NorCal Board of Rabbis leaders get their 15-minute close-ups

DAN PINE | J. STAFF

More than 100 people gathered online last week to honor all of the rabbis who serve the Bay Area Jewish community — and, more specifically, the 21 rabbis who have held positions as president or director of the Northern California Board of Rabbis over the years.

“It’s a pleasure to be in ‘Hollywood Squares’ with all of you,” said Danny Grossman, CEO of the S.F.-based Jewish Community Federation, joking about the now-familiar look of a Zoom gathering. “Our partnership with the Board of Rabbis is because we recognize the core importance of rabbis to this community. You make our Jewish community and our world a better place.”

The 90-minute event on Nov. 15 was sponsored by a cross-section of Bay Area synagogues and organizations, including the Federation, the Jewish Community Relations Council, the S.F.-based Consulate General of Israel and this publication. Nine speakers took turns praising the Northern California Board of Rabbis, whose 300-odd members include a majority of local rabbis.

The multidenominational organization, with roots stretching back some 150 years, has a long history of partnering with Bay Area Jewish institutions to address issues of concern and serve as a bridge to non-Jewish communities. Founded at the time of the Gold Rush, the organization originally was called the Jewish Board of Ministers. The history page at Norcalrabbis.org recalls how the board “responded to the needs of those in cults, Moonies, the Flower Children and other [non-Jewishly-affiliated] young people” in the 1960s and 1970s, and states emphatically how the board exemplified “pluralism” and set “a climate where cooperation, respect and collegiality prevail.”

The Board of Rabbis is the endorsing agency for Jewish chaplains in state prisons and other institutions, it offers information and referrals about Judaism and the Jewish community, and it sponsors events. It also aims to raise awareness on many issues, from access for the disabled to the laws of kashrut to the death penalty, serving “as a Jewish religious voice in the Jewish and general communities,” according to its website.

At the event, Shlomi Kofman, the S.F.based consul general for Israel, reminisced about the trips to Israel (some of which he went on) that the board has organized for local rabbis. “I learned more than ever the strong commitment each of the rabbis and congregations have with Israel,” Kofman said. “Not always agreeing with everything, but what’s new? The relationship and connection will continue.”

Tye Gregory, JCRC’s executive director since June, cited many examples of collaboration between his organization and the board over time — from successfully fighting a proposed circumcision ban in San Francisco about 10 years ago to the current push to make sure the Jewish American story is included in a proposed ethnic studies curriculum for high school students. “The leadership you displayed, bringing congregations into [these fights], made all the difference,” Gregory said.

Rabbi Doug Kahn, a former JCRC executive director, was one of several speakers to praise Rabbi Malcolm Sparer, who died in April. Sparer, who led the board for several years in the 1980s, played a key role in the fight to save Soviet Jews and in outreach to Christians, Kahn noted. “The work of the Board of Rabbis in the interfaith space was critically important,” Kahn said. “He set the tone of our cooperation for many years to come.”

Sparer also turned the board into a more serious body than it had ever been, said Rabbi Jacob Traub, who led Adath Israel in San Francisco for 38 years. Before Sparer, he said, the board would meet once a month to talk “about this or that. Nothing at all heavy.” After Sparer, each board president had to step up as “an activist.”

Sam Salkin, executive director of Sinai Memorial Chapel, praised what he sees as the Board of Rabbis’ strong interdenominational cooperation. “Your ability to be different from each other and at the same time be collaborators is a very unusual thing,” he said. “It’s important to recognize the collective leadership of the board. [It] has provided an essential part of the infrastructure of our community.”

Former board executive director Rabbi Marv Goodman used his time to praise Lisa Finkelstein, who serves as the board’s administrator. “She’s honest,” he said, “overly honest sometimes. She has helped hold us together these past several years. Where would we be without her? I guarantee our presidents don’t want to think about it.”

Rabbi Pam Frydman, a past president of the board, organized the event and co-hosted it with the current president, Rabbi Andrew Straus. A list of 20 of the rabbis honored can be viewed at tinyurl. com/ncbr-honorees. Rabbi Sheldon Lewis, a former board president and rabbi emeritus of Kol Emeth in Palo Alto, was also an honoree.

The event ended with some shmoozing time among the participants and the rabbis, a welcome respite from months of pandemic-induced isolation. n

Rabbi Marvin Goodman Rabbi Sheldon Lewis All that glitters is not gold in Corie Adjmi’s wonderful short story collection

“A compelling collection that captures the mystery and menace beneath love and family life.” —Kirkus Review https://corieadjmi.com

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Jewish backstory on Biden’s choice for secretary of state

GABE FRIEDMAN | JTA

Tony Blinken, President-elect Joe Biden’s choice for secretary of state, is the stepson of a Holocaust survivor whose stories shaped his worldview and subsequently his policy decisions. Biden named Blinken, who is Jewish, to the post on Nov. 23.

The former high-ranking official in the Obama administration has been one of Biden’s closest policy advisers for more than a decade and espouses the opposite of Donald Trump’s “America First” agenda.

Multiple reports said that Blinken, 58, will seek to rejoin many of the international agreements that Trump left, notably the Paris climate accord and the Iran nuclear deal.

Under Blinken, the State Department will usher in a much different foreign policy era, including on Israel.

Blinken was born in New York City, where he spent most of his early years. His father, Donald, co-founded the hefty E.M. Warburg Pincus and Co. (now Warburg Pincus) investment firm and served as the U.S. ambassador to Hungary for four years in the Clinton administration.

