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Winter of Discontent for Jobless Jews

BRETT M. RHYNE
Jewish Journal Staff

SWAMPSCOTT — When Mark Mulgay lost his job as legislative director for a state senator last March, he never expected to be out of work for almost a year.

“I was hoping to find another position in the State House,” Mulgay says. “There’s usually a fair amount of turnover at the beginning of a new term. That’s not the case this time around. With the uncertainty of the employment market, people are holding onto the positions they have.”
With the economy continuing to falter, hundreds of North Shore Jews — many of whom are heads of families — have in the past two years lost or are currently threatened with losing their jobs.

According to the office of Congressman John Tierney (D-Peabody), unemployment in his North Shore-Merrimack Valley district has climbed to 7.3 percent, two points higher than the state figure.

“There’s been a huge increase in white collar unemployment,” notes Tierney spokesperson Carolyn Stewart. “Especially hard hit have been bio-tech and high-tech workers, who in recent years have been the bulk of new jobs in the region.”

“Simply and bluntly, the current situation is very difficult, very challenging,” says Mulgay. “Lots of people are applying for a limited number of opportunities. The competition is considerable.”

Mulgay, who holds a master’s degree in education, worked at the State House for a year until, “long before elections, there was a complete turnover of staff in my office,” he says. Before that, Mulgay was “a stay at home dad,” and before that, a student in a full-time doctoral program. “I got out of academia because I didn’t see a whole lot of opportunity,” he says.

“I don’t see the economic situation as changing,” Mulgay says. As a result, “Finding a job is a slow process. I’m trying to be creative, doing things independently. Right now, I’m trying to establish myself as an independent consultant in government and public affairs.”

In mid-January, the Jewish Federation of the North Shore allocated $12,500 to seed a Jewish Community Emergency Fund, which made available direct grants to needy individuals and families for rent, mortgage payments, food and other necessities. Other organizations, including the Jewish Community Foundation, the Rabbinical Association of the North Shore and this newspaper, joined the effort.

“We’re seeing families with a plethora of really basic needs applying,” says Jon Firger, chief executive of Jewish Family Service, the agency administering the Fund. “Food, shelter, basic stuff I haven’t seen before. People have a real desperation. They’ve been turned away from other places.

“It’s unusual for us to see Jewish families who need housing,” he adds. “These are people who don’t qualify for welfare — they’ve fallen through the cracks.

“This population is different in another way,” Firger says. “All the people who come to us for help are looking for some way to pay back the community. One person started working at our food pantry. These people are not used to accepting help from the community.”

Firger describes the Fund helping “a single Jewish man who can’t work because of medical needs. He was homeless to begin with and out of work for two years.” The Fund helped him secure health care and housing.

In another example, Firger describes the Fund helping a Jewish family avoid being evicted at the end of February.

“Having the Emergency Fund to draw upon has made a big difference,” Firger says. “Now it’s possible for us to do something.”

“I don’t think the significance of this issue can be adequately addressed with individual largesse,” says Congressman Tierney. “The problem is, the Republican majority here in Washington has enacted tremendous cuts in health care, housing and unemployment benefits, which have effects both regionally and nationally.

“There have been tremendous fights to stop some of these cuts,” he says. “We’re just trying to hold the line.”

Tierney describes a move last fall to extend unemployment benefits to both the newly jobless and those whose unemployment benefits were about to expire, also called “exhaustees.”

According to Tierney, the bill passed the Senate, then controlled by Democrats. A weaker version of the bill, which would have helped “some people in three states,” also passed the Republican-controlled House, but the bill died due to “the President’s inaction,” Tierney says.
Since then, the Federal government has extended unemployment benefits for those newly jobless through May, but not for exhaustees.

“We did a partial job,” Tierney says. “It’s better than nothing.”

“I think the Emergency Fund is long overdue and a most welcome addition to the tzedakah work of this community,” says Rabbi Jonas Goldberg of Temple Sinai, Marblehead. Although not knowing of any congregants who are unemployed, Rabbi Goldberg, as a member of the Rabbinical Association of the North Shore, nevertheless supports the Emergency Fund.

“People have to know this is a place they can turn when the need is great,” Goldberg says.

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rGARY BAND
Jewish Journal Staff

SALEM — During his two years at Yeshiva University in the mid 1960s, Robert Weiner of Marblehead wanted to become a rabbi. But luckily for Essex County, the former first assistant district attorney changed his mind. He transferred to Syracuse, went on to Boston University Law School and became a lawyer.

For 24 years, he prosecuted high profile homicide, organized crime and public corruption cases, earning a reputation as a brilliant trial lawyer.

But while he may not complete the task, he is not yet ready to desist from it. At 56, the seasoned and successful attorney recently opened a firm within sight of the court district in Salem, specializing in criminal defense and civil litigation.

“I’ve gone over to the other side,” says Weiner. He will now defend rather than prosecute criminals, which he did at the beginning of his career, before joining forces with former District Attorney Kevin Burke in 1979.

“I walked in with Kevin and I intended to walk out with him,” Weiner says. Did Weiner think he’d be with Burke as long as he was? “I never thought Kevin would run for another term. He just kept going and going and I considered it a blessing to work with him.”

Among the thousands of cases tried before the Superior Court over the years, Weiner has personally prosecuted over 20 homicide cases and hundreds of other serious crimes. He also supervised trials handled by the 55 assistant district attorneys under his charge in the appellate, superior and district courts.

What kept him going for 24 years, prosecuting serious criminals from murderers to mafia dons to the homicidal cross-dressing doctor Richard Sharpe?

“My wife and children,” he says. “When I came home at the end of the day they give me strength to carry on.”

Sharpe, convicted of murdering his wife in Wenham, will spend the rest of his life in jail, thanks to Weiner’s efforts in the 2001 case. Weiner disagreed with the testimony of expert witness Dr. Keith Ablow, who felt Sharpe was the most insane person he’d ever encountered. Weiner argued that Sharpe was quite sane, manipulative and feigning his illness. The jury believed him. Sharpe was later found guilty of plotting to have Weiner killed, adding more time to his sentence.

Weiner and Burke also did a great deal of work on hate crime legislation and civil rights issues. In addition to crafting a Victim’s Bill of Rights, Burke also created the Flashpoint curriculum, educating at risk youths convicted of crimes but for whom the DA felt there was still hope through education and alternative sentencing.

“He really got it,” Weiner says of Burke, with whom he is still good friends. “When we went to Israel together on an Anti-Defamation League trip in 1993, he saw and learned very much and brought that learning back to his work in Essex County.”

They were both recognized on a number of occasions. In 1998, Weiner received the Prosecutor of the Year Award, based on the recommendation of the state’s 11 district attorneys. The award goes to the prosecutor who has made the biggest contribution to the state
.
His old boss agrees. “Bob, to me, is one of the most honorable, professional men in the business,” says Burke. “He has the highest level of integrity and the greatest level of social concern of any lawyer I know. We had the greatest of working relationships”

Of their visit to Israel, “it underscored how important civil rights and individual rights are, and how important it is to confront and get at the root of hatred and bigotry,” Burke says. “If you choose to ignore it, or act like people who need to be helped don’t deserve attention, you’re making a big mistake. Israel made me much more conscious, it was a spiritual awakening of sorts. Whether you’re Christian, Jewish or Muslim, you have to be affected.”

The two legal statesmen were most recently recognized for their work at an ADL Law Day breakfast at the Kernwood Country Club in Salem last year. Of the ADL, with whom he and Burke had a “very tight relationship,” Weiner says he has the utmost respect for the late Lenny Zakim and for current ADL Regional Executive Director Robert Leikind. The ADL has had a “real effect on law enforcement,” he says.

Weiner says he will most miss the camaraderie and collegiality of working in the DA’s office. Not to mention 150 legal assistants and 55 lawyers within shouting distance.

“It’s at once daunting and exciting to have my own firm,” he says. “It’s just me here.” He does have a secretary. Less than a month after moving in to the new office, housed in an 18th Century structure, his phone is rarely silent and he’s already taken on a few cases.

Weiner grew up in Brookline and is the son of a Russian immigrant father from Kiev, who, he says, “always had a love for the law.” He gives this advice for aspiring lawyers: “I strongly urge any lawyer who wants to get into trial work to work for the DA’s office.”

