RJ Magazine Best&Co 052611 by Robert Best

Israel & India Strategic Bedfellows in a Volatile Zone

Einstein vs.

“Indiana

The Stubbornly Persistent Glickman” & the Chamber of Treasures Illusion of Time

Conversion Paving the Way to Judaism

winter 2010/5771 $ 3 . 5 0

WAKEUP CALL

At age 56 my husband Alan was handed a death sentence—a lethal brain tumor. Before his diagnosis we had no idea that researchers worldwide had linked prolonged cell phone use

www.reformjudaismmag.org

5 . 5 . 0 8 . 4 : 0 0 AM

Wake-up Call At age 56 my husband Alan was handed a death sentenceâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;a lethal brain tumor. Before his diagnosis we had no idea that

5 . 5 . 0 8 . 4 : 0 0 AM

researchers worldwide had linked prolonged cell phone use with cancer. Armed with the facts, I had to take action to prevent other families from enduring our tragedy. by Ellen Marks

reform judaism

ď&#x153;ľď&#x153;ˇ

winter 2010

Man o f S tee l

any theories have been offered to explain how two young Jews, Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, conceived of Superman. Some scholars have linked the “Man of Steel,” who first appeared in Action Comics #1 (June 1938), to Friedrich Nietzsche’s Thus Spake Zarathustra, and others to George Bernard Shaw’s Man and Superman. Several Jewish historians relate Superman to the Golem, a powerful creature who was fashioned from clay and brought to life by the 16th century kabbalist Rabbi Judah Loew to defend the Prague Jewish community from antisemitic attacks. Super

man, as this theory goes, was a 20th century version of the Golem, a superhero invented when the Jewish people faced another grave threat—Nazism. But of all the speculative theories surrounding the creation of Superman, one exceedingly likely influence has been virtually ignored--a real-life Jewish strongman from Poland who 1. was billed as the “Superman of the Ages”; 2. advertised, on circus posters, as a man able to stop speeding locomotives; 3. wore a cape; 4. looked—with his chiseled movie-star face, wavy hair, and massive upper torso—like the future comic book idol; and 5. performed his deathdefying feats in 1923 and 1924 in Cleveland and Toronto,

Siegel and Shuster’s respective hometowns, when they were impressionable nine year olds. Zisha Breitbart, the Hebrew “Iron King,” was a front-page sensation in the post-World War I era. He had a striking physical presence, yet projected a gentle, almost feminine persona; often he was compared to the silent film idol Rudolph Valentino. And like mild-mannered Clark Kent, he was not afraid to show his soft side; he famously confessed to newspaper columnists that when walking on dirt roads, he would try not to step on worms. Breitbart had a studious side too, waxing with pride about his library of 2,000 books on ancient Roman history. Moreover, he was deeply proud of his Jewish faith, speaking glowingly in Yiddish of the Zionist enterprise in Palestine and recreating the archiac imagery of the Biblical Samson and Hebrew gladiators.

Origins of the Modern Samson Born in 1883 and raised in Starovitch, the rough-and-tumble proletarian quarter of Lodz, Poland, Zisha (Siegmund or Sigmund in German) Breitbart learned A Circus Busch demonstration, Berlin, 1921.

“He sustained anvil blows, boulders smashed against his body—and the weight of an automobile, driven on a bridge-like ramp over his glistening chest.”

reform judaism

summer 2011

to humble local antisemites through brute strength. At 13 he quit training as a blacksmith and joined a Jewish circus that passed through the city. Soon he had developed a reputation as a powerful and inventive showman. His early stunts included having railroad workers drive sledgehammers onto tombstones laid on his chest; wrestling fairground bears; and being buried in airless coffins. Always, he emerged unharmed, much to his audience’s astonishment. That said, Breitbart did have detractors who doubted his Herculean prowess and accused him of utilizing Gypsy ruses. Yet when the doubters attempted to duplicate his exploits, bloodied hands fumbled, Circus poster:“Iron King,” able to stop a speeding train. anvils crashed, and ribcages cracked. The unassailable modern Samson quickly became a leg- novelty indeed. This was perfectly fine for the proud Jew and pasend across the Pale of Settlement. His image graced the change purses of Warsaw porters and street peddlers. sionate Zionist. Over his blacksmith’s leather apron or Vagabond entertainers began hawking themselves as his Tarzan-like attire he draped a blue and white leather Breitbart the Second, or, in even more faraway climes, coat with a Star of David insignia. as Breitbart the Third. And some two dozen Yiddish and Showdown in Vienna Polish hurdy-gurdy songs told of his prowess (some of which were still sung in the alleys of Manhattan’s Lower y this time, Breitbart had married East Side in the late 1920s and early 1930s). Emilie Ester Weitz, the daughter of a German Breitbart kept the crowds coming by frequently embelrabbi, and the two had adopted a son, Ossi. In lishing his circus repertoire. At first he bent iron rods free- 1922, he parlayed the substantial earnings from tours in hand; later they were wrapped around his left arm in sev- Dortmund, Munich, Breslau, and Prague to purchase a en equidistant loops—a nod to the leather tefillin strap lavish estate outside Berlin and moved his family there. traditional Jews wind around the arm. He also twisted On December 31, 1922, Breitbart began a three-month metal bars into the shapes of Friday night candleholders engagement in Vienna. At noon, in front of the Ronacher and braided challahs, delighting the Jews in his audience. Theatre in Johannesgasse Square, a carriage bedecked in In 1916 German soldiers began to frequent Breit- gold and green, drawn by two snowy-white Schimmeln bart’s productions in Western Russia. As Field Marshall horses, came into view. Descending from the carnival von Hindenburg’s armies retreated back to the Reich, wagon, Breitbart threw off his sapphire blue cape to reveal the strongman and his entourage followed. the dazzling garb of a Roman gladiator. PlacBy war’s end, Breitbart was in Prussia. Two ing the metal brace attached to the horses’ years later, Circus Busch in Hamburg hired harness into his own mouth, he then pulled him and lavishly promoted the “Iron King” the wagon carrying 40 standing passengers as the “World’s Mightiest Human.” Ciracross the square. The crowds cheered. He cus director Paula Busch encouraged him became an instant sensation. to publicize his Jewish background; a Jew Breitbart’s name soon popped up in local as “noble savage” qualified as an authentic newspaper ads: “Breitbart and Us! SuperReliable!!!” Charities, sporting leagues, and Jewish immigrant associations inunMel Gordon is a professor of Theatre at UC Berkeley and the author of 14 books, including dated him for endorsements and contribuSiegel and Shuster’s Funnyman: The First Jew- Half-length portrait tions. Journalists reported that women’s eyes of Breitbart, ish Superhero (2010), co-authored with Thom“sparkled” at the mention of his name…and seated, 1924. as Andrae, from which this has been adapted. professional athletes “blanched.”

B B

reform judaism

summer 2011

Man o f S tee l

“He sustained anvil blows, boulders smashed against his body—and the weight of an automobile, driven on a bridge-like ramp over his glistening chest.” “In 1923, after Breitbart bent a 30-foot steel beam on his head, the Cleveland Times headlined him as the ‘Superman of Strength.’ Notably, Superman’s future co-creator Jerry Siegel was living in Cleveland at the time.”

Many of Breitbart’s feats were boilerplate displays of athleticism from the time of Peter the Great, with an Old Testament twist. He lay on a bed of nails while supporting a spinning carousel of children— borrowing this act from the repertoire of Arab street entertainers, who studded their nails so closely that anyone could lie on them without drawing blood. Breitbart also showcased a plethora of brand-new “superhuman” skills. He bit clearly through iron chain-hoops as if they were salt pretzels. He sustained anvil blows, boulders smashed against his body— and the weight of an automobile, driven on a bridge-like ramp over his glistening chest. To make audiences believe he could transcend the limits of the human body, Breitbart did in fact utilize the art of illusion. For his iron chain trick he used “Viktor” (or cow) chains that had an indented stamp in the middle of each tie; twisting the weak part of one link against another, with a lightening-like torque of his wrists, he severed the iron—and by the time the chain was placed in his teeth, the loop had already been cracked. He sustained the anvil blows and boulder smashing by bracing his body, contorting the lower torso, and using the support of a small pedestal placed under his back. The weight of the automobile was deflected with a series of swift, focused kicks to the right and left planks of the bridge-like ramp covering his body.

reform judaism

Audiences were not only fooled, but enthralled. Breitbart’s formidable stage presence and raw sex-appeal, complemented by innovative acts, perfect timing, dramatic drum-rolls, and theatrical lighting, set him worlds apart from his competitors. One of them, Harry Steinschneider (aka Erik Jan Hanussen), a Jewish mentalist who was appearing at Vienna’s Ronacher Theater on the same evening as Breitbart, quickly ascertained the star’s tricks and conceived a plot to upstage him. Selecting an unemployed 19-yearold Jewish seamstress, Martha Kohn, he trained her to duplicate Breitbart’s feats of superhuman strength. Like Breitbart, the shy, 120-pound woman billed “Martha Farra, the Queen of All Will” could bite through iron chains, bend steel rods, sustain blows from sledgehammers, toss around 100-pound stone cubes, and support a wooden bridge over which a massive ox-wagon passed.

H H

It seemed that Breitbart had met his match.

anussen booked Queen Martha Farra at the rival Apollo Theatre. But rather than discrediting the Lodz Superman, the competition reignited Breitbart mania in Vienna, for the battle royale between two iron-biters dominated the news. Rowdy devotees of the Polish strongman interrupted the Apollo show, whistling and chanting Breitbart’s name; some even mounted the stage and tangled with the dolled-up upstart and her boastful mas-

summer 2011

In the fall of 1923, Breitbart headlined in B.F. Keith’s ter. And the press mostly favored Breitbart as the genuvariety shows in Providence, Buffalo, Toronto, Cleveland, ine article, dismissing Hanussen as a jealous interloper. The clashes grew in intensity. Finally, on February 4, Chicago, Pittsburgh, Baltimore, and Washington, D.C.. 1923, Hanussen published a four-part challenge to Herr The Cleveland News raved that he was “more interesting Breitbart in Vienna’s main newspaper, Der Tag. Declar- than the Eifel Tower.” In New York during the Christmas season, he performed before 85,000 spectators at the ing Breitbart’s iron-biting a “public disgrace,” he offered to deposit 10 million kronen in the public charity account Hippodrome, then the “largest playhouse in the world,” of the Mariahilf Bank if Breitbart could use his teeth to smashing all previous attendance records. In February 1924 he set out on a second tour, playing in 12 more U.S. sever an iron chain of Hanussen’s choosing. Hanussen cities, with return engagements in Balwould add another 10 million if Queen timore, Pittsburgh, Chicago, and CleveMartha Farra failed to withstand Breitland, where his promoters billed him as bart’s bed of nails with an anvil placed on “the Superman of the Ages.” her chest. And yet another million kroIn Detroit, Dr. Morris Fishbein of the nen would be bequeathed if the “weak American Medical Association was horrimaiden” could not safely lie under Breitfied to read that the strongman was advobart’s stone board, or if Hanussen could cating a dietary regimen of raw vegetables not find 20 non-athletes able to deform and warning Americans that ingesting so the strongman’s steel bars and flat-iron much milk and meat was endangering sheets. their health. Accusing Breitbart of “antiBreitbart, who at the time was enhancAmericanism,” Fishbein filed a flurry of ing his image by having reporters observe protests to the Bureau of Citizenship and the filming of his motion picture, The Iron Breitbart bending a metal band alongside Immigration which were filed away in King, refused to take up the challenge. a pedestal displaying a Star of David, 1924. various Washington, D.C. offices. Instead, he filed a slander suit against Meanwhile, back in New York, the mentalist Erik Jan Hanussen, who then counter-sued. At the end of the day, Vienna’s criminal court fined Breitbart 250,000 kronen Hanussen resurfaced with a new “Queen Martha Farra,” and the Viennese duo was tacked on to the “Man of for a backstage assault on Herr Hanussen, and expelled Iron’s” Hippodrome program. Breitbart now agreed to Hanussen from Austria for the next 10 years for slander. In Vienna and Prague, The Iron King made the take on Hanussen’s challenge. But an odd thing happened during rehearsals: The rounds of Zionist fundraisers, trailed by a one-reel parody of the Breitbart-Hanussen rivalry, Schmalbart Ver- iron-biter and the mentalist discovered common ground. Amidst a growing admiration for one another, the vissus Kann’utzen. ceral antipathy between them practically disappeared. Coming to America Then, suddenly, Hanussen inexplicably vanished, and n the summer of 1923, American Breitbart took the depressed “Queen Martha Farra” under scouts from the B.F. Keith vaudeville circuit invited Bre- his wing. (Later the “Queen of All Will” moved in with a paper box manufacturer in Queens. She spent her final itbart and his crew to perform in the U.S. and Canada. For the once impoverished blacksmith from Lodz, per- years, from 1924 to 1939, as an entertainer in the Jewish forming in jazz-age America, awash in money, signified the ultimate triumph. Even before the “Jewish Superman” arrived in Manhattan, The New York Times dubbed him the “phenomenon of the ages.” The Brooklyn Times, New York Telegraph, and New York Star all ran tantalizing features in their amusement sections. The American Hebrew referred to him as “the superman of physical prowess and perfection.” Breitbart did not disappoint. Critics described his debut at the Orpheum Theatre in Brooklyn on September 8th, 1923 as “electrifying,” having “raised the house” and “shattered all records.” Five days later, The New York Evening World reported proudly that “the world’s leading athlete” had applied for U.S. citizenship and would Mourners carry Siegmund Breitbart’s soon be “one of our own.” coffin, Berlin,1925.

I I

reform judaism

summer 2011

It thus must mean: “Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s wife.” Soundeth well. What thinkest thou about commandment #6, “Thou shalt not kill”?

J o e l M. H o f f m a n

W h y t h e Bibl e doesn ’ t a lways m ea n w h at you t hi nk i t does

reform judaism



fall 2010

ost Jews who have read the Bible only in English think they know what it says. But do they? Translations from the original Hebrew have often changed the text’s intended meaning in significant ways. Take, for example: * “The Lord is my shepherd”—the modern concept of shepherd is not what the biblical authors intended * “Thou shalt not covet”—coveting is not what’s forbidden in this commandment Where did things go wrong? The problem began with the King James Version of the Bible (KJV). Commissioned in 1604 by King James of England and published in 1611, this literary classic still forms the basis of most biblical translations in English, including that of the Jewish Publication Society (JPS). This is problematical, first because English usage has changed so much in the past 400 years, rendering some of the original translations inaccurate; and second, because the KJV translators made serious translation mistakes that have been retained in contemporary English translations. (For a primer on translation errors, see “Top Translation Traps,” p. XX.) “ The Lord is My Shepherd”

stock, shepherds were responsible for providing sustenance, care, and defense. Looking at these attributes as a whole, we see that the biblical shepherd was a brave, strong, regal protector of the weak, providing safety, food, and tranquility—quite unlike our associations of a modern “shepherd” as a marginalized loner for whom gentleness is more important than power. In short, the biblical shepherd was a “hero.” By substituting “hero” for “shepherd,” we can make sense of the rest of the Psalm. “The Lord is my hero; I shall not want.” In other words, since God—like a ro’eh— is powerful enough to provide protection, guidance, and security, I’ll have nothing to worry about.

Modern readers often miss the point of “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want” (Psalm 23, KJV) because our understanding of what a “shepherd” (ro’eh) is has changed dramatically since biblical times. We can best discern the intended meaning of ro’eh or “shepherd” by exploring its usage in biblical context. The prophet Jeremiah (49:19) quotes God: “It shall be as when a lion comes up out of the jungle of the Jordan against a secure pasture: [...] Then who is like Me? Who can summon Me? Who is the shepherd that can stand up against Me?” (JPS). The rhetorical question, “who is the shepherd that can stand up against Me” suggests that shepherds in ancient times were symbols of power and might. In Ezekiel 37:24, David is destined to be “king” and “shepherd”: “My servant David shall be king over them; there shall be one shepherd for all of them” (JPS). In biblical times, this type of parallel sentence construction was often used to accentuate a single idea, so “king” and “shepherd” in this passage probably had similar, royalladen meanings. In Song of Songs 2:16, the famous line “My lover is

Revisiting Deuteronomy & the V ’ahavta If you’ve attended Shabbat services, you probably know this injunction: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart [levav], and with all your soul [nefesh], and with all your might [me’od]” (JPS). These words from Deuteronomy 6:5, part of the V’ahavta prayer following the Shema in our service, constitute a pillar of our faith— and, as such, are affixed to our doorways in the parch-

Soundeth well. What sayest thou about “Love the Lord your God with all your heart...”? hear with their ears, and understand with their levav” (6:10) and “His levav does not think this way” (10:7). In both places, levav seems the locus of rational thought—“mind” in English. But in another passage from Isaiah, levav does seem to refer to the source of our emotions. When relating David’s profound sorrow at hearing that Ephraim has joined Syria in attacking Jerusalem, Isaiah notes that David suffers in his levav (7:2). Here and elsewhere, “heart” seems more appropriate for levav. So, which translation is correct— “mind” or “heart”? It is not an either/ or question. Whereas modern American culture tends to differentiate rational thought from emotions, placing one in the mind and one in the heart, the ancients saw thinking and feeling as connected and residing in the same domain—namely, the levav. Translating levav as “heart” in the V’ahavta misses half of its biblical meaning! Next we turn to nefesh, commonly (but wrongly) translated as “soul.” Genesis 14 relates the ongoing battle of four kings against five near Sodom and Gomorrah. After Lot gets captured, his uncle Abram (later Abraham) successfully rescues him, capturing other people and objects along the way. The king of Sodom offers a deal to Abram: “Give me the n’fashot, and take the possessions for yourself” (JPS, 14:21). Here, the word n’fashot (plural of nefesh) almost certainly refers to the physical body—“persons”

How clever art thou. His Majesty King James will be most pleased.

and stretching himself over the boy. Then “the child’s nefesh returned to his body, and he revived” (JPS). This is almost certainly an ancient case of mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. Here, nefesh appears to relate to “breath.” After all, the boy had no breath, Elijah blew into his mouth, and then the boy had a nefesh again. We now know that the nefesh is connected to “physical body,” to “blood,” and to “breath.” Nefesh, in short, is about the tangible aspects of life we can touch or feel.

“If you accept the translation of the tenth commandment as ‘Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s wife,’ you have been misled.” mine and I am his” [dodi li va’ani lo] ends with two Hebrew words that describe “my lover”: haro’eh bashoshanim, “[the one] who is a shepherd among flowers.” Here a shepherd takes on a romantic persona. A picture emerges of shepherds as being fierce, powerful, royal, and romantic. In addition, as tenders of live-

ment encased in mezuzot, and also contained in tefillin. But the Hebrew words levav and nefesh do not really mean “heart” and “soul.” Those are mistranslations. How do we know this? The most reliable way to detect and rectify mistranslation in an ancient and now unused language (remember: modern Hebrew is very different than biblical Hebrew) is to look at how ancient words were used in context. Let’s begin by probing the real meaning of levav. Deuteronomy 7:17 addresses what happens if you “say in your levav” that certain nations are too powerful to dispossess. In this context, “heart” seems a dubious translation for levav, because thinking is involved, and in English thought doesn’t take place in the “heart” but in the “mind.” A similar conclusion can be drawn from two passages in Isaiah: “...let them see with their eyes,

Dr. Joel M. Hoffman is chief translator for the 10-volume series, My People’s Prayerbook (Jewish Lights Publishing, 1997-2007) and author of In The Beginning: A Short History of the Hebrew Language (NYU Press, 2004) as well as And God Said: How Translations Conceal the Bible’s Original Meaning (Thomas Dunne Books, 2010), upon which this article is based. He has taught at Brandeis University and HUC-JIR in New York; he also moderates a blog on Bible translation (www.GodDidntSayThat.com). reform judaism



fall 2010

or “people”—and, indeed, that is how JPS translates it. Leviticus 7:18, which is in part a guide to how long meat can be kept before it rots, warns against the eating of sacrificial meat after the second day, cautioning that the “nefesh that eats it” will be guilty of an offense against the Lord. Here, again, nefesh cannot mean “soul,” because in English the “soul” is not what does the eating. A more apt translation here is “person.” In Leviticus 17:11, nefesh appears to be related to blood: “For the nefesh of the flesh is in the blood” (JPS). Neither “soul” nor “person” works as a translation. I Kings 17:17-22 gives us another crucial bit of evidence. While fleeing King Ahab, Elijah finds himself in the house of a widow whose son was so sick that “there was no breath [n’shama—a different Hebrew word] left in him.” Elijah revives the dead boy by laying him down reform judaism

One can hold flesh, touch blood, and feel breath. This is why “soul” is a particularly poor translation of nefesh. In English, “soul” almost always emphasizes the untouchable, ethereal, amorphous aspects of life. The physical nefesh is just the opposite. Now we can look at nefesh and levav as they were used together. We have seen that levav represented thoughts and emotions—everything about life that cannot be touched— while nefesh, its counterpart, referred to everything in life we can touch. In other words, the biblical view was that our lives have two parts: our physical side (nefesh) and our harder-to-define, impossible-to-see, nonphysical side (levav). Returning to the V’ahavta: Unlike the usual English translation, which limits the commandment to love God



fall 2010

Discover Your Unique

Tackling Tomorrow’s

Proven Synagogue

Barley—The Original

Divine Mission

Moral Questions

fundraising strategies

Passover offering

spring 2011/5771 $ 3 . 5 0

Finding

the right

Balance The Jewish prescription for a healthy life is cultivating a middle path— physically, emotionally, & spiritually

www.reformjudaismmag.org

g n i d Fin the right Balance Given our human tendency to engage in unhealthy practices, going from one extreme to another without fulfillment, how can we keep our lives in balance? reform judaism

spring 2011

The overview from Jewish tradition and three personal stories that follow offer some insights. reform judaism

spring 2011

to attempt a fully measured life, for too much evenness can result in a life lacking in passion, moral courage, creativity, and/or depth. On the High Holy Days, as we seek to move out of whatever stasis we have settled into, we read these words from of Maimonides’ laws of repentance: “One should see the world, and see oneself, on a scale with an equal balance of good and evil. When he does one good deed, the scale is tipped to the good—the world is saved. When one does one evil deed, the scale is tipped to the bad—and the world is destroyed” (Hil. Teshuva 3:4). At various points we may find our world or ourselves

Everything in Moderation… Except Moderation The Jewish prescription for a healthy life is cultivating a middle path—spiritually, emotionally, and physically. By Edie Mencher

inding a middle path that allows us to savor life fully while also cultivating spiritual, emotional, and physical health is central to Jewish tradition. Perhaps the clearest expression of this Jewish approach to finding balance was articulated by the great Jewish thinker and physician Moses Maimonides (1135–1204), who taught that through study and cultivation of new actions and ways of thinking, each of us can be elevated to “walk in God’s ways.” Maimonides advocated the pursuit of a middle path in which one is “neither…easily angered” nor, like the dead, “does not feel.” In some instances, to loosen the hold on habitual patterns, he encouraged individuals to behave in the opposite way of their own inclinations; if a person tends to be stingy, for example, he should attempt to give generously. One’s emotions also needed to be balanced. To increase happiness during festival celebrations, for example, children should be given food treats; women, gifts of jewelry and fine clothing (as means allowed); and men, meat and wine..., “yet, [the meal of] one who eats and drinks with his wife and children but locks his gates and gives nothing to the poor…is not [celebrating] ‘the joy of the command-

ment’ but the joy of his stomach—a kind of disgrace” (Mishneh Torah, Laws of the Festivals, 6:18). Maimonides applied the principle of balance not only to character traits but also to matters of health. Given the human tendency to engage in unhealthy practices, he advised personal struggle against such excesses. Yet he also cautioned against never indulging in enjoyable things, as this might lead to bitterness and a sense of failure. Commenting on a verse in Ecclesiastes, “Be not overrighteous” (7:16), he wrote: “To avoid lust or envy, do not say I won’t eat good food, or marry. This is an evil way….One who follows that path is a sinner” (Mishneh Torah, Laws of Character Development and Ethical Ideas 3:1). Again, the best approach is moderation. In our own day, how many of us vow to go on a strict diet, to exercise a certain amount each week, to refrain from speaking harshly to a friend—and then feel discouraged when we do not abide by our resolutions? Utilizing Maimonides’ approach, we might recognize that extreme, total change is unlikely and aim instead toward achievable, incremental adjustments, taking pride in each advance as we slowly work toward a greater goal. We might seek a healthier diet by beginning with foods we enjoy, try to modulate how we express anger instead of suppressing it, or take the stairs more often rather than taking on a marathon. *** Notably, even the struggle to find the “golden mean” needs to be done in moderation. Judaism teaches us not

Productivity vs. Procreation How do I balance my work—where I’m a valued member of the team—with what it takes to meet the right man? By Juliana Schnur

Rabbi Edythe Held Mencher is a clinical social work psychotherapist, author, and organizational consultant.

