tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-60033302024-03-15T21:09:45.082-04:00The Rabbi with a Blog (Rabbi Jason Miller)Rabbi Jason Miller's blog: Rabbi Jason, a rabbi in Detroit, Michigan, blogs about technology, politics, sports and pop culture through a Jewish perspective.Rabbi Jason Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07805550465729805847noreply@blogger.comBlogger1353125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6003330.post-60839149192876973432023-12-06T22:42:00.011-05:002023-12-06T22:46:52.226-05:00Norman Lear and Starbucks<div class="separator"><br /></div>With the ongoing <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007_Writers_Guild_of_America_strike">Writers Guild of America strike</a> meaning no <a href="http://www.thedailyshow.com/">Daily Show with Jon Stewart</a> or <a href="http://www.comedycentral.com/shows/the_colbert_report/index.jhtml">Colbert Report</a> (<a href="http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ent/tv/5354781.html">although the writers are putting funny stuff on YouTube</a>), I've been forced to find other TV shows to watch.<br /><br />One of my favorites has been the <a href="http://www.sundancechannel.com/iconoclasts">Iconoclasts</a> series on the <a href="http://www.sundancechannel.com/home/">Sundance Channel</a>. I first saw one of these programs several months ago when they featured Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder and surfing icon Laird Hamilton. The other day I watched the Iconoclasts episode matching Starbucks Chairman Howard Schultz (<span style="font-style: italic;">with me at </span><span style="font-style: italic;">below</span>) and Norman Lear. The two men are very fond of each other, have much more in common than anyone would imagine, and have teamed up in some very lucrative ways. The combination made this a <span style="font-style: italic;">very </span>Jewish episode.<div><br /></div><div><a href="http://bp2.blogger.com/_2cynbmcOtnA/R1gZWBk4UrI/AAAAAAAAATQ/liRiI8B-i_0/s1600-h/Howard+Schultz2.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Howard Schultz and Rabbi Jason Miller" border="2" height="426" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5140886840814359218" src="http://bp2.blogger.com/_2cynbmcOtnA/R1gZWBk4UrI/AAAAAAAAATQ/liRiI8B-i_0/w640-h426/Howard+Schultz2.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px;" title="Howard Schultz and Rabbi Jason Miller" width="640" /></a><br />I actually knew a great deal about Howard Schultz before I saw this program. I heard him speak about his upbringing, influences, and vision at a Jewish Federation event in Ann Arbor a few years ago. Earlier in the day of the event, I happened to be at a local Ann Arbor Starbucks having a meeting with a Hillel donor and Howard Schultz walked in. I observed him doing exactly what he says he does and what is portrayed in the Iconoclasts episode about him. He walked up to each worker ("partner") in the Starbucks store, shook their hand, patted them on the back, and told them that he genuinely was proud of their hard work. He then made his way over to our table, sat down, and shmoozed for a few minutes as if he wasn't the busy executive running a billion-dollar corporation that opens eight new stores per day. At the Jewish Federation event later that evening he remembered our conversation without any prompting.<br /><br /><a href="http://bp1.blogger.com/_2cynbmcOtnA/R1gY8xk4UqI/AAAAAAAAATI/mH0OmFzypjA/s1600-h/Howard+Schultz+-+Starbucks.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="Howard Schultz and Norman Lear" border="2" height="429" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5140886407022662306" src="http://bp1.blogger.com/_2cynbmcOtnA/R1gY8xk4UqI/AAAAAAAAATI/mH0OmFzypjA/w640-h429/Howard+Schultz+-+Starbucks.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; float: left; margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt;" title="Howard Schultz and Norman Lear" width="640" /></a><br /><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>Schultz speaks openly that his Judaism influences his code of business principles and I have used him as an example many times when teaching about Jewish business ethics. Our nanny, who has become a part of our family, moonlights as a part-time Starbucks manager and has confirmed to me that it really is a great place to work (full health care benefits for all <span style="font-style: italic;">part-time</span> staff).<br /><br />How much I knew about Howard Schultz is how little I knew about Norman Lear, the Jewish creator of all those 70's TV shows (All in the Family, Good Times, the Jeffersons, Sanford and Son, etc.). As Norman Lear describes in an <a href="http://www.aish.com/societyWork/work/An_Interview_with_Norman_Lear.asp">online interview with Aish.com</a>, Judaism has infused his life's work. In the interview, as in the Iconoclasts presentation, Lear explains the Talmudic story that he loves and and lives by:<br /><br /><span style="font-family: TREBUCHET,ARIAL,HELVETICA;"><a name="ETFTOP"><span class="ArticleText"></span></a></span><blockquote>There's a Talmudic story that I love, that seems to cover everything to me. A man should have a jacket with two pockets. In the first pocket there should be a piece of paper on which is written, "I am but dust and ashes." In the second, a piece of paper on which it is written "For me the world was created." That's <span style="font-style: italic;">mama loshon</span> to me, real common sense. The person who can live between that ying and yang has it made.</blockquote><br />The two men appear like a loving father and son that had been separated for years. They share similar ethics and have each revolutionized their own trade (Schultz by selling coffee in new ways and treating his workers in better ways, and Lear with racy TV characters like Archie Bunker to get Americans to think about racial and religious tolerance in new ways). Together, they have teamed up on entrepreneurial initiatives like selling music at Starbucks (the award-winning Ray Charles CD -- the last of his life -- being their first attempt) and on social and political issues (getting young people to vote).<br /><br />The highlights of the presentation are in Lear's home, where he shows his original copy of the Declaration of Independence to Howard Schultz, and in their tour of the Seattle warehouse where Starbucks coffee is produced. Each man shows remarkable pride in the other and the Jewish people should take great pride in these men. It is their Judaism that has made them who they are.</div><div><br /><center><object height="373" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/i5EhEqoIWho&rel=0&color1=0x2b405b&color2=0x6b8ab6&border=1" /><param name="wmode" value="transparent" /><embed height="373" src="http://www.youtube.com/v/i5EhEqoIWho&rel=0&color1=0x2b405b&color2=0x6b8ab6&border=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="425" wmode="transparent"></embed></object></center></div></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">© Rabbi Jason Miller's Blog | http://blog.rabbijason.com</div>Rabbi Jason Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07805550465729805847noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6003330.post-517246730579016722023-10-21T20:28:00.015-04:002023-10-28T10:42:52.884-04:00Sam Woll - A Charismatic, Passionate Pursuer of Peace and Justice<p><span style="color: #050505;"><span style="font-size: 15px; white-space-collapse: preserve;">“Rabbi, our Hillel needs to stop buying Coke products.” </span></span></p><p><span style="color: #050505;"><span style="font-size: 15px; white-space-collapse: preserve;">This was the first thing Samantha Woll said to me when I started my new job at the University of Michigan Hillel Foundation in 2004. It was odd hearing Sam call me “Rabbi.” First, I had only very recently been ordained so I still wasn’t used to the title. And, second, I had known Sam since she was in elementary school – a classmate and friend of my younger brother – so the formality felt unnecessary and perhaps dramatic. But Sam was being respectful.</span></span></p><p><span style="color: #050505;"><span style="font-size: 15px; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Ban Coke at Hillel? I thought the request seemed odd. I grew up in a home that never had Pepsi because that company adhered to a boycott of Israel when I was a kid. I seem to recall my mom telling me that Jews drink Coke and non-Jews drink Pepsi. Looking back it seems like she was getting her information less from Middle East politics and more from Lenny Bruce.</span></span></p><p><span style="color: #050505;"><span style="font-size: 15px; white-space-collapse: preserve;"></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #050505;"><span style="font-size: 15px; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgowKMe8XC17ShwWh0i3s-8lYl_uxe3ytrmfV8d3nj1N7dUdrqdUD0lA5QzDIasNSTxSCmcoce2Gz4cMZRdDc4CQIxRHKXLkWAOduS3GpuSvS1pB8typy172dAG35RmMAmSOGx3kPIcTSK4tyoBkQQRq5UEkwZA2YGwoKeraojVKClEwv193ip0/s1110/samantha-woll-detroit.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="712" data-original-width="1110" height="410" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgowKMe8XC17ShwWh0i3s-8lYl_uxe3ytrmfV8d3nj1N7dUdrqdUD0lA5QzDIasNSTxSCmcoce2Gz4cMZRdDc4CQIxRHKXLkWAOduS3GpuSvS1pB8typy172dAG35RmMAmSOGx3kPIcTSK4tyoBkQQRq5UEkwZA2YGwoKeraojVKClEwv193ip0/w640-h410/samantha-woll-detroit.jpg" width="640" /></a></span></span></div><span style="color: #050505;"><span style="font-size: 15px; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><br />
I listened to Sam’s impassioned arguments that the Coca-Cola corporation was complicit in human rights abuses and environmental violations in Colombia and India. She knew her stuff. I would come to learn that about Sam Woll – agree or disagree with her, she always knew the facts of the case. As Sam continued her argument about why not only Hillel should stop buying Coca-Cola products, but the entire University should suspend their contracts, my mind immediately went to the more than 100 two-liter bottles of Coke and Sprite in the Hillel basement. We put two bottles on every table for Shabbat dinner every Friday night, not to mention all the Coke bottles we served in our daily kosher lunch program and just about every event we hosted in the building. Weekly, we’d receive deliveries of pallets of these Coke bottles. I likely had a 6-pack of Diet Coke in my office at the time and I was most likely sipping on a can as Sam pleaded her case with me.
Two thoughts crossed my mind after that conversation with Sam. One, this energetic young person was going to be an amazing congresswoman someday. And, two, what had I gotten myself into with this new job? </span></span><div><span style="color: #050505;"><span style="font-size: 15px; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="color: #050505;"><span style="font-size: 15px; white-space-collapse: preserve;">I hadn’t planned to be a Hillel rabbi. After six years at the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York, I had only looked for jobs at synagogues around the country. But, with a newborn baby and all of our family in the Metro Detroit area, when I got a call from the executive director I jumped at the opportunity. Looking back it was the ideal first job for me as a rabbi. Precisely because of students like Samantha Woll. </span></span></div><div><span style="color: #050505;"><span style="font-size: 15px; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="color: #050505;"><span style="font-size: 15px; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Sam taught me how to listen. She would ride her bicycle with the wide handlebars to Hillel wearing her hippy-slash-Modern Orthodox chic clothing with a large scarf and a bandana in her jet-black curls. Sam was a regular at Shabbat dinners and holiday meals, often bringing her non-Jewish friends to join her. She had friends in just about every faith community on campus. She was involved in anything related to social justice. Sam was the chairperson of both the Tzedek (social action) group and the VIA (Volunteers in Action) group. She seemed to show up at every event. Usually at the tail end. And she’d stay long after most people had left, sticking around to engage in heated discussions. Sam was captivating when she spoke. She always spoke from her heart, but she was whip-smart too. What a combination!
When you talked with Sam she would always look you directly in the eyes and her gaze stayed there throughout the discussion. She would let you talk and her active listening skills were evident as she nodded repeatedly to your every argument. But then she would take over and you had no choice but to listen. Our mantra at Hillel was that the students run the show and the staff was there in a supporting role. It was an important first stop for me in my rabbinate because it taught me the value of stepping back and letting the students develop their leadership skills. I learned to hear others' opinions and consider different ways of thinking about a myriad of important topics. I was the rabbi at Hillel, but Samantha Woll was my teacher there. </span></span></div><div><span style="color: #050505;"><span style="font-size: 15px; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="color: #050505;"><span style="font-size: 15px; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Oftentimes, Sam and I would be engaged in a deep conversation at Hillel after Friday night dinner and she would want to continue the discussion so she'd join me on my walk home. I remember watching in awe as Sam debated with an Orthodox student about the Jewish view of abortion during a Passover lunch. From Muslim-Jewish relations to Israel to income inequality to the Coca-Cola corporation, Sam was always fired up. She was a Zionist. She was an advocate. She wanted to fix our broken world. This was Sam’s agenda on a daily basis. </span></span></div><div><span style="color: #050505;"><span style="font-size: 15px; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span style="color: #050505;"><span style="font-size: 15px; white-space-collapse: preserve;">I might not have always agreed with her opinion, but I respected it and I was always left in awe of how much she knew and how much she cared. She truly exemplified <i>tikkun olam</i>, which came from a deep place in her heart. In 2005, Sam was presented with an award at our annual end-of-the-year gala for her dedication to <i>tzedakah </i>(charitable righteousness) and social action.</span></span><p></p><p><span style="color: #050505;"><span style="font-size: 15px; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><br /></span></span></p><p><span style="color: #050505;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #050505;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgon7nbJ_UJnCGRuFyT4mCg_SIK-jtPchMJkM-u1hduMeNoT23lerxQyN0u-s6kcSCSncsC96GPVDLZRtrQV7czS3nBW-lMlF28OG0igLzObcEl6Q8vAIoWlrnmp_18KoLPlRpnPDGRHwG8axN4DICsF5xuGTiKI0262SzQeEzC6buGqZzJUcrp/s720/Sam%20Woll%20-%20Detroit.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="640" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgon7nbJ_UJnCGRuFyT4mCg_SIK-jtPchMJkM-u1hduMeNoT23lerxQyN0u-s6kcSCSncsC96GPVDLZRtrQV7czS3nBW-lMlF28OG0igLzObcEl6Q8vAIoWlrnmp_18KoLPlRpnPDGRHwG8axN4DICsF5xuGTiKI0262SzQeEzC6buGqZzJUcrp/w568-h640/Sam%20Woll%20-%20Detroit.jpg" width="568" /></a></span></div><span style="color: #050505;"><br /><span style="font-size: 15px; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><br /></span></span><p></p><p><span style="color: #050505;"><span style="font-size: 15px; white-space-collapse: preserve;">In more recent years, I relived these discussions with Sam and that fire was still there. Whenever I saw her, she would ask me, "How's Jake?" She was genuinely interested to know how my brother was doing. We sat together at a Hillary Clinton event in 2016. We immediately became engaged in a discussion about the campaign, the impact of the upcoming election, and the issues with which Sam was involved. As Hillary approached our section, Sam handed me her phone and I took a photo of these two remarkable women. </span></span></p><p><span style="color: #050505; font-size: 15px;">At the end of February 2020 (right before the pandemic), I was a guest rabbi at a synagogue in Lansing for Shabbat. Seeing Sam's friendly face in the congregation made my day. When I saw her walk into the hallway, I left the service and followed her out so we could catch up. Sam invited me to an Elissa Slotkin event the next day and explained why she found Elissa to be the type of politician she could back 100%. Again, Sam's passion was remarkable and her insight into so many issues was impressive. </span></p><p><span style="color: #050505; font-size: 15px;">The past couple of summers, Sam and her parents and her sister's family have been at Camp Michigania during the same week as our family. This past summer, Sam eagerly told me about the renovation project of her beloved Downtown Synagogue, where she had been serving as the congregational president. She told me about the work she was doing with Dana Nessel, Michigan's Attorney General. And of course, she told me (with that same fire) about the many social justice initiatives she was working on in the City of Detroit. The revitalization of Detroit was one of Sam's righteous causes and her role as a change agent has been obvious.</span></p><p><span style="color: #050505; font-size: 15px;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="color: #050505;"><span style="font-size: 15px; white-space-collapse: preserve;"></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="color: #050505;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEin1H9wPKD-gQLkb90NPwYyYyM70Nar92T73TKcsQOvJlWtVslOB6OIiFYhRlmRHs5K31pk_aHluKRcS6MtbvmrXHxJ7iN_KdRlPRPp2lIsBpHs3O_tq4mZBMwypYMWlJph1iXF7ccpch-1NXEUuQ0npL-DguUoCEjRo8_lyHyRaKeipV6sOZPw/s2048/Sam%20Woll.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1366" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEin1H9wPKD-gQLkb90NPwYyYyM70Nar92T73TKcsQOvJlWtVslOB6OIiFYhRlmRHs5K31pk_aHluKRcS6MtbvmrXHxJ7iN_KdRlPRPp2lIsBpHs3O_tq4mZBMwypYMWlJph1iXF7ccpch-1NXEUuQ0npL-DguUoCEjRo8_lyHyRaKeipV6sOZPw/w426-h640/Sam%20Woll.jpg" width="426" /></a></span></div><span style="color: #050505;"><br /><br />
