I write this in memory of my father, Lyle B. Federman, who was killed on April 21, 1998, the victim of police misconduct.

My father grew up with little to no Jewish tradition. No Shabbat. No Passover. No Menorah. No Kosher. He spent much of his life searching for an identity. He eventually discovered and embraced his Jewish heritage at an Oglala tribal meeting on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota.

My father had no interest in Judaism. He strived for a belief system that was all-inclusive. Connected with nature. With a social justice mission. Those values were reinforced by his exposure to the countercultural and environmental movements of the late 60’s.

He found those values in the Native American way of life. His began his journey by providing aid for food and clothing on the poverty stricken Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. He also volunteered at the sobriety meetings to fight the rampant alcohol and drug abuse. Soon he started practicing Native American rituals like the sweat lodge (or ceremonial sauna) and learning the traditions and history.

Eventually he was called to a tribal meeting where he would be formally inducted into the Oglala Lakota tribe. At the meeting, the tribal elders asked my father what he had observed on the reservation.

“I observe two kind of Indians,” my father explained. “One with short hair, head down, drunk and ashamed of who he is; and one with long hair, head up, sober and proud of his people.” The elders nodded in approval.

They asked my father about his ancestry. My father explained that he was Jewish. The tribal leader paused, squinted in thought, and said: “There are two kinds of Jews. One with his head down, ashamed of who he is; and the other with his head up and proud of who he is.” He continued, “be that Jew who is proud of who he is.” That was the most transcendental moment in my father’s life.

But what does it mean to be proud of your heritage? Is that ethnocentric? Even supremacist? The Torah was given on a small mountain to teach one to be humble toward others. To recognize and value other peoples way of life. If that is so, then why wasn’t the Torah given on flatland? Wouldn’t that be an even greater metaphor of humility? It was given on a small mountain to teach that one should still have pride but that pride should be measured and humbled.

My father then traveled to Berkley California where he came in contact with Chabad-Lubavitch, a Jewish outreach organization. He started learning Jewish philosophy, observing the Holidays and eventually married an Orthodox woman – my mother, a direct descendant of the Ba’al Shem Tov, the founder of Hasidic Judaism.

US President Barack Obama on Tuesday declared May “Jewish American Heritage Month”.

In a ceremony kicking off the month, the president praised Jewish Americans for bearing “hardship and hostility” with the “deep conviction that a better future was within their reach”.

He also noted the achievements and national contribution of Jewish Americans such as Supreme Court Jusice Louis Brandeis, physicist Albert Einstein, and writer and art collector Gertrude Stein.

“Our country is stronger for their contributions, and this month we commemorate the myriad ways they have enriched the American experience,” Obama said.

The first Jewish American Heritage Month occurred during the presidential term of George W. Bush.  It was introduced by Jewish Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D- FL) and passed in December 2005.

In Washington DC, events for Jewish American Heritage Month will take place at the Library of Congress, National Archives, National Gallery of Art, and the US Holocaust Memorial Museum.  Events will also take place in various locations throughout the United States.

The Flea Theater will present a reading of “The Vandal” by Hamish Linklate (best known as Matthew in the CBS sitcom The New Adventures of Old Christine) on April 3 at the Museum of Jewish Heritage, with Golden Globe winners Sigourney Weaver and Alan Rickman and Outer Critics Circle nominee Noah Robbins.

“The Vandal” is set on a frozen night in Kingston, New York, where a woman (Weaver) who’s lost everything tags her name on Death’s door.

Linklater told Playbill magazine that “the play is about how we live and the stories we tell ourselves when we’re haunted by the people we’ve loved and lost.”

For more information visit www.theflea.org.

Dynow

Jewish Calendar For The Year 5770

Zuromin

Galicia Jewish Museum Receives Mezuzot

Israel Artist Builds Mock Kibbutz In Heart Of Polish Capital

     “What does it bring to the collective memory? What does it mean for the Israelis, what does it mean for Jews, what does it mean to the Poles? And I wanted to kind of cross over emotional elements.”

Then, turning to the audience, Freund addressed Przemysl Deputy-Mayor Wieslaw Jurkiewicz directly, urging him to return other Jewish sites in the city, such as the Old Jewish cemetery and the grounds of the Old Synagogue, to the Jewish community. “Mr. Jurkiewicz, I appeal to you in the name of the Jews who once lived here and played such a central role in the development of Przemysl: restore these holy places to their rightful owners,” Freund said, adding, “We cannot change the past, but we can – and must – do it justice. The time has come for the city of Przemysl to return the Jewish communal property into its hands to the Jewish people.”

Przemysl

Siedlce

Leczna

Bilgoraj

One of the Chumashim found in Bilgoraj

Lublin

Bialystok

Radom

Reszow

Zuromin

Chrzanow

            The police identified the culprits who vandalized the Jewish cemetery in Chrzanow in March 2009. Three local middle school students damaged about 60 matzevot. Total repair cost is estimated in dozens of thousands of zlotys. The youths are now facing charges against family court.            

Co-operation In Siedlce

    A memorial tablet commemorating the Jewish community of Siedlce, financed by the Foundation for the Preservation of Jewish Heritage in Poland and the Jewish Community of Warsaw, was unveiled on the cemetery wall. A road marker in the shape of a Star of David – funded by Michael Traison Fund for Poland – was placed on an access road to the cemetery.