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December 2 - December 15, 2005 |
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Local
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Local StoriesCircle of Hope Supports North Shore Cancer Survivors Amy
Forman MARBLEHEAD — When Sue de Vries was diagnosed with breast cancer almost five years ago at the age of 39, she began an intense treatment regiment that included visits to a wellness center in Newton. Ultimately, however, the effort required to travel to Newton proved too cumbersome for the mother of three young children. De Vries’ dream of a local gathering place for those whose lives have been touched by cancer became a reality with the recent opening of Circle of Hope in Marblehead. Every Thursday, visitors can take advantage of a wide range of free programs including yoga, Reiki and polarity therapy, nutritional counseling, journal writing, meditation, support groups and a lending library of self-help cancer books. Transportation and babysitting are offered, as well as programs for children. The programs are run entirely by volunteers. Circle of Hope meets in the spacious home of Penny Wigglesworth. Founder of the Penny Bear Company, a volunteer non-profit dedicated to charitable outreach projects, Wigglesworth had been hosting support groups in her home after the death of her husband, and then her fiancé. At the urging of Lynnfield breast cancer survivor Melanie Glick, de Vries attended a support group at Wigglesworth’s home, and an immediate connection was formed. “Sue and I put our heads and hearts together, and within minutes we had the ideas for this program,” says Wigglesworth, who was happy to donate the use of her home. The living room is used for yoga, while one upstairs bedroom is equipped with tables for journal writing and another is used for personal healing modalities like Reiki and polarity. There is a quiet space for meditation, a bedroom set up for resting, and a colorful area complete with toys for babysitting. Visitors gather in the kitchen for warm soup and conversation. “I am so lucky to have a purpose for (the house),” says Wigglesworth, “We just open the door and people come to give and receive love.” “Some people spend the day; some come for five minutes,” says volunteer Judi Karas of Marblehead, a close friend of de Vries. “It is a place to not wear your wig or make-up, and just be yourself.” Other Circle of Hope volunteers include Danielle Jacobs and Andrea York of Marblehead, and Larissa Forman of Swampscott. “The generosity of volunteers is overwhelming,” says de Vries, a Temple Emanu-El member who lives in Swampscott. Future plans for Circle of Hope include an organic garden and additional programming for children. “One of my major goals,” says de Vries, “is to have a place for my kids to come and be with other kids who are going through similar situations.” “What I love about being here is taking a vacation from polite conversation and being able to tell the truth,” says Glick. “Here you can say ‘I feel lousy’ or ‘I’m scared,’ and be with people who are going through the same thing. We learn from each other.” Breast
cancer survivor Lyn Walfish of Lynnfield says the energy at Circle of
Hope is very positive and healing. For more information about Circle of Hope call 781-639-2828 or visit http://suescircle-ofhope.blogspot.com. 91 Year-Old Chelsea Woman Celebrates Rite of Adulthood Molly
Shaffer CHELSEA
— “It’s like I’m thirteen for the seventh time
today,” said 91 year-old Anne Monroe as she celebrated her bat mitzvah
on Saturday Nov. 19, at the Florence and Chafetz Home for Specialized
Care in Chelsea. It was hard to hold back tears as Monroe was wheeled to the bimah to perform the ceremony marking the entrance into Jewish adulthood. Wearing a new tallis and yarmulke presented to her by her daughter Sherrill, Monroe recited the blessings and Torah and Haftarah portions. In her speech on the week’s Torah portion of Vayeira, Monroe highlighted the chapter’s concept of visiting the sick, a mitzvah she has learned about firsthand. Monroe, who lights candles every Friday night and attends services every Saturday morning, recently began accepting aliyahs in preparation for her special day. That act is itself astounding when considering Monroe grew up in an era where only Orthodox shuls lined her childhood streets of Mattapan and Dorchester. It was unheard of for women to participate in the service, let alone be bat mitzvahed. “It was something that women just didn’t do,” explained her son, Bob Livingston. “None of us know when our time is up,” said the home’s spiritual leader, Rabbi and Cantor Ellen Farber, who prepared Monroe for her special day. “I’ve been here for nearly ten years and have learned with the residents that if you want to do something, just do it.” This is not the first bat mitzvah the Florence and Chafetz Home for Specialized Care has celebrated. Four years ago Rabbi Farber helped six women residents celebrate a b’nei mitzvah. “I have liberated many women here,” reflected Cantor Farber, who plans on continuing the home’s new tradition. Next June four women are scheduled to be bat mitzvahed at the Chelsea facility. Age has not stopped Monroe from enjoying herself. Despite having suffered two strokes, she is a voracious reader who also enjoys the occasional bingo and mah jong game. She offered advice for those wanting to live into their nineties. “One must have a good sense of humor,” she said cheerfully. “Today I feel fifty, not ninety-one.” The bat mitzvah was an intergenerational affair, with a 99 year-old man dancing beside a sleeping five week-old baby. “This is one last happy affair with my family,” said Monroe as she looked on at her three children, seven grandchildren and thirteen great-grandchildren. As the 50 or so attendees gathered together to make kiddush and enjoy bagels and lox, the bat mitzvah girl offered one last bit of advice: “One must die young at a very old age.” Federation Launches Leadership Development Institute Selma
Williams Thirty-two representatives of six North Shore Jewish agencies spent three days in seaside Ogunquit, Maine last month at the initial workshop of the Michael Steinberg Leadership Development Institute. Convinced that the Jewish community needs more leaders and broad, effective leadership, the Jewish Federation of the North Shore founded the institute to promote that goal for local Jewish organizations. The participants were pro-fes-sionals and board mem--bers from Cohen Hillel Academy, the Jewish Community Centers of Marblehead and Peabody, the Jewish Federation of the North Shore, Jewish Family Service, and the Jewish Journal. Carl Sloane of Marblehead, the Arbuckle Professor Emer-itus at Harvard University’s Grad-uate School of Business Admini-stration, led the workshop. “We teach each other,” Sloane told the gathering. “It only works if you bring a lot of good will and openness to the table.” He urged the participants to form coalitions to attain goals, rather than trying to bring about improvements alone. Discussion was based on case studies of outstanding business leaders who have turned troubled -companies into notable successes. Through interactive lectures in an intensive schedule that ran from early morning until the after-dinner hours, Sloane helped participants understand how business models could be applied to local organizations. The full group sessions alternated with small group discussions in which attendees identified ways that the case studies could inform decisions in their own organizations. The program also had a built-in spiritual component. Dr. Bernard