Philadelphia Jewish Voice - Judaism

Poet Responds to Jerusalem Municipal WOW Ruling

rebgoldie — Thu, 30 May 2013 04:00:00 GMT

The Jerusalem District Court ruled in [April] that women praying at the Western Wall with prayer shawls and tefillin does not constitute a violation of "local custom" or a provocation, and therefore, no justification exists for detaining and interrogating women who engage in these practices. [Haaretz] Poet Jennifer Rudick Zunikoff's response arrives in verse:

Women wearing tefillin and talit at the Western Wall. Photo: Michal Patelle.

Jerusalem Knows My Name

I can pray,
I can dance
While wearing purple and gold
In the shadow of King David's Tower,
Because this City of Gold
This City of Peace
This Jerusalem, is
My city.
Its stones are smooth from my caress.
Its alleyways
Recognize my footsteps.
Its people
Know my name.
The Shekhina sings from my heart
In a voice soft and strong and round...
I have not forgotten Thee,
O Jerusalem,
I have not forgotten Thee.
My City of Gold,
My City of Peace....
You have kept me, and
You have remembered.
You have remembered me.
Jennifer Rudick Zunikoff is a professional storyteller and teacher. She uses storytelling as an educational tool to inspire exploration of Judaism and spirituality. Her story "Rina and the Exodus"appears in National Jewish Book Award-Winning volume Mitzvah Stories: Seeds for Inspiration and Learning (Reclaiming Judaism Press) http://jenniferstories.com

Interview: Jewish Lesbian Couple Are First to Sign Civil Union in Colo.

rebgoldie — Thu, 23 May 2013 14:01:15 GMT

Photos by Stevie Crecelius

— by Rabbi Goldie Milgram

Two Jewish women, Anna and Fran Simon, both of Denver, Colo., became the first same-sex couple to be issued a Civil Union, license at a midnight ceremony on May 1 in the Denver Office of the Clerk and Recorder. Rabbi Steve Booth participated in the rite, as well, having long-served beside them as an activist in this cause. In fact, it wasn't the Simons' first marriage ceremony.

Full interview after the jump.
Q: When did you decide to marry?

Anna Simon: Back in 2005 we had a Jewish wedding, so that we would be married in the eyes of God before we had children. We are somewhat traditional in that way, and felt it important to commit before our family and friends with a rabbi. 100 friends and family attended and Rabbi Jamie Korngold officiated. There were no civil legal ramifications of that ceremony at all, so it was very important to us that there one day be a civil service, and at it to have a rabbi and say the Shehecheyanu (prayer for special occasions) for being joined in the eyes of the law.

Q: Was the Jewish community able to be there for you?

Fran Simon: We felt incredible support from the Jewish community here in Colorado. From the Anti Defamation League that testified numerous times, Rabbi Steve Booth Nadav was at many hearings and votes. Keshet, the LGBT organization, was incredibly supportive, B'nai Havurah (congregation) and Judaism Your Way have also been very supportive and helped us achieve civil unions and continue in the fight for marriage equality. It was because of Steve's role in the civil union fight that we wanted him to be part of our civil ceremony. Many faith leaders were involved in winning these protections.

Homosexuality in Judaism

The Reconstructionist movement, in its 1992 Report of the Reconstructionist Commission on Homosexuality, expressed its support for the full inclusion of gay men and lesbians in all aspects of Jewish life.

The Reform Movement's March 2000 Resolution on Same Gender Officiation states that, "the relationship of a Jewish, same gender couple is worthy of affirmation through appropriate Jewish ritual."

The Conservative Moment: Homosexuality, Human Dignity and Halachah: A Combined Responsum was adopted in June 2012 by the Committee of Jewish Law and Standards, voted 13-0 with one abstention to formally approve same sex marriage ceremonies.

Orthodoxy: No mainstream Orthodox organization has endorsed same sex marriage. A growing number of independent Orthodox rabbis, starting with Rabbi Steven Greenberg have conducted such rituals.

Above: the Simons' Brit Ahuvot, Female Lovers' Union, between the bride and the bride

Q: How did the two ceremonies differ?

Anna Simon: We met the rabbi for our Jewish wedding, Jamie Korngold, to study the elements of a Jewish wedding, the brit (covenant), the sheva brachot (seven blessings), the priestly blessing, the kiddush — our rabbi, as a feminist, had already made tweaks to the ketubah for her own wedding, and ketubah for men and women too, that fit for us as well. The traditional ketubah is based on ownership law, but for our marriage we had a brit ahuvot (feminine plural for Covenant of Beloveds). We drew on Jewish partnership law, not ownership law, to formulate our document and the ceremony.

Fran Simon: We both broke glasses. It was extremely emotional for us when the rabbi said it was valid and binding. We honestly didn't think it would make that much of a difference, but it did. We became somehow very much more committed to one another. Doing so in front of friends and family, and everyone agreeing to support our relationship, was overwhelming. The amount of love and support at both ceremonies was tremendous.

Q: Were there unifying factors between the two ceremonies?

Fran Simon: We customized our vows for our wedding, and our civil union incorporated the same themes. We designed our brit ahuvot with elements of justice, righteousness, lovingkindness and faithfulness.

Anna Simon: We both believe that customizing for authenticity and honor is really important.

Q: Did these rituals change your relationship with your extended families?

Fran Simon: I believe my family saw us differently as a result. Leading up to the Jewish wedding, my parents weren't telling their friends. I don't think they saw it as a marriage until it got closer.

Anna Simon: Fran's father's toasts had everyone in tears. At our rehearsal dinner he said, "You know Francine, when you came out as a lesbian to me, I was really sad and I told you then, I had always wanted to dance at your wedding, and tomorrow — I will."

Anna Simon: I want to add something about Fran's mother, who always loved me completely: The wedding ritual changed her perspective and attitude about Fran's being gay.

Fran Simon: My mother refers to Anna as her "daughter" and asks her to call her "mom." As a consequence of the wedding, she told all of her friends about us. She's completely out about her daughter now, after struggling with it for many years.

Q: Anna, what about your mother?

Anna Simon: Well, when I told her I was in love and this is the one, her first two questions were "Is she Jewish?" and "Where did she go to school?" And she was very happy with the answers to both those questions; that I married a nice Jewish girl.

Q: Where did you go to college? I imagine readers would now be curious.

Anna Simon: Fran went to Cornell and then Stanford. I went to Earlham and the University of New Mexico.

Q: Do you have children?

Fran Simon: We have a son who will be six in July. He was our ring-bearer at the civil union.

Q: You now both have the same last name. Was that a difficult decision?

Anna Simon: If I was married to a man, I would most certainly not have changed my name. Fran felt more attached to her family name. We didn't want our children to always be answering the question: "Who is this woman with that other name?" Not only that, but Jeremy is the one that will carry on the Simon name, as there are no other male grandchildren in the Simon family.

Q: Have you had to make accommodations around caring for your son out there in gun country?

Fran Simon: Not really. They did have "mom's night" and "dad's night" at our school, and when we questioned the gender separation they said it's just so that they don't have everybody show up all at once. So we said, "why not just call them 'parents' nights?" That worked.

Anna Simon: We are very happy with people's attitudes here, very warm and welcoming. Jeremy went to daycare at the university where I work. And when he got older we switched to our neighborhood school and we've benefited from families that have come before us. Though we are still doing some educating, we feel completely accepted.

Fran Simon: I think we also shelter ourselves. We have been in the media a lot in this fight for civil unions, and I read the comments in some of the articles calling us terrible parents, etc. People don't say things to our faces, but in this state there are certainly a lot of people who don't support our relationship.

We've come such a long way; in 2006 we had Referendum I, which was domestic partnerships, and only 47% of the state supported it. But in the last couple of years support for civil unions has been 70% or higher. And now for marriage, one poll I saw was 50% for and 38% against. All this in a state where a 2006 amendment defines marriage as between a man and woman. Colorado was labeled the "Hate State" in 2002 due to Amendment 2, which allowed legal discrimination against LGBT people.

Q: New Jersey has a State Amendment, that may come up for a vote, that would require health insurance to cover treatment for those who want to cease being homosexual and attain a heterosexual life. How would you address such a situation?

Anna Simon: There is not just moment when someone makes a decision to be attracted to someone of the opposite sex or the same sex. It is a very deep part of a person's biological and psychological makeup. We only have to look a little bit back in history and see what happened when people writing with their left hand were forced to use their right hand. They could manage, but it was not what their natural position was. And we have learned very clearly there is harm in such forcing. I think it is a good analogy for one's sexual orientation except on a more serious scale: There is horrible damage done through this so-called reparative therapy — suicide and destroyed lives in the wake of these well-intended but damaging therapies.

Fran Simon: Well-intended?

Anna Simon: A parent who wants their child to be straight loves their child, and thinks that is the healthy way to be. My heart goes out to that parent; rather than trying to change their child, I would encourage them to find support to accept their child for who they are. PFLAG, Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays, is a helpful organization to seek out for guidance and support.

Q: What role does faith play in your lives?

Anna Simon: Our faith exists in everything that we do. We say Jewish prayers before we eat, and at bedtime; indeed at every significant event. Jewish ritual is woven into our everyday lives; at the end of each day we sing the shema with our son and talk about the things for which we are grateful to God.

Q: Did prayer help you hold the course in advocacy?

Fran Simon: I would say that faith played a role in the civil unions battle. It really was an emotional roller coaster at times. Last year, the Republican leaders essentially killed 30 bills just to kill the Civil Unions bill. We kept our faith, knowing it would pass, just as we know marriage equality will come to be in the near future.

Anna Simon: I feel strongly that we are called to the lives that we have and the work on justice. In our brit ahuvot, we talk about tikkun olam (repairing the world). We were able to testify a half a dozen times regarding this bill, in part because of where we live and the type of work we do, and given that we are out and at less risk than some. I believe literally that God intended us to do this work.

Q: How did your son relate to the civil ceremony?

Fran Simon: One Colorado organized a lot of the press who came. We did bring our son to testify at the hearings this year. Not previous years, just now, when we were very confident that it was going to pass. He also attended the rallies; he was part of help makeing this bill become law. We felt extremely honored to be the first couple to receive the civil union. Our son saw the signing pens on the document table, and asked for one before the ceremony. And I said, "No, these are for very special people." And then, at the bill signing, one of the bill's sponsors, Senator Guzman, spontaneously gave one the pens to the governor to give to Jeremy.

Anna Simon: I want to acknowledge how grateful we are to all the people in Colorado who supported the effort, and to our legislators, who showed courage and real leadership in passing this bill. There are many people that put in time, money, effort and sacrifice to make the bill pass.

Q: Thank you so much. May you be blessed with long healthy lives together in your loving Jewish home, and may your work for justice prevail.

Rabbi Goldie Milgram's Living Jewish Life Cycle: How to Create Meaningful Jewish Rites of Passage at Every Stage of Life (Jewish Lights Publishing) provides traditional and inclusive step-by-step guides to all Jewish rites of passage. Also see the websites ritualwell and Keshet for information on the subject.

