Saludo World Congress 2020

Con la llegada de esta época del año, hacemos un balance de lo vivido, y de lo que deseamos para el año que se inicia.  En lo personal y dentro del lugar que me toca desempeñar en nuestra institución, puedo decir que fue un gran año, de nuevos desafíos y con la seguridad que siempre podemos aprender hacer las cosas de la mejor manera.

Trabajamos en equipo y rodeado de pares de todo el mundo, eso nos fortalece y nos obliga a seguir construyendo espacios seguros donde todas las personas, independientemente de su elección sexual, puedan tener un lugar donde pertenecer.

Este año celebramos los 50 años de “Stonewall,” y esa lucha que comenzó hace tanto tiempo es la que nos inspira a seguir trabando en pos de la Igualdad, nunca hubieran imaginado ese grupo que resistió en esa noche de verano caluroso de New York, los avances que se lograron en todo el mundo. Fue un hito histórico que reivindico el orgullo de las personas Judías LGBTQI+

Luchamos día a día para que en el mundo entero sean reconocidos los derechos para el Colectivo Judío LGBTQI+, acompañando y brindando herramientas donde haya alguien que así lo necesite.

Está muy bien que poco a poco se vayan aprobando leyes que garanticen nuestros derechos más fundamentales como ciudadanos. Pero muchas veces, una cosa es lo que se aprueba en los parlamentos, y luego otra la realidad es la que vivimos en el día a día. Las agresiones en las puertas de los bares, acoso escolar, problemas familiares, etc.

Entre los deseos que tenemos para el próximo año, es poder seguir contándoles las noticias y novedades que afectan al colectivo Judío LGBTQI+ en el mundo entero, como lo hemos hecho hasta hoy, de una manera enérgica y actualizada. Y para eso, es muy importante que todos (ustedes y nosotros) que somos los que tenemos un rol de poder ayudar sigamos conectados. También es el deseo de poder seguir fortaleciendo aquellas regiones, como Latinoamérica y Europa del Este, que sabemos lo difícil que es hablar de la diversidad en estas regiones.

Por eso, para el 2020 deseamos que la normalización llegue para todo el mundo, y que problemas como estos pasen a la historia de una vez por todas para LGBTQI+. 

Un abrazo,
Gustavo Michanie VP

At this time of the year we evaluate how we lived and what we yearn for in the year to come.  From my personal point of view, and regarding my task within the Congress, I surely say that it was a great year with new challenges and with the certainty of being able to learn how to do things in the best possible way.

We go on working as a team, with peers from all over the world, with a sense of strength that drives us to go on building safe spaces for all people; to find a place they can belong to, regardless of their sexual orientation. 

This year we remembered and cherished Stonewall, a spontaneous struggle that emerged 50 years ago.  At that time nobody could imagine the scope and importance of such an event. The call for resistance during that hot summer night in New York was the outcome of a true need to be recognized as ordinary people, with the same rights of every other human being.  As time went by Stonewall, became a milestone for all of us LGBTQI+ people.

Every day, we struggle, worldwide for LGBTQI+ and Jewish rights and to be recognized providing our best knowledge and tools for those needing them.  We daily conquer rights through legislation that allows us to be considered with the same fundamental status as others. In our everyday life we still have to cope with strong resistance against in schools, public spaces and even within our own families.

This is why we have to consider all worldwide news involving LGBTQI+ Jews with a strong and renewed commitment.

It is of vital importance for us as members of an organization born to be the voice of voiceless LGBTQI+ Jews, to be permanently connected, designing new and effective strategies, in order to help people mainly from regions like Latin America and Eastern Europe at which diversity is an odd word.

This is why our main and only wish for 2020 and years to come, is to reach the status of equality of all other human beings.  This would also mean the end of LGBTQI+ issues. 

Shall we be able to witness such a thing?

Truly yours,
Gustavo Michanie, Vice President

What if I told you that a lot of what you - and everyone - think about Chanukkah is wrong? Would it make you want to learn more about the holiday? Would it challenge something fundamental about your Jewish identity? (I certainly hope that wouldn’t be the case.) Or would it not elicit any response whatsoever? (I also hope that this would not be the case.)

Today, Chanukkah is often treated by Jews and non-Jews alike as “Jewish Christmas.” And it’s not difficult to understand the comparison given their proximity to one another on the Gregorian calendar. Although the observance of Chanukkah is fixed according to the Hebrew (lunar) calendar, there are years - this one included - when the two overlap. However, the true history and meaning of Chanukkah should disavow anyone of any such comparisons.

As Aviva Lauer-Golbert, director of the Pardes Center for Jewish Educators, writes: “What is not well-known is that the first Hanukah had its roots in the Sukkot festival. The extracanonical Second Book of the Maccabees cites a letter, written approximately 40 years after the guerilla Hasmoneans took down the Seleucid Greeks and reclaimed the Temple for the Jewish people, which refers to the new holiday of Chanukkah as ‘the festival of Sukkot celebrated in the month of Kislev,’ rather than in Tishrei. The war between the Jews and the Greeks was still being fought in Tishrei of 164 BCE, and the Temple was still in foreign hands. And as Sukkot, in First Temple times, had taken on the added significance of the Temple’s ‘birthday,’ when King Solomon enacted the first Hakhel, or gathering of the people, at the Temple’s inauguration ceremony (see I Kings, chapter 8), it wouldn’t have made much sense for the Maccabees to celebrate the Temple holiday without the Temple. 

When they defeated their enemy in battle and were able to take back control of God’s House, the Maccabees reenacted the ‘first Sukkot’ by rededicating the Temple to God. This is likely why Chanukkah was set for eight days: to replicate the seven days of Sukkot plus the one day of Shmini Atzeret – and not because of the miracle of the oil lasting for eight days (as the Talmud in Tractate Shabbat surmises, and which persists to this day). In fact, the Second Book of the Maccabees clearly states that ‘they celebrated [Chanukkah] for eight days with gladness like Sukkot and recalled how a little while before, during Sukkot, they had been wandering in the mountains and caverns like wild animals. So carrying lulavs … they offered hymns of praise to God who had brought to pass the purification of his own place’ (II Maccabees 10:9-10). Thus, a better-late-than-never Sukkot in Second Temple Jerusalem.”

The modern traditions of exchanging presents, eating foods fried in oil, spinning dreidels, and eating chocolate gelt are also part of the Chanukkah story. But they exist because of the resilience of the Jewish people. As the story from Second Maccabees illustrates, the essence of Chanukkah is rising to the occasion. It is about presence, not presents. As its name suggests, Chanukkah encourages mindfulness by asking us what we want to rededicate ourselves to.

Chanukkah is unique in that its primary mitzvah - lighting the candles of the Chanukkiah - is observed in public. It reminds us that we should increase the amount of light in the world each day. That a little bit of light goes a long way. And that we should be proud to proclaim our radiant uniqueness for all to see.