'We Have to Tell the Mayor it's Not OK' - Jewish New Yorkers Protest Rise in Antisemitism

MYSTICISM- Multi Feature Rewind - evangelical-Catholic-Jewish-etc 🎧🎧🎧

Pacific Union Conference Jewish Ministry Launches Beth Ohr: Urban Center of Influence

By: David Gardner | April 18, 2023




The dream of starting a Jewish-Adventist congregation began more than 20 years ago in the hearts of several Jewish Adventists. Alan Reinach, Director of Public Affairs and Religious Liberty for the Pacific Union Conference, has long shared that dream and held the conviction that a permanent ministry must be established for our 800,000 Jewish neighbors in the greater Los Angeles basin.

Reinach, who is Jewish, has long been an inspiration for this project. “For decades, some of us who are Jewish Adventists have prayed and dreamed of congregations where Jews can be part of the Advent hope without giving up our culture or way of worship,” Reinach shares. “Such congregations are necessary if we are to fulfill Paul’s admonition that the gospel belongs ‘to the Jew first.’”

The hearts of the founders are on fire and burn with a passion to share with others the light Reinach and others of have found in the Torah and the prophets, as Leon Brown, executive vice president of the Pacific Union Conference, spoke about in his devotional message at the ministry launch.

The name of the congregation officially planted in Glendale, Calif., on February 28, 2023, is Beth Ohr. That name is inspired by the words found in Isaiah 60:1, which reads: “Arise, shine, for thy light is come and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee.”

Why Should I Care About Jewish-Catholic Relations?

Steven Hill's Mission Impossible

 Mission: Impossible

Hill was the original leader of the Impossible Missions Force, Dan Briggs, in the series Mission: Impossible beginning in 1966. The phrase "Good morning, Mr. Briggs..." was a fixture early in each episode, where a sound or film recording he retrieved detailed the task he must accomplish. However, he was replaced in the show in 1967 after the end of the first season. As one of the few Orthodox Jewish actors working in Hollywood, he made it clear in advance of production that he was not able to work on the Sabbath (i.e., sundown Friday to dusk Saturday), and that he would leave the set every Friday before sundown.[7] However, despite Hill's advance warnings, the show's producers were unprepared for his rigid adherence to the Sabbath, and on at least one occasion, Hill left the set while an episode was still in the midst of filming. The producers used a number of ways of reducing the role of Hill's character, Dan Briggs, whereby he would only obtain and hand out the mission details at the start of certain episodes, being unable to take further part in the mission as he was known to people they would encounter (used at least three times), or Briggs would need to don a disguise and another actor would then play his role incognito until the conclusion of the mission (and episode) when Briggs would peel off a face mask. On other occasions, Briggs was waiting to pick up the team at the end. Usually, Martin Landau's character (Rollin Hand) took over as the team leader for missions in Briggs' absence, Landau being initially a "special guest star" for the first season, not even included in the show's original opening credits.[7]

According to Desilu executive Herb Solow, William Shatner once burst into his office, claiming "Steve asked me how many Jews worked on Star Trek. He was recruiting a minyon, a prayer group of 10 men, to worship together on top of the studio's highest building and only had six Jews so far from Mission. He asked if I would come and bring Nimoy and Justman and you."[20]

Hill was briefly suspended from the show near the end of the season, during the production of episode 23, titled "Action!" In it, for the only time, Barbara Bain's character Cinnamon Carter obtained the mission details through the taped instructions, even though Landau's character, Rollin Hand, then actually led the team. The suspension was imposed after he refused to climb the rafters via a sound stage staircase, as was called for in the script.[21] This incident was ostensibly unrelated to any religious observances of Hill's. Consequently, Hill was written out of that episode and when he returned to Mission: Impossible for the five remaining episodes of the season, his role was severely reduced. Hill was not asked to return for season two, and was replaced as the show's star by Peter Graves.[22]

Source: Wikipedia - Steven Hill

WHAT THE MEDIA WON'T TELL YOU: ZELENSKYY

SDA: Sabbath Series Part 3: Their Sabbath

Best Seat In The House Of Worship: The Temple Hollywood Built

by Susan Stamberg
July 31, 2014 5:07 AM ET


Listen to the Story
Morning Edition
7 min 19 sec





The Wilshire Boulevard Temple (pictured above circa 1939) was dedicated 85 years ago in 1929. Rabbi Steve Leder says, "This was the Los Angeles Jewish community's statement to itself — and to the majoritarian culture that surrounded it — that 'We are here, and we are prepared to be a great cultural and religious and civic force in our community.' " Courtesy Los Angeles Public Library


There's an 85-year-old building on Wilshire Boulevard in Los Angeles that has been a venue for the Dalai Lama, the LA Philharmonic and even scenes in Entourage and The West Wing. But extracurricular activities aside, the Wilshire Boulevard Temple is a house of worship. Recently refurbished, and given a preservation award by the Los Angeles Conservancy, the temple has a special place in the history of Hollywood.



