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This Day, January 21st, In Jewish History

1910: The Angel Island Immigration Station opened today.
Prior to the opening of the Immigration Station, immigrants landed directly in San Francisco.

Jews immigrated through Angel Island primarily in two waves:
in the 1920s from Russia to escape the Bolshevik revolution,
and between 1938 and 1940, when German and Austrian Jews crossed Asia to flee the Nazis.

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In some ways, Angel Island was the Ellis Island of the West.
But because of the politics and laws of its time, unlike Ellis Island,
many immigrants were detained on Angel Island for weeks or months at a time,
particularly Chinese and other Asian immigrants.

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Jewish cemetery in Ioannina, Greece damaged by storm

The historic Jewish cemetery in Ioannina, Greece
suffered serious damage in a severe storm that struck Saturday, Jan. 3.

According to local media reports and representatives of the local Jewish community,
gale force winds uprooted a number of trees, including a tall cypress tree that toppled onto the tahara house
and also damaged the surrounding pavement.

A number of graves, particularly in the oldest section of the cemetery, were also reported to be damaged.

We publish here photos sent by Moses Eliasaf, President of the Jewish Community in Ioannina,
to Marcia Haddad Ikonomopoulos, museum director at the  Kehila Kedosha Janina Synagogue in New York,
which is spearheading a drive to raise money for repairs (estimated, Marcia says, at more than $50,000).

Kehila Kedosha Janina had already been working to fund-raise to restore the cemetery,
which in 2012 was designated an historical landmark.

The cemetery has suffered several vandal attacks over the years.

Damage in the Jewish cemetery in Ioannina, Greece. Photo courtesy Jewish community of Ioannina

Damage in the Jewish cemetery in Ioannina, Greece. Photo courtesy Jewish community of Ioannina

As many of you know, a severe storm in the beginning of January severely damaged the Jewish Cemetery of Ioannina.
Trees were uprooted, pathways demolished and many tombstones severely damaged.

Needless to say, the small Jewish community in Ioannina cannot possibly repair the cemetery on their own.

Kehila Kedosha Janina Synagogue will spearhead a drive to raise money
for repairs(estimated at over $50,000).

This is not the first time we have done this.

For those of you living in the United States, send your checks to
Kehila Kedosha Janina Synagogue, 280 Broome Street, New York NY 10002.

The Association of Friends of Greek Jewry will absorb the costs of bank transfers
so that every dollar raised will go directly to the Jewish Community of Ioannina.

For those of you outside the United States
who wish to make bank transfers directly to the Jewish Community of Ioannina,
contact us atkehila_kedosha_janina@netzero.net
and we will send you the bank information for the community in Ioannina.

We sincerely thank those who have already given.

Please encourage your family and friends who have not yet given to do so.

Marcia Haddad Ikonomopoulos
Museum Director

Kehila Kedosha Janina
280 Broome Street
NYC, NY 10002

Paris shooting victim, just home from Birthright, dreamed of being Israeli

Friends of Yoav Hattab, the son of the Tunis chief rabbi who was killed in the attack on the Hyper Cacher market, describe his love of Israel.

Most friends who meet on Birthright Israel trips get to look forward to lifelong connections with their fellow participants.

Yoav Hattab never got that chance. The son of the Chief Rabbi of Tunis, who traveled to Israel on Birthright last month, had only been back in Paris for a few weeks when he was gunned down by the terrorist who laid siege to the Hyper Cacher supermarket on Friday.

The 21-year-old, Hattab was a student when he signed up for one of the free Birthright tours to Israel offered to young Diaspora Jews around the world. Hattab grew up in La Goulette, a coastal town in the suburbs of Tunis, the Daily Mail reported, but had moved to Paris to study marketing and international trade.

But one of his Birthright companions said his ultimate aim was to move to Israel, even though the Birthright trip was his first time in the country.

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February is IMAGE’s Wedding/Party Issue

February is IMAGE’s Wedding/Party Issue.

We would like to put together a collage of community parties.

Send us your Bar/Bat Mitzvah, Wedding and Brit Milah photos
from years ago and see them in next month’s issue.

