Spring 2015 Issue, CJ: Voices of Conservative / Masorti Judaism

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Voices of Conservative/Masorti Judaism spring 2015/5774 Volume 8 / No. 2

www.cjvoices.org

Tools of Engagement Repairing the world, and revitalizing synagogue communities

P.16

& Vote Mercaz // Where Every Soul Counts // Parents Guide to Passover // God Loves Stories // Curing An Immunity To Change

Editors Andrea Glick Rhonda Jacobs Kahn art director Elizabeth Hovav Advertising Director David Kelsey book editor Lisa Silverman Publishing Consultant Siegel Marketing Group Editorial Board Renee Brezniak Glazier, Chair Michael Brassloff Michael Freilich Rosalind Judd Faye Laveson Dr. Bruce Littman Rachel Pomerance Elizabeth Pressman Marjorie Shuman Saulson Lois Silverman Advisors Dr. Stephen Garfinkel Jewish Theological Seminary Rabbi Cheryl Peretz Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies CJ: Voices of Conservative/Masorti Judaism is a joint project of Federation of Jewish Men’s Clubs Myles Simpson, President Rabbi Charles E. Simon, Executive Director United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism Richard Skolnik, President Rabbi Steven C. Wernick, CEO Women’s League for Conservative Judaism Carol S. Simon, President Sarrae G. Crane, Executive Director The opinions expressed in this magazine are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the publishing organizations. Advertising in CJ does not imply editorial endorsement, nor does the magazine guarantee the kashrut of advertised products.

Members of FJMC, United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism congregations, and Women’s League for Conservative Judaism receive the magazine as a benefit of membership. Subscriptions are $20 per year.

Please direct all correspondence or changes of address to CJ: Voices of Conservative/Masorti Judaism at Rapaport House, 820 Second Ave., 10th Floor, New York, NY 10017-4504. 212.533.7800 Email: aglick@uscj.org or rkahn@wlcj.org. To advertise, email david@kelseymedia.com CJ: Voices of Conservative/Masorti Judaism is published three times a year by United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism, 820 Second Ave., 10th Floor, New York, NY 10017-4504. Canadian Copies: Return Canadian undeliverables to 2835 Kew Dr., Windsor, ON N8T 3B7 PM 41706013.

CJ ,ukue

in every issue

spring 2015/5775 Volume 8 / No. 2 www.cjvoices.org

This magazine is a joint project of the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism, Women’s League for Conservative Judaism and the Federation of Jewish Men’s Clubs.

contents

Editors’ Note 5 Letters 6 CJ Shorts 7 Q&A with Jay Ruderman 10 Joke's on Us 28 The Bookshelf 40 The Last Word What's the Cure for an Immunity to Change? Rabbi Joshua Rabin 56

features ISRAEL: This Election Is About My Grandaughter. Period.

12

Your participation in the elections for the upcoming World Zionist Congress – one that will impact the nature of the state of Israel for years to come – is essential to the future of pluralism in Israel and the Conservative/Masorti movement worldwide.

BY DR. DAVID BREAKSTONE

Holy Chutzpah

16

16

Moving your synagogue to a social action commitment has the added benefit of increasing synagogue engagement as well. BY LAURIE KAMENS

Raising a New Generation of Israeli Leaders

22

22

A new post-high school, pre-army program at the Masorti Hannaton Educational Center aims to raise a generation of leaders prepared to tackle challenges in the army, in their careers and in their communities.

BY RABBI SARA BRANDES

God Loves Stories

24

The art of Jewish storytelling is alive and well.

BY CAREN SCHNUR NEILE

cjvoices.org Visit us online for extra photo galleries, videos and exclusive bonus features, including:

on the cover Photo: iStock

Passover recipes for charoset from around the world.

advertise online!

Contact David Kelsey, Ad Director david@kelseymedia.com or 917.673.9503

www.cjvoices.org 3

CJ ,ukue

contents SPRING 2015/5775 Volume 8 / No. 2

departments

THE JEWISH YEAR A Parent's Guide to Passover 30 A holiday rich in teaching moments can be even more fun and enriching for children and adults.

BY SUSAN WYNER

KEHILLA Funding the Conservative Movement 36 A rabbi figures out how his congregation could have a real impact throughout our movement.

BY RHONDA JACOBS KAHN

The Personal Touch

38

Meet Dr. Jessica Katz Poscover, winner of the first Shoshana S. Cardin Leadership Award.

BY GILA DRAZEN

OUR ORGANIZATIONS

38

United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism Where We Are Now

42

The immediate past president takes a look at United Synagogue's many accomplishments over the past five years.

BY RICHARD SKOLNIK

Women's League for Conservative Judaism 46

Women's League has a long history of expanding the role of women.

by SARRAE G. CRANE

Torah Fund on One Foot

47

by RABBI LILLY KAUFMAN

Text and Context: A Haman by Any Other Name Would Be Just as Bad The Women's League archives reveal some interesting material.

BY LISA KOGEN

49

Individual membership has many benefits for everyone. BY ANNE NICOLSON

Briefs 43

Crossing the Threshold

Joining the Network Becomes Even Easier

48

Federation of Jewish Men's Clubs A Serendipitous Florida Shidduch

50

A chance encounter engages FJMC in another mitzvah.

BY MICHAEL BRASSLOFF

Creating a Minyan of Comfort

51

A new FJMC-Cantors Assembly initiative trains laypeople to ensure that a shiva minyan is appropriately led while demonstrating the necessary sensitivity.

BY dave MANDELL

A Journey to Jewish Identity

52

As a young refugee, the author found support in his synagogue, which led to a life of engagement in the Jewish community.

BY MICHAEL BRASSLOFF

CJ Online (www.cjvoices.org) is looking for bloggers! Interested? E-mail aglick@uscj.org and rkahn@wlcj.org

4 CJ – Voices of conservative /masorti judaism Spring 2015

editors’ note

Beyond the Bar Mitzvah Project

I

f you’re like a lot of synagogue members, chances are you’ve taken part in a congregational food drive or nursing home visit or some other organized project to help people in need. These activities are as common to synagogue life as each year’s Hanukkah party or the Sunday Purim carnival.

But some Conservative synagogues want to take social action – and social activism – beyond periodic mitzvah days or b’nai mitzvah projects. People at these shuls – spurred by rabbis or devoted lay people – want social action to be central to what their synagogue is about, on a par with prayer and study and ritual observance. Or as Deborah Solomon of Beth Meyer Synagogue puts it, they view social action “not as something we do, but as something we are.”

In “Holy Chutzpah” (page 16), writer Laurie Kamens looks at Beth Meyer and some other Conservative shuls that are part of this trend, and at the way a deeper commitment to social action can not only do good in the world but also deepen engagement with synagogue life.

This issue of CJ also includes two articles that look at the state of Israel through the lens of religious pluralism. “Raising a New Generation of Israeli Leaders” (page 22) describes how a new mechinah, a pre-army educational program for Israeli teens, draws on Conservative Jewish values to create a pluralistic leadership training program at the intersection of Judaism, Zionism and humanism.

In “This Election Is About My Granddaughter. Period” (page 12), David Breakstone explains how Diaspora Jews can promote equality for non-Orthodox streams of Judaism in Israel and worldwide by voting in the upcoming elections for the World Zionist Congress. Few people know that the Congress sets policy and influences hundreds of millions of dollars for initiatives that will affect the nature of Israel and its ties with world Jewry. Read Breakstone’s moving piece – and make sure to vote by April 30.

Finally, should we remind you that Passover’s coming? We didn’t think so. If you have children, check out page 30 for Susan Wyner’s tips on finding fun, educational ways to engage them in the pre-holiday cooking and cleaning, activities for the seder itself, and how to make the post-Pesach clean up child friendly.

Wishing a zissen Pesach, a sweet Passover, to you and your loved ones.

Andrea Glick, Editor

Rhonda Jacobs Kahn, Editor

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Letters LOVED THE FALL ISSUE I was thrilled with the most recent CJ magazine; there were so many interesting articles, I didn’t want to put it down! The articles addressed real concerns of our congregants, including college applications, body image issues, and how to help the disabled and their relatives. I also loved Rabbi Rabin’s article on optimism for the Conservative movement. If Noah and his family could repopulate the world, we, too, can reinvigorate our movement with engaged congregants, so long as we treasure the incredible base of our movement, combining tradition and modernity. Chazak, chazak; may your magazine and our movement go from strength to strength.

Pamela Weinfeld Newton, Massachusetts

CREMATION PRESERVES THE LAND I respect Rabbi Adam Raskin’s opposition to cremation as a violation of the Jewish law requiring the burial of remains and also as a way to preserve a physical space for survivors to visit and recall the legacies of those who have passed on (“Why I Oppose Cremation,” Fall 2014).

However, I wonder whether that commandment is not in tension with another commandment requiring that humans protect the environment from destruction. Cemeteries take up a lot of space, as anyone traveling the nation’s highways can attest. And while medical advances can postpone death, they cannot eliminate it. Cemeteries will only eat up more space as more remains are buried. Arguably, that space can be put to better use to grow crops or build homes and schools.

Daniel M. Kimmel Yonkers, New York I commend Rabbi Adam Raskin for his edifying and timely article. This topic was fresh in my mind because of the recent death and cremation of a dear Jewish friend. The children were fulfilling the wishes of their father. Where will the children go to honor his memory? His remains

“What is the good of the

‘intellectual honesty’ we so value if we continue to ignore its conclusions?” were scattered to the wind!

Judaism is so eminently wise and humane in its attitude toward human life: we were created in God’s image, and human life, both of the living and the dead, is sacred. We do not incinerate an old, unusable Torah or siddur because of its sanctity. Can we do less to the remains of our loved ones? Death is tragic enough without compounding the tragedy and having a stranger unfeelingly do violence to the deceased by cremation.

One of the most poignant moments in the life of my family is visiting the grave of our beloved mother and wife and tenderly placing a stone on it to record our visit. This is a comforting and healing act, even for children who may have strayed from their Jewish tradition. Jewish burial surely is a humane and cherished tradition. Thank you, Rabbi Raskin, for your timely article.

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Chaim Picker Yonkers, New York

HOW OPTIMISTIC IS THE MOVEMENT? Rabbi Joshua Rabin (“The Optimistic Movement,” Fall 2014) presents two opposing narratives on the problems of the institutions of Conservative Judaism. He then presents five components of an “optimistic concrete strategy” for addressing them. The two narratives are not mutually exclusive.

For example, we can’t make up our minds (as usual) about interfaith families in our communities and families; we welcome the parents but reject their children if only the father is Jewish. It’s time to take a position on patrilineal descent, as was the case in Judaism’s earliest rapidly growing years. Similar examples abound in our definition of kashrut, with its dependence on the Orthodox to provide supervision, our definition of shomer Shabbat, which cannot support the large institutions we are striving to save, etc. Tinkering around the edges is not helpful.

What is the good of the “intellectual honesty” we so value if we continue to ignore its conclusions?

D. Korenstein Wayne, Pennsylvania Read more letters on page 53

cj shorts arts & culture

Summer Torah Study in New York at JTS Nishma, a summer program of the Jewish Theological Seminary, integrates university-level Hebrew with intensive traditional Torah study. The program is home to a supportive, egalitarian, and intellectually stimulating community of enthusiastic Torah learners.

Using traditional methods of paired study, students focus on improving text skills in Mishnah, Talmud, Bible, and commentaries. Nishma helps students build a firm foundation for an informed and enhanced Jewish life in the rich cultural landscape provided by a summer in Manhattan.

The Lost Shul Mural

In 1910, Chai Adam Synagogue in Burlington, Vermont, brought the Lithuanian folk artist Ben Zion Black to paint its building in the prevalent style of the wooden shuls of Eastern Europe. Decades later, the synagogues in Burlington merged and the Chai Adam building was ultimately converted into apartments. The Black painting was destroyed except for the mural over the ark, which was covered by a wall and forgotten until its re-discovery in 2012.

The Lost Shul Mural is a remnant of a type of synagogue art that was almost obliterated during the Holocaust and may be the only surviving example of its type to adorn an American shul. Now the Burlington Jewish community, led by Ohavei Zedek Synagogue, has taken upon itself the preservation of this gem, protecting it for future generations.

For information or to donate, go to lostshulmural.org

Judaism, Illuminated

The art of using rich gold and silver leaf to illuminate religious texts lives on in the work of contemporary artist Barbara Wolff. New York’s Morgan Library and Museum highlights the artist’s work in an exhibition titled Hebrew Illumination for Our Time: The Art of Barbara Wolff, which inlcudes You Renew the Face of the Earth: Psalm 104 and the Rose Haggadah. The manuscripts feature imagery drawn from nature, archaeology, and religious custom in a 21st century ode to the long history of Jewish illumination. The show runs through May 3, or you can view several works at www.themorgan.org

Powerful Jewish Women Two-by-Two The Jewish Women’s Archive recently launched Power Couples, showcasing pairs of extraordinary Jewish women from many different disciplines, matching early female trailblazers with modern women at the top of their games. High-powered pairs include writer-directors Nora Ephron and Lena Dunham, scientists Gertrude Elion and Nina Fefferman, and Olympians Bobbie Rosenfeld and Aly Raisman. This project shows the impact of women in the arts, sciences, fashion, athletics, business, and activism. To meet all the couples, visit jwa.org/powercouples.

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cj shorts Judaic Arts Celebrated

around the world

New Museum on Polish Jewish History In eight galleries sprawling over 43,000 square feet, the core exhibition of the Museum of the History of Polish Jews, unveiled last fall, immerses visitors in the thousand-year history of Polish Jews, from their arrival in medieval times until the present day. The museum is located in what was once the heart of Jewish Warsaw, which the Nazis turned into the Warsaw Ghetto, and near the Monument to the Ghetto Heroes. Though it explores the Holocaust, the museum also traces the fuller history of Poland’s Jews, who in 1939 numbered 3.5 million and made up 30 percent of the city of Warsaw.

Each of eight galleries presents a

The American Guild of Judaic Art is an international not-for-profit organization dedicated to the promotion of Jewish art and culture. Its mission is to celebrate the rich diversity and sacred beauty of Judaic art around the world and to establish a community of those inspired to fulfill the commandment of hiddur mitzvah, beautification of the mitzvah, by creating, collecting, and exhibiting Jewish art.

To find out more, go to jewishart.org

different chapter of Polish Jewish history, telling its story through images, artifacts, first-person accounts and interactive multimedia. The museum also serves as a cultural and educational center, offering films, debates, workshops, performances, concerts, lectures. Learn more at www.polin.pl

Transporting ‘This American Life’ to Israel Following in the footsteps of their hero Ira Glass, who has hosted “This American Life” on public radio for 20 years, are four young Israelis, friends since their years together in Noam (USY’s Israeli cousin). Mishy Harman, Roee Gilron, Yochai Maital, and Shai Satran make up the team behind “Israel Story” (Sipur Israeli), a deep dive into Israeli life through stories.

After the wildly popular first season was picked up by Israeli army's radio station, the team produced English episodes that are available through Vox Tablet (check them out tabletmag.com/author/ israel-story). Israel Story provides an opportunity to hear, in the words of its creators, “Everyday stories, told by, and about, regular Israelis.”

8 CJ – Voices of conservative /masorti judaism Spring 2015

Students Explore Great Jewish Books The Great Jewish Books program is the Yiddish Book Center’s weeklong seminar for high school students in Amherst, Massachusetts, which offers a taste of the richness and variety of modern Jewish literature. The program, taught by college professors, introduces young people to a wide range of modern Jewish novelists, poets and short-story writers, and includes both classic works and more surprising selections, like El Iluminado, Ilan Stavans’ graphic novel about the legacy of crypto-Jews in the American southwest. For more information, visit yiddishbookcenter.org/ great-jewish-books.