At the top of the temple's dome are the words of the Hebrew prayer Shema: "Hear, O Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is one." Tom Bonner/

Rabbi Steve Leder is much too discreet to share the names of his movie-biz congregants, but he will say that some big-time Hollywood studio heads, producers, directors, writers and agents have attended the temple over the years. Some of the congregants who helped build — which was dedicated in 1929 — were pillars of the movie industry. Their descendants worship here today.

The restored Moorish-style sanctuary, complete with pillars and stained glass, is massive and magnificent.

"It would be one thing if this was in Paris or Rome or Florence or even Manhattan," Leder says. "But this is Los Angeles. There's nothing like this in Los Angeles."

Modeled after Rome's Pantheon, the Wilshire temple was built by movie moguls — Louis B. Mayer of MGM; Irving Thalberg, MGM's production head; Carl Laemmle, founder of Universal; and the Warner brothers. They all deployed craftsmen from their studios to adorn the temple.

"They brought in their guys," Leder says. And their "guys" put Hollywood touches on what the rabbi calls this Jewish cathedral.

Imposing marble columns aren't marble at all — they're hollow.

"They're plaster painted and waxed to look like marble," Leder explains. "So there's a lot of Hollywood trickery, and it brought together the best of both worlds. It melded the techniques of great religious architecture and the techniques of Hollywood set design."



Just like most movie theaters — but unlike most sanctuaries — the Wilshire Boulevard Temple has no center aisle — after all, that's where the best seats are. Tom Bonner/

Unlike most sanctuaries, Wilshire Boulevard Temple has no center aisle. Why?

"Because these guys built movie theaters," Leder says. "There's never a center aisle in a movie theater either — it's where the best seats are. Why would you put an aisle where the best seats are?"

With the money they made from The Jazz Singer — the first talking picture — the Warner brothers paid for a gleaming mural of Bible scenes, painted by studio artist Hugo Ballin. The synagogue is lavish, with a gilded, coffered ceiling, filigreed brass doors and a soaring dome.

"These were Hollywood Jews," Leder says. "They were theatrical and they were visual. And so they decided, well, that's all well and good that Jews have been shy and timid about this — we are not."



The Wilshire Boulevard Temple under construction circa 1928. Courtesy Los Angeles Public Library



This is how the interior of the Wilshire Boulevard Temple looked just after it opened, circa 1930. Courtesy Los Angeles Public Library

They moved their temple — it was founded in 1862 — and changed its name. B'nai Brith became Wilshire Boulevard Temple. These Jews originally came from Germany and Eastern Europe. They were raised in Orthodox Jewish households. And in building this temple they were saying: We are assimilated Americans. Their larger-than-life rabbi, Edgar Magnin — who served for almost 70 years — was the driving force of the building, and the Jewish community.

"I sort of describe him as the John Wayne of rabbis," says Neal Gabler, author of the 1989 book An Empire of Their Own: How the Jews Invented Hollywood.

"He felt it was his job to be an ambassador from the Jewish community to the gentile community. Some people called him 'Cardinal Magnin.' "

Magnin was also known as "Rabbi to the stars." Over the decades those stars included the Marx brothers, Jack Benny, Milton Berle, the Three Stooges and Henry Winkler — "The Fonz." Magnin was himself a star in Hollywood. He appeared at all the important events and even took voice lessons to grab the attention of his congregation. He was a showman, creating an aesthetic theater — a movie palace for religion, but a secularized religion.

"In Hollywood, for many, many, many, many years, the studios were open and operating on Saturday," Gabler says. "Even though virtually every studio was run by a Jew, that didn't stop them. There was no day of rest."