Canadian Rock Star Steven Page Explores His Musical Jewish Roots

Contributing Writer — Tue, 21 May 2013 08:52:02 GMT

— Reprinted with permission from CBC/Radio-Canada

Steven Page, musician, and former lead-singer, guitarist and principal songwriter for the internationally acclaimed pop band the Barenaked Ladies (BNL), grew up in Scarborough, Ontario, feeling like he was the only Jew in the neighbourhood, and thus an outsider. He began his search into his ancestry with the goal of uncovering why his Jewish identity has played such an important part of his life.

Continued after the jump.
Steven was born in 1970 to a Jewish mother, Jo-Anne (Simmons), and an Anglo-Protestant father, Victor Page. When Jo-Anne and Victor married in the 1960s, Victor converted to Judaism to appease Jo-Anne's strict grandparents, Nuchum and Chava Greenbaum. But it wasn't enough; they disowned Jo-Anne, and as a result, Steven never met his great-grandparents.

According to Steven's great aunts Annette and Beulah, Nuchum came to Canada from Poland in 1909. Later, he brought Chava and their daughter Shirley to join him. They lived in the Kensington Market district of Toronto, then a thriving Jewish community, and had seven more children.

Steven decided to investigate the Greenbaum side of the family by searching the 1911 Canadian census online. He discovered that Kalman Greenbaum, Nuchum's father, was born in Russia/Poland in 1866. Kalman came alone to Canada in 1903. After being naturalized in 1909, he brought his family from Poland to join him, including Nuchum. When Kalman first arrived, he lived in an area of Toronto called St. John's Ward, on Chestnut Street.

What was life like for Jewish immigrants at that time? Steven met with the historian of Jewish Toronto, Stephen Speisman, at the Toronto City Archives. At the turn of the century, a Fifth Census of Canada 1911 showed that a huge influx of Jewish immigrants moved to Toronto. Inside ten years, the Jewish population of the city grew from 3,000 to 32,000. Out of necessity, most settled in St. John's Ward, a slum with affordable rents. As soon as Kalman earned enough money as a peddler, he bought a house in Kensington Market, where he and his family lived for many years.

To learn more about Kalman, Steven visited his mother's cousin Henry Green, a professor of religious studies at the University of Miami. Henry has discovered that Kalman belonged to the Hasidic dynasty of the Modzhitz, a group known as the singing Hasidim, who turned Hasidic melody into an art form. Steven never knew the Greenbaum side of his family was connected to music; it is exciting for him to discover he is part of a musical dynasty.

According to Steven's great aunt Annette, poverty wasn't the only challenge faced by the Greenbaum family. A tragic house-fire in 1928 took the lives of Nuchum's sister Sarah, her husband, and two of her three children. Steven verified this information by searching the Toronto Star's Pages of the Past. There, he finds a front-page story, headlined, "Parents and Two Children Perish in Fire: dying girl declares family was menaced by threats of enemy." Steven was shocked to discover that the article suggests the fire resulted from a family or business feud. Chava was never the same after the tragedy.

Given the hardships they faced in Canada, Steven wondered why his family left Poland. He found a clue in Nuchum's 1905 diary, where Nuchum referred to "a year of curses." Steven decided to go to Poland to investigate.

Steven's first stop was the regional office of the Polish State Archives in the city of Kielce, where the birth, marriage and death records of Kielce's Jews are stored. In 1897, approximately 83,000 Jews were living in Kielce, constituting 28% of the city's population. Steven found Nuchum's 1894 birth record, and was surprised to see it is written in Russian.

In 1894, Poland was part of the Russian Empire. Discrimination against Jews was widespread. In Poland, Jews paid double taxes and were forbidden to lease land or go to university. Despite this, Jewish men aged 18 were still liable for conscription into the Russian army. When Tsar Alexander II was assassinated, in 1881, the Jews were blamed. Throughout the Empire, Jews were attacked in an infamous spate of officially condoned violence, known to history as the pogroms. It was out of this climate of fear that a massive wave of Jewish immigration to North America emerged. Leading up to the First World War, about two million Polish Jews left for North America.

Steven next visited Rakow, the hometown of his great-grandmother Chava. Before the Holocaust, over half of the population of Rakow was Jewish. No Jews currently live in the town, so Steven visited a group of Poles called "Friends of Rakow." The group, dedicated to remembering the town's Jewish past, cooks Jewish meals and maintains a memorial at Rakow's former Jewish cemetery. Steven ended the journey into his ancestry at this cemetery. His trip to Poland has been powerful and disturbing. While Steven is moved by the efforts of the Poles to honour the memory of their Jewish friends, he finds little testament to just how horrible life was for Jews in Poland. His family, he now knows, was lucky to survive.

Kerry Appoints Ira Forman as Special Envoy to Combat Anti-Semitism

Contributing Writer — Tue, 21 May 2013 08:46:11 GMT

Secretary of State John Kerry announced yesterday that Ira Forman will serve as the Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism. Forman, a graduate of both Harvard and Stanford Universities, previously served as Director of Congressional Relations for the Office of Personnel Management during the Clinton administration. He led the National Jewish Democratic Council for fifteen years. Secretary Kerry made the announcement as he released the 2012 International Religious Freedom Report.

Response after the jump from the Jewish Council for Public Affairs.
The Global Anti-Semitism Review Act of 2004 created the position of Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism. Special Envoy Forman's first act will be to join a group of imams for visiting the site of the former Nazi death camp at Auschwitz. He will then proceed to the International Conference of the Global Forum for Combating Anti-Semitism in Jerusalem.

The Jewish Council for Public Affairs enthusiastically welcomed the selection of Forman. JCPA President Rabbi Steve Gutov said:

For decades, I have admired my friend and colleague, Ira Forman, as a devoted father and husband, model in his community, and voice for positive change in the world. I am proud of our government's unprecedented commitment to make fighting anti-Semitism a national priority, thanks in large part to the extraordinary leadership in recent years of the immediate past Special Envoy Hannah Rosenthal, my beloved predecessor at the JCPA. In selecting someone with the experience and wisdom of Ira, Secretary Kerry and President Obama have made sure this important work will continue. We also are appreciative of the excellent work in this arena carried out by Ambassador Michael Kozak, who has served as the Interim Special Envoy.

JCPA Chair Larry Gold added:

Ira is a deeply respected figure who has long been a powerful advocate for Jewish community interests here at home. With this new position as Anti-Semitism Envoy, he will take that respect and his passion abroad to help identify anti-Semitism where it persists and bring the influence of the US State Department to bear in attacking this pernicious phenomenon.

Reclaiming the Anusim: the Sephardic Perspective

Contributing Writer — Tue, 14 May 2013 15:03:33 GMT

— by Carlos Zarur

According to an article in eSefarad ,"A decision by the ultra-orthodox rabbi Nissim Karelitz recognizes that the Chuetas of Mallorca, who were persecuted by the Spanish Inquisition and remained a distinct group within Mallorcan society until the 1970s, had the right to call themselves Jews." How do Sephardic Jews view this?

Some in the Sephardic community ask themselves, "who is this Ashkenazi rabbi to make that decision?" They believe that the Chuetas of Mallorca never stopped being Jews. Even if they did not practice Judaism, they preserved the Jewish identity by avoiding intermarriage at all. Mallorcan Secret Jews (Xuetas) are halachically Jewish, since they did not intermarry for centuries.

More after the jump.
Since medieval times, the Sephardic sages ruled that Ashkenazi Rabbis do not have powers of decision regarding Sephardic matters, and vice versa. Halachic Sephardic sources say it very clearly: Crypto-Jews, Anusim, or Conversos are Jews, as well as their children, if they have hazzaqqa (force of tradition of being Jews), endogamy (marrying only other anusim or other Jews), Jewish genealogy, and the proven historic practice of Jewish customs.

Sadly, there are not too many scholars, anthropologists, or rabbis qualified to determine who is who in the Crypto-Jewish world. Modern day rabbis, even those who are Sephardic, are not aware of how the Halacha sees these people. They are not trained to research the Crypto-Jewish phenomenon, since they are not anthropologists, or trained in anthropological research.

Ashkenazi and Sephardic hakhamim (learned scholars) disagree on Halachic matters on how to deal with the Crypto, or "secret" Jews. Sephardic rabbis have always helped secret Jews to return to the open Jewish practice, without any kind of conversion. Ashkenazi rabbis always asked for re-conversion, which makes sense, since Ashkenazi rabbis were not part of the Sephardic world and were not aware of the phenomena.

For a secret Jew, it is very insulting to be asked for a conversion (an approach supported by many mainstream Sephardic Jews, anthropologist, and some rabbis). These conversions are pasul (invalid) and totally non-Halachic. Of course, each case should be individually analyzed by knowledgeable people, using very strict criteria. After all, there are several cases of fake Crypto-Jews.

Carlos Zarur holds Masters' Degrees in Jewish studies in the areas of Comparative Religious Studies, Sephardic Studies, Marranism Studies (Crypto Judaism), Peripheral Jewish Communities, Culture and Customs of Oriental (Mizrahi) Jewries, and Western and Eastern Sephardic Culture and Customs. He also has done field research in Crypto-Judaism in several countries in Europe and the American Continent, Syrian Jews, and the Jews of India. As a Professor, he has taught at the University of Colorado in the Anthropology Department and The Jewish Studies Program.

Managing Life's Transitions Is Like Counting the Omer

Contributing Writer — Tue, 14 May 2013 10:44:23 GMT

— by Aviva Perlo

Imagine that you are walking through the desert for 40 years. Day after day, week after week. You and 20,000 of your closest friends and tribe's members move through the wilderness, in hopes for a better life.

You get hot, and then cold, and then hungry, and then tired. Shelter comes and goes. Everything appears to be wide open. The uncertainty of the wilderness seems disorienting, yet exhilarating. To restore some order and structure to the wide-open landscape, you — well, all 20,000 of you — try to build a holy space in the desert using specific measurements and materials, and lots of detail. "Much as we may wish to make a new beginning, some part of us resists doing so, as though we were making the first step towards disaster," explains English Professor Dr. William Bridges in his book "Transitions: Making sense of life's Changes."

More after the jump.
Vulnerable to environmental and situational conditions: desert storms, the winds, the sun, we start to doubt if we will ever get there, and we don't even know where "there" is. After months of pitching a tent together, shlepping, hauling materials, and not reaching the goal, the people around you start to get on your nerves. Complaining and blaming seem tempting, because it's easier than facing what is actually happening. Beneath the surface, massive changes are tugging at our hearts, as our identity, security and reality are being forced to change. Tension emerges as we wonder who we are, and where we are going.

This is the story of the Jewish people in the wilderness, as they prepared for revelation. This is also the narrative of what sometimes happens to individuals and families who undergo traumatic experiences of illness, injury and loss. Shift happens, and it's not easy.

On the Jewish calendar, writes Jewish educator Dr. Erica Brown:

The transition time between leaving oppression [Passover] and arriving at the Promised Land [Shavuot] takes us to a desert that tests us and our leadership. That transition taught us a great deal about what it took to prepare and confront uncertainty, and how important vision is.