Weiner looks forward to fewer 2 a.m. phone calls and more involvement in civil law. “There are other challenges out there, and I feel young and vibrant enough to use my skills as a trial advocate. But now, if I need something to get done, I’m the only person to talk to.”

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BRETT M. RHYNE
Jewish Journal Staff

SALEM — As the only gentiles on the recent Jewish Federation of the North Shore’s mission to Israel, Denette Abers and David Ceria, both members of Christian Renewal Church in Salem, have unique perspectives on the Holy Land.

“I was really drawn to the Wall,” Ceria says. “Being Jewish, Christ was there all the time. I spent my last Friday night at the Wall — I prayed to go to a Shabbat. Then I was asked by an Orthodox Jew to help him carry his donation box. When people expressed concern with me carrying the box, I said, ‘Don’t worry, I’m a goy.’ He took me on a two-mile walk, and then we had Shabbat with Rabbi Mordechai from New York. I sat a table with seven rebellious teenagers. It was an answered prayer.”

“On Friday night, I walked through the old city to the Kotel with David,” Abers says. “It was a rare experience, being almost the only woman there praying, listening to the loudspeakers wail out prayers from the Dome of the Rock. On the ground, where the men were praying at the Kotel, there was a group of ultra-Orthodox men and boys who were praying in unison. They would suddenly stop their praying and begin to dance in a circle. I had the sense of being between something bitter and something sweet.

“The people are the ones who have made the difference in what once appeared to be a God-forsaken land,” she says. “I got to see the unique way the Diaspora interrelates to those who are living there, often under great hardship. I spoke with a man from Detroit who recalled being at the first Zionist convention, with his father, in Palestine.

“I also got a chance to travel to Efrat,” she says, “to spend time with friends and sleep in the bomb shelter they were preparing for the anticipated war with Iraq. I sat with two women who talked about everyday, common matters, but would punctuate their conversation with the correct way to put a gas mask on an infant, supplies for the bomb shelter, getting hamsters to put outside the bomb shelter to test if the air is safe… oh, and don’t forget to try the brownies I made for you. They were telling me how they faithfully go to Hebron to pray at the tomb of the Patriarchs. This was just days before the shooting in Hebron. One friend later emailed me of how she and others from Efrat lined the road of the funeral procession for those killed.”

The mission was both travelers’ first trip to Israel; while there, they made time to visit both Christian and Jewish religious and historical sites.

“The Jewish sites are also relevant to my faith,” Abers says. “I enjoyed seeing the Kidron Valley, putting it in the perspective of Psalm 23 and the path Jesus took the night he was betrayed. But it also meant as much to me to see it and know its artifacts from the First and Second Temple were dumped as the Waqf did construction on the Temple Mount.”

“I enjoyed them more with our Jewish guide, Doron Bookshitein, than I would have with a Christian guide,” Ceria says. “The roots of Christianity came from the Jewish people. It was mind-blowing, seeing the Shadow of the Valley of Death. To think, so many Old and New Testament events took place there: Isaac and Jesus were sacrificed on the same hill, and Absalom’s and Zechariah’s Tombs are so close to each other.”

“I was actually frustrated by our guide telling us that icons and artifacts had sustained the Christian faith,” Abers says. “He seemed convinced that the early Christians were in such dire straits that the only things to sustain their faith were these objects Constantine’s mother preserved. He finally asked me what I thought could sustain them if not this and I answered, ‘The Holy Spirit.’ The conversation continued to The Church of All Nations, where he said that if it had not been for Constantine, Christianity would have just been, at the very least, an offshoot of Judaism. I replied that this was the very relationship that needed reestablishing. After this, he simply said, ‘I cannot argue with you.’”

Both missionaries came back with strong feelings about the current conflict. “Being on the land gave me a better understanding of Judea and Samaria,” Abers notes. “Certainly there is enough land for Jews and Palestinians to live together peacefully. One day I traveled to Masada and the Dead Sea. The guide pointed out what looked to be a big ditch. There was not a drop of water to be found there, but he assured us that when it rains in Jerusalem, this is one of the rivers that flows to the Dead Sea. I so appreciated that a river doesn’t lose its name, even while it might not function as a river for years at a time.”

“I’m named for King David, a Jew,” Ceria says. “I love the Book of Psalms. God talks about the people of Israel, and for us to pray for the peace of Israel. Bless those who bless Israel, curse those who curse Israel. I don’t understand anti-Semitism because of that. It’s just hate. The ‘Philistines’ are taught to hate. It doesn’t make any sense.”

“We’re told throughout the scriptures,” Abers says, “that nations will go streaming up to Jerusalem and take hold of the hem of every Jewish man saying, ‘Let me go up with you, for I have heard God is with you.’ Why not, in faith, initiate that prophetic time right now? “
David adds, “An Israeli told me, ‘Keep on doing what you’re doing. Just love us.’”

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A. LARISSA TIERNEY
Jewish Journal Correspondent

WENHAM — Two recent colloquia at Gordon College explored Jewish, Christian and Muslim relations in the Middle East as part of a two-part series entitled, “Problems in Paying Attention: Israel and Palestine.”

An octet of voices from eight backgrounds shared a microphone and their desires for Middle East peace in a panel discussion, attended by 1,500 people, on Feb. 3.

“We Jews and Palestinians need your help, but you will not help us if you say this war means Jesus is coming soon,” said Rabbi David Klatzker of Temple Ner Tamid, Peabody, to the mainly Christian audience. “The only way you can help us is to encourage us to make unilateral gestures of goodwill.”

“We are human beings and we’re suffering,” said Dr. Kayed Khalil, the lone Palestinian on the panel. He took issue with American media’s one-dimensional portrayal of Palestinians as suicide bombers. He also stressed the need for peace.

“I’ve been angry and I’ve been peaceful, and I like being peaceful much better,” he said.

Born in a refugee camp in Beirut, Khalil married an American Jew over ten years ago. He has, since 1990, been involved with the American Jewish Committee’s Arab-Jewish dialogue group.

“Only a coexistence of mutual regard and respect guarantees any true peace,” said Amy Khalil, Kayed’s wife. She noted that raising three children with both religions has taught her to value “the other” as much as “one’s own.”

On Feb. 10, Brandeis University Professor Gordon Fellman addressed 1,500 members of the college community at the second part of the mini-series.

Fellman discussed possible avenues to peace. He proposed splitting the land so that each group would “relate to the entire land emotionally, but only to part of the land politically.” For this to happen, he said, the people would grieve over the land, but they would do it for the sake of peace.

“God is on the side of justice,” said Dr. Marvin Wilson, a professor at Gordon College and author of Our Father Abraham: Jewish Roots of the Christian Faith. “The Christian Church must never forget its ties with the Jewish people.” He also said Christians should support an equitable sharing of the land.

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International News

Peace Moves: Sincere or Politics?

LESLIE SUSSER

JERUSALEM (JTA) — After more than two years of a downward spiral in Israeli-Palestinian relations, the prospect of a new regional balance after an anticipated American war on Iraq is concentrating Israeli and Palestinian minds.

Both sides want to be ready for any new American demands after the dust settles in Baghdad. And so, after months of icy silence, Israeli and Palestinian officials have started talking again — and the upshot could be a new cease-fire.

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon says his aim is to create a basis for a major peace initiative later in the year. His critics, however, aren’t so sure: They accuse Sharon of going through the motions to keep the international community happy and to lure the Labor Party into his coalition.

Talks have been taking place on three levels:

• Sharon himself met Ahmad Karia, the speaker of the Palestinian Parliament, to discuss renewing the peace process and what it could offer the Palestinians;

• Sharon’s bureau chief, Dov Weisglass, has been discussing cease-fire terms with the Palestinian Authority’s interior minister, Hani Hassan, who is in charge of Palestinian security affairs; and

• Ohad Marani, director general of Israel’s Finance Ministry, negotiated with P.A. Finance Minister Salam Fayyad the transfer of $60 million in Palestinian tax money that Israel had withheld since the intifada began in September 2000.

But Sharon doesn’t want to be rushed. Therefore, he recently set up a team under dovish Likud Party legislator Dan Meridor to coordinate future moves with the United States, pre-empting pressure on Israel from the international community, especially the European Union.

Meridor is said to be working on a new Israeli-American peace plan based on understandings reached by Sharon and Bush in a number of recent conversations.

