| The Jewish Journal Archive | |||||||||||||
| January 14 - January 27, 2005 | |||||||||||||
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Local StoriesRemembering Dr. King Mark
Arnold
With Martin Luther King Day fast approaching — it’s Monday, Jan. 17 this year — I decided to pass, not because we can’t afford the $50, but because I have my own first-hand memories of Dr. King, and they’re not limited to one march. Though I never marched with the man his followers called Martin, I followed Dr. King’s career at fairly close range, first as a student, later as a Washington-based reporter for the former Dow Jones newsweekly, the National Observer. I first met Dr. King 49 years ago, in the spring of 1956. The son and grandson of Protestant ministers in his native Atlanta, he graduated from Crozer Theological Seminary in Pennsylvania, then went on to get a Ph.D. in theology at Boston University. When he came to Oberlin College at the invitation of the campus NAACP chapter, in which I was active, he was the new 27-year-old pastor of the Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, AL. It was his first pulpit. An African-American seamstress named Rosa Parks on her way home from work refused to sit in the back of a local city bus because, she said, her feet were tired. When she was arrested, local blacks protested. Thus was born the boycott to end segregation at the bus company, and later in all local public facilities, including department stores and restaurants. It was the birth of the civil rights movement. We sensed, at our small college in Ohio, that this was the start of something big, and we wanted to be in on it. And so a group of 10 of us, black and white, at a round dinner table in a college dining hall, peppered with questions this proud, earnest, young country preacher — as he impressed us then — with the deep soulful eyes. He had been chosen to lead the boycott, and we wanted to know: What did he hope to accomplish? What threats had been made against him, his wife Coretta Scott King and their small children? Was he afraid? Why was he doing this? Did he really think he could bring down segregation in America? Dr. King’s answers earned our admiration, as did his talk to the student body later that evening, when he cited Mahatma Gandhi and Henry David Thoreau as sources of his evolving belief in what he called “civil disobedience.” I remember thinking: “If only he had the oratory and the imagery to match the majesty of his cause, how effective he could be.” They were to come later. I became a strong supporter of Dr. King, the Southern Christian Leadership Confer-ence (SCLC) he founded in Atlanta that same year, the civil rights movement, and equality of the races. I led a successful campus movement to de-certify private homes in town that rented rooms to white students, but not to non-whites. Besides convincing the college administration, we had to convince insensitive white students, who took the attitude: “Why should we all suffer just because blacks can’t live there?” To me — brought up with a Jewish social conscience — it was a matter of simple justice. The college agreed, and those homes that wouldn’t sign a nondiscrimination pledge lost their student subsidies. Dr. King and his SCLC organized a mass march on Washington in May 1957; 37,000 people turned out to support the cause. Partly in response, Congress created the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights and a civil rights division within the Department of Justice to investigate rights violations. SCLC organized voter registration drives throughout the South, marches and campaigns for school desegregation and better housing. On the 100th anniversary of Lincoln’s Emancipation Procla-mation, August 28, 1963, the most dramatic U.S. protest demon-stration ever mounted brought 200,000 people to Washington’s Lincoln Memor-ial. Highlight of the event — the defining moment — was Dr. King, at his most powerful, proclaiming what will ever be known as his “I Have a Dream” speech. I wasn’t there. As luck would have it, my Army reserve unit was called to summer duty that week. I listened to the speech while spit-shining my boots in an Army barracks at Camp Drum, NY, where I offered to turn up my portable radio so my bunk mates could hear Dr. King. No one was interested. I can still hear Dr. King’s voice — the stirring cadence of his words, the rising sense of righteous indignation, the clarion call to conscience — as if the event happened yesterday. His words moved me to tears. More important, they touched the soul of the nation, transforming a movement into a national consensus. From that moment on, the cause of Negro rights became the nation’s cause. A tectonic shift in public opinion took place that made it unacceptable to justify, or seek to defend, racial — and ultimately religious — discrimination. Jews as well as Negroes benefited from King’s call to conscience. I followed Dr. King when he took his campaign for racial equality North. I interviewed him in a rundown apartment he rented in a slum tenement in Mayor Richard Daley’s Chicago. His path was no easier there than in the South. When he challenged prevailing opinion by declaring himself against the U.S. war in Viet-nam, in 1965, he lost significant white support he had been building. How could he be so unpatriotic? He could, he said, because it was a matter of morality. In fact, the man who had transformed a nation, won a Nobel Prize — who survived the fire bombing of his Montgom-ery home, the privations of a Birmingham jail, a deranged woman’s stab wound, water hoses, tear gas, and dogs un-leashed by police, and even the constant wire-tapping and hounding by J. Edgar Hoover’s FBI — remained on the defensive until the end of his life. When I last interviewed Dr. King, three years before his death in Memphis, he had become a legendary figure on the world stage, yet a man of such equanimity that I had the feeling he was impervious to pain. Never have I been in the presence of one so comfortable with himself, so un-selfconscious, so — dare I say it? — saint-like. I had the impression that he was totally at peace with himself and the world, so dedicated to his cause as to be unconcerned with his own safety. In April 1968, while in Memphis to support striking sanitation workers, Dr. King was murdered. Though a ne’er-do-well named James Earl Ray confessed to the crime and died in prison, the crime was never solved, never thoroughly investigated. There are those who believe that J. Edgar Hoover had him murdered, convinced in his own paranoia that Dr. King was a Communist. Occurring during a period in which the country was increasingly divided over the war in Vietnam, this assassination — preceded by those of President John F. Kennedy and Malcolm X, followed two months later by that of Robert Kennedy — defined the 60s as a decade in which the United States seemed in danger of flying apart. We survived. Dr. King did not. But we are a better nation, and it’s a better world, for the impact of this brave, visionary leader. Sid and Jetta Indeck: A 60-Year Love Story Gary
Band The parents of three sons and grandparents of two, Sid, a machinist, and Jetta, a singer and painter, shared countless moments together since they were married when Sid returned from serving in the Army in China and India in 1946. But after a lifetime of raising a family, singing and creating hundreds of indelible works of art, Jetta suffered a series of strokes beginning in 2002. And following a number of hospital stays and over a year at home with a full-time nurse, diagnosed with Parkinson’s and a condition called Lewy body disease, a form of dementia related to Alzheimer’s, she was admitted to the Jewish Rehabilitation Center in Swampscott last July. Jetta will turn 80 on February 13. “Part of my life was gone,” Sid says with obvious emotion in the kitchen of the home where he and Jetta lived since 1976. “I think I would give anything for her to be all right, just to be herself, for one more year.” He visits her every day. Sometimes she recognizes him, sometimes she doesn’t. “I’m letting her down if I don’t go every day. Even if she doesn’t know me.” But
Sid knows her very well. He fondly recalls myriad details of their lives:
how they moved into their home on Lothrop Street, all the times Jetta
performed, and how they met for the first time on a double date in 1943.
