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Federation Gets New Chief

MARK ARNOLD
Jewish Journal Staff

The Jewish Federation of the North Shore has chosen a seasoned community builder and proven fundraiser as its new executive director. Merritt A. Mulman, 41, of Bexley, OH, becomes the Fed’s new staff chief July 1 (See interview, below). He has already begun the task of building bridges.

“You have to meet people where they are,” he told a meeting of Jewish agency directors at the start of a day when he also met the Federation staff for the first time. “We all need to work together to build community, enhancing and building Jewish lives.”

The “all” he refers to includes not only the agencies and the people they serve but also the area’s synagogues, whose leaders say they have sometimes felt left out of Federation priorities. That will change, promised Mulman: “We need to touch the synagogues directly,” he said. “That’s where the Jews are.” He hopes to meet with the North Shore Rabbinical Council shortly.

The post has been vacant since the resignation of Lois Giovacchini last October. Since then, the Federation has been run by a management team of five staffers under the direction of Federation President Stephen Baker. Mulman was chosen in a search undertaken earlier this year by a 15-person committee co-chaired by Bruce Bial and former Women’s Division President Debbie Ponn, who will succeed Baker as president in September.

The committee had planned to interview several candidates from a pool of 10 resum´es furnished by United Jewish Communities, the New York-based umbrella group for local federations, to whom the search committee submitted a set of criteria. But the group interviewed only one candidate before meeting Mulman. After interviewing Mulman, “we saw no need to look further,” says Ponn.

Explains Bial: “We wanted someone who could lead the entire Jewish community, who is a strong fundraiser, who is passionate about being Jewish and who can articulate a clear vision for our Federation. After checking his references it was clear that with Merritt we get all those qualities in spades.” The committee endorsed him unanimously.

An engaging man with an easy manner and a quick mind, Mulman is a 1986 graduate of Harvard, with a Master’s in Public Administration from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He comes to the North Shore after serving for three years as chief operating officer and campaign director of the Columbus, OH, Jewish Federation, a larger Federation than the local one, though he had the Number Two job there, whereas here, as executive director, he’ll be Number One.

In Columbus, he led a general fund-raising campaign that posted a 19 per cent increase in gifts over three years, with an 11 per cent increase in the size of the average gift. He also took advantage of some changes in the law to create a consortium to provide health insurance to 18 Jewish organizations, increasing coverage for their employees while saving the participating organizations $160,000 the first year and $250,000 the second.

He was executive director, from 1996 to 1999, of the North Carolina-Israel Partnership, a nonprofit corporation formed to encourage trade and exchanges between Israel and that state. Also in North Carolina, he earlier served as director of planning and evaluations for United Way of Greater Durham, NC. His resum´e includes a stint as a corporate legal assistant for the Walt Disney Company in Burbank, CA.
A native of Livingston, NJ, Mulman grew up in a Reform congregation there, where he was bar mitzvahed, and in Atlanta, GA, where he spent his high school years. “In Livingston, being Jewish was an accepted thing; I didn’t think much about it,” he remembers. “In Atlanta, I was known in school as ‘the Jew.’ I had to rethink what it meant to be Jewish.” His Jewish identity was cemented when he and his wife, Lisa, moved to North Carolina and found themselves with other Jewish transplants without extended families in the area.

“We created a Jewish social structure, starting a havurah (collective worship group) and a Jewish day school,” he recalls. “We shared all the holidays. Being Jewish brought us together.”

In a curious twist of fate, this is not Mulman’s first experience on the North Shore. He and Lisa, who earned a Ph.D. in English from Duke University, met and married while both were undergraduates at Harvard. They spent a year living in Swampscott and commuting to Cambridge. Mulman notes wryly that for a time he waited tables at the Lyceum restaurant in Salem to make ends meet. The family now includes two children: Miles, 13 and Jessa, 8. Over the weekend of June 14-15, they bought a house in Marblehead.

“Lisa and I took an online quiz a few months ago,” he says, “answering a bunch of questions to identify where is the ideal place for us to live. Boston came out first on Lisa’s list, second on mine (after San Francisco). We’re thrilled we can be here now.”

The new face of the Federation says one of his strengths is “bringing people to the table, getting them to agree on an agenda, then work to achieve it together.” He pledges not to be the kind of manager who gets chained to his desk.

“If I’m in my office,” says Mulman, “I’m not doing my job. I need to get out and get active, meet people, energize them, excite them about the possibilities, then deliver on those possibilities.“

“From Self-Interest to Enlightened Self-Interest”

In a wide-ranging interview, Journal Editor/Publisher Mark Arnold and Associate Editor Gary Band sat down with Merritt A. Mulman, the new executive director of the Jewish Federation of the North Shore, to get his views on a range of issues. Here are excerpts from the interview, conducted at The Journal June 13.

Journal: What do you consider to be this Jewish community’s major needs?
Mulman: I obviously don’t know the community well yet, but all the fundamental elements are in place for a thriving Jewish community: a Jewish day school, myriad synagogues representing all brands of Judaism, two community centers, elder services among them. One major challenge is to help the community develop and maintain its institutions. That’s the first need. But it takes cash, which is the second. A campaign raising less than $2.5 million with a mailing list of 18,000 households is an under-giving community. It’s critical to raise the level of philanthropy here. Third, we need to invest in future leadership development. There’s a gap in the leadership, a shortage of people active in Federation between ages 40 and 55, as I understand it. And these are the years when people are at their prime earning power, and, more importantly, have the experience to lead. We need to engage this group and involve them in the creation of mentoring programs to develop new leadership. Fourth, we need a meaningful missions program. Traveling together – to Israel, Cuba, or Argentina under a Jewish umbrella builds trust, leadership, and community.

Journal: What do you mean by community building?
Mulman: We need to bring all the players to the table and decide how to work together. I’m very good at getting disparate groups to form and work together on a shared agenda. Where do we want to be in five years? Do we have real numbers to know how big the Jewish community is now? What are the needs people have and how well are we meeting them? What kind of Jewish community do they need us to be? Community building means working together to make the community better. If we do this successfully, we will have the foundation to aid in building and maintaining strong Jewish families and creating a strong Jewish identity and life for our children.

Journal: What strengths do you bring to these challenges?
Mulman: I am first and foremost a community builder. I cut my teeth at the United Way in Durham, NC. I undertook the largest planning process they’d ever seen. I understand how to develop a community in a way that involves people and makes them feel respected, that makes them a partner. We involved ultimately 2,000 people in the planning of our new human resource system there. We did it in a way that turned on light bulbs in people’s heads so that they saw the connection between self-interest and enlightened self-interest.

Journal: What do you mean turning self-interest into enlightened self-interest?
Mulman: Part of my job is to make people see how doing the right thing helps them as well as the community. In North Carolina, for example, Duke University realized it was in its self-interest, as well as that of the community, to support the schools so they could have an educated future work force. Getting institutions to understand how they can advance their individual agenda by helping to form and advance a larger community agenda —that’s what I’m talking about.

Journal: Other strengths you bring?
Mulman: Secondly, I’m a skilled fundraiser. At the Columbus Federation, I led a campaign that posted a 19% growth in moneys raised over three years with an 11 per cent gift-for-gift increase. While the United Way was declining 11 per cent there this past year, we at Federation went from $6.8 million to $7.4 million under my direction.

Journal: Anything else?
Mulman: I’m a motivator. I learn what people’s aspirations are and get them involved and energized. I believe people want to participate. We need to show them how and make it easy for them. People aren’t going to participate if we’re just a once-a-year phone call asking them for money, which for too many is what Federation has become. This Federation leads the nation in $100 gifts. That tells me there’s a willingness. But how do we harness it? When we start engaging our donors, our community, in a more substantive manner, we will not only see $100 gifts become $1,000 gifts but we will build a more effective community for all of us to live in.

