Local Stories
National Stories
International News
Features
Arts & Entertainment
Editorial
Local Columnists
Letters/Commentary

Local Stories

Wilson Optimistic on Gibson’s ‘Passion’

GARY BAND
Jewish Journal Staff

Amidst the near hysteria of criticism and speculation on the alleged anti-Semitic content of Mel Gibson’s The Passion of The Christ — due out in theaters nationwide Feb. 25 — Dr. Marvin Wilson of Gordon College in Wenham has a different take. Though he has not seen an advance of the controversial production, he dismisses assertions that the film will increase anti-Semitism and reawaken the Christ-killer charge during this time of heightened anti-Jewish activity around the world.

“I think people can reflect on a film like this without hitting the wall,” Wilson said in a telephone interview from his office at Gordon. Though he allows that the film may be “polarizing,” in some parts of the country, on the North Shore “we can see the film and do some serious interacting, getting beyond anti-Semitism to more important things that Christian-Jewish relations ought to be about,” he said. Wilson, who has long been a leader of interfaith relations and is the author of Our Father Abraham: Jewish Roots of the Christian Faith, disagrees that the film may resurrect the Christ killer charge and increase anti-Semitism. “If some Christians or non-Jews want an excuse to be anti-Semitic, they don’t have to go to Mel Gibson’s film,” he said.

Rabbi Howard Kosovske, chair of the North Shore Rabbinical Association, said “I only know what I’ve read in the newspapers, but it seems the movie has the potential to divide Jews and Christians, and that is a cause for concern.”

A depiction of the last 12 hours of Jesus Christ’s life, the $25 million production — in Latin and Aramaic with English subtitles — is financed entirely by the actor, whose screen credits include the Lethal Weapon series, Braveheart and Signs, to name just a few.

Gibson is also a Catholic Traditionalist, an offshoot of Catholicism that rejects the reforms of Vatican II in 1965, which, among other things, repudiated the charge of deicide against the Jews. It is, according to Wilson, a “small and strict Catholic group that doesn’t necessarily take their cues from mainstream Catholicism.”

The Anti-Defamation League, led by Abe Foxman — who snuck in and saw the film being screened for evangelical Protestants in Orlando, Fla., by registering as a representative of “The Church of Truth” — says the movie blames Jews for the death of Jesus by repeatedly showing the Jewish high priest calling for Jesus’ death, supported by large crowds of Jews.

In a statement, Foxman said, “At every single opportunity, Gibson’s film reinforces the notion that the Jewish authorities and the Jewish mob are the ones ultimately responsible for the crucifixion.”

A Boston Globe article by Michael Paulson reported that leadership of the Jewish Community Relations Council, the ADL and Combined Jewish Philanthropies, concerned with the reaction once the film is released, met recently with Archbishop Sean P. O’Malley. He has not seen the film either and declined to comment.

According to an article in the New York Times, Gibson agreed to remove from the film a line from the Gospel of Matthew in which a Jewish crowd says, “His blood be on us and our children.” Asked how he interprets the line, Wilson says it is just a “reaction from someone in the crowd, not inspired words of God.

“We have to distinguish between what the bible reports and what it teaches, he said. “That text is not teaching that Jews will continue to suffer.”

Ultimately, Wilson calls Passion “one person’s interpretation of the gospel record,” and says that “what [Gibson] incudes is not what everyone believes. I don’t think he is not particularly concerned about the findings of higher critical scholarship.”

Back to top

Jewish Rehabilitation Center to Stay Kosher — for Now

MARK ARNOLD and GARY BAND
Jewish Journal Staff

Faced with near unanimous criticism from community leaders, the Jewish Rehabilitation Center (JRC) in Swampscott has decided to remain a kosher-only facility “for the time being.” In a statement February 6, the facility reaffirmed its policy of serving only food certified as kosher to its 160 long-term residents, about 120 of whom are Jewish.

The Board of Directors on January 22 had authorized JRC officers to reconsider the rule in light of the findings of a recent food service survey of residents and their families. The survey, which inquired about resident food preferences in a range of areas, found that most residents did not regard having kosher food as a priority. Many residents preferred the greater variety that non-kosher foods would permit, officials said.

In its last issue, January 30,the Journal carried a page one story about the review underway at the JRC Shortly thereafter, adverse reactions began to set in. Deborah M. Ponn, president of the Jewish Federation of the North Shore, read a statement at the Federation board meeting February 3, saying: “Having a kosher nursing home — a facility where all Jews will be comfortable — is essential to our community.” She added that the JRC was willing to meet with JRC leadership to help “keep the facility kosher.”

A letter from 13 members of the North Shore Rabbinical Association — forwarded before the JRC reaffirmed the kosher rule — questioned the need for a review and called on JRC leaders to maintain kashrut (See full text, page 12). Said the group, which represents all Orthodox, Conservative, and Reform clergy on the North Shore:

“We are not impressed by the survey that supposedly shows that many of the residents do not care if their kitchen is kosher. There is no inconsistency in requiring a communal institution like the JRC to be more stringent about kashrut than most of the Jews on the North Shore are in their own lives....By maintaining a high level of kashrut, the JRC demonstrates its inclusiveness and its respect for Jewish tradition.”

The JRC decision not to change the rule on kashrut came after the Massachusetts Senate, February 5, followed the House’s lead and voted to restore a $600,000 subsidy to offset the higher costs of food at the state’s eight kosher nursing homes. Under pressure to trim costs, Gov. George Romney had vetoed the subsidy passed by the legislature. With both houses voting overwhelmingly to override the veto —unanimously in the House, with only one dissenting voice in the Senate — the money will be restored shortly.

JRC officials estimate it costs $100,000 more to maintain kashrut at their facility, but their statement insisted that financial considerations were not a factor in their reasoning. Rather, they say it’s a matter of meeting the changing needs of their residents. Thus, while its announcement said the facility would maintain its “kosher kitchen for the time being,” it also said the JRC would implement a number of other improvements identified through the survey. No one returned repeated calls from the Journal to discuss what those changes might be.
The statement (see sidebar) said JRC goals include appealing “to a more mainstream segment of the community for our services,” adding: “If we are to fulfill our mission and be viable as a nonprofit organization, we can not cater to a minority set of preferences.” The announcement said enhancements would enable food services to meet “mainstream wishes” while maintaining kosher food preparation.

For a time, JRC leaders considered keeping kosher food for those that wanted it but offering non-kosher food to all other residents. Given the small size of its kitchen, however, it was found impractical to run separate kitchens. This option would probably have required bringing in food, whether fresh or frozen, for either the kosher or non-kosher residents.

The override votes were supported by Boston’s Jewish Community Relations Council, working with nursing home directors, including JRC CEO Stephen Roizen and leaders of Boston’s Jewish community. Efforts were coordinated on Beacon Hill by the JCRC. Said JCRC Executive Director Nancy Kaufman: “We worked very hard to ensure there would be a continuation of kosher food in nursing homes.” Senate Majority Leader Fred Berry took pleasure in the margin of his Senate victory, saying: “$600,000 is a small price to pay to allow senior citizens to practice their religion. I am just disappointed that Governor Romney does not feel the same way.”

Locally, the flap was summed up by Rabbi Edgar Weinsberg of Temple Beth El in Swampscott this way: “It’s good to know we are keeping the J in JRC.”

Back to top

As He Moves Toward the Nomination, Kerry Appeals to Jews, Arabs

RON KAMPEAS
Jewish Telegraphic Agency

WASHINGTON — Following decisive victories in Tennessee and Virginia, John Kerry has won 12 of the 14 primary contests and seems on his way to capturing the Democratic nomination.
A couple of weeks after eating lox and cream cheese at a synagogue in Des Moines, Kerry took on bitter Arab coffee and baklava among Muslims in Cedar Rapids.

Both appearances had a salutary effect on caucus night Jan. 19, when the majority of both Iowa's Jews and Arabs helped the Massachusetts senator come out the clear winner.

It's a pattern repeating itself nationwide.

Emerging as the front-runner in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination, Kerry appeals to competing constituencies otherwise at odds in the battle for the Democratic soul.