Steinberg, president and director of Harvard Hillel, led the group in a number of exercises based on Jewish writings, ranging from Torah and Mishnah to contemporary Jewish poetry. At the closing session, Merritt Mulman said he would call a meeting in the near future to continue the discourse. Mulman later told the Journal that the workshop was a “hugely significant event.” “What Carl Sloane provided us with was the tools to create a changed culture and a culture of leadership within each of our institutions,” he said. “Our hope is that the men and women who are trained go back and help educate and elevate the discourse.” The Michael Steinberg Memorial Leadership Devel-opment Program honors a man who made a significant contribution to the North Shore Jewish community during his lifetime. His widow, Josine Steinberg, was present and given special recognition during the opening session of the conference. Arrangements for the conference were made by Liz Donnenfield of the Jewish Federation’s Leadership Development Institute staff. Attending the workshop from Cohen Hillel Academy were: Bob Tornberg, head of school; Howard Abrams, president; and board members Meredith Adner, Dan Jacobs, Pat Kravtin, Bill Stibel, Ken Weinstein, and Andrea York. Representing the Jewish Federation of the North Shore were: Merritt Mulman, executive director; and board members Robert Cashman, Bob Ogan, Glen Yanco, Marjorie Patkin, Anne Selby, and Wendy Roizen. Representing the NSJCC Peabody were: Susan Novak, director; Greg Ehrlich, president; Sue Callum, Wayne Johnson, Dan New and Mary Rogosa. Attending from JCCNS Marblehead were: Sandy Scheckman, director; Diane Knopf, president; Steve Solomon and Amy Dalton, board members. From Jewish Family Service were: Jon Firger, director; Lauren Guley, president; and Pamela Shwachman, Barry Klickstein and Linda Klickstein. From the Jewish Journal were: Barbara Schneider, publisher; and Lis Horowitz and Selma Williams, board members. Selma Williams is a member of the Journal’s Board of Overseers. JRC Breaks Ground for New Facility in Peabody The Jewish Rehabilitation Center of the North Shore broke ground on a new Special Care facility in Peabody Nov. 15. The three-story, 36,000 square-foot addition to Woodbridge Assisted Living will serve individuals living with memory loss and will include 32 special care and 16 traditional assisted living apartments. The building will have dining rooms, country kitchens, lounges, quiet rooms, a large common room and a therapeutic garden. “The Special Care Assisted Living Community will serve as a model for others in the industry,” says CEO Stephen Roizen. “The JRC has always been pro-active in planning for the future. This new facility will help us meet a demand on the North Shore by providing a nurturing, safe environment.” The JRC and Mass-Develop-ment have announced a $16 million financing package to fund the project, which will create 43 jobs when completed.
Temple Emanu-El to Hire Assistant Rabbi; Temple Educator Jed Filler to Depart Ben
Harris MARBLEHEAD — In a letter to its membership, the leadership of Temple Emanu-El in Marblehead announced in November its intention to hire a new assistant rabbi as early as July 2006. The Temple also announced that Jed Filler, the Temple Educator, will depart next summer. Filler’s
responsibilities will be taken over by the new assistant rabbi and a new
part-time assistant principal. “One of the most important things is that we have a responsive rabbinate to the group of people who are in need of life cycle events,” said Newman. Newman stressed that Filler has done a wonderful job for the Temple and that the decision to let him go was strictly financial. “If we had the money, we’d keep Jed in a heartbeat,” he said. Rabbi Meyer said that with growing numbers of congregants, and a desire to provide individualized pastoral attention, it has been “quite a challenge” meet the congregation’s needs. Meyer also spoke admiringly of the work that Filler has done for the congregation. Though the board’s decision was made with “a very heavy heart,” Meyer believes it is crucial to fostering the continued growth of the Temple “I believe that Jewish education is about relationships,” said Filler. “I’m sure the new assistant rabbi and staff that the Temple brings in will be able to build wonderful relationships with the families and children in the same way that Rabbi Meyer and I have.” Sensational
Senior Nancy
Fromson Harold Spellman of Swamp--scott is a sociable man with a wry sense of humor who enjoys talking with his buddies at the Shapiro-Rudolph Adult Day Center in Swampscott. He has become an active participant in the exercises, singing and games that are part of the S-RADC program he began attending five days a week following the recent death of his wife Tillie, to whom he’d been married for 55 years. This experience is the newest in a lifetime of being active with family, work and the community. Spellman, 79, grew up in Cambridge, where he lived until his tour of duty with the Navy in World War II. Following the war, he and his family moved to Lynn and then to Swampscott. For many years, he worked as a die maker; later he had a second career working at Lahey Clinic in security. Being a husband and father has always been central to Spellman’s life. Both his son Joel and daughter Gail reside in Swampscott. Gail, a nurse practitioner, took care of her mother during her long illness. Now, Gail takes care of her dad. “Our home was a very family-oriented place,” according to Gail, “and weekends were family time. We took lots of day trips … to Cherry Hill Farm in Beverly and Canobie Lake Park in New Hampshire, among others.” Harold loved to take photographs, particularly during the fall foliage season. Gail notes there were lots of family movies, also. “We’d get in the car and take rides,” Harold remembers. “We used to eat out, too. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, the pancake house had specials.” Among his proudest achieve-ments is winning the Ner Tamid Award. When his son Joel was a Cub Scout, Spellman was a Cub Master, who earned the highest medal a man in Jewish scouting can earn. “I was recommended by a rabbi, and it was quite an honor to receive it,” he states. The Spellman family was active in Congregation Anshe Sfard, which used to be in Lynn. Today his interests involve sports, particularly the Patriots and the Red Sox. He’ll gladly offer an opinion on the escapades of his two favorite teams. As he nears 80, Spellman has entered a new chapter in his life, and like the ones that preceded it, he is doing so with warmth, friendliness and humor. Ariel Sharon Resigns from Likud to Form New Political Party Leslie
Susser JERUSALEM (JTA) — Ariel Sharon’s dramatic break with the ruling Likud Party is expected to have implications far beyond Israeli politics. Sharon’s move to form a new centrist party, called Kadima, Hebrew for ‘Forward’, will undoubtedly change the Israeli political landscape — but seasoned politicians assert that the prime minister would not have embarked on such a risky political adventure unless he plans major peace moves with the Palestinians that he knows wouldn’t be acceptable to the Likud. Though
Sharon denies it, some pundits say he is aiming to create a new political
constellation in which he can withdraw Israeli forces from most of the