</span></div><div><span style="color: #050505;">Sam was such a kind and generous soul. Sam loved all people. She cared deeply about the livelihood, freedom, and fairness that everyone, from all walks of life, deserved. There’s a photo that’s been circulating on social media of Sam holding a Torah scroll close to her body on the Detroit River Walk. When I first saw the photo I immediately thought that Samantha Woll is literally holding the Torah close to her heart just as she has always held her own <i>torah </i>close to her heart. Her deeply held convictions and her sense of justice – those were the values that made up Sam’s <i>torah</i>. </span></div><div><span style="color: #050505;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="color: #050505;"><a href="https://apnews.com/article/detroit-synagogue-president-slain-7dc906b1a88f146e292051c6248c2b73" target="_blank">What happened to her</a> is so horrific, so tragic and so terrible. Our broken world is even more broken now that Sam has left us. We've lost one of our globe's best and brightest. May the memory of Samantha Woll be for blessings and may her family and all who loved Sam find comfort during this time of shock and sorrow. </span></div><div><span style="color: #050505;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(5, 5, 5);"><br /></span></span><div><span style="color: #050505;"><i><br /></i></span></div><div><span style="color: #050505;"><i>Rabbi Jason Miller taught Samantha Woll’s 8th grade Mishna class at Hillel Day School as a substitute teacher and had the honor of learning with and from her at the University of Michigan Hillel. He is not the least bit surprised that the University of Michigan suspended its contracts with the Coca-Cola corporation in 2006 as a result of pressure from students like Sam. He also considers himself a better human being for having known Sam Woll, z”l.</i></span><p></p></div></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">© Rabbi Jason Miller's Blog | http://blog.rabbijason.com</div>Rabbi Jason Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07805550465729805847noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6003330.post-5894437911929027632023-09-07T20:07:00.003-04:002023-09-07T20:07:55.733-04:00 Magen David Adom (MDA) Saves Lives in Israel with Advanced Technology<p>In the ever-changing medical industry, Israel stands out as a frontrunner in making significant technological strides in the field. Leading this advancement is Magen David Adom, an organization founded almost 100 years ago that has harnessed Israel’s advanced technology to develop faster ways of saving lives throughout the country. On a recent visit to Metro Detroit, MDA leaders spoke about the tech innovations that are helping the organization respond quicker to medical emergencies, both large and small. This tech innovation is also being shared with other emergency response organizations throughout North America.</p><p>Yoni Yagodovsky, senior paramedic and director of international relations, along with his colleague, Raphael Herbst, senior paramedic, and trainer, visited Midwestern U.S. cities to conduct life-saving training sessions called “First 7 Minutes.” The program’s name is derived from the first seven minutes it typically takes for first responders to arrive on the scene of an emergency. Yagodovsky and Herbst taught participants at local Metro Detroit synagogues how to remain safe and offer critical first-aid assistance during the hectic time following an attack. Rather than focusing on specific protocols, the training covered seven principles for the first seven minutes: safety, call for help, saving lives together, organizing the scene, bleeding control, reporting, and assisting EMS.</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsALmE4y_9J21EHbkqByxP-H9D5h3qb5knLJqPwp0NqyhuirjNhEf1pycaOAp-bXt7AE6I-FAbrul2HbUVJCmz-yYGxh3nqPLAuU_SXS6asLxXMpHYeAxL1wp9aDt5ApXEWtprHKKwgWK4aRjbRMYh68SGYwfviingJ-pyidfRhlU812heXFOy/s1194/Magen%20David%20Adom%20with%20Jonah%202023.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="L to R - Richard D. Zelin (American Friends of Magen David Adom in Chicago MDA), Yoni Yagodovsky, Raphael Herbst, Rabbi Jason Miller, Jonah Miller, and Robert Rosenthal (American Friends of Magen David Adom in NY)" border="0" data-original-height="1194" data-original-width="1194" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsALmE4y_9J21EHbkqByxP-H9D5h3qb5knLJqPwp0NqyhuirjNhEf1pycaOAp-bXt7AE6I-FAbrul2HbUVJCmz-yYGxh3nqPLAuU_SXS6asLxXMpHYeAxL1wp9aDt5ApXEWtprHKKwgWK4aRjbRMYh68SGYwfviingJ-pyidfRhlU812heXFOy/w640-h640/Magen%20David%20Adom%20with%20Jonah%202023.jpeg" title="L to R - Richard D. Zelin (American Friends of Magen David Adom in Chicago MDA), Yoni Yagodovsky, Raphael Herbst, Rabbi Jason Miller, Jonah Miller, and Robert Rosenthal (American Friends of Magen David Adom in NY)" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">L to R - Richard D. Zelin (American Friends of Magen David Adom in Chicago MDA), Yoni Yagodovsky, Raphael Herbst, Rabbi Jason Miller, Jonah Miller, and Robert Rosenthal (American Friends of Magen David Adom in NY)</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p><br /></p><p><span></span></p><a name='more'></a>At the heart of MDA’s groundbreaking initiatives is an innovative app that empowers people across Israel to swiftly request assistance during medical emergencies. Yagodovsky and Herbst provided a demonstration of the app, showing that with only a few taps on a smartphone, users can instantly notify MDA for life-saving help. The app uses location-based technology to ensure that medics in the vicinity are promptly alerted. Calls are answered within two seconds and this guarantees an ambulance will arrive in under four and a half minutes.<p></p><p>What sets this app apart, the MDA leaders explained, is its seamless integration with emergency services beyond Israel’s borders. In the event a user presses the help button while in the United States, the app automatically notifies 911, providing them with the user’s precise location. Additionally, users can upload their medical history and a baseline ECG for paramedics to compare should that user ever experience a medical emergency.</p><p>Magen David Adom’s commitment to direct communication is another key aspect of its service. Unlike traditional emergency hotlines where calls are directed to operators, MDA ensures that when you call, you speak directly to a paramedic. This approach facilitates a speedier assessment of the situation and enables immediate guidance and instructions.</p><p>With such cutting-edge innovation, MDA has helped other organizations outside of Israel adopt its advanced medical technology. Hatzalah South Florida, the Philippine Red Cross, and Hatzalah Chicago are only a few examples of entities preparing to adopt MDA’s innovative approaches into their own emergency response procedures.</p><p>Collaborations with innovative companies around the world have further enhanced MDA’s capabilities. For example, MDA has established a partnership with Waze, the Israeli-founded navigation app, to optimize ambulance routes with shorter response times. By taking advantage of Waze’s user-reported accident feature, MDA can swiftly learn about incidents and dispatch emergency personnel accordingly, whether the accidents are minor or major.</p><p>Recognizing the importance of efficient resource management, Magen David Adom has introduced Medical Vending Machines in hospitals. These machines allow paramedics to replenish their ambulances with precisely the supplies they need, reducing unnecessary spending on unused medical devices. This cost-saving measure has proven highly effective, saving thousands of dollars annually.</p><p>Harnessing the power of artificial intelligence, MDA is now able to predict the locations of future accidents. By analyzing data and patterns, the organization strategically deploys more medics to areas where they are likely needed. Additionally, MDA collaborates with car manufacturers to tap into their vehicle sensors, which can detect impact during accidents and predict the nature of injuries sustained by passengers and drivers strictly from the force of impact and the angle hit. This valuable information is relayed to MDA in real-time, enabling its emergency response workers to prepare the necessary resources and provide tailored care swiftly.</p><p>Magen David Adom is using its in-house team of around to design all of its technology that is being used all over the world. As Israel’s Magen David Adom continues to push boundaries with its pioneering technologies and innovative approaches, led by 55 developers, it serves as an inspiration to the global medical community. With thousands of lives being saved through its rapid response, seamless communication, and predictive capabilities, MDA shows Israel’s advancement in technology in the 21st century.</p><p><i>Originally published in the Detroit Jewish News</i></p><div class="blogger-post-footer">© Rabbi Jason Miller's Blog | http://blog.rabbijason.com</div>Rabbi Jason Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07805550465729805847noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6003330.post-71717498556600925442023-06-02T11:46:00.002-04:002023-06-02T11:46:08.944-04:00 Snapchat’s Effect on Our Teens’ Mental Health<p><br /></p><p>Co-authored by Joshua Miller</p><p><i>Parents are more concerned than ever about their children’s mental health. Studies show that social media use has a strong effect on our teens’ daily emotions and behavior. Rather than write yet another article lamenting teens’ social media usage, I invited my nineteen-year-old son, Joshua, to co-author this Jews in the Digital Age column with me to ensure it includes perspectives from both a parent and a teen. </i></p><p>Parents of teens are familiar with and use social network applications like Facebook and Instagram. They have also, in recent years, begun to use TikTok, the popular video application. However, Snapchat is different since most parents do not use it and are generally unaware of their teens’ activity on the platform.</p><p>Snapchat’s own annual reports explain that it is used primarily by high school and college students. The mobile application allows users to share photos, videos, and messages. As of February 2023, Snapchat has approximately 750 million monthly active users, 63% of which use the application regularly, and more than three billion snaps are created and exchanged each day.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoLi5WX6HQq_CDSMWbpg6Xh49Ti96KMrSamUNmd_bPaE_bjiBECa63-hAxV_BXnekVVkFU77zbeoVEdV9wmgckG-lQSNBLhCJ2pdt0BTBJSA95j9p_d6HRpKgNaH4H4MHi9SBkhvyxUgdYUDDdpFfoG5u03lHMDnMd0NhVN8GkrfDa7bGlFg/s1200/Snapchat%20Snap%20Map%20-%20Teens%20Mental%20Health.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="675" data-original-width="1200" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoLi5WX6HQq_CDSMWbpg6Xh49Ti96KMrSamUNmd_bPaE_bjiBECa63-hAxV_BXnekVVkFU77zbeoVEdV9wmgckG-lQSNBLhCJ2pdt0BTBJSA95j9p_d6HRpKgNaH4H4MHi9SBkhvyxUgdYUDDdpFfoG5u03lHMDnMd0NhVN8GkrfDa7bGlFg/w640-h360/Snapchat%20Snap%20Map%20-%20Teens%20Mental%20Health.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p><p>Snapchat causes negative mental health issues, such as anxiety and depression, in high school and college students, making it an activity that should be high on the concern list of parents, teachers and mental health professionals. There exists a worldwide mental health crisis among teens and college students, and the use of Snapchat is prevalent among this age demographic. Studies have been conducted to show a causal relationship between Snapchat use and this mental health crisis.</p><p>Many teens will be enjoying a fun experience with family or friends, and then experience a sudden mood swing upon opening the Snapchat application on their phone. The phone screen will display photos of their friends' activities, who they’re with, and where they are currently located using Snapchat’s “Snap Map” GPS (global positioning system) feature. The teen who seemed to be happy and content is now feeling lonely, anxious and depressed thanks to the “fear of missing out.” Commonly known by the acronym “FOMO,” Snapchat contributes to this fear by making it appear that others in the teen’s peer group are enjoying life more. The teen often feels that they have not been invited or included in a competing activity even though they were satisfied with their situation prior to looking at the “Snap Map.” Seeing what others are posting on Snapchat, the teen loses focus and cannot be present with the people they are actually with in real life (“IRL”).<span></span></p><a name='more'></a><p></p><p>Teens feel that Snapchat is necessary to have on their mobile devices because it is one of the most popular forms of communication for this age demographic. Many young people prefer communicating quickly through Snapchat over text messaging, phone calls or video chatting apps like FaceTime. Snapchat messaging has become the norm for young people making the app essential to their daily lives. A teen who removes the app from their phone over concerns that it leads to increased FOMO, and thus anxiety and depression, soon find that they are not able to stay in contact with their friend group because their peers are using Snapchat to communicate and make social plans. Thus, it is a vicious cycle.</p><p>In a Journal of the American Academy of Child Adolescent Psychiatry article titled “Patterns of Social Media Use Among Adolescents Who Are Psychiatrically Hospitalized,” experts explain that adolescents’ use of Snapchat “has critical implications for youths’ psychosocial development. Research increasingly supports a differential susceptibility model of media effects, whereby certain adolescents show an increased risk for negative effects of social media use. In addition, youth with suicidal thoughts or behaviors are more likely to experience cyber victimization and may be at risk for exposure to suicide-related social media content.” </p><p>Teens are still developing important psychological aspects of their being and persona. Many young people desperately want others to believe their life is wonderful so they post photos and videos to Snapchat to cause jealousy among their peer group. Studies show that Snapchat users very infrequently post photos and videos when they are depressed or sitting alone without friends around. They tend to only post when they are at social gatherings, on fun vacations, or generally enjoying “the good life.” This is not an accurate expression of their actual life and experiences, but it is a fabrication only showing what they want others to see. This causes envy and animosity among Snapchat users. According to Melissa Magner, in her article about social media’s negative implications on teens’ mental health, “It is important to understand that social comparison is especially prominent in the lives of young people who are simultaneously developing their ideas about who they are and where they fit in amongst their peers.”</p><p>While clinical depression and anxiety have plagued humans since the beginning of time, we are currently seeing a mental health crisis among teens, who use Snapchat regularly. What can be done to curb these negative mental health effects? Snap (the parent company of Snapchat) is a publicly traded company. It has a moral responsibility to ensure its product is safe for its users, the majority of whom are impressionable teens. Snapchat should remove its “Snap Map” feature that shows where one's connections are located using GPS as this would help minimize the FOMO feelings among Snapchat users. Additionally, Snapchat should limit the number of connections a user has. This would keep users from seeing what people outside of their core friend group are doing.</p><p>Snapchat must make changes immediately to its platform. Likewise, parents must do more to understand how Snapchat works and the detrimental effects it has on this highly impressionable generation. Users of Snapchat, especially adolescents, must seek to change the way they use the app. They should try to limit content that will cause others to feel left out, which leads to depression and sometimes suicidal tendencies.</p><p>They should attempt to show more realistic portrayals of their activities rather than sugarcoating their experiences of filtering reality. We all must work together to ensure the social media experience of our teen generation is a positive one. Their mental health depends on it and the future of our society is at stake.</p><p><i>Rabbi Jason Miller is a local educator and technology entrepreneur, who writes the Jews in the Digital Age column for the Jewish News.</i></p><p><i>Joshua Miller will begin his sophomore year at Michigan State University in the Fall. He is a Media and Information major in the College of Communication, Arts and Science.</i></p><div class="blogger-post-footer">© Rabbi Jason Miller's Blog | http://blog.rabbijason.com</div>Rabbi Jason Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07805550465729805847noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6003330.post-55189792518166570892023-01-16T11:29:00.002-05:002023-01-16T11:29:25.617-05:00The Off-the-Derech Viral YouTube Star from Williamsburg, Brooklyn<p><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">Jews and non-Jews alike were drawn to “Unorthodox” and “Shtisel,” the two popular Netflix miniseries dramas about Hasidic life. These voyeuristic deep dives into the ultra-Orthodox lifestyle of the adherents of Hasidism were the first exposure many had to these insular communities. “Unorthodox” is based on the book by Deborah Feldman, who cut ties with her ultra-Orthodox Williamsburg,</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span class="il" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">Brooklyn</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">community in 2006. Her insider’s perspective was candid and insightful, revealing much of the secretive culture of the Satmar neighborhoods.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">I too was mesmerized by both “Shtisel” and “Unorthodox,” binge-watching them during the early months of the COVID pandemic. So when I was asked to take a guided walking tour of Williamsburg with tour guide <a href="https://friedavizel.com/" target="_blank">Frieda Vizel</a>, whose “Off the Derech” (the label for those who leave their ultra-Orthodox lifestyle behind) biography sounded a lot like Deborah Feldman’s, I was intrigued. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">I had planned to be in <span class="il">Brooklyn</span> to officiate a bat mitzvah, so I scheduled the tour for a Friday morning, which is a wonderful time to walk around Williamsburg as men, women and children are hurriedly shopping to prepare for the Sabbath. My mother and my teenage daughter joined me as well. They had already planned to spend the weekend in New York, and I thought it would be meaningful for these two Jewish women in my life to see how Hasidic women live.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0in;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYxiSMkKZPIUP2h97Zugg-FHs0vCFyQUqdNiyA4z2SK9eKomDlBtN1xbs7xA_tBdnG8cOQPsembskUJrb9VSCQcDur4Bb62oOitKYDcp0F1pNFTkMTtnT-C4PQCphhhnsyLLpuDCXg-87nMcRvWWi0A-4Ozn76wCuz52B23ZOC_iM_ViHzsw/s728/PXL_20220930_152557993.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Frieda Vizel - Williamsburg Brooklyn NYC Jewish Tour Guide" border="0" data-original-height="450" data-original-width="728" height="397" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYxiSMkKZPIUP2h97Zugg-FHs0vCFyQUqdNiyA4z2SK9eKomDlBtN1xbs7xA_tBdnG8cOQPsembskUJrb9VSCQcDur4Bb62oOitKYDcp0F1pNFTkMTtnT-C4PQCphhhnsyLLpuDCXg-87nMcRvWWi0A-4Ozn76wCuz52B23ZOC_iM_ViHzsw/w640-h397/PXL_20220930_152557993.jpg" title="Frieda Vizel - Williamsburg Brooklyn NYC Jewish Tour Guide" width="640" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"><span></span></span></p><a name='more'></a>There were about a dozen of us on Frieda’s tour that morning and my family members were the only Jewish people other than the tour guide. Frieda’s tour was insightful and fun. It was interesting to see the way the residents reacted to her as we walked the streets of her childhood. She explained that many locals had warmed up to her over the years and to her approach of bringing outsiders into the tight-knit community to explain their experience.<p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">Frieda, who went “Off the Derech” in 2010 at age 25, was introduced to <a href="https://www.youtube.com/c/Friedavizelbrooklyn" target="_blank">YouTube</a> and realized the video medium was the best way to connect with those interested in the reality of the Williamsburg community. Recently, as her YouTube following has grown and some of her videos have gone viral, Frieda has been surprised to find that Satmar Hasidim are tuning into her YouTube channel as well. She’s become something of a YouTube star – even among her former friends and neighbors whose rabbis restrict their usage of the internet and consider social media to be taboo.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkCbAXkruKQoAoDGQzKMcke7-3x5YBeA_j_tnnN0jCoAfG07y3uj2R4IdS4upoxkaUS5WtMbuUPHwMObfM_z2sbmwU0Z75axm9nlnPoCzyjUJ4_weivl66BqAztg-g7pdSKV-ZZlCxWJ7jMvO1EReCuCv0DwR7nSX7DWfNBHtI2MJdJEgWyg/s2688/PXL_20220930_152120872.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Frieda Vizel - Williamsburg Brooklyn NYC Jewish Tour Guide" border="0" data-original-height="1512" data-original-width="2688" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkCbAXkruKQoAoDGQzKMcke7-3x5YBeA_j_tnnN0jCoAfG07y3uj2R4IdS4upoxkaUS5WtMbuUPHwMObfM_z2sbmwU0Z75axm9nlnPoCzyjUJ4_weivl66BqAztg-g7pdSKV-ZZlCxWJ7jMvO1EReCuCv0DwR7nSX7DWfNBHtI2MJdJEgWyg/w640-h360/PXL_20220930_152120872.jpg" title="Frieda Vizel - Williamsburg Brooklyn NYC Jewish Tour Guide" width="640" /></a></div><br />I had the opportunity to talk with Frieda at the conclusion of our tour. Over kosher deli food in Williamsburg, we discussed her evolution from a Hasidic teen to a popular blogger and YouTube influencer.<p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0in;"><i><span style="background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0in;"><i><span style="background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">When did you decide to start giving tours of Williamsburg to "outsiders"?</span></i><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #222222; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">In 2013 when I was a graduate student and my professor told me that a summer program was looking for a tour guide for Hasidic Williamsburg.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0in;"><i><span style="background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0in;"><i><span style="background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">When did you discover that YouTube could be a good medium for you?</span></i><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #222222; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">People have been urging me for years to do videos. I've been writing a blog for more than ten years, collecting all sorts of little interesting bits on Hasidic life, and it's been demoralizing to see that my work garnered little interest. I was reluctant to make videos because I try to keep a low profile in the Hasidic community. I was worried that drawing attention to myself would bring out the zealots who would set out to make my life very miserable. I was also worried that if people knew me, I wouldn't feel comfortable walking the streets. Also, Hasidim are very camera shy and that's ingrained in me too. </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #222222; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #222222; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">Despite my reluctance, I did believe that it's important to reach a wider audience with the story of the Hasidic community. The New York Satmar community seems to be one of the most understudied subcultures and most of the pop culture representations are dark and misleading, creating this narrative of an "other." So I think it's important to get beyond that. It's incredible that such a unique, misunderstood world shouldn't get more sensitive, nuanced coverage. So, in the past year, I relented and began been publishing various videos on a YouTube channel. </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0in;"><i><span style="background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0in;"><i><span style="background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">What has been the reception to your YouTube channel among Satmar residents of Williamsburg?