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UNWTO And Telefnica Partner To Help Destinations Use Data And AI To Drive Tourism’s Sustainable Recovery – Hospitality Net
The World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) has strengthened its partnership with Telefnica, the Spanish multinational telecommunications company. As tourism restarts around the world, Telefonica deepens its collaboration with the United Nations specialized agency to advance market intelligence in order to accelerate the sector's recovery from the impact of COVID-19.
As it guides the sector through the challenge posed by the pandemic, UNWTO has prioritized innovation as a key means of growing tourism back stronger and better. Additionally, with the global community now left with less than 10 years to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals ("The Decade of Action"), UNWTO is also driving tourism's movement towards sustainability. This collaboration with Telefnica, which builds on an existing partnership, is designed to use digital transformation to support sustainable recovery and future growth.
UNWTO and Telefnica will work together to promote the effective use of Big Data and Artificial Intelligence across the tourism sector. This will help destinations better understand tourist behaviour, allowing them to market their products more effectively. Management of data will also help destinations better manage tourist flows within the context of the new health and safety protocols being rolled out in response to COVID-19.
UNWTO Secretary-General Zurab Pololikashvili said: "The digital transformation of tourism will allow the sector to grow back stronger from the standstill caused by COVID-19. As UNWTO leads tourism's restart, our partnership with Telefnica will allow us to provide Member States and the sector as a whole the tools they need to accelerate recovery, build trust by guaranteeing safety and promote sustainability."
Miguel Llopis, Industry Lead of Public Sector in IoT and Big Data at Telefnica, added: "Tourism will return with force but the sector will have to face a structural transformation where new digital technologies, such as IoT and Big Data, will be a differential factor of competitive advantage."
Telefnica and UNWTO have worked together to launch a series of visualization tools within the UNWTO Global Data Dashboard that allows for a better understanding of key performance indicators in tourism.
Also to mark the start of this new phases of collaboration, UNWTO joined Telefnica, Turismo de Portugal, the Tourism Authority of Buenos Aires and the Secretary of Tourism of Chile (SERNATUR) for a special virtual training session for destinations in the Americas. This focused on exploring how the use of Big Data can add value to the tourism sector and lead recovery.
The World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), a United Nations specialized agency, is the leading international organization with the decisive and central role in promoting the development of responsible, sustainable and universally accessible tourism. It serves as a global forum for tourism policy issues and a practical source of tourism know-how. Its membership includes 159 countries, 6 territories, 2 permanent observers and over 500 Affiliate Members.
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COPAN’s PhenoMATRIX Fuses the Power of Artificial Intelligence and Culture for Highly Sensitive GBS Detection Using Breakthrough Reading Algorithm -…
"COPAN's PhenoMATRIX not only was able to detect more true positive cultures than manual review of digital culture images, but it shows that chromogenic cultures together with artificial intelligence algorithms can detect GBS colonization with the same high sensitivity as molecular detection systems," said COPAN Diagnostics' Scientific Director Dr. Susan Sharp.
The study, which was published on October 21, 2020, evaluated the performance of the PhenoMatrix Chromogenic Detection Module digital imaging software's ability to detect GBS from LIM broth plated on bioMrieux's CHROMID Strepto Battwo clinical laboratories.
After 48 hours of incubation, the sensitivity of COPAN's PhenoMATRIX was similar to the BD MAX GBS molecular test 95.5% to 96.8% respectively and significantly higher than manual at 90.3%.2
Another noteworthy discovery was that COPAN's software never inaccurately called a culture that was determined to be a positive a negative, and it identified an additional eight true positive specimens that were missed by manual reading. This finding establishes that the innovative PhenoMATRIX AI, plus classic culture, is quite the powerful combination at a fraction of the cost of molecular testing.
"COPAN's AI software, along with the use of chromogenic agars has made our decades-old agar culture for the detection of pathogens 'new' again," Sharp added.
PhenoMATRIX is an advanced set of highly sophisticated AI that gives WASPLab users the power to automatically pre-assess and pre-sort culture plates, read, interpret and segregate bacterial cultures. By grouping negative cultures, which are the majority of the cultures screened, staff can quickly review up to 40 plates per computer screen and batch release negative results eliminating the need to review each plate manually saving time and freeing up technicians to focus on more complex tasks.
Contact us for more information about COPAN's state-of-the-art PhenoMATRIX software and how you can add these intelligent algorithms to your WASPLab system.
References: 1. CDC. Group B Strep (GBS) Fast Facts. https://www.cdc.gov/groupbstrep/about/fast-facts.html. Last reviewed June 11, 2020. Accessed October 27, 2020. 2. Baker J, et al.Digital image analysis for the detection of Group BStreptococcusfrom ChromID StreptoB Media using a PhenoMatrix Artificial Intelligence Software Algorithm. J Clin Microbiol. 2020;doi:10.1128/JCM.01902-19
About COPANWith a reputation for innovation, COPAN is the leading manufacturer of collection and transport systems in the world. COPAN's collaborative approach to pre-analytics has resulted in Flocked Swabs, ESwab, UTM Universal Transport Medium, and laboratory automation, WASP and WASPLab. COPAN carries a range of microbial sampling products, inoculation loops, and pipettes. For more information, visitwww.copanusa.com.
SOURCE COPAN Diagnostics, Inc.
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AI In The Enterprise: Reality Or Myth? – Forbes
Artificial intelligence (AI) is one of the most talked-about new technologies in the business world today.
It's estimated that enterprise AI usage has increased 270% since 2015. This has coincided with a massive spike in investment, with the enterprise AI industry expected to grow to $6.1 billion by 2022.
Along with the technology's very real ability to transform the job market, exaggerated myths have also become common. The hype surrounding this branch of technology has led to a number of myths:
Myth No. 1: More Data Is The Key To AI's Success
While it's true that AI needs data in order to learn and operate efficiently, the idea that more data equals better outcomes is misleading. Not all data is created equal.
If the information fed to an AI program is labeled incorrectly or isn't relevant, it poisons the data pool. The more information AI has access to, the more precise its models and predictions will be. If the data itself is of poor quality, the outcome will be precise but not necessarily based on business reality. This can result in poor decision-making.
The truth is that the data fed to an AI solution needs to be curated and analyzed beforehand. Prioritize quality over quantity.
Myth No. 2: Companies See Immediate Value From AI investments
The integration of AI into standard operating procedures doesn't happen overnight. As seen in Myth No. 1, the data the AI uses needs to be curated and checked for relevance beforehand. This may significantly reduce the amount of information the AI has access to.
To obtain truly valuable returns, it's essential to continuously provide relevant data. Like humans, AI solutions need to be given time to learn. There may be a significant lag between when an AI-based initiative begins and when you see a return on investment.
Myth No. 3: AI Will Render Humans Obsolete
The purpose of AI is not to replace all human workers. AI is a tool businesses can use to achieve their goals. It can automate mundane processes and pull interesting insights from large data sets. When used correctly, it augments and aids human decision-making. AI provides recommendations based on trends gleaned from mountains of information. It may even pose new questions that have never been considered. A human still needs to weigh the information provided and make a final decision based on risk analysis.
Pointing out these myths in no way indicates that AI won't deliver on its transformational promise. It's easy to forget that enterprise AI adoption is still in its infancy. Even still, a 2018 Deloitte survey reported that 82% of executives said their AI projects had already led to a positive ROI. Those now implementing AI projects will be the case studies of the near future.
While there are sure to be growing pains, being on the cutting edge of this exciting technology should be beneficial. There's little doubt about how important it will be for the businesses of tomorrow. Getting a head start now, ironing out the wrinkles and locking down efficient processes will pay dividends.
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AI Is Shaking The Oil And Gas Sector To Its Core | Articles | Chief Data Officer – Innovation Enterprise
Artificial intelligence is one of the mostexciting technological advancements to reshape our society in living memory,yet few people have a robust understanding of AI and the myriad of ways thatits changing our world. Nowhere is AI more important and disruptive than inthe energy sector, where professionals from a wide range of backgrounds arefinding it immensely helpful. Nevertheless, the role of AI in the oil and gassector is still largely misunderstood, and many potential entrants to theindustry have no idea where to begin brushing up on this complex topic.
Heres a breakdown of how AI is disruptingoil and gas, and why intelligent machines will be imperative to the future ofthe energy sector.
AIisnt coming its already here
If theres an easy way to describe the roleof AI in the oil and gas sector, its that this technology has already becomean ingrained part of how energy companies and professionals achieve theirobjectives. Oil and gas companies have historically been massive collectors ofdata; if well workers couldnt access huge treasure troves of data about theregion theyre operating in, for instance, they would never be able to succeedat their jobs while ensuring workplace safety and cost-effectiveness. Thismeans that the oil and gas sector was ripe for disruption by AI, which morethan anything else desperately needs massive volumes of information to workeffectively.
AI beganto take over the oil and gas sector in no small part because it was alreadyreplete with a tremendous amount of data surrounding ongoing drillingoperations and planned future initiatives. Predictive algorithms were capableof digesting huge volumes of previously collected data before generating newinsights that contemporary oil and gas professionals simply wouldnt have beencapable of producing without the assistance of intelligent machines. Itwill thus become imperative for future oil and gas workers to be familiar andcomfortable with computers if they want to remain successful in their field forvery long.
More than anything else, those workers whorely upon complex software to manage their responsibilities are findingthemselves disrupted by AI. This mostly isnt a negative process, however;while AI-led disruption may temporarily perplex workers, its not renderingthem obsolete. Many claims that AI and similar innovations would result inwidespread joblessness havent come true. This is mostly because many of thepeople making such predictions were critics of AI and related technologies andthus argued that job loss would occur after adopting it in an effort to preventits adoption.
The cat is out of the bag, however, andtheres no stopping AI now that its become a regular facet of the oil and gassector. As areport from EY makes clear, areas of the industry that are under siege bychanging market conditions can benefit from AI by relying on it to cut down onoperational costs while simultaneously catching errors that the human eye wouldnever notice.