LEFT: In the signature colors of NOAM, the Conservative/Masorti youth movement in Israel, a new tallit has been designed specifically to be distributed to new b’nai mitzvah in Israel. It’s available for adults, too. To order: masorti.org/ publications/masorti-tallit

Resource for JewishMuslim Engagement

New Special Needs Track in Nativ Gap-Year Program

This fall, college-bound young adults with cognitive and social challenges can take part in a gap year program in Israel. Yozma, which means “initiative,” will be part of the Nativ College Leadership program, a popular gap year program created in 1981 by the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism.

Yozma students will spend a year with Nativ peers, living, learning and volunteering with the support of specially trained staff. “We must intensify our efforts to include everyone in the full gamut of Jewish life, ” said Rabbi Steven Wernick, CEO of United Synagogue. “Nativ is an extraordinary program, with tremendous impact, and we are thrilled that a wider range of young people will now have a chance to experience it.” In its pilot year, Yozma will accept four students. Initial funding has been provided by donors from across North America who are dedicated to providing an opportunity for this under-served population. Stephanie Smerling of Chicago, Illinois, has been instrumental in raising funds for the initial cohort. For more information contact Deborah Shafran at nativ@uscj.org or 212.533.7800, ext 1115.

There’s an App for That Sanctifull, a smartphone app created by the Rabbinical Assembly, contains new prayers that speak to life’s critical moments for which there are no traditional Jewish texts. The prayers mark occasions such as placing a parent in a nursing home, sending one’s children to school for the first time, or after a fight with a spouse or friend. Other features include Hebrew, English, transliteration, and audio for traditional blessings.

“This app is our latest endeavor to make Judaism’s wisdom accessible for Jews in the rhythm of their everyday experiences,” said Rabbi Julie Schonfeld, executive vice president. Download Sanctifull in the Apple App store.

Together with the Hartford Seminary and the Islamic Society of North America, the Jewish Theological Seminary has published “Sharing the Well: A Resource Guide For Jewish-Muslim Engagement.” The guide is an outgrowth of a series of annual conferences about Judaism and Islam that began in 2010 under the leadership of Burton Visotzsky, a professor of Midrash. “Sharing the Well” includes guidelines on how to begin and maintain interreligious dialogue, essays on shared values between the two religions, and a list of 24 Muslim-Jewish projects around the country. For more information and to download a free copy, go to learn.jtsa.edu

New Website on Jewish Genetic Health MyJewishGeneticHealth.com focuses on health topics relevant to the Jewish community including specific diseases, medical conditions, genetic technologies, and bioethical issues. Each topic is introduced by real people describing their health stories. Users can register for free access to a webinar presented by an expert, supplemental materials, and links to other resources. The site was conceived by the Program for Jewish Genetic Health of Yeshiva University/Albert Einstein College of Medicine, and funding was provided in part

by UJA-Federation of New York and a grant in honor of Beatrice Milberg.

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q& a Where Every Soul Counts Who is Jay Ruderman? A former assistant district attorney who now is the president of his family’s foundation. A passionate advocate for inclusion throughout the Jewish world. Someone who served in the IDF and a father of four. “Life takes unexpected turns,” says Ruderman. Indeed, life led him from Boston to Israel and back again, and now, to the forefront of an effort to build a more inclusive Jewish community. The Ruderman Family Foundation recently launched a partnership with the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism to transform its congregations into places where everything – from the bima to social activities to the very attitudes of congregants and leaders – allows people with disabilities and their families to participate fully and comfortably in congregational life. For Ruderman, it’s all about what kind of community we really want to be.

INTERVIEW BY Andrea Glick

Philanthropist Jay Ruderman wants to build a more inclusive Jewish community.

CJ: Why is inclusion such an important issue for you and the Ruderman Family Foundation? What’s the problem that you’re tackling?

Jay Ruderman: The Jewish community doesn’t do a very good job at including all sorts of people on the fringes of society – chief among them people with disabilities. What we’re talking to the Jewish community about is being a different type of community where every Jewish soul is important and that’s what being Jewish is all about.

CJ: Have you seen that in some places?

What does it look like?

JR: We give $50,000 awards called the Ruderman Prize in Inclusion. These awards have gone from Australia to Argentina, Mexico, Russia, Israel, across the United States and Canada. B’nai Amoona in St. Louis is a Conservative synagogue that is an example for all synagogues. They really include people with disabilities in synagogue life. They’re not the only ones, but they stick out as the gold standard.

CJ: If you had all of the leaders of all of the synagogues in America sitting in a room, what would you say to them about inclusion?

JR: Is being Jewish just about catering to a certain secure sector? Or are we about taking care of and including everyone who’s Jewish? If we’re about the first, then we’re not doing the job we could be doing.

We need to learn from others who’ve been successful at taking care of and including everyone. I think that in the process of building a more inclusive community we’ll become a better community, a more attractive community, a community where all Jews want to participate.

CJ: What led to your recent partnership with United Synagogue?

JR: Our partnership with USCJ is an example of a strategy that we’re applying right now to connect with influential organizations that represent large portions of our community. We’re working with the Conservative movement, the Reform movement, and Chabad. The agenda of promoting inclusion fits with everyone’s agenda – it goes across all denominations. I’m encouraged by how receptive the community is, but I think we have not yet reached the tipping point.

We have a ways to go, but I’m confident we’ll get there

10 CJ – Voices of conservative /masorti judaism Spring 2015

CJ: What’s your best day at work?

JR: When I meet with organizations they love to tell me anecdotes about somebody we’ve put to work, and how we’ve changed their family. And while that’s moving, what we’re really trying to do is change the attitude of our community. We want to get to the point where we don’t have to advocate for inclusion because it’s already become an accepted and practiced value. The days that mean the most to me are when a fellow philanthropist will approach me and say, “You are changing our community.”

“

CJ: I know that you had been living in Israel, and now you’re back in the States.

How’s the adjustment going?

JR: In the United States, we look at Israel and say, “Israel’s a Jewish country, I’m Jewish, I understand what Israel’s about.” But Israel is really, really different from America, and people often don’t understand that – especially when they visit and it’s like a trip to Disneyland, the Israel they want to see. Israel is a very complex place, with many different layers.

“

CJ: When was your “aha” moment?

JR: When I took over the foundation, I had this theory of going narrow and deep.

I decided that if we were going to be impactful, that we should focus on one or two areas and go very, very deep in those areas.

And in the process, we developed a certain amount of expertise, and we’ve surrounded ourselves with people who are experts on inclusion, and listened to people with disabilities and heard their critiques about the Jewish community.What continues to motivate me is that the inclusion of people with disabilities is a civil rights issue. It’s a human rights issue. It’s a social justice issue.

In the process of building a more inclusive community we’ll become a better community, a more attractive community, a community where all Jews want to participate.

CJ: Did you ever expect to live in Israel?

JR: I never expected to. I married an Israeli, and my life in Israel was great – very fulfilling, and there’s no other place in the world where Judaism pervades everything. But I never thought that I would make my life there, mainly because I’m very attached to American culture and society. That being said, Israel is central and essential to the foundation’s activities. Our presence there will continue until full societal and attitudinal changes become a reality. CJ

C J : S o y o u’re e n j oy i n g b e i n g a philanthropist?

JR: I enjoy the advocacy. First of all, not many people know what is involved in philanthropy. There’s a saying: “Once you know one philanthropist, you know one philanthropist.” We’re all very different, and we all operate differently. I do think philanthropy, in many ways, sets the tone for the community. People involved in philanthropy have an obligation to be very explicit, to explain to the community what they’re doing and how they’re doing it. They have a role in setting the agenda of the community.

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israel When he moved to Israel 40 years ago, he couldn’t have imagined he’d end up with a nonJewish granddaughter.

But that’s exactly what the Chief Rabbi says the author has.

I

This election is about my granddaughter.

Period.

By Dr. David Breakstone

12 CJ – Voices of conservative /masorti judaism Spring 2015

t began a few years ago, when our son proposed to Veronica, a wonderful young woman he’d been dating for a number of years. Her response left him dazed. “Amir,” she answered him hesitantly, “there’s something I have to tell you. I’m kind of like not Jewish.”

Veronica, it turned out, is one of those 330,000 immigrants from the Former Soviet Union who arrived here as a child of a Jewish father and a non-Jewish mother. Though she received a Jewish education in an Israeli school, celebrated the Jewish holidays with family and friends, and served in the army in defense of the Jewish state, she knew she’d be denied a Jewish burial if she were to die in

Dr. David Breakstone serves as vice chairman of the World Zionist Organization, a position made possible due to the strength of MERCAZ Olami, the Zionist arm of the Conservative movement, of which he is the international vice president. He is also a member of The Jewish Agency Executive and past chairman of the Masorti Movement in Israel.

service of the country she so loved. Even worse, and more immediate, she was now going to be denied a Jewish wedding.

It’s not that Veronica didn’t want to convert, but discovered early on that the doors of Israel’s official rabbinical courts were closed to her as she was not prepared to commit to the Orthodox lifestyle they demanded, nor the stipulation that she only date observant men. Still, Veronica was not prepared to relinquish the profound bond she felt to the Jewish tradition, the Jewish people and the Jewish state.

Suddenly the statistic had turned into a person. That heretofore faceless body of hundreds of thousands of FSU émigrés had knocked up against my family’s door and wanted in. Amir didn’t know what to do.

Fortunately, I did. One call to the Masorti (Conservative) Movement in Jerusalem set in motion a year of intensive learning that culminated in Veronica’s conversion before a Masorti Bet Din. But that’s not where the story ends.

Though her conversion is recognized by the Ministry of the Interior, it isn’t by the office of the Chief Rabbi, which has sole discretion in determining who is allowed to marry as a Jew. So the wedding they had here, presided over by a Conservative rabbi, was actually an illegal act literally punishable by jail time. And now, as far as that same Chief Rabbinate is concerned, Amir and Veronica, who couldn’t conceive (pardon the pun) of having children who wouldn’t be Jewish, have gone ahead and done exactly that. Unless we change things, when the time comes for their precious Maya, my granddaughter, to stand under the chuppah, she will face precisely the same problem her mother did. And she’s not alone.

Making aliyah was supposed to be the surest way of guaranteeing that one's grandchildren would be Jewish.

M

aking aliyah was supposed to be the surest way of guaranteeing that one’s grandchildren would be Jewish. I confess Jewish grandchildren were not high on my list

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israel

An election

you can’t afford to ignore Israel’s character is at stake Elections for the World Zionist Congress are underway and continue through April 30, 2015.

It's an election you need to care about if you care about Israel, and whether or not all Jews will be able to live, practice and pray there as they wish.

Any Jew at least 18 years old on June 30, 2015 is eligible to vote.

Registration and voting may be done either online or by mail.

Voters must pay a $10 registration fee ($5 for those 30 and under) and indicate they support The Jerusalem Program, the platform of the Zionist Movement, which appears on the voting materials.

Online registration and voting requires credit card payment. Full instructions appear on the voting site.

Paper registration forms, ballots and instructions are available at www.myvoteourisrael.com or by contacting Election America at (844) 413-2929 or azm@election-america.com.

To vote, or to learn more about MERCAZ and the World Zionist Congress: www.voteMERCAZ.org.

MERCAZ is slate #2.

Please vote for slate #2.

Our Judaism. Our Israel. Our future. www.VoteMERCAZ.org

14 CJ – Voices of conservative /masorti judaism Spring 2015

of reasons for moving here at the age of 20. Still, somehow the thought was always reassuring. Now I feel betrayed. I need your help to set things right. And there is something very real you can do right now to make a difference.

You can vote. Not in Israel’s elections, but in elections that will impact directly on what happens there – and on Jewish life around the world. These are the elections for the World Zionist Congress, taking place until the end of April. The Congress, which will be convening later this year in Jerusalem, will set policy and influence budgets of hundreds of millions of dollars for initiatives that will impact on the nature of Israel and its ties with world Jewry. It’s an election you need to care about if you care about Israel, and whether or not all Jews will be able to live, practice and pray there as they wish.

The voice of Conservative/Masorti Jewry in this election is represented by MERCAZ, which is determined to transform into deed our collective passion for fashioning the Jewish state as an exemplary pluralistic and inclusive society every Jew can proudly call home. In addition to its role in the World Zionist Organization, MERCAZ lobbies members of the Knesset for the equality of all streams of Judaism and for a society committed to peace with its neighbors, social justice,

gender equality, fair treatment of minorities, environmental sustainability, clean government, the engagement of the next generation in shaping the Jewish future, and the security of the State of Israel and of Jews everywhere.

U

nfortunately, these are not things to be taken for granted.

Orthodox hegemony, rising intolerance and mounting religious coercion are all threatening the health of this society. Countering all of that are the many achievements of the Conservative/Masorti movement that have been made possible due to the resources that MERCAZ has been able to leverage and its strong presence in the World Zionist Organization.

We now have 75 Masorti/Conservative synagogues in the country, a dedicated area at the Western Wall for egalitarian prayer, the youth movement NOAM, and a Ramah-NOAM overnight camp. We’ve built the Schechter Rabbinical Seminary in Jerusalem for the training of our own rabbis and grown a network of 260 TALI schools that educate 40,000 children in the spirit of Conservative Judaism. We’ve established a Conservative Yeshiva in Jerusalem, as well, where thousands of young people from around the world have immersed themselves in traditional Jewish learning in an egalitarian environment, and we have provided support for USY and Ramah Israel programs. Through our representation in the Jewish National Fund

we’ve developed an exciting, pluralistic educational center at Kibbutz Hannaton.

(See more on page 23.) And with funds we’ve accessed through the WZO we’ve enabled Masorti/Conservative communities to develop in Hungary, Brazil, Chile, Argentina, France, Germany, England, the Czech Republic, and the Ukraine.

Israel is at a crossroads. And MERCAZ needs your vote to ensure that together we keep moving in the right direction.

We are all proud of everything that Israel has already achieved. Making your voice heard in the elections for the World Zionist Congress will ensure that we continue to be proud of all it is yet to become, and that we will all be able to dance at Maya’s wedding. CJ

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Holy Chutzpah

By Laurie Kamens

Synagogues move from social action committees to social action commitment

16  CJ – Voices of conservative /masorti judaism Spring 2015

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ne Sunday last summer a group of congregants from Ohev Shalom in Wallingford, Pennsylvania, gathered at a local church. There, alongside their Christian and Muslim neighbors, they hammered stakes into the ground and built what looked like a solemn, free-standing clothes line, a sea of multi-colored t-shirts set in neat rows across the lawn.

In fact, what they built was a memorial, in which each tshirt represented one of the 145 people who had lost their lives to gun violence in Delaware County over the past five years. The event was organized by Heeding God’s Call, an interfaith group dedicated to preventing gun violence, and

PHOTO BY: David Baum

one of several organizations Ohev Shalom volunteers with in the Chester area. That location is no accident: the town, next to Wallingford, was once home to the congregation. Today it’s a community in need. From fighting gun violence to improving the educational system to providing supplies and food for low-income families, the synagogue is involved with every aspect of life in Chester in a hands-on way.

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his large-scale, sustained involvement in social action is not isolated to Pennsylvania’s Ohev Shalom.

Rather it is part of a larger change in the way many Conservative synagogues incorporate social action and tikkun olam, repairing the world, into the lives of their kehillot.

These congregations are moving social action from an occasional community activity to a core part of what defines synagogue life.

And as they do, they’re finding it a powerful tool for engaging people who no longer join synagogues out of obligation, but as a way to find meaning in their lives.

