Voices

The Jewish Press

(Founded in 1920)

Margie Gutnik

President

Annette van de Kamp-Wright

Editor

Richard Busse

Creative Director

Lori Kooper-Schwarz

Assistant Editor

Gabby Blair

Staff Writer

Sam Kricsfeld

Digital support

Mary Bachteler

Accounting

Jewish Press Board

Margie Gutnik, President; Abigail Kutler, Ex-Officio; Seth Feldman; David Finkelstein; Ally Freeman; Mary Sue Grossman; Les Kay; Natasha Kraft; Chuck Lucoff; David Phillips; and Joseph Pinson. The mission of the Jewish Federation of Omaha is to build and sustain a strong and vibrant Omaha Jewish Community and to support Jews in Israel and around the world. Agencies of the JFO are: Institute for Holocaust Education, Jewish Community Relations Council, Jewish Community Center, Jewish Social Services and the Jewish Press. Guidelines and highlights of the Jewish Press, including front page stories and announcements, can be found online at: www.jewishomaha.org; click on ‘Jewish Press.’ Editorials express the view of the writer and are not necessarily representative of the views of the Jewish Press Board of Directors, the Jewish Federation of Omaha Board of Directors, or the Omaha Jewish community as a whole. The Jewish Press reserves the right to edit signed letters and articles for space and content. The Jewish Press is not responsible for the Kashrut of any product or establishment.

Editorial

The Jewish Press is an agency of the Jewish Federation of Omaha. Deadline for copy, ads and photos is: Thursday, 9 a.m., eight days prior to publication. E-mail editorial material and photos to: avandekamp@jewishomaha.org; send ads (in TIF or PDF format) to: rbusse@jewishomaha.org.

Letters to the Editor Guidelines

The Jewish Press welcomes Letters to the Editor. They may be sent via regular mail to: The Jewish Press, 333 So. 132 St., Omaha, NE 68154; via fax: 1.402.334.5422 or via e-mail to the Editor at: avandekamp@jewishomaha.org. Letters should be no longer than 250 words and must be single-spaced typed, not hand-written. Published letters should be confined to opinions and comments on articles or events. News items should not be submitted and printed as a “Letter to the Editor.” The Editor may edit letters for content and space restrictions. Letters may be published without giving an opposing view. Information shall be verified before printing. All letters must be signed by the writer. The Jewish Press will not publish letters that appear to be part of an organized campaign, nor letters copied from the Internet. No letters should be published from candidates running for office, but others may write on their behalf. Letters of thanks should be confined to commending an institution for a program, project or event, rather than personally thanking paid staff, unless the writer chooses to turn the “Letter to the Editor” into a paid personal ad or a news article about the event, project or program which the professional staff supervised. For information, contact Annette van de Kamp-Wright, Jewish Press Editor, 402.334.6450.

Postal

The Jewish Press (USPS 275620) is published weekly (except for the first week of January and July) on Friday for $40 per calendar year U.S.; $80 foreign, by the Jewish Federation of Omaha. Phone: 402.334.6448; FAX: 402.334.5422. Periodical postage paid at Omaha, NE. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to: The Jewish Press, 333 So. 132 St., Omaha, NE 68154-2198 or email to: jpress@jewishomaha.org.