Sharon also invited Fayyad to his farm, where he outlined reforms the Palestinian Authority must make before serious peace talks can resume.
Sharon’s main demand is that P.A. President Yasser Arafat be stripped of his executive powers and pushed into a ceremonial role, with real power transferred to a prime minister.

Fayyad is a leading candidate for the job — and would probably be the first choice of Israel and the United States.

With Fayyad as prime minister, Israeli and American officials believe Bush’s two-state vision could become a reality.

But it’s not clear whether Fayyad has sufficient standing among the Palestinian public to win the job. Nor is it clear whether American and Israeli support will hurt Fayyad’s chances of taking power.

Most pressing, however, is a cease-fire, without which nothing will go forward. In talks with Hassan, Israeli officials are reviving the idea of a rolling” cease-fire that would begin in a limited geographic area and, if it holds there, would spread until it encompasses the entire West Bank and Gaza Strip.

At that point, Israeli troops could withdraw to positions they held before the intifada began, and more comprehensive peace talks could begin.
The trouble is that similar ideas have been tried before and failed. Putative cease-fires in Gaza and the West Bank cities of Bethlehem and Hebron failed to hold when the Palestinian Authority declined to confront terrorist groups.

Leslie Susser is the diplomatic correspondent for the Jerusalem Report.

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Features

News Q
Should the US Invade Iraq?

Text and Photos by Rebecca Gil

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BARBARA SIDMAN
Jewish Journal North of Boston

So, you’re going to be 21 years old this summer. I’d consider that a milestone for any young man or woman, Mike, but certainly, for you, it was a life-changing year to say the least.

I remember how amazed Daddy and I were when the doctor held you up and announced, “A strapping 9 pound boy!” You were beautiful, strong, and healthy, perfect in every way. At your 6-week checkup, the pediatrician noticed something special about you. “He has a wise look about him,” he said. “A thinker!” We laughed as I told him how perceptive he was, because six weeks earlier when Daddy came upstairs to tell me it was time to bring you down for the Brit Milah, you picked your head up off my shoulder and looked into my eyes so deeply that I truly felt you knew what was about to happen.

Over the years, you grew into a sensitive and caring child. You could wrestle and roughhouse with the best of them, but somehow you seemed different to me. Always the observer, you seemed content to sit quietly while other kids ran around energetically. Even when we encouraged you to join in the fun, you always listened to your own heart and went at your own pace.

High school was an exciting time for you. National Honor Society, the Derek Sheckman award, top English student, Brown University Book Award, Cohen Family Scholarship, etc., etc. You were loved by all your teachers and had lots of friends. As you went off to college, you seemed so excited and ready to try your wings. We all knew that there would be great things ahead.

When you came home from college for winter break in your sophomore year, you asked if we could have some time to talk. As we sat at the lighthouse in Marblehead, you turned to me to announce the big news. “Mom, I’m gay.” My heart pounded so hard I thought it would burst. “It’s true,” I thought to myself, “I always suspected this, and now he’s actually saying the words.” But as I looked deeply into your eyes, I saw something that hadn’t been there before. Peace, happiness, and contentment. And I knew all along that my heart had told me the truth.

You had been suffering from within, experiencing inner turmoil that I can only begin to imagine. Now, finally freed from the suffering and confusion that had held you prisoner for so long, your skin was clear, your eyes sparkled, and you glowed from within.

“How long have you known, Mike?” I asked.

“I should have known when I was in the sixth grade, but I guess I didn’t recognize what it was,” you said.

We sat and reminisced about who you were as a child, how unique and wonderful you had always been and continue to be. Yes, you said, you had told your brother and sister, and they had been so happy for you.

I would have expected nothing less from siblings as wonderful as yours. You are all blessed with a truly special relationship. You had joined a support group at school, you said, and as you told me of the horror that some of your gay friends had experienced with their families, I began to cry. A father threw his son out on the street and broke his arm after hearing that his son was gay. Another family disowned their son and told him not to come home. Yet another was willing to have their son come home as long as he didn’t talk about his “gay life” to any of his friends or family. This was too much to comprehend. Here I sat with my youngest son, adored by his family and friends unconditionally, and I thought, “How can you stop loving someone just because your own dreams for him are not the same dreams he has for himself?

Daddy and I pray that you will be safe in this crazy world where people can be so unforgiving and judgmental. But how can we not love you? We understand that this is not a choice you made, and if anything, we are responsible for your genetic make-up. Would it have been easier on all of us if you had been heterosexual? Of course, but we don’t believe that the God we pray to could ever not love you, the epitome of everything good in this world that is made in God’s image.

So, Mike, as your twenty-first birthday approaches this summer, Daddy and I wanted to give you something that would make a difference in your life. That is why we are starting a support group right here on the North Shore for gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered individuals and their families. You are a continuous source of pride and strength for us, a true role model, as we see how brave and proud you are as you embrace the future. We know that there are families out there who are suffering, and we would like to be able to help.

So Happy Birthday, Mike! God has given Daddy and me the privilege of bringing you into this world, and we have always been proud to say that we are your parents. We promise we will always be here for you. In our eyes, you truly exemplify the meaning of your name. “Michael, one who is like God.”

Barbara Sidman and her husband Alan live in Swampscott. She teaches at Cohen Hillel Academy in Marblehead and is education director at Temple B’nai Abraham in Beverly. Michael is a junior at McGill University in Montreal.

Local GLBT Group
A support group for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered (GLBT) individuals and their friends and families now meets on the North Shore. For more information, please call 978-741-7878, ext. 21.

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RABBI ILANA ROSANSKY
Jewish Journal North of Boston

Our Torah teaches us to help others; indeed, the Torah commands us to help others!

From Biblical times there has been this tradition that we must give 10% of our crops and cattle and other holdings to the Kohanim and Levites. We are taught to support our communal institutions. In Exodus (Exod. 22:24), we learn that the rich are the trustees to support the poor. Over the centuries, we have been taught to help those in need.

As many of you know, some of our Christian neighbors fulfill this commandment. They literally ‘tithe’, giving ten percent of their income to their churches. We witnessed an example of this generosity on Dec. 15th, when we held our joint program: ‘Comfort My People’ with our neighbors at the Christian Renewal Church and the Ministerios Conquista. That evening, after the Israeli Consul Dr. Hillel Newman spoke, they “passed the basket”. In 15 minutes they had raised just under $2,000 to contribute, not to the church, but to our jointly sponsored ‘Adopt-a-Family’ in Israel.

From early December, I have been calling attention to the fact that we on the North Shore face a serious problem that is likely to get worse before it gets better. A number of our fellow Jews, victims of downsizing, are unemployed. Some have been unemployed — or “between jobs” — for months, unable to find work in their own field. These are middle class corporate and professional people. They have, if they were eligible, already exhausted any unemployment benefits they may have received — a percentage of what they once earned. And they still haven’t found a job. Some are working in service sector jobs to try to earn money. They have mortgages or rent to pay.

There is an employment crisis ‘out there’. According to the New York Times, “The percentage of unemployed workers who can’t find a job before drawing their last benefit check is the highest in at least three decades...” Only ‘out there’ is ‘right here’, with our neighbors.

So, in the past month I have been appealing to our North Shore Jewish agencies and my colleagues to establish some kind of emergency fund ASAP. Since I began speaking about the urgency of not letting our fellow Jews become homeless, one more of the persons that I knew of has had to vacate his apartment. On the other hand, Jewish Family Service of the North Shore (JFS) may have helped him find a job. Still, it will be far more costly to help him get new housing than if we had been able to keep him in his prior housing.

There are 20 families currently registered for aid from the JFS Food Pantry. Probably at least 20 families are impacted by unemployment. They may have even been too embarrassed to come forward to ask for help from the food pantry. A monthly rent or mortgage payment probably averages $1200 per month. What would it cost to keep approximately 20 North Shore Jewish families from becoming homeless for the winter — say — the next three months, so they can continue to look for jobs? I figured 20 (families) x $1200 x 3 (months). I came up with $72,000!!

Then I said to myself: what working person on the North Shore would NOT give $100 to help out an emergency fund to help keep our Jewish families? I wasn’t thinking about big givers; about ‘them’. I was thinking about you and me. We are working people. Middle class working people. Is there any one among us who would not give $100 to help deal with this crisis for which there is no pre-existing source of funds?