Please tell your family and friends.
Let’s make this a community issue.

Email photos to editor@imageusa.com by January 19th.

Retired School Principal Is $326M Mega Millions Winner, New York’s Biggest Jackpot Winner

MIDDLETOWN, N.Y. (CBSNewYork) — A retired elementary school principal is New York’s biggest jackpot winner.

Harold Diamond, 80, of Wurtsboro is the sole winner of the $326 million Mega Millions jackpot drawn on Nov. 4, lottery officials revealed Monday.

Diamond picked up his ceremonial check at the Valero gas station on Route 302 in Middletown, where he bought the winning ticket.

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Manufacturing Palestine and the Palestinians

We are called settlers, occupiers and much worse. While the Palestinian Authority incites violence against Israelis, the media brings legitimacy to the terror.

The world is divided between people who believe Israel is the home of the Jewish people and people who believe Jews have invaded the land and forcibly expelled the true Palestinian people. Who is correct?

Media outlets such as CNN, BBC, CBS and many others have been telling a tragic story about Palestinians who were forced out of their homeland and into a harsh life in which they are refugees living under brutal oppression. The oppressors are the vicious Zionists, the many thousands of Jews who manufactured a story about a Holocaust in order to inhabit Palestinian land. The claim is that the Zionists have no claim to the land, having abandoned it over 2000 years ago. Bear in mind, there are those who say the Jewish people have no link to “Palestine” at all. These same people often refer to the Holocaust as the “holohaux” and who portray Hitler as a hero. When confronted by archaeological proof about the Jewish connection to Israel, they say that the Jews of today are not the same as the Jewish people who lived over 2000 years ago. Where are those Jews? Dead. Assimilated. The answers vary.

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Jewish School Tuition Crisis: Parents Feeling ‘Priced Out’ of Their Religion

She did not intend to become the heretic of the checkout line. But as she watches her food bill skyrocket, Deborah feels compelled to make snarky remarks. “Why bother eating kosher?” she asks those behind her. The patrons tut-tut in agreement and discuss how expensive kosher food has become, and on top of the “tuition crisis” — the exorbitant expense of Jewish day schools — how can anyone afford to shop in Glatt markets? But the reality is: the price of kosher is the least of it.

“For the record, most items with a kosher certification are not more expensive,” says Menachem Lubinsky, an authority on the kosher food industry, CEO of Lubicom Consulting and Founder of Kosherfest, “What are more costly are the specifically produced kosher foods that require extra kosher certification, particularly in meat and dairy. Prices may be 10 percent to 20 percent higher than non-kosher items.” He adds that despite higher fuel and commodity prices in recent times, costs of most kosher ethnic foods have either stayed the same or gone up by no more than 3 percent to 5 percent.

Lubinsky’s information confirms that the cost of kosher food is nothing when compared to the exorbitance of Jewish day school tuition.

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This Day In History – 01/05/1933 The Golden Gate Bridge is Born

On January 5, 1933, construction begins on the Golden Gate Bridge, as workers began excavating 3.25 million cubic feet of dirt for the structure’s huge anchorages.

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Following the Gold Rush boom that began in 1849, speculators realized the land north of San Francisco Bay would increase in value in direct proportion to its accessibility to the city. Soon, a plan was hatched to build a bridge that would span the Golden Gate, a narrow, 400-foot deep strait that serves as the mouth of the San Francisco Bay, connecting the San Francisco Peninsula with the southern end of Marin County.

Although the idea went back as far as 1869, the proposal took root in 1916. A former engineering student, James Wilkins, working as a journalist with the San Francisco Bulletin, called for a suspension bridge with a center span of 3,000 feet, nearly twice the length of any in existence. Wilkins’ idea was estimated to cost an astounding $100 million. So, San Francisco’s city engineer, Michael M. O’Shaughnessy (he’s also credited with coming up with the name Golden Gate Bridge), began asking bridge engineers whether they could do it for less.

Engineer and poet Joseph Strauss, a 5-foot tall Cincinnati-born Chicagoan, said he could.

