Volume XXIV, Issue XIV | www.jvhri.org Serving Rhode Island and Southeastern Massachusetts
13 Elul 5778 | August 24, 2018
ROSH HASHANAH
Russian President Vladimir Putin, right, greets Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the Jewish Museum and Tolerance Center in Moscow, Jan. 29, 2018.
The Jewish year in review
PHOTO | JCDSRI
#MeToo, the embassy move and a growing gap between Israel and the Diaspora Part One
BY BEN HARRIS JTA – For North American Jews, the Jewish year 5778 began with tensions between Israel and the Diaspora over egalitarian prayer at the Western Wall and ended with more tension over a controversial nationality law. In between, North American Jews grappled with the impact of the #MeToo movement, the Trump administration relocated the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv and actress Natalie Portman made headlines for turning down a chance to collect a top prize in Israel.
September 2017
A survey finds that American Jews overwhelmingly disapprove of President Donald
Trump’s performance. The poll, conducted by the American Jewish Committee, shows that 77 percent view Trump’s performance unfavorably and 21 percent view it favorably – figures considerably worse than Trump’s performance in polls of the general population conducted around the same time. Edie Windsor, whose landmark Supreme Court case paved the way for gay marriage in the United States, dies at 88. Windsor’s 2013 lawsuit resulted in the court’s overturning the part of the Defense of Marriage Act that had defined marriage, for federal purposes, as the union between a man and a woman. Rabbi Ari Berman is installed as the fifth president of YEAR IN REVIEW | 34
Jewish Community Day School of Rhode Island students blow shofars over the school intercom during the month of Elul. For more on Rosh Hashanah see page 22.
Local rabbis reflect on High Holy Days preparation BY LARRY KESSLER Since this year’s High Holy Days, followed by Sukkot and Simchat Torah, will arrive relatively early, the Jewish Voice asked area rabbis, via email interviews, how they’re handling the pre-holiday preparations. We also asked them to share something about their messages. Some rabbis, such as Rabbi Marc Mandel of Newport’s historic Touro Synagogue, answered by saying the holidays
never come early. “There’s a joke that goes something like this,” he said. “The Jewish holidays are either early or late – they are never on time. “The truth is, as rabbis, we are preparing for the High Holy Days all year long. It could be in the middle of March, and I might read something, and say to myself, this would be a great topic for a High Holy Day sermon,” he said. HIGH HOLY DAYS | 23
Rabbi Marc Mandel