</span></i><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #222222; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">It's been very surprisingly positive. A lot of people stop me while I'm on my tours and thank me for my videos. To my surprise, many people have seemingly appreciated this kind of coverage. They have been incredibly supportive. </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0in;"><i><span style="background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0in;"><i><span style="background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">Tell me about your experience getting local Williamsburg residents to appear in videos.</span></i><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #222222; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">It's very hard to get people to agree to be on my channel. Many people will stop me on the street and talk to me, but when they realize that my cameraman is with me and he's rolling, they'll beg me not to publish the footage. It's an interesting contrast with the non-Hasidic kids from the neighborhood who, when they see a camera, will often come up to us and ask us if they can appear in our show. Hasidim are incredibly camera shy, in part, I think because it's a very closed and small world and anyone who stands out can end up feeling ostracized.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #222222; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #222222; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">Pearl, who showed us her home in an episode of my YouTube series, "Inside a Hasidic Home," was different. She is a fierce lady who manages to at once have so much respect in the community while also agreeing wholeheartedly to be on film. I think a part of why Pearl was comfortable being on film was because she is older, and she has no kids in the school system or <i>shidduch</i> (marriage) system. Pearl was eager to help me from my very first phone call to her. My video with her ended up getting a hundred thousand views in a month, which absolutely shocked us. </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #222222; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #222222; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">I've also managed to get some other people to agree, and the process often involves showing people the edited version before it goes live on YouTube to make sure they are comfortable with it. I will never publish something that is disrespectful, and I think people trust me.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #222222; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #222222; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0in;"><i><span style="background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #222222; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0in;"><i><span style="background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">What have you learned since taking your “inside baseball” perspective to YouTube?</span></i><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #222222; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">I've learned that my most eager audience are Hasidim themselves! While I think of my target audience as outsiders, Hasidim have a great interest in their own world, in seeing the representation and sharing insights in the comments. We all want to understand the society that we are in, and for Hasidim, there's a great dearth of anthropology. I am guessing in the future there will be a growing self-awareness as more people start to study the culture from a bird’s-eye view.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0in;"><span style="background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0in;"><i><span style="background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">What do you hope to accomplish with your YouTube channel?</span></i><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #222222; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">I hope to help build a non-judgmental curiosity into Hasidic culture. I'm hoping to inspire others to share different parts of this world and to inspire others to go beyond black and white. I hope that the world's understanding of this community will be much more nuanced, and I think I can contribute to that end through my own work. </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0in;"><i><span style="background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">What are some types of videos you plan to make for your YouTube channel in the future?</span></i><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-clip: initial; background-color: white; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #222222; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">I hope to do more "In the Streets" videos. I am also going to film a video on the Yiddish language. I would love to capture the vibrancy of the culture in videos, so special occasions are my go-to. I dream of getting a Hasidic woman to show me her wardrobe. I also like to do food videos and I look forward to sharing the Hasidic Shabbes meal and other special Hasidic foods. </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0in;"><i><span style="background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">What do you hope to accomplish as more Hasidim watch your YouTube videos?</span></i><i><span style="background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0in;"><i><span style="background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></i><i><span style="background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: normal; margin: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">I think at this time, so many locals watch my YouTube channel that I have lost all my coveted anonymity. I miss it! On the other hand, I get a lot of fascinating information through their engagement with my work, and I'm honored that people take me seriously. But ultimately, I think my videos are giving locals a bit of a vocabulary with which to talk about their own world to outsiders, which I think is important.</span></p><div class="blogger-post-footer">© Rabbi Jason Miller's Blog | http://blog.rabbijason.com</div>Rabbi Jason Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07805550465729805847noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6003330.post-42672944271687830892022-07-12T17:42:00.003-04:002022-07-12T17:43:10.477-04:00Seniors: Don’t Get Taken Advantage of Online<p>Did you know there is an actual law in Judaism prohibiting the theft of one’s knowledge? Known as <i>geneivat da’at</i>, the principle states that fooling someone and causing them to have a mistaken assumption, belief or impression leads the deceiving individual to be held responsible for the deceived person’s actions. </p><p>In Judaism, geneivat da’at is considered to be a worse offense than lying or cheating. The repercussions often negatively affect many more people than only the original individual who was duped. </p><p>In the internet age, I have seen many instances of geneivat da’at occur when innocent people are misled by fraudulent email messages, websites, text messages or social media posts. Many times, the result of these individuals being victims of geneivat da’at is that their identity is stolen, which is a nightmare scenario. Not surprisingly, it is usually older people who fall victim to this.</p><p>Facebook is certainly one of the most common places in which users over a certain age (we’ll call them “Boomers”) become deceived. Most of the duplicate friend requests I receive on Facebook are from fake accounts posing as older users. These illegitimate Facebook requests are part of a scam. The Facebook user often will post a legitimate message on their Facebook account letting their friends know that they shouldn’t accept any new Facebook friend requests from them because their profile has been duplicated, but they may not realize the seriousness of this act.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhc9RvPihl8qS0SCHGwDXXRb-tZ6wVZTB9w57NXMZx7H6a4vCRg_Zq84PcCL9FaWAcDEOzE3m3NvMBHz4C6UXNlGTecLnQI3CJ6gnhBZ9RXw_f2T-P9PTqUJIQysX5AhYAHnU7AfN1bHd4RuKHyXqOkFcIdbYk3DB4_voYTUj-QXQZMmNTBGQ/s1080/Identity%20Theft,%20Hackers,%20Facebook%20&%20Senior%20Citizens.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="1080" height="238" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhc9RvPihl8qS0SCHGwDXXRb-tZ6wVZTB9w57NXMZx7H6a4vCRg_Zq84PcCL9FaWAcDEOzE3m3NvMBHz4C6UXNlGTecLnQI3CJ6gnhBZ9RXw_f2T-P9PTqUJIQysX5AhYAHnU7AfN1bHd4RuKHyXqOkFcIdbYk3DB4_voYTUj-QXQZMmNTBGQ/w400-h238/Identity%20Theft,%20Hackers,%20Facebook%20&%20Senior%20Citizens.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p><br /><span></span></p><a name='more'></a><p></p><p>This scam involves a nefarious person (often in a foreign country) making virtual copies of real Facebook accounts by copying the photos and information from the real account’s “About” page to the fake ones. They then send friend requests to the friends listed on the real account. While some might find it humorous that so many seniors have had their Facebook accounts mirrored, the scam is more insidious than many realize. </p><p>After the scammer has fooled enough of the person’s friends to accept the friend requests on the fake account, there are many ways the scammer can trick others now that they have stolen someone’s identity on the social networking site. The scammer may request a gift card, entice you to play a game that downloads malicious software (malware) to your computer or trick you into downloading a virus that shares your personal data.</p><p>If you receive a friend request from someone you are already friends with, search your friend list to see if you are still friends with that person. If you are, you have likely received a friend request from a fake Facebook account that was duplicated from a legitimate account. You can contact your friend by Facebook Messenger, by phone or send them an email or text message to verify if the new friend request was intentional. If it was not, they can report the duplicate account to Facebook to shut it down.</p><p>There are many other ways seniors are being taken advantage of on the web by hackers and scammers. Through my company, Access Technology, I am often contacted by seniors unsure if an email message they received is legitimate. The email may be very confusing to them because it alerts them that their password was compromised and there’s a link to change it. If they click the link, they’re providing their credentials to a hacker. </p><p>Oftentimes, they receive an alarming email that their identity has been stolen or that their personal information is available on the Dark Web, and they can’t decipher if the message is genuine.</p><p>The older generation is much less technology-savvy than the younger generations who have grown up with the internet. Seniors also tend to be more trusting, which can lead to vulnerabilities with regard to maintaining security with personal information. </p><p><b>Keeping Personal Information Secure </b></p><p>Investing in a subscription plan with a trusted company like McAfee, Norton, Kaspersky or Avast can help keep your personal data secure and your computer safe from viruses. </p><p>It’s also important to never feel pressured to give information like your Social Security number, credit card information or account passwords over the phone. This is especially true if the call was unexpected or from an unusual number. </p><p>Scammers may try to use calls, texts and emails to impersonate customer service representatives from companies you use and trust (like the electric company, your internet provider or Amazon). If you are ever unsure, it is always safest to end the call and reach out directly to customer support using a trusted number. </p><p>With email messages, it is always recommended to check the email address that sent the message to determine if it looks authentic. </p><p>Additionally, remember that reputable companies will never ask you to provide payment information over the phone or demand that you purchase a gift card for payment.</p><p>When in doubt about the legitimacy of any website, email message or phone call, it is always best to dig a little deeper or ask someone for help before succumbing to geneivat da’at. </p><p><i>Originally Published at The Detroit Jewish News</i></p><div class="blogger-post-footer">© Rabbi Jason Miller's Blog | http://blog.rabbijason.com</div>Rabbi Jason Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07805550465729805847noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6003330.post-83201400032638040532022-04-06T10:54:00.001-04:002022-04-06T10:54:15.192-04:005 Jewish TikTokers to Follow<p>TikTok has given rise to a new crop of Jewish personalities who are profiting from creating popular content for the Jewish community (as well as Jewish content for non-Jews, too).</p><p>Unless you’ve been hibernating for the past couple of years, you’ve probably heard of TikTok. It’s a social networking app that features short videos and has taken the world by storm. Today, you can watch the latest dance craze or see teens doing pranks and stunts. You can also watch actual video footage of the Russian invasion of Ukraine shot on cell phones along with stay-at-home dads telling their favorite jokes and highlights of the latest sporting events.</p><p>The Chinese-owned TikTok only allows the upload of short (15 seconds to three minutes) videos and has gained in popularity since the demise of similar apps like Vine and Musical.ly (another Chinese-owned app that merged with TikTok). It became the first non-Facebook mobile app to reach 3 billion downloads globally this past summer. </p><p>Like YouTube, Facebook and Instagram, Jewish content is readily available on the TikTok platform. The app has given rise to a new crop of Jewish personalities who are profiting from creating popular content for the Jewish community (as well as Jewish content for non-Jews, too). A recent NBC News article interviewed several Jewish creators on the TikTok app who said they feel they have been subjected to a type of censorship, with the app regularly flagging and removing their content. Additionally, there have been many antisemitic slurs in the comment section of videos uploaded by these Jewish content creators. Nevertheless, these new Jewish internet celebrities have persevered and continue to churn out videos that go viral, even educating people about Judaism and dispelling myths along the way.</p><p>So, who are these Jewish TikTok content providers?</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFESwkvu9QqOSF9AVtaXuKeyqG3H6_rKkeOsx7HHv7GPMx5TASsYLUXK7AkVj5PaHxFZEuIRA8nQ-Y3s0yr15Sw17UVkVYqAtCIyhTFmZbvhlVKHzRKzTByDkob5mN5_n9KgAJtjL2LwloNgEU5X8x66FBMnrRv8EfUiqxk8V89mF2BuDygg/s696/Jewish%20TikTok.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="412" data-original-width="696" height="378" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFESwkvu9QqOSF9AVtaXuKeyqG3H6_rKkeOsx7HHv7GPMx5TASsYLUXK7AkVj5PaHxFZEuIRA8nQ-Y3s0yr15Sw17UVkVYqAtCIyhTFmZbvhlVKHzRKzTByDkob5mN5_n9KgAJtjL2LwloNgEU5X8x66FBMnrRv8EfUiqxk8V89mF2BuDygg/w640-h378/Jewish%20TikTok.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p><p><b>Crazy Brothers-in-Law (@JewCrazy)</b></p><p>Tommer and Yossi are brothers-in-law who must have looked at the typical dance memes on TikTok and determined that they could do those with a Jewish flavor. This duo has half a million followers, 10 million likes, and make money selling JewCrazy-branded merchandise. </p><p>In one of their most popular videos, the two men appear to be getting into a fight with a gangster who tells them to come back to the alley strapped. Instead of returning strapped with guns, they reappear wearing the leather straps of their tefillin. </p><p>Tommer and Yossi regularly answer questions from commenters in a cynical manner, but ultimately educate the public about what it means to be observant Jews. Many of the comments on their videos bring up millennia-old stereotypes about Jewish people (e.g., do Jews have horns, do Jews control the banks, etc.), but @JewCrazy responds to these misguided commenters by setting the record straight. </p><p>Many of their videos just put a Jewish spin on viral TikTok dances and memes. For example, they remade the famous Island Boys video substituting the lyrics with “I’m a Menorah Boy.” Like other popular Jewish TikTok users, @JewCrazy has had Jewish- and Israel-related videos censored on the app and has even been banned for several weeks. The pair does not do anything more obscene or offensive than many other accounts on TikTok, but they have been targeted for their Jewish content.<span></span></p><a name='more'></a><p></p><p><br /></p><p><b>The Jewish Home (@RealMelindaStrauss2.0)</b></p><p>Despite being kicked off the TikTok platform several times for no apparent reason, Melinda Strauss continues to build her following by offering practical Jewish advice. As her website explains, “Melinda Strauss rose to fame with her Kosher Food Blog … Over the years, she has become a health coach, podcaster, influencer, conference organizer, business coach and amassed an impressive TikTok following where she shares the nuances of life as an Orthodox Jew.” </p><p>Her TikTok channel is essentially answering viewers’ questions about all things Jewish. In recent videos, Strauss has discussed how Jews repent, how to get the home ready for Shabbat and what Type 1 diabetics should do on a fast day. </p><p>She’s dispelled the myth that kosher food is healthier, shown how to find kosher food at a farmer’s market and, of course, how to braid a challah. One of her most popular videos is showing her son, who has diabetes, putting on tefillin after his bar mitzvah (a proud Mom moment).</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Talmud TikTok (@miriamanzovin)</b></p><p>Miriam Anzovin has been spreading Talmudic teachings to the world thanks to her popular TikTok account. Anzovin began the new cycle of Daf Yomi before the COVID pandemic started in January 2020, and she’s amassed a whole following of students who start their day with her TikTok channel. She opens each video with her motto, “Shalom, Friends!” </p><p>Anzovin is certainly not what most people think of when they think of a Talmud scholar, but her modern, creative way of teaching the daily page of Talmud (known as Daf Yomi) has caught on and helped a whole new generation of Talmud students fall in love with the ancient Jewish learning process. </p><p>Anzovin’s approach is to bring the sometimes bizarre stories of the Talmud to life by adapting them to 21st-century language, full of analogies and references to pop culture. The way she makes the ancient Talmud (written in Aramaic) accessible to the modern student is akin to retelling Shakespeare as a high school love drama set in the current period.</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Jewish Jokes (@SalvadorLitvak)</b></p><p>There’s a certain skill involved in telling Jewish jokes well. Salvador Litvak has that skill. The Chilean-born filmmaker and social media influencer in his mid-50s has a wonderful cadence to telling age-old Jewish jokes. Known as the Accidental Talmudist, Litvak has close to 40,000 followers and a quarter of a million likes. </p><p>While some of the 72 greatest jokes of all time that he tells will undoubtedly be familiar to most, you’ll still chuckle with Litvak’s delivery. He often makes himself laugh after telling the joke. A longtime Jewish educator, Litvak peppers some Jewish teachings into each video, often explaining Jewish concepts that non-Jewish viewers might find confusing.</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Challah Time (@challahprince)</b></p><p>Baking and braiding challah became a very popular activity during the COVID pandemic. In fact, at the beginning of the quarantine period, it became impossible to buy yeast at the grocery store because everyone seemed to be staying home and baking. </p><p>Idan Chabasov has taken the lead as the most popular challah baking artist of TikTok. His tens of thousands of followers learn to bake the most creative challah breads and rolls by watching his TikTok channel. A Sephardic Jew with roots in Turkey and Uzbekistan, Chabasov says that he didn’t grow up watching his mother braid challah dough. He considers himself an artist who didn’t have much of a connection to Judaism. That was until he was in Germany and was seeking out Shabbat dinners. As a guest at these meals, he began baking challah and, then during the COVID lockdown, he would watch YouTube videos for challah-braiding tricks. After creating an Instagram account to show off his heart-shaped challah creations, Chabasov discovered how many others were equally passionate about new ways to shape traditional bread. His artistic challah baking creations have provided him with a huge global following and brought him closer to his Jewish roots. </p><p><i>Originally published in the Detroit Jewish News and at <a href="https://thejewishnews.com/2022/03/30/jews-in-the-digital-age-5-jewish-tiktokers-you-need-to-be-following/" target="_blank">thejewishnews.com</a></i></p><div class="blogger-post-footer">© Rabbi Jason Miller's Blog | http://blog.rabbijason.com</div>Rabbi Jason Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07805550465729805847noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6003330.post-82602251349679315682021-12-08T15:02:00.000-05:002021-12-08T15:02:05.100-05:00Nostalgically Making it a Blockbuster Night<p>I’d characterize myself as a nostalgic person. I have every ticket stub from every sporting event, concert, theater performance, and even movie that I’ve attended going all the way back to the 1984 World Series. Every once in a while, I like to go through these tickets, recall the friends and family members I went with and see what I can recall from our experience together.