Reform Judaism Magazine Fall 2014

Silent on Israel:

9th Annual

WHEN RABBIS GUIDE TO ARE MUZZLED COLLEGE LIFE

A Union for Reform Judaism (URJ) Publication

A Jewish Pathway:

The 7-Year Plan

FREEDOM FROM FOR A MORE BUSYNESS JUST SOCIETY

Fall 2014/5774

$5.00

Revitalizing Prayer Transforming prayer into a powerful practice that can change our lives

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A BENEFIT OF YOUR MEMBERSHIP IN A URJ CONGREGATION IN THE BEGINNING 2 Dear Reader: A Greener New Year / Rick Jacobs

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Letters

JEWISH LIFE

Books: How the Bible Became Holy / interview with Michael L. Satlow 11 Ethics: Release to Right the World / interview with Kevin M. Kleinman 16 Interreligious Relations: Winning Friends of Other Faiths / Mark L. Winer 19 Lifecycle: Glimpses into the Afterlife / Michele Brand Medwin 6

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RJ INSIDER’S GUIDE TO COLLEGE LIFE 21 Cover 22 College as Social Engagement The RJ Insider’s Guide to COLLEGE LIFE / a conversation with San Diego State University President Elliot Hirshman 27 Getting In: What Experts Say / Wendy Kahn, Gael Casner, Carolyn P. Mulligan, Heath Einstein 33 Creating Your College Admissions Squad / Blake Dickler 34 Acing Your Application to the Ivies / Michele Hernandez 35 College Cash 36 The Top 60 Schools Jews Choose & The Top 25 by Percentage of Jews 38 The Top 7 Hillels You Haven’t Heard Of 40 Mastering Rejection / Beth Kissileff 44 Speaking Out Against Sexual Violence / Liya Rechtman 47 Growing as a Jew at a Catholic U. / Carlin Coffey 49 6 Ways to Fund Your Project / Meryl Press

Cover Photo by Michael Matti; College Guide cover photo by Jonathan Heisler, courtesy of Hillel International

58 Bondage to Busyness

by Alan Morinis / These Jewish lessons can help liberate our lives to focus on what matters most.

62 Muzzled by the Minority

by Eric H. Yoffie / Many rabbis don’t express their true views about Israel publicly for fear of clashing with a handful of congregants who might lash out against them. But there are ways to navigate this minefield of divided communal opinion. reform judaism

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interview with Nancy Flam / A new movement is emerging to transform prayer into a more powerful and compelling practice, building upon our ancestors’ recognition that we truly can effect change through prayer.

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R FO

FEATURES

N IO UN

Fall 2014

• Admissions Trends You Need To Know (p.27)

• Speaking Out Against Sexual Violence (p.44)

• Save $$$: Jewish Scholarships (p.35)

• The Top

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Schools Jews Choose (p.36)

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NEWS & VIEWS OF REFORM JEWS

72 Chairman’s Perspective: Accomplishing Together / Stephen M. Sacks 1

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REFORM JUDAISM

®

d e a r

Official Publication of the Union for Reform Judaism

A Greener New Year

Fall 2014, Vol. 43, No. 1

* Before dialing, be ready to write down the questions that the hotline will ask you. Also be sure to tell your temple about the address change.

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On-Line Home Page: reformjudaismmag.org with RJpedia article search by subject Reform Judaism (ISSN 0482-0819) is published quarterly (fall, winter, spring, summer) by the Union for Reform Judaism. Circulation Offices: 633 Third Ave, New York, NY 10017. © Copyright 2014 by the Union for Reform Judaism. Periodical postage paid at New York, New York and at additional mailing offices. Postmaster: Send address changes to Reform Juda ism, 633 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017. Members of Union congregations receive Reform Judaism as a service of the Union for Reform Judaism.

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Return undeliverable Canadian addresses to PO Box 875, Stn A, Windsor ON N9A 6P2 Statement of Purpose Reform Judaism is the official voice of the Union for Reform Judaism, linking the institutions and affiliates of Reform Judaism with every Reform Jew. Received quarterly by nearly 300,000 member households (members of nearly 900 congregations) as a benefit of their synagogue’s Union affiliation, RJ strives to convey the creativity, diversity, and dynamism of Reform Judaism. RJ covers developments within our movement while interpreting world events and Jewish tradition from a Reform perspective.

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sage (rumored to be Mark Twain) once said, “Everyone talks about the weather, but nobody does anything about it.” That may have been true in Twain’s time—but today it’s imperative we take action.

This year’s U.S. National Climate Assessment, compiled by a 300+ person team of experts, found that 2012 was the warmest year ever recorded in the continental United States.

Natural Resources Canada, an organization representing Canada in meeting the country’s global commitments related to sustainable development, reported increased average temperatures of 1.5° Celsius from 1950 to 2010. Based on these and other findings, experts worldwide predict more extreme weather to come—everything from drought and wildfires in the American Southwest to flooding in the East.

Those least responsible for climate change—the poor, sick, young—are among the most vulnerable to its effects. Many live in areas prone to flooding and drought, and are unable to defend against environmental degradation.

What can we Reform Jews do? Instead of talking about the weather, we can make our houses of worship more energy efficient.

Many URJ congregations have done just that. Consider 900-household Temple Sharey Tefilo-Israel in South Orange, New Jersey. Working with GreenFaith, a national organization connecting and certifying religious communities in environmental leadership, the congregation decreased its electrical usage by 14%— all without exceeding its regular building maintenance budget. They adjusted programming times to concentrate energy usage and “go dark” one evening a week, installed true seven-day programmable thermostats, modernized lighting with motion sensors, and more. To explore GreenFaith’s certification program: greenfaith.org. For other temple models, see “Action: Smart Strategies for Facility Savings”: reformjudaismmag.org/spring_2013.

In the political sphere, all of us can support efforts to curb greenhouse gas pollution from power plants. Americans, for example, can urge their representatives to back bipartisan legislation, such as the Energy Savings and Industrial Competitiveness Act (S. 2262 / H.R. 1616), which would increase usage of energy efficient technologies in residential, commercial, and industrial buildings—and create clean-energy jobs, too.

Our High Holy Day liturgy proclaims: “Hayom harat olam, Hayom,” “Today is the day of the world’s birth.” As we begin a New Year for our planet, let us protect and preserve God’s creation with our deeds.

May the future be brighter than ever, but not quite so warm.

Rabbi Rick Jacobs President, Union for Reform Judaism ➢Your thoughts and ideas are welcomed. Contact Rabbi Jacobs: urjpresident@urj.org and/or send a letter-to-the-editor: rjmagazine@urj.org. reform judaism

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Ian Spanier Photography

Executive Editor Mark Pelavin Editor Aron Hirt-Manheimer Managing Editor Joy Weinberg Copy Editor Judith Hirt-Manheimer Assistant to the Editors Alison Kahler Art Direction Best & Co. Contributing Editors David Aaron, Michael Cook, Josh Garroway, Leah Hochman, David Ilan, Paul Liptz, Edythe Mencher, Aaron Panken, Rick Sarason, Lance Sussman, Mark Washofsky, Wendy Zierler Advisory Board Milton Lieberman, Chair Carol Kur, Honorary Chair Paul Uhlmann, Jr., Lifetime Chair Emeritus Jim Ball, Shirlee Cohen, Isabel Dunst, Dan Freelander, Steve Friedman, Jay Geller, Howard Geltzer, Marc Gertz, Deborah Goldberg, Shirley Gordon, Richard Holtz, Robert M. Koppel, Bonnie Mitelman, Harriet Rosen, Jean Rosensaft, Joseph Aaron Skloot, John Stern, Al Vorspan, Alan Zeichick Advertising Offices Joy Weinberg, Advertising Director 633 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017 212-650-4240 (for advertising inquiries only) Circulation Offices Union for Reform Judaism Synagogue Members: Change of Address Website: reformjudaismmag.org/subscribe/change Change of Address Hotline: 212-650-4182*

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l e t t e r s

Jews & Tattoos

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s a Jew, my identity is distinguished by a reverence for mind, body, and spirit. I believe our bodies house the soul—and, as such, are to be honored, not desecrated, in life and in death.

A tattoo, even a tattoo that depicts a Jewish theme, contradicts this reverence. It is idolatrous—and a tattoo representing a Jewish idea is nothing but a rationalized defense.

Rather than your publishing a Cover Story on “Jews & Tattoos” (Summer 2014), Reform Judaism magazine should have continued its focus on the actualization of our long-honored traditions—which are considerably more important than tattoos.

Amy Lewitz Lincolnwood, Illinois Send letters to: Reform Judaism, 633 Third Avenue, 7th floor, New York, NY 10017-6778, reformjudaismmag.org (click on “Submissions”).

T

he significant question regarding tattoos is not whether we desecrate our bodies when we ink them with Jewish words and symbols, but whether “show and tell” is the best way to express to the world that we are Jews dedicated to “affirming Jewish identity, faith, and pride” (quoting Rabbi Marshal Klaven).

It is far more important that we act out our Judaism through learning, teaching, acts of tikkun olam, and treating others with compassion and kindness.

Agnes G. Herman San Marcos, California

I

loved your articles on tattoos. The only thing I remember from the year-long biblical Hebrew class I took 40 years ago with the late, brilliant Rabbi Jacob Milgrom at UC Berkeley was his interpretation of the Deuteronomy verse we view as the commandment to wear teffilin: “Bind them as a sign upon your hand and let

them serve as a symbol on your forehead.” He told us that totafot, the Hebrew word we translate as “symbol,” was probably a tattoo. To this day, he said, Bedouins and other people in the Middle East are tattooed—and I remember a twinkle in his eyes when he added that while there was no etymological connection between the words totafot and tattoo, he liked how similar they sounded.

Andrew Elias Ramer San Francisco, California

R

eform Judaism’s “Jews & Tattoos” coverage was a major disappointment. Except for two small personal reflections, all of the articles occupying the rest of the allotted space seem to say, “Tattoos are fine.” After reading the stories it would be easy to conclude that marking one’s body is to be encouraged.

At the very least, equal space should have continued on page 68

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JEWISHLIFEBOOKS

How the Bible Became Holy a conversation with Michael L. Satlow

Michael L. Satlow is professor of Religious Studies and Judaic Studies at Brown University. He lives in Providence, Rhode Island, with his wife, Jacqueline Satlow, a Reform rabbi, and their three children.

The title of your new book, How the Bible Became Holy, implies that the Bible wasn’t perceived as holy—in other words, authoritative—from the outset. Is that right?

Yes. The standard perspective has long been that the biblical texts become authoritative, more or less, at their moment of composition. This prevailing view is based primarily on the Bible’s own strong claims to authority. My own research into the subject, however, points to different and more complex conclusions.

For starters, we need to think more

expansively about what it means to say that the Bible was “authoritative.” The

texts that ultimately became part of the Bible were understood by different readers in very different ways. I label the three main kinds of authority that various readers gave to the texts as normative, literary, and oracular.

In the biblical context, normative authority is taking or justifying an action because “the Bible says we should do it,” such as when we apply the commandment “Love your neighbor as yourself” in our interactions with others.

Literary authority is the common phenomenon of authors using earlier texts as models for new ones.

In ancient Israel, there was a professional class of scribes. While they mainly performed the mundane work of bureaucrats, they also formed a kind of literati, a professional class who read each other’s

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works and wrote for one another. As part of their training, scribes regularly copied and modified earlier texts. Thus, many of the biblical texts began as scribal exercises, not as the normatively authoritative law codes they claimed to be. Exodus 20–23, for example, which contains what scholars call the Covenant Code, was originally written as a scribal exercise. Later scribes drew and improvised on that text as part of their own training—and this became the core of the Book of Deuteronomy. Few outside of the scribal elite would have even known these texts existed!

The third kind of authority, oracular authority, is the idea that the text contains a message from the Divine realm, usually about the future. Throughout antiquity, this was the primary sense in which the Bible was perceived to be “holy.” When, for example, Hosea prophesied the destruction of Israel’s Northern Kingdom in the eighth century B.C.E., he turned out to be right, and his book was therefore preserved. Most prophesies that turned out to be wrong were rejected, although a few sneaked by.

How do we know that the Jewish people did not initially perceive the Hebrew Bible as holy in the normative sense?

Simply, most Israelites and their immediate descendants (they begin to call themselves Jews after the fifth century B.C.E.) could not read. The literacy rate was exceedingly low throughout antiquity. This does not necessarily mean that the people did not know of these scribal texts or did not hear them recited by others, but even if they knew the biblical stories, it would not have been because the stories were in the Bible; the people would have learned them solely orally. They would not have heard these texts recited at the Temple, which performed its sacrifices in silence; synagogues did not exist in the land of Israel before the first century C.E. And it is improbable that people in antiquity, who gave authority to established custom—doing what their family and village had always done—would have undone their traditions based upon an oral tradition that also appeared in a text they couldn’t even read. More specifically, little evidence exists from all of antiquity

that Jews consulted texts for their normative behavior. In fact, the Bible is replete with countless examples of precisely the opposite—people ignoring biblical rules.

Furthermore, we possess a significant number of legal papyri written by Jews in Egypt in the second century B.C.E. to first century C.E., and not one demonstrates awareness of a distinctive Jewish law, even though by that time other writings show they had begun to acquire some knowledge of biblical texts. Even by the first century C.E., when synagogues arrived in the land of Israel, knowledge of scripture was spotty and its authority did not yet displace custom. Jesus, for example, had very limited knowledge of scripture.

Did the Jewish leadership ever attempt to give normative authority to some biblical texts?

Yes, but their efforts largely failed.

Two examples: In the seventh century B.C.E., Josiah, the king of Judah, instituted a policy of religious reforms that he based on his discovery of an older text that had been found during renovations of the Jerusalem

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Temple. Notably, this text was the core of Deuteronomy, which up to then had been buried away in the Temple unknown and unread. The biblical account is biased— it’s all too clear that its author wished to promulgate Josiah’s call for centralizing religious worship around the Temple and eliminating images of deities (“idols”)— but even the subjective author had to admit that Josiah’s reforms quickly failed, cast off even by his own son.

Fast forward 200 years or so to Ezra the scribe, who returned to Jerusalem from Babylonia in the middle of the fifth century C.E. A functionary of the Persians, who had recently conquered Babylonia, he arrived in Jerusalem armed with a copy of something resembling part of our Torah (scholars debate exactly what) and attempted to use its authority to dissolve the intermarriages he opposed. The Book of Ezra makes clear that Ezra’s efforts went nowhere.

What changed so that the Torah began to have normative authority?

This accepted way of doing things was upset in the second century B.C.E. with

the Maccabean revolt, which led to the establishment of the Maccabees and their descendants, the Hasmoneans, as priests and then also as kings of Judea. The Hasmoneans, who coalesced into a group known as the Sadducees, did not trust the Pharisees, the older, established aristocracy that controlled the Temple ritual. The Sadducees used texts to argue against custom and prove that the Pharisees risked provoking God’s anger by not following protocols of ritual purity in the Temple.

The Sadducees were largely victorious in this power struggle, and as a result they began to disseminate the idea that the Torah had normative authority. By the first century C.E., synagogues began to appear in Sadducean Jerusalem, and from there spread to other parts of Judea and Galilee. In the synagogues Jews began to hear these texts for the first time.

About a century after the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple in 70 C.E., the Pharisees and Sadducees melded together into the group that called themselves the rabbis. For the rabbis, little was more important than Torah, by which they meant God’s full revelation, both written

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and unwritten. A Torah scroll was not thought of as containing text to be readily read and consulted, but as an object so holy it had to be made practically inaccessible. We see their influence today in the reverent way we treat Torah scrolls, which are not simply pulled out to read at leisure. A Torah scroll is more important as a sacred object than it is as a text.

When someone wishes to consult the Torah for content, s/he will pull out a printed book, not the Torah itself.

In time, over succeeding centuries, the Bible, along with rabbinic literature, became increasingly authoritative among Jews. However, multiple similar versions of it were circulating, and when dealing with normative authority, even small differences could be significant. It took until in the 11th century C.E. for Jews to finally agree on the exact version of the Bible we have today.

You said that oracular authority exerted the greatest force in ancient times. How so?

Oracular authority both venerates a text and uses that text to assign power, prestige, and authority onto its interpreters.

This kind of thinking was commonplace in the ancient world—indeed, it led to the formation of most of the world’s major religions. In Christianity, for example, the question of who had the authority to interpret the true meaning of scripture created the crisis that led to the Reformation and the development of Protestantism.

How did the rabbis use their interpretive authority?

They claimed to possess the skills to unpack the true meaning of the Divine text.

One example can be seen in the rabbis’ interpretation of the biblical command, “You shall not cook a kid in its mother’s milk,” which occurs in the Torah out of any clear context. Claiming for themselves the authority of interpretation, the rabbis concluded that God was commanding the Jewish people to separate all meat—such as that of a kid—and dairy products.

Does oracular authority play a vital role in modern secular society?

Yes. Oracular authority needs a community of interpreters, acknowledged experts who reveal the true meaning of a

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puzzling text. I see that in the U.S. Supreme Court, where the Constitution is often treated as a kind of sacred text whose real meaning is revealed by the Court. Any time a group puts a text at its center and then gives power to a smaller group to interpret it, we are seeing the impact of oracular authority.

And nowadays normative authority exerts a stronger force in the secular arena than it ever did. The U.S. is a nation of written laws, from the Constitution on down, and its citizenry naturally conflates writing, authority, and law. The very idea of a nation that can be built around a text grew out of the deep respect its founders accorded the authority of texts. Americans are extraordinarily diverse—and without this commitment to such authority, I wonder if we could function together as a single people.

Texts also exert a strong influence on our daily lives. In the workplace, for example, many of us are expected to follow memos and mission statements.

At home, we often cook from written continued on page 71

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JEWISHLIFEETHICS

Release to Right the World interview with Kevin M. Kleinman

Rabbi Kevin M. Kleinman is associate rabbi of Reform Congregation Keneseth Israel, Elkins Park, Pennsylvania and a member of the Jewish environmental organization Hazon’s Shmita Project Network.

© Lunamarina / Dreamstime.com

You have called on the Reform Movement to begin observance of shmita this Rosh Hashanah in order to alleviate economic disparity, better steward the earth, and champion social justice.

What is shmita and how can it accomplish all this?

Shmita, defined as “release,” is in essence Judaism’s prescription for maintaining economic, environmental, and social balance in the world. It is as timely this year, shmita 5775, as it was 3,000 years ago, when it first emerged.

In the seventh year, after six years of farming the Land of Israel, our ancestors relinquished control over all they owned and owed. At least in principle, according to the biblical commandments (see sidebar), the planting of crops ceased, the poor and hungry gleaned food from the land, Hebrew slaves were freed, and debts between Israelites were forgiven.

The idea of release underlied all shmita observance. Literally, slaves were released. But farmers, too, were released from grueling daily tasks. Food growing naturally in fallowed fields was shared equally among rich and poor, so the needy were released from worry about survival. The land itself was released from having to nurture seeds planted within it.

Metaphorically, shmita called forth the vision of return to the Garden of Eden, a land of abundance unmarred by inequities in wealth and property. Exile from the garden led to the development of agrarian society, in which private property was created, and food storage

led to wealth, dividing those who had sustenance and those who did not.

Shmita was conceived as a corrective to such inequalities, reorienting society every seven years from an economy based on the acquisition of private property to one of communal responsibility to provide for all. It also aimed to lift up those on the lowest rungs of the social ladder, starting them with a clean slate from which to turn their lives around.

Today, when even greater disparity exists between the “haves” and the “have nots,” we Reform Jews can reclaim this essential biblical mandate on our own terms to help create a more compassionate and just society.

How was shmita practiced during biblical times?