Journal: Is there a need for a demographic or needs study?
Mulman: I know this has been a matter of some debate here. We did this in Columbus and it proved tremendously beneficial. It’s something way up on my agenda. You have to know who’s out there and what their needs are, basic market analysis. It’s something a community should do. We have a responsibility to provide quality data to every institution in the community. If funding it is a problem, we’ll find a way to do it off-line (by private donations), which is exactly how I did it in Columbus. Neither the campaign nor any agency was impacted by the funding. Both benefited tremendously from the product.

Journal: What do you hope to accomplish in your first 60 to 90 days here?
Mulman: I need to meet, and hear from all the players: community leaders, rabbis, agency directors and staff. I need to go where the Jews are and hear what people’s aspirations are and get them re-energized.

Journal: What single message do you want to communicate to people as you start your job July 1.
Mulman: We have the opportunity for excellence here. The community is only as strong as it can be if we work together. One or two years from now there will be more Jewish activity, cohesion, more Jewish life than you’ve ever seen. To have less than that is shooting too low.

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State Cutbacks Whack Middle Class

BRETT M. RHYNE
Jewish Journal Staff

Jewish organizational leaders are decrying the effects of state budget cuts on their abilitiy to provide essential social services and they are blaming legislators for the predicament.

“The question is who isn’t going to be affected,” says Jon Firger, chief executive of Jewish Family Service of the North Shore (JFS). “Potentially, everyone in the state is going to be affected. The proposed cuts are affecting everything, including things like public safety and the schools.”

“This is a very, very serious situation,” says Nancy Kaufman, executive director of the Jewish Community Relations Council, the political action arm of Boston-based Combined Jewish Philanthropies. “It’s the first time in the last 70 years — since the Great Depression — that people are questioning the role of government in meeting the needs of the public.”

In order to make up a projected $3 billion shortfall for fiscal year 2004, which begins July 1, legislators have proposed slashing the funding for social service agencies, essentially crippling them. Jewish agencies across the region receive between half and three-quarters of their funding from the state. Of JFS’ $1.3 budget, $498 million – 38 percent – comes from public money.

“In 2002, we served 2,000 people,” Firger says, “that number is down to 427. State and Federal budget cuts have forced us to end half a million dollars in programs to refugees and welfare recipients — over 400 clients.”

“In the past, budget cuts might have affected a program here and there, and social service providers might have made up the shortfall somewhere else,” Firger says. “Now, these cuts are so widespread, there’s no place to turn.”

He argues, “The cuts are so massive, if something goes untouched, it’s a victory.”

According to both Firger and Kaufman, most elected officials on Beacon Hill agree the solution is to raise revenues — that is, to raise taxes — but are reluctant to do so.

“No legislator is willing to step up and say, ‘Raise revenues,’” Firger says. “They want it to come from their constituents. It’s different than political leadership saying, ‘We’ve got to raise taxes.’”

“Legislators are not willing to say it until their constituents say it,” adds Kaufman. “Legislators are saying, ‘Until and unless there’s an outcry from the public that enough is enough, we’re not going to raise taxes.’”

“There’s skittishness on the part of most of my colleagues,” says Rep. Douglas Petersen (D-Marblehead). “Right now, there’s no sign from the leadership they’re going to propose raising taxes.”

“Calls from my constituents are running ten-to-one against raising taxes,” he adds.

Charles Rasmussen, spokesperson for House Speaker Thomas Finneran (D-Boston), tells The Journal, “There are no new taxes in this budget we are filing today [June 18]. After last year’s large tax increase, we do not think there would be the public sentiment to raise taxes.”

Rep. Petersen advocates making up the shortfall by applying $500 million in Federal aid that the state will receive, as well as through borrowing. “That would be my first choice,” he says. “Let’s do that, then see where we have to go from there.” He is not hopeful, though.

“We couldn’t even pass a bill to borrow a modest $300 million.”

“It’s not a matter of no one having the political will to raise taxes,” says Swampscott’s Mark Mulgay, a former State House staffer. “Part of the problem is that the governor has presented very simplistic notions about revenues to the general public. He’s painted a picture for the average voter that makes anyone who wants to raise taxes look bad. Unfortunately, they’ve bought it and don’t realize that sometimes, taxes have to be raised.”

This creates difficulties for the Democratically-controlled Legislature, says Mulgay. “It’s very difficult to present simple, sound bite opposition as to why it’s important to raise taxes,” he notes.

Firger agrees that, besides elected officials’ unwillingness to take the lead on raising taxes, Gov. Mitt Romney’s success in convincing the public that the key to raising revenues is efficiency has played a central role in the political quagmire. “Romney’s reorganization of state government —which the Legislature rejected anyway — would only have saved $150 million,” he notes.

Romney Deputy Press Secretary Karen Grant defends his approach. “The administration is completely opposed to raising taxes,” she says. “We believe we have presented a balanced budget that takes care of the deficit while not raising taxes, through streamlining government.”

Romney’s opposition to raising taxes rings false to agency heads. “The days of this being ‘Taxachusetts are long gone,” notes Kaufman. “Massachusetts has enacted 45 tax cuts in the last 15 years. We’re a national leader in cutting taxes.”
Foremost among those hurt will be “the most vulnerable members of society,” Firger says, including “low income people, the elderly and the disabled.”

As an example, Firger points to JFS’ Home Care program, which provides assistance for shut in seniors. “We served over 300 people in the program 18 months ago,” he says. “Now we’re down to 250.”

“It’s a choice between helping seniors get dressed 2 days a week, or helping fewer people,” he says.
With legislators and the governor still arguing over the budget, the cuts in services and their concurrent effects remains unknown. Says Kaufman, “People have to ask themselves, ‘Am I willing to pay a dollar more a week in taxes, or will I see my services cut? I’d rather pay $50 a year, or even $150 a year, than see services cut.”

“People are prognosticating,” Mulgay says, “that come fall — when blood really starts flowing in the streets — there will be a change in tune by many quarters of the population, because everyone is going to be affected.”
Rep. Petersen concurs. “When push comes to shove,” he says, “and people see the effects of these cuts, things are going to have to change.”

Does this include politicians?

“Politicians are affected by the same things that affect everybody else,” Mulgay replies. “They’re concerned about educating their children, maintaining proper infrastructure and public safety, caring for parents, for senior citizens.
“All these issues cut across the spectrum of society,” he says.

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More Local Youth Visiting Israel

AMY SESSLER POWELL
Special to The Journal

For the past two summers, only three to five area teens have taken advantage of available subsidies to travel to Israel. But this year, the numbers are much higher, with a total of 13 young adults committed to trips.

Three young adults recently returned from subsidized Israel trips, one is there now, nine more are going this summer and fall and two applications are being processed, according to Lisa Janiak, director of Israel programs for the Jewish Federation of the North Shore.

“It is so heartening for me to see that we have a huge increase in the number of students and families starting to look at Israel as a viable and appealing destination again,” she said. “I hope this upswing means we will be able to run a community, summer Y2I trip in the next year or two.”

Arielle Nathan has been waiting her whole life to go to Israel for the summer with her friends. She was not about to let the political situation stop her.

“Nothing was keeping me from this trip,” said Nathan, 17, from Swampscott. She will be traveling with a group from Camp Yavneh. “This is supposed to be a once-in-a-lifetime trip. Everyone who has gone on it has come back with a whole new view on Israel and Judaism. I think it will help bring me closer to being Jewish.”