Eventually, O’Shaughnessy and Strauss concluded they could build a pure suspension bridge within a practical range of $25-30 million with a main span at least 4,000 feet. The construction plan still faced opposition, including litigation, from many sources. By the time most of the obstacles were cleared, the Great Depression of 1929 had begun, limiting financing options, so officials convinced voters to support $35 million in bonded indebtedness, citing the jobs that would be created for the project. However, the bonds couldn’t be sold until 1932, when San-Francisco based Bank of America agreed to buy the entire project in order to help the local economy.

The Golden Gate Bridge officially opened on May 27, 1937, the longest bridge span in the world at the time. The first public crossing had taken place the day before, when 200,000 people walked, ran and even roller skated over the new bridge.

With its tall towers and famous red paint job, the bridge quickly became a famous American landmark, and a symbol of San Francisco.

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Construction Timeline Golden Gate Bridge

December 1932 to April 1937

Additional KEY DATES in the History of the Golden Gate Bridge

December 22, 1932: Extending from Fort Baker pier, the construction of a 1,700 foot-long access road began to access the construction sites for the Marin anchorage, pier and tower.

January 5, 1933: Construction officially started.

January 1933 to February 1936: Marin and San Francisco anchorages and associated pylons.

January 1933 to May 1935: San Francisco anchorage.

January 1933 to June 1933: Marin pier.

January 1933 to June 1935: Marin anchorage.

February 1933: Work began on the east approach road from San Francisco that extended through the Presidio to the south end of the Golden Gate Bridge.

March 1933: Steel for the San Francisco and Marin towers that was prefabricated in Bethlehem steel foundries in Pottstown and Steelton, PA was brought by flatcar to Philadelphia and transferred to barges and shipped through the Panama Canal to Alameda, CA where it was stored until the Marin pier was completed and ready for tower erection.

March 1933 to March 1934: San Francisco tower access trestle was constructed extending 1100 feet offshore. Just as the trestle was completed, it was significantly damaged for the first time on August 14, 1933, when the McCormick Steamship Line’s Sidney M. Hauptman plowed through the thick fog and crashed into the access trestle, damaging about 400 feet. After repairs were made, on December 13, 1933, as a southwest gale battered the Golden Gate Strait for two days, the access trestle was again battered and this time there was 800 feet of wreckage. Trestle repairs began shortly thereafter and completed March 8, 1934.

November 7, 1933: Marin tower construction started. Depending on the source referenced, it was completed either on June 28, 1934 or sometime in November 1934.

October 24, 1934: San Francisco fender wall completed.

November 27, 1934: San Francisco pier area within the fender wall was un-watered.

January 3, 1935: San Francisco pier reached its final height of 44 feet above the water.

January 1935 to June 28, 1935: San Francisco tower construction.

August 2, 1935 to September 27, 1935: Harbor Tug and Barge Company strung the first wire cables to support the footwalks (aka catwalks) constructed across the Golden Gate Strait in preparation for main cable spinning.

October 1935 to May 1936: Main cable spinning and compression.

April 1936: Start of the Sausalito lateral approach road which was constructed as a W.P.A. project.

July 1936 to December 14, 1936: Suspended structure.

July 21, 1936: Start of San Francisco approach viaduct structures and Fort Point arch construction.

November 18, 1936: Two sections of the Bridge’s main span were joined in the middle. A brief ceremony marked the occasion when groups from San Francisco and Marin met and exchanged remarks at the center of the span. Major Thomas L. McKenna, Catholic Chaplin of Fort Scott, blessed the span while sprinkling holy water.

January 19, 1937 to April 19, 1937: Roadway.

GGBridge_web_06_23_12

This Day In History – 12/24/1979 – Soviet tanks roll into Afghanistan

Soviet paratroopers aboard a BMD-1 in Kabul

On December 24, 1979, the Soviet Union invades Afghanistan, under the pretext of upholding the Soviet-Afghan Friendship Treaty of 1978.

As midnight approached, the Soviets organized a massive military airlift into Kabul, involving an estimated 280 transport aircraft and three divisions of almost 8,500 men each. Within a few days, the Soviets had secured Kabul, deploying a special assault unit against Tajberg Palace. Elements of the Afghan army loyal to Hafizullah Amin put up a fierce, but brief resistance.