Photograph by S

The scale may be tipped by a weight as light as a feather, and so we are reminded that the smallest of actions can be redemptive.

reform judaism

spring 2011

in an unhealthy balance, whereby good and evil exist in equal measure. To leave matters in this state is contrary to Jewish tradition; rather, we must take actions in an effort to tilt the whole world toward either good/ life or evil/death. The scale may be tipped by a weight as light as a feather, and so we are reminded that the smallest of actions can be redemptive. If it were not this way, if the scales of life always stayed in perfect balance, how could we achieve teshuvah (repentence), moving from equilibrium to effectual change? Thus, in Judaism balance also encompasses the drive to better the world. Perhaps this is why Jewish time and

hen my older sister Liz f irst bega n expressing her frustrations over urban singledom, I judged her impatient and dramatic. She had been out of college only a few months, yet the prospect of spinsterhood seemed to loom over her with the same imminent inevitability as wrinkles and gray hair. Unattached and 20, I was immersed in the world of college, where relationships were coveted but rare, an all too frequent casualty of the fast-paced and egocentric culture of Manhattan ingénues. Finding a life partner trailed

far behind dreams of exotic career, travel, and scholarship. Four years later, as an increasingly time-consuming job and Liz’s upcoming wedding vie for my attention, the incessant ticking that once taunted her has joined the din of my universe, reminding me that for all I achieve as a professional, nothing can substitute for what I experience as that all-important injunction to “be fruitful and multiply” (Genesis 1:28). I was raised in a household with the oft repeated maxim: “Find work that enlivens and challenges you daily.” My parents, high school sweethearts, knew the rarity of their story and refrained from imposing reform judaism

it on us, stressing instead the value of hard work and assuming the other pieces would fall into place. I didn’t have a serious boyfriend until college, so my adolescent relationship discussions with family were limited to crushes on my physics tutor and Edward Norton. After the college relationship ended, my family occasionally inquired about new attachments, but never seemed unnerved by my unwavering single status. That was, until I graduated. Now, as a single Jewish professional, I can count on hearing one question every time I speak to my great-grandmother: “How’s ya love life?” When I tell her “same ’ol story,” she counters with advice: “Don’t be too smart on the first date. You don’t want to intimidate him. Save the intelligence as a bonus once he gets to know you.” While my great-grandma’s courtship strategy seems antiquated, the expectation underlying it resonates deeply. Here is a 104-year-old woman inquiring about her legacy. She arrived at Ellis Island in 1912 on a boat from Lithuania and later watched powerlessly as the Nazis annihilated the European Jewish community she left behind. This history weighs heavily, manifestJuliana Schnur, a lifelong member of Westchester Reform Temple in Scarsdale, New York is projects coordinator at the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism in Washington, D.C.

spring 2011

Finding the right Balance

Name Heretktktkt

Catastrophe in Ukraine, Comedy Today

Name Heretktktkt

How a 1661 decree by the Council of Jewish Elders in Vilna begat contemporary Jewish comedy.

Name Heretktktkt

Left: © Kalim / Photolia.com; R ight: © Tel Aviv Museum of A rt

by Mel Gordon

reform judaism

spring 2011

Name Heretktktkt

oday the very concept of Hollywood comedy or American television culture conjures up an endless stream of Jewish massmedia gladhanders serving up ironic social satire, self-ridicule, and raunchy parody: the Marx Brothers, Jack Benny, Mel Brooks, Lenny Bruce, Woody Allen, Larry David, Howard Stern, Joan Rivers, Buddy Hackett, Jackie Mason, Jon Stewart, Sarah Silverman…. Yet, before the 20th century, Jews were perceived as a singularly humorless people. Two noted philosophers, Thomas Carlyle (1795– 1881) and Ernest Renan (1823–1892), insisted that Jews lacked any known facility to provoke laughter. And the Chief Rabbi of London, Hermann Adler, wrote in the British journal The Nineteenth Century (March 1893) that the East European Jewish immigrants setting up shop in London’s East End were a decent, sternly moral, hard-working, family-oriented, and hygienic people, lacking only in one fundamental communal asset: a healthy tongue-in-cheek disposition. In a generation or two, he assured readers, Name Heretktktkt

reform judaism

Name Heretktktkt

spring 2011

Name Heretktktkt

with ironic ridicule? Moreover, as members of a tribe calling itself “God’s Chosen People,” Jews had to grapple with the existential dilemma of having a Divine life protection policy, but little to show for it since Daniel negotiated his way out of the lion’s den. Indeed, no other ethnic group has spent so much time and psychic energy debating why its Creator may have stiffed them. However, a “laughter-through-tears” theory fails to account for the fact that other persecuted peoples, such as the Tibetans, American Indians, and Armenians, cannot chalk up comparable achievements in the wit arena. If genocidal menace is the primary catalyst for in-group humor and bitter sarcasm, then there should be at least a couple dozen uproarious Rwandan or Bosnian standups pacing across our global comic-scape, nu? Moreover, the correlation between suffering and humor in Jewish history is weak. The great catastrophes in Jewish history—the destruction of the First and Second Temples, the Crusades, the Spanish and Portuguese Inquisitions, the Shoah—produced relativity few celebrated rib-ticklers. Nor is there a recorded incidence where a self-deflating Tevye distracted a single-minded Cossack from discharging his sworn duties of looting, raping, or torching a shtetl. Finally, such explanations ignore perhaps the most momentous event in the history of Jewish humor.

ly curtailed. Specifically, at Jewish weddings brides could not don finery, such as gowns made from hammered silk, or be bedecked in gold jewelry; the celebrants would have to number fewer than 50; and the week of customary amusements, such as the seven festive meals, would be disallowed. Traditionally joyful religious holidays such as Purim and Simchat Torah would henceforth become somber occasions. Masquerades, house-to-house comic enactments, public drinking, and fire-dances would be forbidden. And—in what would ultimately transform the trajectory of Jewish humor—Jewish comic entertainers of all kinds would be banned from Jewish nuptial celebrations. In a single stroke, the July 3, 1661 decree did away with all the freewheeling Jewish jokesters (leytsanim), inventive master rhymesters (payats), playful showmen (marshaliks), and sleight-of-hand jugglers (shpilmanern) from Odessa to Warsaw and all the shtetlach in between. But on that fateful day, one matter still had to be settled: What to do about the about the badkhns (rhymes with “Maude wins”)—the rag-tag Jewish insult artists known for their abusive, unpleasant, and rude in-your-face repartee? Because the badkhns were neither funny nor popular, the council decided to exempt them from the decree. Thus, inadvertently, the elders boosted a unique comic sensibility— hyper-aggressive jousting and obscene effrontery—that would evolve into contemporary Jewish humor as we know it. After the 1661 decree, badkhns became the only professional jokers among Yiddish speakers in the Pale of Settlement. Competition was fierce—it was the survival of the filthiest—and legal disputes often arose over which badkhn originated what insulting gags and had the right to repeat them. Secretaries in rabbinic courts transcribed the merciless rants to enable judges to determine who had the right to proclaim which cutting slur north or south of Grono (which is why we still have a paper trail of many of their routines). Much of badkhn humor traded on grotesque erot-

“The comic duo Weber and Fields (Moishe Weber and Moishe Schanfield) delivered America’s first taste of badkhn humor”

phe o r t s , Cata kraine ay in U dy Tod e Com

“Laughter-Through-Tears” he most prevalent academic theory to explain the Jewish propensity for embittered clownishness and smart-alecky comedy goes something like this: As a wandering people expelled from its homeland and at the mercy of unsympathetic host countries, we Jews developed the disquieting perspective of the uninvited guest, using biting humor to mitigate our persecuted status. Playing sarcastic wisenheimers helped us not only to exist in inhospitable environments, but to utterly confuse our hellbent attackers. After all, what verbal or physical harm can someone do to you if you have already denounced yourself with élan? There is substance to the notion that diaspora Jews were naturally more attuned than others to the social hypocrisy permeating the societies in which they found themselves. Who but history’s quintessential outsiders would be better positioned to peer behind the world’s hidden sanctums and expose them

“The Badkhn Ruling” One day in 1661, a decade after Cossack bands and Tartars devasted Jewish “At marriage ceremonies badkhan MCs delivered communities in the Ukraine and Poland in the Khmielmanic lectures about the sorrowful futures nitsky Rebellion, a council that awaited the bride and bridegroom and the of Jewish elders convened in Vilna to determine why God inadequate gifts they were about to receive.” had withdrawn His heavenly shield from the Chosen People. The council attributed the catastrophe to God’s anger at the Jews for mimicking gentile practices on Purim by engaging in such carnivalesque activities as masked dancing, excessive drinking, and parodies of devotional rites. The council’s solution was harsh: Heretofore, the 613 biblical commandments would be strictly enforced and all merry-making sharpreform judaism

spring 2011

these Hebrews would come to embrace the mirthful folkways of their adopted homeland. How, then, in just 80 years, did the Jews come to be considered one of the world’s most joke-obsessed ethnic communities, comprising more than 80% of America’s highest-paid comic performers and writers, and dominating the humor industries of Berlin, Hamburg, Vienna, Moscow, Warsaw, Budapest, London, Mexico City, and Johannesburg?

icism and scatology, juggling references to over and undersized body parts and fart jokes. Other badkhn comic enactments involved gross physical humor, like the Strassberg badkhn who sat backwards on a horse, holding a sheet of paper and the horse’s tail in one hand and a pen in the other. While he solemnly parodied the pronouncements of a learned rabbi, he “dipped” the pen into the horse’s rear end and pretended to scribble them on the page. At Jewish marriage ceremonies, badkhn MCs corralled the bride and the bridegroom in isolated compartments and delivered manic lectures about the sorrowful futures that awaited them. It was said that a good badkhn could make you cry until you nearly went blind from dread and embitterment. At the wedding meal, the badkhn sang about the inadequate qualities of the gifts the couple was about to receive. Typically, the badkhn would also silence

Mel Gordon is a professor of Theatre at UC Berkeley and the author of 14 books. This essay is adapted from his most recent book, Siegel and Shuster’s Funnyman, the First Jewish Superhero (Port Townsend, WA: Feral House, 2010), coauthored with Thomas Andrae. reform judaism

spring 2011

www.reformjudaismmag.org

fall 2010/5770 $ 3 . 5 0

th Annual 5 Insider’s Guide to College Life

Lost in Mistranslation Why the Bible Doesn’t Always Mean What You Think

living with

E veryone

keeps secrets .

all want to be seen positively ,

and don â&#x20AC;&#x2122; t want to risk being embarrassed , judged , or re jected by others .

B ut

some secrets come at a high price

to ourselves and our loved ones .

D ale A tkins ( psychologist , R eform

congregant ) and

author ,

this interview ,

Dr.

commentator ,

R abbi E dythe M encher ( clini -

cal social work psychotherapist , author , organization al consultant ) explore when it is best to keep the truth to ourselves , and when to reveal what â&#x20AC;&#x2122; s in our hearts .

i l lu st r at e d by

Brian Cronin

Living With reform judaism

ď&#x153;ł

fall 2010

better had the daughter asked her mother very specific questions about her life—Could you tell me more about your childhood?, What was it like on your wedding day?—and had the mother considered the possible negative consequences before uttering her confession by asking herself, Why do I want to tell her? Is she the best person to hear about the affair? Will anyone benefit from my revealing the truth?

Joy Weinberg (RJ managing editor):

ecrets can hurt. I have a friend who asked her terminally ill mother to tell her about the unknown aspects of her life. During the conversation the mother revealed that she had had an affair after she’d married. She then quickly assured this eldest daughter that the affair ended immediately after her birth and insisted that this confession be kept between the two of them. The father, who looked just like her, was not to know. The astounded daughter felt wounded and greatly burdened by her mother’s dying wish that she safeguard the secret. It appears that

Joy:

But once the secret has been told...

Edie: Now the question becomes: Should the daughter honor her mother’s wish by not revealing it to anyone else, if doing so takes a toll on her emotional health? Jewish wisdom can help here. Our tradition stresses honoring our parents and highly values keeping confidences—but it also looks unfavorably upon bearing burdens alone that are harmful to one’s emotional and spiritual well-being. Even Moses was advised to appoint elders to help him judge and govern the Israelites as they traveled towards the Promised Land, lest he harm himself and the community through attempting to carry too much on his own (Exodus 18: 17-23). In this case, the daughter would do best to find people in whom she could confide, such as a member of the clergy, a therapist, or a trustworthy friend who is not involved with the family, thereby allowing her to sort out her feelings without having to disclose the entrusted information to the rest of the family. Dale: If the daughter chooses to keep the secret from her

this mother cleared her own conscience at her daughter’s expense.

Edie: This is a nuanced situation. When we approach someone who is dying and say, “Please tell me your life story,” the person may perceive the request as an invitation to reveal secrets that we may not really want to know. In Jewish tradition observing modesty (tsniut) calls for keeping a certain degree of privacy between parent and child. The Torah admonishes us not to reveal one’s nakedness before one’s children (“Your father’s nakedness…the nakedness of your mother,

{

T he research suggests that people keep secrets because they expect to benefit from doing so , but these benefits come at a considerable price that often outweighs the advantages .

siblings and father, she needs to find a way of easing her own burdened heart, perhaps by writing about it in a private journal, performing a ritual of “letting go,” or forgiving her mother. She might also choose to share this with a professional counselor, mindful that that the secret is safe as she works through her distress.

you shall not uncover” (Leviticus 18 6-7)). At the end of life, however, a very old and ill parent who may be impaired in discernment because of pain and/or medications is apt to say things he or she would not have otherwise. Also, in Jewish tradition we are expected to confess our wrongdoings at the end of our lives with a vidui, a prayer of confession that includes the words: “Forgive me for all the times I may have disappointed you. I am aware of the wrongs I have committed. Forgive my shortcomings, for against you I have sinned….” The mother may not have wanted to leave this life without confessing to someone what she had done, and in the absence of having a spiritual figure or therapist, chose instead to unburden herself to her daughter, who, by listening, helped her mother without realizing it. In this instance, the outcome would have been much reform judaism

{

Had the mother confessed to her husband, the consequences might have been even more troublesome.

Joy:

Edie: Confessing might have hurt the husband grievously and led to a rupture in their relationship. Yet it is also possible that, in time, this husband and wife might have used the opportunity of the revelation to renew trust and deepen their intimacy.



fall 2010

Regardless of the decision of whether or not to disclose, in Jewish tradition we are expected to right the wrong we’ve done. When the injured person knows of the wrong, atonement (teshuvah) includes apologizing to him, often before or during the High Holy Days. In other situations teshuvah might be better achieved by striving to become a person of greater truth, honesty, and fidelity—perhaps in this mother’s case by addressing issues in herself and her marriage that had led to her act of betrayal. Still another way is to donate time and/or money to organizations devoted to strengthening family life. Psychologist Marsha Linehan found this approach to be most helpful to certain members of the armed services with post-traumatic stress disorder. Observing that the treatment they had been receiving—re-exposing them to the trauma until it no longer frightened them—was not working, she realized that for these soldiers, fear was not the problem, but shame for having participated in acts of war that they had come to view as un-heroic and misguided. What helped them was doing reparations. The servicemen couldn’t bring back the lives of people killed in Vietnam or confess to the surviving family members, but they could work for a charity aiding children of war or for an organization to prevent atrocities and promote reconciliation.

Sometimes a family member keeps a secret that other members would have wished to know.

Joy:

A man I know lost his job, but couldn’t face telling his family, so he put on a suit every weekday morning and spent the day at the beach until it was time to come home. Dale: For many people, especially men, their self-worth is inextricably linked to their paycheck, and, as such, they feel they must project an image of themselves as a good provider—at all costs. For a person who defines himself solely by professional status, telling the truth about getting a pink slip can be risky and frightening. Edie: In this situation, context is very important. Suppose the man’s wife is being treated for cancer and he believes that telling her might be detrimental to the healing process. Or maybe the man knows that if he reveals his misfortune, he’ll be hit with an immense barrage of criticism from family members, or his wife will leave him. Such things do happen. On the other hand, the man’s distress about losing his job may have impaired his judgment to the point that he totally misinterprets how his family will react. I know of a man who lost the job that was supporting his family, but rather than tell his wife and children, he checked into a hotel and took an overdose of pills. His wife had a premonition and searched for him in hotels throughout Boston. Thank God, she found him and saved his life. Family therapy helped this man realize how precious he

Living With

was as a husband, a father, a brother, and a son—regardless of whether or not he was employed. Aron Hirt-Manheimer (RJ editor): From these stories it seems that keeping secrets from close family members can be very risky. Dale: The research suggests that people keep secrets because they expect to benefit from doing so, but these benefits come at a considerable price that often outweighs the advantages.

What are some of the costs associated with keeping secrets?

Joy:

Dale: A secret can take a toll on our health. Some people feel like frauds, knowing they are living a lie. It weighs on you: Did I tell this person or not? What do I need to do to make sure he/she doesn’t discover the truth? Who knows in the family and who doesn’t? You always have to be on high alert not to let the truth slip out. There can also be serious financial costs. If you’re broke, but to keep up appearances spend money you don’t have, you will undermine your long-term economic prospects. Children, in particular, carry a heavy burden when parents warn them: “Don’t divulge Dad’s secret!” Teenagers almost make a career out of talking with their friends about their lives; what are they supposed to do now? The negative consequences often include distraction, waning of a child’s natural curiosity, and poorer performance in school. When the secret is revealed, grades generally go back up, for the child is no longer living a lie. Secrets can also isolate you, deeply. If your adult child has a serious drug addiction and every time you visit him at the rehab center you make up a story about where you’ve been, you’re living with your guts torn out. You need support, but out of fear that your friends will consider you a terrible parent, you don’t take the risk to confide in the very people who are most likely to help you. Joy: Are friends likely to support you after you reveal the truth? Dale: Yes! Too often we exaggerate in our minds how people will respond. We overreact. While many of us think the world revolves around us and our secret is the most important thing in the world, in actuality, quite often sharing the secret we’ve been guarding so assiduously hardly makes a difference in the way friends regard us. True, some friends might think, Wow, what went wrong?, but most of

Wilderness Awakening O ur biblical ancestors first

experienced G od

in the wilderness .

W hat did

they know that we need to

rediscover ? photograph by

G raeme S tuart /Gallery Stock

reform judaism

ď&#x153;˛

fall 2010

w i l d e r n e s s

boy replied. “Don’t you know that God is the same everywhere?” “I know,” said the boy, “but I’m not.” When people stand on grass or under trees or at the “I n the city , top of a mountain, they often realize they’re part of with the something larger than themselves, the whole web of life. noise of the During the last NFTY convention I led a shacharit (morning) service in a clearing alongside the Potomac marketplace , River. The teens went off by themselves for a time, dust from the reciting words from the prayer book or thoughts in caravans , and their hearts while standing along the shore of the riv- friends say er or among the trees. When we came back together, ing hello , it ’ s sharing insights we’d had while praying with nature, possible that there was a calmer, more peaceful mood in the group. M oses didn ’ t This is the power of praying in the wild. notice Rabbi Jamie Korngold: Creating a communiG od ’ s call .” ty is much more organic in the wilderness, because Rabbi Jamie Korngold we really need each other to survive. On Passover, I take 180 people from all over the world to the desert of Moab, Utah. We hike two miles up a canyon trail to an immense red rock arch spanning 140 feet, under which we hold our seder. The participants have to help each other over challenging terrain. Before someone can even ask for a hand, he/she looks up to find someone else reaching out to help—and how often in life does someone just offer you a hand?

reform judaism



fall 2010

P h o t o t o p : J e f f Fi n k e l s t e i n f o r A d v e n t u r e R a b b i , b o t t o m : b y N e i l H i r s c h

Photo bottom: by Charles Wilson

netic pull, and a warmth where the chi was flowing. It was both exhilarating and unbelievable; this wasn’t the way I thought the world worked. I kept thinking, I’m a rabbi and this is pagan. So I tried the meditation over and over again, hoping I was imagining it all and waiting for the chi to go away. But it didn’t. Soon I remembered the teachings of Rabbi Nachman of Bratzlov (1772–1810), the Chasidic master who prayed regularly in nature and shared the Kabbalists’ belief that wise, healing Divine energy circulated throughout the world and carried our prayers. He called it chiut (“life-force”), from chayyim, the Hebrew word for life. Chi; chiut. Even if it was a coincidence, it seemed like both words were referring to “B eing the same thing. closer to the Over the last 11 years, my ability to sense and direct elements chi/chiut has deepened. I feel God every day, most allows me to strongly in the natural world.

