and wants and struggles of our own, and not everything is centered about what you think of us.

And the source of this self-centered thinking seems to connect with an inability to accept the Jewish state as anything other than the ultimate evil. Because Israel has to be the supervillain of the story, then it can't have a single positive. Everything about it has to be black, otherwise that challenges the black and white narrative that's been developed to demonize the Jewish state. So if it is revealed that there's any domain in which Israel is actually doing good things, reflecting a respect for human rights or a closeness to the values that the anti-Israel crowd claims to uphold, then it must be just a cover up for how Israel treats the Palestinians.

Essentially, the pink/purple/green/whatever washing accusations are as insane and antisemitic, just like claiming that Jews have won so many Nobel Prizes (a reflection of how much our people have benefited humanity) to distract the world from all the non-Jewish kids we kill to use their blood to bake Passover matzos.

But it's actually worse. Because in the process of demonizing Israel, Israeli Arab and Palestinian queers get thrown under the bus, too. As a gay activist, I'm familiar with so many gay and trans Israeli Arabs who get to have a good life thanks to Israel's good gay rights record, who are aware that if the anti-Israel crowd is successful in de-legitimizing and destroying this state, they're fucked as well. I know a lot of gay and trans Palestinians, who only catch a break when they come to the Jerusalem Open House, or generally to Israel, the only place where they can be themselves safely. I know so many queer Palestinians who are scared for their lives because of the violent intolerance of their own families, society and governments. And all the western countries from which the anti-Israel people come from refuse them entry as refugees persecuted for their sexual orientation (yes, I have gay Palestinian friends who have tried, only to be turned down by country after country, no matter how "liberal" or "pro-Palestinian" they officially claim to be).

Meanwhile, gay Palestinians can get temporary asylum in Israel (please don't tell me it's "pink washing" again, when no one from the anti-Israel crowd will even acknowledge this fact) if they fear for their lives, it's just not a proper solution, because just like Palestinian terrorists can get into Israel, carry out an attack and murder innocent civilians, Palestinian homophobes can get inside as well, and murder the queer people who had fled here.

And just to make reality a tad more complex, you know how for the anti-Israel crowd, the worst of the worst of Israeli society, are the religious ("Fanatic! Extremist! Violent!") settlers? I know of more than one case where those religious settlers are the ones who are helping gay Palestinians, but here's one that made it into the Israeli news.

Life is just not black and white, human nature is complex, Israel is a country where human beings are more than just their stance on the conflict and whether foreigners agree with it or not, and the "pink washing accusation" black and white washes all our colors away, trying to reduce us into caricatures that fit into their simplistic, reductive narrative, so they can go on playing "white/western/outsider savior" to the "poor Palestinians" without actually caring about many of the poorest, most marginalized ones.

This vid isn't a representation of all gay Israeli Arabs, but it's def a voice you will not see acknowledged on the anti-Israel side:

Happy Pride to everyone seeing us, all of us, Israelis and Palestinians, queer and straight, with all of our humanity and complexity!

(for all of my updates and ask replies regarding Israel, click here)

[dozydawn]

“Palestinian girls pass by closed shops in Arab East Jerusalem, 31 January. Shopkeepers went on strike to protest the death of a Palestinian shot by Israeli forces 26 January.”

Photographed by Menahem Kahana, 1999.

[deadpresidents]

I thought this was a blog about us presidents, no one comes here to read your thoughts on the mess in syria.

Well, first and foremost, this isn't a request line. I started this blog to write about whatever I want to write about and I've been doing that for 15+ years. It's not changing anytime soon. I don't care what you came here to read. It's not for you. If anybody finds anything interesting, it's an added bonus.

The collapse of a regime that has existed longer than I've been alive and has had an iron grip on one of the oldest continuous civilizations in the world is historic. And it's interesting to me, and I'll write about whatever interests me whenever I am interested by it. These moments should be fascinating to anybody who has an interest in history. You never know where the story is going to go from here, and that alone is interesting, as well. Just because it isn't "your" history doesn't mean it isn't historic.

When Bashar al-Assad succeeded his father in 2000, there was actually a significant amount of optimism around him. He was a London-educated ophthalmologist who was never intended to be Syria's leader but was thrust into the role after the death of his brother in a car accident. It was thought that he might be a reformer who would lead differently than the tyrannical rule of his father. There was hope that some real changes might take place in parts of the Arab world in 1999 and 2000 when King Hussein of Jordan, King Hassan II of Morocco, and Hafez al-Assad of Syria -- longtime rulers in their respective countries -- all died and were replaced by sons in their mid-30s (King Abdullah II in Jordan, King Mohammed VI in Morocco, and Bashar in Syria). Jordan and Morocco weren't in the same situation as Syria, especially considering the decades of close connections King Hussein and King Hassan II had with the United States, but there was still genuine hope about Bashar al-Assad in 2000.