We count the Omer, or the wheat harvest, for 49 days. The Omer marks a major transition period for the Jewish people and for the earth. We are becoming a new people on a new ground, and letting go of our former identity and memories as slaves. The earth provides us with her bountiful harvest, which allows us to survive. Physically and psychically, we are tested.

Life also tests us. When tragedies, illnesses and accidents occur, our worldview morphs immediately. Its stability is shaken as reality turns upside down. We try to stop the suffering, but we can't. The question emerges: what can we hold onto? What will help nurture and sustainin us? Dr. Brown explains that it is hard to "rebuild trust after authority breaks down," yet it is possible.

The Omer offers three powerful lessons about life's transitions:

Go gradually — step by step, day by day. When traveling to new lands or trying out new lifestyles, go slowly. Make life manageable by breaking it down into smaller parts, especially amidst murky waters.
Small steps count, and can be a source of blessing. Although grandiosity has its allure, short blessings enable us to get to the next day.
Each step prepares us for what comes next. We cannot just jump from one big milestone to another. There is an invisible journey that we undergo in order to restore our energy and prepare for what may follow. Quiet time and a restful space are required. We cannot dictate the pace. We can cultivate support systems, count our blessings each day, and develop relationships with compassionate mentors and friends.

Transformative experiences involve a combination of pain, growth and wisdom. May we learn to mitigate the pain and be able to receive more of the fruits.

Letting People, Not Computers, Find the Right Person for You

Contributing Writer — Sun, 12 May 2013 04:00:00 GMT

Throughout its history, Simantov International, which is based in Frankfurt, Germany, has successfully advised and guided thousands of Jewish singles in their quest for a true life partner. Founded by traditional matchmaker Denise Kahn with the goal to help Jewish singles across Europe meet, marry and rebuild European Jewry, the service is today proudly helmed by matchmaker Jose Weber, who is personally responsible for hundreds of successful matches and marriages.

More after the jump.
The boutique matchmaking service relies on a team of qualified coaches and matchmakers, all holders of Master's degrees, MBAs and PhDs. The team works with Jewish communities across Europe and around the world, helping Jewish men and women find a person who is right for them. In association with its international partners, Simantov serves clients in English, French, German, Spanish, Russian and Hebrew, and offers each client a personalized treatment.

According to Weber,

People who come to us are often disheartened and frustrated. They have often spent months or even years on online dating services and have nothing to show for it. Our service is completely different in that we take the time to talk to the client and really get to know his or her personality, values, tastes and worldview and understand his or her needs and desires in a relationship. Unlike the algorithms used by many dating websites, our matchmaking process is human.

To thoroughly get to know each new client, the matchmaker first conducts a face-to-face or Skype-relayed interview (in the language of the client's choosing). The matchmaker then reviews his database of thousands of Jewish singles around the globe for compatible matches. In the following weeks, clients and matchmakers work closely together, with the clients offering feedback on dates. The matchmaker continues to introduce the client to new potential partners until a match is made.

Celebrating its 36th year in business in 2013, Simantov International is today Europe's most experienced Jewish matchmaking service.

Book Chat: Ballots, Babies, and Banners of Peace

leebarzel — Tue, 07 May 2013 11:00:00 GMT

— by Hannah Lee

Judging from the titles in the general and academic press, you would surmise that American Jewish women were not active in the biggest social movements of the 20th century. And you would be wrong. The paucity of scholarship in this area led Melissa Klapper, a historian at Rowan University, to a six-year odyssey that culminated with her latest book, Ballots, Babies, and Banners of Peace: American Jewish Women's Activism, 1890-1940 which highlights the role of American Jewish women in three social movements for suffrage, birth control, and peace.

More after the jump.
The women's rights movement was launched at a convention in Seneca Falls, NY in 1848. It was held in a church, and no Jewish women were in attendance. (There were only about 50,000 Jews — 0.22% of the total population — in the United States at the time.) In fact, there had been tremendous anti-Semitism in the early years of the movement. After Colorado gave women the vote in 1893, women became newly energized. Then, the American Jewish community itself expanded, with immigrants arriving from Eastern Europe that were already politicized with experience in the labor Bund political party, Zionism, or social reform.

The National Council of Jewish Women never did take an official stance on women's suffrage, but most of its members were in support. One prominent Jewish activist was Maud Nathan, who leveraged her fluency in French and German to serve as translator in international conferences. She helped spread the movement by writing articles and the lecture circuit, with 10-12 engagements a week. However, her sister, Annie Nathan Meyer, was a vocal anti-suffragist, which may be surprising considering that she founded Barnard College.

The successes of suffrage depended in part on votes of Jewish men, but anti-Semitism re-surfaced with the defeats in referenda in New York, Pennsylvania, and Massachusetts in 1915. Jews realized that they couldn't change the movement. Jewish women also lobbied for increased power in the Jewish community and synagogues. After 1920, when the Nineteenth Amendment for women's vote was ratified, synagogues across the spectrum opened their boards to women.

With the achievement of the women's vote, some women were looking for another social cause. They found it in the nascent birth-control movement. Margaret Sanger, a Catholic whose first husband was a Jew, opened the first birth-control clinic in 1916 in Brownsville, Brooklyn, which had a huge immigrant population of Italians and Eastern Europeans. These women did not care about religious prohibitions; they wanted control over the size of their families. The reality of childbirth in the early 20th century was grim: 20% of the children died before the age of five, and 1% of live births caused a maternal death.

The women lined up for blocks near Sanger's clinic, waiting with their baby carriages. Before the clinic was closed — after ten days — because of federal laws on "obscenity", the women left with contraceptives and knowledge to pass onto their sisters and neighbors.

Sanger had left for the Netherlands, where birth control was legal, and the next clinic would not appear in the United States until 1923. Jewish women were early adopters across the classes; their birthrate dropped by 2.8 children per woman in 30 years. Jewish women were also distributers of birth control as clinic staff and physicians. Dr. Klapper attributed this to the Jewish value of tikkun olam (repairing the world) as well as to the prevailing anti-Semitism, when qualified Jews often found it hard to obtain employment. Jewish women were also activists across the class lines and at all levels of involvement.

All major rabbinical groups discussed birth control. The first and most influential opinion published was issued by the Reform movement: Rabbi Jacob Lauterbach, who'd studied in a traditional yeshiva in Berlin, whose scholarship on this subject — and allowance for contraceptives — was so rigorous that his opinion was accepted by the Conservative movement. Dr. Klapper showed Lauterbach's writing to Orthodox rabbis during her research, and they confirmed to its validity. The Orthodox Union was pressured by the Catholic Church to condemn contraception, but it allowed congregants to consult their local rabbis. Before the 1930s, all press writings about contraceptives were in code, referring to "family well-being" or using words for the materials used in birth control.

The third social movement covered in the book was the peace movement, which initiated in the 19th century but did not grow strong until after World War I. As in any war, the first world war was devastating for Jewish communities. The international Jewish network that developed for the peace movement was later the model for the women's peace movement. Jewish women were not naïve believers; they tried to arbitrate conflicts and worked for arms reduction. The League of Nations, which we now regard as a failed effort, was somewhat successful in the 1920s and 30s, particularly the Kellogg-Briand Pact of 1928, with over 100 countries signed on to renounce the use of war and called for the peaceful settlement of disputes.

The rise of Nazism in the 1930s posed a dilemma for the Jewish pacifists. How would the women respond? Some decided to fight the evil of Nazism, but some resolved to continue peace negotiations. In 1933, pacifists were amongst the first people rounded up by the Nazis in Germany. By the time World War II broke out, most Jewish groups had changed their position to against pacifism. Some women still couldn't support the war efforts, such as volunteering for the Red Cross, and one woman, Rebecca Hourwich Reyher, moved to the Dominican Republic to help the Jewish refugees arriving to rural Sosúa.

The prevailing view of women's activism is that it was dormant from 1920 to 1960. Dr. Klapper has shown with her meticulous scholarship that it was not so.

The Israelite Connections of the Taliban

Contributing Writer — Fri, 03 May 2013 11:58:39 GMT

— by Dr Shalva Weil

It is difficult to believe that over a decade has passed since the 9/11 attacks, in which nearly 3,000 innocent people died in four coordinated suicide attacks perpetrated by al-Qaeda. The United States reacted by invading Afghanistan and declaring war against the Taliban, an extremist Islamic terrorist movement, which had harbored al-Qaeda.

One of the more extraordinary aspects of the attacks is the connection with Israel. In 2004, al-Qaeda's leader Osama bin Laden blamed the United States' support of Israel as one of the causes for the movement's terrorism. However, the fact that the majority of the Taliban, who make up the backbone of al-Qaeda, themselves claim Israelite origin, is relatively unknown.

More after the jump.
The Taliban operate in Afghanistan and northwestern Pakistan. They are fundamentalist Sunni Muslims, who wish to impose their brand of Islam and their interpretation of Sharia law on others. They despise western democracy and secularism, are notorious for their treatment of women and ferociously oppose the US and Israel.

The Taliban are largely made up of members of the Pashtun or Pathan tribes, who constitute the largest single tribal grouping in the world, numbering over 15 million. They are divided into distinct local tribes reminiscent of the names of the Lost Ten Tribes of Israel. According to the Bible, the Ten Lost Tribes were taken captive by the Assyrians in the eighth century BCE, while the inhabitants of the kingdom of Judah remained in Israel. The Ten Tribes were exiled to "Halah, Habor, the cities of Medes and the River Gozan", in the very geographical and cultural area in which the Pashtuns live. The fate of the Lost Israelites has always been something of an enigma, and discussed throughout the ages in the Talmud and other Jewish texts, but Jews and Christians alike have generally believed that at the "end of days", they would eventually be reunited with the descendants of the tribe of Judah.

The second president of Israel, Itzchak Ben-Zvi, in his book, The Exiled and the Redeemed, devoted a whole chapter to the purported Israelite origins of the Pashtuns. He explained that the Pashtun tribe Rabbani could be the lost Israelite tribe of Reuben; Shinwari could be Shimon; Daftani could be a corruption of Naftali; Jajani - Gad, Afridi - Ephraim, and so on. He quoted local Jews from Afghanistan who had reported to him in the early 1950s that these fierce tribesmen wore an embroidered Hanukka lamp on their backs. He had heard that they wrapped themselves in a tallith, and lit candles on Friday night. They also wore, and to this day, insist on keeping their pe'ot (sidecurls). Abraham Benjamin, a Jew from Herat in Afghanistan, reported that "According to the tradition current among the Afridis, they are descendants of the Israelites, more particularly, the sons of Ephraim."

In a recent email from a member of the Pashtun tribes, the enquirer (anonymous for obvious reasons) wrote: "I have always been curious about my ancestry... I was told very early on in my life that we are like the Jews and that our customs and rituals are the same... I would be amazed to find out whether there is a gene link in my ancestry to Israel".

