Yom HaZikaron & Yom HaAtzmaut - Israeli Memorial Day & Independence Day

In 2014, these holidays are celebrated on May 4th and May 5th

From ReformJudaism.org

Since the establishment of the State of Israel, four new holidays have been added to the Jewish calendar - Yom HaShoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day), Yom HaZikaron (Memorial Day), Yom HaAatzmaut (Independence Day), and Yom Yerushalayim (Jerusalem Day). In Israel, these holidays are observed as national holidays.

The Israeli Knesset established the day before Yom HaAtzmaut as Yom HaZikaron, a Memorial Day for soldiers who lost their lives fighting in the War of Independence and in other subsequent battles.

Yom HaAtzmaut, Israeli Independence Day, marks the establishment of the modern state of Israel in 1948. It is observed on or near the 5th of Iyar in the Hebrew calendar, which usually falls in April.

For more information, check out Jvillage Network's Holiday Spotlight Kits.  You'll find ways to celebrate, commemorate, videos and the history of all the holidays.

Also: Check out Jvillage’s Modern Jewish Holiday page    page.

Allies Open Trial Of 20 Top Germans For Crimes Of War

With Yom HaShoah/Holocaust Remembrance Day being commemorated on April 27th, we take a look back at the headlines from November 1941 of the Nuremburg Trials

History-Making Case Begins In Nuremberg With Reading of Long Indictment

GOERING FIRST DEFENDANT

Presentation of Evidence Due to Start Today--Hess in Court Pending Ruling

Allied Open Trial of 20 Top Germans
By KATHLEEN MCLAUGHLIN

Wireless to THE NEW YORK TIMES

Nuremberg, Germany, Nov. 20--Four of the world's great powers sit in judgment today on twenty top Germans whom the democratic nations charge with major responsibility for plunging the world into World War II. The twenty-first defendant, tacitly although not specifically named in the indictment, is the German nation that raised them to power and gloried in their might.

Subdued and tractable, awaiting their hour for what justification they can show, the accused filed by threes into the court room in the Palace of Justice here thirty minutes before the convocation of the International Military Tribunal created to weigh the evidence. They spent five and one-quarter hours listening more or less intently to the preliminary formalities in which the groundwork of the prosecution was laid.

3 Chief Prosecutors Absent
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Great Questions to bring up at your seder

Things to Talk About

(Somewhere in your Seder ask one of these questions and see how people react. If you don’t want to rely on someone’s actually responding, type the following questions on small pieces of paper. Fold them up, pass them around your table, have people read aloud the question they’ve got, and ask them to respond. Obviously, the responses can be serious or playful. It depends on your audience. Either way you can’t lose.)


One - What if "Bitter Herb" is your brother-in-law? How should he be treated at the seder?

Two - What do Passover and Easter have in common? Spring festivals? Eggs? Redemption? How do they differ?

Three - Will your great-grandchildren be sitting at a Passover Seder?

Four - Roasted egg, maror, pesach (shankbone), karpas, charoset…Which symbol on the Seder plate do you think is the most important?

Five - It is traditional for the youngest person at a Seder to ask the Four Questions. If you were to create a new “tradition” for the asking of the Four Questions, who would you choose to ask the questions and why?

Six - Tradition says that Elijah the Prophet is supposed to announce the coming of the Messiah. If you could send Eliyahu Ha-Navee to any spot on the globe to make the announcement of the Messiah, where would you send him?

Seven - If Barak Obama or Daisuke Matsuzaka or Jon Stewart of The Daily Show (or anyone else you want to name) came to the Seder, which Seder symbol or ritual would you want to show them first?

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For other great Pesach ideas, visit Jvillage's Passover Spotlight Kit

Jewish Glossary for Passover

From MyJewishLearning.com

How many can you identify?

Pesach—literally, “pass over.” Cooked meat that, according to the bible, was eaten by the Israelites just before they left Egypt.

Chag Ha Aviv—literally, “The Spring Holiday.” One of the alternate names for Passover.

Matzah—unleavened bread. According to the bible the Israelites ate matzah right before they left Egypt. Today matzah is eaten during Pesach to commemorate the exodus.

Hametz—bread or anything that has been leavened or contains a leavening agent,, hametz is prohibited on Passover


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For more Jewish Passover news, check out our    page.

Feminist Seder Pioneer Esther Bronner Is Subject Of New Documentary

by Sandee Brawarsky for The Jewish Week

At the feminist seders led by novelist E.M. Broner, the women would go around and introduce themselves matrilineally, naming as many ancestors as they knew. Broner wanted to be sure that they remembered the generations of women who spent the seder in the kitchen, preparing and serving, leaving the telling of the Passover story to the men.

In 1976, Broner, who is perhaps best known for her experimental and critically acclaimed novel “A Weave of Women,” created the first feminist seders, held in Manhattan and Haifa. Now hundreds of women’s seders are held around the world, but few credit Broner, who died in 2011 at age 83, as the pioneer.

Lilly Rivlin’s new film, “Esther Broner: A Weave of Women,” the story of Broner’s life and career woven together with her leadership of the feminist seder, spotlights Broner’s contributions and her uncommon spirit. Her life was a weave of connections — between past and present, and among the women whose lives she threaded together.

In an interview with The Jewish Week, Rivlin explains that she first met Broner when she was invited to the second feminist seder in 1977; Rivlin was then anointed one of the seder sisters. But she only decided to make this film a few days before Broner’s death, when she and a group of the closest circle of friends — who called themselves the weave — got together after visiting Broner in the hospital and going to Shabbat services. They knew their friend was dying.