Twenty-four years later, we know the path of history that Assad took, but these moments are hugely important -- not just for Syrians or Arabs or the Middle East in general, but for the entire world. What happens in Syria matters here. Don't forget that there are American soldiers on the ground in Syria. I'm from Sacramento and live in Los Angeles -- those two cities are almost twice as far apart as Damascus is from Jerusalem. Damascus is closer to Beirut than Sacramento is to San Francisco. Russia, Iran, Iraq, Turkey, Israel -- these countries are all intricately connected with Syria in various ways and have been for decades. If you aren't interested in what's going on in Syria today, that's your prerogative. If you don't think what's going on in Syria today makes a difference here, you are disturbingly ignorant.

[incorrect-koh-posts]

Masterlist of KoH-related Novels

Below you'll find a list of every novel I know of that is set in the same period as Ridley Scott's Kingdom of Heaven (2005), covers at least some of the same events and features some or all of the historical figures that also appear in the film. The list will be updated occasionally as I work my way through. Enjoy!

✷ English-language novels & novels available in translation

1879: Lady Sibyl's Choice (Emily Sarah Holt) -> thoughts

1937: The Leper King (Zofia Kossak, originally published in Polish) -> thoughts

1954: Knight Crusader (Ronald Welch)

1965: The Wandering Unicorn (Manuel Mujica Lainez, originally published in Spanish) -> thoughts

1969: The Knights of Dark Renown (Graham Shelby) -> thoughts

1989: Alamut (Judith Tarr)

1991: The Dagger and the Cross (Judith Tarr)

1992: Pagan's Crusade (Catherine Jinks)

1996: Jerusalem (Cecelia Holland) -> thoughts

1998: The Book of Saladin (Tariq Ali)

1998 - 2000: Arn the Knight Templar series (Jan Guillou, originally published in Swedish)

The Road to Jerusalem (1998)

The Knight Templar (1999)

The Kingdom at the End of the Road (2000)

2004: Crusader King (Susan Peek)

2006: Sand Daughter (Sarah Bryant)

2007: The Leper Crown (George Morgan)

2009 - 2021: The Magdalen Cycle series (Scott R. Rezer)

#1: The Leper King (2009)

#2: The Pawns of Sion (2015)

#3: The Gambit Queen (2021)

2011: The King's Witch (Cecelia Holland)

2011 - 2013: Saladin trilogy (Jack Hight)

Eagle (2011)

Kingdom (2012)

Holy War (2013)

2011 - 2023: The Last King of Legends series (Serafia Cross)

#1: The Kingmakers (2011)

#2: In the Face of Trials (2012)

#3: The Sovereign Gambit (2015)

#4: The King's Last Deeds (2023)

2012 - 2017: Outremer Chronicles series (Peter Tolladay)

#1: The Templar's Apprentice (2012)

#2: The Harsh Mistress (2014)

#3: The Thorn in the Crown (2016)

2014 - 2016: Balian d'Ibelin series (Helena P. Schrader) -> thoughts

#1: Knight of Jerusalem (2014)

#2: Defender of Jerusalem (2015)

#3: Envoy of Jerusalem (2016)

2018: Templar Silks (Elizabeth Chadwick)

2018 - 2020: The Brotherhood series (K. M. Ashman)

#1: Templar Steel (2018)

#2: Templar Stone (2019)

#3: Templar Blood (2020)

2018 - 2023: Watchers of Outremer series (Suzannah Rowntree)

#2: The Lady of Kingdoms (2019)

#5: The House of Mourning (2023)

2020: The Leper King (Peter Busby)

2020: The Land Beyond the Sea (Sharon Kay Penman) -> thoughts

✷ Non-English novels not available in translation:

1959: L'Étoile de Pourpre (Serge Dalens & Pierre Joubert, French comic)

1999 - 2017: Die Templerin series (Wolfgang & Rebecca Hohlbein, German)

#3: Die Rückkehr der Templerin (2004)

#4: Das Wasser des Lebens (2008)

#5: Das Testament Gottes (2011)

#6: Das Band des Schicksals (2017)

2002: Thibaut ou la Croix Perdue (Juliette Benzoni, French)

2007: Las Lanzas de Jerusalén (Georges Bordonove, Spanish)

2019: Die Assassinin (Alexandra Cavelius, German)

✷ Tangentially related:

1946: mentions of KoH characters in The World is not Enough (Zoé Oldenbourg)

1997: Queen of Swords (Judith Tarr), about Baldwin's grandmother Melisende

[sub-at-omicsteminist]

