Reform Judaism Magazine Spring 2013

History Reconsidered:

Why Judaism Affirms

WE WERE NOT BREAKING SLAVES IN EGYPT THE RULES

A Union for Reform Judaism (URJ) Publication

Rethinking Alzheimer’s: Smart Strategies For

DIVINITY OF DEMENTIA

ReformJudaismmag.org

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Spring 2013/5773

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RJ INSIDER’S JEWISH

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Welcome

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A BENEFIT OF YOUR MEMBERSHIP IN A URJ CONGREGATION IN THE BEGINNING 2 Dear Reader: Engaging the “Nones” / Rick Jacobs 4 Letters RJ INSIDER’S GUIDE: WORLD JEWISH TRAVEL 25–47 Defying Extinction / Paul Liptz 28 St Petersburg: Treated Like a Queen / Gail Glezerman Sherman

29 You’re Never Alone When You Say You’re a Jew / Gary Bretton-Granatoor 32 Vienna: Searching

for Roots, Finding My Mission / Cindy R. Kandel 35 Johannesburg: Culture & Community / Robert Jacobs 36 Top Nations with Jewish Populations & Their Reform Congregations 39 Singapore: Culture & Community / Lennard Thal 40 Global News 41 Budapest: Culture & Community / Erika Siegfried-Tompson 43 Moscow: Culture & Community / Leonid Bimbat 45 San Juan: Culture & Community / Harry A. and Barbara Tasch Ezratty 47 Rio de Janeiro: Culture & Community / Raul Cesar Gottlieb

49 17 The Higher Authority Lies Within

by Daniel Reisel / Right from the beginning, even God agrees that to seek truth means to question authority.

Quite literally, it means to break the rules.

20 Divinity of Dementia

Photo above: A lison D. Kahler

by Cary Kozberg / Persons with dementia are “messengers from God,” helping us to reflect on what it means to be human.

JEWISH LIFE 6 Judaica: Jewish Antiques Appraisal Show / Jonathan Greenstein 8 Books: Does Judaism Sanction “Holy War”? / a conversation with Reuven Firestone 12 Holidays: What Do You Know… about Passover Music? / Rachel Wetstein 49 Youth Engagement: Short Experience, Staggering Impact / interview with Leonard Saxe 50 Interfaith Interaction: Reimagining MuslimJewish Relations / interview with Sarah Bassin 52 Theology: How Reform Jews Picture God / Leah Hochman reform judaism

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FOCUS: GREATEST JEWISH MYTHS 54 Were the Jews Moneylenders Out of Necessity? / Maristella Botticini and Zvi Eckstein 56 Were the Jews Slaves in Egypt? / S. David Sperling 57 Torah Is Not History / David Wolpe 58 Was Jesus’ Last Supper a Passover Seder? / Michael J. Cook 60 Was Reform Judaism the Price of Political Acceptance? / Michael A. Meyer NEWS & VIEWS OF REFORM JEWS 66 Feature Story: Smart Strategies for Facility Savings—Greening, reconceptualizing usage, and sharing space can save $$$. / Julie Schwartz Also 65 Chairman’s Perspective: Sandy Shows Our True Colors / Stephen M. Sacks 68 Noteworthy 70 What Works: A Shiva Registry for Mourning Families 72 Debatable: Should Our Seminary Admit Students with Non-Jewish Partners? / Daniel Kirzane, Brandon Bernstein

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REFORM JUDAISM

®

d e a r

Official Publication of the Union for Reform Judaism Serving Reform Congregations in North America Spring 2013, Vol. 41, No. 3

* 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 2013 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.

Subscription rate: One year: $12 each; Canada $18 each; Foreign $24 each. Two years: $22 each; Canada $34 each; Foreign $46 each. Contact us for bulk pricing. The opinions of authors whose works are published in Reform Judaism are their own and do not necessarily reflect the viewpoint of the Union. REFORM JUDAISM is a registered trademark 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. RJ covers developments within our Movement while interpreting world events and Jewish tradition from a Reform perspective.

Shared by 305,000 member households, RJ conveys the creativity, diversity, and dynamism of Reform Judaism.

Engaging the “Nones”

T

here is no escaping the challenging fact that there are more Jews outside the walls of our synagogues than inside. Social scientists such as Robert Putnam and Mark Chaves explain this as being part of a larger phenomenon in North America, where the most rapidly growing religious group is unaffiliated— the “nones.” While middle-aged and older individuals continue to embrace organized religion, exponentially increasing numbers of young people reject it.

Too often I hear Jewish leaders describing those who have no religious affiliation as people “who don’t know and don’t care.” I disagree. The 2012 Pew Forum on Religion survey, “‘Nones’ on the Rise,” disproves this notion, finding that many of these “nones” believe in God, seek spirituality, and pray regularly. They just do not relate to the world of organized religion. Seventy percent of “nones” reported that religious institutions are too focused on money and power, and reflect worldviews alien to their own.

That’s precisely why a major thrust of the new URJ is to “reach beyond the walls” of synagogues to engage those who have yet to join us inside of our congregations. Doing so effectively means discarding limiting assumptions such as, “they don’t know and they don’t care.”

In our new URJ Communities of Practice (see page 68), dozens of URJ congregations are experimenting with a variety of compelling ways to engage young adults and young families, who will learn from each other and from our of URJ Faculty of thought leaders and expert practitioners.

Over the past 40 years, while the ranks of the religiously unaffiliated have been on the rise, the Reform Movement has been the fastest growing theologically liberal religious tradition in America. We have become the largest stream in North American Jewish life. This is due in no small measure to our openness to the full tapestry of Jews—gay Jews and straight Jews, intermarried Jews and in-married Jews, ritual Jews and cultural Jews.

The hallmarks of Reform Judaism—dynamism, openness, creativity— should make our Movement extraordinarily attractive to Jews worldwide who mistakenly view all organized religion as insular and out of touch.

I hope you will embrace the challenge of reaching beyond our synagogue walls to engage all those who are seeking a meaningful Jewish life. Let’s give them the opportunity to experience the beauty and power of our Reform Jewish community.

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 Keith Newman, Advertising Representative 633 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017 212-650-4244 (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*

r e a d e r

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SUBJECT: 100 Years of ts WRJ Achievemen

Dear Reform Jewish

Community ,

d . Fr om y WRJ has create ac leg ing st la e th of om en ac ro ss cades reminds us or e th an 65 ,0 00 w m e th Revisiting the past 10 de to 13 19 in rie s ff er en ce w e ha ve sis te rh oo d vi sio na y--w ha t a bi g di a sm al l gr ou p of da to ld or w e th ’s gr ou ps ar ou nd ne ar ly 50 0 w om en m ad e to ge th er ! e J ew ish B ra ille m pu s, fo un di ng th ca ’s C HU on ry g a T or ah B uil di ng a do rm ito e YES fu nd , w rit in th g in sh bli ta es , TY h th is I nstitute, creating NF on an d on . We re ac es go t lis e th . . . en w om po rt an t so cia l Co m m en ta ry fo r to ad vo ca te fo r im ue in nt co e w as e on fo rm in st itu tio ns re m ar ka ble m ile st ity an d su pp or t Re al tu iri sp ’s en om w ca us es , ad va nc e ay to us ! sh or t, ha pp y bi rt hd In . re he yw er ev s an d pr og ra m e ho pe yo u w ill s co m in g ye ar , w hi T l. ia nn te en C r Ci ty on ays to celebrate ou po siu m in Ne w Yo rk m Sy ic em th ad There are many w Ac th r nd ou . ia l Sh ab ba t, at te De ce m be r 1 1 -15 nn on te o en eg C Di r n ou e Sa rv in la ob se Ga d th an bly m fo r th e 49 As se nd J un e 2 , an d joi n us er . s st ro ng er to ge th bu t w e ar e a l w ay , rs te at m ice vo R emembe r, your m

m J ud a is - Wom en of R ef or www.wrj.org/cen

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l e t t e r s

The Real Shanda

I

found the premise of Annette Powers’ article, “The Disgrace of a Nice Jewish Girl” (Winter 2012), very disturbing.

In recounting her disgrace—her ex-husband, who was not Jewish, was having an affair and wanted a divorce—the author concluded that she is now “searching again for a nice Jewish boy.”

The false implication is that this would not have happened had she married a Jewish man. But unfortunately, there are “nice Jewish boys” who are not at all “nice” and do have extramarital affairs.

They should feel the disgrace—not the wife, who did nothing wrong.

Anonymous

W

hen our daughter became engaged to our beloved son-in-law I was surprised when some friends wondered how I would “deal” with his not being Jewish. My husband and I—and even my

80-year-old mother—were happy for both of them. The newly engaged couple attended an interfaith marriage class, committed to raising children in a Jewish home, and, most importantly, loved and respected each other and their families. Now they are active in Temple Shalom, Newton, MA, where their three-year-old attends Tot Shabbat; and, just as important, they are productive citizens and kind people.

To even imply that their marriage would be a shanda and bring disgrace to the Jewish faith is contrary to our beliefs and our congregation’s values.

While Annette Powers’ family members are entitled to their opinions, as she is to tell her personal story, I believe Reform Judaism magazine is not the correct forum to do so. Perhaps this is the real shanda of this story.

Marion Cooper Pollock Newton, Massachusetts

Editors’ Note

I

n publishing this piece, the RJ magazine editors were not making a derogative comment about non-Jews or about intermarriage. The author herself expresses a nuanced point of view: “I want to believe that my divorce is not related in any way to the fact that my ex was not Jewish. And yet I can’t help but think sometimes, maybe things would have turned out differently….” The editors have long published a range of authors’ perspectives on many subjects in the belief that the publication should ultimately be a wide-tent forum for respectful discussion and dialogue on the issues of today.

Shanda & Our Son

I

t was with surprise and relief that I read “My Marital Masquerade.” Our son suffers from both psychological and addictive problems, and while we have encountered compassion and under-

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standing, when I have offered myself as a resource, the clergy has responded with a reluctance I attribute to a sense of profound helplessness and shame.

We need courage to face this difficult problem. It cannot be ignored.

Anonymous

Cold Shoulder at Shul

I

n your “Forum for the Future” (Winter 2012), one of the interviewees says, “How many times can a young person go to a synagogue alone and be ignored by the membership and leadership before he/she decides to give up?”

My answer is: Not many.

When we moved, we joined the local Reform shul. After three years of being shunned and ignored, we went to a Conservative shul, the only other nearby synagogue, where we were welcomed with open arms, honored as esteemed new members on our first Rosh Hashanah, and blessed with numerous aliyahs and other honors.

So, don’t waste your time. Move on to a synagogue that will appreciate your presence and welcome you as a member of their family. Your spirituality is at stake.

Anonymous

Rabbi Sacks’ Attacks

I

was surprised to see Rabbi Jonathan Sacks’ essay in your Winter 2012 edition. In the late 1990s Chief Rabbi Sacks wrote a letter to the then head of the Orthodox London Beth Din: “The leaders of Reform, Liberal, and Masorti movements know they have no enemy and opponent equal to the Chief Rabbi, who fights against them intelligently and defends the faith in our holy Torah in his writings, articles, and broadcasts... [and] does not accord them any gesture of recognition.” Rabbi Sacks has never repented or issued a formal retraction of these words.

In this light, the closing words of his essay—“...without community we cannot survive”—seem rather ironic.

Darren Kleinberg Phoenix, Arizona Send letters to: Reform Judaism, 633 Third Avenue, 7th floor, New York, NY 10017, reformjudaismmag.org (click on “Submissions”).

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JEWISHLIFEJUDAICA

Jewish Antiques Appraisal Show Appraisals by Jonathan Greenstein

Dear Jonathan, This havdalah spice box, which I’ve been told is made of German silver, has been handed down in my family. A wedding gift from Morris and Rose Dzialynski to Morris’ brother Phillip and Mary Dzialynski, who were married in Savannah, Georgia, it is inscribed “M.&R. D. to P.&M. D. April 23, 1865.”

My great, great grandfather Phillip came to America circa 1850 from Posen, Germany and in 1853 brought over the rest of his family, including his parents and several siblings, Morris among them. They settled in Florida, with a sojourn in Savannah during the war. Phillip took care of the

family while Morris was in the Confederate Army. Morris went on to serve several terms as mayor of Jacksonville and as a municipal court judge.

I would be interested to know the spice box’s value.

Richard B. Herzog, Jr. The Temple, Atlanta, Georgia Dear Richard: It’s wonderful that this spice tower is connected to Civil War-time American history by usage and inscription; however, the style indicates it was made in Germany, probably Berlin, c. 1840. I saw an identical German piece in the London Jewish Museum catalog.

From its color, I can see it is made from 800 (80%) silver, typical of German craftsmanship then and now. Had the piece been created in America, it would have been coin (90%) silver or sterling (92.5%) silver and oxidized differently.

The spice box may have been ordered from overseas, as that was common practice for affluent Jews of the era, or brought to the States by a family member.

Either way, it was a mass-produced ritual object. Value: $500.

Jonathan Greenstein, founder J. Greenstein & Co., Inc. Inquiries: Jonathan@JGreenstein.com Dear Jonathan, Thank you. We intend to continue with tradition and keep the spice box in the family.

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JEWISHLIFEBOOKS

Does Judaism Sanction “Holy War”? a conversation with Reuven Firestone

Rabbi Reuven Firestone is professor of Medieval Judaism and Islam at the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in Los Angeles and author of numerous books, most recently Holy War in Judaism: The Fall and Rise of a Controversial Idea (Oxford University Press, 2012), which explores how the concept of ‘’holy war’’ disappeared from Jewish thought for almost 2000 years, only to reemerge with renewed vigor in modern times.

Does the concept of “holy war” exist in the Bible?

There is no biblical term or even a traditional Hebrew word for holy war, but there are numerous instances in the Bible of violence against enemies believed to be sanctioned or commanded by God; there are even wars divinely preordained to be victorious.

In Numbers chapter 33, for example, God commands the Israelites to seize the Land of Canaan and “dispossess all the inhabitants of the land.” And in Deuteronomy 7:1–3, God commands the Israelites to wipe out all the Canaanites living in the Land of Israel: “You must doom them to complete destruction; grant them no terms and give them no quarter.” Often God ensures military success for the Israelites, as in the war against the giantking Og: “‘Do not fear him, for I am delivering him and all his men and his country into your power’…So the Lord our God also delivered into our power King Og of Bashan, with all his men, and we dealt them such a blow that no survivor was left” (Deut.

3:2–3). Dozens of other cases can be found throughout the remainder of the Bible, from the Book of Joshua to Second Chronicles.

Was the Maccabean revolt against the Greek Syrian conquerors also considered a holy war?

That certainly seems to be the message in First and Second Maccabees, the books that furnish the most detail about the Jews’ wars against the Greeks.

In First Maccabees, the hero Judah says, “It is easy for many to be delivered into the hands of few. Heaven sees no difference in gaining victory through many or through a few, because victory in war does not lie in the weight of numbers, but rather strength comes from Heaven” (I Macc. 3:18–19). Second Maccabees contains stories of great acts of religious martyrdom that help move heaven to bring victory. In one tale (chapter 7), an anonymous woman and her seven sons suffer agonizing deaths during the war against the Greeks for Kiddush Hashem (meaning “sanctification of the Divine Name,” the traditional Jewish term for martyrdom); in another, the Jewish official Razis kills himself by plunging a sword into his stomach, jumping off a balcony, and finally tearing out his own entrails rather than submit to the rule of a Seleucid general (14:37–46).

Such acts have exemplified holy war throughout the ages. reform judaism

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Some four or five centuries later, the rabbis of the Talmud, writing about Chanukah, offered only one statement acknowledging the Maccabean victory, which we find in traditional siddurim to this day: God “delivered the mighty into the hands of the weak, the many into the hands of the few, the wicked into the hands of the righteous, the unclean into the hands of the pure, and the arrogant into the hands of those who were devoted to Your Torah.” Notably, the rabbis paid far greater attention to a different sort of divine intervention, repeatedly valorizing the miracle that enabled one small container of sanctified, “kosher” oil in the Temple menorah to last until a new batch of sanctified oil could be produced to keep the Eternal Light aflame. This remarkable fixation on a little clay jar of oil, with the concurrent near-exclusion of the extraordinary military victory, serves as an indication of the rabbis’ decision to abandon the message of holy war.

What caused the rabbis to rethink the practice of holy war?

The short answer is that they abandoned holy war when it stopped working. The Maccabean Revolt was the last successful holy war. The next two great wars—the Great Jewish Revolt against Roman rule (66 C.E.–70 C.E.) and the Bar Kokhba Rebellion (132–136)—were overwhelming catastrophes. The first resulted in the final destruction of the Temple and the end of Jewish political independence in the Land of Israel; the second added overwhelming exile and destruction. Together, millions were killed and enslaved, and perhaps as many died from disease and starvation in the midst of the conflagration. It took generations for the consensus to swing to a position of withdrawal from political activism with the larger world but eventually, a few generations after the disastrous Bar Kokhba Rebellion, the rabbis of the Talmud established safeguards

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that would prevent future zealots from declaring holy war. They never abandoned holy war as a divinely sanctioned institution, but they established two powerful safeguards that made it virtually impossible for holy war to be operative in Judaism.

What were the rabbis’ safeguards against holy war?

The first safeguard restricted the many examples of divinely sanctioned warring to a simple and limited definition called Commanded War (milchemet mitzvah). In a discussion about Deuteronomy 20 concerning the exclusion of certain categories of people from fighting in an Israelite war, the Mishnah ends the discussion with: “To what (types of wars) do these deferments apply? To a Discretionary War (milchemet ha-reshut), but in a Commanded War (milchemet mitzvah) everyone must go forth, even a bridegroom from his chamber and a bride from her bridal pavilion� (Mishnah Sotah 8:7). In this brief passage, the rabbis divided all biblical wars into two types—for one, certain deferments applied, but for the other there could be no deferments because the war was commanded by God. The passage was problematic, however, because it never defined which wars were discretionary and which commanded. Clarification first appears in the Gemara, the extension of the Mishnah codified a few centuries later: Commanded War is identified as “Joshua’s war� in the Palestinian Talmud (Sotah 8:1) and “Joshua’s wars of conquest� in the Babylonian Talmud (Sotah 44b). These authoritative statements were understood to mean that war commanded by God in which every individual is required to engage in battle was restricted to the period of the great conquest of the Land of Israel under Joshua. After that period, an Israelite king could declare war and muster an army, but did not have the same authority, and when the Israelites no longer had kings, the possibility of that type of war also ceased. The Palestinian Talmud, but not the Babylonian Talmud, the more authoritative version of the Talmud, had also added defense to the category of Commanded War for which deferments did not apply. From then on, self defense

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was the only possible legal category of organized Jewish fighting. In the meantime, the rabbis taught that because of Israel’s sins, God had resolved that Jews must suffer exile and the loss of political and military independence. This sentiment is found throughout rabbinic literature. Life goes on, they explained, but it does so in a state of exile everywhere, even within the borders of the Land of Israel itself.

Such a state of exile is then presumed to be the normative situation for the Jewish people. This is clear from the language and logic of the second safeguard, based on an obscure phrase repeated several times in the Song of Songs, “I make you swear [often translated as ‘I adjure you’], O daughters of Jerusalem, by gazelles or by hinds of the field: do not wake or rouse love until it please!”

(2:7, 3:5, 8:4). The rabbis concluded that the repeated phrase provided a divine message about life until the messianic redemption: the Jews (the “daughters of Jerusalem”) must not try to force the advent of the messiah (“do not wake or rouse love”) before God wills (“until it please”). God’s will was articulated in the form of vows (“I make you swear”), and since the phrase appeared three times, the rabbis called this “The Three Vows” and

determined that each occurrence defined a particular vow: 1) Jews must swear not to defy their exilic status by rebelling against Gentile powers; 2) Jews must swear not to immigrate as a group to the Land of Israel. In return, 3) God makes the Gentiles of the world swear that they will not persecute the Jewish people beyond their ability to endure. These vows would remain in force “…until it please,” until God decided that the time was right for the exile to end through a great messianic redemption.

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Why would the rabbis of that time prohibit Jewish migration to Zion?

There were always Jews living in the Land of Israel, and the rabbis never prohibited migration there. Their concern was stirring up powerful mass emotions associated with the sanctity of the Land—something like the powerful feelings we sometimes experience when visiting Israel today. They didn’t want the emotional excess of a mass movement to convince hot-headed activists that the messiah was imminent, potentially unleashing a military rebellion against far more formidable powers and then causing another catastrophe, or perhaps even, heaven forbid, the destruction of the Jewish people.

The Zionist Movement was an overwhelmingly secular national movement.

Most Orthodox Jews either ignored or campaigned against it, at least until the Holocaust and the establishment of the State of Israel. Of the few Orthodox Jews who did join the movement, many were primarily stirred by messianic feeling, but they publicly denied this messianic impulse, because admitting it would be considered heretical rebellion against the Three Vows and therefore against God. Once the United Nations approved the establishment of a Jewish State and Israel faced the inevitable approaching wars of independence, Rabbi Isaac Halevy Herzog, an Orthodox rabbi who served as Israel’s first Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi, wrote religious rulings that allowed the development of a Jewish army in the face of the rabbis’ earlier reform judaism

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safeguards against militancy. Of course the secular Zionists did not need Rabbi Herzog’s imprimatur to develop the Haganah or a national army, but the many Orthodox Jewish immigrants from a devastated Europe and the Arab world, as well as the relatively few Orthodox Religious Zionists who viewed the State as their spiritual center, required a religious authority to allow them to fight. With independence achieved, the harsh privations facing the fledgling Jewish state rose to the forefront and the early messianic surge after liberation quickly subsided. It would take time for messianism to become truly ignited in modern Israel.

Did Israel’s occupation of the West Bank in 1967 influence Jewish attitudes on the question of holy war?

It wasn’t the occupation; it was the war. Israel as well as the rest of the Jewish world was terrified by the build-up to the war in 1967. The municipality of Tel Aviv dug mass graves in the city’s soccer stadium in anticipation of terrible destruction. But in a matter of hours the air forces of the surrounding Arab countries were destroyed, and in a matter of days the war was over. It was miraculous. Some considered it truly a divine miracle. In the interim between 1948 and 1967 Israel had grown in population and strength, and especially after the horror of the Holocaust the Jewish people were ready for—and found—a redemptive victory in the “Six Day War.” Some in the Religious Zionist community saw the “miracle” as a divine sign of a messianic redemption just around the corner. After all, in 1967 almost all of the holiest sites from Israelite history had come under Israel’s control in biblical Judea and Samaria!

In hindsight they interpreted the Balfour Declaration, the end of Ottoman rule over Palestine, the British Mandate, and even the Holocaust as signs of an imminent messiah. In short, they concluded that the “until it please” of the Song of Songs verse had arrived and the “Three Vows” were no longer in force. In this new age, the old biblical wars of conquest—“holy war”—could be reinstated, and God would again work step by step

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with his beloved Jewish people to settle all of the Land of Israel and thus bring messianic redemption.

Deeply influenced by the mystical thinking of Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook and his son Rabbi Tzvi Yehudah, a small cadre of Jews successfully convinced most Religious Zionists as well as many other Israelis and Jews living outside of Israel that God had enabled the establishment of the State as a sign of impending redemption. They founded a few settlements in the captured (or, as some would say, liberated) territories— not many, because the government wanted to keep the land as a bargaining chip for a long-term peace treaty. For six years the activists and the government clashed, and then suddenly a surprise attack, launched on Yom Kippur, nearly overwhelmed the Israel Defense Forces.

It was a major existential crisis for all of Israel. The religious activists saw it as a divine warning that Israel was not following the will of God because the State had failed to settle the Land given by God to the people of Israel. In the wake of the Yom Kippur War, Gush Emunim and the Settler Movement were founded and increasingly more Jews became activists in the movement, warning of the devastation awaiting the Jewish people should they fail to seize upon the divine imperative by not clinging fully and faithfully to the unprecedented opportunity for redemption offered by God. To the zealots, failure to engage in militant, activist settlement would upset God and bring disaster. Therefore, if the Israeli government refused to retain all conquered biblical lands, then it was their responsibility to carry on the fight through forced settlement of occupied territories and the expulsion of its nonJewish inhabitants.

By the 1980s, some rabbis in the Settler Movement wrote that all of Israel’s wars are holy wars by definition, including invasions of neighboring countries.

The most radical advocated provoking an Armageddon that would require God’s intervention to save the Jewish people by destroying its enemies. The plot to blow up the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem in the ’80s—which was nearly carried out—emerged from this mentality. continued on page 13

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Here are eight questions to engage you and your family in the eight days of Passover.

To listen to the songs, please visit our website, reformjudaismmag.org.

1. The Song of the Sea—the biblical Passover song which the Israelites sang after safely crossing the Sea of Reeds and evading Pharaoh’s army—is unprecedented in the Bible because:

a. It is the first song to appear in the Bible b. It is the first biblical song to praise God c. It is the first biblical instance of using musical instruments d. All of the above 2. In the original Hebrew text of the song Echad Mi Yodea (Who Knows One?), the “who knows two” verse refers to the two tablets of

Rachel Wetstein is research librarian and editorial assistant of Transcontinental Music (a division of URJ Books and Music), the world’s leading publisher of Jewish choral music, with a catalog of 1000+ titles (transcontinentalmusic.com).

the law. In the Ladino version of the song, called Quien Supiense, to what/whom does “who knows two” refer? a. Moses and Aaron b. Two Shabbat candles c. Esther and Mordechai d. The first and second Temples 3. The closing Passover seder song, Chad Gadya

(One Kid), tells the story of a baby goat, which was eaten by a cat, which in turn was bitten by a dog, etc., until the “Holy One” arrives to put an end to the chain of events.

The “one kid” has long been thought of as a metaphor for what?

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Books...“Holy War”

of the seder rituals to come. What is the name of that song? a. Hodu Ladonai b. Kadeish Ur’chatz c. B’tzeit Yisraeil d. Mah L’cha

a. The animals on Noah’s ark b. The Jewish people c. The first-born sons of the Israelites d. There is no metaphor 4. Which 19th-century classical composer created a famous oratorio about the Prophet Elijah? a. Ludwig van Beethoven b. Giuseppe Verdi c. Gustav Mahler d. Felix Mendelssohn 5. Who composed the oratorio Israel in Egypt, which recounts the Passover story, complete with graphic descriptions of the plagues? a. Johann Sebastian Bach b. Georg Frideric Handel c. Ludwig van Beethoven d. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart 6. Whereas in Ashkenazi homes the seder typically starts with the recitation of Kiddush (blessing over wine), in many Sephardi homes a song is sung before the Kiddush which lists the order

continued from page 11 Might this confluence of Jewish nationalism and messianism spark a holy war?

We must take lessons from history.