He is a friend to Jews and Arabs; a storied veteran of both the Vietnam War and of the movement that ended it; a fiscal conservative and an advocate of government spending for the disenfranchised; an opponent of President Bush's handling of the Iraq War; and a supporter of an assertive U.S. posture in the Persian Gulf.

Kerry's positions on the Israel-Palestinian conflict are a study in his facility for casting his speeches according to his audience, and filling them with knowledgeable terms and detailed anecdotes.

His Jewish stump speech — delivered with vigor and passion, with barely a pause — cites the Roosevelt administration's decision to turn away a ship of Jews fleeing Nazi-occupied Europe as a failure of U.S. policy he would never repeat.

He says he stood atop Masada and felt the echoes of Jewish resistance call to him. He shouts, extending each syllable with his broad Brahmin vowels: “Am Yisrael Chai!”

One on one, Kerry, 60, exudes athletic energy, even returning to play ice hockey since his treatment a year ago for prostate cancer. On the campaign trail, he often stoops over his interlocutors to look them straight in the eye. He never raises his voice.

Arab Americans thrill not just at his condemnation of Israel's security barrier — “We do not need another barrier to peace” — but at how he says he arrived at his conclusion.

Speaking at an Arab American Institute conference in Dearborn, Mich., in October, he described how in the West Bank he witnessed “Palestinian women, traveling on foot, forced to stand in long lines at checkpoints with their children tugging at their sleeves and their arms loaded with groceries.”

Newman Abuissa, who organized support for Kerry among American Arabs in Cedar Rapids and who is now a Kerry delegate from Iowa, says, “He dealt with the Arab issue on a personal level; he knows names and events.”

Across the state in Des Moines, another Kerry delegate, Paulee Lipsman, echoes the same sentiment from the Jewish perspective: “He has a good grasp of Jewish history, and understands the historical aspects of where we are today.”

People who have known Kerry a long time say that such diversity is natural to any Boston politician, who has to deal with large ethnic communities. That includes a Jewish community of 275,000, about 4.5 percent of the state's total population, and one that reflects the spectrum of U.S. Jewish opinion.

“He's been very accessible to the Jewish community,” says Nancy Kaufman, the director of the Jewish Community Relations Council in Boston.

“He's been willing to engage and be challenging, always willing to learn. He's been able to respond to the diversity of the community.”
Jim Shaer, Kerry's chief of staff for 16 years, says Kerry often queried him about his background as a Lebanese American, just as he would engage his many Jewish staffers.

“He saw us as resources; he saw that we each had something to contribute,” Shaer says of Kerry.

James Zogby of the Arab American Institute says Kerry's experience with Massachusetts' large Jewish and Lebanese American communities has shown him that Jewish and Arab needs are not mutually exclusive.

Zogby cites President Clinton's dedication to bringing peace, and the impression it left on both communities.

“What made President Clinton work was that he left office and both sides said he was the best American president Jews ever had, the best American president Arabs ever had,” Zogby says.

But Kerry's opponents say that a man who makes himself all things to all people adds up to nothing.

Characterizing Kerry as a flip-flopper is unfair, say Jewish community professionals who work with him. They say it's an unsophisticated way of understanding a man who carefully considers each position.

“He doesn't usually react or respond in a visceral way, he's very deliberative,” says Kaufman of the JCRC.

“His deliberativeness is taken for aloofness, but it really is him taking time to pause, think and balance pros and cons of giving voice to an issue. Once he has totally evaluated and considered an issue, he has no problems taking a position.”

Some of his critics make a connection between the allegation that “he does not know himself” and his failure to research his own Jewish roots until the Boston Globe uncovered his grandfather's Jewish birth a year ago.

“Kerry's confusion about his heritage mirrors a larger confusion about his essence,” Globe columnist Joan Vennochi, an especially vigorous Kerry critic, wrote at the time.

“Who is he? What does he believe in? Whether the issue is war with Iraq or support for affirmative action, his political core is hard to pin down, perhaps as difficult as his personal roots.”

A closer examination of the record shows that such criticism is unfair, according to a follow-up by Reform Judaism magazine last summer.
Kerry's grandfather, Frederick, had been at pains to hide his Judaism long before his arrival in the United States. He had changed his name from Kohn to Kerry. His business career in the United States rose and then fell; he shot himself to death in a Boston hotel in 1921.

The article suggested that without the considerable research resources of a newspaper like the Globe, Kerry had no way of uncovering his grandfather's origins — although he had tried over the years. He was apparently stunned when he found out a year ago.

Now he routinely mentions the fact when he campaigns among Jews. Lipsman, the recently elected Iowa delegate, recalls telling Kerry, when she first met him, that she favored Connecticut Sen. Joseph Lieberman because she wanted to see a Jewish president elected.
“I'm part Jewish, too,” he allegedly said. He also notes his younger brother Cameron's conversion to Judaism 20 years ago after marrying a Boston Jewish woman.

He counts among his backers American Jews prominent in the mainstream Jewish establishment, including his key Massachusetts fund-raiser, Alan Solomont, a leading Boston philanthropist who says he was drawn to Kerry because of his Middle East policies.
“He regards the U.S. relationship with Israel as special, in U.S. interests, as the only democracy in the region,” says Solomont.
“At the same time, he believes the United States has a very important role to play in trying to assist Israel in ending the conflict, and the current administration is a lot of talk, and not a lot of action.”

That means, Kerry has said, that he would emulate Clinton's intensely involved activism.

“In the first days of a Kerry administration, I will appoint a presidential ambassador to the peace process who will report directly to me and the secretary of state — and who will work day-to-day to move the process forward and make an early assessment of how to build on areas of agreement and disagreement,” Kerry said in a statement to JTA.

An official in a pro-Israel group described Kerry's record on Israel-related votes during his nearly 20 years in the Senate as “outstanding.”
But some pro-Israel activists who have met privately with Kerry worry that, like Clinton, his determined bent to forge peace — even absent a credible Palestinian partner — could lead to clashes with Israel's government, especially the current government led by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.

They say Kerry has privately expressed his distaste for Sharon, and point out that Solomont is a leading figure in the Israel Policy Forum, a group that promotes U.S. engagement in the region and has been sharply critical of the Sharon government.

Among the critics' concerns is that Kerry would consider as Middle East emissaries personalities unpalatable to the Jewish community, including former Secretary of State James Baker.
Those concerns have yet to receive much of a public airing, and Kerry has been spared the Jewish communal criticism suffered by former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean, his chief rival in the primaries.

Beyond foreign policy, Kerry's Jewish supporters note his staunch support for domestic issues supported by the majority of American Jews. He is pro-choice, he wants to extend health care coverage and he is a strong supporter of the separation of church and state.

Back to top

Funding Helps Seniors Stay at Home

MATT LEBOVIC
Special to The Jewish Journal

Like many seniors, 85-year-old Edith Sever wants to remain in her own home.

“I could not imagine leaving,” said Sever, a Holocaust survivor who has lived independently in her Chestnut Hill apartment for many years.

But when two recent spine surgeries left her unable to walk, Sever found herself in a difficult situation.

“I didn’t know what I would do,” Sever said. “I needed help to take care of myself and was afraid.”

For Sever, help came in the form of regular visits from nurses and physical therapists sent by Jewish Family & Children’s Service of Greater Boston (JF&CS). Twice a week, a physical therapist works with Sever in her home to help her learn to walk again. Sever also receives help from JF&CS’s Holocaust services program, Hakalah.

If the program is successful, then there are plans to bring it to the North Shore, says Jon Firger, chief executive of JFS of the North Shore.
With the recent approval of an appropriations bill by the US Congress and President Bush, more seniors like Sever will be able to remain in their own homes with increased access to essential services. For more than a year, the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Boston (JCRC) worked with members of the Massachusetts Congressional delegation to secure $700,000 in the federal budget for so-called “NORC” programs.

NORC, or “Naturally Occurring Retirement Community,” refers to any neighborhood, housing complex or building that was not designed as a senior residence, but has a significant population of seniors who are “aging in place.” Nearly 90 percent of America’s 35 million seniors say they want to live independently in the privacy of their own homes, according to AARP. But few of the more than 5,000 NORCs identified throughout the country provide ready access to the services that many seniors need to live safely and in good health at home.