“The first time I saw my wife, I thought she was the most adorable thing I had ever seen. She wore a plaid jacket and one of those hats with a feather in it. I got smitten right away.” Later that night he called her, and the rest is his and her story. Their relationship blossomed, Sid said, and one year later, just before he joined the Army and went overseas, he gave her an engagement ring. For 30 months Sid was attached to a railway battalion that brought supplies to the Allied troops in Burma and China. And as important and exhausting as his job was, he still wrote to Jetta everyday. Among all her paperwork and paintings, Sid found a yellowed copy of a poem he wrote from China in July, 1944. After Jetta graduated from Malden High School, she went to work for the Navy at the South Boston Shipyard. In addition to her work, she also sang with a choir to troops coming into the harbor. Sid returned from duty and the couple married at a hall in Dorchester. He went to work for Lawson Machine and Tool in Malden making airplane parts, and Jetta started singing: at weddings, churches, with orches-tras, symphonies, in choirs, as a soloist, and at bar and bat mitzvahs, including that of Leonard Bernstein’s son at Congregation Mishkan Tefila in Chestnut Hill, according to Sid. “Her voice was so beautiful,” Sid says. “She could have gone anywhere. She had offers to go to New York and Chicago, but she turned them all down to stay here and be with me and the boys.” While Jetta entertained quite a bit all around Massachusetts, Sid played a big role in caring for their three young sons, Alan, Paul and Jeffrey. But during the first years of their lives together, Sid said he never knew how much Jetta loved art. Now, in the basement of their home amidst hundreds of oils and watercolors, some going back to Jetta’s high school days, it’s clear how talented and dedicated she was to art, as well as music. Clearly blessed with natural talent, Jetta took lessons from a variety of artists, studied at the Museum of Fine Arts, and spent a good deal of time in Rockport as a member of the Cape Ann Watercolorists, For the last six months, Sid has been actively engaged in mounting and framing many of Jetta’s paintings, putting them on display and for sale at local art houses, such as the Mingo Gallery and Timeless Interiors at Pride’s Crossing in Beverly, A Touch of the Past in Salem, and Montserrat College. “She could see things in art and the world that no one else could see,” Sid says proudly. “She always loved good things.” With their grown kids and growing grandchildren nearby, Sid’s new pet miniature Schnauzer, Moxie, to take care of, his daily visits (with Moxie) to the JRC, and all the work he does to show Jetta’s paintings, Sid keeps very busy. Back upstairs in a room filled with paintings Jetta did or that were given to her by fellow artist friends, Sid moves framed prints from one side of the room to another, passing back forth in front of an oil painting of Jetta as a young woman. “This is what there is of my Jetta,” Sid says gesturing to the covered walls. “Her mind was so imaginative. She loved painting and it made her very happy. Though she was always very critical of her work and never wanted to show it. I feel great doing this for her, but I’d feel a lot better if she were here to help me.”
Marblehead Woman Desperately Seeks a Kidney Donor Susan
Jacobs MARBLEHEAD — On the surface, 32-year-old Vanessa Evans appears to have it all. A good-looking husband who adores her. A healthy newborn son. A lovely home in the suburbs. A job that she likes. One would never guess by looking at her that she suffers from nephrosis, a serious form of kidney disease. Vanessa must undergo 12 hours of dialysis each week, a grueling process that leaves the normally bubbly high school Spanish teacher weak and tired. Although she is on the top of the list for a kidney transplant, she has been waiting eight years with nary a call from the medical establishment. Evans is considered “highly sensitized” because her body has already rejected one kidney transplant, which she got from her mother in 1991. In order to receive a second transplant, she must find a donor who is a 100 percent perfect match. Although the chances of finding that are slim, she remains hopeful. “My family and friends have all been tested, and none of them are a perfect match. But there may be someone out there that is compatible. I just hope in my lifetime that I can find that person,” she says. Part of the problem is that there is currently no national living donor registry to link those who need a kidney with those who want to donate one. Because medical ethics in the United States prohibit the buying and selling of live organs, patients must locate their own donors and basically advocate for themselves. Elaine Salloway Rivkin, whose husband Steven died in 2003 at age 46 after a lifelong battle with kidney disease, hopes to change that. Rivkin
Foundation “My husband Steve, who had four unsuccessful kidney transplants over the course of his life and was on dialysis for 20 years, felt he never got any help or solutions from the medical community or any kidney organizations. His dream was to start a foundation such as this one, which we did in his honor after he died about a year ago,” she says. A walkathon organized by Rivkin’s 13-year-old niece, Leah Zuroff, raised over $13,000. Part of the money will be used to help difficult-to-match patients like Vanessa, who must outreach to literally thousands of people in order to find a potential match. Becoming
a Donor The surgery itself is rather simple. Done laproscopically, there are no scars and the recovery time is quick. Donating a kidney does not compromise the health of a donor — it is well-documented that people can live long, healthy lives with just one kidney. Elaine Salloway Rivkin points out that confusion and misunderstanding prevent many Jews from getting involved in organ donation. “Jewish law says we should not dismember or mark our bodies; however the Talmud states that if it’s done to save another person’s life, it’s the greatest mitzvah imaginable. The Talmud says if you save one life, it’s as if you’ve saved the whole world.” Vanessa and her husband Paul are active in the Jewish community. They are members of Temple Israel in Swamp-scott, and Paul serves on the Board of the JRC and the JCC. Elaine hopes to organize a blood-testing drive in the coming months to see if a potential local match exists for Vanessa. Until
she finds a match, Vanessa continues to live her life. Vanessa
and Paul recently had a baby, who was born to a surrogate on December
18, 2004. And the Marble-head High School teacher, who is currently out
on maternity leave, hopes to earn her Master’s degree online. To see if you might be a potential kidney match for Vanessa Evans, phone her directly at 617-921-7911. To make a financial donation to the Steven Michael Rivkin Foundation, please visit www. RivkinFoundation.org. or call Elaine Salloway Rivkin at 617-733-8078. New Members, Contributions Revive the NSJCC Gary
Band PEABODY — It’s been over seven months since the North Suburban Jewish Community Center nearly had to close its doors after 25 years of operation. On June 6, NSJCC President Greg Ehrlich and Treasurer Dr. Stu Pergament went to Federation, where they were expected to present their annual request for an allocation. But to the surprise of the committee, the two said they didn’t believe the center could remain open and did not request an allocation. As reported in the Journal’s July 30 issue, “Payments owed the landlord, flat revenue projections, large deficits and declining school enrollment all made the future look grim.” Ehrlich and Pergament took the forecast for the coming year back to their 22-member board, six of whom were newly elected, and met with a combination of resistance and determination. Following the four-hour June 22 meeting, the board resolved to improve operations by $100,000 to maintain and expand center activities. And they did. Three weeks later, Ehrlich went back to the Allocations Committee, explained how the Center could stay open with the additional funds raised, and were granted a $65,000 allocation. “In three or four months, we went from nearly having to close the doors to increasing our income by 50 percent,” said Ehrlich. “Instead of showing a projected loss for the year, we’re now in the black. It’s the best change in net assets in the last five years.” Ehrlich says the Center has also paid off its line of credit. This financial stability can be attributed to a large increase in the number of kids enrolled in JCC programs, and contributions of close to $50,000 from board members and a wide range of community members. Ehrlich is very appreciative of the board, community and Federation support, and especially thanks Barry Beck and Gary Coltin for the role they played as liaisons between the Center and the Federation. “Without this crisis, it wouldn’t have happened,” Ehrlich said. “It helped us pull together as a team — board, staff, teachers, people in the community. People want and need this place.” Child Care Plus, one of the Center’s main programs, provides care for infants ages 3-18 months and children 18 months to five years. Most of the families enrolled come from Peabody and Lynnfield, but others come from Newburyport, Rockport, Malden, Middleton, and North Andover. The Center also runs Kids Space, a before- and after-school program where tutoring and games are offered to elementary school kids. “It’s really the dedication of the teachers, staff and board that has kept our programs alive,” said Sue Callum, the NSJCC’s vice president of programming. “The word is absolutely getting out about us and our enrollment numbers keep going up.” Geared especially towards working parents, program enrollment increased from 72 to 130 this school year. And with longer hours, 7 a.m.