US Postal Service Celebrates Hanukkah With ‘Forever’ Stamp

Howard Blas / JNS.org

The “Hanukkah Forever” postage stamp is unveiled at Temple Emanu El in Orange Village, Ohio, on Oct. 20, 2022. Second from left is designer Jeanette Kuvin Oren. Credit: Courtesy Jeanette Kuvin Oren.

American Judaica artist Jeanette Kuvin Oren is well-known for her work in many media. She designs unique Torah mantles, ark curtains, chuppah wedding canopies, ketubah marriage contracts, papercuts, stained glass and nearly any ritual object or decoration a synagogue, Jewish home or family would ever need.

On Oct. 20, Kuvin Oren added “designer of a U.S. Postal Service stamp” to her impressive résumé. The “Hanukkah Forever” postage stamp is based on one of Kuvin Oren’s works.

“Jeanette’s art came to my attention several years ago and I am very happy to be able to bring her work to a very wide audience,” Ethel Kessler of Kessler Design, who serves as art director for stamps at the USPS, says enthusiastically. “Her work has a glowing and joyful spirit and that’s what I wanted to add to our US Hanukkah series.”

A first-day-of-issue dedication ceremony for the stamp was held last Thursday at Temple Emanu El in Orange Village, Ohio, an eastern suburb of Cleveland. This year, Hanukkah begins on the evening of Dec. 18.

Kessler adds, “Stamps are a joy for me to art direct. What it entails is getting familiar with people across the country who are making interesting art that can be used at stamp size.”

The USPS states, “The stamp art features the design from an original wall-hanging. The fiber art was hand-dyed, appliquéd and quilted to form an abstract image of a hanukkiah.”

The stamp is being issued in panes of 20. It will always be equal in value to the current First Class Mail one-ounce price (currently 60 cents). Kessler acknowledges, “First class mail may have dropped off in the past decade…But we still print over 10 million Hanukkah celebration stamps.”

Kuvin Oren has now received an education in stamp collecting and stamp releases. She explains that the first-day-of-issue dedication ceremony took place in Cleveland since the USPS wanted it to be in the Midwest. And Emanu El was enthusiastic to host.”

She has also learned that the stamp date and location will appear on every 6-3/4 inch envelope with the state and date of issue and location. Stamp collectors traditionally go to the post office to buy new stamps, put them on a clean white blank envelope and mail them for a first-day-of-issue cancellation. These are known as first-day covers. Many aficionados also collect cachets, an illustration usually on the left side of the envelope.

“The USPS doesn’t create a cachet so it is up to the artist or a dealer to create one. It is a nice souvenir for the first day of issue so I created my own,” reports Kuvin Oren.

Kuvin Oren, a resident of Connecticut and Jerusalem, recently offered a tour of her home studio in Woodbridge, Conn., and enthusiastically shared her many works in progress and stories of her artwork with JNS.

In describing the process of being discovered by the USPS, she reports, “I sent a piece 30 years ago to the USPS and always had a dream of being on a stamp—this is the culmination of a lifelong dream. I am very honored and it is very emotional to see my artwork there. It is something so historical.”

Kuvin Oren explains that a small wall hanging of her stamp will hang in the National Postal Museum in Washington, DC. “It will be Hanukkah forever!”

The artist, a graduate of Princeton and Yale universities, has talents in many areas. She completed a master’s degree in public health and most of her doctorate in epidemiology. Since deciding in 1984 to work on commissioned art and graphic design full-time, she has created installation pieces for more than 400 houses of worship, schools, community centers and camps around the world. She specializes in large installations of glass, mosaic, metal, fiber art, calligraphy, paper-cutting and painting. Her Torah covers, ark covers, ark curtains and wall hangings may be seen in homes and Jewish institutions around the world.

Kuvin Oren shares with great excitement a donor recognition art wall project she recently worked on for a synagogue in Miami. She demonstrated the special equipment and process (in her basement studio) needed to produce 40 Torah covers for a shul that has three sanctuaries.