“This new funding will allow JF&CS and Jewish Family Service of the North Shore (JFS) to provide a range of health and supportive services to residents,” said Nancy K. Kaufman, Executive Director of JCRC.

Ultimately, NORC programs like Beacon Hill Village are about maintaining seniors’ dignity and building community, said Willett. With the overwhelming majority of the country’s senior population saying they want to remain in the privacy of their own homes, social service agencies have their work cut out for them, said Firger.

The effort was spearheaded in the U.S. House of Representatives by Representative Barney Frank, and in the Senate by Senator Edward Kennedy, Kaufman said. Strong support also came from Senator John Kerry and Representatives Edward Markey and John Tierney, she said.

“JCRC deserves congratulations for its effort to show how we can care for elderly people in need in a way that is both cost-efficient and compassion-sufficient,” said Representative Frank. “I was glad to be able to help secure the necessary funding,” he said.

According to Senator Kennedy, NORC programs provide important support to seniors who wish to remain in their homes.

“The aging-in-place initiative strengthens an especially valuable resource of every community - its senior citizens,” Kennedy said. “It’s essential to do all we can to guarantee that elderly Americans have a place to live in the community they helped to build. The Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Boston deserves great credit for its leadership.”

Through the new funding, JF&CS and JFS will organize supportive service programs for NORC residents ranging from care assistance and case management to recreational programs.

“This is a terrific approach for seniors in the community because it brings services to where they live,” said Dr. Seymour Friedland, Executive Director of JF&CS. “All of us desire for our parents to age gracefully. The NORC model makes this happen.”

Experimental NORC programs in New York City and elsewhere have been shown to maximize existing services and improve the quality of life in these communities. In a time of gaps in the public safety net and unprecedented cuts in public services, NORC programs provide flexible delivery of needs-based services in a cost-efficient manner.

As JF&CS and JFS begin to implement NORC programs, coordination between seniors, social service organizations and government agencies will grow, said Alan D. Solomont, board chair of CJP and former owner of many area nursing homes and Assisted Living facilities.
“This is a great opportunity for our agencies to expand services to seniors and to reach more seniors in their homes,” Solomont said. “We see NORC programs as a new and exciting model of elder care, where seniors can age in place, maintain their independence and still receive necessary support,” he said.

A Boston organization already providing NORC-type programs is Beacon Hill Village (BHV), a “virtual retirement community” serving seniors in Beacon Hill, Back Bay and Charles River Park. BHV services range from grocery deliveries to coordinating short-term nursing care for members, said Judy Willett, their executive director.

“The kind of lifestyles seniors want to lead are a lot different than in the past, and we need to think about that as we create these services,” said Firger. “We have a whole new generation of seniors.”

Back to top

Journal Announces Staff Changes

STAFF REPORT

In a cost-saving move, the Jewish Journal has eliminated the position of associate publisher, held for the past 18 months by Barbara Spaulding of South Hamilton. Spaulding, an 11-year veteran of the Journal, left the paper on January 30 after serving successively as sales represenative, sales manager, and, since July 2002, associate publisher.

Editor-Publisher Mark Arnold also announced two other staff changes: Suzanne Provencher of Nahant, who joined the staff as sales rep in September, was appointed advertising sales manager, effective February 1. She will take over Ms. Spaulding’s sales responsibilities. Lauren Gaudet of West Peabody will become business manager April 1. She will succeed bookkeeper/office manager Lorraine Swenson, who is retiring in April, and will also assume some of the business functions formerly held by Spaulding.

Provencher, who has more than 20 years of experience in publishing, advertising and sales, is a native of Salem. A graduate of Emerson College in Boston, she has held advertising sales management positions at several newspapers, magazine, and trade journals. She was a partner and vice president/ advertising director of the former Salem Pioneer, a biweekly in Salem in the late 90s. Before coming to the Journal, she was major accounts manager at Boston Metro, a free newspaper for commuters.

Gaudet, who holds a certificate in computer management from Merrimac College, has a background in bookkeeping and accounting. She served for almost three years as operations manager and financial director of the North Suburban Jewish Community Center in Peabody.

Arnold paid tribute to Spaulding’s dedication and hard work, saying: “She was a great partner these past 18 months, but economic realities no longer allowed us to continue the position.” He said the changes should increase efficiency and spur both sales revenue and financial management.

Back to top

Disagree with Dignity, Says ADL Speaker

MARK ARNOLD
Jewish Journal Staff

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) presented a series of lectures in Boston last year called Sources of Justice. They were an attempt to relate the social agenda of the group to the core values and ethics of the Jewish religion.

On February 11, the North Shore chapter of ADL hosted a discussion here, led by Samuel Chiel, Rabbi Emeritus of Temple Emanuel in Newton and a board member of the Massachusetts ADL. The event, at the home of James and Susan Rudolph in Swampscott, drew 30 people. Rabbi Chiel, who led the Newton Conservative congregation for 27 years until his retirement in 1995, said Jews, like everybody else, need to learn to “disagree with dignity.”

They must be respectful of the views of those who disagree, rather than take the attitude, “I’m all right and you’re all wrong,” he argued. He cited the example of London’s chief rabbi, Jonathan Sachs, author of The Dignity of Difference, who was forced by dissenting rabbis to issue a second edition of his book that watered down some of his points. For example, the first edition said that in the course of history, “God has spoken to mankind in many languages: through Judaism to Jews, Christianity to Christians, Islam to Muslims.”

The revised version omits any suggestion that God might speak to other religions the way he does to Jews, Chiel said.

As examples of differing with civility, Chiel cited the historic dialogue between Beth Shammai and Beth Hillel. This dialogue is studied by all rabbinical students and it demonstrates, he said, that the result was always either a compromise that both could live with or an affirmation of one point of view, which the other would then support. In the United States, he said, Jews practice tolerance. In many other countries, he said, extremism and intolerance rule.

Asked about the Massachusetts Judicial Court’s decision that gays should enjoy the same rights as married couples, he said, “It’s too bad the court didn’t provide a way” for the public to weigh in on the question. Public discussion and debate make for a healthier democracy, he said.

Debra Finkel, ADL North Shore coordinator, said the group may continue the series on the North Shore.

Back to top

Will Gibson’s Film Poison Christian-Jewish Ties?

JOE BERKOFSKY
Jewish Telegraphic Agency

NEW YORK — Jesus will appear on the Christian holy day of Ash Wednesday — thanks to Mel Gibson.
The Hollywood star directed and financed the $25 million epic The Passion of The Christ, which is emerging from a nearly yearlong media storm and is due to hit 2,000 screens nationwide Feb. 25.

That Gibson’s The Passion will premier is certain. The big question is how a reportedly gory film about the last 12 hours in Jesus’s life, in Aramaic and Latin with subtitles, will play at the local multiplex.

Many Jewish organizational leaders also are waiting to see if a movie they say scapegoats the Jews for the crucifixion will produce legions of Jew-hating moviegoers and poison Christian-Jewish relations for years to come.

“It makes the Romans look like lambs who are being forced” to punish Jesus, “and it shows the Jews as bloodthirsty and vengeful and unending in their desire to see him crucified,” Abraham Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League, said after emerging from a preview last week.

The movie debuts at a sensitive period in Catholic-Jewish relations. It also reflects a larger struggle within the Catholic Church over whether to continue promoting 40-year-old reforms that include renouncing the notion of collective Jewish guilt for Jesus’ crucifixion, an issue Gibson apparently brings to the silver screen.

“Tied loosely to the film, there is enormous concern on both sides” of the Catholic-Jewish divide “about which direction the church will be going in the post-John Paul II era,” said Rabbi Eugene Korn, a Seton Hall adjunct professor and longtime interfaith advocate. “There is contradictory data out there.”

Last week, some signs of hope about those ties surfaced in New York, where the World Jewish Congress hosted a two-day gathering that brought together 12 cardinals and six chief rabbis from nations as diverse as Angola and Ukraine with a group of Catholic and Jewish scholars.