Reservoirsarent so intimidating
One of the most impressive ways that AI hasdisrupted the oil and gas sector is by rendering reservoirs more accessiblethan ever before. Previously, companies shied away from drilling in certainareas because they were unsure of the probability of success. Now, however, simulatedprograms that are managed by AI can create impressiveknowledge graphs that incorporate the regions geophysics and otherreservoir project information. Companies that were once worried about payingfor expensive oiland gas training courses can thus avoid wasting their money on frivoloustraining procedures by using programs to determine whether a reservoir is worthpursuing in the first place.
Precision drilling is also ensuring thatreservoirs that were previously accessible can now be exploited to a fullerand more profitable extent. This means that many projects that oil and gasexecutives thought were winding down can instead be reinvigorated with the helpof AI-led drilling, which is far more precise and productive than thatexclusively managed by humans. Field surveillance, too, will be made mucheasier and far cheaper when its simultaneously managed by man and machineworking together rather than one of them operating by their lonesome.
Finally, AI is also making the oil and gassector safer than ever before. Smart helmets and other wearable technologythat workers carry with them will ensure that those who are stuck in trickysituations will enjoy closer monitoring from their peers. Thismeans that workers who find themselves imperiled will have outsiders aware ofthat trouble coming to rescue them sooner than ever before.
From project maintenance to worker safety,AI is disrupting and benefiting the oil and gas industry so much that itsalmost difficult to keep track of all the innovations its introducing to thefield. Before long, we can expect AI to become a normal and almost mundaneaspect of the oil and gas world.
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Why AI is the ultimate sales hack – TNW
Artificial intelligence (AI) technology has exploded in recent years. Common AI personal assistants such as Siri, Alexa, and Google Assistant are helping people figure out their daily schedules, controlling the lights and thermostats in homes, and helping commuters find the best route to work. And while these recent advancements are amazing, theyre really only a sneak preview of how AI can and will impact society as a whole.
Sales efficiency is an area ripe for AI assistance AI is at the point where it can be just as useful, if not more useful, in the office than at home on ones handheld device. Business AI has evolved from being a sophisticated calculator or database analyzer to an entity that can tell businesses solve their biggest challenges and enhance their market offerings. Although more organizations spanning industries are tuning into the potential of AI, many are still not capitalizing on its potential to transform their sales practices.
For many organizations, consistent lead generation is elusive. Despite the increase in tools, technology, and access to customers, companies still struggle to speak to the right target customers with the right message at the right time. Often, lead generation feels like throwing darts at a board and hoping one will hit the target.
The best lead gen tools will always be people; having the opportunity to spend one on one time with targets, listening to their goals and frustrations is a dream for every sales person. But its not realistic. Luckily, organizations like LeadCrunch are enhancing AI-fueled lead-gen platforms that enable organizations to understand customers on an individual basis so that they can eventually connect with them, person-person throughout the sales cycle. Providing a holistic B2B demand generation solution, it uses an effective combination of AI technology and human verification to engage the best targets for your customer base.
Because AI has such a wide reach, companies can use it to gain and vet more leads, which will ultimately result in more possibilities for contact and upselling while minimizing the need for a large sales team. The Harvard Business Review recently found that when Epson implemented an AI sales assistant, their lead response rate increased by 240%. Furthermore, as the technology continues to improve, companies can scale back or reprioritize its human sales component without the risk of losing potential clients.
In addition to initial contact and lead generation, AI is useful for assisting sales associates with administrative and routine tasks. Rather than having your human sales team be bogged down with paperwork, initial contacts, sorting, scheduling, and other administrative duties, AI is able to complete these quickly and with a high level of accuracy. Administrative tasks dont necessarily need a human component and, as such, are well within the capabilities of modern AI.
Without administrative tasks, a salesperson now has more time to pursue leads sent to them by AI so they can begin to establish a human relationship which is often needed to eventually get the sale. In a recent study, the average American employee spends 40% of their working hours on administrative tasks. With more time to focus on building relationships with clients, sales associates can work with even more clients at once, making the entire process much more efficient.
Moreover, AI can coach your sales force as well. Rather than having your sales team focus on administrative duties and analytics, companies can let AI figure out how and why a particular sales person is struggling. By identifying potential weaknesses, sales associates can rely on AI to prepare them and coach them for future interactions.
The beauty of an AI_driven platform, like LeadCrunchs is that it has the power to adapt and apply new customer insights to future initiatives. Customer behaviors and marketing engagements change on a day-to-day basis, and until now, the audience data that companies rely on has failed to keep up. The implementation of Artificial Intelligence enables LeadCrunch to provide its clients consistnetly evolving data that allows them to grow with their target customers, rather than play catch-up.
AI is great for generating leads and for performing routine jobs to help the sales team focus on sales, but its also useful for managing an already-existing customer base as well. For companies with large user bases that offer renewable subscription services or upgrades, AI can help manage a system to both pitch and sell those subscriptions, renewals, or upgrades. After all, the probability of selling more to an existing client is 60% 70%
This is especially useful for Internet companies that want to keep only a few individuals on hand but still be able to manage a large number of clients. For example, rather than having a team of sales representatives standing by to field questions, AI can field and respond to most of these questions instantly. Furthermore, for customer service issues, having an AI platform act as a gatekeeper will facilitate quick responses to frequently asked questions while letting human customer service agents deal with more complicated issues. With AI, a company can meet the needs of an ever-expanding clientele base without spending large amounts of money.
From generating leads, to assisting with administrative tasks, to maintaining and upselling current customers, LeadCrunchs AI lead generation platform is the ultimate sales hack. Its a unique tool that will give a company a much broader reach without any of the traditional overhead, a once unimaginable concept.
What are some other ways AI can help your company with sales?
This post is part of our contributor series. The views expressed are the author's own and not necessarily shared by TNW.
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Micron Technology acquires Fwdnxt to move into AI hardware and software – VentureBeat
Micron Technology said it acquired Fwdnxt, a maker of hardware and software tools for artificial intelligence deep learning applications.
When combined with Microns memory chips, Fwdnxt (pronounced forward next) will enable Micron to explore deep learning solutions required for data analytics, particularly with internet of things and edge computing.
Micron also announced a series of flash-based solid-state drives for consumers and enterprises, as well as new security products. The Boise-based company unveiled them at its Micron Insight event in San Francisco.
Sanjay Mehrota, CEO of Micron, said at the event that such solutions are unlocking data insights, with memory and AI at the heart of it.
Our vision is transforming the way the world uses information to change life, Mehrota said. The compute architectures of yesterday are not suitable for tomorrow.
With the acquisition, Micron is integrating compute, memory, tools and software into an AI development platform. This platform, in turn, provides the building blocks required to explore innovative memory optimized for AI workloads.
Above: Sanjay Mehrota, CEO of Micron, at Micron Insights.
Image Credit: Dean Takahashi
Fwdnxt is an architecture designed to create fast-time-to-market edge AI solutions through an extremely easy to use software framework with broad modeling support and flexibility, said Micron executive vice president and chief business officer Sumit Sadana, in a statement. Fwdnxts five generations of machine learning inference engine development and neural network algorithms, combined with Microns deep memory expertise, unlocks new power and performance capabilities to enable innovation for the most complex and demanding edge applications.
Fwdnxt provides efficient and high-performance hardware and software solutions based on deep learning and neural networks. As companies develop more complex AI and machine learning systems, the hardware used to train and run those models becomes increasingly important.
The Micron Deep Learning Accelerator (DLA) technology, powered by the AI inference engine from Fwdnxt, gives Micron the tools to observe, assess, and ultimately develop innovation that brings memory and computing closer together, resulting in higher performance and lower power demands.
Microns DLA technology provides a software-programmable platform that supports a broad range of machine learning frameworks and neural networks and allows for processing vast amounts of data quickly in an easy-to-use interface.
This feels like Micron will be competing with Intel and Nvidia. That may be true, but it will also likely continue to partner with them. Still, Micron is moving deeper into the ecosystem to solve problems for its customers.
In the long run, we think compute is best done in memory, Mehrota said.
Jon Peddie, analyst at Jon Peddie Research, said in an email, Micron with its acquisition of Fwdnxt extends its platform stack into apps, software development kits, and software tools as other semi companies like Xilinx, Qualcomm, Texas Instruments, and others. That raises the value add and increases margins as they get closer to the end customer.
Micron said its DLA can consume massive amounts of data and then return insights that launch discoveries. For example, Micron is collaborating with doctors and researchers at Oregon Health & Science University to use convolutional neural networks (CNNs) running on DLA to process and analyze 3D electron microscopy images. The goal of this collaboration is to discover new insights for treating cancer. Micron is also partnering with physicists at leading nuclear research organizations who are experimenting with DLA-based CNNs to classify the results of high energy-particle collisions in near real time and detect rare particle interactions that are believed to occur in nature.
Micron also introduced its solid-state drives, including the Micron 5300, which uses cost-effective 96-layer 3D TLC NAND flash memory chips. The 5300 series enables strong performance for read-intensive and mixed-use segments, including media streaming, BI/DSS, OLTP, and block and object storage. It has 50% higher reliability than the past.
Above: Micron 7300 SSDs
Image Credit: Micron
The Micron 7300 Series SSD makes non-volatile memory technology more accessible, enabling mainstream performance in datacenters for virtualized and I/O-sensitive workloads. The 7300 SSD lineup produces high read throughput with low latency. Micron offers 14 different 7300 models with capacity points from 400GB to 8TB. It is available in December.
Above: Crucials new portable SSD.
Image Credit: Dean Takahashi
With the launch of Crucial X8, Micron is moving into consumer portable SSDs. The product focuses on fast transfer times and high capacity for consumers storing photos, videos, and documents, as well as curating music, game libraries, and video collections.
