The Interfaith Conference of Greater Milwaukee plays an important role at a time of rising antisemitism and other hate crimes in Wisconsin, said Pardeep Singh Kaleka, executive director of the 50-year-old nonprofit organization. The 21 members of the Interfaith Conference are committed to regular dialogue within its leadership committee. They also offer programs designed to increase interfaith understanding, advocacy and social justice. “During a time of any kind of tension, minority groups based on faith, race or religion bear the brunt of a blame culture,” Kaleka said. “With...
If we want to “Stand Up Against Hate,” as this newspaper implores, Fatih Harpci has a way. Harpci, a religious studies professor at Carthage College in Kenosha, works mutual understanding into his teaching. In his free time, the practicing Muslim promotes interfaith dialogue by meeting with churches, Jewish groups and others.
Jewish Family Services has been an anchor in Olga Vaynshtok’s life. Through the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, Vaynshtok relocated from St. Petersburg, Russia in 1991 with her son and was resettled by JFS. Her husband, Sam, had already moved to the Milwaukee area in 1989. Her husband’s family had a close friend in southeastern Wisconsin […]
MILWAUKEE — In the 2004 novel “The Plot Against America,” Jewish author Philip Roth weaves an alternate history of 1940s America — one in which President Franklin D. Roosevelt is defeated in the 1940 election by famed aviator and Nazi sympathizer Charles Lindbergh. The unexpected result eventually leads to Jews being persecuted across the country. […]
GRAFTON — Nestled in Ozaukee County, Grafton is as about as tranquil as any of the more far-flung suburbs ringing the city of Milwaukee. Thirty-two years ago, however, the small village was home to one of the biggest controversies southeastern Wisconsin has ever seen. And it all had to do with a library. In 1987, […]
Bishop Richard Sklba was dismayed to find “a lovely teacher” in Jerusalem in 1964 who was afraid of priests. This was 51 years before the Vatican issued a statement that Jews do not need to be converted to find salvation, and that Catholics should work with Jews to fight antisemitism. That’s exactly what Sklba has […]
Jenny Tasse’s work is, in large part, the fight against antisemitism. What motivates her is the antisemitic experiences of her maternal grandparents in Wisconsin. “They were never physically targeted for their faith, to my knowledge, but they both recounted incidents of discrimination and verbal harassment in their youth and even to a degree in their […]
The Milwaukee Jewish Federation and its partner agencies have been working remotely throughout the Safer At Home order to provide resources and social services to meet the needs of the Milwaukee Jewish community as it continues to deal with the pandemic and navigate reopening. One of the resources that the Milwaukee Jewish Federation has put […]
ChallahFromHome has spread all over social media. This Shabbat will only be the 11th #ChallahFromHome, but it already feels like an enduring institution. The digital world is now filled with pictures of challah accom- panied by the Milwaukee-born #ChallahFromHome hashtag. Clicking on the hashtag leads Internet users to tons of people who are making Challah […]
The hardest part of cancel- ing camp this summer is “restart- ing the countdown” for which the excitement grows exponentially, said Megan Gendelman, 18, a He- brew immersion counselor at the Union of Reform Judaism’s Olin Sang Ruby Union Institute. “We live ten months for two. So now we’ve been saying we’re waiting 22 months […]
The Jewish Press, a New York-based publication that leans right politically, has taken aim at the story of the Shorewood attorney who spit in the face of a young protestor. The publication’s article Tuesday, “Harassed by BLM Mob, Attorney Stephanie Rapkin Spits on Intimidating Protester,” led to a stir among supporters of the Black […]
A car hit a parking meter, launching it through two panes of glass and through the sanctuary at Racine’s Beth Israel Sinai Congregation last week. It happened before 5 a.m., Tuesday, June 3. No one was present inside the synagogue, said Congregation President Joyce Placzkowski. After entering the sanctuary, “it went at least another 30 […]
We’re entering a more dangerous time for the Jewish people in America, but there are strategies that could make a difference. This is one key message from a new series interviews with Wisconsin experts on antisemitism and related disciplines. The interviews are a follow-up, after our article 18 months ago, when the Chronicle first interviewed […]
On the cover of this month’s special section for our print edition, “Stand Up Against Hate,” is a model of a not-yet-realized sculpture. It will be called Shofar Kristallnacht. This would be Milwaukee-based artist Ricard Edelman’s third major shofar sculpture. His shofar sculptures are functional, amplifying the sounds of any shofar blown into them. One […]
Ovation Communities, like many senior living providers, has seen instances of COVID-19. Ovation Communities operates Ovation Jewish Home and Ovation Chai Point in Milwaukee and Ovation Sarah Chudnow in Mequon. The local Jewish senior living facilities have reported several infections among employees and residents on a COVID-19 blog. Among the three facilities, only Ovation […]
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