I tentatively called my idea the 720 CLUB. I believe that we can find 720 Jews on the North Shore who would give $100 to an emergency fund to help prevent fellow Jews from becoming homeless. Would you like to join the 720 Club?? Would your conscience allow you to demur?

As I’ve been going around and speaking informally about this idea (and writing lots of annoying e-mails to people!), I have gotten several different kinds of responses. Some people have said: ‘Well, aren’t there some big donors out there?’; others have said, ‘This plan will never work’; but some have said: ‘Yeah, I’ll give you $100’!

I grew up in a close and caring Jewish community, in Cleveland. I was taught the importance of communal giving by the example my father, a high school teacher, set for us by his own giving relative to his income. I bought my very own Israel Bond before I had begun college. I was teaching Hebrew school and I had money, and I understood that I had an obligation to help.

So maybe I am naïve, but I genuinely believe that the North Shore’s new Jewish Community Emergency Fund, established in January, will be filled with donations from you and your neighbors and friends.

Surely more than 10,000 North Shore Jewish families can raise $72,000 to take care of the growing number of unemployed Jewish families and ensure they do not become homeless over the winter months.

Donations can be sent to the Jewish Community Emergency Fund, PO Box 8217, Salem, MA 01970.

Rabbi Rosansky is spiritual leader of Temple Shalom in Salem.

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RAHEL MUSLEAH
Special to the Jewish Journal

Jessye Waxman, 10, and her brother, Avir, 6, have three piggy banks for depositing portions of their allowance. Following a family tradition, ten percent goes to tzedakah and twenty percent to savings. The rest is for spending.

“You teach kids to make decisions for themselves,” says their mother, Eve Keller, associate professor of English at Fordham University in New York. “The most important thing is to act responsibly, with money and everything else.”

Keller does not view her philosophy as specific to Judaism. In fact, many of us perceive money as the most secular of subjects and tithing, specifically, as a Christian concept. But money — and how to use it — is actually an essential Jewish value dating back to the Bible. Abraham was the first to offer a tithe (Gen. 14:20). That “tenth of everything” has become a guideline for how much tzedakah to give.

Tzedakah pops up as a priority in any conversation about Judaism and money. Rabbi Mordecai Liebling teaches his five children — ages 9, 11, 14, 17, and 21 — that the joy of giving exceeds the joy of receiving. As in many traditional households, the family puts money in a tzedakah box before lighting Shabbat candles. On one of the nights of Chanukah, they empty the box, count the money, and discuss where it should go.

Liebling says the Torah contains more mitzvot relating to money and business ethics than any other subject. The rabbi is director of “Torah of Money” at the Shefa Fund, which promotes socially responsible giving and investing. He urges parents to discuss giving—or not giving—to homeless people. “If your kids see you are not giving, you need to explain why you are walking past. You can say that you give to a social service agency or a shelter, but if you don’t give the child an explanation, what message are you sending?”

Kids’ tzedakah isn’t usually left up to volunteerism. Many synagogues now require a percentage of bar mitzvah gifts to be earmarked for good causes. Danny Siegel, a tzedakah pioneer, calls the trend a “revolution.” As founder and chairman of the Ziv Tzedakah Fund, Siegel lectures throughout the country on the importance of giving.

When kids ask what kind of project they can do, Siegel responds, “What do you like to do? What are you good at? Who do you know?” Whether it’s computers or sports or manicures, there’s surely a mitzvah project lurking within. Through its newsletter and website (www.ziv.org), Ziv publicizes its “mitzvah heroes” — kids and adults who have organized distinctive and creative ways of giving. Peer examples can motivate kids to see that giving can be cool.

For many parents discussing money with kids can be like walking a minefield loaded with anxieties, taboos, peer pressures and unresolved messages. Both parents and children miscast money as a measure of self-esteem and power. Repeatedly, I hear from my daughters, “I need that,” when they really mean, “I want that.”

Talking to kids about money is like any other parenting issue, says Allan Gonsher, child therapist, rabbi, and author of An Allowance is Not a Bribe: And Other Helpful Hints for Raising Responsible Jewish Children (Aronson). “Parents have to be ready to say, ‘This is what I believe,’ even though the Goldbergs and Kleins don’t do it this way. It’s about being able to say no.” Lay the foundation early, Gonsher suggests.

Engage your kids in direct, honest and age-appropriate conversations, but don’t confuse talking about money with lecturing about money, warn Eileen and Jon Gallo in Silver Spoon Kids: How Successful Parents Raise Responsible Kids (Contemporary Books). “It’s all too easy to start a money conversation and end up with a lecture that incorporates the following: ‘Money doesn’t grow on trees; do you think I’m made of money?’”

Whether we choose to address it directly or not, we can’t help but teach our kids —by example. “By observing how we handle money, children reach conclusions about what is important in their family — appearance, possessions, education, philanthropy,” says Gail Josephson Lipsitz.

The director of community relations for the Jewish Family Services of Central Maryland and author of Practical Parenting: A Jewish Perspective (Ktav), Lipsitz says, “Money is a wonderful vehicle for parents to teach children values and prepare them for adult life. In learning to manage money, children gain experience in planning, making choices, taking responsibility, and being independent.”

One of the thorniest of challenges is a child’s allowance: how much to give, what it should include, whether it should be tied to chores or behavior. Lipsitz’s son David held his first job at age 8: he picked up nuts that fell off a tree in a neighbor’s yard — for a penny apiece. David graduated to mowing lawns and, after his bar mitzvah, being a Torah tutor. From his earnings, he has paid in part for a Jewish summer camp program as well as for the Maccabi games in Israel. “Even a token amount gives a good message — that everything is not handed to you on a silver platter,” says Gail Lipsitz.

Rahel Musleah is an award-winning journalist and author who presents programs on Jewish India, where she was born. Please visit her website: www.rahelsjewishindia.com.

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DORON KORINOW
Special to The Jewish Journal

As the sun in Jerusalem began to set on Saturday evening, Feb. 1, I walked with friends to the Promenade, a lookout atop one of the hills in Jerusalem. From the Promenade, one has a breathtaking view of the Old City and also much of the new city of Jerusalem. We found a bench between two olive trees and stopped to breathe in the crisp evening air as the Sabbath slowly disappeared behind the distant hills of Jerusalem. I thought to myself how peaceful the view appeared and thanked God for keeping this city quiet during the past few weeks. I glanced up to the already dark blue sky to find the three stars that mark the official end to the Sabbath. I found one, and then right away found another. Two down, one more star to find. Where is it? I couldn’t find a third star. I waited a minute, and still, no third star. Strange? It was 5:30 p.m. in Jerusalem, 10:30 a.m. in Boston, exactly one hour and a half after the shuttle Columbia broke apart in the sky. There was the third star.

It’s impossible to exaggerate how much Israel had invested psychologically in this space mission. For the first time in a very long time, it gave Israelis something to be happy about. For weeks, a new headline dominated the front page of its newspapers, one that replaced the word “explosion” with “exploration” and talked about a mission to space as opposed to the mission of a suicide bomber. Finally, Israelis could escape their feelings of desperation, helplessness, confusion and anger; they embraced the excitement of sending the first Israeli into Space.

Ilan Ramon was more than a hero in Israel — he was a symbol of the better times that lay ahead for the people of Israel. Ilan was someone for whom every Israeli could smile about and say, “That’s our Ilan.”

Israeli television followed every move of STS107. When the shuttle took off on Jan. 16, television stations dedicated the whole day to the story of Ilan and his family. I got to know the Ramon family, as did most other Israelis. Rona, Ilan’s wife, became known in Israel as being very nervous about the space mission, and she spoke numerous times about the moment when Ilan touches earth after his voyage. Ilan spoke about one dream over the past few years: to reach space. Rona spoke of two dreams: first, for Ilan to reach space, and second for Ilan to come home safely. Rona’s second dream was 16 minutes from being fulfilled.

The day after the tragedy, I sat in the Frank Sinatra Cafeteria at Hebrew University, eating lunch with a few friends during a half hour break from class. I glanced around at the newly furnished cafeteria, and then stared for a moment at a sign on the wall that read, “Pay attention to suspicious bags.” About seven groups of people were eating in the cafeteria, each group sitting at least a few tables away from one another. Then, I realized: The last time Americans and Israelis were killed together was in this very room, in the very spot where I was sitting. On July 31, this room looked very different, filled with nine bodies, including four Americans, a tragic scene that connected both countries to the terrorism that still pervades our lives.