The next best thing

ANNETTE VAN DE KAMP-WRIGHT

Jewish Press Editor

The headlines covering Israeli politics rarely fall in the good-news-category. But this one: Meet Amichai Chikli, Israel’s new Diaspora minister, who opposes BDS and Reform Judaism threw me for a loop. Not liking BDS (the Boycott, Sanctions and Divestment movement) I get- no surprise there. Many of us would agree. The second part of the headline, however, is clickbait. I have to know more. “Though Chikli holds some views promoted by Diaspora Jews, he is disdainful of Reform Judaism, the largest denomination in the United States, and of the politics of American liberals, including President Joe Biden, who won a wide majority of U.S. Jews’ votes. He has said he believes the Pride flag is an anti-Zionist symbol and also equates public criticism of the Israeli government with antisemitism. [...] He appears to be on the same page as some of the extremist politicians about the propriety of LGBTQ demonstrations, calling Tel Aviv’s Pride Parade a “disgraceful vulgarity” in a Facebook post this summer. He also shares their disdain of Reform Judaism, a frequent target for some of the Religious Zionist politicians who are part of the governing coalition.” (Andrew Lapin, JTA) He sounds like fun. But while I have zero patience with the stench of homophobia, I am not so sure I truly care that this man doesn’t like Reform Judaism. Just like we all individual Jews and our opinions should never be taken as those of all Jews, Chikli is only one Israeli politician. Besides, the average lifespan of the Israeli cabinet is measured in months rather than years, so who knows how long he will be in this position. We can all calm down. And yet, there is something deeper going on that I find disturbing. Since the most recent elections, it seems the negativity is increasing, especially in much of the

media coverage. The underlying message is one of discontent, strife, disagreement and even outright hatred. Jews fighting Jews; it’s not a pretty sight. Here’s a radical idea. Rather than disagreeing passively (complaining behind each other’s back, writing negative press coverage about how rightwing the Israeli government is becoming, and why is Bibi still not in jail) we can disagree actively. By that, I mean: accept that we’re all on different pages, and consider that our strength, rather than our weakness. What’s so bad about not seeing eye-toeye? Yes, it’s uncomfortable, and we imagine a nicer world in which we all feel only love towards one another. But that is not the reality. What, then, is the next best thing? The next best thing is dialogue. That dialogue can be messy and ugly, we can hurt each other’s feelings and get frusAmichai Chikli, soon to be appointed as head of Israel’s Diaspora Affairs and Com- trated, but we keep talking. Maybe we bat Antisemitism Ministry, attends a committee meeting at the Knesset, the Israeli use all the wrong words and inadver-parliament in Jerusalem, on December 6, 2022. Credit: Olivier Fitoussi/Flash90 tently insult each other, but we keep talking. And we’ll have days when it seems we cannot possibly break bread together; when our views are so diametrically opposed that we’ll never dig ourselves out—but we keep talking. Because if, as Jews, don’t continue the dialogue, I don’t know that we’ll ever see light at the end of the tunnel.

The Pope Benedict I knew: A keeper of his faith with a deep respect for Judaism

RABBI DAVID ROSEN

JTA I was first introduced to Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, later to become Pope Benedict XVI, in the late 1980s when he was visiting Jerusalem. Teddy Kollek, mayor of Jerusalem, was eager for me to meet with the Cardinal, telling me that I would discover a very different person from the image portrayed in the general media. He was so correct. That image was in no small part the result of Pope John Paul II having made him the head of the Vatican Office for Doctrine and Faith, to enforce orthodox Catholic teaching. In addition, the fact that Ratzinger was a shy man with a professorial background and attitude often led people to see him as aloof and even cold. He could not have been more different. I discovered a man of warmth and humor whose company was enjoyable and stimulating. Most significant for me was the discovery of the depth of his respect for Judaism and the Jewish people, something that always impressed me in the course of more than a dozen encounters with him when he was Pope, most of which were in my capacity as the American Jewish Committee’s international director of interreligious affairs. He always reiterated his commitment to continuing the path of his predecessor in advancing CatholicJewish relations, and he highlighted the unique relationship between Christianity and Judaism. Benedict XVI, who died Dec. 31 at age 95, was the first pope to ever invite Jewish leaders both to the funeral of a pontiff, and above all, to the celebration of his own coronation at which I was privileged to be one of those present. Already during the first year of his pontificate he received many Jewish delegations and notable individuals, including the chief rabbis of Israel and the chief rabbi of Rome. In receiving the latter, he declared, “The Catholic Church is close and is a friend to you. Yes, we love you and we cannot but love you, because of the Fathers: through them you are very dear and beloved brothers to us.” The last time I met him personally was well after he had demonstrated his genuine and impressive humility in stepping down as pontiff and devoting himself to study and prayer. I visited him at the Mater Ecclesiae Monastery in the Vatican gardens. While he was physically weak his mind was still lucid. We spoke in particular about the positive treatment of the Jewish scriptures in the work of the Pontifical Theological Commission that dealt with this subject, and which was published under his imprimatur. At that time, I recalled our first conversation in Jerusalem when he said to me, “Your duty as a believing Jew is to be true to Torah, and everything that is holy for you must have theological meaning for us.” I said to him, “You know there are many of us who see religious significance in the return of the Jewish people to its homeland.” “Of course, I know,” he replied. “We must also view it as a sign of God’s fidelity to His covenant with the Jewish people that has sustained you, even if we cannot attribute to it the same theological meaning as you might.” Cardinal Ratzinger was a member of the papal commission that ratified the Fundamental Agreement between the State of Israel and the Holy See, establishing full diplomatic relations between the two. It was my great privilege to have been part of the Israeli negotiating team that concluded that agreement. One of Ratzinger’s closest Israeli friends, the late professor Zvi Werblovsky of Hebrew University, told me that the cardinal phoned him from Rome to express his joy and congratulations on the agreement, declaring it to be a fulfillment of Nostra Aetate, the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council declaration of 1965 that revolutionized the Church’s teaching and approach towards Jews and Judaism. During Benedict’s papacy a couple of serious crises in Jewish-Christian relations emerged relating to the Society of Saint Pius XII and to the wider