Dorit Aharonov

Dorit Aharonov is an Israeli computer scientist specialising in quantum computing. She graduated from Weizmann Institute of Science with an MSc in Physics. She received her doctorate for Computer Science in 1999 from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and her thesis was entitled Noisy Quantum Computation.  She also did her post-doctorate in the mathematics department of Princeton University and in the computer science department of University of California Berkeley. She was a visiting scholar at the Institute for Advanced Study in 1998–99. Aharonov was an invited speaker in International Congress of Mathematicians 2010, Hyderabad on the topic of Mathematical Aspects of Computer Science

Quantum computing

Aharonov's research is mainly about quantum information processes, which includes

quantum algorithms

quantum cryptography and computational complexity

quantum error corrections and fault tolerance

connections between quantum computation and quantum Markov chains and lattices

quantum Hamiltonian complexity and its connections to condensed matter physics

transition from quantum to classical physics

understanding entanglement by studying quantum complexity

[valkyries-things]

AMOUN SLEEM // ACTIVIST

“She is a Domari (Roma) activist, who created the Domari Society in Jerusalem in October 1999. This aimed at “combating the major issues facing the Dom (Gypsy) community as severe discrimination, cultural marginalization and poverty”. She has published two books: Dreaming of Jerusalem and The Dom of Jerusalem: A Gypsy Community Chronicle, and is working on other publications to make available information on this segment of the population.”

[eretzyisrael]

by Robert Williams

To assess correctly the damage that Qatari influence in the US is causing, it is essential to understand what Qatar stands for and promotes. Qatar has for decades cultivated a close relationship with the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood, whose motto is: “‘Allah is our objective; the Prophet is our leader; the Quran is our law; Jihad is our way; dying in the way of Allah is our highest hope.” It aims to ensure that Islamic law, Sharia, governs all countries and all matters.

Hamas, an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood, has enjoyed Qatar as its main sponsor, to the tune of up to $360 million a year, and was until recently the home of Hamas’ leadership. In 2012, Ismail Haniyeh, head of the terrorist group’s political bureau, Mousa Abu Marzook, and Khaled Mashaal, among others, moved to Qatar for a life of luxury. This month, likely because of Israel’s announcement that it will hunt down and eliminate Hamas leaders in Qatar and Turkey, the Qatar-based Hamas officials reportedly fled to other countries.

Qatar was also home to Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, the spiritual leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, who was exiled from Egypt until his death in September 2022. According to the Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center:

💬 “Qaradawi is mainly known as the key figure in shaping the concept of violent jihad and the one who allowed carrying out terror attacks, including suicide bombing attacks, against Israeli citizens, the US forces in Iraq, and some of the Arab regimes. Because of that, he was banned from entering Western countries and some Arab countries…. In 1999, he was banned from entering the USA. In 2009, he was banned from entering Britain…”

Qaradawi also founded many radical Islamist organizations which are funded by Qatar. These include the International Union of Muslim Scholars, which released a statement that called the October 7 massacre perpetrated by Hamas against communities in southern Israel an “effective” and “mandatory development of legitimate resistance” and said that Muslims have a religious duty to support their brothers and sisters “throughout all of Palestine, especially in Al-Aqsa, Jerusalem, and Gaza.”

Qatar is still home to the lavishly-funded television network Al Jazeera, founded in 1996 by Qatar’s Emir, Sheikh Hamad ibn Khalifa Al Thani. Called the “mouthpiece of the Muslim Brotherhood,” Al Jazeera began the violent “Arab Spring,” which “brought the return of autocratic rulers.”

In 2017, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Egypt made 13 demands of Qatar: “to cut off relations with Iran, shutter Al Jazeera, and stop granting Qatari citizenship to other countries’ exiled oppositionists.” They subsequently cut ties with Qatar over its failure to agree to any of the demands, including ending its support for terrorism, the Muslim Brotherhood, and Al Jazeera.

The Saudi state-run news agency SPA said at the time:

💬 “[Qatar] embraces multiple terrorist and sectarian groups aimed at disturbing stability in the region, including the Muslim Brotherhood, ISIS [Islamic State] and al-Qaeda, and promotes the message and schemes of these groups through their media constantly,”

US universities and colleges are happy to see this kind of influence on their campuses in exchange for billions of dollars in Qatari donations. According to ISGAP:

💬 “[F]oreign donations from Qatar, especially, have had a substantial impact on fomenting growing levels of antisemitic discourse and campus politics at US universities, as well as growing support for anti-democratic values within these institutions of higher education.”

[mariacallous]

BERLIN — The latest effort to craft a path to survival for Germany’s beleaguered rabbinical schools is underway — with help from thousands of miles away in California and Jerusalem.

An American Conservative rabbi and an Israeli Reform rabbi have been tapped to lead seminaries associated with the University of Potsdam.