The Pashtun, even if they are virulently anti-Zionist, accede that they are the "sons of Israel". When I interviewed members of the Yusuf-Zai (sons of Joseph) tribe years ago in the orchards of Kashmir, they related their origins with pride. Even today, many Pashtun agree that they are Israelites, even if they generally disassociate themselves with the modern state of Israel.

Some write that the Pashtun "look" Jewish

According to Pashtun tradition, King Saul bore a son by the name of Jeremy, whose birth is not recorded in Jewish texts. Jeremy fathered a royal prince called Afghana, whose descendants fled to Jat in Afghanistan. In 662 CE the descendants of Afghana were converted to Islam at the explicit request of Mohammed. The mission was accomplished by his emissary Khalid ibn al-Walid, who returned to his master with "proof" of his activities — 76 converts and seven leaders of the "Children of Israel", including a descendant of Afghana named Kish. Kish subsequently changed his name to Ibn Rashid, and he was entrusted by Mohammed with the task of spreading the Islamic word. Many of today's Taliban terrorists claim descent from Ibn Rashid.

Many Afghan and western scholars alike have made detailed investigations into the subject from historical, anthropological and philological points of view, and provided "proofs" of the Israelite origins of the Pashtun. Some write that they "look" Jewish. They have sallow skins and dark hair and eyes, are of medium stature, wear beards and sidecurls and have a typically "Jewish" profile. Others claim that they also observe Israelite/Jewish practices. They perform circumcision on their boys near the eighth day; the women observe purification laws prescribed in the Torah; and they wear amulets, which some people claim contain the words of the Shema — "Hear O Israel, O Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is One."

For some, the Pashtuns' ancient code of hospitality, known as Pukhtunwali, by which generosity (khegara) and protection of guests are paramount, is sufficient proof that they are affiliated with Israelites and hence Jews. This code lays down the guiding principles behind the Pashtuns' refusal to give up bin Laden, who sought sanctuary in Pakistan, until he was eventually shot down by U.S. gunmen in May 2011. Similarly, al-Qaeda's second-in-command, Atiyah Abd al-Rahman, killed by U.S. forces on 22 August 2011, had sought refuge and was operating out of traditional Pashtun territory in north Waziristan in Pakistan.

Like the ancient Israelites, revenge (badal) is one of the driving forces of Pashtun society. If attacked, or pride wounded, the Pashtun, who make up the rank and file of the Taliban, will partake in a jihad (holy war) against the invaders. They succeeded with the British in the 19 th century. They repulsed the Communists; and they are still resisting the American coalition.

The older generation of Pashtun did not hide the fact of their Israelite descent, but recently some (though certainly not all) of the younger generation have suppressed this fact, which could render them highly unpopular in the present political constellation.

Dr Shalva Weil is a Hebrew University anthropologist and a specialist on the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel.

This article was reprinted with permission from ISN.

Obama Calls Americans to Observe May as Jewish Heritage Month

Contributing Writer — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 23:23:06 GMT

Since 2006, the United States has recognized the month of May as Jewish American Heritage Month. For the last three years, President Obama has hosted an annual reception to mark this occasion. However, because of the budget sequester, the White House will not be holding a Jewish History Month event this year. In addition, White House tours have been eliminated and the President and many members of his staff have taken pay cuts.

Official Presidential proclamation marking Jewish Heritage Month:

In his second year in office, President George Washington wrote a letter to the Touro Synagogue in Newport, Rhode Island — one of our Nation's first Jewish houses of worship — and reaffirmed our country's commitment to religious freedom. He noted that the Government of the United States would give "to bigotry no sanction [and] to persecution no assistance," and that all Americans are entitled to "liberty of conscience and immunities of citizenship." Those words ring as true today as they did then, and they speak to a principle as old as America itself: that no matter who you are, where you come from, or what faith you practice, all of us have an equal share in America's promise.

Continued after the jump.
It was such a belief that drew generations of Jewish immigrants to our shores. It is what brought Jewish families westward when pogroms and persecution cast a shadow over Europe in the last century. It is what led Holocaust survivors and Jews trapped behind the Iron Curtain to rebuild their lives across the Atlantic. And with every group that arrived here, the Jewish American community grew stronger. Our Nation grew stronger. Jewish immigrants from all over the world wove new threads into our cultural fabric with rich traditions and indomitable faith, and their descendants pioneered incredible advances in science and the arts. Teachings from the Torah lit the way toward a more perfect Union, from women's rights to workers' rights to the end of segregation.

That story is still unfolding today. Jewish Americans continue to guide our country's progress as scientists and teachers, public servants and private citizens, wise leaders and loving parents. We see their accomplishments in every neighborhood, and we see them abroad in our unbreakable bond with Israel that Jewish Americans helped forge. More than 350 years have passed since Jewish refugees first made landfall on American shores. We take this month to celebrate the progress that followed, and the bright future that lies ahead.

Obama and Elie Wiesel at 2011 reception in honor of Jewish American Heritage Month

Now, therefore, I, Barack Obama, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim May 2013 as Jewish American Heritage Month. I call upon all Americans to visit www.JewishHeritageMonth.gov to learn more about the heritage and contributions of Jewish Americans and to observe this month with appropriate programs, activities, and ceremonies.

In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this thirtieth day of April, in the year two thousand thirteen, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and thirty-seventh.

Mikveh Israel: "Synagogue of the Revolution"

Contributing Writer — Sun, 28 Apr 2013 04:00:00 GMT

— by Mark I. Wolfson

Kahal Kadosh Mikveh Israel, "The Hope of Israel," is the oldest Jewish congregation in the city of Philadelphia, and the second oldest congregation in the United States. It dates its roots back to 1740 when Nathan Levy, upon the death of his child, applied for a grant of land at 9th and Spruce Streets from Thomas Penn, Proprietor of Pennsylvania, to consecrate as a Jewish burial ground.

More after the jump.
At the time of its founding, the only other Jewish congregation in the United States was Kahal Kadosh Shearith Israel in New York City. That congregation was formed by Dutch Sephardic Jews who were descendants of Spanish and Portuguese refugees of the Inquisition. A number of the early founding members of Mikveh Israel in Philadelphia were from prominent Sephardic families in New York, Charleston, Richmond and Savannah, and though another large number were Ashkenazi Jews, there was broad agreement to adopt the Spanish and Portuguese customs and rite that prevailed in the country at the time. The service and customs remain largely unchanged up to the present time.

Mikveh Israel is called "Synagogue of the Revolution" because the early founding members of the congregation were very involved in the activities that led up to the war, with many of them signing the Non-Importation Act of 1765. Many of the members were very active in the war effort itself, either directly fighting on the American side, supplying the army with food, ammunition, equipment, and clothing, or contributing funds that made the war itself possible and ensured an American victory. After the war, members of Mikveh Israel remained in regular contact with Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Adams, and the other leaders who wrote the constitution and shaped the country in its earliest days.

Ameinu Welcomes Decision to Allow Women to Pray at Western Wall

Contributing Writer — Sat, 27 Apr 2013 14:27:25 GMT

— by Haim Simon

Ameinu, the leading progressive Zionist membership organization in North America, welcomes the decision rendered by the Jerusalem District Court ruling that there is no basis for the detention of women for praying at the Western Wall.

Members of Women of the Wall — an organization devoted to achieving the right for women to pray, wear prayer shawls and read from the Torah at the Western Wall — have previously been arrested for trying to exercise this religious right.

"This ruling is an extremely positive step towards greater religious pluralism and inclusiveness in Israel," said Ameinu President Kenneth Bob.

More after the jump.

The ultra-Orthodox monopoly over the Kotel must end. However, it is part of a larger problem of Orthodox control over many aspects of Israeli life. That must end as well and all streams of Judaism must be recognized as equally legitimate.

The legal ruling today follows the announcement by Jewish Agency Chairman Natan Sharansky of plans to create a space for egalitarian prayer at the Wall. This plan was approved by Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

"We are heartened by these recent events and look forward to praying at the Kotel with our friends and colleagues from Women of the Wall. Mazal Tov to them and to the State of Israel," Bob concluded.

New Maccabeats Video: Smart Ways to Live

Amir — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 10:05:14 GMT

"Smart Ways to Live," the Maccabeats' new video, is a take-off of the Ausralian viral phenomenon "Dumb Ways to Die" (below after the jump).

The a-capella group will participate in a benefit concert in Narbeth next week. Meanwhile, you can watch more of their videos here.

A new century with new guns, needs new gun laws.

Publisher — Fri, 19 Apr 2013 02:49:57 GMT

(JSPAN) The Jewish Social Policy Action Network strongly supports federal and Pennsylvania state
legislation as well as municipal ordinances designed to reduce the incidence of gun violence in our state and nation.

Each year more than 30,000 Americans die from senseless gun violence. Each day men, women and
children - mothers, brothers, sisters, children, family, neighbors, and friends - are taken from us as a
result of our inability to advance common-sense firearms regulations.

More after the jump including video of the 20/20 Special "If I Only Had A Gun"
JSPAN has a long-standing concern with the easy access to non-hunting firearms in the United States. The recent mass shootings of students and teachers in Connecticut, movie goers in Colorado, members of the Sikh community at their house of worship in Wisconsin, and other armed attacks on both civilians and law enforcement officials throughout our nation, dramatically underscore the urgent need for more effective measures.

We are reminded that Jewish tradition emphasizes the sanctity and primary value of all human life. The Bible commands us, "Thou shalt not murder" (Exodus 20:13). The Talmud furthermore teaches us

"he who takes one life it is as though he has destroyed the universe and he who saves one life it is as though he has saved the universe." (Mishnah Sanhedrin 4:5)

As the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism tells us, "The number and severity of violent shootings in recent years can only be described as an epidemic." As in any other epidemic, it is society's collective responsibility to take measures to alleviate the pain, suffering and loss of life it causes.

We recognize an individual's right to obtain and possess firearms, but that right is not without reasonable limitations. In the opinion of the Supreme Court of the United States in District of Columbia v. Heller, Justice Antonin Scalia states:

"Like most rights, the right secured by the Second Amendment is not unlimited. It is not a right to keep and carry any weapon whatsoever in any manner whatsoever and for whatever purpose ... Nothing in our opinion should be taken to cast doubt on longstanding prohibitions on the possession of firearms by felons and the mentally ill, or laws forbidding the carrying of firearms in sensitive places such as schools and government buildings, or laws imposing conditions and qualifications on the commercial sale of arms ... We also recognize another important limitation on the right to keep and carry arms. Miller (an earlier case) said, as we have explained, that the sorts of weapons protected were those 'in common use at the time.' We think that limitation is fairly supported by the historical tradition of prohibiting the carrying of 'dangerous and unusual weapons.'"

The Court recognizes long-standing judicial precedent "... to consider... prohibitions on carrying concealed weapons."

The Jewish Social Policy Action Network joins with numerous other faith- based and social policy bodies in calling for Congress and state legislative bodies to take prompt and decisive action to advance sensible gun control laws, including, but not limited to, taking assault weapons off our streets and out of the hands of those who have no legitimate purpose in owning such firearms, and by greatly improving our system of background checks for gun purchasers.

