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| December 31 - January 13, 2005 | |||||||||||||
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Local StoriesKabbalah Craze Hits the North Shore Susan
Jacobs A Kabbalah craze is sweeping the nation. Thanks in part to pop star devotees like Madonna, Britney Spears, Demi Moore and Roseanne Barr, Kabbalah has become a household word. Nationwide, the general public is yearning to learn more about ancient Jewish mysticism, and the North Shore is no exception. Starting in January, a slew of Kabbalah classes are scheduled to begin in Andover, Marblehead, Swampscott, Peabody, Lynn and Boston. The classes will be taught by local rabbis and scholars. Rabbi Nechemia Schusterman of Peabody Chabad is offering a four-part course entitled ‘Kabbalah for Dummies’ in Peabody starting on January 3. “The purpose of my upcoming class is to shed some light on this subject,” he said. Mysticism is catchy in this day and age. However Kabbalah is an ancient tradition that dates back to our forefathers, and it has a lot to offer. Dr. Pinchas Baram, former director of the Zionist House/Israel Cultural Center in Boston, is preparing an upcoming series on ‘Kabbalah, Meditation and Healing’ at the JCC in Marblehead. The Orthodox professor recently concluded a six-week class at Temple B’nai Abraham in Beverly that included instruction in Kabbalah, meditation, visualization, group chanting, breathing and energy healing. “Although there is a growing nationwide interest in Kabbalah, this is not a fad for me,” says Baram, who has studied Torah and Kabbalah for 25 years, and practiced healing and meditation for nearly as long. Baram believes that while celebrities have given Kabbalah a lot of publicity, he laments that they have both trivialized and commercialized it. “They brought it out of the closet, where it had stayed for far too long. But they’ve turned it into a commercial venture, selling holy water and red strings (which are used to ward off evil).” He is also concerned about what he considers to be irreverent practices by certain celebrities. “While Madonna has inspired a lot of people to explore Kabbalah, I was surprised to learn that she had the Hebrew names of God flashing at her recent rock concert. Meditating on the names of God is powerful spiritual medicine. But Kabbalah is meant to be a quiet, internal practice, not a rave. “There is a paradox regarding the Kabbalah phenomenon today,” he continues. “Orthodox Jews in America — who have by far the best background of Hebrew and deep Torah knowledge to study Kabbalah — for the most part have long been uninterested in studying it. Meanwhile, many of the people studying Kabbalah today have next to no background in Hebrew and Torah, let alone any adherence to Halacha.” Historically, Kabbalah was considered too esoteric and powerful to be understood by the general public. For centuries it was the domain of rabbis and scholars, who often practiced it discreetly in small groups. When they met, Kabbalists used altered states of consciousness, chanting, and meditation on specific Hebrew letters for the purpose of tikkun olam, repairing the world. The secrets of Kabbalah reportedly had a profound influence on many of the world’s greatest thinkers, including Abraham, Moses, Jesus, Mohammed, Pythagoras, Plato, Newton, Shakespeare and Jung. Today, many people are drawn to its New Age-style teachings about personal growth, letting go of ego, and controlling negative emotions. Robyn Kaplan, a mother of two in Beverly, took a Jewish Learning Institute Kabbalah class last year taught by Layah Lipsker, who will be leading another series of classes beginning in January. “Kabbalah wasn’t in my bag of tricks of Judaism, so I decided to take the class in the morning while my children were in school,” she said. “It ended up being very interesting. It’s a very intricate subject. We talked a lot about prayer. It set a positive tone for my day, and gave me a keener interest in Judaism.” Jerry Schwartz of Hamilton, who has taken two formal Kabbalah classes including the one taught by Baram in Beverly, also found that Kabbalah has deepened his appreciation of Judaism. “I’ve been trying to find the spiritual roots of Judaism for a long time,” he said. Studying Kabbalah has added another dimension to my Judaism, deepening my practice of, and appreciation for, Jewish rituals such as davening, making Shabbos or participating in prayer services at Temple B’nai Abraham, where I have been a member for 10 years.” Kabbalah has also helped the 55-year-old psychosocial counselor for Hospice of the North Shore at his job. “Studying Kabbalah has helped me understand the spiritual experience of death, support a compassionate approach to life, and helps me see the Divine in everybody. From my study of Kabbalah, I have learned to appreciate the complexity of life and understand that things exist on multiple levels and dimensions. And on a very practical level, I have used some of the healing prayers and meditations that Pinchas taught us with my patients.” Death was what motivated Michele Tamaren of Marblehead to take her first Kabbalah class last year. “My interest in Kabbalah began after my mother passed away and my father had a stroke one week after she died. I began thinking about the soul and what happens after death,” she explains. Tamaren took a series of two seven-week sessions on Jewish Mysticism and Kabbalah with Rabbi Ilana Rosansky, formerly of Temple Shalom in Salem. She found them fascinating. “I grew up in Connecticut and attended Hebrew school, but was not exposed to the mystical aspects of Judaism. I longed to know more about Jewish spirituality and the soul. For me, studying Kabbalah has been a very full and rich spiritual experience. I’ve learned about levels of the soul and how they can rise through study and good deeds. My meditations are much deeper as a result of the class. But the most important thing I have learned is that spirituality is meant to be lived in one’s everyday life. As we relate to others and perform mitzvot, we are growing in our relationship to God,” she says. Although her course proved to be very popular, Rabbi Rosansky was initially reluctant to offer it. “For years, I shied away from teaching Kabbalah because I believe that people need to have some grounding in basic Judaism before plunging into what is decidedly esoteric,” she said. “I very carefully anchored my courses at the JCC within a historical Jewish framework. But Kabbalah is a vast and deep subject with many, many facets. Some we examined in greater depth than others, but a 7-week course (or two 7-week courses) is like licking the frosting off of the cake. The cake and its substance still remain to be savored,” she says. Rosansky is not surprised that Jews today are attracted to Kabbalah and mysticism. “Jewish education in this country has, for the most part, failed to teach the core essence of Judaism,” she asserts. “Educators spent hours drilling the rote reading of prayers to the exclusion of the juicy, spiritual, ecstatic aspects of our faith. Many Jews grew up in synagogues where it was all intellectualizing with no spark. People today are seeking the spark, and Kabbalah is about experiencing that spark.” Upcoming Kabbalah Classes Those
interested in learning more about Kabbalah may want to explore the following
classes: W is for Wellness: Marblehead JCC to Get Facelift, Café Gary
Band MARBLEHEAD — In a series of moves to enhance service to the community, the lobby area and Men’s Health Center at the Jewish Community Center of the North Shore will undergo significant renovations beginning January 10. The
work is expected to be completed sometime in the spring. Due to recent security concerns, overall flow and aesthetic appeal, JCC officials feel the current structure is in need of an upgrade. And thanks to the efforts of Helen Zimman, enough money was raised to go ahead with the plans for the lobby, with an cost estimated at more than $100K. The new design (pictured) will feature a pentagon-shaped Welcome Center, over which will be suspended a large Magen David-shaped light fixture. Members will enter through a turnstile on the right and exit on the left. A computer terminal will be available to register for classes and pay JCC fees. JCC officials say this will increase the quality of customer service and simplify transactions. A comfortable waiting area will be built in the lobby’s far right corner. Additionally, a café will be built under the stairs run by Israeli Gill Harari, who runs the cafés at the Newton and Stoughton JCCs. It will serve fresh and healthy dairy and vegetarian snacks, breakfast and lunch, to stay or go. “This will be a very cool place,” says JCC Executive Director Sandy Sheckman. Membership
Director Penny Schuler says she wants the Center to continue to focus
on its Wellness Program by offering members healthy foods and a place
to sit and unwind after they work out or while they wait to pick up their