Mehrota said that half of gamers use a terabyte of storage on their devices. Crucial X8 is immediately available for ordering in capacities up to 1TB.
With read speeds up to 1,050MB/s,the drive performs 1.8 times faster than similar portable SSDs within the same price category and up to 7.5 times faster than portable hard drives. The Crucial X8 is compatible with a variety of devices, including PCs, Macs, PS4s, XBOX Ones, iPad Pros, Chromebooks and select Android devices.
The Authenta Key Management Service is Microns new security technology. It is a fully integrated and provisioned secure element function, offered on standard flash chips. Authenta Key Management Service secures data at the edge to protect the 75 billion devices expected to be online by 2025.
By integrating this product through flash, it can be utilized for hardware-based system protection and to establish strong device identities for internet of things devices, creating instant access to security-as-a-service capabilities. The Authenta Key Management Service is backed by trusted silicon credentials, without having to leverage hardware/SoC changes. Sadana said that Micron can embed the security in the chip while it is still inside the chip factory.
Mehrota said that the company has instrumented its factories with sensors for smart manufacturing, with tens of millions of measurement points. The efficiencies from that have improved output by 10% and time to yield by 25%, he said.
Micron also announced the worlds fastst SSD, using 3D XPoint technology. The Micron X100 SSD is the first solution in a family of products from Micron targeting storage- and memory-intensive applications for the data center.
These solutions will leverage the strengths of 3D XPoint technology and usher in a new tier in the memory-to-storage hierarchy with higher capacity and persistence than DRAM, along with higher endurance and performance than NAND flash memory.
The SSD offers up to 2.5 million input/output operations per second (IOPs), more than three times faster than todays competitive SSD offerings. It also has more than 9GB/s bandwidth in read, write and mixed modes and is up to three times faster than todays competitive NAND offerings. And it provides consistent read-write latency that is 11 times better than NAND SSDs.
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Micron Technology acquires Fwdnxt to move into AI hardware and software - VentureBeat
Return to Workplace Considerations for Businesses Using AI and IoT Technologies – Lexology
The COVID-19 pandemic is accelerating the digital transition and the adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) tools and Internet of Things (IoT) devices in many areas of society. While there has been significant focus on leveraging this technology to fight the pandemic, the technology also will have broader and longer-term benefits. As the New York Times has explained, social-distancing directives, which are likely to continue in some form after the crisis subsides, could prompt more industries to accelerate their use of automation.
For businesses proceeding with reopenings over the coming weeks and months, and for sectors that have continued to operate, AI and IoT technologies can greatly improve the way they manage their operations, safely engage with customers, and protect employees during the COVID-19 crisis and beyond. But businesses also should take steps to ensure that their use of AI and IoT technologies complies with the evolving legal requirements that can vary based on several factors, including the industry sector where the technology is deployed and the jurisdiction where it is used. Businesses also will want to have mechanisms in place to help ensure that the technology is used appropriately, including appropriate oversight and workforce training and other measures.
How Businesses are Using AI and IoT in Response to the COVID-19 Crisis
Businesses may want to leverage AI and IoT technologies to support their operations in a number of ways. In connection with reopenings, as discussed previously in this series, many businesses will deploy AI and IoT technologies to protect the health and safety of their employees. New and existing tools are being used for health monitoring, remote interactions, and contactless access and security. For example, some businesses are instituting return-to-workplace policies that require temperature scanning or other monitoring of health indicators through wearable AI (i.e., wearable IoT devices powered by AI). Businesses also may use AI and IoT technologies to automate office tasks to enable some employees to continue working from home, to conduct meetings and trainings remotely, or to facilitate social distancing in the workplace by, for example, relying on facial recognition technology in lieu of front-desk security personnel.
Beyond the initial reopening steps, manufacturers and other businesses are considering how expanded use of robotics and automation can increase efficiencies, improve workforce safety, and facilitate contactless transport and deliveries. Businesses increasingly also are using AI tools to help improve logistics and supply chain management, provide input for decision making, and to support customer engagement. In some cases, AI and IoT tools are developed by companies for their own usebut increasingly businesses are turning to cloud services providers and other third parties for many of these technologies and services.
Key Questions to Ask Before Deploying AI and IoT Solutions
When businesses are implementing AI and/or IoT technologies, such as robotics, wearable devices, AI supply chain management and human resources management tools, health monitoring equipment and other AI or internet-connected products or services, they should consider the existing and proposed legal obligations and the benefits and risks that may be introduced by use of these tools. Businesses should ask, for example:
The AI/IoT Legal Landscape
Businesses must be mindful of the rapidly evolving legal landscape surrounding AI and IoT technology, and the potential need to comply with new requirements that may vary by industry or jurisdiction. On the AI front, earlier this year, the European Commission solicited comments on an artificial intelligence white paper that describes a proposed AI regulatory framework. The white paper embraces a risk-based and proportionate approach and acknowledges that high-risk AI applications should be regulated differently than lower-risk applications. Among other things, the European Commission white paper proposes a pre-market assessment requirement for high risk AI. The European Commission also has proposed changes to the AI liability laws. In the United States, President Trump signed an Executive Order on AI in February 2019, which calls for a coordinated federal AI strategy. In early 2020, the Trump Administration proposed 10 Principles for AI Regulation which takes a lighter touch approach to regulation than the European Commission white paper. Pursuant to the Executive Order, the National Institute of Standards and Technology has submitted a plan for developing AI standards. Meanwhile, in April the Federal Trade Commission provided guidance on the use of AI and algorithms in automated decision making. There also is a variety of pending AI legislation in Congress, and some state and local governments continue their efforts to examine regulation of AI. Several entities are also working to coordinate these types of efforts internationally. More information is available on our Artificial Intelligence Toolkit.
On the IoT side, while Congress is considering legislation, states are increasingly active as well. For example, both the California and Oregon IoT security laws came into effect in 2020. California is also currently considering a bill regarding trip mobility data collected from autonomous vehicles and other mobile applications. The bill would require the operators of autonomous vehicles to share aggregated and de-identified trip data for transportation planning and safety purposes, including in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Standards continue to evolve outside the United States as well. For example, the United Kingdom has been active in providing guidance regarding the security of consumer IoT devices. In October 2018, the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, published a Code of Practice for Consumer IoT Security, and in March 2020, the National Cyber Security Centre issued guidance about using smart security cameras safely in the home.
Privacy and Security Concerns Presented by AI and IoT
Businesses should proactively manage privacy-related legal matters arising from the use of AI and IoT technologies. In order to function, many of these tools must collect significant amounts of personal data from individuals. For example, wearable AI devices that can be used for health monitoring may collect geolocation information, data about an individuals physical movements, heartrate and blood pressure indicators, biometric information such as fingerprints and facial features, and other personal information. Some of these devices also may collect and store more data than they actually use, or retain data for lengthy periods of time. These devices, when used with AI, also may create new personal data about an individual, such as the likelihood an individual may experience severe COVID-19 symptoms based on pre-existing conditions.
Any solution that involves the collection, generation or use of personal information should have adequate privacy and data security safeguards in place. Businesses should have privacy policies in place and should comply with such policies as well as applicable law. Heightened privacy requirements may apply if the information being collected is particularly sensitive in nature. For example, the collection of biometric and health information may be subject to federal laws regulating the use of medical information, such as the Health Information Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) or the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), and state laws regulating the collection of biometric information, such as the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act, or medical confidentiality. Similarly, automated technologies that record audio or video data could implicate state wiretap laws if that collection occurs without the consent of the individuals being recorded.
FDA Regulatory Issues
Some AI and IoT technologies are regulated by FDA. For example, digital health screening tools may ask employees about risks for exposure to COVID-19 (e.g., COVID-19 status of individuals in the employees household, COVID-19 testing history, social distancing practices) or about the individuals symptoms (such as those identified by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)). Some technologies may simply transmit that information to a medical professional for assessment, while other tools may utilize AI and IoT technologies to provide an assessment of the individuals exposure risk directly to the individual and/or the employer.
Depending on the functionality and intended use of the technology, it may be subject to regulation as a medical device. FDA generally does not regulate tools that match user-specific information (e.g., symptoms) to established reference information (e.g., CDC guidelines). Likewise, tools intended to help a patient document their health and communicate health information with a healthcare professional are not regulated as devices. On the other hand, FDA would likely regulate as a medical device an AI and IoT technology that provides patients recommendations on COVID-19 diagnosis if it does more than automate health authority guidelines.
While companies utilizing technologies developed by third parties will generally not be subject to FDA regulation, firms that develop their own technologies could be subject to regulation as a device manufacturer, depending on the functionality of the product. Companies developing tools, including those contracting out certain elements of the development, should carefully consider whether FDA or other regulators will actively regulate the technology.
Employee and Workforce Issues
Although some technology solutions are likely to be temporary, in many cases businesses are simply accelerating the adoption of permanent changes to how they operate. It is therefore important to consider the impact that these technologies may have on the workforce in both the immediate and long term.
Automation and robotics can protect employees from virus-related health dangers, but they may require their own safety precautions. While the Department of Labors Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has not issued regulations on the use of robotics in the workplace, it has issued guidance explaining how existing workplace safety regulations can affect robotics and a guide for best practices regarding robotics safety. These guidelines explain how to think about worker training, hazard assessment, and safeguarding the workplace in the context of workplace robotics. In the future, workplace health and safety is an area that is likely to be subject to additional regulation relating to AI and robotics, and businesses should pay close attention to those developments as they evolve.
Employers also should be mindful of the need for workforce training. To help ensure that AI and IoT are deployed properly, employees may need to be trained on its use. For example, businesses using health monitoring systems in connection with returning to the workplace may need to train some personnel on the proper use of such systems. In addition, as businesses continue with their digital transitions, they may need to devote more employee attention to data management, and they may be better able to optimize employee time.