-6 p.m., those numbers will likely continue to increase. As such, Center staff expect there soon to be a waiting list. Ehrlich said the Center changed its schedule and rate structure to be more accommodating to Jewish families where both parents work. And while he says the general enrollment is down around 20 percent, the revenue per child is up 50 percent among the Center’s key population. “It’s a destination once people know about us,” Ehrlich says. “We’re the only full-time, dual working family option for Jewish pre-schools between Marblehead and Newton.” The Center has come under criticism from segments of the community, including some rabbis, for staying open on certain Jewish holidays. Ehrlich explains that had the Center not changed its schedule, it would have lost members that account for 15 percent of its revenue. “There’s no doubt that after 25 years we would have closed our doors.” He also points out that during the holidays on which the Center is now open, the staff runs special programs about the significance of the particular holiday. Another change in the childcare department is the return of Sandy Hoffman who, after 10 years at the NSJCC, went to work at the JCCNS in Marblehead. She now divides her time between the two Centers and serves as the Early Childhood Supervisor at the NSJCC. Susan Novak is the full-time Early Childhood Director, who Ehrlich says is “the glue that holds the Center together. I can’t say enough good about her.” Additionally, the Center also has a long-standing senior program and sponsors a range of youth, family and holiday activities, all organized by volunteers. They include Rosh Hashanah dinners, Israeli dancing, a Chanukah party, a Sukkot festival, a Tu B’Shevat seder and a Purim party. Looking toward the future, Ehrlich says he would like to have a full-service facility, possibly, as proposed, next to Temple Ner Tamid. But he says the move must be based on “sound business fundamentals,” and is probably a little further down the road. “It’s much better to move forward on a stable foundation, and we’re moving in that direction. A building of our own is something I and our board are committed to doing — just not tomorrow.” National U.S. Expectations From Israel, Abbas WASHINGTON — It was an invitation without an RSVP. Come on over, President Bush told his newly elected Palestinian Authority counterpart — but let’s wait to set a date. The check is in the mail I’m just not sure how much. The decisive Jan. 9 election of Mahmoud Abbas, the mod-er-ate favored by Israel, the United States and the international community, has been followed by a flood of “What next?” that are decidedly less decisive. That leaves open crucial ques---tions about the coming year, including the long-term viability of Abbas and his commitment to end--ing violence, as well as his role in assuming control in the Gaza Strip and areas of the West Bank once Israel pulls out. Bush called Abbas on Jan. 10. “The president had a very good conversation with President-elect Abbas yesterday,” said White House spokesman Scott McClellan. “The president called to congratulate him.” Phone calls from Bush and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon came after Abbas extended an olive branch to Israel, saying “We extend a hand to our neighbors. We are ready for peace, peace based on justice.” That was just the message Bush and Sharon were waiting to hear before extending congratulations. Bush’s invitation to Abbas was dramatic, in that it was the first to a Palestinian Author-ity president since the Clin-ton administration. Bush’s policy was to isolate Abbas’ predecessor, Yasser Arafat, whom he linked to terrorism. But it was also hedged: “I look forward to talking with him at the appropriate time,” Bush said. “I look forward to welcoming him here to Washing-ton if he chooses to come here.” Bush’s reluctance to set a time for a call and a date for a visit suggested that the pre-election hesitancy to openly embrace Abbas had not passed with his election. “The United States has decided not to immediately invite him because if he comes to the United States now he’d have to go home empty-handed,” said Stephen P. Cohen, a scholar with the Israel Policy Forum, which promotes greater U.S. engagement in the Middle East. That’s because the administration is looking to see what first steps Abbas, also known as Abu Mazen, will take. It is also in part because both Bush and Sharon are in the process of switching administrations. Bush is clearing away much of his top diplomatic staff as he heads into his second term. Sharon is consolidating a national unity government with the Labor Party and United Torah Judaism, having jettisoned his previous hard-line and secularist partners in order to win parliamentary support for his withdrawal plan. U.S. officials have said that embracing Abbas during the Palestinian’s tenure as prime minister without allowing him to show immediate dividends helped scuttle his bid to wrest power away from Arafat then. A public embrace now without showing results could end the surge of Palestinian optimism that accompanied the elections. And Palestinian officials say that Abbas needs results if he is to survive as a leader. Diana Buttu, who has negotiated with the Israelis in the past as an official of the Palestine Liberation Organiza-tion, cautioned that Abbas should not be seen as Arafat’s successor as the leader of the Palestinian people, but merely as leader of the Palestinian Authority. While Abbas got an official 62 percent of the vote, she said that only 70 percent of eligible voters actually were registered, and of those, only 70 percent voted in the elections. That adds up to just a 50 percent turnout from the eligible population. This, suggested Buttu, is a sign that many Palestinians were going to wait and see with Abbas. Turnout for last month’s first round of municipal elections in the West Bank was much higher, she said, because power had devolved to local authorities, a fact she attributed to the ravaging of the Palestinian national infrastructure through four years of the intifada and Israeli military action. “There is a realization, an awareness that power is no longer wielded on a national level,” she said, suggesting that the Islamist Hamas group sat out the national elections, but contended in the municipal elections because the local authorities offered more immediate powers. “Palestinians are going to be looking to Mahmoud Abbas to change their conditions,” she said. “If Israel squanders this opportunity, my fear is that it’s going to get even uglier.” Israelis, naturally, pointed out that it is not only Israel that has an opportunity to seize — the Pales-tinians also have much to do. “There’s not going to be any disengagement with 10 missiles slamming into Israel every day,” said an Israeli official, referring to the rockets being fired against Israeli targets in Gaza. For his part, Bush made clear he had expectations of both sides. “It’s going to be very important for Israel to fulfill its obligation on the withdrawal from the territories that they have pledged to withdraw from,” he said Monday. “It is essential that Israel keep a vision of two states, living side by side in peace, and that as the Palestinians begin to develop the institutions of a state, that the Israeli government support the development of those institutions, and recognize that it is essential that there be a viable economy, that there be a viable health care system, that people be allowed to start building a society that meets their hopes and needs.” Bush also emphasized his expectation that “the Palestin-ian leadership consolidate secur--ity forces, so that they can fight off those few who still have the desire to destroy Israel as a part of their philosophy.” Bush suggested that more answers would be forthcoming at a conference in London next month, which will be attended by Condoleezza Rice, his designated secretary of state. He said he looked forward to helping the conference in London, aimed at helping the Palestinians develop their institutions, and to helping “Abu Mazen’s vision of a peaceful, active, vibrant state to become reality.’’