kids. The second floor Men’s Health Center was supposed to be refurbished along with the Women’s Health Center, which opened in 1998, but was put on hold due to lack of funds. As a result of a two-year fundraising effort led by Richard Salter, it will now be upgraded to include a new steam room, sauna, lounge area and locker room. The campaign raised over $300K. Some 200 men, with a median age of 60, belong to the Health Center. But with the new equipment, the Center hopes to attract more young members. Salter thanks the many people who contributed to the campaign and made the renovations possible. He says that while the Health Center was once a popular destination for men ages 30-60, usage has been way down over the last few years. “The improvements will not only enhance the Health Center’s appearance, but provide a higher level of service,” Salter says. “With the quality standards where they should be for this community, we hope to grow the membership, leadership, and level of donations.” Overall, these improvements represent the Center’s need for a facelift after more than 30 years of operation, the desire to reach out to more people of all ages throughout the 26 cities and towns in the greater North Shore area, and position itself to compete with the YMCA, scheduled to open sometime in 2006. And as the largest Jewish agency, Sheckman sees the upgrades as “enhancing the quality of Jewish life on the North Shore.” From Interfaith Couple, Three Jewish Generations Gary
Band SWAMPSCOTT — Arlene Leventhal’s late mother Anna Titchell was not born Jewish in her family’s native Hartford, Connecticut. But through the luck of geography and timing over 20 years and two continents, Arlene, her husband Herb, their four married daughters and nine grandchildren (with one more on the way) are here today. When she was still a baby, Anna and her family relocated abroad for business and lived in a city near the Austria/Hungary border. They moved back to Hartford when Anna was 14; and, seven years later, while on vacation with her family in Bermuda, she met and one year later married a nice Jewish boy named Chester Gilman from Winthrop. Although Anna did not officially convert to Judaism until after Chester’s death, from this technically interfaith couple has come a bevy of beautiful additions to the Jewish people — all of whom live in Marblehead and Swampscott and belong to Temple Beth El. “Look how many Jews came out of this mixed marriage,” Arlene says. She and her late brother Carl grew up in the neighborhood around one of Winthrop’s Orthodox shuls, Congregation Tifereth Israel. While her father was not very observant, the holidays were observed and Anna encouraged Arlene and Carl to attend temple and Hebrew school. And from Chester’s family Anna learned to prepare traditional Jewish dishes, and only kosher meat was brought into their home. Though Arlene attended Hebrew school briefly as a young girl, Carl went straight through and became a bar mitzvah. But starting in junior high, Arlene began attending temple with her friends every Saturday. This continued through her college years at Simmons. But when she met and wanted to marry Herb Leventhal at Tifereth Israel, the Orthodox rabbi said he could not marry them because Arlene was not Jewish because her mother had not converted. This could have turned her away from Judaism, but one year before they were married, Arlene decided to go through the official conversion process at their temple in Chelsea. Soon after, the couple moved to Swampscott and married at Temple Israel. Their four daughters — Eve, Amy, Rachel and Diane — all went to Hebrew school, Camp Young Judea and travelled to Israel in high school; and all married Jewish men. Arlene believes Jewish identity is built in part through offering both choices and encouragement. “My mother was wonderful. She let us make our own choices and was very supportive. With my kids, growing up in this neighborhood, going to Hebrew school, camp and being around other Jewish kids was very important. But I still let them have their freedom.” As Arlene said at her bat mitzvah, which she celebrated along with 11 other women at Temple Beth El in 1995, “I became a Jew, not by birth, but rather by choice… Today it is my turn to become a bat mitzvah, to become a true woman of Judaism.” Arlene says she feels very lucky to have her family so close by. “It’s such a blessing. Because Herb’s parents are still alive, the kids have great-grandparents, us, and all their cousins that they see all the time. It’s like an old-fashioned family.” Rabbi and Liora Kelman: Cooking Up a Kosher Storm Susan
Jacobs LYNN — The 15 students watch carefully as charismatic Liora Kelman lines a large kettle with toasted bread in order to prepare a batch of French onion soup. As she speaks, her asssistant and husband, Rabbi Avraham Kelman, uses his kippah as a potholder to lift a boiling pot of homemade spinach tagliatelle, which he then drains and tosses with a creamy salmon sauce. For the past five years, the Kelmans have been teaching international kosher cooking at Ahabat Sholom, the Orthodox shul in Lynn. Students flock to the informal classes to eat, learn and socialize. For two hours each month, they watch as the Kelmans prepare several appetizers, main courses and desserts. Following Jewish tradition, there is enough food for everyone to sample (and take home a little doggie bag). “The Kelmans share their passion of cooking and of Judaism,” says Nicole Levy of Swampscott, who first learned about the class when she and her family moved to the area and joined the shul two years ago. “They teach us how to make the dishes, but also teach us about the Jews of the area.” Levy says she’s taken other cooking classes at community colleges, but this one is much richer. “The rabbi and rebbetzin have travelled a lot, and they tell stories about the people and the regions while they cook. It’s also helpful because Liora will tell you where to buy certain hard-to-find kosher ingredients.” Russell Grand of Salem finds the classes inspiring. “My wife doesn’t really enjoy cooking, so I’m the cook in the family. I keep a kosher home, and Liora’s classes give me a lot of good ideas,” he says. He particularly likes Kelman’s recipes for sweet potato latkes and wiener schnitzel. Liora gets most of her recipes from cookbooks, carefully adapting the recipes to make them kosher. “I’m a cookbook-aholic,” admits the Jewish Julia Child, who says she owns literally hundreds of them. At the conclusion of each class, students receive a comprehensive booklet containing photocopies of all the recipes presented that evening. Each cooking class revolves around a theme, which often corresponds to the Jewish holidays and the seasons. Sessions alternate between dairy and meat meals. Previous classes have focused on the cuisine of Jews in Vienna, Sweden, Mexico and Lebanon. In the next class, on January 18, Liora will address North African/Tunisian cuisine. The February 15 class will cover Eastern European dairy dishes, and the March 15 class will focus on the meat dishes of Persia. International cooking comes easy for Liora, who is fluent in several languages and peppers her conversations with fond memories of living (and cooking) all over the world. A native of Israel, she and her husband have lived there, as well as in Italy where Avraham served as a rabbi in Trieste. The reasonably-priced classes are open to the entire community. Ahabat Sholom members pay $15 per class; non-members pay $18. In addition to the classes at the shul, Liora also teaches kosher cooking for kids at Temple Emanu-El in Marblehead. For more information or to register for the next class at Ahabat Sholom, which will be held on Jan. 18 at 7:30 p.m., call 781-593-9255 or email ahabat@juno.com. National For Bush, P.A. Election is Key Ron Kampeas WASHINGTON — It was modest as Christmas miracles go — for one day, Israelis soldiers manned the barriers armed with baskets of candy, and Palestinians armed with guns kept the peace — but it was the result of heavy lifting in Washington, Jerusalem and throughout the Middle East. And those players who made sure Bethlehem was peaceful for Christmas celebrations are hoping to pull off a bigger miracle next week: free, peaceful and credible elections for Palestinian Authority president. The Bush administration has formed an unlikely coalition of Congress and the United Nations, as well as Israel, Arab and European governments, to seize the opportunity to replace the late Yasser Arafat with a Palestinian leader who can work with Israel. “Both the Congress, along with the administration, realize that the passing of Mr. Arafat creates an opportunity that was not there as long as he was alive,” Rep. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.), the House of Representatives’ majority whip, told JTA. In early December, Blunt led one of five high-level congressional tours to the Middle East since Arafat’s Nov. 11 death, an extraordinary amount of attention considering the timing: the run-up to a new Congress, a second Bush term and huge domestic diversions such as the fate of social security and the ballooning national deficit. Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), settling back into the Senate after his own failed presidential run, is to lead a sixth visit around the time of the Jan. 9 P.A. elections. Blunt said the level of attention was not excessive. “It’s
a moment we want to do everything possible to take advantage of,”