Did a defining experience lead you to nature/the woods? Rabbi Kevin Kleinman, assistant rabbi of Reform Congregation Keneseth Israel, Elkins Park, Pennsylvania; and creator and former director of URJ Kutz Camp’s Teva Outdoor Experience, which teaches high school students personal leadership skills and Jewish environmental ethics through rock climbing, hiking, rafting, and camping expeditions: When I was 12 years old, I climbed Mt. Katahdin in Maine with a group from my summer camp. It was my first backpacking trip. My friends and I were responsible for packing and carrying everything we would need for the three days. After camping by a pristine lake, we clear my mind began summiting the mountain via a three-foot-wide and connect Why do many people feel more “spiritual” or path called “Knife Edge.” It was very cloudy and rainy. to people and closer to God in nature than in a synagogue? Some campers traversed on their hands and knees. I G od in a more Rabbi Jamie Korngold, former ultramarathon runwas in awe of nature, afraid as much as inspired by ner; author of God in the Wilderness (Doubleday); raw way .” the beauty around me. Rabbi Kevin Kleinman and founder of Adventure Rabbi (www.AdventureI grew as a person on that trip. Passing through Rabbi.org): It’s quite possible that God tried to talk “Knife Edge” gave me confidence that I could face to Moses in the city. But with all the distractions of physical and emotional challenges in life. And it planted everyday life—the noise of the marketplace, the dust seeds for more time spent outdoors, white river rafting, from the caravans, and his friends saying hello as he trekking in Nepal, swimming in mountain lakes after passed by—Moses didn’t notice God’s call. So, too, long days of hiking, sleeping under the stars. Being when we are “off the grid” in wilderness, we have closer to the elements and removed from the structures the time to slow down and notice God opportunities. of urban and suburban life allow me to clear my mind Rabbi Mike Comins: When we have a profoundly and connect to people and God in a more raw way. spiritual experience, such as a God-moment in nature, Rabbi Mike Comins, Jewish educator, Israethe neurons are firing on the right side of the brain— li desert guide, founder of TorahTrek Spirituthe home of our intuition, creativity, and emotions. al Wilderness Adventures (www.torahtrek.com), Language and conceptual thinking activate the left and author of A Wild Faith: Jewish Ways Into Wilbrain. My pet peeve about synagogue services is that derness; Wilderness Ways Into Judaism and Makwe sit down and start reading. We activate the wrong ing Prayer Real: Leading Jewish Spiritual Voices “T here is no hemisphere! If prayer is to be heartfelt, we have to on the Difficulty of Prayer and What To Do About word in the get to the other side! Fortunately, we have a solution: It (both Jewish Lights Publishing): I grew up back- T orah for the music. Music enhances prayer by bringing in our packing with my family in the Sierra (California), so modern term senses, which are first processed on the right side of being in the wilderness was quite normal for me. What ‘ wilderness ,’ the brain. Our emotions are more easily stirred; we I missed, though, was a Jewish experience of spirituembody the words. because in ality in wilderness. In wilderness—hiking, skiing, paddling—all of our biblical After reading about the Native American Vision senses are activated: We’re already right-brain. GetQuest—four days alone in the wilderness, in a cir- times , there ting to God from here is a whole lot easier. was no cle the size of a bedroom, fasting, praying, and medRabbi Kevin Kleinman: There is a Chasidic stoseparation itating—I headed for the Rockies to try it. In prepary about a boy who left the synagogue each morning from the ration, I was taught a Daoist body meditation called during his daily prayers to go into the woods. One natural Chi Quong designed to exchange chi, or energy, with day his grandfather followed him and watched as his the trees, rivers, everything around us. At first I didn’t grandson davened (prayed) amid animals and trees. world .” Rabbi Mike Comins feel comfortable; I hated New Age “energy” talk. But “Why do you go outside each day to pray?” the I suspended judgment, and to my great surprise, I felt grandfather later asked. chi right away—a tingling on the skin, a kind of mag“When I am in nature I feel closer to God,” the

a w a k e n i n g

How did the ancient Israelites view the wilderness or the natural world? Rabbi Jamie Korngold: For hundreds of years before the People of the Book had the Book (the Torah), our ancestors communicated with God on top of mountains or by rivers in their own words and rituals. Unlike our belief today that God is in all places at all times, the ancients believed that God lived in heaven; mountaintops, trees, and water which fell from heaven would bring them closer to the realm of God. In time, our leaders worried that Jews might start worshiping the mountains themselves, as their pagan neighbors did. So as a deterrent to assimilation, they built the Temple in Jerusalem and established the practice of having Jews convene there. This set the stage for interior worship in synagogues throughout the world. Surely by now, thousands of years later, we can safely reclaim the outdoor practices of our biblical ancestors. Rabbi Mike Comins: There is no word in the Torah for the modern term “wilderness,” a place without roads and structures. It had to be invented in modern Hebrew (eretz b’reisheet, literally, “land of Genesis”), because in biblical times, there was no separation, physically or mentally, from the natural world. When modern Jews elevated reason above all else, we theologized God out of the world of our senses and moved almost all Jewish activity and ritual under a roof. Consequently, too many Jews who experience the

sacred in nature are receiving the message: Your most profound spiritual moments have no connection to contemporary Judaism. Considering that Judaism started in wilderness, this belief is as ironic as it is tragic.

If we have a spiritual experience in the wilderness, how might we best make meaning of it? Rabbi Mike Comins: Martin Buber’s distinction between I-Thou and I-it relationships can be helpful here. If you think of the other person as a means to an end, it’s I-it. But in an I-Thou relationship, you are in communion with another human being. The same applies to nature. Buber insists that we can have an I-Thou with an animal or a tree. We can experience a Redwood tree as a source of lumber for the backyard deck, or as a wondrous, living manifestation of God’s creation. After making this I-Thou connection with the earth, we can never again treat nature as a mere commodity. Rabbi Owen Gottlieb, PhD candidate and Jim Joseph Fellow in Jewish Studies and Education at Steinhardt/NYU; Teva-certified Jewish and environmental educator; co-editor of The Gender Gap: A Congregational Guide for Beginning the Conversation about Men’s Involvement in Synagogue Life (URJ Press); and blogger (www.mysticalcreative. com): About six years ago, I attended my first Shabbat on the Beach service with the Malibu Jewish Center and Synagogue. As the sun set, we lit candles and began to sing the bracha (blessing). Just moments into our singing, suddenly, dolphins broke water just off“W henever shore. I was in awe. I learned later that the dolphins had become part of the Shabbat on the Beach ritual; we ’ re awed by beauty , we whenever the singing started, the dolphins came to greet the worshipers. can raise our That night, praying Maariv Aravim, the prayer for thoughts to the God who brings on evenings, gave new meaning to contemplate my contemplations of God, who sets the constellations the D ivine in the heavens, rolls light from darkness at dusk—and S ource sets the dolphins in the ocean amid the waves. of awe .“ Whenever we’re awed by beauty, we can raise our Rabbi Owen Gottlieb thoughts to contemplate the Divine Source of awe. Rabbi Mike Comins: Abraham Joshua Heschel writes, “Awe precedes faith; it is at the root of faith. We must grow in awe in order to reach faith. Awe rather than faith is the cardinal attitude of the religious Jew” (God in Search of Man). Wilderness is the everyday gateway to awe. Heschel was famous for beginning a lecture: “I’ve just seen a miracle, I’ve just seen a miracle! I saw the sunset.” Rabbi Jamie Korngold: One Rosh Hashanah, 175 people from all over the U.S. joined us for a two-day retreat in the high mountains of Colorado. In a high Alpine meadow surrounded by gold aspen trees, a red tail hawk soaring overhead in the blue sky, we created

reform judaism



fall 2010

R e f o r m J u d a i s m / Wi n t e r 2 0 1 0 / v o l 3 9 , N o . 2

ver since their emergence in the first half of the 19th century, Jewish newspapers (and later magazines) have helped shape the cultural and religious identity of American Jews. Indeed, the National Jewish Population Study in 2001 found that of all the Jewish activities in which American Jews engage, the third most popular is reading a Jewish newspaper or magazine—exceeded only by attending a Passover seder and lighting Chanukah candles. The Jewish press has served as a barometer of our highs and lows, of our aspirations and insecurities. Indeed, the first full-fledged Jewish newspapers—not only in the United States, but in England, France, Germany, and elsewhere—emerged in response to a traumatic event: the 1840 Damascus Affair that saw Syrian Jews falsely

Reform Judaism / Wi n t e r 2 0 1 0 / vo l 39, No.2

he United States, f i rst pe r iod ito focus squaren Jewish issues ea red in Ap ril dit ed by Isa ac azzan (reader) of ional Sephardic ion Mikveh Israadelphia , pub10 0+ titles, and ignificant Jewus leader of his Oc cid en t an d Jewish Advo ated itself to the of knowledge

2 Jews, 3 Opinions, 1,001 Periodicals—

The evolution of the American Jewish press— and what it tells us about ourselves.

by Jonathan Sarna

Reading The Forward in Yiddish.

reform judaism



winter 2010

n the u.s., the first periodical to focus squarely on Jewish issues appeared in April 1843. Edited by Isaac Leeser, hazzan (reader) of the traditional Sephardic congregation Mikveh Israel in Philadelphia, publisher of 100+ titles, and the most significant Jewish religious leader of his day, The Occident and American Jewish Advocate dedicated itself to the “diffusion of knowledge on Jewish literature and religion.” It labored to achieve two principal objectives that would characterize Jewish journalism forever after: communal defense and Jewish education. To achieve these goals, it published news from American Jewish communities and abroad, primary documents, sermons, editorials, historical articles, book reviews, innovative policy proposals, religious philosophy, controversial (or apologetic) articles leveled against missionaries and other enemies of the Jewish people, and the opinions of writers with whom Leeser disagreed (sometimes he even debated with them in footnotes). In effect, Leeser created a Jewish “print community,” the antecedent of today’s “virtual community,” uniting Jews widely scattered across America’s different states and territories and enabling those far removed from major Jewish centers to keep informed and maintain Jewish ties.

All the Views Fit to Print

Photo by Susan D. Schweitzer

der of a Capuch in monk, and tortured into their confessuilt. Th e inc ide nt wo rldwide att en nd awakened Jewad ers to the va lcreating their own to dispense news, alsehoods, and ralr commun ities to perse cuted Jews wide. Tech nologiances by then had lly cut printing and osts, making mass sm both affordable sible

charged with the ritual murder of a Capuchin monk, and tortured into their confessing guilt. The incident drew worldwide attention and awakened Jewish leaders to the value of creating their own media to dispense news, rebut falsehoods, and rally their communities to defend persecuted Jews worldwide. Technological advances by then had drastically cut printing and paper costs, making mass journalism both affordable and possible.

Newspaper: © Gregor Schuster/Getty Images; Photo: Jewish Historical Society of Greater Washington

y charge d with t he r it u a l mu r-

By covering a broad range Robert Lyon launched the that it folded when Lyon of subjects and appealing Asmonean, a New York- died nine years later, and no to Jews of different educa- based journal which rep- other paper filled the void, tional levels and interests, resented a new genre of indicates that most Engthe Occident sought both American Jewish journal- lish-speaking American to shape and to mirror the ism not seen again, at least Jews had a more restricdeveloping Jewish commu- in English, until contempo- tive view of Jewish journalrary times. Not limited to ism. They read general and nity of the United States. The Occident’s success Jewish subject matter, the Jewish newspapers sepastimulated a spate of new lively, bold, and editorially rately, just as they tended Jewish publications, most- diverse paper encompassed to compartmentalize their ly weeklies, in New York, commerce, politics, and lives into secular and JewNew Orleans, Cincinnati, literature as well. The fact ish realms. The first JewSan Francisco, and ish newspaper in elsewhere. Styled Cincinnati—now as broadsheet daithe oldest conly newspapers, they tinuous Jewish aimed to be enternewspaper in the taining as well as U.S.—followed informative, and a different directo appeal to male tion. The Israelite, and female readers founded in 1854 by alike. Rabbi Isaac Mayer In 1849 the JewYiddish Underwood typewriter. Wise, the pioneer ish businessman

“Of all the Jewish activities in which American Jews engage, the third most popular is reading a Jewish newspaper or magazine.” of American Reform Judaism (and renamed the American Israelite in 1874), was the first American Jewish newspaper to advance an ideology and be unafraid of controversy in its defense. Waging war against “error, superstition, prejudice, ignorance, arrogance, hypocrisy, and bigotry in whatever shape or form they may fall under our notice,” and publishing chapters from a serial Jewish novel on the front page for broad appeal, Wise made this semi-official organ of the American Reform Movement much more entertaining than the Occident, and so gained a wide national readership. After Wise’s death the publication steadily deteriorated into a run-of-the-mill local newspaper, but by then a pattern had been set. Many periodicals representing different Jewish streams and political movements followed. While Leeser had sought reform judaism



winter 2010

R e f o r m J u d a i s m / Wi n t e r 2 0 1 0 / v o l 3 9 , N o . 2

Jonathan D. Sarna is the Joseph H. & Belle R. Braun Professor of American Jewish History at Brandeis University, chief historian of the National Museum of American Jewish History, and co-editor of, most recently, Jews and the Civil War: A Reader.

In fact, several 19thcentury American Jewish newspapers (the Philadelphia Jewish Record, for one) printed foreign news in German and domestic news in English! They also served as vital “Americanizing agencies,” helping Jews to make the transition from Europe to America and providing them The first American Jewish newspaper to advance an ideology. with a strong, nurturing community comfortable protesting er than those of their immiof linguistic peers to cush- against America’s ills in grant predecessors. Some ion their passage. their native tongue, know- of these young people also ing that their words would differed ideologically from oreign-language only reach a select, sympa- their parents in how they Jewish newspapers thetic audience with whom sought to revitalize Amertended to be bold- they shared a common lan- ican Jews’ religious and spiritual lives—strengthen er and more critical guage. of American sociBy the late 19th century, Jewish education, and proety (for its crass material- a generation of native-born mote pride in being Jewish. ism) and of the American English-speaking Ameri- In November 1879, nine Jewish community (for its can Jews began coming of of these revivalists estabdearth of Jewish learn- age. Raised on American lished the New York-based ing and scholarship) than newspapers, their English newspaper, the Ameritheir English-language prose was livelier, their can Hebrew. “Our work,” counterparts. Understand- interests broader, and their they explained in their ably, immigrants felt more journalistic standards high- first issue, “shall consist

During the 20th century, especially between the two world wars, local American Jewish newspapers (most of them of far poorer quality than the American Hebrew) proliferated. Having a Jewish newspaper of its own signaled that a Jewish community had come of age. Yet these newspapers were often stymied by limited funding and a dearth of capable writers. They tended to focus primarily on local-oriented news and information delivered with a heavy dose of “boosterism.” They also tended to avoid controversy, prompting Rabbi Stephen S. Wise to deride them as “weaklies.” Financial pressures, especially during the Great Depression, contributed to this fear of controversy, as many small newspapers became dependent upon communal funding. Beginning in the 1940s, local Jewish federations stepped in to cover some

“50+ campus papers ventured into subjects long ignored by the mainstream Jewish press, such as the Jewish establishment’s alleged squandering of money on misplaced priorities.”

To project an air of objectivity, New York Times owners sometimes bent over backwards to avoid being “too Jewish”—such as playing down reports of anti-Jewish atrocities during the Holocaust. of untiring endeavors to stir up our brethren to pride in our time-honored faith.” They were “fully convinced that not only New York Judaism, but American Judaism awaited its journalistic redeemers,” its publisher Philip Cowen later wrote. In addition to offering broad coverage of Jewish life and publishing much original material (other papers reprinted a good deal from one another), the paper also presented the perspectives of both Jewish and non-Jewish writers on various subjects of Jewish concern. By demonstrating the interest of non-Jews in Jews and Judaism, it hoped to inspire born Jews to follow suit. For decades this mainstay of English-speaking Jews of New York also claimed a devoted readership across the United States. No American Jewish newspaper until contemporary times did so much to educate its increasingly sophisticated readership about Judaism, the Jewish people, and Jewish culture. reform judaism



winter 2010

Photos courtesy of the American Jewish Archives

to unite all American Jews around a single, nationwide Jewish periodical, now a range of ideologically based periodicals— Reform, Orthodox, Socialist, Zionist, and the like—connected readers to a cause, educated them, and waged journalistic war on their behalf against ideological opponents. They underscored the increasingly pluralistic character of the American Jewish community as a whole. Foreign-language Jewish newspapers—in German, Hebrew, Yiddish, Ladino, and today Russian—reinforced that diversity, informing and educating those whose first language was not English, and helping immigrant Jews to mediate between the old world and the new. By far, the largest number of foreign-language Jewish newspapers appeared in Yiddish, particularly during the era of mass East European immigration. No fewer than 104 Yiddish periodicals (most of them shortlived) had been published in the U.S. by 1905. The most widely read was Abraham’s Cahan’s Yiddish daily Forward, which was, at its prime, among the most influential of all American foreign-language newspapers, with sales of 250,000 copies/day. Having trained at the New York Commercial Advertiser under its famed city editor, Lincoln Steffens, Cahan learned to seek “the story behind the story,” thus creating a paper that was later described by historian Ronald Sanders as “the immigrants’ friend and confidant…a patient and omniscient father, wise in the ways of America.” Its popular personal advice column, Bintel Brief (“bundle of letters”), which paired letters to the editor with Cahan’s warm, witty, and wise answers, cast a spotlight on the dilemmas and challenges facing Yiddish-speaking immigrant Jews, especially women. As a rule, the foreign-language press focused more on immigration, Americanization, and developments in the old country than did the Anglo-Jewish press.

R e f o r m J u d a i s m / Wi n t e r 2 0 1 0 / v o l 3 9 , N o . 2

of the newspapers’ annual deficits—and inevitably, this monetary dependence thwarted criticism of Federation-supported Jewish agencies. “There is not one editor of a quality Jewish newspaper that has not had a serious clash with a Federation director,” Neil Rubin, editor of the Baltimore Jewish Times, wrote in 2001. “In Atlanta, I was regularly threatened with withdrawal of Federation advertising funds—some $50,000 a year—were coverage not favorable.” While some major community papers worked out elaborate arrangements seeking to ensure that subsidies would not endanger their independence, others conceded that “he who pays the piper calls the tune,” and engaged in self-censorship in order to stay in business. Antisemitism had a chilling effect on the Anglo-Jewish press at times, particularly in the period between the world wars. As conditions deteriorated for

Jews both domestically and in Europe, Jewish newspapers promoted images of unity and sobriety, lest in reporting on Jewish scandals or ideological disputes (of which there have never been any shortage), they unintentionally played into enemy hands. Even instances of anti-Jewish violence, a regular occurrence, for example, in Boston in the 1930s and early 1940s, rarely found mention in the English-language Jewish press; editors feared that publicizing such brutal incidents risked stirring up more trouble. All of this resulted in a loss of journalistic credibility. eeking to improve their content and reach, many local Jewish newspaper editors turned to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA), a cable service initially founded by Jacob Landau in 1917 to provide Jewish publications with Jewish-interest stories from Europe during World War

I. JTA distinguished itself during the Holocaust years by uncovering and reporting what most major English-language newspapers did not: the mass murder of European Jews. It ably covered developments behind the iron curtain and in Israel. Overall, it greatly improved the con-

tent and range of Jewish newspapers, but their growing reliance upon it also led to a uniformity of editorial perspective: What the JTA produced, they published. The New York Times, purchased in 1896 by Adolph Ochs, son-in-law of Rabbi Isaac Mayer Wise, paid special attention to the interests of its large New York Jewish readership and became increasingly influential among Jews. As a result, many Jews came to perceive the Times as the ultimate authority on Jewish issues, ignoring the fact that, in seeking to pro ject an air of objectivity, its owners sometimes bent over backwards to avoid being labeled “too Jewish.” Partly for this reason, the Times played down reports of anti-Jewish atrocities during the Holocaust, notwithstanding contrary evidence from JTA correspondents. Influenced by the assimilationist and anti-Zionist tendencies of its owners, the Times also opposed the creation of the State of Israel. To this day, the Times remains deeply ambivalent about its ties to the Jewish community. Still, Jewish leaders expect more from the Times than from any other American newspaper, because of its Jewish ownership and its large number of Jewish reporters and readers. ew ish jou r na lism made a qualitative comeback in the 1970s, in part because more of those entering the field held journalism degrees and because the profession itself was enjoying a status boost as a result of the leading role journalists played in exposing the Watergate scandal. In major cities, bolder, more probing, and more critical stories of Jewish life appeared. Moreover, the 50+ campus Jewish newspapers and magazines that emerged in the late 1960s and early 1970s ventured into subjects long ignored by the mainstream Jewish press, such as the Jew-

Rabbi I.M. Wise, Reform Movement pioneer and founder of The Israelite.

reform judaism



winter 2010

Left: ÂŠ Kalim / Photolia.com; R ight: ÂŠ Tel Aviv Museum of A rt

The Jaguar Whisperer

By Naomi Levy

Rabbi Isaac Luria said that every human soul is given a Divine mission to repair some reform judaism 2 spring 2011 empowered to do. Meet Alan Rabinowitz, a renowned conservationist and wildlife

aspect of this broken world. No other person can repair what each of us has been uniquely 3 spring 2011 reform judaism explorer whose severe childhood stutter kept him from speaking to people until age 19.