The meeting was noteworthy not only for the unusual presence of leading papal contenders, but for the presence of top Orthodox Jewish figures as well.

WJC Chairman Israel Singer said that the conference helped “institutionalize” contacts that have warmed ever since the Vatican’s 1965 reforms, known as Nostra Aetate, dropped the teaching that charged Jews with collective responsibility for killing Jesus.

The movie shows the Jews as a “mob spitting, scratching, yelling, pummeling” at Jesus, “their faces contorted,” Elcott said. “ This movie is an assault on our commitment to interreligious dialogue and respect.”

After Foxman called the movie “painful,” he received a letter from Gibson urging a detente, though Foxman said Gibson never addressed his complaints or his request to add a post-script telling audiences not to interpret the movie as an indictment of the Jews.

This week, a Gibson aide said the actor-director decided, based on focus-group reactions, to cut a potentially incendiary line from the film in which the Jewish high priest Caiaphas says of Jesus’ death, “His blood be on us and on our children.” That line from the New Testament was used in passion plays throughout the centuries, and often triggered anti-Jewish violence.

“I do not take your concerns lightly,” Gibson wrote to Foxman, insisting that his purpose is to love and respect others “despite our differences.”

Foxman called the letter “kind,” but said it didn’t address the serious issues the ADL had raised about the film.

Meanwhile, even as the bishops met with rabbis in New York, and the pope met with two top Israeli rabbis last week, another dispute erupted over whether the pope himself endorsed the movie.

A Wall Street Journal columnist was the first to report that an Icon producer succeeded in getting a copy of the movie to the pontiff, who viewed it and, according to an unnamed Vatican source, said, “It is as it was.”

Other reports echoed that account, but a senior Vatican aide to the pontiff later dismissed the report, saying the pope “does not give judgments on art.”

Ironically, Gibson is a member of a Catholic fundamentalist sect that rejects Vatican authority and opposes its reforms, though Gibson has insisted he is not anti-Semitic.

Gibson “is as mensch as they get,” said Icon spokesman Alan Nierob. “He’s a wonderful person who’s just trying to make a good film.”
A group of Catholic and Jewish scholars who specialize in the study of the historical Jesus, and whose views Gibson rejects, criticized the movie as retrograde.

Recently, the Center for Christian-Jewish Relations at Boston College, a liberal Jesuit institution, issued Facts, Faith and Film-making: Jesus’ Passion and Its Portrayal, a guide intended to counter the film’s potential impact.

At the same time, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops issued The Bible, the Jews and the Death of Jesus, a collection of church papers intended to “end prejudices against Jews and Judaism.”

While the furor over the movie is likely to continue, interfaith activists remain confident that it won’t adversely affect progress in Catholic-Jewish relations.

Catholic-Jewish ties “will continue,” Korn said. “There are partners on both sides who want it to.’’

Back to top

America Decides 2004
What Went Wrong for Joe Lieberman?

MATTHEW E. BERGER
Jewish Telegraphic Agency

ARLINGTON, Va. — Four years ago, he was the toast of the Jewish world, the favorite son who became a symbol of opportunity for American Jews.

But when he went out on his own this time around, Sen. Joseph Lieberman (D-Conn.) failed to catch on as a top-tier candidate.

Lieberman formally stepped down Feb. 3, after failing to win any of the first nine primaries or caucuses. He came in second in only one of seven contests, on Feb. 3 in Delaware.

“The judgment of the voters is now clear,” he told supporters at his headquarters in Virginia.

It had been clear for a while. Even Lieberman’s mother, Marcia, had acknowledged earlier that her son’s campaign “didn’t catch on.”
Now the question will be asked for years to come: What went wrong? Was his religion a factor — especially for Jews? Are his politics out of sync with Democratic voters? Was it his style?

When Lieberman announced his candidacy in January 2003, he had the highest name recognition among the Democratic hopefuls, because of his exposure as the vice presidential nominee on the 2000 ticket with Al Gore.

But even as he was leading in the polls then, political analysts did not consider him in the top tier of candidates.

There are many explanations for Lieberman’s fall. Some say it was political. Lieberman is a moderate on social, economic and political issues, someone who supported the Iraq war and was campaigning among a Democratic electorate angered by the Bush administration’s handling of Iraq and his domestic policies.

In his announcement, Lieberman said he still believed that moderation was the best way to go. “I offered a mainstream voice and I still believe that that is the right choice and the winning choice for our party and our country,” he said.

While that positioning might have served him well against Bush in November, it missed the point of Democratic primaries playing to the party’s base. Others say his mistakes were strategic, suggesting that Lieberman had a sense of entitlement because of the election controversies of 2000, and therefore did not lay the groundwork for his candidacy the way his opponents did.

Then there is the Jewish question.

While no one expected Lieberman to receive the full support of American Jews, some Lieberman loyalists say they did not anticipate the extent to which his candidacy would be rejected by some in their community. Rabbi Irving “Yitz” Greenberg, president of the Jewish Life Network Foundation, and his wife Blu, were circulating an op-ed to Jewish newspapers this week, arguing that Jews were acting as anti-Semites would, casting Lieberman aside because of his Jewishness.

“The community blinked,” Yitz Greenberg said, suggesting that his policies were “a good fit” for Jews.

A rise of anti-Semitism and anti-Zionist sentiment around the world brought old fears to the surface for many Jews, he argued, and Jews looked for a safer choice for president.

“The community made a huge mistake,” he said. “A victory for a Jew in America would have been a tremendous refutation of anti-Semitism.”
Some Jewish donors said they would have given to Lieberman, based on his political stances, but did not want to support a Jew at this time.
It was easier to support Lieberman as a vice presidential nominee, some Jews say, because he was blazing the trail without being the center of attention.

But as his own candidate — and at a time of increased tension in the Middle East and an uptick in international anti-Semitism — hesitancy grew.

Marvin Lender, a member of Lieberman’s campaign board who raised funds for him in the Jewish community, suggested that Lieberman aides had anticipated raising more money from the Jewish community.

He sees fear as one element, but says the Jewish community’s political sophistication also hurt Lieberman’s chances.

“Many leaders of the Jewish community, the politically invested people, had already made commitments,” he said.

Indeed, many seasoned political donors in the Jewish community had ties to other candidates — such as Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) or Rep. Richard Gephardt (D-Mo.), or several of the candidates at once.

It was much easier to support Lieberman in 2000, when he was not running against other Democrats.

Not all Jewish analysts believe Lieberman was hurt by his community. He still galvanized many Jews who may not have given in past political races to donate, they say, but did not get the support from others because of his moderate politics.

“Jews were happy for Lieberman, happy he could run for president, but sadly, just didn’t embrace his politics,” said Steve Rabinowitz, aDemocratic media strategist with ties to the Jewish community.

Stuart Rothenberg, an independent political analyst, suggested that if Lieberman were a Baptist, he would have done worse. “Lieberman was always out of sync with his party,” Rothenberg said. “He was not as liberal on foreign policy and economic issues.”
No one suggests that the mixed reaction Lieberman received from Jews is the whole story of his candidacy’s demise.

Many say the candidate did not work hard enough to build on the name recognition and exposure he received as Gore’s running mate in 2000, reaching out to party contributors in key primary states.

“Unfortunately, he spent two years not doing anything, resting on that flash reputation,” Rabinowitz said. “He didn’t develop it, he didn’t go out and meet big givers and local leaders and mayors.”

When Lieberman campaigned last year, voters remembered the war in Iraq, which Lieberman supported, and the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks a lot more clearly than they did the 2000 election scandals.

“Voters wanted somebody who could really stick it to Bush and is confrontational and aggressive,” Rothenberg said.

That wasn’t Lieberman.

Back to top

Palestinians Set to Fight Gaza Withdrawal

GIL SEDAN
Jewish Telegraphic Agency

JERUSALEM — Ten years ago, if the Palestinians had been told that Ariel Sharon, father of the Israeli settlement movement, would be offering a near-complete withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, most probably would have rejoiced at the prospect.

But when the Israeli prime minister dropped that political bombshell last week by signaling that he intended to uproot almost every Israeli settlement in the Gaza Strip — something the Arabs have demanded for years — Palestinians greeted the announcement with a mixture of caution and skepticism.

Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Ahmed Qurei welcomed the idea, saying “In our view, every evacuation of a settlement is welcome.”

But his boss, P.A. President Yasser Arafat, condemned the move.

“A unilateral withdrawal in Gaza contradicts the ‘road map,’” Arafat adviser Nabil Abu Rudeineh said, referring to an internationally backed peace plan. “It will not bring forward a solution, but will rather complicate the situation.”

If the offer by an Israeli prime minister to cede Gaza unilaterally — with no corresponding Palestinian concessions — does not please them, then what exactly do the Palestinians want?

“The conflicting reactions are not surprising,” Palestinian intellectual Hanan Ashrawi, a former P.A. minister and peace negotiator, told JTA.

“They are both right.”

Qurei welcomes the principle of a cost-free Israeli withdrawal, while Arafat is wary of a trap, Ashrawi said.

“We have seen all sorts of trial balloons before,” she said. “Whenever Sharon is in trouble he launches something, but there is nothing particular on the ground. He sold the same goods several times in the past. I will believe it when I see it.” Many Palestinians suspect that even if Sharon is serious about leaving Gaza, he will try to balance that concession by strengthening Israel’s hold on the West Bank.
It often is easier for the Palestinians to reject Israeli initiatives than to welcome them. Arafat has a history of rejecting generous Israeli offers, mostly notably at the Camp David summit in July 2000.

Arafat often uses rejection as a negotiating tactic, later returning to the spurned offer as the starting point for further demands.
The Palestinian reaction also harkens to Israel’s experience in Lebanon where — after demanding for years that Israel withdraw forthwith from its southern Lebanese security zone — Lebanon and its patron, Syria, howled in protest when then-Prime Minister Ehud Barak announced his intention to withdraw.

But there is more to the Palestinian reaction than simple distrust of Sharon. The reaction reflects the political vacuum in the Palestinian-populated territories. In the absence of a real, effective landlord, Palestinians fear that Israel’s departure could worsen the mess in Gaza.
“The question is who will take over? I am afraid there is going to be chaos,” Ashrawi said.

Some Palestinians fear that if Israel quits Gaza, Hamas will take over and challenge the hegemony of Arafat and his Fatah movement in the Palestinian territories.

Additionally, unilateral Israeli steps render Arafat and his Palestinian Authority virtually irrelevant, further weakening the P.A.’s hand.
There still is a chance that Sharon’s initiative may reignite peace negotiations.

After the interview with the Ha’aretz newspaper in which Sharon publicized his Gaza initiative, Qurei contacted key figures in the Gaza Strip to ask for a report on the possible impact of an Israeli withdrawal.

At the same time, Qurei renewed contacts with Israelis trying to facilitate a long-delayed meeting with Sharon. Qurei has cancelled meetings with Sharon on numerous occasions, demanding that Sharon first agree to freeze construction of Israel’s West Bank security barrier, among other concessions. Mahdi Abdul Hadi, who heads the Palestinian Academic Society for the Study of International Affairs, said Sharon’s Gaza initiative is part of decades-long efforts “to partition Palestine.”

“This is yet a new Israeli chapter trying to lock the Palestinians into small pieces of land,” he said.

Hisham Awartani, an economist and formerly a senior lecturer at Najah University in Nablus, said that not only does he distrust Sharon, but he doesn’t believe the separation idea can work.

“I don’t think a total separation is feasible,” he said, explaining that Israel and the Palestinian Authority are simply too interdependent to be separated.

So what will happen to the Palestinians if Israel withdraws from Gaza?

• Mahdi Abdul Hadi suggested three scenarios:
  The Palestinians will fight Israel’s unilateral withdrawal with an international campaign “very much like the initiative to take the security fence to the International Court of Justice;”
• The Islamists will take the upper hand in Gaza; or
• The Palestinians will look for support from their one-time patron, Jordan.
  Ashrawi said the first scenario is the most likely — at least until the post-Sharon era.
  Israel must talk with the Palestinians, not take unilateral moves, Ashrawi said. “Sharon will need to talk to Arafat,” she said. “Only Arafat can deliver.’’

Critics of the prime minister, noting that the judicial process can take months or years, expressed concern that the scandal could taint Israel’s position in the international community and hamper its efforts to resolve the conflict with the Palestinians.

“I urge the prime minister to come out and give his version,” Labor leader Shimon Peres told Channel One television. “This is not a legal matter; it is a matter of statesmanship.’’

If Sharon and Olmert are indicted, early elections probably would be called and a succession frenzy likely would ensue in the Likud. Leading candidates to replace Sharon would be Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom and Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz.

.Back to top

Israel Girds for The Hague; May Make Significant Changes to Fence Route

LESLIEW SUSSER
Jewish Telegraphic Agency

JERUSALEM — Israel claims that the International Court of Justice has no jurisdiction to rule on the West Bank security barrier — but at the same time the government is preparing detailed legal, security and diplomatic arguments and an intensive public-relations campaign.

The government also announced this week that it may well make significant changes in the fence’s route ahead of the Feb. 23 proceedings at The Hague.

Two major decisions will be made that could have a bearing on the case. First, is it better to dispatch an Israeli legal team to appear at the ICJ or to rely on a written affidavit, and second, should the fence’s route be altered for humanitarian reasons?

Most top Israeli officials are against sending a legal team on the grounds that it would imply the very recognition of the ICJ proceedings that Israel is at such pains to deny.

As for the route of the fence, there could be changes before the issue reaches The Hague. In an address Sunday to the 40th Munich Conference on Security Policy, Israel’s new national security adviser, Giora Eiland — who has been given a free hand by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to draft a new route for the fence — declared that Israel had not fully taken into account the way the barrier could disrupt Palestinian lives.

Israel will do what it can — possibly even changing the fence’s route — to avoid causing unnecessary suffering, Eiland said.
Following Palestinian claims that the fence, built in places on West Bank territory, is illegal, the U.N. General Assembly passed a resolution in December asking the ICJ for an “advisory opinion.”

The United Nations followed that up with a 600-page affidavit that, according to Israel’s U.N. ambassador, Dan Gillerman, ignores the basic reason for building the fence: Palestinian terrorism.

Israel responded by questioning the competence of the court, the wisdom of a court action and the neutrality of one of the 15 judges, an Egyptian who previously has expressed anti-Israel views.

The legal-diplomatic brief, drafted by British-based international law expert Daniel Bethlehem, rejects the court’s authority as well as “the propriety of the process.”

In a 131-page affidavit, Bethlehem maintains that the court has no right to rule on what is basically a political dispute, and that doing so will undermine political efforts to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

A court ruling most likely will drive the parties to adopt more radical positions and thus will make political negotiations less likely, the argument goes. It will undermine diplomatic initiatives like the internationally approved “road map” peace plan and cause more suffering and hardship, Israel will argue.

In other words, Israel says, the court is an inappropriate forum for dealing with a political conflict.

This argument already has struck a receptive chord. Several dozen countries, including the United States, Russia, Canada, Australia, South Africa, all 15 European Union members and the 10 waiting to join, have submitted affidavits rejecting the court’s jurisdiction on the grounds that a hearing would do more harm than good. To back up the legal-diplomatic argument, Israel also is preparing a detailed security brief. A team under the defense minister’s adjutant, Brig. Gen. Mike Herzog, is putting the finishing touches on a three-part document that describes the terrorist onslaught that led Israel to build the fence, explains the thinking behind the route, and outlines its effectiveness at preventing terrorism.

Noting the number and nature of Palestinian suicide bombings, the document invokes Israel’s inherent right to self-defense according to Article 51 of the U.N. charter. It also defines the Palestinian intifada as a “hostile confrontation” that entitles Israel to take forceful measures, such as building a fence in disputed or occupied territory.

Israelis’ right to life, the document argues, takes precedence over Palestinians’ right to freedom of movement.

In his Munich address, Eiland explained that Israel decided to build the fence in the spring of 2002, after 135 Israelis were killed in 17 suicide attacks in a single month. He underlined how effective it already has proven: In the sector where the fence is complete, only three Israelis were killed last year, compared to 58 the year before.