he said. The two get along well as friends but are divided on most issues. On reviving the Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, however, they now speak as one, burying election-season rhetoric in which each party tried to out-pro-Israel the other. “On this issue, we are in very substantial agreement, almost total agreement,” Hoyer said. That unanimity likely will crush expectations on the Israeli right for the kind of conservative congressional opposition that hampered the Oslo agreements in the 1990s. National Religious Party leader Effi Eitam was in Washington last month hoping to get a hearing on the settlement movement’s opposition to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s plans to leave the Gaza Strip next year. Hoyer likes to kid Blunt that his boss, Rep. Tom DeLay (R-Tex.), the House majority leader, is “to the right of Sharon” on Israeli issues — DeLay gutted a pro-Israel resolution this summer of language supporting the Gaza withdrawal — but Blunt suggests that those days are over, and that congressional Republicans fully back Bush’s activist agenda. “I’m recognized as a leader of a group in the Congress that supports Israel,” Blunt said. “I believe the Congress will be overwhelmingly supportive of the Israeli government’s efforts to find a permanent and peaceful solution.” Even more remarkable, in a season of recriminations on the Iraq war among Congress, the United Nations, the Bush administration and the international community, is the unanimity those players show on Israeli-Palestinian peace. Fending off demands for his resignation because of a prewar oil-for-food corruption scandal, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan brushed aside any tensions when it comes to Middle East peace. “We see that the dynamics on the ground have changed and there is an opening which, if effectively exploited, can move the process forward,” Annan said last week. “There are many other countries in Europe and elsewhere who have become very engaged in this process, as well as countries in the region that we hope to work with.” Further advancing the process is Israel’s accession to British plans for a post-election conference on P.A. reform, as well as Egypt’s role in assuming responsibility for the Gaza transition, despite tensions with the United States over Iraq and Bush’s grand plan to democratize the region. “Egypt has been involved for many months now in an extremely close and extremely constructive dialogue with the government of Israel,” David Satterfield, the second in command at the State Department’s Near East bureau, said last week in a conference call with U.S. Jewish officials. Israel and Egypt quietly have exchanged letters amending the 1978 Camp David accords to allow Egypt to increase its forces along the Gaza border to stem arms smuggling. Additionally, Egypt will place police trainers in Gaza after the withdrawal, a greater commitment than its earlier offer to train P.A. security forces in Egypt. Jordan is to play a similar role in parts of the West Bank that are to move to autonomous Palestinian rule next year. U.S. cash is playing its role: U.S. assistance has been instrumental in setting up trade zones in Egypt and Jordan that both governments need to persuade their constituencies that accommodation with Israel pays dividends. More
is to come, Satterfield told listeners on the United Jewish Communities-Jewish
Council for Public Affairs call. The United States also earmarked $23.5 million to ease Palestinian debt and pay for the elections, and the Bush administration is pressing other nations to match its contributions. Hoyer said Congress would continue to closely monitor such spending, mindful of how such funds disappeared in the past into Arafat’s black hole of corruption and terrorism. “The majority of the Congress is going to be very focused on the money stream, the transparency of each expenditure,” he told JTA. Driving efforts to close the deal, the parties say, is the determination of two men: Bush, who has made Israeli-Palestinian peace a centerpiece of his grand plan to reform the Middle East, and Sharon. “I’ve probably met with Prime Minister Sharon 20 times in 20 years, and I’ve never seen him more engaged or more committed to find a solution than I did on the trip,” Blunt said. International Jews Pitch In For Tsunami Victims Dan
Baron But this week that post-Zionist nirvana became a nightmare. The tsunamis that swept India, Thailand, Sri Lanka and the Andaman Islands on Sunday plunged hundreds of Israeli families into a frenzy of worry over relatives feared lost while touring. Israel’s Foreign Ministry said Dec. 28 that witness testimony suggested at least a dozen of some 500 Israeli tourists still unaccounted for in hard-hit Southeast Asian nations may have been swept out to sea and drowned. At least 33 Israelis are receiving treatment in hospitals in the region, the Foreign Ministry said. For thousands of families living in or visiting the Indian Ocean region, the Dec. 26 catastrophe confirmed their worst fears: At least 45,000 people were killed by the devastating earthquake and tsunami, mostly in Indonesia, India and Sri Lanka. A Belgian Jewish couple reportedly lost their 11-month-old son in the disaster. According to Israel’s Ma’ariv newspaper, Matan Nassima’s body was found Dec. 28 near the Thai resort where his family had vacationed. The child’s parents had posted a picture of the boy on the newspaper’s Web site after he was swept away during the tsunami, in hopes that Israeli tourists might recognize him and report his whereabouts. Matan’s grandfather told Ma’ariv that the toddler likely would be buried in Israel. Details were not immediately known, but it also was believed that members of the South African, Australian and New Zealand Jewish communities were missing. Immediately after the tragedy, Israel and Jewish groups swung into action. Israel’s Foreign Ministry set aside $100,000 in aid for each of the countries hit by the tsunami. Four top doctors from Israel’s Hadassah Hospital were dispatched to Colombo, Sri Lanka, at the ministry’s request, Hadassah said. Among them were the hospital’s head of general surgery and trauma, its chief of pediatrics and two anesthesiologists. On Dec. 28, Sri Lanka turned down an Israeli offer to send military personnel to help with search-and-rescue efforts, but said it would accept a smaller team. The efforts were appreciated by at least one Israeli located bruised but safe at the Thai resort of Phuket. “Everyone has been great. I have been visited by Israeli diplomatic representatives, as well as Chabad,” Yaron Weiss told Channel Two television from his hospital bed. “I have a feeling that the other tourists here are a bit jealous that their countries are not as attentive.” North American Jewish groups also were paying attention. The American Jewish World Service was expecting to send its first shipment of medicine Tuesday to Sri Lanka, Indonesia and India. It has been coordinating with 23 partner organizations in the region to assess needs on the ground. Ronni Strongin, the AJWS’ director of public relations, said one of the largest immediate needs is expected to be water because corpses have contaminated the water supply. The group is hoping to receive donations to cover the cost of emergency supplies. “The phones keep ringing off the hook,” Strongin said. “It looks like people are truly responding.” The American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee is working with its office in Bombay and elsewhere to coordinate relief efforts. The organization is hoping to provide food, water, clothing and shelter to countries affected by the earthquake and tsunamis. B’nai B’rith also is accepting donations to help victims. Chabad of Thailand responded to the crisis by dispatching a rabbi to Phuket to aid rescue efforts, and turned the three Chabad Houses of Thailand into crisis centers where survivors can call home, have a free meal or receive funds for new clothing and medical help. For families of potential victims, the waiting for news was excruciating. At Erez Katran’s home in Haifa, a 24-hour vigil was set up next to the telephone in hopes that he would call. His family hoped Katran’s silence was due to the fact that he was incommunicado while sailing in the Bay of Bengal. “We are definitely feeling the pressure,” said Katran’s older brother, Micha. “If we don’t hear something by Wednesday night, my father and I will head out to India, to try to locate him somehow.” Katran was among nearly 200 Israelis who remained unaccounted for Tuesday, despite urgent Foreign Ministry efforts to track them down. Israeli officials put their best face on what was emerging as a crisis of global proportion. “Telephone communication in this region is very hard. Most of the infrastructure has collapsed,” said Nissim Ben-Sheetrit, the Foreign Ministry’s deputy director-general. “We are working around the clock, with a small team, to cover a huge area, trying to locate Israelis and bring them to safe shores.’’ But hearts across the Jewish state sank as reports surfaced from the hardest-hit coastal resorts. In addition to delivering bad news, the Israeli communications industry pitched in with the search efforts. Every major Web site set up a page where pictures of missing tourists could be posted in hope that someone would report their location, and one cell-phone company offered its Israeli customers in Southeast Asia 10 minutes of free airtime to call home. JTA staff writer Matthew E. Berger in Washington contributed to this report. Donations to the American Jewish World Service’s relief efforts are being accepted at www.ajws.org, and by phone at 1-800-889-7146. The American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee is accepting credit card donations at www.jdc.org, or by phone at 212-687-6200, ext. 889. Donations to B’nai B’rith can be made online at www.bnaibrith.org, or by mail to the B’nai B’rith Disaster Relief Fund at 2020 K St., NW, Seventh Floor, Washington, D.C. 20006. Donations also can be sent to Chabad of Thailand, 96 Thanon Rambuttri, Bangkok Thailand 10200, or online at www.chabadthailand.com/www.chabadthailand.com (for U.S. tax deductibility, checks should be made out to American Friends of Chabad of Thailand.).
