| The Jewish Journal Archive | ||||
| December 19, 2003 -January 1, 2004 | ||||
|
Local
Stories |
||||
Local StoriesInterfaith Families Deal with the ‘December Dilemma’
Jews might be shocked to discover that the house in Middleton decorated with twinkling white lights belongs to Tasha Cooper, a fellow Jew. Cooper is married to Jamie Mair, who is Protestant. Although their children, Emma, 3, and Jake, 1, are being raised Jewish, the interfaith family is trying to embody some of both traditions this holiday season. “Jamie has fond memories of waking up at the crack of dawn to see what was under the Christmas tree. He and his family would sing carols and enjoy spending the day together. I would like to incorporate some of these Christian things for him, since he has incorporated my religion,” explains Tasha, who was raised as a Conservative Jew. They have always celebrated Chanukah, and Tasha proudly acknowledges that Jamie knows the menorah candlelighting prayer by heart. But this year, they decided to honor some of Jamie’s traditions. Although they stopped short of getting a tree, they decorated the outside of their home with simple white lights and hung stockings above their mantle. “I rationalized the lights by saying that Chanukah is the festival of lights,” admits Tasha, who struggles because she thinks her Jewish parents will disapprove of the decorations. “But it’s a seasonal thing that I think is pretty.” The family might get a tree next year, and they are still debating whether to introduce the concept of Santa. “We’re trying to figure it out while the kids are still young,” says Tasha. “We don’t want it to just be about presents. We want to be careful not to ‘overgift’ the kids, since their birthdays also arrive during this time of the year. Many of Jamie’s favorite memories of Christmas deal with family and togetherness. We want to do things that will create our own fond family memories,” she says. The conflicts faced by the Cooper-Mair family are becoming increasingly common. According to the most recent National Jewish Population Survey, 47 percent of Jews who got married during the last five years have married non-Jews. Many of these interfaith families are fully committed to raising their children Jewish. Yet they struggle over how to handle Christmas. At a recent meeting sponsored by the Interfatih Outreach Committee of Jewish Federation of the North Shore, local interfaith families gathered to discuss the December Dilemma. The meeting was moderated by the affable Rabbi Myron Geller of Temple Ahavat Achim in Gloucester, and Edmund Case, who runs a comprehensive online outreach and support network called Interfaithfamily.com. “Many interfaith families resolve the fact that there are two traditions in their family by viewing their children as having two cultures, but one religious identity. Participation in Christmas celebrations should be viewed in this context,” says Case, who adds that children’s Jewish identity does not have to be compromised by participating in Christmas rituals. “Your children can sit on Santa’s lap or help decorate a Christmas tree without worrying that they are going to convert. Jewish identity is not shaped just in December. What do you do the other 364 days of the year?” he asks. Dr.
Shawn and Tasha Gliklich live in North Andover with their two children;
Isaac, 2, and Rachael, six months. They have a menorah in the window and
a wreath on the front door. A fully-decorated Christmas tree twinkles
inside the house. Shawn is Jewish. Tasha is Methodist. Although the children
are being raised Jewish, Tasha does not want to convert, and treasures
her Christmas traditions. Rena and Eric Mello are another interfaith couple from Cambridge. When they first started dating, the celebration of Christmas was very important to Rena, a non-practicing Catholic. Although Eric did not want to have a Christmas tree, he didn’t want to let this one issue mar an otherwise good relationship. He decided that if that was really important to Rena, he could go along with it. That was all Rena needed to hear. His attitude of openness was more important to her than actually getting the tree. Today, they celebrate Chanukah at their own home, and go to her sister’s house to celebrate Christmas. Rabbi Geller stresses that respect for the non-Jewish partner and his/her is family is paramount. “Honor your parents or your in-laws on Christmas, even if that means going to Mass with them. It doesn’t make you any less of a Jew. In fact, it makes you more of a Jew because honoring your parents is one of the Ten Commandments,” he says. He says that interfaith couples must talk about what they want during the holidays. “Don’t let the decision to tree or not to tree be made by default. Initiate a conversation. Is it a sin to have a Christmas tree? Hardly. Will your child wind up a priest if you have a Christmas tree? Not likely, although he could turn out to be a Lubavitch,” jokes Geller. “If
you decide to celebrate Christmas, please find some meaning in it besides
it being a materialistic shopping experience,” he adds. “I was brought up Catholic and Melissa was Jewish. I’m from the Newton area, and we’d go to my family’s house on Christmas. They would give Melissa presents in Chanukah bags. The fact that she was Jewish was never an issue — what was more of an issue was that we were a lesbian couple. In our own home, we’d light candles and celebrate Chanukah. As a couple, we celebrated Solstice,” says Gretchen. The couple, who have been together for a decade, don’t have a Christmas tree. They do decorate their home with seasonal greens and white lights. And they are raising Ari Jewish. “Melissa wanted to learn more about Judaism, and I originally went (to temple) to support her. I came to feel connected with the services and the community. Although I’m not a practicing Catholic, I’m not sure if I want to convert. But we want Ari to have a strong base and a spiritual community. We want him to grow up to learn and love Judaism,” she says. During this holiday season, local interfaith families are blending their traditions in new and exciting ways. Some have Christmas trees, but call them Chanukah bushes and decorate them with blue and silver lights and a Star of David on the top. Others transcend the symbols and instead focus on rituals, be they Jewish or Christian, that nurture togetherness and love. Malden