She has also shared her talents close to home—at her beloved synagogue, Congregation B’nai Jacob in Woodbridge. During the COVID-19 pandemic, she helped create a video of departed members of the synagogue; the faces of each person were incorporated into the video, which was shown as part of the Yizkor memorial service.

Kuvin Oren plans to use the Hanukkah postage stamps on the invitations to the wedding of one of her daughters, which will take place in March 2023.

US students report jump in mental scarring from campus antisemitism, but see no end

CATHRYN J. PRINCE

From a Jewish sexual assault survivor targeted by her support group, to a pupil afraid to wear a Star of David, young Jews say they walk on campuses in fear of hate crimes

NEW YORK — Ofek Preis won’t walk to class by herself anymore. She’s afraid of being harassed for being Jewish.

“I’m just so burnt out from this. I just want to go to class and have a normal class. Then I remember that there is so much antisemitism here. It can be really debilitating,” said Preis, a 21-year-old senior at State University of New York (SUNY) New Paltz.

“It’s shocking and triggering. You start to feel you have no control of your learning environment; you feel unsafe everywhere,” she told The Times of Israel.

Preis isn’t alone: Jewish students across the United States report being excluded from campus organizations, targeted on social media and harassed in classes by students and professors alike. Additionally, they’ve seen dormitories and sidewalks vandalized with swastikas, and buildings plastered with flyers that equate Birthright trips to Israel with genocide and call for Zionists to “fuck off.”

Yet, often lost in the coverage of these incidents is the emotional toll they take on the Jewish students.

One in three college students personally experiences antisemitic hate during the academic year, according to an October 2021 survey conducted for the Anti-defamation League (ADL) and Hillel International. The survey found that 32 percent of Jewish students experienced antisemitism directed at them, and 79% of those students reported that it happened to them on more than one occasion.

Additionally, over 350 anti-Israel incidents occurred on campuses nationwide during the academic year 2021-2022, according to the ADL’s annual Campus Report. The most common means of harassment involved excluding Zionist students, supporting anti-Israel violence and perpetuating antisemitic tropes, according to the report.

“Hate crimes, including those derived from antisemitism, can have dangerous physical, psychological and societal consequences. Research demonstrates that acts of discrimination affect the immune systems of victims and those who witness hateful acts, and the effects of hate crimes change attitudes and behaviors at a societal level for years,” says a June 2021 American Psychological Association statement.

For Preis, the ordeal began after she transferred to SUNY New Paltz from SUNY Geneseo in the fall semester of 2021.

An Israeli studying abroad, Preis was allegedly kicked out of New Paltz Accountability, a sexual-assault survivors’ support group, together with classmate Cassie Blotner, for posting about their Jewish identity on social media. Accused of white supremacy, the girls were targeted on the YikYak social media platform in the spring of 2022 with an anonymous post encouraging students to spit on “the Zionists.”

Pilloried on social media and vilified on campus, Preis said the situation became unbearable. Jittery, anxious, and unable to concentrate, she took most of her classes online for several weeks. She also moved into an off-campus apartment. The decision helped her emotionally but not academically.

Once a double major in political science and sociology, Preis said she fell behind in her studies. Forced to choose between graduating later to make up political science credits or dropping it as one of her two majors, she’s now a sociology major with a political science minor.

“It’s hard to muster up the energy to just get through my day. As a sexual assault survivor it was already a struggle, but this [antisemitism] added another layer to feeling that our safety and well-being is not protected here,” Preis said.

Illustrative: Anti-Israel, pro-Palestinian activists in New York City, May 15, 2021. (Luke Tress/Times of Israel)

The US Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights is now investigating SUNY New Paltz for not protecting Jewish students and addressing campus antisemitism. The investigation will determine whether the university violated Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which prohibits discrimination based on race and religion.

“We unequivocally condemn any attacks on SUNY students who are Jewish, and we will not tolerate anti-Semitic harassment and intimidation on campus,” says to a SUNY New Paltz statement, which adds that the university will “continue our active engagement to support our Jewish students and employees around the rise of antisemitism.”

The Department of Education is also investigating complaints against the University of Vermont (UVM), University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and University of Southern California (USC). The Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, a legal advocacy group, filed the complaints with Jewish on Campus, a student-run nonprofit organization.