The Los Angeles-based American Jewish University and its Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies this week announced a “groundbreaking partnership” with the Central Council of Jews in Germany to promote “sustainable” Jewish clergy training at the University of Potsdam.

Rabbi Bradley Shavit Artson, Ziegler’s dean, accepted the Central Council’s invitation as the founding leader of a new German seminary associated with the Masorti or Conservative movement.

“It’s absurd to have an American rabbi running the school,” Artson said he told the Central Council. “The only thing more absurd is not having a school.”

Meanwhile, Rabbi Yehodaya Amir, professor emeritus at the Reform movement’s Hebrew Union College in Jerusalem, will oversee a liberal or Reform seminary being launched at the university.

The new leaders are stepping into a tumultuous situation.

The University of Potsdam has long been home to two rabbinical schools, the liberal/Reform seminary Abraham Geiger College and its Masorti/Conservative sibling, Zacharias Frankel College, founded in 1999 and 2013 respectively by Rabbi Walter Homolka.

But in late 2022, Homolka resigned from all positions in German Jewish institutions following allegations that he had abused his power and created an atmosphere of fear among students and staff. He eventually sold all his shares of Geiger and Frankel for 25,000 euros to the Jewish Community of Berlin, which intended to keep them going.

The organized Jewish community has since struggled to fund the schools, which previously had the Central Council and the German government as their main backers. In the wake of the Homolka scandal, the Central Council had declared it could no longer support the institutions as they stood. It announced plans to revamp rabbinical training so that no one figure would wield too much power.

This month, the council announced a new foundation to support two new schools — a liberal one named for Regina Jonas and a Masorti one named for Abraham Joshua Heschel, both pioneering rabbis in early 20th-century Germany with global and enduring significance. They are also launching a cantorial school under the name of the 19th-century composer of Jewish liturgical music Louis Lewandowski.

Now, the council has made official its chosen partners to operate the schools — and for both it looked outside Germany.

For the Masorti seminary, it turned to Artson, who also served as dean of the Frankel seminary after Homolka cold-called him to ask for his support — a request that he said had conferred a “sacred mission” upon him.

“I thought that this was an opportunity to step up and to help Europeans get the training they would want, to energize the Jewish community,” Artson told JTA. “And that’s really what we’ve done.”

Artson said he anticipated a limited future for his involvement and that of his fellow Ziegler dean, Rabbi Cheryl Peretz.

“We see our role as stepping in and launching this important program, and then at some point getting out of the way so that Europeans can run it without us,” he said.

Current rabbinical and cantorial students were told last week — as eight new rabbis and cantors were ordained — that they will be invited to transfer seamlessly to the new seminaries.

As for what might change for them, Artson said his focus was on “bringing transparency and equal funding and stability” as well as building stronger ties to the global Masorti movement. “This will be a way of organizing a rabbinical school that’s answerable to the public and will be able to last,” he said.

Amir, the HUC professor of Jewish thought who is heading the liberal seminary, said he was heartened by the fact that the Central Conference of American Rabbis, the North American Reform movement’s rabbinical association, was prepared to certify the new program, meaning that its graduates would have the same status in the movement as Geiger’s.

“The fact that the CCAR is considering to grant us such a status by now, before we have even taken our first steps, is a solid and wonderful expression of trust,” Amir told JTA.

Josef Schuster, chair of the Central Council, said support from the two movements augured “a good day for rabbinical and cantor training in Germany and a good day for the Jewish communities in our country.”

The appointments have elicited dissent. The World Union of Progressive Judaism and its European sister organization accused the Central Council of failing to involve them in their plans and of endangering “the unity of the Jewish community.”

And Berlin’s official Jewish community — which, as owner of the original seminaries, has the most to lose — lashed out over the selection of Artson in particular, noting that he has faced allegations of sexism at Ziegler.

Gideon Joffe, the community’s president, accused the Central Council of “conducting a public defamation campaign against the Abraham Geiger College.”

He added in a statement: “Even the appearance of an abuse of power, as is clearly evident in the allegations against Rabbi Artson, is unacceptable for the management of a rabbinical seminary,”

The investigations add to ongoing tumult at AJU and Zeigler, where Artson has worked since 1999. The school recently sold its campus in Los Angeles and slashed tuition in a bid to attract more students.

A third-party investigation of the sexism allegations commissioned by American Jewish University found no systemic misconduct, according to AJU, which did not release the full report. A second inquiry, by the Conservative movement’s Rabbinical Assembly, is underway.

Artson would not comment on the ongoing investigation, except to say it “is wrapping up.” But he noted that the first investigation found “no systemic homophobia or sexism” at Ziegler. “And so I’m really focusing on building the future.”