Aleza Remis feels the same way. Her sister, Naomi Remis, is in Israel now. “I am beyond psyched,” said Aleza, 17, of Swampscott, who will be traveling with a group from Camp Ramah. “This is the trip you go on between being a camper and a counselor. It is like a rite of passage. All of my camp friends are going and it’s going to be amazing.”

For 30 years, the Jewish Federation of the North Shore with its partner, the Robert I. Lappin Charitable Foundation, has been running and subsidizing teen trips to Israel. For the last two years, however, the North Shore Israel trip like many Israel programs across the U.S., has been struggling to find enough participants to run viable trips, said Janiak.

The JFNS has been running a subsidized trip to Eastern Europe with North Shore teens and Israeli teens together. However, the subsidies have been available to anyone who wants to join another approved Israel trip, said Janiak.

Like Arielle Nathan and Aleza Remis, Rebecca Gil, 17, of Swampscott, is receiving the $4500 Y2I subsidy to go to Israel this summer with Young Judea and she will also receive $1000 for a trip during the school year for a program at Alexander Muss High School in Israel.
“I think a lot of kids are going this summer because they are sick of waiting,” said Gil, who will travel part of the time with her sister, Chantal, also going on a Young Judea trip with a $1000 subsidy. “I have so much faith in Israel and the feeling I get when I am there is worth it. I don’t feel scared. I feel that you have to live your life the way you want to.”

Jessica Leong, 19, from Lynn, has gone on several subsidized trips to Israel in the past, including the 2000 Y2I trip and an exchange with Alexander Muss High School. Her brother, Aaron Leong, is going on that trip this fall as well.
This year, Jessica Leong is getting the $2000 college subsidy for an ulpan program at Hebrew University. She described her first Israel trip, the Y2I community trip, as the one that really made a difference in her commitment to Judaism and Israel.

She had first gone to Eastern Europe, then Israel. “It was a very spiritual trip. First we went to Poland, to Auschwitz and the Warsaw ghetto. Eastern Europe was a place where Jews were destroyed. Then, we went to Israel a place of rebirth where Jews have flourished. There was a real sense of holiness to me. It really pushed me to decide what I wanted to study,” said Leong.

Today, as a student at George Washington University, Leong is majoring in international affairs with a concentration in Middle Eastern studies. Her trips to Israel have provided an academic foundation for her studies as well as a valuable and spiritual Jewish experience, she said.

“I hope that by going, it will spur other trips. I am saddened that trips have been cancelled and it is horrible that other kids did not have the experience that I had,” said Leong. Gil, going to Israel for the fifth time, also hopes people considering Israeli travel will learn from those going this summer.

“I really hope that people will research beyond the news and talk to people who have gone this year,” said Gil. “The perspective is that you walk down the streets and suicide bombers are waiting to get you. The reality is that you are safe. Israel really has the best security in the whole world.”

“We know that trips to Israel are key components to keeping children Jewish,” said Janiak. “Until we are able to offer our own community teen trip, we do have subsidies and I am available to help any student interested in going to Israel find a trip that is right for them.”
For more information on subsidies and travel to Israel, visit the JFNS web site, www.jewishnorthshore.org or call Lisa Janiak, 978-745-4222 or email ljaniak@jfns.org."

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Beth El Preschool Shocked by Death of Teacher from Meningitis

GARY BAND
Jewish Journal Staff

Christine Perkins, 48, of Salem, a preschool teacher at Temple Beth El in Swampscott, died of bacterial meningitis at Salem Hospital on June 6.

Beth El President Helaine Hazlett and Preschool Director Leslie Rooks Sack expressed their condolences to Chris’s husband Dave and their two daughters, Krystle and Nicole.

“Chris was a wonderful person, an outstanding teacher and was loved by all,” Hazlett wrote in a letter to the temple’s Board of Directors.
The Swampscott Board of Health urged anyone that may have been in contact with Perkins to contact their doctor. Precautions were taken at the preschool to ensure the illness would not be contracted by any of the 40 children nor the staff members in the two preschool classrooms in which she worked.

Swampscott Public Health Director James Marotta encouraged the parents of these children and staff members to begin taking antibiotics as prescribed by their doctor. He further advised preschool officials to thoroughly wash the two classrooms with bleach and water.
Hazlett, a member of the Marblehead Board of Health, praised Sack and the preschool staff for their teamwork and quick response in ensuring that every precaution was taken as soon as word of the tragedy was received.

By the end of the two week incubation period in which the disease is still active, no other cases had been reported.

How Perkins contracted the illness may well never be known. Meningitis is an infection of the spinal cord fluid and the fluid that surrounds the brain. While she exhibited none of these in the classroom, the most common symptoms are high fever, headache and a stiff neck. But bacterial meningitis is more severe than viral meningitis.

According to the Swampscott Board of Health, the disease is present in 15-20 percent of the population. And while it was an isolated case, the disease can be transferred through saliva, or by incidental hand and eye contact.

Perkins and her husband David would have celebrated 26 years of marriage on June 18. In addition to David and their daughters, she also leaves behind two brothers, Edwin Lubas of Salem and Thomas Lubas of Beverly; a sister, Laurieann Denis of Miramar, Fla.; a mother and father-in-law, Martin and Norma Perkins of Salem; and other family members.

Contributions in Perkins' name may be made to the Make-A-Wish Foundation of Massachusetts, 295 Devonshire St., 4th floor, Boston, MA 02110.

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Salem’s Charles Olsher in the Negev during his first trip to Israel.

AMY SESSLER POWELL
Special to The Journal

Charles Olsher wasn’t necessarily looking to connect with his Jewish heritage. He was simply looking for an affordable trip to someplace new and different after his graduation from Connecticut College.
Olsher, of Salem, ended up in Israel for several reasons, but an important factor was simply the many subsidies that made it accessible to him.

His first trip was subsidized in full through birthright israel, a national organization that offers subsidized trips to young adults who have never been to Israel. He went back seven months ago to study at the World Union of Jewish Students Institute in Israel, receiving a $2000 young adult subsidy from the Jewish Federation of the North Shore and the Robert I. Lappin Charitable Foundation.
Olsher is one of three young adults who recently returned from trips that were subsidized by the Jewish Federation of the North Shore and the Robert I. Lappin Charitable Foundation. Another 10 teens and young adults are going this summer or fall on JFNS and Lappin Foundation subsidized trips.
Today, Olsher is working to earn enough money to go back a third time. He’s painting houses and looking for a second job so he can return by November. He describes his desire to spend more time in Israel as an “ongoing process of exploration and discovery,” and he’s not really sure where it will lead.

“I’ve traveled to a lot of different places in the world but I feel very comfortable there,” said Olsher. “It is great that there is a place I can belong based on the fact that I am Jewish. It feels great to be there, to be a Jew and it is great that we have a place like that.”

Unlike Olsher, Israel was the goal for Josh Kirby and Josh Heerter. Kirby, 18, had been signed up to go on a summer Youth to Israel (Y2I) trip through the Jewish Federation of the North Shore when the trip was cancelled due to low enrollment. He and Heerter, also 18, participated in the Federation’s Y2I European Adventure last summer, traveling with a group of North Shore teens and a group of Israeli teens throughout Eastern Europe.

“I have known since eighth grade that I was going to Israel,” said Kirby, who received full support from his parents. At one point Kirby, of Peabody, said he was wavering about going and his mother urged him not to postpone. “She said it would be harder to go if I got other things in my life started. Then, it would be harder to find free time.”

Kirby and Heerter, of Marblehead, went with their senior class at The New Jewish High School. They both received $1000 subsidies from JFNS and the Robert I. Lappin Charitable Foundation. It was a first trip to Israel for both of them. And, both were moved by the beauty of the country and by the affinity they felt with other Jews.