Of course, businesses should also keep in mind broader employment law concerns when implementing AI and IoT technology solutions, including potential issues related to bias, medical confidentiality, recordkeeping, employee monitoring, wage and hour requirements, protections for legal off-duty conduct, and labor law protections.
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Return to Workplace Considerations for Businesses Using AI and IoT Technologies - Lexology
Scientists made an AI that can read minds – Engadget
By reverse-engineering signals sent by the brain, researchers at Carnegie Mellon University have been working on an AI that can read complex thoughts simply by looking at brain scans. Using data collected from a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) machine, the CMU scientists feed that data into their machine learning algorithms, which then locate the building blocks that the brain uses to create complex thoughts.
Impressively, the study showed that the team were able to demonstrate where and how the brain was being triggered while processing 240 complex events, covering everything from individuals to places and even various physical actions or aspects of social interaction. It's by understanding these triggers that the algorithm can use the brain scans to predict what is being thought about at the time, connecting these thoughts into a coherent sentence.
Selecting 239 of these complex sentences and feeding the AI the corresponding brain scans, the algorithm managed to successfully predict the correct thoughts with an astounding 87 percent accuracy. It could also do the reverse, receiving a sentence and then outputting an accurate image of how it predicted that thought would be mapped inside a human brain.
The astonishing research shows just how far deep learning has come. If you weren't worried about the rise of super powered machines before, now that they can read minds, it's probably time to start preparing for the inevitable robot apocalypse.
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Elon Musk Isn’t Buying Twitter to Defend Free Speech – The Atlantic
Conservatives on Twitter have greeted Elon Musk as a liberator. The mega-billionaire is in the process of purchasing the social-media platform and reorienting it toward what he calls free speech. The conservative columnist Ben Shapiro celebrated the news of the new free-speech era by insisting that Musk engage in politically motivated mass firings of Twitter workers based on their perceived political leanings.
For those who are not terminally online, a little explanation is in order. Compared to the big social media giants, Twitter is a relatively small but influential social network because it is used by many people who are relatively important to political discourse. Although the moderation policies of a private company dont implicate traditional questions of free speechthat is, state restriction of speechTwitters policies have played a prominent role in arguments about free speech online, that is, how platforms decide what they want to host.
When people talk about free speech in this more colloquial context, what they mean is that certain entities may be so powerful that their coercive potential mimics or approaches that of the state. The problem is that when private actors are involved, there's no clear line between one person's free speech and another: A private platform can also decide not to host you if it wants, and that is also an exercise of speech. Right-wing demands for a political purge of Twitter employees indicate just how sincerely conservatives take this secondary understanding as a matter of principle rather than rhetoric.
The fight over Twitters future is not really about free speech, but the political agenda the platform may end up serving. As Americans are more and more reliant on a shrinking number of wealthy individuals and companies for services, conservatives believe having a sympathetic billionaire acquire Twitter means one less large or influential corporation the Republican Party needs to strongarm into serving its purposes. Whatever Musk ends up doing, this possibility is what the right is actually celebrating. Free speech is a disingenuous attempt to frame what is ultimately a political conflict over Twitters usage as a neutral question about civil liberties, but the outcome conservatives are hoping for is one in which conservative speech on the platform is favored and liberal speech disfavored.
Read: Elon Musk already showed us how hell run Twitter
Conservatives maintain they have been subject to censorship by social-media companies for years, either by the imposition of terms of service they complain are unfairly punitive to the right or by bans imposed on particular users. There is ample evidence though, that social-media networks consistently exempt conservative outlets from their own rules to avoid political backlash, a fear seldom displayed when it comes to throttling left-wing content. And despite the right-wing perception of liberal bias on Twitter, an internal audit found that the sites algorithms amplify right-leaning political content more than left-leaning content. The evidence suggests that for all their outrage, conservatives consistently receive preferential treatment from social-media platforms, but are so cavalier about disregarding the terms of service that sometimes they get banned anyway.
Nevertheless, it shouldnt be surprising that many conservatives still complain that they are being censored even as these platforms algorithms continue to favor right-wing content. Indeed, the success of these complaints explains their persistenceif conservatives stopped complaining, the favorable treatment might cease. Musk is a sympathetic audience, even if that does not necessarily determine the direction Twitter will take under his ownership.
Liberal users on Twitter have greeted the news of Musks pending acquisition of the platform with everything from indifference to despair, while conservative reactions run the gamut from optimistic to worshipful, with some right-wing praise of Musk echoing the unending North Korean style flattery of the Trump years. For his part, Musk has said his priority is freedom of speech, a framing that some mainstream media outlets have credulously repeated.Musks subsequent tweets, stating that Twitter should ban only illegal content and that If people want less free speech, they will ask government to pass laws to that effect, suggest that he has not thought all that much about the issue. The state broadly banning certain forms of expression is a much greater infringement on free speech than the moderation policies on a private platform, which anyone can choose not to use.
Every major right-wing Twitter alternative has imposed moderation policies while presenting itself as a free speech alternative to Twitter; most comically, posting disparaging comments about Trump originally violated the terms of service of Trumps own app, Truth Social, which itself continues to ban filthy content, harassment, language that is abusive or racist, and profanity. The moderation of privately owned platforms is itself a form of protected speech; Musks ownership of Twitter simply means he will get to decide what those policies are.
And thats precisely the point. Users on both the left and the right assume that during Musks tenure, Twitters policies will amplify conservative content and throttle left-leaning content. Both sides suspect that Twitters moderation policies regarding harassment will be altered to allow users to more frequently employ disparaging language about religious and ethnic minorities, women, and LGBTQ people. The extent of these changes depends on the balance between Musks financial concerns and his ideological ones. Right-wing alternatives to Twitter have failed to take off because conservatives want to make liberals miserable, not build a community in which there are no libs left to own. If conservatives successfully drive their targets off Twitter, or if the network becomes an unusable cesspool, it will become similarly worthless, both financially and politically. Social media platforms attempts to deal with harassment and disinformation have less to do with liberal political influence than making their platforms useful to advertisers.
Derek Thompson: Elon Musk buying Twitter is weird, chaotic, and a little bit awesome
The fact that conservative concerns about Big Tech vanish the second a sympathetic billionaire buys a social-media platform, however, illustrates the shallowness of their complaints about the power of Silicon Valley. Conservatives are not registering their concern over the consolidation of corporate power so much as they are trying to ensure that consolidation serves their interests. Put simply, conservatives hope that Twitter will now become a more willing vehicle for right-wing propaganda. Even if the platform tilts further in their direction, they will be motivated to continue to insist they are being censoredtheir criticisms likely exempting Musk himself in favor of attacking Twitters white-collar workers, whom conservatives paradoxically perceive as the elite while praising their billionaire bosses as populist heroes. The insincerity of right-wing populism is represented by the fact that such populists find it preferable to be ruled by ideologically sympathetic barons than share a democracy with people who might put their pronouns in their email signatures.
In Republican-controlled Florida, Governor Ron DeSantis boasts of punishing Disney for its opposition to recent legislation forcing LGBTQ teachers to remain in the closet on the job. Last year, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell warned of serious consequences if the partys corporate benefactors continued to issue anodyne statements in opposition to GOP legislation aimed at disenfranchising Democratic constituencies. The Supreme Court decision opening the floodgates to unlimited corporate cash in American elections bears McConnells name, but apparently money qualifies as constitutionally protected speech only when that money can be relied upon to serve the Republican Party. As concerned as they might be about social-media moderation, conservatives are currently engaged, along with this kind of strong-arming, in the largest campaign of state censorship since the second Red Scare.
Conservative propagandists have represented their demand that corporate America advance the interests of the Republican Party as a populist break with Big Business, when it is simply an ultimatum: Serve us, or suffer. The current ideological vanguard of the conservative movement isnt breaking with business, but with democracy, seeking to keep labor weak, the state captive, and corporate power and religious institutions subservient to its demands. Money is speech, as long as you fund our interests. You have the right to vote, as long as you vote Republican. You have freedom of speech, as long as you say what the party would like you to say.
Corporate consolidation has made the Republican Partys turn to authoritarianism much easier. Liberals focusing on how Musks acquisition of Twitter might affect their experience on the platform should look at the bigger picture. Corporate America has filled the void in civil society left by the weakness of organized labor, leaving a tiny number of extremely wealthy people with outside influence. All the right-wing populist rhetoric in America is geared not toward weakening this influence but toward harnessing it.
Many media outlets have curiously described Musk as a free-speech defender, a term Musk enthusiasts have interpreted as a euphemism for someone with a high tolerance for bigotry against historically marginalized communities. But Musk has been perfectly willing to countenance the punishment of those engaging in speech he opposes. Tesla, for example, was disciplined by the National Labor Relations Board for firing a worker who was attempting to organize a union. Similarly, Amazons Jeff Bezos owns The Washington Post, but his commitment to free speech falters when it comes to unionizing the warehouse workers who are essential to his business.
Business moguls tend to be big on freedom of speech in this more colloquial sense, when it comes to the kind of speech that doesnt hurt their bottom line. When it comes to organizing their workforces, however, a form of speech that could act as a check against their power and influence, that tolerance for free speech melts away. Workers fearful of how their wealthy bosses intend to use that power should take that reality into consideration.
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Elon Musk Isn't Buying Twitter to Defend Free Speech - The Atlantic
Elon Musk, Twitters next owner, provides his definition of free speech – Ars Technica
Aurich Lawson | Photo by Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images
Elon Musk has claimed he is buying Twitter in order to protect free speech. But what does Musk mean by "free speech"? Musk provided a somewhat vague answer in a tweet on Tuesday, one day after striking a deal to buy Twitter for $44 billion. (The sale to Musk is pending and needs shareholder approval to be completed.)
Musk's statement, which he made the pinned tweet on his Twitter profile, said the following:
By "free speech," I simply mean that which matches the law. I am against censorship that goes far beyond the law.