The statement is “unworthy of them,” Artson said about the Berlin Jewish Community, known by its German nickname Gemeinde, meaning community. “But I understand that in the moment, they’re letting their emotions run things.”

He added, “I think that the Gemeinde does many valuable and important things, and we certainly want to be able to support them in those enterprises, too, just not in this particular instance.”

An irony of the new arrangement is that in seeking to distance rabbinical training as much as possible from Homolka, who chose the Gemeinde as his successor, the Central Council has selected a rabbi who long worked with him. According to a source with knowledge of the situation, Artson had expenses covered but took no salary while working with the Frankel seminary.

For his part, Artson said he remains inspired by Geiger and Frankel, figures who helped make Germany a powerhouse of Jewish innovation in the century prior to the Holocaust.

“I have in my office portraits of both Rabbi Geiger and Rabbi Frankel,” Artson said. “They remain founding figures, even if their names are no longer on the school.”

But the two new namesakes — Heschel, who narrowly escaped Germany in 1940, and Jonas, the first woman to be ordained as a rabbi, who was murdered at Auschwitz — are “also very special,” he said.

[turangalila]

(Armenian liturgy for Nativity of Christ) Komitas (1869-1935)

— Christ is born, Magnificat mode / Komitas — O wonderful mystery, this day the paternal voice / Komitas — Praise the Lord O Jerusalem / Ekmalian — Holy God, again in peace let us beseech the Lord / Komitas — Greet one another, Christ among us / Komitas — Sanctus / Komitas — In all things blessed art Thou / Komitas — The Lord's Prayer / Komitas — Amen, blessed be the Lord's name / Komitas

_ Nativity of Christ. Choir of the Armenian Patriarchate of Jerusalem, directed by Archbishop Torkom Manoogian. (1999, Holyland Records – 01178)

[justforbooks]

Arthur Asher Miller (October 17, 1915 – February 10, 2005) was an American playwright, essayist and screenwriter in the 20th-century American theater. Among his most popular plays are All My Sons (1947), Death of a Salesman (1949), The Crucible (1953), and A View from the Bridge (1955). He wrote several screenplays, including The Misfits (1961). The drama Death of a Salesman is considered one of the best American plays of the 20th century.

Miller was often in the public eye, particularly during the late 1940s, 1950s and early 1960s. During this time, he received a Pulitzer Prize for Drama, testified before the House Un-American Activities Committee, and married Marilyn Monroe. In 1980, he received the St. Louis Literary Award from the Saint Louis University Library Associates. He received the Praemium Imperiale prize in 2001, the Prince of Asturias Award in 2002, and the Jerusalem Prize in 2003, and the Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize in 1999.

Miller's writing career spanned over seven decades, and at the time of his death, he was considered one of the 20th century's greatest dramatists. After his death, many respected actors, directors, and producers paid tribute to him, some calling him the last great practitioner of the American stage, and Broadway theatres darkened their lights in a show of respect. Miller's alma mater, the University of Michigan, opened the Arthur Miller Theatre in March 2007. Per his express wish, it is the only theater in the world that bears his name.

Miller's letters, notes, drafts and other papers are housed at the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center at the University of Texas at Austin. Miller is also a member of the American Theater Hall of Fame. He was inducted in 1979. In 1993, he received the Four Freedoms Award for Freedom of Speech. In 2017, his daughter, Rebecca Miller, a writer and filmmaker, completed a documentary about her father's life, Arthur Miller: Writer. Minor planet 3769 Arthurmiller is named after him. In the 2022 Netflix film Blonde, Miller was portrayed by Adrien Brody.

Miller donated thirteen boxes of his earliest manuscripts to the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin in 1961 and 1962. This collection included the original handwritten notebooks and early typed drafts for Death of a Salesman, The Crucible, All My Sons, and other works. In January, 2018, the Ransom Center announced the acquisition of the remainder of the Miller archive, totaling over 200 boxes. The full archive opened in November, 2019.

Christopher Bigsby wrote Arthur Miller: The Definitive Biography based on boxes of papers Miller made available to him before his death in 2005. The book was published in November 2008, and is reported to reveal unpublished works in which Miller "bitterly attack[ed] the injustices of American racism long before it was taken up by the civil rights movement". In his book Trinity of Passion, author Alan M. Wald conjectures that Miller was "a member of a writer's unit of the Communist Party around 1946", using the pseudonym Matt Wayne, and editing a drama column in the magazine The New Masses.

In 1999, the writer Christopher Hitchens attacked Miller for comparing the Monica Lewinsky investigation to the Salem witch hunt. Miller had asserted a parallel between the examination of physical evidence on Lewinsky's dress and the examinations of women's bodies for signs of the "Devil's Marks" in Salem. Hitchens scathingly disputed the parallel. In his memoir, Hitch-22, Hitchens bitterly noted that Miller, despite his prominence as a left-wing intellectual, had failed to support author Salman Rushdie during the Iranian fatwa involving The Satanic Verses.