Observant or not, the Wilshire Boulevard Temple moguls were culturally Jewish, and sensitive to world events. By the early 1940s, while Nazism enveloped Europe, Harry Warner felt Hollywood should sound the alarm in films.



The Warner Bros. studio provided the colorful murals that recount the history of Judaism as they stretch across the walls inside the Wilshire Boulevard Temple's huge, gold-domed sanctuary. Louis B. Mayer of MGM gave the stained glass windows. Jae C. Hong/AP

"He was the only mogul that wanted to depict what was happening in Germany," says Martin Kaplan, who ran a conference on propaganda in World War II Hollywood, at the University of Southern California's Norman Lear center.

"But the other studios were afraid of losing the German market revenues, which were enormous, and so they didn't want to risk it. And the Roosevelt administration wasn't happy to see Hollywood being anti-Nazi because they were afraid that it would get the American public to press them to enter World War II."

All that ended when Japan bombed Pearl Harbor. Then the Wilshire Boulevard Temple moguls — and the film industry — filled their silver screens with American patriotism. And they prayed for peace in their glorious house of God. It was a house that Hollywood built — an announcement of arrival and ambition, says Leder:

"This was the Los Angeles Jewish community's statement to itself — and to the majoritarian culture that surrounded it — that 'We are here, and we are prepared to be a great cultural and religious and civic force in our community.' "

Now Wilshire Boulevard Temple is building a family resource center — with free dental and vision care — for its primarily Korean- and Spanish-speaking neighbors. A celebratory groundbreaking party drew temple members from all over LA. They stood in the bright Southern California sun, sipping that beloved old American Jewish drink: sangria.


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From Discrimination to Dignity: Standing with Women, Girls and LGBT People Worldwide

Photo (Courtesy) http://www.sonsadesign.com/upload/projects/images/03_IS_AJWS.jpg

Please join American Jewish World Service President
Ruth Messinger

For a lecture, brunch and dialogue:
From Discrimination to Dignity
Standing with women, girls and LGBT people worldwide

In many societies, women, girls and LGBT people are second-class citizens, facing rampant violence and violations of their human rights. Join us for this special event to learn how people of all faiths can stand together with women, girls and LGBT people worldwide. Hear Ruth Messinger speak at the Rector’s Forum at All Saints Church, followed by a unique opportunity to talk with Claudia Samayoa, a Guatemalan human rights activist and AJWS grantee.

$18 per person for brunch. Space is limited, so make your reservation today!

Immediately followed by:
Private Brunch and activist discussion with Ruth Messinger and Claudia Samayoa at McCormick & Schmick’s next door

December 8, 2013
10:15 a.m.
Rector’s Forum, All Saints Episcopal Church
132 N. Euclid Avenue
Pasadena, CA 91101

Map this location

For more information, please contact LAevents@ajws.org or 310.843.9588.



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Jack Lew's Life Shaped by Faith and Service

Treasury Pick Learned Value of Both Shul and Government

GETTY IMAGES
Faith and Service: Jack Lew’s faith drives his commitment to public service. So does his trust in government.

By Nathan Guttman
Published January 17, 2013, issue of January 25, 2013.


Related
Jack Lew and the Power of Shabbat
Jack Lew's Really Bad John Hancock
What's Jack Lew Eating at the Inauguration?
Jack Lew's Shabbat Helper

WASHINGTON — On a muggy evening last August, Rabbi Efrem Goldberg walked into a kosher restaurant in Boca Raton, Fla., only to spot White House Chief of Staff Jack Lew having dinner at a corner table. Goldberg approached Lew, who was in town for a series of events for President Obama’s re-election campaign, and asked him to meet with a group of teenagers from his Orthodox synagogue.

Lew agreed. But in the meeting the next morning, he spoke about neither the president’s policies nor the upcoming elections. Rather, Lew chose to focus on how observant Jews — like the teenagers and himself — can easily take up public service without giving up their beliefs, without having to compromise.

“He said we need to show people working with us that it is a privilege to work with an Orthodox Jew, not the other way around,” Goldberg recalled. He added that Lew made clear how observant Jews should recognize that “every time you need time to be off, someone else needs to cover for you. Don’t take that lightly, and don’t feel entitled.”

Lew has become the standard-bearer for integration of observant Jews in the highly demanding world of top-level politics and government service. Stories of Lew’s shutting down his telephone for the Sabbath or getting the White House cafeteria to add kosher sandwiches to the menu have become a part of Washington’s folklore.