“No matter how committed you feel to Judaism, you can’t really know until you have been to Israel,” said Heerter. “Israel is it. It is something we all hold together.”

Though he had no reservations about going with his class, Heerter needed to work on his parents to get permission. Finally, they agreed to let him go with his senior class trip. He was thrilled to have the opportunity.

“It changed and improved my outlook on how my life was going, not only as a Jew, but as a person,” said Heerter. “I got to spend some time away from home, away from everything I have to deal with and I was seeing some amazing things.”

Josh Kirby admitted to being unsure of whether Israel would move him like it had moved others. “I went in saying the kotel is just a wall and people put so much faith in it.”

But when he went to the kotel, he found that it did move him. It was at 11 p.m. on the second day of Passover, a day observed by American Jews, but not Israelis. “All these Jews had come from outside of Israel and there was a huge celebration at the kotel and it really got me into a mood of like, ‘whoa.’ I’m not sure if it was the celebration or the kotel itself that got me there,” said Kirby.

Olsher also found himself moved by the constancy of the religious observances that often fall by the wayside in the United States. “Everybody goes to a Shabbat dinner in Israel, so I went. Everybody goes to a Passover seder and everybody builds campfires on Lag B’Omer. And, no one can ride the bus on Shabbat. That’s just how it is, but it’s really cool and it conveniently happens to be my heritage.”
“Experiencing my heritage is a bonus of my being there. I didn’t go there for it, but it was nice,” said Olsher. He described a popular walk,

Tel Dan, that is not too challenging in its physical demands, but seemed to represent for him much of what Israel has to offer. “You can see ruins from the first temple period, actual stuff from the Bible and it is unbelievable to see that. At the same time, you can see a battlefield from when Syria and Israel had border wars in the 1960s and it also happens to be just gorgeous. You can get so much out of that country,” he said.

Lisa Janiak, director of Israel programs for the Jewish Federation of the North Shore, urges anyone who is interested in going to Israel to call and talk to her about the potential subsidies. “We know from studies that a trip to Israel is a key component in helping to keep our children Jewish,” she said.

Was it a once in a lifetime opportunity for these three young adults?

“I don’t expect that sort of trip again,” said Heerter. “I can’t replace the first time. Even if I went somewhere like Nepal, it would not be the same thing. It wouldn’t be Jewish and it wouldn’t have to do with me.”

For more information on subsidies for high school and college students, visit the JFNS web site, www.jewishnorthshore.org and click “travel and missions,” or call Lisa Janiak, 978-745-4222 or email ljaniak@jfns.org..

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National News

U.S. Forces as Peacekeepers? Don’t Count on It, Experts Say

MATTHEW E. BERGER

WASHINGTON (JTA) — Some in Washington are calling for a U.S. or international military force to curtail escalating Israeli-Palestinian violence, but plans so far are too vague to get off the ground.

In theory, a peacekeeping force would create a buffer between clashing Israelis and Palestinians, reducing tension and violence. But analysts say it could be disastrous, with American troops becoming targets for terrorists or interfering with Israel’s post-attack anti-terror operations.

In recent days, the White House has issued statements supporting Israel’s efforts against Hamas and reiterating the need for terror to stop before the parties can progress on the “road map” peace plan. But there has been little official discussion of sending in U.S. troops.

Analysts say there is little chance of U.S. troops becoming involved in the conflict.

The calls for an American presence in the region — often heard when violence intensifies — are an attempt to find an alternative solution at desperate moments, analysts say, and aren’t based on any well-vetted plan for a U.S. role.

But some say the recent calls for a peacekeeping force show a clearer understanding that military force is needed to prevent terrorist actions and that the Palestinian Authority is not up to the challenge.

At the moment, a group of monitors led by envoy John Wolf and consisting mostly of CIA officials comprises the U.S. presence on the ground in the zone of conflict. Wolf and his team are not engaged in negotiations or peacekeeping; they simply are charged with documenting Israeli and Palestinian compliance with their obligations under the road map.

In the past week, as violence again surged after a brief glimmer of hope following the Aqaba summit, several lawmakers and Middle East experts have suggested various plans for a stronger U.S. presence.

Sen. John Warner (R-Va.), chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, suggested using NATO forces, including U.S. troops, to provide a force that could minimize violence until Palestinian forces could take over security responsibility.

“It would not be a risk-free mission,” Warner said on CNN on June 11, the day a Palestinian suicide bomber killed 17 Israelis in Jerusalem. “But mind you, the NATO forces would be composed of a number of countries. Possibly some of our Americans would be a part — a relatively small part — of the total equation.”

Several days later, Sen. Richard Lugar (R-Ind.), chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, also floated the idea of American troops being sent to the region.

“We have to be very, very careful about the use of American forces, whether they are to be all by themselves, whether with NATO, whether with the U.N.,” Luger said on “Fox News Sunday.” “But clearly, if force is required ultimately to root out terrorism, it is possible there will be American participation.”

Neither lawmaker went into details of how a U.S. presence in the region would work. The only detailed plan for major U.S. participation in a peacekeeping effort was penned recently by Martin Indyk, the former U.S. ambassador to Israel who now is director of the Sabah Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution.

He said the force would need to be large enough to “impress Israelis and Palestinians with its seriousness,” but that the total number of troops could be under 10,000.

But the Bush administration seems unlikely to embrace the trusteeship idea in whole, and it has shown no willingness to entangle U.S. forces in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

“We’ve looked at this situation many, many times,” State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said. “Third-party monitoring is what we’ve consistently talked about, because we felt, upon careful analysis of the situation, that was the best thing to help the parties achieve their goals.”

Israeli officials, who balk at the idea of an international monitoring or peacekeeping force, also wouldn’t welcome a purely American force.
“Israel has never asked anyone to defend us,” one Israeli official in Washington said. “The whole idea of someone defending us goes against the very foundation of the U.S.-Israeli relationship.”

In addition, Israeli experts argue that peacekeepers would end up working against Israel. They would be powerless to stop terrorist groups’ clandestine operations but could oppose Israel’s more organized retaliations.

Lawmakers on Capitol Hill echoed those fears.
One Democratic official said it was “stupid” to think that NATO or U.S. peacekeepers could confront Hamas better than the Israel Defense Force.

“At the same time that we have U.S. forces getting ambushed in Iraq, they think it would be a cakewalk to insert U.S. troops into the West Bank and Gaza,” he said. “It’s a plan built on hope.”

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International News

Background on Middle East Terrorist Groups

GIL SEDAN

JERUSALEM (JTA) — A recent terrorist attack in the Gaza Strip that killed four Israeli soldiers represented a bloody demonstration of unity among the three leading Palestinian terrorist groups — Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the Al-Aksa Martyrs Brigade.
Despite past differences, the various terrorist organizations have increased their cooperation in recent years, particularly in the face of Israel’s counter-terror operations.

Hamas: The largest opposition party in the West Bank and Gaza, Hamas’ ideology focusing on the destruction of Israel is based on jihad, the Muslim “holy war” against the heathens.

Hamas terrorists in the Izz a-Din al-Kassam Brigade, the organization’s military wing, have conducted many attacks — including large-scale suicide bombings — against Israeli civilian and military targets.

In the early 1990s, Hamas also targeted suspected Palestinian collaborators and rivals in the Fatah movement.

The group has not specifically targeted U.S. interests, though some American citizens have been killed in Hamas operations.

Like Islamic Jihad, Hamas has its origins in the Muslim Brotherhood, which was founded in Egypt in the first half of the 20th century.

The Muslim Brotherhood is considered the ideological forerunner of many fundamentalist Muslim organizations.

The spiritual leader of Hamas is Sheik Ahmed Yassin, 66, who was paralyzed following an accident in his youth.

