Big JNews!

"#Antisemitism is on the rise. There’s a war raging in the #MiddleEast. #Passover is bearing down on us and gas prices are higher than ever.

And yet one morsel of good news came to #Jewish faithful this month: #ReesesPieces are now certified #kosher #pareve.

#OU Kosher, the largest kosher certifier in the #US, announced March 12 that the candy-coated peanut butter candies are no longer considered dairy despite packaging that labels them as such.

The implications for kosher consumers are as momentous as they are simple: Reese’s Pieces can be eaten immediately after meat — or for the deeply adventurous stomach, alongside it — without the hourslong period #Orthodox #Jews wait before eating dairy again."

https://jewishpostandnews.ca/uncategorized/reeses-pieces-are-now-kosher-pareve-carnivores-rejoice/

Reese’s Pieces are now kosher pareve. Carnivores rejoice.

Antisemitism is on the rise. There’s a war raging in the Middle East. Passover is bearing down on us and gas prices are higher than ever. And yet one morsel of good news came to Jewish faithful this month: Reese’s Pieces are now certified kosher pareve. OU Kosher, the largest kosher certifier in the U.S., […]

During the Ottoman rule, less than 5 percent of Palestine’s population was Jewish

During the Ottoman rule, less than 5 percent of Palestine’s population was Jewish

The Ottomans ruled the contemporary Israel and Palestine for 400 years after their occupation of the land in 1517. Their legacy is still felt today in several aspects.

The legal system of Israel, the religious court records (the sijjil), the land registry (the tapu) and a few architectural gems all testify to the significance of the Ottomans’ presence.

Suleiman the Magnificent who is known as Sultan to the Arabs and Caesar to the Christians never visited Jerusalem but, regarding himself as the second Solomon, he rebuilt most of the and gates that we see today.

During the Ottoman rule, less than 5 percent of the population was Jewish, probably 10 to 15 percent were Christian and remaining were Muslims.

As Yonatan Mendel comments:

“The exact percentage of Jews prior to the rise of Zionism is unknown. However, it probably ranged from 2 to 5%. According to Ottoman records, a total population of 462,465 resided in 1878 in what is today Israel/Palestine. Of this number, 403,795 (87 percent) were Muslim, 43,659 (10 percent) were Christians and 15,011 (3 percent) were Jewish”

The official website of the Israeli foreign ministry relating to the history of Palestine since the sixteenth century states: “Following the Ottoman Conquest in 1517, the Land was divided into four districts, attached administratively to the province of Damascus and ruled from Istanbul. At the outset of the Ottoman era, some 1,000 Jewish families lived in the country, mainly in Jerusalem, Nablus (Schechem), Hebron, Gaza, Safed (Tzfat) and the villages of the Galilee. The community was composed of descendants of Jews who had always lived in the Land as well as immigrants from North Africa and Europe. Orderly government, until the death (1566) of Sultan Suleiman the magnificent, brought improvements and stimulated Jewish immigration. Some newcomers settled in Jerusalem but the majority went to Safed where, by the mid-16th century, the Jewish population had risen to about 10,000, and the town had become a thriving textile centre.”

[Research by Fidato]

 

#Geopolitics #History #Jews #MuslimUmmah #Muslims #OttomanEmpire #Ottomans #Palestine
The #African #Roots of #Black #Jews: #Ethiopia, #Igbo, #Lemba, and the lost lineages
The story of Black Jews is one of the most powerful and least understood chapters in world history. Across Africa, from Ethiopia to Nigeria, from Zimbabwe to Uganda, Jewish
#BlackJews #AfricanJewishHistory #BetaIsrael #LembaPeople #IgboJews #JewishAfrica #AncientJudaism #CulturalResilience #HiddenHistories #LegacyInMotion
https://juskosave.blogspot.com/2026/03/the-african-roots-of-black-jews.html

He also informed her that a majority of Israeli Jews support the Iranian war, and though a majority of US Jews do not do so, those diaspora Jews should shut up about criticizing Israel. In support of her position, Tamkin cites an interview the Italian Jewish writer Primo Levi gave in 1984, in which he said that the diaspora and not Israel should be the center of gravity defining global Judiaism, a polycentric center.