</p><p>I also have a hard time throwing out things like membership cards. That would explain why many years after all Blockbuster video stores in the State of Michigan closed their doors, I still have my Blockbuster membership card. For years, this Blockbuster card was just sitting in my desk drawer with no purpose. If only I had an opportunity to use it one last time.</p><p>Over the summer, I was scrolling through the virtually endless options on Netflix when I found perhaps the most delightful and ironic choice among the 36,000 hours of content available: The Last Blockbuster. The documentary tells of the meteoric rise and rapid decline of Blockbuster Video, as symbolized by the very last Blockbuster Video, in Bend, Oregon.</p><p>Then — like a copy of The Matrix in the return bin just before closing time — it struck me. I realized why the place sounded so familiar. I had begun working with a <a href="https://mitzvahrabbi.com/" target="_blank">bar mitzvah student</a> in Bend and would be heading to Oregon in just a few months to officiate his service at Smith Rock, about 30 minutes from there. I immediately put a reminder on my calendar for my brief trip: Visit the last Blockbuster Video on Earth.</p><p>So, a couple of weeks ago I grabbed my Blockbuster card and headed for Central Oregon. After the bar mitzvah ceremony (he did great), I looked up the Blockbuster in Google Maps — the first and last time I ever put a Blockbuster location into GPS — and excitedly hurried over to see (Wow) what a difference there was about this lonely outpost and its departed family of franchisees.</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjsixkmbsHlbTF6_lc6ZWa3YCMQXHoKU61Q0YwgFyoKRvlmSuapcqc5bKnZpkZtHKxvFpc_diiq0XNN55Mf1krdsBGMSwBLYE6h-zmIIeQxPhk_7MTQ9KVp9efV75eyYVMlQTtDpOTBBgUTsEOLZ9pTtuTJpeWqGWVOH_DRbWDpE_M83xCHFQ=s2048" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjsixkmbsHlbTF6_lc6ZWa3YCMQXHoKU61Q0YwgFyoKRvlmSuapcqc5bKnZpkZtHKxvFpc_diiq0XNN55Mf1krdsBGMSwBLYE6h-zmIIeQxPhk_7MTQ9KVp9efV75eyYVMlQTtDpOTBBgUTsEOLZ9pTtuTJpeWqGWVOH_DRbWDpE_M83xCHFQ=w400-h300" width="400" /></a></div><br /><span><a name='more'></a></span><p><br /></p><p>When I arrived, there were a dozen tourists standing outside the store taking photos. It would have never occurred to me 25 years ago that a Blockbuster in a strip mall in Oregon would become a popular tourist destination. I offered to take a photo for a group that had driven for hours just to see the last Blockbuster and someone from the group reciprocated, taking a photo of me in front of the store proudly holding the membership card I’d refused to discard.</p><p>When I walked into the store, I felt a wave of nostalgia wash over me. There was something about the smell of the place, the Blockbuster blue under neon lights, that brought me back to those Saturday nights walking the aisles with friends as we tried to find a newly released movie on VHS tape we could all agree to watch. Admittedly, we’d spend an hour reading each synopsis on the back of the plastic case only to once again rent Major League so we could continue our attempt at memorizing every line from the movie.</p><p>Being at Blockbuster once again made me appreciate the advances in how we watch movies, and even how we select which movie to watch. We used to wander around a store scanning the titles of the white Blockbuster VHS or DVD boxes. Now we scroll through the streaming lineup on the TV in our homes. We used to defer to the giant wall of “guaranteed in stock” new releases or rely on that section in the store of employee-recommended movies. Now, the Netflix algorithm recommends titles for us based on our prior movie-watching history and how we rated past movies.</p><p>After my half-hour rewinding through time and space, I made my way to the exit. As far as I know, my membership card would have worked, if I wanted to check out a Mission Impossible sequel, but I think I still have some late fees from the copy of Major League that fell behind my TV. I couldn’t help but wonder about the couple browsing for a DVD. What would they rent? Something they’d never seen or Love Actually for the eighth time? Would they watch on a TV that could have streamed the very same movie? Maybe, I thought, they have Netflix and Hulu and Amazon Prime and Disney+ and Paramount+ and Apple TV and Peacock, but tonight — tonight they decided to make it a Blockbuster Night.</p><div class="blogger-post-footer">© Rabbi Jason Miller's Blog | http://blog.rabbijason.com</div>Rabbi Jason Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07805550465729805847noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6003330.post-65991456248269527012021-12-01T13:56:00.002-05:002021-12-01T13:56:15.679-05:00Genetic Genealogy for the Digital Age<p>Several years ago, I was contacted by a representative at ancestry.com who offered me the opportunity to submit my DNA using a saliva collection kit. I figured I would be able to get the results and then complete my family tree going back many generations. I set up an ancestry.com account and started to add relatives to my family tree. When I received the DNA test results back, they did not yield any surprises (99% Ashkenazi Jewish), and, unfortunately, there were not any matches of my close relatives or ancestors. This is because there were not enough people paying for and submitting the saliva DNA to the website. </p><p>Fast forward to this past summer when I received an email alert from ancestry.com. I had actually forgotten I ever set this account up. The alert told me that my first cousin was a DNA match and was likely my first or second cousin. This was not earth-shattering news to me since I already knew my first cousin was related to me, and I also knew how she was related. However, this piqued my interest yet again in my genealogy. </p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-KUJ0w-0ThD8/YafFO8THBJI/AAAAAAAHYfE/gMHTYZ9I6-o_dQHtHku4uJa11u5vlHuHACLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/Frank%2BWiener%2BGrave.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1608" data-original-width="2048" height="314" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-KUJ0w-0ThD8/YafFO8THBJI/AAAAAAAHYfE/gMHTYZ9I6-o_dQHtHku4uJa11u5vlHuHACLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h314/Frank%2BWiener%2BGrave.jpeg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p><p>I returned to the website, and sure enough, more DNA matches showed up for potential cousins. I began looking through other family trees that distant cousins had set up as well as 100-year-old documents that gave me hints about my long-lost relatives.</p><p>I immediately got lost in the genealogy black hole, spending hours researching my family tree and sharing my findings with my family members. I was amazed to see photographs of my great-great-grandparents. I located photographs of my ancestors’ grave monuments, which provided details including their Hebrew names, when they were born and when they died. </p><p>I discovered an ancestry.com account belonging to my mother’s first cousin, who had already spent a lot of time adding relatives’ vital information and photographs to his family tree. In his collection, I was amazed to see photos of my grandparents (his aunt and uncle) I had never seen before. I started connecting the genealogy dots that led me to extend my family tree back several generations, and I was able to do this for my wife’s family tree as well.<span></span></p><a name='more'></a><p></p><p>While monthly or annual membership to ancestry.com (or to other genealogy websites) can be quite costly, I learned that many local libraries offer complimentary access to ancestry.com and other online genealogy resources. I was able to take advantage of the access provided by the Farmington Hills Library, which gives library members full access to the ancestry.com website by logging into the library website. </p><p>In addition to the Ancestry website, I also have used both familysearch.com and myheritage.com to look up birth and death records and other helpful documents, like immigration records and high school yearbooks. The only time I spent money on this hobby was when I ordered a copy of my great-grandparents’ New York City marriage license.</p><p>One resource very helpful to me in doing this genealogical research is the website findagrave.com. In a few instances, I was able to identify a cemetery in which a relative was buried, but no other information about that relative or a photograph of the monument was available. I simply clicked a button on the website that reads “Request a Photograph” and within one day I was notified by email that photographs of my ancestors’ grave monuments had been updated to the website.</p><p>Being able to use genetic ancestry testing together with historical documentation has been an exciting and very interesting way for me to delve into my genealogy. Had I not submitted that saliva DNA sample several years ago and created an online account at ancestry.com, I would never have discovered the fascinating hobby of genetic genealogy. Now, every time I receive an email from ancestry.com with another DNA match or a clue about where one of my distant ancestors might have come from, I’m intrigued and drop whatever I’m doing to log into the website.</p><p>Back in 2019, it was estimated that more than 26 million people had added their DNA to the four leading commercial ancestry databases, which includes ancestry.com. At that time, it was predicted that if the pace continued, the gene troves could hold data on the genetic makeup of more than 100 million people within the next two years. That means that there’s a very good chance that there are DNA matches to long-lost relatives just waiting to be discovered on websites like ancestry.com. </p><p>In addition to discovering your roots, there are countless health benefits to identifying your relatives as well. I highly recommend the intriguing hobby of genetic genealogy. </p><p><br /></p><p><i>Cross-posted to the Detroit Jewish News</i></p><div class="blogger-post-footer">© Rabbi Jason Miller's Blog | http://blog.rabbijason.com</div>Rabbi Jason Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07805550465729805847noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6003330.post-49985569880702325842021-08-24T08:45:00.001-04:002021-08-24T08:45:09.549-04:00The Bar Mitzvah that Felt Like a Shiva<p> Zachary’s family had hoped to celebrate his bar mitzvah in Israel. Instead, they opted to host local and out-of-town guests in their hometown of Atlanta in July. I had worked with Zachary over Zoom to prepare for his <a href="https://mitzvahrabbi.com/" target="_blank">bar mitzvah</a> and was getting ready to travel to Atlanta to officiate his service when I received an email from his mom.</p><p>She wrote that Zachary’s uncle (her ex-husband’s brother-in-law) had been visiting his brother in Miami the prior week. They were home at his condo in Surfside when the building collapsed. Both men were unaccounted for and presumed dead.</p><p>She said the bar mitzvah would go on as planned, albeit with a very different mood.</p><p>I called her right away and offered my deepest sympathies for what the entire family must have been going through at that time. I knew that this would no longer be just another bar mitzvah that I would officiate. I suspected that I would now be called upon in a pastoral role to offer comfort and to try to help the grieving family that had not yet received confirmation of their loved one's death.</p><p><br /></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/--Xfiyda9jI8/YSTpJBhh2iI/AAAAAAAHVaY/geKX8YdPgcoBjTabOMoAe8MlipIz8S7SgCLcBGAsYHQ/s992/miami-building-collapse-surfside-florida.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Surfside Miami Florida Condo Collapse 2021 (ABC News)" border="0" data-original-height="558" data-original-width="992" height="225" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/--Xfiyda9jI8/YSTpJBhh2iI/AAAAAAAHVaY/geKX8YdPgcoBjTabOMoAe8MlipIz8S7SgCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h225/miami-building-collapse-surfside-florida.jpg" title="Surfside Miami Florida Condo Collapse 2021 (ABC News)" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Surfside Miami Florida Condo Collapse 2021 (ABC News)</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p><br /></p><p><span></span></p><a name='more'></a>Some family members, including the children of the uncle who was missing in the condominium collapse, had not originally been planning to attend the bar mitzvah but were now going to be there to represent their side of the family. During the entire flight to Atlanta, I tried to think of how to talk with the family members who were not yet in the formal period of mourning because they still were holding out hope that their two relatives would be found alive in the wreckage. I have comforted many families after the death of a loved one, but never following such a tragic accident that had been covered in the news on a global scale.<p></p><p>In my role as a rabbi, I inevitably become close with the family of the bar or bat mitzvah. Even if I’m traveling from Metro Detroit to their community to officiate the simcha and have only met the family members virtually on Zoom, there’s a certain bond that occurs when a family celebrates a life-cycle event with a rabbi. In this case, I felt that bond as soon as I entered their home.</p><p>It felt more like a shiva than a bar mitzvah. We sat and talked about the tragedy in Surfside and how the family could remain hopeful while beginning to accept the reality that their loved one would not be found alive in the wreckage. We talked about trying to celebrate life with the bar mitzvah ceremony even — or especially — amidst such tragedy.</p><p>I reminded them of the story in the Torah when the Israelites were prepared to consecrate the Mishkan (God’s tabernacle) in the wilderness. That event was set to be a purely joyful event with great anticipation and celebration. Then tragedy befell the nation when two brothers, Aaron’s sons, died tragically. The Israelites had to deal with grief and consolation together with their feelings of joyous celebration.</p><p>Zachary did great. His mom shared that, as unreal as Surfside still seemed, she was grateful that we had the opportunity to gather and grieve together. For me, the entire experience serves as a stark reminder that Judaism commands us to come together in times of joy and in times of suffering.</p><p><br /></p><div class="blogger-post-footer">© Rabbi Jason Miller's Blog | http://blog.rabbijason.com</div>Rabbi Jason Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07805550465729805847noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6003330.post-84253636855583681472021-08-12T10:33:00.002-04:002021-08-12T10:33:32.329-04:00I Knew Jack - Remembering Jack Aronson<p> I found it very telling when I received a phone call from a contributing writer at the Detroit Jewish News the day after Jack Aronson passed away. She said she was working on an obituary for Jack but was confused. I asked what she was confused about and she told me that she was having trouble verifying if Jack was Jewish. I started to laugh.</p><p>Jack Aronson was not Jewish. But I immediately understood why she was confused. The man was so beloved throughout the Jewish community and he received loving tributes from notable Jewish leaders in the immediate hours after his death that it was not surprising this Jewish News writer had begun working on his obituary before realizing that he wasn’t a member of the Jewish community — at least not officially.</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-rv9wwALNgog/YRUwk8xMK0I/AAAAAAAHU_g/AG5rpLrK3w8IUXNBX3529npI-x1oOAYxwCLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/Jack%2BAronson.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Jack Aronson of Garden Fresh Gourmet with Rabbi Jason Miller in Taylor, Michigan" border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1536" height="400" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-rv9wwALNgog/YRUwk8xMK0I/AAAAAAAHU_g/AG5rpLrK3w8IUXNBX3529npI-x1oOAYxwCLcBGAsYHQ/w300-h400/Jack%2BAronson.jpg" title="Jack Aronson of Garden Fresh Gourmet with Rabbi Jason Miller in Taylor, Michigan" width="300" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Jack Aronson of Garden Fresh Gourmet with Rabbi Jason Miller in Taylor, Michigan</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p><br /></p><p>I looked up to Jack Aronson. Both literally and figuratively. Jack was a big man. He was tall, but he loomed even larger when it came to business. And to the community. And to philanthropy. In the food industry, he was legendary.</p><p>The first time I met Jack, I told him about my kosher certification agency. He said he wasn't happy with the agency that Garden Fresh was using and so I jokingly told him to have his people give me a call. Not long after that, I received a call from his manager to set up a meeting. Before that meeting ever took place, Jack had sold Garden Fresh to Campbell's for almost a quarter billion dollars. What stuck with me is not that Jack actually followed through and had someone contact me, but that several people told me that he had contacted them to learn more about me and Kosher Michigan. Jack did his research.<span></span></p><a name='more'></a><p></p><p>In April of 2019, Jack called me and said he was ready to work together. He invited me to Great Lakes HPP in Taylor to show me his innovative food freezing and drying machines. After the tour of the facility, we went to a conference room and talked. Well, mainly Jack talked. I listened. This went on for a couple of hours. Jack told me the inside scoop on selling his company to Campbell's and how he had recently tried and failed to buy it back.</p><p>He talked about eating healthy and how he was going to beat cancer in any way necessary. We talked about family and community, entrepreneurship and philanthropy. He was a wealth of information.</p><p>One of the last times I talked to Jack was at the beginning of the pandemic when we were under the stay-at-home order. Knowing that people were struggling, he was determined to give away thousands of meals. He contacted me to let me know that he could have his delivery guy drop off a free meal box at the home of anyone I knew who was having a difficult time during the quarantine.</p><p>I shared this information with my Facebook friends and several people took Jack up on his offer, having meals delivered to elderly parents and co-workers who were in need. It should be mentioned that Jack was in the middle of a cancer treatment when he called me. That was Jack — always caring about others.</p><p>Kosher certifying Great Lakes HPP was a gift for me because I got to know the great Jack Aronson. May his memory endure for blessings for his family and for everyone who knew him.</p><p>Rest in peace, Jack. I am a better person for having known you.</p><div class="blogger-post-footer">© Rabbi Jason Miller's Blog | http://blog.rabbijason.com</div>Rabbi Jason Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07805550465729805847noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6003330.post-90719614080698758392021-04-26T12:40:00.004-04:002021-04-26T12:40:48.395-04:00CES 2021 - A Much Different CES ExperienceThe year 2020 was so full of changes and disappointments that it is no wonder we began 2021 eager for things to return to normal. That certainly was not the case for my CES experience in January. The annual international electronics show has become a regular activity on my calendar at the start of each year and I was especially looking forward to this year’s convention for several reasons. First, it would be my tenth CES in Las Vegas. Second, I had to miss the 2020 event because I had to travel to Phoenix to officiate a bar mitzvah. <div><br /></div><div> While I was able to attend this year’s CES, it was certainly a change from past experiences. The Consumer Technology Association, which produces CES, made the difficult decision of making this year’s show fully virtual. I am glad they were able to still convene the world’s best tech showcase, but virtually attending from home was vastly different than actually being in Las Vegas and being able to touch the cutting-edge tech gadgets and futuristic electronics.