“Naomi,” my husband Rob said, plugging his iphone into the stereo, “you need to listen to this.” I listened. One of the world’s prominent zoologists, a man named Alan Rabinowitz, was being interviewed on National Public Radio about his life in the wild tracking the most elusive, dangerous animals on earth. There was a sermon in his story, I just knew it. I decided to track him down. It wasn’t easy. My many phone messages and emails went unreturned. But I was driven. If he could be fearless going after tigers and jaguars, I could be equally fearless going after a man named Rabinowitz. Finally I decided I had to use my personal connections. Rob serves as editor of the Los Angeles Jewish Journal. I asked him if I could interview Alan for the newspaper. Rob said sure. My plan worked. This time Alan called me back and consented to an interview, though he seemed unsure of why he was talking to some rabbi rather than a writer from National Geographic. And to be honest, I wasn’t exactly sure why I was talking to a zoologist. We ended up speaking for more than an hour, and for another hour the next day. He told me this was the longest interview he had ever given. It turns out that a zoologist can teach a rabbi a whole lot of Torah.

man named Alan Rabinowitz, was being interviewed on National

“If he could be fearless going after jaguars, I could be fearless going after Rabinowitz.”

***

Born in Brooklyn, Alan Rabinowitz grew up in Queens in the 1950s to Jewish immigrant parents from Eastern Europe. He had a very difficult childhood because of his severe stutter—so bad, he couldn’t speak. He had shakes and would spasm. His parents sent him for psychotherapy, hypnosis, even shock treatment; nothing helped. Back then no one understood that stuttering was genetic and neurological. In public school he was placed in the class for kids with mental retardation. ”My younger days were so difficult,” Alan told me, “I just stopped talking to people.”

man named Ala man named Alan Rabinowitz, was being intervie n Rabinowitz, was

reform judaism

But somehow he could speak to animals without stuttering. So every night, in the dark of his room, he would talk to his “New York pets”: a chameleon, a green turtle, and a hamster. ”You understand me, and I understand you,” he thought. “And you’re just like me: You can think, you have feelings, but you don’t have voices.” One day, as his pets were allowing him to pour his heart out to them, Alan made a vow: “If I ever find my voice and stop stuttering, I will be your voice.” Alan’s father didn’t know what to do about his son’s stuttering or social isolation, but he discovered a place where Alan felt more relaxed: the Great Cat House at the Bronx Zoo. The big cats occupied cage after cage of concrete jail cells, the jaguar coughing, the tiger roaring amidst the stinks of wilderness. “The place emanated with energy and power,” Alan told me, “but it was a locked-up power. All that energy was being held captive and begging to be released.” Alan would lean over the bar of the jaguar cage, get as close as he could. A large jaguar would stare at him; he’d meet its eyes. Alan empathized with its sadness, frustration, anger—“the same energy and anger I was feeling.” Before leaving, Alan whispered repeatedly, “I’ll find a place for us. I’ll find a place for us.”

***

Alan remained mute, set apart from the world of people, until age 19, when he entered a clinic in upstate New York that took a novel approach to treating stuttering. In this intensive program, which disallowed any communication with the outside world (no visitors or phone calls), suddenly he could speak. But strangely enough, he then realized he didn’t wish to be among the world of people. “My whole life,” he said, “all I wanted was to be accepted, and then when I could finally speak fluently, most people didn’t have anything to say.” He realized he would rather be with animals. So he went to graduate school, studied biology, and escaped to places where language wasn’t that important. Alan became one of this world’s great explorers. He lived for days in caves chasing bats. He captured and tracked bears, tigers, jaguars, leopards, and rhinos. He discovered new animal species and documented lost human cultures. He traveled to remote places on the planet to save tigers, lions, leopards, and jaguars from extinction. He set up the world’s largest tiger reserve—9,000 square miles in Burma, roughly the size of Vermont. This stuttering kid from Queens had become (according to The New York Times) the “Indiana Jones of Wildlife Protection.” He also established the world’s first jaguar preserve

spring 2011

in Belize. One day, while alone on the preserve tracking a large male jaguar, suddenly he turned around and realized: The jaguar was now tracking him. He was terrified. He decided to stand up, but tripped and fell down on his back. “Oh my God,” he thought. “It’s going to come at me now. There’s nothing I can do if it wants to kill me.” But instead, the jaguar let out a growl and walked away toward the forest. Right at the forest edge it turned back and looked at him. And Alan remembered that look so clearly from the jaguar of his childhood at the Bronx Zoo. Suddenly the words he’d spoken as a child came back to him: “I’ll find a place for us.” Alan had kept his promise of so many years ago: The jaguar had his home now. And Alan was no longer that stuttering kid trapped in his own mind. Listening to Alan’s story, I suddenly realized why it moved me so much. Every year on Rosh Hashanah I challenge my congregants to discover our missions in life, to become the people God wants each of us to be, to find an answer to the question: Why am I here? Rabbi Isaac Luria, the great Jewish mystic who lived in Zefat in the 1600s, said that every human soul is given a Divine mission to repair some aspect of this broken world. No other person can repair what each of us has been uniquely empowered to do. But how do you determine your Divine mission if you have never been told what it is? Alan’s life story reminded me of the Jewish mystical teaching: Our greatest impediments hold the key to discovering our life’s Divine mission. At the end of our first interview I asked Alan if he’d ever thought about the parallels between his story and that of Moses—the man with a stutter who served as God’s spokesman and the Jewish people’s greatest prophet. Moses freed the Jews; Alan freed the tigers. The next day Alan told me he’d spent the night thinking about our conversation. “You’ve made me think quite a lot about things which I normally don’t think about, like whether there’s a higher purpose for what I do. I always thought my life had a mission, but I never thought about it as a Divine mission.” When I told Alan of the teaching that a person’s greatest block holds the key to his Divine purpose, he got very excited. “Naomi,” he said, “stuttering gave me my life. It was a gift. I’m so grateful to have been born a stutterer, because that’s how I got where I am. Of course it isn’t a gift I would wish on anybody. But just the same, everything I am today comes from stuttering, which led to my bond with animals, my love of nature, my drive to prove myself to the world.” Alan said his stutter also gave him the tools to become a superb wildlife biologist—he spent his childhood watching and listening. It taught him how to read people, too. “I can hear them loudest when

man named Alan Rabinowitz, was being intervie

they’re not talking.” I told Alan about the shofar blast on Rosh Hashanah. The shofar’s power is the power of a cry without words—a prayer, a call, a roar so deep, no words can describe it. It’s like how sometimes we want to pray, but don’t know where to begin or what to say. Alan laughed. “You must be kidding,” he said. He couldn’t believe this wisdom was part of Jewish tradition. He’d walked away from temple a long time ago, after he’d been received with less than compassion in Hebrew school. He felt angry with God for having been tortured as a child “for no reason.” The clincher was when his father, who worked three jobs to stay afloat, couldn’t afford to pay for their High Holy Day tickets and the synagogue turned them away. Over the years Alan had found his way back to God—a God to be found in the wildest jungles who transcends “what you can see and touch and feel.”

***

“It turns out that a zoologist can teach a rabbi a whole lot of Torah.”

As Alan’s story would reveal, even when we have found our Divine mission we are not home free, because every year, every day has its mission. Every challenge brings with it the opportunity to understand our Divine purpose in a new way. In 2002, just as Alan was feeling comfortable in his life and ready to slow down and relax, he was diagnosed with Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia, a slowly progressing but incurable form of cancer. It was a shock to a man who had always prided himself on being physically active and healthy. He had come to believe he could fight anything. He’d escaped so many near-death situations—being face to face with tigers and jaguars, trekking through malaria-infested jungles, being speared by a bamboo trap in a forest, watching a friend die from a snake bite, facing down village strongmen and military dictatorships—and “Here I’ve got something I can’t fix.” And yet…just when he was starting to feel complacent about his life, the cancer reinvigorated him, renewing the urgency he felt for saving wildlife. “It was a huge wake-up call. I didn’t know how many more tomorrows there would be.” Cancer, he realized, “can be something good if I make it something good.” Life, he now understood, is about facing challenges as they come your way and incorporating them as part of who you are. As the psalmist says, “The stone the builders have

Rabbi Naomi Levy is the author, most recently, of Hope Will Find You: My Search for the Wisdom to Stop Waiting and Start Living (Doubleday Religion, 2010), and founder and director of Nashuva, a Jewish outreach organization in Los Angeles. Alan Rabinowitz continues to do well, tirelessly working as president and CEO of Panthera, a nonprofit conservation organization devoted to protecting the world’s 36 wild cat species.

reform judaism

spring 2011

Young Minds Reform day schools are believed to be a wellspring of knowledgeable budding leaders share their personal perspectives on theology, identity, Judaism and

W h o a re y o u r b i b l i c a l

Technology

Heroes

reform judaism

God

spring 2011

Jewish community leaders for the 21st century. Some of these potential and moreâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;largely informed by the Reform Jewish day school experience.

TIKKUN OLAM

Human Flaws

Reform Day School

reform judaism

spring 2011

onventional wisdom about the limits and potential of Reform Jewish education changed forever in 1970, when two pioneering Reform congregations, Rodeph Sholom of New York City and Temple Beth Am of Miami, answered the call of parents and teachers and expanded their preschool programs to encompass elementary grades K–6—thereby establishing the first Reform Jewish day schools. Through the years, many community leaders followed suit, establishing Reform day schools throughout North America, many of them operating in partnership with Reform congregations. Today, more than 5,000 children in the U.S. and Canada attend 18 independent Reform day schools, where they learn Judaic and Hebrew studies as well as the standard preschool through middle school curricula (language, math, science, etc.) offered in public schools. In addition, they experience “Jewish time” through participating in Friday Kabbalat Shabbat celebrations and Torah study, preparing for Jewish holidays, engaging in social action daily, fostering interpersonal relationships grounded in Jewish values, and traveling to Israel in 8th grade. They have a lot to teach us. people know it was I who helped them win, for they could not have done it on their own.” Soon Barak came to Deborah and said, “Tell the Israelites that you will be fighting in the battle. That will get the men to change their minds about fighting, because they will hate to know that a woman has more courage than they do.” Deborah told them, and of course now all the men went to war, proving themselves worthy in the battle even when they were outnumbered by a humungous army with chariots and horses. They also began to pray to Adonai instead of idols. Deborah was the start of having the Israelites believe in themselves. My other hero is my brother, because he acts the same way. He pushes me to victory and never gives up.

W h o a re y o u r b i b l i c a l

Heroes Who in Jewish life would you call your hero and why?

RJ Magazine Editors:

Bari Gold, 5th grade, Temple Beth Am Day School, Pinecrest, FL: To me a hero is afraid of nothing and fights for freedom. My hero is Deborah, the prophet after Joshua and the only girl prophet ever to live. All the Israelites looked up to Joshua, but after he died the Israelites forgot to be loyal to Adonai and began to bow down to idols. The Israelites also felt scared of the cruel King Jabin, who looked down on them and treated them like slaves for many years. Tired of being treated unfairly, Deborah went up to the top of the mountain known as Mount Tabor and asked Adonai, “Do we really need to be scared of King Jabin even though we are outnumbered? Can we fight our way out of this?” She waited and soon came a loud voice: “I will help you, because you have not forgotten to be loyal. I will send a message to a man named Barak. He will help you to get the Israeli tribes to fight for freedom. Just remember, when you win the battle, make sure my reform judaism

Max Lewis, 8th grade, The Leo Baeck Day School, Toronto, Ontario: Every summer, I meet a real, modern-day Jewish hero named Anat Hoffman. Anat is a faculty member at URJ Camp George (and director of the Israel Religious Action Center) and she comes with her son Joel, who is around my age and is my very good friend. She talks to us at camp about how she leads a movement called “Women of the Wall,” which fights for the rights of women to be able to carry the Torah, read from it, and pray at the Western Wall as men do. This past summer she was leading a group of women in a prayer service and carrying a Torah when the police told her to put it down—and

spring 2011

when she wouldn’t, they roughed her up, snatched the Torah from her arms, and sent her to jail. She was delayed coming to camp because of being in jail, but she said she will return to the Wall again and again until women have equal rights, even if it means going back to prison. Anat Hoffman reminds me of Rosa Parks, who was not allowed to ride at the front of the bus because she was black. She knew this was wrong and so she decided to sit at the front, accepting the insults that she got and even risking her life. She stood up for what she believed in and did what was right, even though she was persecuted for her actions.

Human Flaws Many characters in the Bible often get into trouble. Why? RJ:

Jacob Tommey, 6th grade, Brawerman Elementary School, Los Angeles, CA: All of the Jewish characters make a mistake at one time or another because the Torah was written to teach Jews how to be better people in the world. If all of our ancestors did the right thing all the time, there would be no lessons to be learned. The stories also remind us that we, as human beings, are not perfect. We have to struggle to learn right from wrong and deal with the consequences of our actions. I like the story of Joseph, a young boy who is resented by his brothers and then rises up to become one of the most powerful people in all of Egypt. Despite the fact that he was almost killed by his brothers and became an Egyptian slave, Joseph used his ingenuity and intellect to become second only to the pharaoh of Egypt. He is also one of the only Jewish heroes that makes amends with his family. Joseph is different than most Jewish heroes because God usually helps them all along the way. Joseph relies on his own judgment and ability to make decisions. From this story I learned the importance of being true to myself, following my passions, and doing what I believe in, despite what others may think. Joseph had a special gift. He was able to decipher the hidden meaning of dreams and managed to warn all of Egypt about the upcoming famine. For this, he was made a powerful Egyptian leader. I also learned the importance of being able to think through a problem and pay attention to my feelings. Joseph didn’t know whether to trust his brothers again when they traveled to Egypt to buy grain. He decided to test their loyalty by falsely accusing his younger brother Benjamin of stealing a silver cup. Every one of the other brothers offered to take Benjamin’s place in prison. This led Joseph to realize that his siblings had changed; they would not betray Benjamin as they had betrayed him. It helped Joseph get past his anger and hurt. He was able to forgive his brothers and finally embrace his family once again. From this story, I am reminded of the powerful connection that family members have to one another, even when there is a betrayal. I try to live up to all that Joseph did.

Benjamin Lee, 7th grade, Pardes Jewish Day School, Phoenix, AZ: When people think of heroes, they often think of Superman or Batman. That is not my idea of a hero. To me, a hero is someone who has shown strength and risen above terrible circumstances. My hero is my grandmother, Gerty Taussig Meltzer, a survivor of Theresienstadt, Mauthausen, and Auschwitz. She spent four years as a teenager living through some of the worst conditions ever known to man. At age 14, she saw her mother, father, and sister die, and yet she managed to keep her humanity. She worked as a slave laborer doing many horrific tasks like burying bodies, breaking up huge stones, and also building wings for the Luftwaffe’s airplanes. To secretly fight Nazism, she made deliberate defects in the wings to make the Luftwaffe aircraft crash. In this small act of subversion, she helped stop the murder of many Allied soldiers. All during her incarceration, my grandmother and her friends studied secretly so they would be able to continue their education after the war. She worked hard to learn English because she planned to come to America and begin life anew. My grandmother never lost her kind heart or humanity. After she was liberated, she was alone in the world, but made friends and joined Jewish groups to find an extended “family.” She worked extremely hard until age 75, when she left her full-time job and moved to Arizona to be closer to my family and me. Her goal was to overcome her terrible past and build a family in America and ensure her children would have a good life. She was successful. Both her children went to Ivy League schools and are active Jews today. My grandmother has changed my way of thinking because whenever I feel unable to do something, I think about how she has persevered and that gives me strength. I try to never lose hope when things seem impossible to overcome. Also, I am always conscious of my actions to make sure they are the ones she would have done and that they are positive and inspire others. reform judaism

➮

spring 2011

The 2011 Education Summit Be part of what some Reform leaders are calling “the most important Jewish educational assembly of this generationn.” The December 2011 Education Summit, to take place at the URJ Biennial outside Washington, D.C., is designed to raise the status of Jewish day schools, engage teens and families in Jewish life, involve all learners irrespective of disability, and, above all, strengthen every system of Reform Jewish learning. For more information: WEB ADDRESS.

the E G G N C I w ars IVIN AN IV E V T V I C R R EN A SSUURR T H I EEIN H H N TI

www.reformjudaismmag.org

The Mystery

Unmasking Shakespeare Was the greatest canon of Western literature written by a Jewish woman?

summer 2010/5770 $ 3 . 5 0

Unmasking Shakespeare

What if the Shakespeare legacy is a charade designed to conceal the author’s true identity? And what if the real playwright was a Jewish woman who dared not acknowledge her authorship in Elizabethan England? B y M i cTh a e l P o s n e r

reform judaism



summer 2010

reform judaism



summer 2010

Il l u s t r a t i o n b y

Yu a n L e e

unmasking

hakespeare

uestion:

Apart from the fact that they were all venerable, intelligent men, what did Sigmund Freud, Charles Dickens, Henry and William James, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Mark Twain, Orson Welles, and Walt Whitman have in common? Not one of them believed that William Shakespeare, a country lad from Warwickshire with a grade six education, who signed his surname six different ways, all illegibly, was capable of producing the single greatest canon of western literature: 38 transcendent histories, comedies, and tragedies, as well as 154 sonnets. They believed the Shakespeare legacy to be a colossal hoax, a charade designed to conceal an author who was unable or unwilling to acknowledge authorship.

he verifiable facts of Shakespeare’s life are few. He acted in two of Ben Jonson’s plays, owned shares of the Globe Theatre and the Blackfriars, sued people for petty sums, and bought land in Stratford. How, asked distinguished British actors Derek Jacobi and Mark Rylance in their 2007 “declaration of reasonable doubt” (signed online by some 1,700 people), did this Shakespeare acquire his knowledge of foreign languages, which the plays’ author clearly demonstrates? Where did he develop, seemingly overnight, dramatic mastery of the Elizabethan worlds of law, the court, mathematics, heraldry, medicine, horticulture, falconry, astronomy, and the military, to which he had no known exposure? Why did he leave a last will and testament that made no mention of anything he wrote? Why is there no contemporaneous evidence of his actual authorship? As Jacobi and Rylance note in their declaration: “Not one play, not one poem, not one letter in Mr. Shakspere’s [their spelling] own hand has ever been found….” It is true that Shakespeare acted in the company that performed the plays after 1594, and that the same name appeared on the long poems, on the 15 plays pubMichael Posner writes for Toronto’s Globe and Mail and is author of five books. To go deeper into the Bassano-Shakespeare connection: www.reformjudaismmag.org.

lished in Quarto after 1598, on the First Folio, and in documents of the acting company. But no evidence demonstrates that he actually wrote the plays. The playwright Ben Jonson wrote in his diary that although Shakespeare passed manuscripts of plays to the actors, who in their “ignorance” admired Shakespeare for providing clean unblotted copies, he was to be “most faulted” for telling them that the copies were his original drafts.

f Shakespeare did not write the plays, then who did? The Shakespeare Authorship Trust, founded in 1922 “to seek, and if possible establish, the truth concerning the authorship of Shakespeare’s plays and poems,” has to date endorsed the alternate candidacies of almost a dozen other Elizabethans, including statesman and essayist Francis Bacon, Edward de Vere (the Earl of Oxford), playwright Christopher Marlowe, writer Mary Sidney, Roger Manners (the Earl of Rutland), and diplomat/courtier Henry Neville. There’s also a group theory, suggesting that many backstage hands were complicit, conspiring to use Shakespeare as a mere cardboard prop. In April 2007, the Trust added a new name to the list and, at first blush, it’s a complete shocker: Amelia Bassano Lanier (1569-1645), daughter of a Venetianborn court musician and converso (a Jew who is forced to convert to Christianity reform judaism



summer 2010

but remains secretly Jewish). Last year, The Oxfordian, a peer-reviewed journal of Shakespeare authorship studies, published essays on four leading rival authorship candidates, including one on Bassano. A feminist of her day, Bassano composed Salve Deus Rex Judaeorum (Hail God, King of the Jews), a 3,000-line book of original poetry. Its appearance in 1611 made her the first woman to have published a work of original verse in the English language. Andrée Brooks (who has written about this period) points to a poem in which Bassano writes of “evil disposed men who forgetting they were borne of women, nourished of women, and that if it were not by the means of women, they would be quite extinguished from this world.” Certain men, Bassano declares, “have tempted even the patience of God himself.” The Bassano authorship theory’s principal proponent is John Hudson, a graduate of the Shakespeare Institute at the University of Birmingham, England. Hudson has spent the last seven years poring over Shakespeare texts and scholarly material as well as mounting productions of the plays with his New York–based troupe, the Dark Lady Players. He’s also written an 800-page manuscript in support of his contention that if Amelia Bassano did not author all of the works, she was a major collaborator, influenced them all, and contributed their underlying allegorical plots.

To the litany of skeptics’ doubts about Shakespeare, Hudson adds some striking new ones: Would a man whose works portray strong, well-educated, proto-feminist women raise his own daughters (as Shakespeare did) as illiterates? Why do the Shakespeare works contain some 2,000 musical references (110 in Taming of the Shrew alone)—many displaying a firm grasp of musical intricacies? For Shakespeare, there is no obvious answer; for Amelia Bassano, there is: her 15 closest relatives—father, husband, uncles, brothers-in-law—were professional court musicians, members of the Queen’s recorder troupe, which performed regularly at plays and masques. Her maternal cousin, lutenist Robert Johnson, was the most popular musical composer for the plays attributed to Shakespeare, which typically included half a dozen songs, such as “Where the Bee Sucks There Sucks I” and “Full Fathom Five Thy Father Lies” (both composed by Johnson for The Tempest). The canon also displays a sure knowledge of falconry; there are some 50 refer-

famously tames his truculent wife, Kate, with precisely the methods used in falconry—starvation and sleep deprivation: “My falcon now is sharp and passing empty. And till she stoop she must not be full-gorg’d, for then she never looks up her lure….” (Act IV, Scene 1). Is it just a coincidence that an earlier version of the play, called Taming of a Shrew, was written in 1593, just a year after Amelia Bassano married Alfonso Lanier, whose name means falcon in French? Is it a coincidence, too, that both play versions feature characters named Emelia, Alfonso (her husband’s name), and Baptista (her late father’s name)?

et even if we concede that Shakespeare’s authorship is in doubt, is it not an Olympian leap to believe that he was simply a front, a middle man brokering the plays for a conversa in deeply anti-Semitic England? A look at Bassano’s biography suggests that it is not. Indeed, we probably know more

of Kent; and her son Peregrine Bertie, the Lord Willoughby. In this heady environment, 13-year-old Amelia Bassano caught the eye of Henry Carey, also known as Lord Hunsdon, the son of Mary Boleyn and a cousin of Queen Elizabeth. Although he was some 45 years older than Bassano, he took her as his mistress. Among Hunsdon’s many titles was Lord Chamberlain, which meant that he presided over entertainment for the court and, as such, was patron of the Lord Chamberlain’s Men—the very company that mounted the works that would be attributed to Shakespeare. A decade later, at 23, Bassano became pregnant, ostensibly by Hunsdon. To avoid scandal—Hunsdon had 12 other children by his wife, Elizabeth Spencer—Bassano was forced to leave the royal court and was married off to her cousin Alfonso Lanier, another court musician. They lived in Westminster, where she gave birth to a son, Henry, and later a daughter, Odelia, who died in infancy.