“If we want to bring more people into our tent, we need to broaden our perspective and challenge ourselves to see things differently, to see God’s work as outside of the synagogue,” explains Rabbi David Baum of Congregation Shaarei Kodesh in Boca Raton, Florida.

To do this in South Florida, Baum and his congregants partner with an interfaith group that gleans extra produce from local farmers’ fields at the end of the season and donates it to the local food bank. Aside from the obvious biblical allusions, Baum encourages his congregants to see the very performance of service as holy and integrally connected with Jewish tradition.

“We have these commandments to feed the hungry and look out for the less fortunate,” he says. “When people learn and then do it, they become more connected to Judaism and God.” Baum and his fellow Conservative rabbis engaging in this kind of work believe that connecting the Torah’s commandments to hands-on social action breathes new life into Jewish observance and creates more entry points into a synagogue.

“Seeing tangible results from what a religion says about the world is really important,” says Rabbi Noah Farkas of Valley Beth Shalom, a large congregation in Encino, California. “So when our religion says that we should think about the stranger and the orphan that means we need to think about the stranger and the orphan and act on their behalf – otherwise these words become hollow.”

Valley Beth Shalom runs several initiatives focused on the homeless and the hungry, including running a full-scale food bank out of the synagogue. “It’s about showing that Judaism doesn’t end in the four walls of the synagogue, when we take our tallis off – it begins in that moment,” Farkas believes.

Like several of his colleagues, Farkas capitalizes on the community organizing skills he learned as part of JOIN for Justice, which trains Jewish leaders in building community to

effect social change. For the last several years, JOIN has trained hundreds of rabbinical and education students, as well as rabbis across denominations, to use the tools of organization to deepen community engagement.

In 2013, the group held a training for members of the Rabbinical Assembly, the association of Conservative rabbis. Rabbi Jay Kornsgold, chair of “We have these the Rabinical Assembly’s social justice commandments commission, says the event represents to feed the huna shift in Conservative Judaism toward gry and look putting more emphasis on social acout for the less tion and social justice. “A few years fortunate. When ago this wouldn’t have been possible,” people learn Kornsgold said of the meeting, which and then do it, attracted over 40 rabbis. they become Community organizing techniques more connected are the ultimate in “relational Judaism” to Judaism and and indeed JOIN was mentioned in Dr. God.” Ron Wolfson’s influential book of the same name. As Farkas explains, the approach involves engaging congregants in conversations, hearing their stories, and identifying issues they’re passionate about. Efforts are then organized around those issues and lay leaders are empowered to take ownership of the causes.

PHOTO BY: Fran Stier

Opposite: Congregants at Congregation Shaarei Kodesh in Boca Raton, FL, work on a local farm, gleaning extra produce to be donated to a food bank. above: At Congregation Ohev Shalom in Wallingford, PA, volunteers help erect a memorial to the victims of gun violence in Delaware County.

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Organizing around social justice is a powerful way to uncover leadership potential in synagogue members and to deepen relationships among them, says Farkas. What’s more, it offers fresh, alternative ways for people to embrace Jewish texts and tradition.

“Viewing social action on par with Torah study or prayer isn’t a radical approach,” he says, “but rather brings the Torah’s lessons to life and engages congregants in a way that is more relevant and applicable to their lives outside of the synagogue walls.”

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abbi Eric Solomon of Beth Meyer Synagogue in Raleigh, North Carolina, agrees. “The beauty of Conservative Judaism,” he says, “is that we’re holding with both hands the commitment to chesed and tikkun olam, and we’re not going to give up one iota of commitment to Torah learning and davening minchah. That’s going to help us have greater appreciation for God’s world and greater inspiration to go out and do something and make a difference in people’s lives.”

Solomon and his synagogue’s social action committee

18 CJ – Voices of conservative /masorti judaism Spring 2015

have spent the last year transforming the structure of their congregation in order to move social action to its center. Social action chair Deborah Goldstein describes a “conscious decision to move beyond bar and bat mitzvah projects” and to look at social action “not as something that we do, but rather something that we are, part of how we “ It’s about express our Jewishness.” showing that To that end, the committee came Judaism doesn’t up with a new, four-pronged plan that end in the four calls for developing focused, synawalls of the gogue-wide themes; taking a stand on synagogue, certain issues; garnering greater finanwhen we take cial support for social action projects; our tallis off – it and recognizing congregants who are begins in that active in social justice, whether in or moment. ” outside of the synagogue.

For the program’s inaugural year the synagogue chose food insecurity as its primary issue. Sisterhood, Men’s Club,

PHOTOS THIS PAGE BY: Fran Stier

More Social Action Superstars Germantown Jewish Center, Philadelphia, PA When Hebrew school is out at Germantown Jewish Center, quite a different crowd moves in. A long term participant in the Northwest Philadelphia Interfaith Hospitality Network, for two weeks during either the summer or winter, the synagogue transforms its school wing into a homeless shelter where congregants volunteer as staff members and help cook meals for the residents.

USY, and the Hebrew school participated in several related projects, from walking for the cause to making food at local shelters to examining the food sources for the menus at synagogue events.

The call for advocacy, or “taking a stand,” has led a number of synagogue members, rallied by Rabbi Solomon, to speak out on various issues, including defending gay marriage, holding a protest at a local Wendy’s because of the company’s failure to sign the Fair Food Agreement, and releasing a statement against the local legislature’s decision to open each ses-

Opposite: Volunteers from Valley Beth Shalom in Encino, CA, deliver two trunkfuls of volunteer-made casseroles to a homeless shelter. TOP: Volunteers from Ohev Shalom in Wallingford, Pennsylvania, prepare food for local shelters.

ABOVE: A congregant works with young guests from the Chester community to make delicious treats.

Adas Israel, Washington, D.C. Located in the heart of the nation’s capital, Adas Israel is involved in many notable social action projects. One longstanding partnership is with the Anne Frank House, which was founded by members of the congregation in 1987 as a women’s group home. Today the Anne Frank House provides fully furnished apartments to the homeless or mentally ill, as well as a network of social services to help them establish independent lives. Though the organization is independent of the synagogue, the congregation still plays an active role in its operation with several members sitting on the board.

Another newer project is the year-old pro bono legal clinic for the district’s homeless population.

Temple Emanu-El, Providence, RI Still in the nascent stages of their social action work, this past summer Temple Emanu-El hired a full-time JOIN for Justice fellow to help bolster their efforts.

Brought in by the synagogue’s rabbis, 22-year-old Mira Biller has been talking to congregants over the past few months in order to assess the areas of social action and advocacy that interest them. This will lay the groundwork for a “Mitzvah Day,” an educational and service-oriented program organized around the issues uncovered through her conversations.

Beth Am Synagogue, Baltimore, MD By the late 1960s, most Jews had moved away from Baltimore’s Reservoir Hill neighborhood to the suburbs of Baltimore County. Beth Am Synagogue remained, holding on in the 1980s and ’90s in what had become a low-income neighborhood plagued by crime and social ills. Now Beth Am is once again thriving, and stands out for its commitment to working as equal partners with other local groups to improve the neighborhood and simply open its doors to the surrounding community. A CJ article in Winter 2013-14 profiled the congregation. Look for “The Urban Rabbi” at www.cjvoices.org.

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sion with a religious, Christian prayer.

Solomon calls the willingness to get involved with these causes, “holy chutzpah.”

“Tzedakah and collections are critical,” he says. But “we as Jews were maligned and discriminated against and must speak out to prevent that from happening to others.”

It can be challenging for congregations to take on a political role. Jim Duley, former co-chair of Beth Meyer’s social action committee says the wide spectrum of opinions at Beth Meyer has definitely been a hurdle but, he added, “Social action is not about liberal or conservative values. It’s about Jewish values.”

Goldstein asserts that advocating for change and directly helping people in need go hand in hand. “If people don’t have the ability to find food because of agriculture, bad trading policies, or global change, then they’re always going to be hungry,” she notes. At the

“There are people for whom prayer is not their thing, but when they are in fields together they connect to that, so we’re touching more people than before.”

20 CJ – Voices of conservative /masorti judaism Spring 2015

same time, people are hungry and need food. “If you don’t meet the larger needs nothing changes, but if you don’t meet the immediate needs, there’s nobody to change it for.”

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he members of Congregation Ohev Shalom in Pennsylvania have continued to deepen their relationship with the congregation’s former hometown of Chester. The project received a substantial, unexpected boost two years ago when an anonymous congregant gave the synagogue a $50,000 donation to be allocated to different local charities. To manage the grant the synagogue formed a committee, which accepts proposals from charities and picks a handful to fund.

Among the Chester organizations selected so far are the ABC House, which provides housing for inner city students attending a private high school, the Adult Literacy Council, and most recently, the Chester Charter School for the Arts.

Jeremy Gerber, Ohev Shalom’s rabbi, says the relationship with Chester epitomizes the way ancient Jewish texts can retain their relevance and resonate with contemporary Jews.

“Conservative Judaism speaks quite a bit about finding the balance between Jewish values and secular values – for example, coming from slavery and needing to help those who are still enslaved. I think that we can reframe it and say it isn’t about slavery and Egypt anymore, it isn’t about some ancient people,

LEFT: Thirteen year-old Adam Salama of Congregation Shaarei Kodesh in Boca Raton, shows off the peppers he gleaned for his Mitzvah Project.

but rather this is about you and me and the people three miles down the road.

When you help them it makes your life better and connects you back to your Jewish community.”

feel the warmth of community and the passion for applying Judaism to their lives. Seeing tangible results from what a religion says about the world is really important.”

For many, the renewed focus on social action is a way of rediscovering something Jews have always done and always believed.

“We didn’t call it social action,” said

Goldstein. “We called it taking care of each other, or looking out for the community, and most of us just do it instinctively. As we move forward and think about who we are, this is part of it. This is who we’ve always been.” CJ Laurie Kamens is a senior writer and social media manager for United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism.

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a k i n g s o c i a l act i o n a central pillar of synagogue life clearly makes a positive impact on the world. But there’s evidence it does good things for synagogues, too – deepening relationships, giving people the sense of purpose and connection that so many seek, and helping more Jews see Judaism as a living tradition.

“There have been people who were not as connected before who are now more connected,” said Baum. “There are people for whom prayer is not their thing, they don’t necessarily want to come to shul on Shabbat, but when we are in fields together they connect to that, so we’re touching more people than before.”

Still, shifting congregational attitudes toward adopting this model can be slow going. “I like to think of the work we do as planting seeds and letting them germinate a little bit,” says Gerber. “A couple of years isn’t that much time to change a culture, but if the funding is secured, the organizations still want us to be involved, and the relationships are good and just going to get stronger, we’ll get there.”

Farkas says there’s a pressing need for new models of congregational engagement. “Synagogues at their core are groups of people who believe it’s important to live life together. In generational shifts, when the second or third generation no longer feels that it has a stake in that mission, institutions calcify and begin to crumble.”

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ocial action is a powerful way to prevent that calcification, Farkas explains, “It lets people

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Raising a New Generation of Israeli Leaders 22  CJ – Voices of conservative /masorti judaism Spring 2015

The Hannaton Mechina, a pre-army program for high school graduates, works to instill the shared values of Judaism, Zionism and humanism.

By Rabbi Sara Brandes

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he 33 recent high school graduates who are gathered at the Mechina Program at the Hannaton Educational Center, in Israel’s Lower Galilee, remind me a lot of any group of teens from the United States. The room is filled with loud chatter, punctuated by laughter, with the glow of cell phones sprinkled throughout. And yet these 33 eighteen-year-olds shoulder vastly different responsibilities than their US counterparts. In just a few short months, they will be called to stand in the line of duty defending the State of Israel, often facing life’s most complex questions along the way.

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Maya’s experiences in the Hannaton Mechina have helped her become a young woman who has changed the life of an Arab Israeli boy and been changed by him.

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hen Mechina Director Etai Capsuto and the team at the Hannaton Educational Center asked themselves how they could make the most significant impact on the Israeli society they love so much, this mechina was their answer. “Recent high school graduates are not really prepared for the life and death decisions they often face in the army,” says Capsuto. “Their sense of self is not up to the task. As a result, so many Israelis finish the army and want to just walk away from it all.”

In response, the Hannaton Mechina was born, a post-high school leadership training institute supported and partially funded by Rabbi Sara the Israeli governBrandes recently ment. The mechina made aliyah draws on the core and now lives on values of the ConKibbutz Hanna- ser vative moveton. She previously ment to prepare was the California young Israelis for director of Moving the tough choices Traditions. they will face in the

We bring together students whose life stories are totally different from one another around a page of Talmud.

By living and learning together, they create a Torah of their own.

24 CJ – Voices of conservative /masorti judaism Spring 2015

army and beyond. “As a Masorti rabbi who wants to strengthen Israel at large, we have a great challenge,” says Education Center Director Rabbi Yoav Ende.

“We have passionate young people in Israel, but they are not learned enough.

We bring together students whose life stories are totally different from one another around a page of Talmud. By living and learning together, they create a Torah of their own.”

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echina programs are not new in Israel. While they began largely in the Orthodox world, the approach has spread. In 2014, there were 44 programs helping to prepare young Israelis for army service, but Hannaton’s Mechina is unique. As Capsuto explains, “Religious (Orthodox) mechinot have two goals – to instill a commitment to Zionism and to Judaism. Secular mechinot likewise have two goals – Zionism and humanism. When we set out to build our program, we wanted to draw on the values of the Conservative

From volunteer work to taking time out for errands, students in the Hannaton Mechina work to find the meeting point between the shared values of Judaism, Zionism, and humanism.

movement to find a middle path. In our program, we create a pluralistic microcosm of Israeli society, and we work to find the meeting point between the shared values of Judaism, Zionism and humanism.”

The Hannaton Mechina is devoted to pluralism. The program’s facilitators work hard to recruit participants from all sectors of society. They come from the north, center and south of Israel, from development towns and big cities, affluent families and children’s homes. They are Reform, Conservative, Orthodox and secular, and a key part of the program involves promoting coexistence with an Arab Israeli town that neighbors Hanatton. Next year, the diversity will expand further, as the Center launches a gapyear program for Diaspora high school graduates.

of catch with him, which he seemed to enjoy. When she returned the following week, he ran to her immediately, again offering her the ball they had played with the week before. Moved by the encounter, the resident social worker in the school filmed the interaction and unbeknown to Maya, sent it to the boy’s parents.

Later that afternoon, when Maya and her group made a quick stop at the local market in Kfar Manda, Maya noticed a man looking at her. As this is Israel and tensions are high, Maya became nervous.

The man approached, holding his cell phone. When he extended his hand to her, she saw that he had received the video of her and the boy playing ball. “This is my son,” he shared. “Were you just with him at his school? Thank you so much! I have not seen him this happy for some time.

I, too, am so happy.”

For Maya, and likely for the boy’s father, this was a life-changing moment. Next year, when Maya is in the army, and must face tough questions of security and coexistence, she will no longer be the adolescent who feared for her safety in an Arab Israeli market. Instead she will be a young woman who has changed

the life of an Arab Israeli boy and been changed by him.