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-QOjObhrSPCU/YIbsC46p-fI/AAAAAAAHSIs/wpDmoidXqfkWgxC3oUi9VZOt4hC1kcNzwCLcBGAsYHQ/s504/Gary%2BShapiro%2BCES%2B2021.jpg" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; padding: 1em 0px; text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" data-original-height="363" data-original-width="504" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-QOjObhrSPCU/YIbsC46p-fI/AAAAAAAHSIs/wpDmoidXqfkWgxC3oUi9VZOt4hC1kcNzwCLcBGAsYHQ/s400/Gary%2BShapiro%2BCES%2B2021.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 16px; text-align: start;">Gary Shapiro, CEO of the Consumer Technology Association opens CES 2021, the first virtual CES<br /><br /></span></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div>
Surprisingly, this was one of my favorite CES experiences yet. That must sound surprising since it lacked the sights, sounds and feels of a typical CES. However, this year, I found myself much more available to sample the panel discussions, lectures and new product presentations (I also didn’t have sore feet from walking miles around the mammoth convention floor). Tech luminaries from around the world addressed the challenges brought on by the COVID pandemic and put forward their revolutionary solutions as we face an unpredicted future. I learned a new term from a leader at Procter and Gamble, who referred to the way tech companies have been forced to adapt this past year as “Constructive Disruption.” </div><div><br /></div><div>It was fascinating to hear some of the world’s most creative and innovative technologists explain how they were forced to shelve the products they had been working on for years in order to quickly create the new technologies our world required as we battled a global pandemic. I heard government leaders explain their role in helping to democratize high-speed internet and ensure the infrastructure was in place for 5G. I was intrigued by how rapidly the field of digital health has been growing and how new technology owes so much to space exploration. </div><div><br /></div><div>I remain in awe of how the Consumer Technology Association was able to pivot so quickly to a fully virtual show this year and I am grateful I participated. I learned a lot and truly experienced a different aspect of this phenomenal tech show. Hopefully, next year I will be back in Las Vegas and will be able to have a tactile CES experience once again.</div></div><div><br /></div><div>Originally published in the <i>Detroit Jewish News</i></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">© Rabbi Jason Miller's Blog | http://blog.rabbijason.com</div>Rabbi Jason Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07805550465729805847noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6003330.post-10240597370076464792020-12-28T09:03:00.001-05:002020-12-28T09:03:55.697-05:00 New App Enhances Prayer During Pandemic<p>Prayer in Judaism is an interesting concept. While there is nothing inherently wrong with one praying by oneself, there is certainly a preference for communal prayer. Worshiping <i>k’yachid</i>, or individually, satisfies the Jewish obligation for daily prayer, but there are several sections of the prayer service that can only be done when a minyan (prayer quorum of ten people) is constituted.</p><p>During the COVID-19 pandemic, the strong desire we have for communal worship has posed a challenge to clergy. Certainly, technology has solved many of the inherent problems that occur when it is impossible for community members to congregate in person due to health risks. We have seen how video conferencing apps like Zoom have become commonplace for group worship. But we have also seen examples of what happens when technology fails, as it did for dozens of congregations dependent on the synagogue website company Shul Cloud, whose servers failed on Yom Kippur, the most heavily trafficked day of the year for virtual synagogue prayer.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-GVRPv0ThTao/X-nlJezOTBI/AAAAAAAHPUg/GRqjCpfRarIMOu9mDsdvRKweLF9jalUQACLcBGAsYHQ/s1080/Jewish%2Bcommunal%2Bprayer%2Bduring%2Bthe%2BCOVID%2Bpandemic.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="1080" height="238" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-GVRPv0ThTao/X-nlJezOTBI/AAAAAAAHPUg/GRqjCpfRarIMOu9mDsdvRKweLF9jalUQACLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h238/Jewish%2Bcommunal%2Bprayer%2Bduring%2Bthe%2BCOVID%2Bpandemic.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p><span></span></p><a name='more'></a>Congregations are not simply relying on Zoom to be the savior of communal prayer during the pandemic. New, innovative options are being created to give congregants the feeling of truly being together in a community, whether for Shabbat and holiday prayer services, bar and bat mitzvah ceremonies, or funerals and shiva minyans.<p></p><p>A new cutting-edge technological prayer program that is gaining in popularity amid the pandemic is Visual T’filah. Created by the Central Conference of American Rabbis, this app was used by nearly half of the Reform community during the recent High Holidays to enhance prayer and help worshipers find deeper meaning in prayers.</p><p>Rather than simply show the prayer leader and pages from the siddur (prayer book) on Zoom, Visual T’filah creates a multimedia experience while participants are engaged in the prayer service. It utilizes contemporary technology to display liturgy intermingled with art and other visual imagery. Interestingly, Visual T’filah has existed for several years but because of the pandemic the resource has gained newfound, widespread use as congregations look to enhance their remote services using Zoom. The technology is rather simple since it is a collection of PowerPoint files. Each congregation can use the multimedia files as they see fit during the virtual prayer service and can create custom slides as well.</p><p>Local congregations in Michigan have adopted Virtual T’filah already. "We have used Visual T'filah since we began meeting virtually this spring,” explained Rabbi Matthew J. Zerwekh of Temple Emanuel-El in Oak Park. “I am thankful to have an artistic and easy-to-use tool that can help make our services accessible to our congregation, no matter if they have a prayerbook at home or not. Visual T'filah allows us to be flexible and creative with our liturgy and music while presenting a beautiful and meaningful presentation of the service."</p><p>When hundreds are gathered in a sanctuary, we are engaged in many sensory experiences. This is not the case when we are looking at a computer, tablet or phone screen and only seeing other people in boxes, as is the case with Zoom. Virtual T’filah seeks to provide some of those sensory experiences that add so much to our prayer experience making it feel more spiritual.</p><p>Rabbi Hara Person, chief executive of the Central Conference of American Rabbis (CCAR) made the case for Visual T’filah. “While this remarkable technology has been used successfully by congregations nationwide for years,” she said, “we’re very proud to see how rabbis and their communities have embraced Visual T’filah to find new opportunities for meaningful spiritual experiences during this challenging time.”</p><p><a href="https://www.ccarpress.org/shopping_product_list.asp?catID=3756" target="_blank">Visual T’filah </a>was created by Rabbi Dan Medwin, who serves as Director of Digital Media for the CCAR. Congregations do not have to be affiliated with the Reform Movement to purchase a license for Visual T’filah. In fact, the files can be edited to adapt to any congregation and for any type of prayer service, from a high holiday gathering to an intimate bat mitzvah celebration.</p><p>Visual T’filah is just another example of the ingenuity that Jewish leaders are demonstrating during these unprecedented times. While it is still difficult to believe that we haven’t been able to gather as a community in our houses of worship since the early part of this year, we have been making due and technology has played an important role in helping us feel as if we are gathered together to worship and give thanks to God.</p><p><i>Originally published in the Detroit Jewish News.</i></p><div class="blogger-post-footer">© Rabbi Jason Miller's Blog | http://blog.rabbijason.com</div>Rabbi Jason Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07805550465729805847noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6003330.post-44034888736190484122020-09-17T14:03:00.007-04:002020-09-17T14:08:20.600-04:00Atoning Over Zoom: How Video Technology Will Connect Jews During High Holy Days<p>At the beginning of 2020, most people hadn’t even heard of Zoom, the video-conferencing application. By early April of this year, we were all using Zoom for work meetings, the kids’ school, funerals, shivas, Passover seders, Shabbat services, and to connect with family members during the COVID-19 pandemic. As a rabbi, I have officiated over a dozen bar and bat mitzvah services and two baby naming ceremonies using Zoom over the past six months.</p><p>Zoom has become the new normal for us as we learn how to best connect with each other virtually during the pandemic. Thankfully, 21st-century startups like Zoom have made tech advances making virtual meetings even easier than in prior years. Over the summer, knowing the High Holy Day season might arrive before synagogues were able to re-open, rabbis and cantors around the world began preparing for what would become the first all-virtual Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur season.</p><p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-cqf8qB27ijk/X2OkhSVgiVI/AAAAAAAHMX8/1v0yOTZtO_0bhOoO7OrgD2jgcRaHTsdmgCLcBGAsYHQ/s696/zoom%2Byom%2Bkippur%2B2020.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="412" data-original-width="696" height="236" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-cqf8qB27ijk/X2OkhSVgiVI/AAAAAAAHMX8/1v0yOTZtO_0bhOoO7OrgD2jgcRaHTsdmgCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h236/zoom%2Byom%2Bkippur%2B2020.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p>Some congregations will offer hybrid services with some participants onsite, while most congregations will be fully virtual. There will also be synagogues that have pre-recorded the holiday services and some that will offer a live-stream with some pre-recorded segments. In order for Zoom to work well with the needs of clergy for the High Holy Days, my colleague Rabbi Joshua Heller has been in direct communication with the video conferencing company to urge them to make some changes to accommodate congregations. I spoke with Rabbi Heller, who authored the <i>teshuvah </i>(rabbinic position paper) allowing synagogues in the Conservative Movement to offer virtual services on the Sabbath, about the changes Zoom has made as well as what he sees as the future of virtual prayer services. Rabbi Heller has a degree in computer science from Harvard, was the first full-time director of the distance learning program at the Jewish Theological Seminary, and has a local Metro Detroit connection being married to Wendy Betel Heller, a native of West Bloomfield.<span></span></p><a name='more'></a><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ow3E6IG_Zs0/X2OkbUqOnVI/AAAAAAAHMX4/ZKz2x9nJlYQi5EoV5M6yICikWJbqUG5hgCLcBGAsYHQ/s800/Rabbi%2BJoshua%2BHeller.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="577" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ow3E6IG_Zs0/X2OkbUqOnVI/AAAAAAAHMX4/ZKz2x9nJlYQi5EoV5M6yICikWJbqUG5hgCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/Rabbi%2BJoshua%2BHeller.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Rabbi Joshua Heller<br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p><i>What is your background with virtual prayer services?</i></p><p>Rabbi Heller: I started thinking about the issue of streaming even before COVID hit because in my own congregation there were people who were facing different kinds of health challenges and who couldn't come to synagogue and they would be watching a stream of one of the other congregations that was streaming. I could see this was the direction the world was going in; I just didn't realize how quickly it would get there. There was a Committee on Jewish Law and Standards conversation in November when a very early draft of the paper [on virtual prayer on Shabbat] came up and committee members were very skeptical about whether we should be encouraging people to use technology on Shabbat. And then once people realized what COVID was going to be, the conversation really became fast-tracked in a lot of ways and our expectations of streaming also changed. Until March, the assumption was that most people were going to be in the synagogue and it would be people out there in the world who would be watching the stream, but they would be in the minority. And we now obviously live in a world where there are only a few people in the synagogue and you really need the interactivity.</p><p><br /></p><p><i>How did the COVID pandemic expedite the permissibility of forming a minyan (prayer quorum of ten minimum)?</i></p><p>RJH: The decision to permit a minyan virtually was actually quite controversial. The first time that I proposed it, the committee was simply not interested. With the closing of synagogues around the world because of COVID, the committee backtracked just a few days later.</p><p><br /></p><p><i>Let's talk about the High Holy Days. How have you advocated for synagogues when it comes to the actual Zoom updates based on the needs of congregations for Shabbat and holidays?</i></p><p>RJH: I started thinking about the High Holy Days pretty early on. Although, I think I assumed that we would be in a better place by now and clearly that has not happened. I think when the pandemic started a lot of synagogues thought they could wait it out, but over the summer they realized that Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur would have to be virtual this year. In the last couple of months, congregations and rabbis realized they could get away without a live Shabbat service, but a virtual High Holy Day offering would be necessary [because of the mass of people who attend during those two holidays]. I spent a decent amount of effort trying to make Zoom more Shabbat and Jewish holiday-friendly. So, one thing that happened in the spring was Zoom removed the ability for the host to unmute people and it wasn't just because I asked but they recently added that feature back in. A lot of people wanted that functionality back. One of the challenges of Zoom is that a meeting normally could only last for 24 hours, which is a problem if you're trying to have 25 hours of Yom Kippur or two days of Rosh Hashanah without touching your computer. At the end of August, I was delighted that we were successful in getting permission to have Zoom meetings/webinars extended to up to 72 hours for communities where Shabbat and Jewish holiday observance requires that feature. Synagogues that requested it (approximately 300 total) were able to have that feature turned on and then it will be disabled again shortly after the Simchat Torah holiday.</p><p><br /></p><p><i>Do you think a live prayer service that is streamed on Zoom is more beneficial than a pre-recorded service?</i></p><p>RJH: For me, prayer is about community because I think having a minyan really does require having people being able to see and interact with each other. It is not like a TV show that you binge-watch; it's actually a conversation that you're participating in and I think this year, people are physically further away then they might have been, but frankly, they'll have a better view because there's no bad seat in the house this year – everyone gets to be up close and personal. We really want to preserve that feeling of community. There are synagogues that are going to put on a great show with great production value and TV crews.</p><p><br /></p><p><i>Can you talk about the process of how you got in touch with the powers that be at Zoom and did you consider an alternative video conferencing technology or even paying for a customized app that would work the way synagogues needed?</i></p><p>I worked my way up the corporate ladder at Zoom until I found the right person who had the ability to make some of these changes. We looked at other options but Zoom has the price and features that we needed. Zoom has also put a lot of effort into security even though they’ve taken a lot of criticism in that regard. We did talk to another vendor about creating a White Label synagogue meeting product, but we realized we didn’t have enough time before the High Holy Days and the cost was very high. Plus, it wouldn’t have been as good as Zoom so I went back to Zoom and found someone who could help us out.</p><p><br /></p><p><i>What happens after COVID is over? Is this a game-changer?</i></p><p>RJH: So this is a change that was coming anyway. COVID just brought it on faster. There was already the trend toward synagogues making services available virtually because the generation of digital natives really see virtual interactions to be on the same level as face-to-face interactions in a lot of ways. When the Law Committee had the conversation in November, they asked me “Do you think all congregations will be streaming services someday?” and I said very flippantly, well only the ones that are still in business!</p><p><i><a href="https://thejewishnews.com/2020/09/15/atoning-over-zoom-how-video-technology-will-connect-jews-during-the-high-holidays/" target="_blank">Cross-posted to the Detroit Jewish News</a></i></p><div class="blogger-post-footer">© Rabbi Jason Miller's Blog | http://blog.rabbijason.com</div>Rabbi Jason Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07805550465729805847noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6003330.post-60576128405871297082020-08-03T19:21:00.003-04:002020-08-03T19:21:32.791-04:00Learning New Tech Can Help Us Connect During Covid-19<div><br /></div><div>The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has expedited our adoption of new technology and forced us to put it to use to stay connected.</div><div><br /></div><div>COVID-19 has affected people’s lives in tragic ways. The pandemic has also caused us to adjust to new realities like our kids being home from school for the final few months of the school year. There have been countless events canceled, including vacations, summer camp, concerts, fundraisers and sporting events. Our children have been disappointed because of commencements and graduation parties that could not take place.</div><div><br /></div><div>However, there are “silver linings.” One of the unintended consequences of working at home for the past few months, in addition to increased family bonding time, has been an increased reliance on technology to stay connected. For many in our local community, that has been positive, allowing them to learn new skills and become more comfortable with virtual work technology. Some business owners have even questioned why they should continue to pay rent for their office if they can be just as efficient working from home.</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-8PBMsEbq-rQ/XyibLMNHJVI/AAAAAAAHLW0/CkdD-WMzOEIKdmKh_jWLpQzNpHVBA6ouwCLcBGAsYHQ/s696/Technology%2BDuring%2BCovid-19%2B-%2BSilver%2BLinings.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="412" data-original-width="696" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-8PBMsEbq-rQ/XyibLMNHJVI/AAAAAAAHLW0/CkdD-WMzOEIKdmKh_jWLpQzNpHVBA6ouwCLcBGAsYHQ/s640/Technology%2BDuring%2BCovid-19%2B-%2BSilver%2BLinings.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>“I saw firsthand how video conferencing technology like Google Meet was beneficial in enhancing the learning process,” said <a href="https://arkrefining.com">David Hack of Farmington Hills</a>, whose son recently graduated from Hillel Day School.</div><div><br /></div><div>“Watching my son use Google Meet and Zoom to have virtual interaction with his teachers prompted me to look into using Zoom to meet with my clients in my dental scrap business. When dental offices were closed at the end of March, I was able to connect with my clients and not miss any planned sales meetings. I’ve learned a lot lately about new ways of having meetings.”</div><div><br /></div><div>For Jeff Dwoskin, a local standup comic from West Bloomfield, technology tools like social media and video conferencing have long been part of his communications arsenal. However, he learned new ways of utilizing mobile apps to shop for his family’s groceries.</div><div><br /></div><div>“Our family went all in on Instacart. At the beginning of the governor’s ‘Stay At Home’ order, it was near impossible to get a time on Instacart, but I became an expert on figuring out the timing of placing our shopping orders online. We literally didn’t go anywhere for months and Instacart was our lifeline.” Dwoskin also used the time away from his office to launch his own podcast.</div><div><br /></div><div>Risha Ring, president of the <a href="https://www.michjewishhistory.org/">Jewish Historical Society of Michigan</a>, said she has been grateful that the pandemic has forced her to push the organization to begin using technology like Zoom. “All of JHSM programming and our meetings (locally and throughout the state) are now on Zoom. That technology has saved our organization. In fact, now people from as far away as Iron Mountain and the Soo [Sault St. Marie], plus the whole west coast of the state, are now our partners in sharing Michigan’s Jewish history. That couldn’t have happened without our quick embrace of video conferencing.”</div><div><br /></div><div>At <a href="https://adatshalom.org">Adat Shalom Synagogue</a> in Farmington Hills, the entire catalog of programming and prayer services has become virtually accessible through Zoom. The congregation’s communications director, Susie Steinberg, explained that her unplanned move home from the synagogue office came with many challenges, but it has also expedited her dependence on the internet to do her job.