The Great Jewish Revolt and the Bar Kokhba Rebellion were efforts of a subjugated nation to rid itself of oppressive imperialist domination. The most fanatical Jewish factions, acting against the will of less extreme parties, instigated an armed showdown of the few against the many, perhaps in an attempt to force God’s hand in coming to their defense. But unlike the romantic victories of the gallant Maccabees portrayed in our sacred books, God did not intervene. These revolts ended in disaster for the Jewish people.

Today’s Jewish leaders need to make careful, rational decisions and avoid making incendiary statements. When people believe the messiah is around the corner, they are likely to fall under the spell of irrational, foolish thinking.

The result could be catastrophic for Israel and the world.

7. Which American Jewish songwriter composed Miriam’s Song, celebrating Miriam the prophet and the women who joined her in song and dance after crossing the Red Sea? a. Craig Taubman b. Josh Nelson c. Michelle Citrin d. Debbie Friedman 8. Which cantor and star of the Yiddish theater composed his own showstopping version of Chad Gadyo, in which the title words are repeated over and over while the soloist improvises? a. Moishe Oysher b. Moshe Koussevitsky c. Yossele Rosenblatt d. Leib Glantz For the answers, turn to the next page.

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New from URJ Books and Music

QUIZ ANSWERS 1. D. The Song of the Sea is the first song to appear in the Bible, the first to mention God, and the first to use musical instruments (which are mentioned twice before, but not in use).

2. A. The Ladino version of Echad Mi Yodea includes the phrase “dos Moxe y Aron” (“two: Moses and Aaron”), which rhymes with the previous line “tres muestros padres son” (“three are our Patriarchs”). The text features Moses and Aaron, the two main heroes of the Passover story, rather than the two tablets of the Law.

“This book charts new pathways to educating Jewish human beings who will be ethically sensitive, morally steadfast, spiritually alive, and socially committed.”

3. B. In Chad Gadya, the “one kid” has long been thought of as a metaphor for the Jewish people, and the other characters in the song as representing other nations besetting Israel during its long history.

4. D. Felix Mendelssohn (1809–47) created the oratorio Elijah, first performed in English in 1846 (a

German libretto followed soon thereafter). Although Mendelssohn’s distinguished grandfather Moses was a foremost Jewish philosopher in 18th-century Berlin, it is highly doubtful that Felix, a devout Christian, drew inspiration from Judaism.

5. B. Handel’s oratorio Israel in Egypt, composed almost entirely of selections from the Book of Exodus and the Psalms, premiered in London in April 1732.

6. B. Listing the 15 parts of the seder, the song Kadeish Ur’chatz (literally, “sanctify, wash,” meaning “sanctify the wine, wash the hands”) is often sung to the tune of an old Babylonian chant-like melody.

7. D. Debbie Friedman’s Miriam’s Song is frequently sung in schools, synagogues, and camps.

8. A. Moishe Oysher Chad Gadyo is a frequent encore selection of many cantors and Jewish choirs.

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The Higher Authority Lies Within Right g from thee be beginning, begginningg, even evven God God agrees g that to seek seeek truth trruth means means to to authority. qquestion au authoority.y Quite Quitte literally, liiterallyyy,, it means ns to break breaak the thee rules. ruules.

Daniel

By Da Danieel Reisel Reiisel

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T h e Hig h er Au th o rity L ies With in

Several members of our medical team attempted to reason with her, but there was nothing we could do. Over the course of the next few days, we watched powerlessly as this young woman’s life slipped away.

that if you worship other gods, you’re in trouble. And so, you might anticipate Moses appealing to God to smite the undeserving Israelites. Instead, Moses does something extraordinary. He takes the tablets of the Law and smashes them on the ground.

What does this act signify? The story implies that revelation is not the answer to our circumstance. It suggests that Moses understands that if we had to live our lives based on revealed morality, it would infantilize us.

Given the credulity of the human creature, divine law itself would become an idol, an excuse to relinquish what is most precious in us, our moral autonomy.

What we have here is not a story of revelation, but a story of the dangers of revelation. Moses understood that the weakness we have for dogmatic thinking and the longing for safe truths—the same flaws that had led the Israelites to the Golden Calf—would always hinder the flourishing of society.

By breaking the tablets, Moses showed the Israelites, and us, that nothing, not even revealed law, is so sacred it cannot be tested by human experience. What was needed was not to exchange the slavery of the body for a slavery of the mind, but instead to create a tradition alive with questions and debate and glorious differences of opinion.

Following his audacious act, Moses ascends the mountain again. And after what must have been an awkward conversation, God tells Moses to write his own tablets. Notably, whereas the first tablets were “inscribed by the finger of God” (Exodus 31:18), God instructs Moses to carve out the second tablets himself: “Write for yourself (ktav-lecha) these commandments, for in accordance with these commandments I make a covenant with you and with Israel” (Exodus

♦♦♦ E V E RY W H E R E W E L O O K T H E R E A R E people who claim to know the mind of God and base their assertions directly on the Bible. This kind of literalist thinking should be profoundly troubling to us as Jews, because our Torah actually contains the most radical challenge to a fundamentalist reading of Scripture in all of religious literature. Somehow, this idea has gotten lost.

You might say that if Christianity begins with an act of immaculate conception, Judaism begins with an act of immaculate misconception—because revelation in Judaism is not what it seems. ♦♦♦ THE TORAH TELLS US THAT AFTER THE Children of Israel were freed from the slavery of Egypt, they arrived at Mount Sinai, where Moses received the Law of God. This was God’s own Law, divinely written on the tablets that Moses brought down from the mountain. Let’s imagine what Moses might have felt at this point. He has led the Children of Israel out of Egypt. They have all seen the signs and wonders.

Moses now has in his hands the most valuable, most sacred, and most urgently needed object in the history of humanity.

Imagine then his astonishment, when instead of finding the Israelites ready to accept the revealed moral code, he finds them dancing in reverence and awe around an idol—the Golden Calf—which they themselves had created.

Now, what would you expect Moses to do at this point? After all, God’s first commandment explains reform judaism

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Daniel Reisel, a junior physician based in London, holds a PhD in Neuroscience from the University of Oxford.

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She was bleeding internally from an infection in her abdomen and she needed surgery, immediately. As I, a junior physician, took her blood, she told me she was a Jehovah’s Witness and as such would not accept blood transfusions under any circumstances. She explained that the Bible was central to her life. I told her I felt the same way. However, we meant different things. For her, certain passages of the Bible—Genesis 9:4 and Leviticus 17:10, which prohibit the ingesting of blood—required of her the ultimate sacrifice. She believed that every word of Scripture was God’s word, in accordance with the dogma of the Jehovah’s Witness community. I wanted to run home and bring her a volume of the Talmud to demonstrate how our sages interpret these lines of Torah in many different ways.

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However, empathy is not merely genetic. The values we grow up with and the culture in which we live add crucial color to our emotions. On a larger level, society influences who we feel empathic towards and in what way.

To understand how morality is simultaneously innate and learnt, consider language. People used to think of language as a completely cultural phenomenon. We now know that human beings have a specific linguistic ability. With minimal input, children are able to pick up language at astonishing speed.

In the same way, children intuitively understand moral questions. If you doubt this, try, as I have done, to renege on a promise you’ve made to a three-year-old.

You will find that the mind of a three-year-old is not like a blank slate at all. It is more similar to a Swiss army knife, with fixed mental modules, predictable patterns of behavior, and a sharp sense of fairness. Honesty and deception, obedience and rebellion, fairness and injustice—these all fill a three-year-old’s day.

The role of parents and teachers, and, more broadly speaking, the role of culture, is to sustain that innate ability. The early years are crucial. As in the case of language, there may well be a window of opportunity after which mastering moral questions becomes like learning a foreign language.

What modern neuroscience suggests is that the Bible

34:27). These human-wrought tablets then become the law that forms the heart of the Hebrew Bible.

After Moses dies in the valley of Moab, the People of Israel mourn his passing. In the final line of the Bible, we read: “No one has ever shown the mighty power or performed the awesome deeds that Moses performed in the sight of all Israel” (Deuteronomy 34:12).

Which awesome deeds? The text does not say. However, the medieval commentator Rashi, quoting earlier sources, states: “This refers to the fact that Moses’ heart inspired him to break the tablets…and the Holy Blessed One concurred.”

Of all Moses’ achievements—releasing the Israelites from slavery, splitting the Red Sea, bringing them to Mount Sinai, and then leading them to the very edge of the Promised Land—the greatest was the breaking of the tablets.

This is of profound relevance in today’s world, because if the Law of God is not beyond questioning, then all the more so are man-made laws. Paradoxically, in Judaism, the moment of revelation coincides with something akin to enlightenment. Right from the beginning, even God agrees that to seek truth means to question authority.

Quite literally, it means to break the rules.

To some people, however, the idea that morality is nothing more than a set of laws constructed by fallible

“By breaking the tablets, Moses showed the Israelites, and us, that nothing, not even revealed law, is so sacred, it cannot be tested by human experience.” had it right. We must cultivate moral maturity, without resorting to revelation. Blindly trusting in authority is a barrier to human freedom.

Where the Hebrew Bible ends is only the beginning of the story. The Talmud recounts that the Israelites carry the Ark of the Covenant with them throughout their wanderings. Later, when they rest it in the Holy of Holies in the Temple of Jerusalem, they place the broken divine law alongside the tablets of Moses. As humans, we carry with us both tablets, our fallible human laws and the fragments of our shared humanity.

In his greatest hour, Moses showed us we have nothing to fear. The tablets of God were broken, but we remain intact. Our task, too late for my patient but perhaps not too late for us, is to break the spell of Sinai. Only then, following Moses’ example, can we begin the real work of hammering out what constitutes a moral society.

humans seems insufficient, even dangerous. And yet, to such a worry, modern science, psychology, and especially modern neuroscience have found some striking and potentially reassuring answers.

Neuroscience has shown that every mental state, every thought and feeling, has a physical representation in the brain. The mind is what the brain does. Furthermore, the human brain is composed of numerous interconnected circuits. Partly hard-wired, meaning genetically encoded, and partly soft-wired, through learning and experience, these modular networks enable us to navigate our complex social world.

At the most basic level, human morality is grounded in our ability to feel empathy. The physical substrates of empathy reside deep within the emotional part of the brain, in a circuit of brain structures that includes the amygdala.

Studies have shown that a person’s ability to empathize directly correlates with the level of amygdalar activity. reform judaism

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Divinity of Persons with dementia are “messengers from God,� daily delivering a standing invitation from the Creator to reflect on what it means to be human.

by Cary Kozberg reform refo re form rm judaism j ud udai aism sm

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“Sometimes folks with dementia seem more fortunate spiritually than we are. I’ve witnessed heightened feelings of joy, spontaneity, enthusiasm, and gratitude.”

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they are defined by the word “vegetable”—depriving them of any vestige of their humanity.

This is not a Jewish point of view. Judaism (as well as Christianity and Islam) affirms that every human being, no matter how capable or compromised, is created in the Divine image and therefore possesses infinite, unconditional worth. Indeed, our tradition teaches that even a goseis—a person who is in the process of dying—is still fully human and may not even be touched, lest death be hastened (Semachot 1:1–3; Shabbat 151b). And we learn in Midrash Song of Songs Rabbah (5:16) that every person present at Sinai heard God’s Voice uniquely, perhaps because the Voice was heard not only by the mind, but also by the soul. For Jews to say the “v” word (“vegetable”) is not only politically incorrect, it is a sacrilege. A human being can never be less than “fully human,” much less a “vegetable.” ♦♦♦ In my role as a rabbi and a chaplain, I have spent countless hours helping residents with advanced dementia stay spiritually and culturally connected to God, Torah, and the Jewish people. In playing to their strengths, to whatever capacities they still retain, I’ve come to realize that many cognitively impaired residents seem more spiritually attuned than other residents who are more cognitively intact.

One individual, whom I will call Joe, coped with advanced Alzheimer’s disease. As his cognitive abilities waned, he forgot the words to the blessing over the wine, and his responses didn’t always fit the question he was asked. But I could always count on him to help set the atmosphere for our weekly Kabbalat Shabbat (welcoming the SabRabbi Cary Kozberg is director of religious life at Wexner Heritage Village in Columbus, Ohio. This article was adapted with permission from Broken Fragments: Jewish Experiences of Alzheimer’s Disease through Diagnosis, Adaptation, and Moving On, edited by Douglas J. Kohn (URJ Books and Music). For ordering information: urjbooksandmusic.com.

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o not cast me off in the time of old age; forsake me not when my strength fails me. (Psalm 71:9) I often think of this verse whenever I look into the eyes of first-time visitors to our Jewish nursing home and see the fear of growing old, of becoming frail, of being in the “valley of the shadow of death” (Psalm 23:4). So stark is the “otherness” of this place, often the proverbial comfort of “Your rod and Your staff” eludes.

And no place here seems to broadcast the message more clearly than the dementia-designated floor.

Language, rules for communication and socialization, reference points of “reality” are utterly different in this alien world.

The outsiders view the inhabitants as pitifully less than human. Some even classify them as falling outside the definition of “personhood,” and thereby no longer entitled to the moral and legal protection of being a full “person.” And, when they become virtually inanimate, unable to do anything on their own,

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bath). He would greet me with a warm handshake, a smile, and a reminder: “Rabbi, it’s time to talk to the Boss!” Then he would pray and sing with joyful enthusiasm and heartfelt spontaneity. Despite loss of memory, executive function, and bowel and bladder control, he was one of the most spiritually attuned people I’ve ever met.

Interestingly, in Joe’s case and other instances, Alzheimer’s disease can actually be a boon to someone’s “personhood,” precisely, and ironically, because it is a boon to his or her spirituality. I have witnessed heightened feelings of joy, spontaneity, enthusiasm, and gratitude in people with dementia, because these feelings no longer pass through the cognitive filter of the rational mind. Sometimes I marvel that folks like Joe seem more fortunate spiritually than those of us who have that filter. With the loss of cognition and memory, they no longer worry about the past or the future. And because they live only in the present, they are usually more at ease.

When offered love, compassion, and physical contact, they tend to respond with more intuitive, primal, and pure feelings of affection. Indeed, when they are no longer aware that they are no longer aware, but have not yet lost their operative capacity to speak and communicate cogently, they faithfully entrust their care to others, human or Divine— sometimes quite enthusiastically. ♦♦♦ In a curious way, I have come to view persons with advanced dementia as assuming the role of “angels.”

As foreign as this may sound and contrary to what many of us may have been taught, Judaism has a long, rich tradition of angelology, which does not necessarily subscribe to the popular notion of angels as having wings, halos, and flowing robes. Jewish tradition teaches that angels are spiritual entities created by God to perform a single task. Some serve God by conveying information to mortals (the Hebrew word for angel—mal’akh—means “messenger”); others may be assigned to protect, fight for, or rescue them.

Still other angels are given special assignments.

For example, in Jewish tradition Satan is not “the devil,” but rather an angel assigned the task of tempting human beings and then holding them accountable for their misdeeds. Other angels are created to perpetually sing God’s praises. We read of them in the traditional Shacharit (morning) service: “They (the Heavenly Beings) all perform with awe and reverence the will of their Creator; they all open their mouths with holiness and purity…with pure speech and sacred melody, they all exclaim in unison and with reverence: Holy, holy, holy is Adonai Tsevaot; the whole world is full of God’s glory.”

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Yet, no matter their assignment, in Jewish tradition angels do not have free will or free choice. Unlike human beings, they are “pre-programmed” to serve God through specific assigned tasks.

From my experience, when persons with dementia lose their ability to make choices, they become like angels. Their behavior is no longer a function of what they choose to say or do, but rather of circumstances beyond their control. And, like many of their Heavenly counterparts, their task (whether they are aware of it or not) is now to sing praises to God. Our Sages teach that, in the Shacharit service, when we recite the Kedushah prayer proclaiming God’s sanctity in the world—just as the seraphim (angels) did in Isaiah’s vision (Isaiah 6:2–3)—we create a “symmetry of sanctity” with these Heavenly Beings: humans praising God on Earth just as the angelic singers do on high. However, while we— with our free will intact—may choose to sing, those with advanced dementia cannot help but sing. What comes out of their mouths may sound to us like gibberish and nonsense, but in fact it may be a faithful replication of what is offered on high—with purity of the soul.

Persons with dementia are like angels in another important way. They are, albeit unwittingly, “messengers from God,” daily delivering a standing invitation from the Creator to reflect on what it means to be human. They beckon us to be grateful for our God-given gifts and abilities, and also to know our limitations; to discern when we must take responsibility for our lives, and when we must “let go” and put our trust in another—whether that “other” is human or Divine. continued on page 62

“I pray that when we are in the presence of people with advanced dementia, we will come to open ourselves, on a deeper level, to the possibility of having angels in our midst.”

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RJ INSIDER’S GUIDE TOWORLD JEWISH TRAVEL

Defying Extinction

By Paul Liptz

T

ravel abroad and you’ll witness, as I have, the wonders of Jewish rebirth and resilience in places where Judaism was once on the edge of extinction—and now is on the ascent!

When I visited Poland in 1990 after the fall of the Communist regime, I found only a handful of elderly Jews struggling to survive in one functioning Warsaw synagogue. Today Poland’s Jewish community numbers approximately 30,000—including enthusiastic participants of the Progressive communities in Warsaw, Krakow, and smaller centers. In 2010, 600 people joined me in grappling with Jewish texts, history, and contemporary life at a Limmud Jewish study weekend in Warsaw. Every summer a nine-day Jewish culture festival in Krakow attracts hundreds of people and artists worldwide for concerts, exhibitions, plays, lectures, and workshops. Warsaw’s popular Yiddish theater features non-Jewish actors. And the Museum of the History of Polish Jews—supported by the Warsaw municipality and the Polish government— chronicling the impact of Jews on Polish history, will open in April 2013.

In the early 1990s, when only one

Paul Liptz, a social historian, is director of Education at the WUPJ’s Anita Saltz International Education Center, Jerusalem.

T

Welcome to the

I

1 st RJ Insider’s Guide to World Jewish Travel

n partnership with the World Union for Progressive Judaism, we are pleased to offer you this inaugural guide, which reveals fascinating differences and similarities in Reform communities throughout the globe and gives you the inside track on connecting up with your Jewish family worldwide.

Note: Our Summer 2013 edition will feature the 3rd RJ Insider’s Guide to Israel Travel in collaboration with the Israel Ministry of Tourism and the Association of Reform Zionists of America.

Happy travels.

–The Editors

Progressive congregation existed in the entire Soviet Union and Russian-speaking Jews began emigrating West en masse, I was convinced: This is the end of Eastern European Jewry.

I was wrong. Today, there are hundreds of congregations throughout the FSU. In our own Movement, six energetic Progressive rabbis in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Minsk, Kiev, and Simferopol (Crimea), together with a few dozen graduates of the Movement’s Machon para-rabbinic program as well as Machon-trained community workers and leaders, are serving and sustaining 40 communities nationwide. Moreover,

In Acknowledgement

he Reform Judaism magazine editors express their gratitude to the following donors, whose generous contributions made this “RJ Insider’s Guide to World Jewish Travel” possible: Jean and Jay Abarbanel, Steve and Ina Bauman, Stephen K. Breslauer, James and Linda Cherney, Sue and James Klau, The Golomb Family, Anne Molloy and Henry Posner III, Rosalyn G. Rosenthal, Rabbi Barton A. and Jane Shallat, Jerry Tanenbaum, and Dolores K. Wilkenfeld.

To explore how you might contribute to a future Insider’s Guide, please contact the editors—Aron Hirt-Manheimer, editor, or Joy Weinberg, managing editor—at rjmagazine@urj.org. reform judaism

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History Reconsidered:

Why Judaism Affirms

WE WERE NOT BREAKING SLAVES IN EGYPT THE RULES

A Union for Reform Judaism (URJ) Publication

Rethinking Alzheimer’s: Smart Strategies For

DIVINITY OF DEMENTIA

ReformJudaismmag.org

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RJ INSIDER’S JEWISH

WORLD TRAVEL GUIDE

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How to make friends with Reform Jews in 43 countries * Where to go, what to see, how to connect.

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each year some 1,000 Russian Jews attend our Movement’s adult, family, and youth camps, learning about Judaism for the first time in their lives. ♦♦♦ A similar Jewish renaissance is underway in the Czech Republic, spearheaded by Beit Simha, the liberal Jewish community in Prague. Local teachers as well as visiting rabbis and lecturers are teaching courses in Judaism, history, and Hebrew to groups of 30–50 Jews. Annual conferences, sponsored by Beit Simha and held in Decin, Liberec, and Brno, among other places, attract participants of all ages.

Being Jewish here is very different than in North America. Only a handful of Czech-speaking people are knowledgeable enough to teach and conduct services. Also, the Czech Republic’s Progressive community has been struggling financially, despite the support of generous American philanthropists. During the Communist era, the government was responsible for vast realms of life, and it is taking time for local communities to adjust to carrying the full financial burden them-

spring 2013

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of being tarand cantogeted by rial stuneo-Nazi dents to thugs. serve in Today, Germany some and neigh130,000 boring Jews live countries, openly in ordained Germany, its inauguand the Gerral three man Jewish rabbis—the community IN 2006, RABBI WALTER JACOB (R.), PRESIDENT OF THE ABRAHAM first ordainGEIGER COLLEGE IN POTSDAM, PRESIDES OVER THE FIRST RABBINIC has the fast- ORDINATION CEREMONY IN GERMANY SINCE 1942. ees in the ♦♦♦ est growth nation since rate in the world. The German governThe resurgence of Jewish life in the Second World War. Afterward, Germent provides benefits specifically to Germany has been both miraculous man Chancellor Angela Merkel wrote Jewish immigrants and has helped fund and challenging. that the event was “special because many the building of the Jewish Museum and In May 1945, the German Jewish did not believe that after the Holocaust the Holocaust Memorial in Berlin. community was totally devastated.

Jewish life would flourish in Germany.”

With some 24 congregations, the ProAlmost half the population had emigratEven with government sanction, Gered before the Second World War, and gressive Movement is growing steadily, many’s Progressive communities face the bolstered by the German government, most of those who remained were killed. daunting challenge of meeting the needs which recognizes and provides it with Over the decades, immigrants began of two distinct constituencies: new Rusfinancial assistance. A major milestone arriving, mainly from other parts of sian immigrants who do not speak Gerwas reached in 2006, when the Progres- man and have been deeply influenced by Europe and Israel, and a new Jewish sive Movement’s Abraham Geiger community slowly emerged. Often the Soviet Communism (the majority of conCollege of Judaism, which trains rabbinic gregants), and German-speaking congrenewcomers hid their Jewishness, fearful gants who have grown up in the open West German democratic environment.

Moreover, because there are more Progressive communities than native rabbis, a small team of Progressive rabbis has to IN ISRAEL and AROUND THE WORLD travel considerable distances to serve the 24 scattered congregations.

Ayelet Bar/Bat Mitzvah and Family Tours In many areas of Berlin, the local Creating Lifelong Memories gentile population has memorialized former Jewish neighbors by installing sidewalk plaques near the buildings In Depth Jewish Heritage Tours Guaranteed Weekly Departures where they once resided. A plaque honChoose from 9,11,12 & 14 nights. oring Regina Jonas, who became the first German female rabbi in 1935, can be seen at her last residence, KrausnickJoin Prof. Stephen Berk’s TRAVELING UNIVERSITY. strasse 6 (Mitte). Though these memoriEastern Europe als are reminders of a terrible past, they Jun 16—27, 2013 also portend a better future for the Jews. selves. Another impeding factor is the Orthodox Movement’s control of the Czech Jewish community’s purse strings. After the Second World War the Liberal Movements slowly organized themselves, and by that time the Orthodox groups had received official government recognition. There is hope, however, that within the year the Progressive Movement will be recognized as a religious (rather than a cultural) organization and henceforth receive government assistance.

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Every time I visit Poland, the FSU, the Czech Republic, Germany, and elsewhere, my emotional involvement and commitment to our brethren in these emerging communities increases. I am convinced it will for you, too.

To be part of the unfolding, miraculous journey of the Jewish people, read on….

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RJ INSIDER’S GUIDE

ST PETERSBURG: Treated Like a Queen

By Gail Glezerman Sherman

T

ravel is my passion. I find gressive (Reform) synagogue in St. nothing more exhilarating Petersburg, Russia. than visiting new places…

Before the trip, I learned of and but not for the reasons you reached out to Rabbi Gary Brettonmay expect. Yes, I enjoy Granatoor, vice president for philanvisiting historical sites, seeing magnifithropy at the World Union for Progrescent art and architecture, and sampling sive Judaism. He excitedly explained delicious indigenous food. But my real that St. Petersburg was one of only four joy comes from cities in all meeting people, of Russia— especially when the others they are Jewish. being MosI love to learn cow, Minsk what it’s like and Kiev— to live as a that had a Jew in another Progressive country…what synagogue. is similar to the Since our U.S. and what time in St. is different.

Petersburg Usually the included a similarities Friday night, RABBI HELENA RUBENSTEIN (R.) AND I AT THE fascinate he suggested ENTRANCE TO SHA’AREI SHALOM’S SANCTUARY. me most. we attend I’ve conversed with party-goers at a Shabbat services and put me in touch Sephardic bar mitzvah—on a Thursday with Rabbi Helena Rubenstein— evening—in Nice, France (except for “who,” he said, “along with her congrethe language, the party was like all the gation, will treat you like a queen!” ones I’ve attended in America); learned Rabbi Rubenstein wrote, in good about French Jewish Pesach traditions English, that she’d be delighted to have while buying Passover pastries at a us. She provided me with the address and kosher bakery in Paris; and conversed directions—and her cell phone number. with a Jewish glass blower in Venice ♦♦♦ about a Murano glass kiddush cup that After our first day of exploring the city, seemed like a major extravagance—but I was still feeling jet lagged from the which I’ve regretted not buying ever 11-hour time difference and regretting my since. And, this past summer, my huscommitment to attend services. Plus it was band Jay and I experienced the most cold and rainy; a bowl of hot borscht and personal Jewish encounter of all— attending Shabbat services as the guests an early evening sounded very appealing.

But the rabbi was expecting us, so of honor at Sha’arei Shalom, the Prowe hailed a taxi to what turned out to be a Soviet-era office building, across from Gail Glezerman Sherman is a member of Temple Beth Torah, Ventura, California. “the Cruiser Aurora” (which, we later reform judaism

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learned, was the ship that fired the shot that started the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution, and is now a museum). The taxi driver pointed and sped away. Without any signage, we had no idea what we were looking for. A man who seemed to be a security guard looked at the address—in Russian—and led us to a dismal yard surrounded by a chain link fence. This could not be right.

Retracing our steps back to “the Cruiser Aurora,” I called the temple, only to reach a Russian-speaking woman who didn’t understand me and hung up. Now it was raining hard, the wind upending our umbrella. Royalty, hmmm. I fumbled for the rabbi’s cell phone number, and to my relief she answered. Her secretary would soon meet us outside the building.

