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Join us and a group of your peers for a discussion of Jewish texts that shed light on the issues of diversity within the Jewish community. The discussion will reflect on how these teaching have relevance for us and how they can guide us.

Sunday, May 10, 2009, 4 PM
Brooklyn Public Library
Central Library, Dweck Center (Eastern Parkway entrance)
Grand Army Plaza, Brooklyn, NY

Emile Draitster grew up in the anti-Semitic, post-Holocaust Soviet Union, when "Shush!" was the most frequent word he heard: "Don't use your Jewish name in public. Don't speak a word of Yiddish. And don't cry over your murdered relatives." His compelling memoir conveys the reader back to Draitser's childhood and provides a unique account of midtwentieth-century life in Russia.Click here for a schedule of readings in New York and California

Rabbi Gershom Sizomu, leader of the Abayudaya Jews of Uganda, will discuss the unique history of his community and the role music played in their survival. After dictator Idi Amin Dada’s ban on Judaism in the 1970’s, many Abayudaya youth returned to Judaism through new inspiring melodies. Rabbi Sizomu, an accomplished musician and charismatic leader, is the first black rabbi from sub-Saharan Africa to be ordained at an American rabbinic school, and he is fulfilling his dream of strengthening African Judaism. Refreshments will be served. Read on...

In partnership with Be'chol Lashon and JCC Manhattan

May 1, 6-10pm
401 - 26th Street (Between Broadway & Telegraph)
Oakland

Join 8 SF Bay Area Latin@ Artists as part of Oakland's Art Murmur on the First Friday night of May. Featuring acrylic and watercolor paintings, Latino folk art, Frida stuff, cards, magnets, henna painting and much more

Click here for the art walk map.

JCCSF, 3200 California Street (@Presidio)
San Francisco

$15 JCC Members, $18 Public, $10 Students. Email for special Bechol Lashon discount.

With Rabbi Gershom Sizomu, Dr. Rabson Wuriga, and Dr. Rabbi Capers Funnye, facilitated by Dr. Lewis Gordon.

Jews are an amalgam of many peoples and Jewish origins include a multitude of languages, nations, tribes, and skin colors. Over the centuries, while Jews migrated north, east, and west, they also went south throughout Africa. Join us for a roundtable discussion on the beliefs, customs, and history of the various African communities.

A program of the Taube Center for Jewish Life and Be'chol Lashon.

Congregation Emanu-El, 2 Lake Street, San Francisco
San Francisco

This Friday night service is open to people in their 20s and 30s who want to connect with the Temple Emanu-El young-adult community. A festive Oneg follows the Late Shabbat Services which includes delicious food and beer! You do not have to be a member of the Congregation to attend.

Funnye hasn’t built all his bridges yet, let alone crossed them, but the progress he has seen — both as a black Jew and as a black American — has mellowed him. Read on...

Americans adopt thousands of children from other countries every year. The process can be tricky, and would-be adoptive parents often face the question "Why not adopt an American kid?" Listen Here

By Natasha Mozgovaya, April 12, 2009, Haaretz.com

When Avishai Mekonen, 35, an Israeli photographer who has lived for the past seven years in New York City, lectured before American high-school students in Savannah, GA, one of them asked him to roll up his sleeve. Read on...

By David Suissa, February 11, The Jewish Journal

...if you look around our community, you will see numerous examples of assimilation of a whole other kind — one that shines a more hopeful light on the Jewish future. This is the assimilation between Ashkenazim and Sephardim. Read on...

By Gloria Mound, February 14, 2009, The Jerusalem Post

Jonathan Beck's recent article in The Jerusalem Post ("In warm Tenerife, far from the madding crowd," February 1) was charming to read, but what a pity that no mention was made of the most important Jewish connection to the Canary Isles. We have important documentation...which shows that during the Spanish Inquisition trials there in the 16th and 17th centuries, Jews from Spain lived and and practiced their religion in this region in considerable numbers. Read on..

By Anthony Weiss, March 25, 2009, The Forward

In recent weeks, Jewish organizations have insisted that Yemen’s tiny Jewish population is in grave danger and that a secret evacuation is necessary to bring the people to safety. But a new report written by on-the-ground observers suggests that one of the primary barriers to the Jews’ departure is the resistance of the Jews themselves. Read on...

This night was different from all other nights, as partygoers commemorated the modern exodus of Ethiopian Jews (Beta Israel) to their new homeland in Israel. It happened at “The Road to Freedom,” a festive gathering April 2 at New Eritrea, an Ethiopian restaurant and bar in San Francisco’s Inner Sunset. Read on...

Testament of the gumbo, or cholent, that America’s melting pot has simmered into, it’s worth noting that the first rabbi to be related, or closely enough related, to a president is black. It’s similarly of note that an African American president is the first to host a seder — a festive meal commemorating the Jews’ deliverance from slavery in Egypt — in the White House. Read on...

Passover 30 years ago this year had special meaning for Aaron Kintu Moses and other members of Uganda’s small Abayudaya Jewish community. Idi Amin, the country’s president and military dictator since 1971, who had outlawed open practice of Judaism, who had collaborated with the terrorists who hijacked the Air France plane and taken Jewish passengers as hostages in Entebbe in1976, was deposed on erev Pesach 1979. Read on...

We welcome your participation in the Be’chol Lashon Newsletter!

Please send us information about events in your community or articles of interest that relate to Jewish diversity. E-mail newsletter submissions to Esther Fishman, Esther@BecholLashon.org. Submissions are subject to editing for content, clarity and style.

Special thanks to all the contributors who make the newsletter interesting and informative.

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