</div><div><br /></div><div>“I was thrown in headfirst to master new skills to effectively do the job at hand, which was to communicate virtually,” Steinberg said. “I learned how to fearlessly (and I started with great trepidation) use AnyDesk to remotely connect to my office computer, how to multi-task with only one computer screen and, most importantly, to Zoom.”</div><div><br /></div><div>Steinberg added that now that the synagogue’s staff has moved back into the office, she and her colleagues have a “new bag of tricks, but, most importantly, a confidence that we can meet challenges and create new and often exciting outcomes.”</div><div><br /></div><div>Some of the new technology adopted during the COVID-19 pandemic is specific to certain industries. Clio Software, a comprehensive case management tool for law firms, has been around for many years, but these months away from the brick-and-mortar office compelled attorney Jamie Ryke of Bloomfield Hills to become dependent on it. Ryke, a partner in the <a href="https://michprobate.com">Probate Law Firm of Thav Ryke and Associates</a>, said that he has fallen in love with Clio because it’s a “complete management system for lawyers. It has combined the most important things I use daily to be organized and successful, namely my calendar, email and billing software.”</div><div><br /></div><div>Ryke added that he has never been as organized as he is now. “Learning to maximize the Clio application has made life easier. I also have appreciated being able to attend legal hearings from home on Zoom, since it means I don’t have to drive all over the state anymore.”</div><div><br /></div><div>Technology will continue to make our lives more organized and allow us to feel closer to others, but the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has expedited our adoption of new technology and forced us to put it to use to stay connected.</div><div><br /></div><div><i>Originally published in the <a href="https://thejewishnews.com/2020/07/29/learning-new-tech-can-help-us-connect/">Detroit Jewish News</a></i></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">© Rabbi Jason Miller's Blog | http://blog.rabbijason.com</div>Rabbi Jason Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07805550465729805847noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6003330.post-74341694411606960042020-06-10T15:03:00.000-04:002020-06-10T15:03:10.987-04:00Jewish Live, the 24/7 Festival of Digital Judaism<div>The Covid-19 pandemic has made us feel physically distant to each other because we cannot congregate at our synagogues, community centers, or summer camps. However, the Jewish community has not shifted away from community during the quarantine. Rather, we have been brought together virtually thanks to the Internet and streaming video conferencing. While we cannot pray inside the local synagogue buildings we are accustomed to, we are able to virtually “attend” just about any synagogue we want using applications like Zoom, Facebook Live, or YouTube.</div><div><br /></div><div>Three cutting edge Jewish visionaries saw this 21st-century phenomenon as a prime opportunity to launch a website that is “one-stop shopping” for those interested in plugging in and learning or praying with a community of Jews anywhere in the country. Dan Libenson and Lex Rofeberg of the Judaism Unbound podcast linked up with Apryl Stern to create <a href="https://jewishlive.org" target="_blank">jewishLIVE.org</a>, which is a project of the Institute for the Next Jewish Future with funding from the Lippman Kanfer Foundation for Living Torah.</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-G5peQfBUvAs/XuEuEPSjomI/AAAAAAAHJHg/Vjtcn19Rvd4P4mJ1hhncWUzZCTgCaPCvACK4BGAsYHg/s1680/Screen%2BShot%2Bof%2BJewish-Live.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="JewishLive Website" border="0" data-original-height="960" data-original-width="1680" height="229" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-G5peQfBUvAs/XuEuEPSjomI/AAAAAAAHJHg/Vjtcn19Rvd4P4mJ1hhncWUzZCTgCaPCvACK4BGAsYHg/w400-h229/Screen%2BShot%2Bof%2BJewish-Live.JPG" title="JewishLive Website" width="400" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>The three out-of-the-box thinkers saw in early March that Jewish events were suddenly being canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic. They wondered how they could help fill the void of in-person Jewish events taking place, like conferences, synagogue services, Jewish musical concerts, and lectures. These in-person events would have to migrate to the digital landscape, they realized. Libenson and Rofeberg were already familiar with this landscape because they migrated there when they launched their popular podcast.<span><a name='more'></a></span></div><div><br /></div><div>In an effort to curb the sense of loneliness and social isolation they sensed the quarantine would create for many people because of physical distancing, they wanted to create a website that would serve as a portal to all sorts of learning, prayer, and entertainment. The website, jewishLIVE.org, has a schedule of live streaming experiences broken out into categories like Soul Stage, Earth Stage, Mind Stage, Sensory Stage, Kids Stage, and Music Stage. Imagine a full-scale Jewish culture festival taking place seven days a week and being able to choose your engagement point each hour of every day.</div><div><br /></div><div>They also recognized that everyone staying home and becoming more accustomed to Zoom conferences created a natural opportunity for many Jews, and non-Jews, to connect to Jewish experiences that they might have been intimidated to join in person. They describe jewishLIVE as the “the Grand Central Station serving the new land of online Judaism.”</div><div><br /></div><div>“The web site,” explained Libenson, “which we created very quickly, combines a calendar of events with beaming from ‘Star Trek’ because if you discover that something is happening right now, you can just go there in a single click!”</div><div><br /></div><div>The group produces its own live events as well, working together with individuals and large organizations. “Thousands of people have participated in our programs,” Rofeberg said, “and we've heard a great deal of feedback that we're helping people to learn, and grow, and connect, during a time when so many of us are struggling to find meaning.”</div><div><br /></div><div>The portal, a digital Jewish Community Center of sorts, may remind some of the Jewish community’s first portal on the internet when America Online (AOL) first launched with a Jewish community in Cyberspace. jewishLIVE curates Zoom programming presented by organizations, summer camps, synagogues, JCCs, and youth groups, but it also offers Zoom rooms to individuals and organizations who want to produce live events but may not have enough Zoom capacity or the technical ability to do this on their own.</div><div><br /></div><div>While Covid-19 was the impetus for launching the website in March, Libenson and Rofeberg had envisioned the creation of a digital hub for Jewish programming for some time. “It had been more of a long-term vision, but a couple months ago, when Covid-19 really ramped up and altered all of our lives, it became clear that it was imminent for something like that long-term vision to come to be much sooner than we had expected,” said Rofeberg.</div><div><br /></div><div>The team has been pleased with the response to jewishLIVE so far and so have national leaders in the Jewish community. Rabbi Irwin Kula, president of Clal, said he applauds the jewishLIVE initiative because it is “aggregating, curating, and enabling access to high-quality live content on one trusted platform, which has long been necessary. Dan and Lex deserve much credit for responding so quickly to Covid-19 and making this happen.”</div><div><br /></div><div>As jewishLive continues to get funding to grow the website and add content, there’s no doubt that it will live on once the Jewish community is able to return to a sense of normalcy. “What's clear to us is that the changes we have experienced are not going to be simply erased when social distancing wraps up,” Rofeberg predicted. “We are still going to need digital Jewish programming – and we are confident that many people who just found their way into the digital Jewish ecosystem for the first time will be excited to participate. Hopefully, many of them will create their own programming!”</div><div><br /></div><div><i>Originally published in The Detroit Jewish News</i></div><div class="blogger-post-footer">© Rabbi Jason Miller's Blog | http://blog.rabbijason.com</div>Rabbi Jason Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07805550465729805847noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6003330.post-56433722105574619942020-03-13T11:57:00.000-04:002020-03-13T11:57:07.138-04:00Jewish Legal Matters in the Age of Coronavirus (Covid-19)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
We are all learning what it means to live in communities in which we need to exercise social distancing and enhance our typical personal hygiene regimen to safeguard against the Coronavirus (Covid-19). Hillel Day School, the Jewish elementary and middle school I attended in the 1980s and the school two of my children currently attend (they will graduate in June), has suspended classes amid the positive Covid-19 test of a member of the faculty. In the Jewish community, the closing of synagogues has raised <i>halakhic </i>(Jewish legal) questions about how to constitute a <i>minyan </i>(quorum of ten individuals) so that those in mourning and observing a <i>yahrzeit </i>can recite the Mourner's Kaddish.<br />
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Thankfully, I just concluded my year of saying Kaddish for my beloved father, Gary D. Miller of blessed memory, so I don't have a personal need to recite Kaddish right now. This week, however, I have been asked by many people about the ability to have a "virtual minyan" (using video streaming services) because I have written on the subject in the past and helped my Talmud teacher, Rabbi Avram Israel Reisner, do research on the issue when he was drafting his <i>teshuvah </i>(rabbinic responsum) on the <a href="https://blog.rabbijason.com/2011/11/join-minyan-with-skype.html" target="_blank">Virtual Minyan</a> in 1998 and 1999. I think that if there has ever been a time when it is acceptable to offer virtual <i>minyanim</i>, that time is now. The technology has advanced so much since Rabbi Reisner first began to look into the matter back in the late 1990s so that many of his initial concerns about lagging video feeds and buffering internet connections are no longer concerns. Further, with so many synagogues shuttered until at least after Passover and people being self-quarantined, it will bring much comfort to so many in the community.<br />
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I learned so much from Rabbi Reisner in my first year of rabbinical school and his interest in the <i>halakhic</i> feasibility of the Virtual Minyan on the Internet helped me to begin my own quest to look deeper into the intersection of Technology and Jewish law. Another teacher who taught me so much that first year of rabbinical school at the Jewish Theological Seminary was Rabbi Robbie Harris. Rabbi Harris has written an important piece on how the Jewish community should proceed during this time when we're dealing with the implications of the Coronavirus (Covid-19). I think it's worthwhile to share his thoughts in their entirety below:<br />
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<b>Pikuach Nefesh, Social Distancing and a Rabbi’s Case for the Need to Protect Life</b><br />
<b>Rabbi Robert Harris</b><br />
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A caveat before I begin: I have hesitated from responding to the Coronavirus since news of it first broke, since I am neither a scientist nor a public health official, but now… as a rabbi, a faculty member of the Jewish Theological Seminary and as a former member both of the Rabbinical Assembly’s Committee on Jewish Law and Standards and of the Israel Rabbinical Assembly Law Committee, I want to say clearly and unequivocally: we must take drastic action to enforce social distancing, in the absence of clear governmental directives. Now is not the time to debate, for example, the fine points of use of electricity on Shabbat, or other, now trivial, matters that typically divide us one from another; we are talking about <i>pikuach nefesh</i>, the saving of human life.<br />
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I share these sentiments — not quite a <i>teshuvah</i>, for there is no time to calmly research one, but more than just an op-ed — with a great amount of respect for the various ways in which people of all faiths are struggling to respond to the virus and its implications for our individual, family and communal lives. But at the same time, I want to shout from the rooftops: rabbis and clergy people of all faith: E-services, everyone!!! Social distancing! Virtual congregations! All public religious worship should be set aside until the crisis passes. If the NBA is canceling basketball games, out of its concern for the sanctity of human life, then how much the more so should we follow suit for the purpose of gathering in worship.<br />
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For those of you unfamiliar with the rabbinic principle of <i>pikuach nefesh</i>, let me describe it in the most general of terms: the Torah states (in a context that has little meaning for the subsequent talmudic discussion or my purposes here): “you shall keep My laws and My rules, by the pursuit of which humankind shall live: I am the LORD (Leviticus 18:5). A <i>midrash</i>, or rabbinic interpretation, teaches: “to live by them — and not die by them!” (Babylonian Talmud, Treatise Yoma 85b). The Sages considered many applications of the principle they found in verses like these; I will share just one of them here. It is from the same section in the Babylonian Talmud, Yoma 84b:<br />
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<a name='more'></a>What are the circumstances in which uncertainty would arise as to whether or not a person’s life will be in danger in the future? They are a case where doctors assess that an ill person needs a certain treatment for eight days, and the first day of his illness is Shabbat. Lest you say: He should wait until evening and begin his treatment after Shabbat so they will not need to desecrate two Shabbatot for his sake, therefore it teaches us that one must immediately desecrate Shabbat for his sake. This is the halacha, despite the fact that an additional Shabbat will be desecrated as a result, because there is uncertainty about whether his life is in danger.<br />
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Thus, the Rabbis have ruled in such cases of desecration of Shabbat — a subject which, as we all know, they took to be central to their understanding and practice of Judaism — the principle of <i>pikuach nefesh</i>, the actual or even the potential saving of human life, should take precedence without any hesitation.<br />
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Moreover, we are not speaking of a ritual observance, a mitzvah bein adam la-Makom (“a commandment between humankind and God”), but rather ethical and social commandments of the highest order, that guide our conduct with our fellow human beings, <i>mitzvot bein adam ve-havero </i>(“commandments among humankind”). And particularly in light of the risk of contagion with a potentially deadly (but certainly serious, in any case) disease, I do feel that every precaution is necessary and mandatory, until we really get this under control. Right now we are merely challenged and inconvenienced, but the potential risk is far greater, as I’m sure you are aware.<br />
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In light of the threat that the virus poses, and the rabbinic values clearly at play as the preceding passage indicates, I find the news stunning that we observant Jews would consider gathering in public assembly for prayer at this time and particularly in my place of residence: Westchester County is now an epicenter of contamination and, frankly, Jewish Westchester is at the very center of that. The Governor has now called out the National Guard to help contain the outbreak in New Rochelle, all of the Jewish schools and yeshivot (in addition to Scarsdale Public Schools, and many private schools) are shuttered. And in New York City, Columbia University and the Jewish Theological Seminary are now closed for the foreseeable future, shifting all of their respective resources to online learning and community engagement.<br />
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And to be perfectly frank, as of today, the Jewish community has received the support — emotional and social, as well as medical — of our State and County governments, as well as our neighbors of other faiths (some of whom are risking their own health to deliver food and other supplies to quarantined Jewish families). How long do you think that support will last once they get the sense that the Jewish community itself is finding ways to “get around” the restrictions?<br />
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The fact that a synagogue building here or there has been disinfected is well and good, but if only one person who, even unwittingly (<i>b’shogeg</i>) and not, God forbid, callously, has been exposed and then passes on the contagion, then all the disinfectant in the world will not help contain the contagion. Then we will surely see that all of the inconveniences of quarantines and other restrictions pale in comparison to dealing with an even more serious outbreak of disease and suffering.<br />
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Jewish law, Halacha is clear: <i>pikuch nefesh doheh et ha-kol</i>, “the saving of life outweighs every other principle.” And as the Sages have taught countless times in the Talmud and classical literature of Codes and Responsa, this is an expansive principle, not restricted only to actual moments of saving one individual’s life. This is a time, in fact, for what the Sages have termed <i>humrot</i>, “legal stringencies,” as we typically do in countless ritual ways but in this case we should practice for a serious, extremely serious and potentially dire circumstance, one that threatens both Jews and Gentiles and, if set loose even further, is a mash-hit, a destructive power that can, God forbid, destroy everything that every decent person holds dear.<br />
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Therefore, I would advocate people of all faiths to find ways to practice our respective religious beliefs for the immediate future… in the privacy of our own homes, and to avoid public assembly until the crisis passes. For Jews, I would instruct us to continue to daven, pray, three times a day and fulfill all mitzvot and religious obligations… in our homes, <i>b’yahid</i>, individually, until our communal leaders and government indicate that our gatherings do not endanger public health. And we should do so voluntarily, and gladly,<i> b’simhat mitzvah</i>, “with the joy of fulfilling God’s commandments,” knowing that our <i>humra</i>, the stringent interpretation that I am advocating here, enhances the quality both of our lives and those of our neighbors. Doing this happily and willingly and immediately — that would truly be a kiddush Hashem, a sanctification of God’s Holy Name, more than reciting the additional prayers that may not be recited by individuals. I would close the nursery schools, Hebrew schools, and cancel all public religious services and every other occasion of public gathering. I would not permit the holding shiva minyanim (the “week-long” household prayer services by mourners). I would hold all classes online and live stream every and all religious services. I would direct our communities to limit their public activities to delivering food parcels, caring for the sick, burying the dead as necessary, and other ways of sanctifying God’s name in public — but only those kinds of practices, and only doing so in conjunction with the directives of public health officials.<br />
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And that is why I coached my thoughts as a <i>humrah</i>, an additional restriction beyond the minimal requirements of law and practice. Since the potential of threat and contagion is so great, I believe that it requires us to be extra vigilant and not minimally so. And I do understand the hardship my “not-quite a <i>teshuvah</i>” <i>teshuvah</i>, engenders. This is my “response” to the crisis, and I urge religious leaders of all faiths and denominations to echo these sentiments and find ways to express them in your own religious language.<br />
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Be bold, Rabbis! Go forth, Clergy of all faiths. As God once told a hesitant Moses (Exodus 17:5), <i>avor lifneh ha-am</i>, “Pass before the people!” The great medieval commentator, Rashi, glossed, “And let us just see if they stone you!” I urge the rabbinic leadership of all movements in Judaism to issue a temporary decree, or <i>takkanah</i>, that, for the sake of life, permits the live streaming of all religious services. And I urge religious leaders of all other faiths to find language and means that are appropriate to your own beliefs and observances to sanctify God’s Holy Name and not endanger human life. Do not hesitate, with such a threat facing our communities, this is not a time for pondering and reflecting and discussing; it is what the Sages called a <i>she’at de-haq</i>, “an urgent circumstance,” one that brooks no other direction and one that requires immediate action. That is what being a leader in God’s name requires.<br />