At last, we saw someone gesturing broadly, “Come in, come in.” We had arrived at Sha’arei Shalom.

Rabbi Rubenstein, an elegant woman in her mid-50s, greeted us warmly. She immediately offered us tea and sweets, and then (as she was in the midst of a counseling session) put us in the hands of one of her English-speaking members: Alla, a beautiful young woman with an adorable two-year-old daughter.

Alla showed us around the first floor facilities: sanctuary—a very modern space reminiscent of American synagogues—offices, and a small social hall (religious school classrooms occupy the upstairs space). She apologized in advance for the small turnout expected at services—about 20 of 100 members— because of the rain and many members away on summer vacations.

When Rabbi Rubenstein rejoined us, she told us her life story—the twists and turns of how a young Jew who grew up without an understanding of Judaism in

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1960s and 70s Moscow—a time when the Soviets didn’t permit religious practice— became a Progressive rabbi. Today she is one of only six native Russian-speaking Progressive rabbis serving in the FSU. ♦♦♦ As predicted, the service attracted about 20 people—mostly young, with children, but also a few seniors. We were given a siddur in English and Hebrew, and the rabbi made sure we sat near Alla for the purpose of translation. Now I understood what Rabbi Bretton-Granatoor meant about being treated like royalty.

First, I was asked to come up to the bimah and light the Shabbat candles. I began singing what I assumed was the universal melody for the candle-lighting blessing—the one melody I’d heard in every synagogue I’d ever attended—but when the rabbi and congregation joined in, it was a completely different minor-keyed tune! It seemed best to mouth the brachah silently. And when it was time for Aleinu, Rabbi Rubenstein asked Jay and me to come to the bimah to open the ark.

Notably, the order of the service was very familiar—much like what we do at Temple Beth Torah in Ventura, California. The prayers were the same. When I heard familiar melodies, like L’cha Dodi, I joined right in. The Sh’ma was chanted with a different melody, which surprised me too—of all our prayers, didn’t this one have a universal tune?

During the service, to keep us feeling included, the rabbi frequently gave explanations and page numbers in English.

And, during the sermon—which of course was in Russian—the rabbi had arranged for another congregant, a young woman named Katya who teaches English for a living, to sit next to me and translate. It was a little like the childhood game of “telephone.” Whispering into my ear so softly as to not disturb others, and in heavily accented English, Katya would say something that I could hardly comprehend, and I would whisper something to Jay that made even less sense.

Despite my lack of comprehension, I felt greatly appreciative of the special attention. And it struck me: The experience we were having right now in St. Petersburg was being repeated at Progressive/ Reform synagogues all over the world.

You’re Never Alone When You Say You’re a Jew

by Gary Bretton-Granatoor

I

n 43 countries around the world, there are people like you and me who strive to create warm, welcoming, egalitarian, pluralistic Jewish communities.

Rabbi Larry Milder’s popular NFTY song, “Wherever You Go,” beautifully expresses this truth:

if visiting unannounced.

The best way to connect is to have the World Union for Progressive Judaism (WUPJ), the institution that serves, nurtures, and supports 1,700+ Reform/ Progressive/ Liberal Jewish congregations worldwide, make the connection for you.

RABBI JOEL OSERAN OF THE WORLD UNION (L.) AND MEMBERS OF THE RODEF SHALOM JEWISH Wherever you Several weeks RELIGIOUS UNION BUILD A SUKKAH IN MUMBAI. go, there’s in advance of always someone Jewish your vacation, go to the World Union You’re never alone when you say for Progressive Judaism website, you’re a Jew wupj.org. On the main page, use the So when you’re not home and dialogue box to search for WUPJ conyou’re somewhere kind of newish gregations by country and then city.

The odds are don’t look far, Once you verify the presence of a ’cause they’re Jewish too…. congregation in the area you plan to visit, email or call me, Rabbi Gary In North America we are called Bretton-Granatoor (gary@wupj.org or Reform. In other parts of the world, 212–452–6531), at the WUPJ’s New we are known as Progressive or LibYork office. Provide your travel dates, eral (in most of Europe, if you ask for where you plan to stay, when you a Reform congregation, you’ll be would like to visit the congregation, directed to a Protestant church). But the number of people in your party, we are all one family. and a way to contact you once you are How do you find your larger Prothere (to make sure you are advised of gressive/Reform/Liberal family when any last minute changes in the synatravelling outside of North America? gogue’s plans). If given sufficient The process is different than what you time, we can arrange a personal visit. find in North America, where synaConnecting with your “cousins” is gogues generally have an “open-door” a great way to experience a country policy. Elsewhere, there is a pervasive and a Jewish community. You’ll get security consciousness. Synagogues insight into the challenges and the trido not publish their street addresses, umphs of living as a Jew in that return phone calls or emails, or openly place—and, most of all, you will see declare their presence. A random that we are all a part of one extended visitor, even one claiming affiliation family. “Wherever you go, there’s with a Reform synagogue in the U.S. always someone Jewish. You’re never or Canada, is likely to be turned away alone when you say you’re a Jew.” Rabbi Gary Bretton-Granatoor is the Vice President—Philanthropy at the World Union for Progressive Judaism.

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spring 2013

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What a spiritravel outside tual uplift, to of Russia— be connected evidently, to a global obtaining a community of visa to travel fellow Jews. abroad is As with exceedingly any Jewish difficult gathering, for citizens AN EMBROIDERED BANNER OF WELCOME IN THE LOBBY. food has to be who hold part. Indeed, for a small synagogue, the just a Russian passport.

Being Jewish in Russia is still a diffioneg Shabbat at Sha’arei Shalom was cult choice, and being a Progressive Jew very elaborate. The rabbi’s secretary is even more so. Although the fall of the an incredible baker, and challah is her Soviet Union freed its citizens to practice specialty. It was sweet, cake-like, filled with either raisins or currants—and surely religion, the vast majority are Russian Orthodox. Among Jews, most are Orthothe most delicious I’ve ever eaten. And, dox, and Chabad has a sizeable presence. to our delight, she had made two extra Katya, Anastasia, and Vladimir have choloaves for us to take back to our hotel! sen the Progressive Movement for the We chatted more with Katya and another young married couple, Anastasia same reasons I appreciate being a Reform and Vladimir. All three of them, it turns Jew—individual religious autonomy and gender equality. out, are Jews by choice, and all believe But in the U.S. it’s easy for me to be a they have some Jewish ancestry. None are from Russia—Katya hails from Lat- Reform Jew—I live two miles from my congregation, and I have the legal right to via and Anastasia and Vladimir from take time off from work to celebrate the Lithuania. All are trying to obtain passHigh Holy Days. In Russia, because of the ports from their ancestral countries to

high cost of city living, these three young people reside in outlying areas and travel long distances to attend services every Friday night. And if they took time off from work to attend services they would risk losing their jobs, because religious practice is not a protected right in Russia. ♦♦♦ It was time to leave, and Vladimir kindly offered to drive us back to the hotel. We exchanged full names with congregants so we could become Facebook friends and keep in touch.

Even better, Katya asked if we had any free time when she could take us around St. Petersburg—of course!

That Monday, Katya met us at our hotel. We strolled several miles to the park behind the Yusopov Palace, where Grigory Rasputin, who had spell-bound Empress Alexandra, was murdered by his enemies. The weather had turned warm and sunny—unusual in St. Petersburg, which gets about 50 sunny days a year—and the park was filled with people. Katya told us she was in the process of converting to Judaism, and feels con-

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RJ INSIDER’S GUIDE

VIENNA: Searching for Roots, Finding My Mission

By Cindy R. Kandel

I

believe that we are each born with to his last-known Vienna residence. Also, a higher purpose in life. Some knowing that many graves in the older discover their calling early; others sections of the Central Cemetery of Vientake more time, until they hear that na are in ill repair and can be a major “still, small voice.” disappointment to family visitors, she While I thought I had an awareness traveled out to the cemetery in advance to of my purpose, a ascertain the status new one was of the graves. revealed to me Indeed, my great this past summer grandfather’s grave when my two had been knocked daughters, Alexis, over and complete28, and Shaina, ly covered by 25, and I visited brush. Through the Vienna, the city groundskeeper, she where my father/ obtained a quote their grandfather, for its repair, which of blessed memoI authorized ry, was born and before our journey. raised.

I had known In advance of for a long time that the trip, I asked my paternal grandJewish Vienna mother had died in Now (wien.info/ Treblinka in 1942 en/vienna-for/ and jewish-vienna) for my help in finding a father’s INTERIOR OF THE CITY TEMPLE, bilingual guide to brothWHERE MY FATHER BECAME lead us on a tour of A BAR MITZVAH IN 1913. INSET er had (FROM L. TO R.): MY DAUGHTERS the places where perALEXIS AND SHAINA, TOUR my father had ished GUIDE BARBARA, AND ME lived, and the cem- STANDING OUTSIDE THE TEMPLE. in etery where my Auschgrandfather and both sets of great grand- witz that same year. But thanks to parents were buried. They put me in Barbara, I also learned how my paternal touch with Barbara Timmerman of Vien- grandfather died—a question I’d na Walks tours (viennawalks.com), pondered throughout adulthood. She which specializes in Jewish tours. discovered an article in an archived Prior to our arrival, Barbara located all newspaper from 1912 and translated my dad’s addresses, from his birthplace it for me. My grandfather had suffered from incurable stomach ulcers. At Cindy R. Kandel is an active congregant and the age of 49, unable to endure the b’nai mitzvah instructor at Temple Israel in pain and support his family, he took West Bloomfield, Michigan. his own life. reform judaism

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In late July, Alexis, Shaina, and I arrived in Vienna. The next morning, Barbara met us in our hotel lobby. We hopped into her car and drove to the city’s massive Central Cemetery (Zentrafriedhof). More than 3 million people have been buried in its different sections (Jewish, Christian, Protestant, Russian Orthodox, Greek Orthodox, and Muslim) since 1874, and it is still in use.

First, Barbara guided us to my great grandfather’s grave. Because of the repair work, I was happy to see it was the best looking grave in the row! It was also an eerie feeling to later stand at my grandfather’s grave—the very spot where I knew my dad as well as his mother, brother, and sister had once stood. The realization that we had traveled across the world to honor our ancestor on the 100th anniversary of his death added an aura of sanctity to the moment.

“Standing at the graves of my great grandfathers,” Shaina told me, “I understand that I am related to the bodies beneath the earth and tombstones, that I am alive because of them. I feel satisfied, and fulfilled, in pinpointing my lineage.”

After our cemetery visit, Barbara led us to the buildings where my father had lived. Some were prewar; others had been destroyed in the war and rebuilt in the ’50s and ’60s. In one instance, when the original edifice was not there, we entered a neighboring building that was architecturally similar to the one in which he had lived, taking in the beautiful craftsmanship of the woodwork around the doors and the detailed plasterwork on the walls and above each entrance.

Then we made our way to the City Temple (Stattemple), where my father had become a bar mitzvah in 1913, the year following his father’s death. Built in

Photographs of Maria Theresa Square and the Cit y Temple by Shaina Kandel

Greetings from Maria Theresa Square

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1826, it was the only synagogue in Vienna to survive the war, though it had been desecrated by the Nazis. After the war, with funding from the city of Vienna, the building was restored to its original beauty. Now it is open for twice daily tours on Mondays through Thursdays— but security is tight. We had to enter one at a time, present our passports to the guard, answer his questions, then pass through both a metal detector and bulletproof glass sliding doors.

At last, we entered the sanctuary. It was sublime. The round space, accentuated by a repeating circular motif decorated in blues, golds, and dark woodwork, enveloped me. Above the golden ark stood two golden tablets inscribed with the Ten Commandments, and the soft blue ceiling was covered with hundreds of small gold Stars of David that reminded me of God’s promise to Abraham. “It’s amazing,” Alexis told me, “to sit inside the same synagogue that my grandfather attended on Shabbat 100 years ago. Even though I never met him, by being here, I feel connected to him.”

The guide, a petite, well-spoken Viennese woman, narrated a history of the synagogue, Vienna, and the city’s Jews. Security at the City Temple has been tight, we learned, ever since a 1982 terrorist attack on the building.

As we were about to leave, at my daughters’ urging, I asked our guide, “Do records exist of those who celebrated their bar mitzvahs in the synagogue?”

“Why do you want to know?” she queried.

“My dad had his bar mitzvah here,” I explained.

“You must visit the archive room,” she said. “Wait here.”

She spoke to the guards, and soon we were ushered through a second set of bulletproof glass doors, up a flight of stairs, and into the archive room—a 10'x10' space with floor-to-ceiling shelves containing the birth, marriage, and death records of every Jew born in Vienna from 1826 through 1938.

The archive’s historian, Wolf-Erich Eckstein, asked me for my father’s name and birth date. After a few quick clicks on his keyboard, he pulled one of the ledgers off a shelf and carefully flipped through the pages until…there it was, my

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father’s name, along with his birth date, information about his parents and grandparents, the delivering doctor’s name, and the date of my father’s circumcision—all written in beautiful script and filling nine columns across two pages.

I was awestruck, speechless, and teary eyed. This, too, felt like sacred space. ♦♦♦ Wanting to worship with a community of Jews in this city of my family history, I decided to attend Shabbat services at Vienna’s only Progressive congregation, Or Chadash. I also felt the need to thank God for this incredible journey I was taking with my daughters.

It took us a while to locate the building. When we finally reached the right street, we saw nothing resembling a synagogue. There was also no signage on any of the doors, all of which looked indistinguishable from one another. But then I noticed a man blocking the entryway to one of the buildings. He wore street clothes, but his bearing said “security guard” to me. As we approached, I looked at him and inquired, “Or

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Chadash?” He smiled, I wished him “Shabbat Shalom,” he returned the greeting—and then opened the door.

The sanctuary was a simple room filled with about 40 green, blue, and white plastic chairs split by a center aisle, and a dark wood ark at the far end of the room. Though sparse, the space was lovely and warm. After all I’d experienced in Vienna, it felt good to cradle a siddur (prayer book) in my hands. I listened to familiar tunes and prayers and tried to join in, but my voice was muted by emotion. I kept thinking of my father and all that his family had endured during their lifetimes. I wondered if Dad somehow knew that his daughter and granddaughters were in the city where he came of age as a Jew on the 100-year anniversary of his father’s death. My feelings were so apparent, when the gentleman

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running the service paused for people to mention names for Kaddish, he looked directly at me first, naturally assuming that I had a name to share. I just smiled appreciatively and shook my head.

At my side, Alexis was feeling ecstatic. “Being in Vienna, singing the same songs, reciting the same prayers, I realized: We are one! We are Jews, no matter the sect, where we are from, or the size of the congregation. It’s so good to know that wherever I travel I can walk into a synagogue and feel at home! This is why my connection to Judaism is strong. Even though I live in Las Vegas, hundreds of miles away from the family, I am always connected to a united community and family, the Jewish people.” ♦♦♦ It was after services, at the Kiddush, that my new life purpose revealed itself.

Speaking with Giuliana Schnitzler, the congregation’s vice president, I learned that the government had just passed a law awarding the Orthodox Jewish community sole power to determine which synagogues are legitimate and therefore eligible for government assistance.

Since the Orthodox community does not recognize the Progressive Jewish Movement, Giuliana explained, Or Chadash was at risk of having to close.

As a Jew, an American, and the child of a Holocaust survivor, I found it unconscionable that in 2012 Vienna, Jews were still at risk of not being able to pray as they choose to. Leaving the synagogue that evening, I vowed to join the struggle to save Or Chadash. So many people had been silent as Jewish freedoms were trampled in Europe, as my grandmother and uncle died in the Holocaust. I would not be silent now.

Or Chadash had made a strong ally. ♦♦♦ Since coming home, I have become an advocate for Or Chadash’s legitimacy in Vienna. I’ve written to the Federal Minister for Education, Arts, and Culture in Vienna and to the U.S. ambassador to Austria. I stay abreast of developments and inform my rabbis, who are now determined to help, too.

I went to Vienna in search of my ancestors and came away with a sacred mission.

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RJ INSIDER’S GUIDE

JOHANNESBURG: Culture & Community Interview with Robert Jacobs

Rabbi Robert Jacobs serves as rabbi of Bet David Congregation in Johannesburg, South Africa

Lion Park Photo by A lan de Sousa Caires

What do tourists find most interesting about your country and city?

Greetings from a springbok and blessboks in Lion Park Court, Women’s Jail, and Awaiting Trial Block Prison, highlights not to be missed are staircases from that dreaded prison and a fine collection of South African art and beaded work in the lobby. For a great day trip, visit a sanctuary to see elephants, cheetahs, or other rare or endangered species.

Most tourists come for the wealth of animal life in national What Jewparks and ish sites private aniare most mal preserworth vation “game visiting? farms” dotTemple ted across Israel in South Africa.

Hillbrow It is a land of (1936), great variaBET DAVID MEMBER KAREN TURIS LEADS A YOGA CLASS FOR designed by tion of terthe studio rain, climate, ORPHANS IN THE SYNAGOGUE GARDENS ON MANDELA DAY. of the Jewflora, and ish architect Hermann Kallenbach, is fauna; the Western Cape is one of the one of many splendid art Deco strucworld’s most diverse plant habitats. tures found throughout the older areas Johannesburg offers many museums and monuments documenting our nation- of Johannesburg. Kallenbach’s home on the Linksfield Ridge also served al story from the Boer Wars (1890– 1910), through Mahatma Ghandi’s devel- as Ghandi’s home during an early stay in Johannesburg. opment of passive resistance, into the There are three Progressive congreApartheid period and the current democratic society. For example, the Cradle of gations in the city—Bet David, Beit Emanuel, and Temple Israel. Ours, Bet Humankind exhibits some of the oldest David, offers a garden setting and a and most extraordinary fossils of human ancestors to be excavated in the Sterkfon- warm English-speaking congregation graced by a splendid choir. In addition, tein and surrounding caves, one hour if your travels take you to the adminisnorth of Johannesburg—and the excavatrative capital of Pretoria (Tswhane), tion process is ongoing. The occasional, you can visit Bet Menorah; and Proseasonal tours of the Sterkfontein Caves gressive synagogues are also to be are fascinating. The Apartheid Museum found in Cape Town, Green Point, offers the most complete history of Wynberg, West Coast/Milnerton, DurApartheid. At Constitution Hill, which ban, East London, and Port Elisabeth. encompasses Old Fort, Constitutional reform judaism

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What are the culinary delights?

You name it; you can find it on the menu! As South Africans especially enjoy meat dishes, exceptional and reasonable steak houses exist in many locales. Also prominent are spicier curries and a variety of pan-African dishes.

Several certified kosher restaurants offer varied menus. Boboties (curried meat casseroles) as well as typical East European dairy dishes are frequently found along with butternut soup and beautifully presented salads. Produce is varied, local, and splendid!

What are your top travel tips?

Dress is almost universally informal.

Don’t be put off by the too frequent reports of violence, yet be cautious about walking in isolated areas. Hotels and tours provide excellent guidance about avoiding problems, safe storage of valuables (don’t leave valuables unattended or wear flashy, expensive jewelry), and general conduct issues that might differ in South Africa. Service in hotels and restaurants is inconsistent, but well given when requested politely; and questioning receives a better response than demanding or criticism. Tipping for service often starts at 10% of a bill.

South Africa is a right-hand drive country, and not for the timid; although most roads are excellent, I would not necessarily say the same of the drivers!

Public transit in town is not very usable, although the Gautrain (high speed train) to and from the airport is brilliant. Contacting the Progressive Jewish community in advance offers the opportunity to experience Jewish life in a personal way. continued on page 38

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RJ INSIDER’S GUIDE

The Top World Nations with Jewish Populations & Their Reform Congregations*

T

he following is a compilation of the nations with Reform congregations, from the country with the largest total Jewish population (Israel) to the smallest (El Salvador). All of these population figures are estimates (see the “Notes” on the next page for sources). Outside North America the name “Reform” is used less frequently, so the WUPJ has provided each community’s preferred self-description (Reform, Progressive, Liberal, Modern).

Jewish Pop.: 5,413,800 Congregations: 35 Locations: Various Description: Reform/ Progressive

2 United States

Jewish Pop.: 5,275,000 Congregations: 839 Locations: Various Description: Reform

3

France

Jewish Pop.: 483,500 Congregations: 13 Locations: Various Description: Progressive

5 United Kingdom

Jewish Pop.: 292,000 Congregations: 82 Locations: Various Description: Reform/ Progressive/Liberal

6 Russia

Jewish Pop.: 205,000 Congregations: 21 Locations: Various Description: Modern

7 Argentina

Jewish Pop.: 182,300 Congregations: 3 Locations: Buenos Aires,

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Locations: Various Description: Progressive

9 Australia

Jewish Pop.: 107,500 Congregations: 15 Locations: Various Description: Progressive

10

Brazil

Jewish Pop.: 95,600 Congregations: 7 Locations: Various Description: Progressive

11

Ukraine

Jewish Pop.: 71,500 Congregations: 27 Locations: Various Description: Modern/ Progressive

HILLEGUUS TIMNER, THEN CONGREGATION PRESIDENT, LIGHTS THE SHABBAT CANDLES AT LIBERAAL JOODSE GEMEENTE DEN HAAG IN THE HAGUE.

4 Canada

Jewish Pop.: 375,000 Congregations: 25 Locations: Various Description: Reform

Capital Federal Description: Progressive

8 Germany

Jewish Pop.: 119,000 Congregations: 24 reform judaism

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South Africa

13

Hungary

Jewish Pop.: 70,800 Congregations: 10 Locations: Various Description: Progressive

Jewish Pop.: 48,600 Congregations: 2 Locations: Budapest Description: Progressive

36

14 Belgium

Jewish Pop.: 30,300 Congregations: 2 Locations: Brussels Description: Progressive

15 Netherlands

Jewish Pop.: 30,000 Congregations: 10 Locations: Various Description: Progressive

16 Italy

Jewish Pop.: 28,400 Congregations: 3 Locations: Florence, Milan Description: Progressive

17 Chile

Jewish Pop.: 20,500 Congregations: 3 Locations: Las Condes, Valparaiso Description: Progressive

18 Switzerland

Jewish Pop.: 17,600 Congregations: 2 Locations: Geneva, Zurich Description: Progressive

Israel Photo by Stefanie Horn, Head of the German Department and & Manager of the Musical Tour Step by Step Sauwa Sauwa to Germany, The Leo Baeck Education Center in Haifa; The Hag ue Photo by Ido Menco, idomenco.nl

1 Israel

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19 Belarus

Jewish Pop.: 16,500 Congregations: 13 Locations: Various Description: Progressive

20

Sweden

Jewish Pop.:

15,000 Congregations: 1 Locations: Stockholm Description: Progressive

21

Spain

Jewish Pop.: 12,000 Congregations: 2 Locations: Barcelona Description: Progressive

Description: Progressive/ Reform

27 India

Jewish Pop.: 5,000 Congregations: 1 Locations: Mumbai Description: Reform

28

Czech Republic

Jewish Pop.: 3,900 Congregations: 1 Locations: Prague Description: Progressive

29

Poland

Jewish Pop.: 3,200 Congregations: 3

Congregations: 2 Locations: Beijing, Shanghai Description: Liberal

32 Puerto Rico Jewish Pop.: 1,500 Congregations: 1 Locations: San Juan Description: Reform

33 Ireland

Jewish Pop.: 1,200 Congregations: 1 Locations: Dublin Description: Progressive

22 Austria

25

Jewish Pop.: 6,400 Congregations: 1 Locations: Copenhagen Description: Progressive

26

Hong Kong

Jewish Pop.: 5,000 Congregations: 1 Locations: Hong Kong

Jewish Pop.: 350 Congregations: 1 Locations: Curacao Description: Progressive

38 Bahamas

Jewish Pop.: 300 Congregations: 1 Locations: Nassau Description: Reform

40 Jamaica

Jewish Pop.: 8,000 Congregations: 1 Locations: Panama City Description: Progressive

Denmark

37 Curaçao

Jewish Pop.: 300 Congregations: 1 Locations: Singapore Description: Progressive/ Reform

23 Panama

Jewish Pop.: 7,500 Congregations: 3 Locations: Dunedin, Epsom (Auckland suburb), Wellington Description: Progressive

Jewish Pop.: 500 Congregations: 1 Locations: Amalie (St. Thomas) Description: Reform

39 Singapore

Jewish Pop.: 9,000 Congregations: 1 Locations: Vienna Description: Progressive

24 New Zealand

36 Virgin Islands

Jewish Pop.: 200 Congregations: 1 Locations: Kingston Description: Reform A PROCESSION OF 11 TORAH SCROLLS FROM 11 CONGREGATIONS IN CELEBRATION OF THE DEDICATION OF THE WUPJ’S SANDY BRESLAUER BEIT SIMCHA CENTER FOR PROGRESSIVE JUDAISM IN MINSK, BELARUS, 2010.

Locations: Warsaw, Krakow Description: Progressive

30

Costa Rica Jewish Pop.:

2,500 Congregations: 1 Locations: Sabana Description: Progressive

31

China

Jewish Pop.:

1,500

34 Luxembourg

Jewish Pop.: 600 Congregations: 1 Locations: Strassen Description: Progressive

35 Cuba

Jewish Pop.: 500 Congregations: 1 Locations: Havana Description: Progressive

41 Suriname

Jewish Pop.: 200 Congregations: 1 Locations: Paramaribo Description: Progressive

42 Aruba

Jewish Pop.: 200 Congregations: 1 Locations: Oranjestad Description: Progressive

43 El Salvador

Jewish Pop.: 100 Congregations: 1 Locations: San Benito Description: Progressive

*Notes: All estimated world Jewish population figures are from “World Jewish Population 2010-North American Jewish Data Bank” by Israel

demographer Sergio Della Pergola, except for Hong Kong (Hadassah Magazine, Oct. 2012), Bahamas (Jewish Virtual Library), and Aruba (Joshua Project In-Country Profile). Demographic numbers vary widely depending on how being Jewish is defined (such as if the figures exclude Jews who have not registered with the official community), when the figures were assembled, and other factors. “Congregations” refers to the number of Reform/Progressive/Liberal communities. “Various” indicates communities in four or more locations. For more information: wupj.org. reform judaism

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Johannesburg

continued from page 35 What is the history of Johannesburg’s Jewish community?

Jewish life is a more than a century old. The office of Chief Rabbi has existed for some 75 years. Most Jews trace their origins to Lithuania: The discovery of gold here in the 19th century convinced many of their ancestors to escape Lithuania’s poverty, wars, and changing regimes—such as the in aftermath of Tsar Alexander II’s assassination in 1881—by immigrating to South Africa in hopes of a better life. Early arrivals established shops or became ’Smous (peddlers) until settling down in towns and villages throughout the country.

Now 80 years old, Progressive Judaism has a credible record here. It reached a seeming high point about mid-way along that timeline; the period since the violent Soweto student uprising in 1976 has seen a decline in both the overall number of Jews (from an estimated 120,000 to 70,000 today) and Progressive Jews (from an estimated 11,000 to 6,000 today). The vast majority of Jews here affiliate with Orthodoxy, and there’s been an increase in both right-wing, Orthodox groups and in disaffiliated Jews.