Family Struggles to Get Back on its Feet GARY
BAND MALDEN — In a culture that values strong family and community ties, the thought of a homeless Jewish family is hard to imagine — especially one in the prime of their lives. Yet a family in Malden is in such a predicament. Since September, James Rose, his wife and one-year old son have lived in a shelter in Malden. Rose, 33, grew up in Brookline. He attended temples Ohabei Shalom and Israel with his sister and parents, became a bar mitzvah, and went on for confirmation and post-confirmation study. He was active in youth group, attended camps Kingswood and Eisner, graduated Brookline High School and Clark University, where he was an AEPi, and went to work as an account executive with Fechtor, Detwiler & Co., Inc. in Boston for three years. From there he transitioned to other mid-range sales positions, culminating in a 60k salary with Darwin Partners in Wakefield, from which he was laid off due to downsizing in March 2001. Rose himself, and later his wife and their son, (asked not to be named or photographed) lived in an apartment in Revere from 1996-2002. But due to financial problems, they were evicted. They then lived temporarily with Rose’s mother and father in a one-bedroom apartment in Brookline, but soon left and found an apartment in Sharon. Try as they might, they could not make ends meet and were forced to leave again in July 2003. Though Rose had done everything he could to find work and an affordable place to live, he came up short on both accounts. Through the Department of Transitional Assistance they were placed in the Manor Inn in Brookline on July 15. They stayed until the end of September and were then relocated to the Malden shelter. (Malden is not part of the Jewish Federation of the North Shore’s coverage area, but Combined Jewish Philanthropies’.) Despite their best efforts, the main reason for the Roses’ situation stems from health problems that have caused James and his wife a great deal of difficulty. Namely, for James, sleep apnea and severe lower back pain due to disc dislocation that would take surgery and a year of recovery time to heal. “This
has been the most difficult and humbling experience I’ve ever had,”
Rose said gravely at a Malden diner. “I have no choice but to try
to better my situation. My wife and son deserve better than this.”
“Jewish poverty and homelessness is becoming more of an issue in this economy,” says JFCS Marketing Director Liz Carey. “Many are the last people you’d expect: they’re educated, middle class, but things happen with jobs and health that they can’t help. Some have nowhere to turn.” JFCS, which operates together with the Center for Family Assistance, offers help with housing costs, medical care, legal assistance through a program called Beit Tzedek, some cash gifts, and food through Family Table. They serve 25,000 people a year in 80 cities and towns in Massachusetts a year, 65 percent of whom are Jewish. Wayne Kessler is the director of the Center for Family Assistance. “We don’t know the true extent of homelessness in the Jewish community,” he said, “but in the last year we received close to a 1,000 calls for assistance. That’s up 58 percent from the year before. With the economy the way it is, benefits being cut, rents and healthcare costs going up, many people are having trouble making ends meet.” The Center, which is funded by the state, also receives support through Combined Jewish Philanthropies and private donors. Last year, they approved 84 grants totalling $63,000 worth of housing assistance to prevent eviction and move out of homelessness. “The more contributions we get the more we’re able to help,” Kessler says. “It’s good that people’s awareness is raised on an issue like this. And it’s great that people donate funds. But what’s needed is time for case workers to generate a long-term plan for the client.” Pazit Aviv is the Roses’ case worker at JFCS. She has worked hard to help them get the assistance they need, but there are limits to what she can do for them. According to Kessler, once the Roses are able to make some decisions about employment and housing, it will be easier to help them. At the moment, they are receiving disability payments and food stamps totalling less than $1,000 a month. For his part, Rose says he is spending full-time looking for work, filling out applications for housing, and seeking help. To date, he has received $752 in contributions, baby clothes and toys. “The one thing this has allowed me to do is spend time with my son,” he said. “I wouldn’t change that for anything. I also don’t lose the fact of how lucky I am to have my wife, who is the most caring, loving, generous human being in the world to me. My only wish is to make things better for her and our son in the future.” To help support the Roses, send checks made out to James Rose, c/o The Jewish Journal, 201 Washington Street, Suite 14, Salem, MA, 01970. ADL’s Foxman Sounds Anti-Semitism Alarm at ‘Emergency’ Meeting BRETT