Features Lest
We Forget Herbert
Belkin The sight of 400 rabbis marching towards Capitol Hill with their beards and long black coats stirring in the October breeze certainly startled Washington onlookers. What is even more unusual is that the date, Oct. 6, 1943, was two days before Yom Kippur. Why would 400 rabbis leave their congregations two days before Yom Kippur? They came to Washington to follow the Talmudic injunction “to save one life is to save the world;” indeed they hoped to save thousands of Jews caught in the Holocaust. By this time in 1943 the knowledge that Hitler was exterminating the Jews of Europe was well documented and had reached all of the halls of Allied power. Roosevelt and Churchill rejected the desperate cries for help with the pretext that the best way to save the Jews was to end the war. The rabbis knew that two million Jews had already been killed and that millions more would be slaughtered unless immediate action was taken. European Jews were in a double bind. They could not escape their countries of origin and no countries would accept them even if they could. The U.S. State Department was particularly devious in keeping Jews from entering this country. With 60,000 visas available each year for immigrants, the State Department required that an eight page, single-spaced visa document be filled out precisely and then submitted for approval. For the flimsiest reasons, the State Department rejected most visa applications. The insidious policy of keeping immigrants out of this country become apparent with this damning quote by Breckinridge Long, the Assistant Secretary of the U.S. State Department. “We can delay and effectively stop for a temporary period of indefinite length the number of immigrants into the United States. We could do this by simply advising our consuls to put every obstacle in the way and to postpone and postpone and postpone the granting of visas.” The result of this “paper wall” was that only 6,000 visas – 10% of the available 60,000 – were issued. We can only imagine the desperation Jews felt as they tried to satisfy the capricious demands of U.S. consulate offices while knowing the fate that awaited them if they failed. This anguish of their fellow Jews was reported to the Orthodox rabbis by friends and relatives still in Europe; this was just the latest in a series of reports to reach the rabbis. As early as 1939, the Union of Orthodox Rabbis had formed Va ‘ad ha-Hatsala, a rescue committee to help save Jews. With their foresight, the Orthodox community reacted earlier and faster than other American Jewish groups. The rabbis’ march in Washington in 1943 was just the most recent of a continuing series of efforts to rescue European Jews. Their plan for the march was simple and direct: First, to speak to members of Congress and then to President Roosevelt in an attempt to rescue their Jewish brethren from annihilation in German death camps. On October 6, the rabbis marched to the Capitol and were met by Vice-President Henry Wallace and members of Congress. At the meeting, the rabbis read aloud, both in English and Hebrew, a petition calling for the creation of a federal agency that would both rescue European Jews and increase the number of Jewish immigrants to the United States. What they received from the vice-president has been described as “a diplomatically minimal answer.” Undeterred, the rabbis then marched to the White House and requested to meet with President Roosevelt. On the advice of his advisors, the President refused to see the rabbis and left the White House by a rear door to avoid a confrontation. This rebuff by Roosevelt was a political calculation that most Americans at the time did not want an increase in immigration and that supporting an increase might jeopardize his reelection. However, Roosevelt’s refusal to see the rabbis had an unintended and unwelcome consequence. The snub was picked up by the press and the next day the headline in the Washington Times-Herald read, “Rabbis Report Cold Welcome at the White House.” A columnist for a Jewish newspaper asked, “Would a similar delegation of… Catholic priests have been thus treated?” The impact of the march and the ensuing publicity prompted a resolution in Congress calling for creation of for a federal agency to rescue relugees. At first the Roosevelt administration objected to the resolution until, with the help of Treasury Secretary Henry Morgenthau and the realization that Congress was going to pass the resolution anyway, the President announced the creation of the War Refugee Board. The War Refugee Board has been credited with saving as many as 200,000 Jewish lives. When the 400 rabbis returned to their congregations and prayed on Yom Kippur 61 years ago, they did not know what their march in Washington would accomplish. They did know, however, that they had kept faith with the highest commandment of Judaism: to save a life. The rabbis’ call to this nation’s conscience helped to form the War Refugee Board, which played a critical part in saving thousands of Jewish lives. Herb Belkin is a writer and speaker on the Holocaust, dedicated to presereving its lessons so that it never happens again. He may be reached at beachbluff@comcast.net. Stem-Cell Research and the Golem Rabbi
David J. Meyer According to folklore, the 16-century sage Rabbi Judah Loew applied his knowledge of Jewish mystical traditions to animate a Golem, a homunculus fashioned of mud from the riverbank to protect the Jews of the ghetto from their enemies. When the fear had passed, and the Golem’s size and strength threatened greater harm than good, Rabbi Loew relegated the inert figure of clay to the attic of the Altneuschul — where the Golem lies to this very day, and where no one is yet permitted to ascend. The legend of the Golem of Prague may or may not be historically accurate. But ever since the days of the Talmud, Jewish folk tradition abounds with stories of rabbis, sages, and pious mystics who occasionally create such a Golem, an artificial human creature. But the existence of such creatures was taken seriously, especially by the Ashkenazic authorities, and we find in medieval literature such questions as whether it is considered murder to kill a Golem, and even whether a Golem can count for a minyan. The story of the Golem has become well known and made its way into popular culture in books and films, such as Snow in August, and Michael Chabon’s The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay. It is also vaguely familiar even to those unfamiliar with the Jewish tradition of the Golem, for upon her return from a visit to the city of Prague, Mary Shelly authored her most famous work, Frankenstein, Or The Modern Prometheus. Yes, that’s