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h e H a nn at o n M e c h in a does not expect to create generals in the army per se. Rather, it aims to raise a generation of leaders who are prepared to tackle the tough challenges this society faces, whether in the army, in business, or in their local communities. For 10 months, these promising eighteen-year-olds practice the skills of living in a community that is a true microcosm of their society. They take excursions across Israel and delve deeply into the many social challenges the country faces. They practice respectful dialogue and learn that it is up to each of them to build an Israel that simultaneously values Judaism and democracy. As participant Etai Weisman explains, “It is preparation for the army, but much more than that, it is preparation for life. The mechina gives me the opportunity to go deep, to ask questions about who I am, and to get to know my country in a way that never would have been possible were it not for this program.” CJ

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recent story from the center’s Arab Israeli neighbor, Kfar Manda, demonstrates the ripple effects of the Hannaton Mechina on its participants and in Israel in general. Volunteer work represents about a quarter of the Mechina students’ time. For her volunteer project, Maya spends time at the Achva School for Special Needs Children in Kfar Manda. After several weeks working in the school, Maya had a breakthrough with an autistic boy. Although he normally did not play with a ball, she struck up a game

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26  CJ – Voices of conservative /masorti judaism Spring 2015

Break the Walls Down It’s great to hold events outside the synagogue, but with some creativity you can convince Millennials to come inside, too.

By Rabbi Jeremy Fine

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t is said that Millennials do not want to enter synagogue buildings. Things might change when these Millennials have children, but there is a preconceived idea that the traditional synagogue space is simply not for this generation. I am not certain this is true, but if it is, our goal needs to be to combat this nonsense.

Don’t misunderstand. I am all for outreach. In fact, my synagogue recently joined a network of institutions that are part of the Big Tent Jewish Outreach Institute, and we are planning several “public space Judaism” programs, events that take place outside the synagogue. But while outreach is incredibly important, we should remember that the end goal for most synagogues is to take the people we meet outside and bring them in.

With some creativity and openness to new ideas, it’s possible to do this. At my shul, our Erev Shabbat Live service recently shifted its location from our beautiful and very large main sanctuary to an adjacent, more intimate space.

Some members said they missed the grand feel of the Jeremy Fine is s a n c t u a r y. M y associate rabbi response was that at Temple of Aaron the space does not in St. Paul, make the service, Minnesota. the people do. I In 2014, the Jewish have seen amazing Daily Forward rabbis and leaders named him one turn basements, of America’s most apartments, and inspiring rabbis. churches into

Millennials actually do want what synagogues offer, but reshaped and with better packaging. transcendent prayer spaces. Certainly any room inside a synagogue should be conducive to prayer – just as any space inside a synagogue should be conducive to most anything else.

Two years ago, we hosted a summer concert for young professionals with Todd Kessler, a contestant from NBC’s The Voice. We wanted Todd to perform in our beautiful garden, and we would serve beer and ice cream. Again, we wanted the barrier of the synagogue walls to be broken down, turning our space from a place only to pray into a place to gather.

Our co-chairs pushed back, insisting our group was yet not ready for that. They felt the synagogue had scary connotations as a place you had to go, rather than want to go. I remained determined to hold the event at the synagogue, though in the end rain foiled my plan.

This year we hosted another young adult event, a human foosball tournament in the synagogue’s social hall. There were reluctant participants who we had encouraged to attend anyway. Everyone, even the naysayers, enjoyed themselves at a social program inside the synagogue walls. The event drew 50 newcomers who left feeling a part of our community and saw our synagogue in a whole new light.

One said to me, “I have not been back here since my bar mitzvah and this was a lot of fun.” We metaphorically destroyed the brick and mortar and provided access into our home.

It is our job as rabbis and leaders to present our buildings as welcoming places to gather. People have many reasons for their negative feelings about synagogues: bad Hebrew school experiences, a memory of polarizing figures on the bimah, being unaffiliated, or just being confused about what we offer. But it is incumbent upon rabbis, leaders, and congregants of all ages and demographics to overcome this resistance, rethinking the synagogue as a place with an open door policy rather than as an exclusive club.

I encourage all of us to hold public space events. Have classes in coffee shops and take trips together, but not at the risk of sacrificing the chance for people to view the synagogue as a warm and inviting place to be. Millennials are often looking for inspiration and motivation. They want to be intrigued. They care about Israel and have big questions about theology, law, and ethics. They are entrepreneurial and need space to try new things.

Millennials actually do want what synagogues offer, but reshaped and with better packaging. Ask those in your congregation to reimagine the building and see what they want out of a synagogue space.

It is time we break down the walls so they can be built up again. CJ

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Joke’s On Us A joke about a boy and his grandfather gets at an uncomfortable truth about Israeli Jews today.

by Joel Chasnoff

This is the first in a regular column by comic Joel Chasnoff, who will dissect jokes and share his thoughts on why they are or are not funny, and what the jokes say about us. If you have a joke you’d like Joel to analyze, particularly one that says something poignant about the Jewish people, email it to joel@ joelchasnoff.com. Include your own insights about why you find the joke meaningful. Finally, please note that Joel’s comments reflect his own views, not necessarily those of the CJ publishers.

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n Israeli friend of mine recently told me this joke: An Israeli boy and his Saba – grandfather – walk hand-in-hand through Tel Aviv. As they come to a park, the grandfather smiles, points to a tree, and says, “Nechdi – my grandson – do you see that tree? When I was young I planted that tree!”

Joel Chasnoff is a stand-up comedian and author of The 188th Crybaby Brigade, about his service in the IDF. His family are members of the Pelham Jewish Center, Pelham Manor, NY.

They continue their walk through the park, and out to a busy street, when suddenly the grandfather points to a building and shouts, “Nechdi, Nechdi, do you see that building? When I was young I helped build that building!”

They walk down the sidewalk, past shops and cafes and a restaurant packed with customers, when the grandfather points excitedly and exclaims, “Nechdi, do you see this restaurant? When I was young I washed dishes in this restaurant!”

The boy turns to his grandfather and asks, “Saba, I have a question. When you were young, were you an Arab?”

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love this joke. Not because I find it uproariously funny (I don’t), but because it does what the best jokes do: it reveals an underlying truth about ourselves.

For as long as there’s been such a phenomenon as Jewish humor, it’s typically been we Jews who have gotten the last laugh. (Think of all those “priest-minister-rabbi” jokes where the rabbi oneups his peers.)

But now that we have a state of our own – and along with our state a government, and an army, and power – our role in jokes has changed, to the point where, sometimes, the joke is on us.

28 CJ – Voices of conservative /masorti judaism Spring 2015

The Saba story is a perfect example.

When the neched asks his grandfather, “When you were young, were you an Arab?” he’s merely pointing out an undeniable, albeit uncomfortable, fact: in modern Israel much of the menial, getyour-hands-dirty labor like construction and bussing tables is done not by Jews but

by Palestinians, Israeli Arabs, and workers from overseas.

Is this a problem? Not necessarily. And by no means is this kind of economic situation unique to Israel. (Think migrant farm workers in America.)

However, such a scenario does reveal an uncomfortable truth, namely that in some ways Israel is losing touch with the pioneer ethos so crucial to the country’s founding. I would argue that Israel more than compensates for this loss by pioneering incredible gains in other areas, especially high tech. So it’s not that Israel is no longer a country of pioneers, but that they’re a different kind of pioneer.

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n any case, it’s not an issue of good or bad. My point is simply that humor has the power to shed light on who we are and how we think, in a manner both swift and searing. Or, as I like to call it, “truth with bite.”

CJ

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the jewish year

A Parent’s Guide to Passover For children, the holiday offers eight days of teachable moments

By Susan Wyner

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hile my children were growing up, close family friends joined us each year for our Pesach seder. Their two sons and ours enjoyed each other’s company, we belonged to the same synagogue, and most of our family lived out of town. A perfect match! We sang our way through the haggadah, my husband taking the lead, inviting participation and readings in Hebrew and English.

The readings were interspersed with songs that my children had embraced growing up, especially our family’s favorites coming from their grandmother.

One year, at the end of the seder, my friend turned to me and said, “Our kids go to the same reliSusan Wyner is gious school, why do your kids know so the Director of much more about Passover than ours?”

Learning EnrichWhen I asked what they had done before ment for United joining our seder, he didn’t respond, and Synagogue of Con- I realized that their tradition had been to servative Judaeat seder foods but to skip the haggadah ism. USCJ’s Early experience. If anything could provide Childhood Educa- affirmation about the primacy of authention Consultant tic family Jewish activity for continuity, Maxine Handelthis interaction said it all. When children man also contribexperience Jewish traditions in the home uted to this article. that are embraced by the family, and when

30 CJ – Voices of conservative /masorti judaism Spring 2015

they get the message that what they learn in school has real application, the results can be life changing.

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verything about the holiday of Pesach, from its preparation and alterations to the house, to the seder, and through the week, provides a teachable moment. In Exodus 12:26, during the arrival of the final plague throughout Egypt, Moses instructs the Children of Israel “to make the Pascal sacrifice, and eat hastily with staff in hand and sandals on their feet.” And when your children ask you, ‘What do you mean by this rite?’ you shall say, ‘It is the Passover sacrifice to the Lord, because He passed over the houses of the Israelites in Egypt when He smote the Egyptians, but saved our houses’.”

The instruction comes as a result of the children’s questions of wonder – a powerful lesson about the potential in experiential learning. Four times in the Torah (in Exodus and Deuteronomy) parents are commanded to respond with gratitude for God’s intervention in Egypt by either answering the questions of their children, or providing an extraordinary experience to spark questions. These are the foundational texts for both the Mah Nishtana (the four questions) and the midrash (Talmudic story) of the four children. Who is the most important person at the seder? The child (or children) who recite the Mah Nishtana, because without those questions, there is no seder.

Who is the most important person at the seder? The child (or children) who recite the Mah Nishtana, because without those questions, there is no seder.

Every study around Jewish continuity has shown that Pesach is celebrated in some way more than any other holiday or Jewish experience. For some it is a full seder with all of the trimmings, for others it is a meal with Passover favorites. The following list of activities and ideas is intended to engage children, encourage their questions, and enhance learning before and at the seder, as well as at the end of Pesach.

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ne more story for the road. Like most of your children, mine attended a Jewish preschool which had an annual tradition of an interactive model seder. The children joyfully belted out the songs they loved, from “Bang-bang-bang Hold your Hammers Low” to “Frogs Here, Frogs There” and of course, “Dayenu”.

I had purchased a children’s haggadah for each of my boys to keep them engaged in our family seder. (My Very Own Haggadah

by Judyth Saypol and Madeline Wikler, Kar-Ben Publishers).

One morning before Pesach, I found my sons (then ages 6 and 4) with their heads together, haggadot on their laps, and pencil and paper in hand. They turned to me and asked if they could lead the second seder that year. And so they did – from beginning to end, giving out parts and readings, and keeping their favorites for themselves. It was the most memorable seder we could have imagined, and from that Pesach onward, became a Wyner family tradition.

As they made their way through the congregational school, new prayers and information were added. Our oldest son is now a father and eagerly invites us to his Pesach seder which he leads with mastery and grace. Continuity in action – a wonderful combination of authentic learning and the inspiration from insightful, interactive teachers leading to engagement and retention.

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hether your children or grandchildren are still in preschool, or are learning in a day school or congregational setting, as parents and grandparents, the more we empower them to bring their knowledge, questions, ideas, and interests to our seder tables, the more insightful the experience will be, not just for them, but for all who are at the seder. CJ

So Much more than counting frogs 18 Ways to involve children and family members in the Pesach experience

1

A few weeks before Pesach, take the family to your local ceramics center to create individual and permanent seder plates and ceremonial cups for Elijah or Miriam that will have personal meaning.

Help your children search on line to design templates they can use.

3

At a fabric or craft center, purchase muslin and fabric markers to create individualized matzah covers and afikoman sleeves.

They can be edged on a sewing machine or by using iron-on fusible tape such as Stitch Witchery.

2

Mitzvah chores Whether you need their assistance or not, involve your children in Pesach planning and preparation.

Create a hametz checklist for a pre-Pesach clean-out of their rooms and bookbags.

5

4

Put different tasks on popsicle sticks in a can or jar, so every family member can pull out an assignment.

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the jewish year

6

11

Plan menus together

Divvy up the shopping list and assign children to select specific items.

7

Seder planning An idea that can grow as your children get older – let them plan either a portion of the seder or the entire second seder. Invite them to teach the songs from their preschool, the tunes from their holiday studies in school, or an activity they have prepared on their own.

9

8

Bring Pesach customs from around the world. The Jews of Afghanistan create gentle “whips” out of scallions as a reminder of the years of Egyptian slavery.

The Jews of Turkey put on a small play, including costumes, to tell the story of the Exodus. The Jews of Egypt tie a piece of matzah in a napkin to look like a sack, passing it around the table. Each person puts it on their right shoulder, and is asked, “Where are you from?” Response: “Egypt.”

New question, “Where are you going?”

The sack switches to the left shoulder, with the response, “Jerusalem.” Some families add, “What are you bringing with you?” inviting a creative response.

The Jews of Gibraltar crush pieces of brick into the charoset to remember the mortar of Egyptian slavery, but we don’t recommend that for consumption. Find other customs from around the world that can be discussed at the table.

10

Provide a variety of haggadot, and invite participants to discover something interesting from their haggadah to share.

Charoset experts Using glass enclosed childsafe choppers get the younger set to make the charoset. Even more fun, experiment with a variety of charoset recipes. (See a selection of international charoset recipes at www. cjvoices.org)

12

Make the seder experience engaging: A karpas dish with a variety of vegetables from the ground can provide healthy and continuous tasting to keep away the hunger pangs. In addition to parsley, add celery, cucumber, carrots, potato, green beans, asparagus, peppers and more.

Keep it colorful, too!

32 CJ – Voices of conservative /masorti judaism Spring 2015

13

Bedikat hametz Turn the final search for hametz into a scavenger hunt. Put small pieces of bread in closed baggies around the house, and write clues to guide the search.

Be creative about where you have hidden the baggies, but keep a list so you do not miss any in the process!

14

Don’t forget to make donations to food centers of some of the hametz not eaten as a reminder of our obligation to feed those who are hungry.

15

Encourage kids to search for the “P” for Pesach on boxes and packages.

16

Miriam’s Cup and/or Elijah’s Cup Put these cups on the table empty. At appropriate times, pass them around, and as every person pours from their own cups (water for Miriam, wine or grape juice for Elijah) into the empty vessel, they provide a wish or thought for a peaceful future. Not familiar with the Miriam’s Cup? Learn more at www.miriamscup.com.

Make it tasty by providing a variety of dips beyond salt water.

It’s easy enough to make Pesach salsa and guacamole.

But remember, dip twice!

17

18

At the end of Pesach Experiencing Pesach includes going back to the way things were before the holiday began. Children can be as helpful putting the house back together as they were in the preparations. Puzzle pieceshaped signs with pictures indicating where things go can make the task more fun. Sorting items by what is and is not appropriate for Pesach can be engaging for younger children as well.

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God Loves Stories

The new/old art of Jewish storytelling is once again thriving

By Caren Schnur Neile

A Storahtelling original production, “Becoming Israel” fuses scripture with stagecraft to examine the intersection between individual identity and collective memory.

T

he Chicago storyteller Syd Lieberman tells the tale of the shames from Chelm who was walking down the street one day when a stranger came out of nowhere and punched him so hard that he fell to the ground. “Take that, Yankel!” the man declared.

To his astonishment, the assailant saw the shames begin to chuckle. “What are you laughing about?” he asked, looking down at his victim. “I just knocked you to the ground with one punch!”

“The joke’s on you!” the shames said.

“I’m not Yankel!”

W

e Jews may have a reputation as the People of the Book, but we are also the people of the joke, the pithy anecdote and the cogent argument, that is, the spoken word. In fact, we are blessed with an oral tradition that is even older, and more far-reaching, than is our written one. Maybe that’s why this publication has the word “voices” in its name. Or why our holiest blessing is the Shema, which means “hear.”