Works

Stage plays

No Villain (1936)

They Too Arise (1937, based on No Villain)

Honors at Dawn (1938, based on They Too Arise)

The Grass Still Grows (1938, based on They Too Arise)

The Great Disobedience (1938)

Listen My Children (1939, with Norman Rosten)

The Golden Years (1940)

The Half-Bridge (1943)

The Man Who Had All the Luck (1944)

All My Sons (1947)

Death of a Salesman (1949)

An Enemy of the People (1950, adaptation of Henrik Ibsen's play An Enemy of the People)

The Crucible (1953)

A View from the Bridge (1955)

A Memory of Two Mondays (1955)

After the Fall (1964)

Incident at Vichy (1964)

The Price (1968)

The Reason Why (1970)

Fame (one-act, 1970; revised for television 1978)

The Creation of the World and Other Business (1972)

Up from Paradise (1974)

The Archbishop's Ceiling (1977)

The American Clock (1980)

Playing for Time (television play, 1980)

Elegy for a Lady (short play, 1982, first part of Two Way Mirror)

Some Kind of Love Story (short play, 1982, second part of Two Way Mirror)

I Think About You a Great Deal (1986)

Playing for Time (stage version, 1985)

I Can't Remember Anything (1987, collected in Danger: Memory!)

Clara (1987, collected in Danger: Memory!)

The Ride Down Mt. Morgan (1991)

The Last Yankee (1993)

Broken Glass (1994)

Mr. Peters' Connections (1998)

Resurrection Blues (2002)

Finishing the Picture (2004)

Radio plays

The Pussycat and the Expert Plumber Who Was a Man (1940)

Joel Chandler Harris (1941)

The Battle of the Ovens (1942)

Thunder from the Mountains (1942)

I Was Married in Bataan (1942)

That They May Win (1943)

Listen for the Sound of Wings (1943)

Bernardine (1944)

I Love You (1944)

Grandpa and the Statue (1944)

The Philippines Never Surrendered (1944)

The Guardsman (1944, based on Ferenc Molnár's play)

The Story of Gus (1947)

Screenplays

The Hook (1947)

All My Sons (1948)

Let's Make Love (1960)

The Misfits (1961)

Death of a Salesman (1985)

Everybody Wins (1990)

The Crucible (1996)

Assorted fiction

Focus (novel, 1945)

"The Misfits" (short story, published in Esquire, October 1957)

I Don't Need You Anymore (short stories, 1967)

"Homely Girl: A Life" (short story, 1992, published in UK as "Plain Girl: A Life" 1995)

Presence: Stories (2007) (short stories include "The Bare Manuscript", "Beavers", "The Performance", and "Bulldog")

Non-fiction

Situation Normal (1944) is based on his experiences researching the war correspondence of Ernie Pyle.

In Russia (1969), the first of three books created with his photographer wife Inge Morath, offers Miller's impressions of Russia and Russian society.

In the Country (1977), with photographs by Morath and text by Miller, provides insight into how Miller spent his time in Roxbury, Connecticut, and profiles of his various neighbors.

Chinese Encounters (1979) is a travel journal with photographs by Morath. It depicts the Chinese society in the state of flux which followed the end of the Cultural Revolution. Miller discusses the hardships of many writers, professors, and artists during Mao Zedong's regime.

Salesman in Beijing (1984) details Miller's experiences with the 1983 Beijing People's Theatre production of Death of a Salesman. He describes directing a Chinese cast in an American play.

Timebends: A Life, Methuen London (1987). Miller's autobiography.

On Politics and the Art of Acting, Viking 2001 an 85-page essay about the thespian skills in American politics, comparing FDR, JFK, Reagan, Clinton.

Collections

Abbotson, Susan C. W. (ed.), Arthur Miller: Collected Essays, Penguin 2016

Kushner, Tony, ed. Arthur Miller, Collected Plays 1944–1961 (Library of America, 2006).

Martin, Robert A. (ed.), "The theater essays of Arthur Miller", foreword by Arthur Miller. NY: Viking Press, 1978

Daily inspiration. Discover more photos at Just for Books…?

[eurovision-revisited]

1999 Jerusalem - Number 4 - Anna Oxa - "Senza pietà"

What more can you say about Anna Oxa? She's entered the Festival di Sanremo fifteen separate times! Fifteen! The most recent was this year, 2023. She won in 1989 and represented Italy at Eurovision. 1999 was her tenth entry and her second victory with Senza pietà (Without Mercy). Truly a queen.