Even if Israel decides not to dispatch legal experts to appear in court, it will send a public-relations team to The Hague. There also will be an exhibit recalling the June 2001 bombing of Tel Aviv’s Dolphinarium disco — in which 21 young Israelis were killed — as well as the gutted hulk of a bombed Jerusalem bus.

The main thrust of the Palestinian case is that the fence is not being built exclusively on Israel’s own territory, and that it causes humanitarian problems for hundreds of thousands of Palestinians.

On the territorial issue, Israel has developed a two-pronged legal argument. First, Israel argues, the U.N.’s use of the term “occupied Palestinian territory” is questionable because the West Bank never legally belonged to the Palestinians. Rather, Israel argues, the land should be considered “disputed territory” in which Israel, one of the disputing parties, has rights. Moreover, Israeli officials say, even if the term “occupied territory” is granted, an occupier facing armed hostilities has the right to take defensive measures.

On the humanitarian issue, Israel has another two-pronged claim. The argument in principle is that saving human life takes precedence over non-lethal hardship. But Israel now adds that it intends to do all it can to relieve Palestinian suffering, even if that means building the fence closer to the pre-1967 boundary between Israel and the West Bank, known as the Green Line.

Indeed, Eiland is working on a new route that will take the fence closer to the Green Line and not snake around some Palestinian villages, cutting them off from both Israel and the West Bank.

The problem of the “ringed villages’’ is most acute in Jerusalem. Human rights activists contend that it is not only inhumane but self-defeating. The misery it causes will spawn even more suicide bombers, they say.

Leslie Susser is the diplomatic correspondent for the Jerusalem Report.

Back to top

People in the News

Back to top

JTA News Briefs

Ariel Sharon Hospitalized
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Ariel Sharon is to undergo treatment for stones in his urinary tract, Israeli officials said. The Israeli prime minister, 75, was to be admitted to a hospital Feb. 9 for the stones to be treated using ultrasound waves, a non-invasive procedure that allows him to be released by evening. His recovery is expected to take several days.

Poll: Palestinians Don’t Back Violence
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Palestinian support for violence and suicide bombings is dropping, according to a new poll. Thirty-five percent of respondents to the poll back continuing violence, down from 43 percent in November and 73 percent in November 2000. Taken by the Palestinian Center for Public Opinion, the poll surveyed 500 Palestinians and had a margin of error of 4.4 percentage points.

Arafat Adviser: Some Terror a Mistake
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Palestinian attacks within Israel’s pre-1967 borders are a mistake, Yasser Arafat’s security adviser said. “There is no reason to try to justify and to give any legitimacy to such terror attacks,” Jibril Rajoub told American Jewish Committee delegates in Jerusalem. But Rajoub made it clear that, like most Palestinians, he considers attacks on Israeli settlers legitimate, saying Israel must remove all settlements from the West Bank and Gaza Strip if it wants peace.

Helsinki Plan for Arabs?
WASHINGTON (JTA) — The United States wants to promote democracy in the Middle East through Helsinki agreement-type incentives. The plan, which President Bush could present in June at the G-8 summit of leading industrial nations, would offer trade and security incentives to Arab countries that introduce political reforms, The Washington Post reported. In that way, the initiative would emulate the Helsinki agreement of 1975, which led to much stricter monitoring of human-rights compliance in the Soviet bloc. However, the new initiative would not employ Helsinki’s strict monitoring, to avoid the perception that the West was dictating terms to the Arabs.

Israel Adjusts Fence Route
JERUSALEM (JTA) — In an attempt to satisfy the Bush administration, Israel is adjusting the route of the West Bank security fence to exclude most settlement blocs. Israel’s Ha’aretz newspaper reported that the new route would shorten the fence by some 63 miles. According to political sources, Israel hopes to get the Bush administration’s backing for the new route to bolster its case before hearings on the fence at the International Court of Justice in The Hague on Feb. 23.

Woman Who Helped Jews Gets Plaque
BERLIN (JTA) — A woman who helped hide Jews from the Nazis in Berlin is to be remembered with a memorial plaque on her building. Edith Wolff, whose father was Jewish and mother was Christian, helped find hiding places primarily for members of a Jewish youth group. She was imprisoned in 1943 for “assisting Jews.” Wolff died in 1994.

Poll: Americans Back Israel’s Fence
NEW YORK (JTA) — Americans back Israel’s West Bank security barrier, a new poll says. In the poll conducted for the Alliance for Research on National Security Issues, 68 percent of respondents agreed that “Israel has the right to take action to defend itself by building a security fence, even if many other countries disagree.” Fifty-seven percent said Israel has the right to continue building its fence even if the International Court of Justice — which is to consider the issue on Feb. 23 — rules against it. “The American people clearly recognize democratic Israel’s right to defend itself, not least by erecting a non-violent terrorism prevention barrier, and they will suspect the court’s objectivity if it rules otherwise,” said Frank Gaffney, deputy director of the alliance.

Ford Reviewing New Grantee
WASHINGTON (JTA) — The president of the Ford Foundation told the Anti-Defamation League that the foundation is reviewing the status of another grantee. Speaking to the ADL’s national executive committee in Palm Beach, FL., Susan Berresford said Ford is reviewing the Habitat International Coalition. ADL has raised concerns that HIC has distributed anti-Israel materials. Following a JTA investigative series last fall showing that some Ford grantees had sponsored anti-Semitism and virulently anti-Israel rhetoric, the Ford Foundation instituted a review of all grantees.

Agudath Israel Backs Marriage Amendment
NEW YORK (JTA) — Agudath Israel said it would work to change the Massachusetts state and the U.S. Constitutions to restrict marriage to heterosexual unions. The state’s Supreme Court ruled last week that the state Constitution will be fulfilled only if full marriage rights are granted to same-sex couples.

Panel: France Should Pay it All Back
PARIS (JTA) — France should pay the remaining $154 million due to Jewish families whose property was looted during World War II. The recommendation was made by a government panel, the Commission for the Indemnity of Looting Victims. A French government report issued in 2002 said 90 percent of some $1.5 billion in assets seized from Jews during the Nazi occupation has been repaid, The New York Times reported.

Peanuts, Pretzels or Jesus?
NEW YORK (JTA) — A pilot on an American Airlines flight suggested that non-Christians learn about Christianity. On a flight from Los Angeles last Friday, the pilot asked Christians aboard to raise their hands, and suggested that they spend the flight discussing religion with other passengers. The pilot then called non-Christians “crazy,” a passenger claimed. Many passengers tried to use their cell phones to call relatives on the ground before flight attendants reassured them. The pilot, who recently had returned from a mission to Costa Rica, apologized for his remarks later in the flight. The airline is investigating the incident.

Gibson: Film Not anti-Semitic
NEW YORK (JTA) — Mel Gibson denied that his controversial new movie about the death of Jesus is anti- Semitic. “I’ve shown it to many Jews and they’re like, ‘It’s not anti-Semitic.’ It’s interesting that the people who say it’s anti-Semitic say that before they saw the film, and they said the same thing after they saw the film,” Gibson said of “The Passion of the Christ.” Gibson spoke before 3,800 invited guests at an evangelical university near Los Angeles. Gibson’s film, which opens Feb. 25, is expected to gross up to $30 million in the first five days, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Don’t Know Much About the Holocaust
BUDAPEST (JTA) — An increased number of Hungarians believe that Jews try to make use of their persecution during the Holocaust, a new poll says. Some 35 percent of 1,000 people surveyed in November agreed with that claim, as opposed to 26 percent who agreed with it in 1995. But an increased number of people — 57 percent as opposed to 52 percent in 1995 — agree that Hungarians also are culpable for the Holocaust. One-third of respondents said they don’t know when the Holocaust took place.

Russian Synagogue Attacked
MOSCOW (JTA) — Molotov cocktails were thrown recently at a synagogue in the Russian city of Chelyabinsk. The attack took place on the night of Feb. 4, the Union of Councils for Jews in the Former Soviet Union reported, citing a local news agency. Three Molotov cocktails were thrown at the synagogue building and another through the window of the synagogue’s library. Neighborhood residents were able to extinguish the fire before the fire department arrived. Members of the local Jewish community believe the attack was motivated by anti-Semitism. Police have opened an investigation.