Would a man whose works portray strong, welleducated, proto-feminist women raise his own daughters (as Shakespeare did) as illiterates?

ences to hawking, a rich man’s preserve not generally available to commoners like Shakespeare. None of his writing contemporaries—Kyd, Marlowe, Greene—made so many references to hawking in their works. As nobles, other authorship candidates—Bacon, Sidney, de Vere, Manners, and Neville—would likely have hunted with falcons, but this in itself would not necessarily have given them the degree of knowledge and perspective demonstrated in the plays, such as how to repair a wing feather or how to raise young birds from eggs. Amelia Bassano lived for 10 years as the mistress of the Queen’s master falconer, Lord Henry Hunsdon. In Taming of the Shrew, Petruccio

about Amelia Bassano than we do about Shakespeare. King Henry VIII brought her converso father, Baptista Bassano, and his brothers from Venice to England in 1538 and installed them as court musicians. Her mother, Margaret Johnson, was a Protestant and the daughter of another court musician. The family lived in London’s Aldgate district, a short walk from the theatres. Although her mother was still alive when Baptista died in 1576, young Amelia was sent a mile down the road to live with and be educated—in Greek, Latin, and the Bible—by English feminist Catherine Willoughby, Duchess of Suffolk; her daughter Susan Bertie, Countess reform judaism



summer 2010

Nobody, Hudson notes, has explained why Shakespeare started writing Italian marriage comedies in 1592, just as he was thought to have arrived in London, but it’s a perfect fit for Bassano’s biography. She had left the court to be re-absorbed by her Italian family. Moreover, the following year, three of her Bassano cousins took a nine-month leave from their jobs at court. Hudson suggests that she may have then deposited her young son with his nurse, temporarily left what is known to have been her unhappy marriage to spendthrift husband Alfonso, and joined her cousins in visiting Italy, where they made arrangements for the visit of Lord Willough-

How an ancient Jewish legend of hidden saints became a cyberspace celebrity race.

FI CTI O N

by Joseph Bulgatz

LamedVav.net reform judaism

summer 2011

ven now, so much later, I am hard-pressed to explain why I, a reclusive, barely computer-literate lapsed Jew, had such a violent reaction to a website, lamedvav. net, dedicated to the identification and public exposure of the legendary lamed vavniks— the 36 righteous individuals present in every generation upon whose merit the continued existence of our sinful world depends. What perversity, I thought, to expose these “hidden saints,” when, according to the Talmud, they are hidden from the world at large, including from themselves, for a reason—and if revealed, their special role will be lost! In the beginning, when lamedvav.net first appeared, I tried to sound an alarm in the court of public opinion. Since I am neither wealthy nor a celebrity, the means available to me were few. A letter submitted to The New York Times was not deemed worthy of publication. Letters to Jewish and intellectual periodicals had a very spotty reception, appearing, if they did, after the cruelest, most mindless surgery. My opposition made no impact because of the website’s powerful appeal. It fed upon the human appetite for heroes, coupled with the never-ending quest to see who among us was the best, the fastest, the strongest, she had handed him inadvertently. the prettiest, the smartest. In this light, the designation Also in Wikipedia fashion, the website organized of the most righteous appeared quite proper, hardly itself into a hierarchy: At the top were the adminisan aberration at all. trators, the core group that made policy and served Lamedvav.net got off to an extraordinary start, even as ultimate arbitrators; below were the editors, users astonishing and overwhelming its creators, who had who had established a reputation for dependable, qualnot prepared for the actual selection process and now ity work; and at the bottom were the occasional users. hurried to fill the void. To measure the moral attributes of contending saints, Here were their basic requirements for nomination: the administrators assigned a numerical value to each 1.) no individual would be considered unless nominat- action with moral consequences; produced a cost-beneed by an independent third party; 2.) each nominee fit analysis, the cost of the action to the individual canhad to be a real, living person, thereby excluding the didate measured along with the benefit experienced deceased and products of imagination; and 3.) in par- by those affected by it; and posted each candidate’s tial recognition of the hidden character of the righteous changing moral worth number in the large work-inones of legend, celebrities of any kind were ineligible. progress entitled “The Book of Good and Evil.” To submit a name, one prepared a brief biography of Fierce debates ensued about the appropriateness of the nominee, setting forth the date and place of birth, certain numerical equivalencies. Take the case of an parentage, education, occupation, and the reasons for organ donation. What was the appropriate number to qualification. In Wikipedia fashion, any user of the assign? How might it compare, say, to modest annual website who decided to participate in the search for the gifts to the homeless? Would the latter be equal in vallamed vavniks could join in. So if, for example, while ue to the former after five years? Ten? Twenty? Simidly scrolling though the list of candidates, you came ilar questions arose about suitable systems of moral upon the name of someone you knew, you were free accounting. In time, two major theories developed, to add your own direct experiences with the nominee one holding that value is a function of the number of that tended either to support or reduce his/her moral lives affected by an individual’s act, the other assignstanding, and so advance or diminish his/her eligibil- ing value on the symbolic meaning of that act alone. ity for sainthood. Many battles were fought between the utilitarians and Like the making of a mosaic, a detailed, moral symbolists, and hard feelings still exist. portrait of the person emerged, pieced together by The rating system initiated the website’s celebrity many hands. phase. Once each submission was assigned a numeriWhat were the comments like? A retired sixth-grade cal value, the aggregate net moral worth of every nomteacher was said, by her supporters, to have opened inee was automatically calculated, and all contenders the eyes of many students to their true paths in life. ranked from the leading saints on down in descendAn unemployed young actor thwarted an attempting order. It was not unlike a horse race. Soon, the top ed robbery of a convenience store at great personal rankings appeared in daily newspapers, first on the risk. In opposition, a longtime neighbor of the teach- sports page, and then, after an outcry as to approprier claimed that she failed to dispose of her household ateness, in the arts and entertainment section, where garbage properly and never returned a morning greet- it elicited an even greater outcry. Candidate profiles ing. And the teller at a local bank described how the were published in the media. Contenders appeared on actor had walked away with an overpayment of cash TV talk shows. Some even had fan clubs. reform judaism

summer 2011

What your

ONEG says about you The oneg is more than a snack. It can make or break your congregationâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s recruitment and retention efforts.

by Sue Fishkoff

reform judaism

summer 2011

n April 2009, Claire* became a member of a Reform congregation in New York City. ❡ A few months later, she went to Friday night services on her own. She enjoyed the worship, the rabbi’s remarks, the music. Everything was fine until she headed to the social hall for the oneg Shabbat, the buffet table laden with snacks and refreshments that is customary after Kabbalat Shabbat services. ❡ “I poured myself some juice and, scanning the room for a familiar face or two, saw only clusters of congregants socializing with others they already knew,” she says. “Standing alone amid strangers, the sense of community I’d felt

toasted

“You will never get a new member to join if your oneg is cold.”

earlier in the evening evaporated and my wallflower tendencies kicked in.” After a few awkward minutes, she slipped out the front door and headed home. Larry Kaufman, past president of Temple Sholom in Chicago, experienced much the same thing more than three decades ago. He was in his twenties and living in a new city when his father died. Finding a congregation nearby, he started attending weekly services to say kaddish. “I went virtually every Shabbat to the same synagogue for 11 months, and in those 11 months I was wished ‘Shabbat Shalom’ every week by the rabbi and the rebbetzin [rabbi’s wife], and never once by anyone else,” he recalls. Needless to say, the experience left him cold. He did not join that congregation. Such stories are all too common, says Kathy Kahn, the Union for Reform Judaism’s membership specialist. While most Reform congregations hold Friday night onegs, Kahn observes that the most beautiful oneg with the most delicious food can turn into an excruciating experience if no one extends a friendly hand to a newcomer or draws him or her into the conversation. “Even our most welcoming congregations often fall down at the oneg,” she says. Four years ago, she reports, the Union for Reform Judaism asked volunteers to visit Reform synagogues in Cleveland, Seattle, Boca Raton, and Springfield, Massachusetts and assess how warmly they were received. The observers reported that although they were usually greeted as they entered the synagogue, that welcome did not carry over to what many of them called the “dreaded oneg.” “All the hellos and handshakes disappeared at the oneg,” Kahn reports. “It’s like walking into a high school cafeteria where you don’t know anyone. I don’t think most adults ever outgrow that iconic experience, that fear—will anyone sit with me?”

reform judaism

Oneg Matters

ne of the biggest challenges facing Reform synagogues is recruiting and retaining members. Only 44% of American Jews currently belong to a synagogue. Moreover, half of the Jews living in any given city were born elsewhere. Therefore, the chances are that anyone visiting your temple is doing so for the first time. “What will newcomers experience when they arrive at your synagogue?” Kahn asks. “Does someone sit with them? Most important of all, do they stand alone at the oneg, or do members engage them in conversation?” “In many ways,” says Rabbi Aaron D. Panken, who teaches Rabbinic and Second Temple Literature at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in New York, “the oneg is the congregation’s welcome mat, an integral part of the Jewish tradition of hospitality in the spirit of Abraham, who rushed to greet three strangers, referred to them respectfully, offered them the best of his food and drink, and kept one eye directed toward their comfort at all times.” “The Kiddush [after Saturday morning services] or oneg Shabbat is one of the most important elements of a service,” writes Ron Wolfson in The Spirituality of Welcoming, his 2006 book on how to transform synagogues into sacred communities. “Greeting people is fine, and synagogues are getting the message. But creating a warm, welcoming community is about building relationships. When do you have time to build relationships? At the oneg.” Wolfson notes that any oneg will increase the amount of time people spend in the synagogue getting to know each other, and a great oneg will keep

Marcia Nichols, longtime member of Congregation Beth Israel in Houston, Texas, is active in the synagogue’s Ambassador program, which matches established congregants with new members to foster a welcoming and caring congregational community.

summer 2011

them around even longer. “Cookies and grape juice will often keep people for a few minutes—an extended kiddush of light foods may keep people around for another hour, socializing, enjoying each other’s company, creating community.” Even the smallest congregations with virtually no budget make sure to offer an oneg. In some, the Sisterhood funds the refreshments or volunteers take weekly responsibility for either buying snacks or baking cookies and cakes at home. In other synagogues, groups of congregants gather together periodically to prepare and freeze baked goods, defrosting them as needed throughout the year.

Oneg Origins

t is difficult to ascertain the exact origin of the oneg as we know it. But the connection between food and Shabbat is deeply rooted in Jewish text and tradition. The word oneg comes from the same root (ayin, nun, gimmel) as ta’anug, the Hebrew word for delight. “It is part of the very definition of Shabbat,” explains Rabbi Panken. “Isaiah 58:13 reads, ‘V’karata l’Shabbat oneg,’ meaning ‘You shall call the Shabbat an oneg or delight.’ That’s the proof text.” Later midrashim and rabbinic commentaries make explicit the connection between feasting and the particular enjoyment one should experience on Shabbat. One of the earliest sources is in the Babylonian Talmud (Berachot 31b), which says that a person is not allowed to fast on Shabbat, and can even be punished for not making the Sabbath a delight. “The idea is that the joy of Shabbat cannot be observed correctly if you don’t eat,” Panken says. As for the notion of a communal oneg or kiddush, the Babylonian Talmud (Pesachim 101a) includes a debate over whether one is permitted to recite kiddush (the blessing for wine recited before a meal) in a synagogue. While it was agreed that the preferred place was in the home, one prominent rabbi held that since it was common practice for Jewish travelers to receive overnight lodging in a synagogue, particularly over Shabbat when travel is restricted by Jewish law, such a synagogue could be considered a traveler’s home for that Shabbat and thus he is permitted to make kiddush there. Indeed, “there was a tradition of the synagogue giving travelers the food and wine they needed for Shabbat,” Rabbi Panken says. “As synagogues professionalized in the contemporary world, with staff and people congregating for shorter periods of time before returning to the comfort of their suburban homes, it seems the oneg Shabbat morphed from this older idea to a way of welcoming people and continuing the tradition of synagogues being the place where people celebrated the joy of Shabbat through eating.” Leah Hochmann, assistant professor of Jewish

The most beautiful oneg with the most delicious food can turn into an excruciating experience— like walking into a high school cafeteria where you don’t know anyone. I don’t think most adults ever outgrow that iconic experience, that fear—will anyone sit with me? thought at HUC-JIR in Los Angeles, dates post-worship onegs in North America to the early part of the 20th century at the latest. The practice of serving food after communal worship began with Saturday morning services, she notes. “According to halachah [Jewish law], you are not supposed to eat a meal on Saturday before services, so by the end of services, people were famished.” The oneg was probably developed to tide them over until they could get home for lunch, she surmises. Her guess is that Reform Jews in America “took their oneg with them” when they moved their primary worship service from Saturday morning to Friday night. Few Orthodox synagogues, by contrast, have Friday night onegs. “It doesn’t make sense,” she points out. “They hold services early, and worshipers go home for dinner.” Before Or Af ter?

dozen or so years ago, a number of Reform congregations moved their Friday night services earlier, to catch people before they had settled in for the evening. Arriving now directly from work, congregants were hungry. A

reform judaism

summer 2011

decorated tables laden with assorted cheeses, crackers, fruit, vegetables, and dip, along with fine wines. The service itself is short—a half hour—filled with singing and guitar-playing. Afterwards, people are encouraged to dine together, either at restaurants or in each other’s homes. On the other Fridays, services are later, followed by a more traditional and very festive oneg featuring a giant root beer float served from a punchbowl. If a bar or bat mitzvah is being celebrated, the head of the oneg committee calls the family to find out the child’s favorite dessert and tries to make sure it’s there. Both kinds of oneg serve different needs, Rabbi Mara Nathan says, though she personally finds the preoneg more compelling. “People spend about 10 or 15 minutes at the (traditional) oneg, then dissipate,” she reports. “But at the pre-oneg, people come on time and stay for the full half-hour. It’s a more leisurely experience, very chatty. We hold it in the lobby, which has softer lighting and is more intimate than the social hall where the regular oneg is held. “People who don’t necessarily show up on other Fridays come to this. They meet up at shul and go out to dinner together afterwards. I don’t know if it brings in hordes of newcomers, but it certainly makes our members feel warm and welcome.”

“It boils down to this question: ‘Do you see yourself as a host or a guest?’ If you see yourself as a host, you make sure that people are mingling, that there’s enough food, that the person edging toward the exit is warmly acknowledged before leaving. A host is ever vigilant.”

The Communal Feasting Route

little pre-service nosh—a pre-neg—seemed in order. Chicago’s Temple Sholom, for one, introduced a 5:45pm wine and cheese reception—a pre-neg— when it moved Friday night services earlier to 6:15pm. The temple still runs its long-standing post-service oneg and member Larry Kaufman says he much prefers it to the pre-neg, which he finds not nearly as social. “People drift in. Some don’t get there until right before the service starts,” he says. “With the oneg right after services, most people tended to go, even if they were there just for a few minutes. And a critical mass of worshipers is gathered together, which is an easier social situation for newcomers.” Jessica Childs, the temple’s facilities coordinator and organizer of both onegs, says each serves a different purpose. The pre-neg was added, she says, to give congregants a chance to mingle before as well as after services. It tends to be well attended when bar or bat mitzvahs are being held the following day. “By the time of the post-service oneg, the family is out the door because the bar mitzvah has to get to sleep,” she notes. The pre-neg also draws families with children, who prefer not to stay late after services. About 10 years ago, Larchmont Temple in Larchmont, New York also added an early Kabbalat Shabbat service with a pre-neg. On the third Friday of the month, worshipers enter a lobby filled with beautifully reform judaism

decade ago, Temple Ohabei Shalom in Brookline, Massachusetts replaced its post-service oneg with twice-monthly congregational dinners. On weeks without formal dinners, groups of friends go out to dinner together after services. Member Daniel Krueger finds that these meals do a better job of creating community than the onegs ever did. “The dinners create a stronger relationship between congregants,” he says. “At the oneg, a lot of people would leave early. If you have kids, you want to get home by 9:00pm. Having a meal together…allows people to bond.”

Identif ying Newcomers

ongregations that wish to engage potential members as well as help current ones feel part of a warm, welcoming community sometimes need help figuring out who is newly affiliated and who is a newcomer. To identify visitors, Temple Emanu-El in Sarasota, Florida has created permanent name tags which members pick up on their way into services. Anyone else gets a guest badge, “so we’re aware of who may need a little extra welcoming,” member Elaine Glickman says. Once at the oneg, Glickman says, members and clergy go out of their way to talk to the newcomers. “The guests feel so welcome,” says membership vice president Kim Sheintal. “And if they’re talked to

summer 2011

enough, they usually end up joining.” Sheintal is confident that the badge system and the efforts to welcome newcomers have led directly to many new memberships. Sixty families or individuals have joined the congregation this past year, she notes. At some synagogues, visitors are asked to use blue cups at the oneg so that members can identify them and extend a special welcome. But at Congregation Ner Tamid in Henderson, Nevada, this practice was discontinued. “It was a problem,” says Rabbi Sanford Akselrad. “Either members would take a blue cup by mistake, or a new person wouldn’t take one and then no one would talk to him/ her. And no matter how often you remind your board, people still talk to their friends.” Now, instead, every Friday night newcomers are encouraged from the bimah to join the congregation for a warm and welcoming oneg and to introduce themselves to a board member or staff person at Ner Tamid’s membership table. “A sign that says ‘Ask Me How to Join CNT’ shows them the way to the table, a gathering place where prospective members can hear about all the benefits of membership and talk to representatives from our Board,” says Executive Director Nancy C. Weinberger. “This handles the situation of people saying, ‘I came to the oneg and no one talked to me,’” Rabbi Akselrad says. “All they have to do is walk over to the table, and a friendly person is there, ready to talk to them.” In some congregations, a rabbi will ask newcomers to stand and identify themselves at the end of services, allowing clergy and board members, as well as other congregants, to offer them a warm greeting minutes later.

While such gestures are often appreciated and contribute to a friendly, welcoming atmosphere, Ron Wolfson cautions that sometimes they can backfire by making strangers feel self-conscious. “It’s tricky,” he says, “because some people don’t want to be identified. The most successful mega-churches [whose techniques are sometimes emulated by Reform synagogues] never ask first-time visitors to stand and declare themselves.” The Clergy’s Role

abbis and cantors are sometimes oneg emissaries, greeting people and engaging them in conversation. Rabbi Ken Brickman, for example, has long been serving up the cake and cookies to everyone at Temple Beth-El in Jersey City, New Jersey. “It’s been a chance for me as the rabbi to meet new people who might be temple shopping,” he says. “I love entertaining in my own home. Doing it in the congregation is an extension of that pleasure. ” At Beth-El’s oneg people sit at tables covered with tablecloths. That, says Rabbi Brickman, “encourages people to stay for a while and really get to know each other. And no one gets in or out without us [meaning longtime members and himself] finding out who they are, where they’re from, and why they’re here.” He explains that there’s no formal policy to welcome newcomers; doing so has simply become part of the shul’s culture. Rabbi Richard Birnholz at Congregation Schaarai Zedek in Tampa, Florida used to host “oneg chats” in his office one Friday a month, concurrent with the regular oneg in the social hall. New members or prospective members from the previous month were invited to

8 Ways To Greet a Stranger in Synagogue

he commandment to “Remember the stranger, for you were once strangers in a strange land” (Deuteronomy 10:19) reminds us that connecting with strangers in creating community can be difficult, especially if we tend to be shy, but is nonetheless a Jewish imperative. Here are eight ways to help you get past your “I don’t know what to say” stumbling block and greet a stranger on Shabbat. 1 Introduce yourself before the service. “Let me introduce myself. I am __ and I have been a member here for __ years. I am happy to meet you…. Shabbat Shalom.” 2 Choose your words carefully to avoid embarrassment in the case that “the stranger” is new to you but not to the

By Marcia Nichols synagogue. “I have been a member here for __ years, and don’t know if we’ve ever met, but let me introduce myself.” 3 Show your interest in the newcomer by asking a question, such as, “Hi! How are you?” or “What brings you here tonight?” followed by an introduction. “Let me introduce myself. I am __.” 4 Offer a genuine compliment after the service. “Hi, I am __. You really read Hebrew well,” or “I enjoyed listening to your singing,” or “You didn’t fall asleep once” (humor can be effective)…. 5 Mention areas of commonality. “Hello. My name is __. We sat in the same aisle. May I accompany you to the oneg?” 6 Refer to the service. “I hope you enjoyed the service,” or “Did you enjoy reform judaism

summer 2011

the service?” 7 Make eye contact. Looking someone in the eye is a critical first step in initiating a conversation. 8 Smile. Communicating with friendly gestures and actions count as much as welcoming words. The power to be an inviting presence rests fully within each of us. It is not beyond us; it is an emotional muscle we should exercise often. In putting aside our fears to welcome a newcomer, we remember that we, too, have been strangers in a strange land. And as we cultivate the habit of genuinely welcoming others, the strangers we encounter today may well become our new friends of tomorrow.