We also call attention to numerous remedies on the state legislative level, including the requirement that the loss or theft of a firearm be reported to law enforcement agencies, and limits on the purchase of specified firearms to one per month.

We welcome the call for a renewal of the ban on nineteen assault weapons passed in 1994, but allowed to expire when it came up for reauthorization in 2004.

Furthermore, we applaud efforts to limit the sales of high-capacity ammunition magazines, which can enable a shooter to fire off dozens of rounds of ammunition without having to reload. Weapons such as these have been used in several mass shootings.

JSPAN decries the opposition by the gun lobby to improved background checks for those who wish to purchase firearms. Both advocates and independent researchers say that such a measure would have a greater impact on gun violence than any other step under consideration. Approximately 90 percent of those polled in several public surveys support background checks. Currently, criminal background checks are required only for guns sold through licensed firearm dealers, which account for only 60 percent of all gun sales in the United States. The current system also allows those not "engaged in the business" of gun selling to sell firearms without a license or without filing any paperwork whatsoever.

We applaud those measures taken by Pennsylvania to end the so-called Florida loophole, in which residents of our state who are not eligible to purchase guns in Pennsylvania are able to buy guns in Florida and then legally possess them here in their home state.

We hope that the courageous examples of support for strong gun controls set by some of our federal and state legislators will serve as an example for other elected officials. We call upon all of our legislators to pay attention to their consciences and to pass legislation to make all people residing in our nation safer from gun violence.

20/20 Special: "If I Only Had A Gun"

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Bnei Menashe Celebrate Yom Haatzmaut in India

Contributing Writer — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 20:46:26 GMT

— by Jake Sharfman

Over 1200 members from the Bnei Menashe community of northeastern India celebrated Yom Ha'atzmaut and the resumption of their Aliyah to Israel yesterday with a festive celebration in the town of Churachandpur in the northeastern Indian state of Manipur.

The gathering, which was sponsored and organized by the Shavei Israel organization, was the largest in the Bnei Menashe community's history. Just last October, the Israeli government lifted a five-year ban on the Aliyah of Bnei Menashe in a unanimous decision. Since then, over 270 Bnei Menashe have been brought on Aliyah by Shavei Israel.

More after the jump.
"This Yom Ha'atzmaut is particularly poignant for the Bnei Menashe," Shavei Israel Founder and Chairman Michael Freund said.

With the resumption of the Aliyah from India, the community's dream of returning to the land of their ancestors is finally coming to fruition. In the coming months, with G-d's help, we aim to bring another 900 Bnei Menashe back home to Zion.

"There has never been such a joyous event like this before in our community. We are celebrating in spirit with our Bnei Menashe brothers and sisters who have already made Aliyah to Israel in hopes that we will be joining them very soon," said Yochanon Phaltual, a Bnei Menashe member who organized the event.

To celebrate Yom Ha'atzmaut with the realistic hope of making Aliyah soon fills my heart with joy. I was especially moved when we all stood up and sang Hatikvah. That was a very special moment for me and I really hope that we can all sing it together next year in Jerusalem.

New Filmmakers Weekend to Honor Three Jewish Directors

Contributing Writer — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 17:19:33 GMT

Life in Stills, PJFF's international award winner

Deaf Jam, PJFF's national award winner

The Gershman Y's Philadelphia Jewish Film Festival will close its 32nd Season with New Filmmakers Weekend, taking place Saturday, April 20 and Sunday, April 21 at the Gershman Auditorium.

Now in its 16th year, New Filmmakers Weekend celebrates the work of first-time Jewish directors for excellence in filmmaking. This season, the Festival will present three awards:

International Award to Tamar Tal, Director of Life In Stills (Israel),
the National Award to Judy Lieff, Director of Deaf Jam (USA), and
the Local Award to Director Bud Clayman, Director of OC87: The Obsessive Compulsive, Major Depression, Bipolar, Asperger's Movie (Philadelphia).

The Festival will also recognize and present the short film The Earthquake by a local new filmmaker Danielle Lessovitz. New Filmmakers Weekend will be hosted by Dan Friedman, Managing Editor of The Forward.

More trailers after the jump.
OC87: The Obsessive Compulsive, Major Depression, Bipolar, Asperger's Movie, local award winner

Boston Bombing: We are All Targets

Contributing Writer — Wed, 17 Apr 2013 06:26:39 GMT

— by Rabbi Neil S. Cooper

As I reflect on the events of the past 24 hours, my thoughts and prayers are with the 130 people who have been injured, to greater or lesser degrees, by the bombs that exploded in Boston. May they be granted speedy and complete recoveries. May G-d strengthen the hands of those who tend to their injuries and wounds. May those in need be granted healing, both physical and spiritual. I know that you join me in extending heartfelt sympathy and prayers for comfort to the families of the three victims who died from their wounds. I pray that those whose job it is to find and apprehend those responsible are successful in their work. May those who are guilty be brought to justice and be held accountable for these heinous crimes.

Continued after the jump.
Like many of you, I sat on Monday, transfixed before the television screen watching the footage, again and again, of the bombs exploding near the Marathon's finish line. As I watched, however, I experienced a strange degree of familiarity with the images, as if I had seen these images before. Indeed, these were the images we have all witnessed, hundreds of times, brought to us from the other side of the world, from Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan and Israel. As shocking and horrific as this bombing was, it was not unique. In fact, this sort of bombing would have barely raised our eyebrows had it taken place in some far-off place. It was the fact that such carnage and destruction could happen here that created the feeling of sickness I experienced as I watched.

In piecing together the events, investigating the rationales and identifying the perpetrators, the specific timing of the explosions will be considered. Some have suggested that these may have been anti-American crimes, perpetrated on "Patriots' Day" in Boston. Perhaps those responsible chose April 15, Tax Day, as their response to the government of the United States. I could not help but wonder if the timing was connected to Israel. These terrorists struck the US on Israel's "Remembrance Day," the day prior to Israel's Independence Day, the day when Israelis recall the over 25,000 people who have died since 1948 defending Israel. And, in this context, the coincidence with "Remembrance Day" is instructive.

In Israel, "Remembrance Day" is observed as a solemn day of reflection and collective mourning. In the midst of this day of sadness, however, in every corner of the country, a siren is sounded and Israel stands still. People stop walking, shopping and driving in order to stand, in silence, at attention. The thoughts of the nation, at that moment, turn to fallen soldiers, to the price in blood which Israel has paid for that small country, and to the fact that, as we stand and mourn, we remain at war. As the siren sounds, Israelis are enjoined to remember that we remain the target of millions in this world whose ideologies sanction the killing of innocent people and the eradication of Jews from the world.

It is hard to know, at this early stage, why those responsible planned Monday's attack. What is clear, however, is that those killed were not targeted individually. Those who were killed or injured suffered the consequences of this act because they were standing near the bomb-site. Nevertheless, we were all, and we are still in the crosshairs. Whether because we love freedom and democracy, cherish equality, protect human dignity, and/or believe in the sanctity of all human life. Perhaps because the US and Israel are such close allies, we remain targets for those who would deny the values we cherish. Those good people, who love peace and work for it, who cherish diversity and embrace the "other," extending kindness to all, and think, therefore, that they will be safe because of their personal beliefs, are mistaken. To believe that you are not a target as an American in the world today is to believe that the bull will not charge at you because you are a vegetarian.

In Israel, when the siren sounds, the same siren which sounds when there is an air-raid or an incoming rocket, Israelis are reminded that we are hated and targeted because of the values we cherish: freedom, human dignity, protecting and preserving life. These values are preserved at a price, a high price, indeed, but a price we must pay. To reject any of these values would mean to abrogate our responsibilities as Jews and as Americans. For Israelis, to reject these values would be to reject the reasons the State of Israel was founded and continues to exist.

At yesterday's marathon, America was reminded of the fact that the lofty values for which we live and die make us targets for those who abhor these values. As we mourn those killed in the bombing, as we pray for the health of those injured, we must realize that our values are not shared, that we are hated because of these values and that we are all targets of those violent people who seek to undo, to undermine and to unravel the fabric which holds us together. Only when we realize that we are all targets, that we are all vulnerable, that we must stand together as Americans, we can prevail.

On Shabbat we will add to our services at Temple Beth Hillel-Beth El special prayers of healing and strength. In the meantime, I hope that we will all keep in our prayers those who continue to recover. And keep in your prayers, as well, the United States of America, the values on which this country was founded, the values which make us all targets and the values for which we must be vigilant. Were we to forget those values, we would not only forget what it means to be an American, we would forget what it means to be a human being.

Rabbi Neil S. Cooper is the spiritual leader of Temple Beth Hillel-Beth El in Wynnewood, Pennsylvania.

Nashirah Chorale to Hold Annual Spring Concert Next Weekend

Contributing Writer — Sun, 14 Apr 2013 20:08:35 GMT

Photo by John Hayes

Nashirah, the Jewish chorale of Philadelphia, under the artistic direction of Jonathan Coopersmith, will hold its annual Spring Concert at Society Hill Synagogue on Sunday, April 21, 2013.

Nashirah is the only auditioned community-based chorale in the Greater Philadelphia area that performs exclusively Jewish and Jewish-themed music. The 90-minute program, "Sabbath Variations," will celebrate the Jewish Sabbath service as performed from the seventeenth century through today, and from Yemen to Israel to the United States.

More after the jump.
Nashira's Concert selections include traditional and contemporary musical arrangements performed in Hebrew and English. Featured works include Italian Renaissance songs by Salomone Rossi and a surprising Hebrew arrangement for Kiddush by composer Kurt Weill, usually known for his theatrical scores such as The Threepenny Opera.

A highlight of the concert will be a collection of songs by Tziporah Jochsberger. Reeling from the death of her parents in Auschwitz and the loss of millions like them, Jochsberger resolved to use music and Jewish melodies to waken the dormant Jewish soul of American Jewry.

In its nine year history, Nashirah has grown to a chorale of 30 singers from Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware. Nashirah has performed at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the National Museum of American Jewish History, Prince Music Theatre, Andrea Clearfield's Salon, American Chorale Directors Association, the Delaware Valley Jewish Choral Festival, the Gershman Y, Israel 60 Parade and Festival, Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia, and synagogues, senior centers and churches throughout the Philadelphia area.

Under the leadership of Artistic Director and Conductor Jonathan Coopersmith, the Nashirah is moving into the league of nationally known groups such as the Zamir Chorale of New York City and Zemer Chai of Washington, DC. Coopersmith is the chair of Musical Studies at the prestigious Curtis Institute of Music where he has been teaching harmony, counterpoint, music history, and solfege since 2004. A native of Princeton, Mr. Coopersmith has been the Associate Conductor for The Philadelphia Singers since 2002 and is a guest choral director for The Philadelphia Orchestra and The Pennsylvania Ballet. He is a regular guest lecturer in the Philadelphia area, with recent lectures at The Curtis Institute of Music, The Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, and The Philadelphia Museum of Art. In the past, he has served as Music Director for Philadelphia's Opera on the Square, Rittenhouse Row Festival, and The Philadelphia Festival of the Arts, and has conducted the Philadelphia Orchestra Society, The Westminster Conservatory Orchestra, The Wilmington Orchestra, The Mannes Orchestra, and The Penn's Landing Orchestra.

