Raised Jewish in Mumbai, India’s largest city, Siona Benjamin’s multicultural art sends a message. The message is often delivered by a woman, colored blue. The blue woman is Benjamin’s icon, the lines inspired by the comics of Benjamin’s youth, the woman existing to explore ancient and modern issues. To some extent, the recurring blue woman represents Benjamin. She is, as Benjamin says, “blue like me.” Benjamin will visit Milwaukee in mid-June as an artist-in-residence, to coincide with the Jewish Museum Milwaukee exhibit, “Beyond Borders: The Art of Siona...
Jessica Sectzer-Rubin’s grandfather worked in the family bakery in Poland before he was deported to Auschwitz and survived as a forced laborer. When Nazis broke into their bakery, they beat him and his father until they bled, then shoved her great-grandfather’s face into a bag of flour. Sectzer-Rubin, 43, relays these traumatic events in […]
When Russia invaded Ukraine, the Jewish Federation world leapt into action, but for Wisconsin native Arnie Fielkow, the crisis was also a family affair. Born and raised in Appleton, the 66-year-old Fielkow, a University of Wisconsin law school graduate, has had a career in New Orleans, becoming a well-known business, political and philanthropic leader. […]
University of Wisconsin-Madison Professor Francine Hirsch studies Russia and the Soviet Union, yet even she didn’t know the war in Ukraine would be so arduous. “It has been a completely brutal war of aggression with all kinds of war crimes and crimes against humanity. I don’t think anyone expected that,” Hirsch said. In the […]
As a teenage boy, Holocaust survivor Pinchas Gutter watched SS soldiers beat his father unconscious and hid from German police with his family on the roof of his Warsaw ghetto apartment. His family was eventually taken to Majdenek, where they would all be murdered, except for Gutter, who survived five more concentration camps. Gutter […]
A joyous north African tradition is celebrated by many in Israel, on the day after Passover, and this year, Milwaukeeans can get a taste of the Jewish-Muslim celebration known as Mimouna. The origins of Mimouna, a tradition dating back to the mid-18th century, are unknown. Some say that the Jews of North African descent, […]
Gadeer Kamal Mreeh, the first Druze emissary of the Jewish Agency for Israel, wants you to know that Israel is diverse – and that’s beautiful. Mreeh spoke at Congregation Sinai on March 21 about her personal experiences being a Druze in Israel and how strength in Israel comes from its rich diversity. The visit […]
I have always been proud of my brother Rabbi Labish Becker, who is executive director of Agudath Israel of America, the largest Orthodox organization in the U.S. He has been to the White House many times, led group discussions about Judaism, both in person and on video, and organized events with thousands of participants, […]
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine drew international attention to a ravine in Kyiv remembered as the site of a massacre during the Holocaust. There, Nazis shot and killed tens of thousands of Jews in a matter of days after deceiving them into gathering at Babi Yar under the pretense of resettlement. In early March this […]
Even the black and white cookies were not black and white – all the cookies at this table were proudly frosted yellow and blue, the colors of the Ukrainian flag. Hillel Milwaukee students sold $324 worth of cookies in just a few hours on March 15, to benefit the Ukraine efforts of the Hillel […]
In the midst of the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, Jews across the Midwest will have the opportunity to hear from an expert on politics in Israel, who recently came back from a journalistic visit to the border of Ukraine and Moldova. On Wednesday, April 6 at 8 a.m., Gil Hoffman, chief political correspondent and […]
As I write these words, I’m heartbroken by what Ukrainians — both Jewish and non-Jewish — have endured. On the news apps, and on TV, we watched the map of Ukraine change daily, a smidgen at a time. Red, which just happens to be the color of blood, slowly spread inward from the edges. […]
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