While most people are familiar with articulate Jewish Caren Schnur rabbis, lawyers Neile, Ph.D., MFA and comedians, is a professional there’s another storyteller outlet through and an affiliate which the spoken professor at word can capture Florida Atlantic hearts, minds University in and imaginations: Boca Raton. storytelling.

Another way to look at storytelling is as “theater without a net.” While actors usually share the stage with their colleagues, working from memorized scripts that others have written, professional storytellers generally work on their own, sharing a story in their own words, which may well change with every telling. That isn’t to say that reading a book to a child doesn’t count as storytelling. It’s a huge field, containing as many variations as do theater, film or any other art form.

“

If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales. If you want them to be more intelligent, read them more fairy tales.” - Albert Einstein

According to the dictionary, “storytelling” can mean anything from an amusing activity for toddlers to films, novels or even lies. But ask renowned storytelling coach Doug Lipman for a definition, and he’ll say that the practice involves five key elements: words, imagination, narrative, interaction, and non-verbal communication.

34 CJ – Voices of conservative /masorti judaism Spring 2015

A

nd then there’s Jewish storytelling. The late folklorist Dov Noy, founder of the Israel Folktale Archives at the University of Haifa, said that Jewish stories contain one or more of four elements: Jewish people, places, time (e.g., Shabbat or a holiday) and values.

The repertoire of most Jewish storytellers typically contains folktales, biblical or Talmudic stories, personal experience recollections, and/or historical tales.

Jewish storytelling is a growing field, but it’s by no means the new kid on the block. Until the last century, magdim (from the verb l’haggid, meaning “to tell”) traveled from shtetl to shtetl, picking up, embellishing and sharing stories throughout the Pale of Settlement.

Similarly badchanim (from the noun for “joke,” b’dicha), were the spoken word equivalent of today’s wedding singers.

Actually, the tradition goes back even further, and is a good deal more illustrious. Some Sages believed that aggadah, the non-legal portions of the Talmud commonly known as legends, makes up one of the three equal pillars of Judaism, along with halachah (law) and mishnah (interpretation). The legendary Baal Shem Tov, founder of Hassidism, taught through oral storytelling, as did his greatgrandson Nahman of Bratslav and many of their followers. Sefer Ha-Aggadah (The Book of Legends) is the classic compilation of aggadot, edited about a hundred years ago by Hayim Nahman Bialik and Yehoshua Hana Ravnitzky and still in print today.

So why did the rabbis think that storytelling was so important? Storyteller Gerald Fierst answers the question with a little story.

“When the Dalai Lama wanted to know how a people kept their identity in diaspora,” he said, “he asked Jewish leaders.

They told him that stories are bonds. Stories create identity.”

look at the Middle East conflict from the points of view of Noa, a Palestinian friend, and the women’s mothers. Another favorite: “Impossible to Translate But I’ll Try: True-Life Israeli Stories.”

Judith Black not only received the Circle of Excellence award from the National Storytelling Network (NSN), the professional organization of storytelling, but she also has appeared on stages from

the Montreal Comedy Festival to the Smithsonian Institution, the National Art Museum in Cape Town, South Africa, and National Public Radio.

Roslyn Bresnick-Perry, author of I Loved My Mother on Saturdays, the award-winning collection of true-life stories from the shtetl and New York, was born in Belarus in 1922. She has been awarded continues on page 54

S

tories have also proven to be a valuable tool in healthcare, communitybuilding, peace work and education.

None other than Albert Einstein once remarked: “If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales. If you want them to be more intelligent, read them more fairy tales.”

Said Fierst: “As a culture, we underestimate the power of the spoken word.

Words are so omnipresent that we stop listening. But words have power and do not disappear. What we say and think has an effect that slowly changes us and the world around us.”

Y

ou don’t have to be an expert to share stories, but it helps to be a pro if you plan to do it in public.

Professional Jewish storytellers ply their trade in schools, festivals, synagogues, private homes, and concert halls. Here are a few of the most popular: Israeli-born Noa Baum is best-known for her full-length storytelling show, “A Land Twice Promised,” which delivers a searing

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kehilla

Funding the Conservative Movement

Tzedakah

box

How One Congregation Makes a Difference

By Rhonda Jacobs Kahn

R

abbi Vernon Kurtz learned over the years that most donors were not interested in giving money to core budgets, but he assumed that they might be interested in designated giving to specific programs. He also thought that kind of support was exactly what the Conservative movement needed. And Rabbi Kurtz should know: he is a past president of the Rabbinical Assembly, MERCAZ USA and MERCAZ Olami and the current president of the American Zionist Movement.

Rabbi Kurtz’s plan was simple. He approached people in his congregation, North Suburban Synagogue Beth El in Highland Park, Illinois, and asked if they would create a fund to “initiate new programs for local, national and international organizations within the Conservative/Masorti Movement.” Small grants of up to $3,000 would hopefully prove to be the tipping points in getting new initiatives off the ground. The one prerequisite: at least two Conservative/Masorti institutions or organizations had to work together to envision and implement the program.

The requirement that more than one organization be involved was particularly attractive to donors who often feel bombarded by requests for money, especially from the many organizations that make up the worldwide Conservative movement. A one-ask request would be a better way to do business. Eighteen people signed up with gifts of $2,500 each.

The next step was to solicit proposals. In the United States, the Jewish Theological Seminary, Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies and United Synagogue, as well as Israel’s Schechter Institute, Masorti Movement and Masorti Olami, and the more local Camp Ramah in Wisconsin, Solomon Schechter Day School and

36 CJ – Voices of conservative /masorti judaism Spring 2015

Chicagoland Jewish High School were all invited to send proposals. The entire group of funders reviewed the proposals and a small group chose the five projects that would be supported.

Says Rabbi Kurtz of his initiative: “I don’t think I could have raised this money for core budgets. It was much easier to do so for specific projects. The fund has allowed me to educate my members about the worldwide Conservative/Masorti movement. The participants are proud of their involvement, the congregation is proud of supporting these activities. This is a win-win situation for all.”

North Suburban Synagogue Beth El will soon be accepting applications for the 2015-2016 year. CJ

The participants are proud of their involvement, the congregation is proud of supporting these activities.

This is a win-win situation for all.

Recipients of the 2013-2014 North Suburban Synagogue Beth El Grants Lehava is a project of the Schechter Rabbinical School and the Israel Rabbinical Assembly that creates study opportunities for Masorti rabbis in the field in Israel.

Hofesh TALI, a project of the TALI Education Fund and Hannaton Educational Center, offers 4-day mini-camps over Passover and Chanukkah holiday breaks.

Light Fantastics is a musical video about Masorti Judaism and the struggle to combat racism in Israel, featuring the Masorti movement’s choir, Shirat Machar, and students from JTS and Ziegler.

A shaliach for Chicago Region USY, Camp Ramah in Wisconsin and Chicagoland Jewish High School is initiating programs for teens within the movement.

S e m i n a rs f o r yo u n g a d u lts (Marom) in Europe interested in strengthening their Jewish and Zionist identity and leading Jewish lives in Masorti congregations is a joint project of Masorti Olami and Marom Olami.

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kehilla

The Personal Touch The winner of a new Jewish leadership award is bringing younger Jews into her aging congregation.

By Gila Drazen Dr. Poscover received USCJ’s Shoshana S. Cardin Leadership Award from Rabbi Steven Wernick, United Synagogue’s CEO, and Rabbi Nina Beth Cardin.

I

n her professional work as an optometrist, Dr. Jessica Katz Poscover asks people to open their eyes. In her volunteer work at Congregation Mishkan Tefila in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, she asks people to open their hearts and their arms.

Now Dr. Poscover has been honored for her dynamism and vision as the inaugural recipient of the Shoshana S. Cardin Leadership Award from United Synagogue.

Cardin, a major Jewish activist and philanthropist, has built a legacy of global impact in the areas of human rights, women’s rights, education, strengthening the Jewish people and the State of Israel. She created the award to recognize and celebrate Jewish leaders, and to ensure that there will be strong leaders to inspire the next generation of Conservative Jews.

Much of Dr. Poscover’s work at Mishkan Tefila has centered on building community and relationships. Demographically, Mishkan Tefila is aging, but Dr. Poscover has been a force in welcoming younger people into the congregation. She serves as the co-chair of the Family and Youth Engagement Committee, leading an effort to reach out personally to parents in the preschool, religious schools and local day schools. She contacted many of the unaffiliated families who came to Mishkan Tefila for the High Holidays to welcome them into the community, and encouraged other synagogue leaders to do the same.

As she accepted the award in December 2014, Dr. Poscover

38 CJ – Voices of conservative /masorti judaism Spring 2015

said, “Synagogues can run very successful programs, but cultivating relationships, one person at a time, is the key to creating and rebuilding a community. Through this work, I am reaping many personal rewards, as well, by building meaningful friendships while watching our synagogue community grow.”

Poscover’s ability to connect with and inspire those around her is a recurring theme among people who talk about her work.

“She connects one-on-one with people, which is very powerful,” said Rabbi Nina Beth Cardin, Shoshana Cardin’s daughter and a member of the award selection committee.

“She inspires me and those in her circles at the synagogue,” said Rabbi Leonard Gordon of Mishkan Tefila, who nominated Poscover for the award. “She uses her warmth and presence to bring in others and encourages them to stay connected and active. Jessica realizes that bringing in young people involves not only welcoming them, but also listening to them.”

As a synagogue volunteer, Poscover has participated in United Synagogue’s Sulam for Emerging Leaders program, designed to help prepare promising members for a seat at their congregation’s leadership table. She is currently a fellow in the OnBoard program, an initiative of the Legacy Heritage Fund to strengthen and develop board members of Jewish non-profits.

“I was raised with the tradition of “Kol Yisrael arevim zeh la-zeh” (all the people of Israel are responsible for one another), and I am blessed to be able to be involved in my synagogue

Shoshana Cardin has moved mountains in her efforts to build Jewish community, and I am so proud to be associated with her name.

Shoshanna Cardin

community,” Poscover said. “I grew up in a thriving Conservative synagogue in Albany, New York, and part of my journey is to ensure the same experience for our children.

“I am humbled by this recognition,” she added. “Shoshana Cardin has moved mountains in her efforts to build Jewish community, and I am so proud to be associated with her name.” CJ

www.cjvoices.org 39

the bookshelf

By Lisa Silverman Lisa Silverman is director of the Sinai Temple Blumenthal Library, Los Angeles.

J Howard Jacobson Hogarth, 2014; 352 pages

A

cclaimed British author and journalist Howard Jacobson is concerned about the future of British Jewry. He imagines a dystopic future England where a terrible catastrophe of such great upheaval has occurred that society only functions in relation to how the event is memorialized. The historical disaster is called “WHAT HAPPENED – IF IT HAPPENED,” which is a fabulous irony (and a satiric nod to Holocaust revisionists) since everyone is collectively required to apologize, although they are not sure for what. The event seems to have happened about 60 years before the narrative begins, and although we soon come to realize that the event is all about the Jews, the word is never once mentioned.

A

neurotic, 40-something single man named Kevern “Coco” Cohen has grown up in a picturesque seaside village with uncommunicative, troubled parents who seem to have had something to hide. He navigates his loveless life with the philosophy that “ignorance is safety” and never questions the past.

He even practices his father’s unusual

Tel Aviv Noir Etgar Keret and Assaf Gavron, editors Akashic Books, 2014; 280 pages

V

isiting the website for Akashic Books (www.akashicbooks.com) is an eye-opening experience. The publisher has collected over 70 different collections of noir short stories set in different cities around the world. From Baltimore, Boston, and Brooklyn, they have branched out to Mumbai, Moscow and Tehran, with intriguing new titles such as Beirut Noir, Bagdad Noir and Bogota Noir soon to be published. For lovers of this genre, it’s almost impossible to choose what to read next.

In his excellent introduction to Tel Aviv Noir, Etgar Keret writes, “In spite of its outwardly warm and polite exterior, Tel Aviv has quite a bit to hide.” This is evident in such unflattering characters as the savvy prostitute and the creepy ex-lawyer/businessman who falls in love with her in Gadi Taub’s “Sleeping Mask,”

40 CJ – Voices of conservative /masorti judaism Spring 2015

habit of covering his mouth with two fingers when uttering a word beginning with the letter “J.” Kevern meets the beautiful Aileen Solomons, and as their love story ripens, Jacobson drops clues as to why this futuristic society has turned violent, suspicious and chaotic. The shocking cause of humanity’s downfall seems to be the fact that there are no Jews left, and therefore society has turned inward on itself because there is no one left to hate.

I

t doesn’t take long to realize that every character in this novel has an Ashkenazi last name and a Celtic first name.

The names of villages and towns sound like they were picked from biblical locations. Libraries do not allow research into the past. Diaries are hidden or destroyed and there are no history books. The public mood is monitored by the all-knowing bureaucracy, Ofnow, whose sole occupation seems to be making sure people forget about WHAT HAPPENED, while simultaneously demanding apologies for whatever it was that everyone supposedly did. Like some sort of Remembrance and Reconciliation Commission gone wacko, they spend a lot of time re-naming people, running apology sessions, and wondering why the country seems to be disintegrating into a violent mess. continues on page 54 or the strange demon and puzzling ghost in Lavie Tidhar’s “The Time-Slip Detective” and Matan Hermoni’s “Women.” Stories are noted for their locations in Tel Aviv, such as Rabin Square or Rothchild Boulevard, where most American tourists would overlook the penniless unfortunates warming their hands on coffee in dingy cafes.

Assaf Gavron’s story, “Center,” bounces about apartment and office buildings in Dizengoff Center as his hapless plumbers-turned-detectives solve a murder mystery one step ahead of their identities being discovered. “Slow Cooking” is a particularly affecting story by Deakla Keydar that features a luckless clerk in search of love who finds that cooking for African refugees

enables her to recover her sense of purpose.

It is delightful to discover these writers. The last pages of the book include short bios of the 14 contributors and the excellent translator Yardenne Greenspan. This book will shine a different light on your next visit to Israel. As editor Etgar Keret writes, “The stories of Tel Aviv Noir reveal the concealed, scarred face of this city that we love so much.”

The Betrayers David Bezmozgis, Winner of the 2014 National Jewish Books JJ Greenberg Memorial Award for Fiction Little, Brown and Company, 2014 240 pages

T

he Free Soviet Jewry movement of the 1960s and ’70s was a response to the decimation of the Jews of Europe years before and the determination that a protest movement by ordinary people could halt the Soviet Union’s anti-Jewish actions. Many Americans of a certain age can trace their engagement with Jewish life from the movement’s beginnings. Protesters marched down Fifth Avenue, smuggled Judaic artifacts and books to Soviet Jews, and felt pride as they demanded that Jewish people should be able to live freely as Jews within Russia or leave if they wished. Many got out only after being branded as Refuseniks, their livelihoods destroyed and their return impossible.

Author David Bezmozgis, a Latvian-born Canadian, is well-known for his book of short stories Natasha and Other Stories that won numerous awards and was translated into many languages.

His novel takes on a day in in the life of one of those ex-Refusniks, 40 years after fleeing the Soviet Union as a hero and making a new life for himself and his family as a politician in Israel.

Baruch Kotler (who is clearly modeled on Natan Sharansky), the main character of this brilliant examination of what it means to be branded a Jewish saint in the 20th century, experiences a disastrous fall from grace and ultimately discovers the meaning of forgiveness, all within a 24-hour period. Kotler was once a hero because he defied the Soviets, but in present day Israel he is an aging hero of the political right for defying the government’s intent to dismantle settlements in the West Bank. Since he has always been a man who will not compromise his beliefs, he responds to a Shin Bet blackmail attempt with a defiant shrug of his shoulders. He walks away from a park bench in Jerusalem knowing full well that he has committed a betrayal that will destroy his family, especially his long-suffering wife whose feats of political acumen kept his story alive during the years he suffered in the Gulag.