Senza pietà itself is an interesting song with large serving of gender play at its heart. Anna casts herself as a knight in a fantasy realm, massacring enemies with her sword all in the name of finding love and conquering it without mercy. Oh my! Anna herself is aquiline, honed like her sword in the song, hair slicked back, leather clad, she means business.

Her voice is the star, low and purposeful throughout the verses, soaring to huge heights when the chorus hits. If Italy were in Eurovision this year, this would have been their entry and I'm confident it would have been contention for the win. Anna, RAI should have been there with you so all of Europe could enjoy this.

Of course, this was a big hit in Italy, and her career continued well into the new millennium. She also did some TV presenting work and was poised to conquer the Italian version of Strictly Come Dancing/Dancing with the Stars until a leg injury forced her out.

Here she is at the beginning of her Sanremo journey with her second placed song Un'emozione da poco from 1979.

[koenji]

Ephraim Moses Lilien (אפרים משה ליליין) (1874 - 1925), Berliner Tageblatt, circa 1899. 141 x 93 cm.

Born in Galicia, Austria, and an art student in Germany, Lilien was an art nouveau illustrator and printmaker particularly noted for his art on Jewish themes and his influence on the Bezalel school art movement. He was one of the founders of the Jüdischer Verlag, the Jewish publishing company in Berlin whose publications propagated the artistic and literary output of the Jewish Renaissance. He also took part in establishing the Bezalel Academy of Art in Jerusalem.

A master of Jugendstil design, Lilien was a book illustrator, etcher and graphic designer. He designed this poster for Rudolf Mosse, the publisher of the newspaper whose initials appear on the crest being held by the two central figures. An active participant in the Jewish artistic scene and Renaissance in Berlin between 1890-1918, Lilien was one of the Modernists celebrated in the exhibition Berlin Metropolis: Jews and the New Culture, 1890-1918 at the Jewish Museum in New York, 1999. x

[djuvlipen]

kill yourself <3

Donate to the Domari Society of Gypsies in Jerusalem.

Domari Society of Gypsies in Jerusalem, a non-profit organization aimed at combating the major issues facing the Dom (Gypsy) community as severe discrimination, cultural marginalization and poverty, was founded in October 1999 by the society’s director Amoun Sleem in order to raise pride and cultural awareness within the Dom community. (x)

Economic Empowerment

Within the Dom community, women have the lowest status due to a traditional, strong patriarchal socio-cultural lifestyle and a long tradition of street beggary by women and children. 

Empowering women in the Domari community

 Jerusalem. 

The dependent and inferior status of women is maintained not only through stereotypes associated with their traditional roles as mothers and homemakers but also through costumes of inheritance, patrilocal households (women moving into the household of their husband's family), and men’s complete authority in decision-making within the family. Thus, most women in the community are denied any education after the initial years of primary school, are made to marry at a very early age (around 15) to a man their father chooses for them and start having babies early on.

The main goal is:

-          Provide Dom women professional skills and enable them to establish small businesses (even in their homes) without the need for large initial investments.

The sub-objections are:

-          Awareness of women's rights and of their right to decide about their own life and the wellbeing and future of their children, particularly girls, despite the challenges facing women in a traditional society.

enable Dom women to establish small businesses (even in their homes) without the need for large initial investments

-          Greater self-respect and awareness of self-value bringing about self-confidence and assertiveness.

-          Influence decision-making processes within their immediate and extended families.

-          Serve as role-models for other women in the community, who will turn to the Domari Center for feminist-based empowerment workshops.

-          Gain stature within the community so as to have a larger impact on the community as informal leaders.Domari Center has offered several vocational courses in hairdressing and catering in the past, many women in the small community of the Jerusalem Dom have heard about these courses and have expressed interest in them. In addition, Domari director, a community member who is personally acquainted with the several hundred families in the community, has spread the news about upcoming courses orally (as most women are illiterate). Thus, we currently have a waiting list of 24 women who want to participate in one of the two 2019 vocational courses.

Giving Domari women the tools to work

All women who expressed interest in a vocational course are being notified now of the upcoming course, its planned dates and its requirements, upon agreeing to comply with the requirements will have priority in securing their participation.

If Domari director is eventually left with several vacancies in the planned courses, she will again orally advertise them and personally turn to women she knows, based on personal acquaintance, that are in need for such a course and who might be interested but may not have the courage to ask to participate. Considering the unique state of women in the community, such a recruitment method might be necessary. (x)

[eurovision-facts]

Eurovision Fact #444:

More solo artist women have won the Eurovision Song Contest than any other type of act.

Solo act women have won 37 years out of the 67 years the contest has been running. That's about 55% of the total wins. (This is counting Conchita Wurst, and counting Loreen twice for both 2012 and 2023).