Features Adventures in Eastern Europe Leni
Reiss When word got out in my little social world that my husband and I were planning a trip to Eastern Europe, I heard from friends from around the country. Were they calling to wish me a bon voyage? No way. Each
of them, from one coast to the other, was requesting that I bring home
for them from Budapest what they individually described as “a magical
moisturizer,” available by all accounts only in that Hungarian capital.
Turns out that Helia D is indeed a hot item, sold in hotel gift shops and in a few posh boutiques around town. It promises to have an anti-aging effect and regular usage supposedly reduces fine lines, with the skin then regaining natural radiance and smoothness. Needless to say, my suitcases upon our return were loaded with little black jars of Helia D. Of course I also got some for myself. I consider the purchases a contribution to the beautification of America. But about our trip. We had signed on with a top tour company — the only way to go. No concerns with luggage, reservations, language — and the bonus of guides with astounding knowledge in myriad areas — including the best places to shop. This time we traveled with Tauck, but we’ve also gone with Butterfield & Robinson, and friends tell us that Abercrombie & Kent is first-rate as well. Forever
amber Old Town actually is on UNESCO’s World Heritage List, which in essence is recognizing the astounding transformation of the heap of rubble left by the Nazis into an accurate re-creation of the pre-war appearance of the quarter. It is a focal point for tourists and is full of all the requisite attractions including artists, hawkers and street performers. But
the Communist-style architecture of the post-war years is just awful:
cement and glass, boxy and boring. And talk about location. The Le Royal Meridien Bristol, where we stayed, was right next door to the president’s residence. One day my husband and I ventured out with a driver/guide, to visit the small town of Miedzyrzec, two hours from Warsaw, where my father-in-law was born. It was a kick to eat at the only restaurant in this sleepy little dot on the map, where the tab for lunch (huge bowls of borsht, pirogi, bread and butter and beverage) for our driver and us totaled $6. Other tourist highlights in Warsaw are the birthplace of Maria Sklodowska-Curie, the Nobel Prize-winning scientist known outside Poland as Madame Curie. The house is a memorial museum focusing on her early life as well as her scientific achievements, the most notable being the discovery and isolation of radium. On summer Sundays at beautiful Lazienki Park with its spectacular monument to Chopin, there are open-air piano recitals. Pilgrim’s
progress I was told that tens of thousands undertake the ten-day walk from Warsaw annually to celebrate the Feast of the Assumption. Happily, on the day of our visit the tourists were manageable, and thanks to Father Roman, whom we deemed worthy of being right out of central casting, we got a private tour. In the place where the Madonna is housed, the walls are laden with jeweled offerings and enough amber to adorn each and every pilgrim. There also is a mind-boggling treasury containing votive offerings to Mary, Queen of Poland, from popes, kings and benefactors. In a nearby museum one of the more interesting artifacts is Lech Walesa’s 1983 Nobel Peace Prize. Paying
respects Here we saw the pots and pans factory where Oskar Schindler famously employed about 1,000 Jews during WWII, later taking those on his list with him to work in a munitions factory in Czechoslovakia. Feeling
like Cinderella Crowds gather every hour on the hour to see a skeleton symbolizing death look at his hourglass and then pull a cord so that a procession of apostles files by. Then a rooster crows, a turbaned Turk shakes his head, the hours chime and the tourists go on about their business. Dinner was a divine five-course caloric countdown. Among the highlights: roast breast of duck, fried peppers with baby corn, French beans with Camembert and walnuts and strawberries with orange-flavored caramel. Feeling a bit like Cinderella, I bid adieu to this magical place and boarded the bus for the return to Prague, to the airport — to real life. Leni Reiss is a former editor at the Phoenix Jewish News. Park Timna – A Must See for Israeli Tourists Sarina
Roffé An important centerpiece to Israel’s Negev Desert, Park Timna is one of the most magnificent tourist attractions in southern Israel. Just 15 miles north of Eilat, Timna sits in a valley in the southern Arava on the Syrian-African Rift between two tectonic plates that shifted over time. Lava created mountains of rock 170 million years ago. As the plates moved, the rocks were lifted and broken into boulders, each of which weathered at a different rate, resulting in natural phenomena, geologic formations, desert flora and fauna that create a breathtaking landscape. Hikers, nature lovers, bikers, stargazers and history buffs alike have fallen in love with Park Timna, one of the most stimulating Biblical sites in southern Israel. In Timna, where 20 marked nature trails lead to rock formations and ancient landscapes offer a breathtaking reddish hue, nearly half a million visitors per year take a walk back in time through Egyptian copper mines that archaeologists date to 800 years before King Solomon. As the first place in the world where copper was discovered, Timna holds a special place in the history of southern Israel and in the heart of Milwaukee philanthropist Avrum Chudnow, whose vision, perseverance and generosity created the first two phases of Park Timna. Archaeological evidence proves that Park Timna was once the site of an extensive network of sophisticated copper mines dating to the 5th century BCE when man first learned to produce copper. From the 14th to the 12th centuries BCE, the Egyptian pharaohs of the New Kingdom began an enormous copper mining operation with the Midianites from northern Arabia. Tourists can visit the copper smelting camps, Midianite mining sites, pagan shrines and temples. The Egyptians took the copper by mule to the Gulf of Eilat, located at Coral Island, who researchers believe was built up as a port by King Solomon. The copper mines were continued in the 1st and 2nd centuries CE by the Romans and the Arabs. Mr. Chudnow’s gift enabled JNF to build a chronosphere and create a multimedia presentation that can be seen when visitors enter the park. The theater has a revolving stage for the Mines of Times, a 13-minute rapid-fire multimedia journey to ancient Egypt where animation tells the story of miners and monarchs. The room shakes and viewers can see how Timna is formed from magma and how the copper veins rose from the earth. Professor Beno Rothenberg, director of the Arava Expedition, shows how systematic excavations uncovered a huge system of more than 10,000 ancient mines. The ore was then transported to camps by the Egyptians, where specialized craftsmen shaped it into usable forms such as vessels and jewelry. JNF recently opened a copper mine shaft from the Chalcolithic (5th century BCE) period for visitors. Hikers will find natural rock formations such as King Solomon’s Pillars, the Mushroom and the Arches, as well as the Chariot rock carvings and the Shrine of Hathor on Timna’s trails. The Mushroom — rock carved by the wind into the shape of a mushroom — is located near copper smelting sites. The walking trail that leads to the Arches takes you past caves and mine shafts where copper mining and production began 6,000 years ago. From the western cliff, viewers see the natural arches formed by erosion, providing a Kodak moment. During the 14th century BCE reign of Egyptian Pharoah Seti I, the Shrine of Hathor — an ancient goddess of the mines — was built at the foot of Solomon’s Pillars. An Egyptian rock carving at the top of the steps beside the shrine shows Ramses III with the goddess. The red sandstone cliffs of Solomon’s Pillars were formed by centuries of water erosion on the tall, steep rock face and sculpted into pillar-shaped ridges that jut outwards. A set of steps leads from Solomon’s Pillars to an Egyptian rock carving that shows Ramses III presenting a gift to the goddess Hathor. Drawings carved onto the stone facades in the Timna Valley date from the Egyptian Midianite