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In any case, I wish us all, our families and our neighbors, good health, and <i>hizzuk</i>, strength, to deal with all of the challenges that the quarantines and restrictions present.<br />
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<i>Robert A. Harris is Professor of Bible at The Jewish Theological Seminary, teaching courses in biblical literature and commentary, particularly medieval Jewish biblical exegesis, and is Chair of the Bible Department. Dr. Harris has written several books, and has published many studies in the history of medieval Biblical exegesis in both American and Israeli journals. He also lectures on biblical narrative and Jewish liturgy in congregations and adult education institutes around the country. Dr. Harris has lectured as a visiting professor at universities in Europe and Israel, and has served as a rabbi in several congregations in the United States and Israel.</i></div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer">© Rabbi Jason Miller's Blog | http://blog.rabbijason.com</div>Rabbi Jason Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07805550465729805847noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6003330.post-11035421948908250162019-12-04T22:40:00.000-05:002020-01-17T14:19:35.068-05:00The Holocaust and Antisemitism<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
When I was in college I took a course called "The Holocaust and Antisemitism." The professor, Ken Waltzer, explained that you can't learn about the Holocaust without having a thorough understanding of the history of antisemitism. He was correct.<br />
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I'm now teaching my own college course about the Holocaust and much of my syllabus is based on Professor Waltzer's course from over twenty years ago. A few weeks ago I took my class on a tour of the Holocaust Memorial Center of Metropolitan Detroit (the nation's first freestanding Holocaust museum). As we walked around the museum I explained to the students that while the Holocaust is a historical event that happened decades ago, the antisemitism that led up to it continues to this day.<br />
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There were 1,879 acts of antisemitism in 2018 according to the Anti-Defamation League, including the attack on the three congregations sharing the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh. Over the past week alone, we have seen the antisemitic incident of anti-Semitic graffiti carved into a door and drawn on a stairway at the Sixth & I Historic Synagogue in Washington. We have seen Amazon.com selling Christmas ornaments, towels and mousepads with glorified photos of the Auschwitz death camp. Jewish students are threatened on college campuses and the Jews in London are considering emigrating en masse if Jeremy Corbyn is elected.<br />
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Yesterday, as I was on a conference call discussing the upcoming #WeRemember campaign that the World Jewish Congress is launching for the 4th straight year in observance of International Holocaust Remembrance Day, I walked into the university building where I teach my weekly Holocaust class at the University of Detroit Mercy. It was ironic that I was about to teach 34 non-Jewish students about the Holocaust while I was talking about the need for more Holocaust education so the atrocities of the Shoah won't be repeated. Still on the phone, I walked down a stairwell and saw a swastika drawn on the wall next to six <a href="https://www.adl.org/education/references/hate-symbols/wolfsangel" target="_blank">neo-Nazi Wolfsangel symbols</a>.<br />
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I brought my entire class into the stairwell and we crowded there as I showed them the symbols of hate on the wall of their university. I asked them what they thought we should do about it. I asked them how they would take what they learned over the course of the past semester in our Holocaust class and use that knowledge to educate their peers, their future children, and their future coworkers. How sad is that only seven decades since the Holocaust there is still so much senseless hate in this world?</div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer">© Rabbi Jason Miller's Blog | http://blog.rabbijason.com</div>Rabbi Jason Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07805550465729805847noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6003330.post-16759648250870824232019-12-01T07:08:00.000-05:002019-12-01T07:08:07.086-05:00The 5 Most Important Books to Be an Educated Jew<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<i>Moment Magazine </i>recently asked me to choose what I thought to be the five most important books to be an educated Jew. This was not an easy request and I took it seriously, going through my Jewish library several times and narrowing down the list. Obviously, the primary texts of our tradition, the Torah, the Talmud, Midrash, and the legal codes, are all necessary to be an educated member of the Jewish people, but I understood that <i>Moment Magazine</i> wanted me to extend beyond those texts.<br />
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I considered important books of Jewish history, books about the Holocaust, Jewish cooking books, and even books about Jewish athletes (an educated Jew must know about Sandy Koufax and Hank Greenberg). Ultimately, these are the five books I chose to recommend. Of course, I could have chosen hundreds more since we are the "People of the Book," but I think this is a good starting point.<br />
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<b><i>The Sabbath</i>, by Rabbi </b><b>Abraham Joshua Heschel</b><br />
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Heschel, one of the great theologians of the 20th century, published The Sabbath as both about theology and spirituality as well about modern Jewish life and Jewish law. I first read this short yet eloquent book when participating in a discussion with other Jewish high school students. At summer camp I recall that the study session brought much meaning and spirituality into my Shabbat experience. Heschel brilliantly explains how our faith is about balancing space and time, creation and rest. Originally published in 1951, Heschel’s words are just as powerful and meaningful today as they were almost seventy years ago.<br />
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<b><i>As a Driven Leaf</i>, by Rabbi </b><b>Milton Steinberg</b><br />
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To understand the Talmud, one first must understand Jewish life in 2nd century CE. Certainly, this could be accomplished with history books, but it’s much more enjoyable to get this knowledge from Steinberg’s beautiful novel. The protagonist is Elisha ben Abuyah, a Talmudic rabbi who was excommunicated for heresy. Steinberg takes this little-known character and allows us to enter his confused head and heart. We become immersed in the community of scholars who gave voice to Rabbinic Judaism and we see the clash between religious faith and the modern, secular society of Rome. Steinberg’s novel is not only captivating but also a wonderful theological and philosophical work.<br />
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<b><i>When Bad Things Happen to Good People</i>, by Rabbi </b><b>Harold Kushner</b><br />
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One cannot understand Jewish theology without reading Kushner’s well-known work. Published in 1981, less than five years after Kushner’s son died from an incurable genetic disease, the book addresses the problems of theodicy. If we believe that God creates and controls the world and is good, how are we to explain evil? Why is there pain and suffering if God loves us? Kushner offers his own theology.<br />
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<b><i>Back to the Sources: Reading the Classic Jewish Texts</i>, </b><b>Edited by Dr. Barry Holtz</b><br />
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Back to the Sources is more than a primer. The authors explain the text and then dissect examples to teach the reader how to learn that core text. Holtz, one of my teachers at the Jewish Theological Seminary, believes that each text requires a different learning approach. In editing Back to the Sources, he found foremost scholars to explain the importance of the text and how it informs Judaism. I first used this book in college, referred to it again many times in rabbinical school and have recommended it to countless others.<br />
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<b><i>Jewish Humor: What the Best Jewish Jokes Say About the Jews</i>, by Rabbi </b><b>Joseph Telushkin</b><br />
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I was tempted to simply list five of Telushkin’s works here because one can learn just about everything there is to know about Judaism from his books: Jewish Literacy, Biblical Literacy, Jewish Ethics, Jewish Wisdom and Jewish Values. I chose Telushkin’s book about Jewish humor because these jokes teach us more about the Jews and Judaism than most history books. Telushkin chose the best Jewish jokes and then analyzed them to explain their source, why they are funny and why they’re accurate. The book is funny but is also an informative read on important topics like anti-Semitism and other faith’s view of the Jewish people.<br />
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<a href="https://momentmag.com/five-books-project/#miller" target="_blank">This article originally appeared in <i>Moment Magazine</i></a></div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer">© Rabbi Jason Miller's Blog | http://blog.rabbijason.com</div>Rabbi Jason Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07805550465729805847noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6003330.post-21409057426484324292019-11-11T09:35:00.001-05:002019-11-11T09:35:31.971-05:00What We Won When We Lost at the JCC Maccabi Games<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Another exciting professional baseball season has come to an end. The World Series showed us that the champion can come from behind. And the playful nature of the Washington Nationals, particularly watching grown men sing “Baby Shark,” showed us that there is joy to be found in the game itself.<br />
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For me, one of the clearest experiences of relationship building through sports is as a three-time participant, multi-year host family, coach, and parent for JCC Maccabi Games. I have seen the myriad of ways that the JCC Maccabi experience promotes Jewish engagement for young people. Using sports competition as its hook for Jewish teens, JCC Association of North America, through JCC Maccabi, offers real relationship building, which was demonstrated to me this year.<br />
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This summer, the Metro Detroit Jewish community hosted the JCC Maccabi Games and by all accounts, it was a very successful weeklong event. As coach of Detroit’s 16U baseball team, I can attest to the fact that while neither team boasted winning records, their players left the games with wonderful memories and a life lesson about camaraderie and sportsmanship.<br />
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After our team was eliminated from the tournament, I led our boys to the bus back to the Jewish Community Center. As fate would have it, we would be sharing the bus with Boston’s 16U baseball team and the bus hadn’t yet arrived. As we waited in the hot sun, I met the Boston coach, Aidan Arnold. I already knew three of his players since I was hosting them in my home for the week.<br />
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After some friendly banter about the longstanding sports rivalries between our two great cities, we decided that we’d play a friendly “consolation” game against each other the following day. I contacted the umpire director for the JCC Maccabi Games, who quickly arranged for an umpire for our game. The two teams played for three hours in what all the players said was the most fun they had all week.<br />
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It was a competitive game that both teams took seriously. We coaches became friends and the players interacted with each other very well. I’m sure we will remain friends and we look forward to seeing each other at future JCC Maccabi Games. We’ll always remember how we quickly put together a memorable game for these boys this past summer.<br />
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Since my first JCC Maccabi Games experience in my hometown of Metro Detroit in 1990, I have seen how the JCC Maccabi experience goes well beyond the competition. It promotes camaraderie among its participants and the net results are meaningful, lasting, lifelong relationships. In the world of Jewish youth engagement, Jewish summer camp and Jewish youth groups have long been the community’s all-stars. However, if I had to select an unsung hero it would have to be the JCC Maccabi Games.<br />
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The JCC Maccabi Games have been planting and then tending trees in the Jewish community for decades. The roots are the actual weeklong events at the end of the summer, but the branches extend out across the generations and across the time zones. They connect Jewish people around the world and remind us that the JCC Maccabi Games are so much more than the competition. Sports tournaments and dance competitions are commonplace for today’s Jewish teens, but the JCC Maccabi Games have created a culture in which the competition brings the teens in, but the result is thousands of Jewish teens who feel more connected and energized; eager to do great things in the Jewish community with the toolkit provided by the JCC Maccabi Games. That one action-packed week generates a lifetime of Jewish engagement.<br />
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Our Boston and Detroit baseball players didn't get to watch their hometown heroes play in this year’s postseason, but I’m confident that the memories of that game this past summer during the JCC Maccabi Games will live with them forever.</div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer">© Rabbi Jason Miller's Blog | http://blog.rabbijason.com</div>Rabbi Jason Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07805550465729805847noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6003330.post-15718802021272936762019-09-27T08:43:00.003-04:002020-05-12T10:42:18.021-04:00Planning a Simcha in the Digital Age<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
This year will mark the thirtieth anniversary of my bar mitzvah. As I reflect on that memorable life-cycle event, I think about how much has changed in the planning of a bar/bat mitzvah since then thanks in no small part to technology. In fact, technology has improved so rapidly that much had even changed from my oldest son’s bar mitzvah in early 2017 to my twins’ b’nai mitzvah in late 2018.<br />
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The planning process for a bar/bat mitzvah or a wedding, including the hiring of vendors, has become much easier because of the web and mobile apps. This is true when it comes to wedding planning as well. From sending out invitations and getting responses back to creating table assignments and figuring out who wants the vegetarian meal, there is no shortage of applications to help make planning a simcha (Jewish celebration) go smoothly in the 21st century. There still will be stressful moments, but technology has certainly alleviated much of the simcha planning anxiety.<br />
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The creators of the web applications that help us plan bar/bat mitzvahs and weddings experienced the hassles of those endeavors themselves. It was that anxiety-producing experience that led them to find ways to disrupt the party planning industry using new technology. Let’s look at some of the innovative ways you can save time and energy planning your next simcha.<br />
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<b>RSVPify – </b>Managing your guest list and keeping track of responses can really add to the anxiety of planning a simcha. Now that it’s considered appropriate to use online invitations and responses for weddings and mitzvah parties, RSVPify has stepped in as the most advanced online RSVP website. With RSVPify, you can still use traditional invitations, but your guests can respond to the invitation online. This makes it easier to keep track of your guests. RSVPify also has secondary events management to help you keep track of additional events during your party weekend, like a Shabbat dinner, Sunday brunch or rehearsal dinner. Additionally, you can ask your guests custom questions, like whether they require a special meal or home hospitality for Shabbat, size of giveaway clothing, or who needs a ride from the airport. RSVPify also has clever features like a seating chart maker, built-in menu options for dietary needs and food allergies, and the ability to send reminder emails to guests who haven’t responded. Guests are even able to give a monetary gift or make an online donation directly from the invitation. https://rsvpify.com<br />
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<b>Mitzvah Organizer – </b>This website really has it all when it comes to planning a bar/bat mitzvah. It is created by Mitzvah Market, an online vendor directory that has ideas and resources for parents planning a mitzvah. The Mitzvah Organizer costs $69.95 and allows you to manage the guest lists for all aspects of the celebration weekend. The user interface looks like nothing more than a branded Microsoft Excel database, but it allows you to effortlessly manage everything in one app including table assignments, a candle lighting ceremony, party favor sizes, the song list for the DJ, the synagogue honors for the service, and many other things that are easy to forget. For many parents, Mitzvah Organizer’s budget feature will help them figure out which vendors have been paid and which are still owed, in addition to how close they have kept to their original budget. Plus, the budget feature allows you to compare the costs of different vendors. Mitzvah Organizer has predesigned reports that will prove helpful to stay organized and to provide necessary information to the vendors. Like most online apps, Mitzvah Organizer can be used on a desktop, tablet or phone. https://www.mitzvahorganizer.com/<br />
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<b>Zola – </b>Wedding websites like Wedding Wire and The Knot are nothing new. They’ve been around for a long time and continue to add more features. Zola seems to have taken what those websites offer up a notch. Zola is a free service and does not charge for couples to create a custom wedding website. The company does sell invitations and charges a fee if wedding guests use the website to gift money to the couple. In addition to an online wedding registry (something Wedding Wire and The Knot offer as well), Zola offers expert advice for weddings, like which venue to use and how to find an officiant, how to create the guest list, what creative innovations to include in the ceremony, which activities to offer before and during the wedding weekend, reception décor, and how to choose the right photographer. Couples can send updates to guests, have a countdown clock on their website, and post videos to get their guests excited for their big day. These customized wedding websites also make it easier for the out-of-town guests, as well as guests at a destination wedding, because everything they need to plan their vacation is on the wedding website. https://www.zola.com/</div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><br /></div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><b>Mint </b>– Although not directly related to the planning of a bar/bat mitzvah or wedding, Mint does cover one paramount aspect surrounding the planning process – money. The successful planning, hosting, and executing of any event is a feat unto itself. However, if you’re the one paying for the lion’s share of it then you may be left with the financial impact from an event such as this for months (or even years) down the road. That is where the Mint app comes in. Mint is a budget tracking and planning app that can help you take the guesswork out of planning and saving for any event. The app allows you to view all of your financial accounts in one precise, consolidated platform and allows you to track any income arriving or departing from your account(s). You can also view your credit score which might bolster or holster your plans on using a credit card to fund the event. Mint goes the extra mile by offering tips and informed recommendations on maintaining, saving, and/or growing your money. They analyze and vet thousands of financial services so you can learn <a href="https://www.mint.com/credit-cards/">how to find the best credit cards</a>, choose a suitable high-yield savings account, pick a reputable brokerage, and so much more. Whether the Simcha you’re planning is large or small, being financially prepared to undertake such an endeavor will not only mean a wonderful celebration, but also a decreased financial burden when everything is said and done. <br />
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Technology has changed so much about bar/bat mitzvah planning for the better and it’s done the same for weddings. Personalized wedding websites have dozens of features that weren’t even dreamed of when I got married twenty years ago. The Jewish people will continue to celebrate life-cycle events like mitzvahs and weddings, as we have for generations, but thanks to the Digital Age, we’ll be doing it easier and in a more organized way.<br />