Strategic Lebanon

Bedfellows

Syria

Iraq

Iran

Afghanistan

Jordan

Israel

Pakistan

Saudi Arabia

india

India—the world’s most populous democracy—and Israel— the world’s most beleaguered democracy—have developed a vibrant relationship that could well change the geopolitical landscape in one of the world’s most volatile regions. b y Ma r t i n s h e r m a n reform judaism



winter 2010

reform judaism



winter 2010

periods of economic hardship, and ethno-religious rivalries (both having significant Muslim minorities which at times have displayed animosity to the nonMuslim majority). › Both nations—despite these dangers—have never wavered in their commitment to democracy. › Both are committed to a knowledge-based society emphasizing learning, science, and technological advancement. › Both have received financial and political support from their highly successcurious indian ful diaspora communities (particularly in the U.S.), which are loyal to their host stops a passing Israeli backpacker on the countries while maintaining a strong affinity with the homeland. New Delhi streets. “Tell me,” he asks, In addition, both Israel and India comprise the extremities of what Paul Shee“how many Israelis are there?” han, columnist for the Sydney Morning Herald, has called “an ‘Arc of Instabil“I’m not quite sure,” the backpacker ity’…stretching unbroken through Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, and Lebaanswers. “About six million.” non.” Washington Post writer Jim Hoagland has similarly described “Jerusalem “No, no,” retorts the Indian, “not just and New Delhi [as] end points…in a in New Delhi. I mean all together.” vast swath of countries from North AfriBehind the joke is a remarkable realica through the Himalayas that should ty: Some 40,000–50,000 Israelis travel to now be seen as a single strategic region India each year (many of them “unwind[in which] India and Israel are the most ing” in the country after completing vibrant democracies….” In theory, at military service), and are a very visible least, a strong Indo-Israeli alliance would presence in the country. In some outlyhave the potential to create a formidable ing locations Israelis comprise a domiforce for stability in a region threatened nant percentage of foreign visitors. Even by radical fundamentalism and tyranniin central sites such as the main market cal theocracy. in Old Delhi it is not uncommon to see Yet until the last decade of the 20th Hebrew signs and meet merchants who century, the state of Indo-Israeli relations can converse with Israeli customers in has more often reflected their differencfairly fluent Hebrew. es than their commonalities. Economically, the two nations That Israelis feel an instinctive affindiverged over time. Although in their ity for India should perhaps not be surearly years both India and Israel opted prising. Its history is virtually devoid of for heavily state-controlled economies, antisemitism. Indeed, the only significant incidents were the Moors’ attack on by the 1970s Israel began to adopt a free the Jews in 1524 and the Portuguese persecution of Jews in Cranganore (now trade and private enterprise orientation; the Kerala coast) some years later. Moreover, many Indian Jews achieved great India, in contrast, emphasized centralprominence, among them the Sassoons (for whom the Sassoon docks, the Sasized control and avoided dependence on soon hospital, and other well-known sites have been named), Dr. E. Moses (a foreign imports until the 1990s. Jewish mayor of Bombay), Lt. Gen. J. F. R. Jacobs (a general in the Indian Army On the political and diplomatic fronts, who supervised the Pakistani Army’s 1971 surrender in Bangladesh and later the two nations were estranged for four served as Governor of Goa and Punjab), Nissim Ezekiel (a poet/leading Indian decades, Israel aligning itself with the literary personality), and Dr. Abraham Solomon Erulkar (the personal physiUnited States and India with the Soviet cian/friend of Mahatma Gandhi). Union. Although India recognized the State of Israel in 1950, the then-ruling While at first glance the titan subcontinent of India and the tiny micro-state of Israel might appear to have little in common, a closer look reveals signifiMartin Sherman, the 2009–2010 visiting Israeli Schusterman Scholar at HUC-JIR cant similarities: and USC, is academic director of the Jeru› Both Indians and Jews have ancient, illustrious civilizations which deeply salem Summit lectures in Security Studies impact their respective national mindsets, and a reverence for their past heritage Program at Tel Aviv University, research felwhich is evident in many aspects of public and private daily life. low at the International Policy Institute for › Both nations achieved independence from British colonial rule in the late 1940s. Counter-Terrorism, and author of two books › Both have contended with threats to national security from neighboring counand numerous articles on Israeli security and tries (India from China and Pakistan; Israel from the Arab states), terrorism, foreign policy. political assassination (Itzhak Rabin in Israel; Indira and Rajiv Gandhi in India),

“Israel and India comprise the extremities of ‘an arc of instability’…stretching unbroken through Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, and Lebanon.”

reform judaism



winter 2010

Congress Party eschewed full diplomatic relations, siding with the Palestinians and denouncing what many in its ranks termed the “Zionist enterprise” as an imperialist creation of Western colonial powers. Nor did it help that many Indians were wary of another state whose national identity was defined on the basis of a religion (Judaism), just like India’s nemesis— the Muslim state of Pakistan. Moreover, the Indian government was reluctant to adopt any position that might antagonize its sizeable Muslim minority. Not until 1992, after the collapse of the Soviet Union and India’s adoption of a new economic liberalization policy, did New Delhi finally establish full diplomatic relations with Israel. The extent of India’s official attitude change toward Israel was evident eight years later, when India’s president K. R. Narayanan proclaimed: “We in India hold in admiration the immense progress that the people of Israel have made in various fields….There exists enormous potential for enhancing the depth and content of our interaction…as well as in the sphere of defense cooperation.” Indeed, that “enormous potential” for cooperation has been realized in defense and technology—areas in which Israel has acquired exceptional expertise— and new inroads are being made in agriculture and rural development as well.

Security & Military Matters

saries. To remain viable, Israel’s defense industries need to export approximately 70% of production, and today India is Israel’s largest market. While at first the flow of equipment and expertise was unidirectional—Israel supplying India—currently the two nations are engaged in a growing number of joint enterprises. On January 21, 2008, for example, an Indian Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle rocket propelled into orbit a TecSAR Israeli reconnaissance satellite that Israel was not able to launch from its own territory (because of geopolitical and gravitational considerations). Cooperation in the naval sphere could potentially serve both India’s declared aim to develop its blue water navy (a maritime force capable of operating on the “high seas” outside the territorial waters of the home nation)—and Israel’s increasingly challenging geo-strategic needs. Given its miniscule territorial dimensions after recent withdrawals in a vain quest for peace and the growing Iranian nuclear threat, Israel is compelled to turn to the marine theater for second-strike capability (a country’s assured ability to respond to an attack with a counterattack that will inflict unacceptable damage on the aggressor). Such capacity is essential for nations upholding a no-first-use policy (not to use nuclear weapons as a means of warfare unless first attacked by an adversary utilizing nuclear, chemical, or biological warfare). As the international relations and strategic affairs analyst Subhash Kapila has observed, “…both Israel and India are potential targets for first-use nuclear strikes by their adversaries”—in each case, an Islamic nuclear bomb. The sea-borne second strike capability “has to be operative from the Indian Ocean,” Kapila writes, “and hence strategic cooperation with the Indian Navy is an imperative.” If there have been any joint activities in the development of nuclear capabilities, they are classified. Still, then Indian Home Minister L. K. Advani (who later became deputy prime minister) openly declared on his 2000 visit to Israel that India is agreeable to cooperating with Israel on a range of areas, including “nuclear cooperation.”

Given the growing animosity of European Union countries toward the Jewish state, India’s middle class, with its rapidly increasing purchasing power, presents a significant alternative.

n 2003, tuval steinitz, then head of the Israeli Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Security Committee, assessed the strategic alliance with India as “a very high priority, second only to relations with the United States.” A central factor in the development of that alliance has been the significant scope of military equipment and expertise Israel is providing India. Indeed, some analysts believe that Israel has overtaken Russia to become India’s largest supplier of military equipment and expertise, with sales of land-based surveillance systems, sea-borne missiles, and more exceeding $2 billion per year. A quantum leap breakthrough occurred in 2004, when the U.S. sanctioned Israel’s sale to India of a $1 billion Phalcon airborne early-warning command and control system. Four years earlier the U.S. had blocked a similar sale to China, a clear signal that whereas Washington saw supplying advanced military systems to Beijing as inimical to American interests, selling to New Delhi was not. Revenues from these sales have helped Israel to offset research and development costs for the weaponry needed to maintain its military edge over its adver-

reform judaism



Trade & Investment

iven israel’s considerable success in launching companies on international capital markets— outside North America it is the number one foreign issuer on the NASDAQ exchange—many Israeli corporations (among them Ness software and Teva pharmaceuticals) have invested in Indian companies. More recently, India is starting to invest in Israel too. In 2007, for example, the Indian conglomerate Jain Irrigation acquired a 50% stake in Israel’s NanDan irrigation technology company to create NaanDanJain Irrigation Ltd., arguably the largest manufacturer of irrigation systems. Continued on page 00

winter 2010

and development centers in the areas of New Delhi, Maharashtra, and Mumbai.

Development vs. Diplomacy

While the level of Indo-Israeli economic cooperation is at an all-time high, the same cannot be said on the diplomatic front. New Delhi has consistently supported anti-Israel resolutions in the United Nations and other international forums, claiming concern for the fate of expatriate Indian workers in Muslim countries in the Gulf region as well as the fear of a possible backlash from both its large Muslim population and the Muslim states, which are still the country’s main energy suppliers. Perhaps most alarming to Israel is New Delhi’s cordial relations with Tehran. In 2008–09, Iran frequently objected to Pakistan’s attempts to draft antiIndia resolutions at international associations, such as the OIC (Organization of Islamic Conference). Indian officials have made it clear to Israel that they will not disrupt their relations with Iran, citing a long history of cultural ties between the two nations, India’s strategic considerations regarding Pakistan and Afghanistan with whom Iran shares a common border, and the need for Iranian oil. (Iran is India’s second largest oil supplier, and Agriculture & Rural Development about 40% of the refined oil consumed by ndia’s first prime minister, jawaIran is imported from India.) Nonetheless, harlal Nehru, once declared: “EveryIndia’s backing—albeit under reportedly thing else can wait but not agriculheavy U.S. pressure—of IAEA resoluture.” Writing for the Yale Center for tions critical of Iran’s nuclear policy in the Study of Globalization in 2007, 2005, 2006, and 2009 has led some comMira Kamdar reaffirmed this view: mentators to suggest that India’s oppo“Agriculture represents much more to sition to Iran’s nuclear ambitions, comIndia than a mere slice of economic pie— bined with ongoing close relations with it is the very lifeblood of the country, Israel, may signal a possible deterioration the source of livelihood for 115 million of New Delhi-Tehran relations. farming families and 70% of the counAnother area of potential friction try’s population, the base upon which the entire edifice of the nation rises. With between Israel and India is Jerusalem’s annual growth in manufacturing and in services each topping 11%, agriculture’s supplying Beijing with military equip2.3 percent growth rate lags stubbornly behind the 4% target India must hit if it ment. Since the early 1950s, India and is to push overall growth—now at 9.2%—into double digits.” China have engaged in a number of borSeventy percent of India’s population resides in rural areas, and more than der disputes, notably the Sino-Indian two-thirds of them live in poverty, earning less than two dollars a day. Given that War of 1962, the Chola incident of 1967 the rural vote is a decisive factor in democratic elections and continued condi(which resulted in military conflicts), and tions of relative deprivation could unleash large-scale instability and violence a skirmish in 1987. Territorial disputes across the sub-continent, the Indian government cannot afford to ignore India’s have continued, mainly over Aksai Chin struggling small-scale farmers. in India’s northwest corner at the junction Israel’s involvement in India’s agro-sector is less developed than in the miliof India, Pakistan, and China as well as tary and technological sectors, but shows signs of growth as both nations recogover Arunachal Pradesh in the far northnize the potential benefits. India consistently sends (by far) the largest nationeast of India; however, in the short term al delegation to Israel’s triennial Agritech, one of the largest agro-technology these controversies are unlikely to erupt exhibitions in the world. As a result of such contacts, “Israel’s drip irrigation and into violence. other systems…are prevalent throughout India,” writes Mark Sofer, the Israeli Military cooperation between Israel ambassador to the Indian Embassy in New Delhi. “The establishment in Rajasand China has existed since the 1980s, than of seven olive plantations, using the world’s most advanced technologies… despite the fact that the two nations have and the establishment of a dairy farm in Andhra Pradesh using Israeli technolno formal diplomatic relations. According ogy…brings yields of over 40 litres of milk per cow per day [about 14 times the to some estimates, Israel has sold China national average].” India and Israel have also established agricultural research $4 billion in arms and is China’s second

largest arms supplier, second only to Russia, making China another vital market for Israel’s military industries. According to the Asian Times (2004): “The Israel-China military relationship also contributed to China softening its anti-Israel stance on the Israel-Palestine conflict. China’s policy moved from its pro-Arab tilt to a more nuanced appreciation of the Israeli position.”

The India-Israel-U.S. Nexus

Israeli technology in Andhra Pradesh brings yields of over 40 litres of milk per cow per day--about 14 times India’s national average.

reform judaism



winter 2010

India’s Progressive Synagogue India has only one Reform congregation—Rodef Shalom Synagogue in Mumbai. Founded in 1925, buoyed by the efforts of Rabbi Hugo Gryn, strengthened in the 1950s by Union of American Hebrew Congregations (now URJ) financial support, and run by the Jewish Religious Union, this unique congregation blends Indian customs, warmth, and hospitality with a certain formal, British-flavored Progressive Judaism. On Yom KipA religious school class at pur the entire congregation dresses in white; the the Mumbai JCC—Rodef Shalom’s temporary home. women, draped in beautiful saris, and men, wearing white kurta pajamas, intone the melodious eastern Kol Nidre as the sifrei Torah is removed from the ark. A visiting rabbi conducts High Holy Day services, one of the benefits of the congregation’s membership in the World Union for Progressive Judaism (wupj.org). Worship services at Rodef Shalom blend familiar melodies with Marathi, a local dialect. Liturgy from the Liberal British prayer book is supplemented with traditional Bene Israel piyutim (liturgical poems set to music). Congregants will often share their personal insights about the meaning of the holidays. Rodef Shalom congregants are so hospitable that visitors leave feeling they have made lifelong friends. Many remain in close contact with the members long after departing India for home. To learn more: rizpah_35@hotmail.com.

t the beginning of the 21st century, a very clear rationale was articulated for a trilateral axis comprising Israel, India, and the U.S. Speaking in 2003 before the American Jewish Congress, Indian national security adviser Brajesh Mishra said: “India, the United States, and Israel have some fundamental similarities. We are all democracies, sharing a common vision of pluralism, tolerance, and equal opporBased on “India’s Progressive Synagogue” by Rabbi Leon Morris (RJ Winter 2000) tunity. Stronger India-U.S. relations and India-Israel relations have a natural logic.” However, as former Indian ambassador M. K. Bhadrakumar has put it: “The Well before the 2008 Mumbai masU.S.’s current strategic priorities in the sacre, the Indian journalist Swapan region and India’s expectations are [now] Dasgupta remarked that both Israel and diverging.” India acknowledge that “a successful “In 2007,” explains Indian politician war against terrorism cannot be fought Ajay Singh, “India was to be a ‘strategic without the participation of [America], partner’ to counter China’s growing influthe only country whose definition of ence and act as a counterweight to contain national interest is not circumscribed it in the region. “A ‘long-term strategic by geography….“Th[is] means persuadrelationship’ was in the cards…. [Then] ing Washington that our war is their war the U.S. involvement in Afghanistan had too. Conversely, it implies demonstrating led to a growing dependence on Pakistan, that their war is our war too. New York, irrespective of its double dealings…[and] Washington, Jerusalem, Hebron, Srinain appeasing Pakistan in the plans for an gar, Mumbai: We are in it together [sic].” Afghan solution, India has been virtualSuch a trilateral alliance could also ly sidelined….” serve as a nucleus around which other Robert Blackwill, who served as the like-minded regimes could coalesce, U.S. ambassador to India from 2001 to 2003, also notes that differing percepwith far-reaching ramifications for the tions on such core issues as Pakistan, Afghanistan, China, Iran, India’s nucleglobal system. India’s national security ar weapons, civil nuclear cooperation, and climate change could cause “a variadvisor Brajesh Mishra has articulated ety of problems in the U.S.-India relationship in the next months and years….” such a vision of establishing a “core…of Nevertheless, the U.S., India, and Israel all share a common cause in fighting democratic societies [India, Israel, U.S.] terrorism. An American-endorsed alliance between India and Israel could help [with] the political will and moral authorforge a potent stabilizing force in this volatile region, asserts Brigadier Arun Sahity to…take on international terrorism gal, who is responsible for long-term strategic assessments in India’s Joint Staff. in a holistic and focused manner.” The “The main purpose [of Indo-Israeli-U.S. entente],” he explains, “is to keep the Washington Post’s Jim Hoagland agrees, theater of the Indian Ocean and its Eastern approaches to Europe free from radwriting that “The way in which the [U.S.] ical and fundamental forces that are showing increasing signs of consolidation.” campaign [against terror] is conducted, Continued on page 00

Some analysts believe that Israel has overtaken Russia to become India’s largest supplier of military equipment and expertise.

Photograph: Ben Frank/JDC

Moreover, India—one of the world’s fastest growing economies, averaging nearly 6% GDP growth over two decades—has become Israel’s third largest trading partner in Asia. Whereas up to 1992, merchandise trade was comprised primarily of diamonds, diversification has rapidly ensued to encompass such manufactured goods as machinery, medical equipment, and fertilizer. Given the growing animosity of European Union countries toward the Jewish state, Israel’s cultivation of the Indian consumer has strategic implications. Indeed, should the European Union impose economic sanctions resulting in Israeli sales losses in European markets, India’s middle class—with its rapidly increasing purchasing power—presents a significant alternative.

reform judaism



winter 2010

Transcending an

“Artless Tradition” The birth of a modern Jewish art movement.

tanding before the delegates of the World Zionist Congress in Basle, Switzerland in 1901, Martin Buber urged them to embrace art as a force to normalize the Jewish people. For the 23-year-old Jewish philosopher, Zionism was not just about land and politics; it was also about culture. Jewish art was a “beautiful possibility,” he insisted, which could play a key role in a national Jewish renaissance. Failing to win the delegates’ support, Buber turned directly to his artist friends, who staged an exhibition of 48 works at the Congress. It was now

reform judaism



winter 2010

Credit: Frame: c Kalim / Photolia.com

By Lance J. Sussman

reform judaism



winter 2010

Opening spread

Maurycy Gottlieb, Jews Praying in the Synagogue on Yom Yippur, 1878, oil on canvas

t wasn’t until the middle decades of

the 19th century, as Jewish artists started to explore Jewish themes in their paintings, that the first glimmer of a modern Jewish art movement emerged in Central Europe. Ironically, the most prominent of these painters, Moritz Daniel Oppenheim (1800–1882), an observant Jew, had been influenced by the art of the Nazarene movement after visiting Philipp Veit in Rome. Oppenheim received numerous portrait commissions from bourgeois Jewish families and patron-

“Why have so many of the world’s great museums not found Jewish art fit for inclusion?”

their task to create a national Jewish art movement. For centuries, Judaism had been largely perceived as an “artless tradition” for both internal reasons— the Torah’s prohibition against “graven images”—and because of antisemitic barriers—such as the exclusion of Jews from artists’ guilds. While the German philosopher Immanuel Kant (1774–1804) praised Judaism for valuing “the moral law” more than the visual representation of truth, antisemites, such as the German composer Richard Wagner (1813–1863), belittled Jews as being incapable of creating true art. Even the German Jewish philosopher and Emancipation movement leader Moses Mendelssohn (1729–1786), who himself embraced representational art as “a perfection” of form, order, and harmony—true beauty— never challenged Kant’s view that Judaism was an artless tradition. What were Jewish artists of that era to do? Mendelssohn’s grandson, the painter Philipp Veit (1793– 1877), like many other Jewish artists, converted to Christianity as the only way to make it in 19th-century German society. Veit joined the Nazarenes, a group of Christian artists, in their quest “to contribute a new and original style to European art.” With the exceptions of religious crafts and synagogue architecture, Jewish art seemed destined to remain marginalized at best.