period and provide a social and religious record of the people who lived there, as well as an indication about the vegetation and animals. The landscape is filled with acacia trees, desert blooms, as well as herds of wandering gazelles and ibex. Another jewel of Park Timna is the 4-acre, six foot deep Timna Lake, a cool refreshing spot for families to gather, picnic and enjoy the recreation area and family centered activities, built JNF with a $1 million gift from Mr. Chudnow. A man-made lake, it provides a place for children to take paddleboats out on the lake, arts and crafts activities, as well as a playground. “We have bike riding, rappelling, evening star gazing and all kinds of activities for families,” said Michael Lavie, manager of the park. “In the summer, it is hot, so I close the park in the afternoon and open it in the evening. The trails are lit and people can come out and enjoy the park at night. The skies are clear, so it is great for stargazing.” The Timna Park staff plan educational field trips for school and youth groups that include desert astronomy, stargazing and stellar navigation. The program helps youth understand the challenges of desert survival including group decision-making, problem-solving in the field, orienteering, water procurement, and rope climbing as a team. The park staff also offers guided tours. For example, there is a guided tour of the reconstruction of the Tabernacle, located near Timna Lake, and the story of the journey of the Israelites through the desert. For an overnight experience in the park, up to 300 people can sleep in a Bedouin tent and also eat light Middle-Eastern style meals. “Since the first day I saw Timna, I wave been fascinated by its history and relationship to King Solomon. I always felt that Timna Valley National Park was like another Masada,” said Mr. Chudnow, a successful builder who is determined to make Timna into Israel’s Yellowstone National Park. Driven by a $2 million gift and a $1.5 matching grant from Mr. Chudnow, Jewish National Fund will soon enter the third phase of Park Timna — an interactive experience about how copper products are produced, where it was discovered and Timna’s connection to King Solomon. Coaching a Season to Remember Rabbi
Steven J. Rubenstein As a child, I played inning after inning of baseball by myself — tossing a ball against the garage door aiming for the net target, or tossing the ball as high as I could in the air with the hope of catching it with one hand like the pros. At that time, my hero was left fielder Carl Yastrzemski. In his autobiography I read that at the end of each season, he would have the club roll up the turf in left field and reassemble it in his back yard. This is how he became familiar with every blade of grass that was his to protect. The Red Sox recently dug up the entire playing field in order to improve the drainage at Fenway Park. I didn’t see any advertisements announcing how much it would cost to own a square piece of the very ground where my heroes triumphed. Last month I read an interesting book. Henry Dunow, son of a Yiddish writer, chronicled the year he became the coach of his seven-year-old son’s Little League team in the Upper West Side of New York. He found himself reflecting on his own childhood and his relationship with his father, who fled Europe as Hitler was rising to power. Unlike most immigrants to America, his father retained his strong connection to Zionism over Judaism as a religion. Yiddish culture was paramount. Perhaps this is why the father’s reaction to playing catch with his son was punctuated by the comment, “Narishkeit!” To him, the idea of grown men running around throwing a ball was (foolishness). “Hank” (as he liked to call himself) Dunow thought his father may have been intimidated by the world of sports and the size of the goyim who played them. I am reminded of the story of Jacob and Esau. Esau was admired by his father who was attracted to his rough exterior; while Rebecca admired the meekness and the deep thinker that their other son, Jacob, had become. Although this was not the case in the Dunow family, most Jewish fathers want their sons to become professional athletes, while Jewish mothers would much rather have their sons become general managers like Theo Epstein, or better yet, the commissioner of baseball like Bud Selig. In The Way Home: Scenes from a Season, Lessons From a Lifetime, the author is determined to become a different type of father to his own son, not limiting his choices in life. By being pro-active, he hoped to teach his son some of the more important life lessons to be learned from being involved in a team sport. It isn’t uncommon to hear voices other than the coach shouting directions to the kids when they are on the playing field: “Choke up on the bat”, “Keep your eye on the ball”, “Spread those feet apart”, “Keep your glove open and on the ground”. I often hear from the bimah similar voices from the front pews during bar/bat mitzvah lessons when parents attend the final sessions. “Slow down when you speak”, “Annunciate so we can hear you clearly”, “Sit up straight, don’t slouch”. Despite being a team sport, baseball is also a game for individuals. A player must learn to stand alone while others trust them to make the right play. I teach my own students that standing in front of the congregation, leading them in prayer, is very similar to being out on the baseball diamond. While leading prayer is an individual activity, it is very much a communal one. That is why we require the presence of 10 adults to say certain prayers. Even though the youngsters may be standing alone at the bimah, they are really never alone as long as the community is there to join them at the appropriate times. During the reading of the Torah, two gabbai’im (guards) stand ready to correct any mispronunciations by the reader. We work together as a team to correct our errors. Although I have two daughters, I know how Hank felt, wanting to coach his son’s little league team in order to connect with his son on a new level. This past year I attempted to prepare my daughter for her bat mitzvah. Even though she is a self-motivated individual, I now realize how much more effort is needed to work with someone that you love so deeply, not wanting that person to fail, for themselves and for you. I took on the challenge of teaching my own daughter the skills and lessons to stand before the congregation in prayer. Baseball was a presence at the bat mitzvah. My daughter received some Shawn Green cards from a friend. In addition, it is my custom to give each of my young adults a gift that reflects their personal interests. My daughter had invited Gabe Kapler to be a part of her celebration. Although he may have been busy, he did leave her something by her chair. This, too, will be a momento of a season to remember. Steven Rubenstein is the Rabbi of Temple B’nai Abraham in Beverly. People in the News
Arts & EntertainmentChanging the World, One Paper Clip at a Time Susan
Jacobs Whitwell, TN, is an unlikely place for a Holocaust memorial. There are no Jews among the 1,600 residents of the rural community, located 24 miles north of Chattanooga. Yet, thanks to several Middle School administrators who wanted to teach their students about tolerance and diversity, an authentic German railcar filled with Holocaust memorabilia and 11 million carefully-counted paper clips now stands proudly in the schoolyard. Each paper clip represents an individual massacred by the Nazis; six million Jews, along with five million other “undesirables” including gypsies, homosexuals, prostitutes and political activists. Paper Clips is a powerful 83-minute documentary currently playing in Boston that portrays the profound, transformational effect the Holocaust had on a group of eighth graders, their teachers, and ultimately their entire white, Protestant community. As the Whitwell students began studying the Holocaust in 1998, they found it difficult to fathom the sheer number of people killed by the Nazis. They decided to collect paper clips because during World War II, stalwart Norwegians wore paper clips on their shirt collars as a symbol of defiance. Donations trickled in slowly, and Whitwell principal Linda Hooper predicted that it would take them 10 years to collect six million paper clips. But