#rachel posner

[mysweetsinfulobsessions]

Rachel & Lisa, Part I - House of Cards, 2x08

[aiiaiiiyo]

[thejewishlink]

Menorah from iconic 1931 photograph returns to Germany

Menorah from iconic 1931 photograph returns to Germany

“This light is a strong societal symbol against hatred,” said German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier. (December 20, 2022 / JNS) A brass menorah from a famous photograph taken during the rise of the Nazis made its way back to Germany for a Hanukkah candle-lighting ceremony in Berlin attended by the country’s president. “This light is a strong societal symbol against hatred,” said German…

[gay-jewish-bucky]

During Hanukkah 1932, just one month before Hitler came to power, Rachel Posner, wife of Rabbi Dr. Akiva Posner, took this photo of the family Hanukkah menorah from the window ledge of the family home in Kiel, Germany. The photo looks out on to the town hall building across the road, upon which hangs Nazi flags.

On the back of the photograph, Rachel Posner wrote in German (translated here):

Chanukah 5692 (1932) "Death to Judah" So the flag says "Judah will live forever" So the light answers

Hanukkah Sameach

[matan4il]

Daily update post:

I've seen the following headline discussed on several news sites:

And most of the discussion surrounded the issue of why are the terrorists shirtless (which takes the gold medal at the "turn a simple answer into a pointless debate" olympics. They're shirtless to make sure they're not carrying suicide vests, that they plan to detonate in the vicinity of the soldiers). What people should be noting about this, is that these armed terrorists were coming out of a hospital. It's another needed piece of evidence that Hamas has been using Gazan hospitals for their military operations. I am once again encouraging you to think about the UN, the Red Cross, the journalists reporting from Gaza, and every "respectable" human rights organization, like Doctors Without Borders, which operated in these places, and COVERED THIS UP for Hamas for the past 16 years.

Denmark's police announced that they have arrested 3 people (with one additional person arrested in The Netherlands) for planning to carry out a terrorist attack against Jews and Israelis.

Israel's top satire show continues to ridicule the inability of the world to have any moral clarity, of even the most basic kind, when it comes to antisemitism.

And that's how you could have done it, SNL.

In the same context, I watched the House debate on the bipartisan resolution calling for the presidents of Harvard and MIT to resign. Some of the arguments against the resolution were absolutely infuriating, either types of "whataboutism" ("But what about all the other things we should be doing to combat antisemitism?" Well, Karen, you can do those, too. There's absolutely no contradiction. At the same time, you say that you've dedicated many years to fighting antisemitism, and yet look at the state of your fight. Maybe holding people in position of educational power personally responsible, maybe making people see that there is a price to pay for taking Qatari money and allowing antisemitism to thrive, would make a difference, on top of those other measures that should be taken to fight Jew hatred) or just repeated, "But free speech!" (as if that line of defence wasn't obliterated during the hearing, when it was demonstrated that other marginalized groups' right to protection has been treated as superseding the right to free speech, on the same campuses where these presidents failed to define a call for the genocide of Jews as harassment, which means that not only did these universities fail to protect Jewish students from antisemitism, they engaged in discriminatory behavior towards Jews themselves).

Thankfully, the resolution passed, 303 to 126.

Here's a reminder of what Jewish students have been dealing with:

On the last day of Hanukkah, I wanna share with you this story. You might have seen this picture before:

This is the Posner family's hanukkiah. In Dec 1931, a moment before the Nazis' rise to power, and when their imminent threat is already well felt by German Jews, Rachel Posner puts this hanukkiah at the window, knowing that the Nazis' headquarters in Kiel, the German city where her husband is the community's rabbi, is situated right across the street from their home. After lighting the candles, she's suddenly inspired to take a picture of the hanukkiah with the Nazi banner in the background. When she gets the picture printed, she writes on the back:

"Judea, drop dead!" says the banner. "Judea will live forever," answers the light.

"Judea, drop dead!" was a part of a common Nazi slogan back then. It went, "Germany, wake up! Judea, drop dead!"

