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June 19, 2013

Peter Grier and Harry Bruinius: In the end, NSA might not need to snoop so secretly after all

Howard LaFranchi: Taliban peace talks hold glimmer of hope, but also unanswerable questions

Warren Richey: Supreme Court: For right to remain silent, a suspect must speak
Meredith Cohn: Leeches are making a comeback as medical helpers

Kerri-Ann Jennings, M.S., R.D.: How to pick the healthiest breakfast cereal

The Kosher Gourmet by Cathy Pollak: Spicy Double Chocolate Banana Muffins

June 17, 2013

Rabbi Simcha Weinstein: Black to the Future: American Apparel Gets Biblical

Patrik Jonsson: Minnesota Nazi: How did Nazi hunters miss Michael Karkoc?

Kate Irby, Ali Watkins, Trevor Graff and Kevin Thibodeaux: All the ways you're being watched
Don Lee: G-8 meeting will test NSA leaks' effect on U.S. influence

Patrik Jonsson: Fort Hood shooting: Judge nixes Nidal Hasan defense strategy. What now?

Stacey Burling: Why the stigma for migraine sufferers?

The Kosher Gourmet by Lisa Abraham: Does it work? 5 new kitchen gadgets put to the test

June 14, 2013

Rabbi Abraham J. Twerski: A spiritual budget: Religious economics and being a ruler

John P. Martin: Hitler insider's missing diary found

Matt Pearce: NSA surveillance disclosure could affect court cases
Peter Tinti: US bounties changes strategy on (Wild, Wild) West African jihadis

Daniel Pendrick, M.D.: Memory loss? Old age may be the least of it

Lauren F. Friedman: But it's all natural! Should we have an instinctive preference for herbal remedies?

Jewz in the Newz by Nate Bloom : Streisand and Alicia Keys in Israel; "Girls" Stuff; Mel Brooks, Another TV special; Superman (who is Jewish) returns --- Israeli plays his mom

The Kosher Gourmet by Sharon K. Ghag : Bored with salad? Bling it up a bit (4 effortless recipes that will result in a 'WOW!')

June 12, 2013

Stephanie Hanes: Little girls or little women? The Disney princess effect

Fred Weir: In tweak to US, Russia would 'consider' asylum for Snowden

Sharon Palmer, R.D.: What's so special about Omega-3 supplements?
Morgan Housel: What newspapers were saying when you should have been buying

Pete Spotts: How cockroaches evolved so as to bypass 'roach motels'

The Kosher Gourmet by Anjali Prasertong: Deep-dish cookie: Warm, gooey and a little over the top

June 10, 2013

Joseph A. Slobodzian: Faith healing and third degree murder: Thorny legal case
Lindsay Wise: Few options for online users to avoid spying, experts say

Sharon Palmer, R.D.: There are plenty of nutritional food bargains out there
Harvard Health Letters: Can bariatric surgery control diabetes?

Zach Murdock: Superglue helps doctors save infant's life

The Kosher Gourmet by Celebrated chef Mario Batali : As good as grilling gets: Rib eye with dry mushroom spice rub

June 7, 2013

Rabbi David Aaron: Beating jealousy

Caroline B. Glick: Wounded . . . and dangerous

Clifford D. May: Al Qaeda vs. Hezbollah
Harvard Health Letters: Fighting back against allergy season

Kimberly Lankford: Grandparents who use FSA to cover grandkid's braces and other must-know info

Jewz in the Newz by Nate Bloom:J ewish Tony Nominees/Tony Awards; Jewish Teen Actor In Sci-Fi Flick; Jewish singer in "Voice" finals

The Kosher Gourmet by Anjali Prasertong: A tart filling so good it might not make it to the crust

June 5, 2013

John Rosemond: Mom, Dad: Talk More and listen less

Kristen Chick: Egypt court sentences 43 pro-democracy workers to prison

Sharon Palmer, R.D.: Mushrooms Have Medicinal As Well As Culinary Value
Morgan Housel: Why you never learn from your investment mistakes

Don Lee: In China, kindergarten rivalry takes deadly turn

The Kosher Gourmet by Sara Kate Gillingham-Ryan: 30-Minute Coq au Vin isn't a dream