“When someone experiences antisemitism and then feels the university won’t do anything, it makes you feel sort of stuck in that experience,” said Julia Jassey, a fourth-year at the University of Chicago and co-founder of Jewish on Campus.

Jassey said she too experienced antisemitism on campus. For example, on Instagram last February, the University of Chicago chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) told students not to take “Shitty Zionist classes” and to “Support the Palestine movement for liberation by boycotting classes on Israel or those taught by Israeli fellows.”

Hiding in plain sight

“I think people need to realize that antisemitism is incredibly painful for these students. This is not what college is supposed to be,” said Alyza Lewin, president of the Brandeis Center.

When Micah Gritz, a junior at Tufts University, goes to class he makes sure to tuck his Star of David under his shirt to avoid antisemitic harassment. (Courtesy: Micah Gritz/ Photo credit: Shahar Azran/ WJC)

“The bad news is everything you’re hearing about rising antisemitism is true. The good news is, you’re hearing about it. Denying it or downplaying it only compounds the anxiety students are feeling. It makes them think maybe it’s not real, or maybe they should hide who they are, which is not an acceptable reality,” she added.

However, hiding one’s identity is the reality for many students, including Tufts University junior Micah Gritz.

The 20-year-old international security and Jewish studies major tucks his Star of David necklace under his shirt whenever he gets to class. Before university, he never thought twice about the necklace.

That changed before move-in day of his freshman year. Gritz was one of many incoming undergraduates who sought to connect with fellow classmates on the social media platform GroupMe.

“We were chatting on it and then someone happened to mention they were Jewish. ‘Israel or Palestine?’ came the response,” said Gritz.

Once on campus he heard comments like, “You’re Jewish, you must be rich,” or “So you kill Palestinian children, right?” A professor in one of Gritz’s political science classes also insinuated that the Jewish lobby controls the government, he said.

“Sometimes I’d push back, but you can become exhausted and burnt out fighting for your identity. Sometimes you just need to prioritize your mental health,” Gritz said.

Getting involved with Jewish on Campus as its chief operating officer helped Gritz cope. Refraining from social media also helps, he said, adding that he uses Instagram infrequently and keeps his Twitter account private, primarily using it to follow the news.

Anxious and angry

That around 2,000, or 20%, of UVM’s 11,626 undergraduate students are Jewish was a draw for one student, who, fearing a backlash, spoke on condition of anonymity.

“It was so important to me to go to a school with a strong Jewish presence that I wrote about it for my college application essay,” said the UVM junior.

When she arrived at the bucolic school situated a mile from Lake Champlain, she appreciated the variety of student organizations. Some were dedicated to climate change, others to books. Some to crafts, others to social justice.

Her excitement soon evaporated.

In May 2021, UVM Empowering Survivors, a sexual assault survivor support group, posted antisemitic comments on Instagram. Then a university teaching assistant reportedly targeted student supporters of Israel on Twitter. For example, on April 5, 2021, the TA wrote, “is it unethical for me, a TA, to not give zionists credit for participation??? i feel its good and funny, -5 points for going on birthright in 2018, -10 points for posting a pic with a tank in the Golan heights, -2 points just cuz i hate ur vibe in general.”

An Instagram post from a University of Vermont sexual assault survivors support group announcing the exclusion of Zionists. (Courtesy)

The university and its president, Suresh Garimella, declined to comment about the school’s handling of claims of antisemitism.

Instead, the president’s office referred to Garimella’s statement regarding the Title VI investigation, in which he said the media coverage of the Department of Education’s investigation “has painted our community in a patently false light.”

“UVM is home to a strong and vibrant Jewish community and is recognized as a place where — year after year — many Jewish students, faculty, and staff choose to study, teach, conduct research, practice medicine, and work,” the statement said.

The UVM junior found no solace in his statement.

University of Vermont President Suresh Garimella speaks with reporters on Monday, July 1, 2019, in Burlington, Vermont. (AP/Lisa Rathke)

“Just because a school has a big Jewish community doesn’t mean there isn’t antisemitism outside of those spaces. It got harder to be a Jew outside of those spaces,” she said. “I’m no longer comfortable sharing my Jewish identity in class. I’m scared to bring it up during discussion, even though everyone else is free to talk about their identity and not feel intimidated.”