What is worship like at Bet David?

Our worship is formal and traditional; however, dress is informal, as is the congregation’s attitude to such decorum issues as on-time arrival and staying in place during the duration of the service.

All South African Union for Progressive Judaism congregations use Mishkan T’filah World Union Edition. The local musical tradition is choral, with professional quartets at Beit Emanuel and Bet David for formal services. A Bet David hallmark is our mixed voice choir singing a cappella, which is controversial since the local Orthodox community has imposed a ban on women singing in public (which we are fighting). At Yom Hashoah and Yom HaAtzma’ut programs for the entire Jewish community, women are no longer allowed to raise their voices in song. But at Bet David, our tradition of mixed choir, featuring a splendid soprano as lead singer, continues.

Bet David is known for its special

blessings, including parents’ blessing for children prior to Kiddush, communal prayers concluding with a prayer for pets, and end-of-calendar month birthday blessings. Here our blessed bread is known as kitke, apparently a Polish term referring to ornate plaster work, which is also braided and looks like a challah.

Are services in English?

South Africa is a multi-lingual country, with 11 official languages—Afrikaans, English, Ndebele, Northern Sotho, Sotho, Swazi, Tswana, Tsonga, Venda, Xhosa, and Zulu. Zulu is the most common home language and English the language of commerce. Since the majority of congregants speak English (a minority are first-language speakers of Afrikaans, a local version of FlemishDutch), services mix Hebrew and English, with sermons in English.

What are your congregants’ religious backgrounds?

We serve three distinctive groups: Jews whose parents or grandparents were among the early proponents of Progressive Judaism, Jews raised in Orthodoxy, and those who have chosen Judaism— many of whom are well integrated into the congregational leadership. South Africa’s transformation from a rigidly racially divided society is truly lived out through our congregational life. Especially since 1994—South Africa’s first democratic election, which brought Nelson Mandela into the presidency—the number of Jews-by-choice from multiple ethnicities—among them Afrikaaners, Indians, and descendants of black Yemenite Jews—has expanded, enriching the community. As another example, South Africa has offered marriage under Civil Union since late 2006, and the South African Union for Progressive Judaism has accepted same-sex marriage under a chuppah since May 2007; we may be the only mainstream religious group in South Africa to do so. While the first aufruf for two grooms created a stir, the congregation has not looked back.

Do you have unique celebrations?

Our Shavuot morning cheesecake contest—many of the cheesecakes flareform judaism

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voured with passion fruit or other tropical fruits—attracts lots of tasters. We also have special community days, such as Mandela Day—near the first president’s birthday—when we welcome 100+ orphans from Alexander for fun and food.

As our community does not have access to the mikveh at Orthodox synagogues, new Jews-by-choice are immersed in a suitable, private swimming pool.

How has South African history influenced Jewish life here?

Much of the early history of Progressive Judaism is linked with the years of Apartheid. Jews were over-represented in the anti-Apartheid struggle, but also had members of the National Party that perpetuated Apartheid. For Bet David, a diverse suburban community, the crisis year was 1987, when Alexander Township—just kilometers away—faced school closings as members of the black community engaged in struggle against the Apartheid regime. A few Sisterhood women started an emergency 12thgrade school, offering preparation for the country’s “matric” exams (a prerequisite before students can pursue higher education). Twenty-six years later, Mitzvah School, on the Bet David campus, has produced hundreds of graduates, some of whom have become communtiy leaders—churchmen, physicians, bank managers, etc.—in the renewed South Africa. Nowadays Bet David’s Kehillah (formerly Sisterhood) also supplies foodstuffs for a primary school, an afterschool haven, an orphanage, and a shelter for street orphans. Fulfilling the needs of the impoverished is a major component of our work.

In today’s diverse South Africa, where about 250 separate religious groups are recognized, religion is primarily a private matter. The Orthodox-dominated Jewish community attempts to fence off Jews from Progressive Judaism in a way that at times borders upon hostility. Meanwhile, the non-Jewish community sees all of the Jewish community as one, and appreciates the Jews’ strong contributions to South African politics, arts, business, and academia. For Jews, being publicly proud of one’s Jewishness remains a respected tradition.

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1/18/13 10:40 AM

RJ INSIDER’S GUIDE

SINGAPORE: Culture & Community Interview with Lennard Thal

Greetings from Marina Bay

Marina Bay, Singapore: © Clicktrick / Dreamstime.com

Rabbi Lennard Thal, senior vice president emeritus of the Union for Reform Judaism, has served as visiting rabbi of United Hebrew Congregation in Singapore for the past 20 years.

orchids and other stunning flora that flourish in Singapore’s tropical/equatorial climate. Tip: go early in the morning before it gets too hot! On a clear day you can view parts of Malaysia and Indonesia as well as Singapore’s harbor from What excites the 57th floor of tourists about the iconic Marina Singapore?

Bay Sands Hotel— Singapore and chocolate lovprides itself on ers can choose offering both resifrom among the dents and tourists 57 sumptuous the highest quality chocolate varieties of life. That experiat their famed ence starts even nightly Chocolate before you arrive.

Bar! Stop by the Singapore Airlines Raffles Hotel to is rated number enjoy handsome one in the world colonial architecMEMBERS OF UNITED HEBREW CONGREGATION OF SINGAPORE JOIN IN CELEBRATING HANUKKAH, 2010. for first-rate serture, doormen and vice, safety, and bellmen in period on-time arrivals; indeed, in my 40+ costume, and its Long Bar, renowned for flights to the city, I’ve never landed more the signature drink, the fruity-flavored than 10 minutes later than scheduled.

Singapore Sling.

Waterfalls and fresh orchids beautify Singapore is a shopper’s paradise, Changi Airport, and all passengers have with very high-end shops and antique free computer access. This clean, “poststores stocking goods from around Asia. modern” city (as it is often described) A good day’s activity is walking through has no homelessness, no unemployment, Chinatown (see the Buddha’s Tooth and practically no street crime, making Relic Temple), Little India (see the colit a remarkably pleasant, safe place to orful Hindu Temple), and Arab Street visit. Because it is a magnetic center for (see the Sultan Mosque), all within five commerce—some people refer to the to ten minutes’ drive of one another. “national religion” as “capitalism”— Singapore is a locus of business for What are the best Jewish sites? many North American companies. PerI’d begin with the two Baghdadi synmanent residents can’t imagine living agogues—Maghein Aboth on Waterloo anywhere else. Once a taxi driver asked Street, built in 1873, and Chesed El, on me where I was from, and when I said Oxley Rise, built in 1900, each of which America, he responded, “What’s it like, has a large “walk-in” ark containing living in a third-world country?” approximately two dozen Torah scrolls.

Be sure to take a walk through the Many descendants of Iraqi Jews here Botanical Gardens, featuring unusual believe that commissioning a new Torah reform judaism

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39

scroll is the most significant way to honor the memory of a deceased relative.

And try to attend services at the Progressive congregation, United Hebrew Congregation of Singapore, where you’ll be warmly welcomed. They’re only held once a month on Friday nights, so check the synagogue website (uhcsingapore.org) for the schedule.

What is the local cuisine?

Singapore’s signature cuisine, called Peranakan, combines Chinese, Malay, and other culinary influences, typically blending ingredients and wok-cooking techniques from the Chinese (who immigrated here before and after World War II) with spices popular in the Malay/ Indonesian community (the indigenous population). Peranakans are descendants of marriages between Chinese immigrants and local Malays.

A good place to sample any Asian cuisine you wish—Peranakan, Malaysian, Chinese, you name it—is one of the city’s “hawker centers,” where typically 30 or 40 different vendors offer inexpensive and safe food—health guidelines are strictly controlled by the government. “Jewish foods” of all kinds can be found at the local “kosher store,” as everyone calls it, near the Maghein Aboth synagogue.

A caveat: As I like to quip, “Travel in Singapore can be a ‘broadening’ experience!”

Do you have other insider tips?

The landing card distributed on all flights into Singapore is very clear: Anyone trafficking in drugs is subject to the death penalty. Indeed, while much exaggeration is made of local laws against jaywalking and spitting, the government values protecting the quality of life

spring 2013

1/18/13 11:01 AM

GLOBAL NEWS

China

Starting Up in Shanghai: In Spring 2012, 70 people in Shanghai, China joined together on the second night of Pesach to take part in the city’s first-ever liberal seder. Led by Cantor Diego Edelberg of the United Jewish Congregation in Hong Kong and assisted

by Hebrew Union College Student Rabbi Megan Brudney, the seder brought together and inspired Progressive Jews in Shanghai— who have since gone on to form a Liberal Jewish community.

Germany

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Synagogue to Storage Facility to Synagogue: For decades, a farmer in the German village of Bodenfelde stored his equipment in a small, half-timbered building hardly recognizable for what it was—a 175-year-old synagogue JÜDISCHE GEMEINDE GÖTTINGEN SYNAGOGUE built in 1825. In 1937 the congregation had sold the synagogue to the farmer, and a year later, on Kristallnacht, the farmer defended his purchase against Nazi hooligans who wanted to torch it. Thus the building was spared the fate that befell hundreds of synagogues that night across Germany and Austria.

In 1990, a few hundred Jews from the Former Soviet Union settled in Göttingen, Germany.

Its Jewish mayor, Artur Levi, a Holocaust survivor, and local educator Detlev Herbst, an expert on local Jewish history, supported the idea of moving the historic Bodenfelde synagogue to Gottingen, whose large synagogue had been destroyed 70 years earlier. continued on p.42

above individual liberties. As one UHC member explained to me upon my first visit, the difference in the attitude toward law-breaking between Singapore and the U.S. is simply this: “In the U.S., crime is against the law; in Singapore, it is simply not permitted.”

What synagogue options are there?

Right now there are four or five congregations. Two (Maghein Aboth and Chesed El) are led by Chabad rabbis and populated mostly by the descendants of the Baghdadi Jews who developed Jewish communities from Mumbai to Shanghai in the 19th century. The third is an Ashkenazic Orthodox minyan. The fourth is a primarily French Ashkenazic Orthodox minyan, which began this year; it is too early to tell whether it will be sustainable.

Fifth—and most important to the Reform community—is the congregation I’ve long served as visiting rabbi: the United Hebrew Congregation of Singapore.

What is synagogue life like at UHC?

The minhag is best captured by the oft-repeated refrain by the incumbent president each erev Rosh Hashanah: “As our first president once said, ‘Welcome to the Reform-Conservative-Reconstructionist-Liberal-Progressive congregation of Singapore.’”

Our customs are primarily Reform, but Conservative, Reconstructionist, and other non-Orthodox Jews feel very comfortable here, in part because the Jewish communal experience is similar to what they’re used to in North America. As the congregation overwhelmingly consists of expats from all over the world— especially from the U.S. and Canada— and since everyone speaks English— although for some it is their second, third, or, at least in one case, fourth language—we use Gates of Repentance on the High Holy Days and Mishkan T’filah for Shabbat and other holidays.

For the High Holy Days, American Conference of Cantors President Susan Caro serves as cantor, combining traditional nusach and contemporary melodies (Debbie Friedman, Jeff Klepper, etc.). Participating with likeminded folk on these holidays is particularly meaningful to the vast majority of congregants—bankers, management consulreform judaism

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tants, hedge fund analysts, lawyers, etc.—who are 10–12 time zones away from the place they consider “home.”

By the way, the one piece of liturgy that is a bit unsettling for this community is “the prayer for our nation,” as some members are “permanent residents” of Singapore, but the vast majority are not.

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How ethnically diverse is UHC?

Very. Of the 140 affiliated households, 15–20 members are ethnically Asian. One longstanding practice at our two communal seder celebrations is to ask the “Four Questions” in as many languages as are native to the various participants. This typically includes Mandarin, Cantonese, Indonesian, Thai, Korean, Japanese, Javanese, as well as Portuguese, Serbian, Russian, Swedish, Afrikaans, and Yiddish—great fun!

The community is also more stable than in years past. Whereas expats generally used to stay in Singapore for three to five years, nowadays many stay on longer, and three families to whom we had bid farewell have since returned.

Life is pretty easy here—in addition to the economic opportunities, there are good educational options and quality healthcare. As an active lay leader commented to me, “I’m leaving in two years, and I’ve been saying that for the last 15.”

Can life also be difficult for the Progressive community, given the government’s strong hand?

Twenty years ago, when five founding families created a non-Orthodox alternative for themselves, a big challenge was Singaporean law, which does not include freedom of assembly in the way U.S. law does. The founders had to “fly below the radar screen” (essentially utilizing “word of mouth”) until 1995, when the government formally recognized UHC as a “society.” Since then the community has been able to advertise in various expat periodicals and other venues.

Are there any security concerns?

For a few years, because of security reasons, the American government placed Gurkhas (highly trained Nepalese soldiers who served in the British or Indian army)—sporting daggers on their continued on page 44

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RJ INSIDER’S GUIDE

BUDAPEST: Culture & Community Interview with Erika Siegfried-Tompson

Chain Bridge Photo: Lefpap / Dreamstime.com

Erika Siegfried-Tompson is a member of Bet Orim in Budapest and an activist in the Hungarian Reform Movement.

Greetings from Chain Bridge and Fisherman’s Bastion

Festival, a free, joyous one-day Jewish music-performance-food festival, takes place each June. From late August to early September our Jewish Summer Festival features Jewish music, dance, fine art, books, and films. Also in early September is the Day of Open Doors Street Party, offering music, Hora dancing, arts and crafts, Krav Maga (Israeli martial arts) demonstrations, and more. Throughout

Outside the capital, visit the splendid late 18th-century Baroque synagogue of Mad, located in a region renowned for its wines (and have a first-class wine What excites tourists about Budapest? tasting experience at Torok Pince). In the Budapest offers grandiosely beauti1850s some 800 Jews lived here, many ful views. From the gentle curve of the of them wine traders and kosher wine Danube River, you see rising hills and producers. The last Jew of Mad died in lovely islands spanned by great bridges 1994, but the community’s synagogue, of various styles. The vista is spectacurenovated in 2004 and awarded the prestigious Europa Nostra Heritage Award, remains. It is now cared for by a nonJewish couple.

If you call them (00 36 47 348 043), they will show you the FROM L. TO R.: BET ORIM MEMBERS CELEBRATE HANUKKAH, 2011; SIM SHALOM MEMBERS CELEBRATE SHAVUOT, 2012. synagogue lar at night. For a romantic evening, the year, exciting and buzzing Limmud and tell you many interesting stories. spend dusk to dark on the terrace of the days offer an array of Jewish communityCitadella Restaurant. You’ll never forbuilding study sessions, many of them Where can you find the best Jewish cuisine? get the sight of the lights coming up, in English. one by one, on our historic buildings Budapest’s main Jewish attraction is I recommend Yiddische Mamma and on the bridges over the Danube. the Dohany Synagogue, which seats Mia, which offers a fusion of Jewish and In Buda, the oldest part of the city, 3,000 and is said to be the largest conMediterranean cuisine; Fülemüle walk the little winding streets and you’ll tinuously active synagogue in Europe, (Nightingale) Restaurant, presenting tradiscover many restored medieval buildand the third largest in the world (after ditional home-made recipes for goose, ings. And visit the inner city of Pest, the Belz Great Synagogue in Jerusalem, smoked meats, and cholent (a Hungaria busy commercial and shopping area. seating 6,000, and the Satmar synaan-Jewish specialty bean dish); and Visitors are often impressed by gogue in Kyrias Joel, New York, said to Rosenstein Restaurant, a “hidden treaBudapest’s Art Nouveau architecture, seat 5,500—7,000). The adjoining Jew- sure” (as it’s located in a not-so-nice ish Museum, built on the former site of area near the Eastern Railways station), seen in many late 19th- and early 20ththe birthplace of Zionist visionary Thewhere the goose and duck are prepared century buildings. The unique style odor Herzl, houses Europe’s second with an especially light touch. incorporates old Hungarian folk motifs Don’t miss out on the traditional Jewand beautifully glazed pottery roof tiles. largest Judaica collection (after Berlin’s Judisches Museum). Also worth seeing ish dessert called flodni—a layered pasis the 14th-century medieval SynaWhat are the Jewish attractions? try of ground walnut paste, poppy seeds, gogue of Buda, on what was formerly Tourists can revel in Hungary’s Jewand apples. You’ll find the best flodni called “Jewish Street.” ish cultural revival. The Judafest Street (with cherries instead of apple) in the reform judaism

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GLOBAL NEWS from p.40 Gottingen resident Brigitta Stammer oversaw the arranging of private donations—and arranged for the synagogue to be taken apart, wall-by-wall, stone-by-stone, piece-by-piece, moved 25 miles to the city, and reassembled.

The small synagogue was rededicated in November 2008.

Today it is the house of prayer for some 160 members of the liberal Jüdische Gemeinde Göttingen.

Israel

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1st Arab Students Group Hosted in Israel: In 2012, the Reform Movement’s Beit Shmuel (a cultural and educational mecca and housing complex that also serves as the WUPJ’s Jerusalem headquarters) hosted the first student group from the Arab world continued on p.44

Holocaust Memorial Center’s coffee shop. Also try the Ruszwurm “kremes” (Cream Pastry), a mouth-watering sweet made of egg, vanilla and whipped cream, available at the Ruszwurm coffee shop, the oldest confectionery on the continent (since 1827), still run by the last active Hungarian confectionery dynasty.

How many Jews live in Hungary?

The estimated number is 70,000— 100,000—a large variation because the vast majority of Jews are unaffiliated.

Many hide their Jewishness and/or are not even aware of their Jewish origins, despite nearly 2000 years of Jewish presence in the area. In the Second World War, Nazi Germans and Hungarians killed approximately 500,000 of 700,000 Hungarian Jews, all but extinguishing what had been the largest Jewish community in Central Europe. Because of Nazi persecution, the subsequent Communist oppression of all religions, and continuing deep-rooted antisemitism, neither the Jewish community nor the general society has begun Vergangenheitsbewaltigung, the proper processing

of the past. Nonetheless, since 1989, the end of the Communist era, all religious groups have experienced a revival.

What is synagogue life like?

The Neolog community, a Conservative Jewish stream that was once great and is now declining, lists 17 Budapest synagogues on its website. Budapest also has a small, independent Orthodox community with four synagogues; a small but vocal Chabad Lubavicher community with two synagogues; and— in a revival of 19th-century Hungarian Reform Judaism—a Progressive community with two congregations, Sim Shalom and Bet Orim.

Sim Shalom (“Give Peace”), founded as an association in 1994 and as a congregation in 2004, was the first Progressive synagogue to be established in post-Communist Hungary. Like many post-war Hungarian Jews, its founding leader, Katalin Keleman, a language teacher by profession, only became aware of her Jewish roots as an adult.

She began engaging with Judaism in the late 80s, when the regime slowly relaxed its opposition to religion. Eventually she trained to become a rabbi and was ordained at the Leo Baeck College in London. Upon her return to Hungary, she slowly organized a community.

Today Sim Shalom has approximately 60 paying members and as many occasional visitors. Services—using the community’s own siddur in Hebrew, transliteration, and Hungarian—are held on most Friday nights in a rented innercity apartment. The atmosphere is joyful, with lots of singing, as Cantor Miklos Budai plays guitar and a young member accompanies him on drums.

My congregation, Bet Orim (House of Light), with approximately 50 members and about 100 supporters, was founded in 2005 to educate Hungarian Jews about Jewish traditions, history, practices, and ethics—knowledge that had not been passed down to them from their parents and grandparents. We consider it our mission to make both members and dropins feel equally welcome. Shabbat services are led by Hungarian-born Rabbi Ferenc Raj (PhD, Rabbi Emeritus of Congregation Beth El in Berkeley, California) with humor, love, and a little extra reform judaism

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Jewish teaching that makes everybody feel that they’ve taken away more than they came in with. His erudite sermons reverberate long after he delivers them.

There is no dress code; you wear whatever makes you feel comfortable. We read from our own siddur, in Hebrew, transliteration, and Hungarian, with a smattering of English text and poems. After the service we encourage lively discussion.

For all festivals, services are in both Hungarian and English, which enables Bet Orim to reach out to Budapest’s English speaking Jews and attract many foreign visitors. On the High Holy Days, services occasionally feature the well-known Hungarian pianist/singer Zoltan Neumark, the Yiddish-HebrewLadino singer Diana Samu-Pandzarisz (who belongs to the congregation), and the internationally renowned classical guitarist Sandor Mester. Their masterful “performances” draw big crowds.

Do you have unique communal celebrations?

On Sukkot, Sim Shalom builds a sukkah in a public park, waving the lulav and etrog as passersby watch with interest.

On Simchat Torah, Rabbi Kelemen of Sim Shalom invites up to the bimah a few people who have had an especially happy or sad year to recite blessings, and thereby feel supported by the community.

Later, everybody dances with the Torah to Cantor Budai’s music—the young children dancing with the community’s “children’s Torahs,” miniature scrolls. At Bet Orim, after dancing, the whole community stands around the Torah as many worshipers participate in turning the scroll back to the beginning—a community-bonding ritual.

What challenges does your Progressive Jewish community face?

In 2010 the new Hungarian government enacted hundreds of new laws, one of which abolished the religious status of hundreds of congregations, including Budapest’s two Progressive communities. The financial consequences have been significant: Hungarian taxpayers are allowed to donate 1% of their income tax to a religious organization, but now that Bet Orim and Sim Shalom continued on page 48

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RJ INSIDER’S GUIDE

MOSCOW: Culture & Community Interview with Leonid Bimbat

Greetings from the Kremlin wall at sunrise.

K remlin Photograph: Diment y / Dreamstime.com

Rabbi Leonid Bimbat is rabbi of Congregation Le-Dor va-Dor in Moscow.

Hineini was officially registered with the government as a congregation.

Now there are three Progressive conWhat should travelers not miss gregations in Moscow: Hineini, Severin Moscow? naya (“Northern,” established in 2000), There is so much to see...Red Square, and our synagogue, Le-Dor va-Dor (“From Generation the Kremlin and its to Generation,” museums, our art established in galleries, the Bol1999). Hineini and shoi Theater, ballet, Severnaya serve opera…the city is hundreds of older alive with culture. people seeking a What Jewish friendly Jewish sites are most environment in worth visiting? their neighborThe most imporhood. Le-Dor vatant Jewish site is Dor is primarily the stunning 1906 for families with Moscow Choral young children— BAR MITZVAH AT LE-DOR VA-DOR. Synagogue, with its we took the name Moorish style interior and Arabesque after many families with small children moldings and murals. And be sure to visit decided to join. About 80% of our 200 the new Jewish Museum, which tells the members are under 40, and some famistory of Jews in Russia from Tsarist times lies have 3 or even 4 children. through today. I would also recommend Shalom Theater, the first professional What else distinguishes your congregation?

Jewish theater in Russia, where you can see musicals, drama, and comedy.

Very few of our members were raised as Jews, at least with some degree of What is your top travel tip? observance. Most discovered their Judaism If you travel in winter, take warm as adults. My personal story is perhaps clothes with you, as -30 Celsius (-22° typical. Only at age 15, at the time of Fahrenheit) is not an unusual temperaPerestroika in 1990, did I learn that my ture for winter months. mother was Jewish. I started to learn Hebrew in my native Ekaterinburg, Russia, and then began to bring my mother When did Progressive Judaism take root in Moscow? and maternal grandparents to Jewish events. Much later I became involved Because of the events of the last cenwith Reform Judaism, but my very first tury—wars, the repressive Soviet sysstep was choosing to be a Jew. Then came tem—it was not possible for Judaism to the choice of what kind of Jew to be— develop freely and naturally in Russia.

Orthodox, secular, Reform. As a student The first Reform Jewish group was of literature, I felt most at home with established only 25 years ago. In 1989, reform judaism

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Reform Judaism, which embraced the questioning of text. This spiritual journey led to my becoming a rabbi.

Much of my work at Congregation Le-Dor va-Dor centers on helping Moscow Jews who have little Jewish literacy become more knowledgeable and raise Jewish children. Many of our adult congregants have a Jewish father and non-Jewish mother, and are therefore not recognized as Jewish by the Orthodox and Lubavitchers. At Le-Dor va-Dor, these patrilineal families are accepted and get to meet others like them; on Sundays, when their children are in religious school, for example, we’ve created a separate space where they can share their experiences and concerns.

About 20% of our members have converted to Judaism via the FSU’s Reform Beth Din (rabbinical court). Most of these individuals are converting because they have no proof that their parents/ grandparents were Jewish. In the Soviet period people’s ethnic origins were stated on their passports, and their parents’ origins were recorded on their birth certificates (nowadays ethnic origin does not appear on any official documents). During WWII some families purposely disposed of their documents, and it is now impossible to trace their origins because many archives were destroyed during the war. Even for those congregants who were raised Jewish, if they do not have supporting documents, the only option to be acknowledged as a Jew by the Jewish community is by a Reform Beth Din conversion. The process takes at least one year, and many converts later become very active members. They also teach their parents and even their grandparents about their Jewish heritage.

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What are worship services like?

GLOBAL NEWS from p.42 to visit and learn about Israel.

Kivunim (“Directions”), a gapyear program in Israel based at Beit Shmuel, developed a relationship with Moadon Mimouna, a group of Moroccan Muslim students who study the history and culture of Moroccan Jews and Judaism in order to better understand their own culture and history. Kivunim’s Executive Director Peter Geffen led a two-week experience that included a visit to Ramallah and meetings with high-ranking Palestinian officials.

Participants left Israel with a new appreciation of the Jewish people’s accomplishments in the state and a strong desire to return: one dreams of becoming Morocco’s first ambassador to Israel; others are reviewing scholarship opportunities for graduate studies.

Progressive Preschool: In the fall of 2011, the Israel Movement for Progressive Judaism, in cooperation with the Jerusalem municipality, opened the Nitzanim preschool, Jerusalem’s only preschool program for children of refugees and foreign workers living in Israel. As a result, 20 pupils ages 3–6 from Eritrea, Sudan, the DRC (Congo), the Philippines, and Korea are improving their Hebrew language skills and being prepared for mainstream Israeli education on the HUC/Mercaz ShimshonBeit Shmuel campus.

Poland

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Training Progressive ParaProfessionals: As there are no native Polish-speaking Progressive rabbis working in Poland yet, Beit Polska (the national association of Progressive Judaism in Poland) is running an intensive service-leader training continued on p.46

Services are led by one of two Russian-born rabbis (Rabbi Alexander Lyskovoy and myself) or our Ukrainian cantor (Cantor Dmitry Karpenko). Having been largely influenced by the Israeli Movement for Progressive Judaism, we (and other Moscow Reform congregations) use the Israeli Reform prayer book Ha’avoda Shebalev, which has been translated into Russian, reciting most of the prayers in Hebrew and a few in Russian. When a visitor from abroad joins us, we always provide an English translation.