M. RHYNE “I did not believe that in my lifetime I would address the issue of anti-Semitism as a clear and present danger,” Foxman said. Foxman catalogued growing anti-Semitism around the world, including the 1994 Buenos Aires Jewish community center bombing, the “slaughtering” of journalist Daniel Pearl and the remarks of Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad of Malaysia, who in October repeated to “the heads of 57 Muslim states... what Hitler had said: The Jews of world control the world. The wars of the world are fought on their behalf.” Foxman also described the fearfulness of European Jews, from “a chief rabbi of France, who tells his congregants, ‘do not wear a yarmulke,’” to the leader of the Norwegian Jewish community, who advises, “‘maybe you should be a little less Jewish.’” In Foxman’s view, American Jews are fearful, too. “There has not been a synagogue from Corpus Christi, Texas to Fairbanks, Alaska that does not have security,” he said. “Synagogues that cannot afford a rabbi hire security.” Security was tight at KI: State troopers with bomb-sniffing dogs scoured the synagogue before the event and the 200 predominantly middle-aged and elderly audience members were checked for weapons before entering the sanctuary. This, despite no threats having been received, according to one state trooper, and no explosives found. The
bimah was adorned with a poster featuring three Turkish Jews fleeing the
recent synagogue bombings, one with a bloodied head. “Anti-Semitism in all of its vicious forms is a direct violation of a solemn pact agreed to by all of humanity 55 years ago” in the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Rev. Drinan said. Both speakers received standing ovations at the conclusions of their remarks. Several North Shore Jews attended the event. “People need to wake up,” said Rabbi Ilana Rosansky of Temple Shalom in Salem. “We’re facing what people were facing in the ‘30s. You can’t read the paper... I go numb. I think [Foxman] is right on: American Jews are apathetic, and globally, there’s anti-Semitism.” “I’m a supporter of the ADL and its work,” said Susan Steigman, a staffer at the JCC of the North Shore in Marblehead. “Father Drinan is an inspirational figure locally and globally. It’s a real honor to hear him speak.” “This is a very important issue,” said Swampscott’s Nancy Kaufman, executive director of the Jewish Community Relations Council, the political action arm of Combined Jewish Philanthropies. “The rank and file of the Jewish community wants to know what they can do about this reinvigorated anti-Semitism and to support Israel.” Concluding the program, ADL-New England Executive Director Rob Leikind spoke to the ADL’s efforts. He cited providing information and an email list serve, creating opportunities for dialogue and giving people opportunities to express their support. “Most of us are burning with this issue, but not enough of us,” Leikind said. Foxman’s appearance comes on the heels of the release of his new book, Never Again? The Threat of the New Anti-Semitism, and he drew heavily from it for his talk. “The new anti-Semitism is the old anti-Semitism,” he said. “It’s the old canards: Jews are disloyal, Jews want control.” Later, Foxman said he never thought “the eleventh commandment of ‘never again’” would become a question: “never again?” Foxman did not appear at ADL-New England’s annual meeting, a 400-person, $150-a-plate dinner held just two nights earlier at the Boston Park Plaza Hotel. “The organization for this talk started last week,” said an ADL staffer. “It’s called an emergency because it was an emergency for us to organize.” “Foxman is a genius at branding,” commented one audience member. “Since taking over the ADL 15 years ago, he’s cornered the market on anti-Semitism.”
The
Strasnicks of Swampscott
SWAMPSCOTT — With a seemingly endless reserve of patience and compassion, Bonnie Strasnick rocks fussy and irritable Peter (not his real name). The 10-week-old was born addicted to drugs and is still in the process of detoxing. Peter’s biological mother is in jail and his birth father has no interest in being a parent. With open and loving arms, Bonnie took in the neglected newborn and is nursing him back to a state of physical and emotional well-being. Bonnie and her husband Brian, who live in Swampscott, are foster parents. Peter is the 16th child they have welcomed into their lives over the course of six years. Some of the children stay for a day or two, others remain with them for many months. Although each situation is different, the common thread is that the Massachusetts Department of Social Services (DSS) had reason to suspect that the children were in danger or were being abused or neglected. The agency placed them in foster care so they could have a safe, secure place to live until the court decided what to do with them. “I find this really gratifying. Plus, it allows me to keep having little kids around the house,” says Bonnie, who has four children of her own; Meredith, 23, Jillian, 21, Craig, 16, and Brandon, 6. She and her husband, a former pharmacist and psychologist who is now president/CEO of a laboratory and medical center in Lynn that helps the medically underserved, have taken in children of all ages. However they “specialize” in caring for addicted newborns. They take turns getting up each night to feed, change and soothe the babies. The Strasnicks stress that the decision to take in foster children has to be a family decision, because it involves and impacts everybody in the family. “I have a house full of Jewish princes and princesses,” says Bonnie, who notes that her own children have risen to the occasion and in the process have learned a lot about compassion, giving and sharing. They take breaks of several weeks in between placements to re-group as a family. Strasnick, 49, grew up in Peabody and has always wanted to help others. When she moved into a big house in Swampscott in 1996, she saw an opportunity. “We had an extra bedroom. I thought, ‘Great — a guest room.’ But then I realized, who needs guests?” She
called DSS in 1997 to inquire about making an initial two-week commitment.