If people want less free speech, they will ask government to pass laws to that effect. Therefore, going beyond the law is contrary to the will of the people.
There are multiple ways to interpret Musk's statement as it relates to United States law, particularly the First Amendment. One interpretation is that Musk doesn't need to change Twitter at all to prevent "censorship that goes far beyond the law."
The First Amendment says that "Congress shall make no law... abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances." The wording prevents the government from restricting speech, but courts have ruled that it does not prevent private companies from doing so.
In fact, judges have ruled that private companies like Twitter have a First Amendment right to moderate content. Both Florida and Texastried to enact laws that would force social networks like Twitter and Facebook to scale back their content moderation. Judges blocked both state laws from taking effect, ruling that the laws violate the companies' First Amendment rights to moderate their platforms.
In that sense, Twitter's content moderationincluding restricting tweets and banning certain accountsalready "matches the law" on free speech in the US. But Musk clearly thinks Twitter's content moderation is often a violation of free speech. His statement that free speech on Twitter should "match the law" may thus mean he thinks Twitterlike the US Congressshould not impose rules and policies that Musk deems to be "censorship."
US law doesn't say that Twitter must avoid such rules and policies, so Musk seems to want free speech that goes beyond what US law requires. Musk could achieve his goal by changing Twitter's policies on what types of content are banned and by changing the algorithms that Twitter uses to promote or limit the visibility of certain tweets.
Of course, free speech laws vary by country, with the US being notable for not having many government-imposed limits on people speaking their mind. Twitter faces different laws around the worldChina blocks Twitter, for example. In Europe, Twitter will face a new set of rules on moderating illegal and harmful content.
Musk's statement that "if people want less free speech, they will ask government to pass laws to that effect" doesn't match the reality of countries that impose significant limits on free speech. Repressive governments that highly restrict speech generally aren't doing so because the people they govern have "ask[ed] government to pass laws to that effect." Examples include China's extensive Internet censorship system and Russia's crackdown on news coverage of Putin's invasion of Ukraine.
Musk recently suggested he would defy governments that demand speech restrictions, writing that "Starlink has been told by some governments (not Ukraine) to block Russian news sources. We will not do so unless at gunpoint.Sorry to be a free speech absolutist."
But Musk's new statement defining free speech as "that which matches the law" suggests a different approach in which he'd be willing to restrict speech in any country where the government requires him to do so. Using Musk's explanation of free speech, a government law that prohibits certain kinds of speech is just "the will of the people."
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Elon Musk, Twitters next owner, provides his definition of free speech - Ars Technica
The Importance of Freedom of Speech – Center for Global …
Post by: Katrina Sumner
The preamble to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights notes that disregard and contempt for human rights have resulted in barbarous acts which have outraged the conscience of mankind, and the advent of a world in which human beings shall enjoy freedom of speech and belief and freedom from fear and want has been proclaimed as the highest aspiration of the common people.
The truth of this statement regarding barbarous acts was demonstrated again last week by the beheading of a beloved history teacher in Paris. The teacher was killed in broad daylight near his school in what appears to be retaliation for a lesson he taught on freedom of speech. French President Macron said the teacher was murdered, for teaching students freedom of expression, the freedom to believe or not believe. His murder has shocked and outraged thousands who took to the streets all across France to express their support for the slain educator.
The teachers murder is yet another example of why the freedom of speech is to be cherished and protected. While it is important for nations to safeguard freedom of speech, it is also important that individuals recognize that others have the right to speak freely without being subjected to violence or death.
Sometimes people speak disparagingly about freedom of speech as if it is no longer to be cherished. This liberty is as precious today as it ever has been. It is encouraging to see nations take steps to secure liberties like the freedom of expression and the freedom of belief to their people. For example, in July 2020, Sudan repealed its apostasy laws making the changing of ones religion no longer a death penalty offense in that country.
Freedom of speech is an important human right. People should not have to live in fear of death for exercising it. Our goal as individuals should be to embrace our own right to freedom of expression while respecting that others have this right, as well.
This post was written by a Center for Global JusticeStudent Staff member. The views expressed in this post do not necessarily reflect those of Regent University, Regent Law School, or the Center for Global Justice.
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Memories of the Heart – Chabad Lubavitch World Headquarters – Lubavitch.com
Elisha Wiesel speaks with Lubavitch International about his famous father and raising his children to love Yiddishkeit
Your father, Elie Wiesel, put the tragedy of his personal experience in the Holocaust to work, raising awareness about the danger of antisemitism and the evil of hatred. You yourself have begun to speak out against antisemitism, sometimes as you did at the UN this past February with indignation, even anger. Is that something youd say came from your father?
My father was not an angry person, so I wont blame him for this. But I think theres a time and a place to get appropriately angry. Today, being a victim seems to be the only way to get the microphone. We shake our heads and sit there stunned, shockedfor exampleby the stupidity of the argument against Israel about disproportionate killing. This rhetoric is absolutely antisemitic, absolutely hateful, because the only way to get proportionality is to turn off the Iron Dome for an hour so that more Jews die. So we need to raise our voices. We need to respond. Sometimes, you have to get angry with these people, because its the only way that they realize they have crossed a linefrom pontificating to calling for absolutely murderous results.
The world knows Elie Wiesel as the most famous Holocaust survivor, a prolific author, activist, and Nobel Peace Prize winner. Who was Elie Wiesel to you, his only child?
When I was young, I thought my father was a weak person. A lot of the other kids had parents who were throwing a baseball with them, teaching them how to catch a football, taking them skiing. That was not my father.
At age eight or nine, Id hear a friend say his father had served in the IDF and was now flying planes for El Al. Another would say his father was a pharmacist, saving people with his medicines. I would say, I think something really bad happened to my father, and he talks about it.
But my impression of my father changed a lot over the years. In my twenties, I began to appreciate the person who existed before the war. He was a bright, engaged, curious student, full of affection. I began to appreciate the incredible childhood that he had and I could see the young person that hed been. I no longer saw him as just a snapshot.
You once said that you struggled as a child: it was difficult being in your fathers shadow and trying to carve out your own identity. What were you looking for?
I felt that there was this path that had been constructed for me, and an expectation that I would be a mini Elie. I went to a Modern Orthodox yeshivah where my father was very well known. So, of course, I was supposed to be the best-behaved student in class. I mean, your father is Elie Wiesel, so how could you possibly be goofing off and not paying attention? I felt very boxed in by all of the expectations of who I was supposed to be. I was desperate to break out.
What did that look like?
As an adolescent, I went through a very strong inflection point. I began to question everything. I felt Yiddishkeit was useless to me, and I found myself completely on the other side.
How did your father relate to your adolescent frustrations?
He didnt always know how to connect with me. My parents were first-generation immigrants from European families. They didnt get a guidebook on how to be an American parent in the twentieth century, and I think they struggled with it. My father was a very patient man, and he continued to love me no matter what horrible things I said or did. Ultimately, I think that that served him well as a parenting strategy. Its one that I try to remember. But Im sure it was very hard for him.
I think my father felt that he had placed a big burden on me by bringing me into this world. At a time when it was hard for anyone to keep faith and fight the forces of assimilation, it was a difficult thing to be the sonthe only sonof a famous Holocaust survivor whose family had been almost decimated. And he felt bad for me that all that weight was on my shoulders. He tried to lessen the burden. He tried to protect me and let me live my own life.
What was the turning point in your relationship with your father?
In 1995, I joined my father on a trip to Sighet, his childhood hometown. That was a turning point. We also went to Auschwitz on that trip, but thats where the Jewish community went to die. Sighet is where the Jewish community lived. In Sighet, my father could describe what his day looked like, how he would run home from cheder, or from choir practice, stopping at his grandmothers windowon Fridays she had a fresh challah to give him as she asked him what he learned that day. This was powerful for me.
This is where my father grew up, and its charged with all fourteen or fifteen years of his memories before Auschwitz. Being there allowed me to see him as someone who had this incredible strength to persevere, with life, with family, with Yiddishkeit, and to engage with the world after the Shoah.
Where do you think that resilience came from?
It came from the way he was raised. My father was not raised in a vacuum. I could feel my grandparents fingerprints in all this.
My father loved Judaism, loved the world. He had an incredible thirst for knowledge. You dont get that in a vacuum. He was raised in a loving home. He had a strong sense of identity. And when you have that, you have the self-confidence that can take you forward in life.
This is something that I only appreciated when I had kids of my own and started thinking about what shapes character and what shapes destiny.
Were there other turning points for you?
Growing up, I didnt get to experience a big family or joy in Judaism, and that was really missing for me. But my father gave me a gift when he passed. He wanted me to say Kaddish for him, and when I started to visit shuls to do so, I saw joy. I saw joy in the davening, joy in everythingfrom Birkat HaMazon, to the Torah class, to the kids running around.
The joy of Yiddishkeit seems to be an important theme in your family life.
We only get this narrow window to give our children the values and experiences we want them to remember. I want my son to have experiences hes going to remember ten years from now, when he has to make his own decisions about life. I dont feel Im going to get my kids to have a lifelong interest in Judaism by lecturing or giving them rational arguments.
What he will remember is that he and a friend would sit in shul and have a good time together, and occasionally theyd get up and dance with us and run around. Hell remember the experience of the lively singing, and hell know the songs and be able to sing along. Hell remember that great feeling at the Shabbos Kiddush in shul, where youre schmoozing and the food is great, and people are happy to see each other. These are things hes going to rememberin his heart, not in his head. So Im much more focused on that.
My son is almost sixteen. And Im respectful of his time and his choices. He knows that I expect him to wear tefillin with me every day. He doesnt go to a Jewish school, so we daven together every morning. We go to shul together when we can, and we experience the liveliness, the spirit of Yiddishkeit.