It is unclear how shmita actually functioned. We suspect it was not universally followed, because the prophet Jeremiah cited the community’s failure to observe shmita as the reason for the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple in 586 B.C.E. and the exile that followed: “Thus said the Lord, the God of Israel: I made a covenant with your ancestors when I brought them out of the land of Egypt, the house reform judaism

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of bondage, saying: ‘In the seventh year each of you must let go any fellow Hebrews who may be sold to you; when they have served you six years, you must set them free.’ But your ancestors would not obey Me or give ear” (Jeremiah 34:13–14). The thirdcentury text Pirke Avot (Ethics of Our Ancestors) echoed this notion, saying, “Exile comes upon the world on account of idolatry, sexual immorality, murder, and the failure to observe the shmita” (5:11).

Clearly, shmita was considered an essential means of restoring justice in the community, because “failure to observe the shmita” was deemed in the Bible to be among the most grievous of sins.

How could shmita be followed in the Diaspora?

After the Jewish exile following the Second Temple’s destruction in 70 C.E., THE BIBLICAL ROOTS OF SHMITA Cease planting crops: “Six years you shall sow your land and gather in its yield; but in the seventh you shall let it rest and lie fallow,” Exodus 23:10.

Invite the poor to gather food from the land: “Let the needy among your people eat of it,” Exodus 23:11.

Free the slaves: “When you acquire a Hebrew slave, he shall serve six years; in the seventh year he shall go free, without payment,” Exodus 21:2.

Forgive debts: “Every seventh year…every creditor shall remit the due he claims from his fellow or kinsman…for the remission proclaimed is of the Lord,” Deuteronomy 15:1–22.

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the rabbis were in a quandary: Would Jews still be obligated to follow the Torah’s agricultural laws, including shmita, when all the communities were living outside the Land of Israel? After deliberating on the matter, they concluded: “Any commandment which is not tied to the land applies to the Land [of Israel] and outside the Land [of Israel]. And any commandment which is tied to the land only applies in the Land [of Israel]” (Mishnah Kiddushin 1:9).

Therefore, from that time until the 1880s, when Jews would resettle the Land of Israel, Jewish communities in the Diaspora were exempted from observing the land-based observances of shmita, all the while they remained obligated to follow the tenets of shmita that were not tied to the land, including debt forgiveness.

Did Jewish lenders object to having debt obligations forgiven every seven years?

Yes, and that is why the rabbis endorsed the use of a legal document devised by Hillel the Elder called the Prozbul. It stated that the loans were to be transferred to the courts, because loans held in public domain did not have to be forgiven. After the shmita year the loan obligations were transferred back to the individual lender.

Centuries later, Moses Maimonides (1138–1204) codified the various shmita laws, including the Prozbul, in his Mishneh Torah, which points to the existence of shmita-related practices during the Middle Ages.

How was shmita observed when Jews returned to Eretz Yisrael and once again cultivated the land?

In the 1880s, Jews began to return en masse. As the shmita year 1888–1889 approached, the chalutzim (pioneers) were barely able to grow enough food to feed themselves. How, they asked the rabbinic authorities, can we possibly let the land lay fallow for a year and survive?

The rabbinic authorities responded by creating a halachic loophole called a hecter mechirah, or “leniency of sale,” which allowed the farmers to sell their land to non-Jews for the duration of the shmita year and buy it back upon the reform judaism

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year’s completion. This loophole remains in effect today; consequently, the agricultural laws of shmita are not generally observed in Israel, except by some haredim (ultra-Orthodox Jews), who purchase food grown outside of the country during the seventh year.

How do our Reform kibbutzim approach shmita?

The Reform Movement’s two kibbutzim in Israel are not situated within ancient Israel’s borders, so they are not halachically required to let their land rest during shmita. But Alex Cicelsky, director of research and development at Kibbutz Lotan, says that Lotan members consider shmita too important to ignore, so they’re participating in a yearlong study of shmita’s roots with Israel Movement for Progressive Judaism (IMPJ) regional Rabbi Benji Grouber, in order to determine together how it might be best observed in a kibbutz committed to “sustainability and inspired practice.”

Lotan already follows some shmitarelated practices of our biblical ancestors, such as interspersing plants that yield food for one year (annuals) with others that can be harvested year after year (perennials). Its members’ commitment to creating a diverse natural habitat in the Center for Creative Ecology’s experimental garden is an agricultural rags-to-riches story. The kibbutz started with no usable soil, only sand, and no rainfall or natural water, and in 1996, only two years into the experiment, they were able to create Israel’s first CSA (Community Supported Agriculture initiative).

How do Israelis approach the social justice component of shmita?

On Kibbutz Lotan, for one, where every member is an owner, worker, and gleaner of the land, the focus on justice is often through the lens of international development. Last year, for example, 50 Tibetans exiled from China learned techniques of organic agriculture and sustainable engineering on the kibbutz, which they are now using to develop their own food independence in rural India.

On the Israeli governmental level, this coming Rosh Hashanah, for the continued on page 68

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JEWISHLIFEINTERRELIGIOUS RELATIONS

Winning Friends of Other Faiths

By Mark L. Winer

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Photograph by John R if k in

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he West London 10th day of that month), a Synagogue of Muslim holy day celebrating British Jews was Muslims’ relationship to Jews built in 1870, in (Quran 2:185). the middle of the Afterwards, we all discussed, Jewish West End of London, debated, laughed, and made close to the Baker Street of friends across what had once Sherlock Holmes. By 1998, seemed insuperable barriers. when I became its senior Mediating Conflicts rabbi, the area had become the epicenter for the city’s Arab Sometimes when disputes population, a neighborhood occur between Christians and many Londoners derisively Muslims, Jews—acting as discalled “Londonistan.” interested third parties—can Our synagogue leadership mediate conflicts and thereby made the location an advanstrengthen interfaith bonds.

FROM L. TO R.: SIKH PREACHER CAPTAIN GURMAIL SINGH, MUSLIM tage, ramping up interfaith About 10 years ago, Muslim LEADER SAJID BUKHARI, AND I SHARE OPINIONS AT THE INTERFAITH SYEDA FATIMA CONFERENCE ORGANIZED BY THE INTERNATIONAL activities to fulfill the talmudic parents in Central London IMAM HUSSAIN COUNCIL, HOUSE OF LORDS, LONDON, MAY 8, 2014. teaching that one who makes demanded that their children peace in one’s neighborhood is who were attending Church of viewed as having made peace in the took hold of his crucifix, wielded it as England-sponsored schools receive Halal entire world (Sanhedrin 29a). a dagger, and blinded the imam. food. In Great Britain, where separation Here is what we learned about effecMy speaking out publicly against the of church and state doesn’t exist, the govtive interfaith relations along the way. religious hatred that had seemingly given ernment provides equal funding to relia deranged Christian “permission” to bru- gious schools of all denominations: Responding to Prejudice tally attack the imam led to an unpreceAnglican, Catholic, Jewish, Muslim, HinDealing with anti-Islamic prejudice dented gathering of healing. Twenty-five du. Many Muslim parents had enrolled plays the principal role in most Muslims’ synagogue members joined together with their children in Anglican schools, lives, as dealing with anti-Semitism an equal number of Central Mosque because they were considered academionce did in ours. When Jews protest members to break our respective Yom cally superior, to the point that the majorIslamophobia, we can build friendships. Kippur and Ramadan fasts together with ity of the Anglican schools’ student body Sheikh Dr. Mohamed Salamouny, a sumptuous feast of Arab and Indian del- was Muslim. Anglican officials, however, an imam who’d visited our synagogue, icacies. It was a one-in-30-years opportu- asserted they did not have an obligation to was attacked in his Central Mosque nity, for only once in three decades does furnish Halal meals because their schools sanctuary during the scheduled converYom Kippur fall during Ramadan, the were not Muslim. sion of a young Christian he’d been holiest month of the Muslim year. The Warm, personal Christian-Muslimtutoring in Islam. The supposed convert Church of England’s Bishop of London, Jewish relationships nurtured over years the Lord Mayor of Westminster, and most were key to resolving the issue. At a of Central London’s top interfaith leaders Rabbi Mark L. Winer is president of FAITH: critical point in a high-level meeting, I the Foundation to Advance Interfaith Trust and attended the festivities. put my hand on the shoulder of William Harmony, director of the Center for EcumeniThe Central Mosque’s director general, Jacob, head of the Church of England in cal and Interreligious Studies of St. Thomas Dr. Ahmad Al-Dubayan, recounted the Central London, smiled, and said, University in Miami, affiliated with Temple Quran’s story of the Prophet Muhammed’s “Come on, Bill, what would Jesus say?”

Beth El in Boca Raton, and former senior entry into Medina as the Jews of Medina Shortly thereafter, the Church of Engrabbi of the West London Synagogue. In 2014 completed their Yom Kippur fast. Accord- land obtained pre-packaged, certified he was appointed a Member of the Order of ing to the Quran, Muhammed was so Halal food, at government expense, to the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II for moved by Jewish piety, he declared that feed the Muslim students. his work in “promoting interfaith dialogue and day in the Muslim calendar “Ashurah” And the word on the Muslim street social cohesion in London and the UK.” (“tenth” in Arabic, corresponding to the was, “The rabbi did it.” fall 2014

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Forming “Rapid Response Teams”

The day before 9/11, Sheik Dr. Zaki Badawi, imam of the Muslim College, Nicolas (Nick) Holtam, then Vicar of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, and I were enjoying lunch at one of our favorite Arabic restaurants. Little did we know then that we had in effect formed our own “rapid response team” to speak out together against the wave of Islamophobia and religious bigotry that would ensue just a day later.

On the Friday following 9/11, St. Paul’s Cathedral broadcast a national service of solidarity with America in the presence of the royal family and government cabinet. Zaki and I marched shoulder to shoulder in St. Paul’s as the representatives of Islam and Judaism. That Sunday we preached the sermon together from the pulpit of St. Martin-in-the Fields as part of the 9/11 BBC worship service, led by Father Nick, broadcast worldwide. The three of us emphasized our warm personal friendship and called upon everyone to redouble efforts to build mutual respect, celebrate differences, and partner in interreligious dialogue to defeat extremism.

If clergy would pro-actively form such teams in every locality, we might all be ready to combat religious bigotry together should the need arise.

Fostering Mutual Respect

Genuine interfaith reconciliation arises not out of tolerance, but mutual respect. Tolerance implies allowing the other to exist; respect requires understanding others as others understand themselves. This encompasses learning the others’ customs, beliefs, texts, anxieties, even language.

Arabs in our neighborhood were amazed that a rabbi would take time to learn Arabic phrases and study Islam.

They’d all ask me the same question: “How can you, a Jew, show such interest and respect for us?”

When Arabs interpreted my interest in Islam and Arab culture as evidence that I was “not a Zionist,” I’d respond, “On the contrary, I am a Zionist, devoted to the revival and survival of the Jewish homeland. Understanding what Israel means to us as Jews, I believe that you deserve similar dignity and respect. Loving Israel’s democracy and political vibrancy, I want you to experience democracy as well.”

And when they asked my opinion of an Israeli policy or action I disagreed with, I’d criticize it—while simultaneously praising the democratic vigor of Israeli society. My goal was to bolster their moderate backbones, hoping they’d stand up to their extremists. The worst problem in the Muslim world today is not the presence of Islamic fundamentalists, but the unwillingness of the moderate majority to challenge the fanatics among them.

In appreciation of my study of Islam, some of my Arab friends reciprocated. In the course of informal, daily interaction, we compared Muslim and Jewish beliefs and practices; Hebrew and Arabic. As friends, we taught each other.

Getting to Know People

The key to interfaith dialogue is to get to know each other as individuals. When you understand a person from his/her vantage point, navigating religious challenges becomes possible.

My wife Suellen conducted text study and dialogue between Muslim and Jewish women in our flat, from which, as a male, I was banished for the evening.

The Muslim women removed their hijabs (head-coverings) and all the women opened their hearts to each other. One later confided in me that she wished to be a Muslim like Suellen was a Jew. The women-only discussions led to many interfaith projects, including tri-partite dialogues at the West London Synagogue, Central Mosque, and the Church of England’s St. Ethelburga’s Centre. We also held interfaith services at the West London Synagogue and at St. Ethelburga’s, though never at the Central Mosque.

In Islam, as in Judaism and Christianity, there are sharp divisions. London’s Central Mosque, for instance, was under administrative control of the Islam’s Wahabi sect as practiced strictly in Saudi Arabia, but the imams were all Egyptians, trained at Al-Azhar, the premiere Muslim university in Cairo. There’s a significant difference in Islamic rigidity between Saudi Arabia and Egypt. At least a few of the Egyptian imams would, it seemed, have felt comfortable with interfaith worship on their premises, but because of Saudi control, the mosque could never host it. Instead, the Central Mosque sent members, even imams, to reform judaism

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participate in our interreligious services.

The imams comfortably chanted passages from the Koran in Arabic or recited them in English for us all to experience.

Dialoguing with Adversaries

In interreligious peacemaking, dialoguing with one’s friends will maintain positive relations, but only engaging with adversaries will produce breakthroughs toward peaceful partnerships.

Take my relationship with Dr. Ahmad, director general of the Central Mosque.

He is a Wahabi, one of the most extreme sects of Islam. By birth he’s connected to the Sauds, the Royal Family of Saudi Arabia. By profession, he is a Saudi diplomat.

Dr. Ahmad was fascinated by biblical Hebrew’s similarity to classical Arabic.

We spent many hours together comparing Islamic and Jewish theology and texts.

Many times, tensions arose between us, such as when the bookstore at the Central Mosque was selling an Arabic translation of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, the Czarist anti-Semitic screed depicting a fabricated meeting of Jews plotting to take over the world. I protested vigorously that stocking such a vicious, fictitious piece of anti-Semitism undermined everything we were working for.

Ahmad responded weakly that the bookstore was in fact a concession stand and that the mosque had no control over what was sold there. Challenged by the question, “What would you say if we were selling a nasty piece of Islamophobic literature in our synagogue bookstore?” he promised to see what he could do.

It was crucial to realize the radically different culture Dr. Ahmad lives in.

Whereas everyone in our congregation supported interfaith initiatives, he faced active opposition in his community. A prominent Saudi had officially complained to the Saudi king about his friendly interaction with Jews and Christians.

Of course, Dr. Ahmad is not everything a rabbi might want in a Muslim partner in dialogue. How could he be, and still keep his job?

After the Protocols incident, many other Jewish leaders might have terminated all relationships with him and the mosque. But had there been a litmus test on Dr. Ahmad’s attitudes or actions regarding Judaism and Israel before

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building a relationship with him, our communities never would have achieved all the good work we did.

And, as it happened, in 2009 Dr. Ahmad became the interfaith chair of the Mosques and Imams National Advisory Board, making him the most important Muslim in national interreligious programs in the UK and a central player in Saudi interfaith activity worldwide.

Historically, breakthroughs in Christian-Jewish relations have been led by such Christian leaders as Popes John XXIII, John Paul II, and Francis, all of

whose personal encounters with Jews earlier in their lives gave them a different perspective about Judaism than that of many of their peers. The collegiality Dr. Ahmad and I developed may also pay dividends for the Jewish people.

Appreciating Ritual Diversity

An appreciation of ritual diversity can also lead to interfaith opportunities.

Canon Robert Wright of Westminster Abbey, who also served as Chaplain to the Speaker of the House of Commons, invited me to present a Jewish perspec-

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tive on the Eucharist at his monthly Eucharist Study Breakfast for members of the House of Commons and House of Lords. At the breakfast, I spoke to the Members of Parliament about how, when younger, I was mystified by the whole “body of Christ, blood of Christ” language in the traditional Eucharist ritual— but later, my misgivings had evolved into “holy envy.” Bishop Krister Stendahl originated this concept to describe when one observes the devotion of the adherents of another religion, feels religiously moved, and says to oneself, “We don’t do that, and that’s something wonderful.”

My holy envy was that every Christian partakes in the Eucharist ritual.

Then I asked, “Is there anything in Judaism you feel holy envy about?” Several Parliamentarians mentioned feeling holy envy regarding bar/bat mitzvah, explaining how they agonized over developing programs to make young people want to be more socially responsible. In bar and bat mitzvah they saw an ancient tradition which could imbue in young people that very sense of ownership.

A number of Parliamentarians particularly envied the Passover seder, because it enabled communal participation and responsibility. So I wondered aloud, Perhaps the MPs would like us to arrange a Passover seder in Parliament? They were enthusiastic!

It took a couple of years to pull everything together. We created our own haggadah featuring the traditional seder text in gender-neutral language and “echoes”—selections from other religious literature and other sources which paralleled the haggadah liturgy. Commemorative souvenir seder plates with all the seder symbols and “Seder in Parliament, 12 March 2008” written in the middle were produced for all participants. The Passover menu, supervised by Suellen, was cooked by the House of Lords chef for 150 seder guests, including the Speaker of the House of Commons and the Lord Speaker of the House of Lords.

The Bishop of London and an imam from the Central Mosque helped me lead the seder, and the country’s national legislators left with a greater appreciation of Jews and Judaism. Indeed, sharing such holy celebrations strengthens social continued on page 20

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JEWISHLIFELIFECYCLE

Glimpses into the Afterlife

By Michele Brand Medwin

D

eath is part of life, yet it brings feelings of loss.

When we reflect on the passing of loved ones, or on our own mortality, we can’t help but ask, “What happens to us immediately upon our death?”

Jewish tradition, talks of the soul, which is eternal, and after the body dies enters what our ancient sages called olam haba, the World to Come. The ancient rabbis and medieval mystics described it as a non-earthly existence where one could experience out-of-body sensations, being greeted by loved ones, being bathed in divine light, attaining wisdom, undergoing a final life accounting, and being enveloped with a sense of peace and tranquility.

In many ways this realm is strikingly similar to the “Near Death Experiences” reported by revived comatose patients.

Here are six examples:

1

Out-of-Body Experience

Photo by K nut Uppstad

People who report a Near Death Experience (NDE) often speak of an out-of-body experience, watching from above what is happening below, such as doctors working on their bodies or loved ones conversing by their side.

Jewish texts also describe the soul as separating from the body after death and hovering or resting above.

Rabbi Michele Brand Medwin, OD, is the spiritual leader of Temple Sholom in Monticello, New York; author of A Spiritual Travel Guide to the World of God—Part I: Packing for the Journey and Part II—God Questions on the Journey; and a student at HUCJIR’s Doctor of Ministry Program for Pastoral Counseling. Previously she served as an optometrist for 13 years.

have died are also present to welcome the newly arrived soul.

NDEs “I had a floating sensation and I felt myself get out of my body, and I looked back and I could see myself on the bed below and there was no fear.

I was not in the least bit upset or frightened. It was just a tranquil feeling.”

(Raymond Moody, Life After Life) Jewish Texts “But you, go on to the end; you shall rest, and arise to your destiny at the end of the days.”

(Daniel 12:12) “For three days after death the soul hovers over the body intending to reenter it.”

(Lev. Rabbah 18:1)

2

Greeted by Loved Ones

People reporting NDEs commonly speak of experiencing deceased relatives and friends welcoming and guiding them into this new world. One comatose person reported seeing a friend whom he thought was still alive, only to find out after he recovered that this friend had died in an accident while he was in his coma.

In Midrash, the rabbis talked about angels that welcome the soul after it has departed the body. (Pesikta Rabbatai 2:3) The mystics add that, in addition to angels, the souls of loved ones who reform judaism

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NDEs “They were all people I had known from my past life, but who had passed on before... my grandmother and a girl I had known when I was in school, and many other relatives and friends. I felt that they had come to protect or guide me...almost as if I were coming home, and they were there to greet or welcome me.”