in 1999, German journalists Peter and Dagmar Schroeder learned about the quest and pitched it to major media outlets. As a result of the publicity, Whitwell received an avalanche of paper clips. In six weeks, they had amassed 24 million. They stopped counting after 30 million. They received paper clips from celebrities such as Bill Cosby and Tom Hanks, and politicians such as Bill Clinton and George Bush. Perhaps the most moving were the paper clips that arrived with letters from Holocaust survivors and their families who shared their heartfelt stories. In all, the students received more than 25,000 pieces of mail from all over the world, overwhelming Whitwell’s tiny post office. Volunteers carefully logged the names and addresses of all donors, and catalogued the letters, artifacts and paper clips. But they soon realized that they needed a permanent home for their collection. They turned to the Schroeders, who after much hunting were able to locate an old railcar in Germany used to transport victims to concentration camps. The Schroeders shipped it to Whitwell, where in 2001 the local townspeople refurbished and surrounded it with a memorial garden. They filled the authentic wooden car with their artifacts and paper clips. Today, Whitwell students give tours to visitors who come to view their unique tribute to the Holocaust. “The job of collecting paper clips is over, but the job of educating people will never be over,” remarks Whitwell Asst. Principal David Smith, who was instrumental in coordinating the project. The low-budget film, made with the support of Miramax, is currently distributed by the independent Johnson Group in Virginia. It played last year at the Boston Jewish Film Festival, and is slowly popping up in theaters across the United States. David Ganz, a North Shore philanthropist who was moved by the film when he first viewed it, hopes to put a copy in every school in America. Paper Clips is currently screening at the Coolidge Corner Theater, 290 Harvard St., Brookline (617-734-2501), and West Newton Cinema, 1296 Washington St, West Newton (617-964-8074). Call for showtimes.
EditorialIt’s Time for New Statesmanship Two developments in the same week have now dramatically altered the landscape in the Middle East, offering the best chance for peace between Israel and the Palestinians in years. In what may be the first free election ever held in the Arab world, Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip elected Mahmoud Abbas as their new president, succeeding Yasser Arafat, who died November 11. And in a major government realignment, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s Likud Party formed a new coalition with the dovish Labor Party, headed by his long-time rival, Shimon Peres, in a bid for support for his plan to withdraw unilaterally from the Gaza Strip this summer. What the world needs now is statesmanship. And luckily, there are models for both men if they are committed to a diplomatic breakthrough. For Abbas the model is Egypt’s Anwar Sadat; for Sharon it’s Gen. Charles de Gaulle of France. In 1970, Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser — a popular and charismatic military figure who had established a joint military command with Jordan to eradicate Israel — suddenly died of a heart attack. His successor, Anwar Sadat, was a relatively colorless former newspaper editor of unknown views. Rejecting the expedient option of following Nasser’s course, he bravely undertook a policy of rapprochement with Israel while smashing the secret service and party apparatus that he inherited. He won the backing of the Army and the bureaucracy in doing so. His initiatives culminated in a peace treaty ending 30 years of war between Israel and Egypt and establishing full diplomatic and commercial relations. De Gaulle was France’s most revered hero of World War II. By 1958, he was summoned by parliament to rescue the nation once again and granted extraordinary powers. He drafted a new Constitution strengthening the presidency and — more to the point here — he declared an end to the debilitating, unwinnable war France was waging to retain control of its colony Algeria. Like Sadat, Abbas succeeds a charismatic but fatally flawed leader. Arafat’s policies led his people into bankruptcy, corruption, and a self-defeating intifada that frustrates their dream of a Palestinian state. Abbas can buy into the prevailing Palestinian paranoia; or he can use his ample negotiating skills to bring to heel the terrorist factions Arafat bequeathed him and he can become a true peace partner with Israel. Sharon, like de Gaulle, must convince a vociferous minority of his countrymen to reverse a growth course he formerly championed — in his case, by scaling back the settlements and by embracing a two-state solution with appropriate security guarantees. Let’s hope each leader has the vision and the courage to provide the statesmanship their people, and the world, need from them now. — Mark R. Arnold
Local ColumnistsWhen Freedom Of Expression Goes Beyond the Pale
I really didn’t believe Bill O’Reilly would lose his Fox News job because of my column last issue. But if I owned Fox, I would have fired O’Reilly for telling a Jewish listener to go live in Israel if he didn’t like Christmas celebrations in American schools. My mail revealed that many readers didn’t get what I hoped I had made clear about the O’Reilly matter. For that, I apologize and clarify. My quarrel with O’Reilly has nothing to do with a Christmas carol, a tree, even a prayer in the classroom; those are all debatable in school committees, the court system or among ourselves in our own living rooms. What I abhor is O’Reilly’s abominable threat that those who don’t like his kind of Christmas observance in the public schools should leave the country. I fight the arrogant assumption that any brand of American social values includes the right to send people packing back to other countries if they don’t agree. Mind you, I am not telling O’Reilly that he should leave the country, as he might tell me. He can write a book, stand on a soapbox on Boston or Salem Common, even telephone a Fox News talk show. That is free speech. I would just prefer that O’Reilly be the person telephoning in rather than the one controlling the show and speaking to millions of Americans every day. No one has a constitutionally-protected right to be a commentator on television (or a newspaper columnist). What if O’Reilly had said on his program: “My boss, Rudolph Murdoch, recently purchased the highest priced condo ever sold in New York for 45 million dollars, an obscene squandering of money during wartime. Murdoch should go back to Australia, from where he came.” O’Reilly’s
job would disappear faster than a snowflake in June. And not because he
revealed the condo’s high price tag, but because he deprecated the
citizenship Murdoch worked so hard to gain about 20 years ago. A weekly column or daily television program is a treasured license of “almost” unrestricted freedom of expression. But freedom is not absolute and lines can be crossed, as in the famous Supreme Court decision regarding “crying fire” in a crowded theatre.” Let’s get to the nitty-gritty, examples that illuminate O’Reilly’s diatribe against his Jewish phone-in caller. Pretend I submitted — or somehow actually snuck onto the printed page of this newspaper — any one of the following sentences: “If African-Americans don’t like our affirmative action policies, they should go back to Africa.” “If Catholics don’t like the state attorney general’s prosecution of clergy sexual abuse, they should go back to Dublin, Rome, Warsaw or from wherever they came.” “If converts to Judaism are not happy with the work of the temple’s liturgy committee, they should go back to the Protestant or Catholic Church where they belong.” My fingers almost tremble just typing these sentences as examples. They are so far beyond the pale, so ugly and insulting, so far from the American (and Jewish) premise of citizenship, that I would be shocked and disappointed had they been my real own words, if Publisher Mark Arnold did not escort me directly out the rear door of the Jewish Journal offices. I do not intend to mention O’Reilly again in 2005 or beyond. Unless of course, I buy the Fox News Network from Murdoch and fire O’Reilly.