The Posner family heeded the warning signs, and left Germany in 1933, one of the last moments when that was still possible for Jews. The family moved to Israel, and was saved. Once established, they decided to donate the hanukkiah to Yad Vashem, Israel's Holocaust remembrance authority, to be displayed at our museum. The family only asked for one thing: to get to light the hanukkiah every Hanukkah. Now, museums are not supposed to say yes to this. If you donate something to a museum, that's it. The artifact belongs to the museum, you don't get to ask to use it, and in fact, for preservation purposes, it's not supposed to be used. But YV understood from the start that our museums is not going to be like other ones, and that when people donate artifcats to us, these are not just inanimate objects. These are the remainders of people who are lost, innocence that was robbed, a world that was destroyed. These are reminders of hope and life in the face of hatred and murder. And we can't take that away from people. That's why YV agrees to this type of request.

So, when I take people on a tour of our museum during Hanukkah, and go into our "German Jews room," and I show the corner where a large "window" bears an imprint of Rachel Posner's photo, I have to explain why the display next to the "window" is empty, other than a small note that reads, "temporarily removed." And why Hanukkah is the only time of the year when visitors can't see this hanukkiah.

This year was no exception. Hanukkah came, and we got the Posner family hanukkiah out of the glass display case... Except this year, after the Oct 7 massacre, things are different. The hanukkiah first traveled to Germany, where it was lit by the families of the hostages asking for their loved ones' return, and then it traveled back to Israel, and from there to Gaza, where it was lit by a great grandson of Rabbi Akiva and his wife Rachel Posner.

This is 41 years old Tal Haimi.

Tal was a third generation at kibbutz Nir Yitzhak. He's one of many Israelis, from which there was no sign of life since Oct 7, though there was an indication that they're held in Gaza (most commonly, their cell phone signal was picked up there). Yesterday, his family got confirmation that he was murdered during the Hamas massacre, and it was his body that was kidnapped to Gaza. His wife Ella is pregnant, and was documenting the course of the pregnancy for the past two months, hoping to share that with him, when he returns from captivity. May his memory be a blessing.

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

[girlactionfigure]

“Chanukah, 5692. 'Judea dies', thus says the banner. 'Judea will live forever', thus respond the lights”.

A Jewish Hanukkah menorah defies the Nazi swastika, 1931

It was the eighth night of Chanukah in Kiel, Germany, a small town with a Jewish population of 500. That year, 1931, the last night Chanukah fell on Friday evening, and Rabbi Akiva Boruch Posner, spiritual leader of the town was hurrying to light the Menorah before the Shabbat set in.

Directly across the Posner’s home stood the Nazi headquarters in Kiel, displaying the dreaded Nazi Party flag in the cold December night. With the eight lights of the Menorah glowing brightly in her window, Rabbi Posner’s wife, Rachel, snapped a photo of the Menorah and captured the Nazi building and flag in the background.

She wrote a few lines in German on the back of the photo. “Chanukah, 5692. ‘Judea dies’, thus says the banner. ‘Judea will live forever’, thus respond the lights.”

The image, freezing in time a notorious piece of the past, has grown to become an iconic part of history for the Jewish community. But until just recently, not much was known about the origins of the photo.

Both the menorah and photo survived World War II, with the Hanukkah finding its way to Yad Vashem through the loan of Yehudah Mansbuch. Mansbuch is the grandson of the woman who took the picture, and he retains the original snapshot.

When Yad Vashem was putting together its plans to open the Holocaust History Museum, a team of researchers set out to learn more about this famous photo. Their inquiries led to Mansbuch, who explained how his grandmother and grandfather had lived under Nazi oppression in Kiel, Germany, eventually fleeing to then-Palestine in 1934.

Yehudah Mansbuch, the grandson of the family who took the photo, remembers:

“It was on a Friday afternoon right before Shabbat that this photo was taken. My grandmother realized that this was a historic photo, and she wrote on the back of the photo that ‘their flag wishes to see the death of Judah, but Judah will always survive, and our light will outlast their flag.’ My grandfather, the rabbi of the Kiel community, was making many speeches, both to Jews and Germans. To the Germans he warned that the road they were embarking on was not good for Jews or Germans, and to the Jews he warned that something terrible was brewing, and they would do well to leave Germany. My grandfather fled Germany in 1933, and moved to Israel. His community came to the train station to see him off, and before departed he urged his people to flee Germany while there’s still time.”