West Bank and set a new, long-term border with the Palestinians. Sharon set in motion the process leading to early elections when he called on President Moshe Katsav and asked him to dissolve the Knesset. Sharon then sent a letter to Tzachi Hanegbi, chairman of the Likud Central Committee, informing him that he was resigning from the party. The two moves added up to a political earthquake: early elections in March, with the prime minister running for re-election at the head of a new party. Few doubt that Sharon easily could have returned to power on a Likud ticket. He was well ahead of his potential leadership rivals within the party, and with Sharon at the helm, polls predicted a comfortable win for Likud in the elections. So why did Sharon make his risky move? For one, he is tired of having to deal with rebels in the Likud Knesset faction and widespread opposition to his peace moves in the party’s powerful Central Committee. At least half of the Likud’s Knesset faction opposed the unilateral withdrawal from Gaza and parts of the northern West Bank, Sharon’s crowning foreign policy achievement. The Central Committee, with a sizeable contingent of well-organized right-wingers, often rejected key policy initiatives. “Staying in the Likud would have meant wasting time in internal political battles, rather than doing what needs to be done,” Sharon declared at a news conference. Political
pundit Sima Kadmon, writing in Yediot Achronot, summed up the prime minister’s
dilemma: He could easily win re-election on a Likud ticket, but then wouldn’t
be able even to begin carrying out his political -agenda. To avoid the strength-sapping opposition he encountered as Likud leader, Sharon wants to reform Israel’s political and party systems in ways that give the leader more power. Instead of unwieldy coalitions, he wants to introduce something like the American presidential system — and in his new party, there will be no potentially oppositional central committee. “The Israeli people want to see politics in a different key,” said Justice Minister Tzipi Livni, one of five Likud Cabinet ministers who left Likud with Sharon. Several leading pundits, however, are convinced that Sharon must have more up his sleeve: If all he wants is to mark time with the road map, there would have been no real reason for him to leave the Likud, they argue. Amnon Danker, editor the Israeli daily Ma’ariv, maintains that if he’s re-elected, Sharon will put forward a far-reaching political plan. “His
confidants are speaking about the possibility of establishing a new, very
far-reaching line as Israel’s eastern border with the Palestinians,
a line that will be decided on in consultation with the Americans,”
Dankner writes. What are the new party’s chances of success? In the past, several breakaway centrist parties have started with a bang and ended with a whimper. But none of those was led by a popular sitting prime minister, and initial polls suggest that Kadima is likely to do well. A survey in Yediot Achronot, taken before Sharon announced his new party, already showed it garnering 28 seats, tied with Labor under its new chief, Amir Peretz. Both parties placed well ahead of a Likud led by the new leadership front-runner, former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, which got 18 seats in the poll. Sharon, the general who combined five disparate parties to form the Likud in 1973 and create a real challenge to decades of uninterrupted Labor rule, now has moved to marginalize the party he claims is dangerously out of control. If he succeeds, he will add another chapter to a remarkable military and political career. More importantly, his bold new initiative almost certainly will have major consequences for Israel’s future. Dershowitz vs. Chomsky on the Middle East Ben
Harris Two of the Boston area’s most prominent intellectuals faced off over Middle East peacemaking in a spirited debate hosted by the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University Nov. 29. The debate between Noam Chomsky, an MIT linguist widely viewed as one of the most significant figures of the academic left, and Harvard Law School Professor Alan Dershowitz, drew a capacity crowd to the four-story lobby of the Kennedy school. Though the debate was titled “Israel and Palestine After Disengagement: Where Do We Go From Here?”, both scholars veered sharply from the topic, addressing issues of history, political violence, American foreign policy, the role of the media, and the veracity of each other’s source material. In his opening remarks, Dershowitz argued forcefully that a moment of great opportunity was at hand thanks to the demonstrable commitment of both Palestinian and Israeli leaders to achieving a peaceful settlement of the conflict. ”I strongly believe that there is a genuine will for peace on both sides now,” Dershowitz said. “This is the season of peace. Let us not let it pass us by.” He encouraged both sides to elevate “pragmatism over ideology,” to give up some of their rights, and to work for a two-state solution that, while imperfect, would be preferable to the present state of low-intensity conflict. He further called on members of the academic community to refrain from demonizing Israel by being “more Palestinian than the Palestinians themselves.” This tendency, he argued, was doubly negative: making the Palestinians less willing to compromise and leading Israelis to believe they will always be rejected, no matter what concessions they make. Chomsky opened by saying that any discussion of where the Middle East is headed “requires some understanding of how we got here.” He then launched into a brief history intended to show that Israelis have always preferred “expansion to security,” a theme to which he returned repeatedly. Though he described it as the only “sane” option, Chomsky said, “There was no effort to conceal the fact that Gaza disengagement was in reality West Bank expansion.” Chomsky approvingly cited a European Union report which “concludes that U.S.-backed Israeli programs will virtually end the prospects for a viable Palestinian state by the cantonization [of the West Bank] and by breaking the organic links between East Jerusalem and the West Bank.” He emphasized that Israeli intransigence was only possible with support from the United States, whose government, he said, appeared intent on continuing its historic “march to catastrophe by rejecting minimal Palestinian rights.” ”If that march to catastrophe continues,” Chomsky said, “we will have only ourselves to blame.” The more than 45 minutes of questions that followed further highlighted the vast gulf that separates the political views of both academics. Dershowitz referred to Israeli Vice Prime Minister Shimon Peres as “a man of peace.” Chomsky dismissed him as an “iconic mass murderer.” Dershowitz asserted that no country faced with a comparable terrorist threat has been as sensitive to the human rights of its enemies as Israel. Chomsky countered that Cuba, faced with ongoing terrorist action from the United States, has never employed counter-terrorism measures as legally dubious as Israel’s. Chomsky claimed that the American media had frequently refused to report facts that cast Israel and the United States in a negative light. Dershowitz replied that Chomsky was a conspiracy theorist who presents as facts items that are only true on “Planet Chomsky.” Though the debate ground rules allowed for two-minute responses from each speaker, both Chomsky and Dershowitz repeatedly interrupted one another and, even when silent, frequently laughed silently or rolled their eyes. Chomsky and Dershowitz have debated about the Middle East before, the first time in the early 1970s. Their acquaintanceship goes back even further, however, to when Chomsky was a counselor and Dershowitz a camper at a Hebrew-speaking Zionist summer camp in the Pocono Mountains. Reform Movement Calls for Push Toward Conversion Sue
