Making Aliyah to Berlin
Now those feelings of enthrallment I felt as a new Israeli have come back for Berlin.
Making Aliyah to Berlin Read More »
Israeli Yehuda Poliker brings Greek-infused music to UCLA
Jewish Journal, Nov. 2, 2016 Yehuda Poliker was born in a Haifa, Israel, suburb two years after the founding of the State of Israel, to Greek Jews who survived the deportation from Thessaloniki to Auschwitz. Today, he is considered an Israeli musical icon, having reached career peaks coveted by any Israeli artist: hit singles, platinum albums, sold-out stadiums and the Lifetime Achievement Award of ACUM, Israel’s artist rights agency. Poliker, however, says he has never been motivated by accolades. “I don’t think in terms of ‘icon,’ ” he told the Jewish Journal via email, in Hebrew. “The one thing that has guided me throughout the years is a love for guitar and music. That’s what drives me. The connection music has with people moves me every time anew.” Read the rest in the Jewish Journal
Israeli Yehuda Poliker brings Greek-infused music to UCLA Read More »
Orthodox Life Blossoms in Berlin
Jewish Journal of Los Angeles, September 30, 2016 A few years ago, Yael Merlini wasn’t sure she and her family could stay in Germany. Her children, ages 7, 11 and 15, were the only Jews in their school in Giessen, a town near Frankfurt. The Jewish population numbered fewer than 400, mostly elderly Russian Jews. She also experienced anti-Semitism in the form of social slights from colleagues she described as “liberal” Germans. “Our first thought was to go to Israel,” the Italian-born Merlini said in an interview in Hebrew over the phone in Berlin, where she and her family settled a few weeks ago. “But in Israel, with our professions, it’s very hard.” Her German-born husband is an academic; originally from Florence, she’s a teacher. Both had lived in Israel for 10 years, where they met, and together converted to Judaism. I first met Merlini, visibly Orthodox with her tichl (religious headscarf), at the Orthodox Shabbat minyan held in the historic Rykestrasse Synagogue in the upwardly mobile neighborhood of Prenzlauer Berg, in former East Berlin. Having survived Kristallnacht, the synagogue today serves as the campus for the Lauder Beth-Zion Elementary School, while its ornate main sanctuary offers a more Reform Shabbat service, equipped with a microphone. At the morning kiddush, as children played and congregants vied for the meat cholent, Merlini effused how members of Kehillat Adass Jisroel (KAJ) community cooked kosher meals for them upon their arrival, helped them
Orthodox Life Blossoms in Berlin Read More »
Oops, he did it again!
Move over Gal Gadot, Israel may soon boast an Israeli-made wonderman. Asaf Goren’s superhuman abs have gotten the attention of Britney Spears – and her giggling girlfriends. In her new video, “Make Me,” the queen of pop and her girlie pals taunt a hottie into bringing his hottie friends to an audition. Petah Tikva native Asaf Goren, 25, was one of them.
Oops, he did it again! Read More »
The rise of Germany’s new right-wing party
Do Jews belong to Germany? “Absolutely,” he said. “In 1933, we had 500,000 Jewish Germans in Germany, and now we have 5 million Islamic people, and now we have to make a bill. How many Nobel prizes, and how many doctors, professors and artists were from those 500,000 Jews compared to the 5 million Muslims?”
The rise of Germany’s new right-wing party Read More »