Back to top

Marsha Inc. of Marblehead
Clothing Maven Marsha Kadish Passes Baton to Son, Scott

SUSAN JACOBS
Jewish Journal Staff

MARBLEHEAD — For more than two decades, Marblehead’s Marsha Kadish has been outfitting toddlers and children in delightful denim fashions. Her bold, colorful clothes, decorated with rhinestones, velvet and embroidered appliques, are showcased at high-end boutiques and elegant department stores across the country. However after 25 years in the business, the 57-year-old artist and entrepreneur is ready to turn the day-to-day operations of the company over to her 32-year-old son, Scott. She will remain involved as a consultant.

“It’s been a wonderful experience,” admits the youthful-looking Marsha, who holds a Fine Arts degree, as well as a degree in Art Education. “My late husband David (who was the business manager) and I built the business side by side. We had a lot of fun. We travelled all over the world to buy fabrics, and showed the line in France and Germany. We personally visited hundreds of stores across the United States that carry the collection, and developed close relationships with store owners. But it’s time to move on.”

Unfortunate circumstances drew Scott into the family business. When David died suddenly in April of 2003, Marsha realized that she needed help running the operation. At the time, Scott was employed as Youth Services Director at the Jewish Community Center in Deal, NJ.

“I was doing well on a career track with the JCC, but my mother asked me to come back and help out,” says the soft-spoken Scott, who now lives in Marblehead with his wife Stacey and daughters Cassie, 2, and Daphnie, 2 months. “I didn’t really know what to expect, however once I got acclimated, I discovered that many of my skills were transferrable to a new career.”

Scott, who holds a dual Masters degree from Brandeis in Jewish Communal Service and Management, didn’t require much mentoring. “Scott has been fabulous,” says Marsha. “Over the past year, he has learned how to run the business end of Marsha Inc. without having David here to teach him.”
The Kadish family has always had an affinity for clothes. Prior to founding Marsha Inc., David owned Sumner’s, a men’s clothing store with locations in Boston and Swampscott’s Vinnin Square. (In an ironic twist, the Gap is currently located where Sumner’s used to be.)

Marsha Inc. began as a hobby for the creative Marsha, who bought plain denim Oshkosh overalls and decorated them with satin hearts, rainbows and Superman appliques for her own children, Scott and Jodi, now 29. Friends urged her to sell the whimsical, washable articles to local stores, which she did. Before long, a sales professional from New York approached her about representing the line.

Today there are six showrooms across the country that handle the high-end collection of children’s overalls, jackets, dresses and tops in sizes from six months to eight years. The line has been featured in over 450 stores worldwide, including Neiman Marcus and Saks. Locally, the clothes are available at Peanut Butter ‘n Jelly Kids in Danvers and Cape Ann Growing Pains in Gloucester.

Although Marsha and her team of designers work with a variety of materials, they are primarily known for denim. Marsha estimates that they sell approximately 6,000 pairs of overalls annually. The sturdy, stone-washed pieces are appliqued with chenille, satin, velvet, fur and other fine fabrics, and embellished with embroidery, ribbons and rhinestones. Each design is original, but they all have an unmistakable “Marsha” look and feel.

Marsha, who has twice been nominated for Designer of the Year in Children’s Wear at the Dallas Fashion Awards, says decoration ideas just pop into her mind. Over the years some of the most popular themes have been sports, flowers, fire trucks, telephones and animals. She notes that the company has made specialty items for celebrities including overalls and jackets for Yoko Ono and John Lennon’s son Sean, outfits for all of Diana Ross’s children, and clothes for the son of a Dallas Mavericks basketball star using his team number 25. Although several years ago she created decorated sweat suits for women and made bat mitzvah and party dresses for teens, she prefers to focus on children’s wear.

The clothes are manufactured and shipped out of a 5,000 square foot facility in Marblehead. North Shore parents can take advantage of an outlet store attached to the factory where first quality samples and overcuts can be purchased for at least 40 percent off. Several times per year, the outlet has a sale where shoppers can realize additional savings.

Since labor overseas is so much cheaper, it is rare to find clothing companies that do all their manufacturing in the United States. Marsha Inc. is a notable exception.

“We’d like to keep manufacturing in the USA because of the quality and control. When stores need to re-order, we can turn the orders around in a week. We can’t do that from overseas,” explains Marsha.

The firm employs a staff of 20-30 full and part-time workers, some of whom have been with the company for 20 years. Artisans hand sew the decorations onto the articles of clothing either at the factory, or at home at their own speed. Marsha notes that many stay-at-home mothers with children enjoy working as piecemeal home sewers.

Although Marsha emphasizes that she is not retiring, she will probably spend only one or two days per week at the store. She is confident that while she is up in New Hampshire skiing and pursuing other artistic pursuits, Scott will successfully manage the business.

“I like the challenge of running a small business,” says Scott, who doesn’t plan to make any immediate dramatic changes at Marsha Inc. “Marsha and my father worked hard to bring the business to this stage. I want to keep the status quo. We’ve become a fixture in the area, and we hope to be in the community for a long time.”

The Marsha Inc. factory outlet is located on 32 Tioga Way in Marblehead. For more information, phone 781-631-8674 or visit www.marshainc.com.

Back to top

My Visit to Israel: A Trip Beyond the Newsprint

JAMIE KIFFEL
Special to The Jewish Journal

It's a little like a cross between the Grand Canyon and walking on the surface of Mars. Desolate, vast, and striated with colored sand. This was my first glimpse of the world outside of Tel Aviv airport. Until now, I'd had a confused, green and tan image of the place, spotted with explosions and dust.

Newsprint had colored my vision of Israel: a place where people killed each other and buses exploded, according to my New York Times. I read faithfully wherever I saw "Israel" in the headlines. But what I rarely found were snapshots of her personal self — the details that make the place touchable, understandable.

People bring back many things from Israel. Here, I've brought back the details of what I found there. It isn't politically heavy, but simply a snapshot for those who might like to see something beyond the newsprint.

My trip started with my Israeli boyfriend, Daniel, and I driving to Jerusalem. I was nervous about going to the city where I'd heard about so many bombings. However, the closer we got, the safer I felt. First, there are Israeli soldiers everywhere. They have large, automatic machine guns, berets in some cases, and dark glasses.

We found a great parking spot near a passing camel, and headed for the gate to the entrance to the Old City. Daniel and I separated at the gate where I headed for the "women only" armed guard and metal detector while he headed for the "men only." After a scan, we were in.

"So you want to see the wall? There it is," Daniel said.

"Is that the piece we can get close to?" I asked, seeing a rather small section of wall with some brush growing in it.
"That's the only part that still exists," he reminded me.

As this is also segregated, we agreed to meet again in a few minutes as I headed right and he headed left. It didn't really look like much as I approached it, though the ground before it is made of very well-waxed marble, and you need to be careful of your footing. There are also chairs set out so that one can sit and pray. I walked right up. As I got within three feet of the wall, suddenly, I felt the most overwhelming sense of magnetism — and fear.

The whole wall seemed alive, like it was pulsing energy, and the feeling was genuinely scary. My heart started to race, and I just stood there for a while, feeling this magnetic-feeling force pulling at me. I don't know if it was the wall itself, or the energy of the countless prayers that have been said there, but it was unlike anything I anticipated.

Daniel and I reconvened to explore the city.

Jerusalem is gigantic — like Paris — and built into a mountain. It's full of hills like San Francisco, and dry and sparse like Arizona. It's old like Rome, but without anything sparkling or bright to break it up (for the most part). Even when you see a nice area, it's covered in dust and sand and feels old. Even David's Tower, which we toured, has treacherous, crumbling stairs, with no "caution" signs written anywhere. It's just what it is. And, like most places we'd visit, nearly devoid of tourists.

We found the Arab market, a series of narrow passageways where salesmen try to entice passers-by to purchase everything from wooden camels to silver necklaces to rugs to dresses. Everyone spoke English, and most everyone was friendly. We bargained a bit for two belly dancing scarves (as in, "No thanks."We walked away and they cut the prices in half).