Looking at the picturesque view of Jerusalem on that Saturday night, I never would have thought such a tragedy could occur. It just wasn’t fair that the aspirations and joy of Israelis could once again come to a deadly end. The hope in the eyes of many Israelis even permeated my hopes for a better future. The headline of today’s paper, in Hebrew, read: Bochim al Ilan, Crying for Ilan. His last words to his family, transmitted during the shuttle’s last day in orbit, were: “Although everything here is incredible, I cannot wait to see you. Big hugs and kisses to the children.” An extraordinary achievement for Israel, finally, a beacon of light through the dark months of violence, a man seen as a hero not only by Israel, but by the Jewish people worldwide: devastated, shocked and paralyzed by the fate of the common bond connecting two amazing nations and two amazing peoples.

May the crew of Columbia STS107 rest in peace and may the future bring peace and happiness to the people of Israel and to people throughout the world.

Doron Korinow, a student at U Mass-Amherst, is currently studying at Hebrew University in Jerusalem. He is the son of Rabbi and Mrs. Ira Korinow of Temple Emanu-El in Haverhill.

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Engaged

Karas Chronicles Bulger's Underworld

JEWISH JOURNAL STAFF

“It’s been an amazing experience,” says Marblehead author Phyllis Karas, talking about the life and times of an enforcer for the celebrated fugitive James “Whitey” Bulger, which she chronicles in her latest work of nonfiction.

Karas’ new book, due out from Steerforth Press May 1, is Street Soldier: My Life as an Enforcer for Whitey Bulger and the Boston Irish Mob. It features a one-time Bulger sidekick named Edward J. MacKenzie, Jr. of South Boston, who did hard time for being, in Karas’ words, “a leg breaker, literally” for Bulger. Her agent found the man, now out of prison, looking for a writer, and Karas fit the bill.

Learning about the South Boston underworld from scratch “helped me tell Eddie’s story in a way that connects with ordinary readers,” says Karas, “because I had the same questions they do.” In exploring Boston’s underworld, Karas spent time interviewing prisoners at Walpole State prison, where, among other things, she learned “you can’t pass a security check if you’re wearing shoulder pads (in your jacket).”

The underworld of Street Soldier is a long way from the world of Aristole Onassis, which she explored in her last book, The Onassis Women, on which she collaborated with the late shipping magnate’s private secretary, Kiki Moutsatsos. “In some ways,” she says, “I was more comfortable in (the Onassis) world than in a world just 30 minutes from the North Shore.”

With Street Soldier put to bed, Karas has lately turned her attention to exploring other worlds. As a Boston stringer for People magazine, she recently interviewed actress Angelica Houston and movie director Martin Scorcese.

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GARY BAND
Jewish Journal Staff

Judy Levine, director of Summer Camp and Trip Resources in Framingham knows camps. A former camp director herself for over 10 years, she now places kids from across the country and overseas in camps throughout the United States.

“I invest a lot of time and energy with every family I work with,” says Levine from her home office.

Now in her tenth year in the camp placement business, she also has an office in New York.

Her service is free to families, and Levine gets paid by the camps when the summer is over. So far no campers have called their parents to be picked up early. Her placement numbers increase every year, but average around 400 annually.

How does Levine help families select an appropriate summer experience? “It depends what a family is looking for, what a family can afford. Some make the mistake of sending their kids to a camp where all the kids from that area go. That sort of defeats the camp experience,” she advises.

Decisions about different Jewish camps usually divide along lines of observance, Levine says. For instance, Camp Micha in Maine (private) has no kosher food, but it’s really a hamisher place.”

Levine says that around 80 percent of the families she deals with are on the fence. “They don’t specifically ask for a culturally Jewish camp, but they want a Jewish population.” She says that most camps, even non-sectarian, attract a large number of Jewish kids.

Some of the nonsectarian camps have a Friday night service because of the large number of Jewish students. Some more observant ones, like Camp Ramah in Palmer, MA offer bar and bar mitzvah lessons for those whose big days are coming up and don’t want to lose ground over the summer.

Basically, the family contacts her. She does a phone interview to see what the parents and kids are looking for in a program. Maybe they’re looking for a Jewish camp, maybe not. She tries to get a good picture of a child’s interest, personality, social skills, and how they interact with peers and adults. Then she finds out what their budget is and shows them options appropriate for their kids.

“I send them five or six choices to look at, maybe meet with the family at home, and narrow the choices down. I then arrange a personal interview with the camp director, and try to see the kids at camp over the summer and send an evaluation form to the family.”

Levine also works with therapeutic and special needs day and overnight camps. (See next issue for a list.)

The following is a list of the most popular Jewish overnight camps in the New England area. All camps are non-profit and range in price from approximately $2,000 to 5,000.

Camp Avoda — located at the gateway to Cape Cod on Lake Tispaquin in Middelboro, MA, Camp Avoda (“work” or “service”) is a nonprofit overnight camp for Jewish boys 7-15 years old, currently in grades 1-9. Established in 1927, Avoda can accommodate 150 campers on 50 acres of land. Camper-Counselor ratio is 4:1. The oldest Jewish boys camp in New England, Avoda offers a wide variety of activities including all land and water sports and is accredited by the American Camping Association. One 2-week, two 4-week or one 8-week session. Jewish dietary laws observed. Call director Bob Stone at 781-334-6275 or visit campavoda.org.

Camp Bauercrest — Established in 1931, Camp Bauercrest in Amesbury, MA is a residential summer camp for approximately 250 boys ages 8-16. High percentage of returning counselors and campers. Excellent working conditions, facilities and equipment for a full camp program with an emphasis on athletics. Located one hour from Boston. Call 978-388-4732.

Camp Pembroke — Founded in 1938 by Eli & Bessie Cohen, Camp Pembroke in Pembroke, MA is a camp where a girl can be a girl, free from the self-consciousness that so often accompanies co-ed living. The spiritual and ethical values of Judaism inform and enrich the Camp Pembroke experience; it’s about Jewish living, and it feels natural to all campers who come from diverse backgrounds. Full season program and two half-season programs, serving a total of over 400 girls each summer, and never more than 275 at a time. Quiet and secure, the facilities are clean and welcoming. Each cabin has at least two toilets, two showers and three sinks for bunk groups of 8-15 girls. Call 508-881-1002 or 1-800 375-8444 or visit cohencamps.org.

Camp Tevya — Founded in 1940 by Eli & Bessie Cohen, Camp Tevya in Brookline, NH is a coed camp where campers learn to appreciate the values of sharing and working together while developing independence and self-esteem. The goal at Tevya is to provide children with a happy, healthy, and rewarding camp experience. Throughout the summer, the staff seeks to foster growth and character development for each child. Camp Tevya is dedicated to providing a meaningful Jewish cultural experience. Shabbat approaches with a quiet and calm Friday evening service in the
outdoor chapel, and helps campers appreciate their Jewish heritage. Campers are also exposed to Israeli dance, music and stimulating cultural sessions. Call 508-881-1002 or 1-800 375-8444 or visit cohencamps.org.

Camp Tel Noar — Founded in 1945 by Eli & Bessie Cohen, Camp Tel Noar in Hampstead, NH is a coed camp that encourages kids to be themselves. Creative Sabbath services, Havdallah, blessings before and after meals, stimulating culture sessions, and Israeli songs and dances provide campers a meaningful Jewish living experience. Full season program and two half season programs, serving a total of over 400 children each summer, but never more than 275 at a time. Cabins are large and airy with real windows, screens, closets and built-in drawers. In most cases, three cabins are connected by a spacious lounge with a fireplace where groups have an ideal area for games or just getting together. Bunks are clean and secure with hot showers and complete bathrooms. Indoor facilities feature basketball, volleyball, theater and game rooms. Brand new state-of-the-art dining room, modern kitchen and skilled staff. Call 508-881-1002 or 1-800 375-8444 or visit cohencamps.org.

Camp Yavneh — A coed overnight camp in southern New Hampshire for ages 8-16. Complete land and water sports. Artists in residence with full arts program. Hebrew and Judaic classes at all levels. Kaytana, a 12-day first time overnight camping experience for grades 2-4 available. Shabbat observant, kosher with vegetarian option. Call Debbie Sussman at 617-739-0363.