(Life After Life) Jewish Texts “At the hour of a man’s departure from this world, his father and relatives gather round him, and he sees them and recognizes them, and likewise all with whom he associated in this world, they accompany his soul to the place where it is to abide.”

(Zohar 1, 217b)

3

Seeing Divine Light

People who report NDEs often recount seeing an unearthly bright, warm, welcoming, loving light.

The Jewish mystics taught that “No person dies before he sees the Shechinah,” the feminine conception of God, characterized by a loving and nurturing radiance.

According to the Zohar, the foundational text of Kabbalah, “When a man is on the point of leaving this world…the Shechinah shows herself to him, and then the soul goes out in joy and love to meet the Shechinah” (Zohar III, 53a).

NDEs “I knew I was dying and that there was nothing I could do about it, because no one could hear me….All this made me feel very bad at first, but then this really bright light came….And it gave off

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heat, I felt a warm sensation….The light spoke to me….I felt really good— secure and loved.

(Life After Life) Jewish Texts “In the World to Come there is no eating or drinking, nor jealousy, or animosity or rivalry—but the righteous sit with crowns on their heads and enjoy the radiance of the Shechinah.”

(Talmud Brachot 17a)

4

Attaining Wisdom

Many of those who report NDEs talk about gaining instant wisdom. They were able to comprehend thoughts and concepts in ways they never could—as if their souls had been limited by the human mind until, freed from the physical constraints of the brain, they could finally understand the mysteries of the universe.

The Talmud (Niddah 30b) tells us that when a baby is born, an angel pushes on his upper lip, creating a dent, so that he forgets all he saw and knew previously as a soul. That knowledge returns when the soul separates from the human body.

NDEs “I felt all-knowing for a few minutes. Suddenly everything seemed to make perfect sense.”

(Kenneth Ring, Lessons from the Light) Jewish Texts “In the World-to-Come there is no material substance; there are only souls of the righteous without bodies... The righteous attain to a knowledge and realization of truth concerning God to which they had not attained while they were in the murky and lowly body.”

(Talmud Ta’anit 11a)

5

A Final Accounting

Many people who report NDEs talk of undergoing a life review. Aided by their initial greeter and/or other spiritual beings, they come to see where they did wrong and what they could have done better. “The final accounting” became an opportunity for them to learn from their errors and

become a better person.

Judaism teaches the existence of a Book of Life in which all of our human deeds, bad and good, are recorded.

On Yom Kippur, we put our choices in perspective as we each imagine the balance sheet of our lives.

NDEs “When the light appeared...he said, ‘What do you have to show me that you’ve done with your life?’...All of a sudden I was back early in my childhood....From then on it was like I was walking from the time of my very life then, right up to the present.”

(Life After Life) Jewish Texts “When a man departs to his eternal home, all his deeds are enumerated before him.”

(Talmud Ta’anit 11a) “Angelic messengers help the person complete the process of life review by counting up the days that a man has lived, the sins that he has committed and all the works that he has accomplished.”

(Zohar I:79a)

6

Experiencing Peace

Many of us are scared to think of what will happen to us after we die.

Reassuringly, people who report having experienced NDEs and Jewish texts speak of our souls going to a place of serenity, beauty, and love.

NDEs “The most wonderful feelings came over me—feelings of peace, tranquility, a vanishing of all worries.”

(Life After Life) Jewish Texts “But the souls of the virtuous are in the hands of God, no torment shall ever touch them. In the eyes of the unwise, they did appear to die, but they are at peace.”

(Wisdom of Solomon 3:2) ♦♦♦ These glimpses into the afterlife can offer valuable lessons for living.

People who report NDEs often speak of being told they must return reform judaism

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to Earth because they have more work to do. They talk of their lives having new purpose: “It’s given me…a determination to help other people....I was sent back because I’ve got work to do for God” (The Journey Home).

And they talk of experiencing the life review as awareness of what they could have done differently and better.

They learn to be more attuned to how their actions affect others. After they return, they have different priorities and their lives take on new meaning.

The beauty of Judaism is that all of these lessons are available to us through our sacred texts. We are taught to care for the stranger, to seek peace, to pursue justice, to work towards making the world a better place. Instead of a life review in the Olam Haba, we are each asked to do our own life review during the High Holy Days, to see what we could have done better and what needs changing still. Each one of us has the possibility of integrating these lessons into our lives without having to undergo a Near Death Experience.

Friends of Other Faiths continued from page 18 cohesion and the larger society’s embrace of difference as a source of strength.

Taking the Long View

In interfaith relations, it is crucial to take the long view. The Islamic world is undergoing a painful internal revolution.

For some, the “Arab Spring” signals a new Islamic relationship with the modern world, but in reality, culture and religion transform very slowly. We may well see at least another 50 years of convulsion, internal conflict, and sectarian violence.

And yet, having met great numbers of well-educated Muslims, I’m also optimistic about the eventual emergence of a strong moderate, modern Islam. It won’t happen overnight, but it will happen.

Islam’s transformation cannot be imposed by outsiders. It must and will be demanded by Muslims themselves. All over the vast Muslim world, that demand is a growing movement.

That gives us openings to reach out in friendship. And when we do, together we help “repair the world.”

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N IO UN R FO

Fall 2014

RM FO RE

The RJ Insider’s Guide to COLLEGE LIFE

M IS DA JU

• Admissions Trends You Need To Know (p.27)

• Speaking Out Against Sexual Violence (p.44)

• Save $$$: Jewish Scholarships (p.35)

• The Top Schools Jews Choose (p.36)

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INSIDER’S GUIDE TOCOLLEGE LIFEPERSPECTIVE Perspective 100 A conversation with San Diego State University President Elliot Hirshman What are the most essential takeaways from a college education?

College is a critical time for growth and development, and this growth should be intellectual, personal, and professional.

So much of the dialogue about college today is around a false dichotomy between intellectual and professional development. These should be viewed as complementary and mutually reinforcing aspects of the college experience. For example, a student interested in international business should consider learning about specific business practices through an international internship that facilitates learning about another culture’s norms and traditions—a holistic

approach that is essential to addressing the profound geopolitical challenges we face in such areas as environmental remediation and national security.

lenges.

Colonial colleges, such as Harvard and Yale, focused on the education of clergy because clergy were viewed as SDSU STUDENT SINAI COTA STUDYING ABROAD IN VENICE. essential to the welfare of colonial society (not to mention the salvation of its members).

Why is addressing real-world challenges integral to a college Today, we face extraordinary chaleducation today? lenges in such areas as the environment, biomedical research, global cooperation, The university is enriched dramatiand income inequality. Bringing such cally by engaging with society’s chal-

College Guide cover photo by Jonathan Heisler, courtesy of Hillel International

College as Social Engagement

Doug ’14, New Jersey, Middle East Studies major; Sarah ’15, California, Policy Management major; Greg ’15, Connecticut, Economics major; Hannah ’15, Maryland, American Studies major

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RUTGERS

A Great Place to be Jewish!

6,000+ Jewish Undergrads; Second Largest in USA Groundbreaking Campus Reform Outreach Initiative Only University in U.S. with Dedicated Reform Rabbi Tikkun Olam / Social Justice Opportunities Worldwide Nationally-Recognized Reform Shabbat, Learning, and Leadership Programs Rabbi Heath Watenmaker Reform Outreach Initiative Rutgers University Hillel New Brunswick, NJ 08901 732.545.2407 Ext. 406 rabbiheath@rutgershillel.org

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issues into our educational and research programs enriches our intellectual life, helps us explore novel solutions, and prepares our students—who are society’s future leaders—to address these pressing challenges.

At San Diego State University’s Zahn Innovation Center, for example, 38 teams of students, faculty, staff and alumni are creating startup companies and social enterprises designed to create renewable energy and water sources, enhance vehicle safety, reduce homelessness, and more.

San Diego State University is also a leader in study abroad programs.

Why is international study so vital?

Today, every problem, every issue, every professional role involves global issues. Medicine—consider the impact of migration and transport of goods on the spread of infectious diseases. Social work—consider the differences in sociocultural contexts facing migrants from Africa, Central America, and Asia. International perspectives are necessities. My goal is for every San Diego State student to have an international experience.

A

t the University of Central Florida, you can cheer on a top ten football team, choose from one of over 100 majors, score a fantastic Orlando-area internship and make Jewish friends you’ll have for life.

Athletics

Central Florida Hillel, located at UCF’s NorthView student apartments, is a hot spot for 6,000 Jewish university students.

Students living in these luxury apartments have the opportunity to connect with Jewish culture through exciting programs, student organizations and the only “Google-inspired” Hillel in the country.

The 20,000 square foot Center is the perfect place for students to:

Beautiful Facilities

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• Attend professional networking events • Study in our Zen-inspired lounge with high-speed wi-fi and bean bag room • Play video games, shoot pool or play ping pong • Watch movies on a 133” screen in the Dolby 9.0 theater • Join one of many Jewish groups connected to Hillel on campus • Grab a bite to eat at the new kosher restaurant, opening fall 2014 Jewish students can live, learn, connect and succeed with UCF and Central Florida Hillel at NorthView.

goHillel.org • info@goHillel.org • 407-382-2658

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How should a university handle the complex freedom of speech issues arising in response to the IsraeliPalestinian conflict?

The popular conception of the role universities should play in the IsraeliPalestinian conflict is extremely problematic and, quite frankly, a nightmare for universities. There are three facets of this conception that produce significant challenges. In this context, the most important thing a university president can do to promote civil dialogue is to help members of the community understand the fallacies underlying these popular conceptions, as well as the appropriate role the university can play.

The first conception is that universities have a responsibility for resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. This often translates to efforts to bring Jewish and Muslim students or scholars together on campus. I strongly support efforts to integrate the rich diversity of our campuses, but it is not fair to any of the participants to tie such initiatives to a resolution of a conflict that has baffled the greatest diplomats and most powerful leaders of our time.

The second, related conception is that the university as an institution should be taking sides in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In this view, one side is good, the other is evil, and the university should be using its resources to support what is good and punish what is evil. This conception ignores the fact that it is not the role of the university to take sides in geopolitical conflicts.

Instead, universities can, and should, create conditions that allow for discussion and analysis of global conflicts.

The third conception follows closely upon the second: Given that one side is good and the other is evil, the university has the moral responsibility to suppress the speech of the evil side, which includes cancelling lectures, denying academic credit, and being inhospitable to scholars and students who hold opposing views. This view is not only wrong—free speech is essential to the health of an academic community and, if we err, we should err on the side of protecting speech—it is wrong-headed. If one side is patently wrong, it is to the other side’s advantage to let the weakness of the opposing argument be made clear to all. ➢

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“Northeastern’s Jewish community is vibrant and welcoming. And with so many schools and organizations nearby, you form countless connections in Boston and beyond.”

—Anna Meyers, senior, a Jewish studies major, president of Hillel, and a former co-op as Hillel’s Jewish student life coordinator

SCHOLARSHIP, COMMUNITY, HERITAGE At Northeastern, you’ll delve into enriching Jewish studies, matched with curriculum-based work, research, and volunteer opportunities in Boston, Israel, and all over the world. And—with weekly bagel brunches at Hillel House, transformative birthright trips, and the annual Jews Cruise—you’ll enjoy a dynamic community that students call “a Jewish home away from home.”

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Universities should promote the study of geopolitical issues and provide forums for discussion of a variety of perspectives, but they should not take sides on, suppress speech about, or be expected to solve geopolitical conflicts.

You are a former associate editor of the Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory & Cognition. What insights can you share about the best way for students to integrate learning?

I’ll mention two things. First, from a psychological perspective, the key to learning is making meaningful connections between the things you know and the things you are trying to learn. For example, one can understand and retain a physics concept such as conservation of momentum by examining how it affects outcomes in a game of pool.

Second, from a physiological perspective, students need to do everything possible to maintain underlying brain functioning. Proper maintenance includes sufficient sleep, good nutrition, emotional balance, and limited use of

substances such as alcohol and other drugs that impair learning capacity.

How has Judaism influenced you personally and professionally?

Following in Jewish tradition, I’ll answer a question with a question by saying, “In what way have Jewish values not influenced the work I do”?

There are obvious aspects, which include a focus on social responsibility, an inclination to use scholarly analysis to solve practical problems, and an understanding of the challenges facing minority groups.

More subtly, and something I have only come to recognize over time, has been the influence of the rabbinic leadership of my youth on my own leadership style. I was raised in a Reform congregation, Anshe Emeth Congregation in New Brunswick, New Jersey. Rabbi Harvey Fields was the congregation’s leader during much of my childhood. Recently Rabbi Fields passed away, and as I read his obituary in the Los Angeles Times, I was at first surprised to see the close parallels between his leadership style and

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my own. Of course, it could not have been any other way, since he was, in fact, the only public leader I knew as a child. It’s a great example of the old saying that “a teacher affects eternity,” and a reminder of how important the rabbinic tradition is to Jewish and secular culture.

—Elliot Hirshman, President, San Diego State University

Core Contacts

T

he RJ Insider’s Guide to College Life is a collaborative project of Reform Judaism magazine and Hillel International.

To read the digital edition: reformjudaismmag.org. To learn about Reform college programs: urj.org/college. For Reform Israel college programs, call 212-650-4070 or visit rjisrael.org.

For more information, access Hillel’s College Guide (hillel.org/ guide), which provides numbers and percentages of Jewish students, descriptions of Jewish life, links to Hillels, and more.

Stay Local or Go Global Located midway between New York City and Boston and just 8 miles north of New Haven, unlimited options for culture, work and play await. Or take advantage of our opportunities to study abroad at places like Tel Aviv University, Ben-Gurion University and Haifa University.

We’ve got class Small classes, a focus on academic excellence, plus top rankings in U.S. News & World Report, Bloomberg Businessweek Top Undergraduate Business Schools, Forbes and the Princeton Review’s Best 378. Just a few of the reasons to make Quinnipiac University your education destination.

jewish life: A Campus Tradition The Peter C. Hereld House for Jewish Life provides a full-time rabbinical presence and offers Shabbat dinners, special holiday parties, services and more.

It is the perfect place to meet new friends and celebrate old traditions. To learn more, contact Rabbi Reena Judd at Reena.judd@quinnipiac.edu.

ARTs AND SCIENCEs | Business | Communications | Education | ENGINEERINg | Health Sciences | Law | medicine | Nursing

Quinnipiac offers more than 50 undergraduate majors and 20 graduate programs to 6,500 undergraduate and 2,000 graduate students. Classes are kept small and taught by outstanding faculty in state-of-the-art facilities.

Plus our expanded 600-acre, three campus suburban residential setting with modern housing, vibrant recreation and Division I athletics makes for a unique and dynamic university.

Plan a campus visit: www.quinnipiac.edu/visit, email admissions@quinnipiac.edu or call 1-800-462-1944.

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COLLEGE LIFEADMISSIONS Admissions 100

Getting In: What Experts Say Every year approximately

What are the most important trends in college admissions that students need to be aware of?

2,000

Jewish students are enrolled at the University of Vermont

Wendy Kahn, Wendy Kahn College Consulting, LLC, Highland Park, Illinois (UCLA College Consulting Certificate, HECA*, IECA Associate Member):

UVM Hillel is the only Jewish college organization large enough to engage the majority of Jewish students

1. Colleges’ use of “Big Data” to track demonstrated interest: It’s no secret that in making admissions decisions, colleges value applicants who FRESHFEST PRE-ORIENTATION, SYRACUSE UNIVERSITY HILLEL. have “demonstrated interest”—students who visit the campus, all this, you’ll learn more about what’s attend the college’s local reception, happening on campus. and/or meet with an admissions rep at 2. Colleges’ use of FAFSA data the student’s high school. In contrast, against applicants: Some colleges are students whose applications are the first using data included on the FAFSA, the point of contact with a college—sofederal application for need-based financalled “stealth candidates”—are often cial aid, to deny admission to applicants unpleasantly surprised to be waitlisted and reduce their financial aid awards. or denied by a school that should have The culprit is the FAFSA section that been a safe bet. asks students to list the names of up to 10 Now, colleges have a new arrow in colleges to which they’ll apply. The feds their “demonstrated interest” quiver: Big share all FAFSA information with the Data. College admissions offices nationlisted colleges, and the schools have diswide buy students’ names and informacovered that the order in which a student tion from such organizations as the Collists institutions typically corresponds to lege Board and ACT, then e-mail students that student’s preferences: the further and track their responses. They can tell if down the list a college’s name appears, a student doesn’t open the email or folthe less appealing it is to the student, and lows a link included in it. Colleges are the less likely he or she is to attend. Some also using special software to track colleges—especially those that care most whether their institution appears on a stu- about “yield,” the percentage of accepted dent’s list on the Common Application. students who enroll—are using this These colleges will assign you “points” * Key to Consultant Organizations based on Big Data interactivity.

HECA: Higher Education Consultants Knowing this, you can use Big Data Association to your advantage. Place a college on IECA: Independent Educational Consultants your list on the Common App to demAssociation NACAC: National Association for College onstrate your interest, and then be sure Admission Counseling to respond to the school’s emails. Also NJACAC: New Jersey Association for College “like” a college’s official Facebook Admission Counseling WACAC: Wisconsin Association for College page, follow it on Twitter, or Tweet Admission Counseling about it yourself. As a bonus, as you do reform judaism

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UVM Hillel Develops Leaders

85%

of students have indicated a desire to repair the world with Hillel

834 students this past year went kayaking for taschlich, ice climbing with Heschel, celebrated Jewish holidays and connected their personal and Jewish identity in a deeply meaningful way with UVM Hillel

90+

UVM students have gone to Israel with Hillel in the past year

Commitment to Jewish Life of the students we impact say

being Jewish will continue to be

%

94

important

to them after graduation

Hillel Delivers the

Jewish Future

“If Not Now, When?—Hillel (Pirkei Avot 13:4) facebook.com/uvmhillel twitter.com/uvmhillel instagram.com/uvmhillel Visit uvmhillel.org or text: 802-355-6695

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Ranked #5 in the nation for percentage of Jewish students by Reform Judaism.

State-of-the-art science facilities and highly ranked science/pre-medical programs; Jewish Studies among 40 total majors Expanded Hillel Shabbat Dining Room seats over 300 Fully integrated kosher dining under the supervision of WKH 6WDU . 0($7 DQG 6WDU ' '$,5< FHUWL¿FDWLRQ www.muhlenberg.edu 2400 Chew Street, Allentown, PA 18104

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information against applicants. If a college is low on a student’s list, the college may figure s/he is unlikely to enroll and so may waitlist or deny acceptance. Conversely, if a school is high on the applicant’s list, the college may figure s/he will enroll no matter what and offer a weak financial aid package.

Fortunately, there’s an easy way to avoid the problem: List your colleges in alphabetical order, not in preferred order.

3. Increased importance of SAT and ACT in the admissions process: High school teachers have been under increasing pressure from school administrators and parents to grade leniently—give out the “easy A.” As grading standards become less reliable, college admissions officers depend on standardized test results to validate the student’s transcript.

Still, the most important elements of an application are strong grades achieved within a challenging curriculum. Beyond that, colleges will look for essays that help them understand who you are, evidence of your engagement outside the classroom, and recommendations that show your potential to succeed on campus.

4. The ascent of the angular applicant: Highly selective colleges—those accepting fewer than 20% of applicants—used to look for “well-rounded” students, such as the Key Club officer who was also a member of the golf team and first-chair cellist in the school orchestra. Today, however, admissions officers at the most selective schools aim to build well-rounded classes by populating them with “angular” applicants— those who excel academically and demonstrate deep expertise, achievement, or talent in one or two areas, often at a regional, state, national, or even international level. Examples include applicants who have launched successful businesses, founded charities, conducted research and published papers in scholarly journals, or won significant academic or fine arts competitions. Beyond these select schools, well-rounded applicants are still prized, so long as they demonstrate consistent and meaningful involvement in several outside activities.