Our liturgical music is a unique blend of American and Israeli melodies, Chasidic tunes, and some additional melodies with a Ukrainian flavor composed by our cantor. The style of our services varies. On Friday night we sing more “camp-style” melodies accompanied by guitar, and attract young Jews.

On Saturday morning, services are more “classical,” sometimes using an electronic organ, and families with children are the main participants.

What else is unique about Le-Dor va-Dor?

We are the first Progressive congregation in Russia to introduce membership fees. The amount is very small, and does not allow the congregation to be self-sufficient; it represents a “social” (symbolic) membership fee for all those who chose to identify as Reform Jews.

It is very unlikely that our two other Moscow congregations will follow this practice, since their members are older Jews—pensioners coping with limited income and steep utility bills.

We hope you will come visit us.

Le-Dor va-Dor is a friendly and lively community, with many members who speak English. You will be warmly welcomed here.

Which holidays are most popular?

Most popular is Passover, which we typically celebrate with communal seders intermixing traditional readings, music (jazz and other styles), and video presentations of haggadah illustrations. Seders are popular in the wider Jewish community as well. This is our time to celebrate freedom from Soviet oppression, recalling the period not so long ago when it was forbidden to observe our religion.

Next in importance to our community is Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. Year by year, more of our members come to understand the importance of the High Holy Days as a time of spiritual renewal.

What are your most important Jewish lifecycle celebrations?

The most meaningful ones at LeDor va-Dor are baby naming, because we have many small children, and b’rit milah, because many adults who were not raised as Jews decide to be circumcised in private ceremonies at a local clinic.

Also, bar/bat mitzvah ceremonies are becoming increasingly common here. In the past, 13-year-olds had reform judaism

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birthday parties; now most have a meaningful Jewish rite of passage.

Whereas five years ago parents did not expect their children to have formal learning, it is now understood that bar/ bat mitzvah involves a learning period of up to one year.

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Singapore

continued from page 40 belts and machine guns at the ready— at the entrance of all American institutions in Singapore. This included the American Club, where UHC services are typically held, requiring all High Holy Day worshipers to pass by these austere looking, unsmiling figures before entering “shul.” On the first such occasion I whispered to my wife, “Do we have to be worried if the Gurkha hears that my sermon was not especially good tonight?” Now, the Gurkhas are gone.

Fortunately, Singapore has no history of antisemitism. In a city where Buddhism and Christianity are thought to be the largest religious groupings, with significant Hindu and Muslim populations as well, the Jews seem well-respected and fit into the larger community with ease.

Jews here have also held prominent government positions: David Marshall, an Iraqi Jew, served as Singapore’s first Chief Minister from 1955 to 1956, and later as Singapore’s ambassador to France, Portugal, Spain, and Switzerland.

Come visit. You’ll enjoy Singapore.

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RJ INSIDER’S GUIDE

SAN JUAN: Culture & Community Interview with Harry A. and Barbara Tasch Ezratty

Harry A. and Barbara Tasch Ezratty are both past presidents of Temple Beth Shalom. Harry is also author of 500 Years in the Jewish Caribbean; Barbara is a food writer and book publisher.

Greetings from El Yunque Rainforest

Magazine: Puerto Rico’s Guide to Great Dining (tablespr.com) can help you navigate 700 of the plentiful options.

The basic island food derives from a combination of the old Caribbean Taino

Rainforest Photo: Massjayhawk; Temple Beth Shalom Photo: A lan Hirsch

What excites tourists about Puerto Rico?

The island’s public beaches are popular destinations for snorkeling, scuba diving, boating, swimming, TEMPLE BETH SHALOM SERVICE AT THE HISTORIC FORTRESS IN OLD SAN JUAN. sunbathing, and kayaking.

Indian and Spanish influences. The Fishing for Blue Marlin in the Atlantic indigenous Caribbean pineapples were Trench, at 28,000 feet the deepest part of on the island before Columbus and are the Atlantic, is a year-round sport that still sweeter than those enjoyed by statealso attracts deep-sea fishermen worldsiders. Other basic foodstuffs, such as wide for the fall’s big-game tournament. root vegetables, rice, and seafood, are Big draws are professionally designed available today in old-style and updated golf courses and hiking in El Yunque versions reflecting the influx of myriad Rainforest, Puerto Rico’s highest mouncultures on the island’s cuisine. tain range (3,500 feet). Zip-lining—hurTemple Beth Shalom has published tling above the tree-lines from a looped its own Spanish-English cookbook, line stretched from one mountainside to What’s Cooking/Que Se Cocina, which another—has become a hot new sport, is still in print and available from the and the Caves of Camuy, one of the synagogue (tbspr.org). Here is a tropiworld’s three largest cave systems, are cal-tasting recipe by long-time member breathtakingly, expansively beautiful.

Edna Friedes, who died in October 2012 at age 105½: What are the cuisine options?

Puerto Rico is known as “The CuliPineapple Chicken Salad nary Capital of the Caribbean.” You can enjoy American, Asian, Brazilian, 3 chicken breast halves, skinless and boneless Caribbean, Cuban, French, Italian, Mex1 ican, Middle Eastern, Peruvian, Puerto ⁄2 cup pineapple chunks, reserving 1⁄2 cup juice Rican, Spanish—and more. Tables reform judaism

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⁄4 cup seedless green grapes ⁄2 tsp. curry powder 1 Tbs. mayonnaise Salt and pepper to taste

1 1

Bake the chicken until done. Cool.

Cut the chicken into cubes. Add curry powder, salt, and pepper and mix well.

Add pineapple chunks and grapes. Toss to mix. To make the dressing, combine the reserved pineapple juice and mayo.

Mix well.

What are your top travel tips?

The sun in Puerto Rico is seriously stronger than stateside (being closer to the equator), so use lots of sunblock.

And because Puerto Rico is a U.S. territory, Americans do not need to bring their passports.

What are the Jewish sites of interest?

In San Juan, three synagogues serve the population of approximately 2,000 Jews. The Conservative congregation has about 215 families, many of whom descend from Cuban immigrants in the early days of the Castro regime. The Chabad congregation is the smallest, with about 20 families. And the Reform congregation, Temple Beth Shalom (TBS), has about 60 families—some of them descendants of Jews who emigrated from the States to the island in the 1950s and 60s and formed the congregation in 1967.

All three congregations join together for community events, such as the recent dedication of the Holocaust Memorial across from the Capital in Old San Juan; and the three cooperate with the Chabad movement’s “Jewish Welcome Center,” which opened in 2012 in Old San Juan and offers tours of Jewish interest.

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What are services like at Temple Beth Shalom?

We’re very proud of being a “singing” congregation. Without a full-time cantor, our congregants have learned both old and new melodies for weekly and holiday services from visiting vocalists. We participate not as “audience members” but fully—very vocally—in weekly services.

On Friday nights, services are mostly in English and Hebrew, using Gates of Prayer; on Saturday mornings, services are mainly in Spanish and Hebrew, utilizing a Spanish/Hebrew prayer book.

This meets the whole congregation’s needs—the majority of whom are English-speakers and approximately 30% for whom Spanish is their first language.

Fifteen years ago, TBS was all Englishspeaking, but as trained locals began to replace stateside middle-management personnel in island jobs and the resident Puerto Ricans started exploring Judaism, a number of Spanish speakers converted and found their Jewish home here. Many of these new Jews-bychoice came from anusim, families who knew or suspected their forbearers

included secret Jews. To this day, visiting rabbis offer training to them, and we hope more anusim will join us.

The TBS attire is very casual (except no shorts or beach clothes are allowed).

Although we began as an almost Classical Reform congregation, like the rest of the Reform Movement, we have moved towards traditionalism in ritual observance; today most men wear kippot, and prayer shawls are prevalent. Part-time visiting rabbis, who stay for one or more months during the winter season, represent varying degrees of tradition on the bimah, all of which are welcomed.

Do you have unique celebrations?

Taschlich services are held on the Caribbean beach, two blocks from TBS— often surprising bathing-suit clad tourists.

We invite visitors to join us for weekly services. You’ll not only meet our friendly members, but people from other island congregations, cruise ship passengers, businesspeople staying at nearby hotels, and local university students—and become part of Reform Judaism’s family in sunny San Juan.

The Jacob Rader Marcus Center of the AMERICAN JEWISH ARCHIVES

present

Travels in American Jewish History A Study Mission to Historic Philadelphia, PA

May 1-5, 2013

On May 1-5, 2013, the AJA will lead a group to Philadelphia, PA to study its rich Jewish history. Participants will have the opportunity for interactive learning while touring sites such as the National Museum of American Jewish History, the Rosenbach Library plus the historic congregations of Philadelphia. Featured scholars include Dr. Jonathan D. Sarna, Dr. Lance J. Sussman and Dr. Gary P. Zola.

For more information, please contact Lisa Frankel, Director of Programs for the AJA, by e-mail: lfrankel@huc.edu, phone: 513-487-3218 or visit our website: AmericanJewishArchives.org.

Reserve your place on the trip!

GLOBAL NEWS from p.44 program in Warsaw called Shatz (short for Sh’lichei Tzibur, which in Hebrew means “service leaders”) for native first-year and second-year students. Once the students achieve the required level of competency, they will lead Shabbat services at small, emerging Jewish communities throughout the country Milan Offers Torah to Krakow: This past October, 10 members of Beth Shalom Progressive Congregation in Milan, founded in 2002, presented a Torah scroll to the even younger Beit KraMARCHING WITH GIFTED TORAH TO BEIT KRAKOW. kow congregation in Krakow. Starting at the Galicia Jewish Museum, the Torah was placed under a chuppah and marched, amidst crowds singing and dancing, through Krakow’s old Jewish quarter, and to three synagogues before reaching the High Synagogue, where it was formally presented to Beit Krakow.

Spain

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Barcelona’s Beit Din: In June 2011, 30 people (24 adults and six children ages 4–12) were converted or “welcomed back” to Judaism at a Shabbat morning service in Barcelona. When the news got out that Rosina Levy of Bet Shalom of Barcelona would be presenting its candidates to the WUPJ European Region Beit Din (rabbinic court), other Jewish communities throughout Spain asked to send their own candidates too—some traveling hundreds of kilometers to the only Beit Din that would help them achieve their dream of becoming Jewish. continued on p.48

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RJ INSIDER’S GUIDE

RIO DE JANEIRO: Culture & Community Interview with Raul Cesar Gottlieb

Copacabana Beach Photo: Marchello 74 / Dreamstime.com

Raul Cesar Gottlieb is vice president of WUPJ Latinamerica, board member of ARI—Associação Religiosa Israelita of Rio de Janeiro, and editor director of Devarim Magazine.

Greetings from Copacabana Beach What are your top travel tips?

Pick up my favorite guide, How to Be a Carioca by Priscilla Goslin, a small, delightful book that captures the soul of Rio de Janeiro.

Also, be careful traveling. Avoid carrying passports and valuables with you.

What excites tourists about Rio? Brazil is a very welcoming country.

Choose popular destinations such as Pão Be ready de Açucar to be sur(Sugar rounded Loaf by smilcable ing people car), 24/7, to Corcodrink vado (a heavenly mountain “caipirwith a magnifiinhas” (a cent strong view), alcoholic Ipanema beverage (a popular made of KABBALAT SHABBAT AT ASSOCIAÇÃO RELIGIOSA ISRAELITA. beach), lemon, sugar, and the sugar cane alcohol called Copacabana (another popular beach), and Jardim Botânico (a botanical garden “cachaça”), and to relax in the sun. with a large collection of tropical plants).

Rio’s south zone, nestled between A stroll in the historic downtown on a the Serra do Mar mountains and the weekend is also a good option.

Atlantic Ocean, offers spectacular views, both from the mountaintop down and from the beach up.

What is Jewish life like in Rio? A must is February’s Carnival parade, In Brazil, the Jews are a small minorwhich is too exciting to be described in ity—0.05% of 195 million people. Withwords; please YouTube it and come. And in Rio, 30,000 Jews are well integrated go to a soccer game; when you sit in the among the 12 million “cariocas” (as those middle of the torcidas (team supporters), born in Rio de Janeiro call themselves). you’ll feel a part of our lively rituals.

Our Jewish community is quite active and diverse. There are 20 synagogues: one Reform, one Conservative, and various What are some culinary delights? streams of Orthodoxy. We also have three Rio is famous for all-you-can-eat big Jewish day schools (two pluralist and Churrascarias (barbeque restaurants), where dozens of different kinds of meat one Orthodox) as well as welfare, cultural, burial, women’s, Zionist, and social orgaare served, along with a sumptuous nizations—about 80 institutions in all! assortment of side dishes, including all In Rio, the biggest congregation is kind of salads, fish, and cheese. reform judaism

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Reform, our own 900-family Associação Religiosa Israelita (ARI). Founded by German Jews in 1942, it now attracts Jews of all kinds drawn to modernity, egalitarianism, and the balancing of spirituality and rationalism. The congregation is always bustling with religious, cultural, and social activities.

What are Shabbat services like?

Before the service, almost every worshiper joins in the festive meeting we call hora do cafezinho (“little coffee time”), talking about the week and enjoying the company of friends.

Now, imagine yourself in our main sanctuary, built in the shape of a desert tent, with two large stained glass lateral walls representing the openness of Judaism. Most Friday nights the space is filled with around 500 persons, members and non-members alike, attracted by the challenging intellectual messages that emanate from our pulpit, by the beautiful music, and by a genuinely friendly ambience. Our rabbis—Rabbi Sergio R. Margulies, a Brazilian who belonged to ARI as a child, and Rabbi Dario E. Bialer of Argentina—follow a long tradition (that begun with Rabbi Henrique Lemle, our German founding rabbi) of bringing to the fore the main questions and concerns of contemporary Jews. And whenever Israel is threatened or celebrated, ARI serves as the center of activity for Brazil’s strongly Zionist Jewish community.

Religious services are almost all in Hebrew, with very little Portuguese.

Because Brazil is the only Latin American country where Portuguese and not Spanish is spoken, ARI uses a homemade siddur in Hebrew and Portuguese for Kabbalat Shabbat, and prayer books edited by the liberal

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GLOBAL NEWS from p.46 Having studied with local teachers for at least a year, the participants demonstrated proficiency in Jewish history, customs, religious festivals, and lifecycle events; the men also presented a certificate of circumcision, as required by Jewish law and in accordance with European custom. Looking ahead, many of the newly initiated adult Jewsby-choice are already planning for their bar/bat mitzvahs.

“This conversion program not only propelled Bet Shalom onto the front lines of Progressive Judaism in Spain,” says Dr. Rifat Sonsino, who served as officiating rabbi, “but is now a model for other small congregations, which have learned what can be accomplished with enthusiasm, dedication, and the support of the European Region of the WUPJ. This made me really proud.”

~& ~

United Kingdom

Reform Jew Is the UK Ambassador to Israel: Matthew Gould, who attends services at the Reform Movement’s West London Synagogue, became the UK’s ambassador to Israel in October 2010. He is the first MATTHEW Jew to hold the post. GOULD First Trained Reform Cantor in Britain: When London’s Finchley Reform Synagogue (FRS) inducted Cantor Zöe Jacobs during Shabbat services on November 14, 2009, she became the first fully-trained cantor to serve a Reform con- ZÖE JACOBS gregation in Britain.

Jacobs grew up at FRS and was ordained at the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in New York.

congregation of São Paulo for all other services.

Kippot (head coverings) and tallitim (prayer shawls) are mandatory for men—a custom dating back to our congregation’s German roots. In European Reform Judaism, the wearing of talitot and kippot by men has always been compulsory; American congregations began to abandon this practice in the 1890s. That said, as we are an egalitarian community, kippot and tallitim may be worn by women as well.

Women participate equally in all ways.

Some years ago we had a female rabbi, Rabbi Sandra Kochman, the first woman to serve as a community rabbi in Brazil.

What is the worship music like?

Our two full-time chazanim (cantors)—Oren Boljover of Argentina and Andre Nudelman, who has also been a member of the community since his youth—conduct the musical prayers, accompanied by an electronic organ.

The music includes many compositions by Louis Lewandowski and other 19th century German composers—a reflection of our founders’ origins— along with modern and participatory music, including a few pieces of jazz and just a touch of Brazilian and South American music.

What else is unique about ARI?

ARI holds a daily minyan every evening, seven days a week, which provides a space for the community to recite Kaddish and to pray at the end of the business day.

On the High Holy Days, our services draw more than 3,000 Jews—a remarkable feat for a congregation of 900 and a Jewish community of 30,000. Other congregations are overflowing as well. This says a lot about how Brazilian Jews feel about being part of a religious community; even the least observant of them will be in a synagogue on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.

What are ARI’s other priorities?

On the cultural level, ARI publishes Devarim, a high-standard magazine aimed to strengthen Reform awareness in Brazil, and to dispel the awkward notion that Reform congregations “are like reform judaism

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churches.” We print some 5,000 copies three times a year and distribute them for free all over Brazil.

We also emphasize social awareness and activism. Recognizing that persons with special needs are productive and creative human beings, we’ve created a space inside the synagogue building for them to use daily, mostly for crafts— instead of seeing them relegated to an almost invisble parallel world. Our youth movement, Chazit Hanoar, holds ongoing teaching and recreational programs with children in Rio’s disadvantaged communities, helping them to organize themselves as a youth movement, which raises their self-esteem.

The Social Action committee collects needed goods (medicines, food, clothes, etc.); supports “Ballet Santa Teresa,” a ballet school for disadvantaged youth; and helps hire teachers for the supplementary education necessary to prepare students for acceptance into colleges, as the level of teaching in public schools is woefully inadequate.

Please come and see all we do at ARI! You will be very welcome.

Budapest

continued from page 42 have lost their “religious organization” label (becoming “associations”), a substantial part of their income has been lost. To try to stay financially afloat, Bet Orim is conducting fund-raising events and has introduced membership fees, and Sim Shalom has increased dues.

Both have applied for grants.

While it may not easy to be a Progressive Jew in Hungary, our community is heartened by our relationship with Jews worldwide. At Bet Orim, our rabbi, cantor, and quite a few members speak English, French, and German. We are happy to conduct multilingual services and very much enjoy talking to visitors from abroad.

So, the next time you are in Europe, I hope you will come and meet us! Please, if possible, contact Rabbi Gary BrettonGranatoor at the World Union for Progressive Judaism in advance (see “You’re Never Alone When You Say You’re a Jew” on page 29 for instructions) so that we can offer you proper hospitality.

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JEWISHLIFEYOUTH ENGAGEMENT

Short Experience, Staggering Impact Interview with Leonard Saxe

Q

Life experiences are disrupted by inflection points— transformative moments that can have a powerful impact on the nature of emerging identity. For example, whatever one’s Jewish educational background, the experience of attending or being a counselor at a Jewish summer camp can have a particularly strong impact on Jewish identity. The intensity of relationships formed at camp, experienced in the context of living Jewishly, has a much larger influence on adult Jewish identity than might at first seem probable for a limited summer experience.

Courtesy of URJ Camps and Israel Programs

How do social scientists define Jewish identity today?

The answer depends on what questions social scientists are trying to answer. If our goal is to count Jews, then anyone who identifies him or herself as a Jew is considered Jewish.

But identity is complex, and often we try to understand the place of Jewish identity within the context of people’s lives and how they think about themselves. To understand the complexity, we need to underKABBALAT SHABBAT AT URJ CAMP KALSMAN, ARLINGTON, WASHINGTON, 2011. stand how one’s Jewishness is reflected in behavior and how Jews do not. So, it is an oversimplificait has evolved over the course of a life. tion to measure Jewish identity or predict whether one’s children will be raised as What makes the summer camp experience so impactful?

Has the definition changed Jews solely on the basis of who one over the years? chooses as a partner. Raising Jewish chil- Camp incorporates the three essential Decades ago, identity and behavior— dren is mostly a function of a person’s components of effective education, and it particularly affiliation—were more Jewish education. Particularly for Jewish does so in a particularly Jewish way. It is closely connected. Thus, we might simwomen, the research shows that those a positive emotional experience—young ply have asked whether a person lit who have had both formal and informal people feel good about being part of a Shabbat candles or was a synagogue Jewish education as well as some experi- Jewish community; it has a cognitive member. Today we need to know how a ence of celebrating Jewish holidays at component—young people learn about person thinks and feels about his or her home will raise their children as Jews.

Jewish rituals and Jewish life; and, perJewishness. Ritual practice is a part of We live in an era of choice and mulhaps most importantly, it has a behaviorJewish identity, but not the only indicatiple identities. Whether and how we al aspect—campers experience living tor. An increasing number of individuals choose to be Jewish is not simply a label Jewishly in a communal setting. identify as “just Jewish.” For some, “just or a set of practices; it is about how we Judaism is not simply a religion of Jewish” is a post-denominational label prioritize Jewish identity. That, in turn, faith, but an approach to life. We can’t and a synthesis of practices and beliefs; is a function of education and experieffectively socialize young people withfor others, it signals identification with ence. Many Jews, unfortunately, do not out engaging their hearts, minds, and the Jewish people, not Judaism per se. have enough knowledge of their tradibodies. Camping is particularly effecChanging attitudes to marriage tion to be able to engage meaningfully. tive for those who later become counselbetween Jews and non-Jews illustrate the ors-in-training and then counselors, new complexity. Many Jews who have because they gain an expanded and Is there a time-tested formula, non-Jewish spouses retain strong Jewish a continuum of experiences that, more sophisticated set of understandidentities, while many Jews who married when followed, leads to strong ings about Jewish life. And, having had Jewish identity in adulthood? the opportunity to be Jewish role models Leonard Saxe is Klutznick Professor of It is more complicated than that. The tra- and teachers, some counselors go on Contemporary Jewish Studies and direcjectory of Jewish identity does not follow to become rabbis, cantors, educators, tor of the Cohen Center for Modern Jewish Jewish communal workers, and lay a straight line or represent the sum total Studies and the Steinhardt Social Research of hours of Jewish education, worship, or leaders in their Jewish communities.

Institute at Brandeis University. other activities clocked. continued on page 62 reform judaism

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JEWISHLIFEINTERFAITH INTERACTION

Reimagining Muslim-Jewish Relations Established in 2006, the transformative conversaL.A.-based organization tions were very difficult to NewGround is dedicated to achieve between estabtransforming the ways lished religious leaders, Jews and Muslims interact who, before entering into a through public programs, relationship, tended to fellowships, consulting, impose conditions on the and thought-leadership— other side, such as “I will and thus far has trained 80 only speak to you if you young Muslim and Jewish condemn suicide bombmen and women, and partings” or “I will only speak nered with more than 30 to you if you acknowledge Muslim and Jewish organithat Israel’s occupation is zations to bring transforunjust.” This approach MEMBERS OF TEMPLE EMANUEL IN BEVERLY HILLS AND KING FAHAD MOSQUE mative programs to 2,400+ IN CULVER CITY, CA DISPLAY LOS ANGELES HUMAN RELATIONS COMMISSION fueled mistrust from the people. Executive Director CERTIFICATES AT A SYNAGOGUE-MOSQUE FELLOWSHIP EVENT, 2012. outset and led to quick Rabbi Sarah Bassin, 30, breakdowns in communimoment. I thought to myself, A bigger HUC-JIR class of 2011, recently cation. In contrast, young professionals megaphone isn’t going to transform any- were not beholden to stakeholders and received a $100,000 grant from the thing. All we’re doing is stopping traffic Joshua Venture Group’s 2012–2014 were therefore less likely to be criticized along Wilshire Boulevard and upsetting Dual Investment Program to take her for entering into such a relationship. RepLos Angeles model national. She was the larger community that wants nothing resenting only themselves, they could interviewed by the RJ magazine editors. to do with this conversation. communicate more honestly and openly.

A year later I took a job researching This approach fueled trust. And, the trends in U.S. Muslim-Jewish relations at expectation is, in years to come, as these What inspired your involvement with Muslim-Jewish relations? the Center for Muslim-Jewish Engageyoung professionals reach top-level posiment, a University of Southern California tions within their individual communiHaving come from a mixed Jewishthink tank under the direction of HUCCatholic background, I entered HUC ties, they will be able to lower the tension JIR professor Rabbi Reuven Firestone. wanting to make interfaith relations the during times of conflict by calling upon core of my rabbinate. Though my initial people in the interfaith network of trustinterest was Jewish-Catholic dialogue, it What trends did you discover? ing relationships they’ve already built. soon shifted to Jewish-Muslim dialogue, An increasing number of Americans a field that was largely in its infancy. have broadened their view of the U.S. You’ve said that a 2010 Gallup poll revealed that Islamophobia and One tipping point for me happened in from a “Judeo-Christian nation” to one antisemitism are two sides of the 2009 during Israel’s Operation Cast Lead that encompasses all three Abrahamic same coin: “The strongest predicin Gaza, when I was working at the Los faith groups. This changing perception Angeles Board of Rabbis. An anti-Israel has coincided with a demographic shift: tor of prejudice against Muslims is whether a person has similar protest was in force outside our Federathe U.S. Muslim population has grown feelings toward Jews.” How do tion building, and all of us were encourto approximately the same size as the you use this information to bring aged to go downstairs and start a counter- American Jewish community. From protest in support of Israel. In the street, these trends, it was clear that improving Muslims and Jews together? the Palestinian faction was well-orgainterfaith relations needed to become a One difficulty in bringing Muslims nized, chanting loudly into a megaphone, priority for both Muslims and Jews. and Jews together is that when they think while the Jewish demonstrators were in Meanwhile, two other L.A. organizaabout the other, the first image that comes total disarray. One Jewish man kept pactions discovered, after a year-long study, to mind is conflict; e.g., Israel-Palestine. ing back and forth, muttering to himself, that the most effective way to build JewIt’s time to shift the focus to shared con“We have to get a bigger megaphone; if ish-Muslim engagement was to cultivate cerns and interests. As religious minoriwe don’t have a bigger megaphone, we’re young Jewish and Muslim professionals ties in the U.S., both Muslims and Jews going to lose.” That was my “aha!” as partners in dialogue. Productive, are concerned with protecting their relireform judaism

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Photograph by Chris Bacarella

Interview with Sarah Bassin

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gious and civil rights, yet rarely have they joined forces. When, for example, anticircumcision legislation initiatives were introduced in San Francisco and Santa Monica, the two communities did not fully capitalize on an opportunity for significant coordination. More broadly, both Jews and Muslims care about fighting homelessness, protecting the environment, and pursuing social justice. The “elephant in the room”—the Israel-Palestine conflict—has prevented us from working together more effectively in larger, interfaith-based coalitions on local issues that impact us all. This needs to change.

How do you get Muslims and Jews to see each other as potential political partners?