Fishkoff HOUSTON (JTA) — The movement that was the first to welcome intermarried families into its synagogues nearly three decades ago now will focus on actively inviting non-Jews to convert to Judaism. That was one of the initiatives announced by Rabbi Eric Yoffie, president of the Union for Reform Judaism, during his Shabbat sermon at the movement’s 68th biennial here. More than 4,200 Reform Jews from 504 congregations in nine countries, most from the United States, attended the four-day event at the George R. Brown Convention Center, which most recently sheltered thousands of Gulf Coast evacuees from Hurricane Katrina. Hurricane relief, aid to Darfur refugees and opposition to the Iraq war were other major topics at the conference. The atmosphere at the biennial was decidedly upbeat, reflecting the confidence of what the 2000-2001 National Jewish Population Survey pronounced the country’s largest Jewish stream. Addressing a Shabbat break-fast meeting of Reform rabbis, cantors and educators, sociologist Steven Cohen, a research professor at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, said the Reform movement is the institution best placed to lead the American Jewish community. “The federation system has abdicated,” he said, “the Conservative movement doesn’t have the wherewithal or the confidence” and the “Orthodox have become sectarian,” Cohen said. No one in the room disagreed with his analysis.
Neither did Rabbi David Ellenson, president of the Hebrew Union College. “There is an affinity between the ideals marking Reform Judaism — inclusion, pluralism, the individual search for meaning — and the sensibilities that mark most non-Orthodox Jews in the United States,” he said. That confidence was evident in Yoffie’s Shabbat sermon, in which he urged Reform congregations to find tangible ways to honor non-Jewish members who are raising Jewish children, while not shying away from suggesting that these non-Jews convert. Noting that fewer non-Jewish spouses are converting to Judaism than the movement expected when it instituted its open-arm policy toward interfaith families in 1978, Yoffie suggested that perhaps “by making non-Jews feel comfortable and accepted in our congregations, we have sent the message that we do not care if they convert.” On the contrary, Yoffie continued, “it is a mitzvah to help a potential Jew become a Jew-by-choice.” In fact, he said, “we owe them an apology” for not inviting them to convert sooner. “Conversion first is always desirable” though not always possible, Yoffie said, “so we have to welcome the non-Jewish spouse and embrace them, to the extent that they are raising Jewish children.” Yoffie’s conversion initiative met with only a smattering of applause from the 3,000 attendees at Saturday morning services, in contrast to the loud approval that greeted his call for honoring non-Jewish parents raising Jewish children, his plea that Reform religious schools not accept students who are also being educated in another faith, and his criticism of the religious right. Afterward, however, people seemed to agree with Yoffie’s approach. Inviting non-Jews to convert “is nothing new, it’s just fallen by the wayside,” said Steven Joachim of Temple Emanu-El in Atlanta, as his lunch companions nodded their agreement. All of them said they should be more open in discussing conversion with their non-Jewish friends in the synagogue. The challenge of balancing openness to the intermarried while encouraging conversion is a major challenge for Reform congregations, movement leaders agree. “On one hand, the Reform movement has to be welcoming, while at the same time conversion has to be presented as an optimal alternative,” said Ellenson, who called Yoffie’s approach “a move toward tradition.” The topic was well represented at the biennial, with half a dozen workshops devoted to outreach and intermarriage. “How many of your congregations have a policy on non-Jewish participation?” asked Rabbi Brian Beal of Temple Beth Torah in Nyack, N.Y., at a session devoted to the role of non-Jews in synagogue life. Just six out of 45 people in the room raised their hands. Several people at that workshop said more than half the members of their congregations were intermarried, and not having clear guidelines led to confusion and hurt. Rabbi
Arnie Gluck of Temple Beth-El in Hillsborough, N.J., said his synagogue
prepared a policy booklet outlining what non-Jews may and may not do,
along with the reasoning behind each decision. Having a clearly outlined position can encourage conversion by enhancing the value of becoming a Jew, he added. Some Reform Jews would prefer fewer limits. Debbie Kujovich of Congregation Kol Ami in Vancouver, Wash., said most of her congregation is intermarried, yet her non-Jewish husband is not permitted to hold the Torah during services. “My husband is not going to convert, yet I have to create a good environment for him in the congregation so I can participate,” she said. Young Activists Issue ‘Wake-Up Call’ at Federation Conference Rachel
Pomerance TORONTO (JTA) — Marcella Kanfer Rolnick is the kind of young leader Jewish federations are dying to draw to their graying ranks. Rolnick, 32, is the bright and eloquent daughter of parents steeped in Jewish federation life. Her father, Joe Kanfer, of Akron, Ohio, chaired the 2005 General Assembly, the annual conference of federations, which ended Nov. 15 in Toronto. But at the same conference, his daughter felt the hair stand up on the back of her neck in conversations with several federation professionals. “It was a ‘we know better than you’ attitude,” she told JTA, saying the system tends to focus on sustaining itself rather than considering the wide range of challenges and opportunities for the Jewish people. If a daughter of the system is turned off by it, how can federations hope to attract her peers? The subject of ensuring the participation of the next generation of Jews in their local federations — a long-standing concern of the federation system — was a theme at the recent G.A. Rolnick in fact was given a platform, along with other young activists, at the closing plenary, which highlighted the issue. The centerpiece was a report by Democratic pollster Anna Greenberg, who found that the organized Jewish community is “somewhat out of touch” with young Jews. Among 18- to 25-year olds, Judaism, while a source of pride, is “fairly low on their list of things that they think about,” Greenberg said. These younger Jews have multiple identities and Jewish officials might do well to “stop thinking about them as being Jews,” and reach them through other interests, mentioning that evangelical Christians offer “extreme skateboarding” at some of their forums. The panel of young Jewish activists that followed Greenberg was moderated by Jennifer Meyerhoff, of Baltimore. She called the closing plenary a “loud and reverberating wake-up call” to federations to make themselves relevant to the next generation. Howard Rieger, UJC president and CEO, closed the G.A. by urging federation leaders to “relinquish some control” and give opportunities to young Jews. But several young Jews in attendance said key obstacles block their participation: the federation system’s financial expectations of its activists, its bureaucracy and resistance to welcoming new ideas and young people to decision-making positions. “You
have to respect the $18 donation as much as you respect and go after the
$5,000 donation,” Aaron Bisman, founder of JDub records, a company
that promotes Jewish music, said at the G.A.’s closing session.