Knowing your profile from the perspective of different schools can help you target the ones that will most value what you have to offer.

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Gael Casner, College Find, Greenbrae, California (UC Berkeley Certificate in College Admissions and Career Planning, creator of “College Find Newsletter,” HECA president 2013–14, NACAC*, WACAC): Admissions trends impor-

tant to keep in mind include: 1. The overall “yield rate”—the percentage of accepted students who send in a deposit, thereby committing to attend that college—is dropping at many schools. Despite the nuanced formula colleges use to predict their yield, it is becoming increasingly hard to know who will commit. Consequently, colleges pay particular attention to students who display genuine interest in their school.

This is good news—as you will increase your chances of being accepted—if you’re willing to “go the extra mile.” Use research and then reflect on how and why a college would be a good fit. Specifically, name and describe two courses you’d like to take and list at least one club, extracurricular, or community service activity you’d explore if you attend that college.

Be specific: Why do these courses, professors, and activities appeal to you?

Communicate these enthusiasms to college officials so they can gauge your impact in and out of the classroom. Try to visit and connect with a college’s regional representative via email and by interview if offered.

2. Very selective colleges are admitting larger numbers of students who apply early decision (ED) and agree to attend that school if selected. ED often gives students an advantage. As The New York Times reported in May 2013, Duke accepted 26.6% of students who applied ED, compared to just 10% who applied regular decision; at Brown it was 18.5% ED vs. 8% regular decision. Not all U.S. colleges offer an ED option. Of those that do, the overall acceptance rate in 2013 was 62%, versus 52% regular decision. So consider applying early decision to the school that holds the top spot in your lineup.

3. An increase in Early Action (EA) applications, an option whereby a student receives a decision in advance of a school’s regular reply date but without the obligation to accept until May 1. Not all U.S. colleges offer EA either, but if

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your school does, this is a good choice, because your chances of acceptance are better (71% EA verses 63% regular for all U.S. schools offering EA), and because it relieves stress to receive an acceptance early in the process. So if your ninth through eleventh grade transcript looks strong and your ACT/SAT tests are solid, plan to complete your EA applications by late October or early November. This will require you to work on essays over the summer before your senior year, define your list of schools in early fall, complete applications as they become available (often in August), and give your teachers at least a month to submit their materials.

4. Colleges are shifting more students to their waitlist, yet selecting fewer of them in the end. So don’t put your hopes on getting accepted from the waitlist of your dream school; choose a school that wants you on campus.

Carolyn P. Mulligan, Insiders Network to College, Summit, New Jersey; Board of Counselor CATS for the University of Arizona (IECA*, NACAC, NJACAC, HECA): Two

A TOP LIBERAL ARTS EDUCATION A VIBRANT JEWISH EXPERIENCE

Come to the University of Richmond, where our innovative campus rabbi and director of Jewish life is fostering a dynamic community.

• Celebrate the holidays and Shabbat and take part in social action and cultural events with Hillel.

• Study abroad at the University of Haifa or one of our short-term, multifaith travel intensives.

• Minor in Jewish Studies while studying business, leadership studies, or the arts and sciences.

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significant admissions trends are: 1. The increasing importance of student responses to the supplemental essays: Admissions representatives say that essay specialists and tutors have so influenced students’ primary Common Application essays, they are no longer in a student’s “authentic voice” and a good representation of each student.

Therefore, smaller supplemental essays present an opportunity for students to showcase their strengths and passions to admissions committee representatives while simultaneously describing why a given school is the right fit for them.

2. The increasing number of international candidates: Students from China, Korea, India, Pakistan, and now Brazil are competing with Americans for the same spots—and making the process significantly more competitive because all foreign students pay the full price. More than 102,000 international students applied for undergraduate enrollment in 2012–13, vs. 84,500 in 2011–12, a 12% increase (Institute of International Education). To compete, keep your grades in the top 5–10% of your class, take the

fall 2014

7/10/14 7:54 PM

Gael Casner: Imagine the excitement of receiving a fat acceptance envelope from one of your top schools, only to discover you’ve been asked to begin in the spring. This growing trend of spring matriculation is a means for colleges to fill the extra beds made empty by typical attrition as well as the increasing number of students studying abroad part-way through the school year. (It’s also used to better control the admission statistics reported to US News and World Report and the College Board since only fall cohort statistics are required.) At some schools you’ll be asked to check a box on the application indicating whether you would consider a spring option; in other cases you will be assigned the spring date.

Currently, no central resource lists all of the colleges offering spring admission, so your best bet is to check each school’s website or ask the admissions office if spring matriculation is an option and how many students begin at that time of year.

Although rare, a few colleges, such as Northeastern and Skidmore, offer a fall study abroad program, a good option if you are set on beginning in the fall.

Another campus trend: STEM majors (science, technology, engineering, and math) in such areas as bioengineering, biometrics, cyber security, health informatics, environmental sustainability, and computer game design are hot, hot, hot and growing. The word is out that graduates in these areas earn good money (see payscale.com for listings of average and mid-level earnings), making STEM majors very competitive, especially at top schools, where it takes more than good grades to be accepted. Students who aspire to attend these selective programs need to strategize how to build the school’s interest through internships, research, and/or advanced coursework.

if You Like What You See. • Creative Jewish programming • Sabbath services and meals • Passion for service, community, and learning • Openness to all denominations • Nestled in the heart of Maryland’s Eastern Shore • A short drive from Baltimore, D.C., and Annapolis

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Experience NYU’s Global Network O Quality academics and

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14

What are the most notable trends in college offerings?

Give Us a Challah

O Internships and community

service placements O Relationships with local

universities O Cultural engagement O Guaranteed housing O Full-time, supportive staff O Day trips and weekend

excursions O Scholarships and financial aid

When does emphasizing your Jewish identity and activities become a plus on a college application?

Wendy Kahn: To decide whether to make a Jewish story the subject of a col-

NYU Tel Aviv Students enjoy the panoramic view from the Yitzhak Rabin Center.

nyu.edu/global-programs reform judaism

Col_GettingIn_f14_F.indd 31

New York University is an affirmative action/equal opportunity institution.

most rigorous high school courses you can, and show passion and persistence in your extracurricular interests.

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lege essay, ask yourself the same question you would in deciding whether to showcase any other component of your identity: Will this story give a group of strangers a small “snapshot” of who I am and how I became that person? If a meaningful, transformative experience happened to you in Talmud class, while preparing for Shabbat at Jewish summer camp, or during a visit to Yad Vashem, it’s a fitting subject for a college essay.

That said, avoid controversial, potentially inflammatory topics, such as how borders should be decided between Israel

and a Palestinian state. You don’t know the religion, politics, or life experiences of the person sitting on the other side of that computer screen, and you want him or her to be in your corner.

Heath Einstein (Director of Freshman Admission, Texas Christian University; Former Director of College Counseling, Solomon Schechter School of Westchester):

The college application is the tool with which students distinguish themselves in a crowded marketplace. There-

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fore, emphasis on one’s Jewish identity will have its greatest effect on applications to colleges with smaller Jewish communities that are seeking students who are likely to lead services, organize pro-Israel rallies, participate in youth groups, and pursue other Jewish activities on campus. At schools with established Jewish communities, these qualities carry no more or no less weight in the admissions process than playing a varsity sport, serving food at a homeless shelter, or performing in school musicals.

What are the possibilities for students and parents for whom the high costs of college present a formidable challenge?

Heath Einstein: Here is some advice for prospective students: 1. Apply to at least one college to which you know you will be admitted and that you can afford.

2. Apply to colleges that offer attractive financial aid packages—those which maximize federal and institutional grants (gift aid that is not repaid) and minimize loans (money that ultimately needs to be repaid). Colleges have discretion over their own monies and distribute federal funds such as Pell grants. Since few financial aid packages do not have a loan component, seek out subsidized loans (where interest does not begin accruing until after graduation) before unsubsidized ones, and pay close attention to loan interest rates.

3. Apply to colleges that incentivize enrollment with merit scholarship programs and at which your grades and test scores exceed the profile of the average admitted student.

4. Utilize the net-price calculator every college is required by law to have on its web site. Before you ever submit an application you can get a sense of what it would cost you to attend after factoring in scholarship and financial aid.

5. Consider enrolling in online coursework or attending a community college to satisfy a college’s general education requirements (such as English composition or Psychology), which, much like coming in with Advanced Placement or International Baccalaureate credits, may reduce the number of semesters you continued on page 42

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INSIDERâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S GUIDE TOCOLLEGE LIFEADMISSIONS Admissions 101:

Creating Your College Admissions Squad

A

pplying for college marked the start of my futureâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;a future I wanted to succeed at all on my own.

But the moment I opened my first application, I felt overwhelmed. There were FRIENDS IN MY â&#x20AC;&#x153;ADMISSIONS SQUAD.â&#x20AC;? I AM ON THE FAR LEFT. endless questions I had passed, and still nothing. no idea how to answer. I decided to put Finally, I had to concede: I needed my the application aside. parentsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; help. I was too anxious to do this A month passed and Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d barely alone. Taking what I felt was an adult touched the application. When my parents expressed concern, I promised them step, I set up a formal meeting with them to discuss the application. that Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d make significant progress on Soon I realized much more was at it that coming weekâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;but two weeks

stake than this single application. I wanted to choose the right schools for me, get in, maintain good grades, and continue being northern membership vice president of NFTYâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Mid-Atlantic region.

It dawned upon me that Jewish values could help me succeed. Judaism teaches about the role of a kehillaâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;a community of people with a shared goal and purpose.

I could build my own kehilla to guide me through the applications process.

My Guidance Counselor

My high school guidance counselor was a natural choice for my kehilla.

She went right to work laying out the pros and cons of each school I was considering. She also helped me make an applications checklist which we transferred continued on page 41

TRINITY COLLEGE H ILLEL UĂ&#x160;7>Ă&#x20AC;Â&#x201C;]Ă&#x160;Ă&#x153;iÂ?VÂ&#x153;Â&#x201C;Â&#x2C6;Â&#x2DC;}]Ă&#x160;Â&#x2C6;Â&#x2DC;VÂ?Ă&#x2022;Ă&#x192;Â&#x2C6;Ă&#x203A;iĂ&#x160;VÂ&#x153;Â&#x201C;Â&#x201C;Ă&#x2022;Â&#x2DC;Â&#x2C6;Ă&#x152;Ă&#x17E; UĂ&#x160;-Â&#x2026;>LL>Ă&#x152;Ă&#x160;>Â&#x2DC;`Ă&#x160;Â&#x2026;Â&#x153;Â?Â&#x2C6;`>Ă&#x17E;Ă&#x192;Ă&#x160;Â&#x153;Â&#x2DC;Ă&#x160;V>Â&#x201C;ÂŤĂ&#x2022;Ă&#x192; UĂ&#x160; Â&#x153;Ă&#x192;Â&#x2026;iĂ&#x20AC;Ă&#x160; >Ă&#x152;iĂ&#x20AC;Ă&#x17E;Ă&#x160;Â&#x2C6;Â&#x2DC;Ă&#x160;Â&#x201C;>Â&#x2C6;Â&#x2DC;Ă&#x160;`Â&#x2C6;Â&#x2DC;Â&#x2C6;Â&#x2DC;}Ă&#x160;v>VÂ&#x2C6;Â?Â&#x2C6;Ă&#x152;Ă&#x17E; UĂ&#x160; >Â?Â&#x153;Ă&#x20AC;Ă&#x160;>Â&#x2DC;`Ă&#x160;Â&#x201C;Â&#x2C6;Â&#x2DC;Â&#x153;Ă&#x20AC;Ă&#x160;Â&#x2C6;Â&#x2DC;Ă&#x160; iĂ&#x153;Â&#x2C6;Ă&#x192;Â&#x2026;Ă&#x160;Ă&#x192;Ă&#x152;Ă&#x2022;`Â&#x2C6;iĂ&#x192; UĂ&#x160; Ă?VÂ&#x2C6;Ă&#x152;Â&#x2C6;Â&#x2DC;}Ă&#x160;Â&#x2C6;Â&#x2DC;Ă&#x152;iĂ&#x20AC;Â&#x2DC;>Ă&#x152;Â&#x2C6;Â&#x153;Â&#x2DC;>Â?Ă&#x160;>Â?Ă&#x152;iĂ&#x20AC;Â&#x2DC;>Ă&#x152;Â&#x2C6;Ă&#x203A;iĂ&#x160;LĂ&#x20AC;i>Â&#x17D;Ă&#x192; UĂ&#x160; Â&#x2DC;Â&#x2DC;Ă&#x2022;>Â?Ă&#x160; Â&#x2C6;Ă&#x20AC;Ă&#x152;Â&#x2026;Ă&#x20AC;Â&#x2C6;}Â&#x2026;Ă&#x152;Ă&#x160;Ă&#x152;Ă&#x20AC;Â&#x2C6;ÂŤĂ&#x160;>Â&#x2DC;`Ă&#x160;>ÂŤÂŤĂ&#x20AC;Â&#x153;Ă&#x203A;i`Ă&#x160; Ă&#x160;Ă&#x160;Ă&#x160;Ă&#x192;Ă&#x152;Ă&#x2022;`Ă&#x17E;Ă&#x160;>LĂ&#x20AC;Â&#x153;>`Ă&#x160;Â&#x2C6;Â&#x2DC;Ă&#x160; Ă&#x192;Ă&#x20AC;>iÂ?

UĂ&#x160;/Â&#x2026;iĂ&#x160;<>VÂ&#x2026;Ă&#x192;Ă&#x160; Â&#x2C6;Â?Â?iÂ?Ă&#x160; Â&#x153;Ă&#x2022;Ă&#x192;ip>Â&#x2DC;Ă&#x160;Â&#x2C6;Â&#x2DC;Ă&#x203A;Â&#x2C6;Ă&#x152;Â&#x2C6;Â&#x2DC;}Ă&#x160; Ă&#x160;Ă&#x160;Ă&#x160;Â&#x2026;Â&#x153;Â&#x201C;iĂ&#x160;>Ă&#x153;>Ă&#x17E;Ă&#x160;vĂ&#x20AC;Â&#x153;Â&#x201C;Ă&#x160;Â&#x2026;Â&#x153;Â&#x201C;i UĂ&#x160;/Ă&#x20AC;Â&#x2C6;Â&#x2DC;Â&#x2C6;Ă&#x152;Ă&#x17E;Ă&#x160; Â&#x153;Â?Â?i}ipÂ&#x153;Â&#x2DC;iĂ&#x160;Â&#x153;vĂ&#x160;Ă&#x152;Â&#x2026;iĂ&#x160;Â&#x2DC;>Ă&#x152;Â&#x2C6;Â&#x153;Â&#x2DC;½Ă&#x192;Ă&#x160; Ă&#x160;Ă&#x160;Ă&#x160;Ă&#x152;Â&#x153;ÂŤĂ&#x160;Â?Â&#x2C6;LiĂ&#x20AC;>Â?Ă&#x160;>Ă&#x20AC;Ă&#x152;Ă&#x192;Ă&#x160;VÂ&#x153;Â?Â?i}iĂ&#x192;

Ă&#x153;Ă&#x153;Ă&#x153;°Ă&#x152;Ă&#x20AC;Â&#x2C6;Â&#x2DC;VÂ&#x153;Â?Â?°i`Ă&#x2022; reform judaism

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INSIDER’S GUIDE TOCOLLEGE LIFEADMISSIONS Admissions 102:

Acing Your Application to the Ivies

S

o, you want to get into an Ivy League school?

If you’ve got high SAT scores and top grades, that’s a necessary step in the right direction—but it’s not enough. The competition is fierce; the rejection rate at the Ivies exceeds 85%. Your application needs to stand out among the 20–35,000 thousand applications each top-ranked college receives.

Here are 5 insider tips to make a compelling impression on your application:

the difficulty, questions a community service that had been there project he’d initiated. for years have just He took the time to been eliminated; only submit a supplemenone short main essay tal award sheet to and very few short describe the project answer questions were that led to this honor retained. If you want to as well as other be known by the colawards he had won. lege of your dreams, Ultimately he was take advantage of admitted to his first college supplemental choice school. essay questions to add An additional note a short extra essay or can also help address Don’t feel limited by the constraints include a note about a a college’s potential special circumstance, of the Common Application. concern about you as PRINCETON UNIVERSITY explaining what makes an applicant. For Colleges look for in-depth information you the unique individual you are. example, another one of my students about you, but often have too little to go One student I worked with had was suspended for a relatively minor on because of the limitations imposed by the Common Application. Compounding received a high-level national award for infraction. Recognizing that the colleges he was applying to would likely have imagined the offense to be much more serious than it was, he took the time to explain the circumstances and his peripheral involvement in the incident—and was accepted to his firstJewish Cuba: La Habana choice college as well.

November 11 – November 17, 2014 6 days/5 nights from $3,069 - Limited to 20 Choose a smart essay topic.

Reservation Deadline: October 1 Don’t pick a clichéd subject, such Enjoy a rare voyage of cultural discovery and as your last minute game-saving goal humanitarian effort in support of the or how you had no trouble adapting to Jewish Cuban Community. living in Spain during your year-abroad Classic Havana program. Instead, focus on you—your February 15 – 21, 2015 academic strengths and accomplish7 days/6 nights from $3,189 - Limited to 16 ments—and be sure to back these up Reservation Deadline: October 14 with specific examples. For instance, Experience the beautiful Cuban countryside, another student wrote about the joy traditional art, music and dance, and connect with in translating a difficult Latin passage Cuba’s vibrant Jewish Community. from the Aeneid, and was accepted to her top school.