Your father was a serious student of Gemara. He loved learning Talmud, he said. You also are studying Talmud. What has that been like?
Im on this seven-year adventure, making my way through all of Shas, seeing every corner of the Talmud. I study with a chevruta. I could spend the rest of my life studying, because how can you possibly master this conversation thats been occurring for 2,000 years? Were flying 1,000 miles an hour at 30,000 feet, so I know that Im not getting it in depth. But occasionally theres something that I want to double-click on and go deeper. Im keeping a journal of the things that I find the most memorable so that when I do it the second time around, I can go even deeper. It has been an incredible experience.
Its also taught me to appreciate the depth in which my father was swimming, and what he was inspired by. Ill be sitting in shul and reading a certain Haftorah, and I know what my father would have been thinking about.
In a 2012 interview in these pages, your father spoke about his personal relationship with the Lubavitcher Rebbe. He said the Rebbe urged him to marry and have a family.
I have only one side of their correspondencethe letters the Rebbe wrote to my father. No matter what they would be talking about, the Rebbe would end by saying, By the way, are you married yet?
He was constantly reminding my father that this was the most important thing he could do to really defeat Hitler. To really show that he stood for all the things he said he stood for: You need to get married, you need to have kids, and they should grow up to be Chasidic, G-d-fearing kids. And if theyre not Lubavitch, thatll still be good. He did it with a sense of humor.
Did your father live to see the way you have evolved?
He didnt live to see my sons bar mitzvah, which Im very sad about. But he lived to see my kids have Jewish literacy. He taught my son alef-bet on his knee. And he saw that we were beginning to make Shabbos a joyful time, that I could raise a Jewish family with joy very much at the center of the experience.
This article appeared in the Spring 2022 issue of the Lubavitch International magazine. To download the full magazine and to gain access to previous issues pleaseclick here.
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Memories of the Heart - Chabad Lubavitch World Headquarters - Lubavitch.com
Ahavat Torah Is Teaching Torah to Women Prisoners – Jewish Journal
In 1986, Linda Badger was convicted of murdering her husband. She maintained that she was innocent and received a Federal court ruling in 1997 recommending a pardon based on a miscarriage of justice. However, it would be another 17 years before she was released on parole.
During her time behind bars, Badger, who is Jewish, learned Torah with volunteers, including Rabbi Miriam Hamrell of Ahavat Torah Congregation. Together, with other Jewish inmates, they would celebrate Shabbat, Rosh Chodesh and Jewish holidays, hear about Talmudic teachings and take classes on ethics and justice.
The volunteer teachers brought their own special skills, and each one, in a different way, prepared us to make the most of our lives while in prison, said Badger. [Wed think] about the challenges when we were released so that we would know how to adapt in positive ways to the free world.
When she was released in 2014, Badger joined Ahavat Torah, where she has been executive director for five years. At the synagogue, shes organized clothing drives for homeless veterans and toy drives for children with parents in the military. She also created the synagogues Holocaust tent for a Jewish World Watch fundraising walk.
In Judaism, we are taught to take care of the stranger, the widow, the orphan, the hungry and those who are oppressed, Badger said. I am always seeking out additional projects or programs which will translate these Jewish ideals into action.
Hamrell began volunteering at the prison 14 years ago at the encouragement of Shayna Lester, Ahavat Torahs current president who was the Lead Volunteer Chaplain at the prison under Rabbi Moshe Halfon. Twice a month, Hamrell would drive four hours round trip to teach and learn with seven to 30 Jewish women there.
It was important for the rabbi to make the trek, she said, because for these women to be able to become functioning, loving and contributing members of the Jewish community once they got out of prison, they needed to know and feel and experience that we support them, even in the hell hole they were experiencing in prison. Its a hell hole of no freedom: no freedom to speak, no freedom to act.
When Hamrell arrived at the prison, she would guide them spiritually if they came to her for advice as well as teach them Talmud and how to solve problems.
The way of the Talmud is that there is more than one way of solving an issue, even with your rival, she said. Many of the women are incarcerated because they thought or felt that there was only one way to resolve a situation. The Talmud shows them there are many ways to resolve it, and we have to take all angles into account.
Hamrell is so dedicated to helping the women and teaching them Talmud that one time, Badger recalled how she bought a new wardrobe just to get inside the prison.
Volunteers were not allowed [to wear] the [same] color clothing that the inmates had [on], said Badger. Once, the rabbi came, and the guards would not let her in because of a blue line in her dress. She went to the local Kmart store, bought a $5 dress off the rack, went into the dressing room and changed her clothes. She returned to the prison where, now, she was allowed to enter. Keep in mind that for most volunteers, the round trip to and from the prison was about 100 miles.
Since the volunteer program started, several other inmates aside from Badger have become members of the synagogue. One of them was Terri Scrape, who got out after 33 years behind bars for a crime she said she didnt commit, according to Lester. Scrape, who has since passed away, rose to become the president of Ahavat Torah.
Its an opportunity to engage in something that they might have lost and now, they want to reconnect. That has to be supported. That is teshuva. Rabbi Miriam Hamrell
Though serving time is incredibly difficult and heart-wrenching, Hamrell said that there was a chance for the women to look inward. They could feel connected to their Jewish roots and would not feel forgotten. They could think, Maybe God is giving me the time to look into my roots. Its an opportunity to engage in something that they might have lost and now, they want to reconnect. That has to be supported. That is teshuva.
This past Purim, Ahavat Torah celebrated the holiday with a party and honored the rabbi, as well as several congregants, who volunteered at the California Institute for Women over the years. They were presented with certificates from the Mayors office, Congressman Ted Lieu and Senator Dianne Feinstein for their work.
Since COVID struck, the volunteer program has been put on hold, but according to Lester, they want to resume it again.
We hope to begin to be able to go back in with special programs again as soon as it is deemed safe with COVID, she said. We are highly involved in social action and believe, as a synagogue, this is one way we can help in tikkun olam. We have seen over the 16 years the healing that has taken place for the women and for the volunteers involved.
When COVID is more under control and it becomes safer to go, Hamrell encourages other rabbis and Jewish men and women to volunteer with inmates.
They are good human beings who have done something wrong, she said. Their neshama has to be fanned with some oxygen from the outside world. Each one of us has a little flame of God within us. We need to show them they are not forgotten. We need to show them the way to connect with their own godliness and come back to the path of righteousness.
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Ahavat Torah Is Teaching Torah to Women Prisoners - Jewish Journal
Gemara: The Essence of the Talmud | My Jewish Learning
The teachings transmitted by the rabbis in the centuries following the destruction of the Second Temple formed the core of what has come to be known as rabbinic Judaism, which still provides the framework for the various types of Judaism practiced today. The most widely studied of these rabbinic teachings are known collectively as the Talmud, which has two parts: Mishnah and Gemara.
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The Mishnah is the earlier work, compiled from the teachings of sages living at the end of the Second Temple period and in the century following the destruction of the Temple.
A study book of laws and value statements that express the classical rabbis vision of Judaism, the Mishnahs preoccupation is promotion of a religious and legal tradition both continuous with the past and practical for life in the post-destruction Diaspora. The Mishnah contains multiple opinions on many laws and does not often suggest which is the most authoritative. The plurality of Jewish practice is preserved in the text.
Sages in both Babylonia (modern-day Iraq) and the Land of Israel continued to study traditional teachings, including the Mishnah, describing the teachings as having been passed down from Moses at Sinai (either literally or figuratively). The oral discussions were preserved, either by memorization or notation, and later edited together in a manner that places generations of sages in conversation with one another. These teachers were interested in bringing greater harmonization between biblical and rabbinic traditions, largely by providing proof-texts for known laws and explaining differences between the biblical and rabbinic versions of laws. This is the origin of the Gemara.
There are actually two works known as Gemara the Babylonian Gemara (referred to as Bavli in Hebrew) and the Palestinian (or Jerusalem) Gemara (referred to as Yerushalmi). The term Gemara itself comes from the Aramaic root g.m.r (equivalent to l.m.d, in Hebrew), giving it the meaning teaching.
Although the Yerushalmi was completed earlier (with material spanning roughly 200-500 C.E.), it was eclipsed by the much longer Bavli (200-600 C.E.). The Bavlis popularity may be due to the work of the Gaonim of Babylonia, who cited that work in the legal judgements (responsa) that they sent to communities throughout the Diaspora. Both Gemaras were written in a combination of Hebrew and Aramaic dialects and share the teachings of sages known by the term Amoraim (in the singular, Amora).
Hevruta study at Pardes, a nondenominational yeshiva in Jerusalem. (Courtesy of Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies, http://www.pardes.org.il)
Gemara encompasses several literary genres, and subject matter ranges from the sacred to the profane. While it is often misrepresented as merely a commentary on the laws of the Mishnah, the Gemara has an intricate relationship with the Mishnah and a far greater scope. Although it is organized in accordance with the structure of the six orders of the Mishnah, mishnaic teachings are, for the Gemara, the launch pad for diverse topics: prayer, holy days, agriculture, sexual habits, contemporary medical knowledge, superstitions, criminal and civil law.
The Gemara contains both halakhah (legal material) and aggadah (narrative material). Aggadah includes historical material, biblical commentaries, philosophy, theology, and wisdom literature. Stories reveal information about life in ancient times, among Jews and between Jews and their neighbors, and folk customs. All of these genres are blended together with the halakhic material, in what is sometimes described as a stream-of-consciousness fashion filled with meaningful tangents and digressions.
In dealing with the teachings of the Mishnah, the Gemara has multiple functions. It explains unclear words or phrasing. It also provides precedents or examples to assist in application of the law and offers alternative opinions from sages of the Mishnah and their contemporaries (known as Tannaim). Whereas the Mishnah barely cites biblical verses, the Gemara for nearly every law discussed introduces these connections between the biblical text and the practices and legal opinions of its time. It also extends and restricts applications of various laws, and even adds laws on issues left out of the Mishnah entirely (for example, the key observances of Hanukkah). Multiple opinions of sages are weighed against one another, often without presenting a conclusion.