“If
what we do doesn’t work for you, then you have to find something
else or you have to start it,” he said. Representatives of both generations say a healthy respect is lacking between them. At the “Rebels With a Cause” session, Edward Spilka, president of Connecticut’s United Jewish Federation of Greater Stamford, New Canaan and Darien, asked the panel: “Is there a way other than spiking my hair for me to authentically connect to you guys?” Karen Lombart, a vice chair of the women’s campaign of the United Jewish Federation of Tidewater in Virginia, said younger Jews should realize their knowledge is based on limited experience and that the older generation has learned from the many innovations they themselves employed in younger year. At the same time, she said, the older generation should listen to today’s youth. Meanwhile, several federations are trying new ways to connect to this population. The UJA-Federation of New York has increased its investment in its young leadership division, and reorganized its approach to offer specialized programs by interest and profession rather than a broad-based method, said John Ruskay, its executive vice president and CEO. Steven Rakitt, CEO of the Jewish Federation of Greater Atlanta, said Jewish federations need to reach out with a diverse, welcoming approach. “It’s not one size fits all,” he said, suggesting that federations need to provide young Jews with fulfilling social, religious and business opportunities, for example. But some see another reality. Barry Shrage, president of Boston’s Combined Jewish Philanthropies, lamented at the G.A. that thousands of young Jews were turned away from Birthright Israel due to insufficient funds. Since last winter, Birthright has turned away more than 20,000 people, and has closed registration early for the last two sessions because they don’t want to disappoint people, given the high level of interest, said Deborah Mohile, director of communications for Birthright. “We would take more if we had the money,” she said. Rolnick says she supports the federation system because it offers a social safety net, but she added, “I have no intention in the future to give my time and my energy the way the current system is designed.” If it fails to embrace change and support young people, “we’re going to go elsewhere.’” Executive Director: North Shore Federation Must Reform Itself When a panel of young Jewish leaders told the delegates assembled at the General Assembly in Toronto last month that the American Jewish community must be more responsive to their needs, the echo was heard on the North Shore. “The issue of engaging the next generation of Jewish leaders is a local issue as well as a national issue,” Federation Executive Director Merritt Mulman told the Journal. “Part of it is that young men and women really are committed to participating in any number of social causes, including Jewish life, but they feel a sense of obligation and entitlement to owning and making the future of the Jewish community reflective of them. They’re just not going to drive their father’s Oldsmobile.” In Mulman’s view, that’s not a bad thing. “These are great men and women,” he said. “It’s our responsibility to figure out the way to harness, encourage, mentor and develop their passions and their commitments.” Doing so, Mulman said, requires relinquishing a measure of control. Echoing the sentiment expressed in Toronto, Mulman argued that young people are hesitant to take leadership roles in organizations that don’t reflect their needs and their interests. “If you don’t have ownership you don’t have investment,” said Mulman. Mulman says that a meeting last year with a group of local Jews that “everyone anticipates” will someday assume leadership roles in the community, revealed three major issues that impact the willingness of younger community members to step up: directed giving, reforming Federation governance, and a redesigned allocation system. Some
proposed changes —Ben Harris
Conspiracy Theory: New York Filmmaker Tackles New Anti-Semitism Ben
Harris
For most, the rumor was just that — a rumor. Still, it spread widely. And not just in Middle Eastern backwaters, where the state-controlled media traffic in propaganda and half-truths, but also in the United States. It even found its way into a widely quoted poem from the then poet laureate of New Jersey, Amiri Baraka. Like most New Yorkers, filmmaker Mark Levin heard the rumor and dismissed it as nonsense. But riding in a taxi one night, Levin heard the charge repeated by his Egyptian driver. Then the driver made a connection Levin never thought he would hear, to an older, more treacherous Jewish conspiracy detailed in a book Levin had read decades before, “The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion.” A famous forgery concocted by the Czar’s secret police at the turn of the twentieth century, the “Protocols” claims to be the minutes of a series of meetings in which Jewish leaders planned to take over the world, infiltrating the ranks of the powerful and ensuring global Jewish domination. It was used to spark anti-Semitic pogroms in Russia and was later seized by Adolph Hitler to stoke anti-Jewish sentiment in Germany. “When this kid said that, something clicked in my head,” Levin said in a recent interview with the Journal. “Maybe I’d had a few drinks, and I just kinda lost it and said, ‘You know, my great-grandfather was at that meeting.’ He started almost shaking.” The “Protocols” was long ago uncovered as a hoax, but in the heady days after 9/11, it was reborn in a sinister new incarnation. In the Arab world — where a dramatized version of the “Protocols” was broadcast over successive nights during Ramadan — it was but a short leap to the belief that no Jews died in the World Trade Center. Less famously, an Arab weekly in New Jersey serialized the “Protocols” months after 9/11. Though the rumor never achieved wide currency here, some were nonetheless apoplectic, suggesting that a repeat of Nazi Germany circa 1933 was imminent in the United States. “I
read the ‘Protocols’ as a young man in the 70s during Watergate,”
said Levin. “I read it as an artifact of a time long gone. If anyone
ever said to me that this stuff will reemerge in the 21st century I would
have said, ‘You’re out of your mind.’” But
in a twist that would make the late journalist Hunter S. Thompson proud,
Levin doesn’t merely record his subjects, cinema-verité style
— he challenges them, argues with them, thrusting himself into the
