"1906, Dreyfus rehabilitated" Online Exhibit

The Dreyfus Affair (which I've mentioned on this blog before) was an important catalyst for world Jewry, inspiring Theodor Herzl to organize early Zionists into a World Zionist Congress. There is a wonderful Alfred Dreyfus exhibit available here:
http://www.dreyfus.culture.fr/en/index.htm. It features a wealth of information, multimedia presentations, documents of the Dreyfus family, life in France in the 1890s, and news surrounding Dreyfus and his trials.

To explore the role of political cartoons in the public conversations surrounding the Affair, check out:

1906, Dreyfus rehabilitated : Caricatures - page 1


Dreyfus' trials revealed deep social injustice toward Jews, but they also revealed that not all non-Jews are anti-Semites. The most notable among the friends Jews found in this dark time is Emile Zola, who wrote a famous letter to the President of the Republic of France titled "J'Accuse!" (I accuse!), published in a major newspaper. You can find a wiki document featuring the original article and its translation here: http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/J%27accuse.

Awe-Inspiring Spectacle of the Yom Kippur Ritual of the Temple

Here are some sites from today's Etz Chayim sixth grade lesson on the awe-inspiring spectacle of the Yom Kippur Ritual of the Temple.

 First we looked at http://www.sci.brooklyn.cuny.edu/~mtwersky/, which charts out the entire Yom Kippur Avodah (service) set of rituals. This includes descriptions of the parade leading to the Temple, explanations of all of the sacrifices in detail, diagrams and descriptions of the High Priest's (Kohein Gadol) clothing. In addition to learning about the sacrificial system, we were able to see the similarities in dress between the Kohein Gadol and Ashkenazic Torah scrolls.

Next, we looked at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem's Interactive Second Temple Model (http://www.english.imjnet.org.il/htmls/page_1382.aspx?c0=14816&bsp=12729), which allowed us to appreciate the grandeur of the Second Temple and how the building added to the sense of amazement and spectacle that the Temple inspired.

We concluded by opening a discussion (which we will continue on Wednesday) about what the purposes of the Temple sacrifices were (referencing http://www.jewfaq.org/qorbanot.htm) and read one prominent contemporaries response to the bloodiness and primitive emotion of the sacrifices themselves (Bradley Shavit Artson, at http://www.myjewishlearning.com/texts/Bible/Weekly_Torah_Portion/vayikra_artson5762.shtml).