On December 27, Babrak Karmal, exiled leader of the Parcham faction of the Marxist People’s Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA), was installed as Afghanistan’s new head of government. And Soviet ground forces entered Afghanistan from the north.

The Soviets, however, were met with fierce resistance when they ventured out of their strongholds into the countryside. Resistance fighters, called mujahidin, saw the Christian or atheist Soviets controlling Afghanistan as a defilement of Islam as well as of their traditional culture. Proclaiming a “jihad”(holy war), they gained the support of the Islamic world.

The mujahidin employed guerrilla tactics against the Soviets. They would attack or raid quickly, then disappear into the mountains, causing great destruction without pitched battles. The fighters used whatever weapons they could grab from the Soviets or were given by the United States.

The tide of the war turned with the 1987 introduction of U.S. shoulder-launched anti-aircraft missiles. The Stingers allowed the mujahidin to shoot down Soviet planes and helicopters on a regular basis.

New Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev decided it was time to get out. Demoralized and with no victory in sight, Soviet forces started withdrawing in 1988. The last Soviet soldier crossed back across the border on February 15, 1989.

It was the first Soviet military expedition beyond the Eastern bloc since World War II and marked the end of a period of improving relations (known as dĂŠtente) in the Cold War. Subsequently, the SALT II arms treaty was shelved and the U.S. began to re-arm.

Fifteen thousand Soviet soldiers were killed.

The long-term impact of the invasion and subsequent war was profound. First, the Soviets never recovered from the public relations and financial losses, which significantly contributed to the fall of the Soviet empire in 1991. Secondly, the war created a breeding ground for terrorism and the rise of Osama bin Laden.

Hanukkah Alegre!

Washington-area Sephardic Jews share traditional foods and converse in the disappearing language of their ancestors

[Podcast audio below.] It all started back in 2001, when Sarajevo-born folk singer Flory Jagoda invited roughly a dozen other Sephardim in the Washington area to join her for conversation over burekas and bumuelos (fritters, or doughnuts). More specifically, she invited them for conversation in Judeo-Spanish, also known as Ladino, the language spoken by Jews in medieval Spain and later in the far-flung lands to which they fled after the expulsion in 1492.

Today, the language is all but forgotten, except by those like Jagoda who spoke it growing up. The group has grown to include more than 20 participants. At their monthly meetings—which members call vijitas de al’had, or “Sunday visits,” after a centuries-old tradition from the Old Country—the men and women eat Sephardic treats, sing songs, and study a Judeo-Spanish reading exercise, complete with vocabulary lists. Vox Tablet’s Julie Subrin visited their annual Hanukkah gathering in 2008 for this audio postcard from our archives.

770 Stabbing Victim Levi Rosenblatt Released from Hospital

Levi Rosenblatt, the 22-year-old Bochur who was stabbed inside 770 last week is now home from the hospital.

Levi underwent emergency surgery after he was attacked with a knife by Calvin Peters, a mentally unstable man who was subsequently shot during a standoff with police.

“Mr. Rosenblatt suffered a knife injury to the blood vessels in an extremely sensitive area of his brain,” chief of neurosurgery at Bellevue Hospital Dr. Paul Huang said in a news release.

“Because of the resources available to us, as well as the experience and expertise of the nurses and physicians at Bellevue Hospital, we were able to deliver a very sophisticated level of care to this patient. He underwent a procedure to repair two blood vessels, which was successful. He has had an amazing recovery.”

Levi expressed gratitude for his successful treatment.

“I have a lot of people from way back in the beginning to thank, above all, God and the Rebbe who provided his blessings,” he said in the release. “Thanks to the Hatzalah of Crown Heights volunteer ambulance service, the NYPD, the doctors and nurses here at Bellevue and at Kings County Hospital, my friends who stayed with me in my room around the clock, my family who came from Israel to be with me, and all the people all over the world who have prayed for me.”

