JACOB JR. - BENLEUMI NEWS יעקב ג 'וניור. הבינלאומי חדשות

"REMEMBER THE DAYS OF OLD, CONSIDER THE YEARS OF AGES PAST." DEUT. 32:7 Sunday, Tevet 15, 5776. December 27, 2015 Shalom! World. With good reason Worms lays claim to be one of the oldest and most historically interesting towns of Germany. The Jewish cemetery and the Synagogue together attest to almost 1.000 years of Jewish life in Worms. The cemetery is one of the most outstanding and impressive places in the city. Worms is one of three cities along the Rhine river which were centers of Jewish intellectual life during the Middle Ages. These three cities, Speyer, Worms and Mainz, are together known as SHUM, an abbreviation based on the initial letters of the Hebrew names of the cities.  At this time many great Jewish intellectuals studied and taught at the yeshiva (Talmud school) in Worms. Among the most famous of these are Rashi (Rabbi Solomon ben Isaac, 1040 - 1105), the outstanding commentator on the Talmud. Other famous names are Isaac ben Eleazar ...

Sunday, Tevet 1, 5776 · December 13, 2015 Chanukah Day 7 • Rosh Chodesh Tevet Shalom! World. The Tempel Synagogue was founded by Krakow's Reform Jews and has traditionally hosted services for non-Orthodox Jews of the city. The Tempel Synagogue survived the war almost unscathed. It was built in 1860 to 1862, in the neo-Renaissance style designed by Ignacy Hercok, thanks to the efforts of the Association of progressive Jews in Krakow. Magnificently restored, it is now open. The building was enlarged in 1868, 1893, and 1924. During World War II Tempel Synagogue was badly damaged by hte Nazis, who used it as a magazine. Services resumed after the war and a mikvah was added in 1947. There is a women's secction in the one of the balconies. Regular prayer services were held here until 1985, in Polish and Germany as well as Hebrew. The Synagogue was completely renovated in 1995-2000. Today the Tempel Synagogue remains active as a place of worship, but services are on...

Yom Khamíshí, Kislev 21, 5776. Thrusday, December 3, 2015. Shalom! World. The iconic showpiece at the centre of the markt square, the origins and development of Krakow's Cloth Hall can be traced as those of the city itself. Proof of a structure at this site dates back to the mid-13th century. When King Kazimierz the Great approved construction of a purpose-built trading hall in the mid-14th century, Krakow's importance as an east-west trading post vastly increased and  the city thrived. Though the name "Sukiennice" literally refers to textiles and fabrics, Krakow's Cloth Hall saw an array of commodities bought and sold in its merchant stalls including wax, spieces, leather and silk, as well as lead and salt from the nearby Wieliczka mines. After a fire in the mid-16th century, the Sukiennice was given a Renaissance facelift by Jan Maria Padovano, making it most magnificent building in all of Krakow. By the mid-1870s, however, Poland had been parti...

Thursday, Kislev 14, 5776. November 26, 2015. Shalom! World. Once's the site of the city's 13th century defensive fortifications,  the moats were filled, the walls razed and the towers demolished - with the notable exceptions of the grand Florianska Gate and impenetrable Barbican - during Austrian occupation in the first half of the 19th century. While today it's easy to regret the shortsighted destruction of Krakow's medieval city walls, we can thank the Austrians for replacing them with this lovely green strollway encircling the centre of the Old Town.  Known as the 'lungs of the city', the Planty is one of Krakow's  lost unique and charming features - three kilometres of public parks and gardens filled with trees, flowers, benches and historic monuments. Walking its circuit would take over an hour, but represents a great way to see the city. A popular place for street musicians to perform, drunks to drink (note that drinking in publi...

Jeudi, Kislev 7, 5776. Novembre 19, 2015. Shalom! Monde. C'est en 1686 que Francesco Procopio dei Coltelli, gentilhomme de Palerme, installa rue des Fossés Saint-Germain (aujourd'hui rue de L'Ancienne Comédie) son débit de café. L'excellence des boissons et des sorbets qu'il y offrait à consommer, le cadre agréable et le voisinage de L'Ancienne Comédie Française firent que son établissement devint très rapidement le lieu de réunion des  beaux esprits.  Le premier café littéraire du monde était né et durant plus de deux siècles, tout ce qui portait un nom, ou qui espérait en porter un, dans le monde des lettres, des arts et de la politique, fréquenta le Café Le Procope. De La Fontaine, en passant par Voltaire, Rousseau, Beaumarchais, Balzac, Hugo, Verlaine et tant d'autres, la liste des "habitués" du Procope est celle-là même des grands noms de la littérature française.  Au 18ème siècle, les idées libérales y prirent leur ...

Wednesday, Cheshvan 29, 5776. November 11, 2015. Shalom! World. The Mausoleum Remains and bones of the murdered were found in many places on the grounds following the liquidation of the camp. In May 1947, volunteers raised a kurhan mound from the human remains. Young people, soldiers, factory workers and social organizations joined in, and Stefan Wyszynski, bishop of Lublin at the time, urged the faithful to help. Over the course of several months, 1,300 cubic meters of earth mixed with remains were collected. The mound functioned as commemoration of the victims of the camp until the end of the 1960s. At that time, the remains were deposited below the dome of the newly constructed Mausoleum, where they rest to this day.  The Monument to Struggle and Martyrdom In response to requests from former prisioners, who regarded the existing forms of commemoration too modest, an "open competition for a monument honoring the victims of the death camp at...