After attending an 8-week intensive training class and having their house
inspected to make sure it was safe, the Strasnicks were ready. They got
their first placement, a drug-addicted newborn, in August of 1997. Since
then, they have been through the process many times. She says it is always
an exciting experience. The Strasnicks prepare by keeping neatly-organized stacks of crates in their basement containing clean clothing and supplies, carefully separated into sizes and seasons. Bonnie also has to prepare for handling the emotional needs of a frightened child who is brought into a totally unfamiliar environment. “You have to understand that these kids are being plucked out of their homes, often against their will. Everyone has been taken away from them, and at that moment, they are losing everything in their life. They are falling into an abyss. You are there to catch them,” she says. While the foster family shelters the affected child, the court attempts to stabilize the biological family. Re-unification is the goal. The birth parent(s) may receive special services, counseling and instruction. If they comply with court orders, they regain custody. When a child returns to his or her biological parents, the Strasnicks usually have no further contact. Oftentimes, however, the birth parent(s) can’t straighten out their lives. In such cases, parental rights are terminated. The second choice is to place the child with a relative, if feasible. When a child is placed with a blood relative, the Strasnicks might or might not have continued contact, although they could inquire about the child’s welfare through the social worker. If a relative cannot be found, the child is then legally eligible for adoption. Bonnie notes that the process of separation is more gradual when children get adopted. When it finally comes time to part, the Strasnicks celebrate the event with a goodbye party. “We have a cake and decorations, and we give the child a present to remember us. We try to make it a happy day because this child, who came to us when he or she was so fragile, is going to a loving, permanent home. We cry after they leave because we will miss them, but we feel great that they found a family of their own. It’s the most gratifying thing in the world,” says Bonnie. The Strasnicks, who are members of Temple Emanu-El in Marblehead, try to respect the ethnicity and religions of the children they care for. “They are exposed to Judaism because that’s what we live. On Purim, I’ll put them in a costume and take them to synagogue. But I try to honor their holidays, too,” says Bonnie. “I had a little girl who wanted to celebrate Easter. I bought her a pretty dress, some patent shoes and a hat. I found someone who took her to church and let her hunt for Easter eggs. She was very happy. I also have a Hispanic babysitter who can speak to the Latino children in Spanish and cook them ethnic foods that are familiar to them,” she adds. She wishes more Jews would volunteer to be foster families. “Jewish people don’t tend to do this. Sometimes it’s easier to just write a check. I don’t want to discourage financial donations, because that’s very important. But children of all ages and stages need help, and it’s a mitzvah to do this work,” she says. Strasnick points out that there are currently 5,000 children who need foster care in Massachusetts alone, and there is a shortage of homes, especially in the North Shore. She notes that children from this area are often sent to foster homes in other communities where they can’t see their friends and are unable to attend the daycare center or school they are familiar with. “That’s a double tragedy,” she sighs. She urges people not to fear making that first phone call to DSS. In Massachusetts, single and/or gay people are welcome to become foster parents. Prospective foster parents don’t have to own their own homes or be stay-at-home parents. There are a lot of support programs available, including free babysitting, childcare and respite programs. Foster parents are paid for their services, and although Strasnick says, “it’s not an income opportunity,” you certainly receive enough money to properly care for the child. The Strasnicks enjoy taking care of newborns, but foster children of all ages, including teenagers, need homes. She points out that she, like other volunteers, refuse certain placements. “You should only accept what you feel you can handle and what would blend in best with your family,” she says. “There are other foster families who take in children who are blind, deaf or have shaken-baby syndrome. There are people who put hospital beds in their living rooms and care for kids with feeding tubes, and people who care for teenagers with babies of their own. That’s more than we’re prepared to deal with. We’re not superhuman,” says Bonnie. There is no doubt, however, that the Strasnicks are making a difference in the lives of needy children. “You put forth your best effort and do the best you can. I’ll do it until I have grandchildren,” concludes Bonnie. For more information about becoming a foster parent, contact the DSS office in Salem at 978-825-3862 or the DSS office in Lynn at 781-477-1600.
The
Way I See It MARK
ARNOLD
|
|
ENGAGED Goldbaum — Levenson
Penny
Schuler Gets Twin JCCNS Posts |
ENGAGED Anapolsky — Blasbalg
Birth Announcement Julie and Glen Schuster, and their son, Seth, 5, of Rye Brook, NY, announce the birth of their son and brother, Justin Philip, on Decmber 3, 2003. Grandparents are Judy and Rob Schuster of Middleton and Iris and Michael Cook of Plainview, NY. Great-grandparents are Sylvia and Ike Schuster of Malden, Eve Levine of Deerfield Beach, FL, and the late Philip Levine. Daniel and Gail New of Lynnfield announce the birth of their son, Aidan Jack, and daughter, Lucy Amilia, on December 4, 2003. Grandparents are Laura and Jim New of Swampscott, Ellen Wassarman of Irvington, NY, and Paul Wassarman of New York City. Great-grandparents are Irene Whitman of Swampscott and Libby New of Raleigh, NC. Aidan and Lucy join sister Alison, 3.. |
Business
and Finance
Marblehead
Inventor’s ‘Puzzle Snuggle’ Helps Keep Kids Organized
SUSAN
JACOBS
Jewish Journal Staff
They say necessity is the mother of all invention. Well, one mother came up with her own invention – the Puzzle Snuggle. When her oldest child started playing with puzzles and felt boards, Marblehead native Jennifer Rooks Dolin developed the Puzzle Snuggle as a practical solution for storing wooden and cardboard-backed puzzle pieces.