The Times They are A-Changin’
I used to think that the generations progressed smoothly from one to the other, that cultural change ebbed and flowed like the lazy waves on a Jamaican beach. I am Shulamit, the daughter of Layah, the daughter of Tzipora. I would raise my daughters, Tzipora and Tziona, in the well-worn tradition of our ancestors, each of us a small extension of the willowy reed through which generations of Jewish women grow into peoplehood. Those were the days when I thought if I couldn’t get a teaching job, I could always write and just look in the paper and get a job writing software, whatever that was. The
times they are a changin’. Like the tsunami that tore up the Asian
shore, culture tears across the generations, leaving parents shocked and
horrified. At least that’s how I felt when my daughter Frannie came
home New Year’s day with a bag of frozen peas relieving the swelling
of her puffy nose and blackening eyes. “This isn’t the 50s, Mom,” Fran said. “People go to bars.” She
and her boyfriend Abe assured us that Wonderbar is a very classy place,
and they were spending a quiet evening among friends. Unfortunately, a
drunken lout from the next room sucker-punched Abe and, when he pushed
him away, both parties were shown the door by the bouncer. Once outside,
three drunks jumped Abe; Frannie earned her shiners by loyally jumping
into the fray and pulling one of the miscreants off of her boyfriend.
I began searching for that blood pressure machine we had once bought on sale. I rifled through the cabinets. Xanax? Clonapin? Did the guy with the tattoo know how long my labor was with this girl? “Did it occur to you,” I ask my daughter, “that places that employ bouncers might not be the safest place to hang out?” We changed the frozen vegetables several times in the next 48 hours. And as we moved from baby peas to corn to carrots, the swelling increased. X-rays revealed a fracture in her nose on the same day that Frannie and Abe went into Boston to get a copy of the police report. By now my blood pressure had come down some and I was feeling calmer; it was Frannie and Abe’s turn to become unglued. “This isn’t TV,” the desk sergeant told them. “Stuff like this happens every day. You only think it’s important because it happened to you.” The bar refused to reveal the name of the patron who hit them — though they had a reservation list and could easily have done so. The police chose not to follow up on the assault because they have bigger fish to fry. And, I told Fran, her father and I had failed to give her a proper Jewish education. Had we done so, she would know not to ever place herself in proximity to danger. Before she would even consider going to a bar, she would remember the palpable disgust expressed by Hayim Nahman Bialik for his father’s tavern in Shiri. And —“ “Mom,
when did Bialik’s father own a bar?” asks Frannie. “Oh, that was in the early 70s — before anyone knew what a computer was,” I explain. The younger kids stare at me incredulously. I stand up and hear my knees creak. Time is passing like the subway train at rush hour. Even Bob Dylan is looking old. You Can’t Fire A Jewish Mother
When my children were babies being cared for at the Jewish Community Center, I used to get a daily breakdown of their activities. I knew precisely when they napped, had their diapers changed, drank a bottle and lapped up two teaspoons of baby food. I loved scooping them up at the end of the day and reading about every detail in their tiny universe. Even better was when they learned how to talk and we’d walk home hand in hand chatting about animal cracker shapes, circle time and sandbox dramas. You see, some people are born to be leaders, craft peace treaties or cure diseases. My destiny was to be a Jewish mother. I had no formal training for the position albeit nine months of eating Ben and Jerry’s ice cream, obsessing about surviving the pain of childbirth and poring over birth announcement books. If there was a formal test, I would have scored high on the anxiety and obsessing portions, flunked the cooking segment and aced the guilt-inflicting questions. My first official day on the job was December 22, 1988. I was about 30 pounds over my natural body weight and hormonally imbalanced, but I was a natural. I instantly began hovering, worrying, planning and accessorizing. While other mothers brought their baby, a bottle and a diaper to the pool, I had Mitch also shlep the portable crib in case she needed a nap, a playpen so she wouldn’t crawl near the pool, a bag of soft toys, snacks, Syrup of Ipecac in case of poisoning, two outfits, an umbrella, and a float. The real kicker was if Rachel even dropped one tear, I’d insist we’d leave the pool immediately. As she grew, I modified my plan, but like the long lineage of Jewish matriarchs before me, my quest and zest for the best for my children propels me into action every waking moment of the day. Both my daughters seemed to flourish in our happy world until right about the time The Apprentice debuted. I blame Donald Trump for promoting the notion that a simple hand gesture and the words “You’re fired” can terminate a relationship. This trick may work in a boardroom but it’s no match for a Jewish mother. Try as my daughters may (and I know the best is yet to come), a Jewish mother’s powers are everlasting and cannot be terminated that quickly by a sassy side glare and dismissing sigh. As soon as they surrender, it will be best for all of us. I am here to stay. I don’t think anyone’s ever gotten burnt growing up in the sunshine of his or her Jewish mother’s love. In fact, I can supply statistics that it actually promotes growth and prosperity. Joke as I may, I know that no one, not even a Jewish mother, can hold onto her children forever. But it won’t stop me from trying.
AIPAC, Jewish Loyalty and the FBI
“The
work that AIPAC does is a vital part of our democratic process. You speak
out boldly, and that’s good for America, it’s good for Israel
and good for the cause of peace and justice in the world.” It is one of the oldest charges brought against Jews; that they are not loyal to the country they live in. It has been around in the Western world for 600 years or so, flourishing as the idea of nationalism replaced the allegiance to the Catholic Church as the dominant force in Europe. But it seemed to be different in America. While not part of the Christian religious majority and despite the fling with socialism, Jews were rarely deemed to have a primary allegiance to some other nation or cause. And that is why it is so distressing to realize the loyalty question is an underlying motif in an FBI investigation of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), the powerful lobbying agency. Even if the investigation does not result in formal charges — and it seems likely not to — Jewish leaders fear it could lead to the demand that AIPAC be forced to register as a “foreign agent,” as if it were the representative of Israel instead of the voice to Congress of the American Jewish community. For openers, the immediate facts hardly seem sufficient cause for a criminal inquiry. A defense department official, Larry Franklin, told two AIPAC aides in June 2003 that the Pentagon might be developing a plan to destabilize Iran and prevent its further work on nuclear weapons. He apparently didn’t give them any documents, and the plan itself had only the lowest level of secrecy classification. A year later, however, according to a Jerusalem Post report, the FBI was squeezing Franklin about another leak and forced him into a sting operation against AIPAC. The Post said Franklin told AIPAC officials that Israeli operatives in northern Iraq might be in jeopardy, and they relayed that information to the Israeli Embassy. Franklin may have been out of line at the first meeting, and the AIPAC officials seem to have erred in giving the information to the embassy. But the errors are lightweight compared to the real problem of fighting terrorism that should be the FBI focus. The initial transfer of information in 2003 might have been worthy of a rebuke, even a public one, but it is hardly the stuff that justifies an entrapment tactic. It might have been dumb, but it wasn’t Jonathan Pollard handing off military secrets about what radio frequencies the Navy uses for its nuclear submarine fleet. The fallout for AIPAC could be very damaging to an institution that over the last 50 years has worked hard to give Congress credible information about how American Jews feel on policy issues affecting this country’s relationship with the Jewish state. While AIPAC positions have generally mirrored those of the Israeli government, it has also taken stands in opposition to the Israeli government, very notably in 1982 when its director endorsed Ronald Reagan’s peace plan. More often, the organization serves as a moderating force in counseling Congress on what it believes would be best for America and for Israel. Ninety years ago, Louis Brandeis pointed out that Zionist interests serve American interests and that is even truer now, with Israel as the model for the kind of liberal democracy that America wants to encourage in the Middle East. It would be tragic if Jewish Americans and the institutions that represent them come to be labeled as “foreign agents.”