Moritz Daniel Oppenheim, Lavater and Lessing Visit Moses Mendelssohn, 1856, oil on canvas

Marc Chagall, I and the Village, 1911, oil on canvas

reform judaism



age from the Rothschilds (beginning with Baron Carl Mayer von Rothschild of Frankfurt and, later, from the London and Paris branches of the family). Indeed, Oppenheim declared himself “the painter of the Rothschilds and the Rothschild of painters.” Oppenheim created a body of “Jewish history paintings” intended, in part, to make a visual argument for a genuine German Jewish aesthetic at a time when Central European Jews were struggling to achieve political emancipation. His The Return of a Jewish Volunteer from the Wars of Liberation to his Family (1833) testified to German Jewry’s patriotism in its depiction of a Jewish soldier in uniform embraced by his loving family in a traditional Jewish home setting. More boldly, his Lavater and Lessing Visit Mendelssohn (1856) symbolized the Jews’ struggle for emancipation in Europe. The painting depicted Moses Mendelssohn at home in his parlor (complete with a traditional Sabbath lamp) engaged in dialogue with his friend and advocate Gotthold Ephraim Lessing (1729–1781), the literary leader of the German Enlightenment who believed in the compatibility of Judaism and reason. Above them, in a hostile pose, loomed Johann Kaspar Lavater (1741–1801), the Christian theologian who had tried unsuccessfully to convert Mendelssohn to Christianity, representing the prolonged and stubborn resistance to Jewish political emancipation and cultural acceptance. The Enlightenment itself was represented by a chess set, presumably used in friendly matches between Mendelssohn and Lessing. Oppenheim is best known for his 1865 illustrated collection, Scenes from

winter 2010

Traditional Jewish Life, which portrays a harmonious vision of a German-Jewish cultural synthesis—and would become “the most popular Jewish book ever published in Germany,” according to historian Ismar Schorsch.

traditional caftans. One of his paintings, Rabbi’s Visit (1886), portraying a proud father watching his bashful son standing before a prominent rabbi, was presented by Emperor Franz Joseph to Vienna’s prestigious Museum of Art.

ppenheim’s Jewish

artistic heirs emerged farther to the east in the Galician districts of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Among them was Maurycy Gottlieb (1856– 1879), one of the most talented painters of the time. The leading German publisher Friedrich Bruckmann commissioned Gottlieb to create 12 illustrations for a special edition of Nathan the Wise, Gotthold Lessing’s famous play about toleration featuring a protagonist based on Moses Mendelssohn. Gottlieb had completed seven of the works when, in 1877, yielding to antisemitic pressure, Bruckmann cancelled the contract. Gottlieb was devastated by this reversal of fortune. Shortly before his untimely death at the age of 23, Gottlieb—inspired by Heinrich Graetz’s monumental History of the Jews—painted his psychological masterpiece, Jews Praying on the Day of Atonement (1878). Departing from his earlier, more formal, mawkish, and politically motivated work, Gottlieb here infused the subjects with emotion: draped in traditional tallitot, their eyes turned downward into the pages of holy books or upward toward a distant deity. In the middle of the canvas was a self-portrait of the artist filled with the angst of an unsettled and exhausted young man— but giving the hint of promise, too, his colorful kittel (robe) reminiscent of the biblical Joseph’s special coat. In contrast to Gottlieb’s intense, psychological work, the Hungarian-born Isidor Kaufmann (1853–1921), one of the Fifth World Zionist Congress exhibitors, depicted the more celebratory aspects of traditional Jewish life. “My intention,” Kaufmann wrote, “has always been to praise and glorify Jewish culture…. I want to reveal all its beauties and all its nobility… [make its] fervor accessible to gentiles as well.” Traveling extensively in Galicia and the Ukraine to find his subjects, Kaufmann created a body of Jewish ethnographic portraits, often of bearded rabbis draped in

Ze’ev Raban, Come to Palestine, 1929, lithograph Isidor Kaufmann, Portrait of a Rabbi with a Fur Hat, date unknown, oil on panel

the center of the Jewish art movement shifted eastward again—this time to Russia, where Jewish life was a churning sea full of cultural crosscurrents from Chasidism to Zionism to Bundism— all competing for Jewish hearts and minds within the Pale of Settlement and beyond. At the same time, the Czarist government was keeping Jews impoverished and instigating violent pogroms against the Jewish community. Against this background, Vladimir Stasov (1824– 1906), a leading figure on the Russian art scene (who was not Jewish), began advocating the creation of a national Russian art, of which Jewish art (which he understood to be a mixture of Moorish and folk elements) would constitute an important part. Responding to Stasov’s call, a number of Jewish artists, including the highly regarded sculptor Mark Antokolski (1843– 1902), sought ways to introduce Jewish folk elements into new art idioms, producing such works as Jewish Tailor (1864) and Spinoza (1881), as well as the com-

Lance J. Sussman, Ph.D. is senior rabbi of Reform Congregation Keneseth Israel in Elkins Park, Pennsylvania; national chair of the CCAR Press; and co-developer (along with artist Joan Myerson Shrager and KI Museum director Rita Rosen Poley) of more than a dozen illustrated lectures on Jewish art history. reform judaism



t the end of the 19th century,

winter 2010

plex yet unfinished compositions Talmud Dispute (1868) and Inquisition Attacks the Jews (1869). Many of these young Russian Jewish artists made their way to Paris, where, in 1912, several founded the first Jewish art group and journal, Makhmadim (Precious Ones). Located in the French capital’s famed artist colony, La Ruche (“Beehive”), the building—housing many studios—attracted dozens of expatriate Jewish artists, among them Marc Chagall (1887–1985). Perhaps more than any other Jewish artist to date, Chagall was a pioneer in presenting traditional Jewish images in modern art idioms. In I and the Village (1911), for example, Chagall combined Jewish subject

Reuven Rubin, Landscape in Galilee, 1925, oil on canvas

reform judaism



matter while experimenting with Fauvism (the use of vivid, unnatural colors) and Cubism (the pronounced geometrical division of space). After the outbreak of World War I, Chagall returned to his native Vitebsk, a shtetl in eastern Belarus, and joined the Russian army. He went on to direct Vitebsk’s Free Academy of Art until he moved to Moscow, where he worked as a set designer in both Jewish and general theaters, creating many images for the new Soviet stage. Eventually, government interference prompted him to resign and return to Paris in 1923. He became a French citizen 14 years later, but fled after the Nazi occupation, living in the United States, Mexico, Italy,

winter 2010

and other places until he could return safely to France. Although Chagall had left the world of the shtetl as a young man, the shtetl never entirely left him. Much of his vast body of work drew on his experience of growing up in a world rich in Jewish culture, even as the Jews struggled with poverty and persecution. Brides, lovers, fiddlers, barnyard animals, flowers, and Jewish symbols all danced together on Chagall’s canvases, murals, and ceramics. For Chagall, the visual details of Jewish life in his work were just as illustrative of the universal human experience as they were representative of his specifically Jewish memories. In part, perhaps, for this reason, Chagall’s work is among the very few pieces of art with explicitly Jewish themes displayed today in world-class museums. In the early 20th century, threedimensional art was still generally perceived by the traditional Jewish community as a violation of the second commandment (“You shall not make for yourself an idol”). Nonetheless, the Russian-born sculptor Jacques Lipchitz (1891-1973), who settled in France and became associated with Paris’ avantgarde art circles, built on the precedent established by Mark Antokolski and took his own Jewish-infused sculpture in Cubist and neo-Baroque directions. In The Prayer (1943), for example, he showed in a sculpture rich in Baroquelike detail an elderly man swinging a rooster in the kapparot ritual (in which a person’s sins are symbolically transferred to a fowl). The Miracle (1948), inspired by the newly created Jewish State, depicted an exultant figure with raised arms facing the Tablets of the Law, out of which a seven-branched candelabrum grows. (One of the seven Miracle sculptures he created is on display at Congregation Ohabai Sholom in Nashville, Tennessee.) The careers of Jewish artists who remained within the Soviet orbit followed a much different trajectory from those of Chagall and Lipchitz. The Marxist El Lissitsky (1890–1941), who illustrated Yiddish books, for example, aided the Bolshevik Revolution by creating, among other works, the classic Soviet propaganda poster, Beat the Whites with the Red Wedge (1919), which used an anti-pogrom theme to rally Jewish support for the Communists. Soon his style became synonymous with Soviet Realism. Within a few years,

however, Lissitzky became disillusioned both with the Soviet Union and the subversion of art in the service of propaganda. “Art,” he declared, “is created today by those who are strangers to it.” The government retaliated by limiting his commissions, which, along with his poor health, greatly reduced his influence in the final decade of his life.

y the late 1920s, with the Russian

homeland largely closed to Jewish artistic activity under Stalin, Jewish artists who had immigrated to Palestine and the United States from Eastern Europe became the cutting edge in the campaign Buber launched to create a national Jewish art movement. Palestine would develop along two distinct tracks, both growing out of the Bezalel Academy in Jerusalem. The first, promoting crafts for both artistic and commercial purposes as part of the national

“With the founding of the Jewish state in 1948, Jewish art was displayed in public spaces for the first time since the Roman conquest.” renaissance in the Jewish homeland, was spearheaded by Boris Schatz, the painter and sculptor who founded the Bezalel Academy in 1906. Initially Schatz attracted broad support among Zionist artists ranging from the Polish-born Jewish history painter Samuel Hirzenberg (1865–1908) to the Galician-born modernist Ephraim Moses Lilien (1874-1975), a pioneer in photography best known for his iconic portrait of Theodor Herzl gazing prophetically into the distance from the Rhine Bridge in Basel. Within a generation, however, the modernist camp at the Bezalel Academy was in full revolt, seeking to overthrow what they perceived as Schatz’ anachronistic approach. They organized the first Association of Jewish Artists in 1920 and then, in 1923, staged the first major exhibition of modern Jewish art in Palestine, held at Jerusalem’s Tower of David. By 1926 the center of art had shifted from Jerusalem to the modern “Hebrew” city of Tel Aviv. In search of a nation-

reform judaism



winter 2010

Benno Elkan, Seven-Branched Menorah, 1956, bronze

Israel & India Strategic Bedfellows in a Volatile Zone

Einstein vs.

“Indiana Glickman”

The Stubbornly Persistent & the Chamber of Treasures Illusion of Time

Conversion Paving the Way to Judaism

winter 2010/5771 $ 3 . 5 0

Behind Bullying

What propels aggressive behavior— and what to do when you think you’re the target

www.reformjudaismmag.org

Behind Behind Bullying bullying Why some adults act aggressively toward othersâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;and what to do when you think itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s happening to you.

reform judaism

ď&#x153;˛

winter 2010

Aron Hirt-Manheimer (RJ editor):

hat is bullying?

Dr. Dale Atkins (psychologist, author, TV commentator, Reform congregant): Humiliating, shaming, threatening, or intimidating someone into acting or thinking a certain way. Rabbi Edythe/Edie Mencher (clinical social work psychotherapist, author, organizational consultant): Determining whether or not bullying is occurring often depends on the context. Two people may perceive the same situation differently. A group of men teasing one another, for example, might be viewed by one person as bullying and by another as engaging in normal “guy” behavior. Another example: When a friend of mine—who is very articulate but has a mild spelling disability—was in fifth grade, her teacher wrote a comment on one of her assignments: “Amanda, the content is beautiful, but your spelling is disgusting.” Feeling that such a comment was bullying and hurtful, her mother replied to the teacher: “Dear Mrs. G., Amanda has difficulties with spelling, and I don’t mind if you tell her to correct the spelling, but could you please not say it is ‘disgusting’?” The next time Amanda handed in a writing assignment, the teacher wrote another comment: “Amanda, sweetheart, your content is still beautiful, but your mother doesn’t want me to tell you that your spelling is disgusting.” Now an adult professional (though still not a great speller), Amanda considers Mrs. G. the best elementary school teacher she ever had, and her mother has come to agree. Clearly, in addition to communicating criticism in a blunt style, the teacher also wished to

Joy Weinberg (RJ managing editor):

Why do some adults feel entitled to act aggressively toward other adults? Dale: They believe: I am worth more than others, and therefore I deserve more and come before anyone or anything else. They exempt themselves from the rules that apply to the rest of us. Some of these adults were bullied when they were children. Some learned as kids that the only way to get what they wanted was to be antagonistic towards others. Some discovered that intimidation helped in climbing the career ladder, a belief often reinforced by those who’ve treated them deferentially despite their inappropriate behavior.

“There is a Chasidic teaching that asks: What might we find if we could see within the heart of evil? The answer: A crying baby.” reform judaism

to respond with aggression or outrage more often than others—which, of course, doesn’t mean that they can’t learn to inhibit these responses. In addition, some people express anger at someone else because it helps them feel stronger and less helpless in the face of disappointment. A non-supportive, anxiety-provoking environment can also make the difference between aggressive behavior and more modulated responses. For example, an intimidated schoolteacher who has been told her job is on the line unless her children reach certain academic goals may become irate with students who haven’t been doing their work. Conversely, if her principal supports her in becoming a more effective teacher, she may extend that same encouragement to her students. One’s experience growing up can also play a significant role. Both a child who has never been given what she needs as well as one who has never been denied what she wants may have difficulty bearing frustration in adulthood. Understanding the origin of another person’s disturbing behavior, however, does not excuse it, but may afford us some insights to help us respond effectively and wisely.

convey her affection for Amanda and her appreciation of Amanda’s writing ability. Amanda did not feel belittled, demeaned, or silenced. For her, Mrs. G.’s style, color, humor, and zaniness were valuable and memorable, in contrast to more “safe” comments by other teachers that never made an impression. We also need to be careful not to leap to the assumption that one person is bullying another just because he/ she is acting in a way that seems inappropriate to us. Like the time I rushed into a bakery to buy challah right before Shabbat. Seeing two open registers, with two people at one and 10 at the other, I went to the back of the shorter line…and suddenly I felt the store go quiet. I paid, people wished me “Shabbat Shalom,” and it was only when I left that I realized that the first line was being fed by the second. Not one person in that store said to me, “Don’t cut in line.” They didn’t want to shame me; they gave me the benefit of the doubt that my behavior was unintentional, probably a result of feeling pressured by Shabbat preparations. And, in fact, they would have been wrong to think I was purposefully bullying my way ahead of them rather than misperceiving the situation to my own advantage. It is much better for one’s peace of mind when we do not assume that every aggressive, unkind, inappropriate, or selfish act is perpetrated against us because we look like a pushover, and to allow for the possibility of another explanation. Maybe someone cut us off in traffic because he’s rushing to a sick child. Or perhaps a coworker’s disturbing comment is indicative of something’s wrong at home. We can say to ourselves, I need more evidence to know if this is intentional bullying or not. And, if it’s possible and appropriate, we can suspend judgment and ask the other person gently, “Is there a reason you really needed to go first?”

Edie: Some human beings appear to be born with a quicker temper, a lower frustration tolerance, a tendency to easily feel hurt, and a poor ability to modulate their impulses when they don’t get their way. They may be “wired”



winter 2010

“The Talmud teaches that every individual can be judged by three measures: how he acts when intoxicated, how he handles money, and how he reacts when angered.” aimed at you—perhaps there was a misunderstanding, the other person is upset about something else, or he/she doesn’t realize the impact. Then, weigh how you might respond constructively, gauging how a range of possible responses are likely to affect the other person as well as contemplating what’s in your own best interest. Depending upon your temperament, the level of distress evoked by the situation, and your state of mind, it may take a few moments or more than a few hours to move from red through yellow to the green zone, where your responses are likely to reflect control and wisdom. When you are confident that you’re in the green zone, able to bring together both your emotional and your measured responses, proceed with whatever action seems best— which, depending on the situation, may also be to keep your own counsel on the matter.

What are some of the best ways to respond when you’re being bullied? Joy:

Photographs: Sharon Dominick / istockphoto.com/ Luke Derivan

behind bullying

Dale: If you can, resist feeling intimidated—which is often what the aggressor wants you to feel. Sometimes people don’t stand up to a bully because they are afraid of being attacked or because they fear retribution. But failure to take action sends the message that the bully can continue intimidating you, and reinforces your own sense of powerlessness. Try assertive responses against the bully, such as looking him/her firmly in the eye while standing straight, and in a clear tone of voice (without sounding threatening) saying, “I believe you are trying to bully me. I want this behavior to stop.” Do not fall into the trap of responding to bullying behavior by saying or doing something nasty to the perpetrator. Doing so will only demonstrate that the bully has succeeded in getting to you, which is liable to escalate the intimidating behavior.

Such as when you’re being bullied by your supervisor at work and speaking up might endanger your job?

Joy:

Dale: Yes, in that instance, you may be better off documenting the negative episodes in writing (should you later choose to address the issue with HR) or seeking the help of a trusted colleague. Another strategy is navigating around a bullying boss. A woman I know tells this story: One of the worst bullies I’ve ever dealt with was a boss who was the company president’s best friend. During staff meetings this boss would try to bait members of the management team into picking fights with him. As the only female on the team, I chose a different tactic: I refused to take the bait. Instead, I’d take a deep breath to help me remain calm, put a pleasant look on my face,

Edie: A colleague of mine uses the “traffic-light technique” to calibrate her response to what feels like bullying. Though this method may seem simple or obvious, it is, in fact, difficult to sustain. It works like this: When you are in the red zone, overcome by anger, frustration, or fear: STOP—don’t say or do anything, because your response is likely to be extreme and you might regret it later. Try to calm yourself with deep breathing, counting, or whatever helps you regain composure and perspective. When you are in the yellow zone, a little calmer and less driven by strong emotion, consider explanations for the offending person’s behavior that aren’t personally reform judaism



winter 2010

stay quiet, and let him air his grievances until he literally ran out of steam. When he realized he couldn’t lure me into an argument, he’d move on to the next person. The fights seemed to fill him with energy, as if he lived for those moments. So I always figured, why give him the satisfaction? Also keep in mind that an adult can act nastily because of a false assumption that her target poses a threat or an obstacle in her path. Demonstrating that you are on her side—anything from saying a friendly “good morning” to offering help with something—may get you out of harm’s way and avoid future incidents. However, if the bullying behavior continues, you’ll need to try a different approach, because you don’t want to send the message that you find her nastiness acceptable.

as feeling stressed, vulnerable, afraid, anxious, diminished, and/or depressed—your physical, emotional, spiritual, and mental health may be at risk. Get help from a doctor, rabbi, friend, or therapist.

It’s not easy to respond to provocation with restraint and compassion. Joy:

Dale: That’s true. Try walking away from the person while holding an internal conversation about how sad it is that she needs to try to make someone else feel badly in order to make herself feel better. Think about the good things in your life: the people you love and who love you. Create a mental image of a time you were happy. You’ll be walking away from a negative experience and replacing it with something positive. Try to be peaceful and generous, too. Let’s say your usually wonderful partner blurts out something cruel. Know that there’s an underlying reason for his tactlessness—that the very moment when he is at his ugliest is also when he needs your love the most. Do not allow yourself to be verbally abused, but do open your heart and remember what he is like when he is at his best. And whatever the circumstances, remember that when somebody attacks you, it’s not your fault. Whether you choose to work it through with the person or ignore it and move on, you do not deserve this kind of treatment. And if your emotional response to consistent provocation is fear—such

“An adult can act nastily because of a false assumption that her target poses a threat or an obstacle in her path.” reform judaism

When Jack pushed Jill Down the Hill

Edie: There is a Chasidic teaching that asks: What might we find if we could see within the heart of evil? The answer: a crying baby. As this teaching suggests, when we encounter someone acting in seemingly cruel, selfish, even monstrous ways, often deep within the person is a hurt, desperate child who feels unheard and wants to be loved. While this reality may make the behavior no less dangerous, our awareness of it can help us respond in more gentle, empathetic ways which may work to disarm the person. Stories like Beauty and the Beast embody this wisdom. When we can convey to a human being who seems unattractively brutal our belief that he also has a beautiful and generous soul within, we may nurture the loving part of his character. The Babylonian Talmud, Eruvin 65b teaches that every individual can be judged by three measures: cos, kees, and ca’as. Cos refers to how the person acts when intoxicated (by alcohol or perhaps by power, fame, etc.). Kees refers to how the person manages his/her wallet—how generous, how miserly, how responsibly money is handled. Ca’as assesses how the person reacts when angered. One who engages in bullying behavior may abuse power, act ungenerously, and turn quickly to anger. And when we’re attacked, whether or not we respond with anger is a measure of our character. That said, even God wrestles with anger in responding to human beings’ disobedience. In the Noah story, after the flood God hangs a rainbow in the sky as a reminder to never again unleash such destruction, saying: “I establish my covenant with you, that never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of the flood, and never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth…. This is the sign of the covenant that I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all future generations” (Genesis 9:12). In the Talmud, when asked what God’s prayer might be, the rabbis responded: “May…My mercy…suppress My anger…so that I may deal with My children [with] mercy and go beyond the requirements of strict justice” (Talmud Berakhot 7a). Jewish tradition understands that we who are made in God’s image also need to tap into our well of mercy to help us respond constructively when provoked.

Helping kids—from tots to teens—handle bullying behavior.

Joy (RJ managing editor):

Is it appropriate to intervene if a friend is being bullied? Joy:

Edie: Sometimes it is better to encourage a friend to speak up for himself. Hillel the Elder said, “If I am not for myself, who will be for me?....” That was my choice years ago when I watched a fellow continued on page 00



winter 2010

ly playing a role their interactions. In the biblical story, Joseph’s brothers not only resented his grandiose prediction that he would rule over the family, but envied the special treatment their father Jacob afforded Joseph. And because Jacob both provoked feelings of anger and hurt in his sons and did nothing to help them appropriately channel their emotions, it came to pass that Joseph’s brothers sold him into slavery.

hy are children so often mean to each other?

hrjhdhjhdjh

behind bullying

Rabbi Edythe/Edie Mencher (clinical social work psychotherapist, author, organizational consultant): They may be feeling angry, competitive, insulted, irritable, envious—the same reasons adults behave unkindly. They may have been ridiculed at home or school. They may not have developed impulse control or benefited from years of socialization; very young children in particular do not appreciate the consequences of their actions. They may compensate for poor language skills by hitting or saying, “Dummy!” Sometimes bullying is rewarded with popularity. And “wiring” makes a difference: Some kids have more difficulty understanding other people’s feelings and tend to be more aggressive and impulsive. If one sibling is aggressive with another, consider the possibility that the larger family may be inadvertentreform judaism

Aron (RJ editor):

How should parents respond if one of their children bullies another? Edie: When it comes to hostility between kids, quantity and degree count. If adults intervene in every squabble, children will not learn to fend for themselves. On the other hand, letting a child hit or say cruel things to a sibling without intervention leaves the hurt child feel-



winter 2010

A Genizah treasure: The last letter Moses Maimonides received from his brother David, who died in a shipwreck shortly after writing it. Right: alleyway between the Ben Ezra Synagogue and the Hanging Church in Old Cairo.