It’s a process. At first the participants of our six-month fellowship program walk into the room as either Muslims or Jews. All the Muslims sit on one side and all the Jews on the other. To change how people see each other, we ask everyone to stand in a circle and listen to a series of statements; if a particular statement applies to you, you step into the center of the circle. When people hear, “I have a refugee in the family,” usually about 80% of the group steps into the circle—Muslims and Jews. That starts to shift people’s consciousness: Oh, ours isn’t the only group that has refugees as part of our story. Another recognition is that we have multiple identities; being Muslim or Jewish is just one factor folding into our understanding of who we are.

Is looking at each other’s religious texts a good way to foster dialogue?

At NewGround, we will invite an imam or a rabbi to speak to the group about the essential values of their respective sacred texts, but the texts themselves are not at the core of our work. After the speaker leaves, the conversation focuses on how the fellows in the room received that person. Rather than to teach “this is Judaism” or “this is Islam,” our objective is to help draw out people’s personal experiences of their religious tradition.

Often participants will disagree with what the rabbi or the imam said and offer their own perspectives, which also helps in breaking down monolithic perceptions of the other’s religious community.

Our approach is very different from a typical Muslim-Jewish exchange, in which both sides enter the conversation as if it were a contest, equipped with their own set of compelling facts, and both ultimately walk away unswayed, in the same place they started. We start conversations with personal stories and perspectives— what this conflict means to my family, my friends, and me. This way, one person’s facts can’t outdo or negate another’s, because what he or she has said is not subject to debate; it’s true for that person.

In short, we stress communications, conflict resolution, and relationshipbuilding. The issues themselves are a foundation upon which to build trust and connection as we work up to having a conversation about Israel and Palestine.

How do the fellows respond to discussing Israel-Palestine?

Because the fellows fear damaging the relationships they’ve worked so hard to build and know how toxic, uncivil, and derailing this subject can be, they are sometimes reluctant to have the conversation. They soon discover, however, that they do have the skill set to take this subject on, and though the conversation may be tough, they are able to maintain a relationship. Later, after the fellows have left NewGround to work within their communities, their first reaction when a conflict breaks out will not be to blog about it to the public, but rather to call somebody they know from the other community and say, “How are you thinking about this?” This then frames their public response, and the real work proceeds quietly behind the scenes.

Does this real work usually take place in synagogues and mosques?

Actually, we don’t ask our 22–39-yearold fellows to focus on synagogues and mosques, because at this stage of their lives, these institutions are not their primary points of affiliation. Rather, we encourage them to utilize their NewGround training within their existing networks of interest. So, for example, some of our fellows in the entertainment industry went on to host a joint Muslim-Jewish film festival that drew the wider Los Angeles community into exploring how these two communities understand themselves. reform judaism

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Could such bridge-building engage 20- and 30-something Jews beyond the synagogue walls?

Absolutely. Jewish-Muslim relationship-building taps into the value of universalism shared by Millennials. They aren’t interested in separating themselves from the larger community; rather, they see being Jewish as a lens through which they approach the world. Jewish-Muslim relations work allows them to express their Jewishness in that broader context.

This is true of Jewish teens, too. Last year, two Jewish communal leaders told us independently that their teens were asking for encounters with the Muslim community. We helped them to establish a high school leadership council that invites leaders from both a Muslim and a Jewish organization to talk about a major social issue, such as genocide, with high school students. This approach functions simultaneously on three levels: It engages student dialogue; it fosters communication between the two invited organizational leaders, who usually have never met before; and it opens dialogue among the 14 Muslim and Jewish communal leaders on the Advisory Board—all of whom are invested in their students’ experiences.

A vital component of success in Muslim-Jewish relations, I believe, is ensuring that everything we do functions on multiple layers. How can we leverage a series of encounters to move beyond impacting the people sitting in the room to reach ever wider circles of people?

That’s how to make a difference.

Has NewGround worked with Reform congregations?

Yes. As an example, leaders of Temple Emanuel in Beverly Hills asked us to help expand their relationship with King Fahad Mosque beyond annual clergy-organized events to engage a larger number of people from both congregations. In response, we adapted our fellowship training to deepen the relationship between a core group of temple and mosque lay leaders. In October 2012 they held their first joint project: cultural tours of Jewish and Muslim Los Angeles. Meanwhile, a subgroup is working on developing an organization continued on page 67

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JEWISHLIFETHEOLOGY

How Reform Jews Picture God

By Leah Hochman

A

s a child visiting my grandmother, for a long time I saw a drawing taped to the refrigerator that my cousin had made in elementary school. It included four separate images depicting the four things for which my cousin felt most grateful—my grandma (hence its position of honor), recess, candy, and God. I stared at that drawing for years. Wanting to honor God but knowing that God had no image, my cousin had made an astonishing artistic decision: first, she drew a block androgynous figure with arms, legs, and a head—and then she erased it. Left behind was an obvious physical impression of God created by her intentionally removing evidence of a divine form. In her own way, this eight-year-old had solved a theological conundrum: my cousin’s drawing suggested both the absence and presence of God. God was there but not there.

Curious about his congregants’ perceptions of God, Rabbi Mark Dov Shapiro of Sinai Temple, Springfield, Massachusetts surveyed his congregation in 2011, essentially asking members to do what my cousin had done: Draw a picture of your idea of God within the boundaries of your belief in God. Reform Judaism magazine published Rabbi Shapiro’s analysis of “The God Survey” findings and then invited the entire Reform Movement to take “The God Survey” in the hopes of gauging the God beliefs of Reform Jews Leah Hochman is director of the Louchheim School for Judaic Studies at University of Southern California and assistant professor of Jewish Thought at the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion.

throughout North America.

More than 4,300 people responded, including Jews by birth, Jews by choice, men, women, teenagers, Gen Xers,

God Wrestling

Baby Boomers, and people from the “Greatest Generation.” Respondents shared their thoughts and doubts about God, choosing from a range of divine attributes that might describe God and God’s actions, and indicating where and when they felt closest to—and most distant from—God. They also considered when in their lives they needed or wanted a God-figure to praise, to blame, or from whom to derive comfort.

God Wondering An overwhelming majority of respondents—79.8%—responded “a lot” or “a little” to the question: “I wonder about God.” That so many contemplate God on a regular or semi-regular basis might not be overly surprising given their choice to complete a survey about God. Perhaps more striking is that many of them queried the question itself: “Is thinking about God ‘daily’ frequent enough to be considered ‘a lot?” “Does ‘wondering’ about God mean the same as ‘thinking,’ ‘believing in,’ ‘questioning,’ and/or ‘reflecting?’”

Their uncertainties tell us that Reform Jews think deeply about the nature reform judaism

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of their intellectual and/or emotional relationships with God, and that they care about the vocabulary they use to describe those relationships. For Reform Jews, who are grounded in an almost 200-year-old tradition of reflecting on God as the supreme creator of morality, justice, and ethical behavior, such care and attention to the language of faith may be as significant as the data itself.

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Contemporary Jews also wrestle with how to understand the divine. More than 67% of teenagers answered “frequently” when asked how often they question God. The percentage dipped as Jews entered mid-life (52% of 40-year-olds answered “rarely” or “never” to the same question) and rose near the end of life (57% within the 90s+ bracket questioned God “frequently”). “The God Survey” results suggest that teenagers begin God-wrestling once they encounter God on their own terms, outside of the walls of the institutions of Jewish education.

Older Jews, having largely decided on their conceptions of God, question God’s presence less. Yet the questioning of God begins again as seniors more advanced in age encounter illness or feel the loss of loved ones.

The God–Nature Connection Notably, an overwhelming majority of respondents across all age categories said that of all the life experiences they had (or at least those listed in the survey), they feel closest to the divine while experiencing “nature’s wonders.”

For teens (75.5%) through Jews in their 50s (76.6%), 60s (74.5%), and 70s (63.9%), the great outdoors is where people most often encounter divinity;

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this connection tapers off only as people reach their 80s and 90s (47.7%). This shows that the majority of contemporary Jews do not need the four walls of a Jewish institution to facilitate a relationship with the divine. Appreciating God’s presence in all the workings of the larger ecosystem is compatible with the Jewish theological understanding that God works within and through nature; the Psalms are full of references to and praise of the glory of God in the natural world.

God Connections at Services Interestingly, in contrast to data that indicate the “Millennials” (ages 18–30) and Gen Xers (ages 32–47) have distanced themselves from participation in institutional programs and services, “The God Survey” shows that both groups feel closer to God while attending Shabbat services (66.75% of Millennials and 67.4% Gen Xers) than do empty nesters—people in their 50s (66.1%) and 60s (56.9%). This finding may explain why Jews in their 50s and 60s whose children have become b’nai mitzvah and who do not feel close to God in the synagogue are finding fewer reasons to stay engaged with their congregational communities. Without specific synagogue obligations, many of these middle-aged Jews seek out individuals and communities with shared interests that go beyond ethnic and religious identification.

Responsibility for Moral Behavior The majority of Reform Jews believe in human accountability for moral/ immoral behavior, as indicated by the finding that 75% blame humans for the presence of evil in our world (“Evil is a human responsibility, not God’s”).

In response to the two questions related to the Holocaust (“Auschwitz tells us that God’s power is severely limited” and “God could have prevented Auschwitz”), a number of respondents added comments rejecting the questions’ simplification of God’s power (“It’s not clear to me that God has anything to do with this”; “‘Distant’ isn’t the right word for me in thinking about the Holocaust; it’s more ‘why’”; “I think it is irrelevant to an understanding of God”; “I have a problem with the per-

sonification of God that makes it hard to answer the questions”). Along the same lines, many of the comments responding to the statement “Sometimes innocent people suffer without any reason” (86.5% said yes) mentioned that the question does not allow the important qualification that God may not be to blame. The mixed nature of people’s responses—for every person who wrote about a personal loss, another mentioned feeling close to God in moments of deep need and sadness—points both to a deep diversity of belief and to a healthy questioning that one could date back to Abraham’s argument with God over the fate of Sodom and Gomorrah.

Gender Differences Women tend to view God more in terms of relationship and interdependence, whereas men conceive of God in a more abstract and autonomous way.

Women were marginally more likely than men to say that God comforts, and men decidedly less willing to allow that God serves as a “presence in the universe supporting us to do our best.”

As a whole, Reform Jews consider their own acts as imitatio Dei—imitating God—rather than employing anthropomorphisms to understand divinity. Men and women saw the act of feeding others (78.1%) and healing the sick (77.5%) as divine, and named both justice (73.4%) and mercy (73.8%) as “Godly.” Far fewer (together, fewer than 39%) defined God as “merciful” or “just.” There seems to be an unwillingness to think that God acts in human ways (in comparison to humans acting in Godly ways), and a concomitant desire to think of God as a transcendent partner. Reform Jews also appear to consider the adjectives describing God as less than adequate in capturing what God can—and should—be.

And when respondents do encounter what they think of as “God,” the survey shows they do so in “traditionally” Jewish ways and images. While the responses do not echo the explicit vocabulary describing God in the Torah (“king,” continued on page 64

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Imitation vs Anthropomorphism

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FOCUS: Greatest Jewish Myths

Were the Jews Moneylenders Out of Necessity?

The Jews did not choose professions in commerce and finance because of restrictions, but because of proficiency.

M

any commonly-held beliefs The more historically accurate narraabout Jewish history are based tive begins with the profound and wellon assumptions that fail to recognize documented transformation of the Jewperhaps the most significant developish religion after the destruction of the ment in the evolution of the Jewish people.

Take, for example, these questions: Why are so many Jews urban dwellers rather than farmers? Why are Jews primarily engaged in trade, commerce, finance, law, medicine, and scholarship? And why have the Jewish people experienced one of the longest and most scattered diasporas in history, along with a steep demographic decline? Here are the standard answers: “We are not farmers because our ancestors were prohibited from owning land in the Jewish bankers in 13th century Spain.

Middle Ages.” “We became moneylenders, bankers, and financiers Second Temple in 70 C.E. at the end of because during the medieval period the first Jewish-Roman war. Judaism Christians were banned from lending permanently lost one of its two pillars— money at interest, so the Jews filled in the Temple in Jerusalem—and consethat role.” “The Jewish population disquently the religious leadership shifted persed worldwide and declined in numfrom the high priests, who were in bers as a result of endless massacres.” charge of the Temple service, to the rabBut when one looks over the 15 cen- bis and scholars, who had always considturies spanning from 70 C.E. to 1492, ered the study of the Torah—the other the oft-given answers seem at odds with pillar of Judaism—the paramount duty the historical facts. of any Jew. The new religious leaderAnother more powerful factor was ship, the Tannaim and the Amoraim in at play. the yeshivot of the Galilee, set Judaism Maristella Botticini is professor of Economics at Università Bocconi in Milan, Italy and director and fellow of its Innocenzo Gasparini Institute for Economic Research. Zvi Eckstein is dean of the School of Economics at The Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya, Israel and the Mario Henrique Simonson Chair in Labor Economics at the Eitan Berglas School of Economics of Tel Aviv University. This article was adapted with permission from The Chosen Few: How Education Shaped Jewish History, 70–1492, Princeton University Press, 2012. reform judaism

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on a unique path, transforming it from a cult based on ritual sacrifices in the Temple (as many other religions were at that time) to a literate religion, which required every Jewish man to read and study the Torah and every father to send his sons to a primary or synagogue school to learn to do the same. Jews who did not obey this religious norm were considered outcasts (ammei ha-aretz) within the Jewish community.

From an economic point of view, it was costly for Jewish farmers living in a subsistence agrarian society to invest a significant amount of their income on the rabbis’ imposed literacy requirement. A predominantly agrarian economy had little use for educated people. Consequently, a proportion of Jewish farmers opted not to invest in their sons’ religious education, and instead converted to other religions, such as Christianity, which did not impose this norm on its followers. And so, during this Talmudic period (3rd-6th centuries C.E.), just as the Jewish population became increasingly literate, it kept shrinking through conversions as well as war-related deaths and general population declines. This threatened the very existence of the large Jewish community in the Land of Israel and in other places where sizable Jewish communities had existed in antiquity, such as North Africa (mainly Egypt), Syria, Lebanon, Asia Minor, the Balkans, and western Europe.

By the seventh century, the demographic and intellectual center of Jew-

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ish life had moved from the Land of Israel to Mesopotamia (and, to a lesser extent, Persia), where roughly 75 percent of world Jewry now lived. The economy was flourishing in Mesopotamia, so the Jewish population decline caused by conversions had been counterbalanced by an influx of Jewish immigrants, especially from the Land of Israel and North Africa, where the economic prospects were worsening.

Like almost everywhere else in the world, Mesopotamia had an agriculture-based economy. The situation changed with the rise of Islam during the seventh century and the consequent Muslim conquests under the Umayyad, and later, Abbasid caliphs in the following two centuries. Their establishment of a vast empire stretching from the Iberian Peninsula to India led to a vast urbanization and the growth of manufacture and trade in the Middle East; the development of new industries that produced a wide array of goods (e.g., ceramics, chemicals, clocks, glass, mosaics, pulp and paper, pharmaceuticals, shipbuilding, textiles, and weap-

ons); the expansion of local trade and long-distance commerce; and the growth of new cities and towns. These developments in Mesopotamia and Persia, and later in North Africa, Syria, the Iberian Peninsula, and Sicily, vastly increased the demand for literate and educated people—the very skills Jews had acquired as a spillover effect of their religious heritage of study.

Over the centuries, as the Jews became increasingly literate, they abandoned farming and selected livelihoods as craftsmen, traders, money changers, moneylenders, physicians, and other skilled professionals. Between 750 and 900, almost all the Jews in Mesopotamia and Persia—nearly 75 percent of world Jewry—left agriculture and moved to the cities and towns of the newly established Abbasid Empire to engage in myriad skilled occupations.

Many also migrated to Yemen, Syria, Egypt, and the Maghreb; to, from, and within the Byzantine Empire; and later to Christian Europe in search of business opportunities. And once the Jews were engaged in these occupations, they

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rarely converted to other religions (which is consistent with the evidence that the Jewish population grew slightly from the seventh to the twelfth century).

Wherever and whenever they lived among a population of mostly unschooled people, Jews had a comparative advantage. They could read and write contracts, business letters, and account books using a common alphabet (Hebrew) while learning the local languages of the different places in which they dwelled.

These skills became very valuable in the urban and commercially oriented economy.

Moreover, Judaism endowed the Jews with a uniform code of law (the Talmud), which contained myriad rabbinical discussions, debates, and rulings on economic, social, communal, and religious issues; and a set of institutions (courts and the rabbinical Responsa) that fostered contract enforcement, networking, and arbitrage across distant locations.

These institutions provided scattered Jewish communities with a common legal framework as well as advice and rulings on an endless array of secular, continued on page 61

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FOCUS: Greatest Jewish Myths

Were the Jews Slaves in Egypt?

The biblical tradition of slavery in Egypt and the Israelite conquest of Canaan appear to be fictitious.

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he Torah devotes more than four prophet Micah—“For I brought you up books to the proposition that the from the land of Egypt and redeemed Israelites came to Canaan after having you from the house of slavery, and I sent been subjugated in Egypt for generations, before you Moses, Aaron, and Miriam” and yet there is no archaeological evidence to support that they were ever in Egypt. A prolonged Egyptian stay should have left Egyptian elements in the material culture, such as the pottery found in the early Israelite settlements in Canaan, Edward Poynter’s Israel in Egypt depicts Israelite slaves at work. but there are none.

In short, the traditions of servitude in (Micah 6:4)—and the prophet Amos— Egypt, the tales of the Israelites wander“Did I not bring Israel up from the land ing in the desert, and the stories of the of Egypt and the Philistines from Caphconquest of the promised land all appear tor and the Arameans from Kir?” to be fictitious.

(Amos 9:7)—there is no mention of it in one of the earliest extant biblical texts— ♦♦♦ a long, premonarchic poem preserved in This means that the biblical traditions Deuteronomy 33 and set in the southern are allegories invented deliberately to region of Israel in the period of the obscure the fact that the Israelites were nation’s origins. Nor is it highlighted native to Canaan. But why should Israel- in the account of the eighth-century ite writers have invented traditions of Judahite prophet Isaiah. foreignness when these would seem to Biblical historian Robert Carroll has undercut their claims to the land in explained the discrepancy by pointing to which they lived? When were such tradi- a “northern tradition of the Exodus,” tions invented, and by whom? which was virtually unknown in the Whereas foreignness traditions south. Between 920 and 720 B.C.E., the appear in the text of the eighth-century land of Israel was divided into two separate kingdoms, Judah in the south with S. David Sperling is professor of Bible at its capital at Jerusalem, and Israel in the HUC-JIR in New York. This article was adaptnorth with its capital at Samaria. With ed with permission from The Original Torah: the fall of Samaria to the Assyrian rulers The Political Intent of the Bible’s Writers, of Northern Iraq in 720 B.C.E., many published by New York University Press, 1998. northern Israelites found refuge in reform judaism

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Judah, bringing with them their native literature and traditions, among them the traditions of the Exodus, which depicted the Israelite people as foreigners invading from Egypt.

Why, then, did this tradition of foreignness arise in the north? Why does the Torah tell us that the priesthood, the sacrificial cult, the tabernacle, the festivals, most of the covenant traditions to serve Yahweh exclusively, and the laws governing most of life’s activities originated outside the promised land? What explains this recounting in Leviticus 18:1–5: “Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, “Speak to the Israelite people and say to them: I am Yahweh your god. You shall not emulate the practices of the land of Egypt where you dwelled, nor shall you emulate the practices of the land of Canaan where I am taking you. Not their statutes shall you follow but my norms you shall observe and you shall take care to follow my statutes. I am Yahweh, your god?”

The reason, I believe, was to enable the Israelites to assert their distinctiveness.

During this period, the Israelites were not unique in believing that a “fear of god” or what we now call “ethics” and “morals” was divinely commanded.

The Ugaritians of ancient Syria, part of Canaanite culture, praised the legendary King Daniel for “getting justice for the widow, and adjudicating the case

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of the fatherless.”

The Israelites were also not alone in linking moral law and ritual law. About the same time that the prophet Amos condemned his people for trampling the heads of the poor into the dust (Amos 2:7) and equally for giving wine to the Nazirites (Amos 2:12), the author of the Babylonian work Shurpu catalogued the Mesopotamian sins, which included cheating on weights and measures, omitting the name of God from an incense offering, disarranging an altar, marking boundaries falsely, and eating the taboo food of a city.

Given so many commonalities, the Torah’s repeated denial of Israel’s Canaanite heritage and its assertion that Israel’s most important religious institutions had originated in the desert—the “no-man’s land” (Jer. 2:6) where Yahweh found the people (Deut 32:10)—strengthens the claim of Israelite distinctiveness.

In other words, the biblical authors were attempting to foster Israelite religious, social, and political solidarity. As long as the Israelites were conscious of their foreignness, they would be able to maintain their alleged religious and moral superiority. As foreigners with no roots in Canaan or Egypt, they would find it easier to heed the admonitions of the authors of the Torah to reject Canaanite and Egyptian practices.

© Look and Learn / The Bridgeman Art Library

♦♦♦ We must then ask: Why does the Bible make reference to the Israelites’ 430 years of servitude in Egypt (Exod 14:30)? The 430-year figure fits remarkably well with the chronology of the eighteenth Egyptian dynasty. The overthrow of the Hyksos by Ahmose (1570–1546) in about 1560 B.C.E. was followed by extensive Egyptian military campaigning in Syria-Palestine, and Ahmose’s successors continued his policy. After Thutmose III (1504–1450) won a decisive victory at the battle of Megiddo (in the north of present-day Israel), he established an administrative system in Canaan that survived until the end of the Late Bronze Age. Only with the invasions of the sea peoples did the old order begin to break down.

I believe the 430-year figure reflects the duration of Egypt’s empire in Asia

from a Canaanite perspective. The group that became first-millennium Israel had indeed been subjugated by the pharaohs, but in their native land, not in Egypt.

We can glean some of the truth from a report (called El Amarna letter 365) written by Biridiya, ruler of the

Torah is Not History Knowing the Exodus is not a literal historical account does not ultimately change our connection to our faith. b y D av i d W o l p e

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here is no reliable evidence that the Exodus ever occurred—and it almost certainly did not happen the way the Bible recounts it.

Archaeologists have not found a single shred of evidence Crossing the Red Sea. in the Sinai that accounts for the Exodus (given variously as between 1500 and 1200 B.C.E.), though they have discovered evidence of other peoples in the area who predated the Israelites. It is improbable (albeit not impossible) that 600,000 men crossed the desert 2,500 years ago without leaving a single shard of pottery or Hebrew carving. And had a large influx of Israelites suddenly arrived after hundreds of years in Egypt, their cups and dishes would look very different than those of native Canaanites.

But it does not matter. Knowing the Exodus is not a literal historical account does not ultimately change our connection to our faith.

We need to separate faith from historical claims. It is not an historical claim that God created us and cares for us. But that a certain number of people walked across a particular desert at a particular time in the past, after being enslaved and liberated, is reform judaism

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large Canaanite city of Megiddo, to the king of Egypt. It reads in part: “May the king, my lord, be apprised concerning his servant and concerning his city. Now, I alone am cultivating in Shunem and I alone am bringcontinued on page 64

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an historical claim, and one cannot then cry “unfair” when historians evaluate it.

I believe the Torah is not a book we turn to for historical accuracy, but for larger truth.

Each year at the seder, I see in my mind’s eye the Israelites marching out of Egypt, the miracles at the sea, the pillar of fire leading them through the fearful night—and I feel enormous gratitude toward God. Though we cannot know exactly how God has saved our people, we have been saved. Despite unimaginable opposition, the Jewish people have seen nation after nation buried under the debris of history while our nation lives.

Truth should not frighten one whose faith is firm. And faith ought not to rest on splitting seas. At the seder we declare: “In each generation, each individual should see himself as if he (or she) went forth from Egypt.”

This message does not depend upon whether three million individuals went forth—or only three.

Rabbi David Wolpe is the rabbi of Sinai Temple in Los Angeles, California. This article was adapted with permission from a piece that first appeared on belief.net.

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FOCUS: Greatest Jewish Myths

Was Jesus’ Last Supper a Passover Seder?

Jesus could not have known what a seder was, let alone have modeled his Last Supper after one.

by Mich a el J. Co ok

sk virtually anyone: “Was Jesus’ Last Supper a Passover seder?” and the response is likely to be “Of course!”

Yet, Jesus could not have known what a “seder” was, let alone have modeled his Last Supper after one.

The elements of even the primitive seder originated decades after he died.

this Passover kept…in Jerusalem” (Second Kings 23:21–23). For the ceremony, the kohanim (priests) conducted the sacrificial rite. Then families retrieved

♦♦♦ The Gospels date Jesus’ ministry to the period of Pontius Pilate, Roman prefect of Judea from 26 C.E. to early 37 The Last Supper by Philippe de Champaigne, 1654.

C.E. Jesus’ year of death is unknown; scholars settle on between and consumed their meat as the main 30 and 33 C.E. part of their Passover meal, which also At that time, the core element of included unleavened bread and bitter Passover observance had been Jerusaherbs (recalling the Hebrews’ enslavelem’s sacrificial cult, from 621 B.C.E. ment in Egypt). (when the biblical mandate first Passover meals Jesus experienced in appeared) up until 70 C.E. (the destruchis lifetime would have had to be along tion of the Second Temple). Jewish these Temple-centered lines. families brought paschal (Passover) Then, in 70 C.E., approximately 40 years after Jesus’ death, Rome destroyed lambs for sacrifice on the Temple altar the Second Jerusalem Temple, thus endas biblically prescribed: “Thou shalt ing the required central component of sacrifice the Passover offering…in the Passover observance, as sacrifice of pasplace which the Lord shall…cause His chal lambs by the Temple priests was no name to dwell [Jerusalem’s Temple]” (Deuteronomy 16:2, 5–6); and the prac- longer possible.

Instead, the early rabbis eventually tice of King Josiah: “In the eighteenth introduced an inchoate, rudimentary year of King Josiah [621 B.C.E.] was practice that over the ensuing decades evolved into a new way of observing Michael J. Cook is the HUC-JIR Bronstein Professor of Judeo-Christian Studies and Passover. This would become known as author of Modern Jews Engage the New a “seder,” Hebrew for “order,” because Testament: Enhancing Jewish Well-Being the ceremony followed a set sequence in a Christian Environment (Jewish Lights of liturgical recitations and ritual foods Publishing, 3rd printing 2012). narrating the Passover saga, ultimately to reform judaism

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be governed by an instructional guide called the haggadah. In our oldest reference, the early third century rabbinic compendium, the Mishnah, we read that Gamaliel II, the greatest rabbi of the postdestruction era (likely during the late 80s C.E.), customarily said: “Whoever does not mention [expatiate upon] these three things on Passover does not discharge one’s duty...: the Passover offering [lamb], unleavened bread, and bitter herbs” (Pesahim 10:5).

Thus the core Temple-centered observance mutated from sacrificing lambs into drawing upon Passover motifs to retell the Hebrews’ escape from Egypt.