Talmudic teachings have been most often studied in groups or pairs among masters and students and/or between two partners in learning. A pair of study partners is called a havruta. The havruta-style provides a challenging, lively, and intimate environment in which to explore the rich spiritual and intellectual depths of the Talmud.
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Faith Matters: April’s holidays ask us to give something up for the common good – The Recorder
(Each Saturday, a faith leader offers a personal perspective in this space. To become part of this series, email religion@recorder.com)
Jewish, Christian and Muslin holidays and Earth Day coincided this year. The Passover, recalling the liberation of the Jewish people from servitude in Egypt, began on Aprils full moon. Western Christian Easter fell on the first day of Passover. Eastern Orthodoxy observes Easter this year on April 24. The Muslim month of Ramadan is observed all through this month that is, lunar month. Ramadan was half over on the first day of Passover. Even Earth Day fell on April 22, mid-way through the week of Passover.
Easter and Passover commemorate renewed hope after the dread of centuries of slavery (Passover) and renewed hope after the dread of death (Easter). Ramadan is a holy month of daily fasting and enhanced generosity towards the destitute. And Earth Day, the newcomer on the calendar, is a time of dread and hope as well. There is dread over the looming threat of environmental catastrophe and hope for empowerment to create a safe, sustainable future.
All these observances call on us to make conscious sacrifices. The fasting of Ramadan and the dietary restrictions of Passover teach us to moderate our consumption in favor of empathy and generosity towards those lacking autonomy and sustenance. Easter is wholly a story of self-sacrifice, even to the point losing ones life, for the sake of service and obedience. In Easter, Jesus dies in order to find new life and offer the gift to others.
And Earth Day is a time, too, to consider our appetites, our relationship with wealth and consumerism. There will be conscious sacrifices on the way to a sustainable future.
Our environmental problems have a root in overconsumption. All religions speak of tithing and warn against overconsumption and waste. The Talmud teaches that wide income disparities is a source of violence. Islam teaches that investing in business with others should replace the practice of loans.
Overconsumption is the offspring of greed, corruption and waste. Creator, Earth, God however we name God is good and generous. If we live in the image of God, we appreciate the blessings and joys of life, and we are generous and not greedy; modest and not flashy; appreciative and not entitled.
Our faith traditions, and the environmental imperative of the hour, ask us to give something up for our spiritual and common good.
Rabbi Andrea Cohen-Kiener serves at Temple Israel Greenfield and is vice-president of the Interfaith Council of Franklin County. Temple Israel is the cultural, religious and spiritual center of the Jewish community in Franklin, serving 125 household members. Rabbi Andrea and the Temple Israel community are active in ameliorating hunger, environmental decay and social repair together with colleagues and friends in Franklin County.
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Faith Matters: April's holidays ask us to give something up for the common good - The Recorder
The Controversial Marriage Book That’s Dividing Orthodox Jewish Women – The Atlantic
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The book, with its kitschy cover illustration of a red rose, has made the rounds for years. By the time I became a bride in 2015, it was status quo, passed around alongside the traditional recommended readings on ritual purity and Jewish marriage. The Surrendered Wife is a title frequently invoked among Orthodox Jewish women, quoted during mom walks with strollers and discussed in WhatsApp groups. Premarital teachers recommend the text to young brides-to-be. Rabbis and their wives preach from it, framing it around selective quotes from the Torah and Talmud.
In the controversial 2001 best seller, the American author Laura Doyle argues that the key to a happy marriage is a wife relinquishing control and allowing her husband to handle all decision making, including household finances, a lifestyle that is rooted in conservative biblical principles. When you surrender to your husband, you accept that a supreme being is looking after you both, reads one passage. The more you admire your husbands magnificence and how everything about him is just as it should be, the more you will feel Gods presence. Though these tenets are rooted less in Jewish textual traditions than in the New Testament and in fundamentalist-Christian notions of wifely submission, they have seeped into the Orthodox community over the past two decades.
The Surrendered Wifes popularity highlights how an insular religious group with carefully preserved boundaries can in fact be quite porous to outside influenceparticularly to views popular on the American Christian right. A mini-industry of Orthodox Laura Doyle coaches and educators have emerged, most of them unlicensed yet fashioning themselves as quasi-therapists, offering marital-harmony courses and workshops. Drawing from Doyles text (albeit sometimes without Doyles direct involvement or instruction), they teach women how to accept their husbands, to never criticize, and above all, to be aidel, the Yiddish word for refined or demure. But recently, the books proliferation in the community has stirred controversy, as some Orthodox women began to publicly criticize this sort of marriage education.
Traditional Jewish texts are complex regarding marriage. Though ancient Jewish law sees marriage as a sort of financial transaction, giving husbands control over their wifes vows and ability to divorce, the idea of female surrender as a virtue is a foreign import. As intra-community struggles over Orthodox womens rights have grown more heated in the past decade, this sort of literature has found a home within the community. Social media has created grassroots platforms for religious women to speak up about issues such as female erasure in public spaces, the right to divorce, access to female-provided emergency medicine, and sexual abuse. And in response, theres a real communal concern about what would happen if women would start to assert themselves, Rivka Press Schwartz, an Orthodox educator, told me. There is something scary for individual women about the power of their own anger, and its easier to say, I choose to be surrendered in order to make my husband happy, to make me happy.
Read: The unorthodox art of an ultra-Orthodox community
Whats more, The Surrendered Wife has attracted many Orthodox Jewish women who see it as a solution to what they perceive to be a marriage crisis. I just wanted to share that I can honestly say that Laura Doyle book saved my marriage, one woman wrote in a letter published on an Orthodox Jewish womens lifestyle blog. Others see female submission as harkening back to a more traditional past. May I venture to say that the reason why [Doyle] is so controversial is that she is going back to what marriage used to look like? wrote another woman in that blogs comment section. Her concepts are very much in line with the Torah perspective Many rabbonim [rabbis] approve of her method. (Doyle did not respond to multiple requests for comment.)
One of the most popular proponents of reframing Doyles work for Orthodox Jewish audiences is the American-born, Jerusalem-based author Sara Yoheved Rigler, who in 2013 created the Kesher Wife Workshopa virtual seminar series that she has described as offering basic ideas from The Surrendered Wife amplified by the Torah. Rigler has said that she has given this workshop to 2,000 Jewish women internationally. On a popular Orthodox podcast last year, she spoke about reframing dissatisfaction with ones husband as heaven-sent. This is from Hashem, she tells her students, using the Hebrew word for God. Its not from my husband. Im going to stop blaming my husband, criticizing my husband, because everything that happens to me is from Hashem. That perspective, she suggested, takes the sting out of it.
But some women are calling into question the merits of these parallels drawn to Jewish doctrine. Leslie Ginsparg Klein, a scholar of Jewish womens history and an Orthodox educator, told me that seminars like these are a retelling of a completely non-Jewish ideology in Jewish terms in order to push girls and women into adopting a new social norm. Another woman I spoke with, Rachel Tuchman, was engaged to be married when she first heard of the ideology, in 2003. I couldnt believe that it had infiltrated our community, she told me. In her work as a licensed mental-health counselor in Cedarhurst, New York, where many of her clients are from varying Orthodox backgrounds, Tuchman told me she observes firsthand the consequences of subscribing to The Surrendered Wifes ethos. A lot of kallah [premarital] teachers are recommending the book, and I think thats why its getting [attention] Then people end up in therapy and [Im] like, Where did you learn that this is how you should have a relationship? Doyles book may have gained nearly doctrinal status among many women, but, Tuchman said, its not based in Orthodox principlesits really a cultural-societal influence.
To some religious women, though, the question of authenticity is not as urgent as seeking the key to a happy marriage in a terrifyingly modern world. Theres kind of a sense of family life being under attack, that the world out there is not welcoming to families, that the world out there is trying to get everyone divorced, said Keshet Starr, the director of the Organization for the Resolution of Agunot, which is devoted to resolving contentious Jewish divorce cases. Some women, she said, are looking for this perfect formula: Just follow these rules, and youll have a perfect, amazing marriage. Fear of the outside world is prevalentand, ironically, the solution to dealing with that fear comes from the outside, too.
According to historians, the American embrace of wifely submission was popularized in the 19th century with the cult of domesticity, or the cult of true womanhood. As men went to work outside the home and middle- and upper-class white women stayed back to manage the household, American religious literature and womens magazines began to preach four virtues for the ideal wife: domesticity, purity, piety, and submission. Female labor outside the home was needed during the world wars, but afterward, the notion of wifely submission reentered the popular discourse, in an attempt to return to some myth of an idyllic America. Part of that is reimagining the home, Beth Allison Barr, a history professor at Baylor University and the author of The Making of Biblical Womanhood, told me over Zoom. Part of it was What do we do with all these displaced men who have just gone through this horrible thing? Part of it is Lets get them back in jobs; lets build back their self-esteem. And part of that was reordering the household.
Read: Unpacking the immense popularity of Shtisel
The pendulum swung back and forth: The 1960s brought the sexual revolution, and then, Barr said, the early 70s brought a desire for religious education. Some 1,600 women were enrolled in Southern Baptist divinity programs, many of them likely seeking ordination. If all of those women came through, there was going to be significant displacement [of men]. And it is at that time that we see that crackdown, Barr noted. In 1979, the Southern Baptist Convention experienced a conservative resurgenceand within a few years came conservative Christians widespread adoption of the verses in Ephesians 5: Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church. Barr characterizes the rise of the wifely-submission ideology, and the use of language like biblical womanhood, largely as a reaction to ascendant female religious power. And then it just explodes onto the scene.