Liora Rez, executive director of StopAntisemitism, said Garimella’s email is another example of an administration’s failure to act.

“They are not protecting the mental health of Jewish students,” Rez said. “So many of these students feel tremendous insecurity. Some ultimately feel the need to hide their Jewish identity or support for Israel. On the macro level that leads to stress and many students have a tough time throughout the day.”

According to the watchdog group’s latest report, 55% of respondents answered “yes” when asked if they’ve experienced some form of antisemitism at their school. Only 28% of students said they feel their school administration takes antisemitism and the protection of Jewish students seriously.

Lingering effects

Rose Ritch graduated from USC two years ago. Her experiences there still reverberate.

It was August 2020 and Ritch, then a rising senior, was elated. She’d just been elected undergraduate student government vice president. Her joy was short-lived.

Some students launched an impeachment campaign. Multiple Instagram posts called her a racist for supporting Israel. Tweets celebrated “the zionists from usc and usg getting relentlessly cyberbullied.”

“It escalated like a tornado. I was so nauseous from anxiety. I couldn’t eat for eight days. It was hard to sleep. It definitely was not a healthy moment in my life,” said the 24-year-old Ritch.

Rose Ritch graduated from USC two years ago; her experience with antisemitism still haunts. (Courtesy: Rose Ritch)

Isolation compounded the stress. It was the height of the COVID-19 pandemic and she was living alone. A steady stream of supportive texts, phone calls and video calls helped, “but a hug would have been nice,” she said.

Although some in the administration were sympathetic, there was no public condemnation of the harassment, Ritch said. She weighed her options.

“People said if I stayed I would win, and if I left I would be letting them win. It was presented as a binary choice,” Ritch said. “I realized I wouldn’t be a successful student leader, student or person if I stayed. Winning for me was canceling out the noise. I had to take my physical and mental health into account.”

The harassment continued.

She’d be in psychology class — held on Zoom because of pandemic measures — when private messages would pop up calling her a racist, she said.

Ritch welcomes the Title VI investigation into USC as well as the university’s announcement that it is developing partnerships with national organizations including the Anti-Defamation League and the American Jewish Committee.

Nevertheless, she remains troubled.

“It was a traumatic experience and impacted me mentally for a lot longer than I care to admit. I’m much more cognizant that there are people out there who don’t like that I hold this identity,” she said.

Changing the scenery

Some Jewish students like Gritz choose to stick it out. Others, such as Avi Zatz, decide enough is enough. The agroecology major transferred from UVM to the University of Florida this year, ahead of UVM’s Title VI investigation.

“I love it here. The administration is supportive. People are comfortable being who they are and bigotry is shut down quickly, where at UVM it was accepted,” Zatz, a junior, said of his new school where of the 34,881 undergraduates, 18%, or just over 6,000, are Jewish.

Avi Zatz says he transferred to University of Florida from the University of Vermont because of antisemitism. (Courtesy: Avi Zitz)

Zatz said he felt something was amiss at UVM when students marched down Burlington’s main street in support of BDS during the High Holy Days in 2021.

“It was uncomfortable. There were also really popular clubs on campus that I wasn’t able to join because of my background,” he said. For example, the UVM Book Club, a university-recognized student club, has a group “University of Vermont Revolutionary Socialist Union.” In May 2021 that group publicly announced it would ban Zionists.

No longer comfortable wearing anything that might identify him as Jewish, Zatz went to the administration.

“Long story short, they didn’t care. They made it clear they were not going to condemn antisemitism,” Zatz said. “I felt isolated and insecure. I thought I’m not supported and no one is being held to account. I didn’t know what to expect in college, but nobody expects to be excluded based on their background.”

While the Department of Education continues its investigations and antisemitic incidents continue unabated, SUNY New Paltz’s Preis said she hopes people will consider the emotional toll antisemitism takes on students.