Yassin founded the Islamic Center in Gaza in 1973, turning it not only into a major religious organization but also the basis for a network of social institutions — including welfare, education and medical institutions — that increased the movement’s popularity. That paved the way for the founding of Hamas after the first Palestinian intifada began in 1987.

In 1989, Yassin was arrested by Israel and sentenced to life imprisonment for ordering the killing of Palestinians who allegedly had collaborated with the Israeli army.

He was released in 1997 in exchange for two Israeli Mossad agents captured during an assassination attempt on a Hamas leader in Jordan.

The group’s leadership is dispersed throughout the Gaza Strip and West Bank, with a few senior leaders in Syria, Lebanon and the Persian Gulf states.

Hamas receives some funding from Iran, but relies primarily on donations from Palestinian expatriates around the world and private benefactors in moderate Arab states.

Some of Hamas’ fund-raising and propaganda activity takes place in Western Europe and North America.

Islamic Jihad: This fundamentalist group was inspired by the Iranian Revolution of 1979.

Islamic Jihad is a coalition of several radical Islamic factions that became active after 1979 in the West Bank, mainly under the influenceof the Iranian Islamic revolution and the growing Islamic militancy in the region.

It, too, aspires to destroy Israel as part of a jihadist “holy war” to impose the rule of Islam in the world.

The group carried out its first terror attacks in mid-1986, before the first intifada began.
The organization is led by Ramadan Shallah, who is based in Damascus. It receives financial assistance from Iran and limited logistic assistance from Syria.

The group operates primarily in Israel, the West Bank and Gaza Strip, but many of the group’s leaders reside in other parts of the Middle East, including Lebanon and Syria. In August 1988, the group’s leaders were expelled to Lebanon, where Fathi Shqaqi reorganized the group and strengthened its ties with Hezbollah and Iran.

The Al-Aksa Martyrs Brigade: The organization stems from the Palestinian Authority’s ruling Fatah movement, to which both P.A. President Yasser Arafat and Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas belong, and its radical, younger offspring, the Tanzim, which was run by

Marwan Barghouti until he was arrested by Israeli troops last year.

The brigade emerged as a terrorist group following the outbreak of the current intifada in September 2000, only after Arafat apparently gave the green light for armed struggle against Israel. After that it received manpower and funds from Fatah.
Since that time, the brigade has carried out numerous terrorist attacks in Israel and the West Bank.

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Features

JTA News Briefs

Envoy Meets Palestinians

WASHINGTON (JTA) — An American team led by U.S. envoy John Wolf met with senior Palestinian officials in the Gaza Strip. The June 17th talks came as Palestinians called for a larger American monitoring team that would address all aspects of the “road map” peace plan, not just its security elements. Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas met that evening with representatives of Hamas and other Palestinian terrorist groups to continue efforts to reach an agreement to halt attacks against Israelis. In a related development, the head of Israeli military intelligence told legislators on June 17 that he believed the Palestinians are seeking a halt to violence for several days in order to advance cease-fire efforts.

Sharon Meets Settler Leaders

JERUSALEM (JTA) — Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon met with settler leaders onJune 17. The settlers presented their objections to the “road map” peace plan, which calls for the removal of West Bank settlement outposts, Israel Radio reported. Settlers continue to fight in court to block the army from removing the enclaves.

Security Fence Work Continues

JERUSALEM (JTA) — A security fence being built to separate Israel from Palestinian areas of the West Bank now extends some 85 miles. That section is made up of physical barriers. More than 30 miles of electronic barriers also have been installed, a Knesset committee was told on June 17.

Israel to Feed U.S. Soldiers

JERUSALEM (JTA) — Israel will supply fresh produce and food to American forces serving in Iraq. The American military command agreed to the Israeli agriculture minister’s proposal that the food be transferred via Jordanian suppliers, Israel Radio reported. The deal is estimated to be worth millions of dollars.

Madonna Israel-Bound?

JERUSALEM (JTA) — Pop star Madonna may be Israel-bound. The singer has expressed an interest in filming a video clip in Israel, the Israeli daily Ma’ariv reported. The song touches on Kabbala, the Jewish mysticism that Madonna has become interested in during the past few years.

Bush: Abbas is Weak

WASHINGTON (JTA) — President Bush told Jewish leaders he believes the Palestinian Authority prime minister is “weak.” On June 11, Bush hosted what is believed to be the first kosher White House dinner, for nearly 100 Jewish officials, to mark the opening of an exhibit of Anne Frank’s writings at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum.

Israeli Writer Honored

BERLIN (JTA) — Israeli writer Amos Oz received a peace prize in Germany. The prize from the Korn and Gerstenmann Family Foundation, worth $47,000, was presented on June 16 at the Jewish community center of Frankfurt by German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer. Fischer called Oz a “pragmatic visionary” who analyzes the current Middle East situation soberly and unflinchingly. Oz is the second person to receive the prize, after Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres received it in 2001. Oz, 64, received another German peace award in 1992, from the Stock Exchange Union of the German Book Trade.

Islamists triumph in France but Britain Won’t Outlaw Slaughter

LONDON (JTA) — The British government will ignore a semiofficial recommendation that would outlaw kosher slaughter, a source close to the government has told JTA.
David Mencer, chairman of the Labor Friends of Israel lobbying group, said he had been assured that Prime Minister Tony Blair and the governing Labor party are committed to protecting kosher slaughter.

Lawmakers Slam Bush

WASHINGTON (JTA) — Several groups of lawmakers have sent President Bush letters recently on the “road map” peace plan.
In one, 34 members of the U.S. House of Representatives say they are “deeply dismayed” by Bush’s “criticism of Israel for fighting acts of terror.” Another, signed by leaders of the House’s International Relations Committee, calls on Bush to pressure Arab and European states to cut all ties to terrorist organizations and minimize relations with Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat.

Senator: U.S. May be Part of Force

NEW YORK (JTA) — The United States may have to attack Hamas and other Palestinian terrorists, a U.S. legislator said. Speaking on “Fox News Sunday,” Sen. Richard Lugar (R-Ind.) said U.S. troops may be part of an international peacekeeping force that could help root out terrorism.
“It may not be just Hamas, but clearly Hamas is right in the gun sights,” said Lugar, the chairman of the U.S. Foreign Relations Committee.

UJC Sends $10 Million to Israel

NEW YORK (JTA) — The United Jewish Communities delivered $10 million from its emergency campaign to help Israel fight terrorism. The money from the umbrella group for North American federations will help ensure the safety of 100,000 Israeli children at summer camps. North American Jews have pledged $358 million to the UJC’s Israel Emergency Campaign since September 2001.

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Israeli Businesses Take Show on Road

BRETT M. RHYNE
Jewish Journal Staff

Seeking to help Israeli high tech companies forge partnerships with interested New England firms, the Israeli Life Sciences Road Show pulled into the Omni Parker House in Boston on June 16.

“Over 100 Israeli companies are represented here,” said Neal Sprafkin, director of business development for the Government of Israel Economic Office in New England. “They’re joined by more than 40 American firms, including Genzyme, Repromedics, Aero International, Arquel and Tyco Healthcare.”

The Road Show is an effort of the Israeli Industry Center for R&D, also known as MATIMOP. MATIMOP is a public, non-profit organization founded by Israel’s three major manufacturers’ associations.

Serving as an interface between Israeli and international companies, MATIMOP promotes the joint development of advanced technologies by encouraging participation in bilateral and multilateral industrial cooperation programs funded by the Israeli Office of the Chief Scientist.

MATIMOP also works as an Israeli technology clearinghouse, providing information on hundreds of projects in advanced technologies and detailed profiles of Israeli companies seeking foreign high tech partners.
Yair Amitay is its managing director.