provision of the Latin Mass and its text. These crises, as much a result of church governance mismanagement as anything else, were followed by clarifications that emphasized the Vatican’s commitment to Nostra Aetate; its unqualified rejection of antisemitism as a sin against God and man, and a complete disavowal of proselytization of Jews.

Rabbi David Rosen, left, meets with Pope Benedict XVI, right, during the American Jewish Committee’s leadership audience with the pope at the Vatican,

March 2006. At center is E. Robert Goodkind, AJC president at the time. Credit: American Jewish Committee Unfortunately, they still did not completely repair the damage to Benedict XVI’s papacy. Nevertheless, Benedict explicitly and sincerely strove to continue to advance the paths of his predecessor, especially regarding the relationship between the Church and the Jewish People. In repeating his predecessor’s dramatic gestures of going to the great synagogue in Rome; of paying homage in Auschwitz to the victims of the Holocaust, and of making a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, where he paid respects to the State of Israel’s highest national civic and religious authorities, Pope Benedict institutionalized such steps, demonstrating the sincerity of Catholic-Jewish reconciliation for the Church as a whole.

Rabbi David Rosen the former chief rabbi of Ireland, is American Jewish Committee's International Director of Interreligious Affairs.

The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of JTA or its parent company, 70 Faces Media.

JONATHAN A. GREENBLATT

JTA About a decade ago, I served on my synagogue’s rabbinic search committee. Normally I am allergic to any activity at which minutes will be taken, but it was a great experience, thanks to the care and intelligence that my fellow committee members brought to the process. Flush with satisfaction for a job well done and probably a little full of ourselves, we even imagined other synagogues might learn from our example. We spoke about putting together a seminar, or perhaps a how-to book. No one, I recall, suggested turning the experience into a novel. That’s why I’m not Michelle Huneven, who this year published a novel about a church’s search for a new minister. I’ve been recommending it to anyone who wants to understand shul politics, or wants reassurance that Jews are just like everybody else, no more and no less.