Centuries of further embellishment and refinement produced the full-fledged, mature seders we know today—the kind that many modern churches adopt and adapt in “reenacting” the Last Supper even though no such seder could have been practiced during Jesus’ day.

How the Confusion Began If the Last Supper could not have been a seder, what led to modern-day associations of the two?

Early Christian theology contended that the primary purpose of the Jewish Bible (as yet Christians’ only scripture) was to signal Jesus’ coming. The Passover saga thereby became a major filter for heralding Jesus’ uniqueness. In the 50s C.E., Paul of Tarsus wrote of the “sacrifice” of Christ, “our paschal lamb,”

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urging Christians to avoid the “leaven of malice and evil” in favor of “the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth” (1 Corinthians 5:6ff.). In 71 C.E., in the wake of the Temple’s fall, Mark—followed by Matthew ca. 85 and Luke ca. 95—reimagined Jesus’ Thursday night Last Supper (ca. 30 C.E.) as having been a Passover meal, most likely to correlate Passover, the festival of physical and political freedom for the Jews, with Jesus’ death, which Christians claimed brought spiritual freedom, indeed salvation, for humanity. John, meanwhile, preferring to interpret Jesus himself as the paschal lamb, set that Passover meal on Friday night, 24 hours after Jesus’ Last Supper, so as to coincide Jesus’ death with that of the Passover lambs sacrificed shortly before that Friday evening’s Passover meal. Thus, the various Gospel writers embellished Last Supper narrations with their own preferred Passover motifs in service to Christian theology.

In time, Passover-Easter became the most dangerous season for Jews in Christian Europe. Medieval mythology came to cast Jews as kidnapping and killing Christian children for their blood (supposedly needed to bake Passover matzah), an accusation resulting in torture, even death, for countless Jews charged with the (seasonal) reenactment of their ancestors’ alleged murder of Jesus. Some Jews were even accused of deriving and adapting their seder from the Lord’s Supper!

No wonder that, in recent times, Jews welcomed an astonishing pivot when Christians began to deem seders splendid vehicles for experiencing a taste of what Jesus’ Jewish life had been genuinely all about. Responding in kind, Jews were now thrilled to invite Christians to local synagogues or Jewish homes to experience seders themselves.

Once the seder became imported into churches, however, the pendulum swung disturbingly too far. Passover was now transformed into an overtly Christian celebration—wherein Jewish haggadot were photocopied and repackaged with insertions of a Christological nature blatantly contrary to original rabbinic intent.

Such fanciful notions included the death of the firstborn foreshadowing the death of Jesus (God’s firstborn); the lamb’s

blood on wooden doorposts of Israelite homes in Egypt anticipating Jesus’ blood on the wooden cross; the passing through the Red Sea heralding the sacrament of baptism—the Red Sea so named because of the saving blood of Jesus; the three pieces of matzah (centered on the table) representing the Trinity; the breaking of the middle matzah recalling the breaking of the body of Jesus (second person of the Trinity); the stripes on the matzah reminiscent of the lash marks from Jesus’ whippings; and the matzah’s tiny perforations recalling the stigmata piercing Jesus’ hands, feet, and side.

Nowadays, these false notions continue to be promulgated and accepted in certain Christian circles, primarily among conservative Evangelicals, who welcome seder demonstrations by “Jewsfor-Jesus” and “Messianic Jews.” Fortu-

♦♦♦ In short, Jesus never practiced the kind of Passover meal that many churches stage today to “reenact” the Last Supper.

Nor could this meal (ca. 30 C.E.) have been a seder, because in Jesus’ time the festival was still observed as a Jerusalem Temple rite, without the set sequence of seder elements that became rudimentally defined in the decades after the Temple’s fall some 40 years later—not to mention the seder’s far more detailed embellishments in the centuries to come.

Two Remaining Questions

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ost scholars routinely ignore two vital, remaining questions.

First, did the head rabbi, Gamaliel II, formulate his Passover directive (likely during the late 80s C.E.) not only to compensate for the loss of the Temple but, secondarily, to delegitimize Mark’s casting of the Last Supper as a Passover meal? Notably, the portrayal of the Last Supper in Mark (also Matthew, ca. 85) fails to make reference to what Gamaliel now stipulated as mandatory to explain—the “Passover offering [lamb],” “unleavened bread,” and “bitter herbs.” Note, too, that Mark and Matthew do not link the meal with the Exodus from Egypt; and not only do they use the Greek word for regular leavened bread (artos) —rather than that for matzah (azyma)—but Paul, writing far earlier in the 50s, likewise terms the Last Supper “the night when [the Lord Jesus]…took [leavened] bread” (1 Corinthians 11:23).

As the main rabbi in his day, Gamaliel was chief architect of many new forms of Jewish observance, and rabbinic literature is likely reliable in castreform judaism

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nately, certain major Christian denominations—especially Roman Catholicism and the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America—issued formal directives, even outright prohibitions, to their constituents against treading on Jewish sensitivities by staging misleading Passover celebrations.

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ing him as marginalizing any groups he thought inimical to Judaism’s consolidation and perpetuation. If Gamaliel knew what these Last Supper depictions

by Christians did not contain, might he have framed his dictum specifically to invalidate them? Was his demand that the meanGamaliel II stipulated as mandatory to explain the “Passover offering [lamb],” “unleavened bread,” and “bitter herbs.”

ings of Passover symbols be correctly explicated intended, in part, also to undermine Christian misappropriation of Passover altogether? If so, what irony: The modern church seder would then be the reenactment of a rite originally formulated, in at least some measure, as an anti-Christian move.

Second, what if Jesus’ Last Supper could not even have been a pre-70 C.E. type of Passover meal, because Jesus was arrested before Passover arrived?

For a fuller analysis of this second possibility, see the Web Exclusive, “A Paragraph That Changed History” on reformjudaismmag.org.

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FOCUS: Greatest Jewish Myths

Was Reform Judaism the Price of Political Acceptance?

The vast majority of German Jews chose Judaism over a prestigious career, rejecting the pressure to convert.

by Michael A. Mey er

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n explaining the reason for the modern forms, they were making a “Reform must flow out of the hearts of emergence of Reform Judaism in statement of opposition: “We reject the its adherents,” he insisted, “if religious 19th-century Germany, some scholars pressure to convert; we will stick with salvation is not to be huckstered away have argued, falsely, that abandoning our beliefs.” for worldly justice.” traditional Judaism was the Reform rabbis were even price Jews reluctantly paid more vehement in their refusfor their political and social al to pay a religious price for acceptance. political emancipation. SamuWhile it is true that nearly el Holdheim, rabbi of the all German Jews sought politReform Congregation of Berical equality (except for a few lin, for example, firmly ultra-Orthodox who feared believed in the state’s right to that civic participation would take over functions that had induce religious neglect), relipreviously been governed by gious reform was not the way Jewish law, such as divorce— for Jews to gain full rights in not because of religious subGerman society. On the conmission, but because he trary, German opponents of believed in the separation of Jewish emancipation believed church and state. But in matthat Jews who differed least ters of conscience, when the Rabbi Abraham Geiger (l.) and Gabriel Riesser, in their appearance and relistate demanded relinquishing two leading Jewish reformers in 19th century Germany gious practice were the greatany aspect of Judaism, est insidious threat to a state including Orthodox beliefs based on Christian principles. If a GerStatements made by leading Gerand practices, as a condition for equalman Jew wanted to attain a position in man Reformers demonstrate the depth ity, he became as resistant to civil government service or in the higher of this feeling. Gabriel Riesser, whose interference as any Orthodox Jew. Jewranks of the military, the only promisperiodical, Der Jude (The Jew), was ish emancipation could be gained, he ing path was baptism. The vast majority dedicated to Jewish emancipation in argued, only when German states were of German Jews chose Judaism over a Germany, and who also served as a established upon a “solid foundation of prestigious career. Whether they member of the governing body of the justice,” and not by religious concesexpressed their faith in traditional or (Reform) Hamburg temple, consistently sions. In his view, Judaism had to posopposed the notion that only those Jews sess its own integrity if it were to fulfill Michael A. Meyer is Adolph S. Ochs Profesor who had abandoned “religious prejuits mission of spreading the message Emeritus of Jewish History on the Cincinnati dices” should be entitled to political of Judaism—monotheism and univercampus of the Hebrew Union College-Jewish equality. Another communally active sal morality—among the nations.

Institute of Religion. Among his published liberal Jew, Carl Weil, wrote similarly “Those commandments on account of writings is Response to Modernity: in Der Jude in 1831 that religious which Jews were ready to become marA History of the Reform Movement reform must be made from within Juda- tyrs have preserved Judaism in their in Judaism (1988). ism, and not for any ulterior motives. midst,” he wrote. “When [despite antireform judaism

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semitic opposition] we pursue our religious strivings with fervor and sacrifice, we give testimony before God and the world that it is not earthly but divine considerations that drive us to our goal.”

Rabbi Abraham Geiger, the best known of the Jewish religious reformers in Germany and the ideological founder of Reform Judaism, likewise argued that the opposition to political equality which Jews faced was not a challenge to be overcome by changing their faith, but rather a crucial test of German political liberalism. Would Christian Germany be able to develop into a pluralistic society in which Jews could feel that they too had an equal share? German conservatives, who regarded Judaism as incompatible with Germanism, had rejected that vision repeatedly in German parliaments, while liberals had proven to be false to their own principles of equality on one issue: the German Jews. Like Holdheim and other Reform rabbis, Geiger was convinced that Jewish emancipation would come not when Judaism itself had changed, but when a victorious political liberalism would rise to a genuine acceptance of its own ideology.

Today, Jews enjoy political equality almost everywhere in the world, yet the canard that Reform Judaism is less than a genuine faith persists. And nowadays our detractors no longer accuse Reform Judaism of relinquishing religious faith for political gain, but of abandoning religious practice for the ease of social intercourse and a more secular lifestyle.

While these factors may play some role in the choice of Reform over Orthodoxy, to claim that for Reform Jews religion matters less than the material goods of life is to engage in the reductionism that opponents of Reform Judaism have propagated since our Movement’s origins in 19th-century Germany. One need but enter a Reform synagogue and there find a genuinely religious community devoted to its particular form of Judaism to refute the myth that today’s religious reform is a price reluctantly paid.

Reform Judaism, then and now, is a faith freely chosen for its own sake; it is an end in itself.

Were the Jews Moneylenders continued from page 55 practical matters regarding the daily lives of the Jewish people—economic ones included.

In 10th- through 13th-century Europe, the revival of trade and growth of an urban, commercial economy paralleled the vast urbanization and trade growth within the Muslim caliphates, and increased the demand for literate and skilled people. Educated and skilled Jewish craftsmen, shopkeepers, traders, scholars, teachers, physicians, and moneylenders voluntarily migrated to Europe (from the Byzantine Empire or North Africa) in search of business opportunities, thereby reaping personal returns on their investment in education.

By the mid-12th century, the Jewish traveler Benjamin of Tudela discovered Jewish inhabitants almost everywhere he went, from Spain to Mesopotamia.

Then in 1219, the Mongols invaded northern Persia and Armenia. Their subsequent conquest of Persia and Mesopotamia over the next three decades decimated urban centers and destroyed trade routes. The final blow to the Abbasid Empire came in 1258, when the Mongols demolished Baghdad. The economies of Mesopotamia and Persia collapsed and the population returned to subsistence farming. In the aftermath of the Mongol Conquest, the Jews in Mesopotamia, Persia, Syria, and Egypt found themselves no longer dwelling in the urban, commercially oriented economies of the Muslim caliphates, in which their literacy and skills had been highly valued. Instead, like their ancestors, they were living in the agrarian economies of the first half of the first millennium, having to obey the many norms of Judaism, including the costly one requiring fathers to educate their sons. Similarly to what had happened centuries earlier, a proportion of Jews in the Middle East and North Africa converted out of Judaism (this time to Islam), which partly explains the Jewish population decline and the smaller size of the Jewish communities in these regions in the two-anda-half centuries after the Mongol invasions. Those who remained Jews continued to be engaged in crafts, trade, reform judaism

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moneylending, and medicine.

While Jews in the Middle East and North Africa contended with the consequences of the Conquest, European Jews experienced episodes of persecutions, forced conversions, and then expulsions, which widely dispersed the Jewish people. Mass expulsions occurred from England (1290), France (1306, 1321–22, 1394), Spain (1492), Sicily (1492–93), and Portugal (1496–97).

Jews then brought their literacy and skills to their new locations. Jews formerly living in England, France, Germany, and northern and central Italy had become specialized in moneylending (unlike their co-religionists in the Iberian Peninsula, Sicily, and southern Italy, whose wide array of occupations included crafts, trade, moneylending, and the medical profession). Contrary to commonly held views, the Jews’ specialty in moneylending was not the outcome of usury bans imposed on Christians by the Church, or the exclusion of Jews from membership in crafts and merchant guilds. European Jews had become prominent in the moneylending business at least one or two centuries before both the Church began enforcing usury bans on Christians and the crafts and merchant guilds rose to power. Rather, the Jews specialized in this most skilled and profitable occupation at the time because they possessed the key assets to be successful players in credit markets: capital (accumulated through their earlier engagement in crafts and trade), literacy and education (the spillover effect of their unique religion), contract-enforcement institutions (Talmud, rabbinical courts, and Responsa), and networking abilities (giving them a comparative advantage in moneylending and later in banking and finance).

The rabbis and scholars who transformed Judaism into a literate religion certainly could not have foreseen the profound impact of their decision to make every Jewish man capable of reading and studying the Torah. However, an apparently odd choice of religious norm in the first millennium—the enforcement of literacy in a mostly illiterate, agrarian world—turned out to be the lever of the Jewish economic success and intellectual prominence to come.

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continued from page 49 If a college-aged Jew didn’t go to a camp, is it too late to have a lifealtering Jewish experience?

Although I would like to see summer camp become a universal experience, it is never too late. One of the Jewish community’s most successful educational initiatives is Taglit-Birthright Israel, a 10-day experience in Israel for Jews 18-26. Many participants have not been well-educated Jewishly; they come to Israel wearing their Jewishness as an external identity, like a “shell.” The program fills the shell with some content, but its key function is to raise the salience of Jewish identity by igniting a “Jewish spark” within each participant’s soul. These Jews learn about their history while living Jewishly in an intensive experience that, like camping, engages heart, mind, and body.

Long-term studies demonstrate that the program serves as an accelerant that changes the trajectories of participants’ Jewish engagement. My colleagues and I at the Cohen Center for Modern Jewish Studies at Brandeis University have been following thousands of young adults who applied to Birthright Israel between 2001 and 2006—some of whom participated in the program and others who were similar but did not take part. Interviewing these individuals in 2012, we found that participants are nearly 50% more likely than nonparticipants to be married to a Jew, and over 40% more likely to report feeling “very much” connected to Israel. The vast majority of married participants had a Jewish partner and a Jewish wedding. Participants, particularly those with children, were also much more likely than non-participants to be members of a congregation.

Still, it is hard to believe that a 10-day exposure to Israel can have such a powerful impact on Jewish identity.

It is, perhaps, counterintuitive, but it shouldn’t be surprising. We have long known about the power of intensive, 24/7 experiences and have accumulated substantial data about the impact of Israel experience programs, even for young Jews with little prior education and communal involvement. In Hebrew, Birth-

URJ CAMPING & BIRTHRIGHT ISRAEL OPPORTUNITIES The URJ’s 13 summer camps throughout North America offer young people experiences infused with the spirit of Jewish living and learning. urjcamps.org

URJ KESHER BIRTHRIGHT ISRAEL PARTICIPANT RACHEL BAKER, GOLAN HEIGHTS, 2012.

URJ Kesher is an official TaglitBirthright Israel trip organizer that provides free 10-day trips to Israel for Jewish young adults aged 18–26 who have never been to Israel on a peer program. gokesher.org These experiences are part of the Campaign for Youth Engagement’s strategy to engage the majority of Reform Jewish youth by 2020. urj.org/cye

right is called “Taglit,” which means “discovery.” Ten days seem sufficient to allow participants to discover and rediscover their Jewish identities. They do not necessarily build a Jewish identity in 10 days, but they return home feeling a part of the Jewish people and being a member of a new social network of young Jews throughout the Diaspora and Israel.

Elie Wiesel once said, “Life is not made of years, but of moments.” My takeaway from 15 years of studying American Jews is that Jewishness is built from intense moments of engagement with others. Jewish education can take place with one’s family, at summer camp, or in Israel. To be educated Jewishly is to be immersed in a community where knowledge and feeling are married and where values are not simply espoused, but are lived. reform judaism

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Divinity of Dementia continued from page 23 I am aware that many people will be unconvinced by my likening persons with dementia to angels. While they may concede that these individuals are not “vegetables,” some readers may consider them more “in between.” Even if this is so, all of us would do well to remember Martin Buber’s observation: It is the spaces “in between” where one encounters holiness.

Our perspective on persons with dementia ultimately depends on how we choose to see them. We can choose to hear the grunts, shrieks, and bleating as cacophonies of suffering and abandonment in seemingly “God-forsaken places.”

Or we can choose to understand these human beings as unwitting messengers of God, their sounds the pure lyrics of this testimony. For if the whole world truly is full of God’s glory, then God does not forsake places where even helplessness and death seem to hold sway.

In Judaism, we experience the sacred not only with awe and reverence, but also with fear. Significantly, the Hebrew word yirah denotes both meanings—“fear” and “reverence”—simultaneously. As author and philosopher Sam Keen has observed, “In the life of the spirit, paradox is the rule…the opposites coincide, the diseased parts form a graceful whole….In considering the whole and holiness of life, we must at once hold before our eyes visions of horror and wonder, cruelty and kindness….Both/and, not either/or” (Fire In the Belly: On Being a Man).

I pray that when we are in the presence of people with advanced dementia, we will come to open ourselves, on a deeper level, to the possibility of having angels in our midst. And may we come to understand and accept the natural, abiding tension of “fear” and “reverence” in these scary but sacred moments.

Then, may we affirm anew that, however broken our world may be, “the whole world is full of God’s glory.” For if we merit the ability to glue the broken fragments back together, we may ultimately redeem them.

Share this article with friends and family. Go to reformjudaismmag.org.

Photograph by A lison D. Kahler

Youth Engagement: Impact

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Were the Jews Slaves in Egypt? continued from page 57 ing mas-people [involuntary laborers].

But see! The city rulers who are with me do not do as I. They are not cultivating in Shunem, and they are not bringing mas-people.”

In other words, the pharaoh required Biridiya to round up the inhabitants of Canaan to cultivate his fields in Shunem.

If these people were cultivating royal land, they had good reasons for resentment, because they could not work their own fields, which would have required cultivation at the same time.

This was not the only highly unpopular institution of forced labor that ancient near eastern rulers demanded of the local populace. The royal governor Kibri-Dagan wrote in Syria in the 18thcentury B.C.E.: “My lord ordered me to assemble male and female minors into the fortress….When I sent to the towns of the Jaminites, the sheik of Dumeti answered…‘Let the enemy [that is, “you the governor, or the king himself”] come here and pull us out of our towns!’

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At harvest time in the towns of the Jaminites, there is no one to help me.”

Thus, when Exodus 1:11 says, “So they set taskmasters over them to oppress them with forced labor,” the passage is not describing the subjugation of Israelites in Egypt, but subjugation of the larger populace—Israelites included—to serve the needs of outside rulers.

Why, then, was the slave tradition introduced? I believe it served an important theological purpose: If divine action could free the Israelites from slavery, then God was entitled to exclusive worship by them. As is written in Exodus 20:2: “I the Eternal am your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from that slave barracks. You shall have no other gods besides me” (my translation).

In short, the biblical writers invented the idea that the Israelites lived in Egypt in order to impel them to maintain their distinctiveness in Canaan.

And the story of servitude in Egypt is an allegory of servitude to Egypt. Our ancestors, among others, did perform forced labor for Egyptian taskmasters, but they were never slaves in Egypt.

Reform Jews Picture God continued from page 53 “father,” “just,” “all powerful,” etc.), they nonetheless model divine behavior, thinking of God in terms of acts of lovingkindness and in the models of human action that help us to take care of ourselves and one another.

The Larger Picture “The God Survey” seems to suggest that contemporary Jews are still heavily invested in Jewish notions of God and God’s work. We see this link not only in their beliefs but also in their wondering, questioning, and doubting.

Fostering the complexity of Godtalk is Jewish; the messiness of the Jewish relationship with God dates back thousands of years. And, similarly to my cousin’s drawing, these results indicate that contemporary Jews think of God as there—not as an image, but as an impression—different impressions that depend on our age, genders, and times of life. As the rabbis say: God is everywhere.

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Susan Lev y: Photography by Ken Packer; Stephen M. Sacks: Photograph by Marshall H. Cohen

CHAIRMAN’S PERSPECTIVE Sandy Shows Our True Colors From time to time I am asked, “Why do we need a Union for Reform Judaism or a Reform Movement? Why not just have each congregation ‘go it alone’?” I usually answer these questions by quoting statistics, so when I decided to write this column about Hurricane Sandy, my inclination was to point out that the URJ’s Hurricane Relief Fund has collected and is distributing more than $750,000 to aid congregations and members who have been severely impacted by the storm.

But as I thought further, I realized that the reaction of the individual members and institutions to Hurricane Sandy—not statistics—is why it is critical to have a URJ and a Movement in which congregations and Reform Jews are bound together. For example, within a day after the hurricane struck, I received an email from Dan Silverman, a member of Congregation Gates of Prayer—Sha’arai Tefillah in Metarie, Louisiana. His congregation had suffered enormous damage in Hurricane Katrina and had received substantial support from the URJ and Reform congregations throughout North America. Dan offered to speak with congregational leaders who now faced a similar situation in the Northeast, to give them the benefit of hearing from someone whose congregation had coped with and survived such devastation. I put Dan in touch with Rabbi Daniel Freelander at the URJ, who arranged for Dan to speak with the leaders of West End Temple in Neponsit, New York, whose building and records were completely destroyed by Sandy. Within two days after the storm, Dan and the West End Temple leaders had begun a series of conversations in which Dan told the congregation what he and others had learned from their Katrina experience. What resonated with me more than anything else was Dan’s message to West End Temple: Congregations and a Movement are not about buildings. They are about people and relationships. They are about helping each other. They are about coming together to pray and support each other. Dan’s advice was to focus on maintaining congregational relationships—rather than on what was lost.

In large part because of Dan’s personal involvement and the URJ’s disbursement of more than $50,000 to help the Queens congregation rebuild, members of the West End Temple know that they are not alone; that other members of their Movement are there for them; and that, just as there was a future for Gates of Prayer—Sha’arai Tefillah in Metarie after Katrina, so too will there be a future for the West End Temple after Sandy.

Whether it is Dan’s reaching out to West End Temple, or Temple Oheb Shalom in Baltimore, Maryland sending six trucks filled with food and other supplies to the affected areas, or Moses Montefiore Congregation in Bloomington, Illinois distributing food to Temple Am Echad in Lynbrook, New York, or countless other examples too numerous to mention within the space limits of this column, this is why we Reform Jews have a URJ and a Movement.

I am proud to be part of it—and hope you are as well.

STEPHEN M. SACKS Stephen M. Sacks, Chairman Union for Reform Judaism Board of Trustees reform judaism

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QUOTABLE The Blogs Vessel of Discontent “A papier-maché cup is central to our family’s Shabbat.

To help set difficult things aside on Shabbat, every Friday night our family passes around a vessel of discontent—into which each participant is asked to ‘drop’ whatever is in the way of welcoming Shabbat. Ours is a papier-maché cup created for the purpose, but anything would do.

Some participants give the cup a perfunctory grasp.

Some meditate a few moments. Occasionally someone visibly struggles to shed a rough week or a personal issue. A few shrug or sneer. On more than one Friday night— especially at larger, multi-generational tables—fidgeting or thoughtlessness during the cup’s first round has prompted someone at the table to request a second pass. On the whole, the cup provides a way for us, individually and collectively, to recognize the many weights we carry and consider the value of setting them aside, if only for a day.

As my husband Cary says, ‘Vacations are once a year, if you’re lucky. But Shabbat is never far off.’”

—Virginia Avniel Spatz and her husband Cary O’Brien on rj.org

PHOTOS: 1 Susan Levy 2 Phil Hoch 3 Isaac Nuell 4 Larry Broder 5 Laurie Osher 6 Mike Kung 7 Rabbi David Fine

For more about these leaders read on….

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QUOTABLE In Print Palestinian UN Move Endangers Peace “[We] resolve to condemn the Palestinian Authority for the unilateral decision to seek upgraded status at the United Nations as counterproductive to the cause of peace….”

—Joint URJ-CCAR statement issued in December 2012, after the U.N. General Assembly voted 138–9 to recognize Palestine as a “non-member observer state.” The two organizations also called on Israel to halt plans for expansion of settlements in the West Bank E1 area, stating that it “makes progress toward peace far more challenging.”

Righting the NRA “The time has come for the National Rifle Association and its members to put our nation’s children and their ‘right to life and liberty’ ahead of the right they claim to own weapons that serve no purpose other than to maximize human casualties.”

—Central Conference of American Rabbis statement, December 2012

Abracadabra Revealed “How many times have we heard the TV magicians and playing children use the famous incantation ‘ABRACADABRA’? But how many of us recognize its ancient Aramaic/Hebrew origins?

The word contains both ‘Bara,’ meaning ‘to create,’ and ‘Dabar,’ meaning ‘to speak,’ literally translating as ‘I create through what I speak,’ or ‘May what I say come to be.’”

—Elliot Cohen, founder of a new Progressive Jewish meditation chavurah, Ohr Menorah, in Manchester, England

B’rit Milah Alternatives “I am by no means advocating the abolition of the ancient rite of circumcision. I continue to recommend b’rit milah, by a mohel or mohelet, on the eighth day….

ACTION Smart Strategies for Facility Savings morning, and some people attend both.

In Newburgh, New York, Temple Kol Yisrael is now engaged in a $3.5 Beth Jacob (tbjnewburgh.org) was million dollar capital campaign to renostruggling to pay to repair a leaky roof vate, expand, and “green” its facility, and faulty heating system. Thinking which will include adding a social hall practically and communally, TBJ and a multileaders began purpose room talking with for JCC activineighboring ties that can Jewish institualso be contions. Soon, verted into a TBJ and the prayer space.

Newburgh JewEventually, ish Community Levy says, Center decided “We anticipate to sell their that our facility buildings and will house both move into the the Jewish building owned SANCTUARY, TEMPLE DE HIRSCH SINAI, SEATTLE. Federation and

by CongregaJewish Family tion Agudas Services offices, and provide meeting Israel, which was now too large for the space for organizations such as the JewConservative congregation’s declining membership. In January 2012, all three ish War Veterans and Hadassah.”

Levy also takes pride in “the intaninstitutions formed the corporation gible benefits from bringing the com“Kol Yisrael,” meaning both “voice of munity together under one roof. We’re the Jewish people,” and “all of Israel.”