the actual title of her book, although almost no one remembers that subtitle. But it’s important because the wording, “The Modern Prometheus” immediately reveals her perspective on the essence of science and technology. In order to understand why, let’s recall the Greek myth of Prometheus. By naming her novel of technology run-amok after Prometheus, Shelley was espousing an idea that is very prominent in Western thought; namely, that our use of technology is precarious at best, and when we dabble in the science of creation, we will ultimately lose control and suffer as a result. In the story of the Golem, the one who created it, the pious sage, is able to control both the creature’s actions and its fate. On the other hand, in the story of Frankenstein, the creator ultimately loses all control. Is it any wonder then that those opposed to genetically modified grains and other foodstuffs, even if they might help to feed the starving around the world, refer to such products as “Franken-food”? This Western concept has its roots in Christian sources, which clearly view the creation of artificial life as “playing God” — an activity whose power comes from the Devil himself, as we see in the story of Faust. Still to this day, the Catholic Church forbids the use of artificial medical interventions to increase fertility, on the basis that they are considered a violation of natural law. And whether it is the Greek concept of technology as stolen from the gods, or the Western notion of upsetting the natural order, our contemporary society maintains the suspicion that ultimately the creative offspring of scientific inventiveness will result in some degree of catastrophe. The Golem legends have permitted Jewish wisdom to carefully consider questions that only now have great relevance, not only in bio-ethics, but also in the fundamental questions in philosophy and theology: What is the relationship between human beings and nature; between our creations and ourselves? Do our creations ever pose a threat? How far do we push the envelope of nature? These questions were addressed by our courts back in March of 1980, coincidentally, 400 years almost to the day of the creation of the Golem of Prague, in a case known famously as “Diamond vs. Chakrabarty.” Essentially, Chakrabarty had taken the parts of two separate bacteria and connected them, thus creating a new bio-organism with the unique capacity to break down certain kinds of oils. It was designed to be most useful as an anti-pollutant, cleaning up petroleum spills along our coasts. Chakrabarty applied to the United States Patent and Trademark Office in order to receive patents for both the method of his recombinant DNA and for the new organism itself. Originally, he was granted a patent on the method he used, but not on the entity he created. But in a narrow, 5 to 4 decision, the US Supreme Court ultimately granted the patent on the new-fangled organism, a decision that has led to an explosion in biotechnology. That decision ultimately led to the scene we witnessed at the Democratic National Convention held in Boston this past summer, when the floor erupted more than 20 times at the mention of stem-cell research. In short, stem cells are so noteworthy because they have the unique ability to turn into a variety of different kinds of cells when properly triggered. These cells are of two primary types: adult stem cells, taken from living, human organs; and embryonic stem cells, harvested from embryos while they are yet only a very few days after conception. Adult stem cells are called “multi-potent,” and can turn into a limited number of types of cells, whereas embryonic stem cells are called “pluri-potent,” and can become any kind of cell in the body. Obviously, these embryonic stem cells carry the greatest potential for medical therapies. So why the opposition to such promising medical therapy that might permit every man or woman the potential for regenerating damaged organs, for re-growing severed limbs, for reinvigorating diseased bodily systems? To a great degree, the debate over embryonic stem-cell research is part of the debate over abortion, for the only way to research the possibilities of using them is by harvesting days-old embryos. Still, much of the opposition has roots in a suspicious outlook in general to the development of therapies that tamper with the status quo of the natural world. Judaism takes a different approach. For in the Torah, God’s essential role is that of Creator of the laws of nature that govern the universe. And so when human beings endeavor to utilize those same laws of nature in a creative fashion, we see it as an articulation of a human being who was created in God’s image. Rather than being in opposition to nature, we have tended to see the human impulse to creativity and innovation as a way of extending nature, sometimes even completing nature; not in competition with God, or in opposition to God, but rather, in partnership with God in working to make the world a bit more favorable to all of life. Some 400 years ago, Rabbi Loew applied his knowledge and his wisdom to the act of creation, which gave birth to the legend of the Golem of Prague and, perhaps as a result, saved the lives of many men, women and children. Was there some element of danger or uncertainty in his work? To be sure. And would his creation have succeeded if just anyone had tried it? Certainly not. But we have learned that when human life is at stake, we have the obligation to be creative — working in partnership with God, to make our world ever new for a brighter future, for the future generations yet unborn. Rabbi Meyer is the spiritual leader of Temple Emanu-El in Marblehead. People in the News
Arts & EntertainmentOy Vey, What a Year in Movies! Michael
Fox It began with Judas and ended with Shylock. All in all, 2004 was not exactly a warm and fuzzy year for Jews at the movies. The good news? The most talked about documentary of the year did not feature a dysfunctional Jewish family of accused pedophiles, like 2003’s Capturing the Friedmans. Mel Gibson set the tone in February with The Passion of the Christ, a brutal slog through the New Testament that denigrated Jews at every turn. Judas, the ostensible villain of the story, was a milquetoast in Gibson’s adaptation compared to the Jewish elders. By the end, Mel turned the “King of the Jews” into a tortured rag doll. Michael Radford’s splendid adaptation of William Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice, which opens around the country in mid-January, establishes a climate of Venetian anti-Semitism from the outset, complete with a Jewish ghetto that provides a powerful context for Shylock’s mad desire for vengeance.