Coopersmith notes:

There is an extraordinary legacy of chorale music that is largely unknown even in the Jewish community. My priority has been to choose from the best of this heritage or to commission new music to be performed by Nashirah at a high level. My hope is that Jewish music, performed in a concert setting, will be seen as artistic, high quality, and even forward-looking.

Tickets prices for the concert are $25. Student rush tickets (with school or college ID) will be available at the door for $10.

Philly Delegation Participates in Holocaust Remembrance Journey

Contributing Writer — Sat, 13 Apr 2013 22:22:29 GMT

Photos by Shahar Azran, courtesy of FIDF

— by Jen Glantz

Over 100 prominent Friends of the Israel Defense Forces (FIDF) lay leaders and supporters from the United States and Panama, including a delegation from Philadelphia, were accompanied by over 50 IDF officers as they toured the Auschwitz-Birkenau Concentration Camp in Poland as part of the ten-day FIDF "From Holocaust to Independence" journey to Poland and Israel.

The delegation visited the Auschwitz-Birkenau Concentration Camp, which was the largest of the Nazi's Concentration Camps. The delegation also listened to the personal story of a Holocaust survivor from Israel, Asher Aud, in Auschwitz 2-Birkenau, where mass exterminations of Jews took place throughout the war.

More after the jump.
Earlier, The delegation toured the town of Tarnów-Zbylitowska Góra, which was home to thousands of Jews at the onset of World War II, who ultimately faced unspeakable suffering at the hands of the Nazis, and the village of Zbylitowska Góra as well as Buczyna Forest, where many Jews, including over 800 children, were executed and buried by the Nazis.

The delegation also visited the Jewish Quarter in the Old City of Krakow, an important district in Jewish history and learned about its significant Jewish community that thrived from the 14th Century until the Holocaust. The delegation toured the Krakow Jewish Ghetto, where Jews were forced to live during the Nazi occupation, and saw the remnants of the Krakow Ghetto Wall. Upon arriving to Poland, the delegation enjoyed a celebratory dinner with the IDF Chief of Staff, Lt. Gen. Benjamin Gantz.

The delegation, including FIDF supporter Herbert London and his wife Vicki, near the synagogue

The official military ceremony at the Children's Grave at Zbylitowska Góra

A group of FIDF delegation participants and IDF soldiers, with FIDF National President, Julian Josephson and FIDF National Director and CEO, Maj. Gen. (Res.) Yitzhak (Jerry) Gershon, at the remnants of the Krakow Ghetto Wall

Left to right: FIDF National Director and CEO, Maj. Gen. (Res.) Yitzhak (Jerry) Gershon, IDF Chief of Staff, Lt. Gen. Benjamin Gantz, and FIDF National President, Julian Josephson in Krakow, Poland

Reform Movement Leader Shows Support of Stricter Gun Laws

Contributing Writer — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 22:13:59 GMT

In advance of the interfaith day of advocacy around gun control today, The Union for Reform Judaism President Rabbi Rick Jacobs sent a letter to U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell urging Congress to pass stricter gun laws.

Dear Majority Leader Reid and Minority Leader McConnell:

Nearly four decades ago, in 1975, the Union for Reform Judaism recognized the need for legislation that would limit and control the sale and use of firearms. Since the adoption of that resolution, the URJ's first calling for the regulation of firearms, more than one million Americans have been killed as a result of gun violence. The URJ has spoken out repeatedly and passionately on gun violence and continues to insist that gun regulation is a vital necessity.

Continued after the jump.
As president of the Union for Reform Judaism, the membership organization for nearly 900 Reform synagogues and 1.5 million Reform Jews in North America, I follow in the footsteps of my predecessors and urge you to support the comprehensive gun violence prevention package before Congress (S.649 / H.R. 137), which not only will require enforceable background checks, but also will curb gun trafficking and enhance school safety, making America safer while keeping the Second Amendment secure. Congress also must ensure that the bill is enforceable by requiring private sellers who sell crime guns to produce a background check — just as dealers are required to do. There's no question that the two minutes it takes to pass a background check is a wise investment in saving lives.

I ask, too, that you support the ban on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines (S.150 / H.R. 437), which will ban these weapons of war that have no place in our schools or on our streets. These weapons — frequently used in police killings and mass shootings — dramatically increase the number of lives lost and the damage done.

Jewish tradition mandates tikkun olam, "repair of our fractured world" — and this country's background check system is broken indeed. This flawed system, which does not require "private sellers" to conduct background checks, easily puts weapons in the hands of the vast majority of gun criminals. It is time to fix this broken system with passage of S.649 / H.R. 137, which will extend the current background check requirements to private gun sales, with dealers conducting the checks and keeping records the same way they have done for more than 40 years. Passage of these bills is the single most meaningful step you can take to stop senseless violence, honor all who have been lost to gun violence, and bring solace to survivors. On behalf of the Union for Reform Judaism and its members across North America, I urge you to support these critical pieces of legislation.

Just as the prophet Isaiah exhorts the people of the earth to "beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks," so too do I urge you to vote for comprehensive and enforceable background checks and to ban assault weapons and high-capacity magazines. As elected officials, it is your moral imperative to work to solve society's problems. This is holy work and we are counting on you to do it, helping to shape a better and more hopeful world for us all. Thank you for your consideration.

Sincerely,

Rick Jacobs

Enigma: the Hebrew Adaptation of the German Encryption Machine

Contributing Writer — Mon, 08 Apr 2013 05:59:17 GMT

— by Meir Deutsch

The CAPCHTA exhibition in the Bernhard Bloomfield Science Museum in Jerusalem has an interesting exhibit: an Enigma machine used by Israel prior to its establishment in 1948.

Enigma was originally invented by Arthur Scherbius for business purposes, but was not successful. During World War II, the German Army, Air Force and Navy used the machine for the encryption and decryption of secret messages.

The Enigma had to undergo the process of conversion to the Hebrew Alphabet which has only 22 letters as against 26 letters in the original. The four letters filling the empty spaces on the Hebrew keyboard were replaced by the letters F, X, Y and V. The Hebrew version did not have the "end letters" on the keyboard. However, it still has still the original instruction in German on the back panel.

Marian Rejewski and the Polish Cipher Bureau were the first to break Germany's Enigma ciphers, already in December 1932. Before the outbreak of the second World War they gave their findings to the British and French, but the ultimate breakthrough was made by the British: in March 1941, when the German armed trawler 'Krebs' was captured off Norway complete with Enigma machines and codebooks, the German naval Enigma code could finally be read. The work of the code breaking, called Ultra, was performed in Bletchley Park.

More after the jump.
The British tried hard to conceal their code breaking success from the Axis. In 1942, when five Italian ships bound for Africa were sunk due to Ultra information, Churchill sent a telegram to Naples congratulating a fictitious spy and awarding him a bonus.

North Carolina State Religion Bill Alarms Jewish Democrats

Contributing Writer — Thu, 04 Apr 2013 07:20:39 GMT

— by Aaron Keyak

The bill proposed in North Carolina that would assert that states are not bound by the separation of church and state is very alarming to those of us who understand the utmost importance of this constitutional value, including American Jews. If this bill is seriously considered or becomes law, it will have consequences for all Americans and those who believe that government should not be making laws that show preference to some religions over others. We call for this bill to be completely rejected in North Carolina and withdrawn from consideration.

Why I Could Write a Positive Holocaust Book

Contributing Writer — Tue, 02 Apr 2013 06:29:59 GMT

Jews in Auschwitz being seperated to go to either labor or gas chambers

— by Marta Fuchs, MLS, MFT

I am a member of a generation that wasn't supposed to have been born, living proof that Hitler's Final Solution to whatever "Questions" he had about the Jewish people didn't succeed completely. I am also the grateful daughter of loving parents whose sense of optimism and belief in people miraculously prevailed despite it all.

I'm filled with gratitude for my parents' love and protection; for giving me a sense of family connection and continuity by telling me about life and people before; for recounting the sorrowful details of their Holocaust past while also honoring the individuals who showed them human kindness in those abandoned days.

More after the jump.
Born in Hungary after the war into the remnants of the once thriving Tokaj Jewish community, my brother and I as children only knew the bare outlines of what happened to our parents. When we came across old sepia photographs of people we didn't recognize, Mom and Dad explained with just one word: elpusztultak, they perished. (The "sz" in Hungarian equivalent to an "s" in English) to my child's ear it sounded like "poof! They vanished". How can people simply disappear without a trace? I wondered.

Dad never even considered himself a Holocaust survivor: "I was only in labor camp. It's your mother who is the survivor," he said. We knew that Mom and her sisters had been in some terrible place called Auschwitz where someone named Mengele decided we would never know our grandparents. We knew that Dad was the sole survivor of his family. His older brother, two older sisters, and all their six children also "remained in Auschwitz."

It would be three decades later in America that we started asking. Until then, there was a conspiracy of silence, borne from kindness and necessity, each generation protecting the other by not talking and moving forward. After all, they had to rebuild their lives from nothing, and not once but twice: first after liberation in 1945, and then again after we escaped in the wake of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution.

In their Auschwitz barrack a few hours after arrival, already in rags, completely shorn, so quickly dehumanized, my néni (aunt) Bözsi asked the woman in charge, "Where are our parents? When am I going to see them?" 'Look outside, they are going up in smoke there,' pointing to the chimney. I thought that I would kill her."

Through countless, naked selections they managed to live and still be useful; so they were taken out to other camps. In Magdeburg, they worked in a munitions factory.

"They had a machine," Mom described.

I had to push it in and be careful not to cut my hand. The Obermeister came and told me, 'Mein Kind, my child, be careful.' He was a nice elderly man. He said, 'You know, many people cut the hand in this machine. You be very careful because you know what happens when you cut the hand.' You're not useful so they take you to the crematorium.

Mom continued, telling me about another kind soul:

And where we went for water we saw beets on the ground and they were frozen because it was winter. We took a couple of them and the German of course yelled at us. And the owner who gave the water said that the beets are his, that we may have them. And all of us started to cry. And he said to the German, 'This will not always be like this.' He dared to say it, I don't even know how, that this is his land and these are his beets and 'these frozen beets, how can you begrudge it from them?'

"And I remember," my mother's youngest sister Sárika néni recounted:

Once when I started working at this machine, I saw that a young hafling who didn't work far from me was watching me. Then when I was allowed to go to the bathroom he started to say, 'boudoir, boudoir.' Well, I thought that he said it with a different accent, with a French accent, and then, before I went into the bathroom he kissed me. Well, I say to myself, there's nothing wrong with this, it's worse if they hit you. And the next day, close to Christmas, they got packages. And when no one was looking, a honey heart, a pogácsa he gave me in a package. I never saw this person again. I was so full of hope, that you see a human being who is good to you, even if you can't speak his language.