The three will share one Jewish campus trying to create one Jewish community.

Already, Kol Yisrael has hosted comand pay rent to Kol Yisrael.” munity-wide celebrations for Chanu“Before we created Kol Yisrael, each of the three entities paid for build- kah, Purim, and Sukkot. There is an excitement around the facility—it is ing maintenance, utilities, phone serfull of people and events, full of life.” vice, and insurance; each employed its own support staff; and each spent ♦♦♦ funds on landscaping and snow-plowIn March 2012, 900-household ing,” says Kol Yisrael President Alan Seidman. “Now we will share our staff Temple Sharey Tefilo-Israel in South Orange, New Jersey (tsti.org) became and split most of those costs three the first Reform synagogue in the U.S. ways. Temple Beth Jacob has already realized about 30% savings on its over- to achieve certification from GreenFaith, a national organization connectall cost of operations, and we anticiing religious communities to environpate increased savings as we continue mental leadership. Inspired by a URJ to streamline operations.”

TBJ Immediate Past President Susan meeting about GreenFaith partnerships, Phil and Sue Hoch of TSTI’s Levy (photo #1; see previous page) explains that “This is not a merger: each “Green Team” excitedly brought the program to Rabbi Dan Cohen, who synagogue has its own rabbi, and its embraced the idea, and then to TSTI’s own services. Yet, we list all events and Board, to commit to transforming the activities on a single calendar.” As there is only one large sanctuary, TBJ holds its congregation into an environmentally conscious place to learn and worship.

Shabbat service on Friday nights, AguThe congregation had previously das Israel holds its service on Saturday reform judaism

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conducted an energy audit, but now, using reference materials on GreenFaith’s website, temple leaders began implementing a range of simple, lowcost measures that almost immediately reduced TSTI’s energy usage. “Replacing a 20-year-old refrigerator with an Energy Star appliance required an initial investment, but other steps, such as posting signs to conserve clean water— a scarce resource on the earth—were low-to-no cost, and just as effective,” says Phil Hoch (photo #2). TSTI leaders began adjusting programming times to concentrate energy usage, enabling the synagogue to “go dark” on Thursday evenings. In summer, when services are held in the smaller chapel, the building housing TSTI’s large sanctuary is practically shut down, saving on air conditioning costs. In addition, the congregation installed true seven-day programmable thermostats, which enable staffers to set back heat or air conditioning in areas of TSTI’s three buildings whenever they’re not in use.

GreenFaith also inspired temple leaders to modernize TSTI’s lighting. “Rather than replace light fixtures, we decided to retrofit existing fixtures to accommodate smaller fluorescent bulbs, reducing energy usage to a fraction of the cost,” Hoch says. “And, by adding motion sensors in bathrooms, lights remain off when not in use. Motion-activated water faucets and towel dispensers encourage reductions in water and paper use.”

So far, TSTI’s electrical usage has decreased by 14%. Combined with the congregation’s other energy-saving steps, temple leaders estimate savings of $15,000-$20,000 per year. And leaders are proud to have accomplished all of these changes solely by using a budget line earmarked for building maintenance.

“The impact on the congregation has been huge,” Hoch says, “but the effort doesn’t have to be. Thinking small may actually have a bigger result.” TSTI president Jay Rice says that “the [congregational] response has all been positive—and believe me, when there’s a negative response, I hear about it. Everyone is glad we decided to do this. ” And

Rabbi Cohen adds: “When the synagogue changes its practices, it has the potential to influence every member.”

TSTI is among four synagogues receiving sponsorship from the Union for Reform Judaism for its participation in the GreenFaith Certification Program. The pilot program began in 2010 with New Jersey synagogues and is now expanding to temples throughout the U.S. “GreenFaith certification results in increased building efficiency, but also encourages a broader conversation about the environment and good stewardship of the earth,” says Isaac Nuell (photo #3), manager of Congregational Social Action at the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism. “It’s the most achievable way to make the environment a priority.” ♦♦♦ Temple De Hirsch Sinai (tdhs-nw. org), a 1,500-household congregation, has combined energy efficiency with innovative sharing arrangements. Its two separate campuses on both sides of Lake Washington—a 100,000-squarefoot building that fills an entire block in Seattle and a 35,000-square-foot building in Bellevue—give congregants the option to attend services or programs at either location. In addition to renting facilities to local Jewish organizations, civic groups, and members for events, De Hirsch Sinai further maximizes the buildings’ profitability by offering “shared use” leases. On weekdays the temple leases its Seattle building’s classrooms to a non-denominational independent middle school, and the third floor of its Bellevue facility to a Catholic elementary school, bringing in a combined rental income of nearly $600,000 per year.

“We have become adept in accommodating the schools that share our space,” says Larry Broder (photo #4), De Hirsch Sinai’s executive director.

“We know exactly how to transform from a Catholic elementary school to a Jewish religious school. Every Friday they take down the crosses and we put up continued on next page reform judaism

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QUOTABLE from p. 66 However, for some families, a decision not to circumcise will be made without our input—or in spite of it—as so many decisions are….[And] in a movement rooted in the value of ‘choice through knowledge,’ we need to find alternative rites for those families. The New Jewish Baby Book by Anita Diamant provides a weath of potential covenant rituals, among them being wrapped in a tallit, being held under a symbolic chuppah, touching a Torah scroll, and having one’s feet washed...which might also be used to provide a covenantal experience for a male child whose parents choose not to have him circumcised.”

—Rabbi Leah R. Berkowitz from The Reform Jewish Quarterly, Fall 2012

Muslim-Jewish Relations continued from page 51 for Muslims and Jews to respond jointly to major humanitarian crises, such as facilitating access to potable water.

How can temples best reach out to mosques?

First, don’t reach out to the other congregation with a one-off game plan: “Let’s do this one thing together and see what happens.” We encourage deemphasizing the event and instead formulating a thoughtful plan to build the relationships behind the programs.

When participants truly come to care about the other—and not just the program—you know it’s working.

But bear in mind that this process doesn’t happen overnight, and it will have disagreements built in. Rabbinic school taught me a very important lesson: A healthy relationship is not devoid of conflict. What matters is that people commit to working through a problem, because their larger connection is much more important.

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ACTION continued from page 67

URJ Launches Communities of Practice In January 2013 the Union for Reform Judaism launched four URJ Communities of Practice to enable congregations with shared concerns and interests to work collaboratively, experiment, study, and advance current strategies while receiving peer support and guidance in these areas: • Launching or significantly scaling-up 20s and 30s engagement efforts • Involving families with young children in congregations without early childhood centers/preschools • Engaging young families in congregations that have early childhood centers • Exploring new concepts of financial support grounded in a relational investment between the community and each member The organizational world has seen the increasing use of “communities of practice” since the concept was coined by Jean Lave and Etienne Wenger in their 1991 book, Situated Learning, and expanded upon in Wenger’s 1998 book, Communities of Practice. Research demonstrates that this approach helps generate new ideas for products and services, captures the community’s knowhow, prevents “reinvention of the wheel,” and facilitates more rapid response to customer needs. The Union for Reform Judaism’s “communities of practice” model—an adaptation of the concept— is a new way of working in partnership with member congregations to nurture growth and excellence.

New URJ communities of practice will follow. To learn more, contact Expanding our Reach co-directors Lisa Lieberman Barzilai, RJE (lbarzilai@urj.org) and Vicky Farhi (vfarhi@urj.org).

Jewish stars. A little Velcro on the walls makes for a wonderful partnership.”

De Hirsch Sinai has also saved money by updating its lighting at both facilities. In Seattle, the temple spent $2,600 to replace incandescent and old fluorescents with LED and new fluorescent bulbs; in Bellevue, local power companies gave the congregation $3,000 worth of LED upgrades at no cost to reduce energy consumption. With the estimated combined energy savings of $6,000 per year ($3,000 per facility), the temple expects to enjoy a high return on its lighting investment for years to come. ♦♦♦ Leaders of Congregation Beth El (me002.urj.net), a 150-household temple in Bangor, Maine, had thought they’d done enough to maximize their facility’s efficiency during the building’s 2006 renovation. After all, they’d installed new double-paned windows, modernized the kitchen with Energy Star appliances, and covered the inside of the sanctuary’s cathedral ceiling with foam panels, resulting in a 30% drop in the consumption of heating fuel.

But then, Laurie Osher (photo #5) joined the congregation’s board of directors. A global change research scientist, she had just weatherized her own home, cutting the heating cost by half. She believed she could do the same for Beth El. But when Osher first approached the temple board to ask for the needed funds, she met resistance. “We are a small congregation,” says Osher, “there was no building fund, and most members felt that after the recent renovation, they should not need to readdress building issues.” Yet, after an energy audit of the temple revealed that large amounts of outside air were coming in through gaps in walls and around doors and windows, the board agreed to her proposed Rosh Hashanah appeal to raise $25,000 to air-seal the facility.

Soon, with a successful appeal, Beth El was able to insulate another 45% of the reform judaism

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sanctuary foundation and 10% of the entry foundation; augment insulation of flat ceilings, air seal openings in the building envelope, exterior doors, and doors between heating zones; and program thermostats in each zone based upon anticipated usage. In addition, by replacing a burner in the existing boiler, the congregation was able to switch from expensive heating oil to low-cost natural gas, saving an additional 20% on heating costs. And, despite increased use of the synagogue as well as the addition of major appliances, new fans, and lighting, the temple’s electricity use has remained the same. ♦♦♦ In the winter of 2011 and the spring of 2012, Temple Beth-El in San Antonio (beth-elsa.org/index.aspx) had a water problem. In the midst of one of the harshest droughts in Texas history, the temple was paying for 90,000 gallons of water per month to keep its cemetery lawn from turning brown—without success. Facilities manager Mike Kung (photo #6) then decided to replace the St. Augustine grass, which grows best in wet climates, with drought-tolerant native plants and drought-resistant Bermuda grass sourced from local farms.

He also readjusted and began to regularly monitor the cemetery’s irrigation system to make sure the sprinkler heads were working and water was covering the correct areas. As a result, Beth-El has cut its water usage to 49,000 gallons/ month, reducing its water bill by an average of $330 monthly. “Now,” Kung says, “we have a long-term, reliable system that, with a little timely attention, continues to save water and money.” ♦♦♦ Here are 10 expert tips to assist any congregation seeking a more efficient facility: Take the time to thoroughly analyze your current building use. Rebecca Schenker, AIA, an architect who specializes in the renovation of existing buildings, explains that “In conserving energy, there are four major areas to

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consider—the building envelope, HVAC, control systems, and lighting.”

Seize low-hanging fruit. “Start your efficiency project with low-cost steps that will yield the biggest return,” advises Stacey Kennealy of GreenFaith, an organization dedicated to inspiring people of diverse religions to engage in environmental leadership. “If you undertake a long, costly project first, congregants will quickly lose interest. However, if you take simple steps that result in immediate savings, you’ll gain support for longer, more costly efforts. Start a fund with the energy savings from your first project to pay for the next one. An incremental approach helps congregants understand that these projects are really paying for themselves, and will result in substantial savings long term.”

Upgrade your lighting. “By moving from incandescent bulbs to compact fluorescents, and then, as finances permit, to LED fixtures, you’ll reduce your electric bills,” Schenker says. “LED fixtures are not really light bulbs, but small computer circuits—a completely new technology that uses a small fraction of the wattage of incandescent bulbs, and lasts 20 to 25 years instead of the 3 to 5 years typical of incandescents. And LEDs will save congregations the hundreds or even thousands of dollars incurred every few years to erect scaffolding or bring in lifts to replace hardto-reach bulbs on domed sanctuaries.

Replacing older T-12 fluorescents with smaller, more efficient T-5s is another inexpensive, cost-efficient interim step.”

Air-seal your building envelope, and seal doors between heating or cooling zones. “In most cases, actions which involve the lowest expense for the highest return involve air sealing the building envelope,” Osher says. “An energy audit will test the air flow and determine where heat and air are escaping. By applying insulation to the outside and foundation walls, blowing insulation into the attic above flat ceilings, installing gaskets and caulking to fill holes, and ensuring that doors between zones close automatically and form a tight seal, congregations can eliminate much of their

heating/air conditioning loss without spending the large amounts of money it takes to replace windows and doors.”

Program your thermostats wisely.

“Seven-day programmable thermostats, at $50–$70 each, are a low cost item that can realize immediate, significant returns,” Kennealy says. “You can achieve substantial energy savings by turning down the temperature at night and when the building is not in use.

Setting the thermostat down as low as 45º or as high as 85º will not endanger an organ or a Torah—the real concern is humidity.” Even if your facility is in a humid climate, Kennealy advises: “Don’t give up on setbacks. Figure out what works for your building and climate and use whatever setbacks you can, wherever you can—every degree counts.”

Concentrate on the sanctuary.

“Look where you spend the most on energy consumption and you’ll likely find your best savings opportunities,” Schenker says. “In most synagogues, the largest, most impressive, and costly room to heat, cool, and light is the sanctuary. It should be in a separate heating zone, and when not in use, its temperature aggressively set back, with the doors closed and well-sealed.”

Maximize facility use. “Sharing building space or renting unused space for part of the week to outside groups can benefit the congregation monetarily, as well as increase its ties to the greater community,” says Rabbi David Fine (photo #7), the URJ’s rabbinic director of the Small Congregations Network and its resident expert on synagogue mergers and sharing arrangements. “Increasing facility efficiency in this way is a winwin proposition: it’s good politics, it’s good economics, and it’s good Judaism.”

Monitor water use. “When landscaping grounds or cemeteries, minimize water use by using plants that survive well in the native environment,” Schenker says. “Check timers and irrigation zones frequently for faulty irrigation. And utilize automatic sensors in sinks and low-flow toilets, both of which can result in savings.” continued on page 71 reform judaism

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NOTEWORTHY from p.68 URJ To Open Science & Technology Camp In 2014 the Union for Reform Judaism will open its 14th camp— 6 Points Science Academy— in Boston, to serve some 600 campers in grades 6–10 interested in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics). Campers will be immersed in hands-on scientific and technological exploration—learning from scientists, inventors, and technology entrepreneurs as they explore such topics as a scientific explanation for the 10 plagues and molecular gastronomy within Jewish cuisine. They’ll also be part of a vibrant Jewish community infused with Jewish values, ethics, and tradition.

For more information: urjcamps.org.

Teens Take Tikkun Olam Prize Two Reform young people—Joseph (Joe) Langerman of Congregation Beth Israel, San Diego and Celine Yousefzadeh of Stephen S. Wise Temple, Los Angeles—are among 10 Jewish teens selected to receive the 2012 Diller Teen Tikkun Olam Award. Funded by the Helen Diller Family Foundation, the national award grants $36,000 to teens “whose volunteer services projects demonstrate a determined commitment to make the world a better place.”

Joe, who had been bullied at school, started “Voices Against Cruelty, Hatred and Intolerance” (VACHI). Developing a survey that demonstrated the extent of bullying at the school, Joe used the results to promote increased solidarity among his classmates, to integrate tolerance programming into the school curriculum, and to lobby the school board to adopt new policies, including creating a program to educate (not ignore or punish) first-time offenders. The campaign has

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NOTEWORTHY from p.69 created an international following on Facebook, and Joe is now working to establish VACHI chapters in nearby high schools.

Celine’s brainchild, the student-run charity event “Fashion with Compassion,” has raised $20,000+ for disadvantaged citizens of Israel, among them children in need of heart surgery. More than 100 students participate as planners, stylists, and models in the annual show, now supported by high profile sponsors. Celine is trying to expand the program to Jewish schools nationwide.

For more information: jewishfed.org/diller/ teenawards.

Casey’s Gift of Life In 2011, when Indiana University (IU) student Casey Lenhart was serving as a counselor at the URJ’s Goldman Union Camp Institute in Zionsville, Indiana, she heard another IU student CASEY LENHART tell the camp staff how he had saved a person’s life by donating bone marrow. Captivated, Casey registered with the Gift of Life Bone Marrow Foundation as a potential donor. One year later, Gift of Life informed Casey that she was a match to give bone marrow to a 57-year-old woman with chronic leukemia, and the procedure ensued.

“Before the donation I was coasting through life,” Casey says, “just going to class, hanging out with friends, and getting through each day.

Being able to save a life got me to rethink what life is really about.” Now she plans to give other students the same opportunity by running a Gift of Life registration drive on the IU campus.

For more: info@giftoflife.org.

WHAT WORKS Ideas & Initiatives A Shiva Registry for Mourning Families

In 2009, right after learning that her beloved mother had died, Sharon Rosen, a member of Congregation B’nai Israel (CBI) in Boca Raton, Florida, felt the intense pain of loss. Knowing she needed to share information about the upcoming memorial service, she made calls to her family and close friends, and then turned to email as her most comfortable way SHARON ROSEN to communicate.

The phone, however, kept ringing with well-intentioned callers asking about directions, prayer services, charitable donations, and food (“Is your family kosher?” “Is anyone sending dinner on Thursday?”

“Which deli is nearby?” “Has anyone sent a fruit platter?”). The stress grew as an overabundance of food was delivered; some platters had to be taken back to delicatessens for overnight refrigeration and others donated to a local shelter. Exhausted and overwhelmed, Rosen thought, “There must be a better way!”

More than a year later, after much research, design, and programming, Rosen launched ShivaConnect.com, a comprehensive, complimentary website offering Jewish families assistance, coordination, and resources throughout the bereavement period.

A personal shiva registry page enables families to quickly share funeral and shiva information with relatives, friends, colleagues, and congregants (through email, texting, Facebook, and/or the search function on the homepage). Frequently asked questions are anticipated and answered in advance, sparing the mourners the reform judaism

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stress of handling a myriad of phone calls.

On ShivaConnect.com, one can learn more information than is typically made available: not only funeral and shiva locations, times, and directions, but also the shiva food others are sending each day, local delis that will deliver shiva platters, and the family’s preferred charities for donations (synagogues and Jewish charities receive complimentary listings). Relatives and friends can also read eulogies and send messages to mourners. Additional site offerings include articles about Jewish bereavement customs, a checklist to prepare the shiva house, prayers, poems, healing songs, insights from rabbis, yizkor dates, and a yearly yarhzeit reminder email.

Rosen’s congregation is now utilizing the online shiva registry system.

Rabbis Robert Silvers and Marci Bloch let mourning families know of the option, explaining that CBI will help enter their information on a private page (as the WRJ /Sisterhood representative, Rosen often does the posting). The synagogue then sends a lifecycle announcement to members with an explanation and link to the family page.

The congregation itself also used ShivaConnect.com when Linda Harris, CBI director of Early Childhood Education, suffered the loss of her beloved husband, Stan. More than 900 visitors learned about a special CBI Memorial Fund established in Stan’s memory and many sent condolence notes during the bereavement period. “ShivaConnect has helped our members do exactly what it is titled—

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‘connect,’” says Rabbi Bloch. “I remember one funeral where, weeks later, people were still reading the beautiful eulogies the family had posted and talking about the inspiration the person had been to our community.”

A member of Temple Beth El in Chappaqua, New York was out of the country, with limited phone access, when her mother passed away. With one call to ShivaConnect, the funeral and shiva information was posted, the temple Sisterhood added that they were sending a deli platter for 75 people after the service, and almost everyone else either selected a different day to send a platter or made a memorial donation to the synagogue or charities listed. “ShivaConnect took care of everything!” the mourner says. “Even

my rabbi couldn’t believe how amazing it was!”

All synagogues throughout the United States are welcomed to follow CBI’s example. ShivaConnect.com will provide direct links to the synagogue donation page from its charity section. When a death occurs, it takes about five minutes for a volunteer, Sisterhood member, or administrative assistant to enter the mourner’s information onto the shiva registry (alternatively, the 800 number can be called). The congregation then sends the link to its members; mourners send it to relatives and friends.

“There is no time more difficult for a family than when they lose a loved one,” Rosen says. “We can’t ease their pain, but ShivaConnect is there to help.”

Share your innovative volunteer initiative: rjmagazine@urj.org

ACTION Smart Strategies for Facility Savings from page 69 Consult with GreenFaith, the URJ, and state IPLs. GreenFaith (greenfaith.org) provides worksheets and ideas for energy analyses of synagogue facilities. Its two-year certification program offers guidance, mentoring, and resources to help synagogues save energy costs and implement green initiatives, and the URJ offers sponsorships to member congregations accepted into the program.

To apply, please visit greenfaith.org/ programs/certification; to access resources created by the initial Greening Reform Judaism pilot congregations, go to urj.org/green/programs/ greenfaith. Forty U.S. states now have Interfaith Power and Light (interfaithpowerandlight.org) affiliates devoted to assisting faith communities in reducing their energy use by furnishing information and speakers on facility efficiency and through clean energy advocacy. Government energy programs often offer tax deductions, and local power companies may offer discounts or other incentives to “go green.” The URJ’s

Rabbi David Fine (dfine@urj.org) and the Congregational Network team are available to consult on sharing arrangements and mergers.

Educate your congregation.

“Members need to ‘buy in,’” says Rabbi Fine, “so plan an initial program— show a film and/or have a rabbi or guest speaker address efficiency issues from a religious perspective. When members understand the importance of the goal, instead of resenting the extra few steps needed to make things work, they’ll be eager to participate.”

“People believe changes to the synagogue will make life unpleasant and are reluctant to spend on energy conservation,” Osher says. “But when the work is done, it’s highly satisfying on many levels. Everyone is pleased to be saving money, feeling more comfortable, and helping the environment. No one ever says, ‘I wish we hadn’t done that.’”

—Julie Schwartz, a freelance writer, public speaker, New Orleans tour guide, and president of the New Orleans Chapter of Hadassah reform judaism

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NOTEWORTHY from p.70 Free Social Media Policy Workbook How can your congregation employ social media to great advantage?

To help you think through how best to represent yourself online, Darim Online has created the Social Media Policy Workbook for Jewish Organizations as a free PDF download, thanks in part to the URJ. Topics include: • Assigning responsibilities for social media roles; • Determining which topics are appropriate, and which need to be authorized; • Protecting, copyrighting, and attributing work; • Navigating the often blurry boundaries between one’s personal and professional lives on social media To access: darimonline. org/smpw.

And, to learn from others who are working on their social media policy, join the Social Media Policy Facebook group: facebook.com/ groups/socialmediapolicy.

Meet the Young Composer’s Award Winner The Guild of Temple Musicians awarded HUC-JIR rabbinic student Michael Summa, 28, its 2013 Young Composer’s Award for his settings of “Psalms 95 and 96 for Kabbalat MICHAEL SUMMA Shabbat.”

The pieces will premiere at the 2013 ACC/GTM Annual Convention in Minneapolis this summer, and Summa will receive a $2,500 cash prize.

For the past 22 years, the Young Composer’s Award has encouraged emerging young Jewish composers 18–35 to write works for synagogue and concert, adding to the repertory of serious Jewish music.

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OF REFORM JEWS

DEBATABLE Should Our Seminary Admit Students with Non-Jewish Partners?

YES

Daniel Kirzane

In 1999, the Central Conference of American Rabbis affirmed that the Reform Movement is “an inclusive community, opening doors to Jewish life to [all]…who strive to create a Jewish home.” Our Reform seminary, the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, should be the greatest exemplar of this ideal, yet it will not admit any applicant who is “engaged, married, or partnered/committed to a person not Jewish by birth or conversion.”

This policy is antithetical to our Movement’s HUC-JIR policy essential focus on welis antithetical coming and Outreach.

The Union for Reform to Outreach.

Judaism’s Outreach brochure opens with, “Intermarried? Reform Judaism welcomes you” and explains: “The prophet Isaiah said: ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples’ (Isaiah 56:7). We know from the Torah that from the very earliest days, there have been individuals who lived with the Jewish community but who were not themselves Jewish.…You are welcome.”

Outreach is no longer about “turning the tide of intermarriage,” as it was 35 years ago. Today it is about embracing both Jewish and non-Jewish members of Jewish families, affirming their positive contributions to our congregations and religious schools.

I am a child of one of these families, as are many of my classmates. My parents modeled how to build a Jewish family with non-Jewish members, and I have followed their example by building a home committed to the Jewish values of activism, spirituality, and prayer. But had I chosen to build this home with a non-Jewish partner, I would not have been allowed even to apply to be a rabbinical student at HUC-JIR. I urge the Hebrew Union College to make good on the Reform Movement’s commitment to Outreach by changing its policy and opening its doors to all who strive to create a Jewish home and serve the Jewish people.

Daniel Kirzane is a rabbinical student at HUC-JIR in New York City. Last October he delivered a sermon at HUC-JIR entitled, “Open the Door: Our Reform Duty to Open HUCJIR to Applicants and Students with Non-Jewish Partners.”

Brandon Bernstein

NO

To what Jewish values should we hold our future clergy and educators accountable? Currently, applicants to HUC-JIR (the Reform Movement’s seminary) are not held to any standards of theological belief, ritual observance, or life choices, except for one: an agreement not to be “engaged, married, or partnered/committed to a person not Jewish by birth or conversion.” This policy is therefore crucial for its significant symbolic value—it is the one and only commitment to living a Jewish life expected by HUC of future Reform rabbis, cantors, educators, Future leaders and communal workers. need to be As professional Reform leaders “to be,” Jewish exemplars. we have the freedom of individual choice in our Jewish practice, but we also have a covenantal responsibility to God, Torah, and Israel that extends beyond the self. I do not think it is unreasonable to ask a future Jewish exemplar to choose a Jewish spouse or partner, for the sake of this covenant.

While it truly pains me to hear stories of those denied admission because of the current policy, I do not believe that the hardships they describe are sufficient to justify a change in HUC’s policy. Rather, I hope these anecdotes open the door to a Movement-wide conversation that positively articulates the Jewish values to which our leaders and congregations ought to strive. We need to have this difficult conversation before any policy change is considered.

The Babylonian Talmud (Rosh Hashanah 29b) tells of an instance when Rabban Yochanan ben Zakkai convinced his colleagues to blow the shofar on Shabbat (prohibited at the time).

Afterward, the rabbis attempt to start a discussion as to whether this should be a regular occurrence, but Yochanan promptly quashes the conversation, stating: “The shofar has already been sounded…and we do not discuss after a precedent [has been set].” Do we truly wish to follow Yochanan’s example?

Let us not blow the shofar on this issue prematurely.

Instead, let us join in conversation to articulate a common vision for a Jewish future that balances our personal choices with our covenantal obligations.

Brandon Bernstein, a rabbinical student at HUC-JIR in NY, is the Reform Rabbinic Fellow at Columbia/Barnard Hillel.

VOTE YOUR VIEW Should Our Seminary Admit Students with Non-Jewish Partners? reformjudaismmag.org VIEW THE LAST VOTE May Non-Jews Recite Any Blessing from the Bimah? 46% YES 54% NO

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“ Without JDate, I may never have

found my other half.”

Stephanie

Jonathan

Engaged March 2012

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