Spertus Institute Combats Antisemitism: Leading Through Fireby Dr. Dean P. Bell, President and CEO For decades, Jewish communal professionals have been trained to build communities, inspire learning, and strengthen Jewish life. Increasingly, however, they are being asked to do something else entirely: respond to antisemitism—constantly, publicly, strategically, and often without adequate preparation or support. That …
Welcome to Hillelby Adam Lehman, President and CEO, Hillel For more than a century, Hillel has served as the home away from home for Jewish college students and young adults around the world. Today, Hillel engages, empowers, and inspires more than 190,000 Jewish students annually across 850 campuses worldwide, helping students explore, celebrate, lead, and …
ADL Audit of Antisemitic Incidents: The Numbers are Down. The Crisis is Not. by Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO, ADL (Anti-Defamation League) Dear CATALYST readers and friends of FJMC International: Congratulations and Mazal Tov on the inaugural issue of Catalyst. We so much appreciate our partnership with your organization at both the national and regional levels. As you …
From Awareness to Action: How the Blue Square Alliance Is Fighting Jewish Hateby Adam Katz, President, Blue Square Alliance Against Hate The Blue Square Alliance (BSA) is a nonprofit research organization and national leader in the fight against antisemitism. Founded in 2019 by Robert Kraft, we combat hate online, educate the public, and build meaningful …
The Jewish Man after October 7By Rabbi Noam Raucher, MA.ed, Executive Director, FJMC InternationalCo-host, Mamas’ Boys podcast With rising antisemitic threats, security is necessary — but when rage turns into identity, something essential in Jewish life begins to erode There is a reason a group like a new Jewish Defense League (JDL) can sound compelling right now. …
Maybe U.S. Patent No. 2,612,994 doesn’t mean much to you. But have you ever seen or used a bar code? You can thank two Jewish-Americans, Norman Joseph Woodland and Bernard Silver for developing the first optically scanned bar code, patented in 1952. You may not remember before bar codes but one had to trust the …
Do you use Waze to find your way from one place to another? You can thank 3 Israelis who developed it in 2008 to offer real-time traffic updates for drivers in Israel to avoid congestion, accidents and other activity that results in slow-downs or detours. At the time, Uri Levin, Ehud Shabtai, and Amir Shinar …
Felix Mendelssohn (February 3, 1809 – November 4, 1847) was born to Jewish parents in Hamburg, Germany, but as a child he was converted to Christianity, along with his siblings and his parents, as was somewhat popular in the area during the early 19th century as a way to emancipate from the Jewish ghetto …
Lise Meitner (1878 – 1968), Jewish scientist who has an element on the Periodic Table named for her. In the Periodic Table of the Elements, there are two elements named after women scientists. The namesake of Curium is well known, but the other scientist is unjustly obscure– Austrian-born Jewish physicist Elise “Lise” Meitner, who overcame …
Camille Pissarro (1830-1903) was an Impressionist and Post-Impressionist painter who was a pivotal figure in the Impressionist movement. Born on the island of St. Thomas to parents of Portuguese Jewish and French Jewish ancestry, he is regarded as the “dean of the Impressionist painters” not only because he was the oldest of the group, but …
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