Search is narrated by Dana, a 50-something restaurant critic, former seminarian and once-active congregant at a Unitarian Universalist church in Arroyo, California, who is recruited to the search committee when the current pastor announces plans to retire. The book tracks the search process from in-house focus groups to Skype interviews with applicants to the finalists’ “candidating week” — what you and I might call “auditions.” Despite an unlikely premise for a mainstream novel, Search is a smart, funny and enlightening book about contemporary religion, especially of the liberal, undogmatic variety that is typical of Unitarian Universalism and, well, much of non-Orthodox Judaism. It’s a worthy companion to The New Rabbi, Stephen Fried’s 2002 nonfiction book about a Philadelphiaarea synagogue and its own search. Huneven captures the impossible nature of a clergy person’s job, and especially the unrealistic expectations of congregations that want their spiritual leader to be all things to all people. Trying to narrow down what they are looking for, members of the search committee call out qualifications: “‘Sermons with more spiritual depth and intellectual content,’ said Charlotte. “‘Someone with an efficient, organized management style,’ said Belinda.” Wonders Dana: “Who didn’t want a warm presence with a progressive social conscience, the management skills of a corporate CEO, and the work-life boundaries of a New Age life coach?” As the Conservative movement’s Rabbinical Assembly warns in its manual for search committees, searches founder “not because of a dearth of qualified candidates but because the congregation’s expectations of rabbinic candidates is unrealistic.” Regular synagogue-goers will recognize the tensions in the novel between the older members and the newcomers, between boomers and millennials, between theists and humanists. At one point, the assistant minister remembers when a midweek service led by a student intern began attracting a core of people who weren’t showing up on Sundays.

“You can’t have two congregations, no matter how small one is,” she explains. “It sets up a potential schism.” Clergy searches are fraught because nearly all congregants consider themselves the rabbi’s boss. On the flip side, members grow attached to longtime rabbis, even when they outlast their changing congregations. In Search, the senior minister has been with the church for eight years, but remains under the shadow of his beloved predecessor, who had served for 28 years. (I was married by the “new rabbi” at my wife’s family’s synagogue, who at that point had been on the job for about 20 years.)

Search isn’t a satire, exactly, but Huneven has fun with the political and social winds that are blowing through liberal denominations. Some of the congregants are set on hiring a woman after almost four decades of male leadership. “But we can’t say that explicitly,” Dana warns. Another character is angling to be the head of the national church association, “though it’s not such a clear shot for straight white guys these days,” says a church consultant. Unitarian Universalist, or UU, churches are also staunchly secular, which means the clergy don’t have to express a belief in God, let alone Jesus or a strict theology. That brings with it the paradox of choice: “Our ministers can be gay, trans, Buddhist, atheist, any race, or same-sex adoptive parents with mixed-race families. You name it,” says a member of the committee. “That’s the future. Everybody’s in.” I would guess that a lot of liberal synagogues would love to be as open and diverse as that, but bump up against the reality that, despite a growing number of Jews by choice and Jews of color, synagogues tend to be white, upper-middle-class and heteronormative. As for theology, rare is the synagogue that doesn’t want its rabbi to “have been inspired to serve God,” as the R.A. handbook puts it; on the other hand, search committees disagree about how much theology and “God talk” they want from the bima. And yet, even the most secular UU church or most liberal synagogue pursues the sacred in the ways they gather, worship, mourn and serve the community. As the squabbles intensify in Search, one older member of the committee laments that they’ve lost sight of their goal: how the search for a new clergyperson is a “a sacred task that will grow us spiritually.” During my time on the search committee, I saw the sausage-making of synagogue life. Compromise is always hard. Even the most thorough, transparent search process is bound to disappoint someone. And Search the novel can be, at times, as tedious as a reallife rabbinic search, as characters deliberate over candidates at painstaking length. But Huneven understands that holiness is not just a matter of reading from a prayer book or studying from a text, but lives in the way people create communities and choose their leaders. It’s a messy process, but if you do it in good faith and in a spirit of humility, you might end up with a pretty great rabbi.

Andrew Silow-Carroll is editor in chief of the New York Jewish Week and senior editor of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. He previously served as JTA’s editor in chief and as editor in chief and CEO of the New Jersey Jewish News. @SilowCarroll

The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of JTA or its parent company, 70 Faces Media.