Such a sympathetic historical view notwithstanding, it’s still tough
to make a case for Shylock as a Jewish role model. Disney honcho Michael Eisner thumb-wrestled with Miramax founder Harvey Weinstein over the future of their related companies, while a suit brought by Disney shareholders exposed Eisner and his extravagantly compensated former employee Mike Ovitz to further scrutiny and embarrassment. Woody Allen took some jabs at these modern-day Sam Cohns in the New Yorker, but the venerated filmmaker was absent from American screens for the first time in more than a decade. As a result of the vagaries of distribution, Allen’s latest, Melinda and Melinda, won’t reach theaters until March. (Since the prolific auteur is currently prepping his next movie, we may get a double dose in 2005.) Clearly desperate for a nerdy, wisecracking Jewish hero, audiences embraced a younger and less manic version in the person of Zach Braff. The star of TV’s “Scrubs” made his feature writing and directing debut with the droll Garden State, a modest film that (with Braff playing the lead) was a hit with the date crowd. Braff’s breakthough somewhat offset the agony of watching the once-promising Ben Stiller methodically shred his career. Or have you already forgotten Along Came Polly, Starsky & Hutch, Envy, Dodgeball and Anchorman? Stiller hopes to erase any lingering memories with Meet the Fockers. The comedy also features Dustin Hoffman and (deep breath) Barbra Streisand, in her first screen role since The Mirror Has Two Faces in 1996. One imagines that a sublimely witty script lured La Streisand off her deck — or was it a Brando-sized paycheck? Although none of the year’s Jewish-themed foreign films matched the box-office success of 2003’s Nowhere in Africa, the deeply satisfying Hungarian romantic drama Gloomy Sunday enjoyed a belated long run. Unfortunately, the wonderfully crafted Valentin (Argentina), Facing Windows (Italy) and Rosenstrasse (Germany) failed to find audiences, but are all well worth catching on DVD. American audiences were treated to an unprecedented bounty of Israeli movies, ranging from the piercing yet accessible social satire of James’ Journey to Jerusalem to the quirky family dynamics of Broken Wings and Bonjour Monsieur Shlomi. Alas, none made a dent at the box office, and moviegoers had to hustle to see them before they vanished from theaters. Another trio of Israeli dramas heads our way in 2005, with Eran Riklis’ The Syrian Bride and Eytan Fox’s Walking on Water. It was a relatively quiet year for Jewish-themed documentaries, with the usual contingent of films from the Mideast overshadowed by the election-year parade of American political docs. Though Checkpoint, Gaza Strip and Ford Transit were provocative films about “the situation” that did manage to draw some attention. Keep an eye out next year for The Ritchie Boys, which made the short list for the documentary Oscar and has an excellent shot at scoring one of the five nominations. The German-Canadian film spotlights a group of Jewish refugees who received U.S. training in intelligence and propaganda during World War II, then returned to Germany to wage psychological warfare against the Nazis. New Godard Film Explores the Darkness of War Susan
Jacobs Jean-Luc Godard’s films are perhaps best understood by college students in cafes who, over black coffee and cigarettes, earnestly dissect and discuss the philosophical points raised by the eclectic 74-year-old French director. Godard’s latest film, Notre Musique, explores the darkness of war using image montages, existential dialogue and sparse piano. The 80-minute film is divided into three parts — Hell, Purgatory and Paradise. The non-linear work weaves documentary footage of the atomic bomb, the holocaust and the Bosnian war with scenes from Hollywood movies like Apocalypse Now. A loose story line follows a journalist from Tel Aviv (played by Sarah Adler) and a Russian Jew (played by Nade Dieu) who come to war-torn Sarajevo to attend a literary conference. The actors mingle with real-life literary figures including Spanish novelist Juan Goytisolo and Arab poet Mahmoud Darwish. The serious and poetic work is heavy on symbolism. A condemnation of brutality, the film draws upon the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, the legacy of the Nazis, and the treatment of Native Americans. Notre Musique is co-presented by the Boston Jewish Film Festival and the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. It will be shown at the MFA through Jan. 16. At each screening, different guests will introduce the film and lead a discussion afterwards (see list below). Tickets are $9/general admission; $8/BJFF or MFA members, seniors and students. For advance tickets, phone 617-369-3306 or visit www.mfa.org/film. Philip Roth’s ‘Plot’: An Elegant Adventure Lee
Rosenthal The Plot Against America, by Philip Roth, Houghton Mifflin, 391 pages. $26. Imagine that Charles Lindberg, the young stunt flier and airmail pilot who became world famous as the first person to fly across the Atlantic solo defeated Franklin Roosevelt for the Presidency in 1940. Philip Roth asks that of us in his The Plot Aganst America — in this “history” of our country in the years 1941-42 as told through the eyes of the seven-to-nine-year-old Philip Roth. Roth has used himself as a character in several of his other works, Operation Shylock for one, and in The Plot uses his whole family: father, mother, older brother. He sets his story in Weequahic, a mostly Jewish enclave of Newark, New Jersey, where he grew up, and provides us with all the colors and tastes of the Jewish American community at that time. Roth writes, “The men worked 50, 60, even 70 or more hours a week; the women worked all the time, with little assistance from labor-saving devices....Hardly anyone in the vicinity spoke with an accent....By 1940 Jewish parents and their children...talked to one another in an American English that sounded more like the language spoken in Altoona or Binghamton than like the dialects famously spoken across the Hudson by our Jewish counterparts....” President Lindberg is an isolationist in a time when Europe was torn by war, Hitler’s war, and at a time when the U.S. population tended to be isolationist also. It is mainly on this basis that he was able to win the election and on his oratorical style of simple declarative sentences, despite the fact that he was a known Nazi sympathizer. Those of us who remember that time know this to be true of the real Lindbergh. He institutes programs such as “Just Folks” and “Homestead 42,” which seek to relocate urban Jews to the South and Midwest and to transport Jewish children from urban areas during the summer and place them with non-Jewish families in rural areas. The author gives us more than a delineation of the slippery slope to fascism. We witness the all-American Roth family (upright, strong father; loving mother who is a PTA president; boys who collect stamps and love sports), Americans who happen to be Jews trapped in the president’s scheme to transform them into just Jews. We witness this degradation as Philip’s father, Herman, an insurance salesman, is given the choice of resettling in a southern state or losing his job. He opts to quit and work lugging crates of produce in his brother’s business. Their neighbor, Mrs. Wishnow, a single mother who also works as an insurance agent in Herman Roth’s company, submits to relocation to Danville, Kentucky. She is soon murdered by anti-Semitic vigilantes. In a trip to Washington, D.C., which Herman hoped would remind his sons of America’s lofty vision of a democratic America, the family encounters anti-Semitic taunts by fellow tourists and are turned out of their hotel on a pretext. Resistance to the laws aimed at dispersing the Jews in America comes most strongly from Walter Winchell, whom many will remember as a columnist for Heart’s New York Daily Mirror who became hugely popular, mostly in the Jewish community, as a radio gossip newscaster. Winchell becomes a candidate for the Democratic nomination in 1944, but his political ambitions are cut short when he is assassinated. The day after Winchell’s funeral, our boy Lindy, the Lone Eagle, flies the famous Spirit of St Louis into Louisville, Kentucky, to speak to the throngs who have gathered to see him. “Our country is at peace,” he says. “Our people are at work. Our children are at school. I flew down here to remind you of that. Now I’m going back to Washington so as to keep things that way.” He takes off in his famous plane and is never heard from again. Franklin Roosevelt is voted in for a third tern in an overwhelming vote. The attack of Pearl Harbor by the Japanese and the declaration of war on the United States by Germany and Italy brings the country into the world conflict. So ends Roth’s two-year history. The rather convoluted plot twists that Roth employs to fit his history into actual events may appear to some as too fantastic, but the book is an extremely fast-moving, exciting, and elegantly written adventure.
Editorial2004: Good Riddance; 2005: Some Hopeful Signs Tsunami. It’s a word most people had never heard until December 26, when a wall of water, propelled by a massive earthquake and traveling with the speed of a jet plane, created havoc in 10 countries from Southeast Asia to the east coast of Africa. The death toll was estimated at more than 60,000, and officials fear that as many people, perhaps half of them children, may yet die from communicable diseases as were killed by the floodwaters. It could become the biggest, and costliest, natural disaster of all time. World governments, including those of the United States, Israel and the United Nations, scrambled to provide relief to the stricken thousands. Whole towns were wiped out. The earth itself was shaken by the catastrophe. Most of those people who sought meaning in the disaster came up empty-handed. Why did God make it happen? Or did He just allow it? Is it retribution? If so, for what? For more of us, there are no answers. The island of Sumatra, in Indonesia, was at the epicenter. There alone 40,000 people may have died, according to government authorities. In the hardest hit of the countries — Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India, and Thailand — Agence France Press said, “The stench of death and mass burials combined with traumatic grief and looting create an apocalyptic vision for overwhelmed relief workers.” The earthquake and tidal waves made a fitting close to a year marked by disappointment: 2004 saw the U.S. bogged down in Iraq, with more than 1,000 U.S. servicemen dead, and victory no closer than when we invaded in March 2003. It was a year that saw the Jewish slogan ‘Never Again’ mocked by conditions in the Darfur region of the Sudan, where genocide, disease and famine claimed 70,000 lives and left 1.8 million homeless while the world went about its business; that saw anti-Semitism continue to rise in Europe; that saw the image of the United States continue to decline abroad. The year 2005 begins on a more hopeful note: The U.S. economy, despite the falling dollar, continues to improve. In the Ukraine, outraged citizens forced a runoff that overturned the results of a fraudulent election. And the United Nations General Assembly — wonder of wonders — for the first time actually condemned anti-Semitism. The Palestinian election on January 9 is likely to be the most democratic election ever held in the Arab world. With Yasser Arafat gone — one of the few positive developments in 2004 — the new prime minister will probably be the moderate-talking Mahmoud Abbas, who heads the interim government. Though a one-time Arafat protégé, Abbas has called for an end to violence. He talks as if he is willing to partner with Israel to construct a peaceful Palestinian state alongside a secure Israel. Here’s
to a better 2005, for the world, for the United States and Israel, for
you and your loved ones, from all of us at the Jewish Journal. — Mark R. Arnold
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DOV
BURT LEVY Dov Burt Levy is a Salem, MA based columnist. He can be reached at dblevy@columnist. com.. |
Another witch-hunt occurred in America this Christmas: people looking for specific enemies of Christmas in schools, towns and even the White House. It isn’t pretty and guess what? We Jews are involved.