When the newspapers publish a sordid account of his affair with his beautiful young assistant, the lovers flee the country for the Crimean seashore in Kotler’s misguided attempt to recapture a bit of his treasured boyhood. As a series of events unfold that place Kotler and his mistress in closer proximity to the man who once betrayed him to the Soviet authorities, Bezmozgis’ elegant prose reads like a discourse on the meaning of love and forgiveness.

He is not afraid to take on heavy issues such as the moral implications of intransigence for a political cause, even at the expense of family or country. Clearly Kotler compromises both as his fear of becoming politically irrelevant clouds his judgment.

Every character in this short novel experiences a betrayal of some kind, and the idea of forgiveness is surely put to the test. The book reads a bit like a political thriller, but every few chapters, readers will feel compelled to put it down and consider the complexities of the recent history of Russian immigrants and the political chaos in present day Israel. Bezmozgis has written something of a morality tale, examining the fine line between betrayers and those they betray, leaving the reader much to contemplate.

Henna House Nomi Eve Scribner, 2014; 320 pages

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opular fiction author Nomi Eve’s (The Family Orchard) new novel is perfect for those who like to immerse themselves in the history and geography of wor lds they never knew existed. The exotic setting is the star of this lyrically written saga of Yemenite Jews in the early 20th centur y.

Narrator Adela Damari begins with her fearful memories of the “confiscator,” a local Imam who confiscates orphans, adopts them, and converts them to Islam. Her father is ill, and he and his wife are desperate to betroth Adela to stave off the plans of the feared official. Like the henna designs she eventually learns to draw, Adela weaves her story of Yemenite mountain Jews and their customs into the larger world of the early 20th century Jewish experience.

Through her eyes, we are drawn into the lives of Jews in the dusty and drought-stricken Arabian Peninsula, pogroms in far-off Aden, Operation Magic Carpet, and finally, the Holocaust.

In the chapters that read as a how-to manual on the intricacies of dyeing hands and bodies with henna, there is a mystical allure to the rituals, allowing us to feel like flies on the wall in a real henna house much as we felt privy to the fictional customs that occurred within Anita Diamant’s The Red Tent.

As Adela’s family considers ways to outwit the Confiscator, her betrothals to various local boys prove unsuccessful. When a long-lost cousin arrives with her father’s brother, they become innocent childhood lovers. Later, when this beloved cousin leaves the village, Adela’s depression is lifted only by the arrival of Heni, who teaches her the art of henna as well as the art of living life with joy and passion. Heni’s continues on page 54

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united synagogue

Where We Are Now USCJ’s immediate past president looks back at the remarkable changes of the last five years.

By Richard Skolnik

I

n December 2009, when Rabbi Steve Wernick and I took on the leadership of United Synagogue, it’s no exaggeration to say that after almost 100 years, the organization was in crisis. But I and a lot of other people were unwavering in our belief in USCJ and its mission. We believed in the need for a dynamic center of North American Judaism, and we knew that United Synagogue was uniquely able to keep that center vital and strong. We knew that our synagogues – our kehillot – needed us to remake ourselves so that we could become the visionary, effective partner that would help them transform themselves into sacred communities for the 21st century.

Five years later, having stepped down as United Synagogue’s international president, I want to reflect on where we are right now, at this moment.

Today’s United Synagogue has been restructured and reimagined in a way that puts strengthening Conservative congregations at the center of our work. Our focus today is on partnering with our kehillot to build the kind of intentional Jewish communities that will inspire new generations.

We believe that strengthening kehilla leadership is essential to that effort. Five years ago, I talked about how we would expand our much-loved Sulam training program for kehilla presidents. We still offer that famous retreat for new presidents – in fact it’s even richer and deeper than before. But the word “Sulam” is now the name for a whole menu of intensive learning programs for synagogue leaders at every stage of their experience, helping them create a vision for each kehilla and a roadmap for getting there.

We said five years ago that it was crucial for us to replenish our leadership pipeline. Our staff has turned that vision into a highly successful program called Sulam for Emerging Leaders. Thanks to this initiative, come June, over 1,000 new synagogue leaders will have been identified and become

42 CJ – Voices of conservative /masorti judaism Spring 2015

much more deeply connected to their kehillot, their rabbis and each other. Many are already serving in leadership roles.

We have a network of 20 synagogues working with our new family engagement specialist, Rabbi Cara Weinstein Rosenthal, in an effort to get beyond the basics of family programming and take their family engagement efforts to the next level. Thanks to the Ruderman Family Foundation, we are launching a new community initiative on inclusion – helping our kehillot become places where people with disabilities feel fully welcome and can be fully engaged.

Then there’s USY. Thanks to a generous grant, we are ramping up our outreach to teens and re-imagining our approach to reaching this crucial age group. We’re expanding our summer program opportunities and redoubling our efforts to bring more students to our renowned gap year program in Israel, Nativ, which is now in its 34th year.

The essence of United Synagogue is this: we are inclusive, collaborative, innovative, and focused on reflecting the Jewish world as it is today and as it will be in the future.

When I became president of United Synagogue five years ago, I had dreams about where we could go and ideas about how to get there. As Israel’s former president Shimon Peres once said, “Dreams are the making of a better tomorrow.”

What’s remarkable is that I was lucky enough to be surrounded by people who shared my dreams, who also believed that United Synagogue could not only overcome its difficulties but could once again make a powerful impact on North American Jewish life. I can’t thank all of these people enough for working with me, supporting me, and allowing me to see so much of what we dreamed about come to fruition. I especially want to thank Rabbi Wernick and his exceptional USCJ staff. I also thank my tireless, deeply committed board who no matter what the request or what the need, never said anything but “Hineni,” here I am, hineni, how can I serve?”

I know that there is more to do, and that achieving some of our goals will take time. But I’m confident that with Margo Gold as president, with our talented board members, and extraordinary kehilla partners, United Synagogue can only go from strength to strength. CJ

briefs

Welcome, Madam President On January 1, Margo Gold of Atlanta, Georgia, officially became the 27th international president of United Synagogue. A past president of two Atlantaarea kehillot, chair of USCJ's Centennial celebration, and an alumna of Sulam for Presidents, Gold joined USCJ's board in 2011. As she leads USCJ into its second century, Gold said she envisions an organization “that remains committed to strategic change and that is respected for its strategic judgment, its open tent, and its commitment to collaboration.”

When not wearing her presidential hat, Gold is the Director of Development and Communications for the Georgia Appleseed Center for Law and Justice.

Prior to that, she was the Interim Executive Director of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Atlanta during much of 2012.

Gold served as the Community Relations Director of the Jewish Federation

USCJ will remain committed to strategic change, with an open tent and a commitment to collaboration. of Greater Atlanta from 1999-2006, overseeing its public affairs agenda, political advocacy, interfaith outreach and social justice initiatives, including the Atlanta Jewish Coalition for Literacy and the Darfur Urgent Action Coalition of Georgia, which she co-founded. For six years, Gold was a Vice President of the Marcus Jewish Community Center of Atlanta.

She is also active in many other faith and civic organizations, including the board of the Atlanta’s Interfaith Children’s Movement.

Creating Financial Sustainability Under the leadership of USCJ’s director of kehilla finance, Barry Mael, USCJ is creating a new action community on financial sustainability for synagogues.

If your shul is ready to work on creating a financially sustainable future, explore new approaches to dues, or change its culture of philanthropy, this program is for you. A group of eight to ten synagogues will take part in a series of webinars, individual consultations and research and data collection to help them create a financial sustainability plan. For information, contact Barry Mael at mael@uscj.org.

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united synagogue

Vancouver Renewal

Congregation Beth Israel, the oldest Conservative synagogue in Vancouver, British Columbia, dedicated its new building in September 2014. The culmination of a 10-year process, the new facility is fully accessible and Gold-LEED equivalent. Pictured above are Rabbi Jonathan Infeld, left, and Cantor Lawrence Szenes-Strauss.

Engaging Families This fall, USCJ launched the Family Engagement Network, a coalition of synagogue professionals and lay leaders dedicated to advancing the work of engaging young families in Jewish life and community. Coordinated by USCJ’s Family Engagement Specialist Rabbi Cara Weinstein Rosenthal, the network helps congregations create a vision for effective family engagement in their communities. Over the course of the program year, the 20 member congregations participate in five webinars that go beyond the basics of family programming and delve into topics of interest for kehillot seeking to take their family engagement efforts to the next level. In addition to the webinar series, network members are able to connect with each other and share resources and ideas.

44  CJ – Voices of conservative /masorti judaism Spring 2015

Everyone’s Included In February, USCJ welcomed 17 kehillot to the Ruderman Inclusion Action Community, an initiative that aims to create congregations where people with disabilities and their families can participate fully in congregational life. In addition, USCJ will continue to offer resources to all our member congregations to help them create more inclusive communities. The Inclusion Action Community was made possible with a grant from the Ruderman Family Foundation. (See our Q&A with foundation president Jay Ruderman on page 10.) To learn more about the initiative, contact Ed Frim, USCJ Ruderman Inclusion Specialist, at inclusion@uscj.org or at 412.951.5415.

Sulam for Emerging Leaders – including for fourth-time participant Rabbi Philip Graubart (Beth El; La Jolla, CA) – and the Sulam for Current Leaders Action Community; they also led a workshop entitled “Getting Organized to Get Connected: Membership and Marketing Plans for a Changing World.”

Todah Rabbah Thanks to Congregation Beth Yeshurun in Houston, Texas, for hosting USCJ’s Large Congregations Conference last month.

Thanks also to the Tuttleman Family Foundation for their generous sponsorship, as well as to the speakers and the 19 congregations that participated.

Ed Frim, USCJ inclusion specialist

SULAM Comes to Southern California Over the course of three days in December, representatives of 27 congregations – from Nevada and from all around California – came to USCJ’s Pacific Southwest regional office in Los Angeles to learn from and with each other. Participants had the opportunity to hear from Bob Leventhal, USCJ leadership specialist, and Jay Weiner, USCJ transformation specialist, during several sessions. Bob and Jay led sessions for programs like

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Women’s League for Conservative Judaism Visit us at www.wlcj.org.

CROSSING THE THRESHOLD

by Sarrae G. Crane

I

n a recent burst of cleaning, I found a well-thumbed copy of Across the Threshold: a Guide for the Jewish Homemaker, by Shonie B. Levi and Sylvia R. Kaplan, which occupied a prominent place in my mother’s kitchen. Published

by Women’s League in 1959, it was reissued several times in the ’60s and finally in 1978 as A Guide for the Jewish Homemaker, and was often presented by sisSarrae Crane is terhoods to brides in their congregations. executive director of The book proclaimed: “The management Women’s League for of a home in the Jewish tradition is a digConservative Judaism. nified, important, and rewarding job.”

On the surface, the book’s hypothesis was that the role of the Jewish woman was to keep the home Jewish, to celebrate the holidays and to cook the meals that were appropriate for the holidays.

I wondered why the book was so important to my mother as she had grown up in a committed Jewish home and knew how to run one. A quick read through it gave me my answer.

Across the Threshold was actually a reference book to resources available in the Jewish community and the community-atlarge, offering information on what could be found in other organizations. In fact, it encouraged involvement in groups such as the League of Women Voters and American Association for the United Nations, and in other Jewish organizations such as Hadassah. In a world without the Internet, it helped readers find what they needed to add value to their lives and those of their families.

Although many elements of the book are dated – all married women had the same first names, Mrs; all families were presumed to consist of a mother, father and a few children; and tasks are clearly divided by gender – the values of maintaining

46 CJ – Voices of conservative /masorti judaism Spring 2015

Since its inception in 1918, Women’s League has sought to expand the role of Jewish women beyond the home and synagogue.

a Jewish home, participating in learning at all ages and community involvement (both Jewish and secular) continue to resonate with us.

Across the Threshold was and is a true reflection of Women’s League’s goals, prodding members to strengthen their commitment to Conservative Judaism through the sisterhood and synagogue, and in their homes, while urging them to be involved in the larger community.

Over the years, Women’s League has become the voice of Conservative Jewish women, taking its rightful place at many tables and forums. By 1950, we had resolutions in support of the United Nations and at the earliest opportunity obtained NGO (non-governmental organization) status. For over 60 years, our representatives have worked to encourage friends for Israel and combat anti-Semitism, and we have joined with other groups to ensure the rights of women and promote gender equality.

In 1972, Women’s League and four other women’s organizations joined the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, which until then was comprised of 23 organizations of men plus Hadassah and the National Council of Jewish Women. The Jewish Telegraphic Association coverage of the event began with: “The ‘Women’s Lib’ movement came to the Conference…”

Women’s League has adopted a comprehensive set of resolutions on domestic matters, encouraged its members to be proactive advocates, and partnered with responsible organizations on issues of common concern. We support a broad array of positions that enhance our democratic pluralistic society: health care, gender equality, the environment, reproductive choice, gun control, immigration laws, civil liberties and human rights.

Reflecting our concern for these issues, in the early 1980s we joined the National Jewish Community Relations Advisory

Council, now known as the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, which is the public policy forum for the American Jewish community. Our delegates play an active role, and its influence can be seen in Women’s League resolutions.

Within the Conservative movement, Women’s League has been a driving force for religious rights for women. Advocating for women being counted in a minyan and serving as gabbayot and hazzanim was only part of the equation. Kolot biK’dushah, established in the 1990s, provided the tools for individuals to master synagogue skills; the fruits of that effort are visible in egalitarian congregations across North America.

In the mid-’80s, when the arms of the movement created the Leadership Council of Conservative Judaism, Women’s League was one of its founding members and its leaders remain active.

An essential element of the mission of Women’s League is to reinforce bonds with Jews worldwide by nurturing a love of Israel among its members, promoting support of the Conservative/Masorti Movement in Israel, its synagogues and women’s groups, and religious pluralism. Masorti Women International is a vital outgrowth of this commitment.

Masorti women throughout Israel participate in annual Women’s League Days of Study, co-sponsored by the the Masorti Movement and the Schechter Institute in Jerusalem.

Women’s League has been committed to MERCAZ-USA and MERCAZ-Canada since their inception in the late 1970s. We are proud that three of our past presidents – Goldie Kweller, Evelyn Seelig and Janet Tobin – served as presidents of MERCAZ USA and that Marion Mayman currently serves as president of MERCAZ-Canada.

And as a sign of our dedication, Women’s League joined the American Zionist Movement in 2011.

Torah Fund on One Foot Rabbi Lilly Kaufman, Executive Director If you had to say, al regel achat (standing on one leg), what Torah Fund is, could you? To give you a hand, here are some favorite Torah Fund facts.

Torah Fund is the grassroots fundraising campaign of Women’s League for Conservative Judaism that supports the seminaries of the Conservative/Masorti movement: the Jewish Theological Seminary (New York), Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies (Los Angeles), and Schechter Institutes of Jewish Studies (Jerusalem). In addition, the Seminario Rabinico Latinoamericano, in Buenos Aires, is supported by gifts from Torah Fund Scholarship Patrons ($2500 annual gift).

You can give to Torah Fund at any amount, but there are special, named categories of giving, from $180 to 5000: Guardian, Associate Patron, Patron, and Scholarship Patron. Every donation of $180 or more is acknowledged with a lovely pin/pendant, designed each year exclusively for Torah Fund, with different stones for each level of giving. The pin’s theme is coordinated with the Women’s League programming theme, reinforcing the connection of Conservative/Masorti women with life-long Jewish learning.