There is an archive at George Soros’ Central European University in Hungary named for Donald Blinken, 95, and his second wife, Vera, who survived the Holocaust.

Donald Blinken’s grandfather Meir Blinken was a noted Yiddish author whose stories were published in a 1980s book that features an introduction by scholar Ruth Wisse.

Tony’s mother, Judith, remarried Samuel Pisar, a Holocaust survivor and attorney who advised President John F. Kennedy and multiple French presidents. Pisar survived three concentration camps, worked for the United Nations, wrote a libretto titled “Kaddish: A Dialogue With God” (at the behest of Leonard Bernstein) and penned an award-winning memoir about his Holocaust experiences. There is a Yad Vashem program named after him.

Tony Blinken has said that Pisar’s experiences have informed his vision for the “engaged” role that the United States should play on the global stage. Here’s one story he tells frequently, via Jewish Insider:

“One day as they were hiding out, they heard this deep rumbling sound, and as my stepfather looked out, he saw a sight that he had never seen before — not the dreaded Iron Cross, not a swastika, but on a tank a five-pointed white star. And, maybe in a foolhardy way, he rushed out toward it. He knew what it was. And he got to the tank, the hatch opened up, and a large African American G.I. stared down at him. And he got down on his knees and he said the only three words that he knew in English, that his mother had taught him before the war: ‘God bless America.’ And at that point, the G.I. lifted him into the tank, into freedom, into America. That’s the story that I grew up with — about what our country is and what it represents, and what it means when the United States is engaged and leading.”

Blinken’s diplomatic career began on the National Security Council under Clinton, and he was appointed staff director of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, which was headed by Biden during the George W. Bush years.

In 2008, Biden tapped Blinken to help his presidential campaign, and when Biden was chosen as Barack Obama’s vice president, Blinken became one of his national security advisers. In 2014, Obama elevated Blinken to deputy secretary of state under John Kerry.

During those years, Blinken was heavily involved in the crafting of Middle East policy, including the landmark Iran deal.

Blinken has been described as a centrist and an interventionist, and he’s said to have a “mind meld” with Biden on foreign policy. Blinken is more hawkish on issues such as Russia, whom he considers a foe (he helped Obama’s team respond stiffly to Vladimir Putin’s encroachments into Crimea).

As for Israel, Blinken’s views reflect the Democratic mainstream. Within the party, a minority of lawmakers and advocates have been

trying to shift the party to the left on Israel issues. Progressives, such as Bernie Sanders, have suggested that aid to Israel ought to be conditioned on certain policy choices.

Meanwhile, the Trump administration shifted U.S. policy to the right, moving the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv and recently saying that the U.S. would consider the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement against Israel officially antisemitic.

Blinken is a centrist here, too. He has said that a Biden administration will not condition aid to Israel on policy choices, will keep the embassy in Jerusalem and will staunchly support Israel at the United Nations — a body that often singles out the Jewish state for human rights abuses without condemning offenders such as Syria and China. In May, Biden wrote that he “firmly” rejects the BDS movement, and Blinken has backed up that stance.

Blinken’s appointment drew early praise from centrist Democrats, but also from Sanders’ foreign policy adviser, Matt Duss, who tweeted that it would be “a new and great thing to have a top diplomat who has regularly engaged with progressive grassroots.”

Rep. Rashida Tlaib, a Democrat from Michigan, responded that she would be happy as long as “he doesn’t try to silence me and suppress my First Amendment right to speak out against Netanyahu’s racist and inhumane policies.” Tlaib is a progressive known for her harsh criticism of Israel and support for boycotting Israel.

Blinken’s record has earned him respect from Israeli officials, even when he hasn’t always agreed with them. Michael Oren, a conservative former Israeli ambassador to the United States, called Blinken a man of “singular intelligence and warmth” in his 2015 book “Ally: My Journey Across the American-Israeli Divide.”

On Twitter, Oren said he could think of “no finer choice” for the post, and news of Biden tapping Blinken drew praise from a cross-section of Israelis who have encountered him in the course of diplomacy.

If there’s ever tension between Israeli and American leadership, don’t expect to know about it. A big part of keeping things copacetic, as Biden and Blinken see it, is leaving policy disputes behind closed doors — something Blinken

pushed for during the Obama years, sometimes to no avail.

Blinken is compassionate toward refugees, as he told the character Grover when Blinken made a “Sesame Street” video appearance in 2016. That’s opposed to Trump, who prioritized closing off U.S. borders and punishing immigrants who sought asylum in a policy set by a Jewish adviser, Stephen Miller.

Biden has said his approach to immigration — an issue important to many American Jews — will be much different. In speaking to Grover, Blinken explained that refugees should be treated the same as “you and me.”

“We all have something to learn and gain from one another, even when it doesn’t seem at first like we have much in common,” Blinken said after asking Grover to imagine how challenging it must be for someone to feel so unsafe that they decide to leave their home.

Blinken is a Harvard graduate who married Evan Ryan in a 2002 ceremony that involved both a rabbi and a priest. She was an assistant secretary of state from 2013 to 2017, and before that served as the assistant for intergovernmental affairs and public liaison for Biden when he was vice president.

Blinken used to want to be a filmmaker, and he also has a ’70s-inspired band called Ablinken — wordplay on several levels — that has two tracks on Spotify and was making headlines this week. n

Blinken has been described as a centrist, and he’s said to have a “mind meld” with Biden on foreign policy.

Then-Deputy Secretary of State Tony Blinken at a State Department press conference in August 2016. (Photo/Brendan Smialowski-AFP via Getty Images)