Here is the situation: The exact nature of American church-state has evolved since 1789 into laws and practice with which most citizens can happily live. In the meantime, organized religion has flourished and respectful debates and court challenges go on. The trend has been to move religious music, prayer and symbols out of the public schools and government facilities to home and church.
I learned all the Christmas carols with my class of 28 Jewish and 2 Christian kids at elementary school in Revere. Thankfully, Jewish kids today don’t have to participate and Christian children receive religious instruction at home or at church.
This year, perhaps from election fallout, religious vigilantes are looking for those responsible for taking “Christ out of Christmas,” for those whom they call derisively too “politically correct” You know it’s bad when President Bush was castigated for saying “Happy Holidays” and not “Merry Christmas” at a White House party for youngsters.
In case you missed it, Bill O’Reilly (“The O’Reilly Factor”), top draw on the Fox News Network, decided to get some Christmas-time notoriety by taking on Jews. On December 3, a caller, presumably Jewish, told O’Reilly that he “grew up with a resentment because I felt that people were trying to convert me to Christianity” because of all the state-endorsement of Christmas in public schools:
O’REILLY: I mean you really believe that people were trying to convert — you personally — were trying to make you change from being Jewish to Christian?
CALLER: Absolutely. [...]
CALLER: The thing is, is when you have — for example, Christmas carols or gift exchanges being done in school, that kind of sets the kids up to being converted. [...]
O’REILLY: All right. Well, what I’m tellin’ you, [caller], is I think you’re takin’ it too seriously. You have a predominantly Christian nation. You have a federal holiday based on the philosopher Jesus. And you don’t wanna hear about it? Come on, [caller] — if you are really offended, you gotta go to Israel then. I mean because we live in a country founded on Judeo — and that’s your guys’ — Christian, that’s my guys’ philosophy. But overwhelmingly, America is Christian. And the holiday is a federal holiday honoring the philosopher Jesus. So, you don’t wanna hear about it? Impossible.
And
that is an affront to the majority. You know, the majority can be insulted,
too. And that’s what this anti-Christmas thing is all about.
O’Reilly is full of errors and misrepresentations (For one, Jesus
is a religious figure, not a philosophy professor). But for O’Reilly
to tell a Jew or anybody else to leave the country because they disagree
with some law or policy or, more likely just disagree with him, is a call
to battle. For O’Reilly, it’s about publicity and market share.
For Jews, it’s about self-respect and not being pushed around. We
take that seriously.
ADL’s Abe Foxman wrote O’Reilly, saying Jewish “discomfort
with the intrusion of Christian teachings in public schools is a very
legitimate concern.” Further, that O’Reilly “plays into
one of the oldest anti-Semitic canards about Jews, that they are not full
citizens of a country and not entitled to all of the rights afforded to
the majority.”
O’Reilly replied to Foxman’s polite letter by calling ADL an “extremist group that finds offense in pretty much everything” and Foxman, a “nut.”
If I could fire O’Reilly, I would. And those who can, should.
Discovering the Gift, and the Lessons, of Friendship
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ELLEN GOLUB Ellen Golub teaches journalism at Salem State College.She can be reached at elkele@attbi.com |
A few years ago, my friend Sue asked me if I would give her a ride home from work because her car was in the shop. “Sure,” I said. But when she called to tell me she was already home, I asked her how she’d gotten there without a car.
“Oh,” she said matter of factly, “I ran home.” It took me a while to process that she had run eight or so miles from the hospital where she worked as a nurse anesthetist to her home, four towns away.
Even before I met her, I knew Sue to be one of those people that do it all. The black diamond ski slopes, the 500-mile bike trips for charity, the volunteer work, the full-time job. All I could see was the impeccable taste, the lovely clothes, the beautiful house, the fancy dinner parties, the well-behaved children. Insult added to injury, I knew Sue couldn’t be more than a size 1 or 2. “Too perfect to be true,” I consoled myself. She was easy to hate.
Until
the week that my son Alex had pneumonia and Sue stopped by every day to
loosen the phlegm in his chest. It didn’t seem to bother her that
my house was not so perfect, my children not as well behaved, and my tastes
not completely refined. She was just one of those good people you read
about but are sure don’t really exist: classy, intelligent, stylish,
but humble, non-judgmental, and deeply caring.
How many times had I been taught, “Don’t judge a book by its
cover.” That was the first lesson Sue’s friendship taught me.
Ten years ago, when I got breast cancer, Sue walked me through it. As my anesthetist, she put me to sleep and stayed with me through the surgery. When I awakened to bad news, Sue signed me out of the hospital. She took me home and walked me through one of the greater nightmares of my life. She changed my dressings, calmed my family, and shopped with me for a wig. She became a surrogate parent to my frightened children.
“Look,” Sue said, “It’ll be tough, but it’s very doable. Just remember, there will be a few bumps in the road. When you get to them they may appear insurmountable, but you must remember that these are only small bumps and you can do it.” This was the second lesson of our friendship.
Last year, after years of pain and disintegrating discs, Sue had spinal fusion. During this long recuperation, I found my big opportunity to pay her back for all the kindnesses she has done for me over the years. So I committed to going out with her for short walks.
Almost every day, we set out — with her dog, Dusty — on the bike path that runs through our town. Within weeks, the walks lengthened. Soon, we were walking and talking for hours, for miles. I would never have found the time to do this for myself, but I wanted to do it for Sue. I was out of shape, stressed, and lived outside of nature. Here comes the third lesson: S’char mitzvah mitzvah — the reward of a good deed is a good deed.
It is hard to say who got more out of these walks —Sue, Dusty, me, or our friendship. Pounds dropped off my hips. I experienced improved mood and health. I gave myself the gift of walking to the beach or the pond, smelling the flowers, and seeing the (real and figurative) light.
I don’t actually feel the scalpel because it is not cutting through my skin — today. But as my friend has her back re-fused in an operating room eight miles away, I definitely feel the queasiness that can accompany surgery. I pace through the familiar hours of my day, but am distracted, waiting, on edge. When the phone call finally comes that Sue is out of surgery and that the doctor thought it went well, I feel a weight lifted off my heart.
Sue and I have celebrated myriad simchas over the years. Our families have shared bar mitzvahs and proms, seders and shabbatot, graduations and birthdays. But I think it may be over the bumps in the road and around the curves that life throws you that we have built our most profound friendship. Another lesson learned. Though I’d wish away the pain, I know it is deeply intertwined with the blessings of the love, trust and wisdom we have grown to share.