The couple’s prescience saved an entire community; only eight of the five hundred Jews perished in the Holocaust, with the rest fleeing before the systematic slaughter began. Today, Yehudah Mansbuch lives in Haifa (Israel) with his family. Each Hanukkah, Yad Vashem returns the now famous menorah to the family, who light the candles for eight nights before returning the piece of history back to the Holocaust trust.

“Death to Judah,” the flag says – “Judah will live forever!” the light answers.

[chaoticneutral4]

The top image is from Chanukah 1931, photographed by Akiva and Rachel Posner in Germany.

The bottom image is from Chanukah 2022, with Akiva and Rachel Posner’s grandson, Yehudah Mansbach, lighting the same menorah with German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier at the presidential palace.

Written on the back of the 1931 photo: “Chanukah, 5692. ‘Judea dies’, thus says the banner. ‘Judea will live forever’, thus respond the lights.”

Credit: humansofjudaism

Source:

On the back of the snapshot Rachel wrote an inscription: “The flag says ‘death to Judaism,’ the light says ‘Judaism will live for ever.'”

[sethshead]

Everyone loves that defiant photograph of a menorah on the windowsill with a Nazi flag in the background.

People seem less aware that the only reason the photograph survived, the only reason that menorah survived, the only reason Rachel Posner, who took the photo, survived, was that the family was able to emigrate to British Palestine. Just a few years later, in 1939, the British would close Palestine to further Jewish immigration due to years of violent Arab protest. The Arab leader, Mohammed Amin al-Husseini, would move to Iraq and while there assist in the pro-Axis coup d'état and organize the Farhud, before moving on to Berlin and recruiting Muslim SS divisions for Hitler.

Meanwhile, how many Jews would die in the Holocaust for being refused refuge in the land of their ancestors? This is why for Jews, Zionism, self-determination, sovereignty, not being dependent on anyone else telling us if we can escape persecution, if we can be allowed to survive, represents life itself. If you are against that, if you are anti-Zionist, then we know where you stand on our continued existence. At the very least, you have no right to sentimentalize the photograph of the Posners' menorah.

[eisbar777]

A photograph taken in 1932 by Rachel, wife of Rabbi Akiva Posner, of their candle-lit Hanukkah menorah against the backdrop of the Nazi flags flying from the building across from their home in Kiel Germany.

[creative-inspirati0n]

During Hanukkah in 1931, Rabbi Akiva Posner’s family placed their menorah near the window, as many Jewish families do in an outward sign of their faith. But this was not any year.

That year, the Nazis were making their presence known in Kiel, where the Nazi Party was especially popular. Through the rabbi's window, a swastika flag flew from a building just across the street where the local Nazi Party had an office. Hitler had not yet risen to power in Germany, but in Posner’s community of Kiel tensions were rising.

In the years to come, Posner, a leading rabbi in the city, publicly opposed the Nazi Party's acts of discrimination against the town’s Jewish community. He wrote a letter of protest in the local press after posters appeared outside certain establishments declaring "Jews may not enter."

Tensions in the city turned to violence and state-sponsored discrimination. Rabbi Posner urged members of his community to leave Nazi Germany, and the Posner family fled in 1933. The menorah was one of the treasured possessions they carried with them.

Rabbi Posner’s wife, Rachel, wrote on the back of the photo:

"Death to Judah" So the flag says "Judah will live forever" So the light answers

For more than 90 years, the Posner family has continued to light the candles on this same menorah.

Photos: USHMM, courtesy of Shulamith Posner-Mansbach, copied from holocaustmuseum on Instagram

[thetourguidebarbie]

Shuffle your favourite playlist and post the first five songs that come up. Then copy/paste this ask to your favourite mutuals <3

Wouldve Couldve Shouldve - Taylor Swift

Before He Cheats - Carrie Underwood

No Scrubs - TLC

But Daddy I Love Him - Taylor Swift

Disloyal Order of Water Buffaloes - Fall Out Boy

Thinking of You - Ke$ha

Love On Top - Renee Rapp (covering Beyoncè)

After You Say Sorry - Rachel Lark

Cooler Than Me - Mike Posner

Who's Afraid of Little Old Me? - Taylor Swift

[jules-has-notes]

Aca Top 10: Summer Hits 2015 — VoicePlay music video

VoicePlay had kicked off their "Aca Top 10" series with the hits of summer 2014, and the next year gave them just as much good fodder to draw from. Their continued busy schedule provided the same impetus for another medley they could record in a way that didn't require much editing, but that doesn't mean they cut corners on their musicality or the party vibes.