On the way out of the city, we heard the muezzins singing their Arabic prayers. We headed for a church that claims to be the place where Mary lived and died after Jesus’ death. It, too, was empty.

Tel Aviv is about an hour and a half from Be'er Sheva. We had to pick up our tickets from Royal Jordanian Airlines, which Daniel did while I waited in the car (illegally parked on the sidewalk, which is a popular thing to do in Tel Aviv). A world-class city, complete with green trees and grass and flowers, the buildings are sand-colored, and worn ones are right beside renovated Arabian-style villas which have ceilings molded into a tent-like shape, little metal balconies, and painted tiles in the floors. There are boutiques and skyscrapers and young people in trendy clothing.

Everywhere you go, they examine your bags. We got checked before entering the mall, and before going into the garage (they even checked the trunk). It's perfunctory, but I guess they're more thorough if they suspect anything.

We later went in search of hummos and falafel. With some recommendations from passers-by, we ended up at a tiny place where we sat at a little table and listened to the workers at the counter loudly talking about how another restaurant is stealing this place's name and how the owner should just pretend it's a second branch instead of getting into a fight, since it's good for business anyway (Daniel translated all this).

The pitas, hummos, falafels and Arab salad came to the table. It's important to note that the pitas are nothing like ours. They're big and soft and warm and light. We stuffed these with hummos, which was like a cloud of icing without sugar; a spread of tofu without the soy; a wave of soft sand without the grit. It was amazing.

This prepared us for the next day: Masada.

Hawks wheeled in stern circles overhead, the road wound like a narrow snake through wicked turns, past sparse, dull green brush, while we watched the temperature climb on the digital dashboard of our little white Renault "Clio" with Daniel’s friend Uzi at the wheel. We zoomed past steep dunes and striated sand, all barren except for the hidden lizards and the occasional ibex, a type of gazelle with knobby horns like forged iron. Every other dune starts to look like a settlement or a sphinx or Lot's wife, though nothing is more than an ancient cave that our ancestors once lived in.

We drove until finally we saw an oasis of green: Kibbutz Ein Gedi. The kibbutz grows dates, has a gift shop featuring bright sarongs, hamsa key chains, the occasional day-glo-haired gnome, and a case of ice cream.

As soon as we got on the path, we were faced with several unafraid ibex fawns. And before we'd snapped more than a few pictures, something suddenly ran past us on the left: a brown thing like a cat with no ears and no tail.

"Desert bunnies," Uzi said as we spied three more wryly lounging under a date palm. They're actually not bunnies, and not cats, but they look like live teddy bears with the hind legs of rabbits. They have fat tushies and little heads, and are shaped roughly like gumdrops. They are very tame, and we found that they love to pose for photos.
From there, we headed for the blistering hot path. Thankfully, we had Israeli sunblock on our side, which kept us from even turning pink. We walked up steep, stone steps, through groves of yellowed reeds of the same strain that Moses' mother hid him in, to little waterfalls where I waded in and watched an old woman shower in the falls. At one point, we heard something like hard rain. It turned out to be ibexes at the top of a high hill, kicking stones down and causing a small avalanche.

From there, we headed for the sizzling Dead Sea.

The Dead Sea is over 25 percent salt — including bromine and gypsum and other components. "Don't get any in your mouth," Daniel warned me. How salty can it be? I wondered. I understood as my tongue touched my finger. It burned like acid! Soon my body was searing, my tongue sizzling. So, toes burning on rocks that felt like coals, I gradually floated out. And then, on a barren ocean, I sat up in the water like the earth had just dropped away and I'd stayed on a gust of wind.
I washed and we headed for Masada.

Masada, though located in land with more desert rats than houses per capita, features recently-added snack bars, a gorgeous, upscale gift shop of handmade Israeli crafts, and a restaurant. So this is Masada: the mountain where Jewish rebels maintained their stronghold when the Romans had conquered everything else. We had our choice of walking (three hours up a snaking hill, past ruins of Roman encampments) or taking a cable car. We chose the cable car.

At the top, we explored the ruins of bath houses, palaces, and the rooms where the Jews decided what to do when the Romans finally did arrive. It was impossibly hot. I tried to imagine what the spirits of the Jews who died there were like — if these places were haunted with emotions of any kind. If anything, I sensed peace and satisfaction.

The following day began with a visit to the Bedouin flea market. Every Thursday morning, Bedouins — in black garb or jeans, depending on their tribe — gather to sell everything from plastic dolls and cheap cookware to thong underwear, cushions to sit on in a tent, or even imported Afghani necklaces. The majority of the flea market is actually run by Israelis, but we found one tiny Bedouin section where the women, squatting in black clothes with only a sliver of their faces showing, were selling day-glo bright weavings with tassels and gold beads.

Tassels in hand, Uzi and Daniel and I piled into the Clio, the yellow "stay back" sticker firmly affixed to the bumper, and headed for Haifa with Daniel at the wheel. Uzi insisted on riding in the back, which turned out to be his crow's nest from which he could shout, "LO LO LO!" (NO NO NO!) when Daniel did anything that struck Uzi as potentially too fast, going the wrong way, near the police, et cetera. It turns out that even when a helicopter flies overhead, one has to slow down because some are traffic copters that signal to police cars on the ground.

The ride was almost two hours through old Druze villages, stopping for baklava and assorted other honeyed baked goods. We arrived in Haifa, finally, a stunning place that resembles Sausalito, California. We explored the Baha'i gardens, which are enormous, manicured gardens dedicated to the Baha'i faith.

One of the most interesting parts of our ride back from Haifa was the new Route 6, which cuts through Israel. It's a high-speed expressway, and almost no one is on it. That could be, as we discovered, because it runs right past the green line — that is, the divider between Israel and Palestine.

It appears no different than the hundreds of Arab villages in Israel. But it's behind the wall. It contains a few brightly painted houses with a few larger villas atop large rock formations, and many unfinished houses in progress. Today, back behind the wall of newsprint, I see something between the type. I think of the desert bunnies: born in a certain place and unquestioningly making a life of it, never knowing anything beyond the sand that surrounds them. Isn’t that what we do, after all?

Jamie Kiffel, an occasional contributer to The Journal, is features editor of Women’s World magazine in New York.

Back to top

Draw on Your Strengths to Cope With Chronic Illness

LISA M. PETSCHE
Special to The Jewish Journal

More than half of the senior population has a chronic illness, defined as a permanently altered state of health that significantly affects daily living. Examples include arthritis, osteoporosis, diabetes, heart disease and neurological diseases such as Parkinson’s disease.

Upon diagnosis of a major medical condition, most people initially go into a state of shock or disbelief. Subsequent emotions usually include anger, fear, anxiety, guilt, sadness and loneliness.

With progressive diseases, losses can be many, including strength, coordination, energy, communication, bodily functions, roles and responsibilities, previously enjoyed pastimes and plans for the future. Resulting dependence on others can strain relationships and negatively affect self-esteem.

Time frames vary for individuals, but eventually most people come to accept the reality of their situation. At that point they’re ready to plan for their future and, ideally, take control of it as much as possible.

Coping Tips
If you’ve been diagnosed with a chronic illness, following are ways to empower yourself mentally, emotionally and spiritually.
• Learn as much as possible about the illness and its management, and educate family and friends to help them understand.
• Be receptive to learning new ways of doing things and trying new activities. Concentrate on what you can, rather than can’t, do.
• Cultivate an attitude of gratitude, consciously focusing on the good things in your life — such as supportive relationships — and seeking beauty and tranquility — for example, through appreciation of art or nature. Learn to live in the moment and enjoy life’s simple pleasures.
• Redefine what quality of life means to you, recognizing that there are many ways to lead a meaningful life. Remind yourself that your identity goes much deeper than your appearance and physical abilities.
• Find an outlet for expressing your thoughts and feelings — perhaps talking with a friend, keeping a journal or participating in a support group.
• Accept that how you feel and what you can do may vary from day to day, and be flexible about plans and expectations. Take things one day at a time.
• Recall past life challenges and how you overcame them, to remind yourself of your resilience