“I felt like I had to make a film about her,” Rivlin says. But she never sat down to interview Broner, as she did with subjects of her other films, like novelist and short story writer Grace Paley. Instead, Rivlin unfolds the story through archival footage of the seders and other events, along with her own narration and interviews with leading feminists Gloria Steinem, Letty Cottin Pogrebin, Michelle Landsberg and others. She also includes footage of Broner’s second wedding, held to celebrate the 50th anniversary of her marriage to painter Robert Broner.

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For more Jewish Passover news, check out our    page.

PESACH – FIRST DAY

By Rabbi Yaakov Haber for the Orthodox Union

The recital of the Haggadah opens with the words: “This is the bread of affliction which our fathers ate in the land of Egypt. Let all who are hungry enter and eat, and all who are needy come and celebrate the Passover.”

This declaration is, in fact, in accordance with a law in the Shulchan Aruch, that we should be willing to share all our festive meals with the hungry. The invitation is even made in Aramaic, the spoken language at the time of the composition of the Haggadah, so that a hungry person passing by could understand it. But there is a problem with this explanation: why do we make such an invitation only at Pesach, and not at the other festivals, when there is the same obligation of hospitality? In order to try and answer this, I would like to quote from the Gra (Vilna Gaon).

In his book “Aderes Eliahu” he lists the three greatest events in world history: the Creation of the World, the Redemption from Egypt, and the Giving of the Torah. Why these events? Not necessarily because they were the most spectacular as miracles, but because, firstly, each of these is an ongoing processes, and secondly, we are partners in this process! Let us explain this by considering each in turn. First, the Creation. G-d is continually active in the Creative process. Furthermore, whenever we have children in fulfilment of the Biblical commandment to “be fruitful and multiply”, or whenever (for example) we plant trees, we are ourselves involved in this process.

Consider, next, the Giving of the Torah. This is also a continuing process. Moreover, whenever we learn, or teach, Torah, or find chidushim (new insights), we are involving ourselves in the Giving of the Torah. Finally, let us consider the Redemption. This is also a continuing process, starting with the Redemption from Egypt, and culminating in the coming of the Messiah. Here too we have our part to play. How do we do this? It need not be on a grand scale. Think about the other two events. With Creation, we are not required to populate half the earth! We fulfil our part by having our own children. Similarly, we don’t have to plant forests everywhere. It’s enough to plant trees in our own backyards, or in the JFK Forest in Israel.

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Humanistic Judaism View of Passover

What Is Passover?

Passover, which begins on the evening preceding the fifteenth day of the Hebrew month of Nissan, is the great spring celebration of the Jewish people. Passover began as a nature holiday, celebrating new life. In the priestly and rabbinic traditions, it became a commemoration of the biblical exodus and the escape from slavery in ancient Egypt. This familiar tale, contained in the traditional Haggadah, is retold each year at the seder, the Passover celebration.
Humanistic Jews view the biblical Exodus story as one of the most powerful myths of the Jewish people, a tale that relates the courage and determination of a people fleeing slavery for freedom. Secular Humanistic Judaism views Passover as a time to celebrate the modern, as well as the ancient, quest for freedom. A Humanist Haggadah includes both the legendary tale of the exodus from Egypt and the modern Jewish exodus stories, as well as the themes of its origin. Passover is also a celebration of human dignity and of the freedom that makes dignity possible.

A Humanistic Passover Celebration

Humanistic Jews question the traditional explanations of Pesakh. There is no evidence that the Exodus occurred or that the Hebrew people were in Egypt in the numbers described. The traditional Haggadah includes an anthropomorphic, active, ethnocentric God and the passive deliverance by God of the Hebrews. There are few, if any, women in this Haggadah, and there are no daughters while four sons are described. A secular Passover relates a nontheistic tale. Humanistic Jews celebrate the actions people take to improve their own lives. A cultural Passover recognizes gender equality and the value of inclusiveness so that both girls and boys, men and women feel connected to their history

So what is meant by a Humanistic Passover celebration? For one thing, Humanistic Jews continue the tradition of telling the Exodus story, but they accept that it is a story, not history. Humanistic Jews also talk about the possible history behind the story, perhaps a small slave escape that grew in the retelling. A secular Passover celebration emphasizes the themes of human freedom and dignity, the power of human beings to change their destiny, and the power of hope. Humanistic Jews recognize the power and value of many episodes in Jewish history, not only ancient times. Passover thus becomes a celebration of other times and events when people have left their homes for a new life and where human dignity and courage are honored. Events of the twentieth century record the courage of millions of Jews who left the land of their birth, escape persecution and seek freedom in Palestine and the land of Israel. Passover recognizes the struggles of millions of people to overcome oppression to achieve freedom and equality. The immigration from Eastern Europe to America, perhaps the largest Jewish Exodus ever, is a powerful part of a Humanistic Passover. Even more significant, the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising against the Nazis in 1943 began on the first night of Passover; including a commemoration of this struggle provides a meaningful true story of a people fight for dignity, using their own power to control their destinies. The departure of Refuseniks from the former Soviet Union for Israel and America, the successes of the labor, Civil Rights and women’s movements in the twentieth century – all of these find a place in the Humanistic Haggadah. A Humanist Passover celebration is a celebration of human courage and human power, of the quest for human dignity and equality. This is what makes it one of the most meaningful and enduring Jewish holidays today.

The Seder

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