“We support technical companies’ strategic alliances with leading companies in all fields throughout the world,” Amitay told The Journal.

“We work with companies in fields like telecommunications, biological and chemical engineering.”

“For most Israeli startup companies, the domestic market is too small,” he said. “But international markets are too big and too expensive to get into. So we work as matchmakers for technology and business, matching Israeli startups with established international firms.

“The Israeli companies provide the R&D,” he continued, “and the multinationals provide the marketing, the financing and the manufacturing.”

The Road Show visited Boston, Stamford, Conn., Newark, N.J. and New York on its four-day swing June 16-19. Israeli companies presenting at the Road Show included:
• Allergene, a biopharmaceutical company engaged in the development of novel anti-allergic and anti-inflammatory drugs;
• Can-Fite Biopharma, a biopharmaceutical company that develops drugs for the treatment of cancer and inflammatory diseases;
• Glucon, a developer of highly accurate, non-invasive, continuous, real-time glucose monitoring devices for use by diabetics and clinicians;
• Quantomix, a provider of rapid, high-resolution imaging solutions for life sciences research, hospitals and drug discovery; and
• XTL Biopharmaceuticals, a drug development company committed to curing hepatitis C.

American companies wishing to collaborate with Israeli firms they discover at the Road Show may apply for a grant from the Israel-U.S. Binational Industrial Research and Development Foundation, also known as the BIRD Foundation.

Any pair of companies, one Israeli, one American, may apply for BIRD support, so long as they have the combined capability and infrastructure to define, develop, manufacture market, sell and support an innovative product based on industrial R&D. Typically, the Israelis develop the technology and the Americans develop and commercialize the product.

The Foundation funds up to half of each company’s R&D expenses associated with the joint project. BIRD requires no equity in the companies supported and no intellectual property rights in their products.

“Kissenger facilitated the founding of BIRD after the ’73 war,” MATIMOP’s Amitay said. “It has become a very successful model of bi-lateral economic cooperation. We’re now working to reproduce that model with Canada, the United Kingdom, South Korea and Singapore.”
Through BILD, “We’ve established 20 new R&D partnerships annually,” Amitay said. “Altogether, we’ve established 60-70 joint projects.”
Amitay noted MATIMOP works to collaborate economically with European nations, as well. “We’re engaged in many bi- and multi-lateral activities through the European Union,” he said. “Israel is the only country to have such a special partnership agreement with the E.U.”
MATIMOP also works in the Far East. “Israeli companies have partnered with firms in China, India, Taiwan and Hong Kong,” he said. “We’re negotiating with the Japanese right now, but so far, nothing yet.”

Economic partnerships with Arab states have been more difficult to arrange. “Before the current intifada, there was a tri-lateral agreement in place between Israel, the U.S. and Jordan,” he said. That project has been put on hold. “There are many plans to restart it,” he said, “but nothing solid.”

“This Road Show is to introduce Israeli companies to American high tech companies, venture capitalists, investing backers,” Amitay said. “Israeli companies urgently need investments.”

Despite the recent contractions in the Israeli economy, Amitay pointed out that Israeli companies are still the third most listed on the NASDAQ exchange, after American and Canadian firms.

“We can see quite a positive change in the economy,” he said. “We foresee positive growth this year, after two years of negative growth. Unemployment is still high at 10 percent. But we hope to keep companies in Israel, while sending some manufacturing and marketing abroad.”

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L’dor V’dor: Brown Family Readies for Pan-Mass Challenge

GARY BAND
Jewish Journal Staff

When Sheldon Brown of Marblehead joins the 4,000 other riders for the 24th Annual Pan-Mass Challenge on August 2 and 3, he’ll be in good company.

For this, Brown’s nineteenth consecutive ride, the 70-year-young psychology professor will be joined by his son Marc, 44, and granddaughter Elissa, 15. They will travel 3,000 miles from their home in Palo Alto, CA to ride 100 miles from Wellesley to Bourne to raise money for the Jimmy Fund at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute.

Each rider much raise $1,500 to enter. In addition to the money raised by the riders, the Boston Red Sox is the ride’s presenting sponsor, contributing $1.4 million. The overall goal for this year is $16 million. That would bring the total raised since the ride’s inception in 1980 to $100 million.

Brown himself has raised over $35,000 since he began riding in 1985. For 17 years, he rode the two-day, 200-mile route from Sturbridge to Provincetown, but has opted for the one-day, 100-mile route this year. He sees the ride as the “highest degree of charity, because people giving to the PMC don’t know who they’re giving to, and people receiving don’t know who the donor is.” Maimonides would be proud.

Marc did the 200-mile ride with his father in 1995, and is looking forward to riding again. Elissa has been waiting for her 15th birthday (the minimum age required) to do the ride. A lacrosse player and swimmer at Gunn High School, she has been riding 30-40 miles regularly in preparation. She’s not worried about the distance, saying, “The excitement and exhilaration will keep me going.”

Each of the Browns has their own reasons for riding. Sheldon says he originally began to be with his friends. But as time wore on and he saw how cancer affected his wife, Fran, the cause for riding has become more deeply held. “I feel much more committed now to do a small part in trying to find a cure for cancer and, with research, to improve its treatment,” he said.

To sponsor the Browns, send a check made out to PMC/Jimmy Fund, c/o Sheldon Brown, 2 Warren Road, Marblehead, 01945.

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People in the News

Arts & Entertainment

‘The Last Girl’: A Love Story from Vilnius

EDNA CHANSKY

The Last Girl
by Stephan Collishaw
310 pp., $24.95
St. Martin’s Press (2003)

Set in today’s Vilnius, Lithuania, this first novel by an eloquent young British writer gives the reader a sense of the absurdity of life for both Jew and non-Jew during and after the Holocaust.

The protagonist, Daumantas, is a retired 70-ish college professor and poet. He is a skilled amateur photographer as well. Though he barely ekes out his existence, he maintains an air of respectability. He always wears freshly laundered shirts done by Svetlana, another character in the novel. The laundress, an abused wife, has two sons, one of whom she would like to help settle in England where work would be more lucrative.

Everywhere in Vilnius and its environs life is sordid and confusing. The Lithuanians decide that Communism is preferable to Fascism and make choices accordingly. But life is pretty dismal either way, sending the citizens to drink. The women seek solace in casual sex either for money or other favors. Among the givers of free love is a talented painter, Rita, who comforts Daumantas from time to time. Also, she finds Rachael, Daumantas’ “Last Girl,” attractive, and uses her as a model for some paintings. Rita is married, but this doesn’t make any difference to either herself or Daumantas.

Daumantas has, since his adolescence, harbored a secret passion for the beauteous Rachael. But Rachael is Jewish and betrothed to Ira, whom she marries. She remains faithful to her successful businessman husband and they produce a daughter.
Early in the novel, Daumantas is involved with a woman named Jolanta, who pleads with him to evaluate a first novel penned by her husband. She brings it to Daumantas in a blue plastic bag. However, before he has an opportunity to read this literary draft, he is so drunk that he forgets the bag in the caf´e where he and Jolanta have met. When he goes to retrieve the blue bag it seems to have disappeared. Unscrupulous characters emerge promising to find the lost manuscript for a heavy fee.

Our protagonist is obsessed by dark-haired attractive young mothers who are holding or wheeling their babies. He stalks and photographs them, as they remind him of Rachael. The photos, once developed, are hung on the walls of his flat.

Yes flat, and not apartment. Our author is British, hence rigors are rigours, a baby carriage is a pram and so on.
The author shows he has a rich background in world literature with allusions to le P`ere Goriot, a Lear figure. The café where characters meet to confer, conspire or drown their sorrows is called the Red and Black. Further, though purportedly non-Jewish, Daumantas recognizes the Yiddish lullaby that Jolante’s mother sings.