Dolin came up with the idea a couple of years ago. “My two children were constantly losing puzzle pieces, and we’d end up throwing out the puzzles — only to find the pieces weeks later. My kids love puzzles, and I thought ‘there has to be a better way to keep this stuff together!,’” said Dolin.
She created a better way. The Puzzle Snuggle is a single piece of machine-washable, stretchable fabric that fits securely over a puzzle and keeps the pieces from moving. A mesh window on the front allows people to view the puzzle.
Dolin thinks her storage solution will appeal to everyone with puzzles or felt boards in their homes, doctors’ offices, day cares or schools. Two sizes, available in three different colors, fit most puzzles and felt boards. The Puzzle Snuggle retails for $4 for the small and $5 for the large.
Since the fabric stretches, you can stack smaller, odd-size puzzles on top of standard-sized ones and stretch the Puzzle Snuggle over them all. The Puzzle Snuggle allows you to take a puzzle anywhere you want without losing pieces. This may be especially helpful when toting puzzles in the car to occupy children during long road trips.
The Puzzle Snuggle is currently available at a handful of local stores, including The Marblehead Toy Shop, Zoinks in Boston and Providence, RI, and The Kids’ Place for Fun in Newton and the Atrium Mall. Dolin hopes to take her product to the national level soon.
“It’s one of those products that parents see and say, ‘why didn’t someone come up with this sooner?’ I want to make peoples’ lives easier, and in the area of children’s puzzles, I think the Puzzle Snuggle‚ does that,” says Dolin.
Jewish Journal Wins Two More Prizes
The Jewish Journal has been awarded two prizes in the New England Press Association’s 2003 Better Newspaper Contest. The awards bring to six the number of awards won by the newsaper during the year.
The awards were granted for a biweekly human interest feature story and for local advertising color among biweeklies. The human interest story, by correspondent Lennard Lindskog, a Swedish journalist, appeared on page one of our issue of April 25, 2003.
Titled Last Warsaw Ghetto Leader Remembers Uprising and written from Lodz, Poland, it featured an interview with 82-year-old Marek Edelman, who recounted in graphic detail the German siege of the World War II enclave of Jewish fighters, few of whom survived the sustained Nazi onslaught.
The new awards will be presented at the annual NEPA dinner on Sat., Feb. 7, at the Boston Park Plaza Hotel. A spokesman for NEPA said the group received 5,600 entries from 228 papers and granted 600 awards.
Previously this year, the Journal won three awards from the Association of Free Community Papers, including first place for “most improved publication” and second and third place awards for its cover designs. From the American Jewish Press Association, the Journal, competing against much larger newspapers, won a third place award for “overall excellence in graphic design.”
Editor/Publisher Mark Arnold said he is “gratified by the growing recognition of our quality among leading newspaper associations in the nation.”
A Lot to Like About Eilat
LENI
REISS
Special to the Journal
EILAT,
Israel — A coral-filled sea. Pristine beaches. Swaying palms. Elegant
hotels. Exotic dining. Violet-hued mountains as a backdrop.
Sound too good to be true? Believe it. Add to the mix nearby tourist attractions
to challenge the adventurous and satisfy the shopper and you have Eilat,
Israel’s vacation mecca at the northern tip of the Red Sea. A modern-day
oasis, the area is a thriving example of daily calm and economic cooperation
despite the headlines of Mideast troubles.
Treated
like royalty
As one of a group of American journalists on a tour hosted by Israel’s
Ministry of Tourism, I was treated like royalty at the resplendent 479-room
Hilton Queen of Sheba, one of the newest in the hotel chain’s family
of worldwide resorts. Taking its inspiration from the palace of the Biblical
queen, the hotel’s architecture and interior design feature hand-painted
antique motifs, mosaics and domes.
Amenities abound and include cable TV, modem and FAX socket and voice mail messaging, but one feature that you would not necessarily find in an equivalent facility in America really captured my imagination: The Gold, Bordeaux, Violette and Turquoise Love Suites are described in brochures as “a novel temptation for those romantics wishing to celebrate their love.” Inspired by the legendary romance of King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba, these color-coordinated suites “take the guests back to past epochs of splendor and wrap you in an atmosphere of love.” Sure to appeal to the romantics of the world, the suite packages include massages and other goodies.
Vacation
paradise
Situated at the spot where Israel, Jordan and Egypt converge at the Red
Sea, Eilat boasts average daily temperatures not unlike those of ours
here in the Valley of the Sun. Water temperatures are in the mid-70s year-round,
and most hotels feature balconies with splendid views combining turquoise
sea, a rainbow of sails and pastel mountains. The word is that come winter,
hordes of Scandinavians escape the snow and head to this vacation paradise,
and the pool areas and beaches — with complimentary lounges, umbrellas
and towels — are filled with blond sunbathers. During my stay, however,
I was impressed with the enormous range and variety of guests, and the
range and variety of languages spoken.