Garden of the Righteous in Yad VaShem

I know the reason that my father survived, and his name is Zoltán Kubinyi, the commanding officer in charge of Dad's labor battalion, number 108/52, comprised of Jewish men from the northeastern countryside of Hungary. A devout Seventh-day Adventist and a conscientious objector with no gun in his holster, Kubinyi defied Nazi orders to have the men be liquidated as Germany was losing the war and there was no more need for them. Upon liberation by the Red Army, he was captured as a POW, died a year later of typhus in a Siberian labor camp, and was buried in an unmarked grave. His final resting place though is where I visited him, in the Garden of the Righteous at Yad Vashem, where a wall bears his name, having been honored posthumously as a Righteous Among the Nations due to my father's testimony. I placed four stones on that wall, one for each of my father's grandchildren, and said Kaddish.

From his hospital room, one week before he died, my father dictated to me some messages for the grandchildren. As he sat up in bed, you could see that he could see each one of them standing before him. Here are some excerpts, the latter ones to my son Jacob, 16 at the time, two years before going off to college:

Be friendly and polite to everybody. Never wait for people to say hello.
If someone needs some help and you can help, I'm sure you will help them.
Don't associate with bad people. Make sure all your friends are intelligent, responsible people and it won't cause you any trouble. Love them, study together, spend time together, enjoy life.
What you study is the most important. There is something that you like to do that's going to pop up.
And what you do, take it with a good feeling: say "I love to do it", and do the work.
If you have a boss, be respectful and follow his advice and directions.
Sometime you are going to have your own company. Be reasonable with people.

"I can't imagine never knowing such a wonderful man as Grandpa," my daughter Sophie says.

And I can't help but think a lot about Zoltán, who rescued Grandpa. I've only known this man through stories and already he feels like part of the family. I can't help but think that if this mensch of a man hadn't had an ounce of compassion in his heart, my Grandpa would never have been in my life. My mom wouldn't be here; she wouldn't have had my brother and me. I wouldn't be in this world. The stories everyone is hearing about Grandpa wouldn't exist had this wonderful man not saved him during a brutal time. It is amazing to think about one single person making a difference in so many lives.

Marta Fuchs, a marriage & family therapist and librarian, is the author of Legacy of Rescue : A Daughter's Tribute and co-author with her brother Henry of the multi-generational extended family memoir, Fragments of a Family: Remembering Hungary, the Holocaust, and Emigration to a New World.

Viral Video: Best Bar Mitzvah Invitation Ever

Amir — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 07:16:33 GMT

First Public Seder in Five Centuries on Portuguese Island Madeira

Contributing Writer — Mon, 25 Mar 2013 19:53:25 GMT

— by Jake Sharfman

Tomorrow, on an isolated island tucked away deep in the Atlantic Ocean, some 600 miles from the European continent and 300 miles away from Africa, a most unusual Passover Seder, sponsored by Shavei Israel, will be taking place. Thirteen Jews, many of them Bnei Anousim — descendants of Jews who were forcibly converted to Catholicism more than 500 years ago — will gather in Funchal, the capital of the Portuguese archipelago of Madeira, to celebrate the Exodus from Egypt. It will be the first public Seder held in centuries in a region that once had a thriving Jewish population until the Inquisition arrived, even in this remote location, so far from the mainland.

More after the jump.
The Madeira Seder will be led by Marvin and Danby Meital, an American-Israeli couple with a keen interest in crypto-Jewish history. Shavei Israel is sponsoring the Seder, providing funding to make it possible and also supplying the participants with specially designed Portuguese-Hebrew Haggadot. The Jerusalem-based Shavei Israel organization aims to help descendants of Jews across the world reconnect with the people and State of Israel.

"The holding of a Seder in Madeira is truly historic," said Shavei Israel Chairman Michael Freund.

More than 500 years after the expulsion of Portugal's Jews in 1497, the Bnei Anousim are returning to our people. Since Passover commemorates the deliverance of the Jewish people from bondage, we feel it is especially symbolic to be holding a Seder for the Bnei Anousim in Madeira, for they too are now emerging from the spiritual captivity of the Inquisition.

Freund added that, "It is incumbent upon Israel and the Jewish people to reach out to the Bnei Anousim and facilitate their return. Through no fault of their own, their ancestors were torn away from the Jewish people. Our task now must be to bring them back."

Marvin Meital, who will be leading the Seder together with his wife Danby, is originally from Boston and has had a passion for Portuguese ever since he came on a junior year abroad program in Israel in 1958. He had the choice to room with the other Americans on the course or with a separate group from South America. He figured he'd learn more Hebrew by hooking up with the non-English speakers. Instead, he fell in love with their language. He went on to teach Portuguese literature and language at the University of Wisconsin and, after making aliyah in 1974, at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem as well. The Meitals were sent several times to Portuguese-speaking Brazil as representatives of the Jewish Agency.

Marvin and Danby made a connection with the Bnei Anousim community several years ago when the couple was invited to Palma de Mallorca in Spain to help lead a group Seder for Spanish Chuetas, as descendants of Mallorcan Jews are known. (Marvin is also a trained Cantor.) This year, the Meitals wanted to do it again and they set their eyes on Madeira, a popular resort which sees about a million tourists a year and is an important stopover for commercial and trans-Atlantic passenger cruises.

But they had no guests. So they contacted Shavei Israel's emissary to the Bnei Anousim in Portugal, Rabbi Elisha Salas. "We asked him if he knew of any Jews in Madeira," Marvin explains. Rabbi Salas replied that he knew exactly the dinner guest who'd be perfect for the Meitals Seder table: a Bnei Anousim woman who has been studying with him in Belmonte. She jumped at the chance to join in and signed up, along with her three children. She then recommended another family. And another. "It kind of snowballed from there," Marvin says.

The Meitals rented a hotel room with its own kitchen. The facility's management has proved particularly hospitable. "They stocked our room with all new utensils; with pots and pans, and extra chairs for the guests," Marvin says. "We're bringing in the matza and wine from Israel, and all the plastic goods. We'll go shopping for fruits and vegetables when we arrive." (There's no kosher food available on the island).

While Madeira has no real Jewish community to speak of today, there are traces of a more recent Jewish past. Attracted by the city's wealth and natural advantages, Jews from Morocco arrived in 1819 and set themselves up in the cloth trade. More arrived as refugees from the First and Second World Wars. A synagogue was built in 1836, but it has long been closed and today houses a laundry and a café. A Jewish cemetery dating back to 1861 remains, perched on the edge of a cliff; it has fallen into disrepair and some graves have actually fallen into the sea.

True to Madeira's prosperous past, the expected guests at the Meital's Seder table come from their own impressive backgrounds. Danby Meital relates that in attendance will be a shipping magnate, a cartographer, a food and beverage industry executive, and one man who is actively studying Kabbalah "but doesn't admit to being Jewish himself."

With such a diverse group flying in from the mainland — Madeira is an hour and a half flight from the Portuguese capital of Lisbon — Marvin expects discussion around the Seder table to be lively. The narrative of the Exodus — which aims to bring alive "in every generation" the physical and spiritual transformation from constriction and slavery to joyous freedom — is one that is highly relevant for Bnei Anousim rediscovering their roots today.

"Pesach is a night of questioning," Marvin says. "A time to ask. When anything goes and everything is new. We ask, why is this night different from all others? There's a sense of wonderment here."

And that is a fitting description for the 13 participants in Madeira's first Seder in half a millennia.

Welcoming The Stranger

Publisher — Wed, 20 Mar 2013 02:07:18 GMT

The Jewish Social Policy Action Network (JSPAN) has issued its 4th Haggadah Supplement entitled Welcoming the Stranger to the Land. According to JSPAN Vice-President and Philadelphia Jewish Voice board member Kenneth Meyers:

We were immigrants in Egypt. And we have been immigrants many times since then, until we achieved citizenship on American soil. The Seder is a time to reflect on our experience and the plight of others who have not yet achieved their freedoms here. Millions of undocumented immigrants have no path to citizenship or the full freedoms we take for granted. Consider what their status forever does to their lives, and how we can help them and America fulfill our common aspirations.

Links to JSPAN's previous issue oriented Haggadah supplements follow the jump.
Each year, the Jewish Social Policy Action Network develops issue oriented material each year you can use to enrich your seder. Supplements to the traditional Haggadah relate the biblical story of the Exodus to current events and issues.

The 2012 Freedom Supplement, comprised of 16 pages with illustrations, is now available without charge. The Freedom Seder Supplement celebrates emerging freedom movements around the world with poems, texts and prayers. Editors Stephen C. Sussman Esq. and Kenneth R. Myers Esq. have drawn from far-ranging sources, from Lord Byron to Tibet. Each of the readings includes suggestions keying it into the traditional Seder service.
In 2010 JSPAN released its first Supplement, entitled We were strangers, on the theme of immigration in history and in the United States.
In 2011 the JSPAN Supplement, This is the bread of poverty, brought the focus to hunger here and around the world. The 2012 "Freedom Seder" takes up the human longing for freedom that is spreading around the globe, and concludes with four resolutions that we as American Jews can meaningfully adopt.

Seder in Ribadavia: What Do You Serve After 500 Years?

RonitTreatman — Sun, 17 Mar 2013 15:33:36 GMT

— by Ronit Treatman

For the first time since the expulsion of the Jews from Spain in 1492, a Passover Seder is being hosted in Ribadavia. Ribadavia is a town in northwestern Spain, which during the Middle Ages had a thriving Jewish community. Some of the buildings from the old Jewish quarter are still standing, including its synagogue.

Ribadavia's Centre for Medieval Studies and its tourism department are embarking on a project to reclaim and teach about the town's Sephardic heritage. This year, they are organizing a kosher Passover Seder. Historian Dr. Abraham Haim, whose specialty is the Sephardic world, is conducting it. The Seder will be preceded by a lecture entitled The Jewish Passover and Jesus's Last Supper.

More after the jump.
What is the recreation of a Sephardic Passover menu in the middle Ages?

Kosher wine
Matza
The ritual Seder plate
A soup of seven vegetables
Braised hake served over a bed of eggplant salad
Seasonal fruit salad
Assorted beverages
Coffee

For those who are in the area this Passover, the seder will take place on March 25th at 8:00 PM, and will be followed by a tour of the Juderia (Jewish Quarter) of Ribadavia. The price for the dinner is approximately $40 per person. For reservations, email entretempos@entretempos.es.