THE

r e b Cham s e r u s a e r T OF

n lickma G k r a By M

reform judaism



winter 2010

A rabbi’s quest to follow the trail of the largest trove of ancient and medieval Jewish manuscripts ever discovered reform judaism



winter 2010

reform judaism



in the spring of 1896, Solomon Schechter, an accomplished scholar and then the only Jewish don at Cambridge University, ran into his friend Agnes Lewis on the street. She told him that she and her twin sister, Margaret Gibson, had recently returned from visiting the Middle East, where they had purchased some old manuscripts, a few of which they were unable to identify. Lewis invited Schechter to their home to examine the documents, and he went immediately. There, he was astonished by one of the Hebrew pages. It was from the book of Ben Sirah, a biblical-era work of wisdom literature long thought to have been lost to history, last seen nearly 1,000 years ago! Schechter noticed that several of the documents originated in Cairo, where a centuries-old Genizah was rumored to exist. Quickly, he arranged a visit to Egypt. In the Cairo Genizah, Schechter discovered a massive mound of Bibles, letters, business records, poetry, children’s schoolbooks, and much more, most from the years 969–1250. The find exceeded—by many times over—the 10,000 or so antiquarian Jewish documents then known to exist in the world. It included the oldest known piece of Jewish sheet music ever found, early versions of prayers and biblical texts (many of which differ from those we know today), letters written by the great Jewish sage Maimonides, and early copies of some Dead Sea Scrolls. The Genizah documents also revealed details of a mode of Jewish worship practiced by Cairo’s Palestinian Jewish community (named so because they affiliated with rabbis in the Land of Israel), many of whom worshiped at the Ben Ezra Synagogue, and whose distinctive practices had faded into obscurity by the 12th century. For example, Palestinian Jews spent three years reading through the Torah—not one, as we do today—and in some communities they read a different poem for each of the 150 weekly Torah portions. Moreover, before reciting the Sh’ma, some Palestinian Jews recited a prayer which also had been lost (but now, more than 100 years since the Cairo Genizah discovery, it appears in one of the Shabbat morning services on page 227 of the new Reform prayerbook Mishkan Tefilah). The documents were written in a babel of languages. Religious texts appeared in Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek, Persian, and Latin; and many trade documents were in Indian languages (reflecting Cairo Jewry’s active trade with India). But by far, the most widely represented language was Arabic, which, from the early Middle Ages until the mid-20th century, was spoken winter 2010

by more of the world’s Jews than any other language. Maimonides and the other great sages of the period wrote and conversed in Arabic; Jews gave their children Arabic names; Cairo Jewry thought, spoke, sang, and probably dreamed in the language. A few antiquities dealers had removed contents from the Cairo Genizah before Schechter arrived on the scene. The leaders of the Ben Ezra Synagogue now gave Schechter permission to take as many of the remaining documents as he wanted. Schechter shipped more than 190,000 manuscripts back to Cambridge, where most of them remain to this day. In 1902 Schechter accepted the position of president of the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York (which he would serve until his death in 1915), and in the 1920s, JTS purchased 30,000–35,000 Genizah documents for the seminary library. Others later sifted through what Schechter left behind in the Genizah. Today another 80,000 documents are part of the collections of several dozen other libraries throughout the U.S., Europe, and Israel. Most of the major libraries holding Genizah manuscripts make the documents available to scholars and others upon request—and within the next few years, thanks to an initiative called the Friedberg Genizah Project, all of the manuscripts will be available online at genizah.org.

tion of documents from the Cairo Genizah. We trekked past the “Old Schools,” a group of stately buildings where Solomon Schechter studied the documents after his return from Egypt, wound our way toward a bridge that led over the River Cam, and, a few min- The catalogued utes later, walked up the library’s Genizah collection today at the front steps. Cambridge UniDr. Ben Outhwaite, the affable, versity Library. boyish-looking director of the Tay- The documents lor-Schechter Genizah Research are in close proximity to Unit, greeted us and led us up a Charles Darwin’s flight of stairs, across large rooms papers, among of library stacks, and through a them his Beagle diaries. maze of hallways. Soon we found ourselves facing a wall-sized blowup photo of Solomon Schechter sitting in the old library building among heaps of Genizah manuscripts. “Here we are,” Dr. Outhwaite said, opening the research unit’s wooden door. To my surprise, the staff managing the world’s largest collection of ancient Jewish manuscripts operates within a small reception area surrounded by a few modest offices. Dr. Outhwaite explained that all the original Genizah documents are stored in albums and archival boxes, encased in an acid-free archival flexible plastic called Melinex, the same material used to make Mylar balloons and plastic soft-drink bottles. Some of the plastic sleeves hold only

Chamber Treasure THE

Before me was one of the two oldest Passover haggadot in the world, dating back to about 1000 C.E.

This spread: By permission of Syndics of Cambridge University Library

The iconic photograph we saw outside the Cambridge University Library’s Genizah Research Unit: Solomon Schechter sitting in the old library building among heaps of Genizah manuscripts in 1898.

(Hebrew for “storehouse”), a dedicated room usually in the attic or cellar of a synagogue. Many communities transport their old papers from the genizah to the cemetery and bury them every few years. Not only does this afford the documents a proper interment, it also prevents them from falling prey to the ravages of mold and insects. But the Ben Ezra Synagogue was far away from the cemetery, and Cairo’s robust and thriving Jewish community during the Middle Ages—numbering in the tens of thousands—had produced quite a paper trail. Living then under Muslim rule, Jews served as prominent government officials, craftsmen, and merchants engaged in trade with North Africa, India, Europe, and Babylonia. Jews spoke Arabic as their first language, forged close social and economic ties with their Muslim neighbors, and even tried many of their cases in non-Jewish courts. Jewish businessmen wrote receipts, friends wrote letters, rabbis wrote opinions and commentaries, clerks wrote court documents, doctors wrote prescriptions, Jewish philosophers wrote essays. These and countless other materials eventually made their way into the Genizah in the Ben Ezra Synagogue, where they remained undisturbed for centuries.

*****

Previous spread: Left: By permission of Syndics of Cambridge University Library; Right: Photo by Keith Payne, inset by Kirk Gagnon

n december 1896, rabbi solomon Schechter stepped into the attic of the Ben Ezra Synagogue in Cairo, Egypt— and found the largest treasure trove of ancient and medieval manuscripts ever discovered: hundreds of thousands of documents, many more than 1,000 years old. Because Jewish law forbids the disposal of sacred texts, even when they’re torn or unusable, Jews have either buried the texts in a cemetery or deposited them in a genizah

a single document; others contain several, separated into compartments by machine-sewn stitching. As Dr. Outhwaite opened an album, we gazed at a small piece of vellum illuminated with bright red, green, and gold lettering. A large, seven-branched menorah and two six-pointed stars decorated its right side; the left side displayed a series of nonsense syllables—ah, ah, eh, ay, ee—in large Hebrew letters. It was a children’s Hebrew reading primer, dating back to the 11th century! Its sixpointed stars were among the earliest examples of that symbol’s use on a Jewish document! Suddenly I found myself thinking back to my own childhood. A remarkably similar (although less ornately

***** a couple of years ago, while doing research for a book about the Cairo Genizah, I decided to try to see the Genizah chamber and some of its most stellar finds for myself. And so, late last February, with my 16-year-old son Jacob at my side, we launched Expedition Genizah. Jacob’s mother—my ex-wife—was very supportive of the trip. But before we left, she said, “So let me make sure I understand: You’re traveling halfway around the world to see…old papers and an empty closet?” “Uh…yes,” I said. “That’s about right.”

***** our first stop was cambridge. on the morning of February 23, 2010, Jacob and I walked on narrow, winding streets across the centuries-old city to visit the University Library, which holds the world’s largest collecreform judaism

Mark Glickman is rabbi of Congregations Kol Shalom on Bainbridge Island, WA and Kol Ami in Woodinville, WA. His book, Sacred Treasure: The Cairo Genizah, was recently released by Jewish Lights Publishing.



winter 2010

decorated) page facilitated my own Hebrew studies. A thousand years ago, I thought, a Jewish child in Cairo sat down at a table to begin learning Hebrew vowels—“Ah, ah, eh, ay, ee.” A few dozen years ago, another Jewish child (yours truly) sat at a table in suburban Chicago and began learning Hebrew in much the same way. Eight years ago, yet another child— my son Jacob—sat at his table and forged one more link in the ancient chain of study. Could the child in Cairo ever have imagined that, a millennium later, a father and son would be looking at his schoolbook in a distant northern land? Dr. Outhwaite then showed us a torn section of another primer filled with children’s writing exercises. “Look,” he said, “this kid did a sloppy job with his letters, and then began to doodle.” Jacob and I looked at each other and laughed. In elementary school, Jacob was notorious for zipping through his work so that he could use the extra time for reading. The kid who wrote these letters during the Middle Ages whizzed through his writing exercises to get to the fun stuff, just as Jacob had. Some things never change. Dr. Outhwaite placed an archival box on his conference table. “Here’s one of the other documents you requested,” he said. It was Ben Sirah—the very same page that Solomon Schechter had seen at Agnes Lewis’ home in 1896! And next to it appeared the note that Schechter had written to Lewis later that day confirming the significance of the find—which would eventually bring the Cairo Genizah to the attention of the Western world. What a moment, I thought. I’m holding a 114-yearold note, handwritten by Solomon Schechter in the very institution where we now sit, which references reform judaism



winter 2010

***** my thrilling encounters with these manuscripts left me longing to visit the very place where they had been stored and discovered: the Genizah chamber itself. Getting into the Ben Ezra Synagogue, I knew, wasn’t going to be a problem; it is now a popular tourist site. The challenge would be gaining access to the off-limits chamber, located high on its eastern wall. Only a handful of outsiders had entered the chamber since two men emptied it of all remaining documents in 1911, and, as far as I knew, nobody had ever taken a good picture of it. “Talk to Carmen Weinstein,” several people advised. “She’s head of the Jewish Community of Cairo.” I emailed Carmen Weinstein and was told: “The Ben Ezra Synagogue is open from 9:30am to 4:00pm.” She

*****

Chamber Treasure THE

The challenge would be gaining access to the off-limits chamber. Only a handful of outsiders had entered it since 1911.

***** the Cambridge University Library is still in the process of conserving Genizah documents. What was once a matter of sliding old documents into plastic sleeves has become a painstakingly elaborate and high-tech process, allowing for the conservation of only about four documents a day. Lucy Cheng, one of the project’s conservators, explained that her work consists of three basic steps: cleaning the documents, flattening them, and repairing them. The cleaning process poses risks. Paper tends to be highly absorbent, soaking up mud and other gunk which becomes irreversibly mixed with the ink of the text. Cheng gently employs scrapers and brushes to remove whatever dirt she can. If she decides that removing the mud might result in deleting the text, she leaves the mud undisturbed. Conservators hope that future technologies will allow it to be removed while keeping the ink in place. Many Genizah documents are crumbling or torn. To patch them, conservators use “Japanese paper,” a strong, lightweight, translucent film with adhesive on one side and wheat paste on the other. Cheng traces the shape she

them? Who had studied them before they were deposited in the Genizah? The mysteries enchanted me.

on a cold day in early March, Jacob and I arrived in New York to visit the Jewish Theological Seminary, home of the world’s second largest collection of Genizah documents. In the seminary’s manuscript storage room, library director Dr. David Kraemer and lead librarian Rabbi Jerry Schwarzbard showed us additional Ben Sirah pages, a letter of recommendation Maimonides had written for a fellow scholar who had just moved to another city, and letters by the great medieval poet/philosopher Yehudah Halevi documenting his pilgrimage to the land of Israel. Then they opened a large, flat, custom-made archival

Photos by Jacob Glickman

The stunning interior of the Ben Ezra Synagogue, Cairo.

needs, cuts the Japanese paper into that shape, carefully brushes deionized water around the edges of the hole she is patching, and gently covers it with the Japanese paper. When the document is fully dried and set, she places it in a Melinex sleeve.

a 10th-century manuscript sitting right next to it on the table, which is itself a transcription of a text originally written 1,200 years before that! One by one, the remaining boxes and albums came to the table, each bearing treasures: an early copy of one of the Dead Sea Scrolls; the world’s oldest known piece of Jewish sheet music (Mi al Har Chorev, a eulogy for Moses written by a former Catholic priest from Italy who converted to Judaism during the Crusades); the last letter Maimonides received from his younger brother, David, who died in a shipwreck shortly after sending it. “Be steadfast,” David had written, “for God will [soon] restore your losses and bring me back to you.” There are large holes in the letter, I wondered. Were they from age, or from the tears of a grieving brother? Next we visited the large Manuscript Storage Room, which houses some of the greatest literary treasures in the world. Near the main Genizah section is the Darwin aisle—the shelves storing Darwin’s papers, including the original diaries from his voyage on the Beagle. Isaac Newton’s papers are just a few rows away. The Genizah documents are mostly housed in two 60-foot aisles packed floor to ceiling with shelves of boxes and albums—an agglomeration of literary material so massive and so rich that it holds many secrets of our past yet to be revealed.

box and revealed one of the two oldest Passover haggadot in the world, dating back to about 1000 C.E.! The simple 16-page text was slightly different than today’s haggadot; for example, instead of the “Four Questions,” this haggadah asked only two: the one about dipping vegetables and another about roasted meat, which is no longer part of most seders. It also reflected Middle Eastern Jewry’s medieval custom of serving a variety of different delicacies during the karpas portion of the seder, not only the green vegetables we pass around today. Still, familiar haggadah passages jumped out at me: “Why is this night different from all other nights?” “My father was a fugitive Aramean.” “Rabban Gamliel said, ‘whoever does not discuss the paschal offering, matzah, and the bitter herb has not fulfilled his religious obligation.’” I also noted that some of the hagaddah pages had food stains. Evidently, just like ancient words, schmutz is eternal too. Dr. Kraemer explained that, in addition to well-preserved albums of larger Genizah works, the collection includes a few boxes of smaller unpreserved scraps. He opened a box. “May I pick one up?” I asked. “Go right ahead.” Gingerly, I reached in and removed a fragment—a selection from the Book of Samuel telling of when David had placed the Ark of the Covenant in Jerusalem. I picked up another, which pertained to the laws in Exodus regarding the creation of the Ark. These documents had been transcribed 800–1,000 years ago. Who had originally written reform judaism

didn’t respond to my Genizah request. Seeking alternative channels, I heard from one informant that the Egyptian government, not the Jewish community, owned the Ben Ezra Synagogue. I would have to secure permission from Dr. Zahi Hawass, an archeologist I had often seen on American TV wearing an Indiana Jones hat and guiding documentary filmmakers into ancient tombs. As the secretary general of the Supreme Council of Antiquities, Dr. Hawass was in charge of all of Egypt’s ancient historical sites—the pyramids, King Tut, the Sphinx, the whole schmear. “But good luck in getting his OK,” friends warned. “Hawass is wary of outsiders coming to abscond with Egypt’s treasures.” I emailed everyone I thought might be able to help. Eventually I was put into contact with Dr. Janice Kamrin, an American archeologist working as Dr. Hawass’ assistant. She shepherded my request through the Egyptian bureaucracy, and, after several weeks, Dr. Hawass gave his approval. I had my golden ticket. In my note thanking Dr. Kamrin for her help, I mentioned that I wanted to take photographs and video of the Genizah, and that Jacob would be joining me. “I assume that none of this will be a problem, right?”



winter 2010

Entering the high window leading to the Genizah chamber presented a formidable challenge.

Right Up tS ep& Meet the

Worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s

Mightiest

caption tktktktktkktktktktktktktktktktktktktktktkt t kt tk

HUMAN ART TK

O T h e IR

N MA N

Man o f S tee l

S t r o h n s i g m w e J A from Poland an Who Some Say Inspired the Creation of

Superman!!! by

Mel Mel Gordon Gordon reform judaism

summer 2011

Lennonism

Nothing to kill or die for And no religion too Imagine all the people Living life in peace… You may say I’m a dreamer But I’m not the only one I hope someday you’ll join us And the world will live as one…

vs.Judaism The world of universal love and peace which John Lennon evoked in “Imagine” is about as far from ideal as one can get. by Ze’ev Maghen

reform judaism

summer 2011

reform judaism

summer 2011

LennonismVS.JUDAISM

DUMMY TXT I was at L.A. International Airport on a one religion over another; or one particular balmy Friday morning, absent-mindedly surveying the culture, nation, ethnic or social group over vigorous maneuverings of a small but dedicated cadre of another. That would mean creating hierarneophyte Hare Krishna energetically hawking illustrated chical relationship between human beings! copies of Vedic texts, when a young female voice inquired That would erect false barriers between politely: “Excuse me, sirrr, but—ehh—maybe you vould people—the barriers responsible for mislike to take a loook at zis boook?” ery and bloodshed throughout history, that I knew that accent. Putting my suitcase down, I turned prevent human beings from reaching their around slowly. She was petite and pretty in her saffron true potential and destiny, from achieving sari and multitudinous bangles. We stared at each other inner peace—and world peace!” for a few seconds—and just before she launched into her “Don’t you see,” Ofer interjected, “that practiced pitch, I queried quietly: “Meh ayfo at?” (Where the Torah and its laws are no longer releare you from?) vant to people’s lives today? All that hocus“Merrramat a-Sharrron,” she answered, gurgling her “r” and pocus, archaic stories, ridiculous rules, timeeliding the “h” sound as people from Ramat HaSharon (a suburb wasting rituals, and impractical practices!” of Tel-Aviv) are wont to do. Excited by this rare opportunity to (This, from a guy shorn down to his cranispread the Good Word in her native tongue, and undeterred by the um, with paint on his face, wrapped in linsuffering that must have been seared like a cattle brand over my ens, and dancing to a mantra beat all day face, she introduced herself as Shira and began regaling me with long in an airport.) the benefits of Krishna consciousness. “There’s no rhyme or reason to any of Meanwhile, the other two members of the Maha squad—Ofter it!” he forged on. “How can such obsolete, (“Shalom!”) and Doron (“Ma Nishma!”)—drifted over. And, irrational poppycock appeal to an intellecwouldn’t you know, the whole gang was from Ramat HaSharon. tual person like you? Judaism doesn’t cut it We reminisced about the army like good Israelis do, talked in a thinking person’s world. Sorry.” about who served where, who spent more time “in the mud,” “But…what about your loyalty to…your and who hated it most. Shira, it turned out, was a first lieupeople?” I remonstrated feebly. “You know: tenant, outranking all of us; I snapped to attention and she the Jewish People?” laughed. Doron was a medic like myself; we joked about how That pissed him off. “Oh—now I get it: the first thing we look at on a woman are her veins. You are a Fascist. You’re preaching excluSo we were shootin’ the breeze, the sivism, discrimination, apartheid, chauvinism, elitism….” three Hebrew Hare Krishnas and I, casualShira placed a hand on my shoulder, spoke to me softly. “Don’t ly discoursing in the language of the bibliyou see? All that His Divine Grace Swami Prah is saying comes cal prophets and kings, and finally, well— down to this: We must strive with every bit of our inner strength to I just lost it. love all people equally. In the last analysis, isn’t this also the cen“What the hell are you doing here?!” I tral message of that book you’re carrying?” blurted out. “You are Jews! You are IsraeI stood there, engulfed in frustration. What could I possibly lis, for God’s sake! What the hell are you answer “on one foot” that would even begin to make a dent? Heavdoing wearing these clothes, chanting those ing a long sigh of resignation, I said, “When was the last time you words, and selling that book?!” Reaching read this book? That’s not what this book says.” back over my shoulder into my knapsack— At that point my ride showed up and there was a genuinely the way Robin Hood would extract an arrow poignant parting scene—during which, among other unexpected from his quiver—I whipped out the Five events, Doron pressed my hand in his and slipped me a surreptiBooks of Moses [thwack!]. “That’s not your tious, “Shabbat Shalom Akhi!” (Good Sabbath, my brother!). The book,” I cried, pointing to the decorative, tantric trio then waltzed off in search of easier prey. abridged Bhagavad Gita Ofer clutched to his Should I ever meet the three semi-brainwashed Brahmins again, breast as if it were a newborn. “This”—and I now know what I would say to them. I resoundingly slapped the raggedy, worn✒✒✒ and-torn volume in my hands— When John Lennon died on December 8, 1980, I was an abso“This is your book!!!” lute wreck. I’d grown up on my mom’s old Beatles albums, and by They all stared at me sadly, with genuine the time I’d reached adolescence, my personal classification syspity, the way one might look at an animal tem went, in ascending order: Billy Joel—John Lennon—God. caught in a trap or at someone who’d just So after that fruitcake emptied his revolver into the consummate been diagnosed with a terminal illness. “No, musician’s chest, I wore black to junior high school for a month, no. You don’t understand,” Shira purred, her tone managing to be simultaneously soothAdapted from John Lennon and the Jews: A Philosophical Rampage by ing and patronizing. “This isn’t a contest! Ze’ev Maghen (Bottom Books, NY). We’re not choosing one book over another; or reform judaism

summer 2011

waved a candle ‘til my arm practically fell off, and sang, “All we are saying, is give peace a chance” so many times that it really was all I was saying. I tell you this in order to establish my credentials as a fanatically loyal Lennon lover—because now I’m going to kill him all over again. John was at his best as a team player, but no question, his preeminent pièce de resistance, the composition that will for all time be associated with his name, is “Imagine.” The man was a genius, and “Imagine” was his masterpiece. The words make you weak in the knees: Imagine there’s no heaven It’s easy if you try No hell below us Above us only sky Imagine all the people Living for today… Imagine there’s no countries It isn’t hard to do Nothing to kill or die for And no religion too Imagine all the people Living life in peace… You may say I’m a dreamer But I’m not the only one I hope someday you’ll join us And the world will live as one… John’s words are so right, we agree with them instinctively, viscerally. They strike deep, primal chords. The message is simple, yet profoundly compelling, stirring a nebulous but heartfelt longing…for something better, something perfect, something beautiful. And yet, I don’t want John’s vision to be fulfilled speedily and in our days. I don’t want it to be fulfilled…ever. The ideal world sought by John Lennon—and Shira, and Ofer, and Doron—is in reality about as far from beautiful and wonderful as one can get. ✒✒✒ Why do you wake up in the morning? What motivates you? What is the one thing you need more than anything else, that you just couldn’t and wouldn’t want to live without? “Your health?” No, health is important—a prerequisite which allows us to pursue our real desires in life—but we don’t live for our health. “Success?” Not quite. How do you define “success”? What is its most indispensable component? “Fulfillment?” No, that’s equally amorphous. I’m talking about the single most important human motivation. The answer is so simple, and obvious, it’s on the tip of your tongue. All right, here’s a Beatles clue: All you need is…. That’s right, LOVE.

Why do you wake up in the morning? What motivates you? What is the one thing you just couldn’t and wouldn’t want to live without? Here’s a Beatles clue: All you need is…

reform judaism

If this is a cliché, then it is the most powerful cliché ever known to humankind. We live for love. Love of parents, love of children, love of husband, love of wife, love of sisters, love of brothers, love of girlfriend, love of boyfriend, love of family, love of friends. A vast percentage of our lifetime is geared toward achieving, maintaining, and increasing this one incomparably precious treasure. We may strive to attain other objectives and experiences—imaginative scholarship, artistic creation, scientific discovery, physical prowess, hedonistic pleasures—but tell me: Wouldn’t you give up any of these before you’d give up love? Without love (to enlist the Dooby Brothers), where would you be now? ✒✒✒ Asked to choose their all-time favorite verse summer 2011

We may strive to attain other objectives and experiences—imaginative scholarship, artistic creatio