Camp Ramah — Now in its 50th year, Camp Ramah in Palmer, MA is a conservative coed nonprofit camp serving approximately 400 campers per summer from grades 2-10 2-, 4- and 8-week programs, available. Kashrut laws strictly observed, havdalah and Shabbat observance, waterfront swimming, boating, new library, soccer, softball, tennis, creative arts and crafts, dance, drama. Call 781-449-7090 or visit campramahne.org.

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SALEM — Local mechanics rejoice. My 1987 Honda Accord is no more.

Yes, after four years and as many thousand dollars in repairs, the nice people at Affordable Auto on Canal Street in Salem took it off my hands for a mere $500. In its place? A shiny black 1997 Civic HX. Mileage? Less than half what the odometer read when I happily transferred all my accumulated possessions from one trunk to the other two weeks ago.

Truth be told, on the day I began the process of buying the car, I foolishly thought I could make the Accord last just a little longer. Knowing full well how much more the car needed, and with the final day to get the car inspected without risking a ticket rapidly approaching, I set out to replace a damaged side-view mirror, find a car wash and make it to my new favorite state inspection center in Beverly Farms before closing time.

But lo and behold, en route to the car wash, I passed this dealership at whose many selections I’d stared many times before. And among the Subarus, Toyotas, Nissans and Volkswagons, there they were: two Civic models that I’ve always liked.

After spending some time in a Jetta and later explaining to the salesman my objection to buying a German car, I casually asked about the Civics. After a test drive, I returned thinking how much I wanted the car but less enthusiastic about how I might pay for it. I thanked the salesman, said I’d have to think about it, plan a small bank robbery, and be back in touch. No problem.

No sooner had I driven off in my own dilapidated car than a strange hesitancy occurred for perhaps the tenth time. That’s it, I inwardy declared. I need a new car no matter what. And one week and a couple thousand dollars I don’t have later, I’m sitting in a new car.

No more strange sounds emanating from every corner while I drive. No more rust stealthily making its way from the gas tank area and gobbling up more unsuspecting metal. No more apologetic explanations to the good people at Goodyear Gemini about my beleagured car’s latest malfunction.

In fact, when I went in there last week to check on — God help me — a slight malfunction in the new car, the manager Paul — who knew my old car’s mechanical history better than anyone — was happier for me than anybody I know. “Did hell freeze over?” he quipped peering out the window at my four-wheel investment. “How many miles? 92,000, it’s just broken in.”

Wish me luck. I’m on the road again.

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Arts & Entertainment

A Writer Searches for His Hero and Finds Himself

MARK ARNOLD
Jewish Journal Staff

Confessions of a Hero Worshipper, by Stephen J. Dubner, William Morrow/Harper Collins, New York,
260 pages, 2003, $24.95.

If you read his earlier work, Turbulent Souls, you know Stephen Dubner grew up in a large Catholic family only to discover in adulthood that his strictly religious parents were converted Jews from Brooklyn. The book describes how that discovery led to his own spiritual awakening and his return to his Jewish roots.

The new book finds Dubner seeking — almost stalking — the man who became his hero after he lost his father at the age of 10. The man, Franco Harris, earned his way into the pantheon of sports heroes as a running back for the Pittsburgh Steelers in the 1970s.

The high point of his career was a play forever immortalized in the phrase “the immaculate reception,” when Harris intercepted a pass in a 1974 playoff game against the Minnesota Vikings and ran 60 yards to score the winning touchdown. In that moment, a star-struck boy in upstate New York, watching the game on television while clutching a worn-out hassock, became transformed.

“If a three-yard swing pass, thrown in desperation, could bloom into a 60-yard touchdown play,” writes Dubner, “why couldn’t a fatherless boy in Duanesberg, New York, turn himself into a clever bird and fly out of the grasp of everything that bounded him — his church, his mother, and even his father’s hassock, which leaked stuffing through its dung-brown vinyl covering but which he clung to as if it were a life raft?”

Harris became, for Dubner, a surrogate father. Dubner dreamed of Harris, prayed to Harris, and, on occasion in his youth, even signed his own name “Franco Dubner.” But he never contacted Harris until 20 years later, when as a reporter for the New York Times he decided to look up his childhood idol. The ostensible reason was to do a “where are they now” type of profile for his paper. His real motivation was more personal: He hoped that Harris “would somehow offer up that missing piece of me.”

He found the former football great running a baked goods company in Pittsburgh. They met, they talked, and they bonded — or so Dubner thought, until he tried to stay in touch with Harris and got put off time and again. Harris proved elusive, withdrawn, and unknowable despite the Herculean efforts the author made to learn what made him tick.

The fact is, Harris didn’t want Dubner, or anyone else, to learn what made him tick.

If this were only a story about a man’s quest to understand his boyhood hero, it would be marginally notable. But the book is much more than that. Like Turbulent Souls, Confessions takes the reader on a journey of self-discovery. Through his search, Dubner learns more about who he himself really is and what he believes.

Along the way he provides a fascinating inquiry into the nature and role of heroes, historically, and — post 9/11 — in our own country. He also probes the differences between Jewish heroes and Christian heroes (the Jewish heroes all had character flaws) and reveals that most, if not all, of the comic book superheroes — Superman, Batman, the Green Lantern, Spiderman, Captain America — were Jewish creations.

Dubner has done it again — written a compelling personal story with universal overtones about the search for meaning in life. And he demonstrated the maxim of the late journalist Murray Kempton of the New York Post: “There are few worse mistakes than the close-up inspection of one’s heroes.”

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BRETT M. RHYNE
Jewish Journal Staff

Wendy Liebman became a comic after attending “How to be a Stand-up Comedian” at the Cambridge Center for Adult Education in 1984. Since then, she’s made dozens of appearances on broadcast and cable TV, appeared in films and, most recently, got engaged. Wendy visits Boston’s Comedy Connection on Feb. 14 and 15. The Journal spoke with her at her California home.

Jewish Journal: Hi Wendy, it’s The Jewish Journal.
Wendy Liebman: Oy!

JJ: Mazel tov on your upcoming nuptials.
WL: Thank you. I have to find a rabbi. We’re expecting about 150 people, depending on how many fly out from New York. At this point, it’s become a Broadway production. I’m not sure if I should wear white. I’m a sloppy eater. When I was getting the wedding dress, the saleswoman kept saying, “You look beautiful, very sexy. Men love this dress.” I said, “What are you telling me this for? I already have the man.” I did get my birth certificate, though, because I thought I needed it for the wedding. Now I know how old I am.

JJ: You went to Wellesley. How often do you get back to New England?
WL: Once every 50th reunion. I do seem to return to Boston every year — it’s like a Valentine’s Day tradition. Unfortunately, my fiancé will still be here in California. He’d better send me flowers. He did last year, and actually had them delivered on stage. My parents are coming up from Long Island for the Boston show. They’ve seen me perform so many times. I think they come now for the free drinks.

JJ: How would you describe your humor?
WL: Funny. A little self-deprecating but triumphant. I use wordplay a lot. Someone called it “verbal magic.” I don’t really talk about being Jewish in my act. I just am Jewish. I am very spiritual, though. Coincidentally, both my manager and my business manager are Orthodox. I did recently play a number of Florida retirement communities. The thought of it scared me, but I did pretty well. I was invited back in 2005. I think I came home from that more Jewish. I was talking with a thick Long Island Jewish accent.

JJ: Who do you think is funny?
WL: Steven Wright is very funny, very dry. Among my contemporaries, I think Jake Johanson and Kevin Meaney are funny. It’s not just what they say, it’s who they are. I was thrilled recently to perform for Carl Reiner and Sid Caesar at a charity event. Sid must be 90.

JJ: Comedians seem to live a long time. Why do you think that is?
WL: It’s all that breathing. No, really, I’m being serious. I work with a research project, Rx Laughter, which looks at the actual physical links between humor and healing, laughter and health. I think laughing together is healing.

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A. LARISSA TIERNEY
Jewish Journal Correspondent

WENHAM – Silence filled the small theater as Deb Ellison, playing Sonia Weitz, stood under the spotlight. “Silence,” she finally said, “makes us uncomfortable. We must speak into the silence.” I Promised I Would Tell addresses that silence with its tale of Holocaust survivor Sonia Weitz.