narrative. The result is combustible. When Arab youths say that no Jews died in the World Trade Center, Levin pulls out the Pulitzer prize-winning portraits of the dead from the New York Times, pointing out the many Jewish names. And when a black preacher on a New York sidewalk claims that Jews control the city, all the way up to the mayor, Levin counters that the previous mayor was an Italian, Rudolph Giuliani. The preacher tells Levin to listen to his words: Rudolph Jewliani. Case closed. “This isn’t a rational discussion,” said Levin. So why have it? Levin’s view is that dialogue has value in itself, even if it doesn’t change minds. He cites negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians as a model: no agreement is likely on basic differences in their respective historical narratives, but still — one hopes — some pragmatic settlement might be reached. “This isn’t about conversion. It’s about conversation. And conversation means something,” he says. “People don’t necessarily change their construct of Jewish power and how they see Jews. But the tone of the dialogue — if you can change that in the interaction, that is a kind of unconscious beginning.” Some Jewish groups find that kind of justification hollow, charging that under the guise of “conversation” Levin has made a shock film that gives haters a platform. It is a view Levin roundly rejects. “I feel that keeping it hidden and illicit only adds to its power,” he says. “I believe that light is the disinfectant.” Interestingly, the group Levin would most like to engage in conversation is not the extremists featured in the film, but those in the great, amorphous center, who are not ideologically predisposed one way or the other. “We need them to be part of our dialogue,” says Levin. “And if we lose them, you know whose dialogue they will become part of. That’s the lesson of London, Spain. You’ve got a great group of young people who are alienated, but are not hard-core committed ideologues, or professional haters. But they’re there and we got to find a way to be able to engage them.” It is a belief that, like the film, was inspired by the Egyptian cab driver. After making the driver think he was part of the Jewish conspiracy, Levin followed him into a nearby coffee shop where they got to talking. “We got to know each other in a different way,” he recalls. “I don’t think it converted him, and he certainly didn’t convert me. But it changed the dynamics of the conversation, and the feeling. When I went home that night, I felt confused but I didn’t feel angry in the same way.” Journalist Recalls Odyssey as Israel Military Correspondent Dov
Burt Levy All Israeli immigrants have a story of how and why and what brought them to Israel and how it played out. Some immigrants came from Nazi Germany after World War II. Some immigrated in large groups from Morocco. Some flew from Yemen on Operation Magic Carpet. Some literally walked from Ethiopia, Iraq and other countries. Some took a boat from New York to Haifa. And you can add another 200 examples right here. Hirsh Goodman, a native South African, was one of the more favored immigrants, a status he does not assert and probably never thought about. After all, life is hard for every immigrant. I say ‘favored’ not because he had money or important family connections, which he didn’t, but because he spoke Hebrew and English, was steeped in Zionism, had learned a lot by growing up in a country that was the greatest Western example of what not to be, and had completed the compulsory nine-month South African military service. Goodman went on to become the Jerusalem Post’s military correspondent and later editor of the Jerusalem Report. In his well-written, page-turner of a memoir, he offers both an autobiography and a chronicle of military and political events. Goodman’s father was a Hebrew teacher in the Johannesburg suburb where the family lived. The South African Jewish community was virtually all Litvak immigrants who brought with them from Lithuania the full spectrum of political passions as well as an overriding, serious Zionism. By serious, I mean that moving to Israel was of top importance; and, over the years, South Africa has, per capita, sent more immigrants to Israel than any other English-speaking country. Goodman learned social values, history, ideology and hard work in the Habonim youth movement. Also, to be a Jew in South Africa meant a daily dilemma of being of a people with a history of oppression now living in an apartheid state where black Africans faced atrocities, virtual slavery and official murder. Goodman discusses these matters in a section aptly titled Out of Evil. One year after arrival in Israel, Goodman entered the army, hiding his disqualifying asthma, and served as an Israeli paratrooper for a full three-year stint. Serving in the army at the same age as native-born Israelis provided life-long friendships and contacts so important in Israel society. None of this detracts from Goodman’s sizable accomplishments because, without chutzpa, intelligence, perseverance and very hard work, you just can’t make it in Israel. After completing military service, Goodman began Hebrew University but left after a seminar paper he wrote about the Cuban Missile Crisis was failed for being “too journalistic.” He marched over to the Jerusalem Post, talked his way into an entry-level job by listing his qualifications as English, Hebrew, good writing skills, a high work ethic and low salary expectations. (Newspapers love that last item.) Goodman learned the trade from the bottom up and three years later, at age 26, took over for the newspaper’s military reporter who become ill. “It did not take me long to understand why my predecessor had had a heart attack,” Goodman writes. “Between June 1967 and Jan. 1972 when I took over, there had been a combined 5,720 military operations over all fronts. The job I inherited would include a full-scale war with Egypt on the Suez Canal, the War of attrition that was ultimately going to cost Israel more casualties than the Six Day War, constant terrorism over the Lebanese border, ongoing battles with the Syrians and the fast-developing phenomenon of international terror culminating with the murder of eleven Israeli athletes in September 1972 at the Munich Olympic Games. My plate was full.” The Jerusalem Post and Jerusalem Report were, until the late 1990s, Israel’s only English language journals, thus read and quoted by all the foreign embassies and legations and the hundreds of journalists stationed in Israel and reporting back to their home media. Hirsh Goodman had a very important podium and role to play reporting and explaining Israeli military policy to the world. This book is a marvelous read (forgiving the long and oblique title), but also an opportunity to decide how well Hirsh Goodman did his job.