The populace takes refuge in the Red and Black Café, where the preferred potable is brandy. At homes it is tea with honey. Prima cigarettes are a favorite with the smokers who haven’t yet been assailed by our modern-day tobacco caveats. To this extent, there are no anachronisms in the author’s work.

Daumantas is subconsciously haunted by the fact that he could not help Rachael and Ira by taking their little girl from them as they, Jews, were led to their demise. This sense of guilt is eternally with him.

The blue plastic bag is ultimately retrieved and the first novel by Jolanta’s spouse is deemed to be very worthy by the scholarly Daumantas. Alas, it comes at a time when the poor author is in a psychiatric ward suffering from being part of the prevalent political chaos. But at least the book will bring money to the authors.

This novel is a good six-hour read, and imparts a sense of the absurdity of European life from the 40s to the 90s. Collishaw’s description of the ghetto in Lithuania, first as it was, and today in its reconstructed state, seems truly authentic.

The book is stimulating in its realism. In the genre of Johnathan Safran Foer, also a first-time novelist, it keeps reminding the modern reader of a shameful epoch in the twentieth century.

Take the book on a flight for a good cross-country read. Though the chapters are numerous they are brief. This keeps the reader turning the pages to see what comes next. Is the blue bag returned? Will the novel in it be recognized? One thing is clear —the Holocaust had its in these effect on both Jew and non-Jew alike, and, alas, Daumantas did not get the girl.

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Music at Eden’s Edge Continues

Barrington Stage will open its 2003 season in dazzling style when it produces the classic musical Funny Girl. It features a soaring score by composer Jules Styne and lyricist Bob Merrill and book by Isobel Lennert, and is directed by BSC Artistic Director Julianne Boyd and choreographed by Tony Parise, with musical direction by Jono Mainelli.

Funny Girl, based on the real life story of comedienne Fanny Brice, traces the trials and triumphs of a poor Jewish girl from the Lower East Side as she rises to stardom and learns a lesson in love. Told through a series of flashbacks, the show takes the audience on a journey from Fanny’s roots as an awkward teenager determined to be a star, to her first big break from Broadway producer Florenz Ziegfeld, through her whirlwind romance with dashing yet dangerous gambler Nicky Arnstein to the ultimate demise of their marriage. Hilarious and heart-breaking, Funny Girl is proof positive that life and love can be bittersweet.

The original New York production of Funny Girl, which opened in 1964, ran for over three years on Broadway. Much of its enormous success was due to the stalwart work of Jules Styne and Bob Merrill who created one of the most enduring scores in Broadway history including such songs as “People,” “Don’t Rain on My Parade” and “I Am the Greatest Star.”

Pooling the talents of an exceptional cast and artistic staff, Barrington Stage Company’s production promises to deliver an unforgettable rendition of this classic rags-to-riches love story.

Funny Girl opens June 25 and runs through July 19. Performances are Tuesday through Sunday. The opening night gala is June 28. For more information and ticket orders, call the box office at (413) 528-8888.

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Shir Hadash

MATTHEW S. ROBINSON

Eric Gerber — Boston By Friday (Scruffy Dog)
Opening with a titular duet blessed by star-next-door Lori McKenna, Boston-based singer/songwriter Eric Gerber’s debut CD is a wait-worthy collection of heartfelt balladry and bouncy toe-tappers. From the spare patterns of Independence Day to the far from impoverished skiffle of No Money Blues, Gerber reveals a variety of feelings and voices which range from the creaky circles of You’ve Been On My Mind to the Rowlf-y rasp of When Push Comes To Shove. The Box Fan is a chipper rave-up that captures Gerber’s sense of zany, lascivious fun. The Sundance Kid is a musical novella that combines the influences of Kenny Rogers, William Goldman and anyone’s grandfather. Though cheeseburgers and coffee may be “the lifeblood of the road,” they are none too kosher (nor are Gerber’s occasional religious expletives). Even so, Gerber’s honest, rootsy, soul-searching strains reveal a little bit of all of us.

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Singles

The Manners Maven: From Dating to Relating

Dear Manners Maven,

I have been dating for almost a decade now and can tell within minutes whether or not I like the guy. Do I still need to go on that second date?

— In The Know

Dear In The Know,

I presume you would like to stop dating and be in a committed relationship. Yes, you do need to go on the second date. That you have been dating for so long indicates to me an issue with your screening process. I am not asking you to lower your standards, but give the guy more time to pass the test.

I would recommend reevaluating your dating strategy. Once you have identified a gentleman you would like to date, have a short (i.e. under 10 minute) conversation over the telephone to arrange the first date. Mistake #1 that many daters make is spending way too much time speaking over the phone without meeting the person first. The first meeting should be short and centered on a brief activity that has an obvious ending point (i.e. meeting for lunch, coffee, or an ice cream cone). Mistake #2 many daters make is choosing an activity that is too long (i.e. meeting for a fancy dinner on a first date) or that is not defined and therefore does not have a specific ending point (i.e. meeting for drinks in the evening). Be prepared to discuss your life, your past loves and your passions, but leave your emotional baggage at home. Mistake #3 that many daters make is revealing way too much before deciding if you would even want this person as a friend.
The spring and summer are high dating season. The weather is nicer, the days are longer and you can feel the endorphins in the air. I wish you all the best..

– Jodi

For answers to your etiquette emergencies, email the Manners Maven at editor@jewishjournal.org.
© 2003 Mannersmith Etiquette Consulting. All rights reserved.

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Editorial

Multi-talented Fed Chief Faces Multiple Challenges

The Jewish Federation of the North Shore has a new executive director. From all appearances, he’s a talented community builder, fundraiser and motivator — qualities this Jewish community needs in full measure.
Merritt A. Mulman, like his predecessors — long-time “Fed head” Neil Cooper and his successor Lois Giovacchini, who lasted only 17 months — faces the challenge of bringing a sense of common purpose to a Jewish community that often acts as if it doesn’t have one.

For some time there has been a disconnect between the Federation and many of the other local Jewish agencies. Agency directors, Federation, and some rabbis have been meeting regularly for several years to find ways to make the community stronger and help their constituencies in the process. Happily, that effort is beginning to bear fruit.

But Federation is the central agency of the Jewish community; it needs to be the catalyst for improvement. Among the specific challenges facing Mulman, none is more important than leadership development. There is an age gap at Federation between the older generation — early 60s and up — and active young people in their 20s and 30s (many of whom were recruited through its excellent STAR program). Mulman correctly sees that people in their 40s and 50s hold the key to the community’s immediate future. They have to be cultivated, trained, and motivated to take on new responsibilities.

Synagogue relations are another Federation challenge. In many communities, synagogues and their schools are the source of major programming initiatives. Here, the Continuity Committee, financed by the Robert I. Lappin Foundations, is the source of most innovative programming, leaving many in synagogue circles to feel that they have been sidelined, or bypassed. Mulman must involve the synagogues as well as the agency heads in community planning.

Fundraising is a challenge: We lead the nation in $100 gifts to federation. Often those gifts are what Mulman calls “go away money” from people, not otherwise engaged, who are called once a year for a pledge. He hopes to involve donors in planning for improvement. Full engagement will result in fuller coffers, he argues.
At 31 percent of its budget, Federation staff overhead is at the high end of federations nationally. Relations between the Federation and the Lappin Foundations often seem confusing and ill-defined. That too needs to be sorted out.

After meeting Mulman for the first time June 16, Sandy Sheckman, executive director of the Jewish Community Center in Marblehead, observed: “Our community will benefit by having a new professional with a fresh approach. Both his observed energy and experience are impressive.”
We, and we believe the entire Jewish community, wish him well.