#Israel #Iran #war #zionism #Jews #DiasporaJews #morality
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Emily Tamkin reports that after she has written critically as a US Jew about Israel's role in urging war against Iran, a man emailed to call her "diaspora trash."

He informed her that she has no moral right to criticize Israel unless she lives there and thus bears its burdens.

#Israel #Iran #war #zionism #Jews #DiasporaJews #morality
/1

https://emilyctamkin.substack.com/p/on-being-diaspora-trash

On being "diaspora trash"

Which I am, according to a man in my inbox

ET Write Home

If our governments actually took a stand against the #Israelimilitary regime, I can guarantee you that reports of #anti-semitsm would nose dive.

People are angry and feel utterly helpless and overwhelmed with the stories, images and reports of the genocide in #Gaza. They know that their government will never seek justice and even put Israel before the #UN. The people are lashing out and don't realise just how many non #Zionist #Jews abhorr what's happening in Gaza.

Team up, not beat up.

T’ruah (https://truah.org) just released a rather nice supplemental reading for this year’s Seder. While its target population is US Jewry, it’s relevant (and growing more so) here in Canada as well (and globally as wel tbh). Give it a look and maybe consider integrating it into this year’s Haggadah as well as passing it along to others who might appreciate it.

https://truah.org/resources/gods-children-a-haggadah-supplement-for-immigrant-justice/

#Judaism #Passover #Jews #Seder #Immigration #SocialJustice

T’ruah: The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights

T’ruah trains and organizes more than 2000 rabbis and cantors and their communities to protect the human rights of all people in North America, Israel, and the occupied Palestinian territories.

T'ruah

"In the early hours of Monday morning, four #ambulances belonging to #Hatzalah – the volunteer #Jewish #emergencyservice that provides medical care to #Jews and non-Jews alike, whose name literally translates to ‘rescue’ or ‘relief’ – were set on fire outside a #synagogue in #GoldersGreen.

Nobody was killed, though.

That is a fact that will be noted often, as a form of reassurance for the Jewish community of #London, to which I belong. But that argument must not be allowed to carry too much weight.

The issue is that ambulances are functional objects: they exist to close the gap between #medical crisis and subsequent medical care. To target them is an act of interference – a deliberate degradation of the Jews’ capacity to respond to #emergencies."

https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/britain-is-failing-its-jewish-communities-again/

"In #TikTok videos viewed tens of thousands of times, 31-year-old #DanSheena dons a blond wig and acts out skits of a bickering #Iraqi couple in a #language that is nearly extinct: #Judeo-#Arabic.

#Sheena began posting videos on TikTok in 2023, speaking the endangered language, which today is rarely spoken by anyone under the age of 60, following the mass exodus of #Jews from #Arab countries due to discrimination and religious persecution.

Raised by two parents from #Baghdad, Sheena grew up in #Israel and spoke the language at home. That’s a rarity among second- and third-generation Iraqi Jews, whose families often stopped passing it down in an effort to assimilate.

From a young age, Sheena, who still lives in Israel, knew he wanted to become an Arabic teacher. After years of teaching conversational Arabic in the public school system, he became determined to preserve the dialect he grew up with.

When Sheena told his family that he wanted to teach #JudeoArabic..."

https://forward.com/news/814183/dan-sheena-judeo-arabic-iraqi-jews/?utm_source=flipboard&utm_medium=activitypub

Meet the TikToker trying to revive Judeo-Arabic, the nearly extinct language Jews once spoke across the Arab world

Dan Sheena grew up speaking a dying dialect with roots going back hundreds of years in the Mideast. Now he teaches it to a new generation seeking to reconnect

The Forward

This has been what #Netanyahu has sought to achieve for years. Aempting to blur the lines between #Israel and #Jews in terms of responsibility as well as pushing the narrative that Israel is the only safe place. He is on record as wishing for more of the right sort of immigrant (one assumes that is right wing individuals with no shame for stealing other people’s land and property)

And fools play along with his narrative in the West. Don't fall for it.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/mar/20/attack-uk-us-europe-netanyahu-jews-violence-antisemitism

Attacks on synagogues and Jewish shops in the UK, Europe and the US don’t hurt Netanyahu. They just hurt ordinary Jews

Too many want to cast acts of violence and antisemitism as blows against Israel’s government. But the fear and terror land on real people, thousands of miles away, says Guardian columnist Jonathan Freedland

The Guardian