I Promised I Would Tell, presented by Gordon College’s History Alive program, is based on Weitz’ memoir.

At age 11, Weitz and her family were forced to move into ghettos with other Polish Jews. When the Nazis deported the Jews to death camps, Weitz lost all 83 of her relatives except her sister, who survived five Nazi concentration camps with her.

The title of Weitz’s memoir comes from her mother. As she is led away to a death camp, she asks Weitz to promise to tell the world about the injustices: “Remember I love you. And remember to tell the world.” Weitz has kept her promise.

Gordon’s production includes a cast of nine, some of whom play multiple roles. The actors realistically bring to life Weitz's horrific memories of concentration camps. In the small theater, close interaction with the audience helps put the tragedy of the Holocaust on a personal level.

With the use of minimal props, an effective silhouette screen behind which Nazi shootings are portrayed and sound effects that help the cast of nine seem larger, History Alive puts on a compelling performance. The cast does a fine job of portraying the tragedy with the seriousness and emotion it deserves.

Despite the inherent sorrow, this play carries a redemptive theme. At the end, the adult Weitz writes a poem about how she questioned God during those years of suffering. She goes on to say, “But now I feel God wasn’t dead and where was man, I ask instead.” History Alive intends to take the production to schools in order to teach students about the Holocaust so history will not repeat itself. They want to help speak into the silence.

To schedule a performance, or for more information, contact Norm Jones at 978-867-4274.

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Singles

Teen Scene

MATT SHUTZER
Jewish Journal Correspondent

MARBLEHEAD — Annaliese Feldman, a 15-year-old Marblehead High student, likes dating Jewish guys.

“The dances at our temples help me get to know the whole Jewish community,” she says.

Annaliese frequently attends events organized by United Synagogue Youth, or USY, a program devoted to bringing Jewish teenagers from nearby synagogues together.

“I talk to people from all over the North Shore,” Annaliese notes. “My friends and I really enjoy meeting the guys.”

Courting within Judaism is not an ideal shared by all, though. “ It isn’t that I go out of my way not to date a Jewish boy,” says Elena Posner, a 16-year-old Swampscott High student. “I just like who I like.”

While the attitude that love is blind to religion is common among many assimilated young Jews of today, it’s nothing new. “Going against the grain is deeply rooted in the American Jewish psyche,” opines Leonard Levy, an octogenarian and grandfather of three.

“Although I haven’t dated Jewish, it doesn’t mean I won’t marry Jewish,” Elena maintains. “My parent’s values belong to me, and I would hope to share them with my children.”

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Editorial

The 'Who's-a-Jew' Guessing Game

No group delights more in discovering that some public figure shares their ethnic heritage than we Jews. “Did you know that (blank) is Jewish?” is a question that usually can be counted on to elicit interest whenever Jews meet.

Now, in the latest chapter in this ancient guessing game, the “blank” has become Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry, and the rest of the phrase has been modified to reflect the fact that not Kerry but both his paternal grandparents were born Jewish (and converted to Catholicism). Kerry knew about the grandmother but not the grandfather, until informed by a reporter for the Boston Globe.

The news value of the story rises from the prominence of the subject — Kerry is, of course, now a Democratic candidate for President — and several incongruities: He has, until now, been widely regarded as a descendent of Yankee blue bloods (only on his mother’s side, it turns out); that he is a practicing Catholic, that Kerry is a common name in Ireland, from where many of his constituents hail, and lastly, that he is possessed of a face that has been described as “looking like the map of Ireland.”

Hardly was the story out than Kerry began capitalizing on it. Speaking to members of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee in Boca Raton, Fla, he retold the story of his grandfather’s name change — from Kohn to Kerry in 1902, three years before coming to the United States from Austria. He said he was “excited about learning the full measure” of his family’s history. “I really embrace what I have learned,” he said.

There has been speculation that Kerry might now split the Jewish vote with the bona fide Jewish presidential candidate, Connecticut Sen. Joseph Lieberman. That’s highly doubtful. Kerry has always been a strong supporter of Israel, but Lieberman, an Orthodox Jew, lives his religion. With Lieberman, Jewish is not so much historical fact as defining characteristic.

Now comes the revelation that another Democrat running for President, Gov. Howard Dean of Vermont, has Jewish ties. His wife is Jewish and the couple is bringing up their children Jewish.

So what does it all mean? It means there can no longer be any doubt that Jews have made it to the top ranks of the American political system. And that as individual Jews, we can take some measure of pride in knowing that of the five current Democratic contenders for President — Lieberman, Kerry, Dean, North Carolina Sen. John Edwards, and the Rev. Al Sharpton of New York — three have a strong Jewish connection.

There may be more revelations to come. So who’s next in the “Who’s-a-Jew” guessing game? Condoleezza Rice?

MARK ARNOLD
Jewish Journal Editor/Publisher

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Local Columnists

Kerry's Grandparents and the Boston Globe

Did you read the story in the Boston Globe about presidential candidate Joe Lieberman’s grandparents having been Episcopalians who converted to Judaism?

Only kidding. It wasn’t there. But you might have read the Globe’s front-page story (Feb. 2) headlined “Search for Kerry’s roots finds surprising history.” And, as you, dear reader no doubt know by now, that surprising history? Kerry’s grandparents were Jewish.

The Globe put this story on the front page, one of six stories, the other five about the Columbia tragedy. On another news day it would not be much of a stretch to think that the Kerry story would have rated the major headline.

Now, if a rumor circulated that Kerry’s grandparents were Lutherans converted to Catholicism, would the Globe have pursued the story? I doubt it. If a rumor circulated that Joe Lieberman’s grandparents had been Unitarians or Quakers converted to Judaism, would the Globe have pursued the story? I doubt it.

But, if a rumor circulated that the grandparents of any of the current presidential candidates (excluding the Rev. Al Sharpton) had been African-American Baptists, would the paper have pursued the story? You bet they would.

I read it as the Globe’s clumsy way of declaring who does and who doesn’t meet the standards of immediate and full inclusion in the American ethnic or religious family. Either that or the people working at the Globe are too young to know that the Jewish grandparent issue for American presidential candidates was settled with Barry Goldwater’s candidacy in 1964.

You need to go quite high before newspapers spend money on this kind of research. Kerry, the senator, did not qualify. Kerry, the presidential candidate, does. Madeleine Albright rose to the position of Secretary of State before the Washington Post revealed, in January 1996, that three of her grandparents were Jewish and had perished in German concentration camps.

What to make of this? First, I do believe that the current American standard, both in law and in personal practice, is to respect the privacy of the individual and to accept people on their own merits.

I believe that people have a right to opt in or opt out of whatever situation they are born to. One of the greatest benefits of living in the United States is being able to achieve one’s goals based on personal merit and persistence. Sure, it helps to be a Bush, Kennedy or Rockefeller. But you can also be a Bill Gates, Joe Lieberman, Barbara Boxer or John Kerry.

Millions of Jews lost or gave up their Judaism since Moses crossed the Red Sea. In Spain, beginning in 1492, Jews either converted to Christianity for real or became Marranos —Catholic on the outside and Jews at home. The alternatives were expulsion or death. In the 1880s and thereafter, some Russian Jews left ghetto persecution and changed their names and religion.

Many Jews, in Nazi Germany and in Soviet Russia, hid their antecedents as best they could. A matter of survival, akin to the situation of the Marranos, except that this century’s Jews-in-hiding usually did not retain the Jewish rituals that had been a part of their former lives.

Both the USA and Israel today may each have millions of Jews who might have, but didn’t, bury their Jewishness. While I am full of gratitude to them, I cannot find it in my heart to deplore those who chose otherwise. I neither judge nor begrudge individual people who make personal decisions about their lives.

I do judge the Boston Globe and find them wanting.

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ELLEN GOLUB Jewish Journal North of Boston Ellen Golub teaches journalism at Salem State College. She may be reached at elkele@attbi.com

“The writing of the American-Jewish novel is essentially, then, an act of assimilation: a demonstration that there is an American Jew and that he feels at home!”

These words, written by literary critic Leslie Fiedler, who died recently, changed my life. Because of them, I packed my belongings into a U-Haul and moved to Buffalo to study with him. I took out loans and enrolled in a Ph.D. program. I read Jewish novels night and day, and devoted myself to studying literary theory while living on only $3,000 a year.