June 3, 2013

Molly Hennessy-Fiske: Military judge to consider letting Fort Hood shooting defendant represent himself

Richard A. Serrano: Pvt. Bradley Manning's WikiLeaks trial also a test for government

Mark Trumbull: Have degree, driving cab: Nearly half of college grads are overqualified
Kim Lankford: What to do when long-term care insurance premiums rise

Deborah Netburn: Study: Adults' mouth bacteria may help babies

Jewz in the Newz by Nate Bloom: Jewish Contestant on 'The Voice'; Will Smith's 'Jewish movie family'; Bravo Gives Long Island Jews the Jersey Shore Treatment; Magicians and More

The Kosher Gourmet by Bill Ward: How to be as refined as the wines at a wine tasting

May 29, 2013

Andrew Connelly and Helene Bienvenu: The Little Synagogue that Refused to Die

Dennis Prager: The 'Muslims-Killed-by-the-West' Lie

David Clark Scott: Open war on teachers?
Morgan Housel: If you know only five things about investing, make it these

Sara Reardon: AGenome detectives change the donation game

Deborah Netburn: A one-way ticket to Mars? 78,000-plus and counting apply by video

The Kosher Gourmet by Bev Bennett: CHEDDAR AND CHERRY MUFFINS --- your mouth is already watering

May 24, 2013

Rabbi Tzvi Hersh Weinreb: When I didn't so 'humbly disagree'

Caroline B. Glick: Thank you, Hafez al-Assad

Diana West: From the Brooklyn Bridge to London
Morgan Housel: Why spotting bubbles is so much harder than you think

Environmental Nutrition editors: NuVal labeling to the rescue?

Jewz in the Newz by Nate Bloom : Memorial Day: Jews Serving and KIA in War on Terror; Liberace Bio-Pic; Jew Wins "Survivor"; Shalom, Dr. Brothers; More

The Kosher Gourmet by Emma Christensen: HIDE THESE FROZEN TREATS FROM THE KIDDIES!: Sangria pops; Irish cream pudding pops; mango Lassi pops

May 22, 2013

John Thorne: They launched the 'Arab Spring' but now yearn for the good old days of a strongman

John Rosemond: 'Disciplinary math' adds up to parental successl

Warren Richey: Are prayers before public meetings OK? Supreme Court to decide
Rick Montgomery: Use of ADHD drugs as study aid raises concern on campuses

Brierley Wright, M.S., R.D.: 6 convincing reasons you should keep carbs in your diet

Eoin O'Carroll: Scientists examine nothing, find something

The Kosher Gourmet by Carole Kotkin: This soup is made from one of the great pleasures of spring: A wonderful pairing of rosy color and earthy tang

May 20, 2013

Richard A. Serrano: Is Meir Kahane's assassin now a changed man?

Hannan Adely: Town raises Palestinian flag at City Hall

Melissa Healy: Genetic copies of living people from embryos no longer science fiction
Morgan Housel: When smart investors do stupid things

Sharon Saloman, M.S., R.D.: Hunger games: Eat more, weigh less, without starving

Jewz in the Newz by Nate Bloom : Jews Inducted into Rock Hall of Fame; Anton Yelchin co-stars in New "Trek" film; Kutcher (but not Kunis) visits Israel; Jewish TV Star Praises Jewish Rap Star

The Kosher Gourmet by Cathy Pollak: WARNING: This WALNUT CAKE WITH PRALINE FROSTING, perfect for afternoon coffee, is addicting


Jewish World Review Oct. 17, 2012/ 1 Mar-Cheshvan, 5773

The crown of Aleppo

By Paul Greenberg




http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | Aleppo is burning. You can read about it day after day on the front pages, or on the websites of Syrians trying to organize support for their fight against the latest Assad. Caught between regulars and irregulars, thugs in uniform and out, Aleppo's inhabitants run for cover, or hunker down where they are and wait for the next air raid, the next suicide bombing, the next massacre. Or just the next bus out. Which could be blown to smithereens. By either side.