Many religious Americans, both Christians and Jews, point to Gods punishment of Eve (And he shall rule over you) as proof of female submission being divinely commanded. That reading sees the text as prescriptive. In fact, the central description of the ideal wife, according to Genesis, is as a helpmate opposite him. It is this phrase in Hebrew, ezer knegdo, that is most cited in the Orthodox Jewish community: in girls schools, at wedding ceremonies, in eulogies. The phrase suggests that a spouse ought to be a foil, a point of contrast, neither a mirror nor a servant. The righteous wife is also often referred to as akeret habayit, the bedrock of the home, in a complementarian sort of way; families sing an ode to the woman of valor at the Sabbath table weekly, praising the Jewish wife as both a domestic queen and a shrewd businesswoman.
But as todays Orthodox women attain educations, pursue careers, become breadwinners, access the wider world through the internet, and even build independent platforms for themselves, that complementarianism has been challenged. Some community influencers have turned to conservative American Christian thought for its language on submission within a religious framework, in order to maintain a certain status quo around gender. This sort of anxiety isnt newthe history of modern-day Orthodoxy is one long chain of reactions to outside influences, whether dominant religious cultures or secularism. Orthodox Judaism as a whole has grown more stringent, in what sociologists call a slide to the right, as a response to the pervasiveness of secular culture. And yet, as Doyles influence shows, this communitys boundaries are, as ever, permeable. Theres no way to exist in American culture and not be in some way influenced by it, Ginsparg Klein, the Jewish womens-history scholar, said. Throughout history, the Jewish community has been influenced by its surrounding culture and has likewise influenced its surrounding culture.
Indeed, the Orthodox Jewish adoption of The Surrendered Wife is part of a bigger trend: As large swaths of the community have aligned themselves with the Christian right, theyve built political alliances based on the idea of a shared Judeo-Christian worldview, on concerns about social issues regarding abortion and gender, and on a general sense of an existential threat posed by secular progressivism. Concurrently, a younger generation of religious women that is plugged in to online discourse is being exposed to alternative critical voices. The tension will only continue to grow. As this community struggles with assimilation and with its boundaries around authenticity, the outcome of that struggle will likely set the tone not just for the design of a home, but also for female visibility and leadership in the Orthodox sphere.
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The Controversial Marriage Book That's Dividing Orthodox Jewish Women - The Atlantic
At a Place Where He Was Supposed to Be Safe, He Was Molested – The New York Times
By junior high school, a girl-besotted Mills is sent to a coed summer camp funded by the UJA-Federation, a Jewish philanthropic organization. The director, Dan Farinella, with his big shoulders, powerful arms and broad chest, a pack of cigarettes rolled up in his left shirtsleeve, likes to horse around with male campers.
One night, after a sex-ed film, Farinella summons Mills, saying, Dont worry, you didnt do anything. I just like to get to know my campers. He then proceeds to test and groom Mills, taking him for long walks, quizzing him about masturbation, preying on his isolation. Mills is flattered, as are his parents when Farinella shows up in the off-season, bringing a box of cannoli when he whisks Mills away for a weekend of projects at camp.
Once on their beds in the infirmary, Mills says, Farinella tosses him a pornographic magazine, pushes him down on a mattress and fellates him. I closed my eyes and prayed, Mills writes. Im not here. Im not here. When he opens his eyes, I was floating, looking down at my body, as if it belonged to someone else.
Anyone whos listened to accounts of abuse survivors will recognize certain characteristics the disassociation, the shame, the self-flagellation. But Mills has his fathers instincts as a writer. He fills his story with indelible details the Brylcreem in his predators hair, the cloying compliment Farinella pays Millss stepfather when he arrives to invite Mills to the Bahamas for Christmas. And Mills does a nuanced job of capturing his own emotions, how he blames himself for getting aroused, how he delights when Farinella gives him a Led Zeppelin album, how he imagines the glowing letter of recommendation his abuser will write to colleges.
That commitment to honesty continues in the books second section, Flight, as Mills opens up about his descent into drugs, petty crimes and paranoia. He sabotages promising relationships with women, joins a yeshiva in Jerusalem, drops out of grad school, then volunteers at a refugee camp in Thailand, where he becomes ill. When a doctor tells him hes suffering from post-traumatic stress, Mills returns to New York to seek help.
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At a Place Where He Was Supposed to Be Safe, He Was Molested - The New York Times
The Anatomy of Jewish Law Dissects the Relationship Between Medicine and Halacha – Yu News
The Anatomy of Jewish Law: A Fresh Dissection of the Relationship Between Medicine, Medical History & Rabbinic Literature, jointly published by Koren Publishers Jerusalem under the Maggid Books imprint, Yeshiva University Press, and OU Press, is a novel and innovative work in which Rabbi Dr. Edward Reichman traces the medical understanding of anatomy, physiology, and therapeutics across time and genres of rabbinic literature.
The accumulated literature of centuries of Jewish legal discourse on medical topics serves as the foundation for contemporary Jewish bioethics. As these writings span the chronological gamut of scientific and medical discovery, it is essential to view each source in its proper historical context. Marshaling a vast array of sources from multiple disciplines, Rabbi Dr. Reichman demonstrates the importance of the historical dimension for medical halachic [Jewish law] research and helps readers better understand the unique relationship between Judaism and medicine throughout the centuries.
Rabbi Dr. Reichman embodies Yeshiva Universitys core Torah values, and we are thrilled to share his brilliant medical and religious scholarship with the wider community, said Rabbi Dr. Stu Halpern, senior advisor to the provost and deputy director of the Zahava and Moshael Straus Center for Torah and Western Thought.
There are dozens, if not hundreds of books on medical ethics available, and many are quoted or referenced in this volume.The Anatomy of Jewish Law, however, seeks to illustrate how halacha has responded to contemporary understandings of the human body, illness, and disease and how, through the rabbinic literature, it has adaptedor why it may seem to fail to do soas science has advanced. The volume includes chapters on topics ranging from ancient and rabbinic understandings of conception and halachic considerations for conjoined twins as they move through life to biblical and Talmudic medicine and the COVID-19 pandemic.
[The Anatomy of Jewish Law] will prove invaluable to rabbis, physicians, and medical historians, as well as anyone wishing to gain an appreciation of the continuing achievements in the synthesis of halacha and modern medicine, said Dr. Fred Rosner, professor of medicine at Mount Sinai School of Medicine, director of the Department of Medicine at Queens Hospital Center and chairman of the Medical Ethics Committee of the State of New York.
Rabbi Dr. Edward Reichman is a professor of emergency medicine and of bioethics at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine and the Rabbi Isaac and Bella Tendler Chair in Medical Ethics at Yeshiva College as well as an attending physician in emergency medicine at Montefiore Medical Center. Rabbi Dr. Reichman received his rabbinic ordination from the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary and is an internationally renowned writer and lecturer.
The Anatomy of Jewish Law: A Fresh Dissection of the Relationship Between Medicine, Medical History & Rabbinic Literature is available on Koren, Amazon or wherever Jewish books are sold.
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The Anatomy of Jewish Law Dissects the Relationship Between Medicine and Halacha - Yu News
How Ben Foster’s faith and family helped to make him a ‘survivor’ – Forward
Ban Foster plays the role of Harry Haft in 'The Survivor.' Photo by HBO
By Curt SchleierApril 26, 2022
Ben Foster was tearing up.
I was on a Zoom call with the actor, the second conversation I had with him over the last couple of months. The first time, we spoke about his work in the new HBO film, The Survivor. The next time we talked about his grandmother.
The Survivor is based on the life of Harry Haft, who made it through multiple concentration camps and built a semblance of a life for himself. While in Auschwitz, however, an SS guard taught him to box and forced him to participate in death matches with fellow prisoners: losers were shot. He eventually escaped, made it to the U.S., married, and had children. But he remained haunted by survivors guilt and lashed out at everyone before ultimately finding a measure of peace.
The films director, Barry Levinson, told me Foster was his first choice for the role. Years ago, Levinson gave the then-young actor one of his first significant jobs in Liberty Heights, and was convinced he would bring the necessary intensity to this role.
I spoke with Foster about one particularly emotional scene at the films end when a group of survivors gather at a wedding to sing Gott Bench Amerika, reaffirming their faith in their new homeland.
It reminded me of my Nana, Foster told me. Whenever she saw a picture of he Statue of Liberty, shed say, Thats my lady.
She came over from Romania in 1924 when she was eight years old to escape the pogroms, he said. She smuggled her baby brother in in a basket.
Apparently, the baby had been born after family travel had been arranged, and was too late to be added to the paperwork.
The story was if the baby was discovered or if one of them was turned away the whole family would return to Romania, Foster said.
But Celia Segal Foster (born Tsipora Tzigel) got through immigration, and made a beautiful life with Frank Foster, my grandfather, whose family is from the Ukraine, said Foster. We would spend Holidays together. And they were there at my bar mitzvah. They are the immigrant story. My children would not be here if their parents hadnt had the courage to escape the ugliness of antisemitism.
She is a profound presence in my life to this day, Foster said. We were with her when she left and miss her. Its really wonderful to explore this material with her in my heart.
To be accurate to the story and to his grandmothers memory, Foster studied with a voice coach to get the proper dialect of the Polish shtetl where Haft grew up. And he says he insisted on losing weight for the role instead of relying on digital effects to make him look skinnier during concentration camp scenes.
Intuitively, not as a chest beat, I blurted out, if you want to go digital with my body for the weights, youve got the wrong actor. Foster told me. Youve seen the pictures. You cant fake that. You can do digital, but it doesnt have the same texture.
I asked Foster whether how his Jewish upbringing influenced his approach to the role.
The faith of Judaism, at least as I understand it, is asking the big W question, why, he said. Its the Talmudic exploration of our place on earth and our relationship to each other. So I believe that informed and continues to inform my life.
The Survivor debuts in HBO April 27.
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How Ben Foster's faith and family helped to make him a 'survivor' - Forward