Geological
wonders
Under the watchful eye of our articulate and knowledgeable Israeli Arab
guide, Izat Abu Rabia, our intrepid group worked up the energy to leave
our lush accommodations and explore the surrounding area. Izat, behind
the wheel of an American SUV, regaled us with discreet tales of having
guided such luminaries as Al Pacino, Chelsea Clinton and Antonio Banderas.
Israel’s south is home to an astonishing range of natural phenomena, from cratered canyons to Bedouin encampments. Among the highlights: Avdat National Park where we saw the remains of an ancient Nabatean city that served as a caravan station on the “spice trail” used by camel caravans bringing the riches of the East to the empires along the shores of the Mediterranean; the Ramon Visitors’ Center with its exhibit of the national history and geology of the region and a breathtaking view of the Ramon Crater; Timna Nature Reserve, site of ancient copper mines and today a geological park with rock formations including Solomon’s Pillars.
But perhaps most vivid in my memory is our stop at an out-of-doors Bedouin market in Be’ersheva, the capital of the Negev, where Izat negotiated successfully on my behalf for an authentic camel cover, handmade of camel, sheep and goat wool. (It is a treasure and I still am looking for just the right place to display it!)
For
the birds
North of Eilat is the bird watching park and sanctuary known as the busiest
“highway in the sky” for birds migrating between Europe and
Africa. In the heart of the city we found the Eilat Stone jewelry center,
known for elegant settings of the blue/green stone indigenous to the area.
And there is the underwater observatory. And the snorkeling. And mountain
biking. And a lot more. And that’s Eilat!
Leni Reiss is a contributing editor to the Jewish News of Greater Phoenix.
She was formerly the editor for 17 years.
An Israeli Father and Reservist ‘Tells It Like It Is’
JOSEPH
YUDIN
Special to the Jewish Journal
My just-completed reserve duty was the hardest that I can recall. At 35 years of age, I am now one of an elite group of soldiers in my platoon who are closer to the age of “retirement” from army service than to those who are near the beginning of their stint in the reserves. Most of the guys called to active duty are in their twenties.
For
about a third of the platoon, this was only the second time they have
done reserve duty, the first being Operation Defensive Wall. For the twenty-something
single student, reserve duty can be a welcome diversion or even an adventure
with his closest buddies in the field.
For us “older men,” it’s a different story.
There is a unique kinship among the thirty-something reserve paratroopers. Most of us are married with children and hold managerial positions at work or own our own businesses.
The effect on families and businesses can be catastrophic when we disappear for over a month at a time, only to make four 24-hour appearances each week if we are lucky. After a two-week absence during this past month my three-year-old daughter Geffen asked my wife Meirav if her father had died, like Simba’s father in The Lion King.
As we carry around this guilt while serving our nation and our people, the countless sleepless nights and physical strains on us become harder to accept each year; the life or death responsibilities that we constantly face weigh heavier on our shoulders as we come to understand them better.
As my comrades and I discussed our latest “Kav” (tour of duty in border areas) near Hebron, most everyone had the same feelings, questions and concerns, some negative and some positive. Here are just a few of the questions we discuss:
Why is it that 70 soldiers must leave their lives behind for 32 days and guard 10 Israeli families living in caravans on a barren hilltop wedged between various Palestinian towns, cities and refugee camps on all sides? Why must a soldier trained for war spend half of his time chasing stone throwing 13-year-old boys? Why do we purposely make life difficult for all Palestinian men, women and children in any particular village for the actions of a few Arafat loyalists who throw fire bombs at soldiers enforcing a curfew?
Why
are five reservists, me included, sent into the heart of a Palestinian
city, in an unarmored truck, at the end of Friday Moslem prayers in the
middle of Ramadan, for the sole reason to make our presence felt amongst
tens of thousands of angry and hostile people?
On the other hand, the settlers on the barren hilltop believe that they
are fulfilling their Zionist mission and Jewish commandments, and they
are the ultimate bargaining chip for a final settlement with the Palestinians.
And why can’t the Arabs tolerate Jews as next door neighbors anyway?
Despite popular myth perpetrated by CNN, the New York Times and the BBC, not one settlement in the West Bank or Gaza Strip was built on land ever settled by Palestinians. The stone throwers are endangering the lives of the people driving along the roads, and until there is a political solution, it is my duty to keep our citizens safe.
There is a question of the legality of collective punishment, severely restricting vehicular movement between Arab population centers after violence or terrorism, however that seems to be the only way to “encourage” the Palestinians themselves to exert pressure on their youth to halt violence.
We did arrest terrorists in several operations in various villages and cities. It is at those moments that I know I am a soldier fighting for a just cause and making a difference.
The only conclusions I have made from this latest tour of duty is that peace is a long way off, and for the next 365 days I won’t be wearing olive green again — unless, of course, something terrible happens. And if, God forbid, it does, I can tell you with confidence that 100% of the reserve soldiers in the Israeli Defense Forces called upon to serve will do so, willingly and admirably, and that includes me.