 

Happy Hanukah from Image Magazine

Happy Hanukah
from all of here at Image Magazine

Letters to Afar: By PĂŠter ForgĂĄcs on view at the Museum of the City of New York

Letters to Afar:

By PĂŠter ForgĂĄcs, music by the Klezmatics

At the Museum of the City of New York

The Museum of the City of New York and YIVO Institute for Jewish Research premiere Letters to Afar: By PĂŠter ForgĂĄcs, music by the Klezmatics, an immersive video art installation based on home movies made by Jewish immigrants who traveled from New York back to Poland during the 1920s and 30s. Letters to Afar opened on Wednesday, October 22, and remains on view until Sunday, March 22, 2015.

The individual films, interpreted as “letters” and knitted into a single work of art, document poignant family reunions and everyday life in cities, small towns, and villages throughout Poland in the years before the Second World War, capturing a culture on the brink. Internationally acclaimed Hungarian artist Péter Forgács created the audiovisual art installation under a commission by the Museum of the History of Polish Jews in Warsaw and the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research. With a haunting soundtrack by the New York-based band, The Klezmatics, these films bring a lost world to life in startling and moving detail.

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“Letters to Afar provides a glimpse of life in Poland prior to World War II, and poignantly speaks to the complex dual identity that is fundamental to the New York immigrant experience and essential to our understanding of the dynamism, creativity and progress of New York City,” says Susan Henshaw Jones, the Ronay Menschel Director of the Museum of the City of New York. “This innovative art installation powerfully evokes the emotional as well as historical reality of Polish New Yorkers who loved both their homeland and their adopted city. It embodies a core aspect of the New York identity, and I am sure it will deeply move and educate the diverse visitors who come to our museum.”

“Drawn from the collections of the YIVO Institute, Letters to Afar is a magical work of synthesis, both history and imagination, a window onto a largely forgotten past whose vibrant and varied existence gave birth to American Jewry,” said Jonathan Brent, executive director and CEO of the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research.

Filming for their families back in New York in the 1920s and 30s, amateur filmmakers recorded Polish relatives and friends in their daily surroundings. Unknowingly, they also provided extraordinary documentation of joyous family interactions in interwar Poland. In Letters to Afar, acclaimed filmmaker and video artist Péter Forgács, who specializes in working with archival footage, adapted these home movies or “letters” for the 21st century museum visitor. Avoiding a broad historical narrative, Letters to Afar captures intimate human behavior—a look, a gesture, an interaction—replayed at different speeds set to a score of traditional Jewish music, and accompanied by captions and spoken text drawn from memoirs, letters and literature. As a result, viewers are offered more than a historical perspective on prewar life; they experience the longing and complex forces that drew New York immigrants back to revisit their homeland, family and friends.

At once particular and universal, Letters to Afar documents a lost society while highlighting the immigrant experience of being caught between two worlds. In 2013, the installation opened at the Museum of the History of Polish Jews in Warsaw.

Letters to Afar at the City Museum was made possible with the generous support of the Kronhill Pletka Foundation, The Righteous Persons Foundation, The Seedlings Foundation and Sigmund Rolat. Additional support is provided by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs.

About YIVO

The YIVO Institute for Jewish Research was founded in Vilna, Poland, in 1925, and relocated to New York City in 1940 with the mission to preserve, study and perpetuate knowledge of the thousand-year history and culture of Jewish life in Eastern Europe. Today, YIVO’s archival and library collections are the single largest resource for such study in the world. YIVO offers cultural events and programs throughout the year, educational programs, scholarly publications, and fellowships. www.yivoinstitute.org 

 

About the Museum of the City of New York

 

The Museum of the City of New York celebrates and interprets the city, educating the public about its distinctive character, especially its heritage of diversity, opportunity, and perpetual transformation. Founded in 1923 as a private, nonprofit corporation, the Museum connects the past, present, and future of New York City. It serves the people of New York and visitors from around the world through exhibitions, school and public programs, publications, and collections. For more information, visit www.mcny.org.

Woman who survived Auschwitz when gas ran out is about to turn 101

Klara Marcus was a 30-year-old Auschwitz prisoner in 1944 when she was forced to strip naked and march into the gas chamber — only there was no more gas left.