Michelle Huneven’s novel Search is about a liberal church’s

search for a new minister. Credit: Courtney Gregg

Why we’ll fight Israel’s new extremist political agenda with the determination of the Maccabees

RABBI RICK JACOBS

JTA The Book of Exodus tells us that the penultimate plague inflicted on Egypt, the plague of darkness, was one of the worst. The 16th-century Italian commentator Sforno, who lived in the aftermath of the Inquisition in Spain, wrote that the darkness went beyond the mere absence of light: It was a tangible darkness, a darkness you could feel. We can empathize as we feel the darkness of intolerance, hate, bigotry and zealotry today. We kindle our lights during the eight days of Hanukkah to remember a time of darkness so bleak that the Maccabees, cruelly oppressed by Antiochus IV, could feel it. The Jews were a tiny minority in the expansive, ancient Greco-Syrian Empire. The Maccabees fought one of the earliest battles for religious freedom. Though they were vastly outnumbered, our ancient heroes remained courageous and determined. Today, we recognize that no nation is immune to our era’s autocratic repression of democracy, human rights and civil rights. Battles against bigotry, hate and religious intolerance are being fought in too many places around the world, including in our beloved Israel. With the same determination as the Maccabees, we must fight for religious pluralism and equality in Israel with law and democracy as our weapons and drive out the darkness by bringing the light of equity, compassion and justice. Loud voices within the new Israeli government are distinguished by their hatred for those who are not like them: nonOrthodox Jews, LGBTQ+ individuals, Palestinian-Israeli citizens, Palestinians, immigrants and others. The extremist political agenda of this new government is profoundly distressing, representing radical policy shifts that are antithetical to the core values of liberal Jews. We North American Jews can either walk away or lean in with all our might. Some maintain that because the values that used to bind Jews in the Diaspora to the Jewish State are being replaced with extreme ultra-nationalist and ultra-Orthodox policies, it is time for liberal Jews to walk away from the Zionist project. This would be a terrible mistake: Zionism is more than what Israeli politicians say or do. Authentic Judaism is much more diverse and expansive than the restrictive definitions of the ultra-Orthodox Chief Rabbinate.

This is the moment for liberal Jews to fight even harder for the Jewish State envisioned in Israel’s Declaration of Independence. Leaders of the new Israeli government are hoping that we will abandon Israel and allow them to create a new Israel that is divisive, tyrannical and tribalistic. This is why they fight us so bitterly at the Western Wall, and why they stymied the agreement that would have created an equitable prayer space at that holiest of Jewish sites. We will not stand idly by while the most important project of contemporary Jewish life, the State of Israel, is led down the road of autocracy by extremists. Instead, we will renew our dedication to the State of Israel as a safe home for all her citizens and the democratic, pluralistic homeland of all Jewish people. We refuse to allow extremists to subvert religious equality in Israel. The Reform and Conservative Jewish movements are growing in Israel, showing that Israelis yearn for a Judaism that is egalitarian, relevant, evolving and morally rigorous. The progressive Zionism we embody is not reliant on the politicians or parties in power; rather, it is tied to the diverse people of Israel and the bedrock values of “freedom, justice and peace” upon which Israel was built and are enshrined in its Declaration of Independence. This is a critical time to invest our energy and resources in growing the pluralistic Jewish communities in Israel. The Israel Religious Action Center, our Reform movement’s social justice arm in Israel, is one such institution that is lighting the way for that just, secure and pluralistic Israel we envision and hold in our hearts. Over the coming months, our Reform movement will bring thousands of North American Jews — teens, families, and adults — to experience the beauty and miracle of modern Israel while visiting and strengthening our allies throughout the land. The unity and security of the Jewish people matter immensely to us, and the well-being of the Jewish State is also our responsibility. These are two profound reasons why we will not stop standing up and fighting for the Israel we love. We will not let the darkness overtake the light. The light shines brightly when we celebrate the many authentic ways our people live out their Jewish commitment. The light shines brightly whenever we are partisans for justice and compassion. As inaugural poet Amanda Gorman said, “There is always light. If only we’re brave enough to see it. If only we’re brave enough to be it.” Let this be said of us —on Hanukkah and every day.

Rabbi Rick Jacobs is the President of the Union for Reform Judaism, the largest Jewish movement in North America.

The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of JTA or its parent company, 70 Faces Media.

Credit: JTA illustration