For the first Orthodox Jew to assume a Cabinet position, Jewish values and family history go beyond a decent pastrami on rye. They helped shape a worldview that puts equal opportunity and the social safety net front and center. If confirmed as expected by the Senate, those are the values Lew will take with him as he becomes America’s next Treasury secretary.

“The idea that you have the responsibility to help those who are less fortunate is something that resonated in Jack’s commitment both in the political attitude and in his religious approach,” said Ari Weiss, a close friend of Lew.

Lew’s passionate — critics might say knee-jerk — devotion to the social safety net has at time been controversial, notably when he played a key role in trying to resolve the so-called “fiscal cliff” stand-off between the White House and Congressional Republicans.






Read more: http://forward.com/articles/169402/jack-lews-life-shaped-by-faith-and-service/?p=all#ixzz2IIIQW3wh


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Judaizing The US Church

Photo (Courtesy) http://aronbengilad.blogspot.com/2010/04/messianic-jews-and-mysticism.html


By Harmony Grant
4-16-8

The Jewish Forward's recent "most read" article worries that evangelicals might be stealing from the Jews. But it is Christians who should really be worried.

The article describes a Passover banquet in Alabama where 1,300 Christians gathered for unleavened bread and bitter herbs and donated more than $10,000 to the Jewish Federation. A local rabbi complains, "It is a total taking over and arrogation to themselves of the entire concept of the Seder. It's totally Christological."

Evangelical Christians' support of Israel is essential to the Jewish state. The powerful Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations even publicly supports Rev. John Hagee-Israel-firster extraordinaire; they recently wrote the NY Times to defend him as Israel's "true friend". Binyamin Netanyahu-Israel's ninth prime minister, an extremist who resigned as finance minister in 2005 to protest withdrawal from Gaza-said Christian Zionists are Israel's best friends in the world! In a recent poll, a whopping 82 percent of evangelicals agreed that Christians are morally obligated to support the Jewish state. In his New Testament letters, the apostle Paul repelled attempts by Jews to impose on the early church the rites and legalisms of Old Testament law. He furiously rebuked the apostle Peter for bending to Judaizing influences; he said Peter "stood condemned." (Gal. 2:11) As evangelicals today fall even deeper into this unbiblical love affair, they are increasingly eager to participate in Jewish rites, own Jewish trinkets, and learn about Jewish culture.

Who is really damaged by this Christian appropriation? Jews are not becoming more Christian. Christians are becoming more Jewish! Jews are not donating money for Christian evangelism or even allowing it in their country)! It is Christians who finance a religion dedicated to opposing their own. And their gift of millions of dollars to Israel is flatly contrary to Scripture. Christians are instructed to give their tithes and offerings to the "household of faith," i.e., many Christian charities and relief organizations that help further the gospel message. (Gal. 6:10) Judaism and the state of Israel are emphatically not of the household of faith. Israel's "anti-missionary law" mandates a five-year prison sentence for any evangelical who gives to an Israeli a "material inducement" (Bible tract or even a cup of coffee) that might help persuade him to become a Christian!

Christianity Today should be debating the Alabama Passover, not the Jewish Forward. Christian pastors should speak up about the Talmud's anti-Christ vitriol, persecution of Christians by Israel, oppression of Christian evangelism by Jews in Israel and the US-and gravely warn against the Judaization of the American church. We should be asking, "Is this good for the church?" as the Forward and others constantly debate what is good for the Jews. But we don't. These debates never happen.

The Seattle Times published an opinion piece titled, "Passover seders are out of place in churches." Very true. But it was written by Rabbi Mark Glickman, not a Christian pastor as it should have been.

In Ohio, Catholic high school students took a field trip to a Jewish synagogue where the principal of religious education told them: "Judaism is the base of all Christian religion. It's good to know where you come from." That's interesting; I thought Christ was the base of all Christian religion. The "debt" Christians owe to Jews is increasingly taught by evangelicals wanting to stimulate support of Israel and ride the wave of Hebrewness. This movement is so intense the UK Guardian says, "From the mobilising might of CUFI and televangelists, to Jerusalem marches and the 65 million copy-selling Left Behind series, to be an American evangelical has become synonymous with fanatically pro-Israel politics." And the only concerned people getting any real air time about this areJews, the ones worried about compromising and collaborating with possibly "anti-Semitic" Christians.