The choices grow limited: Is it better to be killed by the grandly styled Free Syrian Army or the unfree one? Stay or head for the border -- and, if so, which one? Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq? Troubles wait there, too. Or stay put and hope that this, too, shall pass. But it doesn't. It intensifies.

The other night, fires swept through Aleppo's souk, the covered market in the old walled city, destroying hundreds of centuries-old shops. Flames danced where once perfumes and spices and silken fabrics from the East were laid out in rich profusion.

Syria's civil war has finally reached the largely Kurdish part of the country in the north. The Kurds had hoped to stay out of it. They can't. And won't. The war is reaching over the border. Turkey and Syria have begun exchanging artillery fire. Unlike the scenes in Syria, only a few civilians have been killed in Turkey. So far. War, like fire, must be snuffed out or it will spread. This one is spreading.

The world does little except stand by, occasionally issuing pious proclamations. See the collected works of the Hon. Hillary Clinton, our secretary of state, for a wide assortment of them. Take your choice of the most meaningless. As is customary on these occasions, solemn resolutions devoid of resolve are adopted at the UN.

Distinguished representatives of Russia, China and Iran -- the new axis of evil -- object to anything that might resemble action. Their client state might object even as it crumbles, taking as many innocent victims as it can with it. The flames spread, refugees huddle, children die. Nothing new there. Certainly not for Aleppo. It's seen this before.

In 1947, mobs rampaged through its streets protesting a vote by the UN's General Assembly to partition Palestine into two states, one Jewish, one Arab. Intolerable. Outrageous. What, the Israelites are back after all these centuries, and even want their country back? The nerve!

Enraged, the rioters burned down the old synagogue where the city's Jewish community kept its greatest treasure -- a priceless medieval manuscript known to biblical scholars as the Aleppo Codex, or in Hebrew the Keter Aram Zova -- the Crown of Aleppo in popular parlance.

Yes, Syria once had thriving Jewish communities, renowned for their piety and learning. And every time I see the dateline ALEPPO, Syria, I think of the Aleppo Codex, or what's left of it. For it is, or was, the embodiment of all of Jewish history in a single document -- its triumphs and tragedies, great hopes and greater tragedies, its continuity and dead ends, its connections with the divine and mundane, heaven and earth. The history of the Codex might as well be the Jewish people's. For it is the Wandering Jew of books.

As best as can be ascertained, this authoritative work was set down sometime in the 10th Century A.D. in Palestine/Israel/Canaan/Zion, whose changing names reflect how many times it has changed hands. The venerable manuscript, recognized as the most authentic representation extant of the biblical tradition in its exact words, its consonants and vowels, grammar and lettering, vocalization and even cantillation, would change hands as regularly as the land itself did.

The Codex, along with any other survivors, would be held for ransom by the Crusaders when they conquered Jerusalem in 1099. Rescued, it somehow found its way to Aleppo, whose Jewish community guarded it zealously for six hundred years. Maimonides, the greatest of medieval Jewish scholars, philosophers, physicians and biblical exegetes, would consult it for his magisterial compilation of Jewish law from Scripture, the Mishne Torah.

What survived of the Crown after the burning of the Aleppo synagogue -- all but a last phrase or two of the first five books of the Bible are missing -- was smuggled out of Syria in January 1958, and now, as vivisected as the Jewish people itself after the Holocaust, it can be found in Jerusalem again. It's in the Shrine of the Book there, its folios smudged with ashes from the fire in Aleppo, or maybe that's just fungus. Now and then a few of its missing pages will pop up, giving hope of its final resurrection.

Meanwhile, back in Aleppo, the shells keep landing. One can imagine the conversations of families gathered around their dinner table, if they still have one: Shall we go or stay? Leave behind all we have here or save ourselves -- and the children! Conversations not unlike those of German Jews in the 1930s.

As the Nazis rose to power, two of my aunts fled a little shtetl in Poland for Paris, the City of Light. Surely they would be safe in La Belle France. But like so many other French Jews, they would disappear after Paris fell. They were doubtless rounded up by the gendarmes along with so many others at the Vel d'Hiv, then handed over to the Germans to be herded into boxcars for Resettlement in the East, and were never seen again.

Yes, I can imagine the conversations in Aleppo.

Paul Greenberg Archives

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