Details:

title: Aca Top 10 — Summer Hits 2015

original songs / performers: "Time of Our Lives" by Pitbull & Ne-Yo; [0:23] "Want To Want Me" by Jason Derulo; [0:40] "Honey, I'm Good" by Andy Grammer; [0:56] "Sugar" by Maroon 5; [1:09] "Fight Song" by Rachel Platten; [1:20] "Bad Blood" by Taylor Swift, featuring Kendrick Lamar; [1:30] "See You Again" by Wiz Khalifa featuring Charlie Puth; [1:40] "Watch Me" by Silentó; [1:52] "Can't Feel My Face" by The Weeknd; [2:07] "Shut Up and Dance" by Walk the Moon

written by: "Time of Our Lives" by Armando "Pitbull" Pérez, Lukasz "Dr. Luke" Gottwald, Henry "Cirkut" Walter, Shaffer "Ne-Yo" Smith, Vinay Rao, Stephan Taft, & Michael "Freakin" Everett; "Want To Want Me" by Jason Derulo, Ian Kirkpatrick, Samuel Denison Martin, Lindy Robbins, & Mitch Allan; "Honey, I'm Good" by Andy Grammer & Nolan Sipe; "Sugar" by Mike Posner, Adam Levine, Joshua "Ammo" Coleman, Lukasz "Dr. Luke" Gottwald, Jacob Kasher Hindlin, & Henry "Cirkut" Walter; "Fight Song" by Rachel Platten & Dave Bassett; "Bad Blood" by Taylor Swift, Max Martin, Karl "Shellback" Schuster, & Kendrick Lamar; "See You Again" by Cameron "Wiz Khalifa" Thomaz, Charlie Puth, Justin "DJ Frank E" Franks, Andrew Cedar, Dann Hume, Josh Hardy, & Phoebe Cockburn; "Watch Me" by Ricky "Silentó" Hawk & Timothy Mingo; "Can't Feel My Face" by Ali Payami, Savan Kotecha, Max Martin, Abel "The Weeknd" Tesfaye, & Peter Svensson; "Shut Up and Dance" by Ben Berger, Eli Maiman, Ryan McMahon, Nicholas Petricca, Kevin Ray, & Sean Waugaman

arranged by: Geoff Castellucci

release date: 3 September 2015

My favorite bits:

the cool percussion riff Layne puts in as a radio edit during "Time of Our Lives"

the breakdown moment in "Honey, I'm Good"

Tony's fantastic side-eye as he sips his coffee during Earl's solo on the first two lines of "Bad Blood"

Eli leaning on Earl's shoulder, and Geoff and Layne gazing fondly at each other during "See You Again"

once again giving the most attention-seeking lyrics to Tony, who's actually quite shy (but performs it well, nevertheless)

Geoff's concerned expression as he makes sure that he can, in fact, feel his face

everyone else cutting out the first time Tony sings ♫ "shut up and dance with me" ♫

Layne gleefully tossing the final sign at the end of a successful take

Trivia:

A full arrangement of "Shut Up and Dance" was part of the Disney Sessions collaborations VoicePlay did with the cast of Newsies as part of the 20th anniversary celebration for Disney On Broadway earlier in the year.

They also included a snippet of "Bad Blood" in their Patreon launch video.

It seems as though the arrangement process happened about a month before they released the video, possibly during their downtime on a cruise ship.