“This will follow me, this feeling that our safety and well-being as a Jewish student is not considered,” Preis said. “All of it has made me question why I am here in America studying, whether I even want to stay here after I graduate. I’m not sure I see a future here anymore.”

Exhibit About Moroccan-Israeli Fashion Designer Alber Elbaz Opens Near His Childhood Home in Holon

Shiryn Ghermezian

The late fashion designer Alber Elbaz appears at the end of his Spring/Summer 2016 women’s ready-to-wear fashion show for Lanvin in Paris, France, October 1, 2015. Photo: Reuters/Benoit Tessier

An exhibition about the life and creative work of fashion designer and former Lanvin creative director Alber Elbaz opened on Sept. 15 in the Israeli city of Holon, where he spent his childhood.

“Alber Elbaz: The Dream Factory,” at the Design Museum Holon is the most extensive exhibition about the designer, who was born in Casablanca, Morocco, and grew up in Holon. The exhibit takes over the entire museum, featuring nine galleries that spotlights more than 100 of Elbaz’s designs, 300 photographs, personal items and never-before-seen archival material, including images of Elbaz as a child and sketches from his childhood, according to Vogue.

The first gallery in the exhibit features clothing from AZ Factory, the label Elbaz launched in January 2021 three months before he died at the age of 59 from COVID-19. Another room in the exhibit is called “Love is Love,” which was the same name as the Paris fashion show held in Elbaz’s honor after his death.

Original couture looks from the “Love Brings Love” tribute show are on display in a multi-media format specially designed for the exhibit. Visitors will see many of the designs showcased at the Paris fashion show and created by 46 of the world’s leading designers, including Gucci, Balenciaga, McQueen, Valentino, Versace and Dior.

The exhibit also includes a 180-foot corridor that highlights quotes, childhood toys, fashion illustrations and mementos, including Elbaz’s trademark bowtie and glasses, a pencil case, and a thimble gifted to him that once belonged to Margit Singer, a seamstress who survived the Auschwitz concentration camp due to her sewing skills. The hallway ends with a gold lamé dress Elbaz designed for actress Meryl Streep, who wore the gown when she won her Academy Award for “The Iron Lady” in 2012. Streep gifted the dress to the museum.

Elbaz, who was the creative director of Lanvin from 2001 to 2015, also worked with Geoffrey Beene, Guy Laroche and Yves Saint Laurent throughout his career.

The exhibit’s creative director, Katy Reiss, worked with Elbaz for 15 years and directed the “Love Brings Love” fashion show in Paris. Reiss told Vogue that she and Ya’ara Keydar, the exhibit’s curator, tried to hold back from making the exhibit too sentimental or comprehensive.

“Alber shivered at the thought of a retrospective,” Reiss said. “He told me he wanted people to see how he works, why he works, and the love he has for his work. It felt important to share an overview but not dwell too much …We want people to go through a whirlwind of emotions and leave smiling.”

Keydar added, “Alber was known not only for his unique talent and visionary approach but for his rare ability to touch people’s hearts. We hope to do the same and inspire visitors to dream forward.”

“Alber Elbaz: The Dream Factory” will remain open at the Design Museum Holon until March 2023.

Dr hab. Aleksander Woźny: – Niemiecki gen. Wilhelm Adam, patrząc na mapę, powiedział wprost sojuszniczemu dyplomacie w Berlinie, że na miejscu polskiego szefa Sztabu Generalnego nie przespałby spokojnie ani jednej nocy. Na zdjęciu polscy żołnierze w niemieckiej niewoli, wrzesień 1939 r. (Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-E10750 / Hoffmann / CC-BY-SA 3.0, CC BY-SA 3.0 DE , via Wikimedia Commons)

Nie mieliśmy szans wygrać wojny z Niemcami, ale mogliśmy ją sensowniej rozegrać

Andrzej Brzeziecki

Wojsko Polskie stać było na sformowanie jednej brygady motorowo-pancernej. Druga była tworzona w czerwcu, a jej dowódca płk Stefan Rowecki nie miał nawet prawa jazdy.