Additionally, all four winners of the 1969 contest were solo act women, and Loreen won twice.

[Sources & List of Winners]

Lugano 1956, Eurovision.tv. Lys Assia 🇨🇭.

Frankfurt 1957, Eurovision.tv. Corry Brokken 🇳🇱.

Cannes 1959, Eurovision.tv. Teddy Scholten 🇳🇱.

London 1960, Eurovision.tv. Jacqueline Boyer 🇫🇷.

Luxembourg 1962, Eurovision.tv. Isabelle Aubret 🇫🇷.

Copenaghen 1964, Eurovision.tv. Gigliola Cinquetti 🇮🇹.

Naples 1965, Eurovision.tv. France Gall 🇱🇺.

Vienna 1967, Eurovision.tv. Sandie Shaw 🇬🇧.

London 1968, Eurovision.tv. Massiel 🇪🇸.

Madrid 1969, Eurovision.tv. Frida Boccara 🇫🇷, Lenny Kuhr 🇳🇱, Lulu 🇬🇧, Salomé 🇪🇸.

Amsterdam 1970, Eurovision.tv. Dana 🇮🇪.

Dublin 1971, Eurovision.tv. Séverine 🇲🇨.

Edinburgh 1972, Eurovision.tv. Vicky Leandros 🇱🇺.

Luxembourg 1973, Eurovision.tv. Anne-Marie David 🇱🇺.

London 1977, Eurovision.tv. Marie Myriam 🇫🇷.

Harrogate 1982, Eurovision.tv. Nicole 🇩🇪.

Munich 1983, Eurovision.tv. Corinne Hermès 🇱🇺.

Bergen 1986, Eurovision.tv. Sandra Kim 🇧🇪.

Dublin 1988, Eurovision.tv. Céline Dion 🇨🇭.

Rome 1991, Eurovision.tv. Carola 🇸🇪.

Malmö 1992, Eurovision.tv. Linda Martin 🇮🇪.

Millstreet 1993, Eurovision.tv. Niamh Kavanagh 🇮🇪.

Oslo 1996, Eurovision.tv. Eimear Quinn 🇮🇪.

Birmingham 1998, Eurovision.tv. Dana International 🇮🇱.

Jerusalem 1999, Eurovision.tv. Charlotte Nilsson ���🇪.

Tallinn 2002, Eurovision.tv. Marie N 🇱🇻.

Riga 2003, Eurovision.tv. Sertab Erener 🇹🇷.

Istanbul 2004, Eurovision.tv. Ruslana 🇺🇦.

Kyiv 2005, Eurovision.tv. Helena Paparizou 🇬🇷.

Helsinki 2007, Eurovision.tv. Marija Šerifović 🇷🇸.

Oslo 2010, Eurovision.tv. Lena 🇩🇪.

Baku 2012, Eurovision.tv. Loreen 🇸🇪.

Malmö 2013, Eurovision.tv. Emmelie de Forest 🇩🇰.

Copenaghen 2014, Eurovision.tv. Conchita Wurst 🇦🇹.

Stockholm 2016, Eurovision.tv. Jamala 🇺🇦.

Lisbon 2018, Eurovision.tv. Netta 🇮🇱.

Liverpool 2023 Eurovision.tv. Loreen 🇸🇪.

[darkmaga-returns]

We’ve now had a few days to digest the sequence of events leading up to the coup d’état that has taken place in Syria, where the American-Israeli-Turkish backed al qaeda/al nusra/ISIS factions, rebranded as “HTS” (Hayat Tahrir al-SHAM), ousted former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Many were surprised, including Alastair Crooke and Larry Johnson.

Even Judge Napolitano and Scott Ritter seemed surprised.

It should be pointed out though that there was ONE that saw all of this coming, and warned the Chief of the Joint Staff General Colin Powell about Syria over 34 years ago, at the beginning of the Gulf War in 1990. This critically important revelation about Syria’s role in end-time prophecies was then shared with the rest of the world a few years later in 1999, with the creation of the world wide web and a one-of-a-kind Website.

The following excerpt is from: A Mathematical Bible Code – Secular Proof that there is indeed an Infinitely Higher Intelligence (God) in The Universe –

And he gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon.’

But Armageddon is a real place. It is the Greek name for an ancient city in Israel, Megiddo (not far from Endor – JAH). In Hebrew, ‘Mount Megiddo’ is ‘Harmegiddo’.

I stopped to see the ruins of this ancient fortified city when, late one night, I was en route for Jerusalem. It seemed inconceivable that this remote place would ever really be the site of a major battle.

But near Megiddo, hidden from tourists, is one of Israel’s most important Air-Force bases, Ramat David. It is in the North, facing Israel’s implacable foe, Syria. It would be on the front line of any real war in the modern Middle East.