Donors to Keter Kavod ($5,000+), our highest level, are presented with a special pin featuring a Torah crown, which does not vary from year to year.

You knew all of this, right? Terrific! But there is also much that is new and innovative about the way we are doing business at Torah Fund.

Taking a cue from President Carol Simon’s energized and visionary leadership of Women’s League, International Torah Fund Chair Debbi Kaner Goldich has incorporated leadership teams into the way we work. The different levels of giving are overseen by three committees; the Torah Fund Advisory Committee provides direction and support; the Planned Giving Committee is developing a simple plan to extend annual Torah Fund gifts in perpetuity. We are especially appreciative of the region Torah Fund vice presidents, whose enormous dedication and talent are matched by the sisterhood chairs they serve at synagogues throughout their regions.

We are also reaching out directly to our grassroots as Debbi travels to individual sisterhoods, both to speak about Torah Fund and as a Women’s League consultant. I, too, travel to regions, teaching and speaking at Days of Study and Torah Fund events.

Our ways of doing business may be changing, but our core mission remains the same. We support the essential work of the seminaries of the Conservative/Masorti movement – educating the rabbis, cantors, educators, scholars, and future lay leaders that our communities need to energize the ‘vital center’ of religious Jewish life in North America and beyond. CJ

continues on page 55

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Women’s League for Conservative Judaism

Text and Context: A Haman by Any Other Name Would Be Just as Bad A look into the Women’s League archives reminds us that throughout history evil has not been something abstract, but rather a reflection of the very real people responsible for it.

By Lisa Kogen, Education Director of Women’s League

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anukkah, Purim, Pesach – why is it that so many of our celebrations feature bad guys?

Even today, we Jews often see ourselves as just one Haman away from disaster.

The narrative is the same. Names and faces appear and then disappear. Today, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Bashar al-Assad or Jean-Marie Le Pen are well known, and we are convinced that their words and behavior will be seared in our collective memory forever.

But forever can be a very short time. In perusing the earliest editions of Outlook magazine, Women’s League’s precursor to CJ, I came across this short, unattributed piece from February, 1931.

A Merry Purim “An Ahasueras, an Esther, a Mordecai – what an asset they would be for the Jews in the many lands where Hamans still flourish. In how many lands are Jews attempting merrily to observe Purim with tears in their eyes and fear in their hearts!

There is Haman Passfield, Haman Simpson, Haman Hitler, Haman Soviet, Haman Pilsudski, Haman Bethlen, Haman Cusa and a great many little Hamans.”

How many of these Hamans from 1931 are identifiable today? Of course, Haman Hitler was already ensconced as the leader of the National Socialist German Workers’ Party and a charismatic orator

who was captivating audiences with his rabid German nationalism and virulent anti-Semitism.

Haman Soviet. An interesting choice of name. Rather than characterize any single individual, the entire Soviet apparatus was viewed as a collective Haman. Suffice it to say that there were enough American Jews who did not view the Soviet experience as good for the Jews. The absence of Stalin, specifically, is only because in 1931 he had not yet begun to unleash his immense capacity for evil.

Haman Hitler. Haman Soviet. Check.

Now on to Hamans Passfield, Simpson, Pilsudski, Bethlen, and Cusa.

Haman Sidney James Webb, Lord Passfield, was King George V’s colonial secretary who crafted the 1930 White Paper calling for further limitations of Jewish immigration to Palestine. The White Paper’s recommendation was based on a report filed earlier that year, commissioned in the aftermath of the Arab riots of 1929, written by Sir John Hope Simpson, Haman Simpson. Circulated within the Colonial Ministry, The Report on Immigration, Land Settlement and Development upheld continued British support for a Jewish national home in Palestine, but its anti-Jewish tone criticized institutions such as the Jewish Agency for promoting Jewish employment and further land acquisition, both of which they

48 CJ – Voices of conservative /masorti judaism Spring 2015

regarded as damaging to the economic development of the Arab population.

The White Paper concluded that “in the light of the examination to which immigration and unemployment problems have been subjected, His Majesty’s Government regard their action in the suspension of immigration under the Labour Schedule last May as fully justified.” The implications of creating a closed door policy for Jewish immigrants as virulent anti-Semitism spread across the European continent remains, to this day, unimaginably distressing.

Marshal Yozef Pilsudski, Haman Pilsudski, was head of state of the Second Republic of Poland from 1926-1935. No stranger to the Jews, the noble Pilsudski was born in Lithuania and his early activity with the Polish Socialist Party brought him in conflict with the Bund, the east European federation of Jewish socialist workers. By the early 1930s, with the rise of right-wing anti-Semitism and increased social and economic restrictions on Polish Jewry condoned by the government, Pilsudski was readily linked to their deteriorating situation. Even as early as 1931, it was not a mischaracterization. The Pilsudski government would sign a pact with Hitler three years later.

Haman Bethlen? Count István Bethlen served as Prime Minister of Hungary continues on page 55

Joining the Network Becomes Even Easier Women’s League for Conservative Judaism has opened the doors to individual membership.

by Anne Nicolson, Individual Membership Chair

I

n the old days, before computers were ubiquitous and everyone had a Facebook page, joining an affiliated sisterhood was the only way to benefit from membership in Women’s League, what has been the world’s largest synagogue-based women’s organization for almost a century.

But in 2012, with the goal of being a network for all Conservative Jewish women, individual members were invited to join our ranks. Counted among our individual members are women whose synagogues have closed or sisterhoods folded, women who are home-bound or who live in far-flung places with few Jewish options, as well as members of the military or their spouses.

They are professionals who can’t get away for traditional meetings, young mothers who can use the online support, snow birds who don’t want to join another sisterhood.

This sisterhood without borders is possible thanks in large part to new technologies and social media. With our education programs no longer limited to seminary campuses in Los Angeles and New York, the Women’s League website offers amazing opportunities for learning and expanding every woman’s personal Jewish growth.

We look forward to new media opening a wide range of possibilities beyond the discussion groups we already host online.

The latest offering, open to all members, is Women’s League Reads, an online book group whose inaugural title was Phyllis

Chesler’s acclaimed An American Bride in Kabul.

Individual members join for a variety of reasons. For Lori Beth Susman, of Biloxi, Mississippi, individual membership lets her share in “all the good work that Women’s League does.” Lori Beth is hopeful that one day Biloxi might have its own sisterhood, but in the meantime, she is grateful to receive CJ Magazine, and news and updates from an internationally recognized organization as well as from her local region. For her, Women’s League “brings Judaism to women all over the country,” and keeps her connected with other Jewish women. For Judith Kranz individual membership is the best fit now that she is retired. She is very committed to Conservative Judaism and membership in Women’s League helps her maintain that connection.

E

ven in Manhattan, individual membership can be the right choice.

Fanny Freund, a member of one of the oldest Conservative synagogues in New York City and a long-time supporter of Women’s League, wanted to maintain that link when her sisterhood became too small to be viable. She says individual membership won’t “make me poorer” and stays connected online and through her region’s Torah Fund events.

When dedicated Women’s League volunteer Terry Winston had to take a leave of

absence from her many roles in the organization, she was very grateful to maintain an individual membership. For her, too, there was a need to belong. While she hopes to become involved with a sisterhood when in Florida, individual membership is the right choice when at home in Toronto.

Karen Gartner “believes in belonging.”

Knowing that the organization is there and being part of something larger than herself are important to Karen. Similarly, Lisa KingSmith, of Lake Katrine, New York, finds that because of her connections, “wherever we go, we know somebody.” There is always a connection to share Shabbat. She adds, “You don’t get that anywhere else.” She benefits from the online discussion groups and finds inspiration at conferences and conventions – and so does her husband!

He commented that it is awe-inspiring to be singing Birkat HaMazon with 800 people and discover that you are the only baritone.

As a Women’s League trainer, Sally Abbey touched the lives of many. But when she returned to her roots in Rhode Island after many years of living in Connecticut, she was disappointed to discover that there are no affiliated sisterhoods in the entire state. So today, as an individual member, Sally is able to maintain those connections forged over years.

Every member of Women’s League has a different story, but they all can have a voice in the expanding network of Conservative Jewish women. Women’s League perpetuates Conservative/Masorti Judaism in our homes and synagogues and in communities around the world. Joining is simple.

Go to www.wlcj.org, and click JOIN. The cost of individual membership is $36. (Students and members of the military: $18; those 75 and older: $25) Membership in Women’s League also makes a meaningful gift to your daughters, sisters, friends. CJ

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federation of jewish men’s clubs

A Serendipitous Florida Shiddach A chance meeting of the leaders of two vibrant Jewish organizations has resulted in the development of a mutually beneficial relationship.

by Michael Brassloff

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his past fall, the FJMC’s executive committee held its quarterly meeting at the Hilton Altamonte Springs. At some point during the weekend, FJMC Executive Director Rabbi Charles Simon was introduced to Aaron Weil, who was attending a gala at the same hotel. Weil, the executive director and CEO of the Central Florida Hillel, mentioned that his Hillel was looking for two Torah scrolls. Rabbi Simon then assigned the task of finding those Torahs to Charlie Deutch, a vice president of FJMC’s Florida Region whose daughter had been very active in the University of Central Florida Hillel. It was Charlie who had orchestrated the meeting of the three men.

It turned out that two Palm Beach County congregations – Temple Emeth, Delray Beach, and Temple Torah of West Boynton Beach – were in the process of merging, resulting in the creation of Temple Torat Emet. Charlie Deutch, an active member of Temple Torah, contacted his rabbi, Edward Bernstein, Ritual Director Elliot Fagen, and it just so happens, his wife, Cheri Deutch, past Michael Brassloff is is a member of the editorial committee of CJ:Voices of Conservative/Masorti Judaism.

president of the congregation, asking whether as a result of the merger there might be a Torah that would need a new home. He was thus able to secure the “permanent loan” of a Torah for the Central Florida Hillel. So now, the search is on for one more Torah! When the leadership of Temple Emanu-El in Palm Beach learned of Central Florida Hillel’s needs, they provided an ark to house the Torahs.

The letter that follows provides additional insight into how the efforts of the FJMC, its constituent clubs and individual members make a significant impact on the Jewish community.

Good Morning Rabbi Simon, Charlie et al, I am thrilled to share with you that Charlie’s efforts have produced the first Torah and we are working now with Temple Torah on the necessary documents to insure and transfer the Torah.

One of the requirements is the ability to secure the Torah in a safe and appropriate space. Through Sam Friedman’s (our new director of community relations) efforts, we are securing a new donation of a beautiful ark that will be coming to us next month. This stunning wood and stained glass ark is built for two Torahs and Sam will be sending Charlie that letter you requested, in the next day or so.

50 CJ – Voices of conservative /masorti judaism Spring 2015

Rabbi Simon, true to your word and yet to my utter amazement, I am now happy to say that I share your confidence that we will indeed be able to secure a second one, not the least because we have such a strong leader like Charlie in our corner!

I admittedly knew all too little about the FJMC prior to our meeting, but want to assure you that this interaction has left an indelible mark on me going forward.

If the Rothschilds were able to reach such levels of influence across Europe (beyond their “brick and mortar banks” due to their network of relationships), I can see how the FJMC is similarly not limited to the confines of any given shul.

Thank you for opening my eyes to this, thank you so much for opening this network to us in the Hillel world. At a later date, we indeed should explore how to curricularize this relationship in a manner that educates our students for years to come on just how they came to have access to their own Torahatot.

How fitting that college students from across Florida and the nation who are gathered at UCF will now have torah because of the men of the FJMC. It calls to mind the ladder of tzedekah where among the highest form is indeed giving anonymously to those who receive anonymously.

I think that we can do honor to this tradition, while still using this an an opportunity to educate our young men about the FJMC so that when they are older and ready to take their place as congregants somewhere that when FJMC comes calling, they understand the opportunity, the obligation and the joy. CJ

TM

Engage with the top thinkers and leaders in Conservative Judaism.

Creating a Minyan of Comfort: A New FJMC-Cantors Assembly Initiative

Engage our body and spirit Engage with Jewish men from around the globe in camaraderie, education, leadership development and fun!

Dave Mandell

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he Federation of Jewish Men’s Clubs has developed and implemented many innovative programs over the years. The most recent, Creating a Minyan of Comfort, is a joint effort with the Cantors Assembly. It is designed to teach men and women about the ritual, halachic, and social needs of a shiva minyan, as well as how to lead one. The rituals include chanting the prayers, the flow and mood of the service, and offering concluding thoughts, especially on the last night of the shiva period.

In addition to the laws, just as important is recognizing the needs and comfort levels of both knowledgeable and uninitiated worshippers, as well as utilizing various

Dave Mandell served as the 2014 LDI Chair. He is a member of the FJMC Executive Committee and a past president of the New Jersey Region.

strategies to be supportive of the mourners and the others in attendance.

Created by Dr. Robert Braitman (a past president of FJMC) and Hazzan Steven Stoehr (past president of the Cantors Assembly), Creating a Minyan of Comfort was successfully piloted in the Midwest Region in November 2014 by the Men’s Clubs of Congregation Beth Shalom, led by Hazzan Stoehr, and of Congregation Beth Judea, led by Hazzan Roger Weisberg. It was also piloted successfully in January 2015 by participants in the Geffen Leadership Development Institute at the Pearlstone Conference Center. The feedback has been very positive.

Delegates to the FJMC biennial convention (July 8-12 at the Deauville Hotel in Miami Beach Florida) will have the opportunity to participate in another session of Creating a Minyan of Comfort.

Graduates of the course receive a certificate of completion from FJMC and the Cantors Assembly. CJ

World Class Thinkers in the Movement Speaking Rabbi Irwin Kula National Jewish Center for Learning and Leadership (CLAL), speaking on “Tribe to Wisdom: Jewish life in the Early 21st Century” Eric Fingerhut Hillel International, speaking on “Being Jewish on the College Campus” Menachem ROSENSAFT World Jewish Congress, speaking on Holocaust Remembrance “Transferred Memory: A Legacy for Empowerment” We are not your Father’s or Grandfather’s Mens Club – We are the Shul you will want to Join.

Sessions where you learn: • to lead a minyan of comfort • • fund raising techniques • • how to institute a Shabbat @ home program •

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federation of jewish men’s clubs

A Journey to Jewish Identity A young refugee finds comfort and community in Judaism.

by Michael Brassloff

At a family wedding after the war, Malka is the little woman wearing a hat and the author is the boy looking up at the group.

I

was born in England during the Second World War, and didn’t know I was Jewish for many years. My parents, refugees from Vienna, were friends in Austria who like many other young Jews, were influenced by the artistic, cultural and intellectual movements of the time. Apparently, wanting to assimilate, they repudiated their Jewish roots. My father registered with the authorities as an atheist and my mother told her mother not to speak Yiddish to her in public. And, supposedly, they made a point of going to a public cafe during Kol Nidre. They escaped the Nazis through different routes and were reunited in England in 1940. Had Hitler not come along, they probably would never have married, since they came from very different backgrounds.

However, the war brought them together and they were married in 1942 in Oxford.

I was born in May, 1944 in Birmingham.

I was given the name Michael Stephen, after my maternal grandmother, Malka, who was missing during the war and presumed dead. However, after the war ended, she was found living in an institution for Jewish seniors in Brussels created by the Belgian Queen Mother Elizabeth. Sometime in 1939 when she was already 73 years old, Malka missed the last boat out of Antwerp and had to fend for herself. We have no idea how she survived, although she probably gained some survival skills growing up in a shtetl in what is now the Ukraine. The family brought her to England to be reunited with her two daughters and grandchildren.

