Hebrew language

• The Rose Lubin Jewish Pride Award is named in memory of the Atlanta native who fulfilled her dream of aliyah, at age eighteen, as a combat-trained soldier specializing in fighting terrorism.
• We can think of no one who exemplifies Jewish Pride more than Rose Lubin," said Sara Bloom, Vice Chair of the Steinhardt Foundation.
• The Rose Lubin Jewish Pride Award is a cash award intended to recognize and promote an individual whose work in Jewish life exemplifies leadership, innovation, and creativity through founding a program, initiative, or organization that champions the Pillars of Jewish Pride described in Michael Steinhardt's 2022 book, Jewish Pride.
• Individuals nominated for the Rose Lubin Jewish Pride Award must have created programs that exhibit and promote Jewish Peoplehood, Jewish Excellence, or Jewish Joy and their initiatives must demonstrate measurable impact, scalability, and financial sustainability.

• NEW YORK, Oct. 1, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- American Jewish Committee (AJC) has presented its prestigious Human Dignity Award to Shaykh Abdallah Bin Bayyah, one of the world's most respected Islamic scholars and a champion of religious freedom, peace, and enhancing Muslim-Jewish relations.
• "His counsel and wisdom are sought by religious and political leaders alike, and his courage has pushed the ties between the Jewish and Muslim worlds dramatically forward."
• AJC's Human Dignity Award is a facsimile leaf of a medieval copy of Maimonides' Introduction to the Mishnah in a lavishly illuminated edition.
• Shaykh Bin Bayyah is just the second recipient of the AJC Human Dignity Award.

• Sela Public Charter School opened in 2013 in Ward 4, is a one-of-a-kind charter in the District for offering a bilingual curriculum that includes the Hebrew language.
• Since its inception, Sela has earned a Tier 1 ranking by the DC Public Charter School Board, a Blue Ribbon School by the US Department of Education in 2022 and rated “Best Elementary School in DC” by the Washington City Paper.
• This high-performing charter school program now has a permanent campus and real estate asset to support the existing and future growth of the school and its students.
• “We are thrilled to have reached the successful conclusion in a nearly twelve-month effort to support Sela Public Charter School,” said Lindsey Rheaume, Executive Vice President and Chief Lending Officer C&I.

• The next phase of the trial will focus on sentencing, and whether Robert Bowers should face the death penalty.
• The name of the synagogue, Tree of Life, has almost become shorthand for the tragedy.
• In Jewish Scripture and Jewish thought, the tree of life speaks to fundamental aspects of what it means to be human in the world.

In the beginning

• The tree of life appears in the Book of Genesis, at the very beginning of the Hebrew Bible – what many Christians call the Old Testament.
• In the creation story of chapters 2 and 3, God places man in the Garden of Eden, then creates woman, Eve, from his rib.
• Biblical scholars debate the meaning of the tree’s name: what exactly do “knowledge” or “good and evil” entail?

Two trees

• These two trees, especially the tree of life, have long raised questions for scholars.
• The tree of life does not reappear until the end of the Eden story, when God expels Adam and Eve to prevent them from eating it.
• Some scholars have argued that the two trees in Genesis emerged from two distinct traditions in the ancient Near East.
• Similarly, the two trees in Genesis display how humanity is both like and unlike God.

Living wisdom

• Later in the Bible, however, “a” tree of life appears four times in the Book of Proverbs, a complex anthology that collects many sayings and gems of wisdom from the ancient world.
• Proverbs 3:18, for example, instructs that wisdom “is a tree of life to those who grasp her, and whoever holds on to her is happy.” Jewish tradition frequently pictures God’s teachings and scripture, the Torah, as the tree of life – deepening this connection between life and wisdom.

Reaching up to God

• In the Bible’s wisdom literature, however, it comes to represent how knowledge, wisdom and Torah connect God and Israel.
• These attributes, called “sefirot,” are often drawn as spheres, linked with branchlike lines as though they form a “tree of life” – a tree that connects human experience on Earth to an infinite God above.
• Like the synagogue in Pittsburgh, they can experience tragedy, even as they continue seeking ways to heal a broken world.