Leslie Aaron Fiedler was well established as the bad boy of literary criticism. Fifteen years before, his Love and Death in the American Novel set off fireworks when it announced that homoerotica, miscegenation and gynophobia were at the roots of American literature. Now his writing on American Jewish writers — equally original and breathtaking — lured me to Buffalo, where I believed I could save the Jewish people by discovering the theme that linked all of Jewish literature, ancient and modern.

It never occurred to me that there was an alternative path to save the Jewish people from assimilation. And so, as a graduate student in Fiedler’s department, I lived for several years with the strangest collection of roommates it may be possible to assemble and I became convinced that the only way to plant a vibrant Jewish civilization on these American shores was to cultivate a hybrid American Jewish imagination fully rooted in Biblical literature.

I carried Fiedler’s literary criticism with me wherever I went.

It was Fieldler — who wrote like an angel, looked like Santa Claus, and claimed to have heard Saul Bellow recite the divine comedy in Yiddish — whom I believed held the key.

I was still getting up the nerve to speak to him, when I pried open the doors and hopped on the elevator just outside the English Department office. There he stood, twinkling and shining as if horns of light radiated from his face. I choked. Then I knew I had to speak.

“Dr. Fiedler,” I said, my voice gushing with pious devotion, “I’ve read everything you ever wrote.” Fiedler looked amused.

“Well, not everything,” I said cautiously. “After all, I’m sure you’ve written things that you wouldn’t want anyone to read — like love letters and stuff. Not that I would want to read your love letters. I mean, there are probably things that you’ve written that you haven’t published — not because you couldn’t get them published, of course. I’m sure there’s never even a question of whether your work is publishable…”

He looked at me quizzically.

I was knee deep in miscommunication, hyperventilating, and still I continued. If the elevator doors hadn’t opened into the lobby at just that moment, I was sure I would have vaporized from embarrassment. Fiedler stared at me and raised his hand. Did he mean, “Shut up, I’ve had enough” or “Bye, see ya”?

To me, all of American Jewish civilization seemed to hinge on the answer.

To be continued…

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PHYLLIS DINERMAN Jewish Journal North of Boston Phyllis Dinerman is a resident of Marblehead and Boynton Beach, FL, and may be reached at sliceofLife@dinerman.com

My husband and I were having dinner in a lovely Italian restaurant, and I inadvertently overheard an interesting conversation between two couples at the next table.

The men, at this table, were wearing flowered shirts from the seventies, and the women had enough make-up on to sink a ship. Their voices were a tad loud, and the four of them were wearing more jewelry than Tiffany has in its showcases. The women were hunched over the table as if they had osteoporosis, and their heads were parallel with the table top due to the weight of their necklaces.

I heard one husband ask the other husband, “So, what cemetery are you going to be buried in? Where’d you buy plots?”

Have you ever heard a gentile ask another gentile that question? Gentiles don’t discuss that subject at dinner. Jews make it the topic of conversation. Jews have to be buried with the family. We must be together. Why?

When we’re alive there are times we don’t want to even sit together at the same table. Have you ever made a Bar Mitzvah or a wedding? Haven’t you heard? “Don’t sit me with Estelle. I’m not talking to her… this week.”

Estelle could be her sister, cousin, or even her mother. Yet, they want to be buried next to one another when “the time comes.”

Why do Jews want to be buried near each other? We want to make it convenient for the children to visit our graves.

They don’t visit us enough when we’re alive, but we expect them to visit us when we’re dead. So we make it convenient for them. They can “visit” the whole family at the same time.

Nu, does this make sense?

Why do Jewish people discuss their plots… at dinner, no less?

Maybe it’s a Jewish idiosyncrasy.

So where are yours?

Mine are in Temple Beth El Cemetery on Lowell Street in Peabody, but I’m in no hurry.

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Op-Ed

From Ramallah to Baghdad

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DANIEL PIPES Daniel Pipes (www.DanielPipes.org) is director of the Middle East Forum and author of Militant Islam Reaches America (W.W. Norton). E-mail to: Pipes@MEForum.org

Startling news came recently out of the FBI: the leadership had directed all of the bureau’s 56 field offices to count mosques in their regions as part of waging the war on terror.

Newsweek, which broke this story, explained that the information on mosques would specifically help “set numerical goals for counter terrorism investigations and secret national-security wiretaps in each region.” The New York Times acquired a closed-door statement by a senior bureau official confirming the mosque data would be used “to help establish a yardstick for the number of terrorism investigations and intelligence warrants” expected from field offices.

Reactions on the left and among Islamists were predictably outraged. The American Civil Liberties Union denounced the mosque-counting as “tailor-made for a witch hunt.” The Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism expressed “deep concern” about fundamental Constitutional protections being abridged.

The Muslim Public Affairs Council deemed it going “beyond the pale of legitimate law enforcement.” But the most colorful response came from the American Muslim Council, a Washington-based militant Islamic group. AMC characterized mosque-counting as an act of “political repression” by the United States government and wrote a letter to the United Nations pleading for relief from this and other “shameful and undemocratic practices.”

Barraged with criticisms, the FBI dissimulated, pretending that the purpose of mosque-counting has nothing to do with preventing possible mosque-based terrorist actions but is intended to learn the “vulnerabilities” of those structures, the better to protect them from possible assault.

To which I ask: Why does the leading law-enforcement institution in the United States hide its counterterrorism efforts? It’s known that some mosques throughout the West have been used as a base for terror, filling a variety of roles:

• Inciting violence: Brooklyn’s Al-Farooq Mosque was where the blind sheikh inspired the World Trade Center bombing of 1993;

• Planning operations: Milan’s Islamic cultural center served as Al-Qaeda’s main European base; and

• Storing weapons: London’s Finsbury Park Mosque, in a raid last month, yielded a stun gun, a blank-firing replica firearm, and a gas canister.

Nor is the FBI alone in hiding its methods. The US Immigration and Naturalization Service last month began requiring “certain temporary foreign visitors” from 25 countries to register in its offices. The INS pretends it is unaware that (with the exception of nearly non-existent North Korean visitors) all the affected persons hail from Muslim-majority countries.

Actually, there is a good reason for the FBI and INS to lie or mumble about devoting special attention to Muslims; this practice contradicts declared policy. When President George W. Bush states that “Islam is peace” and refers to “the peaceful teachings of Islam,” how can his law enforcement or immigration staff possibly acknowledge that Islam has any bearing on their work?

A vast disconnect, in other words, exists between the high-flying words of politicians and the sometimes sordid realities of counterterrorism. This discrepancy has real costs:

• Government employees on the front lines face a dilemma: to do an effective job, they run the risk of being accused of running afoul of studiously impartial government regulations, or even of breaking the law.

• The general population is confused: policy statements piously reject any link between Islam and terrorism but then the actions of fighting terror implicitly make just such a connection.

• Militant Islamic groups exploit this duality to argue that US government declarations are mere puffery meant to disguise what really is a war against Islam.

• Ordinary Muslims are confused: Do they believe their ears or their eyes? Do they listen to hypocritical politicians or straight-talking Islamists?

The gap between theory and practice can only be addressed by honest and open debate. Does the body politic want law enforcement to pay extra attention to Muslims? Does it favor Muslim visitors having to fill out extra paperwork? These practices do exist at present, but in a limbo, without sanction or legitimacy. They need either to be ended or made official.

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Was America listening when Israel spoke last week? Ariel Sharon’s second consecutive election victory was noted and then brushed aside by most of the mainstream media in this country.

On the day following the vote, most of the media’s attention focused on President Bush’s State of the Union address and its eloquent restating of the case for action against Iraq. A few days later, it was completely forgotten as both the United States and Israel were joined in shocked mourning over the tragic loss of the Space Shuttle Columbia with its crew of six Americans and one Israeli.

But to the extent that America’s chattering classes thought about the verdict of Israeli democracy, their conclusion was that the results meant nothing. According to the wise men and women who write editorials for daily American newspapers, Israel’s voters can’t be trusted to do what is in their best interests. And their only advice for the victor was to forget what he has promised Israel’s people and do as they demand.

On the day following his re-election, the New York Times insisted Sharon reward the terrorists for their 29 months of bloodshed by agreeing to negotiate concessions to them before they stop their campaign of terrorism. In a similar piece on the same day, the Washington Post even blamed Sharon for the breakdown of a peace process th