‘Bee’ Spells Family Dysfunction Susan
Josephs Screenwriter Naomi Foner Gyllenhaal knows exactly why the dysfunctional yet deeply Jewish Naumann family became her chosen muse. “What drew me to them,” she said, “was what drew me to ‘Anne Frank.’ It’s a story about people with whom we can all identify.” The Naumanns are the central characters of “Bee Season.” The film explores the dissolution of the Naumann family after the youngest member, 9-year-old Eliza (Flora Cross), discovers she’s a spelling prodigy. While Eliza’s father Saul (Richard Gere) lavishes his previously ordinary daughter with attention and feels she can enhance her gifts by studying Kabbalah, he commits the classic parental error of living vicariously through her achievements. Meanwhile, Eliza’s mother Miriam (Juliette Binoche) struggles with mental illness and her brother Aaron (Max Minghella), neglected by his father, finds solace in a local Hare Krishna temple. Deciding she’s to blame for these events, Eliza takes it on herself to repair what has shattered in her family. For Gyllenhaal, an award-winning screenwriter, the film marks something of a career resurgence. After a slow period, “where I would call my agent and she’d offer me video game projects, this is a return,” said Gyllenhaal, who’s in her late 50s. “I mean, how many women my age have given up?” The movie is based on “Bee Season,” the acclaimed novel by Myla Goldberg. “It was a difficult book to adapt,” said Gyllenhaal. “The internal voices of Goldberg’s characters had to be externalized and all their different points of view had to manifest. This is not a film that ties everything neatly together. It’s full of ambiguity, but so is life. Gyllenhaal, the mother of actors Jake (“Proof,” “Moonlight Mile”) and Maggie (“Mona Lisa Smile,” “Secretary”) considers herself “culturally Jewish.” The daughter of doctors, Gyllenhaal grew up in New York and describes her family as identifying with other Jewish, left-leaning intellectuals who sent their children to the nonsectarian Ethical Culture schools. “I remember standing up during my confirmation ceremony and saying I didn’t believe in God,” Gyllenhaal recalled. “But I also associated Judaism with an intellectual tradition and acts of social justice. My problem with religion in general has to do with people’s failure to understand that we’re all reaching for the same thing.” Lead
actor Gere, a practicing Buddhist for some 30 years, also likened the
movie’s spiritual aspects to Buddhism. As a mother, Gyllenhaal says she’s done her best not to be like Saul in “Bee Season” and steered clear of becoming “a pushy stage mother. I didn’t want my children acting, even when they were in high school,” she said of 27-year-old Maggie and 24-year-old Jake. “I wanted them to wait, to be old enough to make the decision for themselves. In my house, they learned that the [movie] process wasn’t glamorous.” As
for “Bee Season,” Gyllenhaal hopes that “people will
come away thinking about it and forgiving what isn’t perfect. Perfect
things are boring,” she said. “Our children aren’t perfect
and we love them. That’s how I feel about this movie.” Chrismukkah Cards For Interfaith Families Susan
Jacobs Recent statistics indicate that 52 percent of the more than five million Jews living in the United States are intermarried. That translates into a lot of families who celebrate both Chanukah and Christmas. In the past, loved ones who wanted to send December greetings to interfaith friends and relatives faced a quandary. They were forced to choose between a traditional Christmas/Chanukah card, or settle instead for a bland generic variety. No more. Al--though Hallmark has yet to catch on, a growing number of independent entrepreneurs are creating and marketing “Chrismukkah” cards for those in interfaith relationships. The term Chrismukkah was coined several years ago by a character in the “The O.C.,” a hit television series that features an interfaith family. Although Chrismukkah is not an official holiday, it is celebrated by thousands of families across the United States who incorporate rituals and festivities from both traditions. Ron Gompertz is a Jew from New York City; his wife Michelle is the Midwestern-bred daughter of a Protestant minister. They live in Bozeman, Mont. with their young daughter and sell Chrismukkah cards and “menornaments” over the Internet on their website chrismukkah.com. Their business is dedicated to their daughter, Minna, and to Ron’s late grandmother — a German Jew who survived the Holocaust because she was married to a Lutheran. The Gompertz’s boldly graphic Chrismukkah cards mix classic Christian and Jewish symbols. One card, for example, features a bowl of chicken soup with three matzah balls stacked to resemble a snowman that reads, “Have a Souper Chrismukkah,” while another has a menorah filled with candy canes that reads, “Merry Menorah.” An Andy Warhol-inspired design features bagels adorned with sprigs of holly and the sentiment, “Good Cheer with a Schmear.” The cards come packaged a dozen to a box and retail for $15. Gompertz asserts that Chrismukkah is the way millions of people experience the December holidays. He believes interfaith families today can have it all: they can eat fruitcake with chocolate gelt, and spin the dreidel while kissing under the mistletoe. A new book available on their website provides recipes for hybrid holiday delights such as gingerbread houses made out of matzah, and wreaths created from challah. The Gompertzes, who launched their website in 2004, were not the first to market Chrismukkah. That distinction may belong to Elise and Philip Okrend of Raleigh, North Carolina. Back in 1988, the couple fretted about whether to send their friends in interfaith relationships two separate holiday cards, or a single non-denominational one. Elise, an artist, doodled a drawing merging a Star of David with a Christmas tree. They realized that the image would appeal to friends of both faiths, and they turned it into a holiday greeting card. Their business,Mixed Blessing, was born. Today, the Okrends sell a full line of interfaith and multicultural holiday cards from their website, www.mixedblessing.com. Many of the cards feature traditional winter images with sentiments targeted to interfaith families. One card, for example, features a Santa on skates in Rockefeller Center forming a Star of David in the ice. The inside reads, “City scenes and winter dreams — a joyful season of harmony. Another depicts two mugs (one with a Christmas tree, the other with a menorah) and the verse: Let us savor the special moments of the holidays. Mixed blessing cards come packaged 10 to a box and cost $14. The Okrends have ex--panded their line to include other holiday products such as ornaments with Jewish stars, and