For more trips, tour information and reservations, Ultimately, your main essay is your visit www.havanapassage.com - 305-846-6577 chance to prove that you are serious about scholarship. So if you study many Terms and conditions apply. Trips under hours a day to master a particular subthe license of Creative Travel, Inc. ject or do substantive work/projects Licensed by the U.S. Dept. of the outside of school, say so on your appliTreasury Office of Foreign Assets Control (CT-2013-302713-1) cation; otherwise, no one will know. continued on page 51

1

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Olegmit / Dreamstime.com

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Admissions 103: College Cash 1 Scholarships & Grants The JVS Scholarship Loan Program of the Jewish Vocational Service Agency offers interest-free, need-based loans up to $5,000/ year to Jewish residents of MetroWest New Jersey. jvsnj.org The JCCs of North America Graduate Scholarship Program offers full-time students pursuing a master’s degree in select subjects up to $20,000 if they agree to work for two years at a JCC after graduation. jccworks.com The Dallas Jewish Community Foundation offers $800–$10,000 need-based scholarships to students of all faiths primarily from the Greater Dallas/Fort Worth area. djcf.org The Jewish Social Service Agency offers $2,500–$6,000 scholarships and interest-free loans to Jewish residents of Maryland, DC, and northern Virginia. jssa.org

The Jewish War Veterans of the United States of America offers $1,000–$1,500 grants to high school seniors who are direct descendants of members. jwv.org The Central Scholarship & Loan Referral Service (a program of the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh administered by Jewish Family & Children’s Service) offers $500–$3,000 need-based scholarships to Western Pennsylvania residents. centralscholarship.org The Jewish Family Service Association offers need-based grants and loans of up to $4,000/ year to Jewish residents in Greater Cleveland. jfsa-cleveland.org The Jewish Vocational Service of Los Angeles offers need-based scholarships of $2,000–$5,000/ year to Jewish residents of California’s Los Angeles County. jvsla.org The Jewish Children’s Regional Service offers $2,000 grants and

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no-interest loans on average per academic year to Jewish undergraduates whose families reside in Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Tennessee, and Texas. jcrs.org

2 Lower Cost Loans The Jewish Educational Loan Fund (JELF) provides interest-free, need-based “last-dollar” loans to Jewish students from Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia. jelf.org* Member organizations of the International Association of Jewish Free Loans offer interest-free, need-based loans. freeloan.org Editor’s Note: For more scholarship, grant, and loan sources, check with the major Jewish organizations in your local community, among them the Jewish Information and Referral Service and the National Council of Jewish Women.

fall 2014

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INSIDERâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S GUIDE TOCOLLEGE LIFEADMISSIONS Admissions 104 & 105: The Top 60 Schools Jews Choose* PRIVATE SCHOOLS 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30

Jewish % of Population Student (Undergrad) Population

New York University (New York, NY) Boston University (Boston, MA) Yeshiva University (New York, NY) Columbia University (New York, NY) George Washington University (Washington, DC) Cornell University (Ithaca, NY) University of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, PA) Syracuse University (Syracuse, NY) Tulane University (New Orleans, LA) Emory University (Atlanta, GA) University of Southern California (Los Angeles, CA) Brandeis University (Waltham, MA) Harvard University (Cambridge, MA) University of Miami (Coral Gables, FL) American University (Washington, DC) Northwestern University (Evanston, IL) Yale University (New Haven, CT) Washington University (St. Louis, MO) University of Hartford (West Hartford, CT) Hofstra University (Hempstead, NY) Tufts University (Medford, MA) Long Island University, Brooklyn Campus (Brooklyn, NY) Vanderbilt University (Nashville, TN) Northeastern University (Boston, MA) Brown University (Providence, RI) University of Rochester (Rochester, NY) Drexel University (Philadelphia, PA) University of Chicago (Chicago, IL) Oberlin College (Oberlin, OH) DePaul University (Chicago, IL)

Jewish Studies Courses

Jewish Studies Major

JAFI/Hillel Israel Fellows

6,000 4,500 3,080 3,000 3,000 3,000 2,500 2,500 2,250 2,100 2,000 1,750 1,680 1,600 1,600 1,600 1,500 1,500 1,500 1,350 1,250 1,200 1,050 1,000 1,000 900 900 850 850 800

28% 28% 96% 30% 29% 23% 25% 19% 32% 30% 11% 50% 25% 15% 23% 20% 27% 25% 33% 18% 25% 22% 16% 7% 17% 20% 7% 16% 29% 4%

70 65 138 25 30 46 50 20 50 61 14 60 40 15 25 35 50 60 20 14 25 0 35 38 30 8 5 30 23 10

Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes No No Yes Yes No

No No No Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes No Yes No No Yes Yes No Yes No No No No No No No No No No Yes No Yes

6,500 6,400 6,000 5,800 5,000 4,500 4,200 4,010 4,000 4,000 4,000 3,600 3,500 3,500 3,500 3,500 3,500 3,250 3,250 3,220 3,200 3,000 3,000 3,000 2,750 2,600 2,600 2,600 2,500 2,500

17% 16% 10% 22% 13% 18% 14% 26% 13% 8% 10% 6% 27% 10% 27% 25% 13% 10% 10% 10% 7% 6% 10% 8% 14% 9% 7% 17% 10% 14%

77 50 15 40 80 120 60 46 75 30 14 40 20 100 43 30 15 61 45 30 100 62 25 25 40 50 12 32 23 75

Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes No No Yes No Yes Yes Yes

Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes No No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes No Yes No Yes Yes No Yes No No Yes Yes

PUBLIC SCHOOLS 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30

University of Florida (Gainesville, FL) Rutgers University, New Brunswick (New Brunswick, NJ) University of Central Florida (Orlando, FL) University of Maryland, College Park (College Park, MD) Pennsylvania State University, University Park (University Park, PA) University of Michigan (Ann Arbor, MI) Indiana University (Bloomington, IN) Queens College (Flushing, NY) University of Wisconsin, Madison (Madison, WI) University of Texas, Austin (Austin, TX) California State University, Northridge (Northridge, CA) Arizona State University (Tempe, AZ) University at Albany (Albany, NY) McGill University (Montreal, QC) CUNY, Brooklyn College (Brooklyn, NY) Binghamton University (Vestal, NY) Florida International University (Miami, FL) University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (Champaign, IL) University of Arizona (Tucson, AZ) Florida State University (Tallahassee, FL) Ohio State University (Columbus, OH) York University (Toronto, ON) University of Western Ontario (London, ON) Michigan State University (East Lansing, MI) University of California, Santa Barbara (Santa Barbara, CA) University of California, Los Angeles (Los Angeles, CA) University of South Florida (Tampa, FL) University of California, Santa Cruz (Santa Cruz, CA) University of California, Davis (Davis, CA) University of Massachusetts, Amherst (Amherst, MA)

* NOTES: Estimated population figures and other campus information are self-reported by local Hillels. Contact Hillel International: 202-449-6500, hillel.org/guide.

Col_TopCharts_f14_F.indd 36

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& the Top 25 By Percentage of Jews* Yes No No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes No No No Yes No Yes Yes No Yes

Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes No No No Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes No No No

Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes N/A Yes Yes Yes Yes N/A Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes

Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes

Reform Groups/ Events Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes No No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes N/A Yes Yes Yes No N/A Yes Yes Yes Yes No No Yes Yes

Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes No Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes No No Yes No No Yes Yes No No Yes No Yes

top 25 schools by percentage of jews

1 Jewish Theological Seminary of America 200 Jewish Students, 100%

2 Yeshiva University 3,080 Jewish Students, 96%

3 American Jewish University 110 Jewish Students, 92%

4 Brandeis University 1,750 Jewish Students, 50%

5 Muhlenberg College 750 Jewish Students, 35%

6 University of Hartford

ISRAEL FEST, UNIVERSITY AT ALBANY HILLEL.

1,500 Jewish Students, 33%

7 Barnard College 770 Jewish Students, 33%

8 Sarah Lawrence College 400 Jewish Students, 33%

9 Tulane University 2,250 Jewish Students, 32%

10 Columbia University 3,000 Jewish Students, 30% Courtesy of Rebuilding Together New Orleans

Student Reform Engagement Worship Interns on Campus

11 Emory University 2,100 Jewish Students, 30%

12 Goucher College 450 Jewish Students, 30%

13 George Washington University INDIANA UNIVERSITY HILLEL STUDENTS HELP REBUILD NEW ORLEANS DURING ALTERNATIVE SPRING BREAK.

3,000 Jewish Students, 29%

14 Oberlin College 850 Jewish Students, 29%

15 New York University 6,000 Jewish Students, 28%

16 Boston University 4,500 Jewish Students, 28%

17 Yale University 1,500 Jewish Students, 27%

18 CUNY, Brooklyn College 3,500 Jewish Students, 27%

19 University at Albany 3,500 Jewish Students, 27%

20 Queens College 4,012 Jewish Students, 26%

21 University of Pennsylvania 2,500 Jewish Students, 25%

22 Harvard University 1,675 Jewish Students, 25%

23 Washington University 1,500 Jewish Students, 25%

24 Tufts University CHALLAH BAKING, A WEEKLY RITE AT TEXAS HILLEL.

1,250 Jewish Students, 25%

25 Wesleyan University 680 Jewish Students, 25%

For Reform college programs: urj.org/college. N/A means information was not made available to Reform Judaism magazine.

Col_TopCharts_f14_F.indd 37

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INSIDER’S GUIDE TOCOLLEGE LIFEADMISSIONS Admissions 106

The Top 7 Hillels You Haven’t Heard Of*

DUKE UNIVERSITY STUDENTS WISH VIEWERS A HAPPY NEW YEAR.

1 COLLEGE OF CHARLESTON (CHARLESTON, SC): Hillel is one of the largest and most active student organizations at the college Is uniquely located in the Jewish Studies Center where students take academic courses, giving Hillel participants increased opportunities to interact with and learn from Jewish Studies professors

BAKING HAMENTASCHEN AT ELON UNIVERSITY.

2 DUKE UNIVERSITY (DURHAM, NC): Offers the Jewish First-Year Advisory Mentor Program (JFAM), in which upperclass peers invite incoming students to chat about campus life and Jewish life during Welcome Week Partners with Duke Career Center to integrate students’ interest in Judaism and/or Israel into potential career decisions All programming is open to both undergraduate and graduate students

3 ELON UNIVERSITY (ELON, NC): Engages more than 70% of firstyear Jewish students in Jewish life on campus 350+ students regularly spend time at Hillel Indoor and outdoor kosher kitchens

4 UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO, BOULDER (BOULDER, CO): Offers multiple ongoing outdoor programs, including a rock climbing group Hosts an annual Hillel ski retreat weekend With an Israeli director and an Israeli chef in the kitchen, every Shabbat dinner features fresh Israeli cuisine

5 UNIVERSITY OF DELAWARE (NEWARK, DE): 70 students celebrate Shabbat weekly 6 campus Jewish student groups, including the a cappella group The ChaiNamics and the community service group Project Change

6 UNIVERSITY OF RHODE ISLAND (KINGSTON, RI): 5,000square-foot Hillel facility in the heart of the university’s residence hall area Offers diverse experiences, from partnering with various multicultural groups on campus to arranging fishing trips for URI’s beachand oceanfocused student body Awards four annual scholarships to students who make an impact on Jewish life on campus

7 UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON (SEATTLE, WA): Conducts 30+ programs each month Reaches 2,500+ young people per year Offers leadership development, women’s programming, service trips, a fitness center, a garden, and more

* Hillel International has selected the above campuses, listed in alphabetical order, based on these five criteria: innovative Jewish programming, a growing Jewish population, a dedicated professional leader, demonstrated university support, and a commitment to serve Jews of all backgrounds. To learn more about these and other dynamic campuses, visit hillel.org/guide.

H

illel’s College Guide (hillel.org/ guide) can help you select the right Jewish campus environment for you.

As you identify your top schools, check out their listings in the College Guide, where you’ll learn about the Jewish opportunities each campus offers. To determine the depth of

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Jewish experience, keep these criteria in mind: Hillel: Not all schools have one; see if the schools you’re considering do.

Rabbi or Jewish Educator: Is there a professional on campus to help students explore Jewish learning?

Jewish Studies: Does the campus offer Jewish studies courses, or a

major or minor?

Israel Fellow: Is there an Israel Fellow on campus to introduce students to Israel and help them develop personal relationships with Israelis?

Awards: Has the Hillel been recognized for excellent work?

Israel Travel: Does the school offer a Taglit-Birthright Israel opportunity?

Courtesy of Elon Universit y

DEEPEN YOUR COLLEGE SEARCH

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COLLEGE LIFEADMISSIONS Admissions 107:

Mastering Rejection

Get a head start on your college experience Brotherhood Help with move-in Campus Tours Freshman Advice Jewish Identity Networking Campus Involvement Join a chapter:

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Nspimages / Dreamstime.com

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egardless (aardvarkisrael.com). of how Or you can travel smart, hardto Jewish communiworking, ties around the world or talented (kivunim.org), as we are, every one of did Suzy Lee Weiss, us faces rejection at one the most famous time or another. What young Jewish college matters is how we reject of 2013, as deal with it. featured on the Today If you didn’t get Show. Being proacinto your first choice tive will make you school—and maybe a stronger candidate not your second or and prove—to yourBETTER TO FACE REJECTION HEAD-ON. third either—it’s okay self and others— to spend some time feeling a bit low. that you are the kind of person who is It happened to me. I cried in my willing to put in the work to achieve history classroom after I was “denied” your goals. by my first and second choice schools.

When you’re ready, reapply either My teacher, Mr. Sokolow, offered after a gap year or as a transfer student some wisdom that has remained with both to the schools that rejected you me ever since: “Do the best you can and those you might not have considwith what you have.” ered the first time around.

Recently I found out that he was You may still get rejected. What you quoting the former world heavyweight also need to know is that a rejection boxing champion Joe Louis. Boxers letter is not a judgment of your worth. know that going into the ring means I learned that lesson the hard way they’re going to have to take some in my 20s. Wanting to publish fiction, blows. Painful as it may be, that is what I sent a story to the venerable New we often have to do to achieve our most Yorker magazine. When I received a cherished goals in life. standard rejection letter, I concluded So, if you don’t get into your top that I wasn’t a good writer. I didn’t choice schools, don’t give up. Do what know then that most New Yorker stories you can to improve your chances. are submitted by literary agents—very, Take a summer school course to very few are taken from their “slush show that you really can get an A in pile” of blind submissions—and that Biology. Secure a summer internship many other magazines publish stories in your area of interest and have a by unknown writers who do not have mentor write about your abilities. Con- agents. I’m embarrassed to say that for sider going on a gap year program— 10 years, I wrote stories but did not many of them offer scholarships. You submit them anywhere for fear of can experience an Israel program rejection. Finally, while taking writing organized by the Reform Movement classes, I met other writers who helped such as Netzer Year (netzeryear.org), me understand that a rejection letter or a “secular yeshiva” where you can from The New Yorker was not a rejecstudy Jewish texts without being oblition of me or my work, but a reality gated to partake in religious obsercheck—countless talented writers are vance. You can learn and do volunteer vying for a few spots in the nation’s top work in Israel in a pluralistic setting magazines. Even now, after having had fall 2014

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Admissions Squad continued from page 33 onto a calendar, enabling me to record and review the due dates for every application and when I would work on each.

My Family Friends

Family friends whose sons had succeeded in getting into schools of their choice were really helpful, too. I turned in all applications a month before their due dates on advice from a friend who said this would demonstrate to admissions officers that I had a good work ethic.

The best tip I received was to develop a personal relationship with an admissions counselor at each school I applied to, which would make it more likely that s/ he would fight for me. As a result, I called and emailed each college I was considering, asking specific questions about the school, including what admissions officers were seeking in an applicant.

This advice paid off. After receiving news that I’d been deferred from one of my top choices, I emailed a thank-you note to the admissions counselor with many pieces published, including in The New York Times online, I still get numerous rejections for every piece that’s accepted. But that’s okay now, because I know the odds.

One more thing. Whenever I get a rejection letter, I think of Rebbe Nachman of Bratslav’s words: “Jews, it is forbidden to despair.” When life deals you a blow, get up, dust yourself off, and recalculate your next move.

Remember that “do the best you can with what you have” advice, while still striving to improve.

Here’s the big lesson: Try to make rejection your friend. It can be a catalyst to rethinking and clarifying your goals and opening up your mind to new options.

You may end up being extremely happy at one of the colleges you have gotten into, as I eventually did. One day you may even look back and be grateful for that college rejection which led your life in a great new direction.

whom I had a relationship and asked her what I could do to strengthen my application before it was reviewed a second time. She explained that I’d been deferred because of low SAT scores (as I am not a good test taker), and suggested I add additional academic achievements and leadership roles to the resume submitted with my application, which I did. She also wrote a note on the application I submitted saying this college was one of my top choices. In part because of her help, I was admitted to the school the second time around.

My Friends

My friends were also tackling the applications process, so I would have been a fool not to include them in my kehilla.

We’d discuss the meaning of certain Common App questions, bounce essay ideas off one another, critique each other’s drafts, and calm one another down. I’d get particularly stressed when I couldn’t think of a good essay topic or express what I really wanted to say. Hanging out, catching up, and relaxing with my kehilla friends usually helped clear my mind and

return to the application refreshed and ready to overcome obstacles. Meanwhile, I was helping them out, too.

My Parents

Each week for an hour or two, I met with my parents to share my school preferences and listen to their perspectives.

Often this process caused me to weigh something I hadn’t thought of before, such as my dad’s remark that many college graduates end up living in the area of their school, which prompted me to give more thought to college location.

Together we also considered whether or not to revisit certain schools. In addition, my parents commented on my essays, which at first was hard to take, but eventually I realized the value of their advice.

My admissions kehilla helped get me where I am today—on my way to the school of my choice.

—Blake Dickler, member, Har Sinai Congregation, Owings Mills, MD; outgoing northern membership vice president, NFTY-MAR; and incoming freshman, Ithaca College

Zeta Beta Tau

Contact C ontact ZBT ZBT now! now!

—Beth Kissileff, a freelance writer, speaker, instructor, and editor of the anthology Reading Genesis (Continuum Books, 2013) reform judaism

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COLLEGEMARKETPLACE Getting In continued from page 32

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I

entered college on the eve of the SlutWalk revolution.

A 12-year-old girl had been repeatedly assaulted in Texas, and the newspaper reporting on it cited a possible motive: she was wearing makeup. A police officer in Toronto told women to stop dressing like sluts to avoid being sexually assaulted. While I grappled with how to refuse boys lining the sweatinfused walls of college parties, women around the world began mobilizing, dressing and acting exactly as they chose and protesting discrimination against women in the justice system. Our mothers invented the Take Back the Night rallies; SlutWalk became a rallying cry of women of my generation fighting back against sexual violence. Other, similar campaigns would follow.

I’d seen “slut-shaming” in my high school—girls in my class bullied and teased for hooking up with the wrong person, or too many people, or for dressing in so-called promiscuous ways.

Somehow it was easy to dismiss this disturbing behavior towards my high school peers. I made excuses for it—after all, these were kids I’d known practically all my life, they didn’t mean any harm.

But when I started college, I began to feel its effects personally. At parties, boys grabbed us from behind on the dance floor. Without a word spoken, they’d spin us around by our waists and stick their beer-and-punch-coated tongues down our throats. The rules were no-win: If you didn’t want to make out or go home with the guy, you were no fun, and if you did or went home too often, you were a slut.

As I grappled with how to negotiate the social scene, friends told me stories of saying “no” but still being forced to have sex against their will—as a horrific reform judaism

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physical extension of the unconsenting experiences I was having on the dance floor. Men on campus felt entitled to my body, our bodies, regardless of what we said or felt.

I also heard stories of how my college mishandled sexual misconduct cases.

Those who reported incidents recounted how they faced questions about what they were wearing and whether they were drinking, as if they were to blame. Students who filed complaints against their assailants met with slow, minimal responses from the college’s disciplinary hearing apparatus and were not receiving the school support services they needed and were entitled to under federal Title IX laws.

I wanted to take action, against both the sexual violence and the administration’s and many students’ apathetic unresponsiveness. I’d grown up in a Reform Jewish household where standing up against injustice—including sexual inequality—was imparted to me as a central tenet of our faith. But I wasn’t quite sure how I could address a problem of this magnitude.

The summer after my sophomore year, I interned for the Religious Action Center for Reform Judaism’s Machon Kaplan social justice and Judaism program (rac.org/confprog/machon) in Washington, DC. In this new Reform community of friends who read, wrote, and debated how to act as a Jew in the world, I remembered that I could deal with the bleak, intimidating reality of sexual violence and gender equality by drawing on Jewish values. Judaism teaches, “Tzedek, tzedek tirdof—Justice, justice you shall pursue” (Deuteronomy 16:18). Instead of feeling I might have to give up against seemingly insurmount-

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Alpha Epsilon Phi / Sigma Delta Tau Violence able odds, “tzedek, tzedek tirdof ” taught that my responsibility to pursue justice wasn’t confined to a single act or even to a few. The Torah rarely repeats itself, so the repetition of tzedek was emphasizing my commitment to pursue justice over and over again until I saw the impact of my efforts.

The double tzedek also signified to me the duality of justice needed—both the short-term crisis on my campus and the long term, second-level justice that would include preventative education to help make sexual respect and gender equity the status quo. Further, I sought justice both for me, the personal justice of being able to walk alone on campus at night, and a second concentric circle of justice that would protect students with fewer privileges and opportunities to combat the injustices they encountered.