Book Review: The Rebel and The Rabbi's Son by Yisroel Eichenstein

rebgoldie — Wed, 13 Mar 2013 04:00:00 GMT

— Reviewed by Rabbi Goldie Milgram

Sometimes a book becomes a mitzvah because it's just what you needed to better understand how to deal with a difficult situation. My spouse and I struggle greatly with relating to our family's baal teshuvah branch — those who have chosen ultra Orthodoxy and become passionate adherents of its stringencies as their path to self-realization. Conversely, there are those who, like Yisroel Eichenstein, autobiographical author of The Rebel and the Rabbi's Son, are born into ultra Orthodoxy and ultimately choose to leave that path in order to attain the freedom to be themselves. This slender, courageous volume helped us to better appreciate how to relate to our very religious children and grandchildren, and the extremely important role grandparents of all backgrounds and practices may have in such scenarios.

The full review after the jump.
Early on Eichenstein reveals to what is like to be born into a family where you don't fit in and where you incur disgrace to your family's good name just by being yourself. No, he isn't gay, if you were also expecting such a turn of events. It's just that trying as best he can, life at the thriving intersection of the Zhidachov and Novominsk Chassidic dynasties can't work for Eichenstein's inherent nature. We were twisting in our seats with empathy for young "Izzy", as we read of his extreme efforts at trying to please, to accept the norms of sect stringencies while being born with the very distinct disadvantage of having a curious mind, a love of sports and a serous rebellious streak. This man, a direct descendent of the Baal Shem Tov, the founder of Hassidism, did his best to find a comfortable place in that world, but his soul was unwilling and unable to shut out the entire rest of the world around him.

The Challenge of Conformity

Reading The Rebel and the Rabbi's Son, we soon began to appreciate some of the reasons why those of our family who have chosen ultra-Orthodoxy seem to go to such pains to ensure they and their children conform precisely to the behavioral norms of their segment of ultra-Orthodox society, and, to ensure that we don't give the (grand)children any unacceptable ideas. Meaning, we such things as can't take our grandchildren to science museums where evolution might be discussed, even as a theory, or art museums where unclothed human figures might appear in great art, and certainly no television, nor share our understanding of verse of Torah or Haggadah, etc.

Our first big 'aha' arose when Eichenstein spells out the methods used to ensure conformity: first the carrots of affection, praise and acceptance, and then a slap in the face or words of condemnation of a degree that creates toxic shame with the potential to endure for a lifetime. Ultimately, if as an adult one loosens one's practice, the consequence becomes essentially shunning — being shut out of social loops and other vital aspects of communal support.

Eichenstein goes on to explain:

"The worst insult you can give someone in the Orthodox Jewish community is to call them apikoros, heretic. Many times I wonder how different my life would have been had my zaide (grandfather in Yiddish) been around during my lifetime. Tolerance, which he believed in, should not brand you an apikoros, as I have been branded: someone who won't share in the world to come."

The author's conflicted spirit over being himself versus disappointing his parents shines through as he writes about his family with empathy and affection. While his father clearly tries to overlook his son's need to push the limits of living in an ultra-Hassidic setting and not do battle on him, the whole weight of the family's noble Hassidic lineages was pressing down on him. I've rarely seen kavod, intended to be expressed through the mitzvot (deeds) of bringing honor to God and one's ancestors, more misused by a family than in Izzy's childhood home and community, where not HaShem — God, but social norms are treated as the authority.

The Flexidox Zaide

We had yet another aha coming. Eichenstein reveals he was aware that not everyone was always so uptight and stringent in social norms and Jewish practice as in his childhood community. His father, perhaps out of love, planted the seed that would ultimately set him free when he tells Izzy about his zaide's (grandfather's) relationship with a Reform rabbi.(OMG!)

The only reason I know about the bond of friendship between Zaide and the Reform rabbi is because my father's conscience moved him to confide in me. I was already an adult when he pulled me aside and whispered, 'Your brother or extended family would never acknowledge or believe what I'm going to tell you, but I was with your zaide when this happened.'
His urgent tone reminded me of a CIA operative delivering secret intelligence data.
'I was twelve years old when my father took me with him to meet the Reform rabbi who had helped him in his early days in Chicago. The Reform rabbi's daughter was getting married, and my father wished to give him a mazel tov (good luck). He was so grateful to this generous man that he wanted to make a public gesture.'

Can Love Prevail in the Face of Religious Difference?

Eichenstein also honestly relates some of his own parenting mistakes, replicas of schooling traumas his own parents visited upon him. Today he portrays himself as a happily married, successful West Coast industrial real estate magnate who belongs to a liberal Jewish congregation. His wife also left ultra-Orthodoxy with him; her parents seemed to have handled this far better than his. I appreciate how the author shows us that ultimately, sufficiently caring relationships with parents can be maintained in the face of such strong religious differences, disappointments and traumas. Ultimately, this book is a wake-up call to the importance of respecting the differing needs of children within every kind of family and religious community, the need for discernment in regard to the wishes of one's parents, the probability of repeating parental mistakes along with the possibility of noticing and being able to catch and redirect oneself.

Most of all, The Rebel and the Rabbi's Son would have reduced our families struggles greatly because of how explicit it makes the social stakes for those entering or leaving ultra-Orthodoxy — and we realize that those intent on realizing their needs and nature will brush past us to fulfill such drives. Meanwhile, the grandchildren in the "frum — very religious" branch of the family know that their step-grandmom, yours truly, is a woman rabbi and that their zaide, my sweet hubbatzin is an irrepressible free-thinker :) that all came out somehow... ahem. Also, it has become clear that in our home we have different approaches to Judaism than some of those required in their home, for example, their family brings their own food during visits to us. And so, for whomever among these precious young ones will need it in order to survive and thrive — the seed is planted.

Counting the Omer: A Modern Revival of an Ancient Jewish Practice

ct19144 — Tue, 12 Mar 2013 22:01:03 GMT

Omer calendars for Israel and Diaspora courtesy of Judaica artist Jonathan Kremer.

— by Carol Towarnicky

As Passover approaches, an increasing number of modern Jews are preparing not only for their annual seders but also for “Counting the Omer,” an ancient practice of blessing each of the 49 days between Passover and the holiday of Shavuot.

An Omer is a measure of barley. In Biblical times, the Counting of the Omer marked the time between the barley and wheat harvests. Every night during that period, farmers would wave an Omer to plead for an abundant crop. Over time, the agricultural ritual was replaced by liturgy, and the counting became a way to mark the Israelites’ journey from bondage in Egypt to revelation at Mount Sinai. For the Kabbalists, the Jewish mystics of the 16th and 17th centuries, the Counting of the Omer became a time of spiritual exploration and cleansing, a way to prepare the soul for revelation. The mystics divided the time into seven weeks, with each week containing a specific spiritual quality. On each of the 49 days, two of the qualities intersect with each other, making each day is unique.

After the jump: Rabbi Yael Levy's book on the subject
Rabbi Yael Levy, founder of A Way In, a Jewish Mindfulness Center based in Philadelphia and author of Journey Through the Wilderness: A Mindfulness Approach to the Ancient Jewish Practice of Counting the Omer (Volume 1), has re-imagined the counting as a Mindfulness practice: paying attention not only to each day as it passes but also to the individual spiritual qualities that were assigned to it by the 16th century Jewish mystics.

“The counting helps us to pay attention to the movement of our lives,” says Rabbi Levy. “Counting the Omer helps us notice the subtle shifts in our lives, the big changes, all the yearnings, strivings, disappointments, hopes and fears.”

Journey Through the Wilderness is available in paperback through Amazon, and as an e-book via Smashwords and other e-booksellers. The publication includes daily blessings in both Hebrew and English and teachings and intentions for each day.

A Way In is also offering a range of online and social media support for individuals who wish to count the Omer, including free daily emails, blog entries and Facebook posts and insightful Twitter messages and reminders.

Rabbi Levy has been exploring the Mindfulness potential of Counting the Omer for more than a decade, in particular during time she spends each year backpacking alone in the red rock desert of southern Utah. She also leads an annual five-day retreat at Ghost Ranch, New Mexico, that takes place at the end of the Omer 49-day period.

Rabbi Levy points out that the Hebrew word for “desert wilderness” — midbar — is written the same as the word for “speaks” — medaber. “The mystics teach that when we leave our routines, habits and expectations and allow ourselves to go into the unknown, to traverse the wilderness of mind and spirit, we open ourselves to receive Divine guidance.”

A relatively new development in Judaism, Jewish Mindfulness combines meditation, movement and spiritual practice that draws on Jewish text and tradition. As part of A Way In, Rabbi Levy leads twice-monthly contemplative Shabbat services, weekly meditation “sits,” retreats, classes and individual and group spiritual direction, plus an online community.

A Way In Jewish Mindfulness program grew out of Rabbi Levy's work at Mishkan Shalom congregation, a Reconstructionist synagogue in the Roxborough section of Philadelphia where Rabbi Levy has been associated for 19 years. A graduate of the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College, Rabbi Levy has co-led retreats in Alaska for Jewish professionals through the Institute for Jewish Spirituality. She is also a spiritual director to rabbinical students in both the Reconstructionist and Reform movements and in private practice.

Napolitano Discusses Immigration, Sequestration at JCPA Plenum

Contributing Writer — Tue, 12 Mar 2013 17:32:07 GMT

Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano delivered remarks yesterday at the Jewish Council for Public Affairs Plenum to discuss the Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) priorities, including reforming our nation's immigration laws, DHS' continuing engagement with the Jewish community, as well as the challenges posed by the ongoing sequestration.

"I'm very proud of the work we've done together with the Jewish community to strengthen and deepen our collaboration on many issues of mutual interest and concern," said Secretary Napolitano. Noting America's history as a nation of immigrants, She said we need to fix a "system that does not work the way it was intended to."

More after the jump.
Napolitano highlighted the critical need for commonsense immigration reform and the Administration's dedication of historic levels of personnel, technology, and resources to the Southwest border. In January, President Obama announced key principles for commonsense immigration reform that would continue to build upon this progress by investing in the ports of entry, and helping our officers and agents focus on public safety threats; making it harder for transnational criminal organizations to operate, while encouraging immigrants to pursue a pathway to earned citizenship; holding employers accountable and strengthening the integrity of the immigration system overall. The passage of the President's proposal will help make sure that officers and agents along the border are better able to focus on combating public safety and national security threats.

During her remarks, Napolitano also discussed DHS' ongoing collaboration with the Jewish community to provide the information, tools, resources, and capabilities needed to build stronger, more resilient communities. To that end, in 2011 Napolitano announced the expansion of the "If You See Something, Say Something™" public awareness campaign the Jewish community by partnering with the JFNA and the Secure Community Network — a mechanism for information sharing with faith — and community-based organizations designed to improve security awareness in a crisis situation.

"We appreciate the Obama administration's seriousness about improving our nation's immigration system," said JCPA Chair Larry Gold.

Both from our community's own immigrant experience and our religious obligation to welcome the stranger, the Jewish community is deeply invested in seeing a fair immigration system that balances security with the need to encourage and welcome immigrants. We were pleased to be able to sit down with Secretary Napolitano and discuss our shared priorities.

Napolitano traveled to Israel last year, where she met with senior Israeli officials and signed a Joint Statement on the implementation of the Global Entry trusted traveler program, which provides expedited clearance for pre-approved, low-risk travelers upon arrival in the United States.