My middle name, Stephen, was my paternal grandfather’s name. He was an assimilated Jew who taught Roman Law at Vienna University. Although he and his wife had affidavits to come to America, they were

52 CJ – Voices of conservative /masorti judaism Spring 2015

deported to Terezin where they died of illnesses caused by the deplorable conditions at the camp.

My parents eventually divorced and my mother and I emigrated to the United States where we first lived in Reading, Pennsylvania. It was in Reading that I started developing a Jewish identity. We joined Kesher Zion Synagogue where I attended Hebrew school and had my bar mitzvah. It meant a lot to me that the rabbi, cantor and teachers took an interest in my welfare.

I met my wife at Temple University and once we had children, we became full-fledged members of the Northeast Philadelphia Jewish community. We sent our children to a Jewish nursery school, joined a synagogue and then sent our children to the local Solomon Schechter day school. We became very involved in both institutions, feeling that we should set an example for our children. We observed the Shabbat rituals and had regular Shabbat dinners with friends and their children.

We were very active at Oxford Circle Jewish Community Centre, my wife in the sisterhood and me in the men’s club and congregation. I became men’s club president in 1983, regional president in 1990 and held various positions within the Federation of Jewish Men’s Clubs for over a decade. My experiences within the men’s club movement were the culminating influences on my journey to finding my Jewish identity. The sense of being part of a dynamic, innovative Jewish organization as well as the camaraderie were very gratifying and fulfilling.

Our children have found their own Jewish identities. Our son belongs to a Conservative synagogue in Florida and our daughter is connected to the local Orthodox community. And all of our five grandchildren are well on their way, each on a different journey. Some are straightforward, others more circuitous.

This is my journey and hopefully it’s not yet over! CJ

Letters

continued from page 6

how positive iS THE MOVEMENT?

DON’T DIS KOUFAX

Like Rabbi Joshua Rabin, I am a born and bred Conservative Jew. I, too, am optimistic about the future of the Conservative movement, but I take great exception with some of Rabbi Rabin’s article. Specifically, I find it in poor taste to refer to Chabad and other wonderful Jewish movements as “disruptive.” He specifically does this twice in the article, so it is no inadvertent slip.

I am a founding member of the Conservative shul I attend, but sometimes go to Shabbos services at the local Chabad because of the different atmosphere and special ruach I find there. My adult daughter is not a shul member where she lives, but attends different minyanim at times.

Why insult such organizations – and by implication those of us who participate in them? Does this make the Conservative Movement better? Not in my eyes. I think Rabbi Rabin and the editors of CJ need to clarify and/or apologize for this insulting tone to fellow Jews.

I read your article in the fall issue entitled “The Koufax Midrash” by Rabbi Jeremy Fine (Fall 2014) and found it quite disturbing.

Growing up in Brooklyn many years ago, Sandy Koufax was an icon and idolized as a baseball great. Kids looked up to him for setting an example by not playing an important game on Yom Kippur. Jews all over the country applauded him and were so proud that he set an example of what was important. He led the way for schools not to penalize their Jewish players for not playing on an important Jewish holiday.

What did Rabbi Fine want to accomplish by writing this article as to Sandy Koufax’s whereabouts on that day? This is 49 years later and who cares where he spent that day! To go into detail in his article is ludicrous and unwarranted.

Allan T. Goldberg, Alpharetta, Georgia

RABBI RABIN RESPONDS:

The term “disruptive” was originally coined by Clayton Christensen, a professor at Harvard Business School. “Disruptive innovation” is a technical term that refers to a product or service that significantly alters the traditional model of an industry or group of organizations.

For example, most synagogues rely on membership dues from families to raise a sizable portion of their operating budget.

However, because Chabad generally does not charge membership dues to perform its functions, the presence of Chabad in a Jewish community “disrupts” the traditional structure of a synagogue. At the United Synagogue Centennial, Erica Brown spoke about disruptive innovation, using the term as a phenomenon we need to understand, rather than a negative descriptor of an organization itself.

Raquelle Schmier, Glen Rock, New Jersey A CRUCIAL COLLEGE QUESTION The ar ticles on what to look for in prospective colleges (Fall 2014) omitted a ver y impor tant subject: hostility to Israel. After a Jewish student was assaulted at Temple University by a member of Students for Justice in Palestine, ever y prospective Jewish student needs to consider the anti-Semitic climate on campuses.

Hostility to the Jewish state is becoming violent. On many campuses Jewish students are intimidated by professors who are openly hostile to those who support Israel. When looking at colleges ask whether there is a BDS movement on campus. Ask whether the local Hillel is pro-Israel or not. Don’t take it for granted.

See if there are Stand With Us or CAMERA activists on campus.

I am not saying that one shouldn’t go to campuses that have an active anti-Israel movement, but Jewish students should be aware of the hostility they may face.

Don’t expect honest answers from the administration or Hillel leaders. Most of

them are in denial about the problems Jewish students face, as well as their failure to adequately deal with them. I suggest that you read the campus newspapers or research online about BDS at various campuses.

Unfortunately, I know too many Jewish students whose college experience was soured by anti-Israel zealots including threats of violence.

Gil Stein, Aptos, California WHAT ABOUT THE SIBLINGS? As inspiring as Rabbi Sherman’s article was (“The Broken and the Whole,” Fall 2014) about his son Eyal, there was one thing missing from his account – how he and his wife managed to care for their other children during this time and how those children dealt with parents who often felt obligated to spend those long hours with their sibling. Often the siblings of a special needs child feel shortchanged and can’t express their need for attention out of guilt that their needs are not as important. I would very much like Rabbi Sherman to write about how he and his wife handled this problem.

Barry Ivker, Birmingham, Alabama

Apologies to MERCAZ-Canada We were extremely disappointed to see that MERCAZ‑Canada was left out of the announcement of the winners of the MERCAZ USA, MERCAZ-Canada, and Women’s League Essay Contest (CJ Shorts, Fall 2014). Since its inception, MERCAZ-Canada has been a partner in the contest. MERCAZ-Canada has thousands of members who receive CJ and who will be surprised to see our name left out. We spend much time working to ensure Canadian teens participate in these programs and building connections with our movement.

MERCAZ-Canada

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god loves stories

BOOKS: J

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the prestigious NSN Lifetime Achievement award.

Bonnie Greenberg is a co-chair of the 25-year-old Jewish Storytelling Coalition (jewishstorytelling.org). Her tales, often told to guitar or bongo, are rooted in her Appalachian childhood, her life in Israel, and her travels abroad.

Amichai Lau-Lavie is the Israeli-born founding director of Storahtelling, Inc., and the spiritual leader of Lab/Shul, a New York City-based group dedicated to Jewish teaching through storytelling, ritual theater and performance art.

Rabbi Goldie Milgram is founding director of Reclaiming Judaism and editor-inchief of Reclaiming Judaism Press, which has published two story anthologies on the topic of mitzvot. Along with Peninnah Schram, she developed the Jewish Spiritual Education (JSE) Maggid-Educator Ordination Program. “Several decades back,” Rabbi Milgram said, “Rabbi Zalman Schachter-Shalomi decided to re-introduce a number of ordinations that once existed in Jewish life. One of these was maggid, specifically focused upon the telling of Hassidic stories. For many decades Reb Zalman had urged me, as his shlichhah, to establish a rigorous pan-denominational educator training in the emerging field of Jewish spiritual education.”

“Nothing is better than love,” is the type of advice Ofnow dispenses to the country, while promoting the idea that ”the past exists in order that we forget it.”

Esme Nussbaum, an Ofnow employee and the sole character in this absorbing novel who has not forgotten the past, is unnerved by the aggressiveness and casual violence. She believes in learning from the past (which she realizes only when she is in a coma) and envisions a plan to correct society’s ills, but she is thwarted by those in power who refuse to act. Years later, her second plan will hinge on the actions of the two lovers she has deliberately thrown together to save the world from disaster.

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e are kept guessing until the final pages. Who are these people and this society? And what actually happened in the past and why? Jacobson is often touted as the “British Phillip Roth” due to his sardonic wit and choice of themes, and his previous Booker Prize-winning tragicomic novel about English Jewry called The Finkler Question, was funnier than this dark satire.

Readers need to work hard to figure out the meanings of the fragments of letters, fables and accounts of historical persecutions of Jews that are interspersed every few chapters. The novel was selected for the 2014 Booker Prize

Scholar/storyteller Peninnah Schram is a professor at Stern College and the author/ editor of numerous collections of Jewish stories. She was recently featured as a storytelling educator at Limmud Boston.

Still think of storytelling as a guilty pleasure? Look no further than Elie Wiesel for justification. “God created man,” the Nobel Prize winner wrote, “because God love stories.” CJ

54 CJ – Voices of conservative /masorti judaism Spring 2015

Find more reader comments and submit your own comments to CJVoices.org Write to us!

Send a letter to our editors at aglick@uscj.org and rkahn@wlcj. org. Or write to: CJ Magazine, 820 Second Ave., 10th Floor, New York, NY 10017-4504

short list because of its literary excellence and thought-provoking ideas, not because it’s a light read. CJ

BOOKS: HENNA HOUSE continued from page 41

mother, Adela’s Aunt Rahel, is the true henna mistress, and through her we begin to understand the power of the ancient rituals. When asked why she chooses to draw her intricate designs on people, instead of paper, Rahel replies, “Paper is for men. Parchment is skin.

The Torah is written on the skin of an animal. So, you see, skin has holiness…. the patterns, the elements. The recipes.

They belong to all of us. To any woman who has ever held a stylus in her hand.”

The use of Yemenite and henna terminology, and the mysteries of the symbols, their meanings, and their relationship to the Hebrew language, are fascinating. Nomi Eve clearly did a tremendous amount of research about the Yemenite world. This is really a comingof-age story, but one that grows more absorbing with each chapter, as we watch the beautiful Adela and her family play out their lives over the changing fortunes of the Jewish experience in Arabia from a time that is no more. CJ

CROSSING THE THRESHHOLD continued from page 47

Women’s League has always modeled the concepts that Levi and Kaplan advocated in that well-used book from my family kitchen, by providing women with the tools to create vibrant Jewish homes while asserting our collective voice for the good of the greater community. The combined values of our themes for the last several years – Hiddur Mitzvah, enhancing modern observance, and Mispachah, focusing on the modern Jewish family in its many manifestations – along with our commitment to tikkun olam are what have attracted women since 1918 and continue to give meaning to its membership today. CJ

TEXT AND CONTEXT continued from page 48

from 1921 to 1931 when he led his country into the League of Nations and arranged a close alliance with Fascist Italy. Although he later opposed an alliance with Nazi Germany, as the rising tide of anti-Semitism surged unchecked into Hungary, Bethlen became the political figure most closely associated with worsening situation for Hungarian Jews.

As we continue down this list of earlymid 20th century Hamans, why is Nicholas of Cusa (1401-1464) included? Cusa was a German cardinal who convened the synod of Bamberg that condoned the Church’s policy that Jews wear a distinctive badge. He was certainly not the first Christian prelate to propose this humiliation, nor was he the most virulent.

His proto-humanist writings, in fact, suggest a modicum of understanding and appreciation of Jewish and Islamic writings. How Haman Cusa surfaces in this collection of personae non grata is a mystery.

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hat does this meandering historical trek through the yellowed pages of a 1931 issue of Outlook reveal about that moment in time and the women who wrote about it? It demonstrates that the familiar becomes distant. Hamans come, and Hamans go. Of course, some are so heinous that they are indelibly imprinted on our collective historical conscience while some become the subjects of Jewish trivia.

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ut it tells us also that already early in its existence, Women’s League and its leaders were concerned about matters far outside, and certainly more grave, than what they confronted in their relatively secure lives. Purim was not really about hamentaschen and noise makers. Purim was about truly endangered communities. Purim was a time to be aware and alert and offer hopeful prayer that these 20th century Hamans would go the way of all Hamans. How little they knew at that moment, yet how right they were. CJ

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the last word

What’s the Cure for an Immunity to Change?

By Rabbi Joshua Rabin

A

few years ago, Professors Charlotte Perhaps you want to lose ten pounds. At the same and Patrick Markey published a study in time, you don’t want to feel bored, which leads you the Journal of Health Psychology about how to snack excessively when you see that extra bag of often people searched for information on Google potato chips in your kitchen cabinet. When you snack, about weight loss programs. The researchers found your explicit commitment to lose weight comes into that Google searches for keywords such as “diet” or direct conflict with your hidden commitment to over“Weight Watchers” increased roughly 29 percent every coming boredom. As a result, while you may say that you want to lose 10 pounds, you may be completely year from December until the end of January, and then unaware of the hidden commitments that make this fell every month until the end of the following year, at Rabbi goal unattainable. which point the process would repeat. The statistical Joshua Rabin trends in this study confirm what most of us already Turning to the Jewish world, perhaps your synais the director of suspect, that one of the most popular New Year’s resogogue wants to recruit younger members, reimagine Kehilla Enrichment lutions falls into the category of something many of your educational program for teenagers, develop a at the United Synaus claim to want to change, yet consistently fail to do. more functional board of trustees, or change the culgogue of ConservaAs someone who works in the Jewish community, ture around fundraising and development. While this tive Judaism and I’m involved in a lot of discussions about change, desire is no doubt heartfelt, the first step to ensuring program director of which is on the minds of pretty much all of our lay that these goals are attainable is for synagogue leaders the 2015 USCJ Conleaders and professionals. And most of us have heard to identify all the ways in which commitments their vention, which will some version of the following refrains: “Synagogues institution makes right now impede the goals they be taking place from won’t change.” “Jewish organizations stifle change.” want to achieve. These commitments are normal, November 13-17 “The Conservative movement can’t change.” and based on good intentions. Yet if we pretend that in Schaumburg, they do not exist, we will never succeed in getting out I understand where these feelings come from.

Illinois. of the cycles necessary to strengthen and transform Resistance to change is as much a problem in Jewish institutions as it is for the millions of people who resolve to eat our kehillot.

So the big question of course is this, “What’s the cure for our better and exercise more.

However, the real problem is not that people or institutions immunity to change?” The answer will be different for every don’t want to change; the problem is the psychological barrier kehilla, yet engaging in learning and reflective practice to find to substantive personal or institutional change of which most our own cure requires a community of motivated, thoughtof us are unaware. The greatest obstacles to change come from ful, and passionate leaders. That’s why I invite you to join me within, a result of deep commitments we make to ourselves that and more than 1,000 other Jewish leaders this November for United Synagogue’s biennial convention, where we will have a impede the very changes we claim we want to make.

Robert Kegan and Lisa Lahey, of Harvard University, call this chance to learn with Professor Robert Kegan about “immunity phenomenon “immunity to change,” a concept I believe can to change” and how to overcome it.

In the book of Mishlei (Proverbs), we are told, “Let the wise transform the way we lead our Jewish institutions. In a 2011 article in the Harvard Business Review entitled “The Real Reason listen and add to their learning, and let the discerning get guidPeople Won’t Change,” Kegan and Lahey explain: ance” (1:5). The more we become aware of how individual and “Resistance to change does not reflect opposition, nor is it collective commitments stifle our ability to achieve our goals, merely a result of inertia. Instead, even as they hold a sincere the better we will all be at strengthening and transforming kehcommitment to change, many people are unwittingly applying illot across the globe. Change is difficult, but always possible, productive energy toward a hidden competing commitment. and if we come together and challenge one another to cure our The resulting dynamic equilibrium stalls the effort in what immunity to change, we will be the builders who reshape the looks like resistance but is in fact a kind of personal immunity center of Judaism for generations to come.CJ to change.”

56 CJ – Voices of conservative /masorti judaism Spring 2015

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