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<i>This article originally appeared in the Detroit Jewish News. Rabbi Jason Miller is a local entrepreneur and educator. He is president of Access Technology in West Bloomfield and officiates at weddings and bar/bat mitzvahs. Visit his websites at <a href="http://www.mitzvahrabbi.com/">www.mitzvahrabbi.com</a> and <a href="http://www.rabbiforweddings.com/">www.rabbiforweddings.com</a>.</i></div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer">© Rabbi Jason Miller's Blog | http://blog.rabbijason.com</div>Rabbi Jason Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07805550465729805847noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6003330.post-49273341114069708922019-09-23T11:39:00.001-04:002019-09-23T11:39:31.063-04:00Israeli Technology is Answer to Flint Water Crisis<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Earlier this year I stumbled upon an intriguing company exhibiting at the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas. The company, Watergen, had an impressive booth that drew attendees in, but they had an even more impressive claim. The company, which is only a decade old, creates fresh drinking water from thin air using ground-breaking Israeli technology.<br />
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As I listened to the spokesperson tell me about how Watergen can create clean drinking water for entire cities, I naturally thought about the water crisis in Flint, Michigan, which is an ongoing problem for the residents there even if the news coverage has declined recently. Rather than trucking in countless plastic bottles of drinking water to Flint, why not allow Watergen to set up their innovative technology and end the crisis? Apparently, I wasn’t the only one to think of this solution.<br />
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Yehuda Kaploun, who is the president of Watergen USA and responsible for coordinating strategic development and partnerships throughout the United States, also was puzzled as to why his company wasn’t putting their solutions into place in the one American city that needed it most. Apparently, Watergen tried to convince city officials in Flint to use their technology, but they were resistant. They were content with continuing to distribute plastic water bottles to Flint residents, which is obviously not the best financial solution or the most environmentally-conscious option.<br />
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<b>A Chance Encounter Changed Everything</b><br />
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The Flint water crisis seems to be ending thanks to a chance encounter between two men. Armstrong Williams, the political commentator and entrepreneur, was in Washington, D.C. this past May at an event to celebrate Israel's 71st birthday. Upon leaving the event, Williams noticed the Watergen machine outside the Mellen Auditorium, where the event was held. Yehuda Kaploun was standing next to the machine and Williams introduced himself and asked him about the technology. Kaploun excitedly told Williams, who operates a local television station in Flint, about Watergen’s innovative process that turns air into clean drinking water. “Would this work in Flint?” Williams asked. When Kaploun explained that Watergen is the solution to the water crisis in Flint, Williams agreed to make the connections that would expedite its use there.<br />
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Williams got in touch with the general manager of Flint’s NBC25 who introduced the men to Bishop R.L. Jones, a pastor in Flint committed to community outreach. The pastor’s community center was providing over 10,000 bottles of drinking water per week to Flint residents. He was thrilled to replace the plastic bottles with a donated Watergen system. The Flint community now replenishes its water supply (approximately 234 gallons per day) without waiting for weekly bottled water deliveries.<br />
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<b>The Technology</b><br />
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Watergen's solution is based on an Israeli technology invented by soldiers who were stuck in a tank without enough water. Air is drawn into the Watergen atmospheric water generator, where it is thoroughly cleaned, removing dust and dirt. The clean air is then directed through a heating and cooling process, bringing it to its dew point to create water. The water then gets channeled through a multi-stage filtering system to remove impurities, add minerals, and maintain its health properties and fresh taste. After the water reaches premium quality, it is either stored in a built-in or external reservoir where it is kept fresh or connected to the water grid of buildings, neighborhoods and cities, delivering clean water directly to residents’ taps.<br />
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The company, which was acquired recently by Russian-Israeli entrepreneur and industrial philanthropist Michael Mirilashvili, has a local connection. Elliot Grossbard, Vice-President of Sales for Watergen USA, is originally from Metro Detroit. Grossbard told me that Watergen’s commitment to solving the Flint water crisis has personal meaning for him because of his local Michigan roots.<br />
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Flint lawmakers were initially hesitant to implement Watergen’s Israeli technology, but that chance encounter between Kaploun and Williams, which led to Bishop Jones, will likely go down in history as the encounter that solved the Flint water crisis. Watergen isn’t going to stop with Flint. The company is committed to solving the world's drinking water problem, which affects an estimated 1.2 billion people. The $75,000 Watergen machine is being used all over the world to provide drinking water solutions in disaster-affected regions and is beginning a major rollout in the United States. The irony is that the technology innovation that could solve the world’s drinking water scarcity comes from Israel – the tiny country in the desert.<br />
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<i>Originally published in the Detroit Jewish News</i></div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer">© Rabbi Jason Miller's Blog | http://blog.rabbijason.com</div>Rabbi Jason Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07805550465729805847noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6003330.post-39491099094974062182018-12-30T15:10:00.000-05:002018-12-30T15:10:36.741-05:00The Social Media Conundrum<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
I recently binge-watched CNN’s three documentaries on Netflix, which focus on the three final decades of the 20th century. Watching “The 70s,” “The 80s” and “The 90s,” I was left thinking about how CNN would characterize the current decade. No doubt, our love-hate relationship with social media would be a principal highlight this decade.<br />
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As an early adopter of social media and an active user, I find the love-hate relationship that people have with social networks intriguing. The people who condemn social media as an evil that has plagued our way of life are the same people who scroll through their Facebook feed before they fall asleep at night and while eating breakfast in the morning. There are aspects of Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, et. al. that we despise, and there are aspects that we have embraced and don’t know how we managed without. This social media conundrum is fascinating to me and I have been curious as to how we can view it through a Jewish lens.<br />
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Jewish people are less than 0.2% of the world population and yet most of those who have led us into the social media universe are members of the Jewish faith. Sergei Brin and Larry Page founded Google, which opened the door to Mark Zuckerberg creating Facebook and Noah Glass joining his friends to launch Twitter. Certainly, their intention wasn’t to do harm in creating new forms of communication, search and sharing.<br />
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Zuckerberg was an avowed atheist who has begun to embrace his Judaism more since becoming a father to two daughters. His public posts about celebrating Shabbat and Jewish holidays with his family have led some to question whether core Jewish ethics are at odds with the way Facebook is run as a company and how this social network has created harmful outcomes in our culture. In its almost fifteen years in existence, Facebook has been blamed for an increase in teenage depression and suicide rates, altering a presidential election, giving racists and anti-Semites a platform to spew their hate, disseminating false news reports and suppressing actual news, ruining millions of friendships, and Russian intervention of our political process.<br />
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There’s no doubt that Zuckerberg, along with Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg, has been in the hot seat for the past few years. Both have demonstrated they are strong proponents of free speech and they also believe in core Jewish ethics. Have those two mantras come into conflict at Facebook? How can the Jewish community see the light amidst the darkness in social media? While Facebook, under the leadership of Zuckerberg and Sandberg, has pledged to correct the harmful aspects of the network, they have largely failed. But should they be held responsible?<br />
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If there’s one thing that Judaism has taught us over the millennia, it is that there are shades of grey in everything. The social network that Zuckerberg created has a lot of positive aspects to offer us as a civilization. It has helped us communicate with people around the world and find ways to bring us closer together. Facebook allows us to keep in touch with long lost friends, wish each other birthday and anniversary greetings as well as condolences on the death of a loved one, view photos and videos of our family at life’s celebrations, and engage in respectful dialogue over the issues that matter most to us.<br />
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Sadly, Facebook and other social networks have also aided those who perpetrate evil. Social media has a dark side as we know all too well. It has amplified the voices of those who hate and threaten our democracy. It has given a much louder voice to bullies, who damage our wellbeing and sanity. However, social media hasn’t created anything new. It has just brought more of that darkness into the mainstream.<br />
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We must recognize that social media, whether in the form of Facebook and Twitter or something else down the road that will replace those networks, is now part of our world. It is up to us to use these tools for good and to shut out the evil that tries to enter through our internet connections. Ultimately, we must remind ourselves that social media engagement will never replace real-life human interaction.<br />
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In a recent New York Times piece, Bari Weiss wrote that it seems “the organizations and the people who get the most attention are destructive. On social media, this isn’t just speculation. Outrage and negativity are the most ‘engaging,’ and so that’s what we’re fed. The disciplined among us — and I’m hoping to get there — might get off these platforms entirely. One thing we all can do is make the effort to engage in real life.”<br />
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I don’t believe quitting social media activity cold turkey is the solution to what plagues our society. I think we must seek out the positive outcomes that exist in our experiences on social networks like Facebook while working to collectively shut out the darkness that has been so pervasive. While Zuckerberg might have created this game-changing network, he shouldn’t be fully blamed for where it has taken our society. We must show responsibility and direct social media toward the light – overwhelming the evil with good. That is the Jewish ethic.<br />
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<i>Originally published in the Detroit Jewish News</i></div>
<div class="blogger-post-footer">© Rabbi Jason Miller's Blog | http://blog.rabbijason.com</div>Rabbi Jason Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07805550465729805847noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6003330.post-15161941624927221122018-12-02T20:12:00.000-05:002018-12-02T20:12:09.575-05:00The Best Hanukkah Videos of 2018<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
The number of Hanukkah music videos has really gone down the past few years. There was a time when I would come up with a list of at least a dozen fun and creative Hanukkah videos. This year, there are really only two that are worth mentioning. Six13, the Jewish a capella group from New York clearly has this year's best video for Hanukkah... and maybe the best one for the entire decade. With the recent success of the biopic of Queen frontman Freddie Mercury, Six13 was very smart to use Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody for their Hanukkah video this year. Of course, The Maccabeats produced another great video this year for Hanukkah, which is more of a mishmash of different type of music. Happy Hanukkah everyone!<br />
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<div class="blogger-post-footer">© Rabbi Jason Miller's Blog | http://blog.rabbijason.com</div>Rabbi Jason Millerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07805550465729805847noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6003330.post-38958819634891256562018-11-07T21:15:00.000-05:002018-11-07T21:15:44.086-05:00Understanding Jews for Jesus After the Mike Pence Rally<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
When a member of the Jews for Jesus messianic movement who refers to himself as a "rabbi" was asked to give a prayer in memory of the eleven Jews who were murdered at Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh, there were a lot of questions about this group and why this was offensive to the Jewish community. <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2018/11/01/opinions/mike-pence-and-the-rabbi-dantonio-eisner/index.html" target="_blank">The event was a rally for Republican candidates in Michigan and featured Vice President Mike Pence.</a> A Jewish woman running for Congress, Lena Epstein, claimed responsibility for inviting the Messianic "Rabbi" to the event in the name of unity and claimed that if people are critical of her invitation, then they are religiously intolerant.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Loren Jacobs, a Messianic Christian, delivers a prayer at a rally in Michigan with VP Mike Pence</td></tr>
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After I heard <a href="https://www.c-span.org/video/?c4757811/rabbi-loren-jacobs-messianic-synagogue-shema-yisrael-offers-prayer-vp-pence-speaks-michigan" target="_blank">the Messianic "Rabbi" speaking at the event on C-Spa</a>n, I tweeted that it was pathetic that a mainstream rabbi wasn't asked to offer a blessing (<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/30/us/mike-pence-rabbi-jacobs.html" target="_blank">NY Times</a>, <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2018/10/30/pence-rabbi-who-invokes-jesus-name-set-off-social-media-firestorm/1816742002/" target="_blank">USA Today</a>, <a href="https://www.apnews.com/eaa1731b4eb64caf90484ce41da62528" target="_blank">AP</a>). The issue wasn't that a non-Jew offered a prayer for the Jewish men and women who were murdered, but that a Christian was being referred to as a rabbi. It would have been more acceptable had there been several faith leaders including a rabbi.<br />
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The Detroit Jewish News asked me to explain to its readers why there was such an uproar over a Messianic “Rabbi” delivering a prayer at a political rally. What follows is what I wrote in the Detroit Jewish News:<br />
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<b>Trying to Make Sense of Messianic “Judaism”</b><br />
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With the recent controversy of Loren Jacobs, a leader of a Bloomfield Hills church who calls himself a “rabbi,” delivering a politically-charged invocation at a Republican party rally featuring Vice President Mike Pence, there has been a lot of questions regarding the messianic “Judaism” movement.<br />
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The first time I had ever heard of messianic Jews or the group called “Jews for Jesus” was as a high school student. Preparing us for the college campus, teachers at my synagogue’s Hebrew High School informed us that there are proselytizing Christians who claim to be Jewish and seek to convert Jewish students to Christianity. Some of these “Jews for Jesus” adherents, we were taught, were in fact apostate Jews who had left our faith and believe Jesus is the messiah.<br />
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While I don’t recall any direct encounters with any proselytizing Christians during my four years at Michigan State University, I did have an unusual experience in a course called “The Foundations of Judaism.” The course was part of the Religious Studies Department and the teacher, Mark Kinzer, did a wonderful job teaching a wealth of material in the course. At that time, I was already planning to apply to rabbinical school and the lectures and reading material helped prepare me. My eight years at Hillel Day School were good for a foundational understanding, but Prof. Kinzer went much deeper into the history of Judaism. I presumed the instructor was Jewish, but I was not certain. On the final day of class, I asked him which denomination of Judaism he affiliated, and he simply stated, “it’s complicated.” I didn’t pry.<br />
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Several years later, after I had become a rabbi, I was working at the University of Michigan Hillel Foundation. I encountered Prof. Kinzer at a meeting for campus religious leaders. It was there that he explained he was a Messianic “rabbi.” I felt duped and confused at that moment. (He never alluded to his own theology during the class and never mentioned Christian messianism.) He explained that he was not part of the “Jews for Jesus” group and didn’t seek to convert anyone. While I appreciated Prof. Kinzer’s academic integrity and I learned from him, had he been introduced as a rabbi at an event, I would feel just as insulted as I felt after watching Loren Jacobs’ prayer.<br />
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So, how do we understand messianic “Judaism” and Jews for Jesus? And, why has the Jewish community been so upset that a so-called messianic “rabbi” offered a prayer at a recent political rally in Michigan?<br />
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Throughout the centuries, Jewish people were subject to intense missionary activity by the Catholic Church and various Protestant groups. Many Jews left Judaism and converted to Christianity, either by force or voluntarily. In early twentieth century America, attempts to convert Jews to Christianity were common, but often unsuccessful. In the 1970's, a new organization sponsored by Protestants was formed called “Jews for Jesus.” Other smaller groups, calling themselves “Messianic Jews,” followed.<br />
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Members of “Jews for Jesus” are encouraged to consider themselves to be “Completed Jews.” Some members are born Jews who accepted Jesus as their Lord, while others were not born Jewish, but consider themselves to now be Jewish. Essentially, this group’s mission is to convert Jews to Christianity.<br />
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Historically, Jews who converted to Christianity were often interested in staying far away from being identified with Judaism. However, “Messianic Jews” stress their Jewishness and demand to be recognized as Jews by the Jewish community. The members of “Jews for Jesus” or any other messianic “Jewish” group who were legitimately Jewish at first would now be considered apostate Jews, the term used for one who has taken the definitive step of professing and joining another religion.<br />
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An apostate is the term the Jewish community would apply to Loren Jacobs, the individual who delivered the prayer at the rally featuring Vice President Mike Pence (it was originally an invocation and then he was called back on stage to offer a memorial prayer for the victims of the synagogue massacre in Pittsburgh). Some have questioned why the Jewish community was so offended by Jacobs being asked to offer a prayer. Some in the Christian community were confused as to why the Jewish community couldn’t treat Jacobs’ words in an ecumenical fashion.<br />
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The issue for many in the Jewish community is that Jacobs self-identifies as a Jewish rabbi, which is offensive to Jews because he has chosen to become an apostate, recognizing Jesus as his Lord and savior. The fact that Loren Jacobs was introduced as a rabbi and Jewish leader was an affront to the Jewish community. It was unacceptable and insensitive. Had a non-Jewish faith leader been asked to deliver a memorial prayer for the Jewish victims who were murdered while in prayer, that would be have acceptable. Although, the ideal situation would have been to have a rabbi deliver the prayer or a variety of faith leaders offer prayer as has been the case in many of the memorial vigils around the world.<br />
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