[thanksforthedinosaur]

march 2023

1. claire rosinkranz - sad in hawaii 2. carlie hanson - blueberry pancakes 3. ber - slutphase 4. sedona - sharkbite 5. mazie - give up! 6. nicole millar - hugs 7. mike posner - howling at the moon 8. jensen mcrae - dead girl walking 9. boyish - girls are mean 10. fig - splinter 11. chrissy - carsick 12. quinnie - flounder 13. khai dreams - bugs 14. leanna firestone - you just didn't like me that much 15. isabel pless - bechdel test 16. chymes - my own worst enemy 17. haven - g.o.a.t. 18. dyln - dead 2 me 19. bea miller - cynical 20. daine - portal 21. anne-marie - sad b!tch 22. brooke candy - juicy fruit 23. ari abdul - bored 24. zolita - ashley 25. patchymate - babyur2nice 26. nina cobham - worse & better 27. searows - house song 28. caroline spence - there's always room - alternate version 29. samia - dream song 30. shannon lay - angeles 31. death cab for cutie - pepper - acoustic 32. meadowlark - full me, half you 33. rosemary & garlic - summer 34. gracie abrams - will you cry? 35. rachel chinouriri - maybe i’m lonely 36. joy oladokun - changes 37. lunar vacation - only you 38. eliza mclamb - pulp 39. shania twain - best friend 40. the go! team - getting to know (all the ways we're wrong for each other) 41. jonatan leandoer96 - if i'm born i have to live 42. runo plum - yin to yang 43. triathalon - running 44. anna wise - the now 45. caroline polachek - blood and butter 46. charlie houston - bubbly 47. bridal party - baby anymore 48. steady holiday - newfound oxygen 49. gabby's world - closing door 50. leith - big trees 51. beabadoobee - glue song 52. infinity crush - demolition derby 53. sobs - cool - bonus track 54. nyarons - the space between us 55. paramore - running out of time 56. babygirl - sore eyes 57. tennis - pollen song 58. bully - lose you (feat. soccer mommy) 59. alex lahey - good time 60. trementina - fall into your bed 61. samiam - monterey canyon 62. real friends - six feet 63. body type - miss the world 64. neanderthal - hey bestie 65. thrice - silhouette 66. big|brave - the fable of subjugation 67. skrillex - ceremony 68. tini - cupido 69. jordan powers - pretty girl swag 70. asiatica - *sigh* nevermind 71. meltycanon - apple weather 72. nia archives - conveniency 73. lizzo - special (feat. sza) 74. sabrina claudio - right decision 75. justine skye - maybe 76. ella mai - sink or swim 77. rakiyah - cosmic queen 78. iamddb - where did the love go? 79. jean deaux - jd's revenge 80. raye - flip a switch. 81. enny - no more naija men 82. qveen herby - marie antoinette 83. planet giza - wyd 84. hkfiftyone - comedown (universe 1) 85. logic - lightsabers (feat. c dot castro) 86. flau'jae - ready or not freestyle 87. skrillex - rumble 88. blackwinterwells - give loop 89. tezatalks - oyxgen (sped up) 90. daine - skin deep 91. vallis alps - on the eve of the rush [134bpm vip] 92. izzy camina - celestial sodomy 93. princess nokia - complicated 94. piri - updown 95. alex lustig - neo 96. rebecca black - doe eyed

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4K4Gynr0WZAVwPHNVNp7OQ?si=20dfb5733e89439b

[girlactionfigure]

I assume most of you recognise the famous picture on the left of a Channukiah with Nazi flags in the background from the 1930s.

You may not know this but the Channukiah's owners, Rachel and Dr. Akiva Posner, escaped Germany in 1933 & arrived in British Mandate Palestine in 1934. Their Channukiah survived the war, and was donated to the Yad Vashem Holocaust museum.

Every year on Channukah, the Posner family takes the Channukiah and uses it.

Last night, it was lit in the heart of Gaza by one of the descendents of the Posner family as shown in the image on the right.

[hadasse]

An Invitation!

Dear friend, As you know, I have recently changed my name from Hadass to Emet. I would like to invite you to a renaming ceremony on Zoom, on Sunday, February 11th, at 10 am PST/12 pm CST/1 pm EST/8 pm IST. My friend and fellow AJR rabbinical student, Dr. Rachel Posner, will be co-leading this ceremony with me. It will consist of a brief introduction, explanation of my new name, an affirmation…

[eisbar777]

The back of the photograph of the Posner family’s Hanukkah menorah taken in Kiel Germany. On it Rachel Posner has written what translates as: "Death to Judah" So the flag says "Judah will live forever" So the light answers.