Joseph Yudin, a reservist in the IDF paratroopers, was born and raised in Wyckoff, N.J. He has been living in Israel 11 years and is a licensed tour guide. He can be reached at Joe_Yudin@hotmail.com
NAOMI
PFEFFERMAN
The Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles
LOS ANGELES — The day before he discovered the novel “The House of Sand and Fog” in 2001, Vadim Perelman asked his chauffeur to drive him to a slum in suburban Rome. Perelman, a successful commercial director, was in Italy on an A T & T shoot. But he wanted to return to the tenement that had been his home when he arrived from Kiev with his mother in 1977.
The Jewish emigré hoped to revisit the decrepit flat where they had lived. He wanted to see the room in which he had lain deathly ill, treated by a veterinarian because a doctor was too expensive. “I almost died there, many times,” he said.
So when his chauffeur refused to drive him deep into the slum that day in 2001, Perelman, now 40, walked the 10 blocks alone to his old building. He found his former landlady and silently sat in her apartment, under a naked light bulb, as she served him a glass of rancid wine. As he got up to leave, he placed $5,000 on the rickety table. “I felt like I was giving the money to her, but I was also giving it to myself, back then,” he said with emotion.
“I was seeing this 14-year-old boy lying there with his throat closed off, having the vet cut into it just to keep him alive. And I walked out of that place like I was walking on air. I felt like I had closed one of the circles of my life — and there was a gift at the end.”
The “gift” was Andre Dubus III’s bestseller, “House of Sand and Fog,” which he bought at the Rome airport, and which revolves around another set of desperate people and a rundown home. The story tells of recovering drug addict Kathy Nicolo, who is evicted from her Northern California bungalow as the result of a bureaucratic error. The bungalow is then bought for a pittance by Iranian immigrant Col. Massoud Behrani, a former aristocrat reduced to working menial jobs to support his wife, Nadi, and their son. For Behrani, the house represents a last shot at the American dream.
“I read the novel on the plane and I wept,” Perelman said. “I immediately knew I had to turn it into a movie.”
Like the book, the film, which stars Jennifer Connelly and Ben Kingsley, “is about loneliness and being cast out,” he added. “[It’s] about being an immigrant in a new country and, with regard to Kathy, about feeling like an immigrant in your own country.”
Perelman brought his Russian aesthetic to the melodrama: “It’s a great, operatic tragedy,” he said.
Seeking a new life, Vadim and his mother took advantage of the Soviet Union’s then-permissive Jewish immigration policy and applied for exit visas. “It felt very Holocaust-like,” he recalled of the train journey west.
“That whole mass movement of Jews, with all their crap, fearful and not knowing where they were going.”
As they traveled from Vienna to Rome, he emotionally and financially supported his mother, who was as shell-shocked as the fictional Nadi. Books were his only companions as he worked a series of odd jobs, sleeping on park benches when he missed the last bus home.
But when his mother married a man he despised after they settled in Edmonton, Canada, he moved out, left school and joined a gang of teenagers who “broke into houses and robbed places,” he said.
A night in jail convinced Perelman to go straight four years later; he promptly earned his GED and enrolled at the University of Alberta, where a film appreciation class changed his life his sophomore year. The epiphany came as he viewed a documentary on the making of Norman Jewison’s “Fiddler on the Roof.”
“I saw the director creating his own little world and I realized I wanted to do that,” he said. “I walked out of that classroom as huge snowflakes were falling and I thought, ‘I know what I want to do with my life.’”
He didn’t attempt his first feature film, however, until he discovered “Fog” in 1999; securing the rights wasn’t easy. The author had already turned down more than 130 directors.
Undaunted, Perelman phoned Dubus and, over the course of 90 minutes, recounted his life story. Dubus, who had also grown up poor, with a single mother, identified with the director. Intuitively, he felt Perelman wasn’t going to “reduce the story into a digestible, Big Mac version of the book,” he said.
The
film, co-written by Shawn Lawrence Otto, closely follows the novel’s
tragic trajectory.
Perelman — who hopes to adapt Jerzy Kosinski’s Holocaust novel,
“The Painted Bird” — believes the melodrama has purpose.
He cited how reading tragic novels helped him endure difficulties in Rome
and beyond.
“I’ve seen death and I’ve seen catastrophe, so I know how such stories can help people,” he said. “It’s something the audience can experience vicariously so they may live through their own tragedies gracefully.
Kushner
and Mamet:
A Running Debate
MATTHEW
S. ROBINSON
Special to the Jewish Journal
Lawrence Kushner and David Mamet - Five Cities of Refuge (Schocken $21)
When they both lived in Massachusetts, beloved Rabbi/author Lawrence Kushner and Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright David Mamet met every week at a diner outside of Boston to discuss Torah, spirituality and life in general.
Though a complete record of their conversations would probably outweigh the Talmud, this relatively light volume captures some of the highlights.