While in Washington, I consulted with the National Women’s Law Center and other anti-sexual violence organizations and activists. And after Machon Kaplan ended, I worked with a friend on an online publication we would soon launch covering on-campus and national issues. By the time I returned to campus in the fall, I was armed with facts, policy information, and resources.

Almost immediately after our site went live, we were in the national spotlight. We’d published a piece about a graphically violent t-shirt design one of the fraternities had printed, describing the shirt as an example of the bigger issues in our campus culture that contributed to violence against women. Some small national blogs picked up the story.

Because I was the publication’s coeditor, the student body president asked me to speak to the Board of Trustees about needed changes on campus. Other student representatives and I walked into the trustees meeting with a list of demands, among them ensuring counseling center support for survivors and mandating bystander education—

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A dynamic Jewish community at the nation’s leading university for engaged learning • • • • •

Warm, welcoming and inclusive Jewish community Home-like Sklut Hillel Center Jewish Studies minor with 32 courses Chapter of Zeta Beta Tau Jewish fraternity 10% of students are Jewish

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wers o p r u o y r e v o Disc of invention. g something Imagine makin verything. e that changes freshman year.) st ju s t’ (And tha

nourish your yc9 university can r ou w school.edu/n ho n ar Le ntial. www.new te po d an , ct lle talent, inte Arts / nt / hool for Liberal blic Engageme llege The New Sc w School for Pu Eugene Lang Co Drama / Design / The Ne for for ol ol ho ho Sc Sc w w Ne Ne e Parsons The ol for Music / Th e The New Scho mporary Music Mannes Colleg Jazz and Conte for ol ho Sc w Ne The

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teaching all students effective intervention skills to prevent sexual harassment in social situations.

As a result, I was one of two student representatives appointed to the college’s Sexual Misconduct Oversight Committee. We addressed the issues with faculty, administration, legal counsel, and board representatives. By January of my junior year, the committee published a report on our campus’s rape culture with recommendations for improvement. Some of our suggestions, such as increased sexual respect education for first-year students and more regulated (albeit permissive) alcohol and party protocols, were implemented immediately as new college policy.

In addition, I helped organize a campus-wide Day of Dialogue during which all classes were cancelled and students and faculty gathered in small groups to learn about sexual respect. And campus activists in the student senate helped form a Title IX Review Committee, due to be up and running this September, to help tackle major challenges. Right now, for example, many sexual assault cases are reported but then are not filed or do not make it through the hearing process; the committee is tasked with figuring out why this is happening and how to better support survivors through the process. In addition, certain college personnel have undocumented reputations for mishandling sexual violence cases; the committee hopes to better document complaints against those specific individuals as flaws in the implementation of policy.

As I graduate, most of the changes I’d hoped to see on my campus are yet to be completed. I had hoped to create a culture of student and faculty intervention when witnessing sexual harassment in social situations and to address headon how a school’s athletics culture affects sexual respect. Nevertheless, I’ve learned that even a college student like myself can fight for justice and make a difference. In Leviticus 19:16 we read, “Lo ta’amod al dam rei-echa—Do not stand idly by while your neighbor bleeds.” I will not stand idly by.

—Liya Rechtman, a recent college graduate, grew up at Brooklyn Heights Synagogue in Brooklyn, NY

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INSIDER’S GUIDE TOCOLLEGE LIFECAMPUS LIFE Campus Life 201:

Growing as a Jew at a Catholic U.

A

ttending a Catholic university—Loyola University in Chicago— might at first sound like a strange choice for someone who became a bat mitzvah, was confirmed at a Reform temple, and spent many summers at a Jewish sleep-away camp. The majority of students identify as Roman Catholic, and the university’s small Hillel meant I’d likely miss out on the many Jewish opportunities other universities offered.

However, after I carefully considered the majors, programs, activities, and resources my ideal school would offer, Loyola seemed to be my best match, by far. So I accepted the school’s offer and opened my mind to discovering ways to grow as a Jew at a Catholic university.

Now, after two semesters at Loyola, I’ve discovered two ways to do just that:

1

Possessing a viewpoint that differs from the majority paves the way for me to teach others about Judaism and Jewish values. During

one class, our teacher asked us to place ourselves in various mindsets—African American, non-English speaker, Jewish—that might affect our attitude towards school. One Catholic student commented that she did not think being Jewish would make someone feel alienated. She and others seemed to take for granted the wooden crosses that hang above every classroom door; the president’s traditional priest attire of a black shirt and white collar tab; and the emphasis of religion in university life, such as the call for a moment of prayer at school-wide events.

Recognizing this situation as an educational opportunity, I later spoke to this classmate about how being a Jew at a

2

Learning about another religion can be a pathway to deepening your relationship with your own faith. One

Catholic institution can sometimes feel displacing. It felt rewarding to hear her response: “Wow, I never even thought about that. Thank you.”

A second opportunity to share my Jewish perspective arose after Loyola’s student government passed a resolution promulgated by Students for Justice in Palestine to divest university investments from eight companies that conduct business with Israel. Some students did not understand the issues involved; I explained to them what the resolution meant and why I did not support it. A number of students expressed outrage that the student government’s decision was not reflective of the student body, was not wellinformed or in the spirit of peaceful and open dialogue, and chose a side on the age-old conflict between Israelis and Palestinians; in this instance I presented them with a petition they could sign calling for the divestment resolution to be vetoed by the student body president. Many of these peers joined me at the meeting that eventually led to a veto of the resolution.

In these and other situations, I’ve discovered how contributing my Jewish perspectives can lead to meaningful discussions with my peers. reform judaism

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evening, out of curiosity, I joined a friend in attending mass. When I first saw the robed clergy parade down the nave (central part) of the chapel swinging incensefilled thuribles (censers) and carrying a lectionary (a schedule of biblical readings) along with a tall cross adorned with a golden Jesus, I instinctively thought: How foreign this is! But, I quickly stopped myself and instead made the conscious decision to focus on the similarities between Catholic and Jewish practices. The tradition of waving fragrant incense reminded me of how we smell sweet spices during Havdalah. The way the priest held the lectionary above his head brought to mind my hometown rabbi holding the Torah aloft during services. The use of call and response prayers and melodic chanting in praise of God mirrored the back and forth of the Bar’chu and rhythmic recitation of the Hebrew prayers.

I soon discovered other Jewish-Catholic commonalities. Catholics forego certain tasty temptations during Lent; Jews go without leavened bread during Passover and fast on Yom Kippur. My rabbi asked congregants to wish one another “Shabbat Shalom”; priests ask people in the pews to say “Peace be with you.” There are also cultural similarities—some of my friends here wring their hands with “Catholic guilt,” like my “Jewish guilt” when I forget to call my parents. By identifying commonalities—while respecting differences— I’ve learned about Catholicism and reinforced my own heritage.

Loyola has also introduced me to

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University of Chicago students join a community that’s all about ideas.

No matter who you are or where you’re from, you’ll find a place that allows you to take chances, express your thoughts, and discover your passions.

The award-winning Newberger Hillel Center, UChicago, and a multitude of Jewish student organizations support a diverse array of Jewish communities that allow students to explore being Jewish in social, ethnic, spiritual, and myriad other ways.

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Catholic practices I find compatible with my Reform mindset. One weekend on a freshmen retreat program, I was introduced to what Jesuits call examen, the daily prayer that Saint Ignatius Loyola, my school’s namesake, prescribed as a time to be thankful, ask God for assistance, review the good and bad parts of your day, ask God for forgiveness, and pray for God’s graces. At their root I recognized these as Jewish teachings, too.

Then I realized I’d been missing something in my active college life.

Where were the quiet, restorative moments I needed? At my home congregation I’d often found solace in saying the Sh’ma and in moments of silent prayer, so I decided to bring my own Jewish sensibilities to examen. I would carve out time from my busy schedule to be thankful, reflective, and humble. My reflective activities included journaling, practicing yoga, and going to Hillel.

I’ve found other Jewish parallels in Loyola’s Jesuit educational philosophy, which embodies five hallmark characteristics: commitment to excellence, faith in God and the religious experience, service that promotes justice, values-based leadership, and global awareness. Judaism also promotes education, faith, social justice, informed leadership, and global responsibility. Interestingly, seeing these same ideals reinforced in a different religious context has strengthened my Jewish faith. One day, while cleaning up a local park with other Loyola undergraduates, I saw I was among students wearing hijabs and golden cross necklaces. I was volunteering because of my dedication to tikkun olam (repairing the world), other students were helping out of different religious convictions, and all of us saw value in bettering our community.

These days, when I’m asked what it is like to attend a Jesuit university as a Jew, I respond, “It is more Jewish than I ever would have imagined.” Sure, there are crosses instead of mezuzot on the doors. But I’ve grown as a Jew by finding common ground in religious values, promoting interfaith harmony, and teaching others what I cherish in my own tradition.

—Carlin Coffey, a Loyola University sophomore and member, Temple Israel, Columbus, Ohio

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INSIDER’S GUIDE TOCOLLEGE LIFECAMPUS LIFE Campus Life 202:

6 Ways To Fund Your Project

T

here may be info about engagement more funding internships, contact your available for Hillel and visit hillel.org/ your on-campus lead-engage.

Jewish program At the University of than you think: Southern California, Men of Reform Judaengagement intern Ricardo ism’s Reform on Campus Gorinstein created a Krav (ROC) Grants: You can Maga program for students apply for up to $500 for a to learn Israeli self-defense single Reform event, such as tactics. Another intern, a camp-style Shabbat and Jared Fleitman, started a dinner, or up to $750 for a campus chapter of TAMID series of events, such as a cul- “NEXT SHABBAT” AT UC IRVINE, NOVEMBER 2011.

Israel Investment Group, tural celebration. For 2013– which focuses on Israeli 14, the Men of Reform Judaism (MRJ) start-up companies. interns who build relationships with awarded 44 grants totaling nearly Ask Big Questions: In partnership Jewish peers at 50+ campuses, creating $20,000, according to Steven Portnoy, with the Einhorn Family Charitable meaningful Jewish experiences and MRJ secretary and chair of the Reform Trust and Hillel International, this vibrant Jewish life. Stipends vary on Campus Committee. For more infor- depending upon the Hillel. For more initiative seeks to change the world by mation: facebook.com/reformoncampus, @reformoncampus (Twitter) NEXT: A Division of Birthright TIKKUN OLAM Israel Foundation: If you’ve been on TIKKUN OLAM a Taglit-Birthright Israel trip, check out these three program funding opportunities.

NEXT Shabbat (birthrightisraelnext.org/ Shabbat) enables you to host a Shabbat for your friends, providing up to $224 for food and a free “Shabbox” includTIKKUN OLAM ing candles, “Shabbat essentials” cards, a challah cover, a kiddush cup, and a TIKKUN OLAM CD. NEXT will also help you celebrate TIKKUN OLAM holidays such as Passover and Rosh Hashanah by providing resources and TIKKUN OLAM a microgrant to help cover the cost of food for guests. Additionally, Natan/ NEXT Grants for Social Entrepreneurs Be part of something larger than yourself at (birthrightisraelnext.org/grants) offers Case Western Reserve University—rated No. 4 in up to $10,000 to help fund a project Washington Monthly‘s guide to colleges that contribute that brings Jews in your area together to the national good. for cultural, educational, service, and community-building experiences.

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Learn more about Jewish life at Hillel’s Campus-Engagement Case Western Reserve at: case.edu/hillel Initiative: Hillel trains and provides financial assistance to engagement

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BE A

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sparking conversations that invite people of all religious traditions, cultures, races, ethnicities, genders, sexual orientations, and personal/political beliefs to talk and reflect together on such universal and formative topics as “What could we sacrifice to change the world?” and “For whom are we responsible?” Ask Big Questions conversations aim to create community and inspire action.

Learn more at askbigquestions.org.

Alternative Break with Hillel: If you are interested in addressing poverty, illiteracy, and/or natural disasters in the context of social responsibility and Jewish values, many Hillels offer short-term service opportunities ranging from volunteering in Israel to building houses with Habitat for Humanity. Costs vary by Hillel and are subsidized by Hillel International. For info, contact your Hillel or visit tzedek.hillel.org.

Jewish Federation Projects: The next time you need general project funding, contact your local Jewish federation to see if they can help. When I arrived at the University of Arizona in 2009, I became enthusiastic about the Homer Davis Project, which helps financially struggling families at Homer Davis Elementary School. Jewish and non-Jewish college students would collect and distribute school supplies to Homer Davis students, as well as raise money for the school through food drives and bake sales. The Jewish Federation of Southern Arizona signed on, providing us with $500 worth of donated school supplies, and we organized a series of events involving hundreds of UA students. The university’s Religious Council subsequently adopted the project: Hillel and other U. of Arizona students arranged food packages for Homer Davis students who wouldn’t have received school meals during Rodeo Break (a Tucson tradition-based school holiday during which most students attend the Tucson Rodeo parade or other rodeo activities).

So, no matter where your interests lie, be sure to seek out funding to create a better Jewish community on your campus.

—Meryl Press, student at the University of Arizona

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Highlight your demonstrated leadership skills. Are you the head of your synagogue youth group? Did you develop a special project related to your bar/bat mitzvah? Have you been a counselor or song leader at summer camp? Are you a Hebrew tutor in religious school? Be sure to mention these and other accomplishments on a detailed activity list.

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If you’re a talented painter, submit a portfolio either to the admissions office or to the art department. Note: Even if you have great YouTube videos or any other social media demonstrations of your accomplishments, do not submit links unless the school specifically asks for them and furnishes required specifications upfront. Because most schools are inundated with applications and have limited staff, they will not take the time to watch your video.

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Explain why you are applying specifically to their school.

Often colleges reject strong applicants because they don’t think the student is sufficiently interested in or committed to their school. Use your essays to persuade them that you want to be on their campus. For example, one excellent engineering student I worked with took the time to explain why she specifically liked Princeton’s engineering program, noting that it incorporated six different academic departments (including Operations Research and Financial Engineering) and focused on both practice and theory.

Now she’s enjoying it first-hand.

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Prayer A new movement is emerging to transform prayer into a more powerful and compelling practice, building upon our ancestorsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; recognition that we truly can effect change through prayer.

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Rabbi Nancy Flam is co-founder of the National Center for Jewish Healing and the Institute for Jewish Spirituality, for which she served as founding executive director and now serves as co-director of programs. In 2012 she initiated the “Prayer Project” in hopes of changing the dominant paradigm in Jewish North America from “attending services” to “engaging in prayer practice.” › You have said, “We risk losing a core of Jewish religious life if we do not discover better ways to pray.” Why is discovering better ways to pray so important?

I believe that prayer is a fundamental, defining human need. When our hearts are full or empty, when we feel deep longing, gratitude, humility, awe, love, or devotion, many of us—even those who don’t relate to liturgical prayer in a formal service—instinctively turn toward prayer, just as a flower turns toward the sun.

One woman told me how she took a certain route each week when driving to an appointment in order to pass a beautiful field bathed in late afternoon sunlight—the sight always uplifted her. “I noticed the beauty and was grateful for it,” she told me. “Then I was grateful for eyes that could see, a heart that could understand, the happenstance of this incarnation....

I’ve come to realize that my noticing is a prayer.”

› Why do you think so many Jews have difficulty relating to formal prayer?

First of all, prayer requires us to engage in an activity over which we are not entirely in control and which we do not entirely comprehend. We need to be open to the possibility that prayer might effect change even though we might not understand how it works. This is challenging for us as children of the Enlightenment and its values of scientific reasoning.

“We need to be open to the possibility that prayer might effect change even though we might not understand how it works.”

Also, we Jews tend to think about prayer much too narrowly. Most of us reflexively define “prayer” solely in terms of what happens in the synagogue, siddur in hand. We tend not to recognize non-traditional manifestations, such as this woman’s prayer of spontaneous gratitude or Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel’s observation that when he was marching for civil rights, he was “praying with his feet.” Consequently, we fail to imagine the potential of prayer in a broader sense to transform our minds and hearts—and our lives.

And we typically don’t approach prayer with the same clarity and consistent dedication of intent, concentration, and commitment that most meaningful spiritual practice requires. Most critically, we fail to articulate for ourselves what we’re truly aiming to effect through our prayers.

In contrast, our rabbinic ancestors prayed with the aim and hope of positive transformation—both in themselves and in the world. They directed their prayers towards desired results they believed were possible to achieve in reality. In the first century C.E., for example, Honi the Circle Maker (Honi HaM’agel) prayed to influence God to shower the earth with just the right amount of rain during a drought; Mishnah Ta’anit 3:8 says he did so successfully. In the same time period, Rabbi Hanina ben Dosa prayed for healing; Berakhot 34b says he was renowned for his contribution in times of serious illness, based in part on his special, constant intimacy with the Creator. To our ancestors it mattered if rain came, and since some people’s prayers were reputed to be effective in achieving what was needed, their prayers made for compelling practice.

› Are you saying we should consider adapting our ancestors’ prayer practices today?

No, I am not suggesting we should expect our prayer to move mountains in a literal way, but, just as our ancestors did, we can articulate what kind of transformation we seek through worship and direct our practice accordingly. For example, if I seek to cultivate an open heart, I need to consider and create the conditions and actions that are likely to incline me in that direction. One condition might be praying in a safe environment that allows me to experience and express authentic emotion. The action of praying in such an environment might lead to my cultivating an open heart in the short term, within the context of my time of practice. Ultimately, though, I would practice

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opening my heart in prayer in order to condition me to respond more compassionately and generously to those I encounter in the midst of life. In this way, the short-term goal for a prayer practice becomes directed at the long-term goal I’ve set for myself as to how to live. All together, this becomes my spiritual practice.

I think many North American Jews understand how spiritual practice works in other arenas of their lives, but not so much when it comes to prayer. Mindfulness meditators, for instance, practice seeing clearly and cultivating wisdom on the cushion so as to express such qualities in the midst of a life. So do many yoga practitioners, who hope to cultivate strength and flexibility, the capacity to be with discomfort, patience, faith, and various other virtues (middot) beyond the mat, in the context of their relationships, work, and habits of mind.

“Prayer can sensitize us to how we want to respond to the world.”

› Why do you believe the timing is ripe for reimagining prayer as spiritual practice?

Our society has entered into what Princeton sociologist Robert Wuthnow calls the Age of Practice (After Heaven: Spirituality in America Since the 1950s). He explains that, in the U.S., religious life has evolved from a “dwelling spirituality” of the 1950s, when the physical church or synagogue building was the focus of family religious life; to a “seeking spirituality” of the turbulent 1960s, when the individual’s quest for personal meaning and moments of transcendence stood at the center; to our age—an age of meditation practice communities, yoga practice communities—and, from our Jewish point of view—sometimes Torah-study and Shabbat communities. It is an age that requires us to know what we’re practicing toward, and how to get there. In the prayer arena, such communities will combine the best of previous home- and journey-based spiritualities in providing intentional, committed, disciplined, self-reflective, and communal settings to nurture each person’s relationship with the Divine—or with that person’s deepest values. Each community of practice collectively supports every member’s individual inner work and how that manifests in the world. We need community; we can’t do it alone.

In short, if we understood what we aimed for in prayer, adopted strategies or technologies of prayer in concert with our aims, and had prayer communities to support our individual practice, I believe many of us would find prayer compelling and relevant to our lives.

tion, concentration, or focus. For example, Mishnah Berakhot 5:1 teaches: One should not stand up to say tefillah (prayer) save in a reverent frame of mind. The pious men of old used to wait an hour before praying in order that they might concentrate their thoughts upon their father in heaven. Even if a king greets him [while praying] he should not answer him: Even if a snake is wound round his heel he should not break off.