Fed Director Appeals for Tsunami Relief Our community has raised more than $28,000 through the mail and on our website for the South Asia Tsunami Relief Fund. Thank you for your generosity and for recognizing our responsibility to care for our global family. I’m sure you will be interested in the following update sent by our overseas partner, the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC). Funds raised by Federation are distributed in South Asia through the JDC. In the weeks since a magnitude 9.0 earthquake off the coast of Indonesia December 26 spawned a series of tsunamis, devastating coastal areas in South Asia from Thailand to India, the situation remains dire. The death toll has risen to more than 150,000 people; five million remain homeless; close to two million people need food; and tens of thousands remain at high risk of contracting diseases such as cholera, typhoid and malaria. There have also been reports of widespread diarrhea, which is especially dangerous for children. A report from the World Health Organization has concluded that 50,000 additional deaths would be a reasonable projection.Many relief agencies, including several Israeli organizations, have set up field operations in the region. Workers are delivering food, water, clothing, fuel, communications equipment, building materials and medical supplies. Despite their hard work, many obstacles exist. Some locales, such as parts of Indonesia and Sri Lanka, are nearly unreachable due to fuel shortages, washed-away highways and decimated civil infrastructure. To support these efforts, on behalf of the North American Jewish Community, JDC has raised more than $6 million through phone and Internet contributions. For the latest Situation Report that provides more detailed information, as well as an overview of JDC’s Disaster Relief efforts over the past two decades, go to http://www.jdc.org/news_press_010405.html. To make a contribution, visit our website, www.jfns.org, and click on Giving - South Asia Tsunami Relief Fund, or mail a check to Jewish Federation of the North Shore, 21 Front St., Salem, MA 01970. Merritt
Mulman,
OU Plant Defense Inadequate One North Shore rabby smugly responded (Journal Dec. 17-30) to news of PETA’s video expose of AgriProcessor’s kosher slaughter house with a glib, “If they didn’t protest the slaughter of human beings during the Holocaust, they have no right to claim Jews are being inhumane to animals.” Was PETA even in existence during the time of the Holocaust? I suppose it is easier to quickly censor critics than to listen to what they have to say. I commend OU Administrator Rabbi Menachem Genack for responding to PETA in a newspaper article, (Journal Op/Ed, Dec. 31–Jan. 13) instead of aloofly ignoring the claims and video. But I found his article less than I had hoped for. I had a wait-and-see confidence. Firstly, the PETA video could be a doctored tape and secondly, even if there was authentic footage of a clearly trayf slaughter, there’s still nothing wrong as long as it isn’t stamped kosher and sold as kosher meat. Both lines of defense were unused. Rabbi Genack accepted the video of “slaughtered” cows walking and getting their windpipes ripped out and insisted that everything shown was perfectly acceptable as kosher. I don’t think any shochet will disagree that when a shechitah-cut does not slice most of a cow’s windpipe, the animal is irreparably rendered trayf, regardless of whatever other cuts or activities follow. I can’t help thinking that tearing out and tossing the windpipe (which seems to be practiced only at AgriProcessors), would make it more difficult for a bodek (kashrut inspector) to check if an animal was halachically (correctly) slaughtered. I was happy to read in Genack’s article that “removal of the trachea [windpipe] immediately after the shechitah has now been discontinued.” I thought Rabbi Genack stated an over-the-top promotion when he said, “The OU continues to vouch for the kashrut, which was never compromised, of all the meat prepared by AgriProcessors.” How can Rabbi Genack state that he knows for an absolute fact that non-kosher food never came out of the plant? If Rabbi Genack wants to win the trust of his followers that AgriProcessors is reliably kosher, why doesn’t he say (providing it is true) that he has been eating AgriProcessors meats and continues to do so? The rabbi says that when 18,000 cattle are slaughtered, it is inevitable that a tiny percentage will not get their carotid arteries completely severed. But the rabbi will not say that it is inevitable that a tiny percentage of the shechitah (a halachically, highly exacting and demanding operation) will inevitably be miscuts. Instead of drawing the obvious inference that a cow that walks after shechitah probably wasn’t slaughtered halachically, he defends the infallibility of the kashrut of Rubashkin and their rabbinical supervisors while putting the reputation of the shechitah process in jeopardy. Hersh
Goldman
Kabbalah is Not a Craze I have to lodge a mild protest against the wording of the headline article in the last issue of the Journal (Dec.31-Jan. 13) that read “Kabbalah Craze Hits North Shore.” At the very least, the word craze implies a fad and at worst implies that those who are interested in Kabbalah are in some way crazy. The use of the word craze belies what I consider to be a fundamental problem with contemporary Judaism. Most Jews, including our religious leaders, associate meditation and mysticism with New Age beliefs that are foreign to Judaism. This is far from the truth. As Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan pointed out in his book Meditation and the Bible, meditation is very much a part of Judaism. Rabbi Kaplan points out that the Talmud speaks of millions of Jews being involved in some form of spiritual practice during the First Temple period. Far from being foreign or New Age, we see meditation as part of mainstream Judaism in ancient times. After the destruction of the first temple, the decision was made to forbid prophecy and stop the teaching of meditation except in the context of small select groups of advanced masters and students. The religious leaders of that time were concerned that after the exile, without a central religious authority, Jewish spiritual practices would be abused. Having not found the spiritual component in Judaism, Jews have looked elsewhere. I am told that in the late 1980s, nearly one-third of the Transcendental Meditators in the U.S. were Jewish. Around the same time, Israel had among the highest percentage of TM’ers in the world (over 1% of the population). Rabbi Kaplan also speaks of closet Orthodox TM’ers who, even though concerned that the practice may violate halacha, nevertheless persist because it provides the spiritual experience lacking in their lives. Jewish spirituality is not just a matter of making the synagogue experience more meaningful. On a practical level, many studies have shown that various forms of meditation decrease stress, resulting in better mental and physical health. One of the common experiences of meditators is an increase in | |||||||||||||