“God was watching over me that day,” said Marcus, who is about to celebrate her 101st birthday, the Central European News reported.

“I was chosen towards the end of the day with a large group of other women and we were made ready for the gas chamber,” said Marcus, of Sighetu Marmatiej in northern Romania.
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“But when they put us inside and went to turn the gas on, they found they had run out,” she said. “One of the guards joked that it was our lucky day because they had already killed so many, they didn’t have any gas left for us.”

She then managed to escape from the infamous Nazi death camp in southern Poland, where more than a million people were killed.

“After I got free, I managed to make my way back to my home to look for my family,” said Marcus — but she discovered that they had gone.

Anton Rohian, a government representative, turned up at her home to mark her Jan. 1 birthday.

“I brought you a bunch of flowers, a bottle of champagne and an excellency diploma to thank you because you’ve returned to Maramures after all you’ve been through,” Rohian said, referring to her county.

“It’s important not to forget what happened in the past,” he said.

Kissing the Romanian flag, Marcus said: “I’ve had terrible experiences in my life, but this is a wonderful moment.”

Pic shows: Klara Marcus who survived a Nazi gas chamber is preparing to celebrate her 101st birthday. A woman who survived a Nazi gas chamber because it ran out of gas is preparing to celebrate her 101st birthday. Klara Marcus, 100, from the town of Sighetu Marmatiej in the northern Romanian county of Maramures was captured in 1944 and sent to the infamous Nazi death camp Auschwitz in southern Poland. Then aged 30, she was forced to strip naked along with hundreds of other women and marched into the gas chamber. She said: "I was chosen towards the end of the day with a large group of other women and we were made ready for the gas chamber. "But when they put us inside and went to turn the gas on, they found they had run out. "One of the guards joked that it was our lucky day because they had already killed so many they didn’t have any gas left for us. "God was watching over me that day." She said that realising she had nothing to lose she had taken her life in her hands and managed to escape before they called for her again. She said: "After I got free I managed to make my way back to my home to look for my family." It was then that she found that they too had gone and she had to rebuild her life alone. In celebration of her upcoming birthday on January 1st, government representative Anton Rohian turned up at her home. He said: "I brought you a bunch of flowers, a bottle of champagne and an excellency diploma to thank you because you’ve returned to Maramures after all you’ve been through. "It’s important not to forget what happened in the past." Kissing the Romanian flag, Klara said: "I’ve had terrible experiences in my life, but this is a wonderful moment." Over one million people were killed in Auschwitz which was liberated by the Red Army in January 1945.
Pic shows: Klara Marcus who survived a Nazi gas chamber is preparing to celebrate her 101st birthday. A woman who survived a Nazi gas chamber because it ran out of gas is preparing to celebrate her 101st birthday. Klara Marcus, 100, from the town of Sighetu Marmatiej in the northern Romanian county of Maramures was captured in 1944 and sent to the infamous Nazi death camp Auschwitz in southern Poland. Then aged 30, she was forced to strip naked along with hundreds of other women and marched into the gas chamber. She said: “I was chosen towards the end of the day with a large group of other women and we were made ready for the gas chamber. “But when they put us inside and went to turn the gas on, they found they had run out. “One of the guards joked that it was our lucky day because they had already killed so many they didn’t have any gas left for us. “God was watching over me that day.” She said that realising she had nothing to lose she had taken her life in her hands and managed to escape before they called for her again. She said: “After I got free I managed to make my way back to my home to look for my family.” It was then that she found that they too had gone and she had to rebuild her life alone. In celebration of her upcoming birthday on January 1st, government representative Anton Rohian turned up at her home. He said: “I brought you a bunch of flowers, a bottle of champagne and an excellency diploma to thank you because you’ve returned to Maramures after all you’ve been through. “It’s important not to forget what happened in the past.” Kissing the Romanian flag, Klara said: “I’ve had terrible experiences in my life, but this is a wonderful moment.” Over one million people were killed in Auschwitz which was liberated by the Red Army in January 1945.

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