The Ba’al Shem Tov, founder of Hasidism, taught his followers a strategy of handling distracting thoughts during prayer that is somewhat akin to using the energy of one’s opponent in judo: He advised investigating the root of the distracting thought in order to discern how it had derived its life-force. So, for instance, if a lustful thought arises, a person might discern that it is rooted in the realm of love (chesed), then trace the thought back up to the realm of chesed, connect with its vital energy, and redirect it back towards God in pure, loving worship (Toldot Ya’akov Yosef, Va-Yakhel).

The rabbis also stressed that emotional arousal is essential to achieving liftoff in prayer. The Talmud says: “God wants the heart” (Sanhedrin 106b). Rabbi Ze’ev Wolf of Zitomer, an early Hasidic rebbe, explains: “Do not think that the words of the prayer as you say them go up to God. It is not the words themselves that ascend; it is rather the burning desire of your heart that rises like smoke toward heaven. If your prayer consists only of words and does not contain your heart’s desire—how can it rise up to God?” (Or HaMeir 3:166) To prime the emotional pump of prayer, some rabbis recommended that a person use movement or sing a niggun (wordless melody) at the start of prayer.

Tzava’at HaRivash, a collection of teachings attributed to the Ba’al Shem Tov, says that “Prayer is union

› What do you mean by “strategies” or “technologies” of prayer?

Our ancestors utilized various prayer strategies, such as concentration, intention, contemplation, body movement, and emotional arousal, to try to achieve the results they desired. Many rabbinic teachings about prayer center around kavannah, defined as intenreform judaism

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erating. One spoke of feeling “freed from self-consciousness and self-judgment.” Another said, “telling the truth helps me to see myself more clearly. There are things about me I may not know consciously. When I talk spontaneously, and continuously, about anything that arises in my heart and mind, I reveal some of this to myself and gain insight into my own heart.”

› We understand that Rabbi Mike Comins and others are now teaching “Prayer as a Practice” to congregational communities.

How can prayer be taught in community?

Mike has created the “Making Prayer Real” course (makingprayerreal.com), which has engaged 12 URJ congregations and about 200 students to date.

He begins by asking students, “Who is responsible for your inner life? The rabbi, the cantor, the prayer book editor, the synagogue architect?” He asks congregants to take responsibility for their prayer lives, and then suggests various means to do so. The approach is functional rather than theological, and learning prayer is likened to taking up yoga or a musical instrument— as a practice.

To deepen their experience of prayer, students are asked to describe satisfying moments of prayer, analyze what is happening in those moments of transcendence, and then focus on the skills needed to make those moments happen more often. Students try on many different prayer modalities in a workshop atmosphere—practices such as song and chant, writing their own prayers and psalms, listening deeply to their hearts before praying, and listening for God after praying. Liturgy is approached as sacred drama and experienced through drama games. For example, students are asked to deliver the Gettysburg Address as if they’re bored, then as if it’s a comedy, and finally, as if they mean it; the lessons are then applied to praying the liturgy. This and other exercises help students interpret the prayers for themselves. Essentially, Mike teaches that every person needs to figure out which prayer practices work for him or herself.

And when God-talk arises, which it always does, the discussion is grounded, because it is based on personal experience rather than abstract ideas or speculation.

Mike also finds that presenting thoughtful and varied perspectives on prayer helps congregants engage in the conversation. He shows videos of prayer leaders such as Rabbis Laura Geller, David Wolpe, and Richard Levy talking about their own prayer lives, both the frustrations and the insights.

These reflections open up congregant conversations about prayer both because they role-model how to discuss the inner life in a genuine, intelligent way and because of the disparate points of view presented—everyone finds something s/he agrees with, or wants to argue with!

“Emotional arousal is essential to achieving liftoff in prayer.” with the Divine Presence. Just as two people will move their bodies back and forth as they begin the act of love, so must a person accompany the beginning of prayer with the rhythmic swaying of the body” (Tzava’at HaRivash 7b). Some Hasidim employed such prayer practices as jumping up and down, clapping, and doing somersaults.

Whether these particular strategies are useful to us today depends on the aim of our prayer practice. If my aim is to “be still and know that I am God” (Psalm 46:11), then to begin by filling myself with ecstatic gesture might not be the right strategy. In other instances, though, experimenting with such strategies might actually achieve the desired effect.

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› You and other prayer and thought leaders from across the denominational spectrum have formed a kind of prayer laboratory.

What prayer approaches are you trying out?

One is called hitbodedut, the setting aside of a regular period of time to talk aloud to God spontaneously, in your own words, in order to cultivate a felt sense of closeness with the Divine. The Hasidic master Rabbi Nachman of Breslov (1772–1810) emphasized this practice of speaking to God as if you were talking to a close friend who is open to your saying and asking anything and will remain caringly present. One of our participants explained it as “a practice of stripping oneself bare before God…of moving toward greater honesty with oneself—knowing this is how we step more fully into God’s light.”

This practice is not easy. It requires, as another participant put it, “trusting that we will be able to tolerate what comes out of our kishkes (guts) and mouths, that it will all somehow be for the good. And trusting that, in some way, God is listening….”

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› The Prayer Project’s November 2013 conference on changing the paradigm from “attending services” to “engaging in prayer practice” included a discussion on how prayer can work in moving worshipers from words to action. How is this possible?

Prayer can sensitize us to how we want to respond to the world. Words and tunes can soften our hearts and direct our minds to become less self-concerned and more other-concerned. As Abraham Joshua Heschel wrote, “We do not step out of the world when we pray; we merely see the world in a different setting. The self is not the hub, but the spoke of the revolving wheel.

In prayer we shift the center of living from self-consciousness to self-surrender” (Man’s Quest for God).

To help us become more attuned to the needs of others in our prayers and in our lives, Jewish educator Beth Huppin offers a technique inspired by a teaching of Rabbi Meshullam Feivish of Zabriza (1740–1795), which is based upon earlier teachings of Rabbi Isaac Luria. Begin by saying, “I now take on myself to fulfill the positive commandment of ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’” Then imagine the faces of others and wait to see which faces will appear. It could be faces of people who are no longer alive, faces of people you haven’t seen for years, or faces you see every day but for whom you have not taken the time to be fully present. A related technique is to pray while focusing on the faces of people with whom you’ve recently interacted. Ask yourself, “What were these faces asking for or offering that I might have missed?” This practice can be a powerful tool for opening our hearts to others, moving us from prayer to engagement.

› In other words, prayer practice might help us become better human beings.

Yes. Another example: Rabbi James Jacobson teaches that petitionary prayer can also be a means of emotional education. Asking for help, he says, is sometimes perceived as a sign of weakness in a culture which celebrates individualism and independence.

While most of us desire to be in control of our lives and environment in order to feel secure, the reality of human life is that we are never fully in control and independent; we depend on countless acts of support from others. When we practice petitionary prayer, when we ask for things, we allow ourselves to feel our desires and needs fully, as well as our inability to determine whether or not they will be met. In so doing, we learn how to free ourselves from the tension and neurosis of control and the harmful acts towards ourselves and others that can result from this delusion.

1. What are/might be my goals in engaging in prayer practice?

2. What kind of transformation are/might I be aiming toward?

3. How might I need to direct and engage my mind, body, and heart as I pray to be more likely to meet my goals?

4. What kind of community and teachers can best support and guide me in my practice?

In time, once you have entered your practice, reflect on two more questions: 5. Am I moving toward the goals of my practice?

What are my markers for evaluation?

6. What might I experiment with doing differently to better reach toward my goals?

› How can all of us be part of this work of reimagining prayer?

I hope that many Jews will give serious thought to the questions above, and to considering what prayer modalities and prayer goals speak most deeply to them. The best way to do this is probably in small, safe groups of trusted fellow-travelers. But we need a larger public conversation about these issues as well. Please share your reflections on the Institute for Jewish Spirituality webpage: jewishspirituality.org/prayeraspractice.

Once all of us are clearer about what we want and need to support our prayer practices, I believe there will be a strong, reliable mandate for enrichment and change.

The first step is for each of us to be open and to think about prayer through a new lens. Reflect on what you hope your prayer might lead to in yourself and in the world. Be willing to take ownership of your own prayer life, considering the possibility that this new paradigm might yield riches you wouldn’t have imagined. Be honest, and dare to experiment.

“It is not the words that ascend, but the burning desire of your heart.”

› How would you advise each of us to make prayer more meaningful in our lives?

I suggest beginning by exploring these four fundamental questions:

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Bondage t t to Busyness Jewish lessons to help us liberate our lives to focus on what matters most.

by Alan Morinis

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B O N D A G E

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AN YOU REMEMBER A TIME when you weren’t so busy? Instead of making life easier and more leisurely, technology seems to give us so much more to do. We may be able to keep in touch with many more people and get done in a day what once took a week, but who doesn’t feel run ragged? Expectations of us in our jobs, as well as for our children, parents, spouses, and ourselves, rise ever higher. We sleep less, are “on” more, and still many of us can never get to doing what matters most to us.

There are so many costs to living such a depleting lifestyle: a host of illnesses, especially heart and digestive diseases; undermined relationships; lowered work performance; loss of peace of mind. The greatest cost of all is becoming so enslaved to our whirlwind ways of living that we are no longer even aware that there could be another way to live.

We aren’t the first people to draw a connection between busyness and slavery. In the Exodus story,

Being consumed by busyness kept the Israelites from seeking their freedom.

Pharaoh connived to use this insight to oppress his Jewish slaves. When Moses and Aaron approached him to let the people of Israel go free, he issued the following command to the taskmasters: You shall no longer give the people straw to make bricks, as in the past; let them go and gather straw for themselves. But the number of bricks that they made in the past you shall impose on them....Therefore they cry, “Let us go and offer sacrifice to our God.” Let heavier work be laid on the men that they may labor at it and pay no regard to lying words. (Exodus 5:7–9)

Rabbi Moshe Chaim Luzzatto identifies an inner Pharaoh we all carry around: the yetzer ha’ra, the inner impulse always at the ready to challenge and undermine our aspirations to be and do good: One of the clever devices of the yetzer ha’ra is to mount unrelenting pressure against the hearts of people so as to leave them no leisure to consider and observe the type of life they are leading. For it realizes that if they were to devote even a slight degree of attention to their ways...they would immediately begin to repent of their deeds and that regret would grow in them until they would leave off sinning altogether. This consideration underlay the counsel of the wicked Pharaoh in his statement, “Intensify the people’s labors...” His intention was not merely to deprive them of all leisure so that they would not come to oppose him or plot against him, but he strove to strip their hearts of all thought…. (Path of the Just, ch. 2) When we live chained to tasks, activities, and habits, we lose our capacity to think clearly and deeply about the big picture of our lives, to weigh the questions that will give them purpose and direct them toward our highest potential: Are the things I am doing worthwhile? Will they lead me where I want to go?

Will they cause the light of holiness to shine brighter in my life and in the world?

Pharaoh recognized that being consumed by busyness would keep the Israelites from seeking their freedom. Invoking this passage, the 18th-century teacher reform judaism

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Alan Morinis, author of Everyday Holiness and With Heart in Mind, is founder and dean of The Mussar Institute, which provides courses on developing and improving inner life traits as spiritual practice; and is a member of the URJ Faculty of expert practitioners.

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© Snapwire / Mark Espenschied

How can we make time for such things? After all, there are emails to answer, posts to “like,” kids to drive to after-school activities, a dog to walk, parents to visit. There’s a meeting at the temple, an opening at the gallery, plus work to get done before tomorrow’s deadline.

Do you have to “hit bottom” and learn the lesson from a heart attack or a divorce, or can you shake yourself awake and choose wisely right now to get off the racing treadmill? The tradition of Mussar, an 1100-year-old Jewish pathway toward fulfilling each human being’s higher potential, can provide guidance on how to change course.

Mussar can come into play when we catch a glimpse of ourselves in the thrall of a negative emotion or pattern of behavior. It teaches that we are most effective in making life changes not by trying to tear down the negative way of being, but by building up a positive pattern that will replace it. For example, a person who wants to counteract a tendency to become angry is not likely to see much result from resolving to be less angry; that’s like asking a fire to be less hot. Similarly for busyness: If we want to bring about enduring change, it won’t be effective just to resolve to change; we need to focus on building up something that is missing from our lives that will have the result of diminishing busyness.

A traditionally Jewish way to begin to do this is to step outside the everyday hustle and bustle one day a week by entering the realm of Shabbat. The Hebrew root of the word Shabbat (shin bet tav) means “to cease” or “to end.” On the Sabbath we are freed from the need to make or to acquire or even to do, so we can focus on our souls and the holiness within, and so restore our bodies, minds, and inner compasses.

The practice of Shabbat is meant to bring wisdom and balance to our entire lives, not give us one day of rest per week, followed by six days of high-speed chase. On Shabbat, we can experience what it is like to slow down and unclutter our lives. We can then apply that lesson all week long. The Mussar method to accomplish that goal involves focusing on strengthening the inner qualities that will help us gain more mastery over the human desires that drive us to be so frantically busy.

The first of these traits is called histapkut, which can be translated as “simplicity” or “contentment with less.” There is so much to want that seems within reach, who can resist? But do we really need most of it? Is it really making our lives richer and more fulfilling? Rabbi Shlomo ibn Gabirol, the 11th century poet and philosopher, put it well: “Seek what you need and give up what you do not need. For in giving up what you do not need, you’ll learn what you really do need.” And that will be enough. reform judaism

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The essence of this practice is to invest in developing the mindset of being content with what you have.

Contentment will in turn release you from the endless, unwinnable race to do, have, and be more. Mussar teachers push this understanding one step further: To become even more effective in freeing your life from the slavery to busyness, rejoice in what you have.

This is the practice of being sameach be’chelko, joyful in your portion. In the Talmud, Ben Zoma teaches: “Who is rich?” and answers, “Those who rejoice in their portion” (Shabbat 32a).

Our consumer culture wants us to be concerned about what we lack, but what if we focused our sights on the many gifts we receive daily—our freedom, safety, literacy, nourishment, democracy, and so much more? Celebrating what we have instead of focusing on what we lack will loosen the grip that habit and want exercise over us. Yes, we’d still have kids to pick up from school, emails to answer, parents to care for, work pressures, etc., but celebrating what we already have will lead us to moderate our desire to do and get more. Even people who are very busy with necessary responsibilities upon whom others depend will find that taking some time to rejoice over the things in hand allows for choices that can bring about a less driven life.

A third Mussar practice, prishut (“separation”), bids us to identify pursuits that are keeping us too busy for too little return and, with that knowledge in hand, to draw lines around those things we simply no longer need to do. Practicing prishut calls on us to be disciplined in how we run our lives. Many of us can choose to separate ourselves, for example, from our smartphones in the evening or at mealtimes simply by turning them off. We can also make choices about our volunteer activities, such as setting (and defending) a limit to how many hours per week we commit to the cause. Then we can use the time saved for activities we’ve identified as being more important to our quality of life.

All three of these Mussar practices have one fundamental thing in common: you. You must be the one who decides to turn off some of the signals and avoid being drawn into activities that come your way. If you can identify and cut out even one superfluous source continued on page 71

MUSSAR OPPORTUNITY FOR REFORM JEWS The Union for Reform Judaism (URJ) and The Mussar Institute have launched the “Seeking Everyday Holiness” program to help individuals deepen selfawareness, gain understanding, and cultivate the inner character traits to foster holiness in their lives.

Through ongoing lessons in Mussar, an 1,100-year-old Jewish pathway toward fulfilling the potential of each human being’s higher nature, as well as facilitated discussions, participants will explore their own personal spiritual curriculum in the safety and with the support of a small group of like-minded seekers. For more information: mussarinstitute. org/URJ

Giving up what you don't need teaches you what you need the most.

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by the Many rabbis donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t express their true views about Israel publicly for fear of clashing with a handful of congregants who might lash out against them.

But there are ways to navigate this minefield of divided opinion.

B Y E R I C H. Y O F F I E

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IN 2012, I MET WITH A DOZEN REFORM AND CONSERVATIVE RABBIS. Two of the rabbis, who served different synagogues, mentioned having each recently made the mistake of giving sermons that were somewhat critical of Israel’s policy toward the Palestinians. Congregants with hawkish views responded with such outrage, contempt, and ferocity, the rabbis vowed that, going forward, they would simply remain silent on the subject in public, rather than subject themselves to arbitrary litmus tests of loyalty to Israel.

The fact that not a single rabbi in the room suggested the two rabbis reconsider their decisions didn’t strike me as strange. Truth is, North American Jews no longer know how to have a civil conversation about Israel.

Traveling throughout the continent, I’ve watched differences of opinion about Israel’s policies mushroom into heated exchanges in which reasoned arguments become impossible. Rather than navigate a minefield of divided communal opinion, many rabbis choose silence. A 2013 Jewish Council for Public Affairs (JCPA) study of 552 mostly non-Orthodox rabbis found that about one-third said that they repressed their true views about Israel for fear of clashing with leaders in their congregations. About 18% said that they were “closet doves,” while a little over 12% said that they were “closet hawks.” The dovish rabbis expressed higher levels of concern, 43% admitting to being “very fearful” of congregants’ reactions, as compared to just under 25% of their hawkish colleagues.

And the issue isn’t confined to Reform and Conservative congregations. I know of one Orthodox congregation where the unwritten rule is to avoid sermons and lectures on Israeli politics for the sake of communal harmony. On the whole, Orthodox Jews are more hawkish and less divided on Israel than their more liberal counterparts, but diverse views do exist. For example, a 2013 Pew Research Center poll found that 16% of Orthodox Jews oppose Israeli policies on settlement building.

Israel—the very subject that once brought Jews of divergent perspectives together as a community—has now become a catalyst for divisiveness. What can we do to unify us as a people once again?

The answer is neither. According to the 2013 Pew Research Center poll, support for Israel remains robust: 69% of the 3,475 American Jews sampled say they are very or somewhat attached to Israel; 87% say that caring about Israel is important or essential to their being Jewish; and 43% have visited Israel. Worthy of note, 81% of Jews in the 18–29 age range say that caring about Israel is important or essential to their being Jewish—only 6% lower than their elders.

Nor are rabbis with dovish views out of touch with the American Jewish mainstream. According to the Pew study, American Jewry is much more dovish than hawkish: 44% of American Jews say that continued West Bank settlement construction hurts Israeli security, as opposed to only 17% who say it helps. (The remainder say it makes no difference or they don’t know.) Almost half (48%) say that Israel’s current government is not making a sincere effort to bring about peace with the Palestinians, as compared to 38% who say it is. (Note: While a significant portion of Jews object to Israel’s policies, only 12% think the Palestinian leadership is making a sincere effort to promote peace.)

In short, the majority of American Jews remain strongly devoted to Israel without necessarily agreeing with everything Israel’s leaders do. Dovish rabbis could therefore reasonably claim that their opinions mirror the views of the broader Jewish community, and reflect the much wider public debate in Israel itself. Why, then, do they get so much pushback when voicing concerns from the pulpit?

A variety of factors are probably at work. In the hawkish pro-Israel camp, a certain amount of intol-

Understanding Diaspora Perspectives on Israel First, we need to know whether support for Israel among North American Jews has diminished or whether Jews are simply losing interest in Israel.

Rabbi Eric H. Yoffie, the former president of the Union for Reform Judaism, is a lecturer and writer. His writings for Haaretz, the Jerusalem Post, the Huffington Post, and Time can be viewed at ericyoffie.com.

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“I know of one Orthodox congregation where the unwritten rule is to avoid sermons and lectures on Israeli politics for the sake of communal harmony.”

Previous Spread: Rabbi Photo © Corbis Photography/ Veer; This Spread: Settlement Photo by Kobi Gideon / FLASH 90

erance and extremism is at play. Beyond that, Israel is a vulnerable country in a very bad neighborhood, and ensuring her survival and well-being engages the deepest emotions of Jews everywhere. The intensity of our arguments reflects the depth of our feelings about the Jewish state—which is a good thing for Israel and us all.