Rozmowa z dr. hab. Aleksandrem Woźnym, historykiem i politologiem

Andrzej Brzeziecki: W marcu 1939 r. jeden z agentów Jana Henryka Żychonia z Ekspozytury 3 informował o niemieckiej delegacji z Franzem von Papenem na czele, która przybyła do Moskwy na rozmowy. Wkrótce sygnałów o zbliżeniu obu państw było więcej, a jednak Warszawa je bagatelizowała. Dlaczego?

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Dr hab. Aleksander Woźny: Żychoń wspominał o tym w sprawozdaniu we Francji w listopadzie 1939 r. – meldunku nie widziałem w archiwach. Była to istotna informacja jak wiele innych, które pozyskiwał wywiad na temat relacji Berlin – Moskwa. Żychoń kierował ważną ekspozyturą zachodniego wywiadu płytkiego. Jego sprawozdania, raporty i informacje trafiały do Samodzielnego Referatu Studiów „Niemcy” i jeśli np. po konfrontacji z innymi doniesieniami nie uznano ich za ważne, nie były przekazywane wyżej.

W maju ppłk Antoni Szymański, attaché wojskowy w Berlinie, po rozmowie z gen. Karlem Bodenschatzem informował o możliwości porozumienia Hitlera ze Stalinem. Generał ostrzegał, że Hitler gotów jest się sprzymierzyć z samym diabłem.

– Generał Karl Bodenschatz ujawnił celowo tę informację. Szymański wysłał natychmiast depeszę szyfrową i wtedy zareagowano: został wezwany do Warszawy. Niestety, szef Sztabu Głównego gen. Wacław Stachiewicz mu nie uwierzył. Marszałek Edward Śmigły-Rydz, generalny inspektor Sił Zbrojnych, nakazał jednak sprawdzenie tej informacji wywiadom zachodniemu i wschodniemu. Meldunki napłynęły, ale nie wywołały zaniepokojenia. Z biegiem czasu przestały być pierwszoplanowe dla kierownictwa wojska.

Niemcy długi czas pozyskiwali Polskę do wspólnej wojny ze Związkiem Sowieckim. Stąd częste wizyty m.in. Hermanna Göringa w Polsce. Towarzyszyło im wiele gestów, np. podarowanie prezydentowi RP i generalnemu inspektorowi specjalnych samochodów. W końcu na początku 1939 r. Adolf Hitler w rozmowach z ministrem Józefem Beckiem usztywnił negocjacyjne stanowisko. Wypowiedzenie deklaracji z 1934 r. nastąpiło po ujawnieniu brytyjskich gwarancji.

Jaki wpływ miały informacje Oddziału II SG na politykę Józefa Becka? Szymański nawet rozmawiał z szefem polskiej dyplomacji.

– Jadąc z nim w pociągu w maju 1939 r., informował, że Wehrmacht osiągnął gotowość marszową. Minister Beck miał też informacje z placówek dyplomatycznych. Choćby placówka w Oslo meldowała, że Niemcy doprowadzą do porozumienia z Moskwą. Tym informacjom Beck też nie dawał jednak wiary. W kontekście stosunków ze wschodnim sąsiadem opierał się na informacjach ambasadora w Moskwie Wacława Grzybowskiego, które były uspokajające. W maju 1939 r. pojawił się nagle przejazdem w Polsce zastępca ludowego komisarza spraw zagranicznych Władimir Potiomkin, który zapewniał Becka, że Związek Sowiecki jest przyjaźnie nastawiony do Polski. Mało tego – 2 czerwca Moskwa przysłała do Warszawy nowego ambasadora Nikołaja Szaronowa. Poprzednik przed dwoma laty został odwołany – padł ofiarą czystki – i placówka była nieobsadzona. W MSZ zinterpretowano to jako gest przyjazny i starania o unormowanie dwustronnych stosunków. Beck w to wierzył.

Na taśmach nagranych w 1957 roku słychać, jak Adolf Eichmann chwali się swoją rolą w ludobójstwie europejskich Żydów.

Odkryte taśmy z wyznaniami Eichmanna

Jeff Jacoby
Tłumaczenie: Małgorzata Koraszewska

Jeff Jacoby – Amerykański prawnik i dziennikarz, publicysta “Boston Globe” od 1994 roku.