It's deeply troubling that Jews, not Christians, worry about the Judaization of the church. This demonstrates the incredible deception of the evangelical community, which is so much less wary than the Jewish community even though this alliance is currently only a threat to Christians. Jews remain adamantly, consciously, and militantly opposed to Christian evangelism and theology-leery even to accept evangelicals' strong political and financial support. Meanwhile, evangelicals are so blind to the theological enmity between themselves and Talmudic Judaism that they rush headlong to support, defend, and now absorb Jewish identity and actions.

In his Seattle opinion piece, Rabbi Glickman makes a point that should shock many evangelicals. He says that "to be perfectly honest - the Seder [ritual feast held on first and second nights of eight-day passover] developed, in part, as an anti-Christian polemic - a "slam" on the then-new and growing religion called Christianity. Such religious critique is all but absent from contemporary Seders, but the anti-Christian roots of the event are unmistakable. A church Seder is thus a Christian event rooted in anti-Christianity." Basically-Christians who participate in the Seder are participating in an event directed against their own existence!

Glickman's admission is astonishing on many levels. First, it demonstrates Jews' safety and power in American society, that a rabbi could publicly admit the anti-Christianity of a yearly Jewish event. Second, it highlights a fact that Israel-first Christians refuse to face: Judaism opposes the recognition of Christ as God incarnate, Savior of mankind. For two millennia, it has been self-defined by opposing the explosion of Christian faith. Christians today can't participate in Judaism without opposing their own community and Lord. They can't support Israel without supporting Israeli persecution of Christians and Christian evangelism.

Besides that, the Judaization of the church corrupts and corrodes Christian theology. It's gotten so bad that a bunch of evangelical leaders recently took out a big NY Times ad just to remind people that Christians have to spread the faith (a major thing Jesus told us to do) and to evangelize Jews along with everyone else. This responded to a growing heresy that Jews have a separate covenant with God and don't need faith in Christ or need Christian evangelism. The Times ad expressed kindergarten Christianity-a basic element of our identity that is subverted by our growing obsession with Jewish identity.

Jews have long recognized that assimilation into Gentile culture posed a greater threat to world Jewry than physical persecution. It is long past time for Christians to recognize the threat of losing their unique identity as followers of Jesus and His earth-shaking message. St. Paul knew that the rites and observances of the Mosaic/rabbinic law would entangle the infant church, drawing Christians into their spell of legalism. He knew legalism would drive out the empowering liberating New Testament message of justification by faith alone.

How should believers respond to increasing efforts to incorporate Judaic elements in Christian theology and worship? Such "Judaizers" should be rebuked and repulsed, not embraced.


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Feastkeeping

This is an error of the last days. It is an insult to Heaven to return to the ceremonies and symbols which the great anti-type has done away.


~*********************************************~


The Jewish system was symbolical, and was to continue until the perfect Offering should take the place of the figurative. .... The extent of the terrible consequences of sin could never have been known, had not the remedy provided been of infinite value. The salvation of fallen man was procured at such an immense cost that angels marveled, and could not fully comprehend the divine mystery that the Majesty of Heaven, equal with God, should die for the rebellious race. [2SP] p. 11, Para. 1.

At the crucifixion, as JESUS died on Calvary, he cried, It is finished, and the vail of the temple was rent in twain, from the top to the bottom. This was to show that the services of the earthly Sanctuary were forever finished, and that GOD would no more meet with them in their earthly temple, to accept their sacrifices. [GC58] p. 161, Para. 1.

Some are constantly trying to separate the sacrifices from the feasts for the purpose of preaching the “keeping” of the feast days. Why? Because only at Jerusalem at a special spot, in the providence of God controlled by non-Jews, is the place a sacrifice can be made. Even the Jews await the day that spot will be given into their control.

Therefore, something must be done to get past the difficulty. So they just try to separate the sacrifices from the feasts to facilitate a Satanic delusion.


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Faith Shared: Uniting in Prayer and Understanding

INTERFAITH SERVICE

Faith Shared: Uniting in Prayer and Understanding

SUNDAY, JUNE 26 11:15 AM


Live webcast. Christian, Muslim, and Jewish faith leaders read from their respective sacred texts in a special interfaith prayer service as part of Faith Shared: Uniting in Prayer and Understanding. Learn more »

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