Resolving the Problem To resolve the problem in a constructive way, I suggest that Reform synagogues follow a five-fold approach already practiced by some Reform communities: 1. Reconceive of your community as a place to talk about love of the Jewish state and devotion to her people. Rabbis/leaders: Let your congregants know you care deeply about Israel (don’t assume they know you care), and share the particulars of your devotion. If you believe, as I do, that there must be an Israel because without her we are a truncated, incomplete people, and any distancing from Israel for any reason is fundamentally unacceptable, tell them. And be sure to talk about day-to-day aspects of Israeli life. Make connections with the Reform Movement in Israel and with other institutions that share our progressive values.

Discuss the importance of both adults and kids visiting Israel and being exposed to the sounds, the smells, the arguments, the passions, and the language of the Jewish state. Organize a congregational trip to Israel. Ultimately, the best way to share in the miracle of Israel is to go there, because when we do, we do not have to sell Israel—Israel inevitably sells herself.

2. Transform your congregational space into a safe place where Reform Jews can engage in conversations to develop their own visions of what the Jewish state should and could be. When congregations are at their best, members hold respectful debates, truly reform judaism

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listen to each other, and speak personal truths without reprimanding those with whom they disagree. Rabbis can take the lead, presenting their own perspectives as teachers of Torah and shepherds of the community, as well as inviting speakers with different points of view.

Sermons and presentations can be shared on the congregation’s website, and members encouraged to dive into the discussion. If someone thinks that the rabbi might be wrong, or naive, or misguided, he or she can say so respectfully.

3. If you identify with Israel’s destiny and wish to advance her welfare, do not hesitate to speak up about aspects you believe have gone profoundly wrong—and don’t apologize for doing so. Those who argue that Diaspora Jews should not publicly criticize Israel’s government, particularly on policies pertaining to peace and security, fundamentally misunderstand the nature of Zionism, the national liberation movement of the Jewish people. ➢

Building a Jewish settlement in the West Bank.

Your Vote Can Change Israel Ten years ago, our Movement went to the polls and demonstrated that we care about promoting Jewish values in the Jewish state.

And we won big, gaining 56 delegates to the World Zionist Congress, which secured us essential funding for our Movement, as well as political and institutional influence in Israel.

On January 15, the polls will open online again, offering us a once-in-a-decade opportunity to have a direct and meaningful

impact on decision-making in the Jewish state. Regardless of our differences in opinion about certain Israeli policies, when we unite as a Movement to vote, we not only demonstrate that we care deeply about the soul and character of the Jewish state, we also become catalysts for change. To register to vote: votereformjudaism.com —Josh Weinberg, president, Association of Reform Zionists of America, arza.org

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Zionism brought Israel into existence and bestowed upon Jews everywhere a role in determining the character of the Jewish state. While final authority rests with Israel’s citizens, whether Jewish or other, Israel is not primarily the state of Israelis; it is the state of the Jewish people. Israel invites Jews of every country in the Diaspora not only to visit frequently, contribute financially, and generate support for its policies, but also to engage in its affairs, participate in its debates, and offer criticism of its actions. Expressing criticism, even harsh criticism, requires no special permission from Israeli or Diaspora leaders; the right to do so is inherent in the Zionist mission.

In short, our role in upholding the Zionist vision is to offer Israel unconditional support—but that is not the same as uncritical support.

4. Maintain red lines. While our congregations should welcome diverse points of view, we need not welcome all points of view. Synagogues are not simply open forums; they are Jewish religious institutions that promote Jewish values and work to strengthen the Jewish people and the Jewish state. Just as we would not invite Holocaust deniers or anti-Semites to speak or use our facilities, some people and organizations should not be invited to speak on Israel, and some things should not be said in our synagogues.

Each congregation must define its own red lines, creating its own consistent, principled approach to the issues at hand. When my opinion is sought, I suggest that synagogues never welcome speakers who identify with the international BDS movement (boycotts, divestment, sanctions against Israel), because, in my view, BDS advocates do not simply oppose Israel’s policies; they oppose Israel’s very existence. I also would not welcome anyone who has excused or equivocated about acts of terror, or, for that matter, who has bashed Islam and demonized all Muslims.

Furthermore, I have no desire to hear from those who do not accept Israel as a Jewish state—that is, those who advocate the mass return of Palestinians to Israel as part of a potential peace agreement. I am a fervent advocate of a democratic Palestinian state alongside a democratic Israel because Palestinians are entitled to sovereignty in their own nation just as Jews are entitled to sovereignty in theirs. But Palestinians cannot have it both ways, demanding their own state while simultaneously insisting that all Palestinians who claim descent from 1948 refugees are entitled to live in Israel—which would turn Israel’s Jews into a minority and erase the Jewish sovereignty that Zionism finally succeeded in restoring after 2,000 years of exile and struggle.

5. Do not allow a few loud voices, donors included, to intimidate the rabbi, leadership, or congregational community into silence. Doing so may appease the extremists, but at too high a cost. Make inclusivity continued on page 71 reform judaism

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The First Battle for a Free Pulpit b y J a m e s Ru d i n

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N A BI T T ER A N D I RON IC T W IST of history, some rabbis have surrendered two hard-won victories of more than a century ago: the right to a free pulpit and to speak publicly in favor of Israel and Zionism.

Both rights were secured largely through the efforts of Reform pioneer Rabbi Stephen S. Wise.

In 1898, the then 24-year-old Wise participated in the Second World Zionist Congress in Basel, Switzerland, where he met Theodor Herzl. It was a lifechanging experience for the young American rabbi.

I journeyed to Basel merely as a delegate to a conference. I returned home a lifetime servant of the cause in the name and for the sake of which the Congress was assembled. I caught the first glimpse of my people as a people, gathered from many lands, one and undivided, not in creed but in their human faith….

Zionism became the “lodestar” of Stephen Wise’s life.

However, his dream of a Jewish state in Palestine was not shared by the Reform Movement’s leadership.

Rabbi Isaac Mayer Wise (no relation), founding president of the Hebrew Union College (HUC), strongly opposed “the colonization of Palestine,” which he characterized as “a romantic idea inspired by religious visions without foundation in reality” and “not part of our creed.” The Central Conference of American Rabbis’ 1885 Pittsburgh Platform, formulated by 18 prominent Reform rabbis, promulgated this anti-Zionist view in one of its planks: “We consider ourselves no longer a nation, but a religious community. We, therefore, expect neither a return to Palestine nor a sacrificial worship under the sons of Aaron, nor the restoration of any of the laws concerning a Jewish state.”

Notably, one of the platform’s principal authors, Rabbi Kaufmann Kohler (who would later become HUC president), felt so strongly about the matter, right after officiating at Stephen S. Wise’s marriage to Louise Waterman he warned her of her husband’s Rabbi James Rudin is the American Jewish Committee’s Senior Interreligious Advisor. His latest book, Pillar of Fire: A Biography of Rabbi Stephen S. Wise, will be published by Texas Tech University this November.

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Wise photo courtesy of The Jacob Rader Marcus Center of the American Jewish A rchives, Cincinnati, Ohio, americanjewisharchives.org

“meshugass” (craziness or foolishness) for Zionism.

But to Stephen Wise, Zionism was no meshugass. It was a mission, and he would not be deterred by HUC’s anti-Zionist leadership.

In late 1914, Wise arranged for one of his closest Zionist colleagues, Professor Horace Kallen of the University of Wisconsin, to address HUC students on “The Meaning of Hebraism,” a code word of that era indicating a Zionist perspective. But as the date of the lecture neared, HUC President Kohler sent Kallen a curt telegram disinviting him: “The authorities of Hebrew Union College…have commanded me to cancel said invitation because of your [Zionist] views, which they oppose.”

Writing to Rabbi Max Heller, a fellow Zionist, Wise voiced his fury at the abrupt cancelation of a respected professor’s speaking invitation: “Is there nothing to be done to end once and for all that bigoted [anti-Zionist] attitude which stifles every expression of opinion that differs from the gentlemen of the College…?”

Eight years later, Wise had gotten nowhere in his quest to break through HUC’s entrenched antiZionism. So in 1922, for this and other reasons, he established a rival Reform seminary, the Jewish Institution of Religion (JIR), in New York City. There he ordained more than 200 men, influencing several generations of rabbis in building strong support for Zionism (though, in the spirit of diversity and free expression, he also hired anti-Zionist professors such as Rabbi Emil G. Hirsch to serve on JIR’s faculty).

JIR would merge with HUC into the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in 1948, the year the Jewish state was established. Wise, near death, agreed to the merger in part because several months earlier, Rabbi Nelson Glueck, a committed Zionist, had been installed as HUC’s president.

Wise’s second victory was freedom of the pulpit. At the time, most congregational rabbis were not accorded the right to speak their minds; they were dominated by lay leaders who regarded clergy as subordinates.

(For more on the subject, see “Rabbinic Road Out of a Wilderness,” reformjudaismmag.org/summer_2011.)

In 1905, after having served Congregation B’nai Jeshurun in New York City and Congregation Beth Israel in Portland, Oregon, the 31-year-old Wise interviewed for a position at Manhattan’s Temple Emanu-El. A series of tumultuous meetings with Emanu-El’s lay leadership ensued as Wise demanded the freedom to preach from the pulpit as he saw fit: “If I go to Emanu-El, the pulpit must be free while I preach therein….If I accept, I must

The chief office of the minister…is not to represent the views of the congregation, but to proclaim the truth as he sees it….How can a man be vital and independent and helpful, if he be tethered and muzzled? A free pulpit, worthily filled, must command respect and influence; a pulpit that is not free, howsoever filled, is sure to be without potency and honor….

Stephen Wise at age 16

Wise’s protest became front-page news in many newspapers, including The New York Times, and helped secure the principle of a free pulpit for the rabbis who followed in his wake.

As for the Temple Emanu-El position, there are those who maintain that Stephen S. Wise turned it down, while others contend that the job was never offered to him. In any event, Wise did not become Emanu-El’s rabbi—nor would he again serve any other existing congregation. Instead, in 1907 he established the “Free Synagogue” in New York

“How can a man be vital and independent and helpful, if he be tethered and muzzled?”

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have an absolutely independent pulpit, not dominated or limited by the views and opinions of the congregation.”

Emanu-El’s most prominent lay leader, Louis Marshall, who later became president of the American Jewish Committee, told Wise straight out that he would not be allowed to use the pulpit to discuss certain topics, including Zionism. Nor could his sermons convert “the pulpit into a forum of character entirely foreign to the purpose for which the congregation was founded.”

Wise responded with a lengthy “Open Letter” to Temple Emanu-El’s leaders:

City—now the Stephen Wise Free Synagogue—and in doing so, he declared a new mission for the synagogue: “Believing that the power of the synagogue for good depends, in part, upon the inherent right of the pulpit to freedom of thought and speech, the founders of the Free Synagogue resolve that its pulpit shall be free to preach on behalf of truth and righteousness in the spirit and after the pattern of the prophets of Israel.”

In time, a free pulpit became a fundamental part of North American synagogue life, rabbis in all Jewish denominations proudly preaching provocative sermons and inviting controversial speakers to address their congregations.

Today, Stephen Wise’s victories are undermined whenever rabbis cannot freely express their viewpoints on Israel.

The lesson is clear: Battles of conscience must be fought again and again to uphold fundamental freedoms.

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Letters continued from page 4 been devoted to articles that discourage tattoos from a Jewish perspective.

Rabbi Stephen Lewis Fuchs West Hartford, Connecticut

Editors’ Response:

C

ommited to exploring all facets of this issue, we reached out to hundreds of Jews in their 20s and 30s in hopes of balancing the pro-tattoo perspectives of their counterparts: We sent broadcast emails throughout the URJ, HUC-JIR, and the RAC; posted on social media; and contacted friends and colleagues. Surprisingly, only the two people we featured offered us “No” perspectives. Whatever the reasons may be for the lack of response, publishing only two “No” reflections wasn’t a result of the editors’ insensitivity to the issue or to lack of trying.

Understanding Spinoza

S

pinoza transcended the distinction between the secular and the sacred.

Calling him a “secular Jew” and a ratio-

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nalist (“The Secular Jew Who Transformed Judaism,” Summer 2014) misinterprets many of his great gifts to Judaism.

The highest virtue Spinoza named is the “intellectual love of God.” His masterpiece, the Ethics, is arranged in five books, analogous to the Torah, and Book I is “Of God”—which doesn’t sound like rationalism to me. Rather, Spinoza has shown us how our early formations in Judaism can lead us to experience God. When we gratefully receive our tradition and recognize it not as an end but as a means to more deeply love God, we see that the God we love is the God Spinoza has been pointing to all along.

Carol Ochs Retired Professor of Jewish Religious Thought, HUC-JIR New York, New York Editors’ Note: The Reform Movement has long spoken out against sexual exploitation. In retrospect we should not have printed an interviewee’s statement that tango started in the brothels of Buenos Aires as danced by men awaiting “social services” (Spring 2014).

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Release for the World continued from page 13 first time, the state is focusing on shmita as a Jewish ethical imperative, rather than as an inconvenient biblical practice that requires a workaround. To help its needy citizens, the Ministry of Welfare has committed to moving 10,000+ families out of debt and providing personal financial education. A second program will relieve elderly Israeli citizens of debts to public utilities and private companies.

How can North American congregations observe shmita in the New Year?

At my congregation, Keneseth Israel in Elkins Park, Pennsylvania, we will provide food for the needy through our community mitzvah garden. One hundred percent of the cucumbers, tomatoes, eggplant, red peppers, and squash grown by everyone, that’s preschoolers through seniors, will be delivered to food pantries. And we’ll be planting during shmita, as we believe that providing food to the poor is a perennial mitzvah. We will also continue our partnership with the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism (rac.org) and Mazon (mazon.org) to lobby our legislators for increased funding to food assistance programs. We’re happy to consult with other congregations in this effort—email rabbikleinman@kenesethisrael.org or call me at 215–887–8702.

The organization Shmita Rising (7seedsproject.org) suggests 100 ways North American Jews can make a difference, including • Planting a biodiverse garden focused primarily on perennial plants • Starting a gardening cooperative, sharing seeds, tools, work responsibilities, expenses, and harvests • Initiating a food-rescue system in your area, delivering unsold, edible food from markets and restaurants to food banks This Rosh Hashanah, I hope all of us will reimagine shmita in such a way that we can manifest, through our actions, the profound intent of this ancient ethical principle: to bring rest, release, renewal, and rightness to the world.

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Muzzled by the Minority

Bondage to Busyness

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the community’s predominant value, for doing any less will ultimately discourage members from engagement with Israel and drive away 20s and 30s seeking Jewish community. Young people who care about Israel are dumbfounded when a clueless Jewish establishment invites their enthusiasm for Israel but shushes them when they voice their concerns.

of busyness in your life, you’ll see the benefit of that choice. Let that experience motivate you to be more content with less and to celebrate what you already have.

Returning to the story of the Exodus, according to one midrash (Tanchuma, Parshat Beshalach 1) only 20% of the Jews followed Moses out of Egypt. The other 80% were too habituated to their lives, too fearful to unload their burdens and make the break for freedom. In fairness, they were faced with the difficult choice of either maintaining an unsatisfactory life that was at least known or facing a challenging life in the realm of the unknown.

Those who saw the plagues and marched out of Egypt were surely the bravest of our ancestors. Nowadays, there is good reason to think of our hurried lives as a modernday plague, with the Egypt of our slavery a state of mind. We will have to be just as brave as our ancestors to liberate ourselves from the bondage of our busyness—but what awaits on the other side is worth the journey into the unknown.

recipes. And in the synagogue, when praying, we typically use a siddur (prayer book).

In antiquity, in contrast, it was rare for texts of any kinds—even civic ones—to be considered normative. The personal, normative authority is largely a rabbinical idea.

♦♦♦ In the hard days that lie ahead, as Israel struggles to assure her security and move toward peace with her neighbors, we honor our commitment to Israel by encouraging our religious leaders to teach us and to speak their minds. We honor it by remembering that even though as Jews we are one people, we are also the most variegated people on earth who do not agree on many things. And we honor diversity of thought by opening our doors and our hearts to insightful, respectful points of view that may be very different than our own.

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...Bible Became Holy

Are you saying the rabbis were largely responsible for the normative authority we take for granted today?

Yes. It was the rabbinic interpretive approach to biblical texts, developed over millennia, that elevated the authority of texts above that of custom.

In our own time, texts are so integral to our communities and lives, it is sometimes difficult for us to imagine a world in which they played little or no role. This is perhaps the Bible’s greatest legacy: the radically implausible notion that one can build a community, a religion, a culture, and even a country around a text.

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CHAIRMAN’S PERSPECTIVE Accomplishing Together

Jewish Institute of Religion (HUC-JIR), the Reform MoveLike many of you, I have seen first-hand the impact ment’s global institution of higher Jewish learning that of URJ programs on our young people. My grandchilensures spiritual, intellectual, educational, and communal dren, Sara and Josh, go to URJ’s Camp Harlam in leadership for the Jewish people. Hopefully by the time you Kunkletown, Pennsylvania for four weeks during the receive this year and then magazine, the talk about it— URJ’s Camand text their paign for Youth camp friends— Engagement for the remainheadquarters ing 48 weeks. staff will have Both of them moved to HUCregale with us JIR’s campus in with stories New York City, about Shabbat, where together song sessions, we will be able their Israeli to leverage our counselors, and respective lots of other strengths in purely camp order to motitopics. They vate young peoalso both parple to deepen ticipate in their their participatemple’s youth NFTY-MID ATLANTIC REGION TEENS, MY WIFE HELENE AND ME (FRONT, FAR RIGHT) AT URJ KUTZ CAMP. tion in Jewish group and life. Being in NFTY events. one location, the URJ’s youth team will be exposed to the What a pleasure it was for my wife Helene and me when current thinking of HUC-JIR faculty and students, and, in we hosted Sara and three other NFTYites at our home turn, the URJ staff will update HUC-JIR’s faculty on what during a NFTY event in Washington, DC. They talked on is happening programmatically in the youth field. Crossand on about the amazing experience they were having, pollinating ideas and connections will likely yield a variety which included making friends with Reform young peoof innovative outcomes. In addition, we anticipate that our ple from all over the Mid-Atlantic. And when I came to teens and youth professionals will start attending lectures pick up the four young people from Temple Sinai in and participating in cultural and social events hosted at the Washington that Saturday night, I stood in the back of College-Institute, motivating some of them to become Jewthe social hall and felt the incredible energy as hundreds ish professionals themselves. of young people participated in a song and cheer session.

What is taking place in New York is one of many ways Both Sara and Josh can’t wait until the next one. the URJ and HUC-JIR are collaborating to create centers Exciting and engaging our youth with their peers in of the Reform Movement and formulate joint programs. activities with a Reform Jewish context offers the best Similar partnerships are developing with congregations path to keeping them involved in Jewish life as they and the institutions throughout our Movement. There is grow older. That is why the Campaign for Youth a burgeoning understanding that when we function as a Engagement (CYE) is a major URJ priority. Yet this Movement, we are better equipped to deal with the chalcampaign extends way beyond the URJ. A key compolenges we all face. The URJ CYE staff move to HUC-JIR nent is collaboration throughout and beyond the Reform Movement grounded in a mutual commitment to connect is one tangible and wonderful example of the possibilities we can accomplish together.

Jewish youth with Judaism.

For this reason, I am particularly pleased by the URJ’s Stephen M. Sacks, Chairman Union for Reform Judaism Board of Trustees new CYE partnership with the Hebrew Union Collegereform judaism

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