As the title suggests, this book is based on the idea (first raised in Numbers) of cities of refuge: places where people who had committed punishable acts could go to live out their days free from persecution or retribution. Posing each book of the Torah as one of these “cities,” Kushner and Mamet bridge this ancient idea with contemporary issues and in so doing bring greater relevance to the words on which our faith is based.
While Kushner tries to instruct and enlighten with his selections of text, Mamet often appears to be trying to impress with his references to complex ideas. In fact, while Kushner’s reflections are thoughtful and insightful, Mamet’s may send readers running to a dictionary.
Saddam Down, Bush Up; A New Opportunity
It’s opportunity time for George Bush. He muffed it once before,
when 9/11 happened and the United States had the sympathy of the world.
Bush had a choice then of leading a broad international coalition to combat
global terror, or go it largely alone, Western-style — with cowboy
rhetoric and bellicose actions.
He took the cowboy route, and when he couldn’t find the varmint he was hunting for, badman Osama bin Laden, he set his sights on that other varmint, Saddam Hussein, whom he turned into a demon (granted, it wasn’t difficult with his human rights record).
It took less than a week for U.S. power to topple Saddam, and now — many months and 535 allied servicemen deaths later — he’s bagged him, drawing him out of a hole in the ground at the point of a gun. And so the world sees this former brutal tyrant transformed into a pathetic, wild-eyed, homeless-looking supplicant.
What a coup for Bush and the national Republicans! What a challenge for his Democratic rivals, groping for ways to gain traction in the quicksands of changing desert politics. What a humiliation for those in the Arab world and beyond who pegged their hopes on the man who defied American power.
So upset was the Palestinian Authority at this turn of events that it failed to even issue a statement in the days following Saddam’s capture. But then, the PA was always favored by Saddam, who championed its cause internationally and sent $25,000 to the families of each of their suicide bombers. The PA has always had a soft spot for Saddam as well, dating back to 1991 when it supported his invasion of Kuwait.
Capturing Saddam alive gives the Bush Administration an unanticipated opportunity to shift the rationale for the war in Iraq from weapons of mass destruction, which are embarrassingly nowhere to be found, to crimes against humanity, of which there is overwhelming evidence. The trial to come, wherever it is held, will be lengthy and riveting, recalling not so much the trial of Slobodan Milosovic of Serbia as that of Adolph Eichmann of Nazi Germany.
But many questions are still to be resolved: Will our government make a new appeal for an international coalition against terrorism? Will it open its ears to that of the views and concerns of other countries? Will Saddam’s humiliation serve as a warning to other Middle Eastern despots to move their countries toward the rule of law or risk the same fate as Saddam — or a coup by their democratic-yearning citizens?
Will it weaken the forces of Palestinian terrorism? The forces of international terrorism? Or will it recruit new martyrs to their ranks?
We have some influence over the course of these events. If we publicly gloat and beat our breasts in self-congratulation, expect our enemies to stiffen their will to resist. If we seek to create conditions for positive change in the world, it could help our cause.
It’s Chanukah time. Lighting of the first candle coincides with our day of publication. We are thankful that the world is rid of the menace that was Saddam Hussein. Let us pray, and work, for a world where tyrants can no longer hold sway.
— Mark R. Arnold
|
|
DOV
BURT LEVY Dov Burt Levy is a Salem, MA based columnist. He can be reached at dblevy@columnist. com.. |
A front-page national contest is in full swing in the United States among a growing number of super- rich chief executives from the corporate world, the stock market and now the mutual fund industry.
First prize in the contest is “Go to Jail;” other prizes include big fines, handcuffing in public, electronic shackling in their mansions and dismissal from corporate posts.
Why
do these rich, high-placed people jeopardize everything by breaking the
law to gain more money than any human being needs?
Some people seem to have a genetic predisposition; I call it the Bernie
Syndrome after a fellow soldier I served with in Germany in the 1950s.
Soldiers were allotted several $2 cartons of cigarettes a month. We sold
them on the black market for two to three times that amount. Neither the
American nor German authorities seemed to care.
But Bernie wanted more. For $100, he bought a pre-war car that barely moved but was eligible for a monthly gasoline ration. He sold the gas and quadrupled his money. He peddled other soldiers’ cigarette rations. Months later, he was caught, fined, stripped of rank and jailed for a month. And the truth is, he didn’t really need the money, but he liked it nevertheless.
Bernie wasn’t a crook in the sense that he would rob a store. He just loved the risk and the feeling he got from testing the system to see how far he could go.
Combine the Bernie gene with high levels of extraordinary greed, and you get all these men who could have taken salaries of five to 20 million a year without public or corporate question. Instead, they cooked the books to inflate profits and bonuses, and literally stole millions more with interest-free loans, jets, vacations and homes. You know the companies: Enron, Tyco, Global Crossing, now stockbrokers and mutual fund heads. Trust me, more will follow.
Feeling so powerful, these corporate leaders — some estimate 50 percent of the mutual fund companies were involved with after-hours, off-the-clock illegal trading — ignored the people on their staffs who warned them. Some became whistle blowers.
They
ignored that large pool of prosecutors, police and media, whose own careers
are enhanced by exposing corporate misdeeds.
Why