Page 27 - Hebrew Congregation News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

Just over a month ago, the United States Capitol Building, the seat of American democracy, was attacked by a vicious mob, unbelievably encouraged by the (now former) U.S. President Donald Trump. By now, most of us are familiar with the basic details of this event. As an immigrant from America, I retain close emotional ties to the country of my birth. I was stressed and anxious, worrying that something of this nature might occur since the week before the 3 November election. Since 6 January, I’ve been in varying states of shock. How did the world’s oldest modern democracy reach this point?

The The Morris-George Washington-Haym Salomon Monument in Heald Square, Chicago A public monument featuring Revolutionary War financier Haym Saloman, a Polish-Jewish American businessman, may be removed from where it stands in Chicago’s Heald Square. The monument, along with 40 others, is under review by the Chicago Monument Project as part of the city’s effort to “address the hard truths of Chicago’s racial history.” The project was launched by Chicago’s City Hall six months ago in the wake of the murder of George Floyd and the national reckoning on systemic racism, and originall...

7 people were shot in Chicago on Monday. There's a huge snowstorm. And Mayor Lightfoot is moving to fix Chicago's problems by tearing down American statues. Mayor Lori Lightfoot vowed Wednesday to confront the “hard truths of Chicago’s racial history” — by launching a public process to review the fate of 40 statues, plaques and works of art, including those of four former U.S. presidents: Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, Ulysses S. Grant and William McKinley. City Hall then launched the Chicago Monuments Project and created an advisory committee to conduct a com...

Photo Credit: Wikipedia Anti-Semitic incidents in the UK went down last year, evidently thanks to Covid restrictions. The Community Security Trust (CST) reported a decrease of eight percent from 2019. It said: “The landscape of anti-Semitism in the UK and the decrease in reported incidents have been strongly influenced by the Covid pandemic” since fewer people were on the streets, in school, or in shul. The highest monthly totals were in January, February, June, and July which, it states, “correlate neatly with the periods when lockdown measures were either no-yet-existent (pre...

American separationism, as inscribed in the First Amendment and in our political ethos, has several roots. One is a legitimate fear about religious strife and oppression. But another is the conviction that excessive entanglement with the state endangers religion. Roger Williams, to whom we owe the metaphor of the “wall of separation,” sought to protect the “garden” of faith from the dark forces of the state on the other side of the wall. He believed that any semblance of official religion hindered the ability of a genuinely free, unblemished, conscience to direct itself to God. J...