MARK ARNOLD
Jewish Journal Editor/Publisher

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Local Columnists

My Father’s Day Was About Kids

DOV BURT LEVY
Jewish Journal North of Boston

Dov Burt Levy is a Salem, MA based columnist. He can be reached at dblevy@columnist. com..

On Father’s Day I was particularly reminded not every kid has parents to provide the love, support and protection they need growing up. Some families are dysfunctional and either cannot help or become the child’s problem. Even in Israel.

Some examples: An 8-year-old boy, five years in foster care, was kidnapped by force by his biological father. The father, married and divorced four times, had no previous contact with the boy. The young boy contacted his foster family crying and screaming that he wanted to go home. Social Services did nothing to return the boy. Only the intervention of the National Council for the Child (NCC) succeeded in returning the boy to the only real family he knew.

A 17 year-old boy poured his heart out about years of sexual abuse by a teenage neighbor suffered from the age of nine. His parents knew nothing. He was helped to receive legal assistance and psychological counseling.

A caring teacher reported the malnutrition of a 12-year-old immigrant boy. His mother, dead a few years earlier, left his 16-year-old sister responsible for feeding the family. The father abandoned the family and only appears occasionally with a small bag of groceries. The NCC insured that the proper authorities intervened quickly.

These cases are only a small sample of almost 9,000 calls a year received by Israel’s National Council for the Child Ombudsman program.

The mission and the passion of the NCC — its director Dr. Yitzhak Kadman, 26 staff members, including my daughter, and scores of volunteers — is to solve immediate problems, to keep the rights of kids high on the national agenda, and to confront individuals and organizations who abuse their authority or shirk their responsibilities towards children.

While aiding individual children around the country, the needs are uncovered for which to lobby the Knesset and the government bureaucracy for national laws and programs. The NCC is Israel’s premiere child defense and advocacy organization.

No generalities or hiding the problems here.

Specific needs are translated into actual programs, like the “Separate Representation for Children” program which represents the child in court cases in divorce disputes, issues of paternity, foster care, abuse and neglect, and return of children to their homes.

Or the “Children’s Rights Mobile Unit” which introduces children around the country to children’s rights and responsibilities; stressing equality and respect for themselves and the responsibility to protect these rights for others.

“Children Talk about the Situation” gives children the opportunity in their schools to express thoughts and fears and encourages them to take part in the public debate on Israel’s security situation.

The “Child Victim Assistance Program” matches a volunteer lawyer or law student with child victims or witnesses of crime offering assistance and accompaniment during the interrogation and court process.

In a case involving a girl molested by her uncle but not believed by her family, the judge in his decision said:

“The complainant fell victim twice — when she exposed her memory and years of suffering and when she felt the distance of her family. Instead of receiving support, a shoulder and understanding, she was left alone and was supported in her difficult hours by the National Council for the Child, who filled the role of mother, father, sister and friend.”

What the National Council for the Child does for the children of Israel is a Father’s Day gift to us all.

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Davening in the Rain

ELLEN GOLUB
Jewish Journal North of Boston

Ellen Golub teaches journalism at Salem State College. She may be reached at elkele@attbi.com

“Is there a proper blessing for the Czar?” they ask the rabbi in Fiddler on the Roof.

“A blessing for the Czar? Of course,” replies the rabbi. And he begins to manufacture a bracha, which gets a big laugh from the audience because we know right well that everybody in Anatevka hates the Czar.

“May God bless and keep the Czar—” sings the rabbi. Then pausing for a big theatrical moment, “far away from us!”

As Jews, we are supposed to have a special knack for creating and reciting brachot, a time-worn ability to interact with the Creator. We wash our hands; we say a blessing. We eat; we thank God. There is a bracha for every human act. Even the most anti-religious among us (my dad, for example) are moved to say a shehecheyanu at moments of enormous gratification. There are blessings for the new moon, a new car, and a new house. With us, a wedding takes a week, with every evening being capped by a special set of brachot.

Centuries of Jewish life have been structured around our schedule of communicating with God. Shaharit, mincha, ma’ariv, shabbat and yom tov are all designed for Jews as moments to speak to the Creator. Clearly, we are a people given to acknowledge things in words, trained in articulation, even keeping a special language, a loshen kodesh, for that purpose. We even keep special clothing for prayer; daily I wait for Ralph Lauren to create the Polo tallit, kipa, and t’fillin.

American Jews may be a bit out of touch with their siddur (prayerbook). They slog back and forth through pages with the help of their rabbis, “We are now on page 86.... Turn in your prayerbooks back to page 63. For the repetition of the Amidah…. Now we turn to page 14.” Admittedly, it is not a pretty thing to watch congregations of assimilating Jews re-enact the tribal ritual while they stumble over the language and lose the page, like awkward teenagers on a first date. But hey, Rabbi Nachman of Bratzlav writes that if you really want a response from the Almighty, you should speak your prayers aloud. You should scream your prayers, cry them, fold your heart into them.

OK. I’m ready. After six weeks of rain and very little sunshine, I come to understand that there is something amiss in the universe. “Do you think we’ve been overdoing the prayers for rain?” I ask my husband, Steve. “Do you get the idea that we’re jammed in geshem (rain) mode?”

“From a traditional Jewish point of view” says Steve, “this soggy spring is really a bonanza. Rain is always the sign of a blessing from God in the Tanach.

“But from the point of view of a depressive who only made it through winter dreaming of spring and sunshine, this is a catastrophe,” I tell him. I am no longer singin’ in the rain.

Frantic to see the sun, to relieve the soggy spirit of my heart, I call my friend Michael, a rabbi, and an astute davener and cholent-maker extraordinaire. “Michael, I can’t take it any more. What’s the prayer for sunshine?”

“Uh… uh… I know lots of prayers for rain,” says Michael.

“Somebody must be over-davening,” I whine. “Can you get a message to rabbis in the northeast to call off their congregations?”

“It might be more effective to alert one psychiatrist,” snickers my friend.

“Funny, Michael. But, seriously, is there a prayer for sunshine?”

“Why would a people who lived in the desert — who were always scorched and thirsty — why would they have a prayer for sunshine?” he explains.

I do see his point. But, stuck in my soggy nest watching the mushrooms grow in my back yard, I lament the loss of spring. On the positive side, I think, perhaps I have found a new vocation: penning new liturgy for unimaginable situations.

“Do you think there should be a prayer for suicide bombers?” Michael teases me. “You see, El, there are some things we just don’t need.”

But like the rabbi in Fiddler on the Roof, I am way out in front on that one.

“May God help the suicide bombers blow themselves up, taking as many victims as possible — providing they do so far away from us!”

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PHYLLIS DINERMAN
Jewish Journal North of Boston

@Phyllis Dinerman 2003. Phyllis Dinerman is a resident of Marblehead and Boynton Beach, FL. She may be reached at phyllis@dinerman.com

It’s nice to be back on the North Shore. I see familiar faces, familiar street signs, the same walkers, runners, and joggers as last year. They’re just a little older, as am I.

My husband and I are renting the same condo in downtown Marblehead as last year. As I sit at my computer I am looking at the same photos. It’s strange to look at pictures on the wall of unknown family members. There are wedding pictures (I don’t know the couple); there are baby pictures (I don’t recognize this baby); there are group pictures in foreign places (who are they? where were they taken?) This year the photos are beginning to look familiar. I feel like I belong to this family.

When we returned this season I realized what was most heartwarming was the mezuzah on the door.

I feel the mezuzah is such a welcome and warm symbol. I never really knew the full meaning behind it until I found information on the Internet that it is a mitzvah to place a mezuzah on the doorpost of a house.

I learned that the words of the Shema