stockings decorated with Chanukah fabric on one side, and Christmas images on the other. Pet Star is a company run by two Jewish women originally from Newton. Their unique and whimsical line of interfaith holiday cards feature costumed dogs and cats posed with holiday props such as menorahs and reindeer ears. Inside, the cards read, “May the holiday spirit be shared among all.” Founded in 1994 by a mother-daughter team of animal lovers, the main thrust of the business is creating customized portraits of pets in their photographic studio in Miami, Florida. Mother Joan Saper-stein, a professional breeder and pet handler, works with the animals, while daughter Lisa Meltzer, a photographer, handles publicity and marketing. The holiday cards developed as an offshoot of their primary business. Although Pet Star stocks Valentine’s Day, Fourth of July, and Jewish New Year cards, Meltzer says the company’s interfaith holiday cards are its best sellers. “Many of our clients like them because they have a broader appeal,” said Meltzer. “They don’t want to send Chanukah cards to their friends who are not Jewish, but they will send an interfaith card. The cards are also popular with professionals like doctors, dentists and lawyers, who send them to their clients during the holidays.” Six Pet Star cards with envelopes sell for $10. The complete catalog can be viewed at www.petstar.net. Great Chanukah Gifts For Everyone on Your List Susan
Jacobs Chanukah arrives in less than a month, but there is still time to order unique gifts for everyone on your list. Here are some suggestions: Name
Your Game Clothes
Encounters Hello
Dolly Toys
for Tots Deck
the Halls For
Foodies Books
and Videos New Jewish Children’s Books Make Wonderful Chanukah Presents Penny
Schwartz BOSTON
(JTA) — The following is a roundup of new Jewish children’s
books: Dybbuk:
A Version Hidden
Child Kibitzers
and Fools; A
Horn for Louis Sholom’s
Treasure The
Travels of Benjamin of Tudela Demographic Disaster It is a curious feature of human nature that we don’t respond well to predictions of impending disaster. The calamity that swallowed New Orleans this past summer occurred after years of ignored warnings that the city’s levees were woefully inadequate. The future depletion of social security funds was a hot-button topic in the 2000 presidential election until it was displaced from the national consciousness by the war on terror, itself a threat we were repeatedly warned about in the 1990s and did little to avert. And the increasingly dire reports of human-influenced climactic change have failed to spark the necessary government funding to develop alternative energy sources, nor has it led Americans to retreat from our gluttonous consumption of fossil fuels at a rate that far outstrips any other industrialized nation. So there is perhaps little reason to hope that the Jewish community will act now to avert a demographic catastrophe whose worst effects will only be felt decades from now. The warnings have been coming for years — higher intermarriage rates, declining synagogue attendance, fewer children enrolled at day schools — and have painted an increasingly depressing portrait of the future of Jewish life in America. American Jews are on balance older, marry later, and have fewer children than the general population. Taken one way, these are signs of progress. Fertility rates tend to decline across the board with greater education and economic advancement. But when combined with the numbers already lost to intermarriage, they spell impending demographic disaster. By next year, some experts predict, the American Jewish community will, for the first time, be supplanted by Israel as the world’s largest. (Israel’s Jewish population stands at roughly 5.1 million). As is so often the case, the diagnosis has proven easier than the cure. In a widely discussed article in the October issue of Commentary Magazine, Jack Wertheimer, provost of the Jewish Theological Seminary, argues that the root of the problem is that in rushing to recast Jewish practice in a manner more consistent with contemporary norms, some Jewish leaders have caused a diminution of Judaism’s traditional emphasis on marriage and children. “Under the banner of unconditioned equality,” Wertheimer writes, “the needs of the affiliated are ignored, and the overall Jewish population continues to contract.” His solution is to steal a page from the Orthodox playbook — not to bend Judaism to the norms of secular society, but to staunchly uphold Jewish values in the face of them. In his keynote address at the recent convention of the Union for Reform Judaism in Houston, the movement’s leader, Eric Yoffie, seemed to accept Wertheimer’s analysis, acknowledging that permissiveness has its price. But rather than (or perhaps in addition to) being more vigorous in preaching to the faithful, Yoffie wishes to swell their ranks. He made headlines (see page 6) by declaring it a “mitzvah” to encourage conversion by non-Jewish parents raising Jewish children. Though he didn’t address the demographic concern directly, his pronouncement suggests he is not unaware that young Jews are far more likely to retain their affiliation when they are raised by two Jewish parents. They are also more likely to stay connected when the organized Jewish community takes them seriously. As a panel discussion at last month’s federation conference in Toronto made clear, this is not happening (see page 24). Young Jews that are prime candidates for leadership positions — and who will either be the engine of demographic growth or the cause of its decline — feel alienated from Jewish communal life. The one exception to all this bad news is the Orthodox, who produce offspring at rates that dwarf those of the general Jewish population and suffer far fewer losses to intermarriage. Though there are less Orthodox Jews in America than Conservative or Reform, there are more Orthodox children than in either of the other main denominations. If current trends persist, the Orthodox, currently a minority of worldwide Jewry, will represent an ever-growing percentage of the Jewish community and will concomitantly demand a greater share of communal resources. Were that to happen, Jewish life in America would be transformed beyond recognition. To be sure, the decline of the American Jewish population is a daunting challenge that affords no easy answers. Its causes are manifold and possible solutions are contentious. Everything, it seems, is in dispute — save for the fact that it is happening. All too often, acknowledging the complexity of a problem is a recipe — or an excuse — for inaction. The fact is there is there is no perfect solution to Jewish demographic decline. But if we wait for ideal, consensus-driven solutions, we will | ||||||