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STACEY MARCUS Stacey Marcus runs Grapevine Communications and is also a freelance writer who resides in Marblehead. She invites readers to contact her at grapecom@aol.com.
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Tick.
Tock. Time is running out to be the person you want to be. Remember your
child’s last birthday when you noticed the years were flying by like
butterflies that are so splendid to behold but ever so elusive? Didn’t
you make a commitment to perform more mitzvot and donate to tzedakah back
on Yom Kippur? Wasn’t it just on Thanksgiving that you promised to
be more thankful for all the bounty in your life?
So now it’s the New Year and another opportunity presents itself
for to become a better you.
We’re funny folks, us humans, always tinkering with our lives to make them picture perfect. The real irony is that it’s the imperfections we really need to celebrate. New Year’s Eve symbolizes all that is wacky with the systems we have created to delineate our progress in living meaningful lives.
By mid-December, people start making lists of resolutions. If I could make an educated guess, the most popular resolution is to lose weight. In order to jumpstart the process we consume all the junk food in the house and fall into a food coma to prepare for the low-carb diet/high-intensity exercise program that commences on January 1. After paying a hefty fee to join a gym or weight-loss program, we resume our old habits of binging, loafing and self-loathing in approximately 30 days.
The pre-New Year’s binge usually makes it impossible to squeeze into a little black dress for New Year’s Eve, when we can overpay for a pretentious evening of overeating and drinking and spending too little time with the people we really love. But that’s okay because on January 1 the slate is wiped clean and we can become better people.
If I were an alien visiting the planet, I would be very confused.
In my humble opinion, New Year’s Eve is one of the silliest, most superficial and overrated events invented by man and marketers. It’s not that I’m not into the fiesta and fireworks, I just have a real problem with the notion that reinventing yourself every 365 days makes any difference in the life you lead every day.
Most
of us lead glorious lives that should be celebrated, rather than tinkered
with each year. Perhaps what needs to be visited on January 1 is everything
that is present in our life instead of that which is missing. If we took
15 minutes each day to cherish the things that really matter, we would
really have something to toast to on New Year’s Eve.
‘Setting the Record Straight’ on Kosher Slaughter
Editor’s Note: On December 1, the Associated Press carried a story highly critical of practices at the nation’s largest kosher slaughterhouse, the giant AgriProcessors, Inc. plant in Postville, Iowa. The account was based on video footage filmed inside the plant by People for Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), an animal-rights group. We have covered the controversy in our last two issues and received a number of letters from readers about the situation, all of it highly critical of the plant and the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations (OU), which supervises and certifies kashrut practices in the United States. In this article, the OU’s chief authority on kashrut defends practices used at AgriProcessors.
Rabbi Menachem Genack
Rabbi
Menachem Genack is Rabbinic Administrator, Kosher Division, Orthodox Union.
Many people expressed concern about the standards for humane treatment
of animals at a kosher slaughterhouse after viewing a well-publicized
video of kosher slaughter at the AgriProcessors plant in Iowa, which was
released by the animal rights organization PETA.
Any slaughterhouse, whether kosher or non-kosher, is by definition a disconcerting,
blood-filled and gruesome place. Torah law, however, is most insistent
about not inflicting needless pain on animals and in emphasizing humane
treatment of all living creatures.
Kosher slaughter, shechita, involves cutting the trachea and esophagus with a sharp, flawless knife. At the same time, the carotid arteries, which are the primary supplier of blood to the brain, are severed. The profound loss of blood and the massive drop in blood pressure render the animal insensate almost immediately. Studies done by Dr. H. H. Dukes at the Cornell University School of Veterinary Medicine indicate that the animal is unconscious within seconds of the incision.
After the shechita at AgriProcessors, an additional cut is made in the carotid arteries to further accelerate the bleeding. This is not done for kashrut reasons, for after the trachea and esophagus have been severed the shechita is complete, but rather for commercial reasons, to avoid blood splash, which turns the meat a darker color. The carotid arteries are attached to the trachea and at AgriProcessors the trachea was excised to facilitate the bleeding.
In the overwhelming number of cases the animal is insensate at that time. How-ever and inevitably, particularly when it is considered that 18,000 cattle were slaughtered during the seven-week period when the video was shot, there was a tiny percentage of animals whose carotid arteries were not completely severed so they were not completely unconscious. Although this is very infrequent, the removal of the trachea immediately after the shechita has now been discontinued. It should be kept in mind that in a non-kosher plant, when the animal is killed by a shot with a captive bolt to the brain, it often has to be re-shot, sometimes up to six times, before the animal collapses. The USDA permits up to a five percent initial failure rate.
At AgriProcessors and at other plants it supervises, the Orthodox Union is committed to maintaining the highest ritual standards of shechita without compromising the halacha (Jewish law) one bit. The OU continues to vouch for the kashrut, which was never compromised, of all the meat prepared by AgriProcessors.
AgriProcessors has hired an animal welfare and handling specialist to evaluate the plant processes. The specialist was recommended by both Dr. Temple Grandin, a foremost expert in animal welfare, and also by the National Meat Association. In reviewing the shechita process, the specialist made the following observations:
•
The shechita process was performed swiftly and correctly;
• The shechita cut resulted in a rapid bleed; and
• All animals that exited the box were clearly unconscious.
At the OU we constantly review our procedures, evaluate them, and if necessary, improve or correct them. We don’t want ever to be wedded to a mistaken procedure. AgriProcessors has been completely cooperative in working with the OU and shares our philosophy.
As Torah Jews, we are imbued with the teachings which require animals to be rested along with people on the Sabbath and fed before the people who own them, and that the mother bird must be sent away before her young are taken to save her grief. These and similar statutes make it clear that inhumane treatment of animals is not the Jewish way.
Kosher slaughter, by principle, and as performed today in the United States, is humane. Indeed, as PETA itself has acknowledged, shechita is more humane than the common non-kosher form of shooting the animal in the head with a captive bolt, for reasons noted above. The Humane Slaughter Act, passed into law after objective research by the U.S. government, declares shechita to be humane. For Torah observant Jews, it cannot be any other way.
The Privatization of Everything
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LEONARD FEIN Leonard Fein is a veteran political observer and editor. He writes from Boston |
Let’s start with the president’s Christmas message: In his radio address on Christmas day, Mr. Bush observed, correctly, that “Many of our fellow Americans still suffer from the effects of illness or poverty,” and then went on to say that “Christmastime reminds each of us that we have a duty to our fellow citizens.”
I
like that; I believe that. But coming, as they did, from a president who
steadfastly denies that the duty to which he refers is most nobly and
most effectively fulfilled collectively, through the instrument of government,
I find his words discouraging. A president’s first responsibility
is to see to it that the government is fulfilling its duties; only then
has he earned the right to preach to us about our private duties.
Nor were Mr. Bush’s words chosen accidentally, for then he added,
“By volunteering our time and talents where they are needed most,
we help heal the sick, comfort those who suffer and bring hope to those
who despair, one heart and one soul at a time.”
Given its source, this recommendation for retail redemption is not bad public policy; it not public policy at all. One heart and one soul at a time? Three rousing cheers for voluntarism, but for voluntarism as a supplement to government, not for voluntarism as a substitute for government.
Once, years ago, Hubert Humphrey came