"There is a line in #Spanish-#Jewish #philosopher #HasdaiCrescas’s letter to the #Jews of #Avignon, #France, that stops you cold. He is describing the 1391 massacres in #Spain, community by community, chronicling who died and who converted and who escaped.

Then he [...] writes: “Among the many who sanctified the Name of the Lord was my only son, who was a bridegroom and whom I have offered as a faultless lamb for sacrifice. I submit to God’s justice and take comfort in the thought of his excellent portion and his delightful lot.”

That sentence captures something essential about #Crescas. His son was murdered, his community decimated, the #yeshiva where he studied destroyed, the scholars he knew slaughtered. And through it all, he kept #writing #philosophy.

Hasdai Crescas: #CollectedWritings, #edited by #RoslynWeiss and published by The Library of the Jewish People, an imprint of #KorenPublishers Jerusalem [...], brings together all of Crescas’s surviving #writings."

https://www.jpost.com/history/article-887278#google_vignette

🇨🇦O7

"Eight decades ago, Andrew Cassel’s father was bundled aboard a #prison ship in #England and sent to #Canada as an “enemy alien”, where he was held behind barbed wire for two years. The elder Cassel was part of a little-known operation that in 1940 targeted about 2,300 #Jewish #Europeans whom the #British feared were spies for #AdolfHitler. Now, Cassel—along with other descendants and some historians—are raising awareness about what he calls “Canada’s dirty little secret”.

The #prisoners lived in harsh conditions at nine prisoner-of-#war camps in #Quebec, #Ontario and #NewBrunswick. In some cases, they were locked up together with groups of real #Nazi soldiers and #German U-boat crews who’d been captured by the Allies during the #SecondWorldWar. But they weren’t #spies—they were doctors, professors, #Yeshiva students and bankers who fled to England to escape the #Holocaust. The British government soon realized their mistake, but Canada..."

https://thecjn.ca/news/canadas-dirty-little-secret-descendents-demand-action-for-2300-wrongfully-imprisoned-jewish-ww2-refugees/

"I acquired a document this week that does not merely whisper history; it indicts it. It is an original letter from #Rav #ElchononWasserman, Hy”d, addressed to a supporter in Berlin in 1933. The date alone chills the blood: the 9th of Shevat, a mere six days after #AdolfHitler was appointed chancellor of #Germany. Long before the world would claim it “didn’t know.”

The letter details the sudden collapse of financial support for the #Baranovich #Yeshiva. Benefactors had vanished. Funds had evaporated. The lifelines sustaining hundreds of #talmidim had been severed almost overnight. Rav #Elchonon records, with devastating simplicity, that even bread had become scarce."

https://jewishpress.com/sections/features/rav-elchonons-1933-letter-foretells-the-horrors-and-pain-for-european-jewry/2026/01/22/

"The #Hanukkah attack did not come out of nowhere. #Antisemitism in #Australia was never abstract to me; it was visible and real. As a child, I remember #yeshiva students being harassed while walking down the street wearing #kippot, and car-bombing scares near a #Jewish institution in #Melbourne. Even when I didn’t fully grasp their seriousness, these incidents became part of the background noise of growing up Jewish in Australia.

#Oct7 marked a turning point, when the intensifying antisemitism across the country reached a fever pitch that has not abated. My mother and one of my brothers live within walking distance of Adass Israel #Synagogue, which was set on fire in 2024. In a separate incident that same year, East Melbourne #Hebrew Congregation was also set on fire during a Friday night gathering. These attacks were not distant news stories; they struck close to the places and people I know and love."

https://stljewishlight.org/opinion/commentary/the-australia-i-knew-and-the-one-we-face-today/

I attended Chabad #dayschool as a child. I have my issues with them, for sure, but one of them is not the quality of my secular #education. When I moved to public school in 10th grade I was well-prepared, and I went on to attend the college of my choice.

These NY #yeshivot, however, are a different story. They're attempting to create here what they've successfully created in #Israel: an entire generation of adults unable to make any contribution to society whatsoever; unable to make a living anywhere outside the #haredi community; unable to speak the language of their country; unable to act as informed citizens of a #democracy; and ultimately, unable to raise children of their own who are not similarly handicapped.

Torah-observant #Jews needn't be so isolated from the greater community.

Good for #NewYork for insisting that NY children be given the opportunity to become educated, fully-participating members of society.

#JTA #yeshiva #Jewish #education

https://www.jta.org/2025/03/20/united-states/three-more-new-york-city-yeshivas-lose-status-and-funding-over-secular-education-standards

#USA

L'Université #Yeshiva, institution universitaire de premier plan dans le monde juif orthodoxe, a annoncé jeudi la reconnaissance officielle de son association étudiante #LGBTQ+, suite à un long litige juridique porté devant la Cour suprême des États-Unis. L'université s'opposait à cette reconnaissance depuis des années, allant même jusqu'à suspendre temporairement tous ses clubs étudiants en signe de protestation.

#Israel / High Court is hearing petitions challenging the military exemption for ultra-Orthodox #yeshiva students

This is a contentious issue that has sparked mass protests outside the court in Jerusalem. The "Movement for Quality Government", joined by "Brothers and Sisters in Arms" and 240 citizens, petitioned the court, arguing that Defense Minister Yoav #Gallant is illegally exempting tens of thousands of ultra-Orthodox youths from military service, defying the law and court rulings. Last week, the state told the High Court of Justice that unless a military draft bill is advanced by April 1, ultra-Orthodox men will be conscripted to the army.

A reminder of the potential consequences of integrating settlers and ultra-Orthodox into the #IDF/#IOF:

[...] The Netzah Yehuda battalion was originally set up to allow ultra-Orthodox Israelis to serve in the military. But over the years, the unit has attracted not only some of the most religious soldiers, but also a growing number of far-right extremists, including many settlers. Unlike other units, enlistment in Netzah Yehuda is voluntary; until recently, it was deployed exclusively in the West Bank, where its members were in daily contact with Palestinians living under occupation. As such, the unit — whose name is an acronym for “Haredi Military Youth” — was known for getting “a lot of action,” the former member said.

[...] The harassment and dehumanization of Palestinians living under Israeli military occupation are a daily affair, and Netzah Yehuda soldiers are hardly the only culprits. But on some occasions, the unit’s actions in the West Bank escalated into gross human rights violations and potential war crimes. Since 2015, members of the unit have killed several Palestinians and beaten and tortured others with electric shocks, according to documentation submitted by DAWN to the ICC, which in 2021 opened an investigation into alleged crimes committed in the occupied territories.

https://theintercept.com/2023/02/11/israel-idf-netzah-yehuda-accountability/

#Haaretz https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2024-02-26/ty-article/.premium/israels-high-court-hears-draft-law-petitions-as-protesters-call-for-equal-service/0000018d-e46b-d7f4-a3dd-e66f39fc0000 or https://archive.md/AJjIv

@israel
@palestine
#Apartheid
#SettlerViolence
#WestBank
#Ultranationalism